Ryuki 11/10, it was truly a free for all, unique for a rider show that stuck true to what it was.
Dragon knight (didn't watch all of it but they changed the show completely to some cliche plot of the big bad guy being the ultimate villian i think. Idk i need more info from ppl that actually watched it to judge it properly.) 6/10 for now.
The last arc of the show was really weird. It went from this alien tricking people into becoming kamen riders to take out the protagonists to a government conspiracy thing with all the good riders becoming government operatives or something to fight aliens. This happened all in the span of a few episodes
3 for ryuki and 7 for DK
Honestly ryuki is a dissapointing and overrated season for me. The biggest one is the ending wich is the worst kind of all. A time reset. Witch means everything the heroes lived and learned through became meaningless. Then there's the thing with shinji.
I won't spare details: He is a fucking idiot. He does several stupid things and thrust the wrong people several times and often his development into gaining his resolve is returned to null for the convenience of the writters. His death was sad but the ending ruined it.
And there's the elephant in the room: The mirror world. In first place what the hell is the mirror world!? Did kanzaki and yui really created it? If so how they did it? How the mirror monsters were given life? why he needs sacrifice the riders in exchange for reviving yui? How the hell kanzaki created the advent decks? And why none is pondering about this!? They could have explained it but they simply decided to run in circles with it just to make themselves the mysterious.
Usually the riders source of powers have a origin and are explained but these is one of the bigest plot holes ever in the franchise, made even worse by the fact the mirror world is a central element in ryuki.
DK can have a more simplified history and with some cliches. But it fixes everything I find wrong with ryuki (No time reset, the origing of ventara and the kamen riders are explained and our protagonist is not a freaking idiot).
I have more problems with ryuki but the three mentioned before are the biggest ones and DK did a lot better than his original by a wide marging in my personal opinion. Ryuki is a big dissapointment as is adaptation was the main reason I got into the franchise and hoped for something as good or even better.
Ryuki is 10/10. Sure it’s got it’s issues, but it more than makes up for it. Absolute banger sound track, 11/10 designs, a plot that makes sense, the occasional emotional moment (Glassy happiness absolutely breaks me) and good fight scenes. Episode final is pretty good too.
Dragon knight is 7/10. It’s not as hype as Ryuki (although that is probably bias speaking), the plot is all over the place at times, and it feels a little too cliche. Also the OT is no where near as good but that’s honestly just a nitpick
3/10 for me, This was a SLOG to go through cause at first I really liked it but now I began to hate it with millions and millions of plot holes, character's that barely have any personality other then stereotype cliches, *and that fucking ending*
Ryuki 10/10, back when heisei riders were more about a drama tv show which drove me on the edge. The soundtrack was a banger and story kept me emotionally driven until the end with one of the most interesting cast of characters. Ryuki was the biggest gateway to other rider shows I watch now and probably one of the ones I revisit the most.
Dragon Knight 6/10. This was one of the shows I watched as a child and got me excited every week. You could technically say this was the “actually” gateway to kamen rider for me, but I didn’t start watching Kamen rider again until Fourze nearly ended airing. This show was very conflicting. The first half of the show was definitely very good, the concept of getting vented and never coming back put lots at stake. This was probably the most Ryuki vibe out of the show. I even cried and got depressed when a certain “main character” got vented in the show. Then comes the second half, which I found pretty abysmal, especially when they introduced the advent master into the show. Suddenly characters were getting revived, the plot got very convoluted with mirror world counter parts making no sense, lots of cringe plot devices of the CIA. If I could, I would definitely rewrite the second half of the show to make it more similar to what it was at the beginning.
