I was on a bit of an Ex-Aid kick lately myself, so I sat down to finally rewatch this one for what I think might have somehow been the first time. I say "somehow" because this movie left such a positive impression on me the first time I'm surprised it didn't become one of those Rider movies I come back to at least every couple years. Just a real fantastic, Mega Max-y crossover between a bunch of cool shows that's neat for all the reasons Die pointed out and also, the most important reason, I got to see Haruto onscreen with Takeru, as though Kamen Rider Taisen didn't spoil me enough when it came to Wizard team-ups.

Plus, as people who hate Ghost will be happy to tell you, Takeru in general is in top form here. Even on a rewatch, I found myself struck by just how much respect Yuuya Takahashi's script has for a show he didn't have anything to do with. It's not just that Takeru is cool. It's not even just that he has good scenes of bonding with Emu. It's that basically Emu's entire character arc in the movie is about his frustration that he isn't anywhere near as cool as Takeru, this dude who keeps throwing himself in front of explosions to protect the people he cares about even at the cost of his own life. ...Which he almost loses, again... but like most times this happens to Takeru, it works way better for the narrative than it's given credit for. I really dig how all throughout the movie, people are telling Takeru not to push himself too much, building up to that ending, because it conveys this idea that like, Takeru was always working that hard, back in his show. That he gives more than he even has to give. It's neat. This movie goes out of its way to treat all the Riders in it like proper superstars, and it's kind of no wonder Emu feels a little insecure! Which, considering this is a movie from early in his show, makes plenty of sense as the focus for him, too! Lots of real neat things about this movie!

In general, Sakamoto seems to love bringing back people from previous things he's worked on when he has the chance. Just as an example from Ex-Aid, even, Lazer's debut in episode 4 had Ultraman Ginga as the patient of the week, and then we just had Ultraman Victory in two episodes of Revice by him only a couple weeks back!

Takahashi only supervised this script (what exactly that means, I’m not sure). The writer was Minato Takano (who also wrote a vast majority of Ex-Aid’s spin offs, plus the MCH two-parter and Project: Thouser special for Zero-One).

As for the movie, I think it’s got an alright plot and the form changing fight is cool, but I don’t really have any strong feelings for it. But I do have something to talk about regarding the next instalment in this review section)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachmen...62F2EB613.webp

The credits of the movie seem to disagree? Although I suppose it would explain why Takeru is so good in this if Takano was ghostwriting it. :p

I rewatch this one periodically and always have a great time with it - it's super fun and treats all of its guest stars well and it treats its main cast well and then there's the added bonus of every time Emu angsts about being Bad At His Day Job I get to shout at the screen that he is, in fact, bad at his day job. Emu. Sweetie. Takeru is in there clearly in shock and starting to decompensate - look at his vitals! Look at them! This is literally your job! - and instead of trying to fix it you are engaged in an inner monologue about how you are bad at your job. I cannot tell if the writers did this on purpose, I really can't, but oh my god. It's either brilliant or the most hilarious coincidence I have ever seen in Kamen Rider.

...I think I need to go watch it again, :lol

Should be working, but I can check back in on this thread for a minute.

All Gaim post-series appearances are priceless because they have to note that Kouta is an actual Space God now. It's an obligatory - but very fun - beat.

He's a sweet boy.

Yeah, a lady lieutenant in tiny shorts... he didn't need to sign it.

There're an awful lot of non-suit fights in this movie, which I'm of two minds on. On the one hand, they all look great. Seeing Emu do a handspring backflip is a nice reminder that he's only a clutz when he's not in fight.

But, on the other hand, there were at least two point s in the movie where I was like Wait Can Emu Not Henshin Either? Like, you're fighting mad scientists with genocidal designs! And superpowers! It's okay to just Henshin into your superpowered form! You don't need to wait until your ass is 85% kicked!

No, that's really nice, that Takeru finally gets to be the badass Legend Rider in this movie. Emu's a sweet boy, too, so it's fitting that his Legend Rider would be the Rider who hugged someone so well he prevented an apocalypse. Takeru's definitely going to be his icon from this batch of Legend Riders. (Sorry.)

Like, Emu wouldn't value Space God Powers or Crime-Stopping. He wants to bring people hope, true, but not as much as he wants people to get the chance to live. Someone who'll risk everything - including his own life - to ensure that other people get to stay alive; to ensure that they can make their lives happier? That's what both Emu and Takeru want!

I'm looking forward to this Thursday!

Every time I watch anything with the full roster of Ex-Aid Riders, I'm reminded of how good this cast is; both in terms of composition, and chemistry.

Emu is the most emotionally healthy doctor in this movie because he's fine saying how much he wants his patients to survive and be happy. Hiiro and Taiga spend most of the film trying to one-up each other in a Worst Bedside Manner competition, while Kiriya's just, like, excited about a new and deadly pathogen to investigate. Emu's literally the only Ex-Aid Rider who grieves at the capture of their patient (Hiiro straight-up uses him as bait), and that's pretty great? I've always enjoyed how every Rider on Kamen Rider Ex-Aid exists on a spectrum that spans from Control to Service - which are the two guiding attributes of literally every character on the show - and this movie does a great job at keeping them all differentiated.

Hey, it's the movie where Japan decided to make Pixels, but better!

You would normally not expect a movie with the subtitle Vs. Dr. Pacman to be anything but a joke, and yet, this is one of my favorite Kamen Rider movies.

I've never seen Ghost, but once again, I didn't need to since this movie is more rooted in Ex-Aid more than anything else, so I was able to keep up with this movie very well. But as many people have come to acknowledge, Ghost has some amazing suits, and the one he gets during the final fight is probably one of my favorites next to Grateful, Mugen, and Ryoma, to name a few. Even if the way he gets the form is, as somebody put it, the power of bollocks.

