[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 50



Here's the moment I lost it.

Goro's revealed as Zolda, fighting Ouja in Kitaoka's place. Goro has to fight, because Kitaoka has died, unable to finish the last piece of business he had in the Rider Battles. He felt responsible for making Asakura a Rider, and wanted to end that rivalry for good. But he's dead, laid to rest on his couch, holding a white rose.

The same type of white rose that's on the table in the restaurant where Reiko waits for Kitaoka, a snowstorm outside. She waits, and notices that one of Kitaoka's knives is askew. He'd hate that. So she turns it, straightens it, makes it perfect for him. A small gesture. He'd never know she did it. But she thought of him, and fixed it.

That moment destroyed me. Even reading that last paragraph, I tear up.

It's a sad episode. Everyone dies. But it's a bittersweet episode, where a year's worth of character development blooms like a flower, creating something beautiful.

So much of this episode, grounded in character, creates moments, indelible moments, of grace and catharsis. Lives get lived, and eventually they end. Nothing can last forever. The point isn't to keep it, the point is to appreciate it, treasure it.

It's something Shiro finally realizes, as he watches the sacrifices of all of the Riders, the catastrophic damage the Rider Battles have wrought, and realizes that it doesn't matter. Yui will come back, but she won't live like that. She'd never allow it. And he could use Time Vent, spinning it all back and trying again, but it still wouldn't matter. She'd never be happy with Shiro's choices. But he needs to save her, like everyone in the show fought for their hopes and dreams. That friction, of needing something so badly that you're blinded to the consequences, it's at the heart of this show.

In the end, in keeping with the deaths of everyone we've followed over the series, it's about letting go. It's about being able to take that hurt and find some way to keep it from destroying you, find some way to appreciate what you have. Shiro can't keep Yui with him, but the memory of what they had, the literal and figurative ghost of her, maybe that can be a solace. Maybe it's okay if things end. Maybe fighting to keep them, at the cost of your soul, is ruining why they mattered.

It's hard to talk about the specifics of an episode like this. The first third is a dirge, everything you love ending. The middle third is the mastermind realizing the futility of his plan, abandoning the final confrontation. And then the final third is optimism, a second chance, a new world for our heroes and villains alike.

The first third worked like gangbusters for me. The silence of Asakura's charge into oblivion. The inevitability of Goro's reveal as Zolda, his death to honor Kitaoka's last wishes. (I never for a second thought Zolda was Kitaoka, but that doesn't rob that sequence of an ounce of power.) Reiko moving that cutlery, a brief moment of consideration for a man who infuriated her. It's all so considered. There's a poetry to this part, tragic demises and missed connections.

The middle third... I can see why they wanted to make the ending of this story focus on Shiro realizing his mistake. Shiro's power and pain isn't something you can defeat. But the acceptance he has, the reward he receives in that acceptance... That rehabilitation doesn't work great for me. It's a monster who realized far too late that he was a monster, and allows himself to be loved. I don't want good things for Shiro, no matter how sad he was. He ruined too many lives.

But then, in that final third, maybe he didn't? Maybe he could make it so the Rider Battles never happened, where Mirror Yui never occurred, where everyone gets a second chance. I don't completely know how I feel about this part yet. It's nice, certainly. It's great to see Tezuka again, unhelpful as always. The sequence of Shinji pushing his scooter through the entire cast of the show, only to end up at Atori for tea, it's a victory lap of a scene. I just... I wonder if it undercuts the hard-earned melancholy of the first part of the episode, and the thematic point of Shiro's letting go. For a climax that hinges on Shiro being okay with how things turned out, to stop forcing them to be what he needs, what does it mean if he brings everyone back? Does that choice contradict his growth? It's a nice ending, but is it too nice?

I don't know just yet. But Ryuki's a show about asking questions, about trying to understand what you want, and I'm okay mulling it over for a while.