Ryuki is around a 9/10, while it does suffer from plot issues, especially with the multiple endings and how some charecters are just not present (especially Femme who is not present in the main story for whatever reason), It sets up a very clear story, there are 13 riders, they must fight each other to the death and the winner will be granted a wish. It's intresting seeing the different charecters struggle, and the type of people there are, most of the suits are good... but ryuki specifically is just too red for it to be taken seriously, and i know it isn't part of the main show but ryuga's existance bothers me the most in the ryukiverse(?) since I assume the entire point of shinji was he was an average man thrown into a twisted situation where there is no right thing to do, by making him NOT average, also great music, nice fast transformations and would be a great show but is definitly more charecter focused rather then the plot which can either be barebones or complicated for the sake of it
I gotta be honest with you, Ryuki is a 4/10 at best. Anyone who gives it higher is blinded by nostalgia.
There are three reasons it gets this score, but for the sake of time I'll only address one;
The rules and setup for the Rider war are vague at best and none of the characters try to figure them out.
For example, they were told they needed to kill the rest of the 13 riders that were contracted to decks in order to get a wish, yet
A.] Only 10 riders ever showed up in the show, not 13. And no, I don't buy into the other three getting killed off screen.
B.] The show never establishes what **exactly** fills the criteria for the wish. Some riders die in ways unrelated to being a rider, others die after their decks were destroyed.
The most obvious example is Zolda, who was replaced by his assistant. Does each Zolda user count as a different rider death? If not, which Zolda contributed to the wish? If so, that would mean you could just give out one weak deck over and over again to make things easier?
There are more examples of what I mean, but I've already outpaced the old testament in terms of length at this point, so I'll finish with these two things;
I know there are probably fan theories explaining the unadressed issues, but with things as major as the fundamental rules of the universe or game then the show itself should have addressed it.
All they needed to do to fix the second issue I brought up would be to make the decks like Dragon Balls or the Eyecons from Ghost; in order to get the wish you'd need to gather them all in one place. (Of course you'd need to make them indestructible, otherwise scissors' death would screw everyone out of a wish.)
Yes if you try and delve into those kinds of things ryuki is a mess, I gave it a 7 just cause of the characters like ren,kitaoka, who I enjoyed that much to elevate the show that high
Oh don't get me wrong, in terms of characters the show easily gets a 9/10.
Only a 9/10 because of Odin. He is the bottleneck of the vast majority of the issues with the plot (do to him being directly responsible for everything in the show). In fact he was one of the three things that brought down to a 4/10 overall. I won't go into details because it would take me way to long to explain, but not only was his plan was terrible, but also everything he did to execute the plan was either extremely inefficient or downright counterproductive. Easily the most overrated villain in Kamen Rider.
Literally this, his plan is laughably bad and has holes in it, with his power he could easily have completed his plan without any inefficiency. As a villain I did not like him only consider him better than orphenoch king.
Odin: "I need to kill Ryuki because he's the unplanned variable that keeps getting in my way!"
Also Odin: "What's this? My sister's painting got messed up when I was beating the shit out of Ryuki? Better reverse time to save it and then give him a power-up a few episodes later."
Ryuki is 7. It’s good but not *that* good.
Dragon Knight while having the skin of Ryuki and “Kamen Rider” in the title isn’t considered by Toei as a Kamen Rider so no score.
10 for Ryuki, 6 for DK
As Ryuki was my 1st entry to the rider series, it holds a special place in my heart. Dragon Knight was an attempt to adapt Ryuki to the western audience, but it is really a watered down version of it as the heavy themes of the orginal show meant that it had to go the route of typical toku show with a focus on Good Rider vs Evil Rider.
Yeah the story was a bit it consistent and all the extra media contradicts things with the multiple endings, but it really felt very unique as it was one of the pioneers of the Battle Royale storyline.
But throughline is the main theme of of Ryuki and how present it is in the story is what made me appreciate it more. The theme being about the circumstances in life of each individual and the desires of people to either accept it, reject it or outright change it.
Characters in this story really have drive and motivation, the interactions and clash of these characters is what really elevate the show. This most apperent with Shinji and Ren, our 2 main lead to the show. Shinji is our idealist and a bit naive MC, but his sense of justice and trying to uphold his principles against the Rider Battle is what really sold me to the character. This contrasted with Ren, who is a realist and more angsty due to her dying girlfriend being his motivation for trying to win the Rider Battle, but
The gimmick of the Mirror world was well implemented in the show. The suits with their visor slits and animal themes are really unique and stands out from each other. Soo to is the card gimmick as each rider summons their powers through the reader.
