MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 20

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki20a.png

Wow, a really strong Shinji episode! That's dressed up like a really strong Ren episode! Neat!

If there's a thing I might always remember about Shinji, about why Ryuki is the star of this show, it's how mad he gets at Ouja (they just toss that out like he was wearing a nametag) for killing Gai (same, no idea who told them his name). Like, this is the flipside of the scene where Shinji is so glad Goro isn't dead that he forgets to be mad at being tricked. Gai was an asshole, who arguably got what he deserved. Live by the Forcing Riders To Kill Each Other, die by the Forcing Riders To Kill Each Other, you know? But Shinji is furious that Ouja took a life. It doesn't matter if that life was someone who literally no other Rider is crying tears over. It's that core Rider thing of all lives being worth saving, and it's an attribute that only Shinji seems to have so far. (Tezuka's a good guy, but he still ain't immediately fighting Asakura over Shibaura getting killed.) There's your regular heroism, and then there's Star Of The Show heroism. Between Shinji holding a little girl's hand even when they're both knocked out from last episode, to his untethered rage at Ouja in this one, it's a nice window into why Shinji's the lead. It's fun to stan for Shibaura or get obsessed with Tezuka's off-hours, but, for real, I'm watching this show for Shinji's story.

The rest of it this time, though, not bad! Throwing Ren and Asakura together is genius, and it's so intriguing that I don't mind that it's mostly padding. (Like, they don't really talk, and most of the middle of this one they're absent from.) The idea of why Ren is helping Asakura hangs over nearly every scene, and, again, it's super-smart to not really get anything out of Ren. Tezuka's got a theory, that Ren basically needs a different Ridder Buddy if he's going to be the killer Eri "needs” him to be. I... I wouldn't be mad if Tezuka guessed it 100% right, but I'm hoping there's more to it. As is, though, it's super fun to see Shinji furious and confused at Ren's actions, and Ren's disinterested Oh Are You Still Here look on his face in every scene with Shinji. Just some great, great character stuff with where those two are at right now.

The plot, too, it's nicely done. The gimmick of Asakura crashing the car but escaping through the mirror, tricking the cops into thinking he's dead, real clever. The cops don't exactly win any awards for competence in this one, but that trick from Ren and Asakura is a pretty believable reason for the police to call off the search. Plus, just a damn cool stunt. That car immediately explodes.

If there's a weakness in this one, it's down to some of the edits. I'm not sure anything in the show would be worth cutting away from a Kamen Rider Beach Battle, the most iconic of Kamen Rider fight scenes, but it sure as shit wasn't worth it for a crumb of a nugget of a wisp of Yui's childhood backstory. I'm sure it's information that'll be valuable eventually, but I did a full ARE YOU KIDDING ME when they cut from Ouja and Ryuki squaring off to Yui walking out of a photo lab. Like, who in the world is not going to be frustrated with that editing?! It's Riders fighting on a beach. You don't cut away from that unless it's to different Riders fighting on a different beach. Read the room!

But, yeah, still a really good episode, and a great exhibition of why Shinji's the heroic lead in a show full of Riders.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki20b.png

Already covered by Fish Sandwich above for the "hypocritical" part :p. And if it isn't really a big deal, Shinji and Tezuka shouldn't be really overly concerned either of stopping the Rider War. Especially that the source (Shiro) is clear and known, unlike the global pandemic. He rules over monsters as well, Riders and monsters being connected in this series, monsters exist for Riders to contract to and the other monsters to feed their contracts, otherwise they eat humans (including their master, as a motivation to keep TATAKAE), it's not a natural phenomenon like pandemic.

I think that her fighting (actually what fight?) Mirror Monsters together with Ren feels redundant for some reason. Her ability currently shown and utilized there is to see and detect Mirror Monsters, but all Riders (or anyone possessing card Deck) already has that too. For italic one, more like it's from Scissors kidnapping her before, she doesn't really have a transportation other than Ren's bike (Ren witnessed the kidnapping, Shinji's bike is 1 seater), she has to take a cab (so expensive in Japan) in ep. 11. And I can't call investigating for Shiro being a non-important plot part because well, he's the one behind Riders and Monsters at the first place and keeps commanding them via Rider War, that also actually lowkey defies her friend's insistence to keep her in the restaurant and stay safe, but now her path strays from them.

Well, performance is the most subjective part, your mileage may vary, just don't want the other part of her to be dismissed. But, didn't you also complain about her being mildly inconvenienced by her circumstances when Gai "kidnaps" her, yet you don't like her mourning for Riders and others (like Emu scenario below) who suffer from tragedies caused by her brother (because for you it's, and to an extension Rider War, isn't a big deal)? The Gai one is a terrible scene for sure, but you seem contradict yourself here.

Well that's, standard toku stuff vs normal people stuff. Turn into Reiko in what part? Yui is just more emotional than Reiko (which makes her seem more whiny), because she's more people-oriented, feeling the suffering of the victims and wants to stop the Rider War (like Shinji and Tezuka). Reiko is a task-oriented person, can slip into Ren (minus the violence) territory sometimes, especially when Inoue writes. But even when emotional she's still persistent and won't stop, the tragedies won't hold her back. About the overlapping part, the investigation is also connected to their roles; Yui has all the answers Reiko is seeking for (but she's someone who gets called a freak by talking about that stuff) but Yui goes for the one instigating the suffering to find a way to stop it.

Oh right, Shinji being concerned about Gai's death is more shown here, reminds me of Emu crying to Kuroto's death (though I don't really like that Kuroto gains sympathy just because he's human). And Tezuka probably seems just doesn't care about Gai's death, even if he aims to change every Rider. Shinji IS the main, but sadly a good number of people consider Ren the main character for some reason.

A new flavor for Ren yeah, though this is one of the most dirty things he did. Ren is no psychopath and can't kill humans, but he can and will dirty his hands to win the Rider War (stealing a police car, letting a fugitive run amok). Why do you call that padding? It's just another extension of Ren's character like Tezuka talking him out, but in a bit of a new flavor.

And if part of the reason Shinji thinks Rider War is pointless because he (again, have to give credit for him to be the only one who may consider that, not the other smarter, less-naive Riders) thinks that Shiro is only manipulating the Riders, what makes Tezuka think Rider War is pointless? He knows that Rider War's winner will be granted a wish, and he thinks Shiro knows what he's doing too. From the Scissors experience up until now, Shinji should just realize this, as Tezuka said, Shiro specifically chooses morally ambiguous people as Riders as they are more willing to do whatever it takes and kill to do their job.

Speaking of Tezuka, he deserves thousand medals for this (man you should've posted this one as your episode screenshots)

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...714/cicing.png

Yeah, a clever way to utilize the Mirror stuff to your advantage. Like how Scissors utilized that to keep himself guilt-free by purposely eating every witnesses for his crime, treating it like how people disappear to regular monsters. Sadly this Asakura's gimmick won't stick for long, and being a Rider would likely protect you from the explosion anyway. Though as a car enthusiast, I don't really like the media's portrayal of cars being so easy to explode, I can tolerate them being performed but just like I don't want irl people to think that way of cars too (except Ford Pinto), a good number do.

