Okay, now we can finally close the chapter on Tsukasa finding the place where he belongs. He knows where he came from, that he has a little sister he abandoned, the terrible person he used to be and that even his own world has now rejected him like all the others. Which means, there will be no world that accepts him. And it's here that his identity as Kamen Rider Decade is finally understood. Tsukasa is like his sister Sayo here. He feels bound to this world, since it's the world he was searching for, but that prevents him from leaving it behind. It's a cage of his own making. So after realizing that his journey can't end with this destination, he gives that same message to Sayo, that she can leave behind the cage she trapped herself in and stop depending on Tsukasa and Tsukikage to live. She can make her own journey.

Probably my second favorite Phase 1 summer movie behind Ore Tanjou. It nicely gives closure to Tsukasa's backstory while allowing him to move forward and find purpose in his open-ended journey. There's a lot of awesome stuff as well like the big gathering of the Riders, Decade finally Kamen Riding in to Hibiki since getting the card back, Decade getting his own Final Form Ride, since this is his world after all and King Dark showing up as the final villain! I watched the Director's Cut, which includes some wonderful extended scenes like the rainy melancholy with Tsukasa and Natsumi talking through the door, Tsukasa encouraging Sayo to spread her wings and the neat behind the scenes stuff in the credits. Overall, a great movie to celebrate Decade's journey and the legacy of Heisei Riders.

And most recently in the World of Amazon, where Tsukasa was inexplicably offended that Masahiko left his sister behind.

The emotional core of this movie (Tsukasa and Sayo's relationship, Tsukasa's freedom to continue his journey) is by far the best part. Even better than the various fights and Riders, maybe! (Like Kurona, a half-dozen bigger Phase 2 films had me zoning out a little at this film's Quarry Climax.) Kobayashi nailed the need to have a home, have some small stability in your life; this film nails the need to leave that stability to really find out who you can be. It's a great massage to get across right before the series finale. Glad you liked it, too!

So Gackt choose to play an A.R Joji Yuki because he was one of his favorite Riders. And that he was supposed to transform into a new version of Riderman but they apparantly didn't finish his suit.

Also apparantly (again second hand info I can't find a source on) the script for this movie was originally for the tv show finale. And honestly I wished it was it has a massive Rider team-up, Tsukasa past and story finally revealed. And even if it wasn't there a nicr bookends feeling I got out of it. In compairson to wht we did get.

Also speaking of the Decade finale are you goijg to watch the original version or the special edition, or both? If your going to watch the Special Edition I could just tell you the timestamps as for where the changes occur in both episodes since there isn't much of them. And the only one that matters truefully is the final episode.

If Die doesn't go through both, I will. Because I enjoy suffering, I guess.

Yeah, I obviously can't speak to how the TV series ends yet, but I think this would've worked okay as a series ending. On the one hand, it hits a lot of the major outstanding plot points that... someone probably cared about, and reframes Team Decade as an ongoing, open-ended concern. (I mean, I though it had already done that at the end of the Nine Worlds arc, but the series had other ideas!) On the other hand, it doesn't really do a lot for anyone other than Tsukasa (Onodera doesn't get a character arc, and Natsumi forgives Tsukasa way too easily) and Sayo's a major character who wasn't in the rest of the series. I'd assume a series-ending version of this script would've more definitively wrapped up the whole Disintegrating Multiverse plot, but otherwise... yeah, this would've been an okay end.

After an intense conference with Zatyme, where it only briefly devolved into It's Decade So It Probably Won't Help Anyway, the decision was made to watch the Special Editions.

This movie, as Die mentioned, is a lot of fun, with some really good plot points, but does suffer in some of those regards. I never personally had anything against this movie, since at the time I heard it wasn't very well-loved. It introduces us to a grand Rider battle royale (Shinji's probably not happy), having the crew torn apart and put into this situation that looks hopeless, but then one final spark turns the tables.

I do feel like the Dai-Shocker Great Leader Tsukasa plot to be a little out of the blue, but also considered how Tsukasa seems to just naturally fit into his roles in worlds, or at least when it comes to how he acts like a jerk. Maybe it helped me like this movie better? I'm not too sure, though even all these odd and underplayed ideas can't take the fun out of the action.

