Hahaha! Kabuto stinks! I am WINDI-KAYTED!

Bullshit the Advent decks are explained in Ryuki. Why does Ouja have THREE contract cards? Never explained. Why are there THREE Tiger decks? Never explained.

Ryuki explained nothing. Not the decks, not the driving plot of the show, nothing. "The last Rider will recieve the power to do whatever they want, and that will also save my sister somehow, even though I maade the rules and if I decide who has this power, why don't I just use it myself to save my sister? WHO CARES LET'S ALL FIGHT!"

Ryuki was borderline braindead.

I like Ryuki despite the lack of explanations for a lot of the stuff like where did the cards come from and the rules of time travel in this universe and Mirror world people and stuff.

Although, I think the show explained that the two other Tiger decks were fake.

Although it's a bit of a rocky ride, Dragon Knight has a much more focused story from the sound of things, it keeps things much simpler which probably helps but simple doesn't have to mean bad. From everything said in here - even by those who appear to like the show - Ryuki sounds like a convoluted mess.

Honestly if you can keep that it is an adaptation created by a very different culture in mind, I think you might enjoy Dragon Knight, especially if you already liked the action and designs.

I appreciate Dragon Knight's original action so far and I like the acting outside of the fight scenes... but that's it. The acting becomes really wooden for me once there's conflict.

Yeah I think the way they've handled the Riders is probably the worst part of the series so far. The editing is atrocious, the way characters are introduced and killed off is a mess and they are clearly itching to take Len in a different direction but are trapped by the footage they have to work with. Still a lot of problems come from the Ryuki action itself too, like the convoluted powers and the atrocious special effects.

That probably sounds like it'd break a series, but the show is heavily serialised and has a lot of story so for once the action largely serves the plot, rather than the other way round and so there is more than enough to keep you invested even if the action repeatedly underwhelms.

Dragon Knight had way cooler transformations, though.

Ryuki was literally a few beeps and badly super-imposed still images of the rider flip onto the actor. Dragon Knight has like this cool bubble effect with steam and shit like they're really doing something cool.

Ryuki fumbled it's riders a lot, too. A LOT seemed really pointless.

I wish that Dragon Knight made a compromise between the cool special effects of its transformation but no substance and the hand poses yet no special effects of the original.

I don’t think the original transformation s from Ryuki are that bad.

So far though pretty much ALL of DK's Riders have been pointless. I mean Kit has got to grow, and it's been kind of an interesting journey when you look back on it but we have four Rider's down and you can count the achievements between the four of them on one hand. Strike definitely looks set to ramp up the threat level of the villains FINALLY but he has not been executed very well at all yet.

DK 15. DAT CLIP SHOW. What is worse about the clipshows is basically the whole show IS a a clipshow, seriously some episodes have almost four minutes worth of recapping, before a ten second cold open, then a two minute intro sequence. Over five minutes of the episode is basically completely wasted and minus ads and stuff these are like twenty minutes long as they are.

I wonder if this show feels so rushed because they're trying to make up for lost time that their ridiculously long recaps waste.

Yeah, Ouja (Strike's original counterpart) was purportedly the wild card, but all he did was kill a few riders and people muck around aimlessly. He had no point, and I later found out he was only supposed to be a minor charatcer. (as evident in his suit design. The main characters with all the gimmicks and focus have coloured bodysuits, but to minimize cost any minor/short-lived characters had the black undersuit) And BOY does it feel like it. He basically had no purpose after a sort while, and was a total wash of a character. His only highlight was in the EXCELELNT final episode (well, excellent until they smashed the reset button five minutes from the end) where everyone's storylines were capped off brilliantly in what would have been the best finale to a rider series ever.

So far out of suit Strike has been really well handled, Dragon Knight has a handful of side characters who are non-Rider's but they all add to the plot and make themselves worth being around. But when it comes to showing him in suit it's just kinda bad. Strike's first in suited appearance literally involves him just stepping into frame, I'm not over simplifying that...he just walks on set and stands there.

His first action of substance is venting Thrust, killing off a Rider is obviously a big deal but there is pretty much zero context for the death as Strike basically stumbles across him by chance and randomly changes his focus to him and kills him, before changing his focus back to the guy he was originally fighting.