Beach battle is the most iconic? Anyway talking about the battle, it shows again where Ryuki can gain upper hand to Riders like Ouja, and he did it a bit in the first part of the episode too (though it's probably the first time Shinji fiercely fights back that the opponent is off-guard by the "pacifist") means that the showing in consistent. But people probably just have it for kind characters and just undermine Shinji in everything, like "kindness is weakness" (when you're kind you will be more likely to let people step over you like in fights) mindset.

Not sure if this vindicates anyone, but it’s worth pointing out that in a toyline dedicated to doing notable female characters in Super Sentai that branched out into Kamen Rider for two waves, Yui was in neither of the two waves. And the characters who are are ones I can’t vouch for on popularity

https://powerrangers.fandom.com/wiki...der%20Vol.%201

If they were only going to do one from Ryuki, Miho was the right choice.

But, like, these are all problems the show created. She's useful to Ren in the first two episodes, and then the show's like, Nope, Irrelevant. She could own a car, or a motorcycle, or a goddamn bus pass. She used to get to go with on adventures, and now she just works at the tea shop, and has her own plots. She doesn't get to hang out with the boys unless it's to be concerned about them.

Even then, like, that's not how this show started. There was a decision made at a production level that Yui Doesn't Get To Go To Fights Anymore. And I don't know that Shinji and Tezuka are insisting she stay behind because of her value as Shiro's sister, at least as far as I remember. For one, most people don't know she has any relation to the mirror ghost handing out Card Decks. (Tezuka just figures it out in this episode.) For another, I think the discussion that led to Yui being in the Narrative Penalty Box was that she didn't approve of Rider Battles, so they'd stop telling her about them. Unfortunately, the whole goddamn show right now is about Rider Battles, so Yui might as well not be in it.

I mean, look, when I say the Rider Battles aren't that big of a deal, I mean it more that things can be stressful, but not all-encompassing. It feels like every Yui scene lately is about how she's Sad About Shiro or Sad About Ren or Sad About Shinji. If the show find time for some other way to utilize Yui (like, Tezuka/Shinji scenes get to have a lot of different looks to them) or the actor found a different way to sell her storyline (Ren's actor finds so many different shades to his brooding, it never feels repetitive), I'd have less to complain about. Between the show not giving her many story options, and the actor playing it all the same way, I find her scenes tiresome.

Also, to be honest, I'm having a hard time parsing that paragraph. What do you mean about me contradicting myself with the Gai kidnapping scene?

(Plus, I'd love to stop talking about Yui! I don't know how I spent so much time thinking about maybe my least favorite character on this show and explaining what's not working for me, but I'm okay to move on from this! Don't love complaining about this show! This show is a good show!)

I think, for Tezuka, while he does want to change Riders' fates, he also knows how impossible that is. It's not going to keep him from trying, but he's also not going to be too crushed if he fails. I feel like the effort, the value of trying to save someone's future, that's a lot of what his character is to me.

Yeah, the Ren thing, I sort-of get it. Ren's a brooding bad boy, that's almost always going to appeal more than a goofy hero like Shinji.

It's padding to me because the show doesn't do a ton with it, there's just the nighttime escape from the cops, then the next scene with them is the daytime car explosion. There's not a lot with the two characters storywise, and it's there to create space to have the other characters react to events. In and of itself, there's not much story between Asakura and Ren. It's a story that exists more in the imagination (what's Ren doing, why is he doing it, what's Asakura going to do) than it does on screen.

Beach Battle is the most iconic. If a Rider's ever going to fight another Rider on a beach, or even just a lieutenant-or-above villain, it's going to be a big one. That's a Feelings Fight. No more iconic venue for a Kamen Rider fight scene. Very heavy iconography, that landscape.

Now, this, I can't do anything but agree with wholeheartedly. Ryuki absolutely nails making it clear why Shinji is THE Kamen Rider of the show, which is something important for any huge multi-Rider show to get right. You never want it to feel like they could swap out the name in the title and have it still make as much sense. There's just no question that Shinji's values make him the logical candidate for the starring role.

One of my favorite moments in all of Ex-Aid (which I seem to have on the brain a lot lately!) comes from episode 3, where the concept of the Life Gauge is first made a point of. Hiiro and Taiga deem the situation too risky, but Emu charges into a hail of gunfire to keep a promise he made to a child. That scene (especially thanks to Kouichi Sakamoto's weighty direction) forever sold on me on Emu, and it was all because he was asking the question the star of any show with a ton of other Riders should: What Would Shinji Do?

Yeah, I think it's cool that the other hero Riders have people they'll protect (Eri, Yui), or they want to prevent violence, but it's literally only Shinji who mourns the death of Shibaura. I think this show maybe does a better-than-usual point of the sanctity of life, what with the central premise of the show being Fight Or Die. (Pretty sure I just made that up, don't think it's been on the show at all.) With all of the shades of grey, the equivocation and whatnot, there needs to be one character at this point who's, like, No. Every life is precious.

...but now I've got to finish writing about Episode 21, which may or may not undercut the point I just made!

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 21

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki21a.png

The Shinji and Ren stuff in this episode... fantastic. Smart and nuanced. A storyline that gives weight to seeing other perspectives, to allowing your mind to change. It's pretty much all I want to talk about from this one.

A few non-Shinji/Ren bullet points, first.

-Two contract monsters for Asakura?! I love it. I love how that dude makes it look like he's playing on Easy Mode compared to everyone else. I guess it shouldn't be a surprise that a Homicidal Lunatic would perform better in battling than, if I can remember them all, a Dying Lawyer, a Fortune Teller, a Programming Student, a Corrupt Cop, a Journalist, and Whatever Ren Does, but it's really not looking good for the other Riders. The most violent dude is now twice as powerful.

-I super don't want to be that guy, and I ain't gonna dwell on it, but I'll mention that once Tezuka gets involved in the search for Shiro, Yui literally has to wait outside of her own goddamn plotline, doubled over in fear. Just... this show! It's doing it to me on purpose!

It's all the Shinji and Ren stuff that works so good, though. Real smart writing.

A lot of it is based around Shinji, and his struggle with the weight of the Rider Battles. With the reveal to him of Eri's predicament, and Ren's vow to save her, his whole Riders Shouldn't Fight thing comes off as myopic and insensitive. Even Tezuka's like, People got problems! You don't know, Shinji! It's something Shinji spends the rest of the episode puzzling over. How can he ask Ren to stop fighting if it's to save a life? But how can he support Ren, knowing that's endorsing murder? (Including, y'know, his own!) It's to the show's credit that it doesn't give an easy answer. Moreover, it reframes some of Shinji's earlier declarations of Rider's Shouldn't Fight as naive and condescending. In a very Shinji way, he jumped in, quickly made up his mind, and then forcefully stuck to his guns. Even as it drove Ren away, he felt sure of his principles, and safe in his views. He spends a lot of time in this episode feeling uncertain, and it's smart to have Shinji lean into that uncertainty, to suggest he doesn't know enough, to try and understand Ren's point-of-view better.

