Kamen Rider Den-O 1/2 Mark

"Ore...SANJO!"

We're finally approaching the halfway mark of this year's tokusatsu fill in for the bug eyed series, Kamen Rider Den-O. Though the Japanese broadcast is a few episodes beyond this post, so far foreign fans have only been witness to at least 24 episodes unless you really like watching RAW videos and guess-timating what's going on. The story is progressing on a sort of monster of the week format as usual though each episode offers a tiny glimpse into the ongoing storyline.

New Forms

Thus far the Den-O Platform now has 4 different forms to fight in. The first form (Sword form) seems like the default 'sell every toy based on this' form, but surprisingly the series fits in quite a few chances for the other 3 forms to stand out. I think they juggle it pretty well here compared to other shows that seem to only show that they can do these sorts of things every once in a while (like Gundam SeeD).

Rod form and Axe form are pretty cool, but it seems Gun form is the strongest of all 4 forms currently available. Despite the childish attitude from Ryuutaros, Gun form seems to be quite destructive and even has a rainbow beam spam (like Gundam SeeD...again) that is an instant win button for the protagonist.

Other Riders

Another plot point that's ongoing in the show is the appearance now of the second Rider Zeronos. Zeronos has two forms, the Altair and Vega forms (named after constellations this time) and seems pretty cool. The main mystery behind this Rider however is why he seems to share the same name as Ryotaro's sister's lost fiancee. Of course this being a time travel story it might be quite obvious how they're connected or not at all. Apparently though Zeronos is limited in his henshin capacity by the amount of cards he has. Once they're all gone does it mean Zeronos too dissappears?

"Seems a little familiar..."

Wing Form

In preparation for the annual event of the double-feature film (with the current Ranger series), episodes 23 and 24 of Den-O focused on the character Sieg, an Imagin patterned off of the legendary Siegfried. Surprisingly Sieg has his own belt which he can use to henshin in Ryotaro's body to become Den-O Wing form. I actually really like this form, it's pretty neat looking even through Sieg's somewhat strange posturing. We only got to see a small glimpse of the true power of Wing form due to story reasons but this "1 time form" is making another appearance (so that means it's a 2 time form?) in the movie.

So with that we're left with a ton more questions. What is so special about Ryotaro? Is Hana's future truly gone forever? Who the heck is Zeronos really? Can the Den-O conductor finally finish his special flag treats right? Hmm...