Kamen Rider My-Th 03

Watch Analysis

The video and audio above contain the full unfiltered analysis. What follows is the razor focused version of the strongest point(s) I had to make.

Rival Riders, Rival Philosophies, and Real Emotional Weight

Kamen Rider MY-TH 03 is interesting because it spends a decent amount of time focused on the Zodiac Alliance, and we get to see that while they’re a group who are going to give conflict to MY-TH, they’re not necessarily evil.

We don’t know exactly where Sora and the Zodiac Alliance’s goals overlap or contradict each other yet, but they’re both dealing with the Inexplicable and the Seed X-Eggs. The Zodiac Alliance is also supposed to be protecting people from the Inexplicable, while Yuna and Sora are clearly focused on helping people too.

So there’s overlap, but there’s also tension, and I like that.

The Zodiac Alliance Feels Like a Rival School

Some things are still confusing, but I find the relationships inside the Zodiac Alliance really interesting.

Asao was taken in by Maou when he was a kid, apparently around 100 years ago. That helps explain why there are two cat Riders in the show. One of them is basically the ward of the other, so of course Asao also ends up with a cat-themed transformation.

And I find it very cute that, being that Asao is Maou’s ward and they’re both cats, Tigre seems to have been the one giving him a lot of training. It’s a wild cat and a domestic cat.

Their sparring match in the middle-ish of the episode was really fun. It gave me an old-school kung fu movie feeling, or something like Condor Heroes, where you have different schools, teachers, students, and rival philosophies.

That’s kind of what the Zodiac Alliance feels like to me.

They have their own closed society, their own way of doing things, and then here comes Sora, somebody doing something very similar to what they do but not working with them.

It totally makes sense that they would see him as an enemy or a rival.

That allows for conflict without either side being cartoonishly evil or cartoonishly heroic, and I appreciate that. Their concerns about MY-TH can feel valid even if we’re still following Sora as the hero.

Shiori’s Jacket Is Heartbreaking

We also get some really good emotional storytelling in this episode.

Shiori loses her father, and the fact that she puts on his jacket that he dropped before he disappeared is part adorable and part heartbreaking.

It’s such an effective use of the visual medium.

We saw him carrying the coat around earlier, even if we didn’t really notice it. Then when he disappears, it gets left behind in a crumpled mess.

Later, Shiori is wandering around crying and looking for her father while wearing it.

And as I watched, it became more obvious to me: oh, she’s wearing his jacket. That got left behind when he was taken away.

That’s heartbreaking right there.

The show doesn’t need to explain it. The image does the work.

The Mystery Is Still Moving Forward

So far, I think we have good emotional storytelling going on, and we also have an interesting mystery that is still unclear.

But we’re getting forward progression, which I always appreciate.

Things are moving forward. We can feel progress. I don’t feel like anybody is spinning their wheels right now.

We’re learning more about the Zodiac Alliance, more about Asao, more about Maou, more about how these Riders relate to each other, and there are still enough unanswered questions to keep things interesting.

Even Rid’s name is a fun little detail.

Maou comes up with the name Kamen Rider Rid, and the episode literally shows a dictionary and flashes to the word “rid,” meaning to get rid of something.

So your job, Kamen Rider Rid, is to get rid of the mouse.

Kamen Rider MY-TH.

I really appreciate that. It’s a good little moment.

Yuna Gives the Episode Its Emotional Punch

The other big thing for me is Yuna.

After Sora kind of ducks out of the fight to watch Rid and see what he can do, Yuna gets angry with him. Eventually they make amends, and she says that she wants the only eternally unfulfilled promise to be the one inside her own heart.

That goes back to the day her parents died.

They had made a pinky promise, and whatever that promise was, if her parents are dead, it obviously can’t be fulfilled now.

And then you have Shiori, who promised to make her father a homemade cake for his birthday. That’s the same day he gets attacked by the Inexplicable.

So Yuna doesn’t want this other little girl to be left with another promise that can never be fulfilled.

I find that really charming and sweet and very bittersweet and dark in the classic, true, good sense of the word, like Kamen Rider is dark.

Yuna is carrying this bitterness and sorrow and little bit of darkness inside her because she was there the day her parents died. She has to live haunted by the fact that this promise will never be fulfilled.

And now she’s letting that motivate her to do good in the world.

I really like that.

It might be a little cliché. It might be a little hammy.

But I like this kind of writing, especially when children’s media is very upfront with its feelings and emotions.

It’s not just, oh, somebody’s missing and that’s sad.

The characters have something raw to say about it.

Rid Is a Cat, and Sometimes That Works Better Than Others

I really like that Rid has a cat fighting style.

He’s very acrobatic. At one point he turns in the air and lands on his feet. He also does those rapid kicking motions cats do, and I like that the show is actually using the animal theme in the choreography.

What I do not like is the stupid cat laser thing.

My man Rid is jumping all over the battlefield like a freak, leaving paw prints everywhere, and then all these lasers come out of them and focus on the enemy before he does his Rider Kick.

It’s lame. It’s silly.

And part of what bugs me is that there are so many lasers when they don’t seem to actually do anything.

There are, like, twenty lasers trained on this guy.

He’s right there.

Just hit him.

Faiz did something similar with one little laser pointer. He put it on his leg, targeted the enemy, and boom, Rider Kick.

If Rid is going to have all these extra fiddly bits, I want them to justify themselves.

The basic catlike fighting style works for me.

The laser-pointer Rider Kick does not.

Kamen Rider MY-TH 03 Is Working for Me

So far, Kamen Rider MY-TH is giving me good emotional storytelling, an interesting mystery, and actual forward progression.

The Zodiac Alliance feels more human and more valid than a group of random bad guys.

