That fight sequence is incredibly good! It doesn't have that same sense of unbridled nostalgia that the Hibiki finish had, but it still manages a HEY IT'S RYUKI SURVIVE or whatever, and it doesn't wear out its welcome with the approach. Guy shows up, finishing move, guy disappears. Short and sweet.

Final Forms for ancillary Riders... are any of them good? I think of most of them being steps down from the base suits, with a couple minor exceptions. What are some good Secondary/Tertiary Final Forms I'm forgetting about?

I think it's an inevitable thing. We All Process Art Differently, etc etc. Everyone's bringing their own life experiences to art, so they're bound to draw out one or two things that connect with them on a personal level. It's natural.

I'm not sure what this is referring to, sorry! Can you give me a little more of an explanation?

Yeah, him finally valuing the journey rather than the destination... it's a good note for the character!

Everything with advisor felt like it was going to be some clue that, like, Natsumi's memories were being altered or something. It was so unreal, that guy's attitude, that I thought it was setting up a twist. But then it didn't? It was just some teacher who gave them an A+ in Refusing To Follow Society's Rules But Then Deciding To Fit In On Your Own Terms? I would not have been shocked if that dude turned out to not even work for the school, he was just some weirdo who wanted to hang out with cool teenagers.

I was with you until you called out Snipe Level 50, aka The Suit That Made Me Start Watching Kamen Rider, as not as pure and beautiful and universal as Tajador or Ghost Mugen. Too far, Kurona! You crossed a line!

But, honestly, I get where you're coming from. When I complain about Decade Complete (or Fourze Cosmic States, my previous least-favorite suit), it's just personal preference. I don't think the suits are Bad, or even Ineffective. I just don't like looking at them. I'll joke around, but I'll glad acknowledge that every suit probably has a fan for every detractor. We all process suits differently!

what is it about a hot pink and fluorescent yellow-colored, bike shorts-wearing, spike-haired superhero design that you think takes courage to produce

I thought we were friends, and you just wound me like this. Hurtful. Hurtful words.

I feel like this two-parter is going to be something that informs my view of the series, while being a) nothing I'm going to remember the story of, and b) not one I'm rushing to revisit. Like, it manages to successfully evolve Tsukasa's character, establishing him as someone who is now traveling because that's his take on heroism instead of being cajoled or rewarded, while still doing it in a dull, diffused way. It's a story that works great if I talk about it thematically, but disappoints if I talk about it narratively.

INOUE FOREVER!

That is a positive outcome! Don't be shy about it!

You can't really be saying this in the same post you said survive, right? :p

https://news.tokunation.com/wp-conte...rvive%2001.jpg

I’ve always liked Complete form. Though now that we’ve gotten Complete 21 I can now finally call the original sleek and compact.

And also I just love the K-Touch activation sound it so satisfying to hear every single time. And it just makes me nostalgic for some reason

Wish the ideas of an alternate Natsumi, dark riders being a thing moreso than regular riders around here could've been explored, but oh well. Complete had a great debut, but I feel it's later uses were kinda meh. I still love the idea of the suit, though, even if it posed a problem in production.

Hey now, don't forget Kaixa's final form!

https://i.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/...75/352/cc9.jpg

If something is naturally predisposed to a certain act or state, doesn't mean it must be accepted conditionally or that they should never get objection. It's perfectly normal yeah for bringing own life experiences, but how you process and express that frustration is something else like what I said before about the difference between "I wasn’t a fan of <something> due to weird pacing, inconsistency...." and "<something> is terrible and people shouldn’t enjoy that, it contains everything people should hate....".

I mean about not being easy to support Toshiki Inoue.

Have to say I agree for this part I guess, this is meant to be a tribute to the Dark Riders, but they seem to be only focusing on their fights as Riders. Though of course the Dark Riders aren't the same as the original cast of their respective series, as per Decade, but probably yeah they can bring back the previous worlds (don't really know about what the worlds work other than potential destruction, so I'd feel more free to suggest something that isn't limited to the world's mechanics, which I even do if talking about series like Den-O or such) for those Riders. I think other than Inoue writing this, Otoya's return seems to be similar like adult Wataru's return at the first episode, but Otoya's return here is more faithful to his original character.... except that there are no stakes of him using Dark Kiva, he can use it as if it's a normal transformation trinket!

Tsukasa's not satisfied, but yeah would need to learn about what are his goals to understand what would make him satisfied. So far from what I get he was trying to save the 9 world due to Tsukasa being someone who lives there. But from the beginning, it seems that what makes Tsukasa frustrated is his photography skills, which he enjoys as a hobby, but the only thing that he sucks at despite his hypercompetency at anything else. Though there are people who really can't convey what they want if asked for. You'd think that Tsukasa likes travelling here, but there're also what I get is a contradicting view from others (CMIIW), like how Tsukasa is a generalist, being a collection of 9 preceding Riders all with their own identities and dreams for the future and that's part of why Tsukasa feels so ostracized and rejected by the world. He can't have a dream for the future cause he doesn't even have a present or a past he can cling to, being a passing through Kamen Rider, like a ghost who passes through his own life, without understanding his place or what he's supposed to do.

So if I'd take both views them it means Tsukasa always feels weird, and the travelling part only gives a sliver of hope to him. but doesn't mean he's fully happy doing that either. Though some of this would be also caused by his own bad traits, no way Tsukasa would accept that his photography skills suck or have himself learn from others due to his enormous ego, of acknowledging that he does have something he doesn't excel at. Still that I'd think there are no real restriction of Tsukasa's movement (probably just about how he can't go to the previous Rider worlds due to what Narutaki claims... but that's all of us! Only being on 1 Earth), so he still can travel, for self-discovery, and 1 Earth alone is more than just Hikari Studio. Though I'd also like to see how a jerk copes of being bored, because being jerk and being bored can be a deadly combination. He did have a jerk behavior, but not related to him being bored I guess, like draining Onodera's wallet. And too bad for Onodera, he cannot find any W for now, for him being only revealed 1 year after Decade ended.

It may be.. boring, but yeah being boring doesn't mean they deserve hell or such, which is just an extreme reaction to those people especially if they didn't doing anything wrong. Bringing this up because there's a hint of Tsukasa having that view, that sad people like the Dropout Club is not worth helping or such for being sad guys, and there are some who'd be baffled if a character can cherish a 'boring and average' person, seemingly giving an indication that if you're boring you don't deserve to live... Otherwise, this is probably a subjective view that it's primarily you rejecting flashbacks, where Tsukasa's dilemma is handled with what's your cup of tea. Though what I think is not really known is about how the group in this episode is mostly just about gathering together, without any, and probably I didn't think that there was any clear reason for Natsumi to want to join the group... other than at least Natsumi (for a gorgeous schoolgirl) isn't hostile to boys, as the club is filled with them mostly.

Ah, yes. The best Survive form (nothing against Ryuki's, but Knight had it made).

Of course, there's also Cross-Z Magma.

