[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

Yeah no I don't blame yeah heck the next Rider Faiz also had a similar haircut too. It was just really popular style back then.

Yeah. Shoichi, Shinji, Takumi, and Kenzaki all had very similar looks. When I first watched Faiz and we started out focusing on a different character I thought it was cool that we had a different aesthetic; then Takumi showed up and I knew we'd found our main Rider.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

Yeah no I don't blame yeah heck the next Rider Faiz also had a similar haircut too. It was just really popular style back then.

I'm glad it's not just me!

I wonder which of the two leads on this show was considered more trendy, though: Shinji or Ren? Even for 2002, I feel like Shinji's long-haired look was falling out of fashion. (I mean, Ichijou had long hair on Kuuga just a couple years earlier, and that's the squarest dude alive.) I wonder if Ren was seen as being more modern, more fashionable. That hair is more what I think of when I think of "early 2000s Japan", for whatever that's worth.

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

It’s weird how little impact the Ren stuff had for me this episode, though. Some of that’s because the other stuff popped way more, but some of it’s because we just haven’t seen the consequences of Ren’s actions yet.

Shinji and Yui do have their hands full with Ren and Asakura this episode, so hopefully Auntie isn’t too put out. (That tea shop is empty 90% of the time, so I’m not sure what her problem is.) It’s not really a lot of story spent with them, as they’re pretty much just reacting to whatever else is going on.

Hmm.. this one's actually more of Shinji and Yui's stuff first rather than Ren's (who's still in set-up). Ren's still a self-destructive Rider because throughout the episode he never knows about Eri until at the very end, after that he started to seemingly change his stance. Other than that Ren's also too heavily injured to fight. Ren somehow gets to know Eri news by himself? As what's seen on screen was Yui slapping him (and the 2 insisting him not to fight) before leaving away.

There's a bit of both of them trying to help the victimized cops but not having enough time (especially with their slow af kei car to catch up against Ren's bike, and somehow they're able to!), but I wonder how to spend more story with them in this situation, your thoughts? The only other one following was ORE (Megumi and Reiko, the latter knowing newspapers on the van) and probably other news press with a breaking news shown on TV where poor Okubo can't get a hold on this. Besides yeah, Shinji needs to get a car (and unknown how) to transport more than 1 person as shown here, he can't do that in his bike.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

The Asakura/Everyone Else story, though, hot damn. It’s just great sequence after great sequence, as Asakura schemes and threatens and assaults his way to freedom.

This shows that calling a Contract Monster isn't only done by slotting the Advent Card as a Rider, and once again Asakura feeding his Contract Monster to regular humans (and yeah, truly Mirror Monsters can eat more than 1 people at once!). Surely Asakura is a great fighter of him handling 8 cops (not every in Japan!) at once, though I wonder how that holds up to Riders that can knock down Mirror Monsters (there are no fodders of them this far) in human form, like Shinji himself, his opponent.

Probably you're joking here but wasn't Sanako like, the one that also fears Asakura ("that felon")? She worries about the jailbreak, requests to close Atori, attempting to fight him off outside (wtf), and thought he's the one killing everyone on the ferry (plausible assumption tbh, but still shows how she views him). By that she surely will pull the trigger out!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

First it’s questioning a completely wrecked Kitoka and Goro about whether they’d seen Ren, in a typically priceless scene. Once Ren gets news from Yui, though, it’s pretty much just Ryuki versus Ouja with a final assist from Tiger.

Well, poor Kitaoka and Goro (and Shimada), though the latter 2 kinda brought that to themselves by keep going and have fun, where somehow Megumi is still fine and fresh. I guess the only reason Kitaoka can't leave was Goro staying there. Not helped by Shinji keep pestering and being a bit loud to Kitaoka in that state. Kitaoka's completely right about criticizing a journalist missing a huge news like this. And Goro also confirms Kitaoka's Rider activity now. As already said by others it's Shouchi on TV.

As for the fight itself, it once again shows the superiority of Survive form! This time Ryuki's. A Heavy Pressure (Metalgelas) Final Vent is just merely swatted away by Ryuki's Guard Vent (which functions similar like Advent? And MW subs got it wrong! See the pic below). Asakura also pulls his own trump card of Unite Vent to Genocider, but that only upgrades the monster, not the Rider himself, who Ouja has been shown to lose badly to a Survive in a direct combat like Knight in ep. 24. Oh I did say that Final Vent one shots everything in contact (sorry maybe bad English after this)... but only in a complete attack, not interrupted ones like Ouja kicking Destwilder. Tiger's Final Vent is completed the moment the dragged victim gets stabbed by Tiger himself. And also for Ryuki vs Ouja one, Dragranzer hits Ouja's body, not touching his Metal Horn (the attack). For a sneaky guy like Tiger, to balance they probably purposely made his Final Vent being more impractical (overall worse), to keep the Riders alive as they have a chance to free themselves from his Final Vent. Though Ouja still did get attacked in a nasty way interruption aside, he got KOed, where despite the easy chance, Shinji still only keep him in custody.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Ren somehow gets to know Eri news by himself? As what's seen on screen was Yui slapping him (and the 2 insisting him not to fight) before leaving away.

