My wallet must've played a Trick Vent (reference!), since that chair is not THE chair, and my money gets to stay where it is for a little while longer. It's a good chair! I love that they have Blood Stalk (EDIT: and Night Rogue! I couldn't pick him out at first) lounging in it. It's just, you know... it's not the chair.

A reminder of The Chair:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/build/nrchair4.png

Somebody wants to find a version of The Chair that scales with Figuarts, I got room on my credit card and no sense of fiscal responsibility.

Yeah, and I like how the dragon whiskers align with it to give the impression of antennas in a sense. Speaking of the grill, Bandai should make a BBQ grill shaped like Ryuki's face. I am amazed Bandai has not done this yet and it has been 18 years. :lolol

Hey, since we're on the topic of Ryuki costumes, I keep forgetting to mention that Knight's whole Medieval Batman thing reminds me so much of the Batman character (I am not making this up) Knight:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...ightbatman.jpg

You can read more about Knight here. He's basically a British Batman. That design, the JLA Classified one, debuted a few years after Ryuki aired, and... I'm not saying Ed McGuinness cribbed it from Ryuki, but man. MAN. There're a lot of similarities in those designs, the way the chestplate and visor work, the bodysuit, the gloves... Very similar designs.

I am beyond proud of everyone on this forum that there's an entire straight page of this thread devoted almost exclusively to Scissors discussion. :lol

I mean, I wasn't watching it at the time, but I think the experience for me was pretty similar. I can barely begin to describe what a mark those two episodes left on me as someone getting into Kamen Rider. If you asked me what moments defined Rider to me as a new fan, only having watched a few episodes, I could give you three of them, not necessarily the three, but three big ones, and I'd tell you without hesitation they were...

https://i.imgur.com/paUikVql.png

...the inspiring determination of a man standing unflinching amongst the flames for the sake of people's smiles...

https://i.imgur.com/vPNCI5Xl.png

...the wonderful absurdity of a man on a motorcycle riding on a bridge made of robot octopuses that came from a vending machine...

https://i.imgur.com/3ugM1X4l.png

...and the trying emotional complexity of watching a man I should feel no sympathy for suffer a cruel and violent death.

Those are like, the absolute building blocks of what I love about Kamen Rider, and just how much it had to offer, and Scissors is right up there. With episode 2 of Kuuga, no less! The guy is genuinely that formative to me.

Why this one particular ORE moment is the one you disliked? Because it's too disastrous to be funny? (whole computer being sprayed with foam, slowing down the business). Well, Okubo (editor-in-chief) can't muster any enthusiasm either for Shinji, and he's probably gonna kick him out sooner or later, which will lead to...an important plot point later.

So it seems you, who doesn't hate characters like Shinji (she also quite pulls a Shinji from episode 4 to judge Ren badly), aren't immune to hating (well she has a name, but iirc wasn't mentioned yet here?) Auntie.... and you want to see not only less Yui but...also Ren?! I don't know if probably blame Inoue for the first time writing episode 7? (Ryuki's a Kobayashi series).

The bolded one was the one I asked yesterday, that you weren't able to answer.

Also btw, for one fugitive from mobsters, did you mean Sudo? It's you know, from Shinji, and he wanted to use Yui's relation to Shiro to gain an advantage in Rider War.

Yeah, Kitaoka is a scumbag narcissist, he only cares about getting perfect records for his job, regardless of his clients being guilty or not. That kinda reminds me of Hiiro from Ex-Aid who only cares about his achievements and records for his job (him being a surgeon), but Kitaoka has more chance of causing problems to society due to well, folks are being conviced by law because, well, they doing immoral things, but Kitaoka will let them continue their immoral stuff that he makes them completely free.

