Kamen Rider Impressions, Part 6: Kamen Rider Ryuki and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight

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Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002-2003) Episode 1 “The Secret Story’s Birth”

I approached Kamen Rider Ryuki with caution and suspense, as this was the Rider I was most familiar with—in a way. Kamen Rider Ryuki was later Americanized into the Emmy-award winning Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, which became a huge favorite of mine. I have such warm memories watching the entire series with my younger brother, and I still adore the theme song and some of the character work. In other words, unlike with 1995’s Masked Rider, which I rather despised and thus seeing the Japanese version was almost guaranteed to be a step up, here I was going in with a ton of nostalgia and ardor for the version I had seen in my younger years. Could I say with confidence I would enjoy the original more?

Well… Ryuki has a lot of interesting things going on. The conceit moves away from the Kuuga/Agito universe, and instead the world has mysterious warriors and monsters moving through a reflected world in the mirrors (like Alice through the Looking Glass) and attacking (or defending) people in the physical world. Main character Shinji Kido works for a sleazy news agency, but he is a newb and VERY stupid. As Kido blunders around trying to look into a series of missing person cases, he finds a strange card-device that gives him the ability to see the monsters in the mirror realm. Soon he is pulled in to a fight with a CGI spider, and a mysterious bat-themed Rider saves his hinder. In the second episode, we learn that the animal-themed monsters in the mirror world are hunting and eating people—and that the Riders can contract with them, binding themselves permanently to their chosen monster other, and gaining extra powers and weapons—which can then be summoned by special cards the Rider inserts into a machine built for the purpose. If a Rider defeats and destroys a monster (or another Rider!), they gain strength from their opponent, becoming stronger themselves—kind of like Jet Li in The One. But by the end of the second episode, we still don’t know why this bizarre system of power one-upmanship exists, or why these creatures are attacking humans.

Ryuki takes noticeable attention to dynamic camera angles and more reliance on computer graphics for special effects, with some neat sequences showing the differences between the mirror realm and the real world. From go the show features several Riders while maintaining an all new and emotionally effective air of mystery and intrigue, as we don’t know what is going on, who the heroes are, who the villains might be. The spider and bat themes show up again, but they aren’t as predictable as previous incarnations; the bat man is a Rider! However, Kido and his news agency are obnoxious, and Kido even has a dopey theme song ala Bulk and Skull from Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers. The acting, too, tends to be stilted, with overall poor delivery—though I could say the same about previous Rider shows. I haven’t watched Dragon Knight recently, so it will be interesting to take a peek at that show one more time and see how it stacks up against its progenitor next (see below).

Also, it must be said, I think, as cool as the cards are, they also feel like a really unfortunate concession to the toy aisle. Card games increasingly became popular in the early 2000s, so incorporating some card system probably felt essential to success, and a lucrative way to create merch and monetize, monetize, monetize. Unfortunately, card gimmicks (and the like) like this would proliferate in the Kamen Rider and Ultraman franchises both and become more and more common in the coming years.

For me, Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (an Americanized adaptation of Kamen Rider Ryuki released several years later) for many years represented peak Kamen Rider. I was already in my twenties when the show came out, but was still very into tokusatsu of whatever shape I could get my hands on, and though I was wary of Americanized versions of tokusatsu media (since they tend to simplify narratives at best, and present chopped-up incoherent garbage at worst), when I watched Dragon Knight with my little brother, I fell in love. Compared to other tokusatsu programming in the West, Dragon Knight had a much more mature tone, dealing with death and complex character motivations and situations. Unlike many tokusatsu in the West, it also had a fully serialized story instead of an episodic structure. It also has truly impressive fight choreography, especially from Matt Mullins, a martial artist/performer who provides electrifying combat sequences that are far better than anything in the first couple episodes in the original Ryuki—the fights and stunts were so good, they won the show a Daytime Emmy for best stuntwork, which was the first award of its kind ever given.

Heck, even watching the show now, I still felt a tingle of excitement jitter up my spine from the fancy bootwork on display. Mullins is a bulky, tall, muscular chunk of cool who can dance in the air as he rocks the spandex and rubber off enemy monsters.

The story of the first two episodes in many ways improves on the already intriguing premise from Ryuki. Replacing dumbhead hero Kido is Kit Taylor, eighteen-year-old foster-kid and screw-up whose father has disappeared… but continues to communicate with him through a series of visions. Kit is resourceful and kind, but deeply troubled, and far more sympathetic and interesting than Kido. When he is tossed out on his tush upon turning 18 by his foster parents, he returns to his dad’s old home and finds a strange device—an advent deck that allows him to see strange robotic monsters that emerge from a mirror realm. Soon he is pulled into the fight alongside a Terminator-esque warrior who can transform into a bat-themed Kamen Rider, and this hero tries to warn Kit away from using the deck to become a Rider himself. However, Kit listens to his ghostly father’s words and uses the deck to make a contract with a dragon that follows him through the mirrors, changing into Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, and by the end of the second episode he is throwing fists with a third antagonistic crab-themed Rider and more goons.

Just like Ryuki, Dragon Knight possesses a fantastic sense of mystery and danger. Instead of the monsters eating people, the focus of the danger is more on Riders “venting” one another in knock-down, drag-out fisticuffs. The low-rent news service from Ryuki is replaced by a young lady working on supernatural news in her spare time who discovers Kit and befriends him—the supporting characters are not the strongest point of the show with some cringe-worthy jokes and acting, but they are far from the worst the genre has to offer. Dragon Knight also sometimes doesn’t tie together sequences from the original with new scenes filmed for Dragon Knight so well, as the seams occasionally show a bit, and the abbreviated combat sequences taken from Ryuki can feel more rushed and less coherent. Even with that said, though, Dragon Knight excels with stylish new transformations and maybe the best tokusatsu theme song ever devised (outside of the original Power Rangers jam)—I love singing along to Cage9’s stellar triumphant vocals and screaming guitars. Man… I love this show.

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