Somebody did, but I don't remember who. It's still a neat idea, though!

So, the thing that bothered me on that, is that it's another variation on what Shinji's trying to achieve, and we just got an entire arc on that. It felt like the series was instituting a new structure, where every episode Shinji would need to state his motivation while changing exactly one element. First it was fighting monsters and saving people, then it was stopping Rider Battles, then it was fighting monsters and saving people again, now it's fighting monsters and saving people including Riders. Shinji's a pretty questing character, in that he's constantly learning better ways to be true to himself, but I feel like it's getting a little ridiculous. Like, maybe stick to one stated motivation for an arc, explore that, then revise it.

MASKED RIDER RYUKI HYPER BATTLE VIDEO: RYUKI VS AGITO

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

I love this shit. I love the goofy-ass magazine pack-ins and Net Movies and just all of the ephemera that goes along with a Kamen Rider series. I like how much they can screw with the format, how much they can let one random-ass idea play out without worrying about the context of the series... they're fun. I like that that can sometimes be enough.

And this is fun! Shinji goes into a mirror, teams up with generous, friendly versions of Knight, Zolda, and Ouja, and fights monsters. They work alongside Agito (Shining Form) to defeat Agito (Burning Form). Then Shinji wakes up from his dream, gets teased by Ren, roll extraordinarily long credits.

It's maybe eight minutes long, once you drop the credits. It's mostly fight scenes, and they entirely happen in Kamen Rider Warehouse. Like, there's not a lot of thematic heft to this one. It's something to get kids excited about watching Masked Rider Ryuki once a week.

But what's amazing to me is that so much of the run-time is given over to Ren giving Shinji shit, and Shinji getting upset in ever more clumsy ways. Nearly as much as time, it felt like, as the monster fights with a Legend Rider. That's fascinating to me. The producers have this opportunity to, basically, pitch Masked Rider Ryuki to a group of kids who may not be watching it. So they pick the most important things to include in this special: a henshin, Vent Cards, four main Riders, a Special Guest Star, monsters, explosions... and Ren acting like an asshole-with-a-heart-of-maybe-bronze-but-not-gold to Shinji. That's the thing they thought was a pillar of Ryuki. Not just the relationship, the warrior's bond, but Ren calling Shinji stupid with a smile on his face.

And, goddamn, not wrong! That very specific tone of their friendship, it's indelibly Ryuki to me. If you watch enough Heisei series, it can feel like you've seen every Rider/Rider variation, how they get along or don't or whatever. This, though, I don't feel like I've seen this thing in any of the other friendships or rivalries. The way Ren cares but doesn't care, the way he sincerely likes to see Shinji get mad at him, the way he never lets Shinji feel like he's in on the joke, I love it. It's outstanding chemistry, and I totally get how that could be the hook to get people to watch Ryuki.

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

Funny thing is that when I first watched Ryuki a long time ago as a child (it actually aired on TV where I lived!), I came I think sometime around the time Tezuka bit the dust, so this recap was actually kinda useful if only so I could experience Scissors getting eaten.

Even as a kid though, Ryuki getting a punch on golden bird man was cool... but that not having any effect just made the whole thing feel so tragically pointless. And I understand that is probably the point, but it still doesn't feel great to watch.

Yeah, I’m not keen on episode 28 either. They could’ve done so much with a reset button and all we get out of it is a clip show (and given what I’ve looked up about the Time Vent card, it’s not going to get much better in this series).

Also worth mentioning that Odin starts the grand tradition of the guy who voices the equipment playing a character in show (unless you count Denji Sentai Megaranger, since apparently, one of the minor technicians on that show was the voice announcing the numbers in the Digitizer/Battle Riser/Keitaizer). He does not however, start the grand tradition of explaining WHY they’re the same actor. That honour goes to Faiz (again, unless you count Megaranger).

Well, Ren is more "emotionally healthy" member because he's aloof and pushes other people away from him, meaning that he doesn't have much to care? There are only few people he actually cares like Eri and Yui. Shinji's kind of growing but still hostile. And there's still a scene of him totally breaking down over Eri in the episode at night. So the lesson here might be that... to be more "emotionally healthy" you should be more of a scoundrel (or even worse, full villains who just don't care about anyone, therefore he has no time for feelings). Actually by that, what I asked was how someone like Ren didn't show any animosity towards Yui ever? From the beginning of the series to present unlike to Shinji (Eri is his fiancée so it's obvious).

So even if the debt is an actual responsibility, all of the torturing scenes like this one has no real animosity?
O̶h̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶y̶ ̶r̶e̶a̶l̶l̶y̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶b̶r̶o̶t̶h̶e̶r̶s̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶A̶u̶n̶t̶i̶e̶ ̶c̶l̶a̶i̶m̶e̶d̶!̶

It a shame that you don't like this one, where I liked it because this is a recap episode that isn't an actual recap and is a part of the plot. Probably this won't change your mind because the outcome's still the same ("not what I wanted") but even if it didn't change, it's still actually about Shinji. Shiro rewinds time back to the past to save a childhood picture of Kanzaki siblings, but for Shiro, it inadvertenly has an unwanted side effect in a form of Shinji, and this will last. Shinji is Shiro's biggest obstacle in the war, more than just him wanting to stop the war, is that him being a total wild card in the war - the reason Tezuka called him unpredictable fate-wise and passes his quest to him, mainly because he's not a chosen Rider, and it really shows in this episode.

