[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

I also love how Geiz dosen't immidtatly trust white Woz and how he grown from the early episodes cause I feel like the Geiz from episode 1 would've just taken the Shinobi watch.

Yeah, Hat Woz showing up at this point in the story is to counteract Sougo's positive influence. This isn't the same Geiz who'd ignore cries for help or attack someone without provocation. These are the things Hat Woz is trying to correct!

[Androzani84]

Well, here we are, and I have a new theme going. Since Zi-O no longer has the budget to realise Armour Times for every Rider outside of box art and So-Do, I’m showing off the So-Do for an idea of what they look like.

Armour Time! Advent! Ryuki!



And while I’m holding off on the Ryuki watches until the Rider Time, I do still have this…

Ridewatch Playlist: Tatakae Mix

So this two-parter is unique in both a personal way (it was the first I watched while it was airing, or at least part 2 was), but it was also special enough to warrant its own special P-Bandai watch set (Which is on my bucket list)

First up, is Mirror Zi-O (O-I5?)

“The Zi-O who resides in the world of mirrors is… me.”

And while I don’t have a song for him, I do have one for the sets other inclusion, Another Ryuga

Since I made it clear many moons ago I found Ryuga more cooler and interesting than Ryuki, I’m going with a version of Alive a Life I found more cooler and more interesting than the original (Not a fan of that theme either), Go Now - Alive a Life Neo, a remix released for the 20th Anniversary CD (along with a re-recording of Kamen Rider Kuuga, Shitari and Phillip doing Finger on the Trigger, an update of Time Judged All to reflect Heisei Generations Final and a cover of Warera Omou Yueni, Warera Ari that sounds strangely like a Love Live song)

As for the compare and contrast, Dark Shinji being the opposite of Shinji should be obvious, even if you haven’t seen Episode Final, from the name alone. As for how he’s an opposite to HIMSELF… well, tune in next time. Design wise, him pulling weapons out of his body mimics how the Mirror Monsters were basically walking armouries for their Riders (which is most obvious with the Strike Vents)

[Fish Sandwich]

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O - EP21)

I did a dumb thing with the picture for my post about this one where it's flipped horizontally, even though I'd be shocked if anyone ever noticed, and I'm honestly still kinda proud of that joke.

I guess Ryuki just gets me extra pumped that way. This was a very exciting set of episodes for me, for a lot of reasons, and this first part drew me in immediately. We've got Tasaki directing again, ensuring an authentic Ryuki flavor to the style, and also guaranteeing direction that's just plain good, and as usual, I think Zi-O knocked it out of the park when it came to coming up with fun and interesting plot concepts. Another Ryuga?! Mirror Zi-O?! There's a lot of grounded human drama in here, too, which I don't want to downplay (I really really like the idea that ORE Journal just bit the dust at some point), but even now, it amazes me how good Zi-O was about throwing in these wild ideas that always had me eager to see where everything was going next.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

Well, here we are, and I have a new theme going. Since Zi-O no longer has the budget to realise Armour Times for every Rider outside of box art and So-Do, I?m showing off the So-Do for an idea of what they look like.

Armour Time! Advent! Ryuki!

This is one of the only Armor Time designs I like, too! The shoulders aren't super obtrusive, the Ryuki crest on the helmet works with the watch hands, all the silver's real fun... this was a good design. Sucks that it's only a toy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

There's a lot of grounded human drama in here, too, which I don't want to downplay (I really really like the idea that ORE Journal just bit the dust at some point), but even now, it amazes me how good Zi-O was about throwing in these wild ideas that always had me eager to see where everything was going next.

It's definitely getting back to a Phase 1 Heisei mode of storytelling, where monsters exist behind every place of refuge, and even survivors are hollowed out and haunted. It's this story that's sort of making our world extra-bleak (Okubo bemoaning a world where everyone keeps to themselves, Sougo's only hope being a terrified shut-in) specifically to make sure that the Mirror World is somehow more horrific. You think this world's bad? Here's the EVIL version of it, then!

[Daikaijuman54]

At first, I thought this episode was fine, but after watching Ryuki, I've developed more of an appreciation for this arc.

Seeing Shinji holed up in an apartment in the very same circumstances he encountered at the start of his own show was a great callback, and the detail in which they attempted to recreate the whole scene as faithfully as possible is something I look back fondly on. ORE Journal hitting rock bottom is such a bleak tone considering how much the world has changed since 2002 as everything becomes digital and media constantly changing, it adds to the almost grim atmosphere of Zi-O's story and some of Phase 1's environment.

