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Surprise! The Ryuki reviews actually aren't done, after 5 years. But now, it should be. In addition to the special and movie, Ryuki also put out a Hyper Battle Video—a direct-to-video crack piece usually produced as a tie-in to Televi-kun magazine in Japan, and they are a Heisei Era staple. They generally don't have the best production values, including a canonically cardboard weapon in the Decade one, but they're supposed to be fun little things that typically help sell new toys, particularly in the Neo-Heisei Era. They've gotten more complex over the years, from Kuuga using theirs as yet another recap episode, to the "choose your own ending" style for a lot of them, and even creating a mini-continuity within themselves. Also putting Makoto Hikawa of Agito in silly hats. But Ryuki is one of the earlier ones, where they didn't care so much about putting out a good product as much as they did having fun. As it is, the video quality isn't great, even in the BluRay release—more on that in a minute—the Ryuki suit is falling apart in the groin, and they don't even bother to get the actual actor who played Agito, Toshiki Kashu, when that clearly didn't stop them for Episode Final.
I'd always wanted to do this review, but I didn't have much to work off of. I'd used TV-Nihon's subs for Ryuki, and they didn't have the HBV, believing that it had only been released on VHS format—yeah, how about that to make you feel like a dinosaur? Midnight Crew Subs did have access to that tape and subbed it, but as you can expect, the footage was horrible. TVN is planning a Blu-Ray scrub of Ryuki thanks to the new set, and the HBV was included, but this project is definitively on the backburner, so I doubted I'd see it any time soon.
Fortunately, when I reviewed the "Power to Tearer" music video from Fourze Fansub, providing my own English translation from their Spanish, I saw that they'd subbed Ryuki as well. And lo and behold, I found Ryuki vs. Kamen Rider Agito a couple of months ago. Again, I'm only 40-50% proficient in the language, but it's about a 10 minute video, and I didn't have to look up all that much. Plus, let's be fair: If given a translation of "Kitaoka-san," the most logical choice and the one he himself would prefer is "Señor Kitaoka."
And honestly, when you get down to it? Crack is a universal language.
We open with a real Monster mash, with them all swarming around and led by a red-eyed Kamen Rider Agito Burning Form (voiced by Koji Yusa, according to Rider Wiki), who urges the Riders to come to the Miracle World, where they will meet their doom. Yes, good old Agito. Happy, smiling Agito. Ready to go, count zero, Kamen Rider Agito. That guy. That's what I think of here, yep.
It's after-hours at ORE Journal, where Shinji is asleep at his desk. Deciding that three walls are good enough that the fourth isn't needed, he wakes up and apologizes to us because he thought we were Chief Okubo coming to yell at him. Instead of doing his actual work, he's been compiling a reference list of the thirteen Riders. Because it's 2002 and I guess Rider Wiki wasn't invented yet. But then again, knowing all of the timeline fuzziness with this season, who can tell?
He hears the Mirror World and forgets all about his wiki and the broken fourth wall, running off to transform and rush into the mirror, but he's surprised when the Ride Shooter doesn't appear. He makes his way to the prerequisite abandoned warehouse, where he's immediately mobbed by the Monsters. Fortunately, shots ring out and save him...it's Zolda! And then Knight attacking with his swords! And Ouja, who kicks another Monster and poses!
Yeah. Asakura. That guy.
Ren apologizes to Shinji for them all being late, which might well be the first time he's ever apologized for anything. Señor Kitaoka (because it's in my head and I have to call him as such) asks if he's okay, and Asakura insists they've got his back. Shinji responds in exactly the way he should, asking why they're acting so weird and hold up, Asakura, you're a bad guy! Asakura doesn't know what he's talking about and asks if he's forgotten their mission: to protect humanity, freedom, and world peace. And then they pose like they're Super Sentai.
They charge into battle, and Shinji just has the best reaction ever: slowly turning around and STARING.
As he watches them fight the Monsters, still not catching on that he missed his Mirror World for Spock's, Shinji decides not to bother figuring it out and just go in there and fight. Because maybe it's just that this is the real world and his is the Mirror Universe where everyone's an asshole. They're gaining the upper hand when suddenly fire rains down on them, and Agito appears, telling them they will turn to ash here in the Miracle World. Shinji's confused, but the others confirm that they are indeed from the Miracle World, not the Mirror World, and Agito is the despotic ruler of that world. Agito, for his part, tells them to burn in hell before lobbing a fireball at them. This throws them to the ground, but before he can attack again, they are saved...by the real Kamen Rider Agito, in Ground Form (voiced by Seiji Takaiwa, appropriately enough).
Real Agito explains to a still-very-confused Shinji that Burning Agito is an illusion of him, created by the Miracle World...his Evil Kirk, so to speak. They're technically the same person, but also not. Burning Agito doesn't take kindly to being called a fake, and Ren tells him that he will be the one to burn in hell. Señor Kitaoka asks the others what they think they should do, and Asakura says it's clear: to protect humanity and the Earth, twirling around for emphasis.
