[GrandComplete]

I'm back I'm back sorry for always procrastinating on this lol. But anyways the start of Episode 21 I love that event hough his actor wasn't in this arc Tsukasa still played a major role for both Sougo and Shinji development here. Another Ryuga is straight up my favorite Another Rider for his story as the dark reflection of Shinji and the to circumvent that Ryuki already dosen't exist that all of the cast including the Time Jacker can't exactly go around which is what makes their plan here really smart,his powers and overall look appeals to me so so much. Also Ore Journal closing down was such a oh yeah moment largely becuase of how it shows times changing and also acool momtage of locations from Ryuki. And I always do incorprate the lore of others Riders shows a bit more even if newer fans might get confuse since after all every show is somebodies first. As we've proven with Decade remember.

And finally Mirror Sougo is such a cool thing first of all that gag about Sougo assuming he's the future version like in the Gaim arc, his disbelief over getting punched and how cool the Mirror ZI-O Ridewatch is! That darker jingle and on the actual toy the secondary annoucnement is done by Sougo actor.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

I'm back I'm back sorry for always procrastinating on this lol.

I gotta be honest, I spent a few sentences being like Wait Which One Was Episode 21. When I'm watching six of these a week, I forget details very quickly. Comments on earlier episodes are always welcome, but I might not have the memory to provide much feedback. Sorry!

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

Also Ore Journal closing down was such a oh yeah moment largely becuase of how it shows times changing and also acool momtage of locations from Ryuki.

I know that ORE Journal going out of business bummed people out maybe a little too much, but I liked its inclusion. This was a story that felt very much About time passing, and how very specific midlife regrets were creating a schism in Shinji's sense of self. You couldn't do the same type of story with, like, Fourze, so there's no need for that kind of bleak detail. Here, you need to feel like it's been almost two decades since Shinji was in his prime. I don't know, it worked for me.

[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Mostly because Sougo was still being developed then, and we've got an entire series worth of Goro's actions to point to for evidence. Goro's actions are so weird and out-of-character that even Asakura's like Dude WTF.

Well, actually it'd be something good to have Asakura acting WTF, it'd mean Goro's OOC is acknowledged in universe. Unlike the Tezuka one.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

RIDER TIME: RYUKI EPISODE 2 - ?ANOTHER ALTERNATIVE?

Nothing in here makes a great case for reuniting so many original actors. It continues to miss out on the big, important part of Ryuki ? that you have to opt into the Rider War ? which makes everything a super-generic Last Man Standing battle royale. There?s no sense of a greater mission to anyone in the contest (Ren, in particular, seems bizarrely undermotivated), it?s all just basic survival. Characterization is incredibly weird, with characters switching allegiances so often that it?s barely worth considering why they?ve picked who they?ve picked to partner up with. It?s weird, how haphazard this all is.

Because for sure, give something much brutality, and it'd be deemed as not appropriate for children, thus "maturity"! And the ratings for it would be something far above all-ages or something. Otherwise, there's actually a plausible reason of why Ren seems undermotivated, but it'd be in the next episode. Ren here has the same goal as Shinji to stop the Rider War, he's just having different goal to the main series, albeit he's still a jerk. Again, it'd be something in the next episode. I don't know who else switched alignments though, it's just Tezuka, actually Tojo wearing Raia's suit, thus both sides (Shinji and Jun's) got hit by his treachery. Seems that the extra Riders like Scissors, Abyss, Verde, Imperer are just fodders for more major Riders here.... and the end was about Shinji as Ryuga so of course he'd beat the shit out of other Riders, though a deserving one in Gai that time.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And it?s? god, it?s so hamstrung by an entire episode of You Look Familiar amnesia garbage. There?re a couple good jokes (mostly Shinji realizing much too late that he?s the only good guy in a cast of homicidal weirdos), but it keeps this story from saying absolutely anything new. There are no new ideas in this episode. Tezuka?s romance with Jun is too undercooked to be anything more Laudable Representation, and it doesn?t really square with Tezuka?s character from the TV show. (I don?t recall him being an untrustworthy knife-enthusiast?) Asakura knows what everyone?s deal is, but he?s the one character in the story who doesn?t care what everyone?s deal is. It?s an entire episode of people trying to get back to square one with their relationships, and it?s not super fun.

Whole episode?s ?not super fun?, really. By the time Tezuka and Jun were stabbing Third Guy to death for no clear reason (other than TATAKAE, I guess), I basically lost all of my investment in this mini-series. Outside of pure nostalgia (including Shinji pulling out a flawless TEZUKA!!!), there?s so little in this episode to latch onto. The action?s greatly diminished. The direction is okay, but not memorable. Sara dressing up as the Woman of the Beginning is cute, but she?s about as helpful in her explanations and strategies as Mai was on Gaim.

