I just love that Professor gets the ironic death of being sacrificed by someone he's trying to teach the value of sacrifice, and how that shows the tragic outcome of his argument. Professor's like, You Can Have A Little Sacrifice, As A Treat, but once you open that door it's nearly impossible to close it. If people get to pick and choose who's expendable, it's going to lead to tragedy. Inevitably, you become a justifiable sacrifice for the greater good. It's not heroism to judge who should live or die, it's villainy.

Like, the restaurant scene in this one. It's all Professor trying to show Toujou why you make sacrifices, what you're making them for, but Toujou just sees more people who need to die to make them both heroes. By trying to tell Toujou it's okay to murder sometimes, he created an argument where's it's always a possibility to solve something with murder.

It's all why I'm okay with Professor dying in this one. He'd created a logical construct in Toujou's brain that required his own death, and he did it all by trying to argue for the usefulness of destroying the things you care about. Dude's story was only going end one way!

I always think there's something laudable about writing a flawed hero, even if it's not necessarily fun to watch. (But this is fun to watch, though!) To take steps to criticize a hero, to not build the world around him always being right, that's so much more challenging to land. It can make for stretches where you don't know why the character's doing something, or when it feels like they're being punished, but it can make for a much more rewarding experience in the long run.

There's a friend of mine who made a good point about music that maybe applies to characters like Shinji. He said that, when you listen to an album, your favorite song off of it probably isn't going to be the one you immediately enjoy. That one, you'll get tired of. Your favorite's probably going to be a song that didn't work for you right away, but after listening to it enough times it just clicks and you love it. The work you put in, the discovery, that's what makes you appreciate that song. I think it's that way for characters, too. Shinji maybe takes some work to enjoy, but I think he's worth it.

Honestly, in my opinion ryuki is extremely unique in the fact that I can actually REMEMBER all the different riders. They all stand out so much and have unique personalities. Half of me wants each one to have a miniseries dedicated to them, then I remember I would start defending toujou and asakuras way of thinking.

Sure Morimoto asking for Asakura's rights not to be treated as animal is the job, but he (actually the reason he asked for the rights) also seemingly plans to treat Asakura as a complete good guy and free him. Lawyer's job is to ensure the client's rights, proportionally, not necessarily to give best defense (like freeing a blatantly quilty client). I'd imagine if Morimoto isn't blinded (even though he's a moron he's undoubtedly good but still wrong here), he'd just ask about Asakura's rights, but not vigorously defend him from any bad accusations and Asakura likely still won't be free. When the public finds out a person was guilty and their lawyer knew it all along and still vigorously defended them, the reaction's usually negative (Even Kitaoka isn't free from this, public's nickname for him is "Black-or-White Lawyer"). The other right thing to prevent perjury also should be the lawyer refusing to represent an infamous fugitive whose crime is already well-known. For "1 to Kitaoka's 100" I still wonder what are the contents of Morimoto's file Goro gave to Kitaoka.

Yeah, I was refering to the easier accessibility too, which I think stems from people just contributing significantly more to the newer series, either in videos or informations (sites like TVTropes). New things like new story isn't necessarily better probably (or also old ones, for those blinded by nostalgia).

Sure Kitaoka is fooling around, with his usual flamboyant narcissism way (to Reiko especially), but that's to enlighten the mood and distract Reiko from the topic he wanted her to avoid discussing and know (Mirror stuff) which because he doesn't want Reiko to get closer to that topic for her safety. So I'd say he has equally balanced part for both of the bullshits.

So apart from the vote moment being funny it also... carries a deeper meaning to you as your discussions here. This one actually stems from Shinji's goal to stop the Rider War. And from the fact that all those terrible men dislikes Toujou and his crazy ideals (at least Kitaoka and Ren think Toujou's terrible), and just lumps Shinji together with him because accusing him to be similar to Toujou as he also wants to close the Mirror World, as a way to stop the Rider War.

Though this time, Sano wasn't flattering, he earnestly told Shinji about his backstory (you asked right?) though it also can be used to get him on his side. So you already noticed early that Sano is untrustworthy? Because some fans probably forget that (or being biased), because of Sano's relatable traits to them (hard adult life; problems with girls and economy). And even someone like Toujou asks about Sano's loyalty. Between the collection of terrible men here, I want to know how's Sano compared to them? He doesn't seem to do as much atrocity as Kitaoka or Toujou, but it's clear that he can easily betray or kill others (unlike... Ren).