Now that I think about it, Tsukasa treated Natsume rather neglectedly at the start of the show, much like his sister presented here, how he ditches her to find a world he could better fit in. Don't know whether that was intentional or not, but people also point out the bit where he acknowledges AR Tendou's sister in Kabuto World.

Seeing all the Riders fight together is definitely fun, regardless how well the story is or not, but there's just something special about this one. Maybe it's the Final Form Ride storm, maybe it's Giant Decade (thanks J!), or just the thrill of seeing these karate bugmen blow monsters up with their kicks, I can't quite put my foot on it.

And our boy Gackt as Riderman, who I didn't know who he was or who he was playing as, to my beginner's perspective, until later. But hearing that Riderman was his favorite was cool, even though it is a shame he couldn't get to wear his own suit and join the final battle.

I feel like this movie was a good ending for Decade... If that were the ending. As we might have come to expect from these Rider movies, they may or may not fit into the timeline of their show, or at least consistently, but they do have their own ways of providing entertainment, and that's good enough for me.

So, I guess first and foremost my biggest question has to be "How the hell did IXA get an invite to the strongest Rider battle?" I mean, I know he's just paired up versus Skyrider, but it's still really weird.

I'm a bit divided on this movie. I think there are definitely some things in here that work and pay off some of Tsukasa's development from the series. There's also a lot of stuff that feels like a complete ass-pull (everyone is secretly a Showa villain!). I've never loved the idea that Tsukasa was the leader of Dai-Shocker, pre-amnesia, nor that he would immediately snap back into that mode upon regaining his memories.

I remember being really excited about the big fight at the end with all of the Riders showing up, but I will absolutely agree that it feels less special after seeing half a dozen other movies with the same suits in the same quarry fighting similar grab bags of random monsters (no Joker this time, but we did get the Orphenoch King demoted to mid-tier mook). It does rob the film of some of its uniqueness seeing it again all these years later.

So, I’ll start by mentioning that this was the first exclusively Rider film I saw. So I have a bit of a soft spot for it.

One thing that actually surprised me (I somehow saw Tsukasa being the bad guy coming) was the grandpa turning into Professor Shinigami. And I’ll also mention that said scene is a lot more focused on in the manga version of this movie, which also doesn’t include the bit where Grandpa turns up later, asking “why do I taste beer and squid?”

(I’ll also point out that this isn’t entirely out of nowhere. A few episodes ago, he was ironing the cape he wears here for a “fancy dress ball”)

I’ll also talk about the big cultural impact of this movie in Japan. The idea of a big movie featuring all the past heroes of a 38 + years old franchise hadn’t been done before (Sentai having 25 Red heroes in Gao v SS notwithstanding). But the success of All Riders, combined with the success of the Ultra Series movie Mega Monster Battle:Ultra Galaxy Legends the Movie (which in addition to featuring every Showa Ultra, plus two Heisei Ultras and two entirely new ones, in addition to having a former Prime Minister on the cast doing voice work), popularised the idea of appealing to the nostalgia crowd, with quite a few old school veterans who hadn’t touched their Toku franchises beyond conventions and occasional cameos in movies suddenly wanted to make return appearances (it’s no coincidence that the next Sentai show to enter development was also a big anniversary show where he heroes transform into their predecessors). It’s a craze that’s had its ups and it’s downs, but overall, I think “hey, if it draws in a crowd, why stop?”

I fell a little behind on this thread, which is a bummer, especially when the thing I'm late to is Net Movie talk.

...Because, always and forever, I love these things. I eat up behind the scenes trivia, enjoy some nerdy banter, and like to laugh, and Rider Net Movies offer all of that at once. It was a great concept I'm still sad they stopped doing, and the original Decade ones have always sort of been the most iconic set of these for me. I think a lot of it is in how much these ones do lean on proper trivia rather than simply being funny. That look through Decade's masks leaves a real impact, for example. But then, like, the stuff that is raw comedy is also hilarious? Those Tackle and Shin skits really are the peak of the whole thing, in a way. And then you've got the stuff with the suit actors, and that's great, too! I still remember Takaiwa being Kabuto in that group, because him pointing out how little Kabuto moves was what made me start realizing how much effort actually went into that particular role. Again, it's crazy that something like that has stuck with me for this long, and because of that, I couldn't exactly play along at home there, but I DID nail Eitoku being Saga, which made me real happy. (And of course he stays in character during the race, Die; that's just the caliber of suit actor he is!)