Also, there's Raiha (one of Ultraman Geed's heroine)! But honestly, the villains and how they fit in work well with Ex-Aid's season yet also not a requirement to the main story, in how they touch up on the Bugster Virus, while leaving the major developments to the show proper. Even if the Pacman motif was only for the first half, I find it funny how there's swarms of Pacmen eating people, then merge into a giant one, whose ultimate weakness is Ghost! This movie is pure genius in how that works out, not only making it fitting for Ex-Aid's Videogame theme, but being able to tie in Ghost to fit in, despite how far from similar they are, just makes this a *chef's kiss*.

Of course, I can't forget Wizard, who just works wonderfully, albeit slightly shoehorned, and Drive, whose season I have yet to watch, but had fun seeing him here regardless. Gaim sort of just shows up, but I can't deny it was funny seeing him be the one to bring Belt-San to Drive. This movie didn't need to bring them in, but I am absolutely happy they did, this trilogy of movies was a great way to send-off Heisei and welcome Reiwa.

This was one of the first Kamen Rider movies I heard about when I was only getting into the franchise, even if I had no idea why these characters being together was such a big deal, I was excited to get into this, and grateful I got to see this along with the other movies that followed, but that'll be for another time.

It's sort of amazing how fully this movie encapsulates the weird mix of Earnestness and Ridiculousness that powers tokusatsu in the Heisei Era. Like, this image pretty much says it all:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/exaid/drpacman2.png

Stripped of context, it's completely absurd. It's a nurse thanking Pac-Man. But with the context of nearly an hour of superhero adventure... I mean, it's still mostly absurd, but it's also genuinely touching: one video game character thanking another video game character, Asuna/Poppy quietly acknowledging the way Pac-Man overcame his reprogramming to defend humanity, just like her. It's touching, honestly.

Good film! Glad you enjoyed it, too!

Originally posted to "Kamen Rider Die rewatches Kamen Rider Ex-Aid movies" on September 1st, 2019:

KAMEN RIDER EX-AID MOVIES: COLORFUL MANS VERSUS COLORFUL TEENS - THE SPRING MOVIE

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...aidsentai1.png

Hey, so, can I tell you a secret? I don't want the TokuNation board to know about this, so we're in a total "this stays between you and me" situation. Cool? Okay.

I don't think I care about Sentai. Like, at all.

I'm not really sure how it works on these boards. Is everyone into everything, Rider and Sentai alike? Are there Rider-only fans and Sentai-only fans? I honestly have no idea. Going on a Toku board and saying "I don't think I care about Sentai" may be like saying "I don't like vowels". Like, nonsense. Insanity.

I mean, I never grew up with Power Rangers, so maybe that's part of it? I assume most North American Sentai fans got into the franchise as kids through Power Rangers, then transitioned to the pure, uncut, medical-grade Japanese Sentai programs. Is that right? 'Cause, yeah, for me, I never had that introductory stage. Power Rangers and Sentai, I just never got into.

And it feels like, after getting hooked on Kamen Rider, that I shouldn't have a huge problem getting into Super Sentai. They're so similar in so many fundamental ways. They're like dialects of the same language. But, for real, I'm just never that interested in them.

Some of it is, and I don't want to get reported to the mods for this, that it feels like the Sentai parts I've seen (crossover episodes, spring movies) are just really, really childish. Like, the casts seem like they got body-swapped with precocious theater kids. Everything is very Big and Broad and Shouted Out To The Back Rows. The problems and drama seem very goofy and wacky, geared around a child's conception of the world. And, I came in to Kamen Rider through Ex-Aid, the show about a bright pink motorcycle man who fights video game disease monsters. I'm not looking for verisimilitude here. But these various colorful teenagers seem like they are one commercial break away from telling me that drugs aren't cool, but studying is. Am I missing some key way to view Sentai? Am I just watching the worst introductions to the franchise possible? Help me out here. Someday, I'm going to run out of Heisei Rider shows to watch for the first time (I ain't doing Showa, too corny for me), and 40-whatever years of Sentai might fill that void in my life. I'm not saying that me and Sentai are enemies forever. There may come a day when I want to love Sentai. (Like, 2021. Not soon.) If every other Rider fan is a Sentai fan, I don't want to be, like, persona non tokusatsu. I want to figure this shit out.

All of that is a long-winded way of saying that a) I don't generally love the yearly-ish Rider/Sentai crossover movies, and b) I don't really love this one in particular.

First, Rider/Sentai movies are so weirdly constructed, at least the bunch I've seen. Rather than the Rider fall movies that feature two main Riders at least, and possibly two full casts, the crossover movies seem to be built around Who From The Last Few Years Is Available and Who Can We Spare From The Current Shows. Like, the Fourze/Go-Busters one? The main Rider characters are Hina from OOO and Diend from Decade! There's some fun to the randomness of the cast, but it's to the detriment of a cohesive story. I never get the feeling that a story was constructed, with a clear thematic goal, and then a cast was hired to support that goal. Instead, it's like 75% of the asks came back No, so they cobbled together something for the 25% who said Yes. It's not that you can't tell a story like that, but it's very difficult to tell a good story. The most you can do is distract people with a lot of costumes.

And there are so many costumes in this movie. Not the most, but what feels like the most often. Every few minutes (of a ninety-minute movie) there's another batch of colorful suits, kicking and punching and exploding. The action is, it's not great. There are some interesting uses of the expanded movie budget in the camerawork, specifically in the increased verticality of the fights and the longer chase shots. But the fights themselves mostly don't seem choreographed to tell a story, they're just there to fill time. It's like watching someone play Street Fighter for a while. That can be fun to watch, but it's not a story.

