Thoughts on Ryuki 18-23, a day late
Sep. 20th, 2009 07:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gekidasa☆ I don't like Asakura. At all. :D
Granted, I will obviously admit that a lot of this is due to the fact that he has a huge grudge against Kitaoka and wants him dead.
☆ Kitaoka continues to amuse and intrigue me. It's so TYPICAL that the reason he doesn't even hesitate to go the restaurant to be excahnged for the prisoners is not that he cares for their well-being, but that it will help his public image. orz
I also kind of loved how once he decided the whole thing had devolved into a chaotic senseless melee, he just went "I don't like messy fights", pulled out his FinalVent and... blew it all up. SEXY!
☆ On the other hand, he's not ENTIRELY without feelings. He WAS worried about Goro-chan. I think that for Kitaoka NOT going when Asakura told him to come to him because he had Goro-chan was actually because he believes in Goro-chan's ability to get himself out of it. In a way, not going would have cheapened that... although obviously he almost did go.
☆ Kitaoka's absolutely glee that Reiko came to visit him was awesome. Manh0r.
☆ Switching to someone else, Shinji's character is really being explored and coming through now, isn't it? He's not longer the mostly happy dork who gets himself in trouble and sticks his nose in where it doesn't belong. Now we've seen him get mad, we've seen what he finds unforgivable, and it adds a whole new dimension.
☆ I also like the effect that being told what Ren is fighting for had. I like that he questions whether he has actually has a right to stop the fighting. He has something he believes is right, but he also has the ability to see that making his ideals reality can only come at the expense of others' ideals. And I like that he questions whether he has the right to push HIS worldview (i.e., fighting is BAD, we must all stop!) onto others.
☆ I also love how the conclusion he came to was that all he could do was offer to fight Ren and give it all he's got, and to assume or share Ren's burden. It's the kind of thing that you can't really explain in words, but it's all about the brofist and understanding between nakama and it's EXACTLY what I love most about Kamen Rider.
☆ Speaking of which... Ren. It was an interesting journey for him. First, the fact that, because of his own failure to finish Shibaura, he thought that Asakura's ruthlessness was the ideal way for a Rider to be. Then of course the fact that he wanted Asakura to defeat/kill Shinji because Shinji (along with everyone else) HAS to be defeated inorder for Ren to win, but he needs someone else to do it because he respects and likes Shinji, so HE can't do it. And how finally it was Shinji's willingness to face him in battle and go all out that got to him, and how when he contrasted Asakura's dirty way of fighting with Shinji's... honor is the only word, he HAD to step in. Bros for life. Even if they have to kill each other in the end.
☆ I'm also still kind of quietly shipping Ren/Yui. For record, I don't necessarily think anything has happened/will happen between them, but I think it's obvious, after the scene where he goes to talk to her in her bedroom, that they care about each other on a level beyond friendship.
☆ The other thing I was thinking about is how usually Ryuki is compared to Highlander for the whole THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE thing. Obviously it's a totally valid comparison, but the more I watch the more I start comparing the Riders' battle with the Duelists in Utena. In many ways I think it's a much more appropriate comparison than Highlander.
Now, Ryuki is obviously NOTHING like Utena, as far as style or mindfuck level or tone or anything like that. But the Riders' battle itself is pretty much the same setup as the Duels for the Rose Bride, except you die if you lose a duel, and there's no Rose Bride to win as symbol. But:
1. It's all an intricate game set up by someone that is manipulating the players into participating by using their issues and desires and fears, who has his own secret reasons and things to gain from seeing this game play out.
2. The participants, even when they ARE aware of the manipulation, willingly go along with it all for the promise of the prize they will receive if they win: the "power to revolutionize the world", the power to work a miracle, most intriguingly to ME for obvious reasons... something eternal. Reaching, knowing, obtaining eternity.
3. Finally, the hero is someone apparently naive and innocent who doesn't quite understand what's at stake from the others' PoV, but who believes that the game itself is senseless, and wants to stop it. Having been sucked into it by chance, the only way to stop it is to participate and see it through to the end.