I see Sougo and Geiz in a similar vein to Shinji and Ren, which while not at all that similar, I look back on this episode thinking that, though that might just be me. But I also love how they confront the question of "after all's said and done, what next?" which a lot of other stories do a lot, but usually end up not sticking to what their answer is, or just leave it unanswered, like many stories about revenge. And asking it here this early in the show in a setting where what happens next is something only Shinji really thinks about in the context of his series, as the only person not willing to kill others who are willing to die for their wish.

Also, the use of Ryuga as the Another Rider is genius! Instead of going the obvious route with Ryuki, they chose Ryuga who kind of does fit into the category of Another Riders so well, and adds an extra layer to this enemy making him a formidable opponent for Team Zi-O. And reverse Zi-O is a pretty funny idea for a villain, like how distorted his Driver's jingle is.

My only critique is that there were no frogs with hair or golden crabs...

[GrandComplete]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

This is one of the only Armor Time designs I like, too! The shoulders aren't super obtrusive, the Ryuki crest on the helmet works with the watch hands, all the silver's real fun... this was a good design. Sucks that it's only a toy.

In general due to nature of Phase 1 having more simplistic gimmicks that also translated to Ride Armors too so yeah it still a shame a majority of them were unused in ZI-O

Anyways onto Rider Time Shinobi

Shinobi was such a fan favorite so quickly it just made sense that he would get a spin off made for the guy. And boy was there alot of hype to me the special has a fake tv show feeling. Like a show within a show y'know something I can see Sougo tuning in to watch every Sunday morning the entire premise of combating global warming with Ninjitsu is such a silly yet at the same time big concept I see why people where clamoring for more. Rentaro here is facisncating to me because actually highly skilled as a ninja but has to play the fool. I've know we have had past Rider secret identities but never one where the alter ego is radically percieved from their everyday lives like this and I really dig further more I don't think we've seen the type dynamic with Hattari where the lead is more experienced then the secondary it refreshin gchange of pace I think adds to the comedy there trying to go for.

As for Hattari sadly his suits is the one future rider I don't like. It not really clever just the Dark Drive suit with some orange bands kinda lame. The future riders all had used black repaints of the Ziku-Driver but with a different piece ontop to try to cover that fact up but unfortunately Hatari Driver was never made nor was programmed into the toy leaving it to be an unreleased toy for the season.

[cosmicrescend0]

Get and go! Episode 21!

-Truly, the best reference to Ryuki is that Mirror Sougo makes me laugh than actually being threatening. It's like, the actor is trying so hard to look threathening that it loops back into being oddly adorable.

In our ongoing "actor comes back with a slightly different haircut" tierlist, Shinji is......Um. How do I put this one? It's fine for this tired, older Shinji, but like I keep thinking back to this one image of Takamasa Suga around this time and ponder about what couldve been. Oh well!

-Don't really have much to say about this episode! But! I was checking the wiki and it seems like there are a good few references to Ryuki that I didn't get while watching.(Room 401, for example.) The one most notable to me however, is that this episode is roughly a month and two years after the real-life counterpart of ORE Journal shut down. Such a shame, I hope someone managed to make an archive of it somewhere.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Daikaijuman54

Also, the use of Ryuga as the Another Rider is genius! Instead of going the obvious route with Ryuki, they chose Ryuga who kind of does fit into the category of Another Riders so well, and adds an extra layer to this enemy making him a formidable opponent for Team Zi-O.

It definitely makes this story feel more special, since we're dealing with a pre-existing villain. It's on the same level of threat as having Decade show up -- a guy with a verifiable record as a bad-ass -- which is a fun escalation after the last couple monsters.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

Like a show within a show y'know something I can see Sougo tuning in to watch every Sunday morning the entire premise of combating global warming with Ninjitsu is such a silly yet at the same time big concept I see why people where clamoring for more.

Ha ha ha, I love the idea of Rider Time:Shinobi being a dream Sougo's having, like the start of Episode 17. I'm not sure there's a ton of parallels to really sell the idea, but the tone is exactly the sort of high-energy, big-hearted nonsense Sougo would dig. Thanks for putting this in my brain!

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

In our ongoing "actor comes back with a slightly different haircut" tierlist, Shinji is......Um. How do I put this one? It's fine for this tired, older Shinji, but like I keep thinking back to this one image of Takamasa Suga around this time and ponder about what couldve been. Oh well!

But then he'd look too much like Quiz'z dad, which would be needlessly confusing!

I'm okay with 40-year old Shinji having a dull haircut. He's not the maverick journalist he once was. He's a guy hiding out, so a haircut that doesn't call attention to itself is perfect. (I also think adults shouldn't try too hard to look like kids, but that's my own biases.)

