These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
YMMV: Kamen Rider OOO
Alas, Poor Villain: A lot of viewers were saddened when Gamel and Mezool died; The latter because of her strict but reasonable motherly control of the group, and the former for his childish behavior. Gamel scored a lot of extra points in #16 when he was shown wandering around frantically, looking for Mezool and muttering her name again and again like a lost child looking for his mother. It gets worse in the Christmas party scene: You can see his face light up with joy when he thought he found Mezool, only to find Hina instead. He finally snapped at this, going into an Unstoppable Rage. All this psychological stress while bearing the physical strain on his body exerted by a lot of foreign extra Medals in him. <Sniff.>
It's also possible to feel this way for Lost Ankh at his demise. Lost Ankh was mentally a child and had pretty much been made a Tyke Bomb by Kazari and the other Greeed. It's easy to imagine he might have turned out much differently had things been different. After OOO shatters three of his Cores, his reaction to it is made rather sad by his childish voice and his horrified tone. All this combined with how brutally OOO (who was in Berserker mode at the time) destroyed him makes his death scene rather bittersweet.
In the movie, when Nobunaga is just discovering there is pleasure in little things, he gets turned into an out of control greed by Maki, which results in him fighting Eiji.
In #45, Mezool gets this, again but this time for real. First, Dr. Maki gives her a Hannibal Lecture, telling her to stop pretending to feel love because she's incapable of it. This causes her to discard Gamel, the only one who truly loved her. While she does do some nasty things in that episode, it was all to finally be able to feel the maternal love she so desired but could never have. Ultimately, she's mortally wounded and dies in Gamel's arms, begging for more of the love she finally got to feel. Unlike Kazari'sKarmic Death, Mezool's is far more bittersweet as all she wanted was love she was incapable of feeling for reasons that were in no way her fault.
Angst? What Angst?: Eiji has no family, job, or ambitions, but he doesn't really attach any importance to those things so it doesn't bug him. However, he's often haunted by memories of a girl he'd befriended on his travels that he was unable to save.
Awesome Music: The theme song; then again, an awesome theme song seems to be mandatory for a Kamen Rider series.
#5: "Regret nothing ~Tighten Up~" *
A sound-alike pun on "TaToBa"; it can be heard during the song.
, the theme song of TaToBa Combo.
The song is also the default used for the Random Combos that don't have a theme; the TaToBa beats are removed in these cases, of course.
#6: "Got to keep it real" *
A sound-alike pun on "GataKiriBa"; it can be heard during the song.
, the theme song of GataKiriBa Combo.
#9: "Ride on Right time" *
A sound-alike pun on "RaToraTah"; it can be heard during the song.
, the theme song of LaToraTah Combo.
#12: "Sun goes up" *
A sound-alike pun on "SaGoZo"; it can be heard during the song.
, the theme song of SaGoZo Combo.
#20: "Time judged all" *
A sound-alike pun on "TaJaDor"; it can be heard during the song.
, the theme song of TaJaDor Combo. *
This song is a duet by Eiji and Ankh.
#36: "POWER to TEARER" *
A sound-alike pun on "PuToTyra"; it can be heard during the song.
, the theme song of PuToTyra Combo. *
This song is a duet by Eiji and Akira Kushida.
#38: "Reverse/Re:birth", the theme song of Kamen Rider Birth. *
This song is a duet by Date and Gotou.
Movie War Megamax: "Shout Out" *
A sound-alike pun on "ShaUTa"; it can be heard during the song.
, the theme song of ShaUTa Combo.
The "Combo Change Medley." If the Combo songs were awesome alone, listen to all of them together in one package.
The movie theme song, Te wo Tsunagou, also counts as a Heartwarming Moment. Doubly so for the full orchestra version.
The OST has a handful of powerful tracks to offer too.
T#50: "Big Brother and Little Sister". As you can guess from the title, it's generally used in scenes involving Ankh/Shingo and Hina. But unlike the other upbeat songs listed here, this one is rather sad and melancholic, and in a handful of instances where it's used in the series, it certainly delivers the emotional weight of the scenes.
Big Lipped Alligator Moment: Even with all the weirdness rampant in #27, one moment stands out: two random women come across the Squid-Jaguar Yummy and smack it around, then disappear before Ankh and Eiji get to it. That's really it — the women are only in the episode because their names contain the kanji for '1000'.
To note, it's more the fact that they beat the crap out of it than they appeared, as it did mistake them for Kamen Riders.
