I'd argue the lack of development is a huge part of why the subversion works so well in the first place. The audience is basically guaranteed to expect more out of him than they get, and that makes that sudden, gruesome death all the more surprising and impactful. It's the price the show pays for that moment. There were probably some cool things Ryuki could've done with Scissors for even just a couple extra episodes, but doing that runs the risk of missing the point his character serves in the story.

I've always felt that Scissors' primary role in the story is to establish the rules for the show's approach to Kamen Riders: not all Riders are heroes and not all Riders are going to survive.

I do love Ryuki though it is over 10 years since I've seen it!

Scissors is the one character that takes advantage of the occuring disaster to his advantage. The thing's that happening currently was mirror monsters eating people in secrecy as no one knows what's happening (and mirror monsters cannot be seen by normal people), but Scissors exploited that to his advantage, to make sure his record stays clean by murdering everyone knows about his dark secret (corrupt acts), with the murders cited as them disappearing instead of being done by Scissors.

Man, just finished OOO, but Ryuki is another series I haven't seen in quite some time...I think I watched it alongside either OOO or Fourze, making it another show I haven't seen in ages.

*Sighs* Well, guess it's time to revisit that...

Ryuki definitely deserves a rewatch! I may be biased because I first watched it at the age when Kamen Rider Battle Royale and deck of weapon were Coolest Concept Ever, but a lot of the show still holds up really well.

On Scissors, I totally got why he had to die so fast, but I'd also argue that his downfall could be even more "surprising and impactful" if they just spend a bit more time fleshing him out as a character and an actual threat. But yeah, I guess the priority of the show is to have him more as a symbol of the high stakes in Rider battle than an actual character.

Scissors is too weak to last longer, just look:
https://kamenridernexus.files.wordpr.../vbuckle18.jpg

What's funny is, had he not gotten discovered so fast, he would've legit become one of the biggest threats in the show.

stats don't ever matter in toku, really. Like, I think technically Poppy's stats are on par with Kuuga Ultimate? lol


Thouser's out here getting beaten up by Lightning Hornet and Horobi. Stats don't mean anything next to the narrative

I was mainly comparing the stats in-universe, I don't compare stats from 2+ different universes (2+ different Kamen Rider series). Admittedly there are exceptions like Thouser there but...

Even "in-universe", the stats don't matter. To steal from the wiki:

Any kind of stat Toei puts out is questionable at best (As Kurona says, Poppy, a lovable video game mascot, is on par with Kiwami Arms, a semi-literal God), and outright silly at worst.

Yeah, for Ryuki vs Ryuga, I've always wondered and questioned about this, including in Die's Ryuki watch thread.

Well, the reason is that the stats are more or less nonsense. The only time Rider ever played around with exact statistical 'power levels' beyond "the new toy more powerful" was Build's hazard levels, which was questionable at best and was once again an example of characters having a lot more power regardless of what some stats say about how many kilometres high they can jump.

The answer is that it doesn't matter if Ryuga has 7000 AP, because having 7000 AP means nothing.

The only stats that matter is how all of Ex-Aid Maximum Gamer Lv99's are all 99.

Man, it's just like the battle manga with extra pages detailing how the villain and boss characters have power, speed, and endurance stat that triples the protagonists, but it means jack because you can't put number on resolve/determination/hope/friendship/love!

Seriously tho, that kind of stuff is mere fluff for playground debate of hypothetical character battle, or base data in case you want to develop an actual Ryuki tabletop/trading card game with the card merch... come to think of it, did they actually publish some kind of ruleset? Add in a bunch of generic monster cards and something like a field mechanic, and it's something I would've played the hell of.

Anyway, I've watched Ryuki 11-13, which covers Ren's partial amnesia and Tezuka/Raia's entrance. In retrospect, I was kinda surprised that they didn't milk some more comedic stuff from Ren's amnesia (which tend to happen when naturally stoic characters were afflicted with it), but I guess they prefer to focus on shedding light on his backstory and motivation. It's told very well, while they also effectively underlined how Shinji, as clumsy as he is, is the kind of upstanding and sincere guy that you'd want by your side in hard times.

