[Locke]

Decade 06. "Treachery and onions are two of my favourite things!"

So this is Ryuki huh? Or at least a version of it. And man what a version! Kuuga's world made me enjoy a series I hated, Kiva's world had some interesting ideas but was much too brief to be truly appreciated but then this introduces the 'Kamen Rider Trial System' one of the most legitimately exciting and awesome ideas I've seen in Kamen Rider. A world where 12 people with any relation to a case are given a super powered set of armour, and the victor can judge the case in their favour? I'd happily watch a whole series around this idea!

It has real fun with its ideas too like the fact that the system is so corrupt, under the right circumstances the murderer themselves could end up joining the Trial Battle, winning it and then sending someone innocent to jail to get away with murder.

Kamen Rider Abyss always looked lovely in toy form, but I'm not sure I'm so sold with the suit in show. There is a cheap, lack of polish about the suit and although it has all those intricate details that make me love the Ryuki suits I'm not sure I ultimately like this suit as a whole as much as I did other suits in the show.

It's so nice to be able to enjoy the Kiva suit and powers, without actually having to watch the series. Although it's a shame that no powers seem as strong as the Decade ones, which maybe makes sense in context, but kinda undermines the excitement of transforming into past Riders.

So why does Yusuke know all about the Riders? I get that he is a Kamen Rider and he's fought monsters and stuff but he's certainly taken leaping from dimension to dimension, each populated with its own monsters and heroes very casually. I mean in the Kiva world, he directly integrated himself into the fabric of it...somehow... I mean as shitty as it is, Tsukasa has in story reasons for being so casual but Yusuke is just... It doesn't help that this episode literally made him irrelevant. From having a whole arc centred around him, to an arc where he was off screen for his most crucial moments to an arc where he is literally not needed at all. Fantastic.