Manages to rack up over 600 in just one episode alone while stepping or kicking off the corpses in the aftermath. Real subtle, Rambo wannabe.
| “ | You're definitely more resilient than the last Kuuga. With fists like yours, I can only imagine the amount of prey you could kill. [...]. I will bring forth the Ultimate Darkness! I am Go-Baberu-Da! | „ |
| ~ Subtle boldness and ambitious is what best describes him for a rampaging brute. |
It has been a really, really long time since we've spoken about Kamen Rider in, who knows, ancient years or something. Though I've given myself time to take a break from binge-watching streaming service shows and original media, part of me wanted to reunite with a classic media that made my childhood growing up and yes, I'm talking tokusatsu. Hell yeah. It has all your favorites besides everyone's favorite grasshopper-themed hero, there's the generations of colorful-masked teams that brought you Power Rangers and giant heroes like Ultraman fighting against Kaiju and Seijin.
Just another month ago or couple'a weeks back, I revisited the world of Kamen Rider Kuuga, a massive staple in the Heisei era and a certified hood classic. I will never forget the wholesome atmosphere Yusuke Godai welcomed us in open arms but we could not also forget the horrors and atrocities the Grongi themselves have committed, standing out as one of the most vile villain organizations in the franchise's run and looking back, the most realistic of them all... I mean, we're talking about a race full of serial-killers. Ones eerily giving off the same vibes as those in real-life. And while we did have a good chunk of a few selected contenders standing out due to the sheer scale of their kills or personally visceral edges, however, for some incredibly odd reason, one more somehow got overlooked... and I can't think of reasons? Other than the fact that he has a targeted counting for 729 - one of the highest kill counts attempts followed by a successful score of 687! Like... how was he overlooked for this long!?
And hence ladies and gentlemen marks my time bringing some tokusatsu candidates in the nearby future but for today's discussion, we'll focus on Go-Baberu-Da, one of the Gegel's finalists. Oh, and I'll be leaving a note below to everyone's familiarity and knowledge to the franchise, just a refresher to notify a thing or two:
NOTE: Just to confirm first, the Kamen Rider franchise does indeed have a multiverse between the Showa era being its own main world in stark contrast to most of the Heisei-Reiwa installments being their own thing separately. So as such they are to be treated as their own thing, ironically, original plans for Kuuga in the start is meant to expand the Heisei era with Agito being a follow-up, one similar how Super Sentai and Power Rangers share one world. Luckily, plans changed and retcons were made, so yeah, not much of a problem even with all the Broad Strokes.
What's the Work?[]
Kamen Rider Kuuga is the 2000 legendary tokusatsu superhero series and the fourteenth installment of the Kamen Rider franchise, one of the most beloved but darkest stories ever introduced that gave birth to this generation during the Heisei era. Yet, still remains a legend to this day.
Adventurous, kind-hearted Yusuke Godai comes back from his latest adventure throughout the world only to discover a research excavation gone wrong had unleashed a great evil that was supposed to be sealed away, only to bring back its vicious race of monstrous serial killers known as the "Grongi". With them set loose on Japan's city streets, scoring kills on innocent people through unique methods in order to move up into their little sadistic game called "Gegel" for promotional rankings, Yusuke inherits the power to transform into the legendary hero, Kamen Rider Kuuga, to fend off the Grongi's twisted game and protect those he cared for.
Who is He? What has He Done?[]
Go-Baberu-Da is one of the finalists in the Gegel and a member of the Go Group, one of the highest-ranks within the Grongi. Baberu stands out as one of the most strongest participants especially for his time in the Gegel.
| “ | You've managed to kill 682 over the course of four attacks. Only 47 to go. | „ |
| ~ Ra-Dorudo-Gu's confirmation says otherwise below. |
It was after several of his fellow Go Group participants died at the hands of Kuuga (and rightfully so with Jaraji and Jaaza, f-ck the former), Baberu was next line alongside Go-Gadoru-Ba. Aiming to score 729 kills in total, Baberu commenced in pulling off perhaps one of the biggest casualties within the Gegel. He goes onto rampaging across an underground shopping mall near Ikebukuro Station, blocking all exits to prevent the police from ever intervening with his game as he makes haste on massacring over 687 innocent people in total, all done from just four attacks alone where he left hundreds of corpses piling up the mall's hallways and creating debris and rebel within the exits throughout said attacks. First seen walking upon the corpses he laid waste to, it gotten so bad that the police requested immediate backup due to the destruction he imposed.
