Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider

Episode 11

It's kind of strange to say, but this episode, which is, ostensibly, the climax of the fighting tournament arc of our show, is actually the weakest episode of the series so far. Fresh off her battle with Tojima, Yuriko is determined to win it all as she enters the final round against Mitsuba.

The interesting bit is that, despite Mitsuba's claims that her mind games won't work on him, they very much do. Yuriko convinces him in his final moments that, like Tojima, without his mask, he is “un-transformed” and therefore powerless against her. However, if he had had a moment to think about this, he'd likely have realized that that rule doesn't really need to apply to him.

Unlike the other Kamen Riders, Riderman is not an altered human. He's just a guy with a supersuit and a robotic arm. Having the mask on or off means little when you consider his powers (or lack thereof). Secondly, the whole point of the previous fight with his brother was to awaken his Kamen Rider soul, which would imply that, like Ichiyo, he doesn't need any special costume to “transform.”

However, winning the tournament is not enough for Yuriko. She's high on her own success and easily puts down both Yukarisu and Ichiyo as well to cement her position as the strongest—the former because she's got no fighting skill and has just been relying on her Shocker super strength, and the latter because… he was too horny to realize he was in a fight.

This anti-climactic ending to the arc is then followed up by the episode spinning its wheels for the entirety of its back half. We see that Nakao, without a yakuza boss to order him around and Shocker not contacting him, has just started listlessly following his lackeys around. They drag him to a concert with their favorite idol group, and he quickly seems to fall in love with them. Meanwhile, Ichiyo continues to think about the sexy Kamen Rider-obsessed woman he's now antiquated with—and who must be head-over-heels for him because of how awesome he is.

And as for said female warrior, Yuriko thinks back on her fight with Tojima and determines that she needs to be able to take hits like him and keep going—before remembering that she's actually a teacher and needs to grade some papers. It's light comedy and men getting horny—nothing really important or meaningful when it comes to moving the plot forward.

At least the episode ends on a bit of a higher note by reaffirming the looming threat of Thunder Raiko. Unlike Yukarisu, she is an accomplished fighter and is out to kill any Shocker minion who has broken their mind control—like Yukarisu herself. It looks like she (and likely Bat Man) are set up to be our next big fight. With this tournament, all of our heroes have reached new heights, but we'll have to see if that's enough for them to defeat what's coming and keep Yukarisu safe.

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Tojima Wants to Be a Kamen Rider is currently streaming on Crunchyroll.