REVIEW: Amazons 12
So here we are. The penultimate episode of season 1 of Kamen Rider Amazons. And boy howdy was it a penultimate episode. It sets up the climax of the season’s story really well, while still having a plot for itself that didn’t feel like it was leaning on the next episode too much. In short, this is a great second-to-last episode for the season.
So I kinda wanna start off with a bit of a film school critique of the episode; by which I mean I want to talk about the show’s cinematography and it’s deployment of filmic/televisual techniques in this week’s instalment. I feel the need to mention it especially this week, since I felt that this episode was using it’s medium to great effects, more so than some previous week’s entries to the series. The first thing I wanna discuss in this thread is the pace the episode had at the beginning. It was nice having a slow/quiet start since it is a nice reprieve before the absolute chaos that’s about to happen; a calm before the storm if you will. On top of that it helped emphasise Mamoru’s slow turn into a feral Amazon and showed more of Haruka’s conflict over whether to side with the Amazons or with humanity.
Another technique I quite liked in this episode, which I briefly mentioned in the previous paragraph, was how they showed Mamoru slowly turning feral. Rather than being super obvious about it, I really liked how they subtly suggested it via him not liking his burgers anymore and with the bit more blatant licking of lips at the end of last week’s episode. I like this a lot since it’s a subtle approach that slowly builds up to a big blow off plot point I think is a nuanced approach, especially within the Kamen Rider franchise as a whole. It really feels like Amazons seems a bit more planned and thought out compared to mainline Kamen Rider with things like this.
However the whole sub-plot with Mamoru seems both at the same time, justified and good, but also kinda forced and used for shock value. What I mean by this is that on the one hand, it makes lots of sense for Mamoru to turn, he is an Amazon after all and on top of that it creates a lot of tragedy when he does. However, it at the same time feels a bit forced since there were no hints of him turning anytime soon before in the show, which leads to the feeling that the writers did this plot line as a cheap twist just for the sake of shock to keep tensions high towards the end of the programme. I do like it, but at the same time think it’s cheap heat and so I can’t really praise it or criticise it.
Speaking of Mamoru turning into a more feral amazon, the moment when the audience is shown that Mamoru is eating Misaki’s harm has to be one of the most horrifying and tragic moments so far in the show since the one member of the team who wanted unity the most is the one who nearly broke it apart. I’m really glad that Mamoru didn’t kill Misaki, but rather maimed him and ran off since it means we do get the tragedy of Mamoru giving into his more brutal side, but without the edginess/unnecessary death that ‘darker’ shows tend to go for.
Conversely, something that I do really like about this episode was Jin. First off, I really liked the way that the scene with him and Nanahana san, where they are discussing the latter go by herself, was lit and shot. With the lighting, Jin’s face was very much obscured, which reflected his conflicted feelings over the whole situation, and as we latter find out, some issues bubbling up inside of him. It’s another case of Amazons really trying it’s best to be creative and use its medium to help further the story and characterizations. Another Jin related compliment of this episode is how, in the end, he is the most selfless and heroic out of all the characters. This is as he is very adamant towards Tlaloc going ahead, despite the fact that he is most likely going to die because of it. This shows that he is willing to sacrifice himself for the greater good and so shows his selflessness.
Yet another Jin related thing I quiet liked with this week was his final soliloquy before he fought the horde of Amazons, and from that his character turn. The soliloquy was a really nice touch since it was really poignant and kinda sad because it showed that his sense of duty exceeds his sense of survival and that’s super tragic. But what was more interesting was that there was a sense that he was finally embracing his Amazon side nearer the end of this fight, since he was shouting and growling with delight as he fought off the horde. This suggests to me that he might have lost it a bit and, as already mentioned, he has tapped into his beastly/Amazon side a bit more. I find this interesting since, thinking about it now, he was resisting his beastly nature throughout the show and it’s really compelling that he has kinda fallen to it now. I certainly hope this leads to some more interesting things with next week’s episode, especially since he will be fighting against Haruka.
Speaking of Haruka, I just wanna talk again about his moral quandary to do with being an Amazon or a human. I’ve sung a lot of praise for it already, but I just wanna say that it was nice having it all build up over multiple episodes, rather than popping up in one and being dealt with in the next. Maybe this isn’t that much of an exceptional thing to have a character arc over multiple episodes, but within Kamen Rider, this necessarily isn’t the case. By dedicating so much time to it, the show makes the human versus Amazon thing he’s going through as complex as it should be. Plus more time to it allows for more factors, such as the Amazons at the restaurant, to be introduced, thus making it less easy of a decision. Overall Haruka has to be one of the better and complex Kamen Rider protagonists we’ve had in years and I’m very glad he exists and is written so well.
Apart from all that there are a few miscellaneous bits and bobs that I want to mention, but I feel aren’t worth dedicating a whole paragraph to. I really liked the moments with Haruka’s mum thus week since her showing concern for her son is willing to risk Tlaloc for it really shows shades of grey in the plot, rather than just easy and simple black and whites. On top of that the really quiet moment where we see her seeing Tlaloc in action was a sublime moment which showed restraint and class so as to show Reika’s decision weighing down on her. On a more lighter note, I really liked how the new armlet for Haruka vaguely looks like the GaGa Armlet. It’s a nice call back/reference to original Amazon; something that the show has been quite good about on the whole. I was a bit annoyed with the show re-using suits for the scene where a bunch of Amazons are dying/activate, but I understand why since I’m sure they couldn’t design that many unique mosnters.
And so we near the end of Kamen Rider Amazons. This was a really good penultimate episode and I enjoyed it quite a bit as you can tell from the rest of my review. For once I really enjoyed the preview since it was actually really well done and poignant with the two main Amazons just screaming at each other as the only soundtrack. I’m really excited for the final episode, but also really scared about what’s gonna happen. So next week, let us all go on the final hunt of this season of Kamen Rider Amazons.
