It is a monarchy after all. Maybe the former Kiva was behind it. :lolol

Sure, just pointing out the term that I feel is frequently misused or overlooked in ambiguity discussion, and where I think it's false (or too simplified) to immediately jump to the claim of "not a hero at all" (anti-hero is a subcategory of hero), though of course when he's fighting to impress a girl he's nowhere comparable in moral to most main Riders as it's ambiguity even if the actions are heroic (.. not the one in this series).

Sure, they should show Onodera not having full force... but I refer to the Ultimate Kuuga using seemingly a finisher in Ultimate Punch (and the explosion only covers some area), or I guess not harnessing more of the power applies to even finisher? And well... AFAIK many Riders aren't even actual fighters, but they can mow down enemies by sheer super strength alone, like for example Cronus. Even if Onodera isn't an experienced fighter.. I'd think Ultimate Kuuga's power should be enough for him just wildly throwing punch around.

Not exactly a best one... but for "Ryu(u)ga"... that'll always sound as the dark version of Ryuki to me due to it coming much earlier... and Ryuuga is also commonly refered by his surname Banjou like you said. And of course Cross-Z's Rider Kick resembles Ryuga's (the Rider, resembles him more than Ryuki's).

Though this isn't a continuation of Kiva (kinda don't want for anniversary series to give continuation for original series without consent even if getting old actor back), his feels to me, probably how Kiva's epilogue continued, with Wataru becoming King, he'd likely enforce this rule of humans and Fangires co-existing. But Fangires aren't hive mind, they're individuals, like how there can be criminals among humans, there can be criminals among Fangires too like that woman Fangire - btw I like that it lets a woman being used as fodder, as the one who made a crime and got properly punished. For the Garulu, Bassha, and Dogga's replacement, they probably won't be Jiro, Ramon, and Riki - their voice actors are big name though, for instance Garulu's voice actor is Isshin Chiba, of Tekken's Jin.

True, it's probably Onodera trying his hand into becoming more like original Kuuga and helping others in non-superheroic ways. I don't know much about Decade, but yeah there are complaints of Onodera being a jerk but not only for ep. 2-3, but for a series evaluation, so dunno about Onodera in this episode.

For Tsukasa just goes in guns blazing, in comparison to Onodera's role here, I guess this is a reminder that being heroic (coming from previously selfish Onodera) isn't about merely doing superheroics like saving people/world or sacrificing yourself (where Den-O is something that's against this) or stuff, but there are many more morally good trait and deeds; which probably Tsukasa learns as he realizes Wataru's resolve and what qualifies to be a King (actually making the situation better, not invoking bloodlust). Unfortunately, well, one of the nickname for Onodera is "Yuuseless", and I guess iirc that comes from Onodera not actually making use of Kuuga often throughout the series, but that's what I read. Aside from Onodera's action making impact into the King and Kivat, this impacts Natsumi too, who previously was worried about 2 child who got approached by a Fangire (nice gesture though), but turns out that it's a companionship between human and monster.

For Kuuga's fight here, I like that Kuuga and Kiva's form counterparts are used here, the speedy blue form in Dragon against Garulu, the ranged green form in Pegasus against Bassha, the tough purple form in Titan against Dogga. And watching Kiva part just made me realize that Decade had a likely unintentional reference to Kiva, in all of its previous Riders, the A.R. Riders are like the Arm Monsters, both of them turn into Decade's weapons, but AFAIK the A.R. Riders are finisher-exclusive. Then again, it probably can feel like for example, Accel turning into bike or Drive Dimension Cab Tire separating himself.

Now I wonder how did you actually work on this off, like is this a chat or voiceover or such, I don't think that trivia like this are something that can be said.

Getting this from other source but: He was exiled for loving a human woman who gave birth to his half-breed successor, Wataru. He saw the coexistence and peace between the two races as nothing more than a farce for his son's sake. I guess other than the previous Kings in original Kiva series, he had Maya traits to be exiled.

