|
Community Links |
Members List |
Search Forums |
Advanced Search |
Go to Page... |
|
Thread Tools |
03-29-2020, 05:09 PM | #201 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
|
Quote:
There's definitely room to interpret it either way. Quote:
Yep, that's every Tezuka scene we don't see on Ryuki. I can't be dissuaded!
"That's only because you won't get up!!!" "Exactly. There's nothing that can be done."
__________________
|
03-29-2020, 05:16 PM | #202 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
"I, uh... I CHANGED MY FATE! MY DEDICATION AND HEROISM HAVE BEEN REWARDED!" "That's... pretty convenient." "Tragically, I was unable to alter your fate. I'll take my breakfast in front of the Switch."
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
03-29-2020, 05:19 PM | #203 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
This thread is now full-time posts about Tezuka being a shitty roommate and friend, no more Ryuki reviews, not sorry.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
03-29-2020, 05:53 PM | #204 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
|
Tezuka commits Tax Fraud because it was fated to be
__________________
|
03-29-2020, 07:55 PM | #205 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 18
There's an... immediacy, I guess, that I really liked about this episode. It's paced real well. There's an emphasis on a core cast and a single plot, and pretty much anyone who doesn't help further that one plot gets a token scene. Ren's still hiding from himself in the park, Yui's (eternally?) questioning what Shiro's up to, and Tezuka works at the tea shop now. (To that last one, shit, why not. Auntie will put an apron on any handsome boy who wanders in, and Tezuka is there all the time anyway. It's random, but nearly everything about how the tea shop is run is random.) There's really only five people who are well-served by this one. Shinji, Reiko, Kitaoka, Shibaura, and Asakura, our brand-new Rider. Asakura, Kamen Rider Snake Motif, he's a neat addition. He's utterly remorseless, completely ruthless, and shockingly cruel. While characters like Kitaoka and Shibaura are villainous in their drive to win, and Scissors was an amateur killer hoping to go pro, Asakura is a cold-blooded (Snake Motif!) psychopath. When he isn't killing someone, he's asking, "Why aren't I killing someone?” He's easily the worst person yet to get a Card Deck, which is why he's an awesome person to get a Card Deck. We've been getting a steady escalation of villainous Riders since Scissors, since Shinji saw a Rider die. Kitaoka is an asshole, and would love to see other Riders get bumped off, but he's not super into trying to do it with his own two hands. Shibaura, he'll definitely try to get a Rider killed, but he's okay (and maybe a little happier) maneuvering Riders into killing each other. (He's so excited about Asakura killing Shinji! It's like he asked Santa to have one of his rivals kill the other, and now it's Christmas morning. His enthusiasm is so infectious, I kind-of want Asakura to murder Shinji.) With Asakura, we get an unrepentant killer, one who'd hold a child at gunpoint. There's nothing redeemable about Asakura. Even if you lock him up, he'll get out and kill again. He's a fascinating test of Shinji's convictions, and a great addition to a cast of warring Riders. The supporting cast for Asakura's story, though, that's what makes this one really work. Asakura's a threat, a weapon, and the real fun is in who wields him, and against whom. Kitaoka's not much more than a target in this one (he's only normal-human-being levels of smarmy in this one, which, boooooo), but he's once again in the cross-hairs of clients, with both Asakura AND Shibaura wanting him dead. (I kind-of love how Shibaura totally looks up to the charmingly amoral Kitaoka, right up until he finds out he's a Rider. Then it's like, Oh You're Cool But You're Dead. Not a second of hesitation from Shibaura. Kid's got focus!) Reiko throws herself completely into the story, chasing after an escaped homicidal lunatic armed with nothing more than a white pantsuit and a Smart car. (The pantsuit might be more resilient than that car, weapon-wise.) Shinji's his most energetic self, trying to prove himself to Reiko, but he's stymied by the demands of being a superhero --- oh, man, she IS Lois Lane, isn't she --- and forced to stop chasing Asakura to detonate a monster. (Great monster fight, incidentally. The use of different levels was clever, and the new fight song sounded great. Short fight, but a really good one.) If there's an MVP for this one, though... it hurts a little bit to say this, because I hate him so much, but it's Shibaura. Using his weird game-designer combination of Need For Chaos and Follow The Rules, they've solidified him as more than just a Poor Man's Genm, he's levelled-up (in my eyes) to being Kamen Rider Shitstirrer. He's not about killing monsters, or killing people with monsters. He's not even really about killing other Riders, at least not directly. He's, like, the opposite of Tezuka: he only wants Riders to fight. He's personally offended by Shinji and Tezuka, for deciding not to fight other Riders. He doesn't even really care if Asakura kills Shinji or Kitaoka, just so long as Riders fight Riders. It's honestly pretty great, as far as motivations on this show go. I like how meta it is, how he's very into the core concept of this show and is going to do whatever it takes to keep things on brand. It makes all of his irritating mannerisms more palatable, because he wants the things you want as a viewer. He's a Kamen Rider fan, and he wants to see Riders fight. It... I don't know if I'm supposed to see myself in Shibaura, but I sort-of do now. Oh, no.