If anything, given that Torque was reprimanded for Venting the utterly useless Camo, it makes even less sense that Strike is able to get away with randomly Venting a Rider out of nowhere, who had firmly decided to stand on Xaviax's side to serve his own personal interests.

Yeah, Ouja killed Gai (Thrust) just out of nowhere as well, to show HE'S SUPER SERIOUS BRO DON'T MESS WITH HIM. (But Gai was utterly horrible. He was this weeny little shrimp puff with bad acting and attitude as his only weapons, so I was actually pro-Ouja when he first showed up for that alone)

It's disappointing because Thrust's death is visually really awesome, first the guy is used as a human shield and then Strike reveals a pretty awesome Final Vent, even if the flappy leg thing looks silly but without context it doesn't serve any purpose.

Especially given Brad is around for so little, you feel sorry for Brad because Xaviax really backs him into a corner and it makes Brad feel human that he's happy to knowingly fight on the wrong side to better himself - I mean why should he care about a bunch of strangers when his career and life is on the line? - but just when it feels like we're getting to know him, he dies...

At episode 30 of Ryuki. I started this series months ago and stopped because I thought it was boring in the beginning. Got back into it, and man, this is a good one.

I just love all of this Ryuki/Dragon Knight talk. Ryuki is my favorite season so seeing discussion about it makes me a happy Winston.

After hearing Locke talk about Xaviax, I looked up a random episode of DK just to see what he looks like. I didn't find him, but I gotta say the show ain't bad. The acting my be a bit wooden, but I feel like Ryuki's dialogue was so canned and melodramatic, it's not a downgrade. In fact I already like Strike more than Ouja, just because he's not as juviniley (word?) one-track. Ouja felt like a bad fanfic character. Always the center of attention and doing "cool" stuff, but not actually being cool. There was even an episode where a younger girl fell in love with him that seriously felt almost like a self-insertion story. He was just painful. Strike feels maybe a bit bland, but so far he's not enraging.

Pretty much the only real problem I have with the show is everybody in-suit kind of sounds a bit similar at times.

EDIT: Heh, I like how they used a shot that was originally of Ryuki and Knight squaring off before they fight eachother as a dramatic shot of them preparing to leap into battle. Clever, and somehow cooler than them fighting. I also like how Odin (Wrath) is an actual character who does shit, not some pseudo-epic demigod who's really a hired shmuck in a smoke-and-mirrors game.

I wish I could join, but there's still quite a bunch of Heisei Riders I have to watch before that (still busy with Hibiki). But once I get there, let's talk about Ryuki again, okay? :D

Just don't expect all 13 riders and beware of confusing plot threads, and you'll be alright.

Xaviax is one of the three things I can definitely praise Dragon Knight for.

I love his actor so much, the ADR when he transforms is kinda shitty, but William O'Leary appears to be having THE time of his life playing that character and it's really fun to watch.

Up to episode 36 of Kabuto now and man are the Hopper Bros FUN. Don't get me wrong, they're terribly written cliche characters that are the culmination of what Toei thinks "dark and edgy" look like, but they're so ridiculous in their execution that I can't help myself but smile every time they're on screen.

Is it going to be explained why they don't have Masked Forms or do I just have to roll with it?

:lol

Yeah, no. Kabuto is even worse at explaining stuff than Kiva.

Do you have anything positive to tell me about Kabuto? :lol

A really cute girl joins the cast around this point to replace Hiyori. Also the finale is crazy over-the-top in a ridiculously fun way.

They have some kick ass suits.

Do you mean Renge? If so to be honest I don't like her that much either :lol

Yes, yes they do.

Then I got nothing.

Unless you really get into Tendou being a dick, there's not much about Kabuto that makes it really enjoyable. For me, it's probably one of the most middle-of-the-road shows in the whole Rider franchise.

DK 16. Xaviax and Strike certainly make for a wonderful pair of villains.

Although this episode sorta felt like they had an excess of suit footage to burn through, it still proved to be a pretty solid episode, thanks to them using all of that excessive footage to still tell a story, just through action.

Like I like how, as JTC had so much mystery surrounding him, now we know his face AND that he's a Rider the mystery surrounding him hasn't been dropped. He's been an important part of this shows universe from the start, and whether that connects to him as a Rider is not important and I'm glad the show sees it that way.