̶The thing that's unchanged for Sara dressing as "Woman of the Beginning" seems to be her footwear. M̶a̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶a̶i̶n̶a̶t̶i̶o̶n̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶G̶a̶i̶m̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶a̶i̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶s̶t̶r̶e̶a̶m̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶h̶e̶r̶ ̶w̶a̶r̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶w̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶s̶h̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶s̶a̶y̶,̶ ̶p̶u̶r̶p̶o̶s̶e̶l̶y̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶m̶a̶d̶e̶ ̶v̶a̶g̶u̶e̶. Unfortunately, RT Ryuki quite shows the true Inoue, or more of what he actually does, outside of supervision, which is about both the 'brutality for maturity', and characters being handled like what happened in Tezuka here, and likely Jun too. There's only 1 explanation for Tezuka stabbing Ishihashi/Scissors, he's portrayed as nothing like Tezuka in the original series as I've said before, he's just another Ryuki Evil Rider (because Riders in Ryuki are expected to be evil) using Tezuka's name and suit.

C'mon it's just obvious it doesn't square with Tezuka, if he did something that worst Riders did before, feeding someone into his contract monster, that's something unrepentant monsters like Scissors and Ouja did! Tezuka would not be corrupted in original Ryuki, already tested with him won't be tempted by Shiro, with him giving the Survive Shippu Card (to get revenge on Asakura) into Ren. Even for the flashback to 'redeem' Tezuka, it's about him being 'friends with Shinji'... like, why he was friends with Shinji at the first place? That got dumped. The only thing that can seem amusing is that, Jun is unknowingly become accurate to his Rider name Gai, that he's now.. gay.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

What about guys like Sento and Tsukasa, whose sense of justice is the result of losing their memory? I don't think this is the case for Tezuka specifically, but in theory, it could be possible for the reverse to happen where someone gains a sense of justice through character development and then memory loss reverts them to their formerly evil self.

I guess to make myself more clear, about Tezuka there's another stuff I added above regarding him 'turning back' here. But I also think that Ryuki does establish Tezuka as incorruptible anyway, but even if he does get tempted, what he did was the same as the most depraved Riders did in Ryuki, the likes of Scissors and Ouja! And iirc I thought Sento and Katsuragi was about personality split (and when they reunited again it's about them clashing through different personality), and I don't recall Tsukasa intentionally destroying the world, Destroyer of the World can be about his power system that caused that. Narutaki is all spiteful towards Decade, but Zi-O got Hiryu taking that role.

[GrandComplete]

You always have some good insightful details so don't sweat it.
Episode 22 is just So Okuno(Sougo actor) acting his heart out. Playing a more vulnerable Sougo and a much more twisted one. The entire crux of using mirrors to reflect the true self while different from how Ryuki handled it still rings true thematically. Leading to the debut of ZI-O II which has one of the best usage of an Insert Song in years let me tell yeah hearing Toki No Ouja outside of it's debut was so unepexted because how they've been handling these things have been so dissapointing Ex-Aid.

Also can we talk about Geiz plan for a minute them bringing up the stats and official lore of the tech is so unepexcted because those are usually just flavor text that add nothing to actual show the only other time I rember this was back in Build with the crystal on his forehead.

And finally Shinji and Editor in Chief has such a heartwarming scene that shows that even though something bad happened to Ore Journal they can still bounce back and start anew and to see the growth and maturity of the two in the 16 years since we last saw them this is the type Legend Rider content I'm looking for.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Because for sure, give something much brutality, and it'd be deemed as not appropriate for children, thus "maturity"! And the ratings for it would be something far above all-ages or something.

I don't feel like there's actually that big of an audience for Ryuki But Cruel? I can't imagine who was clamoring for a Ryuki continuation this thematically bereft and narratively thin.

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

And finally Shinji and Editor in Chief has such a heartwarming scene that shows that even though something bad happened to Ore Journal they can still bounce back and start anew and to see the growth and maturity of the two in the 16 years since we last saw them this is the type Legend Rider content I'm looking for.

It's really the best. A ton of what I remember from the end of Shinji's story in Ryuki was Okubo giving Shinji the lesson the series was trying to impart -- never stop asking questions -- and letting the end of this Zi-O Ai-O story reunite them was pretty great.