Unlike the other Riders who proceed the same, Shinji has memories of the previous timeline ingrained to him, although only temporary (creating an intense version of the trio scene at ep. 2, Shinji asking millions of questions that can't be answered). This drives him to make some attempts to change the war, like warning Kitaoka that Asakura is going to escape and become a Rider and that he has to prevent it, this can be considered his attempt to save Tezuka and Shibaura (unfortunately though, he was talking to debut Kitaoka), after he forgets when trying to warn Ren and Yui before (and this may also save Sudo if successful). Didn't you appreciate Shinji's effort to stop the Rider War before despite how impossible it is, why not here? Then he tried new methods instead, where it's to keep an infinite number of notes for something Rider War related he remembers before he loses the memory of it. Yeah, it was only a reminder about Odin's fighting style, to punch behind when a gold feather appears, but it's a symbolism that Shinji can fight against his destiny, and he's the only one NOT helpless against the war and Shiro's shenanigans, especially that he has found a method before (ex: to keep remembering Rider War events), Shinji has now become a permanent nuisance for Shiro in Rider War, not just in that one rewinded timeline. Shiro's gonna be especially wary of Shinji if he tried to pull that kind of stunt again, the small change of Ryuki punching Odin and doubled burden of Rider's death to fuel Shinji's determination is just a start of that. And would like to bring up something from ep. 26 again, as he said here, he still vows to protect other Riders (they are also people)

And I still want to talk about this, your hate here aside, the debut for my favorite Rider in all aspects of Ryuki, Odin. Cronus' debut from Ex-Aid is similar to his. Both being the main antagonist's Riders named after a god, beating up every present Riders effortlessly while abusing their powers (flash step for Odin, time stop for Cronus), and they are accompanied by their own giant clock as they do their respective time powers. Odin's another one with a staff as his card scanner, it's clearly shown how Odin summons his staff for him to use but... how did Ouja summon his staff and have it disappear afterwards? It works like summoning Advent weapons perhaps (ep. 17 Gai)? Also they don't seem to use the staff for combat.

https://images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca88...NEdbqiKu_iAhTs
BITCH SLAP!!

I feel like the folks who love it, all they really remember is the first couple minutes and the last couple minutes. And those parts, the bookends, they're really good! If that's all you remember, this is a great episode: Kamen Rider Boss just backhands everyone all over the place, Ouja sort-of joins the team because he thinks Boss is a prick, Ryuki gets that awesome Strike Vent on an untouchable opponent, and Ryuki gets to have a big No, Eff YOU speech to get some heat back from Kamen Rider Boss. Those are all good things! It's just, there's this middle section that drags interminably, has no real effect on the story except for one hit, and is in service of something inexcusably insignificant. (I'd've been less angry if the final scene was Shiro looking in his refrigerator to see that, yes, his milk was now unexpired.) Maybe in a few years I'll be all, "Why was I mad at this episode? That Strike Vent is the best!" Right now, though, I remember the middle part, and it sucks.

Neat! Thanks!

I mean, it's "emotionally healthy" in that Ren's processing his feelings honestly, and being honest with what he needs from others. It's just, Ren's an asshole, and that's never going to change. It can be both things, emotion healthy AND an asshole. He's just, like, honest about needing to be an asshole.

In that vein, I think it's just that Shinji really bugs him (despite warming to him) and Yui really doesn't. For a misanthrope like Ren, there's going to be people he hates, people he teases, people he tolerates, and people he connects with. It's just way way less of the last one, of which Yui can count herself.

Yeah, I don't think Ren ever really wants Shinji to pay him back. He just wants to keep throwing it in his face because it's hilarious.

That's a good point, about Shinji fighting destiny. I'm not sure it's as pivotal as it would've been for Tezuka, since Shinji doesn't really believe in destiny or fate, but it's a good point to bring up.

It's cool to see the ways this episode worked for people, but it just didn't work for me. I honestly found the whole I Was Mad Before But Now I've Seen Things Happen For The Second Time And Now I'm DOUBLE MAD motivation to be... not my favorite. Corny, and not in the usual good way for Kamen Rider. I'm not sure that's how motivations are supposed to work? With a multiplier effect? Yeah, really didn't land for me. I'm okay forgetting it, going forward.

It's very Cronus, yes! That huge clock chime, the BONG BONG BONG is activating all of those old Cronus memories. Thanks for the reminder!

What Shinji wish Riders are.

Shinji's still half asleep and still treat the dream as true events. And Ren actually smiles here, in one scene more than himself in the entire Ryuki!

