MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 24

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There's some stuff in here about the transformative power of grief, and some stuff about the origins of evil, and a whole bunch of Knight's new Survive form. It's a much more upbeat episode than I was expecting after the death of Tezuka, so... maybe I wasn't the only person who felt like his story could be over?

It's an interesting choice, to not really wallow in guilt after Tezuka's sacrifice. Ren's the most pragmatic, acknowledging that this was a choice Tezuka made, not something anyone should blame themselves for. (I super love the hypocrisy of Ren here, being all Why Is Everyone Feeling Guilty when that dude's whole deal was feeling immense guilt over Eri's fate until, like, yesterday.) Shinji and Yui both beat themselves up in their first scene, but they pretty quickly turn their self-loathing and recriminations into a plan of action, a way forward. (Yui gets there faster than Shinji, unexpectedly. Progress!) There's not really a Stages Of Grief to this story so much as there's a little space to react, and then a conscious decision to make sure this doesn't have to happen again. Yui throws herself back into investigating Shiro, which doesn't immediately bear fruit but might next episode. (That cliffhanger!) Shinji decides to try and stop the Rider Battles by appealing to the fighters' humanity, which... I'm not 100% clear on how it's different from what Tezuka was doing? Shinji explains his plan to Ren in that he's not trying to alter their fate as Riders, but to change their minds as people. If there's a difference there, it's so minor as to be academic. You are trying to get Riders to stop killing each other, to stop fighting. That's just what Tezuka was doing? I think a more assertive Shinji is a good move after a more introspective Shinji of the last few episodes, but I'm not real clear on how this isn't just Riders Shouldn't Fight all over again. I'd love to get some more details, some way in which this isn't just a reversion to the old Shinji.

The Asakura/Reiko storyline is intriguing, and feels fresh. There's a bit of an attempt to give Asakura a tragic backstory, a reason why he's a monster. It's good, in theory, to create a three-dimensional version of Asakura. I'm afraid the show might be sacrificing some of his impact by making him a non-zero amount of sympathetic. It's risky, humanizing him, but it's probably necessary. He needs to be more developed as a character or he'll become a punchline. I don't think it'll ever get to a redemption arc, but just trying to explore Asakura's story is exciting. That's an unpredictable dude, a character who always feels dangerous. Pairing him with Reiko, someone who feels relatively non-judgemental when it comes to investigating the truth, it's a great couple of characters to keep things surprising. Reiko doesn't seem to have any limits on searching for answers, and god knows Asakura couldn't care less about meeting expectations, so this is a story I was really enjoying. Seems like it's going to be a good one.

Oh, hey, and there're a couple fight scenes where Ren gets to show off his chase card, Survive. (I really like that the card itself has an animated background. Very cool!) It's a sweet-looking suit, Survive. The deep blue of the armor really pops, and the gold edging is crisp. It feels more colorful, more optimistic, which fits Ren's current outlook. Plus, it's got a turbine-powered bat that transforms into a motorcycle, so, A+++. It's a pretty great upgrade for Knight.

This was a nice episode. Felt a little calmer, despite the two fight scenes, than I was expecting. There wasn't this Shadow Of Tezuka hanging over the episode. Instead, folks processed their grief, made a statement of intent, and got ready to move on with their lives.

Just in time for Shiro to abruptly dissolve the contract monsters and end the Rider Battles.

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WHAT.

I bet the characters would have mourned more for Ultra Magnus.

How'd you capture this image set of my brain vs me at any point?

Debatable! And, depending on the continuity, unnecessary!

Yui is all of our neuroses given form and a cute haircut.

The best/worst part is that the very next thing she does is melodramatically shout "I don't want to think about it anymore!" and run out of the tea shop. She becomes that part of us that can't even bear to think Are You Maybe Making Too Much Out Of This without getting even more upset.

Oh, Yui. What is wrong with you?

Her older brother is a morally ambiguous mirror ghost, everyone she knows keeps trying to kill each other, and whenever she asks someone why this is happening, they only give her vague responses before telling her to leave the room!