Attachment 61162

My personal favourite secondary final form goes to… someone I can’t talk about yet! So Knight Survive aside let me instead shout out Exceed Gills, Wild Chalice, Baron Lemon Energy, Sin Specter and Prime Rogue. A lot of these are minor adjustments but honestly sometimes that does just work really well!

I’m not sure it counts, but I absolutely love the G3-X suit. Also liked whatever Accel’s blue form was called.

Trial

Just... just look at the last year of threads! A lot of people intensely dislike Inoue's work on Kamen Rider, and even his most successful work comes with a bunch of caveats. Liking Inoue means having to constantly defend him, and that's work that most people - reasonable people - would prefer to avoid.

Feel fresh to gush about (I'm assuming) Vulcan's final form, 'cause it ain't like I'm gonna remember it in a year, and I won't have any context for it anyway. Consider this special dispensation to get into it.

I always do my best to defend Inoue whenever I think he deserves it!

If you're cool with that, then I'll mention that my favorite Secondary Rider Final Forms are Knight Survive, Deadheat Burst Mach, Deep Specter, Rampage Vulcan and Blades Tategami Hyoujyu Senki.

The best secondary final form is Ichijo's' Gas Bullet Gun.

"Say the line, Narutaki!"
https://scontent.flhr1-2.fna.fbcdn.n...5c&oe=617A5120
Even as someone who hasn't seen Hibiki the show, Hibiki the arc is great all round. Good world set-up, good focus on characters not named Tsukasa, good themes, well paced plot, that ending (!), it's great.

Yes yes, that that.

Ah, I was trying to keep Reiwa in it's own category. But you're absolutely right about Vulcan, every form of his look amazing, especially Rampage Gattling and his V-Cinema form, Lone Wolf.

Of course, got to hand it to the blue Riders, they got some good forms like Specter, Blades (from Saber), Knight, Blade. Good stuff.

Because INOUE DEMANDED IT probably, we are off to the World of Missing Ace! The-- the Blade movie! Remember? There were those fun Faiz cameos? Yuuji and Murakami brawled during an interview? All the new characters talked trash about the stars of Kamen Rider Blade, the series the movie was based on? Look, I can't remember much about Missing Ace, either, but maybe we can all get a little clarity with the help of returning co-host and noted Tachibana apologist AkibaSilver!

---

KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 22 - "DIEND IS WANTED”
Team Decade lands in the idyllic paradise of the World of Missing Ace, where the only danger is the inability to find and capture the world's terrifying villain: Diend! As our heroes alternately sell toothbrushes and get carried by locals, Kamen Riders Larc and Lance fight a lonely battle against the monstrous Roaches… and their fellow citizens? What's going on beneath this world's tranquil surface? And what does it have to do with Diend's older brother?

KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 23 - "END OF DIEND”
Kaitou is desperate to free his brother from the grip of the evil Fourteen - and salvage his own sense of self-worth for helping Fourteen capture his brother in the first place - but he can't do it alone. Luckily, Tsukasa is here to lend Diend a hand, and the two of them (well, basically just Decade) manage to defeat Fourteen and free Junichi... or they would have, if Junichi hadn't been working for Fourteen of his own volition. Now that Kaitou doesn't have to feel guilty about his brother's fate, he's free to... just keep doing what he was already doing, I guess. It-- it isn't a story with a huge change to it, people.

---

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade22a.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Look at it! Look at the most diabolical world Inoue could ever create! Look at the nightmare he wants to wake from! LOOK AT THE WORLD OF FORCED POLITENESS!

AKIBASILVER: It got about 10 minutes into the script, and I did google to check if it was an Inoue episode

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I don't know that I've ever laughed as hard as I did when I realized that Inoue took this opportunity to tell a story about the Tyranny of Politeness.
This is maybe his Final Form as a writer, which feels apt after the last couple episodes.

AKIBASILVER: I feel honoured to be talking with the world's most hardcore Inoue fan for this, the most Inoue of episodes
I feel like this was him realising he didn't have to relate strongly to any Rider's themes, now the main set of tributes were over, so he could just do what he wanted
And what he wanted was a story about a dystopia were everyone is really nice
Because they've got undead worms in their brains

KAMEN RIDER DIE: He just straight-up did a story in a Lessons-oriented kids show about how it's better to be honest and a jerk, than forced into being nice. AMAZING.

AKIBASILVER: I mean, "jerk with a loving heart" covers 2/3 of our main Riders this time around, so if you're going to dive into their backstories, I see it

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Like, even the final team that defeats Fourteen (because the Joker is the fourteenth card after the thirteen cards in a suit, I guess) isn't a bunch of people that get along, it's specifically four people who do not like or trust each other. The final lesson is that Tsukasa and Kaitou are a more effective team for being able to overcome their dislike of one another, rather than actually being friends!

AKIBASILVER: 14 is the main villain from Missing Ace, so yeah, that's presumably the reason
Well, that may be the final lesson you got, but the lesson I got was "Wow Decade Complete is so cool he can just one-shot the CGI!"

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Along with Armed Hibiki, who... I mean, shouldn't they have used Blade's Final Form, instead?

AKIBASILVER: That's what I thought was going to happen!
Maybe it makes up for Decade not using Hibiki in the last 2-parter

KAMEN RIDER DIE: This whole story goes out of its way to not ever bring up Blade once.

AKIBASILVER: Back in the original Missing Ace, the Aces were very insistent on how Team Blade were better off being left in the past, they were the real heroes now!
Looks like Inoue agreed

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's so weird -slash- expected that, after the Blade guy skipped the Blade story and the Kabuto guy skipped the Kabuto story, Inoue would do one story where Otoya is the adversary and another story where the entire cast of one of his movies comes back. INOUE FOREVER!

AKIBASILVER: Whoever at Toei was doing the assignment of writers to arcs was either purposefully messing with us, or had a twisted sense of humour

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I like the bizarre theory you're putting forward that assumes people give Inoue assignments.

AKIBASILVER: Oh that's true
Scripts just arrive shoved under the door
Inoue wrote them in a possessed haze

KAMEN RIDER DIE: No one commissioned this story!
He turned in two completed episodes!

AKIBASILVER: "Toshiki, what's this?"
"Oh, I hear you're doing tributes to past Riders. Well, here's my Missing Ace script, enjoy."
"No, Toshiki, only Riders who had a whole series oh he's gone already."

KAMEN RIDER DIE: There's definitely no other explanation for An Entire Story Reuniting The One-Off Actors Of A Blade Film To Tell A Story That Valorizes Being A Prickly Asshole than that Inoue wrote, cast, produced, and edited a complete two-episode arc on Decade and submitted it to Toei.

AKIBASILVER: It's a story only he would tell, that's for sure

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's also another flashback-heavy story for a secondary character, and that's the part I am less enamored of.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade22b.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I mean, man, we just did this with Natsumi! Last episode!