OK, I thought that emotionally healthy for Ren to you was correlated with how stoic and emotionless he is which stems from how aloof and misantrophic he is. Though he's not exactly rational that he still can come off as childish like with his uncontrolled temper and how he copes with his problems. I thought that even if he's less hostile to Yui than Shinji, he wouldn't be completely free of hostility to any other human or something. Especially that he sticks with her for an advantage, then she can be a... hindrance to him for winning that she forbids him doing something a Rider supposed to do (read: any immoral actions to win like killing), acting as his coinscience, and he fully submits to most of those.

Also just a trivia. What was the most popular name for females and males respectively in Japan at 2012?
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...813486/ryu.png

More like Shinji really proves to Tezuka posthumously here that fate is unpredictable, by him fighting against his destiny here, in line with how he doesn't believe in destiny or fate. I guess that Shinji's strength in stopping the war is actually his determination so doubled burden is important to him?

Just sad that you left out this part before. Why Ouja cares if he thinks that boss is a prick? He's irredeemable and no one's a bigger prick than him!

Well, to make it less simple for Parado (all of his atrocities come from his game character status, but for this one is this), he's someone who, being from a game, used to killing enemies and objects in-game, thinks that real life is just an expansion of video games, which includes human lives. Parado thinks killing human lives (to have fun) is just like killing the NPCs in video games. He's like a GTA player who doesn't differentiate playing GTA (doing cruel stuff there) and real life, and t̶h̶e̶ ̶b̶i̶g̶g̶e̶s̶t̶ ̶f̶e̶a̶r̶ ̶f̶r̶o̶m̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶"̶a̶n̶t̶i̶-̶v̶i̶o̶l̶e̶n̶t̶ ̶v̶i̶d̶e̶o̶ ̶g̶a̶m̶e̶s̶"̶ ̶c̶l̶u̶b̶.̶ Emu killing him makes him differentiate life in real world and life in video games, based on how he feels during R̶O̶N̶!̶ Ren A̶k̶i̶y̶a̶m̶a̶ Amagasaki death, and that how he fears for his life, despite video game characters known for dying multiple times.

Whoa! That is bonkers! I wonder if that's a bunch of 18-year olds having kids and fondly remembering Masked Rider Ryuki? I mean, it can't be, can it?

Everything in my quote was about the middle part! All those scenes of Shinji fruitlessly trying to stop the same things from happening again, I genuinely think that's the hook for the episode. Odin's cool and all, but the moment that most sticks in my head from that episode is actually just Shinji trying to get Kitaoka to make sure Asakura doesn't become a Rider. Followed, admittedly, by sticky notes, but still.

Just for this one episode, the pointlessness IS the point, and while I guess it's easy to see why that flavor wouldn't be for everyone, I legitimately do love the entire thing. It's weird, and I thought it was fun. I suppose that's all I can really say.

Look, just assume that when I say "folks", I mean "everyone but Fish Sandwich". I know you love the unlovable parts. I do, too, sometimes!

Sometimes.

("The pointlessness IS the point", though... man. They are grinding your face into the dirt and you are admiring the additional nutrients you're getting to eat.)

Geez, Die. I don't even think Kiwami roasts me that hard when I start talking about Ghost. :lol

It's only because I care so much and I get worried about you. This sort of behavior goes unchecked, and you're going to start posting 6000-word essays on how Hiiro's dad is the real star of Ex-Aid and, like, I'm not sure there's any coming back from that.

We are all here to support you. This is a safe space.

Die, don't be ridiculous! That's never going to happen! I need to save all that precious essay writing energy for more important threads I'll eventually make, such as:

"Mad Love for Mad Rogue: Build's Secret Best Rider"

and

"Super Hero Taisen: An Underrated Masterpiece?"

or even

"Why G3 Mild Needs His Own V-Cinema Spin-Off"

You know, the opinions I REALLY want to get out there. :p

Look, I know you're joking, but if you need someone to proof that essay, HMU.

Utsumi Deserved Better squad!

Yeah! You might say fans like us need to Namba Stick together.

I'M NOT SORRY AND YOU CAN'T MAKE ME.

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 29

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki29a.png

Uh, wow. Wow. This is my favorite Ryuki episode so far. Exceptionally funny, great character-based storytelling, and an evolution of the show's dynamic. It's basically the perfect episode.

That said, if I have to find a flaw (and, uh, apparently I do), it's the monumental tonal whiplash from the precredit stuff about the Rider Battles, and Kamen Rider Boss, and Yui's reaction to the devastating news that man who lives in mirrors and doles out mystical objects might be dead, to everything after the credits, which is both a hilarious lark and deep examination of the way bonds can develop between adversaries. Like, it took a minute to get into this story because it's a total 180 from how this episode starts. Also, it's so untethered from how things were left. Kamen Rider Boss is all Keep Fighting and the next scene after the credits is everyone having gone their separate ways. Did.. did they not keep fighting? Were they just, like, Screw you, Boss? I assume that's what happened, that the command to keep fighting is in more of a There Needs To Be A Winner Someday sense, not that they needed to kill each other right then and there, but it's weird how it's totally unremarked upon. Just, the whole story moved on into another tone and no one mentions the previous cliffhanger.

