[Fish Sandwich]

I love that the teaser for Blade's world is just the four Riders recreating a shot from that show's first opening.

As for these episodes about Ryuki, it's sort of tricky to say how I feel? I remember being a bit grumpy about them watching Decade the first time since, for those keeping track, Ryuki was the only Rider show I had seen all the way through by that point, and ever since I've always assumed I was simply unfairly expecting some perfect recreation of the show, even though that is explicitly not Decade's goal as a series. Going back to them, then... I'm still not sure it's a great tribute to Ryuki?

The whole approach Decade took, going back to what I said talking about the Kuuga episodes, is to feature these sorts of "snapshots" of the previous Riders. Capturing the entirety of a year-long series in a single pair of episodes might be impossible, but maybe you can capture something of that essence. And like, for how consciously different they chose to make Newsuke, his episodes are ultimately an origin story for a hero who selflessly fights to protect people's smiles. Kiva may not have romances and a whole second time period to take place in, but it's still the story of a troubled young person learning to believe he has a place in the world.

And with Ryuki, it's like, what they came up with doesn't *not* line up with stuff that was in that show. It still has that core of Riders with conflicting viewpoints battling one another; it's got a buddy cop thing going on with Shinji and Ren learning to work together. There are even some touches that sort of hover between being superficial and not, due to changes in context, like Shinji being hesitant to fight (that downward tilt of his head when Decade is about to finish Knight off is so Ryuki) or how Ren is only participating in the conflict because of a personal crusade focused around a woman. There are plenty of Ryuki-isms here, for sure. Decade even does Ryuki's Rider Kick and it's awesome! (And also the entire plot erases itself at the end, so, you know, they got that part down.)

But I think it lacks the weight Ryuki had? The entire tagline for that series was "if you don't fight, you won't survive." The theme song was called Alive A Life. We had a main Rider who wanted to protect all life so much he'd even paradoxically protect murderers, and a rival who would crush his own soul in a lonely battle all to save a single life that mattered to him. The main villain's goal wasn't all that different from the latter. That was a pretty big focus of Ryuki, the way I see it – these people can only have these clashing views because they're individuals, every one precious and irreplaceable in their own right. Then in Decade, these guys are all glorified jurors, and most of that strong conviction just kinda evaporates? (As evidenced by how petty Shinji's grudge against Ren feels.) Being a Rider ain't a commitment anymore, and it ain't lethal, which makes it one of the absolute most striking, different, and weird remixes Decade did... which is sort of commendable! ...and it's also frustrating as a big Ryuki fan, to have something so major completely excised this way, and I still don't know if I'm just being unnecessarily harsh here, even years later.

I mean, I'm evidently a big Kuuga fan, and I like Newsuke fine enough! Looking at these more strictly as Decade episodes, I do like aspects of them a lot, and I even think it's a great pair of episodes for Tsukasa. It highlights how abrasive his surface-level personality is more than any other set of episodes yet through his insensitive treatment of Natsumi's entire dilemma (I won't lie, it IS pretty funny), while still making a point that he's trying to live up to an ideal deep down, and that ideal is Kuuga. It reminds me a bit of Cross-Z's whole deal in Build; basically believing he can be a better person because someone else is willing to believe it first. Not only does it make a nice beat for Tsukasa, it's also another instance of Newsuke contributing more with his kindness than with his fists, which is again, very Kuuga of him. I really liked that beat at the end with Tsukasa's photo showing both Shinji/Ren, and him and Newsuke.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

As Fish is coyly referring to

Look, my hands were tied, alright? If Kobayashi had written the scene I was thinking of into Gingaman or something, I would've gladly thought of that instead!