Kamen Rider Ryuki Episodes 11 & 12

EPISODES 11 & 12

So far, Ryuki has done a pretty decent job of having the episodes overlap into one another, giving it a sense of serialization. They can still be broken down into two-parters, but it's not as obvious as Kuuga's format and even Agito had a clean cut before they got onto the next storyline. Ryuki will introduce something and pick it up and run with it, smoothly, into the next episode. But then it eventually does wind up being more easily broken down into the two-parter format that the franchise would soon end up beating to death and beyond.

And so this episode picks up from Ryuki and Knight trying to recover from being blasted with End of World, with Ren taking a hit to the head that causes him to lose most of his memories from the past year. A cheap story device? Eh, I just see it as the most convenient way to fill in some backstory without slowing things down and doing an episode set full on in the past, and in a way that's going to be able to involve the titular character. You can't really keep holding back on Ren's deal, especially as we go into the episodes with Tetzuka and Asakura having Ren question his ability to go all the way in this fight.

We get a glimpse of what kind of life Ren led before the series by all of the criminal hoodlums he encounters as he returns to past haunts to try to remember everything. He's pissed off or left bad blood with just about every two-bit punk in Tokyo, as you'd expect. A too kind Shinji, worried about Ren and hoping he can safely recover, accompanies him and always tries to intervene before those wanting some revenge against Ren can get it. He takes quite a beating, almost looking like Rocky Balboa by the end of this arc, taking beatings Ren was meant to pay for (and with interest). In retrospect, this kind of looks like the beginning of Shinji becoming just too chumpy when it comes to Ren -- he eventually just loses his mind with how hard he tries to help Ren -- but so many of these scenes play for comedic effect that they work on their own. And it helps that Shinji gets pretty fed up after a while, making comments about how Ren just always leaves people pissed off and then Shinji himself tries to start fleeing from the punks after one too many beatdowns. So he doesn't just look like a dope who's needlessly putting himself in danger for someone who's been a jerk to him.

Ren's compelled, driven by one big reason to piece together his past, and as he continues towards that goal, Yui decides to begin to piece together the Shiro Kanzaki story. She goes to his old university to investigate, finding that he led a lab experiment that went bad and brought nothing but questions, resentment and damage. She realizes that she doesn't really know what her brother was like -- she's remembering that kid that seemed hellbent to stay by her side as he was hauled away, but what if he changed? She learns from experiment participant Hajime Nakamura that, whatever Shiro was aiming to do, he claimed it was all for Yui's sake. I like how Ren and Yui's investigations intersect, with both of their paths leading to the abandoned Lab Room 401.

As we learn, Eri was involved with the experiment. Eri Ogawa, the one who Ren's rings belong to. I find her to be such a sad story of the show, but I've always been confused by the casting of the actress. She just really doesn't seem to mesh with the type of people this show was casting. She has a kind of old-fashioned look about her, making her more appropriate for period productions. And she doesn't quite match the typical mold of the pure and angelic love interest in Japanese media. Getting past that, she's a good actress, and you just feel bad for Eri. She one day begs Ren to pick her up early from the university, just sensing something bad is going to happen with the next day's experiments. For some reason, he just doesn't seem to want to. So when he DOES actually show up for her, it's too late -- the experiment has laid waste. He gets his first taste of the crazy stuff he's going to be dealing with for the next year, as Kanzaki is there and gives him his Card Deck.

The show's fuzzy on what the experiment is definitively supposed to be, but here's how I always took it -- it was Shiro's first success at opening the gates of the Mirror World. The Monster that happened to first appear was Dark Wing, and Shiro had the contract and Deck ready to go for whatever Monster first showed itself. Now, what was the extent of Eri's involvement? We never find out. If things hadn't turned out so bad, with Eri attacked and/or collapsing in absolute terror, would he have forced her to make the contract? Was she just bait for any of the Monsters, to entice them into our world -- using her light as a lure? It's purposely left a mystery, I guess to keep you on the same page as Ren. Ren didn't know what the hell she was up to at the university and certainly didn't think it could have been anything to scare her out of returning there. A dozen episodes into this show, we understand how Ren feels when he just bursts into Room 401 and is thrust into a world of mad scientists and monsters.

It would be nice to have gotten a bit of his reaction, an exchange between him and Kanzaki, just WHY he would have so easily accepted the Card Deck. Whatever the reason -- maybe because, as he saw Eri lying unconscious at this scene of madness, he realized he had a chance to save her by listening to her and picking her up early, and he failed -- he chooses to damn himself with the Card Deck, becoming a Rider, and partnering with the monster who critically injures the woman he loves. Dark Wing's just a constant reminder of her, so I love that scene when it's hovering in the mirror in Eri's hospital room and Ren punches and breaks the mirror, just totally furious with the monster and the whole situation. It makes me wish the show was more confident in depicting Ren as he's supposed to be rather than sugar-coating it to make him and the actor more bankable.

In these episodes, we get the best picture of who Ren's supposed to be. A flat-out hooligan. Look at all of the punks he's pissed off in his wake. I think there's a similarity to Ren and Gai Yuuki, but I think Ren's supposed to be even more dangerous than Gai. Gai has charm and a code. There's a decent and honorable person in Ren, but it's buried deep in him -- he's not even all that aware of it. But then he meets Eri. However she came into his life is a miracle for him. She's pure and loving and a beacon of light. They're an unlikely pair, but work, and she's good for him. And if it isn't obvious enough how different they are, the production dresses each of them in black and white, filming her in softness and brightness. She tries to sway Ren from his combative ways, but still loves him anyway, and he's a changed person when with her. Maybe the person he really is? Or who he wants to be? (I'll paraphrase these Lou Reed lyrics: "You made me forget myself/Made me think I was someone else/Someone good.")

And I think Eri was instrumental in getting Ren to find his heart and become more open and caring and that ends up becoming a series long struggle as this once cold guy has so thawed to where he finds himself caring for people like Yui and Shinji, but he can't afford to take his eyes off the prize because he's in this for the woman who made him this way! So I see it as another spin on the classic Rider dilemma. You have Shinji thrown into this battle, wanting to retain his heart and humanity amidst all of the unfairness and cruelty of life and the Rider Battle. But then you have Ren who probably wishes he didn't feel so much, who would like to lose his humanity if it meant his success, but he can't. Because he loved and that love changed him, that's all tied into his whole reason for being Knight, it's unremovable. And he just has a lot of guilt about what happened to her on top of it -- he probably felt she was too good for him and he really let her down.

Shiro had a partner during his experiments, Ejima, who we meet as a disheveled wanderer, clinging to a Seal Vent card, using it to ward off Mirror Monsters the way Van Helsing uses a crucifix against vampires. (We never learn the extent of Ejima's involvement, do we?) The Seal Vent card, that's kind of a supernatural idea. I originally always thought the Mirror World was going to be a bit more supernatural, perhaps taking inspiration from Jean Cocteau's Orphée, where mirrors were used as an entrance to the land of the dead. I always thought that the Mirror World was something that always existed, and that it absorbed things from the regular world. Mirrors, a sign of vanity, something that people look into and find something about themselves to not be happy about -- I thought maybe the Mirror World took negative thoughts like that and it manifested as the Mirror Monsters.

