Antonio is golden! He's better at comedy, full of charisma, his Morpher is more high tech, his grilled baby barracudas look delicious, he's in a rock band and he's so sparkly! Totally one of the best Gold Rangers for sure.

Oh, that makes sense.

Not entirely on her own. Natsumi did get some inspiration from listening to Eijirou and Jii talk, but then she took that inspiration and applied it to her own problem to determine how she can be a comfort to Tsukasa in a way only she can. Even if she can't help him understand his role in the world, just being on his side and someone who will always be waiting for his return, that's such an important thing to have.

Same story for me, except I started with Episode 1 cause I wanted to know what Decade's deal was. I recall seeing Den-O do the "watch on Friday as well!" thing while catching up with Gekiranger as Go-Onger was airing, but it was only through Shinkenger that I became aware of what Kamen Rider actually was. Heisei Rider anyway. I had no idea then that there were Riders before Kuuga, but that's a story for the next world.

Upon my first viewing of this episode, I had no knowledge on Sentai. When I was first getting into Tokusatsu, I too, was given the shade from people when I said "It's those Power Rangers guys."

Now I actually want to watch Sentai and enjoying it.

Anyway, I really enjoyed this episode. Initially, I did think this was a joke, but setting this up as a World without Riders, and spotlighting Tsukasa's lack of a home after failing to find one, made this one of my favorite episodes (It certainly makes me want to watch Shinkenger).

The dynamic of Rider and Sentai just works here, I don't know how else to describe it. It had just the right balance of humor, drama, and action to keep it interesting rather than peter out before kicking off again like a few of the past arcs.

There's just something hilarious about the Decade cast watching the Shinkengers appear with their reactions ranging from: "What?" to "Really?" And Decade being a Kabuki, who has to serve under Red shows how little he matters to a world's "true hero." That and AR Kuuga trying to infiltrate their base, only to get chastised by Tsukasa was amusing.

And then for Decade's Final Form Ride, which was so cool, and Decade and Red's bit at the end, showing that they're not as hostile towards Decade despite how much of a heckler Narutaki is. Overall, really good episode.

Next world is the last Showa Rider and what is considered by many (or at least when I was starting out) to be the greatest Kamen Rider Season. Kamen Rider Black!

You as well, huh? It seems so strange to have a backstory that jumps from PR to Rider and only then discovering Sentai.

But yeah, watch Sentai!

I never noticed the significance until now, but Tsukasa getting the role of a kuroko, a literal background character to Shinkenger, is very appropriate for the theme of this story.

Hey, don't be forgetting about boku no tomodachi, Amazon!

Also, the next arc is technically two worlds.

OK sorry... a habit of watching the ones that being turned into giant somehow overrides that. Though yeah even for Rider series revisit in Decade there're mistakes, like an Undead just simply got destroyed (instead of sealed) for Blade adaptation.

So even being a KR movie won't save the hijacking. Well, it's Zangetsu vs Zangetsu Shin... so Micchy stealing his belt happened long ago. He did seemingly kill Takatora right before though.

What also didn't help Gaim was that the Early-20's to Mid-30's all had different kinds of product placements placed within it. What with Showa vs Heisei, Kikaider, and the Soccer Movie taking up time and interrupting stuff.

So the Soccer Tie In came at even a worse time because we've already had two promotions before it.

Funny enough, I have hardly any memory of what Power Ranger Season I saw growing up. It's mostly due to Godzilla and later, Ultraman, that I got into Toku, leading to Rider.

Shortly after Decade, I saw the first episode of Goranger, then jumped into Lupinranger Vs. Patranger, the then current season. By Ryusoulger, I was hooked, and have since been keeping up with the current seasons (Really enjoying Zenkaiger). I do plan to watch some older Sentai, same with Rider, but I just need to find time.

Kuroko! I knew I misremembered the actual term they gave them. Some Japanese expert I am.:p


How can I forget my friendly lizard boy. I was referring to actual show date, where Black is the last Showa Rider, and simultaneously the first Heisei Rider (RX). Forgot to clarify that.

Ryusoulger is a great show to get in to the franchise. First 6 episodes are a little slow but when Wiserue shows up, everything just clicks! Time is definitely a nice thing to have, with over 40 seasons to catch up on. For me, it's just Goranger, JAKQ, Battle Fever, Dynaman, Changeman, Maskman, Turboranger (currently watching) and Gingaman. That's only 8 seasons left (excluding ToQGer) and then I'm done with Showa and Heisei Sentai! :D

Well you weren't totally wrong. Ryunosuke was present so there was still a kabuki in the picture at least.

That's where the timeline gets confusing. RX is the last show to air in the Showa Era, premiering in 1988 and continuing in to the Heisei Era in 1989, but succeeding Riders would continue to identify as Showa until Kuuga.

The split between Showa and Heisei was always less to do with eras and more just to do with how the terms fit as definitions for the split fans saw -- it's essentially just 'old' Kamen Rider, and the consistent continuous stream of seasons that have happened since Kuuga (almost all of which are ~50 episodes, and have seen no hiatuses or being cut short like say Super-1 or Amazon). There's also that Kuuga was the first Kamen Rider to be made without Ishinomori's direct involvement, as he passed away shortly before full production

Yep, in a way, the "Showa" Riders can be considered the Ishinomori Riders. Much like how the Original Ultraman to Ultraman Taro are considered "The Ultra Brothers," or how JakQ and Battle Fever J weren't initially considered Sentai until later, or even how Godzilla 1984 (The Return of Godzilla) is considered the first Heisei Godzilla film. Lots of funny Era definitions and such in Toku.

I'd say Liveman, Jetman, Zyuranger, Dairanger, Megaranger, Gingaman are a must from the 20th century shows. :rock:

There’s no avoiding it. We are now at the Showa point in Decade, even if I tried not to think about it. I am completely adrift, but luckily Switchblade is back to help me figure out what the hell is going on in these episodes of Kamen Rider Decade!

---

KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 26 - "RX! GREAT SHOCKER INVASION”
Team Decade lands in the World of RX, and Tsukasa has decided to push away all of his friends for poorly explained reasons. (Onodera lands on "mopey”, which is fairly accurate.) It's just as Tsukasa is telling Natsumi, his good friend and confidant, that he would rather be alone forever than call her a friend, that she's attacked by Dai Shocker villain Apollo Geist. As Tsukasa follows Apollo Geist in order to save Natsumi, he ends up trapped in a new world and threatened by a new hero: Kamen Rider Black!

KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 27 - "BLACKxBLACK RX”
It's Diend to the… rescue? With Kaitou's help/”help”, Tsukasa obtains Apollo Geist's Perfecter, and with it the means to revive Natsumi. A sacrifice of unknown nature (I guess it was some of Tsukasa's life force?) reunites all of Team Decade, and Tsukasa has decided to stop being a giant baby about the fact that he has friends and teammates. You'd've thought that had been covered in the last two-parter, or more gradually over the last twenty-five episodes, but you would be incorrect. With a pointless lesson relearned, our heroes have triumphed!

---

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade26a.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Look at them! Look at our shiny old heroes!
I... Man, Showa. I don't even understand what I'm looking at. Was this guy Black and Black RX? Is this the original actor? I assume it is, because he's pretty Not Young.

SWITCHBLADE: Those are indeed Tetsuo Kurata, the original Kamen Rider Black/Black RX.
This was a huge moment back in '09.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I can imagine! This felt, even for a dude who has zero knowledge of -slash- investment in Showa, like a pretty big deal. I've got a whole bunch of problems with this story, but the one thing it still manages is to feel Big.

SWITCHBLADE: You've done Doctor Who comparisons before and this is basically the equivalent of having Tom Baker show up.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: This guy's in way better shape than Tom Baker was when he returned, though.

SWITCHBLADE: Kamen Rider Black is probably the most popular and beloved series of the Showa era for anyone in Japan born after the 70s.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Beyond Black showing back up, was there much else that got homaged from those two (?) series? We see a bunch of Dai Shocker in this story, but I'm pretty sure Apollo Geist is specifically referenced as an X villain. Did Decade grab anything else from Black/RX? Stories or callbacks or anything? Was it just the one actor and Tsukasa getting mistaken for Joe the Haze? Also, who the hell is Joe the Haze?

SWITCHBLADE: It was a weird hodge podge of stuff.
Obviously we got a lot of Black RX stuff in the first episode, including a brand new Crisis robot designed by original series monster creator Keita Amemiya (citation needed).
The rhino monster was an original Black suit, I'm pretty sure.
Black's monsters were very much biological monster people, RX had multiple divisions of enemies with their own unified aesthetics, which was fantastic.
The theme of companions and Tsukasa fighting to save Natsumi is very much on point for a Kotaro homage. How much do you care about spoilers?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: For Showa? Zero. I zero percent care about Showa spoilers.

SWITCHBLADE: I assumed, but I just wanted to make sure since the Black remake is coming out next year (with the really good action director from Ultraman; I am very excited).

KAMEN RIDER DIE: That, I'll probably watch. I mean, I watched Amazonz!

SWITCHBLADE: So the core premise of Black is that a cult captures Kotaro and his brother, Nobuhiko, to turn them into a pair of cyborgs - Black Sun and Shadow Moon - who will fight to the death in order to become the next leader.
Kotaro escapes in what is, for my money, the best opening scene of any Rider series ever (dude running through the nighttime streets of Tokyo from ghostly pursuers). Nobuhiko does not.
The show's main plot, when not interspersed with standalone episodes, is about Kotaro trying to save his brother. Long story short, he completely fails.
Kamen Rider Black ends with the hero sitting alone in a cafe having flashbacks to better times with the brother he killed and the friends who fled to America to escape the cult.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Fleeing to America to escape cults? Interesting choice!

SWITCHBLADE: Golgom had kind of conquered all of Japan at that point.
Black RX - which was not intended as a sequel until Black proved to be an enormous hit - followed up on Kotaro some time later.
One of the main themes of that show was him getting a new found family: a girlfriend, an adoptive aunt and uncle, adoptive younger siblings, and a few dedicated allies in his fight.
It ended his story on a much happier and positive note, even with the aunt and uncle being killed by Crisis.
Joe the Haze, whose importance is weirdly inflated here, was one of those allies.
And yes, he did dress like that.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...oethehaze.jpeg

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Was there any significance to Joe the Haze traveling between stories? It sounds like he was only in the sequel, so why would he now be in Black's world? I'm assuming they couldn't get the actor back for some reason (hopefully nothing too sad), and that character switching worlds allowed for him to be both present and not around. But, like, they kept mentioning him and then he never showed up! That was... why would you write a story like that?

SWITCHBLADE: The relationship was very much an aniki/aibo thing: like a healthy version of Yagaruma and Kageyama.
I think the idea was to put Joe in Black's world to give him an ally again. The idea of having someone to help you fight and to be worth fighting for was a big part of these episodes and it helped tie in the stuff with Tsukasa having to fight to save Natsumi.
As for who Joe was "Sir Not Appearing in this Film," I have no idea. The actor is alive and well; he did some voices on later shows, most notably as Ohma Zi-O in that show you haven't seen.
I wonder if he was meant to appear but had to cancel last minute. It is weird that the show built him up so much when he's entirely off-screen.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's bizarre. It's a distracting choice, and it smacks of the weird storytelling choices that are all over this story for me.
I don't know that this tribute did a great job illuminating what made Black/RX special? I mostly just bounced off the non-Decade parts of this story. Black/RX mostly just read as SHOWA to me, all masculine nobility and regrettable chivalry (he won't fight Femme, which, UGH), and the show doesn't really spend enough time defining his character. The early RX scenes spend more time setting up the new threat of Dai Shocker, and then the early Black scenes are just riffing on the similarities of the two Kotaros. There's a big RX scene at the end of the first part where Kotaro acts like he's been around for the entire episode, when he has not, and so his heartfelt speech to Tsukasa plays like a parody of the kind of speeches Tsukasa gives to outsiders.
This whole story uses its tribute characters as things you're already assumed to care about, which is a mistake that I don't feel like this show has made before?
It felt way more insider-y to me than I recall feeling. Even the Sentai one made a pretty good case for caring about the Sentai cast!

SWITCHBLADE: I think part of it is that the show was banking on the "holy crap, it's Tetsuo Kurata" factor, definitely. Not only the first actual past headlining Kamen Rider to appear on the show in that capacity, but it was again one of the most popular characters that they could have brought in.
The other thing is that, as you may have guessed from the clips after the credits, we are in full-on movie set up mode.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yep!

