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Quote:

Originally Posted by SPLIT LIP

Ryuki is so fucking excellent in it's last episode if you stop watching just before the reset that literally renders everything pointless. Every character's storyline is ended beautifully. Ryuki sacrifices himself saving innocent people without even using his rider powers, Zolda gets his date with the reporter but dies peacefully from his illness before it happens, Gorou dies fulfilling his mentor's promise to Ouja in a last act of loyalty, Ouja is finally gunned down willingly by the police after being hounded by them for so long, and Knight finally wins the game, as he's the only one who ever really, truely wanted to win, and saves the person he cares about most. And it's all done excellently, on a technical and writing level. It is the very deffinition of satisfaction. Ryuki was a major mixed bag for me, especially Ouja, but that first part of the last ep made up for it.

But then Odin decides that's for weiners and tears it all down for a trite, nonsensical "happy" ending where every character, despite all logic, appears alive and smiling. (even Ouja who should be in prison still, and Zolda who should still be dead since he was ill before the game started)

I thought the ending to Ryuki was bad too until I listened to an episode of HJU radio that really changed my mind on the subject. I forget which episode it is but one of the peope on there argued that one interpretation of the show and the movie+ special is that Shiro just keeps resetting the Rider War to get his desired outcome. That the show is the true ending where he gives up and lets Yui die. The idea being that the ending is more about the concluding overall arc of Shiro letting go and stopping fucking with these random people's lives by having them fight over and over for his own selfish desire to keep Yui alive. Now, one could argue, that the resolution of those arcs could be meaningless to begin with given Shiro kept resetting everything previously, or that it is important because it got him to realize he should stop.

And in that respect, I think it's a good ending.