Kamen Rider Ryuki Review

Kamen Rider Ryuki

Kamen Rider is an odd beast. It started in 1971 as an odd but completely enjoyable show. It followed the adventures of a motor biker who was turned into a cyborg for an evil organization bent on destroying the world. He broke out before they could finish the brain washing and decided to fight against the evil origination, known as Shocker, and their legion of monsters. This was the basic consensus for about every rider until 1989, where every rider was mechanically changed somehow, ever villain was part of some sort of organization (mostly), and all the riders existed within the same continuity. Then Kamen Rider went into a type of hiatus, where they stopped making new Kamen Rider series until 1999, not counting the three movies they made in the 90’s. The new series was Kuuga, a new take on the age old battles as it were. Kuuga wasn’t some half-robot freak, he was all human, with a strange and ancient belt that allowed him to transform and fight monsters. From Kuuga on we were given a new Kamen Rider series every year, making this years entry the 13th Kamen Rider series of the new age. One of those series is the topic of today’s talk, a strange and surprisingly dark series that deconstructs the rider genre, and really takes you for a twist with every episode. But I might be getting a bit ahead of myself. This is Kamen Rider Ryuki.

Say Cheese!

 Kamen Rider Ryuki, shortened to Ryuki for obvious purposes, is the third entry of the Heisei era of Kamen Rider. (Heisei era is every series post Kamen Rider Black RX, and Showa era is every series pre Black RX.) Ryuki follows the story of Kido Shinji, also known as Kamen Rider Ryuki,  a reporter for a small time paper that is investigating a string of disappearances when he stumbles his way into the Rider War. All of a sudden Shinji is fighting monsters, and other Riders, inside of a strange parallel universe called Mirror World, where he must fight to survive. Shinji wants to stop the fighting between the riders, and defend the unknowing populace from the growing monster threat. But that’s not completely right. Ryuki is really about a dark and serious badass who is called Ren Akiyama, also known as Kamen Rider Knight. He fights the monsters, but he wants to be the winner of the Rider War. You see, the winner gets a special prize, one wish. By defeating all the other Riders, the winner will be able to get his hearts desire. And Ren wants that prize. He has some to save. But that’s not the right answer either. Ryuki is REALLY about a lawyer named Kitaoka Shuichi, a man who calls himself super lawyer. He fights to win the prize also, wishing for immortality to enjoy all the delights in the world. But even that’s not fully right.

What I'm saying is that there are a lot of characters.

Ryuki is the one Rider series that has the most individual riders in it, not counting Kamen Rider Decade, because Decade only has more on account of it crossing over with all the previous series.  Counting the movies, because they are continuity in the oddest way possible, there are a total of 15 individual riders going around and kicking things in the face.  Each of these riders have their own story and are characterized very well, though there were a few hit or miss ones in the mess.  Because of all these riders and all of the non transforming characters that Ryuki has, it is won of the more story oriented rider series. Now this isn’t saying all the other rider series are lacking in plot. Quite the contrary, each series has its own story with its own nuances and intricacies, Ryuki just has more. And this is actually one of the faults of this series.

So. Many. Riders.

Ryuki has too much story. Each character is going on a personal journey, and having to fight for what they believe in. and when I say every character, I mean every single character has some sort of character growth, or a story involving solely them, or something. It makes the series feel cramped, and actually detracts form the shows main hero. Shinji, the titular rider, is never really given the spotlight I feel he deserves. I think Shinji should have gotten more growth as a character. This isn’t saying he became a stagnated character who didn’t learn anything through his own personal journey, but I feel if the show focused more on him, and less on the 14 other riders populating the show, the character would have turned out better. Really, when I was saying how the story is really about X character, I was being completely honest.

The show is also old. When watching older Kamen Rider series, you really get a sense of how far technology has advanced, especially in filming. While I think the series looks perfectly fine, it does look just a bit dated, if only because of film quality. I don’t think they perfected how to film people in vehicles until Kamen Rider Kabuto, and that was at least 4 years later. While someone like me thinks it looks fine, I can understand others not liking  the series based solely on the film quality. What is done very well are the fight scenes. Kamen Rider’s specialty is fight scenes, and Ryuki does not disappoint. Every rider is given an individual fighting style, individual weapons and original special abilities. The fght scenes are interesting and very fluid. And it has something everyone should love. Rider on rider battle action. A six person rider on rider brawl is something that should put a smile on anyone’s face. And I would be remised if I did not mention this, Ryuki is the first rider season with both an evil rider, and technically the first female rider. I say technically because the first female rider to me will always be Tackle from Kamen Rider Stronger, but it really is a matter of opinion.

Epic pose time.

Kamen rider Ryuki is a good series all in all. It is much darker then other rider series, but that is one of the reasons I like it so much. I would recommend it for anyone who likes involving story lines, interesting characters, and really good fighting. If it is too old for you, that’s cool, you may still like some of the other rider series out there. Ryuki is not my favorite Kamen Rider series, that honor goes to Kamen Rider Faiz currently, but Ryuki is very good, and I hope you like it too. So, until next time, have fun watching.