And there's a scene in this episode on a train when a student is distracted by some guy's loud music, and he just has this look on his face that you can tell he wishes the guy was dead, and, voila, the guy's taken by a monster a split-second later. That student's anger fed the Mirror World and he got his wish. So, I thought that was going to be where the show went with it. The Mirror World existed and Shiro Kanzaki found a way to access it and use it for his own purposes. There's also the way that Mirror Monsters seem to target specific locations -- like they're haunting them. (The school, the hotel's elevator in an upcoming episode.) Web-sites devoted to the strange happenings that are a result of the Mirror World describe it in supernatural ways. More on my original theories, particularly with Kanzaki, in later posts.

Kamen Rider Ryuki Episodes 9 & 10

EPISODES 9 & 10

These episodes continue Kitaoka's debut, with Inoue continuing as writer. So this is basically a four-parter, they transition into each so well. I think these two episodes are just really well done and run the gamut -- it's a silly case of mistaken identity that kicks things off, but it ends up becoming a pretty heartfelt story with surprising character turns.

You have Shinji barely making it out of a fight with Zolda with a distinct arm injury, and he then gets falsely arrested for kidnapping Shimada -- he can't just tell people that the real culprit was taken by a Mirror Monster -- he then has the misfortune of his friends hiring Kitaoka to defend him, with Kitaoka being observant enough to realize Shinji is Ryuki and trying to get Shinji to incriminate himself. It's crazy, crazy stuff! Things keep getting piled on to our hapless hero. (Why doesn't any of his ORE Journal buddies ever question why he'd try to kidnap Shimada, anyway? With friends like these dummies, who needs Riders to fight?)

It's also a good, telling episode for Ren. He's irritated with Shinji, he doesn't like such an irresponsible and harmless guy worming his way into the Rider battle, but he knows Shinji doesn't deserve any of this, so he's instrumental in getting the gears moving to help free Shinji. His teasing of Shinji when he sees Shinji locked up is one of the moments where Ren's whole bemused tormenting really works. It's a way for Ren to vent his feelings about the situation he's surprised to find himself in, in helping Shinji. And he also has to cross paths with Kitaoka to try to get him to accept Shinji's case and they just clash from the start. Kitaoka's a dismissive, judgmental ass about Ren. And what you can gather about Ren's life and background and where he came from, you just know he loathes people like Kitaoka and doesn't feel comfortable around that type. It's a class battle. And then it's Reiko who gets Kitaoka to accept, but as I said...it wasn't the best choice to involve him, not that they knew any better. From their point of view, it's a coup, since Kitaoka has such a spotless record as a lawyer.

The subplot of this episode is sad, but sweet, with a young girl, Yukari, wanting to hire Kitaoka to help her dad. Her dad is the real culprit of Shimada's kidnapping and, of course, Mirror Food, but only Shinji knows that. (Does he ever even tell anybody about the man's demise!? Not on screen, if so.) Her dad just wanted ransom to help pay for her mom's surgical procedure and targeted ORE Journal because they talked smack about his job and cost him a lot of employees. He didn't mean any harm, but...eh, look what he did, and look what it got Shinji into. But because of his daughter, and the affecting performance by actress Yukiko Ikari, you do feel bad for him and his family.

And, of course, Kitaoka is an asshat, couldn't care less at how cold he is about Yukari and her family's situation, but Goro takes an instant liking and sympathy to her. She ends up only feeling comfortable with Goro to the point where she whispers to him and he becomes her mouthpiece. At one point she's insulting Kitaoka, and Kitaoka asks whether it's really her or Goro's words. So, Goro's pretty disappointed in Kitaoka's behavior, and his befriending the kid adds another layer -- and mystery -- to the character. Surely, he's not as much of a thug as he appears. Here, he's Kitaoka's moral compass, bringing out decency in such a disagreeable person, and that's the role the character ends up playing throughout most of the show.

And when Kitaoka hears that Yukari practically lives at the hospital to be with her mom -- especially now that her dad is missing -- it hits too close to home for him. Earlier in the episode, we see him leave a doctor's appointment that obviously had useless results, as the chatty nurses are heard saying there's nothing that can be done for him. So, surprise of surprises, Kitaoka ends up paying for Yukari's mother's surgery, which gets Yukari to see him in a new light and come to his defense when a freed Shinji is giving a smack-down for the shit he put him through. (Shinji still doesn't know that Kitaoka is Zolda, although Ren learns in this two-parter.) You get the feeling Kitaoka's thoughts are "Oh, well, it's not like all this money can help me with MY condition."

I like that this decision is Kitaoka's own, and he's not directed to it by Goro or Yukari, deepening the layers of his character. (In the next episode, Reiko puts Kitaoka on her black list for all of his prickishness, but then wants to cover the story of the anonymous man who mysteriously paid off a woman's medical bills!) This act of his also brings Goro back to his side -- it's funny that, when Ren shows up at Kitaoka's along with Yui and Reiko, Ren and Kitaoka are getting in a struggle, but Goro stands back. Once Kitaoka saves the day? Bodyguard Goro returns to try to prevent Ren and Shinji from attacking his sensei.

Ryouhei's just really good in these episodes. Such a detestable bastard, from the way he treats Shinji to his taunting of Ren, his using Reiko and what a creep he is towards Yui and yet...he still can make the guy likable. He's interesting and you don't know what to make of him. These episodes and 13 and 14 are this character's best and it's sad how far the show pushes the limits with him, to the point where he becomes pretty much comedic relief, which is such a strange turn for him. (Though it's born out of people liking Ryouhei.) And Zolda gives a great cliffhanger to this episode, when we finally see his Advent Monster and he nukes the block -- Mirror Monster, Knight and Ryuki included -- with his Final Vent, the only Final Vent I know the name of without looking it up, which is "End of World."

I like the scene with Kitaoka and Ren after they've fought in the Mirror World, when we get Kitaoka's reason for fighting -- eternal life -- while we get Kitaoka just roasting Ren, criticizing his ability as a Rider compared to his. Seeing the rings on Ren's necklace, Kitaoka quickly puts together Ren's motivation and causes Ren to face a truth and hypocrisy in that, for all of his lecturing of needing the will to fight Riders, Ren's fighting for a good reason. Ren puts up a front and talks tough, but he's fighting for someone else, and that's seen as a weakness compared to Kitaoka, who's only concerned with himself.

Just a really good episode that involves everyone nicely and covers a lot of emotional ground.

Heroism Watch: Shinji and Ren manage to save Yukari from a monster attacking her. (You just know Inoue wanted to kill her; have her join her dad in the Mirror Monster's belly just as her mother is cured.) And I'd say Kitaoka's forking over the money for the woman's surgery is heroic. Probably the most heroic thing he'll do in the series! And a shout-out to the kid, Yukari, for giving testimony incriminating her father to free our hero.