Kitaoka...still great even when he gets his ass kicked here?? Probably he can run away so fast because he's so tall lol. Shinji pinning him to the wall to call the others. Also him letting Shinji to ride together just to show off his achievements, I guess being a narcissistic scumbag lets you doing some good things, if only to boost yourself (like a sleazly politician trying to get publicity)....well (sarcastically) at the very least he asked him to wear a seatbelt first. Well, Kitaoka is a narcissistic scumbag, but do you think that him telling that the suit guys are from Sakaura company who beats him up because of him emblezzing money from as him being honest, or only to protect his reputation (to a guilible Shinji)? Another act of Shinji being someone righteous but immediately runs over to a situation instead of thinking it first. First he wants to punish Kitaoka for causing problems to him and the suits by pinning him and calling them, but when the suits are beating him up, Shinji helps Kitaoka instead because he thinks the beating is too severe that he may die.

Goro looks like a clear Rider material, with his fighting skills AND also a henshin pose, which kind of ruins some points of a plot later that Kitaoka's already shown as a Rider here....

Shoot Vent is like Ryuki's Strike Vent where it's a weapon that can finish monsters, but not a Final Vent. It's also a very dope weapon in games like PSX Ryuki. And for another thing, Zebraskull (the zebra monster) is the one non-Contract Monster playable in that game.

My problem of "Yui needs to smile more?" is that it contradicts the previous episode events (...Inoue!). She already smiles most of the time like in her conversation with Shinji (like even back then at episode 2 when the very first time they talk), well, the sole exception is at episode 4 where Shinji acted like an asshole. Which also brings me to the other pet peeve, Shinji calling her smiling weird as it's first time she smiled despite already seeing her smile numerous times before?!?! Other than that she also clearly smiles widely when welcoming Sudo to Atori. But nah here she suddenly acts cold and rude behavior here like freaking Squidward.

Kitaoka is a fantastic character, total scumbag but so charming at the same time. And Goro, man, I had such a huge crush on him when I watched Ryuki. Dude's really hot

Like, the whole thing is incredibly contrived (he sprays down the entire office, something that would take minutes of sustained action) and serves no narrative purpose. Why did that need to happen, when it doesn't really affect anything in the story? It's another Shinji Shouldn't Be Living There scene, sure, and that's a storyline, but it's too dumb to believe in. That's when comedy gets bad for me, when it's too ludicrous to buy into.

I got so mad seeing Auntie that everyone around suffered for it. She was, like, an AOE on me getting mad at the show.

No, sorry, I meant Kitaoka. Dude is on the run and happens to wander into the one tea shop he'd be recognized in? How was Auntie getting these people to all show up at once? Was Ren out there blocking traffic, pulling people out of their cars, pushing them into the tea shop?

Oh no!

Yeah, all true, it's not like she's a morose character previously. If some parental figure showed up, referred to me as a teenager, and took over my life, I don't think I'd be smiling much, either.

Mostly, though, the A Woman Should Smile More plot point is, like, intensely problematic. For a character like Auntie, that I was viscerally opposed to, to trot out that little pearl... I was maybe reflexively grasping for my Final Vent card.

Oh, he's a dreamboat. Can't whistle for shit, though. I can't tell if him whistling terribly is a joke, or the show thinks it sounds good/correct.

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODES 8 - 9

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki08.png

So good! It's so good right now on Ryuki!

Obviously, a lot of that is down to Kitaoka. Kamen Rider Scumbag is maybe one of my favorite secondary Riders of all time? After maybe three episodes? Every scene he's in kills, from his mentor relationship with Shinji, through his gross come-ons with Yui and Reiko, to his Don't Hate The Player shit with Ren. He's so perfectly smarmy, with his Greed Is Good ethos and his manservant and that he hates kids... why is it that everything that's horrible about Kitaoka is so awesome? (Honestly, I felt like a total asshole watching these episodes. Every time Kitaoka or Ren were dicks, which was so often, it was cracking me up. There's a point where Ren's being horrible to Shinji, when Shinji's been falsely imprisoned, and Yui goes "Leave him alone, Ren," and I out loud said to the show, "Do NOT leave him alone, Ren. Never leave him alone." I love it when Riders are awful to each other! That's what Ex-Aid did, and by God it's the right way to do it.) These two episodes are chock-a-block with Kitaoka, and they are sterling. Kamen Rider Scumbag forever.

