[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 33



Not really a lot to this one, structurally. There's, like, one main plot, and a half-dozen build-ups for other plots. Let's see if I can remember them all!

The main plot, it's paying off the cliffhanger from last episode. (I don't usually like talking about the cliffhangers. There's generally not much more to talk about than speculation, and I never know how prominent some of them will be. Sometimes I get really excited and the next episode completely blows it off. I'd rather wait until there's some substance.) Megumi's seen Shinji walk out of a mirror, and now she's going to investigate. It's a fun story, slightly humorous and sort-of low stakes. Technically, there's a chance that Megumi could crack this thing wide open (a chance), or Shinji could unburden himself and tell his friends he fights monsters inside of mirrors with the help of Ren, escaped convict Asakura, and the worst person they know, but I didn't really think the status quo was going to change that much. Sure enough, while Megumi's dogged perseverance (she's not terrible at her job!) does keep Shinji from finishing off a monster, she gets the wrong idea and declares his previous mirror activities to be that of an illusionist. ~sad trombone~ Shinji dodges a bullet, Princess Megumi puts on an ornate demonstration, and everything goes back to normal for the crew of Ore Journal.

Except it doesn't, because Megumi's ludicrous demonstration (I hope she just rented that disappearing box) is the final piece that Reiko needs to complete a working theory on the last eight months worth of mysterious disappearances: a mirror world. On the one hand, I've expressed my disappointment that so much time has been spent on Reiko learning stuff the audience has known for a while. Dramatically, it's not that exciting. In this one, I think it kind-of works, and not just because of Reiko's new haircut. (It looks great! It's so weird that she got a haircut because I feel like that usually doesn't happen during a series? It seems like every dude's hair is a foot longer by the end of the season, anyway.) The nuts and bolts of investigative journalism are... not exactly something this show has made a priority. It's nice when it happens, but oftentimes it's left to the margins. Giving it a little room to breathe, seeing Reiko take a half-season's worth of clues and then, during a goddamn magic act, figure out that final piece of the puzzle, it works pretty well. I'm not sure it makes up for all of those scenes where we knew what she didn't, but I liked how the two main plots (calling this a main plot isn't entirely accurate, but I guess I just spent as long talking about this one as the actual main plot, so maybe there's more than one after all) in this one connected. Smart writing.

Most of the rest of this one is just Shiro being an asshole and tightening the screws on everyone. The scene where he visits Kitaoka and basically says Fight or Die while raising his eyebrows as high as he can on the word DIE, it's still funny to me. I love the weird salesmanship of Shiro, how he's so eager to get Riders fighting, how he fundamentally doesn't understand why they aren't murdering each other by the end of this sentence. It's cute, in a socially awkward way. He's got a passion for superpowered men murdering each other, and he really wants to share that passion, you know? He's a very enthusiastic instigator of battles to the death. It's adorable.

I mean, less adorable when he almost kills Eri to motivate Ren, and Yui's whole Time Has Run Out In The Mirror World-esque dissipating doesn't seem like a good thing, also Asakura is maybe going to try and pick off a near-death Kitaoka... okay, I think “adorable” might've been too far. I see that now.