Yuna’s grief gives the episode real emotional weight.

Shiori’s jacket is a fantastic little visual detail.

Rid is fun, even if I think his finisher is ridiculous.

And I like that the show can have all of those things going on at once without feeling like it’s spinning its wheels.

Three episodes in, I’m still curious about what exactly is happening, but I also feel like things are actually happening.

That’s a very good place for the show to be.

Dive Deeper

Rid’s Laser-Pointer Rider Kick Is Way Too Much

One of the things that really got me in Kamen Rider MY-TH 03 is Rid’s finisher. Tigre tells him he needs to control the battlefield, so Rid starts leaping around like a freak, leaving paw prints all over the place. Then those paw prints start projecting lasers onto the Inexplicable before he finally goes in for the Rider Kick.

I think it looks silly. I think it looks goofy. And part of the problem is that all those extra lasers don’t actually seem to do anything.

There are, like, twenty of them trained on this guy. He’s right there. Just go hit him.

When Kamen Rider Faiz does something similar, he has one little laser pointer. He puts it on his leg, targets the enemy, and boom, Rider Kick. That makes sense to me. If Rid is going to create this whole field of targeting lasers, I want all those extra fiddly bits to actually justify themselves.

And if we absolutely have to keep the laser-pointer gag because Rid is a cat, I think there are better ways to do it.

Maybe Rid attacks the enemy several times and each hit leaves a targeting marker behind. That starts getting a little more missile-lock than sniper, though, so I’m not completely sold on it.

A version I like better would have him actually establish the perimeter Tigre told him to control. Have Rid run around the enemy, knocking them around while tagging four different points in the environment. A wall, another wall, a post, whatever. Once the enemy is inside the area Rid has marked out, those points activate, the lasers converge on the target, and then Rid delivers the Rider Kick.

Now all that jumping around has a purpose. He really is controlling the battlefield.

But I think there is an even simpler answer.

Rid has that downward-pointing triangle on his forehead, basically occupying the same sort of visual space as the classic Kamen Rider O-Signal. Just have the targeting beam come from there.

He’s a cat. People play with cats using laser pointers. So when Rid activates his finisher, the beam could shine from his forehead, lock onto the enemy, and focus all of that cat aggression onto one target. Then he charges straight at them and delivers the Rider Kick.

Literal laser focus.

That gives you the cat joke, the sniper idea, the targeting gimmick, and the Rider Kick without Rid having to bounce around leaving a ridiculous constellation of laser paw prints everywhere.

I think that would look cooler, make more sense, and still be every bit as fun for the kids watching.

Do MY-TH and Rid Actually Hear Through Their Suit Ears?

There’s a little gag in Kamen Rider MY-TH 03 that made me wonder about something much bigger.

When the Inexplicable reforms and makes that horrible modem-like noise, both MY-TH and Rid cover their ears.

But they don’t just cover where Sora and Asao’s actual ears would be.

They cover the animal ears on the suits.

MY-TH puts his hands all the way up around those big mouse-ear loops, almost like he’s trying to plug them. Rid does the same thing with his cat ears.

It’s funny. I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be funny.

But now I’m wondering: does it mean anything?

These Riders already move in ways inspired by their animals. MY-TH has his tail, and we’ve already seen that tail actually function as part of the suit. Rid fights like a cat, with that acrobatic movement, landing on his feet and even doing those rapid kicking motions cats do.

So could the animal features actually affect their senses too?

Does Sora hear better while transformed into MY-TH? Could Rid have enhanced hearing through those cat ears? As more animal Riders appear, could some of them have heightened smell or other senses associated with their species?

Maybe not. Maybe this is literally just a visual joke: mouse guy covers the mouse ears, cat guy covers the cat ears.

And that’s fine.

But the show has made the animal traits functional enough already that seeing both Riders instinctively protect the ears on their helmets makes me wonder where the costume ends and the Rider’s actual transformed physiology begins.

I have absolutely no idea if there’s anything to that yet.

But now I’m watching those ears.

Yuna’s Burgmüller Book Might Be a Beautifully Chosen Detail

When Yuna’s parents die, there’s a bloodied piano book lying on the ground near the wreckage: Burgmüller for Children.

I noticed it because I had no idea what that was.

So I looked it up.

Burgmüller is associated with piano studies for young students, which makes the immediate implication pretty simple: Yuna was learning piano as a child, and this was apparently part of what she was studying.

But what caught my attention were the names attached to Burgmüller’s pieces.

Innocence.

Progress.

Farewell.

Consolation.

Little Lament.

Anxiety.

And suddenly this little book sitting in the aftermath of the crash feels incredibly apropos.

It reminds me of the jacket detail with Shiori earlier in the episode. Her father leaves his jacket behind when he disappears, and later she’s wandering around wearing it while looking for him. Nobody needs to explain what that means. The object carries the emotion for the scene.

The Burgmüller book feels like it could be doing something similar for Yuna.

Here is this child who is apparently learning piano, and then her childhood is violently interrupted by the death of her parents, apparently because of something connected to the Inexplicable. Sitting there beside that tragedy is a book of music containing titles that evoke innocence, progress, farewell, consolation, lament and anxiety.

Maybe that particular book was chosen deliberately because someone in the production knew exactly what was in it. I don’t know.

But if it was, that is a very cool piece of production design.

And even if you don’t know anything about piano, it’s the kind of detail that rewards curiosity. A pianist might recognize it immediately. A music aficionado might know what it means. Or you might just be somebody like me who sees Burgmüller for Children in the subtitles and thinks, “What the heck is that?”

Then you look it up, and suddenly this little background prop has given you another way to think about Yuna and what happened to her as a child.

I think that’s really neat.