Are you even watching this show, Die? Because sometimes I just don't know. :p

Wait, that's Yui? I thought Yui was the reporter! Oh, man, I totally ruined this thread. Shit. You don't read one or two (dozen episodes worth of) subtitles... Lemme just get this whole thread deleted by the mods and we'll do it right next time. Thanks for the heads-up!

OK, we know that Ouja is one of the most active evil Rider and is a hardened fighter in human form, but I dislike it when Ouja is wanked beyond what he can do (you kinda do in your ep. 22 when talking about how Asakura is stronger than other Riders). So lemme emphasize, Knight Survive easily wipes the floor with Ouja without any of other Advent Cards whatsoever!!! Knight Survive even shattered Ouja's Strike Vent before it materializes (one of the coolest battle moment in Ryuki IMO), if he acts fast enough he can be a Confine Vent without scanning cards! Ouja would be finished when there weren't a Mirror Monster getting in their way, so now, stop giving double standard treatment for protagonists for "plot armor", like this moment for example! Fun fact is that Ouja was really planned to be finished in this moment, but they decided to keep him alive as a recurring character.

More like Ren is focused on winning the war so (as you said before, still an asshole), one Rider dying without Ren getting too attached to him and thus struggling to kill him is a blessing (and did you forget Eri isn't a Rider, while Tezuka is, Ren is multiple times the asshole to Riders!). Why do you think that Ren feels guilt over Eri? Shiro victimizes Eri (coma) AND Ren by forcing Ren to fight in Rider War as the only way to bring her back while he's powerless to doing anything on Shiro, and Ren is self-destructive towards her because, it's his character (as opposite to Kitaoka in previous episode), he will do anything to what he loves. Well, even Ren also got a form of a grief by looking at the Survive card (burning Raia's Evildiver card in this episode's preview), the card that Tezuka gave to him and may have saved him when he didn't, with the proof of how easily a Survive upgrade beat Ouja earlier.

Oh, this one cover's a bit similar to... the one where I posted screenshots of Shinji, Yui, and Tezuka confronting Shiro each. I probably just like lumping those 3 together based on how all of them being the most good-natured among morally void cast and shared the same objective of saving people from Rider War, which leads to some "analogous" moments like this. The house seems like, a new base for Shiro (similar to Room 401)? It actually is horrific inside where Tezuka got attacked by a monster previously, so being (formerly) afraid of the house is plausible. For Shinji, actually all of them were because it IS what Tezuka doing. Like I said before, Tezuka is a drive for Shinji's characterization and inspires him (with the additional cliche of "inspirational characters die"), so Shinji tries to implement Tezuka's method, continuing his work. Tezuka influences Shinji the most, instead of Ren. So why this comes to you as a surprise that Shinji does what Tezuka does?

Oh no...don't get your hopes up! Talking for both Asakura and Reiko (her wellbeing)! Asakura may just be baiting! And Reiko will become the latest victim this way! (And now it makes me wonder how it goes if Reiko goes to Asakura with Shinji like he wanted, when Asakura sees Shinji and talks about Riders and fighting or probably even shows his Deck, in front of Reiko, what should Shinji do?). And you think Asakura needs to be more developed or he becomes a punchline? I think Asakura is the single most loved character in the fandom and he doesn't have any of that. Asakura looks way to healthy and clean for someone homeless and eating muds!

Oh and before Reiko goes to Asakura, she talked to Kitaoka. It seems that Kitaoka is the primary source to Reiko for informations right now whenever she likes it or not... and this line is gold (and serves you right Kitaoka, cuz dude it's regarding public danger not just your hedonism!)!

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Before the fight, can we also talk a funny ironic moment where Shinji... tells Ren to go away? Even Ren points out it's usually the other way around (but he would immediately do that). I think one of the redeeming moments of Ren is that he will try to save innocents (though he may not particularly care about their fate) if he can like before fighting the monster. And Darkraider (Darkwing's Survive form)'s bike form is based on Honda Shadow. The Final Vent has their role reversed, where before it was Rider being the battering ram with Sword Vent and the monster wrapping him forming a drill, but in Survive it's the monster as a bike being the main battering ram, the Rider being the one enhances it by wrapping the monster with his cape, forming... a missile this time (if the light blue trail is any indication)?