SWITCHBLADE: Apollo Geist and Dai Shocker are Decade's version of Yuuto repeatedly kidnapping Ryotaro.
Only no one's entirely sure if this movie is canon or not.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I definitely recall Dai Shocker being a big thing in the Decade/W winter movie, so their appearance this late in the series was not a huge surprise. I guess I was just let down by how little this story made a case for Black/RX specifically, rather than an overall SHOWA atmosphere/reverence. I don't know. The guest stars didn't really do a lot for me. Did this story do justice to Black/RX in your eyes?

SWITCHBLADE: Not really, but I don't think it was supposed to.
Black has such a huge legacy to it that even RX is usually considered a letdown (personally, I view it like Drive and a show you haven't seen yet: rough start, but fantastic after it finds its voice).
As a chance to see Kotaro again and have fun stuff like the double henshin, it was pretty neat.
It is a shift towards the homages feeling more like fanservice, though, to be fair. And that is not going to get any better going forward.
I don't know if you watched all of Decade/W yet, but there's a whole thing in there with Stronger's sidekick Tackle.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Electro-Wave Human Tackle? Of course!

SWITCHBLADE: We're getting into the era of Decade that made the blueprint for all of Yonemura's Sentai/Rider team-up movies of the '10s.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: OH NO
YIKES

SWITCHBLADE: Oh yes.
There will be costumed crowds and seeming betrayals.
And a good amount of "wait, why is that monster a mook? That's Chalice!"

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, this one treated its guest-stars like some reward, and I don't feel like the storytelling earned it. Especially the Team Decade storytelling!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade26b.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's such a disappointment to have a clever, cathartic Kobayashi story -- one with evocative subtext -- and then follow it with a ham-fisted version of a very similar emotional arc.
WE JUST DID A STORY WHERE TSUKASA FINDS STRENGTH AND SUPPORT IN HIS FRIENDS.
LITERALLY JUST DID IT.
NATSUMI WAS THE LYNCHPIN FOR THAT STORY, TOO!
This one was a huge bummer for me.

SWITCHBLADE: But this one has Showa references.
I mean look, it's Apollo Geist.
From Kamen Rider X. You remember Kamen Rider X, right, children born in the late 90s?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I hated how this one started with Tsukasa not just ignoring the lesson he learned last time (which he clearly remembers in flashbacks), but openly disdaining it, all so he can then spend three-quarters of the story trying to atone for it. It's the laziest writing, man.
He hates his friends so much now that, when RX tries to suggest that fighting for your friends is actually cool, Tsukasa rips on him so hard that RX almost gives up on friendship!

SWITCHBLADE: If you wanted someone to argue that no, this is totally earned and actually a well-written step in Tsukasa's very clear and consistent narrative arc, you came to the wrong person.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Like, I could maybe see an argument that Tsukasa feels weird about his newfound support and is pushing back against his own growth, but a) that unfairly minimizes the sterling quality of his arc in the last story, and b) he doesn't just regress, he becomes KAITOU. They do the same I Hate The Word Friend line across two different episodes! TSUKASA WAS NEVER THAT BAD!
It's a choice that only exists to manufacture the regret that powers the rest of the story.

SWITCHBLADE: So from what I've heard, the original writer quit the show because he didn't want to do all of this stuff with Dai Shocker and/or the Showa era. The new writer was brought in and it often feels like he didn't really know what Tsukasa's deal was meant to be or just didn't care. It's part of why he ends up feeling like a really inconsistent character from story to story.
I'm not sure when it sets in, but there definitely feels like there was a point where a lot of people involved just threw up their hands and gave up on ever trying to put all of these disparate pieces together into something cohesive.
(The "oh fuck it, just do something" point is very obvious, but I feel like there was a middle ground in between)

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I mean, it feels like it happens HERE. There've been bum beats and weird modulations before, but this was the first story I can recall feeling upset from the jump. It's ridiculously forced drama, and it felt especially weirdly applied after the last goddamn story. I'm not sure you can/should do two stories in a row where Tsukasa learns that the home he's been looking for can be found in the people who've been supporting him?

SWITCHBLADE: Apparently you can.
For what it's worth, I forgot that this Natsumi stuff happened here.
I thought that all of this was in the next world.
But that's Amazon, wherein Tsukasa maybe learns that the real home is the friends he made along the way.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I'm pretty sure Amazon is the series that's least about friendship, which is why Fourze never crossed over with it for an HBV.
And the Narutaki scene... MAN. I was coming around on that guy, thematically, but I got nothing for a scene where he shows up to tell Tsukasa that Apollo Geist murdering Natsumi is Tsukasa's fault for being in a park on a world he was forced to visit. How in the hell is anyone supposed to take this character seriously?
And the episode plays it like a knife in Tsukasa's back!

SWITCHBLADE: That actually did remind me a little bit of Black.
It's kind of a minor meme, but Black had this recurring thing where Kotaro would stumble across some aspect of the current plot and immediately assume that it was Golgom's fault.
Put Narutaki on a motorcycle and we're basically at that level.
Although I guess Kotaro was invariably right and Narutaki is just a dick.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I would be way more into Narutaki if this show realized he was a joke, but this story very specifically does not do that. It's a story all about how terrible Tsukasa is for his friends' safety and emotional well-being, something it dealt with more thoughtfully last goddamn week.

SWITCHBLADE: Again, there was a point where the show just completely gave up on Narutaki as a concept and we are definitely well past that mark. He literally exists just to show up for his scene, blame Decade, and collect his pay check.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I'll say this, though. As repetitive as this story was, and as much of a step down as it was from the last arc, there was one smart thing it did. It was even a smart thing with Kaitou, the one character ill-served by the last story.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade26c.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: There's this whole story here about needing companions, and about friendship, and then eventually the story just goes Kaitou Tho, and I loved that.