Maybe I'd care more about those costumes if I knew all the franchises? Maybe. It doesn't help that, not only do I not really know Sentai (although I recognized Amu from the Ghost/Animal Teens Super-Hero Dance Program crossover), but the Rider appearances were from shows I haven't watched yet, like Den-O and (I had to look this up) Ryuki. For the flashy, nostalgia guest appearances, there's nothing in there for me. I've only got the story to enjoy, and it felt real thin. It's mostly a pile of superhero fights until Shocker shows up, then a heartfelt speech, and it all wraps up at Kamen Rider Quarry. There aren't a lot of moves in it, and the Shocker stuff just feels like it's there to have a villain to punch. Making the story driver/endangered victim a child who sort-of didn't care if the world ended was, uh, a way to go? Hard to muster sympathy for a sick child who would rather just destroy the world because he's bored. I mean, it's a sick kid, and maybe he's on the spectrum, but he was also the character in the story I cared the least about. It definitely made parts of the story drag.

There was some stuff I enjoyed, though. I didn't hate it, I just thought it was only okay. The core of the story was, surprisingly, about Brave. He's a tough character to focus on, because he is basically a dick. And that's his most interesting attribute! Hiiro doesn't hugely change or grow in this movie, but his dedication to being the best doctor evolves a bit with his grudging acceptance that Emu is only mostly a failure as a doctor, and maybe viewing his patients as more than a sack of organs he can show his dominance on is a valid choice on rare occasions. Progress! Also, I'm loving the movie trend (2 for 2) of Taiga being introduced walking into frame and just humiliating a group of enemies. It is canon that he spends a lot of time following around Emu, and while we're meant to think it's so he can collect Gashats, I'm choosing to believe it's so he can get sick burns in on foes. Like, he's behind a pillar, waiting for the best moment when he can walk in and drop some comeback on a Bugster or Sentai or whatever. He's up all night dreaming about it. That is my headcanon, and now you are welcome to it.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...aidsentai2.png

~SPOILER: "DONBROTHERS" WOULD NOT DEBUT UNTIL MARCH OF 2022~

A few quick notes!

-That whole I'll Be Done With Watch Threads By 2021... god, the optimism of that! There was a point a couple months ago when I thought I'd be done with these threads before Revice ended, and I just don't see that happening. My project management skills are abysmal. I can only hope that Zero-One's CEO superhero can teach me how to get things done in a more expedient and reliable manner. I look forward to finding out in May Or June Or September of this year!

-Nice to see Zolda and the Den-O crew, now that I've watched those shows, but it doesn't drastically improve the film. They're in-jokes, and the movie doesn't sink or swim on the audience getting the joke. It certainly doesn't help that Kitaoka only gets a couple lines, and the Goriders as a team barely factor into the plot. In my mind, I guess I built it up as something that was clearly important - vital, maybe - to the overall success of the story, and If Only I Had The Context, you know? Unfortunately, it's really super minor, and (if anything) sort of a missed opportunity.

-Ex-Aid's storytelling, as a series, is about Mitigation Of Ego. It's a show where heroes and villains alike discover that they aren't flawless demigods; they aren't even the main characters of the story. Real life doesn't have Main Characters, and we could all stand to live with more humility. Realizing that we can't do everything ourselves, and we need to lean on others to be our best selves, that's sort of the perfect thematic substrate for a Sentai/Rider film? Ex-Aid's about letting other people in, and finding common ground with people you may not even like. This isn't a perfect film, but it has a much more natural flow to it than previous Taisen flicks.

-Ex-Aid's storytelling, as a series, is also about Needlessly Escalating Situations, as witnessed by Taiga showing up specifically to pick a fight with six Kyurangers (or, 12% of the full Kyuranger team) when Emu is frantically trying to calm everyone down. Much like the solid thematic work of Ex-Aid allows for some natural team-up energy, the solid character work of territorial dickheads like Taiga and Hiiro very easily give logical weight to the Superheroes Fight Superheroes part of the crossover film.

-Eito still doesn't 100% work for me (no backstory/family, sort of just comes off as Hiiro's Failure instead of a character), but I did appreciate how this movie tried to work inside Ex-Aid's themes. Hiiro having to own up to his earlier failure instead of literally hiding it away, Eito needing to allow other people to care for im, that's all solid Ex-Aid stuff. The problem for me this time was that there's so much other shit in the way. I liked a lot of the action and guest appearances, but the throughline on this film is Hiiro and Eito, but they're maybe a third of the movie's runtime. There's an entire digression with Emu fighting the Debuting Amazon Riders, and you could cut that whole fight without damaging the narrative. The writing wants to do this small story about Hiiro's tragic past, but then it also has to justify Every Rider And Ranger Suit, plus an explosive finale at Kamen Rider Quarry. I don't think those two goals fit well in one movie.

-I sort of love how Bandai Namco shoved in their classic video game brands to this movie and Heisei Generations. They're so half-assed (Xevious and Galaxian matter for maybe twenty-five minutes of this story, if that), and yet they're also the exact right energy to start an Ex-Aid movie off on. It's goofy as hell and perfectly in keeping with the rules of Ex-Aid's world.

-okay but why was agito's final form burning instead of shining

This might be the Taisen movie I'm most dissapointed in? ( I mean there all pretry questionable quality)

But yhe entire premise of Ex-Aid forming a superhero team in order go into a tournment fighther is genuinley one the best idea the Taisen movie ever had in order to mitigate the hero vs hero conflict in these movies. And we just skip over most of the tournment. Like seriosuly if you watch any of the trailers that wad main selling point of the movie. Like with Heisei vs Showa the whole generational battle was at the forefront of the movie. Or Taisen GP had a big race at the very end. But this we skip over it especially since there alot of fun teams they made for this movie we never saw in action.

This is probably my favorite of the Taisen Movies next to Z but even then that's a low bar.

I think what makes me fine with heroes fighting each other this time around is it's clearly video game avatar's that act like them. So there's not much frustration of "Why?"