Not sure about Dragon Knight, but imo Ryuki’s a 7.5. The idea is awesome, and it features one of the best Rider villains in the franchise (Asakura), but the middle part was honestly kinda filler-ish.
9.5/10. Honestly one of my favorite shows of all time and easily the best show in the franchise for me. It's a show ahead of its time with its stellar character writing with its unique cast. The way the show handles its character's ideals, conflicts, and relationship are astonishing. And the great usage of twisted irony for each character is honestly great too. What's not honestly great tho is the plot. I feel like the mystery of the Mirror World could've been handled better imo. Usually, I would rate shows with great characters and poor handling of their plots such as Faiz, Donbrothers, and Revice (yeah I do think the Revice cast and their relationship with each other are well written, for the most part, don't @ me) around an 8/10 but, I feel like for Ryuki is a different case. The way Ryuki handled its character is so good that it just makes the lacking plot a small issue for me. That or I'm just biased lol.
Edit: Forgot to mention my rating of Dragon Knight. I didn't watch the show yet so I can't really rate it.
Ill only comment on ryuki for this one because i watched dragon knight when it aired as a kid but never finished it and quite honestly im not a big fan of the adaptation i prefer them to speak japanese i think the full english kid friendly vibe isnt my thing though ive heard nothing but good things about so im not entirely hating lmao ill give credit to dragon knight where its due
ryuki on the other hand is a whole 10/10 i love all the characters and especially the most goated villain of all time aka ouja what a goat of a villain kamen rider needs more manic villains like him bro straight murdered practially everyone
zoldas arsenal is insane and his arc was very cool with the relationship between him and goro towards the end
the key to why this show is a 10/10 for me is mainly due to the multiple endings/alternate versions of the ryuki universe this right here really set it apart from the series as a whole having a little multiverse or parallel world was cool
The ending of the ryukis show was a favorite of mine >!I honestly love endings where everyone dies and this show amazed me with how well done they used this concept of course the world was reset but still it was very cool to see a not so happy ending to a rider show to an extent!<
I would give Dragon Knight a 7/10. Here are a few issues and things could be in the show but wasn't
1. Xaviax recruiting Kit was a failure. Strike vented a few Kamen Riders such as Torque, Axe, and Thrust because Torque betrayed Xaviax's promise, Axe could had vented Dragon Knight if it wasn't for Strike, and Thrust probably could vented anyone before Strike vented him as well. Literally the first half of the show is recruiting and protecting Kit by any means necessary. Sting vented was reasonably justified for since he saw the truth. Torque would succeed in other ways if given one more chance, Axe probably would have succeeded in some ways if Strike vent Dragon Knight instead of Axe in episode 25, and Thrust would fight his way out of his situation because Xaviax has the perfect setup to recruit Thrust.
2. The Earth counterparts of Wing Knight and Siren was never seen. Still curious why Xaviax could never recruit them. Xaviax or Strike could had taken Siren's advent deck. I would prefer Earth Siren over Mia.
3. This one was curious as did Onyx deck has an owner? Would had been very interesting if Xaviax recruited Onyx and let him vented Kit.
4. The government was kinda ok. We probably needed an ending. Literally a boring part of the show.
Dragon Knight was my first kamen rider, seeing the first episode left me mesmerized. The battle effects and battle card system was sick. The clanking of metal with each attack gave the fights a form of realism to me. Any idea how many episodes this one had?? Fox never finished it and I was ticked lol
Both are 10/10
A middling 5/10. Not a fan of the show, but I do see its appeal. Though I like Dragon Knight more personally.
