Shin's Blog of Random Thoughts

Quick Primer: Kamen Rider is a behemoth of Japanese pop culture. Been ongoing for, like, 50 years. Live-action, focus on heroes who transform into a superpowered form and fight guys in rubber suits monsters. Since the early 2000s, it's broadly been one series per year, and starting in 2002 with Ryuki, they tend to be fairly disconnected, not unlike how Final Fantasy games are.

Ryuki's main writer is Yasuko Kobayashi, whose filmography (especially as a main writer) is Fucking Insane. Like, I know a lot of being a lead writer on anime adaptations is in adapting a source material but man. So anyway. You will note as mentioned above that Ryuki aired in 2002 (February until the following January). This is, to put it lightly, extremely relevant to the themes of Ryuki as an exploration of heroism, sacrifice, idealism and the like. It also massively influenced a lot of subsequent works tackling those themes, as... Anyone who has heard me talk about my media interests will realise as soon as I outline the premise.

Kamen Rider Ryuki is about Shinji Kido, an intern for an online newspaper, who finds himself embroiled in a war between thirteen Kamen Riders who, empowered by their connection to the dangerous Mirror World and the monsters therein, are battling to claim a chance to have their wish granted. His closest allies are:

Ren Akiyama, a fellow Kamen Rider who is a jaded tsundere who keeps helping Shinji despite his vocal exasperation and insistence that he has no intentions of holding back when they have to fight

and Yui Kanzaki, a spirited girl trying to find her brother Shiro and who finds in her investigations that both of them are deeply interwoven in the deeper mechanisms behind the Rider War

Shinji's coworkers at ORE Journal also play a major role, especially his Intrepid Reporter coworker Reiko, and often they're the source of some of the wackiest and funniest moments. You see, Ryuki is both an incredibly goofy show for literal children AND a thoughtful & heartwrenching meditation on the ways people justify the violence they inflict on others for selfish AND altruistic reasons, and it manages to make that tone actually work.

Shinji is, honestly, probably actually my favourite character in the show despite it being a STACKED ensemble piece. He's a compelling hero: an absentminded (to put it lightly) goofball who believes that talking to each other and working together is better than fighting to the death because some guy said to, and even as he has this idealistic viewpoint constantly shaken, he still clings to it with a bloodying grip. His chemistry with the other characters is fantastic -- and indeed, this show absolutely doesn't skimp on deeply compelling chemistry and dynamics between characters. Put any two characters in a room and something fun is likely to fall out -- and the show frequently revels in doing just that!

I suppose I will give the caveat that this is a show from 2002 primarly aimed at young boys, so there is a distinct lack of any of the Kamen Riders being women. I find the female characters compelling in their own right, and they don't feel superfluous to the show, but a lot of the focus does land on the male characters.

With that said, it's definitely well worth your time. Even on its own merits it's a fantastic work, clocking in at about 19 hours total. As I alluded to, it has had a massive impact on a lot of subsequent works, either directly or indirectly. The Fate/Stay Night (first released in 2004) comparisons are unavoidable, and every single work that has taken inspiration from Puella Magi Madoka Magica owes lineage to it (Gen Urobuchi's Ryuki influences are well-documented, especially his love of its resident snakeskin-jacketed antagonistic bastard Takeshi Asakura as a wildcard who appears midway through to completely derail the status quo). Whether directly or through her documented ties to Fate/, Natsuko Ishikawa's writing in FFXIV also echoes a lot of Ryuki's heart, with its bloodied and battered and fervent idealism, so I am gripping every Shadowbringers fan by the shoulders here.

So that's Kamen Rider Ryuki, one of my favourite shows ever made, and you should go watch it!