Oh, man, smart move. She's definitely the thing Ore Journal was missing.

EDITED TO ADD: hey what if i talked about why

First of all, I love that the only reason she became a secretary is because she wanted to be a journalist and accidentally took classes to become a secretary instead. That concept, of her tripping and falling into a completely different career and her being, like, *shrug emoji*... perfect. Gold-plated perfection. I don't know if I've ever heard of a better origin story.

But, for the mix of Ore Journal, she's just the right kind of weirdo to level up the dynamic. Dedicated, but sloppy. Manipulative, but scatterbrained. Earnest, but untrustworthy. And she immediately creates an entertaining rivalry (unknowingly, because: Megumi) with Shimada.

It's a great time for more Ore Journal scenes, which is something I'm not sure I expected to ever say and mean.

So this is the time where, a dead topic usually ORE only follows is actually popular, with all the other journalists there. It's not that often for Shinji to ask for an Atori crew to help his ORE job... And also, does this remind you to the "Ren amnesia" 2-parter where everyone on a public transportation disappears except for one person (and the time you complained about how Mirror Monster works by that, yet it's maybe similar too here)? Asakura should've probably just feed his monster upon humans considering his morality, especially when he's extremely close to dying, but I guess that he likes it hard way (or rather, fun way in form of fighting as Rider, as seen where he gives his Rider opponents a chance outside Rider fight)? This is one thing even Asakura doesn't (but perfectly can as seen with Akira) do as habit unlike another evil Rider (Scissors).

Asakura is a red herring, people talk about Buzzstingers (the monster trio, yellow is Bee, red is Hornet, blue is Wasp), and he's the one having 3 monsters as Shinji knows, but there's actually other monster trio. And as usual, nobody is allowed to know more about the monsters. Well overall, this is just the mystery stuff which is one of the main trait of Ryuki, in numerous previous 2 parters. And no Shinji (and audience)! Don't be baited again by Asakura! Though to his defense, he does that for the well-being of Mika (requiring Asakura to calm down), instead of Asakura. And even aside from that when asking for Asakura's morality, Asakura pushes Mika out of the way in this episode... and she seems fine too. Poor Shinji though, the kids he want to take care about are all confiding more into the morally ambiguous Riders and refusing to contact with anyone else.

Obviously this is an Asakura episode. Shinji and Ren are just his judges (and again a bet between them if Shinji's ways are sensible or not). Battle-wise, Ryuki and Knight scans his Final Vent card but it somehow gets negated after the Buzzstingers escapes (while Ouja prepares Unite Vent, they're more scared of that?!)... Also previously, can we talk about how something (Buzzstingers) manages to survive Final Vent unharmed, knocking Ouja back?!
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...7560/block.png

And there goes next of Megumi's victims, undeserving one in Shimada, maybe even extends to whole ORE as they depend on computers. Always side with Shimada regarding computers. And apparently Megumi's idiocy runs in family too.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...4/grandma2.jpghttps://media.discordapp.net/attachm...28/grandma.png

How about Yui with long hair instead?
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...31611689/g.jpg

What was Okubo thinking? Looking for insane people to hire and prioritizes situations over performance. No wonder ORE is failing.. apart from keep following dead trends (Mirror stuff). Besides here Megumi got what she wanted in ORE, not that she's any better there and will torture ORE like she did to Kitaoka. Megumi is like the emotion pair to Shimada's intellect. And you have to remember that ORE gives the monster plot in this episode, so what were you saying again about this series workplaces?

Y'know, I didn't even remember that episode during this one, so, good connection to make!

I think it's a little different, though. One, in that previous episode a Mirror Mmonster was able to grab the entire contents of train car in a fraction of a second and in total silence. Here, it takes three monsters to pick off a few people in a room, and it usually takes them long enough for folks to scream and the heroes to race to get there.

Plus, having not seen the first boat attack, I'd just assume that the monsters took their time in grabbing humans.

I wonder if Asakura's monsters are like Kitaoka: they'll eat anything, as long as it's high-class. People are probably like junk food to Contract Monsters, good for a quick rush but with no essential nutrition. They need the vitamins of other monsters to sustain themselves. Picky eaters, you know? It's better to just give them what they want than force them to eat.

