Confession time: I’ve been reluctant to make this
post, and the one before it.
It’s not that I mind expressing my opinions, since
I at least try to rationalize what I type out.
But things can get pretty volatile when it comes to games, especially
stuff like The Last of Us. Just
look at the comments at the end of this feature -- the vitriol could melt a
steel wall. It’s one thing to disagree
with someone’s opinion (and his/her personal takeaway from a game, one that
tries its best to inspire thought and discourse), but it’s another to shut it
down while barely trying to make a counter-argument.
Imagine how I feel in my aims to avoid rocking the
boat, but to be so daring, so mad, and so audacious
as to claim that an underpants-loving goof from a merchandise-driven franchise
is somehow better than the weathered survivalist from 2013’s critical darling
and fan favorite. I’m a little wary, to
say the least. But I’m serious
here. Kamen Rider OOO’s Eiji is, in my eyes, a better character than
Joel. And I’d even go so far as to say
that his story in general is better, too.
Yes, yes, different mediums, different objectives, etc. -- but speaking
personally? One of those characters
makes me deliberate (and smile) to this day, even after experiencing his story
to completion more than a year ago. The
other is Joel Grumpybuns. So all aboard
the crazy train once more, yes?
You could sum up Eiji with --
Oh, wait. ALL OF THE SPOILERS incoming.
You could sum up Eiji just two words: “good
guy”. He may be weird and goofy at
times, but that doesn’t stop him from being a nice, friendly person. More to the point, he would practically trip
over himself trying to be a hero even without the power of OOO (rhymes with
“Moe’s”); he’ll willingly throw himself into the fray against enemies that
could tear his shreds into shreds, but it’s worth noting that some of his most
heroic moments are done when he’s out of his super-suit.
Like I said last time, the core thrust of the show
is that the Greeed and their respective Yummies manipulate the desires of
innocent people to farm Cell Medals. As
you’d expect, that includes dangerous and criminal desires, from “I want more
money” to “I want revenge via murder” to “I want to blow lots of stuff
up”. But it also includes positive,
well-intentioned desires, like “I want to help my teacher” or “I want to
protect people” or even “I want to make my dreams come true”. The show goes out of its way to show that
having a desire (or yokubo, which can
also be the Japanese word for greed)
doesn’t have to be bad -- and it uses Eiji to try and accomplish that. Because this show is deep and meaningful.
Our hero plays the underwear ambassador and, time
after time, meets with these people face-to-face to try and sort out their
issues -- to help show them a new way of thinking, or simply to prove that he’s
in their corner. It’s a nice gesture,
and it’s 100% in-character, buuuuuuuuuuut
it also means that Eiji’s playing the white knight all too often. A pure-hearted, noble, selfless person who
always seems to know how to cure what ails others? How dull.
How’s he supposed to be interesting if he’s pretty much perfect?
The answer: he isn’t perfect. Arguably, he’s a bigger monster that Joel
will ever be.
For starters, Eiji playing the white knight
backfired majorly in the past. He may more or less be a hobo at the start of
the show, but he’s actually the son of a big-time politician (which means he’s
actually pretty wealthy). Unfortunately,
Eiji opted to use some of that money as part of a fundraising effort for an
African village -- which ended up being used as a fundraiser to start a civil
war that cost a little girl he befriended her life…along with, you know, untold
thousands of others. And dear old dad
spun the incident -- one that he turned into a war in the first place -- into a
way to earn votes and support. All it
cost him was irrevocably scarring his son for life.
So part of the reason why Eiji goes so far out of
his way to help others is to compensate for being unable to help others back
then. But there are two wrinkles to
that: the first and most obvious is that even well into the show, when he’s
beating back the Greeed with the power of OOO, Eiji is a broken-ass man. (There’s a pretty harrowing shot where, after
taking a beating, he sits in a rocking chair and stares at the moon.) And that feeds into the second wrinkle: for a
show all about greed and desires, Eiji doesn’t have anything. He’s a hollow, half-formed person, and no
matter how many lives he saves, he can’t fill that emptiness inside him.
Well, in theory, at least. To be fair, the concept breaks down if and when
you argue that his desire is “to help others”, which he does pretty much from
the first episode on. On the other hand,
it stays pretty solid if you assume that his desire to help others is just
something on the surface -- almost as if he wants to save face, or wants to
redeem himself. In reality, he refuses
his real desire (assuming he has one
at all), which in the context of the show makes him an anomaly. Again, having a desire is not a bad thing;
it’s said at one point that it’s because of desire that modern civilization and
technology exist.
So is it possible for someone as pure as Eiji to
exist? Probably not -- and that’s
entirely the point. Because this show is
deep and meaningful.
Eiji’s lack of desire ends up creating almost as
many problems as it solves. It’s true
that it allows him to become OOO in the first place (at least without going insane),
but at roughly the show’s halfway point, it’s used against him and allows some
unearthed Core Medals to turn him into a mindless berserker...and
also dinosaur-themed, for some reason.
