[Yarlick]

I've resumed watching Kamen Rider Ryuki and I'm currently at episode 20.

I have a couple of things to say about my feelings on this series so far and perhaps some of you could explain to me why I feel that way.
This is not a rant in any means and I'm sorry if this feels like it's a really long post x)

So let's start with the protag, Shinji Kido.

A naive and happy-go-lucky guy.

I don't have much against this except there was one time he got duped into revealing Yui Kanzaki and Akiyama Ren's location and identity.
I found that move dumb but I gave it a bit of credit because Shinji Kido was new to this Rider World and you can see that he doesn't want to fight and I was hoping this would help the character grow a bit....and we're seeing a change during those first few episodes where Asakura(so far I like that PoS x) ) was introduced but here's the thing :
We had to wait more than 13 episodes to see some kind of growth into Shinji.
The fact that he got duped again with Zolda was a bit much but it was interesting to see the main character breaking down as early on in the series.

I actually like the dynamic he has with Reiko, it kind of works.
As for his dynamic with Kanzaki's sister and Akiyama, it instantly clicked to me but I also felt frustrated because the guy actually need those two and I felt like something...or someone was missing. (I'll talk about that someone later)

The second Rider and Kanzaki Yui are way more interesting to me than Shinji for the moment. It's like Shinji is just here because they needed someone to witness all these events, some guy completely neutral.

Still about Shinji : I don't get it...is he going to stay bad at fighting during all the series or is it about to change? Because some fighting choregraphy felt sluggish and slow with him.


Ah, but we'll have to talk a little bit about the Kanzaki family.
One of the first thing that Shinji told Kanzaki Yui was that he was going to only fight monsters to show her that her brother isn't an insanely huge piece of trash and I wanted to believe Shinji, thinking that all this was for a good reason, and the more Yui digs up, the more you grow to hate Kanzaki Shirou.

Also the couple of interactions she has with people working on the project told her that it was basically all her fault and that things wouldn't have happened if she didn't exist at all. ( Did I get that right?) I really like the fact that despite her not being a Rider in the slightest, it's a simple human without power that makes the plot actually move.

What is Kanzaki Shirou's real goal? Why does he act like a dick and gives a card deck to a sociopath? I don't get his main goal and to be honest I can't get a read on him ( no, no spoiler please, it's just some retorical questions I'm asking to myself)



When Zolda was introduced, it was...Well, I liked the guy instantly.
Nothing is said, you know that the guy wants eternal life but you ignore why.
He acts like a jerk and seems to only care about himself but I can't help liking him and his tandem with Gorou. He seems to genuinely care about Gorou aside from him being some kind of butler x)
Their dynamic works and I can't wait to see how he is evolving.
All throughout the episodes he's been in, you can actually see him evolve a bit, it's a slow burn, but you see him evolving...at least faster than Shinji x)
You also trivially learn that he is going to die. I guess he has some illness or something.


Now...Kamen Rider Gai :
Not much to say, I hate this PoS, I'm glad he's gone. I hated his arc and honestly I think I was meant to hate him.
It was funny to see Shimada hacking his computer to show him that she wasn't just a second rate computer engineer.


Ok so :


Asakura :
The guy's a sociopath, he likes to hurt and kill people, he finds a lot of stuff to be "vexing" and in order to not be vexed anymore, he has to...well kill people XD
From what little I'm seeing, I actually like him quite a lot. It's the antagonist you love to love because he is that piece of human garbage that does bad things for his own pleasure. He seems to be chaotic at first, but him manipulating Gai shows that he is clever.


It's time to talk about the character that changed a little bit of the dynamic between Shinji and Akiyama and it's Miyuki Tezuka.
We don't know much about him for the moment other than the fact that he kinda do accurate predictions.
It's weird, but I instantly liked the guy and the dynamic that he kind of instablished by appearing. It just works and it's crazy.

It's funny to see a fellow Rider being against all this killing THAT much, he is trying to change the outcome of what's happening and I like that.
And that despite wanting the same thing in appearance as Shinji, the way it's done is different. Miyuki seems like a completely different character than Shinji despite both being pacifists guys.
Unfortunately, as much as I like him, being a pacifist kind of trigger a HUGE red flag over his head. I know deep in my guts....that this guy is gonna die.



And let's finish with Batm...Akiyama Ren.
Another character I like despite some tropes being overused in Kamen Rider.
The Secondary dark and broody Rider with a girlfriend that is dying/died.
The famous Secondary Rider that is acting like a complete Tsundere.
"I'm not helping you because you're my friend or anything"
But you know what? It...works....In the narrative it works and him joining Asakura to learn how to suppress his emotions to be able to kill the other riders to save his girlfriend is not dumb at all. (but overused)
Here's what I mean : yeah, doing that, as a person, is completely idiotic, but in his case totally understandable, and that works. It works because he will inevitably revert back to being a good guy, and he will open up.


Being not quite at the half of the series, I only have a few things to say :
I hate Rider Wars because they are omnipresent throughout the Heisei Era. There were too many Rider Wars that I've watched so of course I would grow tired of watching this but oddly enough, I'm not tired of watching Ryuki it just works and I feel that the slow building helps making you care about the characters.

I also find interesting the fact that Ryuki still hasn't had any upgrade when in other series after this one...the Primary Rider had at least two other forms.

I can't help but feel that the main writer (I haven't found who that was) on Ryuki might have worked on something else because I recognize the "failure of communication" between characters and....and I don't know how I feel about it...It bothers me.