And, weirdly, that becomes the key to (maybe?) redeeming Ren. There's a great scene with Ren and Asakura, where Ren sort-of serves up Shinji, telling Asakura to fight him first. When Asakura wonders if it's because Ren has a beef with him, Ren admits it's because he doesn't that he needs Shinji gone. I love that. I love that Ren thinks his problem is that people like Shinji want him to be better, and that's holding him back. They've got a view of him that he doesn't want to be, and the more he tries to be the person they want, the less likely he is to save Eri. With Shinji gone, it's pure self-negation for Ren. No one judging him, not one wanting him to be safe, to be kind. He can just fight.

But Shinji nails the big hero move by meeting with Ren and saying that he was wrong. He doesn't have all the answers, he didn't know what Ren was going through, he didn't know why he was fighting. He thought the Rider Battles were some cruel decision Ren was making, not the only hope of a dying woman. He doesn't have that in his life, that kind of relationship, so he can't really know what Ren's going through. He can't judge him, but he can try to understand him. He'll fight him, to try and see what Ren sees, to understand why he's fighting.

It's a huge swing for the show, what with Ren 100% throwing in with a murderous fugitive last episode, but I think it works beautifully. It starts episodes back with Tezuka forcing Ren to be honest with himself, with who he is and what he wants, and then it sticks the landing by making Shinji acknowledge who Ren is and what Ren wants.

Some of my favorite Rider stories are ones that refuse to be didactic, that aren't about clear right and wrong, that value the idea of understanding, of empathy, of suggesting that sometimes people disagree and that's okay. It's refreshing to have a hero realize he acted rashly, and in doing so hurt a friend. And to have the emotional climax of a storyline be I Didn't Understand What You Were Going Through But I'd Like To Try... that is 1000% my jam.

All of that arc, it's perfect to me. I get the decisions Ren and Shinji made, and I love that the show took its time resolving their conflict. I like that it needed time, you know? That it wasn't a one episode Ren Is Bad followed by Ren Is Good Again. It's fulfilling. I feel good about how this plotline went.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki21b.png

It's vexing me trying to attach this meme

Attachment 57051

...And this is actually the other reason I think Shinji works so great as Ryuki's lead. He can have his cool moments defeating monsters, and you can admire his dedication to saving people, and that's all great. But with the nature of this show, the story it wants to tell, and what that story wants to say, if it were just him going around unchallenged in his beliefs the entire series, and we were expected to just go along with it, the whole thing would fall apart.

Being able to add that... honesty, I guess, to the narrative, to take this very obviously heroic character, and start saying "hey, maybe this guy's chronic self-righteousness is actually kinda a problem?", I can't stress enough how smart that was. Not only does exploring Shinji as a more flawed character ensure the kind of "gray and gray" drama the story needs, making it a direct outgrowth of the same traits that make him a hero keeps him sympathetic, and keeps him in a spot where you can still root for him, preventing the show from becoming too dour.

The question the show asks is less "Is Shinji a hero?", and more "What good is Shinji being a hero doing anyone?", which is infinitely more clever and interesting in my book.

Also, just for Die's benefit, since he's not using those subs, I should probably explain that if anyone ever talks about Asakura and his habit of being "vexed" by things, it's because that's how TV-Nihon translated his catchphrase, and it kind of left an impression on a lot of fans.

That's a really good way of putting it. There's an interrogation the show is doing, and it's a nice outgrowth of how the show started with Shinji. In the beginning, we were seeing a Kamen Rider built in real-time. The choices Shinji made, the things he learned, the definition of his heroism, we got to see it all come together. Now, in the next ten or so episodes, we get to see that construction tested, challenged. That earlier work, as fun as it was to watch... this is the pay-off. This is why you tell a story this way.

Riders fighting... I mean, I like it, it's fun. I like seeing superheroes and supervillains fight. I got simple tastes. But this, with Riders having fundamental but valid disagreements about the value of heroism, with Riders demonstrating the worthiness of self-examination and the difficult necessity of empathy... it's what I maybe watch Kamen Rider for?

Thanks! I did not get that meme! (My subs have him saying "pissed", which, way more natural to read, but way less funny.) It's a good meme, though. Thanks, AkibaSilver!

I know this is vexing (and l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶T̶e̶z̶u̶k̶a̶ I have predicted this scenario anyway from the beginning of your watch), but don't misjudge me, I talk about everyone as much as I can (and by chance there are deep reasonings about that last one), and also even little things from the episodes (well, you sorta kinda also do in your episode reviews). And for another is that I think you and your opinions may (so CMIIW) have a good influence on Tokunation board here (at least for Toku discussion) as an...KR expert?

What I meant for Shinji there, it's more like how some people find Shinji as utterly useless, incompetent, and unlikable for being (seemingly) utterly failing to actually stop the fighting where nobody listens to Shinji so far, Riders keep dying despite all he does, him being a pacifist even in a situation where he shouldn't be for constantly getting his ass kicked by other Riders, and being totally indecisive of what he does like you cover in ep. 21 here. They mainly blame Shinji's stupidity, naivety, and annoyingness for all of this and just prefer the easy way of solving the war by simply killing every other Riders (which Ren is in process of). I keep trying to get Shinji's good traits recognized like being the only one to deduce that Shiro only manipulates them and his performances vs Ouja before. What I find weird is that Tezuka doesn't get as much hate for this (he doesn't possess most of the Shinji qualities there, but he still like you said there, seemingly utterly failed to change the Rider's fate). And also more importantly, for something that happened later in the series.

Ren eventually opens up a bit and reveal his wish to give Eri full recovery, though his attitude and mindset wouldn't change much (at least on how he acts).

So this is a recurring trait for some of the other KR series eh...

So, Asakura's deck trait is that he has more than 1 Contract card. Like before where Raia has Copy Vent, and that Gai has Confine Vent. I think even when Ouja contracts other monsters, he still only has 1 weapon for each monster he contracted so it balances it out (Sword Vent for Venosnaker, Strike Vent for Metalgelas, like he doesn't have Guard Vent, Nasty Vent, etc. But Ouja can still compensate for that for more Advents and Final Vents though. I imagine though what if Ouja picks a better monster as a second contract when he just Final Vents Metalgelas who keeps seeking him for revenge), someone who gives more than just one weapon....that is REAL not looking good.

Also their battle, is one of the rare cases where someone's long time for henshin actually bites them in the ass. Let's talk about how Asakura smashes Shinji with a metal pipe while he's posing. So much that Ryuki is actually powerless to Ouja this one time. I have to also talk about Darkwing saving Ryuki from Ouja's Final Vent, didn't Darkwing get hurt at all? Or Darkwing hits Ouja's body instead of his legs (the attack)? Either way IMO this makes Ouja's Final Vent seemingly weaker. For Ren, your nickname for him should be "Unemployed".

Now yeah, here comes the REAL struggle for Shinji, someone who desperately tries to keep everyone alive. Like Shiro said in ep. 19 "No one has a right to stop that" because the Riders are figthing on their wish. He has a huge hesitation for trying to stop the "pointless fighting" or controlling someone's life like denying their wish. Aside from that I truly think that stopping the war is nigh-impossible in this setting, I mean Shiro specifically chooses morally ambiguous people to participate in the War, that talking them over is just impossible (they stomp on idealism mindset, and some are just irredeemable), and this is one thing I want to bring in; even if the characters stop fighting, they will be eventually eaten by their Contract Monsters for that, again indirectly killing them (either Shiro's choice or when Mirror Monsters are wiped out). Stopping the Rider War seemingly is fully Morton's Fork and a single most impossible task. But unfortunately people misunderstand that and just label Shinji as indecisive coward ._.