[Kamen Rider Die]

RIDER TIME: RYUKI EPISODE 3 - “ALIVE A LIFE”



D’you wanna hear something really funny? Inoue wrote my favorite Kamen Rider Ryuki episodes.

I’m sure that’s sacrilegious to some/most folks, but I swear it’s true. Ryuki was never a hundred percent my show (Agito and Faiz were way more my speed), but I liked certain characters; certain arcs. Kitaoka was my favorite guy, though, and Inoue did some of the bigger Zolda stories. But the couple that he did that I loved the most were two screwball comedy episodes, 29 and 30.

They’re fantastic comedy episodes, but what I liked the best were that they never stopped being Ryuki episodes. They were still concerned with investigation, empathy, self-discovery, and compromise. They had an abundance of warmth, while never feeling frivolous. It was all the themes of Ryuki, but shot through with an absurdity that only served to highlight the enormity of its goals: to understand another person.

So it breaks my heart to see him also do the worst Ryuki episodes I’ve ever seen.

The only part of this episode that’s even worth talking about is in the final few minutes. It’s just the Ren and Shinji stuff, Ren’s death scene and the aftermath. Everything else is terrible, just terrible. Sara’s abilities never make any sense, nor does her plan. (Why doesn’t she just get Shinji to fight Tatsuya immediately? Why kill twelve other people? Why give any of them amnesia, but not all of them? Why drag back some Riders from the original battle, but not all of them? Why wait until she's completely dead to end the fight, when she could’ve just instituted a shorter deadline at the beginning?) Tatsuya never really comes across as anything other than Ren’s Themes, which is obvious and boring. The reveal that Goro has been waiting to betray Asakura is both inevitable and completely stupid. (Why wait until now, when he didn’t even manage to kill Asakura?) Revisiting Goro’s need to avenge Kitaoka is one more Sure I Guess moment of pointless nostalgia. Odin is an almost hilarious non-entity; you never even see his face! How he’s doing anything, or what he’s doing it for, is never discussed. The whole plot of this three-episode series only exists to delay the one good thing about it, which is such a slap in the face to fans.

Because, man, Ren and Shinji! Why wouldn’t you just build the entire series around their reunion? I get wanting to make it a reward, but why would you make something so miserable that you’d need to reward the audience? Just make something sweet and poignant, like the last five minutes! But over a 90-minute project! As stupidly obvious as Ren Sacrifices Himself For Shinji is as a plotpoint (the main gear for this project was Stupidly Obvious), the actors sell the shit out of the aftermath. Both guys make you feel every second of the past sixteen years, and the missed opportunities that come along with them. If the Tezuka/Jun stuff felt like a hollow excuse for a relationship, these two manage to put onscreen the kind of bond that transcends time and space and life and death and even reality itself.

It’s a shame that those moments exist as the payoff to the most relentlessly mediocre Ryuki episodes I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t begin to guess why Inoue would make something so charmless and bleak, only to resolve it with something so humane and generous. My favorite moment in the whole series is Shinji leaving the big New Collectibles fight between Team Zi-O and Odin, to check in on Definitely Couldn’t Get Eri’s Actor Back So Here’s Eri’s Back. It’s the character realizing that these fights are hollow and pointless, so it’s better to spend your time helping people out, honoring their dreams. Odin’s dumb, and the show seems to realize that. But we still get the fight scene, an obligatory and heartless bit of business. That’s sort of the whole series of Rider Time: Ryuki. There’re moments that say that Inoue has as tight a grip on what Kobayashi was trying to accomplish as he ever did guesting on the TV series, but they’re tiny specks in a tapestry of meaningless fights that the script can’t bring itself to try and justify.

This wasn’t very good.

[cosmicrescend0]

Special Time! Survive Edition! (Part 3)

-......Yeah, past me was 1000% correct in skipping this. If i could jump into a Time Mazine and stop myself from hitting the play button on Episode 1, I would've.

-Like. I know there's only so much you can do with roughly an hour and half, but like? What even is the point of this special, what it is trying to do/say, other than speedrunning Ryuki beats with a dash of fanservice and making sure Sougo gets the Ryuki Ridewatch? Both Episode Final and (especially) 13 Riders were also more or less speedruns, but at least that had something interesting to say/think about. A Rider War without any weight to its deaths, without conflicting struggles to fight for: it's just a bunch of dudes fighting and dying and not much else. And if I wanted to watch a bunch of dudes fighting and dying and not much else, I wouldn't be watching Ryuki?

-Like yeah I totally get "Ryuki's Riders don't exist without the Rider War, so let's throw one to pop one out real quick", but Like. What was Tatakae Lady going to do if the Rider that won was anyone but Shinji??? Especially someone like Asakura or Jun??