Favorite bit though was Maximum Mighty X fighting alongside the Kyuranger Mecha. Like that's the stuff I love seeing, the way the Riders and Sentai mix themselves up. It's why I really loved when we got Tridoron Shurikenjin in 3 GP.

Anyway the most significant story I have of this movie is how I first watched it. Basically someone managed to get a full cam rip of the movie from a theater before it left. And judging by how clear it was in video and audio, there was like, no one else in the theater.

So basically I watched the raw via camrip and that was a magical experience. Probably the biggest memory I have out of the whole movie tbh.

That would've been fun... but then you'd have to cut all of the Hiiro stuff. (Although, Hiiro loves cutting stuff...) The main problem this movie has is that the tournament part is all Emu, and the emotional throughline is all Hiiro. If you want more of one, you need to have less of the other. A tournament structure could work - and it would arguably work better than a movie with a unsympathetic victim and Here's Shocker I Guess - but... uh... hmm. I don't have anything after that em dash. I'd probably rather they devote a movie to a tournament structure, and leave the small story about Hiiro's icy demeanor to an episode or V-Cin or whatever.

I believe the Taisen movies were making less and less as their were being made. And it no wonder a common critcism was that there basically the same thing each one of these movies. Especially this movie seriosuly though Shocker again!? Like the other time had Shocker be there from the very beggining this one honestly felt like checking off a list of things to do. Like Rider and Sentai fight each other and Shocker needs to come back so we can have big battle withe explosions in a quarry. I'm honestly glad they pulled the plug on it souldn't get another big crossover until 5 years later with Super Hero Senki which from what I've seen has garnared a much better reputation than the Taisen movie.

That might also explain how Ex-Aid Lvl 1 defeated Dark Kabuto, Dark Ghost and Dark Drive!

Which: I was so happy to see the Lvl 1 form get so much screentime here. The Lvl 1 suits might be my all-time favorite Kamen Rider suits, and having Ex-Aid's be featured in the Debuting Amazon Riders fight was delightful. It's maybe not a substitute for Mighty Brothers XX (my all-time favorite power-up), but it's a bonkers suit to use for one of the marquee battles.

I think the reason youve had such a hard time "liking" sentai is that you never got into power rangers. For most fans at least, power rangers was the gateway, something cool and different from everything else, then we find sentai, which seems even better, and then rider, which is like the best. Rider is like sentais cooler older brother, pretty much kamen rider zangetsu, in terms of how well put together it is. So while most of us have progressively "leveled-up" from uninitated scrubs through the hallowed halls of pr and sentai to get to get to the creme de la creme that is rider, youve already aleady started with the best, so why would you settle for less (no offense to sentai or pr fans)? We mainly have a soft spot for pr and sentai bc most of us grew up with it, but i totally get why a rider fan would have a hard time getting into it.

You might be right! Nearly every Sentai fan does seem to have started as a Ranger fan. Still, I'm hopeful I'll find a Sentai series that'll help me appreciate the franchise. Unfortunately, it'll probably be Inoue's DonBrothers show, sooooo...

Lol, have you tried some of the earlier sentai, like the ones used for the disney era of pr? Like gaoranger, hurricanger, abaranger-gekiranger? They are a bit more serious, a little sharper with wiritng, and less bright colors and smiles. Especially timeranger, time ranger imo was a great season, really kept me on the edge of my seat.

And yeah most of us like sentai bc pr, even in its more serious moments had a lighthearted campyness that went hand in hand with the darker moments. Its a method that sentai "did" well in until like gekiranger, then go-onger forwards it was like a mixed bag lf goofy series, serious series, and more lighthearted fair. Its moreso the nature that sentai has its actors behaving like 5 year olds to appease a younger demographic, while rider has darker, more serious stories tailored to older youth. Pretty much like the metamorphosis of a toku fan from a puny pr fan to a fully hatched rider fan. (Not like shin tho, never like shin)

I mean, on Ex-Aid, you've got serious storylines like Hiiro's inability to move on from his fiancee's death and Taiga's guilt over his inability to spare Hiiro that grief... but it's also a show where one of the teammates is a video game mascot named Poppy Pipopapo. So, like, I'm okay with a certain amount of absurdity? I kind of require it? I'm sure there's a goofy Sentai show out there that I'll love, and it's bound to have some thematic heft to it, as well. Someday I'll find it!*

*March 6th, 2022.

There's always Jetman. It's the Sentai series that Inoue did serve as a head writer on and as an added bonus, the show itself is available to watch on Shout Factory's streaming app and website. If nothing else, it will give a good sense on how he works on Super Sentai and the show was made before he went on to work on the Kamen Rider franchise through Agito, a decent amount of Ryuki, Faiz, etc. And yes, I did got my start on Sentai thanks to Power Rangers.

And it's even (barely) a Heisei series! Definitely a possibility. Thanks for the recommendation/reminder!

So here we are, as promised, with something interesting to talk about.

Rather than a full montage, we simply go through the majority of the tournament subplot with a tournament graphic. And rather than just make up a bunch of lineups, there’s some actual thought put into them.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FLHGubBX...pg&name=medium

First up is Team Ex-Aid, which consists of a competitively balanced lineup, including Ex-Aid Robot Action Gamer (the melee fighter and the only way Ex-Aid can be considered a red hero), Shuriken Sentai Ninninger’s AoNinger (the magic knight), Zolda (the muscle), Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters’ Beet Buster (the brains) and Den-O (the guy itching for a fight).

Next is Team Dairanger… which is just the lineup for the Sentai series of the same name (to quote my dad when he learned that someone in my class, when asked to create a short script featuring a detective, used Shaggy and Scooby-Doo as the detective and assistant, “No imagination”)

Then it’s Team All Red Sentai, which is… exactly what the name implies. Consisting of Battle Fever J’s Battle Japan, Kagaku Sentai Dynaman’s DynaRed, Ninja Sentai Kakuranger’s Ninja Red, Mahou Sentai Magiranger’s MagiRed and Samurai Sentai Shinkenger’s Shinken Red.

