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What are you watching? Other Toku Series Edition
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08-04-2019, 05:15 PM
#
767
Fish Sandwich
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
Alright, it's almost painful to write this, but...
I've finished
Madan Senki Ryukendo
.
You need to understand here: this show has been a part of my life for half a year at this point. Everybody just binge-watches things now, right? Even me, if I've got a show I'm explicitly planning to watch from start to finish, and it's 50 episodes or under, I'll usually devour it within a single month. But for Ryukendo, I immediately knew I wanted to savor it. I never watched more than two episodes in a day, and took massive breaks after each quarter of the show, and let me tell you, I got
very
attached to the idea that "new" episodes were still waiting for me. It got to the point where I shoved around 200 episodes(!) of Kamen Rider I've already seen in the way specifically to avoid having to say goodbye that much longer. Yeah, that's right. That rewatch of Blade? That wasn't me getting bored and deciding to go back to the brand-name toku show about a blue sword guy. I was merely using it as
filler
. My epic quest to go back through all three of Yasuko Kobayashi's Rider shows? Granted, pretty cool in its own right, but one of the many different motivations that had to add up to convince me to even try that was that I wanted to build back up some confidence when it comes to writing huge posts, so that I could do Ryukendo some justice when I inevitably, finally, at last, came to its end.
And here I am. So let's start off with a question, now that I've seen the whole show. Do I think Ryukendo is the best toku show ever? No. There's simply too much going against it for it to compete in that kind of race. The writing for some of the overarching plot points doesn't always come together 110% perfectly. The fight choreography is often only slightly above a typical stage show. There are objective issues like that to be found in quite a few places.
The thing is, if that fabled perfect series ever came along, meticulously crafted in fine detail, with a thought-provoking story, adrenaline-fueled action, and top-notch production values,
I'd still love it less than Ryukendo
.
There was a central theme to Go-Busters that's always really resonated with me, and I think the impact it had on the way I look at things goes a long way towards explaining why it's my favorite toku show ever. The story in that series always came back to one idea I'd sum up thusly: perfection is f***ing
boring
. Flaws and quirks are what make things human, and that gets to the heart of why Ryukendo is so special to me. It feels so much more alive than so many far better shows. It's this scrappy underdog punching well above its weight to create something that, while not the best toku hero show ever, may very well be the most definitive one.
It's glaringly obvious everyone involved with making it knew this would likely be their one shot at making this kind of show, so they basically went for broke. Every single trope and concept that's associated with the genre is in here somehow, even the ones that all logic would dictate are mutually exclusive. You've got the hot-blooded young hero with the strong sense of justice and not much else. You've got the cool, more calculating older hero who backs him up. You've got talking weapons, form changes, super upgrades, and even transforming mecha. You've got the usual range of supporting characters, many of whom are part of a secretive organization that fights the bad guys, including two contrasting love interests, the dorky tech/magic guy, and the guy who sits around giving everyone orders. You've got a cast of villains featuring a pale old guy who enjoys making DRAMATIC PROCLAMATIONS at all times, and his significantly more competent (and quiet) muscle who acts as a rival to the hero. Not to mention the mooks. Those poor, poor, mooks, who exist only to be underappreciated by their bosses and then die.
I could just go on listing crap like that for ages, but I need to actually get around to explaining why this all works. Ryukendo is one of the most derivative works I've ever seen, but rather than coming off as unoriginal, it strikes me as the most loving tribute to the genre imaginable. The tone wavers between straightforward homage and outright parody a fair bit, with most of the heavy satirical stuff coming early on. The introduction of Ryujino after the first quarter seems to be the biggest turning point. His character, which checks a million more of those boxes I don't have time to get into (
extra hero, angsty bad-boy, friend-or-foe mystery man...
), is played close to completely straight, and after that point the show also seems to go back on a few things it previously went out of its way to subvert. But that's part of what I think is so amazing about it. It's like the show started off as a joke, but partway through they realized they were genuinely into all this dumb kids show stuff and just decided to roll with it. While still keeping things hilarious.
