[Fish Sandwich]

Ryuki 41-42:

The beginning of one last trip into the Inoue Zone brings with it the final Rider in the show, bringing us up to a grand total of...

10 out of 13.

Now you see why I prefer to count the Alternatives, too. Which would still leave the show one short. I've got no clue how Ryuki failed to make the time to live up to its basic premise. I understand that Ouja apparently wasn't meant to stay around as long as he did, so maybe he ate up too much screentime, but even then, you'd think Verde or somebody could've just been a glorified mini-boss for an episode or two somewhere in there. When it comes down to it, it's never actually bothered me that Ryuki messed this up, and if doing it would've meant messing up the pacing or having the new characters be paper-thin, maybe it was for the best, but it's a glaring oddity in the series' narrative.

But what's done is done, so we'll just have to make due with who is here. Imperer is a fun character and it's great to see how the show was still coming up with unique character concepts for Riders this late in the game. He actually benefits from debuting in one of Inoue's chunks of the series, because seeing him attempt to sell his services as a Rider to everyone in Inoue's typical exaggerated manner makes him stand out that much more. It's kind of a genius idea to have the new guy this late in the show going around with zero personal stake in anything, offering to team up with whoever will have him. After all, he has no context for anything that's happening.

I think Tiger also manages to be better off for being in the Inoue Zone, too. I'd forgetten how much of a creepy psycho he is, but by this point I think he's made more attempts (successful or otherwise) to murder people than there have been episodes he's in. Toujou's clearly not all there, and I find it kind of fascinating how he's written in the same manner rogue artificial intelligences in sci-fi movies are. It's obvious he can't process human emotion at all, which is a shame, because it's also obvious he genuinely wants to be a hero. Whatever that is. I don't think Professor Kagawa totally grasps the negative effect doing the whole shady mad scientist shtick in a dark room had on trying to teach him how to be heroic.

Despite the upsides here, no Inoue-penned episodes of Ryuki are without their quirks. There are bits I love, like the escalation of Kitaoka trying to eat a meal. It starts with Asakura eating it, and ends with Gorou wrapping up the fresh one he made to replace it after Kitaoka ends up running off anyway. It's the kind of weird, sub-subplot comedy skit with its own beginning, middle, and end that I don't think anyone does like Inoue does, and it adds an extra dimension to what would otherwise be a totally straightforward scene of people talking. But then on the other hand there's the usual appearance of ineffectual Shinji (which is fine because I don't expect him to do well in a 3 on 1 fight), and more glaringly, the way Asakura is used here. It's the first time in the series I feel like he's become a bit of a teddy bear. The show has justified a lot of these elements, to be fair. Back when Inoue first wrote him he even had Asakura make the surprisingly sound point that simply calling the cops on him is only going to end poorly for the cops. Even so, it feels bizarre how casually he seems to be able to move around, and at the point where you're writing him in a room with Shinji, Ren, and Kitaoka, and instead of ending up in a fight, they take a vote on whether or not Shinji is an idiot, I think you might've taken it a bit far. But I'm being way too serious about this. It's a fun enough scene, and a couple slight glitches aren't enough to derail his character. Plus, if it came down to it, I'd rather have him doing wacky comedy than shoving people's faces in medical waste, so there's that.

Den-O 41-42:

You know, nothing makes me appreciate how warm and happy Den-O is quite like putting it right up against Ryuki like this. Seeing the Imagin helping Ryoutarou train his reflexes is so far removed from everyone trying to kill each other it's nuts. Speaking of which, can I mention how amazing Ryoutarou is again? Little scenes of him trying to better himself like this are a regular part of the show now. That particular fact is especially cool because it also means seeing how much everyone has his back by this point, especially Momo, who is bound and determined to one day teach him how to use a sword, but it's more than just that. Ryoutarou goes out of his way to initiate all these things, and its great to see how consistently proactive he's become in nearly everything he does. He works hard to fight as Den-O, he puts in the effort to try and solve the show's mysteries to the best of his ability, and scenes like him trying to cheer Yuuto up and the end of 42 really speak to his steadfast resolve.