It’s a struggle for him to tame the power forced upon him, but even
afterward they take their toll; he starts losing his senses, he still risks losing his mind, and he’s
practically a henshin away from turning into one of the Greeed he’s out to beat
-- and he actually does become one,
albeit temporarily.
Pretty much all of Eiji’s friends well before that
point tell him to stop being all noble and shit, because it’s more or less
killing him and feeds into the bad guy’s plans.
Using some of OOO’s high-end abilities (slotting in matching Core Medals
to change his “loadout”, if you need an analogy) puts a big strain on his body,
to the point where an entire episode is dedicated to explaining how similar his
condition is to being
punch-drunk. That’s ignoring the
fact that, in typical Rider fashion, wearing a super-suit isn’t enough to
protect his body from getting utterly wrecked.
Eiji’s counter-argument, practically made with a smile on his face? If he doesn’t fight and help others, then no
one else can and everyone loses. Or dies.
He’s got a point…assuming that you overlook the other badass Rider just a phone call
away.
So if you’re keeping score? In the red corner, we’ve got a guy whose
character arc is (more or less) about him learning not to be such an
asshole. And in the blue corner, we’ve
got a guy whose character arc is (more or less) about him learning to be an asshole. Can you see why I might enjoy one over the
other? At the basest, it’s not every day
we get a character like Eiji. This isn’t
just about how he’s a Boy Scout or is more fun to be around; it’s about going
the distance with a character.
In all fairness, though, it’s not hard for me to
declare that the two of them are actually pretty similar. Both of them are extremely damaged people
despite the airs they put on. Both of
them failed to protect little girls in their backstories. Both of them are pulled into their main stories because they form unlikely
partnerships. Both of them kick monster
ass. Both of them are changed because of
their bonds with unlikely partners. Both
of them are in desperate need of their partners. Both of them do some pretty shocking things
that not everyone would agree with (albeit on a different axis). Both of them have firmly-rooted ideologies
that decide the level of heroism they choose to express. So biases aside, why do I think Eiji is the
better character?
Let me answer that with a question I’ve had for a
while: is Eiji gay?
All right, look.
I know that it’s pretty much a thing
to suggest characters from this game or that movie or whatever is part and
parcel of fiction. Fans will latch onto
subtext (or supertext, in the case of stuff like Kingdom Hearts) and run wild with it. On the other hand, the creators can and do
put up an effort to add in that inclusivity, as
Mortal Kombat X recently proved. That’s cool.
And really, so is the fact that people are willing to accept -- and even
push for -- that inclusivity. Audiences
the world over are hardier than some of the bigwigs would ever believe.
But what does that mean about Eiji? Well, here’s the rub: if Eiji isn’t gay, then
it’s no big loss; he’s already an interesting character with charisma to spare
-- someone entertaining on every level of thought and digestion. If he is
gay, then it turns him into an even more complex, even more interesting
character -- one whose actions, and maybe even his entire show, get cast in a
different light. Because this show is
deep and meaningful, you see.
It’s worth noting at the outset that unlike other KR installments, Eiji doesn’t have a
dedicated love interest. He forms a
platonic relationship with aspiring fashion designer Hina (who has super
strength for some reason…shut up, it’s a deep and meaningful show), but even if
she gives him support on occasion, she’s not in love with him, and he’s not in
love with her. That’s a byproduct of
Eiji’s lack of desire, naturally; since he doesn’t want anything, then by
default he doesn’t want a relationship, or even intimacy. Despite pretending to be Mr. Fix-It, he’s an
emotional dunce.
In fact, Eiji pretty much has to be forced to acknowledge love by virtue of
a Yummy’s shenanigans and a homely scientist’s makeover -- and while it leads
to one of the show’s funniest
episodes, it takes on a different aspect if you view his overreaction to love as
his awakening to love. It’s the first
time he’s ever had a desire heaped on him.
It doesn’t last, of course, but it’s something. It might be something with a profound,
lasting effect on him. That episode
could very well be what makes him realize what he’s been missing -- what he’s
denied himself for so long.
And in the same sense that you can’t talk about
Joel Grumpybuns without talking about Ellie, you can’t talk about Eiji without
talking about Ankh -- who at one point is more than willing to throw Eiji off a
building.
Eiji’s push to be a good guy is met
point-for-point by Ankh’s push to be a bad guy.
As a Greeed, nothing would make him happier than to stop being a monster
arm and start being the world’s new supreme ruler; Eiji is just a means to
accomplish that. But as time passes, the
two of them go from a VERY uneasy partnership to…a less-uneasy partnership, albeit
for different reasons.
Spending time with Eiji and the gang lets Ankh see
the value of humanity, forcing him to trust and even appreciate them as well as
become more than just a power-hungry monster.
He’d never admit it, but Eiji has become his first and truest friend --
which would explain why at one point, Eiji’s declaration that he’d kill Ankh to
save the detective whose body he’s hijacked shocks him enough to help jumpstart
his heel turn.
It’s complicated.
But it isn’t. Well, it is. Shut up, this show’s so deep and meaningful.