And for a thematic match up, we have Team All Blue Rider, which contains Den-O Rod Form, OOO Shauta Combo, Wizard Water Style, Diend and Gatack (the first three are kind of pushing it here).

And now for the ones that don’t appear in person:

First off is Team Woman, which consists of Electro-Wave Human Tackle, Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger’s HurricaneBlue, Bravo (yes, I know he’s not a woman, quiet you), Engine Sentai Go-Onger’s Go-On Yellow and Malika.

They’re up against Team Hikō (flying), who consists of OOO Tajadol, Knight, Skyrider, Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger’s AbareYellow and Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger’s Ptera Ranger.

For the next matchup, it’s Team Kosoku (high speed), consisting of Kosoku Sentai Turboranger’s Red Turbo, Drive Type Formula, Go-On Green, OOO Latoratah (the only one here who isn’t car themed) and Gekisou Sentai Carranger’s Pink Racer.

They’re facing Team Keiji (detective), who comprise Accel, G3-X, Denshi Sentai Denziman’s DenziGreen, Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger’s DekaYellow and JAKQ Dengekitai’s Heart Queen.

Up next is the rather more obvious Team Card, who comprise of Spade Ace, Tensou Sentai Goseiger’s Gosei Blue, Leangle, Odin and Decade.

Their opponents are Team Konchu (Insects), who comprise of Wild Chalice (a mantis), KuwagaRaiger (a stag beetle), V3 (a dragonfly), TheBee (a wasp) and MagiPink (okay, she’s a fairy, but she looks like a butterfly)

Then it’s Team Ninja, who boast ZX, Ninja Blue, Shurikenger, Hikari Sentai Maskman’s Yellow Mask and MomoNinger in their membership.

They face off with Team Dandy, consisting of Hibiki, Skull, Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger’s KyoryuBlue, Wolzard Fire and Signalman.

And for a bit of a meta fight with the next matchup, we start with Team Jiro (a given name meaning “second son”), who feature Black, IXA, Shinken Gold, Seijuu Sentai Gingaman’s GingaBlue and GoseiKnight.

And their opponent is Team Takaiwa (a surname meaning “high rock”), which should make the theming behind these two teams more clear, as it includes Faiz, Denji Sentai Megaranger’s Mega Blue, W, Fourze and Gaim.

And for our final matchup, we start with Team Genm, who are literally the opposite of Ex-Aid’s lineup. They include Genm Zombie Gamer (Ex-Aid’s evil counterpart), Specter (a blue hero who debuted in 2015), Ryugen (a tertiary rider from a Rider Battle series who shares a Rider identity with someone else and isn’t what they first appear to be), Yellow Owl (who hails from an Inoue season to contrast Beet Buster being a Kobayashi season) and Momorenger (okay, there isn’t much in common between her and Momotaros besides the names).

And the final lineup is Team Fukatasu (revival), who feature Kurokishi Hyuuga, Ressha Sentai ToQger’s ToQNigou, Kamen Rider Nigou, Riderman and Kamen Rider Mach.

I’ll let someone else explain the significance behind the names and lineups, and instead ask “if this was an actual tournament, who would be your favourite to win?)

My strongest and most pleasant memory of this film will probably always be writing that snarky summary of it I did after first watching it, which to this day I remain weirdly sort of proud of, even though dunking on toku stuff is generally not my style.

Basically, this is a movie that made me work for my fun with it, is what I'm saying. I actually properly rewatched this for the first time since back then, just to see if I've lightened up on it, and honestly, it was exactly as dull as I remember. It's definitely not entirely without any merit whatsoever and I'll gladly take it over the original SHT, but exactly like the original, there was a way more exciting Rider movie directed by Sakamoto released a couple months prior that highlights how unexciting Kaneda's approach here is. On a rewatch, I think I realized it's the flow of this thing that drove me crazy. It's so listless in how it's edited especially, with all these awkward pauses throughout that feel like they're stretching to get the movie to a certain length or something.

I don't know, I think I still just straight up don't like this one? It has a bunch of returning characters who are hugely geared to my tastes, but Team Ex-Aid barely gets screentime (even though the GoRiders are like one of the most fun ideas ever), the Kyurangers barely participate (which might have something to do with this being made while their show was just starting up, to be fair?), and then you've got Amu there, who gets plenty of screentime, only to act absolutely nothing like herself the entire time. It's just kind of one huge bummer, any way I look at it.

That being said, I'll readily admit there are individual scenes that are pretty cute.

(I'll remind you that this was Level X though! I'm pretty sure that's the second-strongest form Emu uses in this movie!)

This movie is probably the only major piece of Ex-Aid media that I haven’t seen. It’s about 50% not liking modern Sentai and 50% forgetting it exists.

definitely could've gone my whole life without knowing someone decided to put bravo on "team woman"

Team Card, obviously! From the Rider side alone you've got the OP-as-all-hell Odin, the infinite possibilities of Decade, and the STRONGEST RIDER. What team could possibly top that?

It's a movie that feels every second of its runtime, that's for sure. Like all Taisen movies, I guess, we're given quantity over quality, at an almost design level. While Hiiro's story exists to give the film some stakes... it's also a thing that the movie only ever seems to remember to touch on sporadically. We'll get these huge fight scenes against the Jark Matter army or Shocker, and then it's like Oh Right Eito Is Still Trapped In Purgatory. Not a great film for making the action serve the story!

I mean, I think it's worth watching if you want to see Hiiro go on a little journey of redemption (he only punches Emu in the face once for being emotional), but it's hardly required viewing. I don't really care much about the Animal Teens or the Constellation Club (just zero ability to remember Sentai team names, sorry), but I don't think they're a very big focus of the story.