SWITCHBLADE: It's not like he even likes Tsukasa that much, baka.
This is basically Kaitou going full tsundere on Tsukasa and I am 100% here for it.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Oh, agreed. The only parts of this story that worked for me were the Tsukasa/Kaitou scenes. Kaitou's so pissy whenever Tsukasa brings up his other relationships!
Like he doesn't know which one Natsumi is!
It's cute and funny, that whole thread, but it's also proving the story's thesis that everyone needs someone in their lives, or life isn't worth protecting/living.
Kaitou needs Tsukasa, even if it's just to infuriate.
(It is NOT just to infuriate.)

SWITCHBLADE: There is a definite romantic subtext between the two in later appearances. That first Super Hero Taisen movie as a strong example. I'm not sure if it started in these episodes, but I know that it was both very intentional on the part of Kaitou's actor and that it is definitely very apparent here.
The whole "here, I saved your girlfriend. Maybe pay attention to me now" is very, very them.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a little more subtle in previous stories, but it's there. It's subtext, previous to this story.
This time, it's just Kaitou moping about them only ever fighting when Kaitou initiates it, and Tsukasa will only do a form change on special occasions. They used to fight all the time! Where did the passion go?

SWITCHBLADE: I tend to read them as characters who do care about each other, but they don't always make that their top priority if they have something else they need to do. It's not healthy, but it seems to work for them.
They're that couple who are only together when they happen to be in the same place at the same time.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: The only part of this story I appreciated was when it was about Kaitou trying to get Tsukasa to take their hideously dysfunctional relationship seriously.

SWITCHBLADE: I got more out of it, personally, but that's because I really like Black and Black RX so it was hard not to watch all of those scenes with a big smile on my face (even when the show forgot to do the lightsaber effects on RX's sword).

KAMEN RIDER DIE: The Revolcane? Was that his weapon?

SWITCHBLADE: Yep.
Supposed to glow blue.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I KNOW A SHOWA THING NOW!

SWITCHBLADE: I am very proud of you.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Anything else from this story you wanted to mention? We got to at least see RX's bike, even if he never rode it.

SWITCHBLADE: I do wish we got to see Black's bike, too. Forget Joe the Haze and Nobuhiko, Battle Hopper will always be Kotaro's truest bro.
Other than that, though, not really. Like I said, we're kind of in the phase of the show where it's just killing time until W starts.
I have about as much enthusiasm left as the writer.
Or, tease for next time, as the actor they hired to play Amazon.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a little funny how often we keep seeing Fangires and Imagins rather than the other shows' monsters, but I guess the newer suits are just closer to the front of the trailer.

SWITCHBLADE: Hadn't thought of that, but that's a fair point.
Honestly, I wasn't sure what the non-Fangire was.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: They called it out as an Imagin, but I wouldn't've gotten it either.

SWITCHBLADE: Could've been a Worm. Could've been an Undead.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Unfortunately, it wasn't. We are stuck with the last two years worth of monster suits, just like I'm stuck in Showa. NEXT TIME! We move to the World of Amazon, where I'll hopefully learn about friendship a little more than I learn about deforestation. Who knows! We'll find out soon as we continue our Journey through Decade!

This is pretty good timing to post this; today - October 9th - is the 33rd anniversary of Kamen Rider Black's final episode. Which... okay, 33 isn't a huge deal; but matching the last episode date! That's something!

Black is an awesome awesome show that I hope to revisit some day and that I hope Black Sun can do justice. Sometimes I'm not sure it got its themes down completely and other times I feel it got it better than any Kamen Rider show before or after. Everything in the final stretch a beautiful crescendo of life and tragedy.

I don't know if it came across here! Frankly though I, again, was just having way too much fun to care. Black and RX team up, Apollo Geist shows up for no reason and Diend's gun somehow summons the actual guy now, huh?! Decade is a party and sometimes that's all I care about.

Talking of the Black/RX double henshin scene, uh. Fun fact. That's stock music playing during it! Bit of a choice and it's one that'll unfortunately also show up about 12 years down the line, but hey; can't deny it's a good track

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_Cx4v3SGlw

And that's fair! It is okay to be given this celebratory return of a beloved actor reprising a beloved role and feel like celebrating. That's clearly what this story was looking to accomplish!

It just... man, that wasn't what this show used to be. It used to be something that evoked the original in a way that made you appreciate it, even if you never experienced it. Here, it's just Hey It's That Guy, and that's less than what I used to get. I wasn't really given a taste of Black's world or themes or troubles, even if there's an overall sense of the show trying to play up a found-family theme (probably) and a frenemy rivalry (maybe). It's hard to come out of this episode feeling like Black/RX were distinctly anything.

It's awesome that people who love Black/RX are able to see an old hero come back for a victory lap. I would not dream of taking that away from people. I just sort of wish there was something for the rest of us.

Thing is, though; I watched Decade before Black! Way before Black! I had a general sense of what happened in it, you can't go long in this fandom without hearing about Shadow Moon; but I hadn't a clue as to its specifics (and meanwhile RX remains one of the few Rider shows I've yet to watch). So for me it very much was a mystery what was going on here and I still had a great time with it

Might just be me, then! Glad to hear you had a good time with this story!

RX is a really underrated show. Once it gets past the early episodes where it tried too hard to be lighthearted and silly, it got really good. I cannot recommend the Demon World Princess arc enough.

This was a fun bit of episodes.

Also to me, honestly, I figured this was just continuing off of Shinkenger's stuff. Like the Shinkenger stuff was more about Tsukasa deciding even if the world doesn't need a Kamen Rider, he as Tsukasa will still help out with his powers with the friends part slowly worming it's way into the stuff in this part. He was a bit exaggerated I'll admit, but that's what I felt they were trying to go for.

That being said I had a lot of fun, I had ended up watching this before Black/Black RX but seeing Kotaro with his original actor made me want to start up Black/Black RX. And they are thus far the only Showa Series I've seen! Okay I lied I've seen basically the starting 2 episodes of every Showa series but that's besides the point.

The real meat here was the Tsukasa stuff, and I did enjoy Daiki and his little "contest" with Tsukasa in this one. I also found it hilarious how much of in a rush Tsukasa was in the first part, how he rapidly taps the K-Touch is funny to me.

Not much else to say but in hindsight it makes sense as to why they made Black and RX separate worlds. Because they wanted to do that cool team up scene at the end, which I really liked.

Next set of episodes though, I recall the particular monster here and he's probably my favorite of the ones that show up in Decade. We'll get to that and Amazon's lackluster acting, next time though.