AKIBASILVER: The story very quickly lets you know "This will be our mandatory Kaitou story! Please sit back and enjoy the ride!"
It's one of the sticking points of Decade - by construction, the constant shifting focus onto the past heroes mean our regular cast oftentimes get shafted by comparison
Sometimes, they get integrated nicely, like Yuusuke into the Agito story
Othertimes, not so much, like Yuusuke into every other story
Diend, he's been around for 10 episodes now, and he didn't have much of a deal beyond "Thief with heart of maybe gold, likes treasure"
I forgot he knew Tsukasa's past till this episode teased me with it!
So I get the decision, now the mandatory "What past Rider are we doing this week" is over, to go and take the spotlight to the secondary cast
But that just means we've suddenly got tonnes of backstory coming at us

KAMEN RIDER DIE: But it's got the same fundamental problem as the Natsumi story, where there's a need to evolve a character that doesn't seem to have anything to overcome. We need to solve a dilemma that makes them a better person, while also creating and defining that dilemma inside the story.

AKIBASILVER: "Natsumi had friends? Kaitou had a brother? What's next, Eijiro is secretly a Showa Rider?"
Yeah, there's been no indication of what's driving Kaitou, so when it comes to delve into his history, it all feels very contrived
Unless you were going to make him come from Indiana Jones world

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I mean, I dislike the structure, and I hate the pacing problems of putting two similar stories back-to-back, but at least Inoue is trying to flesh out these characters.

AKIBASILVER: I wonder if this was the plan all along for Kaitou, or if Inoue had free reign

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I can't believe we're on Episode 23 of 31 and I've got no idea what Narutaki's deal is.

AKIBASILVER: He's a friend to all Kamen Riders
It's not even that I don't know, it's that the narrative has no indication it knows either

KAMEN RIDER DIE: He's a Mysterious Fisherman, so he obviously comes from the World of Kamen Rider Aqua.

AKIBASILVER: Now the nine worlds are over... we keep going?
It just feels very limp
We're travelling because, well, that's what we do

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, spending time with Natsumi and Kaitou over these four episodes doesn't feel so much like Finally as it does I Guess.

AKIBASILVER: The revelation of "There are more than 9 worlds" feels like it should have been bigger
Or at least deserve some kind of appearance from Wataru again
Idk, this isn't really this episode's fault, more a structural issue of this region of the show

KAMEN RIDER DIE: There's a vague feeling of being careful what you wish for from these two stories, where the focus on our core cast sort of reaffirms why no one did that before.

AKIBASILVER: For all the focus on Kaitou, he's missing for most of the first episode

KAMEN RIDER DIE: We don't really get his info dump until the second part, I think?

AKIBASILVER: Yeah, the first episode spends a lot of time on setting up the mystery of the world
Was there a need for so many scenes of Tsukasa selling a toothbrush?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: The first part is all about the Missing Aces and the contours of this happy dystopia.
It's all a little derivative of last story's... happy dystopia.

AKIBASILVER: Yeah, given we just had "Superficially happy world where people get hunted by monsters"

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Onodera, flipping out over how this is the perfect world, CLEARLY forgetting the horrible perfect world he just escaped from.

AKIBASILVER: Yuusuke acting like THIS is the right world for them when just last episode he was telling Tsukasa how everything going right means it can't possibly the right world for them
That... that's gotta be intentional, right?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I mean, if it happens in the next story, yes, and I love that Onodera always thinks that now. (I also don't expect it to ever come up again.)

AKIBASILVER: "Maybe this is the right world!"
"Yuusuke, this is the World of Shin Godzilla."
"Well, maybe I can befriend Godzilla?"

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Beyond the repetitive nature of this story... did it work for you? Diend's tragic backstory and weird tendency to assist monsters in reshaping society but in a good way?

AKIBASILVER: I'm not sure
Diend's tragic backstory feels very separated from who he is now, and being left to infer the gaps of "Oh at some point he ran away to another world and found the Diendriver and got an interest in treasure" detracts a little because it's even more disconnect
I don't dislike it, it's just hard to feel like it's ever going to come up again

KAMEN RIDER DIE: This story tries to have it both ways: Kaitou was searching for treasures so he could free his brother from the grip of Fourteen... and he also just likes getting treasures.
There's a fun Inoue twist in there, where Kaitou might enjoy the role of a villain because he wants people to hate him, as a form of self-flagellation and self-negation.
But it feels like it's, yeah, so divorced from the last ten episodes.

AKIBASILVER: I like the idea of the dystopia concept - and kudos to Decade, cause the multiple worlds concept allows them to do this nice little contained piece when other shows couldn't - but as you say, it's similar to last time, and after the first half, it mostly disappears?
Aside from a little Yuusuke comedy, it doesn't matter that Fourteen is making everyone insufferably selfless in Part 2, it's just Fourteen brainwashing
He may as well be brainwashing them into being [insert your least favourite Rider series here] fans, the details don't matter
You've got an interesting point with Kaitou there, but again, it feels pretty specific to this episode. Past appearance didn't have Kaitou being villainous because he wanted people to dislike him, he was just like Tsukasa in that he didn't care, as long as he got that treasure
Unless you're Hibiki, in which case he may accidentally help you

KAMEN RIDER DIE: This story seems built to do for Diend what the last one did for Decade: sort of clear the decks of his previous limited motivation, and give him something more open-ended for the future. It's just, we never knew what Diend was even after, so it makes this whole story seem kind of unnecessary. The end of this story is Kaitou Is A Free-Spirited Treasure Hunter, which... okay?

AKIBASILVER: Having him work with Tsukasa is almost progress, if they hadn't been intermittently allies and enemies for the last several arcs
Hibiki had them blow up a giant crab together!

KAMEN RIDER DIE: "The thing that you never knew Kaitou cared about? Well, he doesn't care about it anymore!"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...de22akiba1.png

AKIBASILVER: I sure am glad Kaitou's satisfied that his brother is a villain of his own free will, and can go be a treasure sniper without that burden hanging over him! Just like how he was at the end of last episode!
I think that's how I'd sum it up - it's not a bad pair of episodes in isolation, but taken as a whole they suffer from needing to rapidly introduce a backstory for Kaitou and resolve it, so its own ideas come off as secondary
Because Kaitou's brother, being a Special Guest Rider, can't stick around to drive his motivations
And it's not the worst backstory! It just doesn't feel like it matches up to Kaitou at all. And he's our secondary protagonist!
Perhaps I'm just spoiled by Neo-Heisei

KAMEN RIDER DIE: On the topic of Kaitou as a secondary protagonist... my favorite moment in this story was near the end, when Tsukasa's taking no small amount of pride in letting Team Decade know that the world they're leaving now has a Kamen Rider to protect it in Kaitou.
1) KAITOU IS LEAVING. That's what he does!
2) THIS WORLD HAD AND HAS TWO KAMEN RIDERS WHO WERE PROTECTING IT AND YOU TEAMED UP WITH THEM, TSUKASA!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade22c.png

AKIBASILVER: Look, Tsukasa is constantly dunking on secondary Riders the entire time
G3-X was doing its best protecting the World of Agito, but because his name is in the title, it only has a Rider to protect it when Tsukasa gave AGillsto a nice pep talk
Same with Kabuto world and fake Kagami
Movie Riders? Even further down the food chain

KAMEN RIDER DIE: And scrub Riders who exist to get murdered as motivation for our Real Heroes? Yeah, maybe they didn't deserve his respect or recollection.
But! Still pretty weird to see a full tribute to a movie I maybe half remember.
Like, all three of the New Generation Riders are back! With the original actors!

