This was a lot of people’s introduction to the new kids, and I remember Switchblade describing Kusaka’s relationship with them like a dad dealing with a lot of difficult kids.

Also, I’m sure the specifically highlighted kanji in everyone’s introductions was supposed to be the clues, but I have not found the time to actually check.

I was both incredibly hyped up for and nervous about the prospect of Paradise Regained. We've seen some other attempts to revisit the characters in the past, but this was going to be Inoue's chance to come back and do a proper return to the world. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. Inoue's most recent Rider work was on Zi-O, where we got the massive bummer that was Rider Time Ryuki and the joyfully bonkers manhole cover murderess arc on the show proper. The Kamen Rider 4 miniseries went all-in on "yeah, Takumi is 1000% dead for real." I was very much gearing up for this to be a real bleak tragedy.

I was caught pretty off guard when this whole thing veered in the other direction and became a relatively upbeat coda for the original series. I mean, yeah, several teenagers die - most in a way that looks incredibly painful but mercifully quick - and Mari even gets killed for what I'm pretty sure is at least the third time, but for a series that very famously ended on a "the good guys won for now but are living on borrowed time" note, this was a much more optimistic place for Takumi and Mari. It was really fun, but man do I wish we could have gotten maybe another 30 minutes. There were a lot of moments that I really felt could have benefited from just a little more runtime, especially near the end of act 2. I don't remember anybody falling into water, either, which feels like a huge oversight for a Faiz reunion.

The Faiz suit still feels a little off, but given some recent events I think it's in a lot better shape than it could have been. May just be the different build of the new suit actor or just the suit not being made for HD cameras. It's definitely held up better than some of its contemporary pre-Decade suits, but I still feel like Toei needs to either do full remakes of these older suits or start retiring them. I don't want to be sitting here in two years' time lamenting the sorry state of black and blue Hibiki from that anniversary special (not that Toei would ever make a Hibiki anniversary, of course).

Kusaka instantly wants to fire them all as soon as they've outlived their usefulness, which is pretty much exactly how I think Kusaka would be as a dad, so I'm forced to agree with that assessment.

One of the (many) things I liked about this movie is how disappointing it is for Takumi that he somehow hasn't died yet, while still waiting for his true life to start. It melds in a lot of what I liked about Kamen Rider 4 -- the feeling that Takumi will always somehow feel unworthy of a happy life, and therefore never starts living his happy ending -- and telescopes it out into a middle-aged feeling of your life going on after you've accomplished what you thought you needed to accomplish. (Definitely a topic that a 60-something Inoue who's created multiple legendary TV shows can speak to!) Like, the horror for Takumi maybe end up being that his life kept going, but the overall joy is that everyone's living on borrowed time, so just find your happiness in the moment.

Anyway, yes, perfect tribute to Faiz, not counting the TTFC also being the perfect tribute to Faiz.

There's a lot of humor in this movie for sure, as I would expect from the Faiz world and characters. Without those lighthearted moments, there wouldn't be anything worth protecting in the dark world. For Takumi though, that darkness gradually wears him down, as typical of him he doesn't want to burden others with his own problems and feels like he's just slowly waiting for his time to die already.

But Takumi is Takumi, no matter how much time passes. Everybody loses their way sometimes, but Takumi always finds his way back to what he believes in and I love how the return of classic Faiz (the best Faiz) symbolizes his return to being himself again.

It's a big contrast to the now non-canon epilogue for Takumi in Kamen Rider 4. While I had with a heavy heart accepted Takumi's death after hearing how he had made peace with his fate, I'm glad that this movie instead gives Takumi a reason to live, even in a time where it seems like the world has moved on without him. As long as people have dreams, Takumi is still needed.

