Dude, give the man some time! He just posted his wrap up like 15 minutes before you posted and likely hasn't had a chance to reply to your post, which would have come in while he was working on his big wrap up posts.

I'm just asking, I never ask to reply ASAP. Just making sure before I act next.

I'm only one man! I'm doing my best!

Sure, Zolda's got a Strike Vent, but he's still a long-range fighter. It's like fighting games, y'know? Different fighters have different movesets, are good for different roles. In Ryuki, Tiger's a close-combat fighter, Ouja's a quick striker, etc. Zolda's thing is long-range attacks, and that's something Goro never concerned himself with. He's only one man! He's doing his best!

But Reiko's able to harness other people to get what she wants (I mean, Kitaoka), while Ren... you know, people skills aren't exactly in Ren's Card Deck.

Oh, I dug it! Her Contract Monster becomes a fan, forcing enemies into her blades? I thought it was neat.

I mean, that's the thing, I think it works better in the movie because it's a more accidental, regrettable choice. Yui dying (just dropping dead, out of nowhere) means that everything after that happens to her, not because of her. She's someone the plot acts on, not an autonomous participant. With the movie, she makes a conscious choice. She's active in her story. It's a tragic choice, and one with massive, unforeseeable consequences. I don't know. I'm always going to pick a version of a story that includes a decision by a character over one that doesn't.

Oh, and the movie tries to make Shinji culpable, with his staying inside being the reason a lonely Yui plays in Mirror World, but it's an absurd moment in the film. That... it's not something that even the most empathetic Rider could feel guilt over. He was a kid! It was raining! He didn't murder Yui by staying in!

But Miho's sister wasn't dead, she was just on ice. She was in cold storage until medicine advanced enough to find a cure for, uh... being stabbed with a broken bottle?

Speaking of

Anyway, thank you so much for these threads. I struggle a lot with explaining why I like kamen rider as much as I do, and these have help me a lot. Kamen Rider is a wonderful franchise about the exploration of power, heroism, and what is right. Ryuki from my understanding helped kick start the exploration of types of heroes. I think it's funny Kobayashi wrote two of the most influential kamen rider series (this and Den-o), both flipped the idea of what a kamen rider is. Really I'm kind of rambling here. Also pointing out that someone can still act like an asshole, but do heroic things is something you don't see a lot, especially not in the way it's done with Ren. I'm starting to realize Ryuki has a better exploration of heroism then a lot of "adult" superhero shows.

One of the weird benefits of working through all of the Phase 1 Heisei stuff and then doing Zi-O is that I can finally play this goddamn game I bought a year ago.

Aw, thanks! And thank you for sharing your thoughts! I only do these things to be able to talk with other fans about the shows I'm watching, so thanks for making this worth doing!

The craziest thing to me about Kobayashi and this show is that I think Ryuki succeeds in spite of a flabby structure and some lackluster worldbuilding, while her OOO series is perfectly constructed, and the villains are complex and memorable. I guess it shouldn't be "crazy", I'd hope that any writer would improve after ten years of work, but I maybe got too excited for Ryuki based on her other work?

It's, uh.

I've got that game.

Don't get too hyped for it.

To be fair, I played it enough to feel like I wasn't getting the full impact of the story... and to know that I wasn't depriving myself by not playing it for a while.

Congratulations on making it to the end of the Rider War! Your wish to watch more Kamen Rider will be granted.

Since you mentioned that show once, and I'll never have an another opportunity to ask/joke: Who is the better lawyer between Kitaoka and Saul Goodman?

Glad you ultimately liked Ryuki more than you didn't. I'm excited for the cellphone mage next (Magiranger?!).

Thanks! It's my main drive, and as the song goes, All We Need Is Drive!

But, man, I ended up spending a real long time with this show. I do my write-ups in Google Docs, and this series? Just the write-ups, none of the responses or board chatter? 86 pages. Agito was only 53. I wrote too many words about Ryuki, I think!

To commemorate that realization, I made this word cloud. I used some online tool. I hope they picked a relevant image for Ryuki!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...rdartryuki.png

Better is tricky, but I'm going to take it to mean "more likely to win quickly". In that case, Saul Goodman, by far. Kitaoka is a wealthy lawyer because he's a slow lawyer, and he's fine with dragging something out until he's wrung every penny out of his client. Saul is a hustler, a guy who's about flashy twists and shocking reveals, and he loves coming up with schemes. Saul likes the challenge, Kitaoka likes the spoils.

I cannot believe I had a real answer to that question.

(Also, Kim Wexler would bury both of them.)

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/exaid/misa21.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/exaid/misa22.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/exaid/misa23.png

It's a bit hard to tell if this -is- the case, but I really really like that it appears we used 'Shinji' more than 'Ryuki'. I think that's wonderful.