Like, I don't think this is a crossover film worth avoiding (Drive/Ghost), but it's also fine to skip.

It really rubbed in how disappointing the tournament aspect of this movie is when I stopped to look at all the team lineups, made this same observation, and then watched as they were only finally crushed by Team Genm right before their showdown with Team Ex-Aid. I WANT TO SEE THAT FIGHT!

Like, I'm not even a diehard Kuroto fan, and when I saw those results, I was like, "yeah God could probably take on Tsukasa and win." I was so excited about all the storytelling possibilities of things that weren't in the movie they made.

Die, you talking about the movie/specials with Sentai in them are fun just to see what you call them instead of their team name. It took me forever to realize when you were talking about ToQger.

There's a few fun moments here and there, but all in all, probably the weakest Superhero Taisen Movies I've seen.

Honestly, the part that doesn't do it for me is the main plot of the whole thing revolving around the kid, not that it was nice to show off a different side of Hiro, but that it just wasn't that great, especially when compared to the premise of the videogame tournament.

Zhyuo White Tiger mimicking Amazon was pretty cute, Ex-Aid fighting the Amazons (from the reboot) as his chibi form is absolutely bizarre, and the formation of Ex-Aid's team was probably my favorite part in this whole movie. It's especially funny how Ex-Aid is the team's Red, despite being pink, and Momotaro (who is red) is the Pink, just because of his name pun, but the real kicker here is that they still have those same colors no matter what order they pull. It also makes me appreciate Kitaoka/Zolda's appearance after watching Ryuki, which still kind of astounds me how he might have been one of my favorite Riders in Ryuki. Still really wish we could have seen some of the other teams in action, because I absolutely love the premise of forming a Sentai team out of Riders and Sentai.

Naturally, Shocker's back with the power of Xevius (love that game), and everybody teams up to fight them, which is always a treat to watch in these movies. But something that I strangely adore is Kamen Sentai Gorider, where they're all Ichigos with Sentai capes and colors, just their suits and the whole idea that Goranger was originally going to be a Rider series before being replaced by Stronger (if I remember right), it's a fun little reference and just amuses me whenever I see them. Guess I'll be talking about them again very soon...

Overall, as I've said, not very good, and it's a shame they couldn't pull off the teams thing better, because that, I must say, is a brilliant idea for these crossovers.

Fun Fact: This is currently the only crossover to include a character from Kyoryuger Brave (the South Korean subjectively superior sequel to Kyoryuger), as Raimein appears in Kamen Rider Quarry to fight the Zyuohgers. He totally blends in with all those other unvoiced Game World monsters, but it's a super cool reference for people who've actually watched the show!

Anyway, it's been a while since I last watched this movie and I thought it was pretty great. So I just rewatched it!

One thing I "remembered" from the first time was that savage fight between Zyuoh Tiger and Amazon, but I totally got the outcome backwards. I even brought it up here at some point and nobody even bothered to call me out on it! Fortunately, this is still a great showing for Amu, who manages to take out Stronger all on her own.

Naga also gets a cool moment. Anytime he expresses emotion, either in the show or crying for Eight here, it's a seriously big deal! This was during a time when I had put Kyuranger on hiatus due to my declining interest and this was probably a factor for me deciding to continue watching.

Not such a good showing for Hiiro though, who manages to be even less expressive than the two actually emotionless characters and he acts like an ignorant moron. Well I guess someone had to be OOC in a Yonemura movie.

While SHWGP is my favorite of the SHW series, it kind of cheats by mostly being a Kamen Rider movie. So for SHWs that actually focus on both of Toei's main Super Heroes, CSHW is my favorite.

Let's be honest though, the name is stupid. I mean, Chou and Super? That's redundant! The subs translated it as Ultra Super, but really it's more like Super Duper and even then, how much more Super can Super get?

The outlier on the Sentai side was plain Gokai Red, while all the other Reds were powered-up.

Really satisfying to see how far you've come from not caring about Sentai to being mildly curious about it.

I would like to second this recommendation. I think Jetman is some of Inoue's best work. I'll add my own as well: Ryusoulger. Also a very dramatic show.

Team Keiji. Just cause they have the most amount of characters/forms that I like and besides, detectives are pretty cool.

Who's your choice?

It's actually sort of insane that Toei didn't try to do a Net-Videos thing for this tournament. There are a million voice actors they couldn't get back, but I'd love to have seen a bunch of five-minute battles, with the returning announce team of Ryutaros's Voice Actor and Narutaki (from the exceptionally good Decade Net-Movies) calling the action.

God, I liked this movie, but literally every If Only They'd Have makes me like it less.

I'm glad you're enjoying my name-blindness for Sentai teams! Also, what else would you call the creeps who kidnapped Mai but Weird Train Kids?

Yeah, and they go hard on weird jokes and callbacks in this movie, especially in the formation of Ex-Aid's team. Like - and I hope you all appreciate how I went to look this gag up - AoNinger suggests that Emu pick MagiYellow as the team's Yellow, but Emu accidentally picks Beet Buster instead... who is played by the same actor who played MagiYellow.

I just wish we'd gotten to spend a little more time with Emu's incredibly weird team of misfits! Or maybe had them matter at all in Hiiro's storyline!

This movie becomes at least 15% better if its official title is Super Duper Hero War.

It's a mixture of diminishing Rider options (I'm almost current!), Stockholm Syndrome (maybe it's okay to kidnap someone if someone else says it's for a good reason?), and Inoue Forever. If DonBrothers had a different creative team, I'd probably stay Sentai-free until 2023 at the earliest.

Ooh, having to answer my own question.

In spite of there being a lot of good choices, I?ll just go with Team Woman. And I?m entirely shallow enough to admit that?s partly because I find them all hot (yes, even Oren)

KAMEN RIDER BRAVE: ~LET'S SURVIVE! REVIVAL OF THE BEAST RIDER SQUAD!~

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Beating a woman with a lead pipe was gross. Attacking a woman in her shower was unnecessary. But I think it was when Emu was getting his face shredded with broken glass that I completely checked out of this Ex-Aid Fan Club one-shot.