Kamen Rider Ryuki Episodes 7 & 8

EPISODES 7 & 8

The debut of the third regular Rider, and the debut in this series of Toshiki Inoue as secondary writer. And, boy, is Kitaoka an Inoue character.

I remember when I first saw Zolda teased at the end of episode 6, I made the first of what would be many similar complaints about a lot of the designs for subsequent Heisei Riders -- he looked too much like a Metal Hero. He really looks like he should be an extra hero with Solbrain or Exceedraft, doesn't he? But I like the detail of the helmet with the blinking lights and that little track that turns on the side, I think that's pretty cool.

I've always liked the character of Shuuichi Kitaoka. He's a narcissist, he's self-serving, he's greedy, he's immoral. His soul is mildewed. But you can kind of understand where he's coming from. The type of person he is, knowing that he's dying, his focus is on getting the most he can out of life, at whatever cost. And look at the way Shinji gets easily swept into his world -- and look also at the way Shuuichi seems to enjoy bringing Shinji into his world. Kitaoka might be a slimeball, but he does seem to be at times personable. (Narcissists can be charming.) Granted, your in into his world is probably to appeal to his ego -- as Shinji does by claiming to want to do an article about him -- but he still seems like he has some light within him. (And the show goes a little overboard with that, but more on that as it develops.)

So he's interesting in that you never know how to feel about him. There are times when he's really devious and villainous and you hate his guts, but there's also a lot I find to like in the character and understand or sympathize with. (Which maybe makes me the bastard everyone says I am, I dunno.) It's also fascinating that this type of character is made to be the third lead in the show. As in...his Deck comes in the set with Ryuki and Knight's, the more heroic guys. It's hard to imagine kids buying that initial V-Buckle set being like, "I get to be Kitaoka, whoo! Masato, you get to play Goro-chan -- come shave my face and fetch me a brandy!"

Faking us out by making us think Goro is a Rider is one of the only times this show succeeds in such a fake-out. Because he's obviously a hooligan, we're shown the scenes of him watching Kitaoka on TV with an inscrutable look. We spend the rest of that episode as other hoods chase Kitaoka and give him a beating, so he could have been with those guys. But the shock...he shows up to save Kitaoka. The show's always mysterious with Goro -- what exactly his background is, why he's apparently so skilled as a manservant. Even before I read it, I knew actor Tomohisa Yuge obviously had to have auditioned to be a Rider in this show, so I wonder how he felt getting this weird role instead. Goro has his moments, and we'll see there's more to him than meets the eye, but...he's obviously here for the Akiba Yellow segment of the fandom to draw comics of him and Kitaoka. The show pushes things far with these two, but it's always seemed to me like a one-sided thing -- Goro's in love with Kitaoka, but Kitaoka's straight and just a bastard and what he loves is how devoted Goro is to him, and so he likes tormenting Goro by leaving him hanging. Goro's a rare person who loves Kitaoka genuinely with the added bonus of being the skilled bodyguard Kitaoka needs with how many people he ends up pissing off.

Inoue also brings some of the quirky comedy he can be known for with these episodes, beginning with the funny sequence of Shinji dreaming the ORE Journal office (and his temporary home) is on fire as he sleepwalk-extinguishes it. (Kanji Tsuda's reaction and the way Ryuta Tasaki direct the scene of the co-workers discovering Shinji's handiwork are hilarious.)

This quirkiness can also be seen in the bizarre subplot of Shinji and Reiko investigating the funky critters found by an old man -- some viewers might think this storyline goes too far in kookiness, but I think it works with the kind of sensationalist tabloid work that Shinji wants to do clashing with the level of journalistic integrity Reiko would like the ORE Journal to have. (The fact that Daisuke sends them on this mission should tell you, Reiko...Daisuke will print whatever sells and you're with the wrong paper!) It's a sidestep that leads Reiko onto the REAL story, turning into an investigation of the nearby pharmaceutical plant that's TURNING THE SKY NEON, which puts her and Shinji onto the path of Kitaoka. Turns out this scoop is a big zilch, as it's apparently not causing any harm. OK, but why is the sky turning into the time vortexes seen in Timeranger?! There's a cover-up and even Reiko's on the take!

The old man who's lying and painting crayfish gold and glueing hair on frogs always cracked me up. It's a bit sad that he craves the attention this story, being told in an online rag like ORE Journal, would bring him, and he's a bit of a shit for killing so many creatures in his attempts to make these freakish finds, but the actor's just so funny and likable. It's always nice to see Ben Hiura pop up in something.

Speaking of quirkiness, this episode marks the debut of Sanako Kanzaki. I've often said that she's my favorite "kooky elder" of Kamen Rider. Showa shows had the reliable Tachibana, Heisei shows get eccentric characters who you don't know what to make of. I've always loved how Kazue Tsunogae plays this character -- she's hilarious, she's at times over-the-top, but she's never cartoonish or grating. She plays it at a perfect pitch and knows when to dial it back and can also be dramatic when it calls for it. So many performances in Rider now are at 11 just the entire time and it's brutal and gets tiresome. (I'm looking at you, Ghost cast.) Sanako might be a kook, but she calls things as she sees 'em and is finally someone who's positive about our main hero, Shinji. Maybe it's meant to be humorous that the crackpot is defending him, I dunno, but I see it as she's the elder, she knows what she's talking about -- her intuition is never wrong, after all.

Sanako has the idea of having Shinji and Ren move in to one of the rooms above the teahouse. It's a real sitcom arrangement, but I guess it's convenient for the writers. The funny thing is, Shinji now has to work at the Atori. He still works at ORE Journal, in addition to being a Kamen Rider. Toku shows have a hard time juggling jobs for heroes, so they tend to just have the job exist in a magical bubble that doesn't need attention paid to it, but...Ryuki does a surprisingly breezy job of showing Shinji do it all. Where's he find the time, man?

Heroism Watch: An F+ this go around, as nobody makes it to the scene in time to save anyone. Even poor old Ben Hiura gets slice and diced by the zebra Mirror Monster! Inoue's obviously like "You want to see people get saved, go watch an old Rescue 911. I'm trying to write something interesting here."

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!"

Kamen Rider Ryuki Episodes 3 & 4

EPISODES 3 & 4

It's hard to feel bad for Ren when Shinji suspects him of nefarious actions considering how far he goes out of his way to be an asshole to Shinji. Yui even has a moment of being an asshole to Shinji because she doesn't like Shinji's accusations against Ren. You can accuse Shinji of diving into this too hard, being too forceful, but...it's not like he's wrong. Ren's been a dick, he's always at the scene of the crime and doesn't care to explain himself in any way. Yeah, Ren's standoffish and doesn't like Shinji, but it's one of those Faiz examples where a simple sentence would clear up confusion. Ren, you don't like Shinji? Well, be a little more open in explaining yourself and get him off your ass. It's not that hard. It's your own damn fault for just being silent and looking suspicious. I can understand Ren feeling like he doesn't need to fill in Shinji on everything, but if it's going to get him out of your hair...why wouldn't he?