So, there's three of them that spin together to form a protective shell, and there's three Riders that are opposed to working together in order to defeat the monsters, so I just assumed that the conclusion of this story was going to have to see all three Riders doing their Final Vents to different thirds of the monster rotation to defeat them. Just where my head was at on this one.

Less into it, honestly? There's a thing she does in this one, where she uses some (I don't know anything about hair products for women) hairpins or something to bring the sides of her hair in, so it's not this dome of hair. I'll have to find a picture later. I thought it was pretty stylish and framed her face better.

I thought I was pretty clear that adding Megumi makes me excited about Ore Journal plots! It doesn't change how I felt before, but it's a positive change for that branch of the show.

I'm going to defend Okubo's hiring policies. I like that this dude took in the abrasive reporters and neophyte photojournalists and socially-awkward IT managers and clumsy office workers and made them all a workplace family. I don't know if any of these people could stay employed under anyone else. (Reiko's a great reporter, but she's terrible at following instructions and mostly disrespectful to her boss, and that ain't gonna fly at a lot of companies.) I think it's cool that Okubo takes the dregs and says I Can Make This Work, I Can Make Them Great, They Also Probably Aren't Aware How Much I'm Under-Paying Them.

I like how you've gone from thinking Yui seems pretty interesting, to thinking the show needs to do more with her, to thinking she's pathetic, to thinking the show's using her a bit better, to now just thinking she has nice hair.

That's the kind of critique that makes these threads special. It's like if you take time to blink, Die will already have a completely new wildly different hot take on Yui. :lol

It's gonna take a good year or so until we get there, but I'm so incredibly hyped to see how he reacts to Thouser.

It's good hair!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...egoodhair1.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...egoodhair2.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...egoodhair3.png

(Also, it's a total accident, but I maybe could not have picked a more representative image for my thoughts on Yui than her looking confused and saying "What happened to you?")

My main thing is that I never want to be unfair with these threads. If I dislike a show and it does something good, I want to call it out. If I like a show and it does something bad, I want to call it out. Yui's character has, for me, been remarkably inconsistent (her only scene this episode is thinking about her brother and watching Ren go do hero stuff!!!), but her hair was on-point this episode, and I wanted to compliment it. I would love to have a consistent take on her, but the show would need to have one first.

I love Thousand! He's my favorite. I like the way he fights/is a monster.

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 32

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki32a.png

I feel like this is the best kind of story you can do to deepen Asakura's character. Let other people try and divine his motivations, let them project their biases onto him, but never really nail down what he's thinking.

The more mysterious you can make Asakura, I think the better he plays. Mika's certain he's a good guy, Ren's certain he's a villain, and Shinji is the audience, wanting to believe he can change but knowing he probably won't. It's tricky, to find that balance. In the Asakura's Brother story, the show veered too far into having the heroes be trusting dopes. In this one, there's circumstantial evidence that Asakura didn't hurt anyone on the boat, that he protected Mika with no ulterior motive, but he never really defends himself or explains his actions. (I mean, there's the bit at the end where he says Mika was just his hostage, but it's not real convincing.) It makes him complicated, in a dramatically compelling way. Having a complete redemption story for Asakura, I feel like it'd ruin his character the same as keeping him a maniacal killer. This middle ground where maybe, under exceptionally heightened circumstances, Asakura might have a sliver of empathy inside of him... I think it's the smartest way to evolve his character.

It's funny, to lead this write-up off by talking about Asakura, because in opposition to last episode's It's About Asakura Even If He's Not In It story, Asakura's all over this one, and yet it's not really about him. It's about what he represents.

He's a killer, and an unrepentant one at that. He's a monster, and there's no restraining him. The longer he's free, the more innocents are at risk. He's made his bed of surrounding himself with hungry monsters, and now he gets to lie in it. It's justice, by nearly anyone's definition.

But.

But Mika cares for him. Mika needs him in her life. She needs him to exist in the world. Asakura's death would hurt her. His death would make someone's life, even if it's only one person's life, worse. And that means he deserves to live, same as anyone. The loss of a life isn't just about the person who dies, it's about the people they loved, the world they inhabited. Asakura has earned his fate, but he deserves to live. Not for himself, but for the people who care about him.