The tone is Horror Movie, which just sits so uneasily beside Video Game Adventure that I can’t imagine why anyone involved thought it was a good idea. There’s some small tension to putting Asakura - arguably the most heinous Rider of all-time, what with all the serial killing - into this show about klutzy gamer doctors and saccharine mascots, but it almost immediately reveals itself as a terrible concept, because Asakura doesn’t care about that tension. It’s not a story that weaves Asakura into the narrative, or incorporates him into the aesthetic; it’s a story where Asakura throws away the central MacGuffin because it diminishes the enjoyment he derives from brutalizing people. You can’t ever harness Asakura, which is part of his charm/”charm” in Ryuki. He doesn’t want anything other than fighting. He instantly reorients the storytelling away from character-based drama and thematic relevance, and straight into Grand Guignol nonsense. They put a character who breaks stories into this story, and he broke it.

There’s honestly nothing in this episode worth talking about besides Asakura, which is a bummer. I don’t buy Hiiro’s declaration that he’s committed to medicine so that he can give other people a chance to follow their dreams, because I’ve watched more than two consecutive minutes of Ex-Aid. His sycophantic nurses withstanding his verbal abuse with good-natured We’ll Make Him Proud Someday obsequiousness feels like it’s glossing over an intensely troubling power-dynamic, bordering on an abusive relationship. And Foundation X’s appearance at the end could not be less welcome.

On the one hand, as a Ryuki fan, it’s nice to see Asakura come back and do his shtick, spout his catchphrases (yes, he is still vexed), and just generally dominate the screen with an unhinged performance and unstoppable charisma.

But on the other hand… this is an incredibly inappropriate show for him to make his triumphant return on. Like, Drive. Bring him back on Drive. Do not taint the colorful and jovial world of Ex-Aid with a story about Hiiro executing a serial killer. No thanks!

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I feel like there are many reasons as to why we see Emu grow more tired in his later appearances. And this is one of the major ones because god did he not deserve any of the shit he went through.

...this special is a thing.

The most I can remember is slightly popping off when Foundation X was revealed to be the main bad guy behind it all. But then I remember it not going anywhere and then I slightly remember realizing "Wait was this supposed to hint at them utilizing Bugster tech in Heisei Gen Final?" and am like "Okay I guess."

Yeah that's all I can really say besides, wow, this was the first TTFC Special, and this is what we started with...

I mostly remember this for a gag dub that, among other jokes, had Hiro’s nurses dying from internal injuries and lack of screen time, Hiro’s award that he initially sets off to receive being for “worst catchphrase” and the Foundation X man at the end succinctly summing up the twist “This goes nowhere”.

So I guess your skipping over Gorider then. Also the scene where Asakura is eating the raw mackerel is a reference to Changerion who's main character is played by the same actor. Also Inoue wrote it. And shockingly this isn't written by Inoue. Apparantly Ouja is Hiiro actor favorite Rider.

Yeah, I had some serious misgivings about the misplaced goals of this thing the first time I saw it. Or rather, I still do, it's just that the wound isn't fresh anymore. (Ugh, why did I have to phrase it that way? Wounds are the last thing I want to be thinking about when it comes to this special.)

For the very first ever Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club special, I just don't understand why they went with something that limits its own appeal this much? The best theory I've got is that they were actively trying to do a "you won't see THIS kind of thing on Sunday mornings!" approach, but honestly, even putting aside the issue of how much Asakura clashes with Ex-Aid's world and tone, seeing him here doesn't at all give me the same feeling I get from him in Ryuki? I can't totally put my finger on it, but nothing about his appearance in this satisfied me as someone immensely fond of that show and its characters. And then as an Ex-Aid story, it's just a zero nuance version of Hiiro's basic arc (to the point that, as you mention, it comes off as weirdly toxic), and I checked out at the exact same moment you did.

The nicest thing I can say about Emu getting beat up the way he does here is that it's the thing that made me actively conscious of how often the poor guy is always getting physically abused (on top of constantly being put through the emotional wringer, no less), and that ended up being one of the many different things that really endeared me to the character. You just want to give him a hug after seeing stuff like this, you know?

Yeah, having Foundation X show up, when they will not factor into the plot ever again, is just the cherry on top of a sadistic sundae.

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Gorider is going to be a three-night event next week! It's maybe the thing in this project I'm most excited to revisit!

There's an On Paper way of promoting this special that sort of explains what the producers might've been thinking. Like, on paper, a more "mature" (read: childish obsession with gore/violence) take on Ex-Aid for older fans, at the same time Amazons was in production, makes sense. Launching a fan club service with the return of one of the most beloved Phase 1 characters who is not Scissors, that's an exciting concept. I can sort of see why they thought this would work, even if the actual nuts-and-bolts of the story should've clued them in that it wouldn't.

And, yeah, some of why it doesn't work is because of Asakura's steadfast refusal to engage with the premise of Ex-Aid. Say what you will about his intransigence (harsh, but hopefully fair) on Ryuki, but that dude was a game day player. He was always ready to TATAKAE. Here, while he's terrorizing nurses and humiliating doctors, he 100% does not care about the Gashat he's supposed to be... stealing? Defeating? Just plain getting killed by to Collect Data? (It's not clear what the villain scheme even is, which is another problem!) He doesn't want to be a part of whatever story is being told, which is nearly the exact opposite of the way he helped propel the plot in Ryuki.

Happy Imagination Kids! Oh wait, that still sounds kind of creepy...
Now I'm disappointed we never got a spinoff special of Shinnosuke trying to track down and bring Asakura to justice.

KAMEN SENTAI GORIDER - MAZE 1: EMU IS DEAD?