Required to do 47 more kills to complete his counting, Baberu gets into conflict with Kuuga and begins tormenting him on how resilient he is, commenting how he'd use his hands to hunt down others before continuing their fight. In the midst of their fight, Baberu manages to make Kuuga pump out blood from his chest before the latter tries performing the Kuuga Kick to quickly put a stop to Baberu, only to soon evolve into his Herculean form and easily overwhelming him. Soon declaring that he'll be the one to bring about the "Ultimate Darkness" onto humanity, Baberu wastes no time but to pummel Kuuga with his warhammer, quite nearly to death that not even his Titan Form's armor was able to withstand the sheer strength Baberu and his personal weapon held.
Just before it was almost lights out for Kuuga, Baberu aims for smashing his brains out before Detective Ichijo saves him at the last second using a tranquilizer bullet meant for Grongi, rendering his strength and giving Kuuga the winning chance to ram him over with BeatGouram, finishing him off in the forest via ramming him with the Gold Power emanating him.
Heinous Standards[]
To refresh, the world of Kuuga is perhaps one of the most darkest stories within the franchise where it withholds a systematic heinous standard so tremendous due to the Grongi being a race of serial killers and we have N-Daguva-Zeba to blame as the one who commenced it, therefore setting the systematic standards. Usually, most Grongi participants are given or requested a kill count attempt on what they could do based on their skills alone, normally culminating over two-digit bodycounts with some exceptional contenders from more stronger groups scoring hundreds (Go-Jaaza-Gi being the second most successful Grongi with a decent 243 kills to reach 567), which all are traced back to Daguva's machinations that resulted in hundreds to thousands of innocent people killed. Of course, some stand out as one of the absolutely worst depending on their unique niches to their depravity, and Go-Jaraji-Da stands the pinnacle for both Grongi and "Monster of the Week" baddies due to his encephalitis-like killings on high schoolers that drove one of them to suicide.
Baberu on his end alone? Pretty much in second place near Daguva's level and topples nearly almost every Grongi in the sadistic Gegel. For a brute with a warhammer, Baberu has perhaps one of the highest kill count attempts of over 729 and succeeds in racking up 687 innocent people throughout his brutal rampage on an underground shopping mall in just one-to-four attacks that filled up corpses throughout the halls. All done merely in just one episode alone and usually it takes the Grongi time to finish off or score more in just two-parted episodes. Granted, he and Jaaza gain an evolve Herculean form that makes them twice as stronger in the resource department, with Baberu merely taking his time torturing Kuuga by pummeling him bloody. So does he have too many resources when it comes to quantity of his actions? Not necessarily since Go-Gadoru-Ba gained over two-three stronger Herculean forms similar to Kuuga's power and only used it to kill police officers from dozens to at least a hundred, which barely culminates to being enough comparatively.
Whereas Baberu (even Jaaza as well) barely had anytime to make use of their new forms to perform heinous kills in just minutes alone before their deaths, nevertheless, the fact both killed more people in hundreds alone makes up for sheer quantity over quality. What also helps it that Baberu is the second contender in the Gegel who was closest to completing his intended counting quota, followed by the first being Go-Badaa-Ba with 98 motorcyclists dead at his palm with Kuuga being the final intended victim, but even he flunks it enough due to the counting attempt alone. That said, Baberu passes easily.
Mitigating Factors[]
Since most Grongi can be usually seen in the background awaiting their turn in their specific two-part episode debuts, characterization isn't much of an issue for Baberu. But to get one thing out of the way, it's true that the Grongi are sadistic serial-killing monsters who see very little in humans and they tend to mistreat each other discriminately due to those in groups being far weaker than them, but nowhere close to being the inherently "Always Chaotic Evil" kind, as fellow Grongi like Go-Gadoru-Ba and Ra-Baruba-De are capable of humbling themselves and the latter genuinely coming to respect humans like Kaoru Ichijo fondly.
That said, Baberu is defined for his ruthlessness and small bits of being boldly ambitious, walking over the corpses beneath him like they meant nothing to his strength and has the valiant claim of wishing to unleash the "Ultimate Darkness" once he challenges Daguva, though for his more self-serving needs. Now he does at least compliment Kuuga's resilience compared to his previous predecessor the last time he fought him, though whatever seems to form as respect is ultimately watered down to nothing else but a mere taunt to provoke Kuuga in battle. Even going as far as to beat him bloody to a pulp without any qualms. Nuff said as such.
Final Verdict[]
Solid yes to an overlooked candidate.