The other big thing now, I guess, is the tea shop? We're there a lot now? Masked Rider Ryuki seems all-in on the tea shop, and I'm of two minds on it. (Also, why are they all reading maps when Shinji shows up late at night? Are they all taking a trip together? Who just kills time by looking at maps?) My gut reaction is Too Many Settings. We've already got ORE, do we really need another workplace for comedy? I still don't love Auntie, despite her schtick being toned down a lot, and I feel like we've got plenty of space to tell Shinji Is Bad At His Job stories with ORE. It feels redundant, I guess is what I'm saying. On the other hand, the tea shop scenes do an outstanding job of fleshing out the Ren/Shinji rivalry, so it's hard to be too mad that they exist. If anything, it makes it seem like maybe the ORE stuff should go? The tea shop, it just features more primary characters, seems more convenient for a lot of the Rider Battle storytelling. I don't know. I'm not loving them trying to do two workplace comedies in one show, and the tea shop just feels more economical, story-wise.

That said, holy shit am I not loving how the show's been using Yui. The more she's left out of the Rider Battle story, the more she's just some girl for Ren to feel protective of or Auntie to talk over, the more frustrated I get with seeing her. I don't want to feel like that! I liked Yui in the first few episodes! Since Ren and Shinji aren't doing a whole lot of monster fighting recently, and no one wants to clue her in on the Rider vs Rider stuff, it's like the show can't figure out what she's there for, so she gets the worst The Girl story beats. (It's not, like, Mai-from-Gaim bad, but it's getting to the point where she might as well be a literal object for men to protect and covet, like a sturdy cabinet, or a commemorative plate. She's barely a character right now!) Between spending all of her spare time staring at a picture of her brother and not saying a word when Kitaoka is an unbelievable creep, I'm not at all sure why the show is putting Yui in the doghouse.

If only she had got the kind of attention that Shimada got in part of this story. That self-date night! Hilarious. I probably could've watched another ten minutes of her having an incredibly romantic evening with a giant stuffed doll she won at an amusement park. It was, sincerely, better than just about any sequence Yui's been in since episode three. I'm glad the show's finding room to write fun stuff for one woman on this show...

Oh, hey, Rider fights, lemme talk about those for a minute. There, uh, aren't a lot of them in these two episodes. There's the Ryuki/Scumbag (I know he's got a different name but they ain't said it yet on the show so he's Kamen Rider Scumbag in my heart) fight, after Ryuki knocks out the last Mirror Zebra, and a minute or so of a Knight/Scumbag/Like A Mirror Boar Or Something fight at the end of episode nine. The Ryuki/Scumbag fight, that's the meaty one. I really like how each Rider (so far?) has a different color base suit. Big bright red, or green, or orange, plus a black suit for The Cool One. It's a great visual cue, that These Are The Riders. From that one-color base suit, there's plenty of room to layer on gears or vents or grills or whatever. It's a great, flexible, dynamic design philosophy. Oh, and the fight was great! Kitaoka comes off as a very weasley, intellectual character, so watching him beat the hell of Shinji rounds him out as an antagonist. He can be cunning, but he doesn't have to be. But, like, just because he can win in a fair fight doesn't mean he won't stack the deck (reference!) by cheating. It's... he's so great.

He's so great.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki09.png

You know if they ever remade Ryuki into something more comical akin to MMPR instead of something serious like Dragon Knight, I bet Shinji would be the yearbook photographer, Ren the Luke Perry wanna-be, and Kitaoka the smug yuppie-in-training who drives a green Jaguar to school. :lolol