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Ex-Aid's a series about realizing that control is an illusion, and that the world doesn't exist to service your narrative. Unlike the hard-fought empathy of Ryuki, or the better-than-the-sum-of-our-parts teamwork of Den-O, Ex-Aid works as a story that allows for both individual heroism and communal sacrifice. It's not about subsuming yourself into a team, or making friends, or even valuing other perspectives. It's about tempering your goals with an acknowledgement of your limits, and harnessing other people's skills to create your own conditions for victory. It's teamwork as pragmatism, rather than anything grandiose or idealistic.

That's why I think Gorider is my favorite Legend Rider project of the Ex-Aid era. It's basically just Celebrity Ex-Aid, which is plenty. The themes in this three-parter veer a little bit from the Egotistical Doctors With Formative Traumas basis of the TV show, into realms a tad more spiritual, but this is still a three-parter full of untrusting jerks who can barely stop trying to kill each other long enough to scheme for dominance. It still feels like Ex-Aid, even with only a fraction of the TV show's regular cast.

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This first episode is largely spent introducing our new, limited-series cast, so it makes sense to start with Emu. He's already deep into his run on this game, so there's a ton of disorientation to his introduction, but it's still Emu. He's baffled, but he's eternally trying to marshal Type A dickheads into something productive, mostly through his disarming naivete. He doesn't get a ton of quality bits; partially because he spends the first episode reacting to other, more forceful/famous characters, and partially because he can't explain how he knows so much new information. We can't really invest fully in Emu's stakes, because from minute one we've had information withheld from us. It serves to create an environment full of mystery, but with not enough stability to feel fair.

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I mean, it doesn't help that the first person Emu meets is Kaoru Kino, aka Another Agito. (I super love that this special has him refer to himself as Kamen Rider Another Agito, for maybe the first time ever? It's a gloriously stupid name for a character, doubly so if he calls himself that.) If you immediately need to establish that Emu is going to have to play peacemaker/therapist/conscience to yet another group of violent superpowered weirdos with god complexes, who better to spar with Ex-Aid than the man who debuted with DOUBLE SURGERIES? And, yep, Kino spends about two minutes being suspicious of another hero before he tries to murder him, so glad Kino's back. He's really perfect as the dude that takes Emu's aforementioned disarming naivete as a gigantic red flag, since to him, every sweet boy with superpowers is probably a rival waiting to be discovered. Emu's the odd man out, since he's the only member of the team who isn't dead. Well, there is one other teammate who isn't dead, technically...

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Kazuma Kenzaki, also known as Kamen Rider Blade But With Jack Form's Helmet! There's too much to avoid talking about with Kenzaki, because it's better left for the eventual reveal, but it's nice to see the actor again. He's not, uh, playing Kenzaki, not really, so that's a bit of a bummer. It's the counterpoint to Emu's role in the narrative (naturally...), where he's subtly steering people towards conflict. It all makes sense for the end of the mini-series, but it mostly leaves a performance that's leveraging the iconography of Kamen Rider Blade (smartly!) without really giving us Kamen Rider Blade.

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Not a problem with these two! It's Yoko Minato, Kamen Rider Marika, and Kaito Kumon, Kamen Rider Baron! They are still a weirdly compelling and weirdly toxic pairing! Unlike Kino's aggressive investigation and Kenzaki's curious buy-in to this story's parameters, Team Baron here just... sort of hangs out? There's a melancholy to their reunion that instantly sets them up as the characters I'm most intrigued by. Kaito doesn't give a shit about what brought him and Marika back from the dead, which isn't hugely surprising (Kaito is a very incurious warlord, historically), but he also doesn't seem to be jockeying for control. It's the start of a new arc for the two of them, and you can feel it in their brief scene of exploring the grounds of the park. It's a Kaito who doesn't want to vie for power anymore, and a Marika who's trying to define herself beyond Lieutenant. There's a ton of potential here, and it almost makes them my favorite thing in this episode.

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My favorite thing is always going to be Kiriya Kujo, Kamen Rider Lazer. My favorite character on Ex-Aid, and he shows off why in this episode. He's the last to show up, but he instantly snaps this story into focus, pulling together the strands of the mystery with foreboding (as befits Ex-Aid's resident detective) and charm (the way he teases Emu about Emu getting possibly murdered!), and propelling us into our first big cliffhanger: Is Emu secretly the mastermind of this bizarre purgatory? Kino seems convinced, and that dude never misjudges people. We're also at the end of our first episode out of three, so, yeah, I think Kino's natural distrust of other people, and his sense of self-righteousness, has gotten this thing sewn up! We'll find out for sure in the next episode!

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My only complaint I have with this special it's called Kamen Sentai Gorider. Yet there no Sentai characters whatsoever this was purely 100% Kamen Rider story. Especially since I felt Sentai always get the short end of the stick for anniversary and crossovers. There plenty of dead Sentai characters they could pulled for this too. Not that I dislike or wasn't edcited to see any of the returning Riders we do get back. Especiallt Kino getting hear him say "Kamen Rider Another Agito" makes this whole thing worth it.

Yeah, this is another take on the movie's Rider Sentai Team that equally feels shoehorned and tacked-on. The finale's a ways to go yet, but even in the early going... I mean, I called it "Celebrity Ex-Aid", and that's as concise as I can get. Nothing about this feels like a Sentai program, although lord knows I don't have the background to say that with any confidence. It's a story about Kamen Riders, with an Ex-Aid framework.

Not a problem for me - on any level - but there's not really much here for the Sentai fans, hones--

WAIT

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EMU RIDES A TRAIN

THIS EPISODE WAS A THOUSAND PERCENT A SENTAI STORY

THE TRAIN GETS INTRODUCED SECOND

I love polarizing decision that they made a whole all-new Another Agito suit for this movie, but still couldn't be be bothered to fix Blade.