You seem to never respond to this (also probably because you still tolerate Shinji here), but this is an Inoue stuff, his writing clashes with Kobayashi too much. He like, ignores character developments for more "drama", like Shinji here, doing the exact same mistake as the beginning part of the series, when Shinji trusts Sudo at ep. 5, putting Ren and Yui in jeopardy, although Sano isn't a pure evil person like Sudo. For your "growing out of that" question, didn't you complain about the status quo part of the series? But actually yes, Shinji did grow out of that. Though for those you mentioned except Asakura, they do have development, though their core character doesn't change. Shinji also grows up to gain some skeptical traits, some guarded traits, just recall episode 38 when he's being fishy about Toujou and act according to it! Doesn't mean his character core is changed like his take on the war, his ideals, or his care about people, but there's growth right there, he has matured. Those who are tired about Shinji making bad/dumb decisions are probably people who also has problems recognizing growth (never letting go of the beginning part of the series and treats everything in status quo), but those who do and follows Shinji should realize that Shinji's treatment is even worse in this one episode, he's not this dumb (like Ren's remark against him hiring Sano).

I'm going for... all. Probably Yui's thing against monsters can be attributed into ep. 14 where she repels Dragreder but it's likely just Dragreder leaving on his own avoiding the sister of Shiro (wild monsters won't attack her but controlled monsters like Contracts can), not her imposing her will on it like she does here (also Yui not being herself, her true self seemingly trapped in a white field and black feathers). There's also a... Kuuga effect on her. What will happen to the Riders if they scan a card while the monsters are turned against the masters?

Kagawa got an ironic death (as you already talked above) where he talks a big game about sacrificing others for the greater good, only to be killed by someone who bought what he was selling and saw him as a threat to the greater good. A testament of how much a lunatic Toujou is, he twisted all Kagawa's teachings in the worst way possible. Kagawa teaches that a hero must have courage to sacrifice something important to you for the greater good, and that a hero suffers... with Tiger only taking the sacrificing part, and Kagawa being the most important person in his life, combine those all, and by his mindset, Tiger should sacrifice Kagawa, where he would suffer by losing the most important person, and by suffering you would become a hero (and Alternative Zero was Final Vented in a facing-down position, the worst way to get Final Vented by Tiger, you can't fight back Destwilder at all).Toujou took it upon himself to create his own suffering by losing his mentor. Where was Ryuki or Imperer, did they even notice this betrayal?

Now Kitaoka's usual flattering sthick on Reiko won't work, he's just being direct and tells Reiko to stop chasing "fantasy stories", like what civilians would think against someone who knows the obscure fantasy traits in a world where most of them are unknown. This shows the rare soft side of Kitaoka (if you weren't convinced before, this one should), wanting the 2nd person he cared the most (Reiko's life, not her handling the truth) to be safe from potential dangers Riders/Mirror Monsters (or just Shiro) give, forcing Kitaoka to embrace his "weak side" Goro admires for Reiko (does Kitaoka also feel weak by caring for Goro?).

I mean, Toujou's way of thinking, okay, maybe. He's someone who wants to feel like a tortured hero so much that he tortures himself. (Like, I think he's legitimately jazzed when he figures out that he cares enough about Professor that killing him would be a sacrifice.) I think there's some bit of most people that they'd like to be seen as a hero, that maybe they want to feel that resolve of having overcome something. Is that what running a marathon is? Pushing yourself to see what you can handle? So, Toujou, it's possible.

But Asakura?! His way of thinking is that he needs to be fighting people all the time! Don't think that way!

I don't know about the Japanese legal system circa the early 2000s, but in America you can 100% get a retrial if your lawyer refuses to give you an adequate defense. If you can show bias or negligence, you can get a do-over. Morimoto absolutely needs to try to get the best outcome possible for his client.

I don't feel like I know enough about Imperer to fit him into the moral spectrum the show established. In two episodes, he's been played mostly for laughs. Beyond that, there seems to be an effort to tag him as being worse than the villains because he's not fighting for anything deep. To quote The Wire, a man's got to have a code. Imperer doesn't, so even antiheroes like Ren and full-blown villains like Toujou despise him. That's a fun flipside to how goofy he is in the show, to make his actions feel more evil by how shallow his motivations are.

A lot here! Let's see if I can unpack it all.

-Saying one writer's style "clashes too much" with another's, that's super subjective. If you dislike the tone of non-Kobayashi episodes, I can't disagree that there's a difference, but I like both takes.

-I don't know that Inoue ignores that much character development for Shinji in this one? He's got a slightly different read on Shinji, maybe, but Shinji wanting to believe that he caused a dude to have a change of heart and then that dude took advantage of Shinji's trust... I think we've seen that move more often on this show than Ryuki's Final Vent? It's a pretty ingrained part of Shinji's character.

-My complaints about the endless status quo of certain episodes, I tried to emphasize when talking about this episode that there are core characteristics that you can't change about a character, and Shinji's gullibility is one of those. I wasn't trying to say that the show shouldn't change anything about the characters.

I hope this made some sense? I'm not totally clear on some of that paragraph. Sorry!

I think what I found most interesting is that, it's not that Toujou corrupted his message and misunderstood his teachings, it's that his lesson was inherently flawed. It felt like the show was trying to deconstruct that sort of stoic heroism, the myth of the noble sacrifice. In reality, choosing to kill someone "for the greater good" is just killing someone. A person can choose to sacrifice themselves, but you can't choose to sacrifice them. The end result of Professor's ideology is a justification for murder, and that's going to allow murderers to feel justified.

