Kamen Rider Ryuki - Talkback

[Lynxara]

Just because you can rationalize a story beat doesn't mean it's good.

Sure, the ending of Ryuki was meant to be bittersweet. Too bad the execution rendered it completely stupid.

The ending would need to be substantially rewritten to remove all the stupid bits, too.

 

[Darkster]

I must resist...

 

[Sage Shinigami]

QFT. The people who hate Ryuki's ending don't get its significance and how bittersweet it is.

....No....they get it...they just think it's stupid. Rightfully so. I watched it and didn't even care, because of how poorly written everything had been.

I must resist...

What happens? You spray that and it auto-bans you?

 

[Midori Ken]

You could have had Ren win, save Eri and either live on and show the epilogue from his point of view; or have him die (It was never clear in that final scene) and then keep telling the story from Daisuke's point of view.

I get your point...but who the hell is Daisuke?

 

[Black Fang]

Daisuke Okubo, Shinji's boss.

 

[Midori Ken]

If that was the case, I think it would have been better told through Reiko's point of view. She was the closest to discovering the truth, if I remember correctly.

 

[Darkster]

She was very suspicious about the whole thing and she did see the mirror monsters, so I agree that Reiko is the better choice. I think the end was very good. I also like the alternate ending from the movie. The special was more like Choice 1: You're screwed, Choice 2: "You're screwed more."

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

I could never understand why people would like the movie's ending over the one the series gave us. I remember watching the movie for the first time years ago and thinking "...that's it?" by the end of it because not a whole lot actually made sense to me. The TV series ending is...well I don't mind it because it gives the characters the chance to live their lives normally, but it does marginalize a lot of the struggles they went through.

 

[wyyc]

A message that could just as well have been portrayed without erasing everything that happened. You could have had Ren win, save Eri and either live on and show the epilogue from his point of view; or have him die (It was never clear in that final scene) and then keep telling the story from Daisuke's point of view.

The point is you could have had that bittersweet ending without resorting to making everything that happened in the last 49 episodes virtually irrelevant. Using Time Vent in a battle or something like that is one thing, but in the way they did it, there's no stopping Kanzaki from just it using whenever he felt like it.

Yeah, but to me the 49 episodes were important because they finally showed that Kanzaki learnt how fruitless the Rider War was. The movie and special implied that the reset is not new; Kanzaki has done that many times because each time his sister did not get revived, but he was unable to learn his lesson and to stop sacrificing the Riders to achieve his aims. The TV series finally made him learn that lesson, making him use Time Vent one final time to reset everything. Also, the Mirror World was a supernatural force imposed on the real world, in a way upsetting its balance, and for it to be removed to restore the real world back to its original form was quite satisfying for me.

I suspect the writer knew how controversial the ending would be, which is why she chose it. One thing about it is that it forces viewers to question Kanzaki's decision. Was that the best thing to do? After all, he does deny Kitaoka the chance to save himself from cancer and Ren the chance to save Eri. Also, while it is good to reset the War and remove the animosity existing between all 13 Riders, Kanzaki also removed something really important - Ren and Shinji's initially shaky but eventually strong friendship. I think the poignancy of that loss is best expressed in the final scene, where Ren and Shinji lock eyes, feel a sense of deja vu but fail to remember what they've been through together. And yet, we know that if the Rider War were not reset, Shinji would remain dead. Hence, was the Rider War reset the right thing in the end? I like that the writer leaves that up to us for interpretation.

I'm not attempting to justify Ryuki's ending, and I can see why some fans hate its execution. I initially went WTF when I watched it, but eventually grew to like it a lot more than most Rider show endings. It was more thought-provoking; Ryuki never really had a genuine villian or final boss, where everything would be solved by beating the bastard and restoring the world to balance and everyone would live happily ever after. Yet it didn't leave a ton of unanswered questions like dear Faiz and Decade, nor were the questions it asked us stupid, like the ones present in Decade (man, Decade was entertaining, but the degree of suspension of thought it required to enjoy the show was too much). While Ryuki had its flaws, I feel that it was something very enjoyable, and I appreciate that it made me think and feel more than other Rider shows, perhaps except Kuuga and Double.

Daisuke Okubo, Shinji's boss.

Woah. I totally forgot about that guy.

 

[Aoiblue]

Editor-in-chief is how I usually in remember him xD