I also think it's interesting that Takaiwa immediately picks Kiva as the heaviest suit he wore, even though he turns out to be wrong. Going back to the talk of this from the Kiva thread for a second, I've never seen a single proper source on that whole story of why Emperor Form got used so much, but I think there's at least some degree of truth of there if stuff like this is anything to go by. I'm pretty sure Takaiwa would think Kiva was heavier due to a combination of the weight being distributed less evenly, and the fact that Kiva's whole body language involved leaning over constantly, which would only exacerbate the strain of it being so top-heavy. Entirely conjecture on my part, though!

I have a big soft spot for this movie. I'm pretty sure I got around to this before Let's Go Kamen Riders was subbed, so this would've actually been the first big dumb crossover movie for me, which means I definitely wasn't numb to this stuff. Even though this movie started a ton of trends I'm not any more fond of than most people, I do have to admit I thought it was kinda cool here, back when I wasn't aware of all the characters that are supposed to be in those suits. And then nowadays, I still think it's funny that Decade randomly fighting Amazon is considered a big enough event to cut to the title card on, so like, how can I hate this thing? (Plus, the Kaneda-directed action here is the good weighty and visceral kind rather than the weirdly stiff and boring Super Hero Taisen kind, which makes a huge difference.)

It's definitely trying to do stuff with the story, too, for what it's worth, even though it's trying in that usual messy Decade way. I remember actively hating the whole reveal of Tsukasa's backstory. I think it was because I got invested in how he felt like, as you put it based on the first episode, Kamen Rider Everyman, and his hastily-executed return to the dark side and redemption here steps all over that a lot. But like, for one thing, the show very constantly and consistently highlighted Tsukasa's encyclopedic knowledge of Rider monsters (he speaks Grongi!), so it IS clear this was probably the intent from the start, making it another rare instance of Decade doing actual set-up. Plus, Tsukasa being the literal leader of the ultimate Rider bad guy group who became a hero anyway means he sort of has the ultimate Rider backstory, and even with the sloppy way it's handled, that feels perfect for a guy celebrating an anniversary. (Not that it was actually the anniversary for any of these Showa guys, but, well, onore Dikeido.)

Tsukasa's arc here has its problems, for sure, but I can appreciate that it is trying to make some kind of actual point. If the Nega World speech was the definitive statement on what Tsukasa wants for others, I think this movie makes an equally definitive one on what he wants for himself. It makes a nice coda for the series, even though it isn't the end, and also has just enough bits of strange continuity to not fit in the middle of the show either. But again, this kind of madness is all part of what makes Decade what it is.

I could be wrong, but I feel like a viewer's acceptance of Tsukasa's Dai-Shocker backstory is inversely proportional to their emotional investment in Tsukasa himself. If you were like This Guy Sucks, you're probably not going to be too bummed about Tsukasa's innate villainy. On the other hand, if you've been really won over by Tsukasa's growth into a hero and (arguably) a decent friend, you are probably not going to love how comfortable he seems as Dai-Shocker's leader.

I think a lot of why this ending feels so much better than a lot of the later Rider Team-Up endings is that it's sort of a reaction to what Tsukasa's doing in this story? A lot of the later movies are just The Main Riders Are Outnumbered, So Here's A Bunch Of Legend Suits. With this story, it's explicitly about Tsukasa trying to end the legacy of the Riders, and then realizing how much he needs them/his friends/his identity as Decade. The Riders showing up aren't just more fighters, they're proof that Tsukasa still has a chance for redemption. It's the other Riders trusting him to lead them to victory. It's way more tied into what this story is doing emotionally than most of the later films.

(Also, I never got a chance to bring it up, but can I just mention how much I love that Decade's Final Form Ride is a giant Decadriver? The whole scene with J is awesome, and now I know why there's an image of a Giant Decade figure out there, but it works so well thematically. It's Tsukasa becoming, literally, a way to channel the powers of other Riders. It's him becoming a vessel for their powers, their lessons, their legends. I really love that.)