I feel like now that also rubs off to Tezuka, he doesn't know what to do (apart from ep. 19 where he told Ren just to give up on Eri).

Not the key to redeeming Ren, but it's more like Ren is already shown to have limits on his douchebaggery. Like remember when he constantly calls Kitaoka out for his behavior, calling him the biggest scum and being sick of him because of that? He feels the same for Asakura, he also feels that he's too much of a dick for even Ren. And him "helping" Shinji is also already shown before, when he agrees to help bail out Shinji from prison (even when he pretends not to care about him), and helping him out a bit after Gai steals Ryuki's card, to the point that Tezuka pretty much calls him a tsundere.

Other than that, he also thinks that Shiro is only manipulating the Riders and won't actually fulfill what they want. I mean he instantly deduces in ep. 5 that Riders fight to get a wish at the end. But understanding Ren more allows him to put aside that mindset? Were him telling Ren that Shiro is a liar stems from him not being that understanding of him?

I know you asked me to stop but will answer this one; I meant that you expect her to act like how you're supposed to act in that situation (which would mean, being in anguish? which is what you're against).

Yeah, it... I guess it's frustrating to me, to feel like I'm focussing so much energy on, basically, the one thing that isn't working for me. I feel like it's disproportionate. I don't hate Yui or her plots, it's that I feel like they're squandering some interesting ideas, and that the actor maybe is making some poor choices. There's not a part of these shows I don't like thinking about, or analyzing, but all of this Yui stuff... it was becoming a poison to me. I don't know. I'm absolutely still going to talk about Yui, don't get me wrong, but there was moment where I was like How Did This Become My Life. Just a minor freak-out.

Also, yeah, definitely put a question mark at the end of "KR expert". If I'm lucky, I can talk about this stuff in a way that gets smarter fans to chime in. Thinking I've got more to offer than that, I wouldn't dare. But thanks!

Huh. I didn't know that that was how Shinji was perceived by fans. Seems sort-of unfair? He's a guy that's trying to fight monsters and save lives while everyone else tries to kill each other. I feel like that makes everyone else in the wrong, not Shinji.

Yeah, and (this is really more of a next episode thing) that's smart of the show, to keep Ren still being an asshole. I don't want nice, smiling Ren, ever. Even in his pre-Rider flashback, he's an introverted asshole. I like the way the show balances his desire for friends, for connections, with him just being a surly misanthrope in his core. I like that this is the best Ren we'll probably ever get!

That was legitimately awesome. I'm not a huge fan of Kamen Rider trying to play with the reality of henshins, of calling out how long or elaborate they can be. I love elaborate henshins, even if the idea of them happening preceding/in the midst of a life-or-death battle is maybe too fantastical. So, no, I don't want people to interfere with henshins, generally. This time, though, it's funny and in-character enough that I dug it. I really liked Asakura jumping Shinji to get an advantage.

Yeah, I don't think Shinji has nearly enough information to say what Shiro is capable of doing for the winning Rider. I think it's a mix of his distrust of Shiro and his lack of experience that has him dispute Shiro's powers. If I got a deck of magic cards (not Magic cards, but powerful cards) from a mirror ghost and it allowed me to summon a monster and transform into a superhero and fight in a Mirror World... if that mirror ghost was like, I Also Grant Wishes, I don't think I'd doubt him? I think Shinji is being a little small-minded and a lot judgemental.

It's still cool to talk about this! I don't want to make any Ryuki stuff off-limits. Feel free to bring up whatever you want to talk about.

I think, in general, there's ways of mixing emotions to make the scenes feel real, to feel like there's something to explore in the performances. Every Ren scene is a mix of a ton of different emotions. Every Shinji scene has different places it goes to, from comedy, to drama, to anger, etc. Yui scenes... I get that she could be sad, I get that her life isn't great, but I feel like the monotony of Yui Is Sad doesn't have enough variations, either to it or to other types of things Yui gets to experience, to not feel like it's a letdown.

I'm not sure I'm answering your question? I don't know. Yui... there's a bunch there that's not working for me right now.

Can't believe we didn't turn this into a Dragon Knight thread for April Fools day. I have as much to say about that as I do Ryuki (that is, nothing), but would have been fun for the, like, one Dragon Knight fan I'm sure lurks here.

oh my god i totally should've posted about dragon knight episode 21 yesterday

that is such a good idea

i will never get a chance to do it again

oh my god

this broke my mind

i cannot believe i missed this chance

oh my god

i am so mad right now

god damn it

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 22

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki22a.png

This is another one where I pretty much just want to talk about the direction. The story's solid, there's some good and some bad, but there's some incredibly dynamic compositions that I think are worth discussing.

Other than the direction:

-There's a What Everyone's Fighting For thing, the people in their lives that drive them and they want to protect, that whole thing is a huge part of the episode. We get Goro/Kitaoka, Reiko/Shinji, Yui/Ren, and Yuichi/Tezuka. That element, it gives a nice thread to tie in all of the various Riders' fears, how the Battles have collateral damage, how they mitigate that with heroism or with isolation. Thematically, it's a little downbeat (everyone's got something to lose/have lost), but it's a nice change from the last few episodes of Being Worried About Ren. This one spreads out the impact, making it feel more like an ensemble. It's a good change of pace.

-I'm that guy, I guess! Boy, Tezuka has just completely hijacked Yui's plot, hasn't he? All we get with her in this one is everyone declaring the need to keep her out of everything, and her insisting that she wants to stay in. Just... they are just giving her nothing...

But! The direction! It's so good. There're several scenes and shots that delivered something special, made the story pop.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki22b.png

Everything in the Tezuka/Shiro confrontation... oh, man. Every single shot leveraged the mirror setup to make things alternately infinite and enclosed. There's an endless array of Shiros and Tezukas, but there's also frames keeping them locked in place. It's not only a very fun way to have a largely repetitive dialogue scene (Why Are You Doing This Shiro straight into Fight Or Die) but it's a great way to enforce the stakes and rewards of the Rider Battles. You can have anything you want, but you've got no choice other than fighting. The direction is doing all of the heavy lifting in that scene.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki22c.png

Yui's dreams, with the melting/burning film, really interesting montage. I especially liked how the next Tezuka fortune-telling scene was with a match, linking together those visuals. Clever!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki22d.png

I didn't love the content of the Yui/Ren night time talk. It's Ren telling Yui to leave it alone, to leave it to the Riders. Yui's only real push back is a vague But I Can't. If ever there was a point for Yui to reassert her importance to the story, to be more than a damsel, this was it. She doesn't, and it's another missed opportunity for the character to feel vital. But! That whole scene is shot gorgeously, with the cool blue of the moonlight soaking the room, letting the emotions feel suffused, enveloped by stillness. The whole scene happens like a secret, with Ren's newfound peace feeling like an olive branch to Yui's desperation, a small moment where the two of them feel like close friends again. I hated what they were saying, but I loved how they said it.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki22e.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki22f.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki22g.png