AKIBASILVER: Yeah, that's pretty neat!

KAMEN RIDER DIE: The Gold One is still the villain!
There's that CGI monster!

AKIBASILVER: Missing Ace isn't exactly my favourite Rider film, but it's nice to see something less obvious get to be the building blocks for Diend's world

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, the best I can say about that movie is that the suits are pretty great. I like how it's got a clear Leader and The Other Two design to them.

AKIBASILVER: Also, because I'm sure someone will bring it up otherwise, Diend was shown collecting various pieces of movie merch in past episodes - the Orga Driver, the G4 chip - so him being from a world based on a movie was either planned all along, or a cute coincidence

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Huh! I didn't catch that. Very cool!

AKIBASILVER: I wonder if, along with actor availabibility suddenly mattering in the last month's worth of episodes, that's why we got the Missing Ace Riders
There's enough of them to be a team, they look cohesive as a unit, and they haven't shown up yet

KAMEN RIDER DIE: There's also the neat connection of Diend coming from another Powered By Cards world.

AKIBASILVER: True!
Also, 2 female Riders in the space of 3 arcs, we're breaking new grounds

KAMEN RIDER DIE: You'd mentioned to me before that you hoped someone out there would know why Blade of all series got its movie homaged in Decade, and I'd echo that request.

AKIBASILVER: Yeah, I'm still not sure why Missing Ace was picked
Even if you wanted "A trio where the gold leader betrays them", they're not the only choices!
(Hello Kabuto movie suits)

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I have always sort of liked Shin and Haruka's chemistry, so maybe it's just that. They were underutilized movie characters, so here you go.
They got something you can at least build a story around.

AKIBASILVER: I do always like when obscure Riders get to come back
And I know they're not the same characters, but it's close
Like when Goriders brought back a bunch of big name guys, and also Another Agito for the first time in 20 years! That's cool

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I really love that Goriders story. Fun ending, and a bizarre group of characters.
Plus, everyone in it gets to be cool, which is more than I can say for this show's cast:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade22d.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Bad couple episodes for Onodera!

AKIBASILVER: He is not having a good time
Gets smiles painted on his soul and he doesn't even do the thumbs up

KAMEN RIDER DIE: He gets sucker-punched by a mook and needs to get rescued! HE IS STILL KUUGA.

AKIBASILVER: I remember a lot of animosity for Yuusuke back when I first joined the boards - by virtue of him not being Godai - and when he keeps getting put in situations like this, I wonder if the writers had the same feelings
Maybe no-one told Inoue he was Kuuga
So he just merrily wrote his pair of episodes in blissful ignorance

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Two Inoue stories in a row that just use him as a comedic whipping boy, so, yeah, Inoue prolly didn't get that note.

AKIBASILVER: Well, we know you and Inoue and Kuuga have a fun history together
It's a shame. With both Tsukasa and Kaitou being more than a little standoffish and jerky, there's room for Yuusuke to be the more straightforward, heart of the gang, but instead he just keeps getting pranked

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Although, if Inoue watched any random Decade episode for research, there's a good chance he wouldn't see Onodera as Kuuga.

AKIBASILVER: Yeah, this isn't just an Inoue thing
I was shocked when he transformed in the Hibiki episodes
Which, you know, probably shouldn't be my reaction to a Kamen Rider transforming

KAMEN RIDER DIE: The one thing I'll say in his favor, and in Inoue's favor, is that Onodera and Natsumi at least get a little side-story in the first part of this arc. They get to have a little goofy adventure! They get to leave the photo studio!

AKIBASILVER: I do like Natsumi's "I'm going to find more about Kaitou"
It's like her recurring thing - she at least tries to learn what the new world is about, even if it's all offscreen and she just has to put up with Kivala the entire time

KAMEN RIDER DIE: There's an intriguing lack of urgency to their plot, maybe befitting the new Endless Journey aspect of the pacing. Tsukasa just goes to work as a toothbrush salesman, Natsumi and Onodera go for a walk... Let's just see what's up, you know?

AKIBASILVER: Just a minor plot thing - it was a weird jump to have them meet Junichi offscreen, only to then meet up with him again at the pool so Tsukasa can be there
Struck me as odd
Yeah, some room to explore "So, now what?" for the gang would have been welcome
But the episode makes clear
This is Diend episode
We will be focusing on Diend now

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I don't think that's how I took the plotting for the Junichi meet-up? Natsumi and Onodera go to the cops, the cops make an appointment for them to see Junichi, and then all of Team Decade goes to meet Junichi.

AKIBASILVER: Do appreciate how they played Treasure Sniper over the end battle though, that was cute, even if Decade did the brute work
You could be right - I might have misinterpreted, or the subs could just be funky
They definitely called Kaitou by his brother's name at some point, so reliability ain't perfect

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...cade22die1.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I mean, the three of them don't notice a guy swimming in a pool right next to them, so I don't put anything past Team Decade's inefficiency.

AKIBASILVER: Maybe Narutaki was right, maybe Tsukasa really is the destroyer of worlds
He's just very bad at his job

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Great at selling toothbrushes in bulk, though.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...de22akiba2.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, that's a pretty different translation.

AKIBASILVER: Slight side track, but it's always interesting the way different groups can subtitle things
I'm sure this is something a Sandwich of Fish will be unpleased to see
Decade toothbrush powerup when?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I was not aware Fish had issues with translations! I'm learning something new with every one of these chats.
Anything else from this story you wanted to touch on? Like, why were there not as many buses? Is that because buses are impolite?

AKIBASILVER: Bus Drivers are all in for mandatory politeness training
I just thought I'd touch on Missing Ace one last time - the big themes of that movie were moving on from the past, and handing over to the next generation. This episode... is not about those! It's purely here for the aesthetics

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Definitely unclear on why the Missing Ace tribute took place at a rice paddy, when the movie was either Big City or Seaside Resort.

AKIBASILVER: Do you think there's a parallel version of the Blade cast out there somewhere?
I do not like imagining a polite Tachibana

KAMEN RIDER DIE: The implication to me was that they were all murdered/reeducated by Fourteen. Maybe Blade's a garbageman again?

AKIBASILVER: Unless you count "trying to sacrifice yourself before anyone else can do it" as politeness
I honestly didn't think of it
It uses the costumes from the movie, but this isn't a Blade story
This isn't a world where Riders fight to protect people from the Undead

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, I can easily see this being a non-Blade Missing Ace world. They, again, strenuously avoid referencing Blade for these episodes.