It's a sweet message, and one only Shinji could properly articulate. It's hard to give a speech advocating for the continued existence of a man who just had his brother devoured by a monster, but the actor's performance and the beautiful spring There Is Beauty After Rain montage really sells the necessity of saving Asakura. It's a monumental ask of the audience, but I was like, Yeah, Shinji should save him. That's the crux of the episode, a make-or-break point for the story, and I thought they landed it gracefully.

I sort-of wish that was all that was in this episode? The last one gained points for staying pretty laser-focused on the boat story, while I felt like this one lost points for trying to serve other plots. There are a few scenes of Reiko investigating what happened to Shiro in America, and I found it typically dull. One, I can't believe that, after Tezuka's death, someone else has hijacked Yui's only plotline. Hilarious! This show! Second, I just don't care about the small amounts of information Reiko gets about Mirror Worlds and Secret Science Societies and things that viewers have known about for 30+ episodes. It's so boring to me, watching her catch up to the rest of the show. If this was shocking information that changed what we knew about Shiro and Rider Battles, I'd be into it. But, like, she's just learning the plot of Masked Rider Ryuki. I already know that! I've been watching that for 32 episodes!

That part was a bummer, but the rest of this episode was a surprisingly sweet story about the ways even the worst people have value, and can enrich other lives. A real pleasant episode.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki32b.png

Hmm I think I understand more about your complaints right now that time. Like being in total slience. Though I think in that part, the train iirc also wasn't seen and the monster actually take time too to eat all the humans? (Or your point was that, the train were in total silence as the humans are wiped out one by one).

I think I get it now. Humans are "standard" eatery among monsters and the killed monsters are "special" eatery among monsters to you. But dunno, I thought that, as Shinji explained in ep. 4, Mirror Monsters still prefer humans over the dying monsters' essence, and because of that you should be careful about handling Contract Monsters?

This whole episode is ORE Journal plot of sending Shinji to the ferry. And yeah I lowkey also want you to explain more about Okubo like that, to change my mind (and it does). So thanks for this one. There are some cons in this way like how Okubo's frustrated with Shinji. Though (not only Reiko) actually the only truly incompetent one he hired is Megumi. And I have to note for Shinji, Okubo is already his longtime friend, his senpai, and he knows that Shinji is into journalism.

If memory serves, for the train car scenes, Reiko looks away for 1-3 seconds and everyone is gone. That's one monster grabbing a few dozen people so fast they can't even scream. I don't think it fits the monster M.O. we've been seeing everywhere else on the show. Most of 'em struggle to grab one person without alerting anyone, and this monster grabbed dozens, multiple times.

I don't know if I mentioned it earlier in the thread or not, but one of the things that I really love about Ryuki is the nature of the monsters' threat. There's no rampaging through the city streets/industrial district/warehouse/quarry/Tokyo stadium; the average person has no idea that they're in any form of danger or that Kamen Riders are protecting them (even if only as a by-product). But look around you right now and count how many reflective surfaces there are. In the world of Ryuki, any one of those can kill you. That's a fantastically terrifying concept and I've always been impressed by it.

I definitely feel like we talked about it before, but I also can't remember for sure, so I'm happy to talk about it again!

Ryuki's setup really does excel at bringing the concepts of its world, the heroism and the danger, into the home. Kuuga and Agito have monsters that are out there in the world, and later series would have allegorical monsters that take advantage of needs and desires, but Ryuki made sure that their monsters are coming from inside the house.

Kids who like to be scared (which is to say most kids in Kamen Rider's target demographic) could pretend that there was a monster hiding in a hallway mirror, or a turned-off TV, and do a quick Henshin to pretend they were in there with them, battling to protect their family.

It's a smart construction, to make the danger more universal.

This episode in particular has always stuck out to me, I think. Even if you don't entirely agree with Shinji on going out of his way to save Asakura's life (which I'm pretty sure is everybody), you understand why it's important for him to do this. If he hadn't saved Asakura, regardless of whether you think it's right or wrong, it just wouldn't be Shinji.

That said, and this is not really relevant, I really wish dragon man could give snake man a beat-down. It's an action show after all, and I think at this point of the show when I was first watching, I was thinking to myself 'gosh, our main character has not really had a good showing against anyone who is not a mirror monster'.