I could watch that all day. Some folks get goatees in the Mirror Universe. Some get sexier costumes. Asakura gets a magical girl twirl.
Now that they actually have enough colors to be a Sentai team, they have another pose.
And charge into battle, with the Agitos focused on each other. Everyone else manages to defeat their monsters, but when Shinji sees Agito struggling with his doppelganger and tries to Final Vent him, but it doesn't finish the job. Agito tells him that they need to join powers and prepares his Rider Kick, his emblem of a golden dragon appearing below him. Shinji follows his movements and generates his own golden dragon, Dragreder's emblem, and the two leap into the air with a Double Rider Kick that destroys Burning Agito. The others vow to fight alongside Shinji and join their powers together to protect human freedom because they are friends and they all love being around him...
...And we see Shinji face-down at the Atori counter, asleep in front of his computer. The real Ren has finally had enough of his snoring and sleep-talking and hits him to wake him up. Turns out Shinji was working on his wiki there and fell asleep. But Shinji is still half-asleep and believes the dream to be reality, talking about him and Ren being friends forever. And this actually gets Ren to crack a smile.
Mind you, this is not one of the "I'm touched" smiles we so rarely get from Eiji and Ankh in OOO. Because Ren immediately asks him, "Why would you think we're friends?"
But Ren so rarely smiles in canon—he's got subtle expressions, but happiness is certainly not one of them. This is him cracking up—it's the funniest thing he's ever heard.
In his two-minute appearance, he smiles more than he does across fifty episodes, and that's amazing.
Shinji tries to ask where Asakura and Señor Kitaoka are, but Ren points out why the hell would they'd be there. Shinji tries to bring up all the nice stuff they said about him, and Ren sarcastically says that yes, they did all get together and say that...except that they said the exact opposite, how they can't stand being around him. Shinji's finally starting to get a clue and starts aggressively shoving Agito's henshin pose in Ren's face, but Ren changes the subject and asks if Shinji's done with the wiki yet. Shinji admits not yet, but he'll finish it at some point. Ren, of course, starts an argument and says that he shouldn't say he's going to do something if he doesn't plan on finishing it. Shinji insists he will, but Ren doubts it. So Shinji decides to ask Ren to join powers with him, just to finish the wiki at least. Ren grins and says, "You really are an idiot, aren't you?"
And all is right with the world. Shinji gets mad and clumsy and spills his tea all over his hand and the counter, and points out they're friends, which Ren says they're not, and Shinji fails to persuade him otherwise. We close with the opening theme of "Alive A life" sung to a montage of moments from the series, which basically show that no, they're not friends at all.
Surprise! The Ryuki reviews actually aren't done, after 5 years. But now, it should be. In addition to the special and movie, Ryuki also put out a Hyper Battle Video—a direct-to-video crack piece usually produced as a tie-in to Televi-kun magazine in Japan, and they are a Heisei Era staple. They generally don't have the best production values, including a canonically cardboard weapon in the Decade one, but they're supposed to be fun little things that typically help sell new toys, particularly in the Neo-Heisei Era. They've gotten more complex over the years, from Kuuga using theirs as yet another recap episode, to the "choose your own ending" style for a lot of them, and even creating a mini-continuity within themselves. Also putting Makoto Hikawa of Agito in silly hats. But Ryuki is one of the earlier ones, where they didn't care so much about putting out a good product as much as they did having fun. As it is, the video quality isn't great, even in the BluRay release—more on that in a minute—the Ryuki suit is falling apart in the groin, and they don't even bother to get the actual actor who played Agito, Toshiki Kashu, when that clearly didn't stop them for Episode Final.
I'd always wanted to do this review, but I didn't have much to work off of. I'd used TV-Nihon's subs for Ryuki, and they didn't have the HBV, believing that it had only been released on VHS format—yeah, how about that to make you feel like a dinosaur? Midnight Crew Subs did have access to that tape and subbed it, but as you can expect, the footage was horrible. TVN is planning a Blu-Ray scrub of Ryuki thanks to the new set, and the HBV was included, but this project is definitively on the backburner, so I doubted I'd see it any time soon.
Fortunately, when I reviewed the "Power to Tearer" music video from Fourze Fansub, providing my own English translation from their Spanish, I saw that they'd subbed Ryuki as well. And lo and behold, I found Ryuki vs. Kamen Rider Agito a couple of months ago. Again, I'm only 40-50% proficient in the language, but it's about a 10 minute video, and I didn't have to look up all that much. Plus, let's be fair: If given a translation of "Kitaoka-san," the most logical choice and the one he himself would prefer is "Señor Kitaoka."
And honestly, when you get down to it? Crack is a universal language.
We open with a real Monster mash, with them all swarming around and led by a red-eyed Kamen Rider Agito Burning Form (voiced by Koji Yusa, according to Rider Wiki), who urges the Riders to come to the Miracle World, where they will meet their doom. Yes, good old Agito. Happy, smiling Agito. Ready to go, count zero, Kamen Rider Agito. That guy. That's what I think of here, yep.
