Kamen Rider Ryuki Episodes 24 & 25

EPISODES 24 & 25

For years, I basically thought the show died with Tetzuka. By that, I mean...not just what I feel is a decline in quality in the show's second half, but the show just feels different. Some of it is the way it seems like its budget gets lessened, but a lot of it is the show starting to improvise on the spot and write to adjust to what they think is popular about it or expected it from it. Like...I think it's obvious that Asakura wasn't meant to last as long as he did. I have a theory he was going to be killed off by the end of 25. But he really jazzed the show up, they knew people would love him, so they kept him. And I certainly don't think they expected to keep him until the end of the series, but that's what happens. Kooky theory, but I feel like that shot of Ren burning the Evil Diver card in the episode preview kinda proves the original intention; but in keeping Asakura, they decide to have him make a Contract with Raia's monster instead.

Something about this two-parter just always seems slapped on to me. Even though the real decline in Ryuki begins in 26, IMO, I tend to unfairly lump 24 & 25 alongside those ones, and I think it's the rushed feeling of these episodes. And it's not just that Inoue's breezing in to write his own thing. It's the first time in the show that I feel like the momentum has ceased; it has been pretty consistently solid up until now, but this episode's scattered. I don't know how, but it's like when an American show goes on summer hiatus and there are shake-ups behind the scenes or they pay too much attention to fan feedback and the show returns for the new season as practically another show. Something's just missing. Different. A bit broken.

And this episode begins the show's almost trolling of the audience. Shirakura, Takebe, Kobayashi, Inoue -- they're getting full of themselves and it's not about delivering a quality storyline anymore, but moments that are "cool." Episodes are constructed around a "cool" idea, even if it's illogical or even outright clashes with what's previously established. Something that will be a real "zinger" and hook. You know the way Hollywood nowadays just likes having stuff that will look cool for a trailer, but doesn't care to actually implement it within a freaking narrative?

Episode 24 deals briefly with the fall out of Tetzuka's death. Yui's so depressed that she goes missing. Shinji's depressed for a bit before deciding the best way to honor Tetzuka would be to change the Riders as people and stop the fight that way. He thinks that Ren's changing is proof it can be done, but...c'mon. Shinji's not THAT stupid. He'd have to know there's no chance of changing Kitaoka, forget about Asakura. Just a few episodes ago, Shinji denounced Asakura as a monster and kicked his ass and demanded he turn himself in. But now he's wasting everyone's time talking about changing him? I get that he's supposed to be torn up about Tetzuka dying, but it's not believable. And you can't say it's the character just trying to convince himself it's possible, which is the only way I'd excuse it, because he's shown to genuinely believe in this ill-conceived new approach and uses it as a way to help console Yui. So it stinks to me of Inoue having disdain for Shinji and his heroic ideals, so he's intentionally making him look stupid. Cool guy Ren, though, of course is streets ahead enough to know none of this will work and tells Shinji as much, but Shinji's stuck on his plan for the time being.

Also smarter than written here? Reiko, who finds Asakura's hideout and buys his bullshit story of needing to see his kid brother for a shot at redemption. (AND the bogus story he tells her of being his brother's hero.) I could understand if Reiko got so caught up in covering this story and framing it a certain way that she let her senses get away from her, but it's again not presented that way. She seems like she's genuinely impressed to find that Asakura seems sensitive and human and...she's supposed to be smarter than this, and certainly more logical and in-tune with the way the "real world" works than Shinji. Why are she and Shinji using the same brain in these two episodes? At least Hagino does a good job in his performance as Asakura, at first telling her stories of hardships of living as a wild dog and then the tragedy (he caused!) of what happened to his family. You realize just how sick and sociopathic Asakura is, but everybody should have known better. It's been clear since minute one how screwed up Asakura is. No matter how convincing he is, Reiko would definitely know better than to trust him...

But she instead finds his brother and leads him to his death. The brother -- whose actor is a dime store Yellow Lion -- makes it clear that he wants left alone, but she keeps pushing him until he relents. And he gets killed. And Reiko never seems to feel guilt or even remember the guy. Asakura knocks her out and I guess she just forgets about this plot, as the viewers should, too. And I think Inoue thought he was being clever by naming the brother Akira -- Hagino, in his new image as Asakura, kills his old image as an Akira (Akira Suzumura/Changerion). On a random note: they should go and refilm Akira's scenes with the Lupin Red actor and CGI them into the show, because HE looks like he could be Hagino's little brother.