There's a point after Yui slaps Ren where she's telling him something, but the audience can't hear it over the police sirens and car noises. It's got to be about Eri's recovery, which is why he leaves so fast.

I thought the show made an interesting choice to not have that dialogue audible. It'd be a waste to just have Yui tell Ren everything we already know, so doing it where we get to fill in the blanks, where it's not information but emotion being conveyed, that's a slick way to do it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

There's a bit of both of them trying to help the victimized cops but not having enough time (especially with their slow af kei car to catch up against Ren's bike, and somehow they're able to!), but I wonder how to spend more story with them in this situation, your thoughts?

I don't really think you can. This is a plot-heavy episode with a lot of ground to cover. Ren gets the tense parts, Asakura gets the exciting parts, Kitaoka/Ore get the funny parts, there's really not much you can give to Yui and Shinji. Most times the story serves them, this time they had to serve the story.

I'm not mad about it, though, since very few characters on this show are merely functional for the plot. (Mostly Yui, and not even always.) It's cool for Shinji and Yui to take a backseat on this one.

[DreadBringer]

Also my thoughts on this scene: "A Subaru Impreza wagon!"

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Also, you think it's hard to say things about these episodes? Imagine being me not having anything to contribute about you saying things about these episodes! This is a killer stretch of the show and the best I've got right now is meaningless trivia!

Trivias are so random and unpredictable that I actually lament of not giving them much.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I don't really think you can. This is a plot-heavy episode with a lot of ground to cover. Ren gets the tense parts, Asakura gets the exciting parts, Kitaoka/Ore get the funny parts, there's really not much you can give to Yui and Shinji. Most times the story serves them, this time they had to serve the story.

I'm not mad about it, though, since very few characters on this show are merely functional for the plot. (Mostly Yui, and not even always.) It's cool for Shinji and Yui to take a backseat on this one.

Yeah, not saying you're mad but still really want to know about your thoughts here (and this reply gives more than what I expect). Because the others you mentioned here can have smaller screentime... I guess for those 2... probably not that significant in this, they take the warming part.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Yeah. Shoichi, Shinji, Takumi, and Kenzaki all had very similar looks. When I first watched Faiz and we started out focusing on a different character I thought it was cool that we had a different aesthetic; then Takumi showed up and I knew we'd found our main Rider.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I wonder which of the two leads on this show was considered more trendy, though: Shinji or Ren? Even for 2002, I feel like Shinji's long-haired look was falling out of fashion. (I mean, Ichijou had long hair on Kuuga just a couple years earlier, and that's the squarest dude alive.) I wonder if Ren was seen as being more modern, more fashionable. That hair is more what I think of when I think of "early 2000s Japan", for whatever that's worth.

Not finding Kenzaki too similar. I think Shouichi can be differentiated more easily due to his more "mature" face, but Shinji and Takumi did caught me off guard several times. Also if you talk about Shinji and Shouichi being similar (in looks here) that reminds me of the "Shinji being similar to Shouichi" topic back in the beginning of the thread. How come there aren't any joke of "Shouichi stumbles upon Ryuki world and gets a third identity as Shinji Kido" yet?!

For the 2nd one I prefer Ren's style of hair.

[Kamen Rider Die]

MASKED RIDER RYUKI EPISODE 37



For a show with a dead-simple premise, FIGHT OR DIE, there's a real sense of aimlessness going on right now. Ren's goal is saving Eri, but he's never sure how to do that, and it seems always just out of reach. Shinji wants to stop the Rider Battles, but he still doesn't know how to do that. Yui's been attacked, but it's not clear why, or if it's going to happen again. Eri's upset, and perpetually Almost Dead. It's a weird, shitty time for our main cast.

It makes for, honestly, not a fun time for me watching this show. There's this, like, morass everyone's stuck in. Characters like Reiko and the Second Secret Science Society are making moves, putting together plans, and generally trying to solve their problems. (Kitaoka and Reiko! Please let me watch that show instead of this one!) With our heroes, there's a lot of questioning, of letting people down, of not knowing how best to help, of being sort-of helpless.

It's an interesting idea to play with, but a frustrating one for me to watch. I get the need for these characters to feel overwhelmed, for the stakes to feel insurmountable and the choices to feel invisible. If there's going to be a triumph, there needs to be a time of being behind the eight-ball, of feeling adrift. It's just, to have all three of the leads going through it simultaneously, it doesn't feel so much like thematic importance, it feels like miserablism.