That's the appeal. Ryukendo is absolutely owning how unoriginal it is. It embraces cliches left and right, and in the process reminds me why I love them so much to begin with. But I also have to be absolutely clear the show is far more than a mere lazy ripoff. It's actually bursting with creativity, from the specific nuances of the extremely likable cast, to the often very unique setups for the episodic plots. The characters, especially, are insanely likable. The local flavor of the show means Akebono has this fairly expansive cast of everyday citizens who are consistently present, who all have their own shticks, and are all universally remarkably stubborn about letting the demons running around disrupt their daily routines. Watching them is a delight, and the way behave and react to all the strange things happening constantly is something I've definitely never seen anywhere else. The immediate main cast is much more familiar, but no less entertaining. One aspect I especially loved was the dynamic between the three heroes and their weapons. They're all truly made for each other. Gekiryuken is the reliable, stalwart warrior who has to put up with Kenji's frequent bouts of stupidity, always looking out for him even though they argue. Gouryugun's calm, analytical mind makes him a perfect partner to would-be super-cop Fudou, as well as providing a ton of opportunity for some dry humor, and finally Zanryujin is a huge extroverted jerk to contrast with Kouichi's introverted jerkiness. I really bought the bond each of them had, and since I'm such a sucker for this kind of thing, it was probably my favorite overall element of the series.
Not that there isn't a lot of competition. For one thing, I'm extremely fond of all the designs. They get too busy for their own good, but they're all really cool. I love Ryukendo's different forms. It's like the distilled essence of how that gimmick is supposed to work. The element theme means all of them have clearly defined and situational abilities, so he relies on his base form, occasionally busting out one of the three specialized ones when the situation calls for it. I know that sounds simple, but Kamen Rider has been suffocating itself with these things lately, so I don't know, it just struck a chord with me. It also did something I've been wanting to see for a while now in having Ryukendo's main upgrade be a permanent replacement for his main form, and in this case it came with powered up versions of the other three. Ryuguno gets the same treatment, and it was neat to see that in action. Especially since it means Kenji asks everyone to start calling him
God
Ryukendo for the back half of the series, and friend and foe alike all go along with it. It's so unintentionally arrogant I can't help but love it.
One other fun thing was that the general ignorance I had about this show meant I was constantly getting surprised by every twist and turn. I didn't actually know God Ryukendo was a thing going in, for example, nor did I suspect that wasn't even his last upgrade. The way the story played out genuinely kept me guessing, and one thing I find fascinating was how the final stretch consists of like half a dozen episodes that all feel like they're going to be the finale. It's nuts. A show this silly also inexplicably has the structure of an epic novel or something, with a prolonged epilogue that includes an episode that would likely be my favorite even if it wasn't set at Christmas. The way everything comes together in the end is not at all what I expected, but was extremely satisfying (and pretty freakin' emotional) all the same.
The production values honestly are a lot better than I had them pegged for too. The CG looks obvious and fake, yeah, but it's very kinetic and often used to create battles that have a lot of imagination and a surprisingly epic sense of scale. For f***'s sake, Ryukendo goes into space at one point, who cares how fake it looks? It's that attitude of "screw it, let's just go for it" that's so great about the show. Besides, it kills it in the audio department to compensate. The sound editing is crazy intense to match how over the top the show is. There's some premium whooshy sounds for everyone swinging their weapons around, and when people get thrown into things, it sounds like the apocalypse is happening. At one point a character is dragged along some metal bars, and they specifically put in the creaking sound of the bars bending under the force, even though they're clearly not moving. That might seem like a bad thing to you, but my point is the sound does a lot to make up for any deficiencies in the actual choreography. All the stock footage is similarly super crunchy.
The soundtrack is also amazing. Both openings are great, although I massively prefer the first one. The second took forever to start growing on me. At any rate, the real stars of the show are the ending themes. First of all, the visuals are amazing. The whole point of a good ED is to really embody the spirit of the show they're representing, and if Ryukendo and Ryuguno lining up for a free shot in soccer against a bunch of helpless mooks (who are covering their groins, naturally) isn't the ultimate distilation of all superhero tokusatsu, I don't know what is. Except I do, because the second sequence, with the heroes rescuing some kids from the villains by playing a game of Red Light, Green Light, is at least tied for first place. It's slightly less straightforward, but I think the metaphor is actually a bit deeper. Anyways, the songs themselves are some of the best ending themes I've ever heard, especially the first two. You've got the first (with the same singer as Blade's first OP, no less!), about not letting how hard life is stop you from dreaming, which would be the ideal anthem for this weird, possibly underbudgeted show that had aspirations of hanging with the big boys at Toei... if not for the second ending theme, about loving someone not just in spite of, but specifically because of their flaws. The other two are just as excellent for other reasons, but that first pair left a huge impression on me that's hard to compete with.
To sum up, Ryukendo is the s***, and if it ever gets subs that aren't terrible, you'd better believe I'm going to be recommending it to everybody at every possible opportunity. You simply won't find a show with a bigger heart. It more than deserves whatever cult classic status it has, and it's a cult I couldn't be happier to be a part of.
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