[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It's never too late! I could get notifications if people post to threads I wrapped up months ago, I'm happy to still talk about those. A day or so isn't a problem!

I guess before you really post the overview, I gotta share the ridiculously complete Ryuki information I talk about for real now, in a separate post. I want people, especially fans of the series, to check that out. Much better than a wiki IMO. Oh and not only that, you can also read the similarly complete information of OOO there as well! I wish I'd find other ridiculously complete encyclopedia of a Rider series from a likely more obscure source, but those 2 is the one I can currently.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

=He's a good fighter, but Zolda's move-set is all guns and robots.

Zolda's Strike Vent though...

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Femme’s a pretty interesting character. She’s a mix of a few different established characters (Kitaoka’s cunning, Ren’s dedication to saving a loved one, a decent chunk of the Knight costume and weaponry, Reiko's assertiveness), but she manages to feel wholly original and also like a missing piece from Ryuki.

I'd just instead directly go with "Knight's abrasiveness" instead of "Reiko's assertiveness". She has a loose sense of morality. Both Ren and Miho are criminals outside Rider form, the former being a violent thug, and the latter being a con artist. Between all of them, obviously Femme resembles Knight the most, with Miho is also a foil to Ren. Both becomes close to Shinji. But while he's primarily black and blue, Miho's white and black. Similarly, while Ren's combat style revolves around down and dirty one on one combat, Miho's focuses on graceful illusions and crowd control. Their Rider form too, hers also being based on a winged animal while using a rapier Ride Vendor when not using a large bladed weapon like Knight.

I find Femme's Final Vent to be an another lackluster one though. It's just striking an airborne enemy with your Sword Vent. I also want to talk about her Guard Vent that seemingly gives much more than that... like feathers and teleportation powers...like Odin!

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Well, uh, here it is! Miho and Shinji have excellent chemistry, and their scenes are when the film’s at its best.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And, yeah, she dies. Romances like Miho and Shinji may not be a staple, but Doomed Romances sure as shit are.

Shinji's constantly torn up between falling for her, or also being irritated by her who keeps using him. It's doomed anyway because this is a Rider War which everyone should kill each other. Though above all of that, Femme is about extracting revenge to Ouja. She also has a lesser hatred to Kitaoka due to him being Asakura's lawyer. And poor Kitaoka's the one trying to help her here and becomes the reason for him to retire. I have to wonder why she lets Asakura choke him after destroying his Deck, I mean a Rider is vastly stronger than regular humans.

Miho has a death by irony too. She tried to con Shinji, was saved by Ryuga and mistook him for Shinji thus falling in love with him, the she was saved by actual Shinji from Ryuga and fell in love with him for real... And then died from her wounds shortly after.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I feel like I could subconsciously tell when Inoue wrote an episode of Ryuki because the show got 23% more horny.

So you do get it for Inoue's stance of writing, and that includes Kitaoka to Reiko too. Applies to Kitaoka too. Most of the romantic implications between Kitaoka and Reiko are written by Inoue, and it’s a guarantee that Kitaoka will strike out, where Kobayashi has Kitaoka still showing respect to her when he’s been shot down.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The big improvement is the Mirror World stuff. It’s still not the best thing ever, but it’s coherent in a way that the TV show wasn’t.

I feel that you somehow gives more pass on a similar element that happened in the series (Mirror Yui, and possiby the monsters as well, also Ryuga below)? Because both events are her receiving the life of her Mirror World counterpart, with different circumstances (and that Yui's already special here, she was able to survive in the Mirror World without immediately disintegrating). Instead of disintegrating, however, Yui’s time limit meant she would die if she returned to the real world, and this is why she needed that life force. Fair enough that this gives a fairytale feel, but the TV series one has it being done in really desperate situation with no other way out. Yui died instead of just wanting to play, and both her and Shiro are stuck. So Mirror Yui gives her a life force, with the explosion freeing them from the room they're locked (and killing their parents) allowing them to resume life normally.

