[Fish Sandwich]

(Fish Sandwich also watched Rider Time: Ryuki)

...And Fish Sandwich didn't like it, either! I mean, geez, I really tore into this thing to a level I sort of regret, so, starting off with one positive thing I can say about this mini-series -- it was one of the eight million motivations that lined up to make me do my whole Kobyashi-thon rewatch of Ryuki, Den-O, and OOO only a couple months after that. Naturally, I eventually got back to this series as part of that, where I gave it a much less scathing critique:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Rider Time: Ryuki:

Bringing things full circle for the last appearance Ryuki's going to make in these posts. Again, part of the reason I rewatched Ryuki in the first place was basically to do some exposure therapy with Inoue's take on it, so how did that change my opinion on this? Eh, not that much. It's strange, because as I've rediscovered going back through it, all the Ryuki stuff he wrote before, I either consider legitimately good, or at least a fun guilty pleasure, but there are just too many things I still feel are wrong here for me to feel comfortable calling it anything resembling good. Even if I choose to actively ignore how upset I am about seeing Raia as a traitorous killer, that scene where him and Shibaura stab whatever the new Scissors' name is is one of the most edgelord things Inoue has ever written. The bizarre, pointless symbolism(?) of cutting to shots of the meat they're eating and everything, it's just too weird. Too many things are too weird. I also still can't make sense of how it's meant to fit in with either Ryuki or Zi-O.

The only true closure I've found in this is reconfirming that I'll always have a strange love-hate relationship with Inoue's writing, and that I should just accept it. Sometimes he makes weird things I love, and sometimes he makes OOO's portion of Movie War Core, which, for the record, is infinitely worse than this could ever be. I do feel like I see a bit more where he was going with some of the plot points now (like Shinji mistaking Geiz for Ren and then not getting to participate in the final fight at all being some kind of a passing the torch thing), and maybe there's more to the story than I was giving it credit for, but at the end of the day, it simply isn't something I'm satisfied with. Which makes me feel greedy, you know? Because Toei was not under any obligation to essentially make three more episodes of Ryuki over a decade and a half after the show ended, and I don't like taking that for granted. There are tons of cool things in here. It's neat seeing everybody's Final Vent with fancy modern effects. It's awesome that they used the background music from the original show. It's fun that Inoue threw in little references like Shinji once again mixing up Ren's name. There are things to love here, and one day I think I will eventually make peace with Rider Time: Ryuki, even if only by doing what I do for Episode Final and turning my brain off when I watch it.

Although the thing is, I still kinda see where I'm coming from in both cases? As harsh as the first post is, I also wrote it shortly after watching this originally, and I can't blame myself for feeling more than a little burned. I wish I could find that thread I mentioned in there to quote that too, but Ryuki was a show I always felt closed the book on itself very thoroughly to the point that any kind of continuation would run into... well, a lot of the problems they ended up running into. How do you go about making something carrying on from the series' ending genuinely dramatically satisfying?

Probably not like this, unfortunately. I really hope Die wasn't counting on my usual reckless optimism about tokusatsu to pull through here, because I really don't have any particularly redemptive reading of Rider Time: Ryuki.

When I first watched it, I was legitimately a little heartbroken because of how much Ryuki means to me, which you can probably tell reading what I had to say about it at the time. Tezuka in particular, man, that guy is just so deep in my heart, and it was downright painful watching all of that thrown away, for what came off to me as shock value for shock value's sake. Inoue even wrote some of Tezuka's coolest moments in the series! He wrote Tezuka literally reaching out a hand to Shinji in episode 16! He knows these characters!

And it's in trying to understand why he'd write this anyway, that I still came to the conclusion there just isn't any thematic heft to this thing I really feel justifies all the off-putting choices it makes. Which is why even my nicer review is still distinctly lukewarm on the story. To be honest, the comparison Die drew to Amazons talking about the second episode really rubbed me the wrong way, even. Both seasons of that show, and to an extent, even the movie I know Die doesn't like, I can say without hesitation that they all gave me something to think about after. Three times in a row, I went in skeptical of the kind of edgy story they were trying to tell, and came out by the end feeling like there was some legitimate point or another being made, or an idea being explored in an interesting way. As sad as it is to say, I've just never felt the same way about this mini-series.

That scene with Ren and Shinji is pretty well done, though.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Kobayashi's vision for the finale of Kamen Rider Ryuki was for the Rider War to end with all the Riders dead after Ren used his wish to save Eri. Unfortunately, executives overruled her and forced the reset to happen, undoing an entire show's worth of character development.

Is this also speculation? This is one of those things I think I've heard a few times, and I'd kind of like to know where people are getting that information.