Remember how way back in this thread’s wild years, I said that Shinji was too generic and promoted some… passionate response? Well I’ve gone further in the show and changed my mind. He’s annoying as all hell. And you’ve summed up part of my problem with him.

I have to explain it again after the show does. Mirror Monsters, when they failed to eat specific person, they will not and never change targets until they get that person. That's what happened for Mika. Asakura used her as a bait for the Buzzstingers, Asakura saved her (in unknown ways, he was seen just standing beside her) from Buzzstingers, which made them failed to eat her, and therefore as how Mirror Monster works, will continue to target her, which would make the monsters easy to track on where and when he'll appear (the area Mika's in) with Asakura staying besides her, using her as their bait. Look how he didn't care, didn't even flinch when Venosnaker attacked her (and somehow Mika wasn't killed?!) to get Asakura. Besides of that, so Asakura's "monster battle" are shown in this episode by dodging his pets' attacks I suppose.

Yeah, the harsh truth is that there's someone misguided that will see him as a savior, which would make Asakura someone worth living, for Shinji, if only to take care of Mika's well being (though he also said he may not want to see someone die). I know and understand Shinji's character and mindset to save Asakura if only for the sake of the other, but I don't advocate Shinji actually indirectly endangering more innocents by this act of saving Asakura, especially that there are no way stopping Asakura now except by killing him as one of the Riders; prisons are nothing to Asakura now, his Contract Monster can help him escape.

But other than that, remember when you were freaking out about how OP Asakura is
(but Ren also has Survive!)? This episode now explains the drawback of pulling the stunt Asakura did, he has 3 monsters not only to battle, but also to feed. He has to work 3 times the other Rider does to feed them, or he'll be eaten by one of them, especially Evildiver and Metalgelas still seeking vengeance for their masters. And like you being ok with Kitaoka torture, I like watching Asakura suffer, like when Knight Survive curbstomps him before, and when Kitaoka gloats to him here about his impending doom where he'll be killed by his own monsters. If Asakura truly dies by that it'll be an interesting means to end him IMO; gaining more power, only to be killed by that act.

So this is actually the clear reason of why you aren't into that kind of plot (The only thing I can say is that for ORE, they're also mainly investigating the disappearences throughout the series). But I think for this one, the real point is that Shiro shows more of his villainy that he'll dirty his hands to keep himself on the upper hand by personally sending monsters to people who may disrupt. Though for some reason, Shiro killed the professor instead of Reiko, one of the only person who asked about stuffs he knows related to Mirror World (and that the murder was completely silent the moment Reiko looked away even when he sits besides her). So either people are secretive about Shiro, or Shiro personally kills them. I wonder what'll happen if one of the people Yui interviewed back then actually wanted to co-operate like the professor here and not be secretive, that would Shiro send his monsters to kill in front of her sister, would Yui still repel the monsters (personally sent by Shiro to do his job) after them, etc.

No offense but why I'm feeling like some of the audience can have callous and sadistic tendencies (I know it's about fictional universe, but I feel that this can be an overall mindset, as numerous people can be sad for example, their favorite fictional character's death), that the only (or mostly) entertainment they enjoy are the pain of others and killing. Which will make them detest those that would take them away from that like... morals, like Shinji here who is a pacifist that doesn't want to harm others. Because he's that type of character he's bashed in almost every category, only bringing up his negative parts (like you saying here he has not really good showing against non-mirror monster). To Riders he had some upper hand to Ouja in both ep. 19 and 20 (in ep. 21 Asakura cheated, and admittedly he lost in ep. 23, but just saying that their battle can go either way), and saved Knight (this is for monsters, but Knight is a known badass Rider) from Volcancer and Gai (twice here). And as human he can do what Ren does too here. I consider those that can fend off Mirror Monsters as good showing for the overall character.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...y_to_Topic.png
https://challengerscomics.com/images...i/ryuki27d.png

Like I said, that’s not PART of my problem with Shinji. I don’t like the violence in this show (namely because I thinks it’s gratuitous, poorly handled and goes against everything Kamen Rider as a franchise stands for. My hatred for Shinji is because his constant preaching of his morals has become more infuriating after 35 episodes with no changes to his worldview. And the fact the show is constantly shitting on those morals makes me hate him more, since it makes him look like an idiot. Especially when you’ve got guys like Ghost, who’s morals are founded and rewarded, or Zi-O, who realises his morals aren’t working and drops them, in other series, which just makes me look down on Shinji more.