Like Joel before him (even though OOO predates TLoU by a couple of years), Eiji needs Ankh way more than Ankh
needs him. The Greeed may be an asshole,
but there’s rarely a moment where he doesn’t have a good point: humans are
beings ruled by desire, and there’s no sense in denying that. Eiji’s efforts to be some flawless hero are
what make him flawed in the first place -- and again, succeed in turning him
into a monster -- so even if Ankh goes about his teachings in a dickish way,
he’s actively trying to help Eiji besides give him advice on the battlefield
and help switch his loadouts on the fly.
More to the point, it’s thanks to the evil arm that Eiji finally realizes what his true desire
is, and it’s exactly what Ankh gave him in the first place.
The big reveal is that Eiji’s desire -- what he’s
wanted for ages, as well as what he wants late in the game -- is that he wants power.
I don’t think I need to tell you how slippery of a slope that
is, especially since that’s usually a desire held by the baddest of the
bad, but in Eiji’s case he wants power (or says he wants it) so he can save
others. That’s exactly what Ankh gives
him in episode one via OOO’s belt, and our hero only proceeds to get stronger
from there. It actually reaches a point
in one of the show’s climactic moments where the two of them duke it out…and Eiji
takes time out to explain, as sincerely as he can, just how thankful he is to Ankh.
It’s a pretty heartwarming moment -- but it’s hard
to deny that it and the show at large aren’t bursting with sexual tension.
Not to mention this.
My current headcanon -- irrespective of whether or
not it’s actually true -- is that OOO is
as much about desire as it is about self-acceptance on every level. Or, if you want to be a little less delicate,
it’s a show about one man’s exploration of his sexuality punctuated by
dive-kicking monsters and ska music. No
matter his orientation, it’s not something that absorbs Eiji’s (or Ankh’s)
character, but it is something that helps inform and accent it. At the show’s end, Ankh ends up sacrificing
himself to give Eiji the power to save the world; as such, it’s not as if Eiji
is out to get with everyone he can. He’s
accepted that part of himself, but he’s the underpants ambassador. Relationships take a backseat to clean
boxers.
Now, am I saying that Eiji is a better character
than Joel because he’s ambiguously (?) gay?
No, of course not. But Eiji’s
complexity is something you wouldn’t expect out of a merchandise shill, in a
world where fiction still isn’t quite
the best, on average, at handling
different orientations. And really,
that’s what it’s all about. It’s not
just “make more goody two-shoes heroes” or “make gritty anti-heroes”. It’s not a black-and-white, us-or-them,
you’re-with-us-or-against-us divide.
It’s about complexity. Arcs.
Exploration. Nuances. Variables.
Juice.
When I think of Joel Grumpybuns, I think of a
character with nothing else to show.
It’s as if I’ve gotten everything I can out of him, so there’s
absolutely no reason to go back and play his game. He’s a functional character with a functional
persona and a functional arc. I know his
trajectory, because I’ve more or less seen it before. He doesn’t have the spark needed to hold my
interest, much less carry his game. He’s
tested throughout, but the situations that test him wear out their welcome less
than halfway through, and his answer to them -- just kill stuff -- loses the
sheen in a matter of hours.
Conversely, I’m eager to watch OOO all over again just so I can get
more Eiji, and see if there’s anything I missed about him. He’s charismatic, deeper than expected, and
always full of surprises, even beyond what I’ve mentioned here. His trajectory may not be 100% original, but
it’s original enough to warrant a second look, or even a spit take from
some. Losing Ankh would hurt the show
severely, but it’s still possible that Eiji could carry the show -- because he
kind of already does. He’s tested by
enemies, friends, innocents, criminals, situations, the world, and even
himself. He earns respect before a
single punch gets thrown.
So I’ll ask you point-blank: which one do you
think sounds like the better character?
I’ll be fair and admit (once again) that TLoU isn’t the worst thing ever.
Considering its competition, there’s a reason why it’s won so many
awards. But standing tall amidst games
like Halo 4 or Call of Duty is like a grown man boasting about his height to a
bunch of toddlers. The game opened up
gamers’ eyes to what a game could be, but it only helped highlight just how
much needs to be done -- both in a single story, and with the entire
medium. At this stage, there’s no
destined reason why games should lag behind everyone else, so long as the
talent and will are there.
And yeah, the talent and will ARE there. I mean that on two levels -- because there
have been creators in the past and present, with Kamen Rider and beyond, who actually have been eager to get the
most out of what they produce, even if they have no obligation to. But beyond that, it’s entirely possible that
a sufficiently-resourced studio like Naughty Dog (and maybe not even
sufficiently-resourced) can put out something amazing. Something that goes much, much farther than TLoU ever could.
The gates are open. Anything goes.
Also, not to diffuse the pathos of those last two
paragraphs, but…am I the only one who thinks that Eiji looks like a Japanese
Ted Mosby? Eh? Anybody agree?
Well, whatever.
Let’s see how Kamen Rider Ghost turns
out.
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