These episodes highlight the problem with Ren for me. Even by Episode 2, the show has decided it favors Ren. He's the "serious" character, the "cool" one. (Hell, he's the first Rider we're shown in the series.) We're just supposed to like him because of that, the show wants that to be enough. But Ren's supposed to be a harder, more dangerous-seeming character than he ever comes across. Yes, he is a good person deep down -- very deep down, only Eri's really supposed to know at first -- but he is supposed to be vaguely criminal, really rough. You're supposed to not know if he's an ally or enemy, he's supposed to have an air of mystery -- what's driving him, why he's with Yui, what Yui sees in him, why Yui has any control over him.

The problem is not only in the show favoring him over the lead character, but in the casting of Satoshi Matsuda. He's just too damn young to ever be completely convincing. (Toku needs to stop being afraid to cast older performers!) Matsuda is also an easygoing jokester in real life, and I feel like that often comes through in not only his performance, but eventually in the writing. (It's funny that Matsuda seems the goof in real life, while Takamasa Suga seems to take himself very seriously.) Even in episode two Ren has a scene where he's confronting Shinji, but Matsuda is playing it in this playful way where he has a light, humorous tone.

When he's berating Shinji, he often has this sparkle in his eye, much like Hiroshi Miyauchi when playfully scolding or one-upping a character. It doesn't work for this character. Matsuda gets in the character's way more than once in this show. He's a likable guy, he's not a bad actor, just too young for the part, unable at that point to hide some of his more natural instincts. Whenever Ren seems bemused by everything -- I feel like that's Matsuda slipping through. While Ren IS supposed to warm up and take a liking to Shinji and his buffoonery, he's certainly not at that point yet. Shinji's supposed to be a massive pain in the ass he doesn't need right now. But he's already reacting to Shinji with bemusement. There's also just the fear in not wanting to have Ren be too bad or unlikable. For as bold of a rule-breaker as Ryuki wants to be, it's funny the way it will hold back or be afraid to commit to an idea. (Hence the whole cowardly finale.)

When Ryuki aired, I really wished that Shinji Kasahara had played Ren -- I think he would have brought the intensity and danger the character had, but also the heroism and honor he was supposed to have buried beneath. (Of the Ryuki cast, I think Tomohisa "Goro-chan" Yuge would have made the best Knight, as written. How Yuge ended up in the final auditions for Shinji, I have no idea.) I also think we need a better suit ACTOR as Knight than Makoto Itou, who really doesn't bring much of anything to the part. (Itou's best in the roles that are meant to be less flashy and more human, like G3 and Hibiki.) Perhaps if there had been a better suit-actor -- think someone like Naoki Oofuji -- that could have carried over and helped Matsuda out in his performance.

The show never really cares to explain Ren and Yui's deal, does it? (And it's not for the reasons you think and put into your novel, Inoue!) Like, you can assume he wants to be close to her to keep tabs on the whole Shiro Kanzaki situation (and the show does confirm that later on), but what the hell does she get out of befriending Ren? Does she recognize that Ren's a good person, so he's her way to keep tabs on the goings-on of the Mirror World? Her crazy defense of Ren at Shinji's expense hints at something bigger that's never followed through with. Some things work better as a mystery, but this ain't one of them. It's awesome when she breaks through the Mirror World to save Ryuki by giving Knight an ultimatum, though. She saved our hero from being a smear in the Mirror World.

I hate how nasty Yui is to Shinji, though -- calling him weak and more untrustworthy than Ren -- especially after Shinji tries to get her to feel better about the possibility that Shiro might not be an evil bastard. And even if he is an evil bastard, well Shinji's going to prove him wrong by being the one guy in the fight who just wants to save people. That scene in the Atori in episode 3 is one of my favorite moments of the series, one of the reasons I thought Shinji was so cool. And I like that the episode starts with Ryuki making a mistake in his battle with Knight which he learns from and uses to his advantage to get the upper hand in a battle with one of the gazelle monsters. It's not like Shinji ends up a karate warrior, but I've always liked how the show tries to have a progression to his fighting ability.

Another thing Ren shows little patience for with Shinji is the concept of the Rider War, which hasn't been stated by this point in the series, so Shinji doesn't know about it, and we don't know about it unless we've read press material leading up to the show. Can't fault Shinji for that one, either, Ren. (Although Ren has a point that it would be easier for him to just kill Shinji now, but it would be easier to believe he could if we didn't already know Ren's a good guy and they're counting on you to want to buy his toys!) Shinji's going to get his first taste of this nightmare in the next two episodes, but Shinji discovers Ren's possible motivation to fight in the two rings he wears on a necklace. Ren's of the mindset that a person needs a personal reason to fight, Shinji thinks just wanting to help and protect people is enough. This, of course, is the major theme running throughout the series, and the motivation of Shiro in selecting who he does to be a Rider. Yasuko Kobayashi's reach exceeds her grasp a bit, because she never quite makes her point with this, especially when Shinji ends up losing grip of his beliefs in often unconvincing ways. And it says something that she makes the "stupid" character the one who's selfless and wants to do good with his power; the "cool" one, the real star of the show is the "realistic" one.

Shiro makes his first appearance, a shady character who just urges Shinji to fight. We and Shinji and the other Riders will become very, very familiar with this directive from Shiro throughout the show. I was always a little puzzled at actor Kenzaburo Kikuchi's casting, though. He was an illustrator who tried his hand at modeling and then acting, with Ryuki his acting debut. I kinda wonder how he got this big role, but he works as this mysterious, shadow-y character. Call me crazy, but he also always reminded me a little of Mitsuo Andou, and that really helps give him an extra vibe of creepiness. Because Shiro's a creepy guy! We don't know his deal yet. And even when we do, he remains creepy. You never quite know what to make of the character. He's using people, but the people he selects to be Riders are terrible themselves. Is he good or bad? That's for you to decide as the evidence piles up. So many moral quagmires in this show, Ryuki was perfectly in step with the trend of the "age of the complicated antihero" that Hollywood loved in their TV dramas at the time.

Like here, when Shiro basically takes up Shinji's time and seemingly prevents his Ridey-Sense from going off in time to save that teacher who's killed. (We later find out Ren was on the scene, but the monster moved too fast, so he holds a bit of a grudge against it.) Shinji and Ren both manage to save a couple of girls at the school that the gazelles are apparently obsessed with, so...yay, heroism!

We get a flashback of Shiro helping a bullied Yui when kids don't believe her about the existence of Mirror Monsters. We see briefly the scene of an angry Shiro being pulled into a car by adults as kid Yui cries. I have no idea where this story was originally going to go, but I don't think for a second it was going to be about Yui drawing monsters and being replaced by her mirror self and all that. I feel like Yui was going to have a more important role than that, be a little more active in the story. Look at the way she can see into the Mirror World to observe Ryuki and Knight's fight. I feel like she was going to have a more supernatural involvement with the Mirror World -- maybe the monsters came from her, but they weren't going to be from awful doodles. Maybe she was going to be a villain and Shiro was out to stop her? (Black feathers fall upon her in the opening credits.)

One thing I find most tedious on Ryuki rewatches is the ORE Journal gang. And what's funny is that I really liked them when Ryuki aired, I thought they were funny. Daisuke's always up to something, even if he's way too lax with his employees and you have no clue how ORE Journal stays afloat. Shimada's memorably quirky to the point where she won a role on the next Rider show based on her awesomeness. Reiko had potential, but she's mostly just a pill. It's a lot of scenes of her acting like she's more important than she is, when she's 77 steps behind what we know is going on. So, a lot of the ORE Journal scenes can end up feeling gratuitous.

We'll divert to shenanigans we don't need or we'll just be padding time as Reiko thinks she has a brain wave, and it doesn't add up to much in the end. They're certainly not the support system Shinji could use, despite Reiko's potential or Daisuke's apparently being a good friend to Shinji prior to employing him. Ordinarily, this situation would be kept in the show as a way for our main hero to find out the latest happenings he needs to go and help superhero with -- the reason Clark Kent decides to work at the Daily Planet -- but that's not even the case here, because the Riders in this show just always know what's going down with the Mirror Monsters. They have Ridey-Sense and Pokemon pals! They don't need a job to help 'em. So it's kinda like...what's ORE Journal's purpose again?

Kamen Rider Ryuki Episodes 1 & 2

Kamen Rider Ryuki meant a lot to me in 2002. I was still pretty new to being a Rider fan, and at the time was catching up on Agito, and gradually was making my way through Kuuga. But I got into those shows far too late; Ryuki was actually beginning, and I was following it from the start. And I thought it looked fucking awesome.

One of the things that drew me to Agito was that it had three Riders -- I had always wondered why Kamen Rider never tried to do a Spielban, having more than one (ideally a trio) of Riders. And I liked how different the three Riders in Agito were, what they represented -- not to mention the fact that it's not until the show's nearly over that the three are all on the same page and fighting together. They cross paths the entire series, but don't truly "team up" until later episodes, in a masterfully written way that makes sense in terms of the show's story. It was a big pay-off, it was like a big prize when they all finally started working together.

And Ryuki was shaping up to have multiple Riders, too. Not only that, but clearly an antagonistic one. (Going off the early publicity photos, I had hoped Knight would have been more like what I initially imagined Shadow Moon to be -- a transforming villain Rider. He wasn't, but Ryuki gives us plenty of those.) Cut to finally getting the first volume on VHS, along with Hurricaneger's first volume. Despite being a Sentai Guy, I was more excited about Ryuki, so I figured I'd watch its first episode first, then get to the Sentai. And I did that. And then I popped in Hurricaneger. And I thought Hurricaneger was so cheap-looking and terrible that I was barely able to make it through the first episode, let alone the entire volume. So, after that one episode, I went on to wipe out the remaining Ryuki.

I was totally crazy for Ryuki. Couldn't wait to watch the new episodes, couldn't wait to check out Toei's site each week to see what was happening. And then...basically, the show bought its own hype and took a nosedive, culminating in one of the weakest, letdown series finales of all tokudom, essentially ruining the show. I went from loving the show to outright hating it, barely able to even tolerate the sight of it. (Even when I tried to ignore the finale, I wouldn't be able to enjoy any of the earlier episodes I had loved so much.) But something happened and actually, to my surprise, it rekindled my Ryuki love again. I'll get into that and the series' highs and lows in the posts to come. So let's start with...

EPISODES 1 & 2

These were pretty fresh, exciting episodes at the time. What's shocking in retrospect is how many just quiet, conversational character moments these two episodes have. They really give you (and Shinji) the perfect amount of time to take in the whole strange concept it's depicting and quickly get you on board in rooting for Shinji as our main hero.

Because these were very uncharted waters. Shinji, in terms of main protagonists, was nothing like what Rider had given us previously. Godai and Shouichi were often viewed as carefree or stupid, but they weren't, and they obviously stepped up and were bad-ass when they transformed. And nearly every Rider prior to that was supposed to be really intelligent and into science, if not actual students or scientists. Shinji's not a smart guy. He's not totally clueless or helpless, but his heart is definitely bigger than his brain. He's led by his emotions and he's not really aware of how mean the world can be, but it's definitely something he's going to find out over the course of the show.

He means well and just wants to be good at his job but is just clumsy and irresponsible. He's hapless. But he's just a good person with a pure heart and drive, and he is just so in over his head once he makes a contract with Dragredder. That's one of the great things about this show, though, and why I initially liked Shinji. It's what I talked about with Koutarou in Black versus RX -- in Black, he just seemed like a normal guy who seemed just so outnumbered and outmatched by the opponent he decided to go against. With Shinji, he's going to be encountering a lot of blackhearted, evil people, and how much is he going to be able to retain any of his optimism, hope, heart? It's a new spin on the Ishinomori ingredient of a Rider clinging to their humanity and morals, fighting against succumbing to darkness and being a monster.

Shinji's also not a fighter, he's just running on pure instinct when most past Riders had cyborg superstrength or were said to be athletic. This is nicely reflected by Seiji Takaiwa's in-suit performance as Ryuki. It's funny about Takaiwa...at the time, I hadn't really liked any of his (mostly comedic) Sentai roles. But I loved his work in Agito. So I definitely feel like he switched over to Rider to get work of that type, and then...his very second Rider role is a comedic one. Shinji also doesn't have much of any moral support -- his co-workers aren't helpful, leaving just Yui, who's torn between wanting her own answers and wanting to help Ren. So, again: he's in way over his head. Can he survive, and what will be left of him?!

The other, bigger thing Ryuki is ushering in is the incorporation of anime gimmicks. For better or worse, Ryuki is the one that started it all, and it's one of the several problems the franchise has faced which can be traced back to this series. I'm pretty split on what I think about the Advent Cards, the Mirror Monster allies. When Ryuki was first announced, I kind of scoffed. I thought it was lame. Pokemon-mania was just dying in America, I didn't understand it and thought it was stupid. Here I was, just getting into Kamen Rider, with so much of Ryuki looking promising, and...they're gonna have cards to play with and, like, Pokemon to look after?! What's Toei thinking?! But then I ended up so into the show and liking its gimmicks that I bought pretty much every Advent Card I wanted. And it was so fun to buy the packs of those, which came on sheets and you had to peel 'em and you didn't know what you were getting, they were like a drug. So, on the one hand is the purist "OMG, that's just lame and greedy," but on the other...I bought into the gimmick, so I'm a bit of a hypocrite.

At least the Mirror Monsters don't talk! I was relieved at the time by that, and it's something that they'd definitely do now. A problem with the Mirror Monsters coming off too Poke/Digimon-ish is the quality of CGI. CGI's overestimated -- when it's millions and millions of dollars it still doesn't look right. So I'm not trashing Toei's much-cheaper CGI, just that CGI already lends a cartoonish quality to live-action, and the way the Mirror Monsters for the Riders are depicted, being so colorful, they clash with the show and stick out. Thankfully, the show doesn't give much of a damn about the Mirror Monsters, so it's not that big a deal. They're not cute buddies, but live up to their "monster" name. They just want fed, making them more like Tamagotchis than Pokemon, which sounds even worse when you word it like that now that I've done it. I think the show could have made them even more monstrous, but that's not where the show's interest is; the show's interest is in showing that the monsters this time around are the humans.

I'd really like to keep track of how many times we see one of the Riders actually save someone in this show. So far, it's one and a half. Shinji inadvertently saves Reiko from the spider, and Ren laters saves Yoshifumi Oshikawa on a rooftop from another spider. Don't get used to it, citizens of Japan -- not many people get saved in early Heisei Rider shows, but especially Ryuki.

It's a shame the show never knows what to do with Reiko, though. She's supposed to be such a good journalist, but she's not allowed to solve the show's mystery because the show itself can't solve the mystery until the end. But I really like her in these first two episodes, and it's the last thing of note she does. She's the one who lights the fire under Shinji's ass to realize the severity of what's happening, the realization that he might have something he can do to put a stop to all of the mysterious disappearances.

I like that he's trying to look out for her by trying to drive her away from the missing persons scoop, and I like how insulted she is that he's pegged her wrong -- she's not in it for a scoop, but to help people find the answers and get closure. She doesn't care how dangerous it can get, that comes with the territory. The scene when she prints out the list of missing people, pointing out they're parents, siblings, kids, and shoves it towards Shinji is great. Too bad the track the show takes forces her to be sidelined, so she's used mostly as a comedic foil for Kitaoka; it would have been nice for her to be a little more involved and maybe be that source of support Shinji could have used, a cold splash of logic when Shinji's twisted up in confusion by the other Riders. She could have been a great ally. She could have been used in better ways than becoming a one-note nag who has to tell everyone what a better journalist she is than they are. Eyeroll.

Damn, don't you miss when Toei took Rider seriously, and actually cared about it? The cracks begin to show within this show, as Shirakura and everyone else begin to go power-happy, but at least early on, this show is good, it's fresh, it's exciting. It still cares about Kamen Rider -- look at how the franchise has dropped even pretending to be connected to Ishinomori's creation by getting rid of the tradition of having a spider as the first episode's monster.

"But Ryuki's not a Rider! It began life as a Metal Hero." Why's that rumor still pop up? I don't buy it. Rider was back, and Toei wasn't going to risk losing that heat on a Metal Hero. True, Yasuko Kobayashi got her start on Metal Heroes, and it's the franchise that inspired her to write toku, so there's always a strong Metal Hero influence in her works, but I think the only reason she was randomly given that episode of Agito to write was to basically test her out and get her in with Rider -- they were obviously getting Ryuki underway by that point. And Ryuki, for as different as it seems, still does have a lot of Rider in its DNA, and that's what makes the early run of Heisei shows so damn good -- they were the breath of fresh air the franchise needed, especially to come back so strong and stay on the air, but they retained a lot of the core elements of what made Kamen Rider so unique, and utilized those elements and ideas in new ways.

Ryusoulger: Sentai's Rock Bottom

I love Super Sentai. I'm Sentai Guy (though I prefer Sentaiman), it's my favorite of the toku franchises, it's one of my favorite variations and depictions of superhero entertainment. I've often been accused of taking these shows too seriously, but I've also been accused of trashing too many modern shows. Both accusations are true, and both come from a similar point of origin -- I know how good Super Sentai can be, so it's really disheartening and infuriating when it's not shown the respect or care it deserves -- by annoying fans who think it's all about the lulz to the complacent people and/or unimaginative bean-counters running the shows.

I've been a part of the online fandom for so long and I've seen so many obits written for the franchise. Pretty much every year since 1999 has been said to be Sentai's last year. Every other toku franchise has had a period of dormancy, if not outright death, and Sentai's not bulletproof. I'm not delusional in thinking it's going to be on the airwaves forever, but I often let out a skeptical scoff when it rolls around to the time when people like to retweet a fuzzy translation of a scrap of info posted on 2ch about Sentai's ratings or toy sales and try to somehow prophesize the future of the franchise from those.

Toei couldn't make it more obvious these past several years that they're just fed up with even trying to put out a good show. Ratings shrink, toy sales drop, and you can just picture them shrugging and being like "Eh, whatcha gonna do?" Sentai fans who like to plug their ears from the doomsdayers are often mocked and ridiculed for being somewhat arrogant in thinking Sentai will last forever, but I say it's Toei that's the arrogant party in half-assing shows and thinking everyone's gonna lick up whatever they serve. And with Toei favoring Kamen Rider and turning that franchise into the Swiss Army Knife of toku, Sentai's certainly...not even given the back seat, but put in the trunk of the car, with only a couple of holes for air drilled in.

"Shougo, the quality of the shows is highly subjective!" I disagree, but that's not what I want to point out. Disregarding rumors and doomsdayers, I've felt like the franchise has been on thin ice. But what really gave me pause and made me say "Oh, shit" was Hasbro buying out Power Rangers. What Bandai sold throughout the world through Power Rangers was a HUGE chunk of the revenue Super Sentai earned. Bandai, the longtime backbone of the franchise -- nearly all of these shows -- out of the picture, bought out by a rival! So, when that happened, I felt like that was just a horrible blow to the franchise, that its days were numbered. My feeling is that it will limp to the 45th anniversary series and go out on that.

So, when Ryusoulger started, and the doomsdayers were so adamant that the franchise was riding on it, I wanted to give it a fair shake. Unlike the past few shows that I'd get bored by and the episodes would pile up, I really wanted to keep up with it as it aired. If my favorite toku franchise was that close to death, I wanted to at least try to watch it as close to "real time" as I could. And I did manage to be pretty successful in keeping up with it each week, only being held up when I had problems with downloads.

I really wanted to give Ryusoulger a chance, but...I've hated it from pretty much the first episode. And it's been a constant hate. There's not one episode that I was like "OK, that was at least cool or interesting or funny." Not ONE. SINGLE. GOOD. WORTHWHILE. EPISODE. From top to bottom, Toei could not make it any clearer that they just don't give a shit and aren't trying AT ALL with the show. It's not even just basic or generic or by-the-numbers. It has absolutely nothing going for it, nothing to hang your hat on. NOTHING. There is no "there" there. Some of my less favorite shows or the weaker entries, I can at least look at and think "Well, there WAS potential for that to be better, but they zigged instead of zagged and/or just didn't care." Ryusoulger never showed a single spark of potential.

I often will try to watch a new toku and think of the shows that impacted me growing up. I'll think how I ended up, years after they went off the air, still thinking about a show or rewatching it or spending a gross amount of money on a piece of its merchandise on Yahoo Japan. And so I'll step back and scrutinize a newer show, I'll try to think if there's anything in a newer show to inspire such devotion in a kid. Hey, maybe Patranger could inspire a kid to be a cop. Maybe Kyuranger was their gateway to sci-fi. Maybe Ninninger's goofiness charmed a kid and they'll remember it with SOME fondness. Maybe they wanted to travel on the Rainbow Line and will still think of ToQger as they swipe their train pass. But there's just nothing I can see a kid going on to like about Ryusoulger. Even the adult fans are trying way too hard to pretend like there's something there, and you know damn well everything they've bought is going to be listed for sale within a month of the show's finale. "Ugh, why'd I buy this crap?"

The show can't even be bothered to try to come up with any kind of lore. It's literally no more than "bad guys once came from space and they're here and again and you dino knights must fight them." The heroes are all together, have a place to live and a doofy sidekick and everything worked out by episode 3 and the show is just, literally, the most boiled down nothing of a "plot" -- bad guys roam city, heroes show up, time for funny dance credits. That's IT. Nothing happens, nothing new occurs in the show. Well, you have the obligatory "hero 'earns' new toy weapon" in every damn episode, but it makes no differences -- it's all used in the same way and forgotten by the next episode or, at the very least, until it's a super very tough bad guy who they have to use all of their toys against before getting a new toy to beat that bad guy and until next time! *sigh*

The show doesn't even attempt to provide a history for the villains until it's two episodes before the finale! And what it does come up with, it thinks is some kind of mind-blowing, deep twist, but it's something that's been seen in toku countless times and, even worse, doesn't even really jibe with the shaky house of cards this show was "building." It's the kind of thing that would be the backstory printed on the packaging of the toys early on, when they were accidentally basing it off of ancient, unused ideas from the working stages.

A show offering so little, you at least hope there will be engaging cast members, cool designs, awesome fight scenes -- SOMEthing, right? Well, Ryusoulger doesn't think so.

The cast...

Koh sucks. The show mistakenly thinks he's interesting and devotes nearly everything to him, but he has zip personality and actor Hayate Ichinose is TERRIBLE. You know, when I watched the first episode, I thought he really stunk as the "gosh, gee, aw shucks" perpetual kid, but by the time Master Tuxedo Kamen bit it and he became all business, I thought "Ah! Well, if the character was meant to be innocent, but had to grow up quick, and will be kinda angry, then it doesn't matter he couldn't pull off the one side, he was cast to play the other." But, nope, Koh instantly forgets about the death of his mentor and all that, and the show just forces him into the role of Opie and...it just doesn't work. Ichinose stinks, with just two modes of acting -- forcing a huge, exaggerated, goofy grin to his face -- seeming like the T-800 when he's trying to learn to smile -- and making a stank face when "angry."

Koh's meant to be the innocent, trusting, hopeful happy kid of the team, but the show's so damned lazy in its inconsistency that it can't even remember that, later on forcing in some backstory about how Koh was a combative jerk when he was a kid, and it just doesn't make sense with how the show tried to present him. And even then...Koh and his teammates just don't have much in the personality department, so Koh doesn't have anything going behind his nice guy act. They really want him to be like Alata, but Alata had the youthful and kind-seeming Yuudai Chiba to make his childish and pure angelic character take off. For most of Ryusoulger, I didn't want to blame the cast members -- they're really not being given much of anything to work with beyond an archetype. But Goseiger didn't exactly have depth, and Chiba didn't start that show as a strong performer, but he managed to do a lot with a similar character in a similarly lazy production, so a certain amount of blame needs to be put on Ichinose, because I DO think he's the worst one in the show. The others would be fine given better material. Ichinose is really just as much of a dead-eyed zero as Goggle Five's Ryouji Akagi, nobody's favorite Red. I think I would have rather had Tyramigo be Red, which wouldn't make sense but be an improvement, and when Shougo's pushing for a suit over an actual actor, you know there's a problem.

Sentai focusing too much on Red has long been a complaint by viewers. Not me, because Red's the star, no matter who on the show might be designated the leader, or a better character, or a better actor or whatever. But I'll complain here, because of how sucky Koh is, and the way the show mistakenly thinks he's interesting to the point where it feels like the show couldn't care less about ANYone else in it. So many episodes are dedicated to Koh while the rest of the cast are just watching him from the sidelines -- so many times where it's up to only Red to have a mecha fight while the others play cheerleader from the ground. No matter how much a Red of a previous Sentai hogged the spotlight, I've never felt like a Sentai could get by with just Red. But you could cut all of the other team members from Ryusoulger and easily have the same show. Kingoo sucked and was an attention hog, but the show still pretended like the other members mattered. Not Ryusoulger -- it's happy to turn its characters into being fellow viewers of the Koh Show.

Melto was my favorite of the show from the beginning, and I think actor Keito Tsuna is the only one who seems like he wants to be in the show. Everyone else acts like it's a contractual obligation or a stepping stone, but Tsuna's trying, and Melto's the only one to me who seems more like a living, breathing character, even though he's stuck with that stupid wig and is relegated to just solving the day's dilemma and barking out the solution. He's the requisite all-business guy, but he can do comedy, and the comedy comes from his awkwardness at being put into goofy situations when it's not his style, so it works better than just the random horse hockey the show will force upon the others.

Asuna...I liked the idea of her being a bit of a stubborn blockhead who was unaware of her strength, but all that went out of the window for the sake of her just being a foodie who everyone needed to remind you was cute. That's about it with her. She just stands in the background making goofy, pouty faces and talks about wanting to eat. She also gets stupider with each episode. Great character.

I could never like Towa based on how horribly he started the series. He was really a sick son of a bitch, too damn eager to kill people in order to stop the monster attack before it got started. But once he joined the team he was supposed to be the innocent and caring youngster and get the hell out of here.

Bamba doesn't come close to being the cool guy they think he is. The biggest problem is actor Tatsuya Kishida, who's awkward and who you can tell is just one of those geeks who became a meathead, like Mike Tyson, Lou Ferrigno or Rosie O'Donnell. He's not tough, he's not cool. He just looks downward and scowls. And, again, he just has no character. He makes Bouken Black seem like the cool, complicated Condor-type he was supposed to be. These characters have nothing going for them and no internal life. The actors are just flapping around with their heads chopped off and if anyone on the production gave a shit, they would have guided them.

A lot of people seem to hate Kanalo, but I find him to be one of the lesser offensive sixth heroes in a while. His shtick is repetitive, but he's at least not too obnoxious about it. It's easy to picture a cartoonier, more obnoxious way to play this type of character, but actor Katsumi Hyodo is surprisingly toned down. (I'm tired of gold and silver sixth heroes, though.) And along with Kanalo came Oto, who made such an impact because the character and actress, Sora Tamaki, are so energetic and full of life that she causes the biggest sign of life on the hero side of things. (No wonder she takes a liking to Melto, the most lively of the heroes.) Too bad her character's so pointless, though...

Nada was another sign of life, but they brought him on far too late and wrote him off far too early. Because, OMG, you can't have anybody who's interesting and lively there to take the spotlight off of boring Koh, even though that's a job so easy that plastic Tyramigo does it whenever he shares an episode with him. Even though Nada could be a bit of a pest, actor Seiya Osada still made him likable, and he really reminded of some of the action actors of old, like a Keiichi Wada. Too bad Toei wasn't trying to make their Space Sheriff TNG movies now, because I think Osada would have been a great new Gavan, a more worthy successor to Kenji Ohba than the awkward, terrible, charisma-free Yuuma Ishigaki. (I blame the failure of those movies entirely on the casting of the three Space Sheriffs.) Maybe, though, maybe if they finally get around to doing another Space Squad and bring in Fire as they hinted... I really like Winspector and Kagawa, and it's basically all because of what a cool, fun, decent guy Masaru Yamashita is. He'd be a tough act to follow, but I think Osada could do it.

Ui and her dad are completely useless, I don't know why the show even bothers with them. (I do like the actor who plays Ui's dad, but he deserved more than the show's ever given him.) They're just there to give the Ryusoulger a hangout, but that could have been done with just about anything, like gratuitous Ultraman Jack's random eateries. As characters, it's not like Gingaman, where Yuuta was their connection to modern civilization, or Goseiger, where Nozomu was Alata's mirror and a connection to humanity. There's no connection between the characters. The show's such a haphazard mess that they decide to have a storyline where a monster is born from Ui land at about episode three, when it was wayyyyyyyyyyyy too early for them to have bonded with her to care. Not that the show ever ends up writing anything sufficient enough to make that scenario soar. Likewise, the show waits far too long to have episodes about Koh distrusting Tyramigo. And again: Ultraman Jack just randomly shows up whenever the show feels like it, without rhyme or reason. Where the hell was everyone's attention during the making of this show?! It's so unplanned, and not in a good "let's keep things spontaneous way," but in a lazy-ass, extremely careless and unprofessional way.

I don't even want to talk about the bad guys, do I have to? Kreon was fun for a minute, but quickly became tiresome. The regular generals are all useless, more fugily-designed blobs of color brought to you by Masato Hisa, all wasting good voice-actors for characters that are flatter than the heroes. I like the idea of the monsters of the week being created from humans, but this show is just so lazy that it never wants to bother writing an interesting scenario around that. (The show not only fails as basic superhero entertainment of good guy versus bad guy, but also in delivering any kind of simple moralistic episode. See, for example, the episode about the teen girl race car driver who had to learn the lesson of, I dunno, not pressuring herself to become the world's best race car driver or something? See the shit this show doles out? And ask yourself this: how many times have you tuned in to NASCAR and seen a Japanese teenage girl driving one of the cars? What the hell is this?!)

The creation of the Minusaurs and the Ryusoul Masters are the only slightly good ideas this show has, and both are squandered. Especially the Masters, who were mostly all stupidly killed in the first episode, so they return as ghostly visions or whatever, and who are brought into an episode by consultation of coin tosses.

There's so many times watching this show that I felt like I was watching a knock-off Super Sentai show, or like when there's a show or movie about a character who likes toku, and the production of that show will go and shoot their own mock toku because they don't want to clear rights for footage from a real show. Ryusoulger is something like Gransazer or Zyushowan. (Actually, since this is the Koh Show, it's more like Radioactive Sentai Alexthunder, the one-man Sentai show seen in Zebraman.) And Toei should be ashamed that the 43rd entry in their 45-year-old franchise looks like an amateur hour imitator. And not only was Toei's heart not in it, but the staff. So much was made about Kazuya Kamihoriuchi being the show's director and, while he provided a nice shot now and then, it's obvious he didn't want to be moved from precious old Kamen Rider to lowly old Super Sentai, so he was just there for a paycheck.

And a bigger deal was made out of the show getting Junpei Yamaoka as writer. It's sad that, for years, I've wanted Toei to go back to getting someone from a drama background, not just an anime background, as main writer. But Yamaoka wasn't the one, he wasn't up to task. I think he's too young and just doesn't seem like he even knows what a Super Sentai should be like. He comes across to me more like one of those people who are kind of snobbily dismissive like "Oh, I know what those shows are like, that's an easy gig," when, no, it's difficult to write a good Super Sentai, and you need to put in the effort and you've gotta be prepared for the crazy year-long schedule it takes to write one. Ryusoulger couldn't be any more unplanned. I just don't think he cared. You can watch the show and realize that in its emptiness.

It's just so disheartening to know that the franchise is in jeopardy and Toei sends in this listless, unambitious, bar-lowering show to try and save the day. I would always just sit, aghast, while watching it. It doesn't even aim for the bare minimum, it's just a complete and total waste of time -- it's not even entertaining by any definition of the word. It's the only Super Sentai entry I probably would never recommend to anyone. Skip it, you won't miss out on ANYthing, it's a total waste of time. It really is the franchise's rock bottom. From how absolutely nothing it is to the way it needed to pull out all of the stops for the sake of the franchise...it's a failure. There's nowhere to go but up, but do you really think Kiramager is going to save the day? No. By bringing in fan favorite creative people, it might seem a little better than Ryusoulger, but *scoff* that's not a tall order, now is it? If Ninninger aired now, people would be more accepting of it. Super Sentai is unique. In the glut of superhero entertainment in this day and age, it needs to be doing more to wow you, not less -- not less than less. And it would be nice if Toei would put in the effort to remind people that Super Sentai is special, and not to be taken for granted. But not even they believe in it anymore.

Saying all that...I don't really know where to rank it on my list of Sentai Rankings. For just how nothing it is, what little it accomplishes, I'd like to rank it dead last. I hate to say it, but Kyoryuger at least has more of a pulse to it than Ryusoulger. But Kyoryuger is still just so damned obnoxious and cringe-inducing that it fought really, really hard to earn its spot as the worst show. So, Ryusoulger, enjoy beating Kyoryuger, but still being worse and somehow putting in even less of a zero effort than that freaking running-in-circles Kyuranger. (Kyuranger failed, but at least pretended to have a story so it could run in circles. There's no running, jogging or even limping in circles for Ryusoulger -- nothing happens in the damn show! It doesn't even *pretend* to have a storyline or lore or stakes. You can watch episode one and then episode forty-eight and not miss a thing!) For a show about soul, it ain't got one. Just when you think it can't get any more pointless and lazy than Zyuohger...

I still remember being halfway through the first episode and being like "Hopefully Toei's going to slap up a banner that's like 'Just kidding! This isn't your new show for the year, just a trick. It's really going to be more of Super Sentai Saikyou Battle!'" And that would explain the no effort behind the production and the generic nothingness. (But, seriously, imagine how fun a full series of Saikyou Battle would have been instead.)

And it sucks that...for years, I've suggested the suffix "soldier" as an alternative for Super Sentai. With dorky Power Rangers putting me off of "ranger," I always thought soldier would be a cool sounding substitute. "Timesoldier," for example. It wouldn't be that difficult, it would just be so-ru-jaa. A lot of people have disagreed with me, saying it wouldn't "sound good" to the Japanese or be too complicated or whatever. But here comes Ryusoulger -- "soldier" is obviously not what they intended, even as a pun, but it's written the same way. And this show sucking so bad probably blows a chance of "soldier" ever being used. Same thing with "busters," although no big loss there, because it was beyond dumb. "Busters," pfft.

How did Abaranger manage to escape the Curse of the Dino Sentai? All of the other dinosaur-related Sentai shows are fucking abysmal.