English Dub Review: Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider “I Want to Learn More About Humans”

Overview (Spoilers Below):

Will Futaba still be able to deny the existence of Shocker when she finds herself in a fight against Kumota?

Our Take:

The second half of Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider kicks off with another showdown against Kumota.  This time, he’s battling against Futaba, who strives to save her master from assassination.  However, that battle happened to be short-lived compared to Kumota’s fight against Tojima and his allies, as Futaba became shocked by the realization that Shocker does indeed exist in the real world.  We have spent at least a few episodes seeing Futaba expressing her hatred for Ichiyo’s obsession with Kamen Rider, even to the point of wanting to kill him.  Even when the siblings are adults, that still sounds very extreme, let alone illegal.  However, with Futaba now realizing what she’s dealing with, this sibling dynamic may start to gradually change throughout the season’s second cour.

However, the episode’s actual focus is on the Shocker monsters, including Bat Man, who was getting flak from Kumota for recruiting idol group members.  That pattern has remained unchanged when Shocker targets yet another idol group, with its overweight member, Sena Seta, witnessing the entire thing.  But, in a surprising turn of events, it seems that Kumota may have had a soft spot within his monstrous core when he comes to Sena’s aid.  This is a pretty interesting way to start the show’s second half, with the focus on Shocker and Sena rather than Tojima and the group.  Although it has Futaba warning Mitsuba and Yukarisu about her encounter with Kumota, Shocker’s monstrous combatants and the overweight idol remained front and center throughout the second half.  While it may have dragged a bit, the episode retains the show’s humor long enough to inject potential interest in the next set of characters to focus on.