[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 34



It's rare to get an escalation episode like this one, where it feels like multiple storylines reach a crescendo. To move one group of characters into a do-or-die situation is rare, but two sets? Pretty amazing.

Obviously, this is an episode built around Ouja vs Zolda, and later Knight vs Ryuki. Those are great stories, with excellent fight scenes, and we'll get to those. One of the things that impressed me about this episode, though, was that the way in to those two fights was through non-combatants.

There's a bunch of time spent with Goro and Yui in this one, specifically about how powerless they feel to save the people they care about. They feel the weight of Rider Battles, but they can't really help the people in their lives who've signed up to Fight Or Die. It's a tough tone to make work in a series like this, to have someone who's all Please Don't Fight, no matter how realistic that plea would be. We need to see fights, or there's no catharsis. Having someone who's all broken up about that constantly, it's a great way to make the audience more bloodthirsty, not less. Here, the show balances it well, with Goro trying to minimize Kitaoka's exposure to Asakura, and Yui (and Auntie) just losing her shit at how childish Ren and Shinji are being lately. Both actions set down stakes for the relationships, and do a great job at keeping the character relationships central in the discussion. It's not some blanket I Wish The Fighting Would Stop, it's Goro fearing for Kitaoka's safety, and Yui needing the men in her life to stop falling apart for five goddamn seconds. It feels personal, and that makes it mean more when the fights end up happening anyway.

We'll start with Ouja vs Zolda. When their fight starts, something struck me that I'm not sure the show has covered. They jump into a car's window to enter Mirror World. When their time is up, they'll have to leave through the same surface. What if Goro drives the car away? Does the car move in Mirror World? What would that even look like to Zolda and Ouja? We never see moving cars in Mirror World normally, so maybe it doesn't move in Mirror World, but it does in the real world? So they leave through the same spot, but come out miles away? Weird. Lot of questions came up for me about Mirror World travel.

Anyway, yeah, let's start with Asakura and Kitaoka. While multiple other characters are given gifts or threats from Shiro to get them back in Rider Battles, I like how Asakura must've just looked at his Days Since A Fight calendar and went Time To Make The Donuts. Everyone else feels the tightening noose of Shiro's manipulations, but for Asakura, it was Tuesday. He's so uncomplicated, at least in this one, you know? For Kitaoka, it feels like he's made peace with what he has to do. He's no longer that interested in trying to kill other Riders, but he's not going to run from a fight, either. (At least with Riders. He will 100% run from fights with non-Riders.) There's just this feeling of, like, inevitability to this fight. Asakura does it because it's like breathing to him, but Kitaoka seems to do it out of obligation. It's a good fight, with a nice jump to the Final Vents, but there's an almost melancholy to it, a sadness.

But, man, it's nothing compared to the sick self-negation and frustration at the heart of the Ryuki vs Knight battle. It's taken plenty of episodes to get back to this point, to have Ren challenge Shinji again. The show has drawn the two of them closer together, before having Eri's perpetually-imminent-but-now-really-imminent demise pull them apart again. A nice day at the amusement park can't last, and Ren needs to start killing if Eri's going to ever start living. He forces Shinji to fight him, not with threats or insults, but with a heartfelt request from a friend. So Shinji suits up, to face him in one-on-one combat.

I love the Ryuki vs Knight scenes in this episode, and I presume I'm not alone. It's the two major characters, fighting in a battle that neither of them really wants to fight. It's not rage or hope that drives this conflict, but sadness. Appropriately, the score drops out for a bunch of this, making the fight seem hopeless and raw, and there's plenty of long, slow shots of each fighter. All of Ryuki's body language when the fight starts is haunting. He looks utterly defeated just as he's about to start fighting. Much like the ugly humidity of the park (I lived in Florida as a kid and you never forget the kind of humidity where it's like the rain forms on you), there's a heaviness to the fight, with Shinji playing defense and feeling cornered by Ren's demands. Ren keeps pushing, and Shinji keeps retreating, until it's clear that Shinji's going to have to fight back. Luckily, he got a shiny new Survive card from Shiro.

(I want to say it's a promo card, for attending Shiro's "Fight Or Dine” Rider Battle tournaments each Friday at the local diner. I'm pretty sure they established that in episode 28 or 29. It's mostly Sealed Card Deck stuff, to make it easier on newbie Riders, but those Survive promo cards are all foil, and it's 10% off on cheese sticks. Not a bad way to spend a Friday night.)

I like that the power-up is called Survive, incidentally. I think that's clever. For a tournament like this, the most incredible thing you can do is just survive, to stay in the fight the longest, so it makes sense that that's what the power-up would be called. It has the double-edged thing of feeling powerful, but also reminding you of the stakes. Like I said, clever.

With the Survive card, Ryuki gets a power level to match Knight, and the fight reaches a new stage. But, not because of the power, but because of the resolve of the fighters. Ren can't keep putting off these fights if he's going to save Eri, and Shinji can't just lay down and die. If that's where they left it, I'd still really like this episode, but they give it just a little bit more juice at the end with Shinji's vow to defeat Ren in order to save Ren. If Ren kills Shinji, if he takes a life, then there's no redeeming Ren ever. So Shinji has to save himself in order to keep Ren from destroying himself. It's a hell of a motivation, for a hell of an episode. These Rider Battles are pretty great! Shiro was right!