[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 14



Visually, this is another killer episode. Tonally, uh... it takes some big chances.

There's once again a lot to recommend about how this one was blocked and shot. It's some little stuff, like the reflection of Darkwing in the glass door that Ren walks through in the building lobby, and some big stuff, like the Knight emblem (I think) burning on the lantern or literally all of Shinji's Dark Night Of The Soul. That whole sequence, of Shinji just losing his sense of self when he thinks he killed Zolda, it's a really nice collage of effects, heightening the disorientation Shinji feels, rendering both him and the viewer adrift. It's... this whole episode is full of shots and angles and edits that solidify everything the story's trying to do and say. Looks great, and does an amazing job. My compliments to the director!

It's just, the setup for this episode is asking a lot of the viewer. Maybe too much! In order for both halves of this story to work, you have to a) empathize with Shinji, feel his despair as he's taken a life, something he swore he'd never do, and b) know that he's being tricked by Kitaoka and think it's hilarious. That's a huge ask of a storyteller. If you care too much for Shinji, every cutaway to Kitaoka gloating over his deception is like a knife in the heart. Similarly, if you don't care about Shinji enough, every sequence of Shinji giving up, longing for death, that shit is laugh out loud funny. So, like, you've got to care about Shinji just enough to feel his pain, but still be able to laugh at how melodramatic Kitaoka's fake mourning is. I don't... I don't know if the episode totally lands that plane. I think it works better in the second half, where we get to see Shinji's pain separate from the deception. (If you're asking me to not cackle like an asshole when Kitaoka is crying fake tears and exclaiming that even he, a brilliant attorney, couldn't frame Shinji for this murder, I feel like we don't know each other at all.) The resolution, with Shinji being so glad that Goro's alive and so glad he didn't murder him, it's very sweet and welcome. I like that Shinji's so caring that he didn't think to want to murder Kitaoka (reasonable!) until after he was relieved that Goro was alive. Like, some of it's the relief that he's not a murderer, but a lot of it is that a human being is alive. That's very sweet. But I'm not sure if the beginning part of the story, the shell-shocked Shinji stuff, I'm not sure that works as well as the conclusion. Just a little hard to forget that Kitaoka is (beautifully, hilariously, gloriously) tricking him.

So great to have Kitaoka back, though, and I love how his plan is yet again Maybe Shinji Will Get Eaten By His Monster. It's kind-of a thing running through this episode, that these dudes who like to paint themselves as killers, ready to go all pro ice on another Rider, they maybe don't actually have the stomach for it. Kitaoka keeps trying to get Dragreder to finish Shinji off, and Quarter (not in this one a lot!) sort-of has Ren's number re: probably not a killer. Like, Ren has that cool exterior, the motorcycle and the black leather and the scowl, and he's constantly telling people It's Kill Or Be Killed, but, y'know, sort-of hasn't walked that walk yet. Seems like a lot of big talk, thus far. Even Scissors, who's the only Rider yet to get killed onscreen, his contract monster is really the one who finishes him off. Ren puts Scissors in that position, arguably, but he doesn't actually kill him. Could Ren really kill someone? I like that the show leaves that question hanging. It's cool to have Ren's version of himself be challenged by Yui and Shinji's version of him, their belief maybe overcoming his self-deception.

Great story across this two-parter. The Kitaoka/Reiko/Goro stuff is relentlessly hilarious (I would 100% put up that 24" x 36" picture Kitaoka sends Reiko, it's magnificent), the Shinji despair stuff gets where it needs to by the end of the episode, Quarter is awesome, and it's a great dive into the stakes of the Riders fighting each other, how their dedication to winning is maybe more boastful than they'd want people to know, or what the consequences might be for trying not to fight. There're four Riders in this story, and the fact that they each have individual viewpoints, goals, limits, it's really fun to watch.