Shinji's got his typical There's No Such Thing As A Bad Suggestion attitude at play, going back to the Second Secret Science Society for a hint, a clue, something to help him stop the Rider Battles. They don't give him answers, but they do give him a lecture. They've got a number-centric view of heroism, where the plan that saves the most people justifies its own costs. It gets Shinji thinking, but it doesn't really come into play in this episode. It's also totally incompatible with Shinji's worldview, so I'll be interested in seeing how he inevitably refutes it. But, like, that's not a thing that happens in this episode. In this episode, he's confused and stymied. He's got no outs and things just keep happening around him.

Things like Yui being attacked by Kamen Rider Beetleborg, a thing that definitely happens and also definitely is not explained. Also, it doesn't do more than generate another Shiro Sure Pissed Some People Off dialogue. There's no sense of trying to keep Yui safe from violent abductions after this, which, really weird choice. (Shinji abandons Yui right at the end of the next scene, and for the rest of the episode, so, uh, hope that Rider doesn't ever come back I guess!) It's almost formulaic, and the characters bizarrely treat it like formula afterwards, like Yui almost being murdered in the Mirror World is just going to keep happening every day, like a sunset.

It's Ren's story that disappointed me the most, though. After a huge change like Eri being awake for the first time in a year, all of the Ren stuff is just Boring Asshole Ren (not even Fun Asshole Ren!) and his eternally jeopardized girlfriend. The worst stakes I can imagine for this storyline is waking Eri up and STILL having her be mysteriously imperiled, meaning Ren has to keep fighting for the exact same reasons he's been fighting for the whole series, and I'll be goddamned if that's not what this show decided to do. Such a letdown. Could've evolved it, changed it, but it's, like, a minor inflection at best. (Now Eri's pleading with Ren in real life instead of in a dream sequence!) Ren has to keep fighting, he's pushing away his friends, Eri could die at any moment, etc. Bummer.

This whole episode, at least the main cast stuff, was a real bummer for me. I felt like every story choice had me rooting for the heroes less than before. Contract Monsters help those who help themselves, right? But so much of this felt like characters going through motions because they've got no better ideas, and while that's a complicated concept that could have some nuanced results, what I watched was just a slog, all repetition and no forward movement.

Not one of my favorites!

[Deepsea]

All of you have to explain how you get so many thoughts on single episodes, like just this level of deep analysis.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deepsea

All of you have to explain how you get so many thoughts on single episodes, like just this level of deep analysis.

I can't speak to anyone else's process, but:

Step 1 - Have a broken brain that needs to talk about this stuff like your heart needs to beat.

Step 2 - I mostly use Google Docs, but any word processing software should suffice.

Step 3 - Expunge all of your weird thoughts about the Japanese children's program dedicated to selling toys of costumed superheroes. Wring out your brain like a dirty washcloth.

Step 4 - Maybe a cookie? I don't know, I only had two of those chocolate-covered Nutter Butters today, a third wouldn't be the end of the world.

Step 5 - Repeat.

Hope this helps!

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Deepsea

All of you have to explain how you get so many thoughts on single episodes, like just this level of deep analysis.

There's only one Die, so hopefully it's not selfish of me to assume I'm part of the "all of you" in question here, and jump in with my own thoughts. Now, my method has some similarities to Die's, but it's a little more detailed:

Step 1 - Convince your brain Japanese children's programs dedicated to selling toys of costumed superheroes are what makes your heart beat.

Step 2 - Watch episode of Japanese children's program dedicated to selling toys of costumed superheroes.

Step 3 - Have irrepressible urge to organize thoughts on episode.

Step 4 - Just open up Notepad. Literally just Notepad. What else do you need?

Step 5 - Wait, you need to open the episode back up to skim around while writing things down!

Step 6 - Open up wiki pages to make sure you're spelling things right?! This is getting more complicated than I thought it would be!

Step 7 - Start writing thoughts on the episode by talking about anything. Like, just absolutely anything. You can find a way to tie it all together later.

Step 8 - Self-doubt.

Step 9 - Rewrite all that worthless trash you just typed up.

Step 10 - No, actually, on second thought that was fine, leave it.

Step 11 - WHAT TIME IS IT?!

Step 12 - Marvel at the perfected, final form your analysis has taken as a result of the hard work and effort you put in.

Step 13 - Release your magnificent writing into the world for others to consume.

Step 14 - Self-doubt.

Step 15 - Repeat.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

There's only one Die, so hopefully it's not selfish of me to assume I'm part of the "all of you" in question here, and jump in with my own thoughts. Now, my method has some similarities to Die's, but it's a little more detailed:

which step do you eat the cookie though

is it 8 or 14

or is it both