Why does the Yummy belonging to the former Shocker Mook spawn a couple of Oba-san?
Then there's Eiji resurfacing in Brazil at the end of Movie Wars Core, though it leads into a Brick Joke as Chiyoko shows up after a sign at Cous Coussier stated "On Vacation".
Complete Monster: Kazari is shaping up as one. He has an extremely cruel way of creating Yummy (at least some of his victims are fully aware of what they're being made to do) but that's just the tip of the iceberg. Yeah, see that Alas, Poor Villain entry above? Kazari caused that just because he was curious as to what would happen. Even worse, he's smiling while doing it (well when he has a mouth), completely content in what he's done!
Dr. Maki is arguably just as terrible as Kazari, since he's willingly working with him. Not to mention that he actively encouraged a Mad Bomber to go on a rampage just to feed a nest of Mezool's Yummy and observe them. When they hatch, he proceeds to lock his workers inside with them! This guy made Eiji try to deck him so hard he put a dent in the wall. Yeah, he's got some comical moments with Date lately, but that doesn't make the stuff he's done any less terrible. While he did have a tragic childhood, it by no means justifies his actions and he murdered his own sister just because she was getting married and couldn't spend time with him, something he shows no remorse for. Before this moment, he could be sympathatic, but this is the point where it becomes clear he's an irredeemable monster. After this, he just keeps getting worse and worse as the series goes on. He ultimately turns out to be Eviler than Thou when it comes to Kazari, ripping out his intact cores and leaving him to die!
It's certainly very fitting that all of the Yummies he's spawned have had some of the cruelest powers.
He's responsible for both Mezool and Gamel being Killed Off for Real, Mezool's for giving her a Hannibal Lecture that sends her on her rampage that causes OOO to kill her, Gamel's for causing Mezool's demise and then damaging some of his Cores which leads to his death. And from what he says to Ankh and the fact he was ready with Ptera Candroids to gather their Cores after their deaths, it's very likely he intended that this would happen! What's worse is that he personally believes that death by broken Cores pretty much erases the Greeed in question from existence, no afterlife because they're not alive to begin with. Doesn't matter if he's actually right, that still means he killed two of the most sympathetic Greeed (and Kazari, but he had it coming) Deader than Dead with absolutely no guilt at all! Yeah, he managed to kill Mezool and Gamel off in an even more evil way than Kazari did! And at the end of #46 he manages to top himself again by mutating Eiji into a berserk Greeed right as he and Ankh are reconciling, evidently deciding Ankh has outlived his usefulness as well. He finally forcefeeds Uva Core Medals until he loses control, even while Uva is begging him to stop. His demise was well deserved.
The ancient king / original OOO may qualify as well. He's described as desire incarnate and had five sentient being created for no other reason but to kill them off and use their power to become a God and take over the world. He even literally stabbed Ankh, the only Greeed who was willingly helping him, in the back to steal his Core Medals to complete his plan. Ankh sided with him to backstab him and steal the power for himself, but he's got the excuse of being an embodiment of Greeed. What's scary here is the original OOO is a normal human.
Ear Worm: The opening theme, "Anything Goes". Despite it being so happy, jumpy and weird compared to the opening themes of Decade and Double, you can't help but listen to it over and over again.
You count the Medals: one, two and three! Life goes on; anything goes! Coming up, OOO!
The OST has lot of BGMs that, once listened, won't be leaving your head anytime soon. Even more so if you're familiar with the series to know in which context each track is used.
T#08: "The Schoolgirl of My Dreams". Possibly Hina's leitmotif. For quite a calm guitar track, it ironically got a heavy, emotional piano remix in the form of T#50: "Brother and Sister".
T#10: "Hina the Schoolgirl". A humorous remix of T#08; it even has somebody making groaning sounds in the background.
T#12: "Ankh the Greeed". Ankh's leitmotif styled after classic Egyptian music.
T#19: "Enter the Can-droids". A cutely robotic tune for the kids' favourite robot buddies.
The OOO Scanner managed to find different ways to be catchy with its Combo tunes. By extension, Akira Kushida's background rhythms in the Combo Image Songs as well.
SUPER, SUPER, SUPER! SUPER TAKA! SUPER TORA! SUPER BATTA!Su~per TaToBa, TA-TO-BA! SUPER!
Ensemble Darkhorse: Akira Date, due to his rather laid-back behavior and general masculinity. Probably why he was brought back for the final eps.
