Kamen Rider Zi-O Episode 10 - Taka & Tora & Batta. Summary/Review

I know that I'm late with this one, especially since that episode twelve is about to air in Japan.  No! I'm not going to make any more promises in these openers.  Every time I make one, bad things happen.  Anyway, enough of my excuses for the week!  Enjoy my bloody article (or not.  It's your choice) about episode ten of Kamen Rider Zi-O!  (Click on "Read More" to read the full article).

Summary

This episode opens up with Izumi and Hino breaking out of Dan's jail-room.  There's nothing special about this room,  it's just a regular room that has a big ol' padlock keeping the door closed.  It doesn't take much for them to escape, Izumi just pushes on the door a little bit and this breaks the chains.  Captain Sougo just watches them walk out and he does nothing to stop them... Well he is the main hero of the show after all.  Woz pops in and talks to Sougo about how Dan is not qualified to be a king and Sougo agrees.  Izumi and Hino are in Dan's dining room, only to be met up with Dan himself.  Sougo walks into the room and asks Dan some hard hitting questions about what kind of king that Dan wants to be.  Sougo is not impressed with Dan's answer and this annoys Dan.  Dan sends in his minions to beat up Hino.  Sougo also gets sent in to tie Hino up.  What does Sougo do while Hino is tied up?  He just asks Hino if he wants to be a king.  Oh, Sougo!

Back at home base Tsukuyomi is healing Geiz's wounds by using a special healing machine that she brought from the future.  We get a funny moment where Sougo's Uncle is out looking for the first aid kit and is unaware that Geiz is already being healed up.  When he comes back he gets confused as to why Geiz is already fully healed.  Geiz is upset and frustrated about how he was attacked and defeated by Sougo and fears that Sougo is still on track to become the evil Oma-Zi-O.  Geiz goes out to put a stop to Sougo while Tsukuyomi stays behind.

Geiz calls up Sougo and the two meet up in Dan's courtyard, where...  IT'S HENSHIN TIME, BABY!  Geiz transforms into Kamen Rider Geiz and tries to put a stop to Sougo but he gets held back by Dan's Mummy Minions.  Sougo morphs into Kamen Rider Zi-O and reveals his true plan to Geiz and that's Sougo is hanging out with Dan so he can learn from Dan's mistakes, so he can become a better king.  Zi-O and Geiz fight off Dan's Minions and Zi-O disappears right after the battle.  Tsukuyomi is also busy trying to figure out who they need to find in the year 2010, so they can put a stop to Dan and she finds exactly what she needs.

Sougo sets Izumi and Hino free and Dan doesn't like that, so he transforms into Evil OOO and beats up everyone.  Izumi uses her strength to save them and Hino gives Sougo two new Kamen Rider Watches/Medallions to add to his collection.  Sougo goes after Evil OOO and transforms into Kamen Rider Zi-O again.  The two of them get into a fight but Evil OOO is not alone.  Time Jacker Ora flies in on a big fire breathing robot dragon house thingy and fires fire at Zi-O.  Geiz joins the battle and he transforms into Kamen Rider Geiz Genm Mode, blasts Ora out of the sky and tells Zi-O that he must go to the year 2010.

Optimus Prime really needed his booze money.

Ora recovers and she starts attacking Zi-O while he is in his giant time traveling robot.  Zi-O transforms his robot into OOO Mode and fights back and is doing a good job until Ora tries to flee the battle.  Zi-O powers up the robot again but this time he turns it into a big red bird thing and finishes off Ora with a big flying kick...  I didn't think that we'd see one of the Time Jackers killed off so soon.  The show cuts back to the year 2010, where we see Uhr giving Dan the power of the OOO and while this is happening, The Real Kamen Rider OOO loses his powers.  Sougo arrives not too long after and gets into a fight with Evil OOO and during the fight, Sougo morphs (once again) into Kamen Rider Zi-O.

Zi-O and Evil OOO are fighting in a courtyard outside of an office building and have an exchange of words.  Zi-O launches a bird drone at Evil OOO and then Zi-O powers up into Kamen Rider Zi-O OOO Mode.  A transformation scene that's full of cheesy CG, mind you.  Woz pops in and does a grand speech about Zi-O gaining OOO's power and then Zi-O beats up Evil OOO some more and then finishes him off.  The day has been saved and everything is alright again...  Okay, Sougo's Uncle is upset that they forget to bring back some chicken homes with them (I didn't think they'll conclude that obscure sub-plot) and Geiz is off moping around somewhere.  Other than that, every one is okay, including Ora.  She somehow managed to survive being blown up.

Review

There's nothing much to say about the story of this episode because nothing all that much happened.  All that really happened was that we got to meet up with more crossover characters, our two heroes make up with each other, and they fight the big bad guy.  It wasn't bad and it was entertaining but I am also a little disappointed with it.  They built up a few things in the previous part and they never got to most of them in this part.  Okay, we did get some conclusions but it was to things that never needed to be returned to...  Excluding the main plot that is.

I don't know about you but a problem I'm having with this show is that Sougo seems to be slowly given less attention.  All of the focus is moving to Geiz and while he is an interesting character, I just find it weird because he is the secondary character and he is now starting to look like the new main character.  I also can't blame the writers because the character of Sougo is looking more useless with each story arc.  I'm not saying that Sougo is a bad character but he is slowly progressing into one.

PLASTIC RAGE!

While we didn't get much story, we did get a lot of action.  It was all fun to watch and I liked that we also got to see our heroes fight goons for once.  I liked most of the costumes in this one except for a new one that we got.  Zi-O got some weird looking tiger armor in this episode and it looks silly (that says a lot coming from a franchise full of silly costumes).  This wasn't the fun kind of silly either, it was so cheap and plastic looking that my veins were clogging up from all the cheese.  There's also some very awkward looking CG but it was still fun looking at the same time.

Overall, this isn't a bad episode but I do wish that they did a bit more with the story in this one.  I'm giving this episode a 7 out of 10.  As a story arc as a whole, it was fun, especially that it was a crossover with a past villain and I hope we more arcs like this.  This two part story arc gets a 7.5 out of 10.