Oh I fully intend to -- I've certainly heard the reputation is mixed, but I want to watch every Kamen Rider show eventually and RX seems like one I'd have a good time with :)

I feel like the team-up scene was a fun outcome of them not wanting to choose between doing Black or RX, and by doing both they could have that moment. This would probably have been a much less celebratory arc if they'd needed to exclude one of the two suits, and by doing both they got the team-up they could never do otherwise. Possibly a happy accident!

Keeping Black and RX as discrete characters also allowed them to do a little bit of symmetry between Kaitou and Natsumi, as both of them save Tsukasa from a Rider. It's just that Natsumi does it in an affirming way, while Kaitou... maybe less affirming.

Kamen Rider Black IS the quintessential Kamen Rider. It was, it is, and it will remain as the quintessential Kamen Rider show. In all seriousness, PLEASE watch Kamen Rider Black in its entirety if you have not folks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yhl-XNQY0k

Sounds like someone's forgetting the Faiz Hyper Battle Video.

What? This must be Gorgom's doing!

First the Power Rangers, now the Masked Rider.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=TG42jzoGwsk

But in all seriousness, I had some fun with this two-parter. Probably because RX was the one series featured in Decade that I had watched any of beforehand.

Next time:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=rm6bcD5fYaE

Just like Blade, I haven't watched Black or RX yet either, so I can't compare these Worlds to the originals.

However, I can agree that the story of this arc is kind of lame. I can see it's trying to keep the momentum of character development, like if the last arc was about Natsumi giving Tsukasa a place to return to, then this arc is about Tsukasa having to protect that place, protect Natsumi, learn not to take his friends for granted. It's a good idea, but sadly, the execution is poor.

Kaito is especially awful and petty here, stealing the Perfecter while Natsumi's life is at stake, just so Tsukasa will have to pay attention to him. Why does this guy feel so entitled when all he does is get in the way and in the case of the last world, literally cause all the problems? Switchblade calling this the start of Yonemura's SHW madness is pretty apt.

I take back what I said about the World of Diend being my least favorite, at least that was vaguely interesting. I recall being indifferent to the Worlds of Black and RX in my previous watches, but I think I forget the true mediocrity of this arc. It's unfortunate, since this is my introduction to Showa Rider and maybe the reason why I haven't got around to watching Black or RX yet, due to their poor first impression on me.

It's very simple.

Minami Kotaro enjoys life as he should, until he encounters a golfing club. Said golfing club is attracting many children, very strange. He of course suspects it to be Golgom, and turns out to be right! Golgom has concocted a plan to use the golfing club to lure children and in turn... Uh... LOOK! Nobuhiko is here, telling Minami Kotaro to join him! Ahhh Find out next time in Kamen Rider BLACK!

No, seriously, Black and RX are ridiculous in its plot it's hilarious. There is one where he suspects a kid's ice cream falling to be Golgom and he's completely right!

Of course, every Kamen Rider fan knows golf is truly the most evil villain of the franchise!

Sounds like he has the Go-On Wings' sixth sense.

It also lead to them showing up as separate characters in all of the team up movies that don’t involve multidimensional travel, which always bothers me.

Joe the Haze was the absolute best thing in Black RX. Don't @ me.

Glad you enjoyed it!

I can see that. This story... it just doesn't do a lot to set up Black or RX's premise, beyond vague comments about "comrades". It doesn't really pop as a world. The Rider and monster costumes are neat, and that's about it? If Switchblade weren't around for me to pester, I'm not sure I'd've gotten anything from Black or RX's storyline.

That doesn't sound great!

Eh, I'm pretty happy with that. Main Rider lineups are less about the characters themselves and more about representing the shows; so you've got the main leads of every main show and movie up until that point. And Riderman. They never really make much sense anyhow when you start thinking just a little about the circumstances of each character when we last saw them so it never bothers me that there's just two Kotaro Minamis running around

So, before I talk about these episodes, I just want to share that there's a story in the production notes about how, since Decade would be having loads of Riders and thus more Rider Kicks than usual, one of the assistant directors came up with the idea of making a special stand specifically for filming them (basically glorified chairs painted blue or green for chroma keying), and this invention was dubbed the "Fish Stand" (sakana dai), after the nickname Ryuuta Tasaki gave said assistant director, Sakana-kun. None of this means anything, of course, and yet it somehow still feels like fate anyway. This too is all Decade's fault.

I really enjoy these episodes by the way, both originally, not having seen either BLACK, and now, having seen them both. I can appreciate what Yonemura was trying to do, in that it seems like he was, very unexpectedly for this show, trying to make it a direct thematic follow-up to the previous story, looking at in a broad sense as Shinkenger being about Natsumi's growth, and having RX focus on Tsukasa's. There were some bits early on where my feelings were similar to Die's, but as it went along, I found myself coming around to the way it put a spotlight on Tsukasa's vulnerability. (And his romance with Kaitou, but that's a whole other thing.) I'll readily agree the writing doesn't compare to the brilliant touch Kobayashi can lend a script (because of course I would), but on its own merits, I think this is a pair of episodes with solid initiative, and despite fumbling the execution in spots, they still deliver on the fun, which is about as Decade as Decade can be.

I especially love the midpoint cliffhanger this time, where Tsukasa is separated from Black and ends up in a fight with Black. I can say from experience that the way this episode handles the fanservice totally works without... well, without any particular prior knowledge, at least. I knew BLACK was a big deal, and that was about it originally, and what I think these episodes nail with the returning characters is making them seem cool, even if that's as deep as it goes. Heck, I still barely know Apollo Geist, but just from Decade, I've always thought he was pretty rad. And that double Koutarou transformation is quite the treasure, don't you think? You probably don't need much context to see a Kamen Rider teaming up with his own self and think it's awesome.

On the other hand, between Yonemura writing, Kaneda directing, and the origins of haphazardly assembled bad guy super-groups with Dai-Shocker, these episodes kinda ARE like Proto Hero Taisen, just like Switchblade said, so... well, what else can I say, besides that this, too, is all Decade's fault. :p

I think I'm at a point where I can acknowledge that everything you've said is cool, while also not really caring about it. It's awesome that everyone else -- new and old Black/RX fans alike -- were thrilled at the Showa love this two-parter celebrated, but it just didn't have an impact on me. I mentioned before (I think) that I don't have the receptors in my brain to appreciate Sentai, and it's maybe the same with Showa. These two guys doing their Henshin poses, Rider Kicking monsters... I know that what I'm watching is supposed to be exhilarating, but I don't feel anything special. It's okay? It's still tokusatsu, and that's neat, but I don't care about the characters. They're old, and they're legends, and that's all academic to me. It doesn't impart any joy, seeing them in action again.