Epileptic Trees: Since the beginning, many people began creating theories about the OOO Driver being a Deadly Upgrade, who the Original OOO was, and how it will effect Eiji, with a popular theory being that Eiji would turn into a Greeed. Surprisingly, they're correct about the latter, but it's not the OOO Driver that's doing the conversion. That would be the Core Medals inside Eiji.
Which makes a bit more sense this side of the Pacific, verbally speaking. In Japan, the kanji "ao" is a bit of a literary conundrum/holdover in that it can be used to mean either "blue" and "green" depending on context usage, hence the go-light in visual mediums is colored as blue, even though real-life lights are green.
and "Kamen Rider Wolverine", to name a few. Image Boards also came up with the sobriquet "Kamen Rider Taco Bar", due to his rather Mexican color scheme and the pronunciation of the "To" in "TaToBa" sounding like a "Co" when shouted by OOO's belt. Though "Taco Bar" has been declared a Forced Meme.
"Cakeguy" for Kougami, for very, very obvious reasons.
Or more frequently "CakeBoss" due both to his status as a rich and powerful man, and his similarity to Double's Ryubee Sonozaki, who was popularly described as "Like a boss". Perfectly fitting, as it also draws a connection to this.
Can't forget "Kamen Rider Pantsu", obviously due to Eiji's colorful boxers.
SaGoZo plays around with the white-gray spectrum, but mostly light.
and Green monsters, and Rider Forms drawn from their powers? Hmm...
As the Image Song and ending song sung by the main character and his red demonic partner who is the source of power for the main Kamen Rider's red form, "Time Judged All" is, in concept, not unlike "Double Action - Sword Form".
One of the Net Movies for Kamen Rider Decade involved Shin Kamen Rider and his Imagine Spot, wondering what it'd be like if his show took off. Episodes 21 and 22 provide a somewhat twisted picture.
We've had Dr Maki leaving the Kougami company to form his own faction with the younger-looking Kazari and Lost Ankh in the form of a small boy, not long after the fate of a certain otherTwo and a Half Men was in question.
And the final fight is Eiji with Ankh reduced to Core medals vs. Maki, essentially Two And Bits of a Man.
ShaUTa Combo's theme song title, "Shout Out", is bound to make many a troper chuckle.
Birth's theme "Reverse/Re:birth" sounds quite a call back when it is considered that Kamen Rider Blade's resident Gunslinger Garren's actor sang an ending theme for his series, called rebirth.
The OOO chapter in Movie Wars Core is subtitled Nobunaga's Desire, which may bring to mind one of Koei's strategy game titles, Nobunaga's Ambition.
One of those "weird Japanese inventions" often circulated on the 'net involves a device women can use to outwit stalkers, a handbag that unfolds into a vending machine disguise. Which is exactly what the RideVender does.
You know who else was famously disguised as a vending machine? Dispensor.
The animals Kazari's Core Medals are based on, Lion, Tiger and Cheetah, appeared as Mecha in Juken Sentai Gekiranger.
There was quite a bit of negative reaction over PuToTyra, the purple form, being designated as the "Ultimate Form" over the already-impressive TaJaDor (which was touted as such in Movie Wars Core). Fast forward to the finale, and PuToTyra gets Worfed in favor of TaJaDor as Eiji and Ankh battle the Big Badas one being.
There are three possible reasons for this. One, PuToTyra is the same "type" as Maki, so it probably wasn't as effective as against the desire-based Greeed. Two, a true collaboration between Eiji and Ankh is what the series has been building up to. Three, with PuToTyra out of the list, TaJaDor is the strongest form OOO has, as well as the only form available at the point.
Looks like Toei decided to take the initiative here, by churning out Super TaToBa Form for Movie Wars Megamax. It does reuses TaJaDor's head though.
The PV for the OP "Anything Goes" may have predicted key points of the finale. Uva appears in it, and he's the last of the original Greeed to die. And the singer's name is Maki Ohguro.
Jerkass Woobie: In #29, when Kazari uses Maki to make a Yummy, it's revealed that his greatest desire is for a hug. Though its pretty much subverted when we find out he's the one who killed his sister because she was getting married and wanted to abandon him. When he remembers this, he doesn't seem all that guilty about it.
Fridge Brilliance: It's no accident that the Yummy created from him hugs women to death. It isn't a case of Does Not Know His Own Strength on the Yummy's part. It's his desire that if someone shows kindness and compassion, they should die before they can be corrupted by the world and taken from him like he felt his sister was.