AKIBASILVER: It's a world where they fight the forces of Fourteen's Darkroaches, who may or may not have a copyright infringement lawsuit coming from that twisty monolith
I also just have a snarky comment about the Missing Ace gang riding their bikes just as much as Zi-O does in his entire series
Let's add them to the chart

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Narutaki: "This is a world that destroys Riders! Like Kamen Rider Braid! And Kamen Rider Garvin! And Kamen Rider Lingle!"

AKIBASILVER: Don't forget Kamen Rider Chaloss!

KAMEN RIDER DIE: diend is their chaloss
did i just blow your mind

AKIBASILVER: Both Decade and Diend get to be the Joker at different times
They sure do say society a lot in these episodes

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's an Inoue story! There're only, like, three things he ever wants to talk about!

AKIBASILVER: He's consistent, if nothing else
Love, society, and definitely not explaining where power ups come from

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, I don't think another writer would let the cathartic ending for his story be The Villain Was Being Villainous From Free-Will So We Can All Relax. God bless that goddamn writer.
What a gift.

AKIBASILVER: What a strange ending
Like, I don't even have anything to say about it
It's just...
It just is!
To say it like how he would, "Inoue is Inoue"

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I'm not even a hundred percent clear on Tsukasa's thing where he says that Junichi can't become Fourteen, because he's seen his brother's spirit or something? What?
It's a real hand-wave of a resolution.

AKIBASILVER: Tsukasa is just happy to let this would-be dictator wander around because "Eh, he didn't kill Kaitou, that's enough for me."

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Refraining from murdering Kaitou has been shown to be enormously difficult for Tsukasa, so he should respect it as a character trait.

AKIBASILVER: It's true
Sure, he injected Yuusuke with brain worms, but really, who wouldn't?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Or maybe Tsukasa is just anxious to move onto his next adventure, in... the World of Shinkenger?! A Sentai adventure?! WHAT?! I wasn't prepared for this! Next thing you'll tell me is that this series is going to do some Showa episodes! MADNESS. Until then, let's meet some color-coded ninjas as we continue our Journey through Decade!

Fun thing about this one: When I first watched Decade, I was at the point where I'd seen all of Neo-Heiseis; a few Showas (Amazon plus the three post-RX movies); and Kabuto, Kiva and Den-O. Kuuga through Hibiki was like... I knew of them, I'd seen pictures and snippets on social media and stuff, there were crossovers like the taisens and the best Ex-Aid special ever (which one? good question! it's a hard choice!), but I was intentionally not learning much about them so it wouldn't be much as a spoiler and they could surprise me. I was willing to take learning a few things about them through osmosis, but I wanted to discover all their stuff through actually watching them, you know?

All that is to say that I had never seen any of the Riders in this. Ever. And so I thought they were completely original Riders made up for Decade.

Like it kinda tracked! They looked pretty generic and samey to me; the belts seemed very simple and also generic; I didn't pick up on the cards and nothing else about them screamed Blade's aesthetic to me from what I'd seen... it wasn't until, well, I think actually not long before I watched Blade itself that I learned these guys existed before! It's so funny to me that even before I watched the movie and didn't care for it, I found every element of it presented to me prior so generic that I figured there was never a story crafted around them before.

So going into this two parter for me, this is the world that ended up getting me to do another habit of mine when watching old Heisei. And that was if I wasn't watching the series, I'd at least watch the movie since the Missing Ace dudes were pretty cool to see. Also interesting to note that I don't think they use the sound effects for the Missing Ace crew at all. So they have no actual announcements which just also keeps on the "We're not mentioning Blade" route they were going for.

Regardless this wasn't like, a big, big set of episodes but I did like how Diend got focus. And honestly I managed to find his backstory a lot more bearable than Natsumi's. Because the flashbacks were pooled into one chunk and actually had plot details that weren't Daiki just hanging out with people and that just sorta being the only part of the flashbacks. These flashbacks were pooled together and given in one burst and told you what you needed to know.

https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...744&height=418
Same as before, it was great chatting with you Die! Blade getting two tributes must mean it's the best series, right?

Having done a little more thought about it, pretty much any other Riders would be identifiable to someone with a little knowledge. I suggested the Kabuto movie ones above, but they're still *very* Kabuto. Same with the Hibiki movie riders, and we already had the Ryuki ones, and pretty much every other movie Rider is a solo villain. The Missing Ace gang just happen to be nondescript enough to work stripped of any Blade context!

You know, I think you're right, aside from the most minor of card swipey noises. After last time, where they had Dark Kiva say "Gabu" every time he was on screen and nothing else, that's gotta be deliberate.

I guess it also feels more bearable here because there's an arc, a flow to it. Natsumi's flashbacks were just "Here's me. hanging out with my friends you've never met before" until it turned out her friends were evil. An interesting choice.

(Also, because I didn't leave a post for the Dark Rider episode, I'll do it now - who was taking the photos of the Dark Riders murdering the humans?)

At long last, the day has come! You mention my role as a translation cop, but neglect my true purpose!

Learning Ondul the Easy WEEEEEEI! (#EX)

https://i.imgur.com/6d8LWks.png
https://i.imgur.com/psuHiZ5.png

Today's lesson introduces us to a character so memetic, he transcends worlds. Junichi Shimura was Kamen Rider Glaive back in the Blade movie. Nobody really makes jokes about him. Junichi Kaitou was Kamen Rider Glaive, older brother of Kamen Rider Diend, in a weird pair of Decade episodes that tied the backstory of that show's secondary Rider together with alternate versions of characters from the Blade movie. People love making jokes about this Junichi. His immensely creepy fabricated smile earned him a spot in the elite club of Blade characters who have their own emoticons, with his being ( ^ U ^ ), which you may or may not see with those spaces.

While the smile alone would be enough, those couple of lines to his lil' bro (ii serifu da. kandouteki da na. daga muimi da.) were loaded with potential to be endlessly repurposed in different contexts, as well as being just kind of an amusing bit of dialogue to begin with. It has all the hallmarks of the greats of Ondul, and thus, this version of Junichi was promptly adopted into the language, becoming just as much of a fixture as anything from the original show.

And since he shows up so much, I actively held back on sharing a certain video back when we were actually going through Blade. So, now that we're taking this trip into Diend's world, I'm ready to present to you all the ultimate treasure of Ondul culture! When viral music medleys on Nico Nico Douga mix with memetic Blade quotes, the result is a work of true art of such depth and complexity that even I, in my years of study, have yet to fully comprehend its infinite beauty. All of these lessons were always to prepare you for this. Without further ado, here's Nanairo no Ondul Douga:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7DGqKYubsE

This is a great story that I find eminently relatable, considering I watched the entire Ghost/Ex-Aid movie -- before I watched any series besides Ex-Aid -- thinking Shinnosuke was a supporting character from Ghost. Sometimes these shows don't make it easy! Especially these episodes of Decade which, if memory serves, never even say the names of the world's Riders. With that sort of shine given to them, why would you assume they were from anything prior?

Oh, it's definitely the better of the two Inoue stories, both for sheer bravado (THE TYRANNY OF POLITENESS!) and for more direct and economical pacing. It's not a great two-parter, but it doesn't feel as aimless as a lot of the last story felt.