Also, killing the monsters would be a cool feat… if the show gave them anything more than wild beasts with poorly defined origins and no motivation. Especially coming between two well-handled groups with very clear motives. The fact that the show still insists on using them long past their ability to generate drama just diminishes their significance.

It's a tricky line, for sure.

On the one hand, that's just not the story they're trying to tell. They're trying to tell a story about a warrior who doesn't want to fight other warriors. Having Shinji get into a brawl with Asakura, especially in this episode... it'd break the show. It would make the show about nothing.

On the other hand, though, I think it's fair to ask Is That A Story Worth Telling. For some people, that's going to be a Yes, for some people, a No. I'm not sure there's anything wrong with saying you don't have an interest in the story that's being told, or that you wish they'd have told a different story. It's not weird to look at a superhero action show and want to see the superheroes fight.

It's just, this one's about why they shouldn't fight, or why fighting isn't the best solution. Doing something that subverts the audience's expectations, it's going to make people love it or hate it.

I mean, that's a great explanation, but I'm not sure how much of that is in this story. (The "bait for Buzzstingers", I'm not sure anyone confirms that.) I like that explanation, but I'm still comfortable saying that Asakura's motivations and actions are mysterious in this one. No one out loud explains exactly what he's doing, and we never see what happened with him on the first boat trip.

I think it's a hallmark of what this show does right, to have Shinji maybe make bad decisions in impossible scenarios. He won't allow Asakura to die, but they can't capture Asakura, and Asakura won't change. That's an awful choice for Shinji to have to make, which is why I'm glad the show posed it that way. Easy choices are boring!

I guess I'd disagree on the violence part (there's still so much less action than I remember from Phase 2 Heisei), but that feels subjective to me. If you think it's too gratuitous, I can't really dispute that opinion.

The Shinji stuff... not sure I'm seeing that at all.

I think a lot of what like about Shinji's character in this show, and the dynamic as a whole, is how much he's challenged, morally and ethically, by the other Riders. On other shows, Ghost in particular, it was a little frustrating for me how quickly some adversarial relationships would, after one story, realign as Ghost Knows Best. It seemed like a waste, to take that friction and replace it with falling in line, easy acceptance. With this show, I like how Shinji doesn't get a pass just because he's the main character, how the other Riders get to keep their own viewpoints, how the world of the show is designed to make Shinji's choices more difficult.

And, man, I feel like Shinji's worldview has evolved a lot? If anything, there've been times where I feel like it's switched around too much. He's always going to be a guy who thinks he knows best and jumps in without considering the consequences. But all that "shitting on" Shinji the show does, I like it because it forces him to refine his arguments, consider other perspectives, look beyond his own experiences. It's never going to flip him 180 into a ruthless fighter, but we've seen how Shinji's morals meet the reality of Rider Battles, and I've liked the story that's come out of that.

And the monster thing... I don't love it. It's not my favorite type of monster, where they're just beasts. But, with 13 Riders to tell stories with, it's maybe better that show doesn't also try to tell stories with the monsters? That might make for an overstuffed series.

I don't like stepping in like this, but please don't be so quick to judge someone because they hold a different opinion on a character from you and assume so much about them. I'm sure you didn't mean it, but this was a little bit too harsh just because the person doesn't like Shinji and thought he should have done things differently, and was a little difficult to read.

Probably some differences in subs, but TV-Nihon does that.
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...63028/bait.png

And isn't Asakura's motivation pretty clear? He simply wants to feed all Venosnaker, Evildiver, and Metalgelas at once to survive, and Buzzstingers, which is a pack of 3 monsters is the way to feed all of them simultaneously, as feeding only one of them will have him get eaten by the other 2.

Well yeah I guess I got carried away there, but I'm probably just a bit exasperated of some people, ironically like what he said there about Ryuki, constantly shitting on those morals, and using various excuses to the point of nitpicking to constantly shit on characters like Shinji based on how they're morally good, while constantly worshipping morally grey and black traits.

Yeah, those are the subs I'm watching. It's just... I don't know if I believe Asakura? He says she was bait, and it seems reasonable (Ren's probably screaming I KNEW IT in his brain), but it's just his word that that's what happened. It certainly wouldn't be out of character for him to lie, and if did help a little girl he probably wouldn't want to cop to it. Doesn't do a lot for his brand, you know?

