So this particular Arc is in my top 5 Episode Arcs for Zi-O. I think I put it at #5 as what I wanted to talk about if we had done the whole collaborative thing. But yeah, I really... really like Zi-O II's debut and them utilizing a weird variation (which I loved) on a Ryuki Arc to build up to it was pretty well done.

Also another good usage of Toki no Ouja when it comes to bringing in the Insert Songs. Definitely a better usage than Future Guardian in the Quiz Arc I feel.

Next time... well, let's go old school with the BGM's. Sadly we still have Future Guardian as a BGM Swap, which means this particular one they use is the best of the two. It's got a good beat and the old school (because it is) nature of it is really great. Discounting every usage of Decade's Preview BGM the Youtuber uses, this is probably my favorite BGM Swap out of all the episodes.


Zero's Legend Episode Previews Corner - EP 23 Preview:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUxpgQf5NpI

I knew you were going to love this one the moment that I saw it.

So it's probably of no surprise to anyone that I most certainly did not. What is it with Ryuki tributes and falling short with me, a guy who loves Ryuki?

The message in and of itself is fine. Certainly, we should all be willing to acknowledge that our dark sides are a part of us and learn to either work with or improve upon them. Running from it only makes it worse.

However. As a Ryuki tribute, as a character analysis of Sogo, and heck, as episodes of Zi-O? This two-parter to me just really feels as though it was blatantly written solely to appease those who didn't really like Ryuki and weren't jiving with Sogo and/or Zi-O, rather than being of its own merits.

Ore Journal going out of business? Felt like giving credence to those who called Ore Journal the worst part of Ryuki. The Ride Watch and Another Rider being totally different to how they worked in almost every other tribute? Felt like they were added to appease the people who kept complaining about the logistics of the previous arcs.

And finally, the darker aspects of Sogo discussed by his mirror self? Outside of the OOO tribute, felt very much like it was just thrown in to validate the viewers who decided to read into Sogo's' words and actions in as negative a light as possible. Can I believe that Sogo has a dark side? Absolutely; Oma Zi-O and Woz wouldn't exist otherwise. Do I believe that up to now it was properly given any sort of highlight? Absolutely not.

As such, to me, both of these episodes feel ultimately hollow. Know what doesn't feel hollow to me though? My favorite character from Ryuki.


Miyuki Tezuka, or as Die likes to call him, Kamen Rider Quarters!

And just like with Diend, I don't have to type anything new, because I already summed up my feelings on Raia during Die's' Decade thread:

Alright! It's Episode 22!

-The reverse kick is real fun, I like that.

-One of the things I distinctly remember from my inital watch is that Mirror Sougo's little rant near the beginning...fell completely flat for me? And it still does, on my rewatch? Like it's such a shame that a plot like "Sougo embraces his darker emotions/potenial for bad, and heads for the future" didn't work at all for me.
(Perhaps if said topic wasn't tackled "ooooo im the mirror version of you who thinks you suckkkkk!")

-Zi-O II is here! Kinda ugly, but its powerset is so cool (and terrifying!) I've always thought the sword strikes creating clocks was always neat.

-Tsukuyomi being the one to go "Oh shit, maybe letting Sougo do that was a bad idea, we might have to actually kill him?" I remember being slightly miffed at this during my inital watch. (Tsuku's been willing to hear Sougo out since Episode 1! And we've already been toying with people lives, remember we brought Another Ghost's host back to life?! etc etc etc......) But like. I *kinda* get it now? Not 100% "oh yeah that makes sense", but I get it. Seeing Zi-O II breaking the established rules through sheer power is kinda terrifying, after all, it would def scare me into considering nipping the bud early before it blooms.

-The scene between Ookubo and Shinji is really sweet! Really made me smile.

-As a side tangent vaguely related to the episode, Rider Time Ryuki sure is a thing, hm.....While the rest of the Zi-O content I haven't seen is due to various factors (too busy/didn't know it was subbed/etc, etc, etc), RTR is something I chose to purposefully skip over. As for why...we'll save it for when we get there, when I'm hopefully proven wrong for avoiding it?