Can we talk about that awesome coat, though? I love that plaid design!

[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER ZI-O EPISODE 22 - “STRONGEST ZI-O! 2019”



My favorite version of this show is when it pushes Team Zi-O through another show’s themes and morals and lessons. Not the whole Legend Rider Gives Advice part, as nice as that is, but when the production team tries to move Sougo and the Time Orphans through a whole different set of emotional or philosophical problems, drawn from another show’s obsessions and interests. When Zi-O treats all of Heisei as a road map for becoming a better person, that’s when I’m at my happiest.

So, yeah, I loved this episode.

And not for the Zi-O II stuff, although I imagine that’s what most people are going to want to talk about. I think it’s a neat costume, the designers just doubling everything up: two sets of watch-hand antennae, two sets of watchbands forming a tabard, all of it. I like how it feels like a step towards Oma Zi-O’s design, this slightly more regal appearance of Sougo’s. I mostly like how it’s Sougo himself becoming more powerful, since this isn’t some other Rider’s power he’s stacking onto his own. It’s just him, getting more unstoppable.

But all of that was a distant second to me, after how this episode worked the Ryuki themes around its recurring cast.

Ryuki was a show about how difficult it can be to truly know other people, but how necessary it was to try anyway. We become better versions of ourselves by seeing things from other perspectives, and trying to understand other people. Learning why someone else values something can have us examining our own value system. Discovering someone’s hidden traumas can help us to understand our own unresolved issues. Asking questions is more important than getting answers, because there are always more questions to ask. It was a show that never wanted people to settle for certainty, because there’s no such thing as being absolutely certain.

So we get this wonderful story about how the Time Orphans have grown as people thanks to Sougo, but still manage to get blindsided when he’s more complicated than they thought. They’ve seen his outward actions – his generosity, his enthusiasm – and put him up on a pedestal. Sougo’s always good. Sougo always does the right thing. Sougo’d never consider harming someone for the greater good. Geiz and Tsukuyomi can put all of their faith in Sougo, because he’s the best of them.

Which is exactly the sort of thinking that gets us, y’know, genocidal despots. When we stop seeing people as people, and start seeing them as paragons of justice, we lose perspective. We stop asking questions of their motivations, of their goals, of their limits. We stop acting as barriers to their darker impulses. The Time Orphans saw one side of Sougo, and didn’t think he could be hiding anything.

But we all hide things. Sougo’s confusion at Geiz being down on himself for contemplating killing Shinji is reasonable, you know? Defeating Ryuga seems impossible, and here’s a possible solution. Both Sougo and Geiz immediately discard it, because it’s evil, but they’re not evil for considering it. Sougo’s a three-dimensional character in this story, even if he isn’t always portrayed that way in others. He always does the right thing, but that means discarding the wrong thing first. He won’t let Geiz sacrifice himself, but he knows what stopping Geiz means as far as defeating Ryuga goes. He can be good, because he’s overcoming his own capacity for evil.

That’s a universal thing, even if it isn’t much of a Ryuki theme. (Maybe the movie? There aren't a lot of Mirror Selves in the TV show, unfortunately.) Our reflections aren’t some alternate version of ourselves; they’re just us. We’re complicated, and it’s okay to be complicated. You’re allowed to think bad thoughts, or doubt yourself, or feel like you can’t be the version of yourself that you imagine. But the point of all that is to confront it, and then choose the better outcome. Give up on grudges like Shinji does, because they’re poisonous. Be okay with how messy you are, like Sougo, because there’s value in the messiness. Take everything that’s in you, and let it help you be better tomorrow than you were today.

This was a good Ryuki episode, and a great Zi-O episode.

[FreshToku]

I dont think that's how I'd describe what Ryuki was about, and I'm fairly confidant that on the writers side of things they only thought as far as 'ryuki? mirrors!' as far as parallels go, but I like that reading. The whole idea of the next power-up coming from Sougo confronting his darker aspects is a really solid one, and necessary for a show about him possibly becoming an overlord!

It does feel a bit of a Tell, Don't Show to me though, since all the stuff mirror Sougo says about Sougo's vices, it's like... its not that I don't or can't believe any of it, but I think they coule have done with the previous episode more actively and explicitly showing Sougo express this supposed dark side of his. Unless the very existence of his edgy mirror self alone is supposed to convince me of that : P

Probably best not to think too hard about anything else that happens in this episode, like where the Zi-O II ridewatch came from, Geiz killing himself and then getting rewinded, and how any of this relates to the next special.