Ah, the Kiva arc! I remember that one better than I remember the Kuuga arc, maybe due to the novelty of a child rider? Maybe due to Kiva just standing out more to me than Kuuga? (Horror monster babysitters! Monsters and humans living togther! Child Rider!) I wonder how children at the time reacted to having 2 Kivas in the space of a month - most of the Kuuga audience had probably ages out of it by then, but Kiva was just the big thing! The kids probably still have their Kivats around to play with!

True! This story was a neat exploration of how badly Wataru's dream could end up. The main differences differences here were that Wee Wataru didn't believe in a world of coexistence, since it would mean he'd need to confront his feelings of isolation and self-loathing; and Wee Wataru doesn't have the robust support system of Wataru, like all of W.A.K.E.U.P.

...yes, I realize I'm saying that Wataru's advantage is the emotional support of Nago. That's how bereft Wee Wataru's life is!

I mean, I got that. The King character is very clear in his exposition. But, like, he's only exposition. He only has a couple non-monster scenes, and they're both just him telling things to Tsukasa. He doesn't ever have a scene with his son, which makes their connection mostly implied. It's tough to care about Wee Wataru's feelings about his family in the way you could about Wataru, or Taiga, or Megumi, or whatever. Like, I don't know if Wee Wataru even mentions his dad in these two episodes? It's all lip service to one of Kiva's dominant themes, and that's disappointing.

I wonder if Decade reignited the collector market at this time. I wonder if there were kids suddenly looking for older action figures and roleplay items. I'm sure someone here knows: were there re-releases of any old merch for this show? How did Decade's merch capitalize on all these Legend Riders?

It's done in text on Discord. This is to make it more accessible for users who don't have the right equipment or don't want to speak.

I knew Figuarts started up around the same time, so I went and checked - it started the year before with the Reboot!Showa Riders and a few Kabuto Riders, but 2009 saw it take off with suits from Den-O (plus the Imagin), Kuuga, Agito, Black, Decade itself, and the remander of Kabuto. And this was when Figuarts didn't cost either an arm or your computer's loading time to order, so I'm told!

As for Decade's toyline, you do have figures of the old Riders, in the form of the Final Form Ride toys, so you too can make Wee Kiva do the splits and turn into a giant bat-bow!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltBwZPP969s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBxPyz728pU

I'm not sure when each specific release came out, but I know the Legend Rider Henshin Belt series - which had started in 2004 - had continued through to 2004; so naturally some stuff must have been released during Decade, too. I'd take a stab and guess that the Den-O and Zeronos belts may have been released around Decade, since they can't have been released much earlier than that?

It's hard to really tell how much Bandai put into legacy toys though, because Decade was partly conceived as a filler line -- in case you haven't heard this before, the reason it has 31 episodes was specifically so that Kamen Rider shows (and toylines) could debut around September instead of February; this is so it wouldn't compete with Super Sentai toylines starting at the same time.

The "main" things were definitely the aforementioned Final Form Ride figures, as well as the Legend Rider belts – basically "gets the job done" versions of all the previous main Heisei Rider's belts (except Kiva and Hibiki, I'd presume for being too recent and too not-a-transformation-device respectively) at cheaper prices than what a DX belt cost by then. Some are more glaringly simplified than others.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKc_8exLkfw

Naturally, there was plenty of other merch involving all the Riders going on as well though, from vinyl figures to candy toy lines and all kind of random stuff. I even went digging a bit through Bandai's rather comprehensive digital catalog (it seriously goes back to Kuuga) to find where Decade-related stuff starts out of curiosity, which I'd link to directly, but I guess the Japanese in the URL is a problem? So hopefully anyone else who's curious is willing to do a bit of digging as well!

Man you cannot just drop that like it's nothing; this is the most insane treasure trove I've ever seen! I was gonna watch more Liveman tonight, but... well, there goes my schedule!

So I'm actually watching Decade now, because I didn't already have a backlog of shows I wanted to do, and the Kiva arc... Decade really does just detonate some innocent Fangire in the first 5 minutes, huh? Other Riders would've had a mult-episode arc about that, Tsukasa.