Toshiki Inoue returns after Crazy Joe Davola kicks him in the head and he gives us these two just dreadful episodes. Episodes that aren't as funny as they think they are, are stupid, and yet cement Inoue as the go-to guy for similarly stupid "comedic" episodes in the late 20s in the next several Kamen Rider shows. (And they just get worse and worse, too. It says something when these episodes of Ryuki are the best of his "goofy 20s" Rider episodes. And, no, Blade's Taiyaki Ultimate Form isn't funny! Those episodes were terrible, and a terrible waste of Mio Fukuzumi, but that's beside the point.) Episodes that are just too damn silly and fan-servicey for their own good.
We just had a couple of comedic episodes, so these weren't needed, and Ryuki has better things to be doing than waste two episodes like this, but...someone thought otherwise. (Shirakura!) I also feel like Inoue's trying to outdo Kobayashi, show her he's funnier or something. It's sad the way Inoue makes such a strong entrance in this show, but he eventually just deteriorates. I always wondered, between how goofy his episodes end up, and what he does with Episode Final and the 13 Riders Special, if he ended up rubbing Kobayashi the wrong way. I think it's surprising that they never work together again on another show. After Ryuki, I think the only thing of Kobayashi's Inoue ended up working on is one of the OOO movies, which is often said to be one of the worst Rider movies, so...revenge?
I think, more than the actual written material or any of the performances -- or out-of-character moments -- what I dislike about these two particular episodes so much is the direction. Director Hidenori Ishida uses the Flop Sweat Advent and tries to zip and zap all over the place, push things too far, squeeze in too many visual gags and sets out to prove just how waaaaaaaacky he can be -- I don't think I can recall another case of a director trying to upstage performers in a comedy. He cuts too quickly in some areas, lingers in others, and the rhythm is horrendously off. Add to that that everybody wants to be funnier than the person opposite them, the scripts not even being all that funny to begin with, and it's all just too damn much. (Another awkward choice in direction? All of the emphasis on the heat wave that was hitting '02 hard.)
I'm not against comedic episodes or even the all-out wacky ones. But pick your spots, baby. These episodes just don't work in the context of the show or with these characters. A serious scenario where Shinji, Ren and Kitaoka decide to call off a fight to unite for a cause? That sounds interesting. (I'd make the cause be to take out Asakura.) Uniting to save a kidnapped Reiko? I watch this episode and I'm like "What the hell is Ren involved for? What's he care?" Sure, he's contacted her before when he's needed her involvement with something Kitaoka-related, but I don't think he's invested enough to take part in this entire caper. And then poor Shimada gets kidnapped and nobody gives a shit about her, it's still all about Reiko. (Even worse? The older woman they suspect of the kidnappings ends up being killed by a Mirror Monster when all three are nearby, yukking it up.)
Our stars seem determined that a human is behind the kidnappings and yet, when Yui is in one suspect's house and is searching for the kidnapped women, she's searching in places like garbage bins and microwaves. So...did Crazy Joe Davola kick Yui in the head, and she's stupid now, too, or are we supposed to think that our heroes think that the dork from the marriage interview or the older woman is able to access the Mirror World? (I'm surprised we didn't get a scene of a panicking Shinji being like "Oi, Ren! That old lady, could she be a Rider?!?!") If Shougo was writing this episode, by the way, it wouldn't have been Yui who became the third bride candidate, but Sanako Kanzaki. You're going crazy with comedy, but are going to let Kazue Tsunogae sit the episodes out?! C'MON! LET'S GET NUTS!
The second episode is the debut of the most unnecessary addition to the show, ever -- Megumi Asano. Remember, folks, we're promised 13 Riders by this show, but let's pointlessly add another idiot to the ORE Journal gang. I don't understand why she's in this show -- they don't do anything with her! Like I just said, she joins the ORE Journal staff, and you know how important they are. The show obviously is like "Damn, we've appealed so much to the housewives, we need to cast someone for our male viewers." And I'm sure Shirakura thinks he launched Chisato Morishita's career, but she was already a rising gravure idol, so...he was trying to hitch the saggy second half of his show onto a rising star!
(To me, Morishita looks like a female version of Takashi Hagino. The Goro thing's not enough, but now the show gives Kitaoka a new femme-Asakura. Does Kitaoka really want Ren to tell everyone at the Atori how Kitaoka is all mixed up in a perverse sexual amalgam of some girl and his worst enemy?)
One thing I actually like about the Megumi character is that she's supposed to be strong -- she takes out a gang of hoodlums who are hitting on her; Kitaoka says she made a good bodyguard -- but she's also a klutz. Even in her skilled take down of that group of punks, her victory is capped with something that's the result of her clumsiness. I'd rather the show have just kept her as Kitaoka's second bodyguard -- have her be the comedic bodyguard to Goro's practically mute, stone-faced persona. But to bring her on and make her part of ORE Journal...? Makes no sense.
Her intro to the show is her lying her way back into Kitaoka's life, but before you can call her yet another one of Inoue's "woman swindler" type characters (which would be the second one he's given Ryuki), her being a ditzy and comedic character at least makes her a little more genuine. She really does want back in Kitaoka's life and kind of embellishes and misremembers things, and is even a bit of a hypochondriac about her medical condition. (Good thing Goro finds the world's chattiest doctor.) And since Kitaoka's such a slimy guy, you don't know who to believe, so it's a comedic battle of misunderstandings and lies. At least Kitaoka starts feeling sorry for her when he's under the impression that she, like him, is on borrowed time, and we also get the return of Goro's being Kitaoka's moral compass. But, once again, the comedy just goes too unbelievably far -- Shinji acts like a mental nutcase in the scenes in which he hears Megumi's story, and all that stuff with Kitaoka giving her food items as engagement rings is just flat out stupid. Maybe it would be easier to take and overlook if this was some goofy one-off, but, no, we're getting stuck here, this is the introduction of a new character, so...*sigh*
I feel like 30 is the better of the two episodes, with less tryharding-to-impress direction by Ishida. There's at least a couple of moments I like -- the scene with the hoodlum group, the "Who Knows Kitaoka Best?" quiz, Kitaoka's silent henshin on the boat with Megumi, Daisuke's reveal that Megumi's the new ORE Journal hire ("Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!" x 10) -- but I still don't feel like I'm watching the same show, man. Sure, Kitaoka and actor Ryouhei can be funny, but I always disliked the show using the Kitaoka character in humorous situations. Inoue wrote his intro episodes, he's the one who wrote him to be so cruel and nasty, why would he want to depict him so goofily!? (These episodes are fan-servicey, so they're obviously for Ryouhei's fans. While I think fans should be listened to, I don't think showrunners should do anything that betrays a character or storyline, no matter what the fans are demanding.) Inoue only writes four more episodes after this, the four with Imperer. Those episodes are also comedically tinged, and makes me wonder what it would have been like if Chisato Morishita's Megumi had shown up as Imperer instead...
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