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Kamen Rider Die watches Masked Rider Ryuki
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03-27-2020, 03:29 PM
#
173
Kamen Rider Die
Kamen Ride Or Die
Join Date: Aug 2019
Location: Chicago, IL
Posts: 6,718
MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 16
Well, that was pretty much completely insane. Some solid work done on the Tezuka/Ren plot, deep interrogation on Ren's character and the psychology he thinks is necessary to save the people he cares about, but most of this one is just
deliciously bonkers
. God bless how tonally extreme Kamen Rider can get in one episode.
We'll start, as per usual, with the Tezuka/Ren stuff. It's incremental, not revelatory, as Tezuka gets to push back more and more on Ren's bullshit, and Ren seems both more insistent about his I Didn't Come Here To Make Friends nonsense, while feeling more uncertain that it's true. There's just
so much
to Ren's character that this Tezuka plot has excavated. He's a guy who pushes people away, but only to keep them safe. He's a guy who tells people he doesn't care about them, because he cares
so much
it could get them both killed. He wants things, and he hates himself for wanting things because he doesn't believe he deserves them. And, Jesus, he's so
transparent
. It's awesome how quickly and how thoroughly Tezuka has Ren's number. Tezuka takes all of Ren's subtext and tells the audience, Hey, you were
totally right
to see that in Ren. There's not really much in this episode that's new, nothing we hadn't already figured out, but I could stand to watch a few more scenes of Tezuka trying to heal Ren's spirit. That's... it's nice that the show made room for that part of the story.
Which somehow sits just fine beside a story about a teenage hacker making the staff of Ore Journal his servants, and Ryuki being held at bay by a teenage bully with a lighter. It's nuts, this one. It's childish, and I
maybe
mean that as a complement? It's a very heightened comedy, with the absurdity of a college student (who looks like he's about 14) extorting a group of adults into cleaning the office, taking embarrassing staff photos (
THAT MONTAGE
), and generally behaving like this humiliation is a totally logical storyline. I laughed a bunch at it, it definitely worked as comedy, but it's a pretty big suspension of disbelief to hear this one out.
(The bit where Shibaura keeps threatening to burn up the Dragreder card, tough call on
that one
. On the one hand, funny.
So funny, every single time.
Shinji's so
impotent
in this one, more or less useless to every plot, and his rage is really entertaining. But, man, why doesn't he just punch that kid in the face and take back his card? I don't think Shibaura has any real-world fighting skills, so one quick jab to the face pretty much ends that plotline. Which, I get it, that's why Shinji doesn't punch him, but there are at least two points where someone could've decked Shibaura and at least ended his leverage over Shinji. You could argue Shinji doesn't because maybe Ore would get hurt by it, but I don't think Ren would care a lick about that. Minor quibble, I laughed a bunch, it's hilarious to see a superhero menaced by a child in an ill-fitting suit.)
It's the Rider stuff that comes out the best this episode, though. I don't know if that's unusual? I feel like it might not be an every episode thing. I might be misremembering it, though. (With the world the way it is right now, I couldn't even say how long I've been watching Ryuki. A year?
A million years?
) Or maybe it's that this one felt like it
extra
came together at the end. I'm not sure if More Riders = Better Episode is a strictly true formula, but it feels like a reliable one for this show. All of the participants in this episode's climax, Ryuki and Knight and Quarter and Poor Man's Genm (I can't believe the Rhino Rider doesn't have an in-show name yet), their reasons for fighting or not fighting are so clearly delineated. Shibaura fights to feel in control, to watch inferior minds fall to his chaos. Ren fights to give order and context to his pain, to feel like he's getting closer to peace and atonement. Shinji and Tezuka, they both want to stop Riders from fighting, but they go about it in different ways. Shinji only wants to fight monsters. Tezuka only (seemingly?) wants to keep Riders from fighting. Their need to insert themselves into conflicts, it takes different shapes. Shinji wants them all to focus on the threat to innocents, while Tezuka wants them to see the pointlessness of conflict. It's... it makes all of the fighting
so much more interesting
to me, to have all of the fighters feel this three-dimensional, to have something like Fight Or Die (not to be confused with Fighter Die, my screen name on the MMA boards) feel this nuanced, this personal.
Also, I totally don't think Ren's going to kill Shibaura. I don't think he's that guy. I guess I'll find out next!
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Last edited by Kamen Rider Die; 07-28-2023 at
06:14 PM
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