To me, it feels like some gray area. Not saying you're wrong, but I don't think there's a definitive answer to be had on this one.

Hey, speaking of gray areas, let's talk about keeping discourse civil.

(Thanks to Kurona for bringing this up. If anyone feels like things are getting too heated and/or unconstructive, please don't be shy about citing it!)

One of my feelings about discussing art is that you can't really change anyone's mind. If someone doesn't enjoy a piece of art, all of the explanations and clarifications in the world aren't going to make them like it. Similarly, if someone loves a piece of art, telling them all of the reasons why it's bad is at best unhelpful, and at worse, kind-of a jerky thing to do. The best we can all do in discussing art is explaining our perspective, and respecting other people's perspectives.

It's fun to talk about these shows. It's fun to say what you liked, what you didn't like, and get into debates about why something did or didn't work. But when you start getting upset at the way someone else views art, just keep in mind that they feel as strongly about this franchise as you do, even when you see things differently. It's okay to disagree, and it's fun to debate, but let's please all stay friendly about it. We're all Kamen Rider fans, and we're allowed to get different things out of Kamen Rider shows.

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 33

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki33a.png

Not really a lot to this one, structurally. There's, like, one main plot, and a half-dozen build-ups for other plots. Let's see if I can remember them all!

The main plot, it's paying off the cliffhanger from last episode. (I don't usually like talking about the cliffhangers. There's generally not much more to talk about than speculation, and I never know how prominent some of them will be. Sometimes I get really excited and the next episode completely blows it off. I'd rather wait until there's some substance.) Megumi's seen Shinji walk out of a mirror, and now she's going to investigate. It's a fun story, slightly humorous and sort-of low stakes. Technically, there's a chance that Megumi could crack this thing wide open (a chance), or Shinji could unburden himself and tell his friends he fights monsters inside of mirrors with the help of Ren, escaped convict Asakura, and the worst person they know, but I didn't really think the status quo was going to change that much. Sure enough, while Megumi's dogged perseverance (she's not terrible at her job!) does keep Shinji from finishing off a monster, she gets the wrong idea and declares his previous mirror activities to be that of an illusionist. ~sad trombone~ Shinji dodges a bullet, Princess Megumi puts on an ornate demonstration, and everything goes back to normal for the crew of Ore Journal.

Except it doesn't, because Megumi's ludicrous demonstration (I hope she just rented that disappearing box) is the final piece that Reiko needs to complete a working theory on the last eight months worth of mysterious disappearances: a mirror world. On the one hand, I've expressed my disappointment that so much time has been spent on Reiko learning stuff the audience has known for a while. Dramatically, it's not that exciting. In this one, I think it kind-of works, and not just because of Reiko's new haircut. (It looks great! It's so weird that she got a haircut because I feel like that usually doesn't happen during a series? It seems like every dude's hair is a foot longer by the end of the season, anyway.) The nuts and bolts of investigative journalism are... not exactly something this show has made a priority. It's nice when it happens, but oftentimes it's left to the margins. Giving it a little room to breathe, seeing Reiko take a half-season's worth of clues and then, during a goddamn magic act, figure out that final piece of the puzzle, it works pretty well. I'm not sure it makes up for all of those scenes where we knew what she didn't, but I liked how the two main plots (calling this a main plot isn't entirely accurate, but I guess I just spent as long talking about this one as the actual main plot, so maybe there's more than one after all) in this one connected. Smart writing.

Most of the rest of this one is just Shiro being an asshole and tightening the screws on everyone. The scene where he visits Kitaoka and basically says Fight or Die while raising his eyebrows as high as he can on the word DIE, it's still funny to me. I love the weird salesmanship of Shiro, how he's so eager to get Riders fighting, how he fundamentally doesn't understand why they aren't murdering each other by the end of this sentence. It's cute, in a socially awkward way. He's got a passion for superpowered men murdering each other, and he really wants to share that passion, you know? He's a very enthusiastic instigator of battles to the death. It's adorable.

