[Battlizer]

Ryuki 47-50

So first things first..the Mirror World. So Yui and her brother created it through their drawings and it just came to exist one day and in addition to monsters it had an alternate version of Yui. The real Yui died and the mirror Yui sort of took her place. Er...well I guess it's kind a creepy, but the mirror world happens to exist because of...their imaginations? I guess so.

Then why did Kanzaki need to do the laboratory stuff again. I mean...I suppose he couldn't start the rider war if he didn't find a way to actually tap into the mirror world's power. I think that's the one I'll go with, any more thinking on this and I'll get way too confused.

The actual ending....ehhhh. I dunno how I'd end it, but that one wasn't the best. But everything just resets? I mean yeah, it's nice that my favorite characters and whatever get to live their lives and everything, but...I really wanted to see the outcome of the world where Knight saved Eri and Editor-in-Chief published the article about the Kamen Riders. If anything, they could've showed more of that, before going to the reset.

Shinji's death was almost hard to watch. The main character gets taken out in such a tragic way, but I'm glad he didn't die in a Rider fight, if Shinji had to die, it should be the for the reason he became a Rider in the first place. To save people.

He kind of made Ren and Kitaoka better people through his actions too. Ren stated before that Shinji was a better person than him or Kitaoka, and when Shinji was dying, he practically said wanted Shinji to live, because he was the one who had to win. So, I guess in the end both Shinji and Ren's dreams were accomplished. Rider war stopped and Ren saved Eri.

Also whatever compunctions they had against killing doesn't apply to Odin, it seems. Shinji even held him down for Ren to finish off! What was Odin anyway, just the extension of Kanzaki's will like a living suit of armor?

Kitaoka refusing to fight Shinji, when Shinji was briefly unstable shows how he changed a lot form the prick who tried to kill them off multiple times. He was essentially the third main hero after a while, and his idea to finish his fight with Asakura, not to win the war or cure his illness (which he'd given up on curing since he figured he lived his life to the fullest), but because he feels responsible for letting a violent criminal run free like that. Though to be fair he did try really hard to get him locked up.

He finally got his date with Reiko too, but the sickness had pretty much rendered him immobile. He had a nice quiet death scene. But man, Goro dies too?! He wasn't even a Rider to begin with. I understand why he took Kitaoka's place, but man...you could tell he wasn't used to the Rider battles, given how he fought. But dude was loyal to the end.

Asakura...didn't change much. He was mostly sort of a enemy for Kitaoka. He wasn't as much of a psychopath as Tiger was, something the characters note in the story itself. And Asakura's brand of craziness just kinda got humorous after a while, to me. Still, he worked as a foil to Kitaoka or whatever. Shinji didn't influence him much as he did the other two, but that scene a few episodes ago where he just sorta chilled out with the others for five minutes was the most progress he'll ever get in that regard.

I'd talk more about Yui and Kanzaki, but that'd bring me back to the mirror world topic, and I just wanna stay away from that shit right now.

All in all...I really like Ryuki. It has problems, most of which I feel lie in how the hell the Mirror World and Rider powers worked. But I liked the characters working through this and interacting and how Shinji's idealism changed the course of things.

Next, I guess I'll pick up where I left off in Hibiki around the 20's. But...about the Ryuki special and the movie? Are they worth watching? I hear the missing members of the 13 Riders are in them, so...is it worth watching just for them?