So, I think all of this was Inoue being like "Ooh, I've got a really cool story to tell about Asakura! Who cares if it makes everyone look stupid?" Like, you know Inoue was just dying to write something sick for Asakura. And the episode ends with a "Ooh, I've got a really cool cliffhanger -- what if Kanzaki cuts off everyone's Advent Cards?!" Fine, it makes a good cliffhanger, one that I fell for back in the day, but it doesn't make a damn bit of sense. Because he does cut off their cards like he's a pissed off parent cutting off their rich asshole kid's credit cards, but it flies in the face of what's been seen before. It's yet more overpowering Kanzaki, because...why hasn't he done this before? When Tetzuka ends up giving Ren the Survive Card, which wasn't Kanzaki's intent, why didn't he cut off that card? If he's so worried about Shinji or Tetzuka stopping the battle, why doesn't he cut off their cards? There's so many things that don't go his way that he could have prevented if he pulled this move, but...well, why doesn't he? See, don't just go with something because it's "cool." (Another thing in this episode that was used as a "cool" hook for the preview? Kitaoka collapsing. See the way the show devolves into just trying to trick its audience into thinking something big will go down? It loses its courage, so it resorts to these fake-outs and the show's above that stuff.)

These episodes end with Ouja contracting Evil Diver and now taking control of that monster. With the way even Ren's disgusted by Akira's killing, and the randomness of Zolda deciding to enter the fight, I really do feel like this storyline originated as being Ouja's exit, with the main three coming together to fight him. On one hand, it's a good thing they didn't, because Hagino often ends up being the best part of the show. On the other, it just opens up more opportunities for wheel spinning. (Much like the wheel spinning done by Reiko's dorky Urkel e-car when she happens to conveniently gets stuck right near Asakura's hideout. Man, her car...it's the Rideshooter of cars. I should take this time to mention how dorky I think the Rideshooters are, and that I think the production is under the impression they're like some cool gadget that Batman would get in one of his movies. Having said that, that didn't stop me from wanting the Rideshooter Hot Wheels in '02. That's how into Ryuki I was.)

The episodes could have worked, but they're just rushed and come too much at the expense of our characters. And while we get a bit of history of how Goro came to be employed by Kitaoka -- Kitaoka missed a critical doctor's appointment to represent Goro -- even Kitaoka's clowning around a bit in this episode, and will continue to do so for his next few appearances. The next two episodes are lighthearted, and then the show basically commits to its soft reboot with what I call the "Odin Clip Show," and then returns with two wacky, seriously out of place comedic episodes. Typical Terrible 20s of Toku, or something else? My theory is in another post.

Other than Hagino's performance, the part I like most of these episodes is the scene of Yui and Shiro at the seashore. It's filmed nicely, I like how Shiro remains ominous by being so far out into the water from Yui. (Does he use the sea as his reflective surface of choice here? That's cool.) And it's nice that Yui's affected by Tetzuka's death and makes you wish that the character showed more initiative, which these next few episodes hint at but never go anywhere with.

Heroism Watch: Ren manages to save a couple of kids at a playground from a Mirror Monster. He's obsessed with showing off the Knight Survive form which...I've never liked the design of. It's way too bulky (look at that ugly gauntlet!), it uses too bright of a blue, the enlarged visor makes him look like he has a shrunken head. It doesn't help they film the scenes with the visual panache of the local car show. The bike's ugly, Dark Wing's new form is ugly. If Tetzuka knew how ugly this form would end up being, he'd probably have torn up the Survive card.

The "shock" in the next episode's preview? Something going on with Eri! Yeah, they put that off for several more episodes. The sad thing is, I like that Ren has come to his senses, and he basically looks out for Shinji in this episode. But that's going to be going out the window in the upcoming episodes when Eri temporarily gets out of her coma. The way Shinji and Ren each end up going back and forth...it's just cowardly writing. I feel like they really wanted to end up having Shinji and Ren basically come through the show in reversed positions -- Ren's become the caring hero, Shinji's become one-tracked and wanting to fight, but it didn't have the guts to go through with it, totally and concretely. So we just get this back and forth and it makes the characters look indecisive, foolish, and just plain mental in the end. The showmakers are starting to lose control of their creation. There's supposed to be a complexity or like the back-and-forth is a depiction of characters grappling with difficult decisions, but that's certainly not the way it ends up playing in the long term; the show's staff stops putting in the amount of effort and detail it would take to make it play as such. If you're wanting to prolong things until the end of the show, they needed to keep the level of nuance they had been giving the show. Instead, they're content to just repeat themselves, and it goes from seeming like a subtle show to one that's beating you over the head and one that's more formulaic.