I hear you. Definitely a bummer to see Megumi jobbed out like that.

It's the latter part that's the hardest pill to swallow. Tsukasa just being like It Is Awesome To Be Evil is the choice that bothers me, not necessarily his background being one of villainy. If there'd been some reluctance, or some outside pressure that lead to Tsukasa puffing up his hair, putting on some (more?) eye-liner, and leading Dai-Shocker? I might be more willing to give this turn the benefit of the doubt. Instead, he's just thrilled to see his friends get whipped, and that's tough to walk back.

Good catch!

You and me both! Busy couple days.

If there's one thing I'll take away from this series, it's how neat Eitoku is. He just seems like a good dude? I like his warm and slightly spacey demeanor.

I generally dislike in media res openings, with their inevitable slow walk from Earlier to get us back to where we started, but I think this film used it well. Jumping right into a fight, and giving it some runway, was the absolute right movie to establish this film as one with clear stakes.

Good points! This was definitely a case of the execution being problematic, more than the idea inherently being unworkable.

KAMEN RIDER DECADE HYPER BATTLE VIDEO - “PROTECT! THE WORLD OF TELEVI-KUN”

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

Fun night playing around with this special!

It’s not some deep, stunner of a story. It’s this cute thing where Dai-Shocker wants to replace Televi-Kun’s mascot with an evil(er?) version, and You The Viewer need to succeed at the following tasks to help Team Decade save The World of Televi-Kun:

-have good manners
-be able to know which one Diend is by looking at him
-know a non-zero amount of a foreign language!
-watch a bunch of Decade episodes
-remember a thing Tsukasa just said

After that, it’s a little bit of product placement from the Papercraft Industrial Complex to generate a Decade Bazooka, and you’ve triumphed over mascot-related villainy. It’s a pleasant enough time-waster, but… man, I don’t love this era of interactive HBVs! There’d eventually be a swing away from this type of gamified viewing experience (Fourze was sort of light on them, but I remember Gaim bringing it back), but at this point in time, they’re REALLY into padding things out with trivia contests and binary options. The Maze section is the toughest one to get through, because, like, just look at the screen! One of them is Diend! You have multiple seconds to decide which is Diend and which is Rising IXA! There’re only a couple jokes across the entire Maze section (Ura asking Natsumi out was legitimately funny, though), and the other couple sections aren’t a ton better. The Hero Class shorts are real basic lessons for kids, and the Riddle section is just trivia from the show that they give you huge hints on. (One of the hints is literally just Tsukasa saying the answer, and Natsumi shrugging!) I know these are for kids, but the level of difficulty and follow-through here comes off as a little lazy.

Luckily, the endings are hysterical. I adore the use of the magazine to solve the dilemma in the DVD. Having kids build a papercraft bazooka, just like Onodera, and then Decade uses a bigger version of the same papercraft bazooka to destroy the monster? Love it. Then there’s just the wacky incongruity of Decade and Diend getting mauled by bad guys while Onodera tries to figure out his paper folds and Natsumi unhelpfully stresses about it over his shoulder. Onodera might not have lived up to Kuuga’s legacy over the course of Decade, but he sure did become a reliably funny part of the team. Making Onodera’s paper-folding skills what victory hinged on? Again, I loved it.

Overall… I mean, it’s an HBV that’s 70% games for children. It’s not the best HBV you’ll ever watch. Honestly, I probably could’ve saved myself half an hour or so and just watched the beginning and end. As a complete package, though, it’s a fun enough time-waster. The ending is funny, and the rest of it’s a nice diversion. Nothing that feels essential, though, and nothing you need to go out of your way to watch.

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

Yeah I decided to do the smart option here and not do any of the middle portions, just watched the beginning and endings.

Pretty standard honestly, nothing too special. I do like the idea of trying to put together a papercraft while Riders are getting mauled. And the full Decade Complete loadout we get is cool. But that's about it.

I think this is one of the few HBVs to not have an exclusive form, too? Maybe I can find a tiny Decade Bazooka papercraft that'll scale with a Figuart...