Less that aspect; more one of his earlier lines of "I beat a man to death because he annoyed me" is something a part of me agrees with. That is not a good thing. but yes; the whole cast of riders is beyond well written. Instead of decade cameos in later series, why can't we have kitakoa or raia show up?

Kagawa also taught him that "a hero is someone who suffers", and that gives an idea for Toujou to torture himself. And yeah for Asakura he's made to have no redeeming qualities at all... don't make a hero out of him (just because he's cool)... seriously.

Just saying, the thing I explained above, it comes from me asking a friend who takes a law degree. A good lawyer shouldn't completely free the guilty, just clear up the injustice treatment.

I probably just think that you just don't seem to notice much from the clashing writings, I will post the review I talk about to clear up as I don't want to copy the contents from it. But one of those is that Inoue tends to ignore character developments as a way to derail characters (sometimes even coming from nowhere to add negative traits to them like episode 7 of Ryuki) for more drama. I already said it before for the Shinji's character development... episode 38?? There you go for skeptical Shinji, guarded Shinji, he has matured! Doesn't mean his core characteristic changes (like you said for Ren and Kitaoka) like his take on the war and how he cares about people, but also doesn't mean he's still the same self seen in episode 6 to Scissors!! I think you have to notice the episode 38 part about Shinji deducing SSSS' plan in form of Toujou and act according to it to stop it.

While Kagawa's lesson is flawed, Toujou did make it worse. Kagawa's already trying to keep Toujou in check, to reduce unecessary killing like stopping Tiger killing Ryuki or pointing out the flaws in his take like the fact that a hero should care about humans when he calls out Kagawa for caring about his family who he wants to sacrifice earlier.

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 43

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There's this sadness at work in this episode of Ryuki, despite all of the laughs and fights. At least, god, I found some of it really heartbreaking.

Toujou and Sano are not doing great. Toujou's killed his mentor with an eye on true heroism, only to get his newly-solo ass kicked first by Asakura, then by Kitaoka, then by Asakura and Kitaoka. Sano's looking for a team to join, but he's ignored by Toujou, beaten by Shinji, mocked by Kitaoka, and threatened by Asakura. (I guess, even at his lowest, Sano knew to steer clear of Ren.) This whole episode is the two newest Riders getting frozen out and hunted. It's open season on Tiger and Imperer.

But, y'know, it's also the establishment guarding itself against outsiders. It's one generation mocking the next. It's people who can't find their footing, can't get a way into the game, being told they lack motivation, they haven't earned a chance, by the people on top.

That element of the episode, how locked out Sano and Toujou are, I thought that was a really sad way to tell their story. The fact that all they have in the end is each other, that nobody gets them or wants to get them.. I don't know. I thought it was a compellingly bittersweet ending. I'm not sure, exactly, how the show's trying to come down on the Kids Today Amirite undercurrent of this episode. I'm not sure if they're trying to garner sympathy for the kids, or lump them both together to wag a finger at the poor character of today's generation. They picked a couple of complicated kids to try this story with. Tiger and Imperer, they pretty much made their bed before this one. Tiger had plenty of opportunities to make his mark, to find a role, but he destroyed those chances in a bid to feel important. Imperer could've served a number of higher causes, but he became a joke by selling out early and often. These are not really two characters that deserve sympathy. But, man, they got it from me in this one. Toujou's realization that he's totally on his own for the first time is brutal. Sano's (well-deserved!) beating at the hands of Shinji, the sweetest Rider, was a clear sign that he was thoroughly screwed. They are both isolated and in danger.

So them together at the end, I liked it a lot. They don't have much in common, but they're two kids who don't have a future, two kids that no adult respects, and I think I'm rooting for them a little bit now. Hell of a job pulling that out of me, show!

For the rest of this episode, uh... not much to say? Shinji and Ren run around Mirror World looking for Yui, who's still silent and powerful and Shiro-Lite. Nothing really happens in that plot, but I assume that's going to be dealt with shortly. Oh, and there's zero Reiko in this one, so it's zip for the Ore Journal investigative stuff. Pretty much just Toujou and Sano against the Adults this time out, and, yeah, way more affecting than I thought that story would be.

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The way you described them had me thinking 'Wait, Toujou and Sano aren't that much younger than eveyone else, are they?" At least, I never really thought of Imperer as a 'kid' in any sense.

It's a weird thing on this show, or maybe even just this episode, where they feel so much lower than everyone else. For Toujou, he's a college student, so he's probably the youngest Rider they've shown so far. For Sano, it's mostly him treating everyone else like a superior (to suck up) and Kitaoka blowing him off as a dumb kid. It really felt like this episode was trying to categorize them as The Youngest Riders, despite everyone in the cast probably being within three years of each other. I mean, according to the Wiki, even Auntie is only a few months older than Yui. It's true! You don't even have to check! I saved you the trouble!