[Fish Sandwich]

I like how Ryuki is so influential that apparently saying "it's not that important" comes with the caveat that a show exactly like Ryuki has to exist anyway. I get what you're all saying but that's like saying Kuuga wasn't a big deal because "they would've just brought back Kamen Rider eventually anyway".

The thing is, Kuuga IS the show that brought Kamen Rider back, and Ryuki IS the show that kicked the door open for a whole bunch of stuff. Multiple Riders with different motives in conflict throughout the whole series. Motifs that very blatantly have nothing to do with insects. Gimmicks that are blatantly toyetic in nature.

All that stuff is still important today and it can all be traced back to here. It was a pretty bold show and if you like anything that came after it, you owe it in part to Ryuki. I don't think you should diminish that by saying any show could've done it. What if it WASN'T Ryuki that tried this stuff? What if the merch didn't end up selling? What if the show actually DID get cancelled (which is why Episode Final was made)? Ryuki didn't just try new things, it proved they could work.