Because I guess somebody working on Decade really likes Showa Riders. The HBV monster is an homage to Tv-Fly from V3. This last portion of Decade really did stick out like sore thumb lol. Like Decade is advetised as Heisei anniversary guy well before ZI-O came along so this was quite the serve these last batch of Decade stuff to go too.

https://i.pinimg.com/originals/6a/3c...15d718ba05.jpg
https://www.kamen-rider-official.com...1/main_image/1

Kid me would have gone crazy about a Decade Bazooka you could make out the magazine. She would've built that thing and stormed Dai-Shocker in her 8-year-old glory

Neat! And, yeah, it's yet another Showa reference for the Heisei Anniversary Season. Certainly would've made me happier if this series had stuck to Heisei, but that's just wishful thinking at this point.

The toy you build out of the magazine the DVD you're watching came with is a detail that basically made me forget how story-light the middle section of this HBV is. And Onodera builds it onscreen! Sometimes so badly that Dai-Shocker turns his friends into mindless slaves of a magazine mascot, but... Onodera still builds it onscreen!

From what I've heard, this is exactly why the original writer left the show.

I get it! This is something I need to organize my thoughts on better, but... like, we're sort of in (no pun intended) the worst of both worlds with the Decade series plot. If this whole series had encompassed Showa as well, and had Dai-Shocker as an opposing force from the beginning, great. If this whole series had been about the way things had changed since Kuuga reignited interest in Kamen Rider, great. Instead, we've got a whole bunch of Heisei, and then a whole bunch of Showa tacked on the end. It feels poorly designed. Maybe it'll all come together more for me after the last two episodes. I don't know. I hope it does. (I remember the winter movie being extremely Showa, though) For now, it's a gripe I can't really set aside.

According to some source, Decade Complete here is actually Decade STRONGEST Complete. The big difference is that the draws his powers from final forms (Ultimate, Shining, Survive, Blaster, King, Armed, Hyper, Liner, Emperor). But since there’s no option for this in the toy, they just cut to Decade finishing the transformation.

As Kamen Rider Decade loops back around to the horrible fate Natsumi foresaw in the premiere, so too does this thread loop back around to welcoming back ZATYME for the final two episodes!

---

KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 30 - "RIDER WAR: THE PROLOGUE”
Team Decade lands in their last world: The World of Rider War! Blade and Kiva are amassing armies, and nothing Tsukasa or Onodera can say will get them to cooperate. That leaves Tsukasa to try and stop Dai-Shocker by himself, and he almost manages it until he's confronted by... another Kenzaki?! Will Tsukasa be able to gather the other Riders to help him save Natsumi from the clutches of Apollo Geist, or will Decade be finished off by the people he thought were his friends?

KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 31 - "THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS”
With Tsukasa reeling from defeat, it all feels hopeless. His allies have abandoned him, and the universe is telling him to hang it up. But after a pep talk from Photo Studio Hayao Miyazaki on the importance of valuing your friendships, Tsukasa heads off to save Natsumi by himself. Except... he's not by himself at all. He's got Onodera, and Kaitou, and the A.R. Riders he's inspired along the way. Together, they all commit themselves to making their friendships last longer than their hardships, and to enjoy what they can of whatever good fortune they're given. Then a bunch of Riders show up to murder Tsukasa, THE END.

---

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade30a.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Look at it! Look at our shiny final moral!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...decade30a2.png

ZATYME: I thought this was our final moral though?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I wish it was that Tsukasa thing!
This was something that both made me happy, and then made me so angry that I wanted to punch someone in real life.

ZATYME: you can tell that they were hoping to have more episodes than the intended 31

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Instead... like, the goddamn BRASS BALLS it took to do a moral about Shitty Endings Can't Change A Good Journey, in a story with an intensely shitty ending.
It's a kind of critical aikido, where complaining about all of the series-long flaws that cripple this two-parter is also missing the entire point of the two-parter.
The madder you get, the more valid the story's point becomes.
I hate it so much!

