[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 32



I feel like this is the best kind of story you can do to deepen Asakura's character. Let other people try and divine his motivations, let them project their biases onto him, but never really nail down what he's thinking.

The more mysterious you can make Asakura, I think the better he plays. Mika's certain he's a good guy, Ren's certain he's a villain, and Shinji is the audience, wanting to believe he can change but knowing he probably won't. It's tricky, to find that balance. In the Asakura's Brother story, the show veered too far into having the heroes be trusting dopes. In this one, there's circumstantial evidence that Asakura didn't hurt anyone on the boat, that he protected Mika with no ulterior motive, but he never really defends himself or explains his actions. (I mean, there's the bit at the end where he says Mika was just his hostage, but it's not real convincing.) It makes him complicated, in a dramatically compelling way. Having a complete redemption story for Asakura, I feel like it'd ruin his character the same as keeping him a maniacal killer. This middle ground where maybe, under exceptionally heightened circumstances, Asakura might have a sliver of empathy inside of him... I think it's the smartest way to evolve his character.

It's funny, to lead this write-up off by talking about Asakura, because in opposition to last episode's It's About Asakura Even If He's Not In It story, Asakura's all over this one, and yet it's not really about him. It's about what he represents.

He's a killer, and an unrepentant one at that. He's a monster, and there's no restraining him. The longer he's free, the more innocents are at risk. He's made his bed of surrounding himself with hungry monsters, and now he gets to lie in it. It's justice, by nearly anyone's definition.

But.

But Mika cares for him. Mika needs him in her life. She needs him to exist in the world. Asakura's death would hurt her. His death would make someone's life, even if it's only one person's life, worse. And that means he deserves to live, same as anyone. The loss of a life isn't just about the person who dies, it's about the people they loved, the world they inhabited. Asakura has earned his fate, but he deserves to live. Not for himself, but for the people who care about him.

It's a sweet message, and one only Shinji could properly articulate. It's hard to give a speech advocating for the continued existence of a man who just had his brother devoured by a monster, but the actor's performance and the beautiful spring There Is Beauty After Rain montage really sells the necessity of saving Asakura. It's a monumental ask of the audience, but I was like, Yeah, Shinji should save him. That's the crux of the episode, a make-or-break point for the story, and I thought they landed it gracefully.

I sort-of wish that was all that was in this episode? The last one gained points for staying pretty laser-focused on the boat story, while I felt like this one lost points for trying to serve other plots. There are a few scenes of Reiko investigating what happened to Shiro in America, and I found it typically dull. One, I can't believe that, after Tezuka's death, someone else has hijacked Yui's only plotline. Hilarious! This show! Second, I just don't care about the small amounts of information Reiko gets about Mirror Worlds and Secret Science Societies and things that viewers have known about for 30+ episodes. It's so boring to me, watching her catch up to the rest of the show. If this was shocking information that changed what we knew about Shiro and Rider Battles, I'd be into it. But, like, she's just learning the plot of Masked Rider Ryuki. I already know that! I've been watching that for 32 episodes!

That part was a bummer, but the rest of this episode was a surprisingly sweet story about the ways even the worst people have value, and can enrich other lives. A real pleasant episode.