Kamen Rider Ryuki Episodes 26 & 27

EPISODES 26 & 27

These episodes don't have much to do with one another, but both are mainly stand-aloneish lighthearted episodes written by Kobayashi. I think these episodes are fun, and probably the furthest a show like Ryuki should go in terms of the required wacky episodes, but that doesn't stop it. (That's right -- Inoue comes along with scripts that try really hard to outdo Kobayashi's comedic sensibilities and he really misses the mark.)

Episode 26 deals with Kitaoka tricking Shinji into taking over in Goro's place, because Goro himself is filling in for an injured Kitaoka. I don't know how that's going to work out for Kitaoka -- the Goro doing his job, not the Shinji butler, we know how that's going to turn out. When did Goro get his law degree? Goro's a thug! A criminal! What the hell could he possibly be doing in Kitaoka's place? Those cases are getting thrown out, man. There's a Suits-type of spin-off in there somewhere.

Shinji knows his plan to change the Riders as people is hopeless -- I think Kobayashi's rebelling against Inoue introducing this -- but he doesn't know what else to try. So he's trying to get close to Kitaoka and figure out why he fights, getting pulled into doing shitty chores for him and taking beatings when thugs come looking for Kitaoka. He finally remembers to just stick to his original motivation -- protecting people, even if it's the criminal shitheads who just beat him up. (And he DOES manage to save that one guy in time.) And you're like "Finally! There's the Shinji I like."

The episode's funniest bit is when Ryuki's inserting Zolda's cards into his own Visor, expecting the weapons to come to him, but they still go to Zolda. I'm guessing this came about because of some internet potheads who were like "Man, what would happen if, like, Ryuki used Knight's cards, man?" Zolda's too injured to do his own card swiping and it makes you realize how much sense it makes that Zolda has all of the guns and long-distance weapons and attacks -- by being in poor health, it often saves him from having to engage in physical battles and brawls. He gets into his fair amount of brawls, but he doesn't take risks he doesn't have to.

Episode 27's the better episode, in which a kid catches Ren transforming and entering and exiting the Mirror World and follows him. The early Heisei Rider shows, especially Ryuki, faced a lot of criticism in 2002, one by Rider purists being that the shows are no longer heroic or kid-friendly. So I always saw this episode as addressing that, and kind of flipping those critics off.

The kid is energetic and wants to be a Rider, even stealing Shinji's Card Deck. Ren tries to scare him off with Dark Wing and then transforms to go off and fight the monster that's been targeting the kid. Ren, remembering when he saw episode 5 of Bioman as a boy, lets himself be beaten up by the monster to try to teach the kid a lesson. Along with Shinji's words, the boy comes to realize that being a Kamen Rider ain't the fun, cool, bitchin' time he thinks it would be. I think this is a jab at the critics who were like "Kamen Riders are heroes! They aren't mopey, they're friends of kids and justice!" And if this is indeed the message Ryuki is saying, then I agree with it -- being a Kamen Rider's NOT supposed to be fun. You wouldn't want to be a Kamen Rider, because that means something really shitty has happened to you. It's fighting, it's pain, it's loneliness. Chances are, you're a guy like Shinji who's in way over your head. And this is one of many reasons why Heisei Phase 2 and modern Riders suck -- they take that whole moronic Marvel "Man, it's dope being a superhero and playing with toys!" tack, and it flies in the face of what Kamen Rider stands for.

I like the way that whole scene's depicted of the kid, Shinji and Goro all watching the Mirror World battle. After getting woozy, Kitaoka's motivated to get back into the fight, and so he -- and eventually Asakura -- join Knight's little battle. As if you didn't need any more proof that Goro was in love with Kitaoka, he breaks down crying seeing him fight, knowing how difficult it is for him. This is the same episode as Ren, putting on a brave face for everyone after there being a scare with Eri, goes to his room and can be seen crying. The kid says he wants to be a Rider not only because it's cool, but he can get back at bullies. If this kid wasn't so polite and nice-seeming, I can see a scenario where Kanzaki WOULD select him to be a Rider.