-Odin Sure Did Appear In This Special. I like the idea of Odin being this entity that exists eternally to oversee a potenial Rider War, but implying it to maybe being Kanzaki (esp when already know all Odin doesn't even need him, he's got like 4 different users in the original show!) just sours it for me.

-I'll give it up, the Ren/Shinji death scene did get me. Shinji trying to fight back tears as they swear to meet again someday, it's damn good. Knowing this is the 3rd time one of them has died in the other's arms, and it almost gives the feeling of the two being star-crossed. In another time, another place, I hope these guys are bickering to their heart's content.

Ren appearing in Geiz's outfit for the briefest second made me laugh out loud. There's a full-body shot of Ren's actor wearing the outfit somewhere to dipsute this, but something about the angle makes it look like they photoshopped Ren's head onto Geiz's body, and that was hysterical to me.

Edit: Almost forgot to ask, but since I dont think I saw anyone bring it up, what does everyone think of Alive A Life Neo? I think it's a fun enough spin on the original, but I still prefer the original.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

I'll give it up, the Ren/Shinji death scene did get me. Shinji trying to fight back tears as they swear to meet again someday, it's damn good. Knowing this is the 3rd time one of them has died in the other's arms, and it almost gives the feeling of the two being star-crossed. In another time, another place, I hope these guys are bickering to their heart's content.

It's so good! Everything else is garbage! But the Shinji/Ren stuff was so good!

[DreamSword]

If the Ryuki arc in Zi-O proper was operating on the basis of Ryuki's' TV ending being the canon they were going with, then this entire mini-series already makes no sense right off the bat, so it's already got something working against it.

But throughout this, I think the main thing that got me hating these episodes so much was that there is a ton of missed potential, any way that I try to slice it.

Like, if I am to give this special my absolute most charitable interpretation, this is a tale about how memories are important, and are what ultimately make us who we are as people and help to shape the bonds we create. This premise in and of itself is something that I could easily see Ryuki proper doing. Heck, it kinda already had, but still, I could see it working out.

The execution of that idea, however, is awful, because it really feels like this special tried to have its cake and eat it too.

See, everyone having amnesia seems to be the justification used for why so many of the cast are out of character: Tezuka being a backstabbing murderer being the biggest and most obvious example. And here's the thing, I actually would've been okay with that idea had they actually gone all the way with it rather than only go halfway, thus undermining the entire idea. Shinji and Ren still act like hollow versions of themselves, Asakura and Goro don't get memory wiped, Abyss is still an absolutely nothing character, Tezuka still does fortune telling, etc.

Again, feeling charitable here, it feels like the idea was to show "another side" of alot of the characters via them acting different, but unfortunately the short run time and way it's handled instead makes everything come across as incredibly mean spirited. Going back to Tezuka, we're never given any sort of motive for his actions other than simple lust, which not only makes what should be an otherwise nice moment for the franchise into a total farce, but also makes it seem as though that were the primary motivation for Tezuka all throughout Ryuki proper to begin with. I don't care if it's realistic; It's annoying at best and renders alot of Tezuka's' character throughout the show in a bad light at worst.

There's also a ton of aspects of the plot that make no sense(why is Kanzaki acting as Odin directly when he can possess whoever -- hell, how is he even still alive?), but that really isn't the important part to me. What is most important is that, ultimately, it feels like alot more emphasis was put into getting the actors back rather than the characters, and that goes against the entire point of reunions like this, I think.

I can't believe I'm about to say this, but really, the Decade two-parter felt alot more in line with Ryuki than what this special did, and I didn't even like those episodes! Atleast there I could clearly determine the themes and ideas they were gunning for in regards to Ryuki proper.

This... this was some of the worst tribute episodes, heck, some of the worst Kamen Rider I've seen in awhile. And I know I have a small reference pool compared to most of you, but as of this writing... yeah, yeah, fuck this entire thing. Complete waste of time. There was so much potential that was absolutely wasted.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreamSword

What is most important is that, ultimately, it feels like alot more emphasis was put into getting the actors back rather than the characters, and that goes against the entire point of reunions like this, I think.

Yeah, that's the whole thing. We got all of these people to come back, but then the story decides to separate the main partnership for an episode, give everyone amnesia so they can't directly comment on the reunion aspect (I don't think this special ever tries to explain why some people have amnesia? It doesn't really matter to Sara's plan at all?), and then have one of the more popular characters from the original series come back as a duplicitous murderer.

It's very weird! All of this seems like a bad idea from the start, and then the series never really tries to redeem its choices.