Kamen Rider Ryuki Episodes 15-17

EPISODES 15 - 17

Inoue returns for episodes 15 & 16 and he brings along with him nobody's favorite Rider. Jun Shibaura, Kamen Rider Gai...I don't totally hate the character, but in retrospect, I just kind of see him as an unnecessary diversion from getting to Ouja! I think Shibaura's an appropriately evil character, and that he's a beyond spoiled rich kid is such an Inoue idea. Shibaura's a sociopath who likes toying with people. He's an entitled, rich prick. Give him a coke habit, and it's like a Bret Easton Ellis character becoming a Kamen Rider. And I think actor Satoshi Ichijou is too good at playing this character, because he succeeds in making the character really just so damn obnoxious and unlikable -- you hate him. My problem with the character has always been...his whole introduction through that web video game or whatever is just done so poorly and is so lame. I don't even know how a writer can come to that decision. "How to bring on the new Rider...I know, this dumb video game shit!"

On one hand, I can appreciate what they're going for -- it's just so screwed up that this young brat is putting on this game which seriously harms his classmates and supposed friends. This game, which is his creation, supposedly hooks his friends to the point where they're not happy until they're reenacting it for real. The show depicts this *horribly*, and is all just a set up to launch Shibaura's obsession with turning things into "games" -- you know those types of characters that toku loved in the early '00s that totally didn't get old fast. (Shibaura's obviously more the type to go to some developing country and hunt people, don't you think?) What's this horseshit with trying to have it be a very outdated video game, what looks like the Game Gear version of Mortal Kombat? And if that's not bad enough, Toei hauls out 16 YEAR OLD Kinclone masks from Spielban and spray paints 'em silver for the fighters in this "game" to wear. (Why mask them? Just so there can be confusing reports of masked fighters, which makes Shinji panic that someone's caught wind of the Riders. It would have been interesting if Shibaura did this as a way to attract attention to himself from other Riders, but that's apparently not the case.) Of all of the masks to repaint...the goofball Kinclones. ANY other grunt mask would have been better. Even a Cottopottoro, you ask? OK, maybe not them.

If they weren't going to iron this idea out and put the effort into executing it better, then they should have gone with something else. It's a bad debut for the new character, who actually is a little important, and it's hard to get you to care about him when it comes across so cheap and stupid. Oh, and the victor of these battles will take the buttons from the cloak of their victims, which we all know Inoue recycles for 753 in Kiva -- and it's not good there, either.

What a joke ORE Journal is, man. Shibaura hacks their system and threatens them until they let him take over the company and Shinji and Daisuke are seen advertising the new and still-not-improved paper, and...Shibaura's in charge for, like, a day before being bested, losing interest and moving on. How's that all look to the public and advertisers? But I like his takeover of ORE Journal more than that Shaq-Fu stuff of the first episode, because we at least get some fun scenes and humor out of it. Shibaura remains a dick, roasting everyone at the ORE Journal. Secondly, Suga's hilarious as he's typing up praise for Shibaura as if his brain can't accept the bullshit of it all and is trying to get his fingers to stop typing. But most importantly -- computer dork Shibaura VS computer dork Shimada is the best. After he insults her, she makes it her mission to get even, and the scene where she goes to the Atori to launch her attack is gold, Kurihara's quick intensity and Ayano Sugiyama's perplexed reactions both a riot. Shimada's the one who saves the day, stopping Shibaura from forcing his dumbass game onto the subscribers' computers (make a timely joke about U2 forcing their dumbass album onto your iTunes here), which makes him lose interest and abandon the company.

It's a good thing Shibaura's a sickie who likes toying with people, or else this would be Shinji's final episode. If Kitaoka had gotten his hands on Ryuki's Dragredder card? It would have been torn up right there. But Shibaura hangs onto it so he can keep tormenting Shinji, which is his mistake, since Knight and Raia manage to get it off of him.

I don't know how the writers room worked at Ryuki, but it's kind of sad to go from Ren ending the previous two-parter finding a sort of peace, being OK with saving Shinji, to Inoue coming in here and having Ren decide he needs to cut himself off again. I guess they had to accelerate things knowing Ouja was coming up and what his appearance entails, but it's a little too sudden. There needed to be a scene between Ren and Shinji, instead of just having Ren space out as he washes dishes and going over everything in his head. And when Tetzuka's following Ren, Ren's one reaction is to just stick to his version of the story -- he's in it to fight Riders! -- when Tetzuka and we viewers know differently. Maybe it's not a Japanese reaction, but I'd rather Ren keep silent or just tell Tetzuka to piss off. His denials, his restating his mission just all sounds like thou doth protest too much. And it can just get repetitive after a while -- I don't care if you're afraid that some viewers aren't up to speed; if they liked the show, they'd have been watching every single episode!

I think it would have been better if Ren had still just been OK with Shinji, but the thing that gets him to waver again is his hesitation to kill Gai. After that, have him go over things in his head, have that be what gets him fixated on winning and Eri again and looking for a way to emotionally distance himself from Shinji. That way, it would have been a short bit of peace for Shinji, and growth for Ren, and it would have ended in the same result, but not be the immediate step back from the previous episode's advancement. But I feel like that might be Inoue's fault -- he wants to write the cool guy being cool. (And, hey, it IS cool when he's just wandering down the street, purposely bumping into a punk who then chases after him and just *PUNCH*. And then the punk's buddy approaches him and then *PUNCH*. And then some other pest taps his shoulder and it's *PUNCH BLOCKED* by Tetzuka.)

Kobayashi writes 17, which is a kind of cool-down. Ren's a little more back on track. His hesitation to strike Gai nearly brings Tetzuka's vision to reality, but Ryuki steps in. Tetzuka warns that Ren's not in the clear yet, and also that Ren loses either way the story goes -- whether he loses the battle and therefore Eri or wins the battle, but at the cost of his humanity. Matsuda's pretty good in the scene when Shinji tells him how proud he is of him -- that's the last thing Ren wants to hear, so he has a bit of a break-down and just goes kinda catatonic for the rest of the episode, having to be hauled back home by Shinji and Tetzuka. But does Ren hesitate to kill Gai because he can't kill or because Shibaura's basically a kid? Speaking of Shibaura, he's picked up by the police (cybercrimes division?) until his rich daddy calls Kitaoka to bail him out! That they employ Kitaoka, who calls the patriarch a treasured client, tells you all you need to know about the Shibaura family.

Heroism Watch: After giving a woman a particularly negative reading, that woman is eventually grabbed by a Mirror Monster, but Shinji manages to save her in time by giving the monster a good ol' Showa-style jump kick.

Now here it is, your Moment of Zen: