I watched another 10 episodes of Kamen Rider Ryuki, which means it's time to catalogue some thoughts about it.
We've pretty firmly established the status quo by now. The main villainous force at this point is still Asakura, and the more I see of this guy, the more I come to understand why he is one of the most enduringly popular characters in the whole Kamen Rider canon. There is just this raw magnetism and charisma to his character, and Takashi Hagino's performance just makes the character so much more effective at demanding your attention. I use this kind of impersonal, academic language to describe this performance because I don't want to admit that the way Asakura tells people he's going to kill them with that sly smile makes me feel things.
Anyway, with the status quo being firmly established, this particular set of episodes only worked on further developing its characters and their relationships - a lot more focus has been given to Shuichi Kitaoka, to the point where he's basically become a regular member of the "main gang", as it were. We're also beginning to see his health issues really come into effect, and that's surely going to be the payoff for the tragedy behind this character that the show has clearly been hinting at.
Tragedy is, of course, the name of the game, since this batch of episodes is also where we're treated to the incredibly emotional demise of Miyuki Tezuka. I'll be honest, this moment did hit, but not as hard as I think it wanted to. It's still, of course, a defining moment for Shinji and Tezuka, and even for Ren, since it debuted his Survive Form.
Actually, speaking of, I think that this season's "final form" being called "Survive" is a really interesting bit of characterisation for Shiro and of the Rider War as a whole. Something about the power inherent to the Survive cards being attached to "survival" rather than "victory" seems like a subtle aspect of Shiro's manipulation of the Riders.
That said, there was also a whole bunch of exposition about the Kanzaki siblings and the nature of the Mirror World. Not much has been actually concretely established (I imagine the show is saving the best for last at this point), but it's also hinting at something very deeply tragic about Yui and Shiro both. There's enough intrigue about what exactly is going on, but you also can't help but wonder what Shiro's endgame is.
...
I'll be honest, I'm shocked I managed to write this many words about this batch of episodes. It's all fantastic, don't get me wrong, but a lot of it seems to be setting up things that will pay off in the last 20 episodes or so. Truth be told, I really only expected to talk about one episode - episode 28.
It's fucking perfect. Brilliant, brilliant episode.
In the first one of these, I talked about the show's commitment to an almost horror-esque tone, and episode 28 really brought that back in full force for the majority of the episode. With the establishing of Kamen Rider Odin as the Big Chief Of Fucking Shit Up and his ability to literally rewind time, the resulting episode-long sequence of Shinji realising that he's constantly being sent back in time but not being able to remember the details for long enough to actually change anything about the course of events is low key fucking horrifying. There is this existential terror that you can see creeping up on Shinji's face every time he becomes cognisant of his situation
And it all pays off with one of the single hardest fucking moments in all of television.
"If you see golden feathers, punch behind you."
IT IS SIMPLY PEAK FUCKING FICTION. NO NOTES. NO FUCKING NOTES.