While it's definitely something the writers could've done a bit more to telegraph... like, I think that would've made it feel more like a recent development than the point this episode's trying to make. If we'd had a couple episodes of Darker Sougo, than the end of this episode would've felt more like he was just in some weird funk, but he's over it now. The point is that this was all in him, and the audience/the Time Orphans never knew it. It kind of needs to be a revelation for it to land?

Zi-O II's debut feels pretty earned! We've had a bunch of episodes all about Geiz inching closer to Geiz Revive, so here's the counter-balance arrival of Zi-O's upgrade form, but as a consequence of Sougo making peace with the parts of him that might become Oma Zi-O. Worked out well, I thought.

I mean, boy, I don't know that I viewed it that way? It's more about time moving on (some Geocities-ass website is going to get turned into mulch by Facebook and Google, that's just the world) than a knock against a part of Ryuki's series. Hell, they brought back Okubo! He's here specifically to restart ORE Journal with a happy and outgoing Shinji! That feels like Zi-O honoring a major element of Ryuki to me.

Maybe? I saw it more as the show not letting specifics (that it was already fairly lax about) get in the way of a Ryuki VS Ryuga conflict, and how that conflict could talk about how Sougo feared his growing power.

I mean, see above: I think that's sort of the point? Sougo had these thoughts and feelings inside him, but viewed them as Bad and Wrong and Not Him, just like Shinji did. (Shinji, who was famously a Big Happy Puppy Dog guy!) This wasn't supposed to be a story about Sougo's encroaching darkness or how he's turning into Oma Zi-O, it's about how we need to accept and process our darker impulses instead of ignoring them.

I didn't really touch on this, since I'm not totally sure how the show's going to justify this stance from her, but I'm mostly just glad it gives Tsukuyomi something to do other than be a worried Time Mom in every episode. Is it surprisingly brutal and bloodthirsty? Maybe! But I just want her to feel more integral than Uncle, which is not always how this show treats her.

They don't care about opinions of western audiences the tribute is about reflection of changing times of journalism media.

For better or worse, many news outlets have turned to social media as a source of information. No reason Ore Journal couldn't do the same.

Know what would've helped with that? Actually showing him have some darker impulses but choosing to ignore that they're very much something he has to deal with, rather than just pulling this out of nowhere. The closest we even get to that is Woz tempting him a couple times, of which Sogo just totally blows off anyway. Saying "Sogo totally was like this and you just didn't know it" isn't some surprising shock or added dimension to me; It's just there for the sake of the arc.

Definitely for the worse! I'm not sure it'd feel like a better tribute to Ryuki if ORE Journal was a hollowed-out newsroom run by Venture Capital jerks who are outsourcing all of their investigations to aggregation sites and making everything a slideshow! Feels like it'd be more of a bummer!

Beyond that, a chunk of this story is about dealing with emotional setbacks and trying to find a way forward. I'm not sure that works for Shinji if ORE Journal is a thriving enterprise? It needs to be imperiled in order to be saved, you know?

Well, things are heightened for the sake of this episode's story. I don't think we're supposed to believe that Sougo is constantly racked with homicidal whims or suicidal ideation, but won't let it show. It's that Sougo isn't an all-the-time happy good guy like the Time Orphans assume, because no one ever is. It's a story that's partially about them making assumptions about Sougo, not about them missing clues or anything. If he'd been Nearly Evil a bunch of times but overcame it, I'm not sure the Time Orphans could make a great case for trusting Sougo implicitly.

Huh. You know, I completely forgot that Zi-O II was a thing.

Part of me thinks that calling Zi-O's second form "Zi-O II" is hilariously underwhelming, but the other part of me is like Oh It's "Zi-O The Second" Like A Royal Lineage and I sort of appreciate it.