This Showa stuff... it feels like going to a birthday party where you don't know the person whose birthday it is. It's full of things that matter to people, but not me. It's hugely important, but I also don't care. I can feign interest, but I'm also checking my watch.

I am so glad that everyone enjoyed these episodes, sometimes to the degree that it made them seek out the source material. It didn't do anything for me, though.

Hey, Apollo Geist, he's cool!

Extremely cool. I recently finished X, and... man that guy was so easily the best part of it. Gotta admire a rival who announces a duel by covering your funeral costs and rent!

X is such a gem of a show. Another one that never gets the acclaim it deserves.

I wouldn't dare putting you through the 9 Showa shows including the ZX one-shot and RX, but it's a shame that you are not interested in Black. I can understand not seeing the first Kamen Rider show in its entirety since it is almost 100 episodes.

Aside from the story I love the aesthetics and mechanical elements of X as a rider these days. The whole setup process is fun to watch.

To answer the question about Black and RX appearing together in every crossover, are we sure RX isn't actually Dek Stuart from Masked Rider (I haven't seen it, but I know the guy's name) behind the mask?

Just kidding, I strangely enjoyed seeing Black and RX appearing as separate characters, possibly more, as Kurona said about them being more about their shows than their characters. Or this could be a way for some people (from what I've sometimes heard) to dissociate the two since RX isn't as good as Black as a sequel.

We now have the reveal of Dai-Shocker, an amalgamation of every Showa Kamen Rider villain organization, with our first revamped enemy general, Apollo Geist. Now I haven't seen X or either Black shows (except for the first two episodes of Black, which set up the story rather nicely) so I don't have any idea how this world stacks up with the originals, but I honestly can't recall much of the story in this one. Which is funny, because I've had better memory on some of the previous episodes, but here, I'm drawing a blank.

As for how I feel about the Showa Riders, maybe it's because I grew up watching and loving the old Showa Godzilla movies, or just cheesy retro sci-fi flicks as a kid, I find the charm of the Showa Riders appealing? Even though I haven't actually seen a full season, with the farthest I've gotten with one was Amazon. And funny enough, he's the next world! But I can sort of understand Die's disassociation/disinterest of Showa Riders and Sentai, since I was almost of the same mindset when I was starting out, but I've come to enjoy both of these and appreciate them, even if I still haven't seen them, I do want to get around to watching them eventually.

As I make my way through the dark, foreboding jungles of Showa, it's nice to have a friend at my side. In that spirit, please welcome back SH RANGER as we explore the World of Amazon!

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KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 28 - "AMAZON, FRIEND”
Amazon lonely. Amazon protect world, but everyone hate Amazon. Then Decade arrives! Decade is new friend for Amazon. Then Diend arrives! Decade stops talking to Amazon as much. Amazon is still happy, though, because Masahiko is a newer friend. Then Masahiko betray Amazon for Dai-Shocker. Now Amazon is all alone forever, and Dai-Shocker have Amazon's Gigi Armlet. Amazon sad!

KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 29 - "THE STRONG NAKED STRONGMAN”
Amazon not name this episode. Amazon sorry it named that, but Toei not ask Amazon for input. One more problem for Amazon this episode, Amazon guesses. Amazon still sad from last episode, but when Amazon find out that Masahiko is sad about making Amazon sad, Amazon want to help. Amazon glad to see that Masahiko care about Amazon. Makes Amazon want to fight for Masahiko and beat Dai-Shocker! Amazon and Decade become such good friends that Dai-Shocker is defeated, and Decade even talks about Amazon instead of flirting with Diend. Amazon has been all over world, and seen a lot of flirting, but HOO BOY. Anyway, Amazon happy! Amazon have new friends in Masahiko and Ritsuko! Also, Decade and friends are all about to die in Rider War, maybe, but that not Amazon's problem anymore.

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https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...decade28a1.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Look at her! Look at our shiny new Amazon!
Oh, hell, wrong one.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...decade28a2.png

SH RANGER: Tomoko knows how to say A-MA-ZON correctly though!

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's this guy. He's way worse!

SH RANGER: You don't like him?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I found him just this side of narcoleptic.
To be fair, Tomoko as Amazon is in my Top 5 Kamen Rider things of all time.

SH RANGER: Tomoko as Amazon is pretty great for sure. The Amazon here though, yeah, he's not that enthusiastic. But the world's kind of a terrible place for him, so I can understand why he'd be a little depressed about everything.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: He's pitched way down, enthusiasm-wise, and I do get why that's the case. It's just, it doesn't modulate a whole lot through the story? Him shouting A-MA-ZON is done at about the same level as him telling Tsukasa that there's nowhere he feels safe. I'm okay with a mopey Amazon (I watched Amazons! Jin Takayama is great, and the other guy is practically comatose!), but this wasn't a story where I felt like the actor was conveying his character's arc very well.

SH RANGER: Haruka and Jin say amazon way too inconsistently though. The guy who says it best is probably the OG Amazon, followed by Tomoko. I suppose he doesn't have a very wide emotional range, but I thought he was pretty sympathetic and otherwise likable character. I liked how his whole problem is a very specific parallel to the problem Tsukasa has about not being accepted. Honestly, I found his simplicity kind of endearing in its own way.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, while I don't think this is one of my favorite stories, it's at least straightforward in its approach and relevant to Tsukasa's arc. Amazon has a childlike innocence and faith in people, which is difficult to disregard. Being mad at Amazon is like being mad at a puppy.
Did Amazon's goals work for you here? Him trying to find one person in this godforsaken world that's worth believing in? I never saw the original Amazon series, but my understanding is that Friendship was a big part of it. Do you think this arc delivered on that?

