"Your scarf...I'm so glad it suits you."
Tear-jerker moments from Shin Kamen Rider.Unmarked spoilers below.
The film
- Takeshi Hongo. As Batta Aug-01/Kamen Rider, he is a monstrous force of destruction, capable of killing people easily—and it horrifies him greatly. Throughout the film, he's shaking while trying to fight back tears. He was already distant from people as a whole, but his augmentation has irreparably isolated him. The poor guy desperately needs a hug.
- Before SHOCKER, he was a brilliant and physically fit guy who is into motorcycles, but he was socially withdrawn. He didn't have any friends, and he couldn't find work. Then, at some point during college, Takeshi saw a hostage situation in person, and his father—a police officer on duty—was trying to calm the frantic hostage-taker down, going so far as to disarm himself. The situation ends with Takeshi's father getting stabbed and a second officer shooting the culprit. Takeshi breaks free of the police line and desperately tries to keep his father alive, putting pressure on the wound; while his father can only ask of the hostage and culprit are both OK. Takeshi isn't just alone before SHOCKER gets his hands on him; he's emotionally wounded, and he has no one to confide in about it.
- Something about Koumori Aug's death seems pitiful. Yes, the Mad Scientist had to be stopped before his incredibly deadly virus was unleashed upon the world. But his virus completely falls apart when Ruriko reveals thar she neutralized it via prana—in other words, being upstaged by Hiroshi Midorikawa from beyond the grave. Later, after Kamen Rider takes him out of the sky with another Rider Kick, Koumori's last words are, "Midorikawa...why does no one understand me...?" Perhaps if someone had made an effort to understand the man who would would become Koumori Augment-01, he might never have become a threat.
- When Hongo and Ruriko meet shortly afterwards, Ruriko sees that Koumori Aug's blood is still clinging to the bottom of Hongo's boot. She doesn't bring attention to it at all, but the fact that Koumori Aug is now dead clearly leaves her with mixed feelings.
- Hachi Aug/Hiromi's Brainwashing for the Greater Good project is insidious, but considering that SHOCKER selected her specifically experiencing a great deal of despair, and that she was also born and raised in SHOCKER, it's possible that this is her way of having people love her.
- When Hachi Aug is finally defeated and spared, Ruriko explains why: "I had no friends in SHOCKER. But, I can't kill you." The expression on Hiromi's face when she hears that? She's not happy about it; she's heartbroken that her friend won't kill her.
- Hachi Aug/Hiromi's death by anti-Augment bullet is one for Ruriko. She can't bring herself to kill Hiromi, and Hongo spares the Augment because he understands that Ruriko doesn't want that. That's when the Government and Intelligence Officials make themselves known, with Taki pulling out a gun and shooting Hiromi square in the chest. To Hiromi's surprise, the bullet is an anti-Augment bullet, and she realizes that it uses Sasori Aug's venom. Hiromi's only lament before her body dissolves is that she had wanted Ruriko to kill her. After Hiromi disintegrates, a distraught Ruriko yells at the government men, having realized why they'd attacked Sasori Aug's venom. The Government official can only offer a standard "No comment" before he and the Intelligence Official take their leave.
- Once they're alone, Ruriko walks over to Hongo and mumbles, "I'm going to borrow your shoulder for a bit."
- Hayato Ichimonji's liberation from SHOCKER by Ruriko "pariphalyzing" his brainwashing is a little hard to watch. He slowly collapses to his knees as all of his negative memories, previously blotted out with euphoria to keep him controlled, return to him, leaving the ordinarily-easygoing man in catatonic tears.
- While it's also pretty petty on his part, K.K Aug getting upset over Ichimonji breaking his mantis mask makes sense considering it's his indirect connection to his deceased arachnoid senpai, Kumo Aug.