ZATYME: yup they legitimately went "the journey is more important than the ending.... oh and be sure to catch the TRUE ending of the show only in theaters this Christmas!!!!"
there is a reason that the following movie wars have the retuning casts plot be a post script story and not you know the ENDING of their show

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Like, honestly, I love the idea that Photo Studio Hayao Miyazaki lays out here. I never felt like Decade The Series needed a resolution. The opposite, actually! I liked the feeling that it'd never end for these kids, the post-Nine Heisei Worlds thing where they just keep having adventures forever. So trying to get Tsukasa to realize that a reward or whatever is irrelevant when it's literally The Friends He Made Along The Way that matters, I do love that.

ZATYME: and if I remember right Toei got in legitimate trouble with parents over the ending of Decade as well

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Good!

ZATYME: but yeah if Decade ended with the Summer movie's plot that would of been an excellent moral for the ending
instead we got this .....advertisement for a movie

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, or just... there's this really easy lesson about experiences being more important than outcomes, and that's a great Kamen Rider message. Don't shy away from trying new things, or meeting new people. Let yourself try out a lot of things, and that can help you make a better version of yourself in the future. A hundred times, YES.
But there's a difference between an open-ended resolution, and completely punting on your season-long arc.

ZATYME: I refuse to call it an ending as there's no closure even in an "The Adventure Continues" sort of way it just feels like it's a part 2 of 3

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a complete cliffhanger!
And, worse, since it ends where the series starts, it sort of feels like the entire series is just a prologue for a movie?

ZATYME: and the best part of it (Kaito shooting Tsukasa in the face) was left out of the special edition in favor of the episode 1 rider war footage
this is the trailer that aired after the special editions finished airing if I remember correctly

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I mean, there're a million questions about what these episodes say about the series arc, but we'll save those for a little later. For now, setting aside the final few minutes of this series, what did you think about Tsukasa's story? Him as a character. Did you feel like this two-parter captured anything about his evolution?

ZATYME: it kind of did
it showed that he was truly hurt by Kazuma and Wataru not wanting to join forces with him to defeat Dai-Shocker
showing that he truly does view the riders he helped out as his friends and the fact that they rather continue fighting on the slight chance of survival instead of what (decade and crew think) will actually solve the problem has to hurt and even if they view him as their enemy he'll still fight in what he thinks is their best interests
and when Asumu and Wataru attack him he doesn't bother defending himself

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I still think the Inoue episodes best defined Tsukasa's But Why Heroism, where it's about protecting people's journeys, allowing them to find a place they fit in, just like Tsukasa is trying to do for himself. With this story, it sort of zeroes in more on Tsukasa's isolation, and how his lack of a world to protect means he'll risk anything to protect his friends because they're his world.

ZATYME: for all of his attitude, Tsukasa comes off as a very loyal person to his comrades in this 2-parter I mean he even hesitates a bit on saving Natsudurian due to it possibly erasing her from existence

KAMEN RIDER DIE: His friendships are literally all he has, so there's nothing he won't risk or sacrifice for them.
That's a sweet final beat for him as a character, I thought. Seeing what he really values.

ZATYME: and considering the main plot of the black episodes was saving Natsugrape's life it's further evolution of that and doesn't come out of nowhere

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, I got a lot of complaints about this story (sorry, Photo Studio Hayao Miyazaki), but I think there's a nice bit of closure on Tsukasa's emotional journey. It deprioritizes Being Rewarded or Finding The Truth, in favor of just valuing what he's already achieved, and taking comfort in the people he befriended. If the story had ended on that, I'd've been content.

ZATYME: if only the story ended with Apollo Geist's death

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, if only. Hey, speaking of that final duel, can we talk about the scene that preceded it? Like, how great was that Tsukasa/Kaitou scene?!

ZATYME: I'm glad we had our first official same sex rider couple back in 2009

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's the most emotional I got over this entire season, maybe! Kaitou sells the shit out of his need to keep Tsukasa from getting killed!

ZATYME: Kaitou went from a complete asshole rival to Tsukasa's friend and it doesn't feel forced
especially as Kaito did lament that he feels he doesn't have any friends in part one before affirming that he does in Tsukasa at the ending of that part

KAMEN RIDER DIE: When he shoots the Apollo Geist Formally Requests That You Join Him For Not A Trap invitation after Tsukasa says he's going to go even if it's a trap, and Kaitou is tearfully telling Tsukasa that he basically can't lose what he's found in his relationship with Tsukasa, I was as energized as I've ever been on this show. Kaitou's... the actor is so good. He's probably the best actor in the cast, and he imbues this weird treasure-hunting Terrible Boyfriend with so much pathos and regret. I loved that moment more than maybe anything else in the run of this show. Holy shit.