I mean, less adorable when he almost kills Eri to motivate Ren, and Yui's whole Time Has Run Out In The Mirror World-esque dissipating doesn't seem like a good thing, also Asakura is maybe going to try and pick off a near-death Kitaoka... okay, I think “adorable” might've been too far. I see that now.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki33b.png

Oh, also also also.

Not on topic, but I've gotten pretty deep into SO-DO collecting the last few months, and I've ended up with some extra boxes. I'd rather these find a good home than get any money out of 'em, so I'm letting them go for free as long as folks pay shipping. (I mean, technically it's "pay-what-you-can", so if you feel like kicking in a few bucks you can, but I'm totally fine with them just going out the door.) Some stuff's been grabbed, but there're a couple good ones left. If you've wanted to try out SO-DO, or just need a little distraction right now, see if there's anything you want over in this post!

Just that I feel... there's pragmatic villainy, a villain, even irredeemable ones, who does something good but not out of kindness, but because it's detrimental to their interests. Other example from Asakura here (he used Mika as a bait for 3 pack monster, to feed his 3 Contract Monsters simulatenously, it has definite answer where Asakura throughout the 2 parter is constantly avoiding his 3 monsters and persuading them that he still has time to feed. Shinji, Ren, and Kitaoka all made remarks on this, the former not wanting even him to die, the latter 2 gloat about Asakura's demise) is Masamune being courteous towards his workers to maintain good publicity. He can lie but his lying (to Akira) was meant to do even more depraved things, not inverse. He didn't even use better excuse when Kitaoka represented him in the court ("vexed").

After long last, cover finally blown for Shinji, coincidentally, luckily for him it was in front of Megumi, who instead thinks that he does a magic trick, instead of Reiko or Okubo who discusses about disappearences relating to mirrors. How will Megumi crack those open by the way? Other than.. the magic show which is the cartoon trait "goofy-act-inadvertently-provides-a-bit-of-help" as like below. Now Shinji does consider telling people about Mirror stuff but, what makes him hesitate about it? It's easy to prove those by showing his Deck and henshin, as Takuya attests.

Unfortunately I prefer Reiko's previous hair... And also one of the pieces previously for the theory has to involve calamitous moments like indirect murder (Akira) and a harsh truth (Shiro Takami death). There's still something on how to explain that fantasy element to others, how to properly alert people in their newspaper publication, if not relying on one of their co-worker Shinji, a Rider. They only know that the disappearences coincidentally happened near a mirror, but know zero thing about actual Mirror stuff like Mirror Monsters. They also should start prepare themselves for the bunch of reflective surfaces they have in their office, where for some reason monsters never appear there.

Something fishy is that how Shiro can affect Eri's body like that? Shiro & Kitaoka part is a repeat of ep. 20, Kitaoka waits for Riders to kill because he prioritizes being a hedonist in his life over exerting himself in a Rider battle? And Shiro more actively egging Riders to fight more here can't be coincidental with Yui disintegrating eh? Even for Asakura, he wants to fight and kill the Riders in a fun way so he can give others chance especially outside Rider battle. There's something you forgot, there's a new Rider Deck at the end.

The best bit of the Shinji storyline that I neglected to bring up is how little Ren cares about this plot. Dude just completely Nopes out of it after about five seconds. Shinji's all What Should I DO and Ren's just like, Do Whatever. Zero help, could not care less if the goofy journalist knows the truth about Rider Battles. I like how Ren's friendship with Shinji has, like, a very limited radius. This whole fiasco is just outside that radius, so he never gets involved. I love it.

I did not forget!

Well since we have a new entry into the Rider War, I think it’s alright for me to share this bit of trivia. He’s the last new addition to the action figure line that came out with this series. All that’s left are repaints of Ryuki. I’ve tried adding a picture to demonstrate, but I’m not sure if it’s shown up. So I’ll post the link just in case.

https://vignette.wikia.nocookie.net/...20180804030414

http://https://vignette.wikia.nocook...20180804030414

It's a very neat design! I like the bulk of the top mixed with the less-bulky lower half. That's a solid Tiger design.

Also, GODDAMN KAMEN RIDER AND ITS GODDAMN SPECIALS. I was just about to watch the 13 Riders special, since it debuted between episodes 33 and 34, and I like to watch this stuff as close to release order as possible.

