Kamen Rider Ryuki Episodes 5 & 6

EPISODES 5 & 6

People poke a lot of fun at Scissors, but I always liked him. He might not hang around for long, but he's a good introduction to the kinds of fiendish, evil, black-souled slimeballs that become Riders and adversaries in this show. Look at him -- he's a corrupt cop, abusing his power and position to commit crimes and cover them up. He insinuates himself into situations to direct them in his favor. He's a duplicitous, slimy rat, man. If he had more time in the show, more development...he might be more screwed up than Asakura. I always thought it was disturbing the way Sudou shows up, as a cop, to be the rescuer of his own crime scene at the beginning of the episode.

It's interesting that Knight recognizes Scissors when he "saves" Ryuki from him -- they've obviously crossed paths before. A big mistake of this show was announcing at the top there'd be 13 Riders. As we learn, the show can't make good on that promise. (And the various movies/specials barely can, either.) I think it would have been more interesting if some of those 13 had already been dealt with prior to the series -- if Knight and Scissors know each other, then there could have been a possibility that a couple of others had been out there as Riders who have been killed. Knight acts like he's been a Rider for several years with all of his speechifying about needing to fight and be the last Rider and all that he (somehow, mysteriously) knows about everything. How the hell does Ren know so much, anyway? From what we see later, Ren's apparently the first one to become a Rider, but Sudou must have been an early one, too.

This episode's the first real wake-up call for Shinji. He's too trusting and thinks the Riders will listen to logic, not knowing the kind of people Shiro's giving the Decks to. But he's seen Ren fight monsters, Shinji thinks he's concerned for people but hides it behind a tough act, so he knows Ren's OK enough, and he's seen he can be talked down from a fight. But he can't believe the depths Sudou will sink and just not care. He's been killing people to feed to his monster, just to keep it strong. (And maybe hide some more bodies due to his criminal activities? Just sayin'.) This realllllllly gets Shinji to consider fighting Sudou, but Ren interferes. He criticizes Shinji for wanting to fight Sudou because his actions repulse him -- "[Sudou] being a Rider should be reason enough." Is this Ren bailing Shinji out before Shinji gets in over his head? I guess that's up to interpretation. But it brings up an interesting question...

The history of this Rider Battle being vague, and this sense that Ren has been a Rider for a while -- Sudou, too -- you're under the impression that Ren has fought his share of Riders. Maybe killed them, you don't really know at this point. He talks like he's experienced, like he's been at it a while and has seen some shit. And he basically ends up killing Scissors here. They beat each other up, they both get in their Final Vents, and while Knight seems more injured, it's Scissors' Deck which breaks, causing his monster to turn on him and kill him. Well...what did you think would happen when you Final Vent'd a Rider? Knight was in this to kill him; he took Sudou as an opponent because he didn't think Shinji would be able to. Oh, Knight might turn his head in disgust when Volcancer eats Sudou, but that doesn't mean he had a problem with killing Sudou. Which means...it's hard to buy that Ren has a breakdown later on when he thinks he kills Odin. But that's another topic. Also, after Ryuki kills Volcancer, he refuses to let Dragredder eat its energy -- the energy which was grown, knowingly, in cold blood, with the lives of others. Knight has no problem letting Dark Wing take it instead. So...see, Ren, at this point, was meant to be a darker character with an edge, and by the middle of the show, I think they're backpedalling and sugar-coating him.

Suga's good in that last scene when Ren tells Shinji to keep the deets of Sudou's demise from Yui. So he has to plaster a happy mood on and fake his way through returning to the Atori. Shinji's first true taste of what this whole Kamen Rider thing entails, and the first cut into his soul. And, again, we see some growth in his battle tactics in the way he escapes a death trap laid by Sudou by hopping into the Mirror World as Ryuki.

Sudou is played by model-turned-actor-turned musician Takeshi Kimura. I think he's decent enough here, maybe he would have become shakier if he had more episodes, who knows. And maybe he telegraphs what a creep Sudou is too soon, but I think it all ends up working -- he accomplishes what Sudou's supposed to. Another disturbing thing: Kimura's always reminded me of Haruki Hamada.

Hero Watch: Shinji saves a woman from being pulled into the Mirror World by Volcancer! A middle-aged woman stops Sudou from probably killing Reiko! The two cops trying to bring Sudou down aren't so lucky. (Look at what a creep Sudou is, smiling after he has his pursuers -- once his co-workers -- killed by Volcancer.)

Random Eye Patch of Mystery: The last episode ended with a two-eyed Reiko frantically hustling out of the ORE Journal office to check out the antique shop she's traced a lot of the missing people to. This episode begins with her making it to the antique shop and it's night, and she has an eyepatch. So...she urgently left the ORE Journel but was like "Shit! My eye's bugging me. Better go to the doctor. So long, scoop that made me leave work in a hurry, making the camera go all NYPD Blue crazy. I know I said I'm dedicated to the job and am not afraid of danger, but...owwie, my eye!"