ZATYME: yeah it really feels like he had this big revelation at some point between finding Asumu in episode 30 and joining in to help Tsukase at the end of the same episode that yes Tsukasa and to a lesser extent the rest of the cast are in fact his friends

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Which, hey, let's talk about our returning A.R. Riders!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...decade30b1.png

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...decade30b2.png

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...decade30b3.png

ZATYME: I feel like there the morals of those arcs are the reasons that they were chosen for this story

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Absolutely.

ZATYME: as Blades was about fighting for your friends and Kazuma remembering that speech was why he and Garren went and helped Tsukasa out in the end

KAMEN RIDER DIE: And, really, these three A.R. Riders all brought out the best in the Team Decade Riders. Wataru was the one who connected with Onodera in his first mission with the team. Kenzaki was the one Tsukasa was closest to, the one he got most invested in helping. And Asumu was the character Kaitou inadvertently developed a friendship with. Of all of the A.R. Riders, these three mean something to our Riders.

ZATYME: that's also a good point on top of their morals being the most relevant they're also the ones our cast became the most invested in
could you imagine a version where it's Ryuki, Kabuto and Den-O for the final 2 parter?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Ha ha, OH GOD. With these three, there's a sense of stakes. We don't get to see their worlds, but we can see how much they're willing to compromise in order to protect those worlds, so we feel like there's a real threat.
It's an elevation over the usual Decade threat level.

ZATYME: and we get to see most of their friends die and in the case of Leangle and Garren they die AGAIN

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Nice to see Blade made up with Leangle. For a while, anyway.

ZATYME: I mean Sakuya and Mutsuki straight up died at the end of the Blade arc these are most likely random people in the suits

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I'm just assuming that the new Leangle also had a contentious relationship with Blade, as Leangles are famous for.

ZATYME: yeah most likely

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's pretty much how their Drivers work?
All betrayals.
All the time.
Anyhow, the other thing I liked about using Wataru and Asumu is that they're kids. It's super tough to watch kids not trust Kamen Riders, and it's super tough for Riders to fight kids. Asamu and Wataru represent the future that Riders fight for, so watching that future fight Decade is some dark storytelling.

ZATYME: also was Rising Ixa the first secondary rider final form we saw in the show (that wasn't from necessity like Exceed Gills)?
also it feels like if it were any other riders left than the two kids they might doubt Kenzaki's words more about it being Decades fault

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Speaking of other Kenzaki!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...decade30c1.png

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...decade30c2.png

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...decade30c3.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: We got us some Actual Special Guests for the finale!

ZATYME: one touch I like about Kenzaki is that he's dressed like Tachibana was in the missing ace movie all black suit and shades

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Oh, good catch!

ZATYME: as Tachibana was the red herring for that movie for the identity of the killer and thief of the four kings

KAMEN RIDER DIE: True. Maybe this Kenzaki's from the Missing Ace world?
(He's not, but I would laugh if he was.)

ZATYME: I also do like that on top of transforming straight to king form he's shown using the golden ace card in the buckle
it's a nice attention to detail

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, they do some smart stuff with Kenzaki's visual. It's not all solid uses of these returning actors, though. Right up front, I'm disappointed that we get Mio instead of Mari. I know why, but Mari is so much better.

ZATYME: this Kenzaki is officially an AR blade from another world of Blade
and yeah nothing of note is done with Mio they don't even using her original Fangire costume instead using a new one

KAMEN RIDER DIE: They at least give her a cooler Fangire Wedding than she got on Kiva, so that's nice.

ZATYME: yeah they did get rid of the strange BDSM overtones from the original that's for sure

KAMEN RIDER DIE: And there are actual guests this time!

ZATYME: but there's 100% less stabbing of the groom and I can't abide by that butchering of fangire tradition

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Fair. If Saga were still alive at that point in the story, he'd've been furious.
But, okay, Kenzaki.
Let's talk about him, since he's most crucial to this story.