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 07-28-2023 at 07:15 PM.. |
03-29-2020, 08:18 PM | #206 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
|
Quote:
FATE HAS BEEN CHANGED ONCE AGAIN! Quote:
The use of different levels was clever, and the new fight song sounded great. Short fight, but a really good one.
Anyway, now that the cast of Riders is getting so bloated, I'm really starting to appreciate just how much Ryuki is scratching that Ex-Aid itch for you. Those aren't two shows I would immediately think of as being similar, but yeah, lovable self-absorbed Riders who are all huge jerks and hate each other. Definitely a recipe for an entertaining series.
__________________
|
03-29-2020, 08:29 PM | #207 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
Anyway, now that the cast of Riders is getting so bloated, I'm really starting to appreciate just how much Ryuki is scratching that Ex-Aid itch for you. Those aren't two shows I would immediately think of as being similar, but yeah, lovable self-absorbed Riders who are all huge jerks and hate each other. Definitely a recipe for an entertaining series.
With Ex-Aid, so much of the storytelling boiled down to Let Me Heroically Kick Your Ass So That I Can Make This Valiant Sacrifice. Most of Ryuki, it's just variations of I'm Not Sure If I Should Murder You (Yet).
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
03-29-2020, 09:46 PM | #208 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
|
I believe it was this episode we also found out that Shibaura was a rich kid whose dad would buy him out of any legal trouble, wasn't it? God it makes him so much easier to hate.
Also, uh, yeah, Asakura. His type of villainy is honestly on a whole other level compared to most in the franchise -- he'd frankly be at home in Amazons! Pair that with a sexy as hell rider design and you've got the recipe for a more than memorable villain. Have fun with this one.
__________________
|
03-29-2020, 10:13 PM | #209 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 2,481
|
Quote:
Yeah, the rivalries echo Ex-Aid a bit, but I think the two shows do different enough things that I'm not feeling the parallels that much. Ex-Aid was a show about four men fighting to throw themselves on one grenade. Ryuki's a show about thirteen grenades fighting to throw themselves on each other.
Quote:
Ex-aid is a wonderful series and I hope we get a thread for it one day so I can talk about it with you all.
__________________
|
03-29-2020, 10:44 PM | #210 |
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,159
|
Quote:
I believe it was this episode we also found out that Shibaura was a rich kid whose dad would buy him out of any legal trouble, wasn't it? God it makes him so much easier to hate.
Also, uh, yeah, Asakura. His type of villainy is honestly on a whole other level compared to most in the franchise -- he'd frankly be at home in Amazons! Pair that with a sexy as hell rider design and you've got the recipe for a more than memorable villain. Have fun with this one. But, yeah, he's very extreme. I'm always weirded out when villains use guns on Kamen Rider, because that would never ever fly on an American superhero show for kids. (Limitless guns in the real world, zero guns on a TV show: AMERICA!) It's jarring, to see Asakura point a gun at a little girl's head. Just, overall, his whole demeanor is way more brutal and violent than the rest of the show around him. (I mean, last episode, you knew Ren was almost killed by Shibaura because he had a tiny scrape on his cheek. How terrifying!) Also, of course Shibaura has a rich, powerful dad who's shielded him from consequences his entire life. Of course. Thanks! I sincerely love Ex-Aid because of, not in spite of, the fact that its four main heroes have varying levels of god complexes. They all think they're the star of the show, and they all act like it. I mean, imagine four Shinjis in this show, constantly trying to be the bravest, most heroic one. It'd be insane, and, like, that's the starting point for Ex-Aid. It's so great. It is! I don't know if it's something I'll ever do a thread for. Maybe? I've got another year, year and a half before I watch the rest of Heisei and whatever gets produced for Reiwa. After that... man, I don't know. I want to do a Sentai, just to try it. Go-Busters, likely. Nothing else seems like I'd dig it, honestly. (Please repost this quote five years from now when I'm repping hard for Sentai, ten series deep.) I don't know if rewatching stuff, knowing where it all goes... I don't know if I'm as into talking about that stuff? I like this, this whole thing, to help process what a show is doing for me. Rewatching... I don't know. Maybe. It might be fun for, like, completion's sake. I did a bunch of those Ex-Aid movies, and that was fun. (Kamen Rider Deadbeat Dad, I liked talking about you despite maybe slightly hating your story.) I don't know. Long way to go yet. But, man, I do like Ex-Aid...
__________________
Currently working on: Go-Busters is next! Archive of previous shows on KamenRiderDie.com! |
|
All times are GMT -5. The time now is 02:32 PM.
|