I told you so! Shiro is far more relevant and influental than you think he is at the beginning! He didn't only create like Banno, he has complete control over everything he created!

And the first time she directly saw a Rider death? I think you should also see what she feels about the war just like how would you see how Shinji and Tezuka feels about the war. Her having the same goal (even word-for-word in ep. 19, investigating Shiro is only a method for that) as them would be indication eh?

I mean, Eri may not be a Rider, but she's still a human being like Tezuka, which means Ren's still being a hypocrite for telling them to quit it with the grief when that dude spent almost two dozen episodes nearly killing himself to cure Eri.

And, yeah, I assume there's at least some small amount of guilt driving the guy who has to use the contract monster that nearly killed his girlfriend to try and save her.

My confusion is from Shinji explicitly saying he's not doing things the way Tezuka did. He says that Tezuka tried to change their fates as Riders, he's going to change them as people. I'm just not clear how that's any different in practice, and there's no time in this episode for Shinji to articulate that. (They mostly use the minute where Shinji could to, instead, have him and Ren argue about how Shinji definitely can't read people well enough to accomplish Tezuka's goal anyway, which I liked a lot.)

If he's only going to be around for a storyline, he can be as Pure Evil as the show wants. That's a pretty fun character, for a show that's mostly populated with a variety of justifications. One dude who is pure violence, pure chaos, that's great. But you can't keep doing that story over and over. If we're four storylines later, with deep and nuanced characters talking about the value of principles in a world of survival, and here's ol' Asakura, swinging a metal pipe and demanding people fight him, it's basically an eyeroll and a Here We Go Again. He'd be a joke. There'd be no danger to him (he'd been beat a number of times by then), and nothing you could do with him besides danger. Gotta add some layers if he's going to hang around.

I didn't notice that, about his Final Vent. Neat! Thanks for pointing that out!

The Shinji and Ren moment was great. Honestly, the use of Ren in this whole episode was great. It's nice to see Ren trying (and occasionally failing) to be the friend that Yui and Shinji need right now. I think he reaches out to them as much as he's capable, and he's got that early show thing of him sort-of realizing in the moment how much his approach is caustic, or unhelpful. This little smile of Hey Man I Want To Help But I'm Definitely Going To Say Something Insulting Just FYI. I like that he never seems frustrated by Shinji in this episode, he's never punishing him. He's just doing his Ren thing of not sugar-coating, and expecting people to challenge him enough to get their heads on straight. It's a real Ren episode, this one, and only a little because of Knight Survive.

Yeah both Eri and Tezuka are human being, but it should be obvious that a person doesn't treat every human being equally (like prefering friends to strangers, etc.). I personally think it's just Ren's character to do anything for what he loves to the point of self-destructing no matter what the situation, I mean like, his dedication for the likes of Eri would be the same even if Eri's totally normal; isn't put in coma or something so by that I don't think it's out of guilt. Gotta check his image song "Lonely Soldier" for more of this.

Probably my take is that Tezuka only touches the Rider aspect of someone (like killing others, Rider motives, etc.), while Shinji touches their daily life aspect of someone too.

Lol just treat Asakura as a force of nature and a human-shaped monster.

Exactly just like when Shinji "accidentally" kills Zolda before, you didn't cover on that though.

Sure, I can see that. I'd be into Shinji having one-on-one time with every other Rider, getting them to abandon the Rider Battles so long as Shinji solves all of their problems. Like, Shinji studying hard in medical school for six months to try and cure Eri before she dies, Shinji studying hard in medical school for six months to cure Kitaoka before he dies... honestly, I think these folks got burned by having to depend on Shinji as their savior Rider. Where's Kino from Agito when you need him? That dude could get all these folks to give up on Rider Battles in one epic surgery!