This one was so much fun to kick around that I honestly felt a little guilty, like it was going to end up being a post that only you and I enjoyed. I hope this arc's deconstruction/celebration/befuddlement was as fun to read as it was to make!

You are a treasure. Not just for that incredibly thorough contextualizing of a very strange performance, but for giving me a reason to post these two screencaps that I love like Kotaro loves milk, but could not find a way to use in the episode post:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/decade/junichi1.png

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/decade/junichi2.png

(Also, a minor thing I saw on the Wiki when I was looking up info about what the hell Missing Ace's Riders were called: Larc wasn't named Haruka in Missing Ace, she was named Natsumi. Easy to see why they changed her name up for Decade!)

Blade... Blade is truly the gift that keeps on giving. I can't stand how much I love these

I don't know if I'm not reading into it enough, but I don't feel like, if talking about your threads, a lot of people intensely dislike it (there's someone like Kurona yeah, but dunno if 'a lot' fits). Like I said long ago, you and your opinions may (CMIIW) have a lot of weight in Tokunation board here as someone regarded as a KR expert, though by that I may underestimate your struggle in doing that, as I think difficulty of possessing an "unpopular opinion" is when you outright get bashed and ostracized by the community members, where you're the opposite. I mean, in the Kiva thread, even dreamcastegirl claims criticizing Inoue would mean trampling against everyone's feelings (dunno if that's probably joking, but I feel that part can be true even if it's joking, as mob mentality exists). T̶h̶o̶u̶g̶h̶ a̶l̶l̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶l̶l̶o̶w̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶b̶a̶b̶l̶y̶ ̶j̶o̶k̶e̶s̶,̶ ̶I̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶k̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶"̶I̶n̶o̶u̶e̶ ̶F̶o̶r̶e̶v̶e̶r̶"̶ ̶c̶l̶a̶i̶m̶s̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶f̶e̶e̶l̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶c̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶p̶i̶n̶i̶o̶n̶s̶,̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶'̶d̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶l̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶h̶e̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶v̶e̶ ̶c̶r̶i̶t̶i̶c̶i̶s̶m̶,̶ ̶i̶n̶c̶l̶u̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶ ̶i̶g̶n̶o̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶T̶s̶u̶r̶u̶g̶i̶'̶s̶ ̶d̶e̶m̶i̶s̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶m̶ ̶l̶i̶k̶e̶ ̶a̶ ̶w̶r̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶e̶x̶c̶u̶s̶e̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶I̶n̶o̶u̶e̶ ̶w̶i̶l̶l̶ ̶n̶e̶v̶e̶r̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶w̶r̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶(̶I̶'̶m̶ ̶f̶e̶a̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶a̶ ̶t̶a̶l̶k̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶"̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶d̶u̶c̶t̶i̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶e̶a̶m̶ ̶m̶u̶s̶t̶'̶v̶e̶ ̶s̶a̶b̶o̶t̶a̶g̶e̶d̶ ̶I̶n̶o̶u̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶ ̶l̶e̶s̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶s̶a̶t̶i̶s̶f̶a̶c̶t̶o̶r̶y̶ ̶w̶o̶r̶k̶"̶ ̶o̶r̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶a̶n̶ ̶h̶a̶p̶p̶e̶n̶,̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶j̶o̶k̶e̶)̶. Not about KR, but I also have my personal attachment to something that I grew up with, but I won't give second thoughts criticizing them if they make a weird, utterly boneheaded decisions.

Yeah, you're not alone of not liking Complete Form, and for others iirc it's primarily the design compared to the base Decade. But power is what matters (for now)! The ability belies the appearence. There's also an particularly stand out example much later, but talking about that will be spoiler. I think I'd also even criticize the powers? Firstly, I'd say that calling out other Riders is something similar to Diend. But the particular resaon to me is how bland some of the finishers like Ryuki's one here. Not a Final Vent, not even a Shoot Vent, just an attack that is unrelated and significantly more lowkey, though it'd be practical for that situation against Ryuga (still Shoot vent also can work). The Hyper Kick is the same attack as the original, but... there were no Hyper Clock Up involved like Mishima's final battle in Kabuto. My personal artwork for Complete Form's finisher (that I wanted, ofc others can disagree for various reasons too):
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...883284/dcd.png

The TG Clubs in the world is murdered by the Dark Riders who assume their identity... Decade likes to revisit older part of the series, like using the character's powers, but this one's Worm's ability instead of anything the Dark Riders have? (I guess Ryuga and Dark Kabuto are evil counterparts of the main protagonists of the respective series, but this one's implementation is really the Worm's way of impersonating dead person). I guess Natsumi is, sentimental here that she found her true companions from back in the day, but I guess she's not 100% at fault here, others also can give better argument for her like to convince her that there are may be TG Club members in other, better world, but the Negative World Natsumi is... well... negative, just being mostly edgy.

I've been incredibly lucky to be able to enjoy shows with so many like-minded fans, but I am aware of how lucky that makes me. Even here, with fans of Faiz and Agito and Kiva, there's a sense that Inoue carries a lot of baggage with him. It never gets, like, hostile or anything, but we're all cognizant of Inoue's reputation, and the ways his work can be interpreted. He's a tricky creator to celebrate, even if there's no one to complain about it.

That art is great! Thanks for sharing it! I really like how you're incorporating so many other finishers into Decade's. Smart! Real smart!

And it’s etymology time again:

Jun’ichi Shimura -> Jun’ichi Kaitou (Kaitou = phantom thief)

Natsumi -> Haruka (Natsu = summer, Haru = spring)

So next time, you’re entering my house. And you’re currently three weeks too early for me to explain to you the backstory and who everyone is.

Destroying giant monsters is the Oni's specialty!

Uh, while I admit Shinkenger would be at least 22% cooler with ninjas, those kanji-faced colorful guys are actually samurai, the Samurai Sentai in fact, and have nothing to do with the katakana and hiragana-faced guys you'll probably be meeting next year. If you want a ninja Sentai, or rather the Ninja Sentai, go check out Kakuranger!

Ditto. It's only thanks to the wiki that I found out these guys were from a movie. This was my second recognition failure after mistaking Diend for being from Kamen Rider Faiz. Hell, I didn't even know this world was anything to do with Blade. Decade is good at giving spoiler-light introductions to past shows, but not so good at emphasizing the connections between those shows (or a movie in this case) and their corresponding non-Primary Riders.

I suppose this is the best opportunity I'm going to get to complain about the suit designs for Glaive, Larc and Lance. Two of them are literally just inverted repaints of each other and they all have that one eye which doesn't show any expression. Made it very hard to associate any kind of identity with them and I repeatedly forgot who was who and eventually stopped caring.

Probably didn't help that this is also my least favorite arc of the show. Not a bad arc, just meh, due to how much time it spends on Kaito's backstory despite that being pretty much forgotten and never brought up ever again. What was even the point of this arc? If that was Kaito's goal in this world, why was he wasting time collecting miscellaneous merchandise from other worlds? The problem here seems completely unrelated to his entire thing.