The bulk of the plot here is about Yuuto and Deneb's friendship though. Yeah, I'm still not done talking about Zeronos yet. These episodes explore the consequences of Zero Form in more detail, through the lens of the obligatory Victim of the Week, an insanely adorable girl who falls for Deneb as Yuuto when he decides to go around introducing "Yuuto" to everybody in a well-meaning attempt to help him out. Once again, there's no happy ending here, and the result is an arc that's right up there with the piano man when it comes to Den-O storylines that I think represent the show really well. Keep in mind, even though I'm focusing on the tragic part, the plot still makes time for all the usual great character-building and amazing comedy you should be expecting from this show, not to mention all those small details I wish I could work in mentioning easier. There's a bit in here where Ryoutarou in Liner Form is shown running while cradling the Den-Kamen Sword instead of holding it normally, and that one shot that only lasts a couple seconds gives me so much to talk about just by itself. It brilliantly plays off the established fact that Ryoutarou considers the sword heavy. It endears the audience to him by reminding us he's not a perfect hero. It's plain funny on its own merits. I can't stress enough that the entire series is filled with moments like this.

One last thing that isn't strictly related to the episodes at hand that I want to talk about is the theme song. Actually, I could talk for an entire post this size about all three of these shows' openings, if not longer, so I'll keep it brief. Climax Jump is one of my favorite themes in the whole franchise, and frankly I'm not okay with the version of it that gets used starting with episode 40. It just sounds off, wrong, and nowhere near as upbeat, and the "ii jan, ii jan, sugee jan" part over the title card makes me want to vomit for some reason. I mean, I'm probably exaggerating a bit on that last one, but it seriously is grating, and I don't know what happened. It's not even that the Imagin's voice actors are doing the singing, because they're fine, and we recently got a remix of this remix for Zi-O that sounds infinitely better to prove it. The show then decides to add insult to injury by replacing the visuals for around 30 seconds of the opening with clips from the episode starting with 41, which... seriously? It's one thing to do that to shill a movie, or to do it tastefully like OOO and Ryuki where you getl little snippets in spots specifically designated for that purpose, but to outright replace most of the OP with stuff I'm going to see in a second anyway is madness. If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

OOO 41-42:

Firstly, I'm actually angry at this arc right now because it's so unbelievably good I feel like talking about it is a waste of time when I could be watching it again instead of writing this and you could be doing the same instead of reading this.

Secondly, I'm in way too deep to quit now, so I'm going to try and push past that feeling.

And thirdly, OOO has an utterly perfect endgame, and I think this is where it starts. The basic premise is that Ankh has been taken away, and Eiji and Hina want him back, but the trick is that the drama goes so far beyond that. These episodes dig into the where everyone is at and how they're feeling right now on a level that really confirms for me all over again why I love Yasuko Kobayashi's writing so much. Her stories always have this super strong human element to them, and in the process of rewatching these shows I've come to the conclusion that OOO has the most realistic and genuine feeling cast of any Rider show. The way everyone behaves and their motivations and how they react to things and the way they change all make so much sense it blows my mind. It's all so natural. Just in these two episodes alone there's so much stuff that's so easy to empathize with. The scene where Eiji compares eating food after losing his sense of taste to gum after the flavor's gone has always really stuck with me. It seems obvious enough but it's actually a strong comparison the more you think about it. Because that's something I think pretty much anyone can directly relate to, you know? Chewing on a tasteless lump of nothing that used to not be tasteless isn't a particularly pleasant experience, and just like that, you totally know how Eiji is feeling. The part of that scene I didn't remember as much is that said experience causes Eiji to have a revelation about how Ankh must've been feeling this whole time, and that makes the scene that much better. It's much the same with the scene where Shingo is practicing with Eiji to fill Ankh's role as the designated guy who tosses Eiji Medals. Simply having him completely mess up the throw like any normal person would is just about the single most effective way the show could've possibly gotten across how sad it is that Ankh's gone. Like Eiji, we've gotten rather used to that perfect throwing arm after so many adventures. I could go on talking about these kinds of moments for a long while yet, too. The whole arc is wall-to-wall top-tier quality like this. I also have to give major props to Shuu Watanabe's performance, since I haven't done that yet. I maintain every lead in Kamen Rider has been great, but one thing I've been noticing going back through OOO is how Eiji actually breathes noticeably different depending on how he's feeling. Which is an odd thing to single out, I know, but I'm telling you, it's a huge part of the reason why his character feels so realistic. That and the way he always twitches one of his eyes whenever Eiji is exhausted from pushing himself way too hard, which really gets across how much Eiji is wrecking his body doing what he does.