I was surprised to see this movie do something that I had speculated about in the episode conveniently titled "Mari Dies", where Mari dies for the second time after getting betrayed by Sawada. There was the idea of Mari reviving as an Orphenoch and how that would affect her and her relationship with her friends. Third time's the charm, with this actually happening 20 years later. How ironic that Takumi is the nekojita, but Mari, as a wildcat, is literally a nekojita. :lol

This movie also focuses on Takumi/Mari as a canon ship, which was only seldom teased in the show as Takumi and Mari each had their own romantic focus with Saya and Kiba respectively. However, 20 years is long enough time for platonic relationships to develop romantically offscreen and Inoue has been known to tactfully use time skip epilogues to leave events to the imagination. Like you said, Mari turning Orphenoch makes her closer to Takumi. Before, she could sympathize, but now she can empathize. Takumi's dilemma is now Mari's dilemma and they choose to face it together.

Of course, Kusakabot immediately goes haywire upon his "protect Mari" and "destroy Orphenochs" directives conflicting with each other. He can only mimic Kusaka's behavior though, so I guess we'll never truly know how the real deal would react to the shock of Mari being an Orphenoch.

Even before this movie, remember that we already established that Kusaka is Takumi's father. :p

Mari and Takumi... I can't say it's something I ever wanted in the TV show (TAKIBA), but its appearance here felt weirdly right to me. Like you said, the 20 year gap -- and their incredibly vibrant connection in this film -- helps the two of them feel less like the Lovestruck Teens or Fated Pairing they might've been cast as in the original series, and more Weary Survivors who have grown into a mutually supportive romance.

Also, with Rena's death, Mari is definitely the only person alive who can deal with Takumi's historically infuriating bullshit, so he better find some way to make it work with her.

Same here, I always saw them as close friends, especially since Takumi is such a loner who takes a while to open up. Like, I recall that one scene where Mari shows Takumi her Ryusei School reunion picture and asks him who's his type, to which Takumi unknowingly points at Mari before claiming he meant to point at somebody else (like Saya). Inoue writes what he feels like at the time based on how the characters develop, so he may have added scenes like this in case he wanted to continue them later.... Much much later, evidently. I agree he made it work though, thanks to the time skip and their character arcs.

Honestly, when the cast for the movie was revealed, I wondered if Reina was going to become Takumi's canon love interest. But Reina's interest in Takumi was one-sided and she could tell pretty quickly that he cared for Mari, even as he attempted to deny those feelings. Well, Reina exploding kind of leaves Mari as the only available option anyway, so the result would've been mostly the same. Not like I could see Takumi sticking with Reina for too long even if she had survived, as she talks a lot and I imagine Takumi would get annoyed with that. For this movie at least, him choosing Mari makes sense.

There is a non-zero chance that Takumi was slightly relieved at Rena being exploded because the entire scene with her saying how fine she was with Mari winning him instead of her was getting too awkward for him.

KAMEN RIDER 555 MURDER CASE: THE SOLUTION

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/murder2a.png

It’s a ridiculous story, as it should be. The body count rises by the minute, the clues are pointlessly convoluted, and the killer is the goldfish. It’s like a parody of something like Revice: The Mystery, where no one really cares and the investigation is just pointing at random people until the cast is whittled down enough for until the most ludicrous possibility turns out to be correct.

When in doubt, though, look to Takumi: he has completely tuned out on the investigation into who is the murderous Orphnoch that has placed the entire household (including Mari!) in mortal jeopardy, and is as Bad Cop as he’s ever been while trying to figure out who killed/ate Goldie the goldfish. Takumi’s telling the audience that this isn’t really going to be a Stakes kind of story, and we should all just get on board with Kusaka’s negging and Takumi’s single-minded focus on his missing goldfish.

It’s great at that, complete with a self-referential joke of a heroic showdown, so we can get the Next Faiz and Next Kaixa suits contributing the bare minimum toku action to a story that resolutely does not require it. True to Inoue’s sensibilities, the superhero action is bumbling and bizarre, keeping the tone insane throughout.

This was terrific. I love this side of 555. None of the adults seem to care that half the kids just got killed, and Takumi’s hyper-focused on the thing he disdained loudly just a day prior – perfect. Perfect.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/faiz/murder2b.png

Fucking called it.

Also, apparently this came out. To the Japanese media torrent site!

I think, knowing the Inoue, it could only have been the goldfish. I definitely assume this story worked backward from The Killer Is The Goldfish.