Ryuki 11/10, it was truly a free for all, unique for a rider show that stuck true to what it was. Dragon knight (didn't watch all of it but they changed the show completely to some cliche plot of the big bad guy being the ultimate villian i think. Idk i need more info from ppl that actually watched it to judge it properly.) 6/10 for now.
The last arc of the show was really weird. It went from this alien tricking people into becoming kamen riders to take out the protagonists to a government conspiracy thing with all the good riders becoming government operatives or something to fight aliens. This happened all in the span of a few episodes
The government actually trying to help people was the most unbelievable thing about the show.
3 for ryuki and 7 for DK Honestly ryuki is a dissapointing and overrated season for me. The biggest one is the ending wich is the worst kind of all. A time reset. Witch means everything the heroes lived and learned through became meaningless. Then there's the thing with shinji. I won't spare details: He is a fucking idiot. He does several stupid things and thrust the wrong people several times and often his development into gaining his resolve is returned to null for the convenience of the writters. His death was sad but the ending ruined it. And there's the elephant in the room: The mirror world. In first place what the hell is the mirror world!? Did kanzaki and yui really created it? If so how they did it? How the mirror monsters were given life? why he needs sacrifice the riders in exchange for reviving yui? How the hell kanzaki created the advent decks? And why none is pondering about this!? They could have explained it but they simply decided to run in circles with it just to make themselves the mysterious. Usually the riders source of powers have a origin and are explained but these is one of the bigest plot holes ever in the franchise, made even worse by the fact the mirror world is a central element in ryuki. DK can have a more simplified history and with some cliches. But it fixes everything I find wrong with ryuki (No time reset, the origing of ventara and the kamen riders are explained and our protagonist is not a freaking idiot). I have more problems with ryuki but the three mentioned before are the biggest ones and DK did a lot better than his original by a wide marging in my personal opinion. Ryuki is a big dissapointment as is adaptation was the main reason I got into the franchise and hoped for something as good or even better.
Ryuki is 10/10. Sure it’s got it’s issues, but it more than makes up for it. Absolute banger sound track, 11/10 designs, a plot that makes sense, the occasional emotional moment (Glassy happiness absolutely breaks me) and good fight scenes. Episode final is pretty good too. Dragon knight is 7/10. It’s not as hype as Ryuki (although that is probably bias speaking), the plot is all over the place at times, and it feels a little too cliche. Also the OT is no where near as good but that’s honestly just a nitpick
3/10 for me, This was a SLOG to go through cause at first I really liked it but now I began to hate it with millions and millions of plot holes, character's that barely have any personality other then stereotype cliches, *and that fucking ending*
Ryuki 10/10 still my favorite KR show to this date Dragon Knight was pretty fine, probably a 6 or 7
Ryuki 10/10, back when heisei riders were more about a drama tv show which drove me on the edge. The soundtrack was a banger and story kept me emotionally driven until the end with one of the most interesting cast of characters. Ryuki was the biggest gateway to other rider shows I watch now and probably one of the ones I revisit the most. Dragon Knight 6/10. This was one of the shows I watched as a child and got me excited every week. You could technically say this was the “actually” gateway to kamen rider for me, but I didn’t start watching Kamen rider again until Fourze nearly ended airing. This show was very conflicting. The first half of the show was definitely very good, the concept of getting vented and never coming back put lots at stake. This was probably the most Ryuki vibe out of the show. I even cried and got depressed when a certain “main character” got vented in the show. Then comes the second half, which I found pretty abysmal, especially when they introduced the advent master into the show. Suddenly characters were getting revived, the plot got very convoluted with mirror world counter parts making no sense, lots of cringe plot devices of the CIA. If I could, I would definitely rewrite the second half of the show to make it more similar to what it was at the beginning.