Shiro's plan (or more precisely, the actual logistics of it) may be the weakest part of the show, but I forgot just how effective the build-up to the mystery was. The horror movie vibe came strong again with the foreboding exposition on the 'mysterious incident', and the doomed professor character with such a brutal dying message to Yui (poor girl; it only just struck me how tragic her character really was). Also, those shots of empty car trains! Say what you will about how the visual effects age poorly (Darkwing's appearance in the lab, for instance), but you can't fault Ryuki for lack of atmospheric tension and framing.

Raia's cool. Not one of the most eye-catching design in the roster (very tough competition tho!), but I like the mostly pink color scheme, the card visor position, the distinguishing 'ponytail', and the whip as primary weapon. Final Vent is a bit meh, but Copy Vent is such a fun card. I've actually forgotten a lot about Tezuka's arc (I even misrembered his first name as 'Mizuki' instead of 'Miyuki'), so I'm looking foward to be reacquainted with his character.

Here's a fun drinking game (i.e. you'd die after just a couple of episodes) while watching Wizard: take a swig every time someone mentions the word 'hope' or 'despair'. I honestly can't recall any other KR show that hammers its theme to the audience this much. Speaking of that, apparently Koyomi's actor also played in stage version of Danganronpa. How fitting!

As for the show itself, it's very Victim/Monster of the Week-esque with gradual exposition of the core plot'characters throughout. That's not bad in itself, it's the same kind of structure that were executed pretty well in Zero One and especially W. Battles are mostly fun and flashy to watch, and I found the Phantoms design to be really good.

Haruto though... he's kinda bland, isn't he? May just be my general distaste to seemingly OP main characters from the start, but it's hard to connect with him. Just... too many powers too soon. The repetition of the same theme doesn't help, and at one point I was kinda rooting for the Phantoms instead, like, "QUICK TAKE HIM DOWN BEFORE HE PULLS OUT YET ANOTHER BULLSHIT NEW POWER!".

I see it like Ghost's 'life' and Ex-Aid's 'fate'. At some point, you just registering it as being so normal that it starts to feel weird when they aren't peppering it at least once an episode.

Also I kinda like Haruto for the reasons you mentioned! What he might lack in relatability, I think he makes up for in terms of being cool and intriguing (most of the time, anyway). Some main characters are your good pals like Takeru or Emu, while others are really fun to watch and admire from afar like Tendou. Haruto for the most part falls into the latter camp for me.

Haruto just wants to eat doughnuts and help people and I can vibe with that.

And here's the Zero One version, take a swig every time the word 'dream' gets mentioned.

Well I finished Agito, and my feelings toward it have stayed the same: An average season, but lower on my personal list. A mystery that certainly resolves itself but isn't all that spectacular all things considered. A more interesting supporting cast than the main rider. Although he gets better toward the end, I still feel Shouichi is too passive to the plot around him.

I wonder what this season would have been like if the G3 crew were the main focus, with the supernatural riders being the B-plot. Maybe it would have been too much like Metal Heroes and not Rider ?

In the end I think Agito lacks the thematic richness seen in Kuuga. Not a bad season, but not great. Just ... alright

Next up: BLADE

Yea I guess the newer Rider shows are generally more on the nose with their theme, which isn't that bad a thing in itself, but it kinda makes the episodic stories and Victim of the Week stuff in Wizard feel even more redundant. I did actually enjoy the last couple of stories I watched in Wizard, they went to a slightly different direction than I expected.

Haruto's a perfectly pleasant and capable dude, I just tend to gravitate more to either the more relatable ones (Shinji/Kouta/Shoutaro) or the complex outlier (Takumi). Lots of the show left though, so maybe he'll grow on me the way Kenzaki eventually did.

Now that work has been killing me slightly less, I finally started watching Fourze like I said I would ages ago. Only through 3 episodes so far, so all I can really thinks to say is...

It's Space Time.

Up through episode 8 of Fourze. And I gotta say... I'm not really clicking with it so far.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not out and out saying the show is bad or anything, and I totally get the message the show is trying to say, but like...

The problem is that, atleast so far, we're not shown any positive aspects of the Zodiarts users or the people Gentaro befriends before they have their inevitable 180. It makes it really hard to root for or care about their development.

"Everyone is going through their own struggle" is definitely a message I support though, so the show has that going for it. It also has Spooky Chick, who so far is my favorite character; She is hilarious to me.

So yeah, that's my starting impression of Kamen Rider Breakfast Club.

I've been watching Kamen Rider (1971) and in the early episodes, it's cool to see them create what Kamen Rider will be.

