[Kurona]

Just finished Ryuki.

And... hoo boy I do not know what to feel. That sure was a ride. (And an actual ride, since the Survive forms actually give these guys bikes)

One major thing I want to note is that I loved the pacing and episode structure. Rider tends to stick strictly to a 2-part episode structure which, not gonna lie, after so much of it I'm starting to get a little sick of it; so it's nice to see that Ryuki while you could kiiind of argue some of the earlier episodes have a 2-part thing going for them, in reality the whole thing is a lot more fluid and serialised. Reminiscent of one of the good points Gaim had for me really, and it kept me very, very invested. It's one of the reasons I ended up finishing this in only a week; it's been a while since I finished a series that fast.

But as for what story that structure was serving? I... man, I have absolutely zero idea what to feel about it. For the most part it was what I liked about Kobayashi's writing -- extremely high stakes and lethal scenarios that despite which, hope is still present and will emerge. It's not like Rider doesn't do that outside of her - hell, I just finished Kuuga; and that's a phenomenal example - but something about the way she does it hits closer to home and feels more genuine.
But something felt off about this, and especially in the way the last 6 episodes resolved it all? It didn't... feel quite right.

Much like how I feel Toshiki Inoue wrote great stuff like Agito but then at some point just went off the rails and became absolutely goddamn weird to say the least - and, actually, having watched Ryuki? I feel I can pinpoint the exact moment that point was - this feels like the opposite for Kobayashi. That she hadn't yet gotten to the type of writing and moral & philosophical core to her work that I've come to associate with stuff like OOO, Den-O and Go-Busters. I get an almost similar feeling - god help me - to Movie War Core, where it feels like a rough draft of a masterwork.

I have just finished the final episode though and these are just my initial thoughts, so it's bound to change with time -- which I find is a common thread with Kobayashi's work as well; everything gets better with time and retrospect. But right now this is how I feel, and it's just odd to me.




Oh and I just realised that I completely forgot to say here that I finished Kuuga, right before Zi-O's last episode. In a nutshell it was f***ing incredible and easily makes my Top 5 Riders right now; Ex-Aid be damned. Everything I said before applies; they nail a unique vibe, they took great pride in "Kamen Rider's back! Hell yeah!", and the moral core to it is similar to exactly what I loved about stuff like OOO. Kuuga good. Kuuga really good. Godai thumbs up dot gif.