Ryuki makes it to the scene at a bad time, as Odin reveals himself, getting in some smacks (and smack talk) to all of the Riders, before engaging the Time Vent card. (Uh-oh, was my reaction at the time AND now. Kobayashi and her time travel obsession rearing its ugly head into this show was obviously a bad thing.)

The preview for this episode shows a very pissed of Yui telling Shiro that she wanted to join the fight as a Rider. I feel like that was another cheat. People expected Yui to become a Rider at the time, which I didn't think was going to happen, but it's interesting to think about. (What if the Alternative storyline had been about her becoming a self-made Rider? Imagine if after this episode, Yui just vanished for a while, and then came back as Alternative? Am I the only one that thinks that sounds awesome?) This was back before every character in a Kamen Rider show became a Kamen Rider or transformed in SOME way, so it wasn't expected or a given for someone like Yui to maybe become one. So I feel like that line and speech is there to torment the people who wanted that to happen. But it's a good scene, with Ayano Sugiyama going crazy and wrecking the Kanzaki place like some drunk metal band trashing a hotel room, and demanding answers from her brother and, finally, cutting ties with him.

Kanzaki says here that his motivation is to obtain the power from whoever's the victorious Rider. "The power to be a god or a devil." And Shiro's been depicted as such a nefarious creep that it's obvious he's in this for something that would benefit him -- I don't think, even at this stage, it was going to end up being the seemingly benevolent reason of saving Yui. There's obviously something important about Yui, and she's PART of his motivation, but I never thought the entire motivation. More on my theory and/or what I originally envisioned the show would do in the coverage for the finale.

Reiko ends up rewatching the surveillance footage of the prison the day Asakura escaped like she's looking for Easter eggs within it, when she catches a glimpse of Shiro in the Mirror World. She's smart enough to remember his picture at the Atori, and makes the connection, even spilling to Yui that she heard he died a year ago in America. Good going, Reiko! Are you sure you don't want to feed Yui to Venosnaker while you're at it? Maybe she'd make it in time to be digested with Akira, who you got killed. Geez. Ace reporter.

I shouldn't be hard on Reiko. I like Sayaka Kuon a lot and think she does a good job, the show just really doesn't know how to handle the character, and has her just keep stalling on her investigation because they don't want her to solve it, which just ends up making her look bad. (Even though I think it would have been more interesting if she did put things together.) But I like the moment in 26 when Daisuke's doing some lame, pun-filled routine with a cantaloupe he has, and Kuon obviously breaks and bursts out laughing at him, turning away quickly before then trying to compose herself so she can again face the camera. (She succeeds in masking her smile. You can be bested by a model, Jimmy Fallon!)

Odin's a great design, I'd like it if the show could have had a better landing with the character. I LOVE that they got Visor voice Tsuyoshi Koyama to voice him, the significance of which I'll bring up in the final episode and what I expected from the final episode. (Shirakura calls Episode Final Inoue's version of the finale and the show's finale Kobayashi's. I guess that post will end up being Shougo's version of the finale.) Since Jiro Okamoto plays Odin in suit, I'm curious who plays Ouja in these scenes from 27 and 28. He seems kinda lanky, so I wonder if it could even be Hagino since he has a lot of the same mannerisms.

One last thing I'd like to say about these episodes is I like how open they show Ren being with Yui. Ren's always different around Yui, and I don't know if that means Matsuda's a better actor than I ever gave him credit for or if Sugiyama brings it out of him. But Yui's with him to see Eri and she's torn up and feeling responsible, but Ren says that Yui's just another victim of Shiro's. He also admits that he only ever got close to Yui because he thought it would give him an advantage in the fight, so I guess his revealing this is an admission that, no, he DOES consider Yui a close friend now, so his original intention is now moot and he should also confess it. But I think Kobayashi writing that Yui is potentially another victim of Shiro's kinda tells you where some of her initial ideas were heading. This and the argument between the siblings show that Shiro wasn't meant to be some antihero who's just looking out for his innocent sister, but there's a deeper issue there.