Pausing my current string of eps to say that Episodes 9 and 10 were more like it!

It's the two-parter focusing on Tomoko so already it's got points there, but here's the thing that makes it works compared to the others beforehand:

We actually had time to get to know Tomoko a little bit as a character beforehand. She had some positive traits about her, and her comedic bits were always great.

This two-parter going into her backstory actually works because she wasn't written as the type of character that I'd want to just go away and instead actually want to learn more about. Not to mention, her becoming Gentaro's' friend and her joining of the club was done really organically, unlike everyone else, IMO.

Ontop of that, the comedy and action were all on point here too. Heck, the only critique I can really make of these eps is how the rest of the KRC acts as though they've been friends and developing together for like 30 episodes, when it so hasn't been even nearly that long, even if we're assuming a good chunk of time passes between each set of episodes.

But yeah, here's to hoping Fourze keeps this pace up for the rest of its run.

The stretch of Ryuki 14-23 might represent the series at its absolute finest. Not that it jumped the shark afterward or anything like that, it remains very good to the end in my humble opinion, but this particular period feels to me like the most propulsive and purposeful the show ever was. It’s just so good, the way it features six very well-defined Riders bouncing off each other (IIRC this is the record high of Riders being active and alive at the same time throughout the series) and successfully navigates across some extreme tonal shifts (Reiko punking Kitaoka punking Shinji! Shinji in absolute despair, then turned in genuinely beautiful moment of relief with Goro! The juxtaposition of Ren being devastated for his inability to finish off Gai and Shinji being delighted at that very fact!)

Rider Design review: Gai belongs in the bottom tier of my ranking, which means it’s still pretty nice to look at (there are three tiers of suit design in Ryuki: “good”, “very good”, and “hell yeah franchise bests!!”). I like the way he input his vent in particular; that diagonal throw was so satisfying to watch for some reason. He uses his Strike and Confine vent in such a brutally effective and straightforward manner, and Shibaura plays his role well as a naïve and super unlikable chessmaster wannabe (even though his entrance scene and the whole ORE Journal takeover stuff felt a bit off to me).

Ouja… what else needs to be said? Simply the most iconic ‘Evil Rider’ design ever, barring Shadowmoon (if he counts). Everything about him just works, from the staff and ‘digital Arbok’ to Asakura’s whole mannerism and the power-up mechanism through absorption of other Advents. Basically, they totally nailed the escalation of Evil Riders from Sudou to Shibaura to Asakura.

Considering the amount of Rider vs. Rider stuff, it’s almost a miracle that the non-transforming human characters also got their ample time to shine! It feels like a testament to how this kind of characters can be utilized best when they constantly have something else to do beyond just gravitating around the MC and sheep along for whatever the main plot brings. I just adore the interaction and chemistry between the ORE Journal staff, while Goro’s awesome as always.

Unfortunately, while I don’t really mind the Mirror World and Shiro (as hilariously one-note as he can be) part of the plot, it’s still painfully obvious how much of a weak link Yui is among this group of characters. She just veers dangerously close into a Plot Device category through this stretch, and I think there’s a missed opportunity by not having her spend a longer time as a temp in the ORE Journal (the few scenes she had with Shimada were subtly hilarious!).

Finally, Tezuka’s exit and his lie is such a bittersweet moment. A perfect time too, narratively speaking, to have our first ‘Good Rider’ casualty. A pretty great character, and while I kinda feel the backstory about his friend should’ve been told sooner, I enjoyed all the moments and battle scenes he had—especially the one when he teamed up with Ryuki (that twin Strike Vents!).

Every now and then, I still yell out Tezuka's name in my head. Actually, is he the first 'tragic major character death' in heisei rider history!? At the very least, I don't really think anybody was that broken up about Kino in Agito.

Do you think that, Goro is OOC if he obeys Kitaoka to do a morally questionable thing? Like faking his death as Zolda to drive Shinji to suicide? Their usual is that, for Goro, he respects Kitaoka, but not blindly, and for Kitaoka, he cares for Goro and knows that he's loyal to him, but he won't exploit Goro; actually he brings his better side.

My Rider design review for Ryuki: Odin > Knight Survive > Knight > Zolda > Tiger > Ryuga > Femme > Ryuki > Abyss > Ouja > Scissors > Verde > Ryuki Survive > Raia > Gai > Imperer

Unpopular opinion but for me Ouja isn't the top design wise for me. I'm not into his helm, though his body suit is nice.