Yeah, the ending is stronger for sure, with her successfully killing herself, making sure no one can stop her. Though I think I don't really want to make her culpable? Unless you also think Shinji's being culpable here as well for breaking his promise at childhood, unwittingly started the Rider War and blaming himself for that. This is subjective but I think I want Yui to be actually completely innocent from everything bad that happened, other than self-blaming, just like, Shinji in this movie (if you think he's not culpable). I also want to know, yeah I talked about the wish vs reviving the dead before in the main series, and this is probably a change from a different writer. In this movie Femme wants to revive her big sister, so shouldn't Shiro be able to revive Yui after she committed suicide here as well (or no need to impose time limit)? Odin also doesn't appear here.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

But, while they could drag the floor up, they also lowered the ceiling. Everything that happens in the story is fairly predictable, and plays like a less-imaginative version of Ryuki. Characters are slowly whittled down, an Evil Version of Shinji is one of the final bosses (mirrors!), and there’s a focus on just Ren versus Shinji at the end. It’s sort-of what you’d expect of a show about mirrors and monsters (the black version of Dragreder is called Dragblacker, though, which is so exquisitely dumb that I need to pay it homage), which means it doesn’t have the nuance or idiostyncratic touches of the TV finale. Kitaoka just leaves to go to lunch with Reiko, despite his illness. Asakura’s final battle is with Miho, and he’s mostly a victim of the new Big Bad, Ryuga. The mirror version of Shinji, it’s a cool visual that 100% doesn’t thematically fit this show. Like, what is Ryuga supposed to represent about Shinji’s story? He’s just evil, and wants to win the Rider Battle. Why? What does that have to do with the themes of sacrifice, of self-examination? The stuff that gets changed about the ending to Ryuki, it’s all plot, no heart. It’s constructive without being illuminating.

Ryuga is presented as Shinji's total opposite, Shinji is kind and compassionate, Ryuga is cruel, manipulative and utterly merciless. Yeah he's manipulative, that's what he does to Femme, he saves her, taking advantage of his similar looks to Ryuki (obviously!), then kill her when her guard is down. I̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶D̶r̶a̶g̶b̶l̶a̶c̶k̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶c̶l̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶r̶e̶n̶a̶m̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶.̶ Tie-in information (not a good move) for the movie reveals that after Yui failed to meet up with Shinji again, she created Ryuga just the same as the Mirror Monsters—her desire for a playmate (based on the boy she met) brought him into being, thanks to her Mirror World self. And he also got the human Mirror World properties, he could survive indefinitely in his own universe without any extra protection, but could only stay in the real world for a short time before he started to disintegrate, and can henshin without a mirror. His wish is to prevent that. By that, he's also similar to the Mirror Yui as well where near the end he merges with real Shinji. Ren though, when Ryuga merges with Shinji in front of him...

Ryuga got an ironic death as well, jis ultimate goal was to absorb Shinji and become one. He's lost forever when Shinji absorbs him. I want to know how does Ryuki manage to defeat Ryuga in the Final Vent clash though, Ryuki's AP is 6000, while Ryuga's is 7000. Ryuga, being an abnormal Rider, has the highest stats compared to other base Riders (but not Survives).

Ouja gets the biggest disadvantage over Genocider, that when it's killed while it's merged, Ouja instantly lost all his monster and reverts to pathetically weak Blank Form. I guess for this one, Kitaoka just retires sooner than he did on the TV series, with him still being able to move around more freely, but he did the same thing like TV series right, only one of them (date Reiko). I wonder if Kitaoka knows that Asakura already died here, and probably he does to retire sooner. And speaking of the ending... it's a potential downer ending (oh well, reset anyway)? With the barrier between Mirror World and real world destroyed, where Shinji and Ren can henshin without mirrors, and charge to possible deaths with the swarm of Hydragoons.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I'll be honest, the Rider that Ryuga most reminded me off? Build Hazard.

Build? It has Ryuga itself... Ryuga Banjou!