Granted, I will obviously admit that a lot of this is due to the fact that he has a huge grudge against Kitaoka and wants him dead.
☆ Kitaoka continues to amuse and intrigue me. It's so TYPICAL that the reason he doesn't even hesitate to go the restaurant to be excahnged for the prisoners is not that he cares for their well-being, but that it will help his public image. orz
I also kind of loved how once he decided the whole thing had devolved into a chaotic senseless melee, he just went "I don't like messy fights", pulled out his FinalVent and... blew it all up. SEXY!
☆ On the other hand, he's not ENTIRELY without feelings. He WAS worried about Goro-chan. I think that for Kitaoka NOT going when Asakura told him to come to him because he had Goro-chan was actually because he believes in Goro-chan's ability to get himself out of it. In a way, not going would have cheapened that... although obviously he almost did go.
☆ Kitaoka's absolutely glee that Reiko came to visit him was awesome. Manh0r.
☆ Switching to someone else, Shinji's character is really being explored and coming through now, isn't it? He's not longer the mostly happy dork who gets himself in trouble and sticks his nose in where it doesn't belong. Now we've seen him get mad, we've seen what he finds unforgivable, and it adds a whole new dimension.
☆ I also like the effect that being told what Ren is fighting for had. I like that he questions whether he has actually has a right to stop the fighting. He has something he believes is right, but he also has the ability to see that making his ideals reality can only come at the expense of others' ideals. And I like that he questions whether he has the right to push HIS worldview (i.e., fighting is BAD, we must all stop!) onto others.
☆ I also love how the conclusion he came to was that all he could do was offer to fight Ren and give it all he's got, and to assume or share Ren's burden. It's the kind of thing that you can't really explain in words, but it's all about the brofist and understanding between nakama and it's EXACTLY what I love most about Kamen Rider.
☆ Speaking of which... Ren. It was an interesting journey for him. First, the fact that, because of his own failure to finish Shibaura, he thought that Asakura's ruthlessness was the ideal way for a Rider to be. Then of course the fact that he wanted Asakura to defeat/kill Shinji because Shinji (along with everyone else) HAS to be defeated inorder for Ren to win, but he needs someone else to do it because he respects and likes Shinji, so HE can't do it. And how finally it was Shinji's willingness to face him in battle and go all out that got to him, and how when he contrasted Asakura's dirty way of fighting with Shinji's... honor is the only word, he HAD to step in. Bros for life. Even if they have to kill each other in the end.
☆ I'm also still kind of quietly shipping Ren/Yui. For record, I don't necessarily think anything has happened/will happen between them, but I think it's obvious, after the scene where he goes to talk to her in her bedroom, that they care about each other on a level beyond friendship.
☆ The other thing I was thinking about is how usually Ryuki is compared to Highlander for the whole THERE CAN BE ONLY ONE thing. Obviously it's a totally valid comparison, but the more I watch the more I start comparing the Riders' battle with the Duelists in Utena. In many ways I think it's a much more appropriate comparison than Highlander.
Now, Ryuki is obviously NOTHING like Utena, as far as style or mindfuck level or tone or anything like that. But the Riders' battle itself is pretty much the same setup as the Duels for the Rose Bride, except you die if you lose a duel, and there's no Rose Bride to win as symbol. But:
1. It's all an intricate game set up by someone that is manipulating the players into participating by using their issues and desires and fears, who has his own secret reasons and things to gain from seeing this game play out.
2. The participants, even when they ARE aware of the manipulation, willingly go along with it all for the promise of the prize they will receive if they win: the "power to revolutionize the world", the power to work a miracle, most intriguingly to ME for obvious reasons... something eternal. Reaching, knowing, obtaining eternity.
3. Finally, the hero is someone apparently naive and innocent who doesn't quite understand what's at stake from the others' PoV, but who believes that the game itself is senseless, and wants to stop it. Having been sucked into it by chance, the only way to stop it is to participate and see it through to the end.