Which, man, I'm more than okay with. This episode was across-the-board great, and (currently) the episode I'd recommend to anyone who wants to enjoy Ryuki. Just everything good about this show is in this episode, and every scene after the credits delivers. No bum notes. All killer, no filler.

Which is ironic, because this is pretty much a filler episode, from an arc or plot perspective. There are no revelations, no new Riders, and the whole story is a quick done-in-one that's entirely about Ore Journal. It's maybe not what a lot of folks would call out for a definitive Ryuki episode, you know?

But it is. It is definitive. The play between the characters is the entire story, the ways Shimada and Reiko and Yui and Shinji and Ren and Kitaoka (and Goro!) all bounce off of each other, how all of their various disagreements and rivalries coalesce into teamwork and friendship. There's a lot of time spent on the friction between characters, their hilarious grudges and resentments, specifically so they can overcome those things and work together for the greater good. It's an episode that gains strength from letting its heroes be jerks to each other just long enough, so that their ability to cooperate feels hard-fought and earned. It's a new level of storytelling for the heroes of Ryuki.

It's also relentlessly funny. I could spend a ton more time just calling out great gag after great gag, but I'll have to put the MVP nod towards Yui, of all people, for getting some of the episode's biggest laughs. (I also really liked her anger at all of Shinji's notes from the end of 28, so GIVE YUI MORE JOKES, SHOW.) Her tearing apart the Red Herring's apartment, looking for Shimada and Reiko, it was outstanding physical comedy. Looking behind curtains, knocking over bookshelves ("Wasn't me!"), screaming into blankets, trying to be coy with the neighbor?€? it's all great. It's all great. My favorite gag, though, in a great scene from an episode full of great scenes, is the bit where she opens the bathroom door, shouts "Reiko?", sees the bathroom is empty, closes the door, comes back, reopens the door, and goes inside the bathroom to use the toilet. It is a perfectly constructed visual gag. A thing of beauty.

This whole thing was great. Really really good, at a time where a) Ryuki was bumming me out more than I'd like, and b) *gestures at the world*. This was an antidote to both of those things, and it probably made my day. I'm not trying to tell anyone how to self-care, but you could do worse than fire up this episode if things are getting to be too much.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki29b.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki29c.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki29d.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki29e.png

Episodes 29 and 30 are one of the best rider filler eps just for the comedy. I love how Kitaoka says to Shinji,"What are you, her Dad?". :lolol

But Hiiro's dad was one of the best part of that show though. :lolol

Your- your... your favorite- your favorite episode of Ryuki so far was one written by Toshiki Inoue? Are you just trying to torment me at this point? That's it! I need to go cool off by doing something fun... like watching this episode!

Because it IS really funny, which is something I insist Inoue is great at being when he wants to be. Like, it's kind of a shame Kino didn't ride into the room for his double surgery on a skateboard back in Agito, because Inoue probably could've made that work.

Episode 30 is by him too, and both episodes are directed by Ishida again, which explains things like the heavy use of uneasy tilted camera angles while Yui is going completely insane tearing up that apartment.

The thing is... I'm pretty sure I could totally write 6000 words about why Hiiro's dad is a fun character if I really wanted to. It honestly seems weird to me how much of a beef Die seems to have going with the poor guy.

The way Shinji calls Kitaoka unreliable, they jump into mirror combat, and Kitaoka hangs back while Ren and Shinji are getting pummeled. When Shinji calls for help, Kitaoka just goes, "Oh, I thought I was unreliable." Hilarious!

Whatever it takes!

Yeah, I think Inoue's maybe got Kitaoka's number the best so far, and I love Kitaoka, so it's maybe no surprise that this whole thing worked for me. It's very heightened, in that it's all screwball comedy, and that's an Inoue trademark.

Everyone's insane in this one, but the fact that everyone's insane means it sticks to one tone, keeping it from being distracting. I mean, not counting the Action Superhero opening.

There's actually a camera move he tries in here that was distracting, but I was in Praise Mode and didn't have a way I wanted to bring it up. When Ren, Shinji, and Kitaoka meet in the park at night to call a truce to save Reiko, every shot of a single Rider has this side-to-side camera move, where they're spilling off to one side. It felt showy to me, something that didn't necessarily serve the story. It's not a scene that had a lot going on it, just dialogue, and the choice to make it unnerving clashed with the tone of the episode. This is a comedy! I shouldn't be alarmed!

Okay, let me try and explain it.

(I legit hate that character, by the way. This is not a gag.)

Before I started watching Ex-Aid, I had this conception of tokusatsu that was built mostly off of flashes of Power Rangers that I'd seen. That conception was of costumed superhero action... and cringe comedy, childish gags that were insultingly dumb. Pratfalls, mugging, clown-show garbage. (I never watched Power Rangers, so this was all what I thought it would be. I'm sure I was wrong!) When I started watching Ex-Aid, I was thrilled to find out that it was exciting, dangerous, insightful storytelling.. and then Hiiro's dad shows up, mugging and swooning over his son and acting like a buffoon. It was everything I feared tokusatsu would be, but distilled into one character.