This pullback, when Tezuka says that he's the next Rider fated to die! So great. A lot of the episode is built around Tezuka, his backstory, his motivation. It's a good time for it, with him being the hero Rider we know the least about. Ren's pretty much sorted, at least for now, so it's good to drill into Tezuka's story a bit. The big pullback shot, it's a nice touch, in that it uses the melodramatic language of Tezuka's story. He's... stoically theatrical, if that makes any sense. He's a very Big Concepts kind of guy. Capital letter feelings and ideas. Like, not fate, but Fate. If Shinji's hard rock, and Ren is metal (or, really, emo), then Tezuka is opera. Tezuka's the guy that is fighting the inevitability of fate. That's not a small thing to try and do! So, yeah, his story needs these big camera moves, the really stylish stuff. It's useful in giving his scenes an identity.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki22h.png

This last one, it's a little thing, but I really liked it. There's a point in the Goro/Asakura sidewalk standoff where a train passes by. It's all over a couple of shots, whizzing by over Goro's shoulder, in a reflection, shading Asakura. For a frozen moment, there's this motion, right in the buildup to a fight. It's all implied energy. It's a dynamic addition to that faceoff.

This whole episode, man, it's full of smart touches. Really had a good time just watching this one.

Hey if you ever decide to go do Showa Era Kamen Rider shows and specifically Black RX you can do an episode for Masked Rider for April Fools so it not a complete loss.

One of the things I really love about Shiro as a villain is that he's so convinced of his course of action that he literally cannot fathom any other points of view. The main reason he gives Tezuka the Survive card is because he assumes that the only reason Raia isn't Final Venting the other Riders left, right, and center is because he thinks he's too weak. So he gives Tezuka the card under the assumption that he'll use the power to start taking out the competition. Shiro just cannot wrap his head around the concept that someone in the game wouldn't want to murder all of the other players. I've always found that aspect of the character fascinating.

No, don't do that. Never watch Masked Rider, not even for an April Fools joke.

Ehhh, seems unlikely. I don't truck with Showa. This was the one time it could've happened and I blew it. So mad right now!

There's a way that the show plays with Shiro's focus that's interesting, where he's both bloodthirsty and cold-blooded. Every scene with him and another Rider is basically a How Can We Put You In A Murder Fight Today sales pitch. Some people, it's a reminder of their ticking clock. Some people, it's an appeal to their rage. Some people, it's a promise of a reward. Dude's a fan of Rider Battles, I guess.

If he is, it's news to me too. I don't generally hear Shinji talked about in a particularly negative light... or that often at all, I guess.

If sharing the pain makes you feel any better, it was around this time last year I realized I could've done a joke review of a Power Rangers Zeo episode in the thread for that week's Zi-O. I know it's hard at first, but you move on eventually. :lol

Than allow me to chime in that 22 and 23 are directed by Hidenori Ishida, just so we all know where the credit is due. Actually, I think I'm just going to keep bringing up names anytime you call specific attention to the direction, if that's cool? It's probably not the most exciting information in the world, but I feel like it's only natural to bring it into a conversation praising the visuals of an episode.

it hurts so bad, still

and i did it to myself

it's like i stabbed myself in the heart

just, goddamn

It is totally cool! I have a real blindspot when it comes to creatives for Kamen Rider. I think if I was able to read the credits, I'd be a little more cognizant of who does what. As it is, I'd need to go to the Wiki for that info, and... I'm sort-of trying not to do that, because a lot of their posts assume you've watched every Kamen Rider thing. It's stupid typical for them to start a recap entry with:

"I Can't Believe A Nice Guy Is A Villain!" is the twentieth episode of Kamen Rider Example. It features the final appearance of Kamen Rider Implication, until his return as Kamen Rider Inference.

Just, always one thing per series recap where they blow a surprise or something, so I can't risk it.

So, yeah, feel free to add names and dates and stuff as necessary!

Yeah, Kamen Rider has never really cared about spoilers in episode titles, especially when it comes to character death. Tackle's last episode on Stronger was more or less called "Tackle Dies!"

Western Media: "A big twist happens this episode, be sure to watch and find out what it is, before you see it spoiled the instant you step onto social media!"

Anime and Toku: "So this episode is called 'A New Form! Survive!', and it's where Naruto gets his new form.'

https://i.imgur.com/HXIo54e.png
https://i.imgur.com/jOvhQxU.png

It's a weird cultural thing, maybe, in storytelling. In America, once you hit the plot point, people sort-of tune out, they got what they came for. In Japan, maybe it's more of the curiosity of how something happens, why it happens.

Like, in an American superhero story, you find out Captain America dies, that's all people need to know. Cap died, that's it. Doesn't matter what the story is, that's the important part. (I cannot tell you how many more people watch YouTube videos where someone spoils a comic than would read the story in the comic. Multiples, for sure.)

In a Kamen Rider story, I feel like the emphasis is more on Hey Don't You Want To See How This New Form Happens. Toei's constantly using magazines to promote new characters, costumes, powers. It must cause fans to check in, to see why something happens, or they wouldn't promote it that way.

Weird. Never really considered how cultural expectations or idiosyncrasies would alter promotional strategies. Huh!

Oh no! I was only up to episode 23 of Headmasters! YOU MONSTER.

Yeah, though I feel for KR expert, gotta be open-minded for the talks.

And I want to also point out your previous complaint that makes me chuckle now; about her "begging a mirror ghost for answers", then few next episodes have Shinji and Tezuka doing the exact same thing.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...11600/ask1.png
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...66426/ask2.png
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...12634/ask3.png

And for Shiro, I have to tell you that he didn't only create the Riders/monsters and leave them be (like Banno to Roidmudes). He also has complete control of them if he wants, even better than Riders controlling their Contract Monsters, like Agito's Overlord of Darkness over Unknowns. He didn't simply give the Decks. Stopping him/Rider War would mean him deactivating the Riders and halting the Mirror Monsters so that humans will be safe from Mirror Monsters by then, or simply just close the Mirror World. He has bigger influence than you think and IS all-encompassing regarding Rider/Mirror stuff. But unfortunately going after him is just like talking the Riders down...

Obviously that's unfair for Shinji. And I don't think they really care about someone being in right or wrong (probably Shinji being in right even accounted to that), they just don't like flawed heroes (he's the down of his luck loser type like Ryotaro).. They don't care about the efforts, only the results (if their efforts are in vain it's like not making an effort at all to them, which Shinji is to them). Like you know there was Androzani84 in page 3 thinking that way about him. Can't talk further about this due to spoilers. And same here, wants Ren to retrain his default personality (though he does develop), but that can be used as a proof that Shinji doesn't accomplish anything (like him still fight-heavy)...

Well, most of the time in this series (and some of the other series too), people henshin together, so both party has to complete their elaborate henshin at the same time and can't interfere with the others. So, lesson taken is that you should wait for the opponent Rider to henshin too before you henshin.

I mean Shinji should get credit for this instead of you (someone who like him) labeling him as small-minded. I feel that he distrusts Shiro because of him being creepy and evil, not how he's incapable of doing so. There are no reason to believe that Shiro isn't lying to them (lying as in, giving false hope), so it may show that everyone but Shinji are actually all gullible, insane idiots (because murdering people because a man in a mirror told you that you'd get a wish is insane).