It's after-hours at ORE Journal, where Shinji is asleep at his desk. Deciding that three walls are good enough that the fourth isn't needed, he wakes up and apologizes to us because he thought we were Chief Okubo coming to yell at him. Instead of doing his actual work, he's been compiling a reference list of the thirteen Riders. Because it's 2002 and I guess Rider Wiki wasn't invented yet. But then again, knowing all of the timeline fuzziness with this season, who can tell?
He hears the Mirror World and forgets all about his wiki and the broken fourth wall, running off to transform and rush into the mirror, but he's surprised when the Ride Shooter doesn't appear. He makes his way to the prerequisite abandoned warehouse, where he's immediately mobbed by the Monsters. Fortunately, shots ring out and save him...it's Zolda! And then Knight attacking with his swords! And Ouja, who kicks another Monster and poses!
Yeah. Asakura. That guy.
Ren apologizes to Shinji for them all being late, which might well be the first time he's ever apologized for anything. Señor Kitaoka (because it's in my head and I have to call him as such) asks if he's okay, and Asakura insists they've got his back. Shinji responds in exactly the way he should, asking why they're acting so weird and hold up, Asakura, you're a bad guy! Asakura doesn't know what he's talking about and asks if he's forgotten their mission: to protect humanity, freedom, and world peace. And then they pose like they're Super Sentai.
They charge into battle, and Shinji just has the best reaction ever: slowly turning around and STARING.
As he watches them fight the Monsters, still not catching on that he missed his Mirror World for Spock's, Shinji decides not to bother figuring it out and just go in there and fight. Because maybe it's just that this is the real world and his is the Mirror Universe where everyone's an asshole. They're gaining the upper hand when suddenly fire rains down on them, and Agito appears, telling them they will turn to ash here in the Miracle World. Shinji's confused, but the others confirm that they are indeed from the Miracle World, not the Mirror World, and Agito is the despotic ruler of that world. Agito, for his part, tells them to burn in hell before lobbing a fireball at them. This throws them to the ground, but before he can attack again, they are saved...by the real Kamen Rider Agito, in Ground Form (voiced by Seiji Takaiwa, appropriately enough).
Real Agito explains to a still-very-confused Shinji that Burning Agito is an illusion of him, created by the Miracle World...his Evil Kirk, so to speak. They're technically the same person, but also not. Burning Agito doesn't take kindly to being called a fake, and Ren tells him that he will be the one to burn in hell. Señor Kitaoka asks the others what they think they should do, and Asakura says it's clear: to protect humanity and the Earth, twirling around for emphasis.
I could watch that all day. Some folks get goatees in the Mirror Universe. Some get sexier costumes. Asakura gets a magical girl twirl.
Now that they actually have enough colors to be a Sentai team, they have another pose.
And charge into battle, with the Agitos focused on each other. Everyone else manages to defeat their monsters, but when Shinji sees Agito struggling with his doppelganger and tries to Final Vent him, but it doesn't finish the job. Agito tells him that they need to join powers and prepares his Rider Kick, his emblem of a golden dragon appearing below him. Shinji follows his movements and generates his own golden dragon, Dragreder's emblem, and the two leap into the air with a Double Rider Kick that destroys Burning Agito. The others vow to fight alongside Shinji and join their powers together to protect human freedom because they are friends and they all love being around him...
...And we see Shinji face-down at the Atori counter, asleep in front of his computer. The real Ren has finally had enough of his snoring and sleep-talking and hits him to wake him up. Turns out Shinji was working on his wiki there and fell asleep. But Shinji is still half-asleep and believes the dream to be reality, talking about him and Ren being friends forever. And this actually gets Ren to crack a smile.
Mind you, this is not one of the "I'm touched" smiles we so rarely get from Eiji and Ankh in OOO. Because Ren immediately asks him, "Why would you think we're friends?"
But Ren so rarely smiles in canon—he's got subtle expressions, but happiness is certainly not one of them. This is him cracking up—it's the funniest thing he's ever heard.
In his two-minute appearance, he smiles more than he does across fifty episodes, and that's amazing.
Shinji tries to ask where Asakura and Señor Kitaoka are, but Ren points out why the hell would they'd be there. Shinji tries to bring up all the nice stuff they said about him, and Ren sarcastically says that yes, they did all get together and say that...except that they said the exact opposite, how they can't stand being around him. Shinji's finally starting to get a clue and starts aggressively shoving Agito's henshin pose in Ren's face, but Ren changes the subject and asks if Shinji's done with the wiki yet. Shinji admits not yet, but he'll finish it at some point. Ren, of course, starts an argument and says that he shouldn't say he's going to do something if he doesn't plan on finishing it. Shinji insists he will, but Ren doubts it. So Shinji decides to ask Ren to join powers with him, just to finish the wiki at least. Ren grins and says, "You really are an idiot, aren't you?"
And all is right with the world. Shinji gets mad and clumsy and spills his tea all over his hand and the counter, and points out they're friends, which Ren says they're not, and Shinji fails to persuade him otherwise. We close with the opening theme of "Alive A life" sung to a montage of moments from the series, which basically show that no, they're not friends at all.