SH RANGER: I mean, all the other Riders are quick to call Decade a devil and try fighting him, but Amazon sees him as a friend pretty much immediately, since they're both outcasts to society who want to save it from the real enemy. It's a refreshing approach to have someone actually decide to befriend him. And if there's anybody in the Showa Era who's all about making new friends, it's Amazon. I definitely think Amazon's goals worked. They started as just traveling the world looking for his own place to belong and then he was unlucky to get caught up in Geddon and their alliance with Dai Shocker. Between this arc and the Fourze HBV, I think this is definitely why I ended up watching Amazon as my first Showa Rider show, due to how much I sympathize with him as a character. Like, he's Showa Decade in this world. That's an easy way to get my interest.
They even have their shows being the shortest of their respective eras in common.
Unless we count ZX.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: He definitely feels like a reaction to Showa's (to my mind) stereotypical Grim Masculinity, where it's all about stoically suffering for justice. This guy just wants to have friends? And give them piggy-back rides? It's a lot more emotionally-accessible than all of my previous interactions with Showa.

SH RANGER: That's how it was in the original show as well. Tachibana Tobei was basically like, "this guy is the new Rider?!" after previously working with genius scientists and doctors, then he had to work with some illiterate rainforest guy. Amazon was a very different Rider for his time and you can see that difference here as well, with how much he contrasts the other Riders who Tsukasa met before.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, I mean, Tsukasa just had two different versions of the exact same guy try to immediately murder him, so it's refreshing to not have go through the standard Decade Is The Devil Wait Maybe Not routine, even if we're still not spared a Narutaki cameo.
It's nice to have a nice Rider on this show!

SH RANGER: Of course!

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's just, the trade-off is a world where everyone else is a villain.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade28b.png

SH RANGER: Yeah, that's pretty unfortunate.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's funny as hell, though. We'd eventually come back to Dai-Shocker Took Over The World in a few Phase 2 movies, and I honestly love it as a gimmick. I love the juxtaposition of the mundane and the fantastic, which is what you get when Dai-Shocker has to, like, have an award ceremony for children.

SH RANGER: Shocker always have a bunch of weird ideas for schooling and how to run a society. Dai Shocker using kids to keep tabs on the Riders is pretty much like the opposite of the Rider Scouts. They're desperately trying to stay relevant, even though their era has long been over.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, I mean, I could spend an hour digging into the hilarious minutiae of Dai Shocker's society (the ability to get whistles out to all citizens speaks to some solid infrastructure), but I also appreciated how it managed to be more than just a joke or a movie tie-in or a bunch of faceless baddies. There's a point the story is trying to make about how people who can't trust each other invariably put that trust into organizations instead, and that's not healthy for society.
Am I reading too much into this? Did you get that out of this story?

SH RANGER: I think that was exactly the point of the story and I can see a lot of the same themes in SHW GP with how Shocker are able to effectively convince a lot of people through propaganda that Riders are evil and can't be trusted. That their chaotic methods of heroism are unstable and can only bring ruin to the world. It's something a lot of Riders have to deal with, having to fight for people who hate them and see them as the enemy and it's part of what makes being a Rider a lonely mission. But it also takes courage to take a leap of faith like that, to trust in people and think critically, without letting your judgment be clouded.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It makes for a sweet story, though, where Amazon's indefatigable belief in basic human decency runs up against, like, institutionalized betrayal. I thought Masahiko's story had a nice amount of moves to it, where even after being betrayed by Dai-Shocker, he'd rather give them another shot than admit he was the bad guy in the story.

SH RANGER: Yeah, Masahiko was in denial. It's not easy to admit everything you believed in was a lie, so he chose to hold on to his misplaced trust in Dai Shocker and only saw the error of his ways when they betrayed him a second time.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I think he'd've probably given them another chance, were it not for the terrifically literal All-Humans-To-Monsters Program.
I adore the stupidity of both the name and the scheme.

SH RANGER: It's very literal. I wonder how happy that random guy was to be turned into a Makamou.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: He seemed into it? I don't want to shame anyone for their dreams.

SH RANGER: Haha, yeah, I guess so.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a very very very Showa scheme, to me. Just, like, let's turn everyone in the world into monsters. It's not even trying for subtext anymore.

SH RANGER: They're all about their Remodified Humans, so why not just get rid of humanity entirely and create a new race of all-kaijins? That's probably what they were thinking.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's all about surrounding yourself with people you can trust, even if you're a monster. On that note, let's talk about our hero!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade28c.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I wonder how Tsukasa can even tell the difference between the normal loathing and distrust he faces, versus the societal-level loathing and distrust he faces here.

SH RANGER: Good point. He did have an angry mob chasing him in the World of Diend, so it's not like this is his first time.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I guess it's the whistles.

SH RANGER: But the major difference is those people were driven by fear or brainwashing, while the people here genuinely think he's a bad guy and want him out of their world.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Fair.
I don't know if this one was a great Tsukasa story? It was one of those arcs where he's around for it, but he doesn't really go on much of a journey during it. Amazon's there to be a parallel character, to help express Tsukasa's concerns, but the status quo for Tsukasa doesn't really change over these episodes. Did you feel differently?

SH RANGER: I felt like this was a better arc for his development than the last one, even if it is just him reaffirming a lot of what he already believes. He still shows some surprised reaction, like to Masahiko supposedly defecting from Dai Shocker and thinks about what it means to believe in something strongly, even if it's wrong. I think he finds someone to relate to in Amazon and becomes stronger by seeing his strength and commitment to what he believes is right.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I guess? It didn't feel like this story tried to pull anything new out of Tsukasa. It sort of interrogates the difference between running away and continuing your journey, but that's never really been Tsukasa's dilemma. He's looking for a place where he belongs, just like Amazon, but (excluding last story's badly written first act) he was never abandoning anything or anyone to get it. In this story, he's... I don't know, he's shaken a bit, but he isn't refining his worldview or coming to new realizations. I didn't feel like we saw any new facets of Tsukasa or anyone else from Team Decade in this story.