- Ruriko's death. Just as she finishes freeing Ichimonji, she's stabbed in the side by K.K Aug, who luxuriates in her suffering and fear before attempting a killing blow. What's worse, neither Hongo nor Ichimonji are able to stop her death; after all, both are superhuman forces of destruction, and not much else. It seems as though Ichimonji's Big Damn Heroes moment, while it does let him defeat K.K Aug, only delays the inevitable; while the incapacitated Hongo can only crawl over to her prone form, yanking off his scarf in a futile attempt to stem the bleeding. Ruriko can only transfer her latest prana data—and her final messages to Hongo—before mumbling that she's really glad the scarf suits him. Then Ruriko's body dissolves in front of Hongo, leaving only his red scarf he tried to use. Hongo sobs over the spot; while Ichimonji watches from afar, a regretful look on his face as he beholds his own new scarf, before leaving.
- What makes this worse for Takeshi is that this is basically him failing Ruriko the same way he failed his father: being powerless to stop a deranged maniac, and being unable to save a victim of that absurdity. Even as Kamen Rider, there's nothing he can do.
- And Ichiro, the Big Bad of the film, isn't spared. The whole reason he became part of SHOCKER was because human absurdity had some stranger kill his mother. Now Ruriko is dead, because someone in SHOCKER decided he wanted her dead and K didn't intervene because it would mean denying that someone joy. When Ichiro senses that Ruriko has died due to a rogue SHOCKER Aug, he is audibly fighting back tears. It's this event that leads to him declaring in his Motive Rant that he will destroy SHOCKER on Hongo and Ichimonji's behalf, by sending them to the Habitat.
- Following Ruriko's death, Takeshi watches Ruriko's final message, which she had recorded following the Wasp Aug's death. By the time the files are done playing, Takeshi takes the mask off as he quietly breaks down in tears.
- The audio-only postscript addition makes it worse, since she did indeed get to tell Takeshi that the red scarf suits him in person, not just in the recording.
- While the Final Battle against Ichiro/Kamen Rider No. 0 starts out awesome, it takes a turn as all three combatants start to run out of prana. Ichiro's displays of Prana-based attacks peter out until he can barely stand. The fighting devolves until it stops being a battle between Augments, and starts being a pitiful struggle between two people who've been hurt by the world, but are unable to properly communicate because neither will back down, all while desperately imploring each other to understand their respective world views.Hongo: I don't understand people. But I want to. That's why I'm trying to change! I want to change myself, not the world!
Ichiro: It's pointless. Everything is pointless, Hongo.
Hongo: No, it's not! Nothing in life is pointless! - Ruriko's attempt at saving his brother after convincing him to stand down fail, because Ichiro knows there won't be enough room in the Helmet for more than two people, knowing that Takeshi would die as well. He decides to not join her sister, not willing to lose her and not willing to hurt her, much to Ruriko's dismay."Brother? Please don't go."
- It's implied that Ruriko was going to make space for Ichiro in Hongo's mask by dispersing her prana out of it, thus dying for good.
- The space where Ruriko and Ichiro have their final talk has been identified by the film's VFX artists as the Habitat Realm. However, unlike the Habitat that Ichiro was using to keep its inhabitants from ever deceiving anyone, Ruriko created a different version in Hongo's helmet, one that doesn't take that freedom away. It's what allows her to try and convince her brother to go with Hongo…and though Ichiro sees through the lie, he understands that she did so because she truly wanted to save him.
- In the end, Takeshi Hongo dies the way his father did: trying to help someone lashing out at the world. And not in some glorious final fight, but in a pathetic struggle to give Ichiro one last talk with Ruriko.
- Hayato can only watch in dismay as Takeshi—a fellow rebel and Kamen Rider—dissolves into nothing in front of him."HONGO! ...Seriously? I'm all alone again...?"
- Fortunately, Hongo was likely aware that, just like his father's death for him, his death would leave a lasting impact on Ichimonji, and arranged for Tachibana and Taki to retrieve his helmet—still intact and carrying his soul, thanks to Ruriko's prior tampering—and give it to Ichimonji.
- Hayato can only watch in dismay as Takeshi—a fellow rebel and Kamen Rider—dissolves into nothing in front of him.