Now, I've watched a bunch of Rider shows since then, and there've been worse comedy characters than Hiiro's dad. (I'm not going to name names because Fish will probably lose it again, they might be his favorite characters.) But back then, Hiiro's dad was like a warning sign of everything I was afraid Kamen Rider would be. I've never really forgiven him for that, I guess. It's not fair, but Hiiro's dad is, like, an original sin.

Other than that, though, I just think he's a worthless character. If you needed a goofy character to lighten the mood in CR, you've already got Poppy, and she's a) a way better actor, b) Asuna, so she's got other stuff to do besides be cute and goofy, and c) integral to the storyline of the show and the main characters in it. I hate Hiiro's dad because he's infuriatingly unfunny, but I don't like him because he's superfluous to the show. It's that combination of irritating character who doesn't need to be there that earns him the majority of my ire. That's why he's my punching bag.

And apparently me too, for I elaborated the meaning of the episode for Shinji screwing destiny. Those are just your standard Shinji's attempts to stop the war, namely by changing the outcome.

Reiko have you learned something about dealing with people before (Akira) and not be no-nonsense all the time? You saw the photo about them being affectionate, how do you miss the fact that the man might be someone precious to her (even if you know him as Shiro Takami, his American identity and thought that he may not be her brother, but the photo should show that he's someone close)? Even Tezuka instantly figures it out! To her credit she backpedals although it's maybe too late, so I guess that's a yes. The one thing that brought up for the next part of the episode was Reiko's necklace which is similar to Mari Takeuchi's. Odin asks to keep tatakae but all the other Riders are totally stunned towards him.

I think the actual flaw of this episode is that Ryuki can travel to different mirrors to get Reiko and Shimada. Ryuki sends Sonorabuma (the kidnapper monster) to Mirror World and goes for Reiko and Shimada (in real world) through a different mirror he entered the Mirror World with. You can only enter/exit the Mirror World in one exact place!

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...224730/pch.png

• Shinji: The flip at ORE, relentessly attacks Reiko's "stalker" who turns out to be Goro, dreaming about Kitaoka and Goro with make-ups, feeling touched, hanging over a wall with Ren to check Shimada, forbidding Kitaoka getting close to Reiko, stomping Zolda's foot as a revenge, fighting over a binocular to Ren, stealing stuffs from Atori to sell as salesman (how someone like him can steal?!).
• Ren: Gets pincer attacked by Shinji/Kitaoka's quarrel, standing on Shinji's back to check over Yui, hanging over a wall with Shinji (these 2 moments giving them a weird nod), fighting over a binocular to Shinji, glasses, stealing stuffs from Atori to sell as salesman.
• Kitaoka: No time to be touched, pointing to Shinji that he's not Reiko's father, hits Shinji when preparing his Deck, "unreliable", calling Shinji/Ren while doing a handstand, in-character when introducing himself to Mari Takeuchi (the president), baiting Yui with the oyster.
• Shimada: Horned hairs, drunk.
• Goro: The one bringing flowers to Reiko (lol people would mistake you are the one having a crush instead!), though he disappeared from the episode afterwards, not even on the dinner at the last part.

Ren should've gotten revenge to Kitaoka for him mocking Ren being dedicated to Eri before, that Kitaoka is also dedicated to Reiko. Also, Reiko and Shimada are damsel in distresses in this episode and that... how were they only sleeping after captured (in real world, Shinji goes to real world)? They too, aren't in actual danger? It's also quite bizzare that Sonorabuma doesn't eat them, just kidnap them and send them to a certain place. Moreover, that monster didn't kidnap Yui even if all the girls are going on the same route (lowkey another one like ep. 14).

How did you forget looking for full sized human (Reiko/Shimada) in a freaking microwave, cupboard, or trash can (or you're actually looking for your brain you accidentally dropped in the can :p)? So here's Yui, wrecking apart a building again in a row after Shiro fight in Kanzaki household previously. Okubo (the one introducing marriage interview) was also angered by Shinji's notes previously btw. Any other ways can be used to make her joke apart from anger (because she was angered by a more trivial thing there, where she wasn't when Shinji lost Dragreder card)? Also as per Ren's words, she tried to be coy to Kurai Shinobu to "figure out his real personality", why did she try to be coy to the neighbor too?

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...53030/gblk.jpg

"People looking in too-small places while searching for something" is one of my favorite investigative-comedy tropes, so yes, I loved Yui looking inside a microwave for one-to-two women. The way Yui treats the whole thing as, like, adult Hide and Seek, instead of two women who are kidnapped, is adorable. It's a lighter side to Yui, which I think this show desperately needed, if only to make the dour stuff with her feel less one-note.

For the neighbor, when Yui's still in demure Date Mode, I think she's just trying to stay in character. She got really into the acting, and she's committing hardcore.