But SCENE ONE is a dying Ren handing his Card Deck to Shinji, and Shinji turning into Knight Survive, and WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST WANDER INTO? Can I watch this thing now, or what? Is this supposed to be watched way later in the show? The Wiki describes it as both a "prologue" and "an alternate telling", and, like, WHAT?!

Just, can I watch this thing now without ruining anything? Anybody?

I promise that 13 Riders isn't going to affect anything if you watch it now. (I mean, otherwise it would be ruining the show for all the people who watched it back when it aired.)

Well, I guess there are spoilers only for like, suits that will appear later. If that's something you mind, then that's one reason to avoid it.

I mean, that's what I thought, but then REN DIES and I'm like, did someone mislabel this special? It's a very scary way to start something that I thought was going to be a recap special!

I think watching it after you finish the episodes would probably be the experience which would let you appreciate the story the most. It could be watched at any point during the series or before, but - if I'm remembering correctly, which I may not be, haha - the end of the series has some information that might change how you feel about the special.

save it for the end, it should be the last thing you watch.

Personally speaking, I disagree. Either the end of the show or the movie could serve as nice capstones to the Ryuki experience. Slapping on 13 Riders, with what kind of experience it is, after either I think would feel incongruous.

I didn't mention this earlier because I kind of thought it would be nagging, but both 13 Riders and the movie are best saved for after the show in my opinion. Both are alternate takes on Ryuki's story that exist completely independent of the series proper.

I don't think it'll ruin the show or anything if you want to stick close to air-dates like you always do, but just remember this isn't Ex-Aid. Extraneous side material isn't deeply tied to the canon yet.

I don't want to ruin anything for Die, and I don't exactly disagree with you as I think 13 Riders is definitely the weakest (fill in the blank) so maybe not the very last, but I would watch 13 Riders after I've finished the show at least.

13 Riders is best watched after absorbing all Ryuki medias. Yeah it's independent to the main series, and you'll know why after completing Ryuki.

He only cares about tatakae. Also limited radius?

Fair enough. I thought for the cliffhanger talk it meant for your episode talk in general and didn't realize it also meant for this episode too.

To explain a bit you know how comics can have multiple continuties like Marvel for example has 616 and the Ultimate. Well it kind likis that just like there a Iron Man,Spider Man and a Thor in both continuties there a Shinji,a Ren,Kitaoka in the main show and the various specials. As for the prologue part it has something to do with the first episode of Ryuki. But I can tell you that after you watch the special. As for when ypu should watch it do whenever you want it seperate continuity it not going to affect the main show at all. Also don't forget there 2 seperate endings for this special.

Hey, everybody.

Thanks so much for the feedback on 13 Riders and when to watch it. It's a way more loaded question than I'd thought? I appreciate you all trying to describe it without ruining anything, which it seems like is pretty tricky for this one. There's some definite pros and cons for each option of when's a good time to watch it, but I think I'm going to try and stick to its original airdate of between 33 and 34. I just like watching this stuff the way a fan would've back then, you know? Get that authentic Kamen Rider experience, or a close approximation.

The problem is, my window for watching stuff wasn't super huge, and in the meantime of trying to sort this out I pretty much used it up watching this week's oversized Better Call Saul. (KIM! KIM FOREVER! Holy shit do I want to talk about what they did with her character in this one!) Looks like 13 Riders is going to have to be an after-work thing today, a little later in the afternoon.

Thanks for everyone's help! Trying to piece together a Proper Viewing Order for this franchise... they don't make it easy!

Like, there's things with Ren's friendship with Shinji that are just outside of Ren's ability to care. Investigating monster murders on a doomed boat? Sure, he'll tag along. Brainstorm ways to trick a curious reporter out of learning the truth about the Mirror World? Pass. Hard pass.

If it helps, up until Den-O, all of the movies are alternate universe takes on the series. None of them directly tie into the series' plot. A couple have hand-wavey explanations for how they could be connected, but those are fan explanations and not explicit canon. 13 Riders, in particular, is really weird because it was made with two different endings, the one that made it to screen being based on a fan vote that was held while it aired.

The only canon is the Ryuki 2-parter in Decade because it's the only version that makes sense send tweet.

Yeah, I would say until Den-O, every single bit of extra-series stuff whether it be movies or HBVs or whatever is fine to just watch after you've finished.