It also worked as a pretty great showcase for what a wonderful villain Xaviax is. At first you think he sinks his teeth into Chris through Chris' want to be a hero, but then you realise he's coming at it from a very different angle and you can see Xaviax adapting as he learns more about Chris and what drives him.

That's what Ryuki would've beniffited from, a good ol' crafty-pafty string-pulling villain.

Have you noticed Kamen Rider doesn't usually have that? Super-smart super-manipulative villains who don't have to raise a finger because they're so good at getting characters to do what they want? I know there's plenty of villains who try to be like that and fail miserably, but come to think of it, I can't recall any singular villain in anything Japanese I've seen that favours manipulation over brute strength.

Gekiranger does it.

That is why I love Xaviax. Most toku villains sit in the background and send down monsters one at a time, granted, but it never feels like it's part of some master plan, it never feels like they're actually achieving anything.

It's also really clever that the show is smart enough to sidestep a lot of the common pitfalls of these kinds of things. For example, the Decks are DNA locked meaning the mirror double is the ONLY person other than the original Venteran who can use the decks. This allows Dragon Knight the freedom to have a huge variation of characters because just because they were a knight on Ventera doesn't mean their mirror double is, they could literally be ANYTHING.

I'm often watching toku and wondering what a skinny market stall salesman or whatever has over a trained military professional in being chosen but here Xaviax has no choice, he has to go with whoever the Deck is DNA is locked to, whether it be conman, dirtbike racer or frat boy douchebag. He has to work with what he is given.

Keeping this in mind also, it means that any times Xaviax's plans go wrong...it isn't really his fault. He has such a flavour of people under him, pretty much ALL of which you'd never actually pick for an evil army that a lot of them are so unpredictable he can't physically predict all of the outcomes. Which means Xaviax can fail, but when he does it doesn't feel like it's out of utter incompetence like the majority of toku villains.

Super-1 Episode 19: Dogma creates an evil school to enslave kids for some unknown reason because the subs cut out during that moment. Besides that good use of Choro (Normally the dumb side character) actually being smart and sneaking into the school. The Monster of the week this Cassette Bat monster that's powered by VHS's was definitely funny to see because of how technology has advanced. Excellent use of skills and great job saving people by Kazuya, the monsters really have a hard time even scratching Super-1 in this. They use abilities to cause a distraction and run away but when they fight again Super-1 brings out more abilities and kicks their fucking ass. Super-1 is awesome.

Welp, just had the one of the big twists in Ryuki ruined for me on another forum. I don't really want to talk about it for fear of spoiling even more, but I'll throw this out there: The Rider War is an inescapable time loop, eh? No wonder everyone calls **ANIME TITLE REDACTED FOR FEAR OF SPOILING THAT SHOW** a Ryuki rip off.

I'd love to know that this spoiler won't hinder my enjoyment of the show. :lol

Originally posted this in the Batton-Line thread! Doh! Silly, Lucha.

Given the baffling approach to discussion threads here I'm amazed anyone can avoid spoilers.

That reminds me of Beast Wars Megatron.

The best villains are ones that have to work under restrictions, because it also makes them better characters. Megatron was a great villain, but he's pretty limited with his options. He has artifacts he hasn't yet discovered the meaning of, a crew of random riff-raff hastily flung together, and he's stuck on a primitive prehistoric planet. He's got a lot of restrictions out of his control, so seeing him succeed under these circumstances makes him endearing. He's not all-powerful, all-seeing or all-knowing. He's just smarter than everyone and does a lot with what he has.

If he didn't have evil intentions, he'd be an awesome protagonist.

Ryuki is like five hundred years old. Unless someone's actively watching it, I don't think avoiding spoilers is super necesary in conversation.

But holy shit, Ryuki is NOT STUCK IN A TIME LOOP. Time does reset at the end, but it's only once. There are only TWO instance of time reset in the entire show. The show takes place in regular time.

^^ Totally agree with you, RE: avoiding spoilers. That was completely my bad for treading into a Ryuki-related thread. I thought I'd be able to disengage before reading anything too spoilery, but alas, I flew a little too close to the sun. Curse my hubris! :lol

I didn't mouse over your spoiler space because I don't want to know any more than I already do about Ryuki. I just hope that knowing about the time loop thing doesn't kill my enjoyment of the show.