Sorry, but for "dour", do you refer that for her sorrows throughout the tragedies? Because the term "dour" IMO can encompass antagonistic and insensitive qualities too, like the misantrophic Ren or Nakamura. Besides regarding those 2 women ("treated as adult Hide and Seek"), previously Yui was overly concerned to Shimada, where when she went "BSOD" after merely typing, she had similar reactions to Shinji finding her kidnapped. A̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶t̶e̶l̶l̶ ̶R̶e̶i̶k̶o̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶u̶r̶c̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶l̶e̶m̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶a̶r̶e̶l̶e̶s̶s̶l̶y̶ ̶r̶e̶v̶e̶a̶l̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶b̶a̶d̶ ̶n̶e̶w̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶.̶

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 30

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki30a.png

There's a moment in this episode, a beautiful, perfect moment in an absolutely batshit episode, that I think I'll remember forever. It's not the funniest, or the most insightful, or the most impressive fight sequence. But goddamn if it's not one of my all-time favorite Kamen Rider things.

Kitaoka's in a rowboat with the (gorgeous) Megumi. They're enjoying a romantic escape from everything, floating alone on a river. He leans in to kiss her, but pauses. Kitaoka senses a Mirror Monster, but has no way to change into Zolda without Megumi learning about it. So he tells her that a kiss needs to happen with her eyes closed. Once she closes her eyes, Kitaoka does a tiny, silent Henshin, where he mouths the word Henshin, and then he disappears into the reflection on the river.

That tiny Henshin, all in silence, wrecked me. Just destroyed me. It's so perfect: for the character, for the episode, for my heart.

This was, in case you've forgotten, another comedy episode. It's not really doing much character-wise, so it's a bit of a step down from last episode. I don't know that we really learn anything in particular about Kitaoka that we didn't already know, and the story's really got no space to develop anyone else. (Goro gets a bit of a look-in, but it's mostly just reiterating his protective feelings toward Kitaoka and the small ways he tries to get him to do the right thing.) There's not a ton going on under the hood of this one.

It's only consistently, insanely funny, so I guess that'll have to do.

Unlike last episode that spread around its gags to a bunch of different characters, the majority of this one is a two-hander with Kitaoka and Megumi. Megumi's actor does a great job of not going too broad with the comedy, grounding in a lot of the same ways Kitaoka does. There's a satirical edge to a lot of their scenes, playing it as romance while everything they're doing is ridiculous. And it's so ridiculous. Megumi's character is both an enormous liar and a total garbage fire of a person, yet I don't think I spent one second irritated by her. Some of it's that terrible things happening to Kitaoka is both funny and karmically warranted, but it's also how she's never malicious in this story. She's not trying to hurt Kitaoka, she's just a complete disaster. They've got great chemistry, comedically and romantically (everyone's gorgeous in this episode, total summer delight), and the whole episode sings because of it.

Shot real well, too. Lot of great weirdo angles for the proposal "flashbacks”, with garishly fake backdrops and flipped axes mid-dialogue. There's an awesome establishing shot, when Shinji goes to meet Megumi for the first time, and it's this super-high crane shot that lays out the whole beach. It doesn't tell a story, per se, but it's real nice to look at. This whole episode, though, it's beautiful, with the clear skies and blue waters. Delightful.

I really love that Masked Rider Ryuki spent an entire episode doing nothing but telling a romantic-comedy story about an asshole lawyer and a manipulative clutz. There's a monster fight, but only barely. (One and a half monster fights, if you count the monster being held at bay by a plate of food that got dumped on its head.) I'd be 100% into a Kamen Rider half-hour comedy with this as a template, and I'm not exaggerating at all. This was so much fun to watch. Completely insane and not even a little serious, but so much fun to watch.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki30b.png

Megumi: Shuichi?
Kitaoka: Yes my love?
Megumi: My hand's burning.

Best scene ever.:lolol

I've said it before, will say it again. Episodes 29 and 30 are the best filler eps of all time in Kamen Rider history.

I tend to agree with this statement. Whenever I think of Ryuki (as a series) I think about the great character work, the awesome Rider designs, the (I won't say until later cuz spoilers) ending, and those two episodes in about the middle of the series that are so hilarious it doesn't even matter that they are basically filler episodes. That silent henshin is gold.

Yeah, these two episodes... front-to-back hilarious. I think the first one's a little less of a filler episode, since it does address the closer working relationship of Ryuki/Knight/Zolda, how they aren't just going to try to murder each other constantly. (It zero percent addresses Kamen Rider Boss or Rider Battles or that stuff, so it's still sort-of a filler episode.) The second episode is just a relentless joke machine though, and it's better for it in some ways.

There's a freedom in the second episode to Just Be Funny, so much so that the pre-credit scene is the last 40 seconds of the monster fight from the previous episode, and then the post-credit scene is Shinji giving Kitaoka an apology gift. (That Kitaoka tells him he's going to throw away when Shiji leaves! And Goro takes one of the treats out and puts it in his pocket while Kitaoka isn't watching! Literally the first scene of new material is laugh-out-loud funny!) They aren't even trying to make it seem like this one isn't stand-alone. (I don't expect we'll see Megumi regularly, since most of this story doesn't seem built for continuity, but I'd be okay if she hung around.) With no need to serve the season-long arc and no goal besides Make Kitaoka Suffer Hilariously, there's a clarity of purpose that keeps anything from muddying the water. I seriously respect that the show carved out space to give this lunacy its moment.