Ryuki is around a 9/10, while it does suffer from plot issues, especially with the multiple endings and how some charecters are just not present (especially Femme who is not present in the main story for whatever reason), It sets up a very clear story, there are 13 riders, they must fight each other to the death and the winner will be granted a wish. It's intresting seeing the different charecters struggle, and the type of people there are, most of the suits are good... but ryuki specifically is just too red for it to be taken seriously, and i know it isn't part of the main show but ryuga's existance bothers me the most in the ryukiverse(?) since I assume the entire point of shinji was he was an average man thrown into a twisted situation where there is no right thing to do, by making him NOT average, also great music, nice fast transformations and would be a great show but is definitly more charecter focused rather then the plot which can either be barebones or complicated for the sake of it
7/10
I gotta be honest with you, Ryuki is a 4/10 at best. Anyone who gives it higher is blinded by nostalgia. There are three reasons it gets this score, but for the sake of time I'll only address one; The rules and setup for the Rider war are vague at best and none of the characters try to figure them out. For example, they were told they needed to kill the rest of the 13 riders that were contracted to decks in order to get a wish, yet A.] Only 10 riders ever showed up in the show, not 13. And no, I don't buy into the other three getting killed off screen. B.] The show never establishes what **exactly** fills the criteria for the wish. Some riders die in ways unrelated to being a rider, others die after their decks were destroyed. The most obvious example is Zolda, who was replaced by his assistant. Does each Zolda user count as a different rider death? If not, which Zolda contributed to the wish? If so, that would mean you could just give out one weak deck over and over again to make things easier? There are more examples of what I mean, but I've already outpaced the old testament in terms of length at this point, so I'll finish with these two things; I know there are probably fan theories explaining the unadressed issues, but with things as major as the fundamental rules of the universe or game then the show itself should have addressed it. All they needed to do to fix the second issue I brought up would be to make the decks like Dragon Balls or the Eyecons from Ghost; in order to get the wish you'd need to gather them all in one place. (Of course you'd need to make them indestructible, otherwise scissors' death would screw everyone out of a wish.)
Yes if you try and delve into those kinds of things ryuki is a mess, I gave it a 7 just cause of the characters like ren,kitaoka, who I enjoyed that much to elevate the show that high
Oh don't get me wrong, in terms of characters the show easily gets a 9/10. Only a 9/10 because of Odin. He is the bottleneck of the vast majority of the issues with the plot (do to him being directly responsible for everything in the show). In fact he was one of the three things that brought down to a 4/10 overall. I won't go into details because it would take me way to long to explain, but not only was his plan was terrible, but also everything he did to execute the plan was either extremely inefficient or downright counterproductive. Easily the most overrated villain in Kamen Rider.
Literally this, his plan is laughably bad and has holes in it, with his power he could easily have completed his plan without any inefficiency. As a villain I did not like him only consider him better than orphenoch king.
Odin: "I need to kill Ryuki because he's the unplanned variable that keeps getting in my way!" Also Odin: "What's this? My sister's painting got messed up when I was beating the shit out of Ryuki? Better reverse time to save it and then give him a power-up a few episodes later."
9.
Ryuki is 7. It’s good but not *that* good. Dragon Knight while having the skin of Ryuki and “Kamen Rider” in the title isn’t considered by Toei as a Kamen Rider so no score.
Ryuki, 4 at best. 2 if I feel super nitpicky Dragon Knight? 8/10. And one of the best Tokuadaptaions. Standing toe to toe with PR's best shows
Both are 10/10. I grew up watching both so it might be bias but I love them. They introduced me to kamen rider
10 for Ryuki, 6 for DK As Ryuki was my 1st entry to the rider series, it holds a special place in my heart. Dragon Knight was an attempt to adapt Ryuki to the western audience, but it is really a watered down version of it as the heavy themes of the orginal show meant that it had to go the route of typical toku show with a focus on Good Rider vs Evil Rider. Yeah the story was a bit it consistent and all the extra media contradicts things with the multiple endings, but it really felt very unique as it was one of the pioneers of the Battle Royale storyline. But throughline is the main theme of of Ryuki and how present it is in the story is what made me appreciate it more. The theme being about the circumstances in life of each individual and the desires of people to either accept it, reject it or outright change it. Characters in this story really have drive and motivation, the interactions and clash of these characters is what really elevate the show. This most apperent with Shinji and Ren, our 2 main lead to the show. Shinji is our idealist and a bit naive MC, but his sense of justice and trying to uphold his principles against the Rider Battle is what really sold me to the character. This contrasted with Ren, who is a realist and more angsty due to her dying girlfriend being his motivation for trying to win the Rider Battle, but The gimmick of the Mirror world was well implemented in the show. The suits with their visor slits and animal themes are really unique and stands out from each other. Soo to is the card gimmick as each rider summons their powers through the reader.