Well yeah I get it now, so here you talk about how her emotions are less varied compared to Ren or something. I think before you came across as not wanting her to show any grief or something when witnessing tragedies while ironically you want her to when "in danger" because of Gai. I can't think of the solutions about this though.

Shinji and Reiko's interaction for some reason makes Shimada think he's possessed by an evil spirit (he just matures! don't ignore character development, in-universe characters or fandom!). So Shimada's weirdness can be...dangerous here, with her inadvertently harming an innocent. I would talk about this more if this place is spoiler free because it's hilarious to think about what happened in Ryuki movie compared to this one.

I also want to talk about the fight of Ryuki/Knight vs Ouja at the beginning; so Mirror World time limit can cease the fight like Ryuki vs Scissors before and save someone in certain situation. It's shown to have a psychological effect too, look at Shinji. Ren, and Asakura's situation after this. And Asakura is the one eventually "lost" as he collapsed. And now this is another problem Rider War causes, with Shiro choosing Asakura, an unrepentant criminal. With him gaining Rider powers, now society is in even bigger problem with the fugitive having higher chance to create chaos and/or getting away scot-free with his powers! (Oh wait Scissors also did, with him using Volcancer to get away scot-free from his crimes. Gai isn't part of this because somehow he can be a threat without Riders/Mirror stuff with his games). Now polices are utterly powerless to him as Ren remarked. But I also want to ask how Ouja can use his Veno Crash (Venosnaker kick) Final Vent again?? Didn't he already use that in previous episode when Knight saves Ryuki?

The mirrors really shows their beauty this time. And about Shiro's mindset it's already covered by Switchblade, and personally to me, Shiro's mindset reminds me of people (like in fandom) who thinks someone is cowardly because they don't want to compete in something (accusing them as afraid to lose instead of being peaceful), no ifs, ands, or buts. You ignored the Rider/card stuff from latest reply but let's talk about the card Shiro gave to Tezuka, which is a pretty new stuff (to a watcher like you). Knowing that Shiro gives advantages to those he deems weak/cowardly, this should be used as a tactic by an unrepentant Rider to gain an advantage in battle by pretending to be a hero who wants to save everyone until Shiro gives you the upgrade.

This scene really shows what Kobayashi and Satoshi Matsuda think about these 2; aka them being surrogate siblings. I lowkey brought up this scene when bringing up the review before in my previous reply where she won't stop getting to know about the truth even if it hurts her (collapsing here) and doesn't want him to worry like that. Dunno if, her asking for her childhood pictures to her aunt can count as the Kanzaki siblings' past is an integral part of this, as the other info Tezuka gained is also about the past (Kanzaki siblings as a child, about the explosion).

Now it's clear. The exact reason why Tezuka is the only other heroic Rider than Shinji is...because he too, isn't a chosen Rider like him! Shiro chooses morally ambiguous people as Riders, but the upstanding ones are..not chosen, see the pattern? And this is the scene I talk about when you called Tezuka even-tempered. Instead here he completely loses himself there that even Shinji is shocked. And (joke) dude Tezuka, shoving Shinji like that when you borrowed a weapon from him to gain upper hand on Guldthunder? I know you're revenge-obsessed but that's not nice of you. Would Guldthunder function better than Evildiver as a Contract Monster? He seems to have more varied powers, but I think flying Contract Monsters like Evildiver seems quite untouchable.

Yeah there Asakura's stunt of using Mirror World to fake his death won't last for long. Well previously it was the girls getting kidnapped but Goro...of all people... is getting kidnapped?! Where Asakura holds him hostage in a car to bait Kitaoka. We don't really get to see 2 fighter humans going all out though right there. And Kitaoka, what's with your attitude at the end? The only person you care is held hostage by Asakura and you seem undaunted? Probably he doesn't want to satisfy Asakura and Goro may be able to fight him back?

I've sometimes wondered why, in Double, a Dopant never jumped Accel during his henshin. Dude does his HEN and then pauses about ten minutes before saying SHIN. If I was a Dopant, and he hit that first syllable, I'd probably be going, "Is... is there more? Is that it? 'Hen'? Okay, well, I got places to be, people to murder, so I'mma just gonna shoot flames at you now."

I see what you're saying, and the other Riders are taking a lot on faith, but depending on their circumstances (trying to save their own lives, or the lives of loved ones) I see why they'd believe Shiro. He's got weirdly non-specific magic powers! If he says one of them is Wishes, I don't know why you'd doubt him. He could be making it up, but I don't know that he comes off as a Making Things Up guy. If Kitaoka said that he had wish-granting powers, like, yeah, that dude is full of shit. I guess for me, the demeanor of a mirror ghost is inherently trustworthy? Maybe it's just my poor upbringing.

Shinji and Reiko's interaction for some reason makes Shimada think he's possessed by an evil spirit (he just matures! don't ignore character development, in-universe characters or fandom!). So Shimada's weirdness can be...dangerous here, with her inadvertently harming an innocent. I would talk about this more if this place is spoiler free because it's hilarious to think about what happened in Ryuki movie compared to this one.

The time limit thing is neat, for the adverse effects and additional complications, but I think it's mostly just a super-smart way to create reasons why the Riders don't immediately kill one another. Like, without the time limit, you'd be hard-pressed as a writer to explain why fights stop, why Ouja or Gai or Zolda don't finish off every Rider they fight. With a time limit, it allows for fights to not end in murder, for stories to get multiple face-offs. Plus, it's a real fighting game staple, so it absolutely needs to be in there.

It's hard sometimes for me to talk about new Cards, because with some of them, there's no context. People can be all THE SURVIVE CARD!!!, but in this episode, Quarter doesn't use it, and no one explains what it is and what it does and why it matters and really anything. It's a very ominous card, and, okay? Can't really find it in me to get hyped for something like that, especially when there's so much other content to talk about. I don't know. I'm interested, but not, like, edge of my seat. I don't feel the need to speculate or analyze, not until there's more to go on.

I mean, we haven't been shown all of Tezuka's backstory, just some flashes, so this might be veering into spoiler territory. From what I got out of his scene in the German diner with Shinji, his motivation is unique from Shinji's in that it's built around a form of vengeance, of a friend who died as a result of the Rider Battles, and he wants to stop them because of it. Shinji's motivation was a very split-second I Want To Help, throwing himself into danger. Tezuka seems like he was doing this for a reason, while Shinji was doing this without thinking it through.

Yeah, boy, that feels like what the next episode has to be about. Is Kitaoka serious about leaving Goro to die? Will his conscience (citation needed) get the better of him? What's he really thinking about all of this? It's very smart of the show to create that kind of ambiguity, to make you uncertain as to whether Kitaoka cares enough about Goro to risk his own life, or if he sees Goro as a tool and sycophant. It's a great cliffhanger.

They can't move because of the suspense of what he's gonna say next. Could be anything, ya know?

"HEN--" oh god he's going to turn into a superhero and murder me this totally sucks should i just attack him no god that'll just piss him off what am i gonna "--CHMEN have mostly just made bad choices in their life, and it seems unconscionably cruel to assault them. Why don't I buy you a coffee, and we can talk about what led you to this point?"