However, I can say one good thing about this arc and that was the awesome use of Kiva Emperor's Zanvat Slash by Decade Complete in the climax of Episode 22!

It's the most dreaded and despicable Rider of them all: Kamen Rider Dange!

Very bad*ss!

Neat! Thanks!

But... destroying that particular giant monster is Blade's specialty!

Please enjoy this sneak preview of the next three Decade stories, as I get basic elements of the tributes wrong and hope my co-hosts will pick up the slack. I'm looking forward to a lighter workload for the next couple weeks!

Definitely disappointing to see that Tsukasa's gift of pepper was of no use in the final battle against Fourteen. Pretty embarrassing oversight from the production team!

I'll be sure to compare Blade's performance to Hibiki's here when I finally get around to watching Missing Ace!

Oh that totally would have been a great callback for sure. Like if it made Natsumi and Yuusuke sneeze out the brain bugs or something.

Alright, Kaito's world featuring Blade Movie Riders. I agree with Kurona, I'd have no idea these were Blade Riders, even when I was like "Are those Blade Drivers?"

Of course, I also thought this would highlight Kaito's relationship/rivalry with Tsukasa, granted, the fact you mention them being like Bettas and not being able to tolerate someone like them does fit, I was also interested in seeing if the show would spotlight it. That said, this was still a pretty good arc for our boy Kaito.

When you mention apocalyptic politeness, I actually thought it was more of a hive-mind situation, and that Kaito sought freedom from the suffocating grip of this united world without conflict, where everyone is the same. Of course, maybe giving the Blade Movie Riders might have just been because someone in production liked them enough to give them a whole world to themselves, then throw Kaito in for good measure. But dang did I not like that guy's smile, or how he politely says antagonistic lines. Well played.

Boy did I lose it when they showed the next world being Shinkenger (I still have yet to watch it), and how Narutaki described it. I hadn't gotten into Sentai yet, but I found it extremely hilarious.

I have only seen the first two episodes of Blade, via Toei Tokusatsu World, so I am familiar with the legendary Ondul. Sat through all eleven minutes of this insanity you have given us, I guess it goes to show that even if Blade has ended, Ondul is eternal.

This was a weird one for me. I actually really liked the first episode way more than I remembered. The set up for the world is interesting, the small town setting is a refreshing change of pace from the usual stock filming locations, and bringing back the Missing Ace Riders is a really neat use of familiar but underdeveloped characters (even if Junichi's smile will haunt my dreams for the next forever or two).

The second part fell a bit flat for me, though. I liked the emotional resolution of the Super Kaito Bros. conflict in theory, but it didn't feel especially earned in practice. Junichi being a willing bad guy fits with Glaive's role in Missing Ace, but didn't really fit with the way he was shown on screen looking and acting like the Japanese version of a Stepford Wife. I also just cannot wrap my head around the idea that Daiki is a former Happiness Patrolman. It just doesn't fit with the character as we've seen him for me.

I can't believe I had a whole discussion of Die and someone else made the Doctor Who reference about a society where you're forced to be happy or else.

Would Glaive be improved if he were made from sweets?

All that’s. Kissing is Diend having a philosophical discussion after which he puts his Diendriver down.

Hey, the name isn’t just to be cool, you know.

I mean, obviously.

...Oh, and I should probably talk about the actual episodes, too!

I really enjoyed the banter throughout that post, by the way. I feel like that was exactly the right tone to have for the weird Missing Ace Kaitou Backstory two-parter

One other person who could've demanded it – not only is Inoue back from Missing Ace, but these ones were directed by Ishida! (I feel like this is part of why Junichi's smile is so perfect.)

I am fairly certain Tsukasa is meant to be referring to Larc and Lance there.

Anyways, yeah, this is a weird pair of episodes. I kind of dig them, but I'm not sure if I'd call them good or bad or whatever other label. You guys touched pretty nicely on how the plot has to create from scratch the entire arc it wants to resolve with Kaitou, and that highlights a big part of why I keep likening Decade two-parters to movies – I definitely prefer to think of them as standalone things a lot of the time. (Also, the way the recaps at the start of each episode are structured reminds me of movie trailers, with the epic music and everything.) It's why Die can be like "there should've been a more gradual build-up to Tsukasa and Onodera's friendship thing in the Agito story", and I can be like "what are you talking about there was one other story!" It was honestly impressive to me going back to find that Decade did that much work with a character arc, because I associate the show so much more with stories like this.

These episodes generate all this retroactive baggage for Kaitou out of nowhere, and it's so odd, and probably pretty ill-advised, but that's also kind of the charm of Decade to me. I can't help but have some fun with the way these episodes do their whole thing of revealing that Kaitou's got his own pain and regrets buried under the surface, and how in his past, he was once even dedicated to ideals and all this other stuff that, even though I've seen these episodes already, I was not at all thinking about hearing some of the hints about his past in the Hibiki arc. It's a backstory that feels so haphazardly attached that even though I remember it, my brain refuses to connect it with other appearances of the character, even though the whole point of a story like this is to make you look back and think "wow, this guy was secretly dealing with all this the whole time."

...Wait, I think I was trying to defend this one, wasn't I? The point is, I feel like I've gradually been becoming more and more of a Diend fan ever since initially watching Decade, so, while I can rag on the lack of cohesion or whatever, going back to that movie mentality, and treating this as its own thing, I do like the way it paints Kaitou. It's like... it's a type of story I enjoy, it has some fun concepts, solid direction, and even a great Blade meme or two. The material itself is quite interesting.

That being said, I kind of actively loathed what Inoue did with Newsuke here? He used to be a Cool Guy in-training who set off on this adventure with everyone to honor Yashiro's wish for him to protect people's smiles, but now apparently he's just looking for a world where everyone is already smiling to settle down in? It's like Inoue asked for a description of the character, and whoever he was talking to got as far as "Well, he can be rather naïve, and gets into his share of embarassing situations, but—" before Inoue said he got the gist of it, and, man, I mean he might have actually not known this guy was supposed to be Kuuga?

Still, for how much I felt Newsuke's character was totally off the rails in these ones, I got a kick out of Tsukasa's impromptu psychoanalysis of Kaitou throughout the second half, which encapsulates both what Die was saying about how Tsukasa reads people too easily and what I was saying about him not understanding people. That was one of those disagreements we had that I don't actually think was a disagreement.

It's that whole New Game + analogy that I still feel perfectly sums up how Tsukasa helps people out. He's great at knowing what motivates people and where their stories are going, but I feel like he often acts on that in this slightly detached way that suggests to me he genuinely can't really feel that stuff on an empathetic level the way your average Rider protagonist can. Again, as though this is just some quest in a video game to him that he's trying to speed along to its conclusion. Which gets you moments like him telling Kaitou at the end that since he's found The Treasure Of Self-Confidence or whatever in this world, he won't need to steal stuff anymore, only for Kaitou to immediately inform him he's off to go steal more things. I don't know. Tsukasa's most of the way there, but I feel like he stumbles in these weirdly specific areas, and it's a fun thing about his character.