Why didn't Kitaoka let Megumi know, what if Kitaoka lets her know? And even if Kitaoka's silent, wouldn't there be sound effects for the belt forming and Zolda armor appearing? Or the splash when he jumps to the water?

This is the episode I talked about when I talked about how Goro can stand up to Kitaoka for certain reason (shouting SENSEI! to make Kitaoka agree with Shinji & Ren), but agreed to do something more morally questionable in ep. 14. Shinji should've just take back the donut, better than wasting food.

OK sorry for this one but Megumi is the type of character I can't stand (I should always separate characters and looks). The type I meant is a character that is totally dumb and out of reality, yet won't pipe down (nor learn) and keeps ruining everything around them. Having no malicious intent by that can either make it better or worse (that they don't know what wrong they caused and keep doing that anyway). The type seen much in children cartoons such as Patrick Star (especially in post-movie episodes), Masha, Dog in CatDog, etc. Probably yeah Kitaoka suffering (you okay with this?) is karmically warranted, but would be grating for the other undeserving people.

Megumi knows the most about Kitaoka... surprassing Goro?! Were Megumi and Kitaoka closer than even Goro the very early time Kitaoka recruited her? And Megumi is merficul towards the thugs because she took off her slippers. Kicking them in the face with slippers on would be more painful AND that the bottom of footwears are dirty, giving more discomfort. Megumi's clumsiness actually saved her once against the monster with the hot spaghetti, though I wonder how can she hold up against Mirror Monsters with her fighting skills.

The mid-series comedy break is something that happened a few times in the early Heisei era. I don’t remember if Faiz has one, but Blade and Kabuto memorably went back to this well at around the same point (Hibiki didn’t get the chance, of course, what with it being cancelled at episode 29).

I mean, I don't want to take apart the joke, because that ruins it. This whole thing is like a cartoon, where any of the normal rules are thrown out the window.

But, to play along, I'll say:

-Kitaoka can't let Megumi know because something something too dangerous to know the truth. I hate this policy, but it's definitely one the show has clung to relentlessly.

-The chirping of crickets and lapping of waves, super coincidentally, is of an opposing frequency of the belt forming and the Zolda armor appearing, rendering that part of the transformation utterly silent. What a lucky break for Kitaoka!

-He doesn't jump into the water, he jumps into the reflection on the water. It doesn't make any sound, because he's not interacting with the water. It's also the reason why he's not wet when he gets back in the boat.

I don't think Shinji would take back a gift, even if the recipient would throw it away. And I definitely don't think Kitaoka would let him take it back, if only to make sure it goes to waste.

Admittedly, Megumi's not going to be for everyone! I can see her being frustrating for her cartoonishness. She's not a realistic, comprehensible person by any stretch. She's in this episode to be insane and torture Kitaoka. (I am always okay with torturing Kitaoka, because he both deserves it and seems to thrive on it. That dude likes to have something to overcome!) If you find her to be too much of a caricature, I wouldn't argue against it.

I liked how her obsession (?) with Kitaoka has made her a super-fan, though. I like that she does get Kitaoka on a deeper level than even Goro. If she'd just been ruining Kitaoka's life and making him crazy, I don't think a lot of the later comedy would've landed. Making her someone who does legitimately care for and understand him, it's a little touch that improved the episode for me.

Your mileage may vary, though!

Structurally, it's a really good time for it. The halfway point is a nice place to put, like, an intermission. There'd been some deep, heavy stuff going on, and the introduction of Kamen Rider Boss and his Turn Back(hand) Time Vent is a good place to pause the action.

I'm still curious regarding Reiko, Shimada, Sonorabuma, and different mirror travel from ep. 29, can you answer regarding that?

Lol, so lucky.

Well, not all cartoonish/caricature part, just a certain type of character. There's Shimada too. Also I don't want to be bashed for disliking her just because she's gorgeous. And her torturing Kitaoka is still kinda okay to me, but not for her torturing others.

Yeah, no, it definitely breaks the rules of mirror travel. I guess I'm okay with it a) because it's a fun conclusion, b) it's a comedy episode, so I wasn't thinking too hard at the end, and c) it's a one-off adventure that doesn't seem like it'll have a ton of plot-bearing on future episodes. It's definitely an error, though.

I don't know if anyone's going to be disliking her because she's gorgeous. She's a tricky character to find a balance on, though, for sure.

And Reiko/Shimada sleeping? Or the monster NOT eating the victim?

No you misunderstand, I mean that I get bashed by those thinking that she's gorgeous that I'm not into her.

This killed me, too; I've been rewatching Ryuki, since I didn't remember it as well as I remembered the other series you've been writing about, and there is so much fantastic work I'd completely forgotten about. But this moment was where I completely completely lost it - the character work in this series is consistently really good, but that bit right there was the pinnacle of comedic brilliance.

Same answer? The specifics of the resolution... it's not the tightest episode of a Kamen Rider ever, but all of those plotholes or errors, I just didn't care about them when I was watching it. I'm not saying they weren't there, but everything character-wise was working so well that I didn't notice. It's a very easy thing for me to forgive on that one.