I meant false hope as like using the wish for Shiro's personal gain instead for the winner. OK, before I explained above (just to convince that Shiro or going after him is no way less-important) or recent episodes, did you think that Shiro actually has various powers, or you just view him as someone who simply gives the card Decks, watches Riders and urges them to TATAKAE (like the wish power comes from somewhere but he just tells informations about the wish)?

Oh, yes all true for Mirror World's environment system. It's more than just being a horrific danger for humans (Riders mitigate that but still). And yeah for bolded one for meta reason is a sensible way to pad out the series. Though now I wonder, why Riders only fight each other in Mirror World (Monsters live in Mirror World so fighting them there is expected)? Is that because you can only summon weapons/monsters in Mirror World? (I think you may be able to call monsters from Mirror World to real world to aid you) Or possibly incapacitate other Riders so they can't escape from Mirror World when too weak and will disintegrate? Unless like that, Riders seemingly are a bit suicidal to choose to fight each other in a hazardous environment.

Personally for me it's more intriguing to see cards that are NOT tied to Riders (cards like Sword Vent, Strike Vent, Guard Vent are tied to Riders as they're all parts of their contract monsters) being showcased.

Yeah no backstory yet, but just pointing out about how Tezuka being another non-chosen Rider makes sense of WHY he's the only other heroic Rider. And your Tezuka and Shinji's comparison reminds me again of why Shinji can be weak and/or untrustworthy like in ep. 4 where he lacks real drive and agenda.

Or probably just him having a faith in Goro and his skills?

Definitely! It's not even that rare for Rider shows and the like to use flimsy excuses to get a villain just short of killing the hero (the perennial "tossed 'em in a river", for example), so for Ryuki to build that narrative shortcut right into the world, it makes it much more palatable to the audience. You're told upfront this will be happening, so it doesn't come off as cheap, even though when you think about it, it's not any less lazy in the long-term.

This is the same reason I have a soft spot for the Riders' abilities to outright detect monsters in Agito, and especially Ryuki, where it's employed to the exact opposite effect as the time limit. Need to break up a conversation in a hurry? Just say there's a monster nearby! Again, not flawless storytelling structure, but it's an efficient way to add justification to the heroes randomly stumbling upon bad guys to fight.

Combining it with the time limit, I think, gave Ryuki's episodes a ton of extra flexibility and breathing room in what they wanted to do, since those rules removed the need to sweat the "small" stuff every week.

Gosh, I wish he did that. Unlike the main villains, most of those poor Masquerade Dopants were never shown to be fine after exploding. I think Double and Accel combined probably mercilessly slaughtered like at least 50 of those guys throughout the series. :lol

Everything about Mirror Ghost Who Can't Be Hit And Hands Out Magical Card Decks says to me that dude has special powers. If he's just, like, a messenger, some lieutenant or mouthpiece, I never really considered it. I guess it's possible, though.

Yeah, this is another one where I just sort-of assumed they had to fight in Mirror World. I can't recall if we've seen anyone do Rider stuff in the real world. They usually just jump into a reflective surface and blow the environment to pieces. I just figured their powers only worked there.

Which, in a way, I really like it for how it contains the collateral damage and keeps the Rider Battles secret. There's a hidden war going on, just parallel to our world. Plus, you can mostly keep the cops out of it and just let Rider Justice take care of things, so, hooray!

I mean, yeah, maybe! That's a pretty good guess for what Kitaoka might be thinking. It's... he might be giving Goro way too much credit, if that's the case, though. Goro's great, but he's still just a man. Asakura's a violent lunatic AND a Kamen Rider. I can't imagine Kitaoka thinking Goro's going to get the better of him, considering he already got kidnapped.

So, I like the time limit, I like that there's a story justification for fights ending... but it's still pretty cheap. The time limit is of a narratively convenient length, so almost every time a villain/antagonist has a hero on the ropes OH NO TIME'S UP gosh I guess we'll have to try this again some other time. We're not even halfway through the series and they've hit that button kind-of a lot.

It's funny to me, to think of Accel being even-tempered and empathetic, mostly because the text 100% does not support that view. If anything, the gap between HEN and SHIN is probably him getting so excited about detonating a monster that he forgot to say the whole word.

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 23

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki23a.png

And that's it for Tezuka, now and forever Kamen Rider Quarter.

I wish this episode hit me harder. I liked it fine, but it wasn't one of my favorites. The beginning is FANTASTIC, with the Knight/Zolda fight. The whole Trick Vent versus Shoot Vent thing, where every blast from Zolda has another Knight duplicate running around, it's probably one of my favorite Ryuki fight concepts. I just dig the physicality of Trick Vent, that they just have another Knight costume and they throw it on a different stunt performer. I like that it's multiple physical Knights running around, flanking Zolda. This episode opens so strong.

Everything after that... it's like I was watching it, and understanding it, but I wasn't feeling it.

Tezuka's backstory is a neat twist on Ren's and Shinji's. Like Ren, he's working out his guilt and anger through being a Rider, and like Shinji he got into this not out of a personal wish but as a way of protecting people. He's a clever amalgam of the two of them, while still feeling like his own character. After Shinji's crisis with Ren, where he wants to try to keep his mind open about Rider Battles, Tezuka's pretty much on his own. He's the only one trying to keep Riders from fighting, and it's seeming ever more impossible.

I guess maybe that's it, why I didn't feel that shocked or angry or sad when Tezuka dies? I liked his character, but it seemed like he had a target on his back as The Pacifist Rider. And, to the show's credit, it doesn't really spend a lot of energy on trying to sell you on But Maybe Tezuka Will Fight. Shiro tries hard, telling Tezuka that Yuichi was totally all about killing Riders at the end, he wished he'd killed a ton of Riders, and he told Shiro to tell Tezuka that killing Riders is super great. It's a defining end for Tezuka, that he never really wavers on his principles. He doesn't fight Ouja, despite Asakura being the one who broke Yuichi's hands. (And that's probably 99% of the reason Asakura got a Card Deck, ‘cause Shiro hates a quitter.) He sacrifices himself to save Shinji, since it was Shinji who was fated to die and the world needs Shinji more than it needs him. So, yeah, a narratively appropriate ending, with Tezuka getting his wish of changing a Rider's fate, and of him both avenging and honoring Yuichi's death. It's well-written, and sort-of lovely at the end. There's a tranquility that's appropriate for Tezuka's final scene.

I just... I just didn't feel it, emotionally. Intellectually, I was very I Like What You're Doing There, but when Tezuka finished dying I was okay to move onto Knight's upgrade. (Knight gets the first upgrade?!) Quarter getting bumped off was no more or less interesting than a new coat of paint on Knight. I feel like it should mean more, should evoke... something, but it's just making me say Okay. Okay, Tezuka died. And maybe it's because of the neatness of it, the way it ties up his narrative so effectively, that it feels emotionally unfilling. As appropriate as a fated ending is for Tezuka, The Way It Was Always Going To End, it has a hollowness to it. (And, I know that he wasn't actually fated to die, that he changed his and Shinji's fate, but it's more that this feels like how his story had to end.) There's no gutpunch to Tezuka's sacrifice, and the show doesn't feel like it's going to be worse off for him not being around. He did the things he needed to do, we got his whole arc, and it's okay for him to be gone. I liked him, I liked his story, but I'm a little surprised I didn't care more about his ending.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki23b.png

What a surprisingly relevant and appropriate time for this tweet to have happened:

https://twitter.com/hasseijackson/st...31342318104576

Well, iirc, Ouja kicked the prison door in real world to escape so there for Rider stuff in real world. And oh yeah, the Rider Battles are kept being secret which makes civilians still know nothing about it, where ORE Journal is the only one following this dead topic.