SH RANGER: There's a very specific scene in there that I can't go into detail about until you watch the movie, but other than that, I still think there are some new sides to Tsukasa. Like he's suffering from the consequences of this journey, that he's destined to be hated no matter where he travels and even if he meets a chill Rider like Amazon, the world will have something else to throw at him. And hearing from Amazon who traveled across many continents and still never found what he was looking for, it makes him wonder about the futility of his journey. The fear that he's never going to find where he belongs. Even though running away wasn't really in the foreground before, I think that's a part of Tsukasa, where he's getting tired of the journey and never actually feeling like he's moving anywhere.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I think it's that... I sort of felt like the end of the Heisei Worlds part of the show was the start of Tsukasa's never-ending journey. We were done with the expectation of reward, and now we were going to have a more open-ended story. Even here, Photo Studio Hayao Miyazaki makes a quick joke about the journey being its own reward, and I never thought that was a joke! I thought that was where the show had positioned itself! So coming back on Tsukasa's sense of isolation and desire to find out where he came from... it just didn't feel like what this show was about anymore? It felt like it grew beyond that.

SH RANGER: But the problem of Tsukasa's missing past wasn't resolved at the end of the 9 worlds. Eijirou's right, the journey is more important than the destination, since it's the important morals learned during the journey that bring Tsukasa closer to his destination. And the destination isn't really so much a physical place as it is a new way of thinking about the world. So what Tsukasa's really looking to find is more important than his world, rather it's his identity as Kamen Rider Decade which he's trying so hard to find and secure. You mentioned before that he already found that in the World of Negatives, but I'm not sure we can close the chapter on that. There's still a lot more that Tsukasa has to find on his journey if he can ever feel content with himself and the when of that might be what's getting to him lately. The open-ended nature of this arc is exactly what's making him question himself so much.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: That's a fair interpretation! I don't know if I'm ever going to love how focused Tsukasa is on discovering his past -- and I think various arcs are pretty ambivalent about it -- but it's definitely the mode this show is in now, as evidenced by this arc.
Anything else from this one you felt like touching on? Onodera gets to Henshin, which feels unusual enough to be worth acknowledging.

SH RANGER: I do have about 4 things I'd like to talk about briefly. Since you brought it up, we'll start with the Kuuga action. And not just any Kuuga, but Titan Kuuga! Sure is nice to see Yuusuke getting into the action in this last third of the show.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's maybe the only time we've seen Onodera do a Form Change since his debut?

SH RANGER: Yeah, that's what I thought as well.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I think the last Kuuga Form Change was a Tsukasa one!

SH RANGER: Pegasus in the World of Kabuto, right?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: That's the last one I can think of, yeah.

SH RANGER: So what did you think of the "powered-up" Diend card that Narutaki was hyping up?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Not much? I assume it's Diend Complete, but there's so little to go on that I put it out of my head as soon as the scene was over. It's insane to me that Narutaki would try to pay off the ENORMOUSLY UNTRUSTWORTHY Kaitou in order to neutralize Decade, but I'm also well past the point of being surprised at Narutaki's nonsensical schemes.
Oh, was it just Illusion? Was that it?

SH RANGER: No, Diend Complete has its own version of the K-touch. The card Narutaki gave him was just the illusion card which he used to steal the Gaga Armlet, before Decade immediately stole it back. So the card really did end up being pretty useless.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, it's a power Decade stopped using seven or eight episodes ago.

SH RANGER: And not even that impressive. Kind of like Grease using two Twin Breakers and calling that a power-up.
There are some aesthetic differences with some of the things in the World of Amazon compared to the original. Like how the Gigi and Gaga Armlets are designed to be used together, that's especially literal in the show, where Amazon wears them both on the same arm by attaching them together. How do you feel about the Gaga Armlet's position?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Hmm. It worked for me? The Armlets weren't really clearly defined here, other than Get Both If You Can. Like, could Amazon not Henshin without it? That's what I assumed was happening.

SH RANGER: He needed the Gigi Armlet to henshin, since his Condoler is just a utility belt. The Gaga Armlet just makes him stronger and you might consider it the Showa equivalent of getting your Final Form. I originally thought it was strange for the OG Amazon to combine the Armlets after expecting him to wear them on both arms, but then I thought it seemed to fit the Incan motif a little better.
This world's version of Jyumenki is also nowhere as terrifying as the original either. I think the aesthetics of Amazon in general are pretty cool for how different it is, but even his modern SIC design can't get the details the way I'd prefer it to be. Do you like the Amazon suit?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I do, mostly. My experience with that show's aesthetic is definitely filtered through the Amazons version, since that's the show I watched. The main motifs are great, and I love that helmet. The whole thing works, even if I'm partial to the Amazons redesign.

SH RANGER: I personally love the half organic half tech approach of Amazon Omega. Amazons has some good suits.
Anyway I think that's it!

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I appreciate your help on this Amazon story! You're a good friend! (fumbles to make Amazon's hand-motion for Friend) Next stop for Team Decade: RIDER WAR!*

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*PROGRAMMING NOTE - The characters' next stop may be the Rider War, but this thread has a whole bunch of non-episodic Decade content to get through first! I'll be soloing the Summer Movie And Friends content this weekend, with the following schedule:

-Net Movies on Thursday the 14th
-All-Riders Vs Dai-Shocker on Friday the 15th
-HBV on Saturday the 16th

...and then we'll reconnect with Zatyme for the final two episodes of Decade. I think I'll be doing the Decade/W winter movie, just the Decade part, solo for the final Episode Post of the thread.

That's the next couple weeks all charted out! See you then!

I recently done a rewatch of Amazon and actually just finished it last week so it's kinda fun seeing it here. Extremely lovely show with a heart where it counts; I think the best way I can put it is that having him in Fourze's HBV was an extremely good choice!

World of Amazon felt... to me at the time, it felt like it was basically a random choice. Like, they needed a vehicle to highlight Dai-Shocker's invasion of the worlds and so they picked a random rider -- and with all of Heisei done and Black/RX last episode, I guess they felt Amazon would be the most fun? Unlike Black/RX I had actually seen Amazon before this, pretty early into me watching Rider; and I never quite found myself attached to this arc. I guess it's a mix of it feeling like a 'random' choice and Amazon's actor being, uh, yeah.

Relatively fun time though! I like how they did their spin on Amazon's friendship with Masahiko through the lens of his being ingrained into a fascist society. Their bond is the highlight of Amazon and... given previous worlds have had things like Kagami not being important at all in Kabuto; it's pretty surprising to see this preserved. I feel this one's way more accurate to the original Amazon than any other world aside from of course Den-O and Shinkenger.