Magnificent Bastard: Kougami; crazy as he is, makes it abundantly clear that he's in control of the situation in #6, forcing Ankh to accept a crooked deal in order for him and Eiji to use the RideVendors located around the city.
Ankh himself isn't too shabby either: In #20, it is revealed that he switched the core medals with cell medals in the case beforehand so that Kazari's apparent victory by stealing it in #19 was foiled.
Moral Event Horizon: Kazari using Gamel and Mezool in an experiment that could quite obviously be fatal and not caring one bit both were killed in the result. In fact, he smiles while he observes his handywork.
If he didn't cross it by locking his assistants in a lab with rampaging Yummy For Science!, Dr. Maki crossed this when he realizes he murdered his own sister and reacts, not with remorse, but by deciding he did the right thing by killing her and now its time to destroy the world. It's more likely the latter, as before that point, he wasn't beyond redemption. It's this point that it becomes clear he's irredeemable. Made even worse by the tensing of a Heel Face Turn directly before it.
Eiji's father crossed this by exploiting the fact his son was badly wounded and emotionally scarred for life by a war his family's money funded to get votes! How could anyone blame Eiji for walking out on his family after that?
#40. Ankh being absorbed by Lost Ankh. What's worse is that most of the episode was devoted to how Ankh has actually changed and can't bring himself to really hurt Eiji and Hina anymore!
#45. Mezool's death. Yes, she went berserk and tried to devour humans, but it's truly hard not to feel sorry for someone who only did it to finally have the chance to feel genuine love. Not to mention the fact she died in Gamel's arms, the only one who truly loved her, which she wasn't able to see because she was a Greeed.
Gamel's heartbreak at her death, as well.
#46. Gamel's death. After he goes on a rampage, converting everyone and everything he can find into Cell Medals in a futile attempt to bring Mezool back, he's defeated by Gotou and Date. Once he returns to his human form, the audience sees him trying to give a lollipop to Mezool's last Core Medal. Then, the last thing he sees is a hallucination of Mezool where she happily accepts a lollipop from him. Poor, poor Gamel...
What's worse, before Mezool died, he'd spent the entire day complete and not gone beserk like she did. If it weren't for her death, then he might have been fine...
Ankh's glorious Heroic Sacrifice, giving up all of his Core Medals to Eiji for one final TaJaDor combo to finally stop Dr. Maki and save the world.
However, they are now confirmed to appear in Movie Wars Megamax.
Unfortunate Implications: At the end of 20 Yasu, the spineless toady afraid of what the newly-freed Yummy host Yamakane would do to him ties him up with rope saying "even if you return to jail you won't forgive me." Had Yamakane not woken up, what was Yasu going to do with him tied up, next to the docks, asleep, if not return him to jail? (And how different would it be from what Yamakane decided to do to Yasu upon waking up, given that it still involved those ropes?)
Viewer Gender Confusion: Gara has a female live actor and a male voice actor, so this becomes inevitable.
Villain Decay: Doctor Maki's levels of creepiness and menace went into severe decline soon after his introduction, particuarly once Date appeared. Then episode #30happened.
Visual Effects of Awesome: The last stage of the Final Battle is done amazingly well, especially when they fly inside of the Medal Vessel for the final exchange. They really outdid themselves on this one!
The Woobie: If you didn't feel sorry for Gamel while he was wandering around searching for Mezool like a lost puppy, you don't have a heart.
Gamel again in #45 where he's utterly heartbroken by Mezool discarding him once she's fully restored, and eventually ends up with her dying in his arms.
And again with Gamel in the next episode as he dies and tries to give Mezool's last Core Medal a lollipop and hallucinates Mezool accepting the sweet before collapsing into a pile of Medals himself.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Strangely, the Greeed as a whole could be considered this. They want to consume the world, but think about why they're doing it. The destruction of their 10th Medal resulted in them having a void in themselves they can never fill and consuming the world is merely a way to try to fill it. Then there's Gamel in episode #16...
Mezool in #45 fits this. She finally becomes complete, only to discover even that can't fill the void of being unable to truly feel love. Her rampage in the episode is solely due to being unable to truly feel love unless she consumes humans who are already feeling it. What's worse is because of this, she's incapable of returning Gamel's love when he truly loves her.
Gamel in #46. His rampage is entirely because he's heartbroken at Mezool's death and too simpleminded to realize he's got absolutely no chance of bringing her back no matter how many Cell Medals he has. The only thing he can think of when it doesn't work is he needs to try more. All because he truly loved Mezool and will do anything for her and now she's dead.