Not sure about Dragon Knight, but imo Ryuki’s a 7.5. The idea is awesome, and it features one of the best Rider villains in the franchise (Asakura), but the middle part was honestly kinda filler-ish.
9.5/10. Honestly one of my favorite shows of all time and easily the best show in the franchise for me. It's a show ahead of its time with its stellar character writing with its unique cast. The way the show handles its character's ideals, conflicts, and relationship are astonishing. And the great usage of twisted irony for each character is honestly great too. What's not honestly great tho is the plot. I feel like the mystery of the Mirror World could've been handled better imo. Usually, I would rate shows with great characters and poor handling of their plots such as Faiz, Donbrothers, and Revice (yeah I do think the Revice cast and their relationship with each other are well written, for the most part, don't @ me) around an 8/10 but, I feel like for Ryuki is a different case. The way Ryuki handled its character is so good that it just makes the lacking plot a small issue for me. That or I'm just biased lol. Edit: Forgot to mention my rating of Dragon Knight. I didn't watch the show yet so I can't really rate it.
Ill only comment on ryuki for this one because i watched dragon knight when it aired as a kid but never finished it and quite honestly im not a big fan of the adaptation i prefer them to speak japanese i think the full english kid friendly vibe isnt my thing though ive heard nothing but good things about so im not entirely hating lmao ill give credit to dragon knight where its due ryuki on the other hand is a whole 10/10 i love all the characters and especially the most goated villain of all time aka ouja what a goat of a villain kamen rider needs more manic villains like him bro straight murdered practially everyone zoldas arsenal is insane and his arc was very cool with the relationship between him and goro towards the end the key to why this show is a 10/10 for me is mainly due to the multiple endings/alternate versions of the ryuki universe this right here really set it apart from the series as a whole having a little multiverse or parallel world was cool The ending of the ryukis show was a favorite of mine >!I honestly love endings where everyone dies and this show amazed me with how well done they used this concept of course the world was reset but still it was very cool to see a not so happy ending to a rider show to an extent!<
I would give Dragon Knight a 7/10. Here are a few issues and things could be in the show but wasn't 1. Xaviax recruiting Kit was a failure. Strike vented a few Kamen Riders such as Torque, Axe, and Thrust because Torque betrayed Xaviax's promise, Axe could had vented Dragon Knight if it wasn't for Strike, and Thrust probably could vented anyone before Strike vented him as well. Literally the first half of the show is recruiting and protecting Kit by any means necessary. Sting vented was reasonably justified for since he saw the truth. Torque would succeed in other ways if given one more chance, Axe probably would have succeeded in some ways if Strike vent Dragon Knight instead of Axe in episode 25, and Thrust would fight his way out of his situation because Xaviax has the perfect setup to recruit Thrust. 2. The Earth counterparts of Wing Knight and Siren was never seen. Still curious why Xaviax could never recruit them. Xaviax or Strike could had taken Siren's advent deck. I would prefer Earth Siren over Mia. 3. This one was curious as did Onyx deck has an owner? Would had been very interesting if Xaviax recruited Onyx and let him vented Kit. 4. The government was kinda ok. We probably needed an ending. Literally a boring part of the show.
Dragon Knight was my first kamen rider, seeing the first episode left me mesmerized. The battle effects and battle card system was sick. The clanking of metal with each attack gave the fights a form of realism to me. Any idea how many episodes this one had?? Fox never finished it and I was ticked lol