Like it or not, there will always be a couple of failed experiments. The Kamen Rider series has been known for some of its struggles. The Showa era of Kamen Rider has been full of gaps in some seasons. After Kamen Rider Stronger in 1975 - fans had to wait for 1979 for the "reboot" which is now dubbed as Kamen Rider Skyrider since the show was just released as The New Kamen Rider. It wasn't a real reboot since it just linked back to all the seasons. Maybe, one can never forget how Kamen Rider BLACK RX caused the 11-years-hiatus between 1989 (when it ended) and only TV movies were launched. The Heisei era finally did its work. I believe that the Metal Hero franchise was canceled in favor of Kamen Rider. I feel that the Metal Heroes' legacy still continues in the form of Kamen Rider. Metallic-looking suits came to Kamen Rider. We had first two shows that were a hit. The third, however, may be questionable. That show is Kamen Rider Ryuki.
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD!
Some say that a "Writer War" happened between Yasuko Kobayashi and Toshiki Inoue. I don't think that's the case since Inoue also wrote episodes in Mirai Sentai Timeranger and Kobayashi wrote an episode in Kamen Rider Agito. More likely, Kobayashi and Inoue were having a war with the producers. Yeah, you know SHINICHIRO SHIRAKURA. Though, it seems Shirakura had a war with the higher-ups. I think Shirakura was the man who green-lighted the way Gai Yuki died in Chojin Sentai Jetman.
Ryuki would be a very ambitious concept. It wasn't going to feature many monsters of the week. Instead, we have both good and evil Kamen Riders fighting for the top spot. The concept of a real evil Kamen Rider was done first with Shadow Moon in Kamen Rider BLACK. I guess fans loved the guy so much that the concept was further re-explored into Ryuki. Though, Ryuki was going to create its own version of Saint Sword Bilgenia with Takeshi Asakura aka Kamen Rider Ouja. Ouja is another popular villain that somehow, we just love to hate the guy. Maybe, we'd say Ouja truly deserves to be a breaking character in the shows since he's got the HIGHEST KILL COUNT.
How ambitious was Ryuki? It seemed to embody almost all of the Kobayashi and Inoue tropes. Bodies of water? Check! Douchebag characters? Check! Serious atmosphere? Check! Villains you'd be scared to death facing? Check! The huge body count? Check! The show had some really depressing moments. Some of them have to be the death of characters who thought the Rider War was meaningless. I felt the deaths of certain characters just added impact after impact. Seeing Shinji, Renn, and Shuichi develop into friends, seeking to find a way outside of the sole survivor wish was fun. It was also sad to see how Shiro Kanzaki started a battle - all for the sake of his sister Yui's SURVIVAL.
I felt the rather daring direction Ryuki had was rather unwelcome. I did a rewatch of Kamen Rider Gaim - a show I believe corrected almost everything wrong about Ryuki. Granted, Ryuki was trying to be as dark as possible. I guess the emotionally draining side of Ryuki made it also hard to watch Faiz. Both series were directly succeeding each other. The finale arc felt it like this - it's too obvious that everyone was supposed to die. Seeing Shinji die was a daring move. Now, Renn was the sole survivor. It's really that hard to watch Renn accepting that Shinji (who he detests) is now a friend. Shuichi did die of cancer. It was fun to see Takeshi finally get gunned down by the police.
Then it happened - the GREAT RESET. I always felt Kobayashi had to edit out her scripts as requested. Shinji dying, seeing Reen struggle at his last breath, etc. felt like everything was going to end with NOBODY winning the war. However, it felt that Shiro's decision to reset everything was just stupid. It doesn't sound like anything Kobayashi would want, Sure, Kobayashi, like Inoue, tend not to give their all in their finales. I felt that Timeranger's finale leaves much to be desired. I still feel that Faiz's finale was anything but good. Though, Inoue was too proud of himself to make a cameo. Every character development is tossed out of the window. Eventually, a mini-series that involved both Kamen Rider Zi-O and Kamen Rider Ryuki got created after the tribute episode.
Though, there's more than the tenth anniversary of Ryuki that caused me to write this. I guess I'm not enjoying Kamen Rider Revice as much either. Though, it's because of the upcoming Kamen Rider Geats' plot. The cast reveal is still on Sunday. Yet, I felt compelled to write this one right now. Geats will have another Battle Royale to which is called the Desire Grand Prix. It would be interesting to see how Geats will hopefully improve on Gaim's concept. Though, as said, Toei Ltd. needs to stop being so Japanese-exclusive (and Power Rangers also needs to stop going downhill especially how it's joined the SJW idiocy now). Then again, I still think Ryuki, like Kamen Rider BLACK RX, is a failed experiment to learn from.
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