There's a moment, right as he pulls out his Card Deck and does his arm movements, where I'm like, "Oh my God, it'd be awesome if he'd just mouth 'Henshin' instead of shouting it, but that's too dumb to--" *mouths 'Henshin'* "--WWWWWHHHHHHAAAAATTTTT IS HAPPENING!" It's like, a dream is a wish your heart makes, and my dream was that a self-centered lawyer would quietly transform into a superhero several inches from an unsuspecting woman and that he would pointlessly mouth the word 'Henshin'. And that dream came true.

The same mirror rule has long since been abandoned by this point. If it hadn't, Asakura never would have returned from the mirror in that exploded cop car.

I was going to make exactly this point, but looking back at that scene, I think he actually used the mirror on Ren's bike? Which is still weird, and begs a lot of questions, but either way, it's thrown into doubt whether or not the show actually did forget about that rule before this point.

He absolutely used the mirror on Ren's bike. He jumps from the car into Ren's mirror, so the empty car shoots off of the cliff. It was really neat!

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 31

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki31a.png

THEY KEPT MEGUMI!!!

Also, we're back to traditional Ryuki here, firmly ensconced in Ripping Yarn territory. There's a good gag or two, but the emphasis is really on delivering an absolutely cracking monster story, with a few different fun turns in it.

I like a good monster story. Ryuki... doesn't do a lot of them. I've sort-of missed them, after watching this series and Agito and Kuuga. I don't think the monsters got a lot of thought put into their schemes, if you could even call them schemes, at this point in Heisei. We're a far cry from Double or OOO, where there'd be hidden motivations and reveals and twists and stuff. It's not really what the monsters are built for yet. They're like animals, and Riders slaughter them like animals. They're something for the heroes to detonate, not delve into or deconstruct.

This one isn't really the kind of monster story I really love, where the monster has some cool way of getting something mysterious, and the heroes need to figure out both the how and the why. Except, it does kind-of do both of those things?

A little girl is the only survivor of a cruise (or something?) that has everyone else onboard disappear. All she says is that a man was there, and everyone was taken by three monsters. Shinji assumes it's Asakura, enlists Ren, and they go out on a heavily-covered-by-journalists trip by the police to recreate the initial voyage and see if they can discover the truth behind the disappearances. (Seriously, it is a lot of reporters for something that seems, at first glance, like a Voyage of the Damned. Literally one person survived the previous trip, and not only are the police letting a few dozen journalists tag along for the follow-up, but also the nearly-catatonic little girl who survived the last mysterious trip. This does not seem like responsible decision-making by anyone, and only that child has an excuse!) Asakura's on the boat, the crew freaks out, people start disappearing, everything points to Asakura... except maybe it's not him? It's not his monsters, and he's basically calling dibs on them, ignoring Knight and Ryuki so he can feed his hungry monsters. Also, the little girl says Asakura saved her?!

There's a bunch of mysteries left over in this one (what happened on the previous trip, most of all), so it's tough to talk too much about the plot other than recounting it. Hard to know how I feel about some of this story without knowing how it ends. Still, I did really enjoy the plot of this one. It's a tense locked-room mystery for most of it, Ren and Shinji running all over a boat, trying to figure out what's going on. There's a real patience to the storytelling, holding off on the monster reveal until very late in the episode, leaving Asakura's involvement an open question. Keeping Asakura largely off-screen helps the story in two ways, building tension for the monster reveal, and also leaving the nature of his connection to Mika mysterious. Even at the end, we don't really know what Asakura did before Shinji and Ren showed up, so every scene with Mika and Asakura is as baffling to us as it is to the heroes. Why isn't she scared of Asakura? Is he really blameless? It's a possibility that seems more likely than the previous time folks thought Asakura had a heart of gold, that's for sure. Things are kept appropriately open-ended in this story, with a few theories and no real answers. Everything's subjective, which is a nice way for Ryuki to do a monster plot.

I mean, in fairness, this is a very Ryuki version of a monster plot. While the monster reveal is a nice surprise, and the how/why hasn't been fully explained yet, this is still a plot about whether or not Asakura can be redeemed. It's not about Mika, exactly, or anyone the monster killed. She's a victim to protect, and a way to ask questions about Asakura. (It's not really a story that does much to explore Shinji or Ren. This is, despite him not being in a ton of it, 100% an Asakura episode.) I guess you could make the argument that basically every monster plot in Kamen Rider is about the Kamen Rider, that doesn't sound wrong to me, but the ones I like do more disguise it a bit. This one managed to get me thinking about the monster's agenda more than most Ryukis, so I'll thank it for that.

Not much else in this one, besides a funny fight over the Ore Journal MacBook and whether it's called Gosaku (ugh) or White Milky (YES), and Yui's cute new hairdo (a million times better than the last 30 episodes, please keep it past summertime). It's an episode that's more-or-less all-in on the monster plot, and it's refreshing to get a full-length monster plot that feels like it's got a couple moves on it. I miss those kinds of Kamen Rider stories!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ryuki/ryuki31b.png

Yep. She's around for the rest of the series.