On an unrelated note, before I forget, the theme song switches to the second verse starting with 22 to signify this being the second big chapter of the show, which is a nice bit of detail.

Are we talking about Inoue? Were we talking about Inoue? I wanna say a few words about Inoue.

I like Inoue. I have this weird love/hate relationship with his works, that it all just circles back to me appreciating him.

He has all these neat pics with Murakami, it's cute.

But going back, I honestly kinda feel bad for him too, since after Kiva he seemed kinda burnt out on Toku on his later years. I feel it may be showing on his stuff in ZI-O. I wish we could get another Inoue season in modern rider, but I know that'll be next to impossible to happen since it'll be a toss-up of either Inoue completely willing to write the WHOLE SHOW and Toei not letting him, or Inoue simply not feeling it and writing only two episodes.

He's one of the few writers we got who absolutely wants to do something that goes absolutely out of the 'safe' radar, and that's a blast to watch when the execution is great. Faiz still being one of my favorites out of him. I unironically feel we need more of him.

In terms of Decade, this two-episode arc for Diend, is a favorite of mine and also cemented Diend as one of my favorite secondaries. I was extremely disappointed what they did to him in SHT, and then I was completely enamored when he came back for ZI-O. This also gave birth to the amazing meme that is Kamen Rider Glaive.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3JoPbwVMAAqHgt.jpg

Forgot to check in on a notification and missed an entire day of thread chatter! WHOOPS!

Kamen Rider stories have been built over flimsier premises, so maybe! Like, those Missing Ace suits are pretty cool, and that's halfway to making a good story.

This is such an Inoue thing, where I really enjoy the point he's trying to make about free will being worthwhile even if people act badly because of it, but Junichi's actions make almost zero sense. It's a plot point that fails as narrative while somehow succeeding thematically. You can't really resolve Kaitou's story without it, but it's a twist that almost nothing in the preceding forty minutes (including a flashback!) actually supports. Not my favorite moment!

INOUE: "Alright, time to start these Decade scripts. Lemme look at the notes here... oh, one of the characters is named Yuusuke! Like Kuuga! Oh, that's a fun reference. I'll have him be ecstatic about this world of smiles. People'll love the Kuuga reference. God, I wonder what this show did for the Kuuga tribute episodes? I should ask later."

Yeah, I think it's the sort of thing where Tsukasa looks at someone like Kaitou and says Just Feel A Different Way, and he can't figure why Kaitou won't do it already. Tsukasa is getting better at a lot of things about being a Kamen Rider, but he'll never have that easy empathy, that deep connection. He cares about people, and he loves their capacity for change in a way that I'm really charmed by, but he mostly treats them like characters in a game/show. He's invested, but as an observer.

You won't get an argument out of me! These four Decade episodes are, narratively, some of the least successful episodes in the series so far. But, man, I've been thinking about them more than the objectively good episodes, which is always how it is with me and Inoue. Even the not-great ones are sort of fascinating in their specific failures.

Not only about Inoue, but there's also you proclaiming your like for characters like Kai in Den-O, where I have not seen any praises for him outside here. For being cognizant of his reputation, but still I wonder if you know about the (which may be also the source of his reputation too) TV production team keeping him on a leash or about his side work like the novels; him without leash.

I already shared it in my thread like better finishers one, but it seems that the only way for it to be noticed is to directly post the image.. Otherwise thanks and good that you.. are able to understand what I meant in the pic (unseen: all of that are done in Hyper Clock Up speed).

I have to probably stir shit again here that, a dystopian world where the citizens are forced to be nice or such is a thing that exist in a handful of media, like here and here. I don't know about the lesson of letting people being a douchebag, though obviously forcing them to be nice is a dubious and underhanded approach. I'd be the most against people getting away with their evil deeds against others (I mean like about everyone approving making excuses for that people while making others scapegoats or such, not about them escaping or winning battles with power). To some degree, there are still some rules, though not in dictatorship, that enforce people to be more good, including the Tokunation ones... is this a petition to remove all the rules in disguise?! The advantage of letting people be assholes, it would be knowing to stay away and/or act rather than being unknowingly screwed up over two-faced acts? (internet also can be used by people to reveal their true nature via anonymity) This feels like pushing the edgy misantrophic agenda of how "there are no good people in this world, if they're good, they're just faking". and there are some who conflates that realistic = edgy and dark and that everything should be made that way. The Armed Hibiki part, would say that's one of the better Decade Complete's Final Form Rides.

So even a real jerk like Kaitou got the same treatment when the story is also about flashbacks, like a normal person like Natsumi before. Probably I'd still think that the story didn't do it enough for Kaitou to show his past other than his disapproval of Junichi's method and that Junichi learns that Kaitou is a Rider, who for present time is only being taught a bit by Tsukasa about how treasure isn't only about power and valuable items, but also about relationships people invest our time, etc. something that can be enjoyed for eternity. I don't know if it'd be used as a development tool, or just let them be, but yeah I'd think for the greedy, this is a good route to develop or teach for KR series. Inoue with free reign is on the novels or such.

I mean, didn't you like Kai due to the lack of information regarding him? Narutaki's simply made to oppose Decade and blame him for everything, and he lives off the hammy acting and the memes in KR community, the "Onore Dickeido!" memes. Though otherwise, he seems to be a self-righteous zealot, he wants to oppose Decade, but will use any means necessary, even if he can accomplish some evil himself for opposing Decade.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/onore-decade

That's Decade's perk yeah, to travel into various different worlds. I'd want to see a multiple-world type of series that isn't anniversary, whose previous world mostly will be based on the previous Rider serieses. Wonder how they'd handle it. Fourteen does declare that he self-righteously creates peace. Though of course it's not valid, when he'd think peace is only when people are not fighting, only the outward part, the methods don't justify his endgoal. There's a certain series about how the well-intentioned extremist's goal is to create peace by brainwashing everyone or turning them into hive mind, and of course they'd be a (anti-)villain, yeah true that (both with superpowers) a good/neutral selfish jerk is better than villains who put the world into jeopardy for their supposed well meaning end. The Hibiki part of Kaitou is.. the standard secondary Rider soft spot that can surface like... the other Kaito saving a child from a tree.

The female Rider also didn't die here. Also, a meme says (spoiler-y, but this is about phase-2 I guess), "Golden Riders always Bad"
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...676&height=670

Otherwise, the Missing Ace movie Riders, in this story, other than Junichi (who is irredeemable in Missing Ace), they seem to lack the negativity seen in he original movie, even if they're the same character with same actors (except the other Natsumi turns into Haruka), the reverse of the implementation of other Hibiki Riders before who are more selfish and control freak.

There's Onodera thinking that the world being an ideal one at first which is yeah, a neat and believable reaction from him. Natsumi also enjoys the people's kindness and she tried to return the favor when she found someone who carries a heavy stuff. Though of course Natsumi's at that time is genuine, but the others aren't necessarily.... that.. that can be a positive effect from the dystopian world?! (though Natsumi can be already like that before visiting this world too)!=