With as little detail as possible: Anyone know around what episode that reveal happens? I'm on Ep 23. I'd love it if the reveal happened in Ep 24 -- just so I can get ahead of the spoilage again.

I'm disappointed. It's such an unexpected twist. Provided they handled it well, I would have been floored. :(

Super-1 Episode 20: Kind of a dark, crazy episode this time around. The monster was a tree/phone monster who is also outdated lol. Wanted to send it's killing wave throughout the phone lines and make people go crazy. Kazuya was brilliant this episode from fighting, using the environment to his advantage and disguising himself. The Showa Riders are highly more intelligent than the bad guys so far. I think from the episode guide from the Wiki that Dogma is defeated soon so I hope the new enemies are actually a challenge for Super-1. Also great to see the Monster actually defeat Super-1, I mean he didn't kill him but he dropped him off a building into the water so I'd call that a win. Super-1's Freeze hand is extremely powerful it froze the monster's fire blast, I don't think that's possible but still cool to see. Some fun moments too, I'm really enjoying this series more now.

DK17.

"How do I look?"
"...evil."
"That is what I was going for!"

http://i.imgur.com/Em0FRs1.png

I fucking love this show man.

I actually don't remember how Strike went out, so I'm hoping it isn't as poorly handled as how Lansing went down as I'm really enjoying him. not as much as I did during Lansing's original appearances, admittedly, but with so many Rider's reduced to utterly forgettable beats in the story, it's nice to have such a fun and constant villain.

At least for now, anyway, with the amount of stuff that can happen in just one episode who knows what might come next. I mean it kinda throws off any predictability, which is nice, but less so if they do something really crappy or really dumb out of nowhere.

The whole Power of Three aspect of the episode, as to which it was named for...was actually a really weird moment for the series. When Chris points out that he's basically an easy target because of his asthma, everyone agrees by saying nothing. Logically if they're all on the same page, you'd assume Len and Kit would let him sit it out, place him under production and try and ride this until the end. Yet instead...they force him to fight? Purely for the sake of protecting their own arses? That is really selfish... Also what is with Kit's "banter" has he realised he was an utter failure as a character just a few episodes ago?

Honestly, even though Dragon Knight doesn't sound, like, super good, it certainly sounds interesting. Without spoiling much, Ryuki didn't feel like a show with a particularly satisfying end goal in mind. The riders were all fighting eachother, but the reasons were often unengaging and never changing. The conflict felt boring. I don't know how to put it into words, but the show just felt like it was missing conflict, despite being ENTIRELY ABOUT CONFLICT. I guess when the show's main focus is fighting, it feels like it needs an even bigger driving conflict, which there was none.

Like from the outset, Kido wants to stop the fighting. That in itself is conflict against Shiro, who wants to fighting to go on. But there's NO conflict there. Neither character gives much thought to the other, and they never REALLY clash on the issue.

I don't wanna be "that guy" but it does often feel like DK's problems stem from Ryuki itself. Even without a single shred of plot, there is a LOT going on in the Ryuki action footage, and so the show does its best to make use of the footage and when it can't use it it makes its own. But there is also a reality that you can only push against the direction of the original series so far, and eventually the show has to try and catch up. Especially with a show like Ryuki which apparently has a pretty much revolving door of characters entering and exiting in the way it comes across in the adapted footage.

I mean think about it, twelve Riders? Sure that is awesome, twelve Rider's woo! (Well really its like twenty with all the Riders who are unofficial or from other universes or whatever the fuck is going on) but then imagine trying to tell a story where you've got Riders constantly going out, constantly coming in and where with each new character pretty much the entire dynamics of the show shift and change.

I mean it's unprofessional of the writers to struggle I guess but I don't really blame them either as how do you physically connect a character to the audience and make anything they do seem worthwhile if they only have brief appearances in under five episodes?

Footage limitations mean adaptations can only do so much, especially when they aren't given much money to play with. I honestly am surprised DK has as much original footage as it does because apparently no one behind the scenes in the suits had any faith in this and didn't want to put any money behind it.