“Tez-kaaaa!!!”

Possibly, I haven’t seen Agito, but by the time I watched Ryuki for the first time I was already prepared for it. The sense of desperation and perpetual possibility of a major character’s death has always been there in KR, dating back to the Showa era. Off the top of my head, Tackle in Kamen Rider Stronger is a very notable example, although my first experience of ‘traumatizing major character death’ happened to be the one kind monster and the sentient bike in KR Black.

Oh, for sure. With the little girl sub-plot and just in the general way he carries himself, Goro’s been established as a fundamentally Good Person. He’d do most sorts of legally questionable things for Kitaoka, but I think there are moral lines that he wouldn’t cross—at least not without being torn up about it. I think this particular case still made sense because the circumstances with the Riders' Battle kinda forced their hand, and Goro hasn't got to know Shinji yet. The way he reacted (purely through facial expression and body language, which is another thing I loved about his characterization) when Shinji cried in relief in front of him seemed to show that, in retrospect, he felt pretty bad about the charade.

Incidentally, I LOVE that particular scene, where they frame Kitaoka, Ren, Shinji, and Goro together in ways that told so much about these four men. Ren’s “He may be a fool but he’s a better man than you and I” line was unexpected (the first time he ever said something nice about Shinji! Too bad Shinji’s too busy crying over Goro to even notice!), but it’s such an awesome moment for his character development and the general situation at hand.

My tiers, taking Vents into account (Tiger’s badassery rises even more when he has his Strike Vent equipped, for instance):

Godly: Zolda, Tiger, Knight, Ouja
Great: Ryuki, Femme, Imperer, Verde, Ryuga
Good: Raia, Gai, Odin, Scissors

My own unpopular (?) take: bikes aside, I prefer the regular version of Ryuki and Knight over their Survive forms.

The Ryuki portion in Decade is wack, but Abyss’ design is the one good thing that came out of it. Definitely fits well within the general aesthetic philosophy of the 13 Riders, I’d consider him borderline great.

If we're talking suit design, my own unpopular opinion when it comes to Ryuki is that, for the Ryuki suit itself, they should've just axed the compound eyes entirely. Blasphemy I know, but I feel like the helmet would've looked way better that way. They work great on the Survive Mode helmet, though.

The scene where Ryuki Survive debuts is an all time moment, which makes it all too bad the suit is underwhelming. The helmet is great though

Knight Survive, on the other hand, is pure class

Almost halfway through with Wizard. Just in time when the ‘hope vs. despair of the week’ formula started losing steam, we got a couple of interesting developments here. Mayo Boy was someone I initially assumed as yet another comic relief character (with a running gag that already got old the second time I saw it), so the reveal of him being the secondary Rider genuinely surprised me! The suit itself is so-so, but I like the idea of ancient beastly magic and chimera-based Rider. He’s also a much-needed foil to Haruto, making the battle scenes way more interesting and dynamic. Just an overall endearing presence and quickly became my favorite member of the cast.

I also like the sub-plot with Rinko and Phoenix, mainly because it shook up the status quo with the Phantoms’ group, and gave Rinko something interesting to do. Wish she would’ve gotten a final chance to interact with him and contribute something to the battle, though. Also not a fan of the whole thing when the main character is being guilt-tripped for not being able to prevent the supporting characters being hurt by the bad guy, as if these people aren’t mature adults who can make informed decision and be responsible for their own actions.

One other thing that bothered me: they tend to gloss over the darker part of the story, as in the Phantoms’ victims and people being left behind without proper closure about these dead guys (such as Phoenix’ human host, who is completely forgotten by the end of Phoenix arc). Hopefully that will be addressed more in future episodes.

The Phoenix arc is pretty much agreed to ba a highlight of the show, and probably helped get me into Rider. The exploration of a villain, the bare possibility of redemption, all for it to be cruelly pulled away. And Haruto's solution is pretty sick.

Yeah, that was unexpected, but I really like that aspect. They maintained consistency with Phoenix' characterization, while also framed Rinko's attempt at communication as something that's not necessarily wrong in itself.

And so far it has! Now up through episode 16, and I think it's safe to say that the show has found its legs. I've been having alot more fun with it it, and they've been making the characters in general alot more likeable and enjoyable. I especially enjoyed the two-parter about following up with Miharu.