The other "doom" Mirror World brings....you cannot receive a signal there when Reiko calls Shinji while he's fighting with Tezuka. Which would make Reiko go to Asakura by herself. Which would lead to bad things..

Trick Vent seems a powerful one because the clones are NOT super fragile where it can only be used as a distraction and an actual army. I probably want for it to be utilized fully like actually having the arsenals on each of the clones. So at the end Ren remarks that Kitaoka is weaker, essentially denying Kitaoka's praise to Ren? And also to clarify this; Kitaoka becomes a Rider to cure his illness but... inevitably, his illness will get on his way for this physical-activity. And Goro also actually knows himself that Kitaoka wouldn't come and isn't surprised by that. What if Kitaoka asks Goro to fight some fights for him? (but as ep. 19 shows, Goro isn't all into Kitaoka winning Rider War, just serving him)

So Tezuka lost a loved one (Yuichi for him, Eri for Ren) through a Mirror Monster and triggers him to become a Rider like Ren, but Tezuka wants to stop the Rider War with Rider powers instead like Shinji. The difference is also unlike Ren, Tezuka didn't contract the monster that caused him grief. Overall Tezuka is someone who wants to preserve Yuichi's righteous mindset of not wanting to kill for personal gain so it won't die in vain. And Tezuka confirms Yuichi's mindset will be cowardly to others, which is just like, Shiro. And who says Shinji's dilemma stops him from stopping the Rider War?

And Tezuka gave Survive card to Ren. So even when Raia had a crazed revenge to Guldthunder, he isn't tempted by Shiro to go get even at Asakura, the one harmed and indirectly killed Yuichi and the bigger problem overall.

Raia (yeah finally they mentioned his name here!) not only didn't fight back, he basically made himself a punching bag towards Ouja. Now he's the one breaking down to a catatonic state like a certain character before. And also his death is another one, ironic. Tezuka's predictions are always right, but he purposely made a wrong one by claiming that he'll die instead of Shinji and fulfills the wrong prophecy by sacrificing himself, to prove that fate can be changed a̶n̶d̶ ̶k̶e̶e̶p̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶1̶0̶0̶%̶ ̶t̶r̶a̶c̶k̶ ̶r̶e̶c̶o̶r̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶d̶i̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶. Tezuka feels that Shinji is more suitable for stopping the Rider War based on how unpredictable he is back in ep. 18 as one of the reasons, but Tezuka is also "inspirational character" (cliche is inspirational characters mostly die) to drive Shinji's character. Despite making most efforts to Ren (and the interactions you cover most), the big part is he actually influences Shinji, with the way how he tried to change Riders as people, and after that Shinji tried Tezuka's methods a bit.

I understand that Tezuka was too weak to tell anything at his death, but why he refused to tell anyone something before? For a minor thing, how did Shinji and Yui somehow can sense Mirror World stuff from very afar this one time and know where Tezuka is? Shiro's direct influence? Sure Shinji found Ren in Asakura episode before, but that's more of his journalist skills (his job is to find people and places). And reflections don't work like that!

You know there are already numerous secondary Riders who gets final upgrade first right? Like Cross-Z, G3-X, Deep Specter, etc. And I will also say that Knight Survive is my second most favorite design in this series. Ouja just lets Knight change into Knight Survive? Well I know he's someone who likes good fights so it makes sense a bit, and this episode didn't really portray it well but later part in the series will show why it makes sense not to attack upgrading Riders (this episode just has Knight turn to Knight Survive the same way a human turns into a Rider).

I liked Tezuka a lot and was so goddamn happy when he and Shinji took each other's hand. That right there was just my biggest "Yes, HELL YES!" moment; like the exact thing you know is gonna happen from the moment this character shows up and you're just waiting in sheer anticipation for it!

And then he dies :(

"Accessorizing with masks" isn't something I've ever had to think about as an American, but, uh... thinking about it a lot right now. I guess I'd probably buy a variety pack of Ryuki masks. I wonder if that's going to be way more of a thing, globally, going forward. I know that Asian countries have less of a stigma about masks in public, but maybe this'll be a turning point for America's acceptance of them?

I don't know. Still! Tezuka's a good choice to be the spokesperson for We Are Responsible For Each Other's Safety. Although, for the current Ryuki cast, no one practices social distancing, physical and emotional, like Ren.

Yeah, that's a very Ren move, to take a compliment and spin it back as an insult, to keep people at a distance, to be an asshole. If Kitaoka's going to praise Ren for being stronger, Ren's going to claim that he's the same, Kitaoka just got worse. He's such an asshole and I love it!

I feel like that's the moment when Tezuka knows he'll need to sacrifice himself, when he gives the card to Ren. He can't fight the other Riders, he can't stop the Rider Battles are Shiro, but maybe he can save Ren and Shinji, and maybe they can do what he couldn't. I think that card, giving it away, that was the moment for him.

I guess I wouldn't call it ironic, though. Shibaura's death is ironic. Tezuka's is definitely poetic. He achieves his goals at the cost of his own life. And, for me, that's maybe part of the problem with my emotional distance from it. There's... I can feel the hand of the writer, tying things up neatly and constructing a clever, complete end to Tezuka's story. But that, I think, robs it of some of the messiness that could surprise, or shock. Everything that happens to Tezuka makes sense, but it maybe makes too much sense?

The new Knight costume is neat, and the scene where it debuts is suitably intense (a pocket dimension just to show off form changes!), but Knight's the first Ryuki character to get an upgraded form, and that's weird to me. The examples you mentioned, they all got their upgrades after the title character did. Ryuki hasn't gotten an upgraded form yet, but now Knight's powered-up. I guess I can sort-of see why fans think this is more Knight's show than Ryuki's?

I feel like we got a whole story with Tezuka, though, you know? There's nothing I can see with Tezuka that went unexplored, or was left vague. He gets a complete arc, so maybe that can make things better?

Oh, I know! That wasn't a criticism it just made me very sad and I'm still sad about it months later :lol

Hey, I'm still sad about it years later! Tezuka is the s***! It's kind of a further punch to the gut how well Die is taking this, if I'm being honest. :lol

I'm not sure why I'm not more sad about it. It's a little confusing to me, in that I don't think the show had a misstep that would leave me cold. Intellectually, I'm like, This Is Sad. Emotionally, though... I'm going to quote Los Campesinos and say "I know it is and really that's what worries me / I feel like I should hurt."

I guess I'm just going to land on there being an inevitably, and a cleanliness to Tezuka's end, and that's keeping it all in the thoughts and none in the feelings.

Or I'm a bad human being. One or the other!