Yeah, Fourze is touching on things W already did, but it's atleast been going about it in a different way, so I don't really see it as something to complain about. Also Garren and Hakaider both showed up, so there's that.

Watched the remaining Build things I never got to before. Pretty good overall!

Be The One: Rider movies tend to be more of a guilty pleasure kind of enjoyable usually, but this one was solid! It was funny and had nice drama, and who doesn’t enjoy Sento and Banjou’s dynamic. Probably among my top Rider movies. If the movie caused any gaping plotholes with the show though there’s no way I would have realized since it has been, like, a year and a half since I saw Build.

Prime Rogue V-Cinema: Now this is the content I’m here for. Gentoku fashion.

New World V-Cinemas: The more time that passes, the more I wonder if V-Cinemas are worthwhile. I don’t know if I would call a single one I’ve seen GOOD. As nice as it is to be able to revisit a show and see what happened with the cast after the end, these thing almost always have a far less satisfactory ending than the show proper and also almost always have some incredibly half-assed romantic angle. Slap some new woman in the Cross-Z one who is into Banjou and then promptly disappears come the Grease one. I can only assume she realized she couldn’t compete with Sento. :lolol Gentoku and Sawa become a thing, which is honestly so weird it wraps back around again and becomes great. Kazumin and Misora? Ugh. Definitely the highlight of these was Utsumi and his quest to create the ultimate Namba cane. I wish these things worked better since they have nice concepts but it just never seems to pan out.

^That reminds me I still haven't seen Build's V-Cinemas stuff, which... I'm not eager to do anytime soon. Even the Be the One movie I found rather underwhelming and forgettable.

Meanwhile, I've just seen more of Ryuki, up to episode 31 now. Man, I love this show.

Ryuki (along with Kuuga) did something unusual for the franchise: made a Kamen-Rider-help-a-child episode that I can love. It helped that the child actor was pretty believable for once, and bounced off really well with everyone that interacted with him. The 'lesson learned' portion of the story is what ultimately made it really work, the gentle deglorification of violence that's on brand with the show's philosophy and deconstructive nature. Very well-executed.

Oh, and the show also has comedic filler episodes that actually made me laugh! The whole Yui bustling through the suspect's apartment + the Triple Salesman sequence in the first episode was just brilliant comedic set pieces, and while Megumi's character in the second episode was a bit much, her interaction/rivalry with Goro alone made the whole episode worthwhile.

Asakura's portion with Reiko and his brother worked pretty well for the show's purpose in portraying him as an enigmatic monster. Odin also made his entrance, though he did zilch besides looking majestic and basically directing a recap episode. I'd rather have his first appearance being late in the show, although there's a sad (and foretelling) poignancy about how Shiro did all that just to not have that picture of Yui ripped.

(In my hypothetical version of the show with all 13 Riders featured, this stretch of episodes would be the ideal time to squeeze in Femme and Verde. You can rewrite Asakura's backstory to involve Miho's sister instead, and Verde can be inserted during the time Shinji and Kitaoka spend together. Ideally, Verde would be eliminated pretty soon, while Femme [and eventually Ryuga] would stick along until around the penultimate conflict. Well, it may not necessarily result in a better show, but it's kinda fun to think about~)

That episode is out and out my favorite episode of Ryuki. The moment Len showed up onscreen looking like... that I was friggen rolling man!

Which reminds me, apparently alot of fans hate Ore Journal? Can't say I agree. I legit liked alot of their antics and they served as a good way to have a breather from Ryuki's' darker tone every now and then.

Who are these monsters!? I mean, I can see how the transition from Ryuki's Serious Part to this group could be jarring, but these characters are such delightful weirdos that complement each other so well. Even the office space almost feels like a character in itself, with a distinct ambience (like the random English news broadcast noise in the background) that'd grow on you the more you see it.

Also, I think their humor worked very well for me because there's just enough variety and groundedness to keep it from getting stale. Like, Shimada's eccentric and the Chief's an insecure tryhard guy, but they presented varied manifestation of these traits instead of just pulling the same exact gag over and over again.

I finished Blade. Last couple of arks are pretty damn good. Villains, as usual in this show, don't stick around for long, but are memorable enough all the same. Not the worst, not the best. Ending was sick, totally didn't cry, who would do that?