ZATYME: and the one they do the most with from the veteran actors returning we don't vene see Realtaru transform on screen

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I get why he's here. If you need to sell Tsukasa on the idea that sometimes Riders need to abandon everyone they care about to protect both the world and the people they care about, Kenzaki is the best character to try and sell that message.
I can see the edges of how that could work in this story, but, man, I don't think this story got there!

ZATYME: he did become suicidal and wanted to die in that one novel and didn't care about the apocalypses that would happen if he did die and there was only one Joker left

KAMEN RIDER DIE: He zero percent tries to convince Tsukasa! When he is the one most capable of doing so!

ZATYME: I think he had to be introduced a bit earlier or lean into the fact that Decade fucked up in a previous arc

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Or just create a little room for Kenzaki to appeal to Tsukasa's guilt and fear.
The ending could still be everyone choosing their friendship over the safety of isolation, but there could be a little bit more weight to the counter-argument.

ZATYME: but I think him being unwilling to convince Tsukasa and going straight to violence is a good indicator that this isn't the Kenzaki from the show and while he looks like our self sacrificing idiot he's just as alien to us as Kazuma was

KAMEN RIDER DIE: And that feels like a huge mistake to me? It doesn't bother to leverage the main thing you get with Kenzaki From Blade.

ZATYME: oh it is
it would of been more interesting to see our Kenzaki and maybe even his Joker design try to make the argument for self sacrifice by pointing out that even without this world merging ordeal he can never see the people he cares about so he knows how much it sucks
but no we get an edgy Kenzaki who would sooner seal Hajime instead of become a Joker to end the fight in a way to help his friend

KAMEN RIDER DIE: The stuff with Wataru From Kiva is the same thing to me. I wrote it off in the beginning as being an avatar of Kamen Rider Storytelling, not Wataru-the-person but Wataru-the-narrative, but here it's just nebulous and threatening and contradictory and I give up. I give up trying to find something intelligent within this Destroyer of Worlds bullshit.
So let's finally talk about that series-long plot.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade30d.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: None of the Destroyer of Worlds stuff made a lick of sense to me.

ZATYME: one thing I do like looking back at the episode 1 scene with Wataru is that he does even back then tell Tsukasa to destroy the other riders

KAMEN RIDER DIE: He does, but!

ZATYME: that it isn't something that come out of nowhere in the final episode
to show that our heroes failed due to something contrived
that Tsukasa screwed up due to the type of person he is

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's definitely there in the start. The visitation Tsukasa gets from Wataru explicitly tells him to destroy the other worlds. But there's an explanation that what comes from that destruction is a fresh start. It's a metaphor for how stories should end, to allow new stories to be told. It's about never getting so wrapped up in your past that you can't open yourself up to new possibilities. It's a thousand percent the lesson Tsukasa will learn as the series progresses.
Here, it's all I TOLD YOU TO KILL, and no one's trying to explain why that might not be a bad thing.
It's reframing something subjective into just another villainous threat.

ZATYME: at best they could make it clear that the problem is the AR worlds themselves

KAMEN RIDER DIE: They make things more unclear in the finale! MORE unclear!

ZATYME: and again it's build up for the movie that people would have to pay for a ticket or buy a seperate DVD to watch and get an actual answer on why Tsukasa fucked up major

KAMEN RIDER DIE: "The other Riders are the problem!"
"Dai-Shocker is the problem!"
"Decade's existence is the problem, somehow!"

ZATYME: When we get answers people prefer to not get them in the form of a question I mean what is this Kingdom Hearts?
at least it being Decade's fault somehow is just what Kenzaki and Narutaki believe

KAMEN RIDER DIE: If I had ever even for a second cared about the mechanics of this story's apocalypse, this two-parter would've made me feel like such a dope.
It's all people saying Decade Is The Problem without ever attempting to explain HOW Decade is the problem.
It's impossible to take anyone seriously.
Kenzaki sounds like Apollo Geist sounds like Narutaki sounds the easily-duped Hibiki and Kiva and Blade.

ZATYME: almost like there was a part 3 that was removed from the plot or something

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It makes even ancillary characters frustrating, because NO ONE pushes back on random claims by strangers that Decade needs to be murdered.

ZATYME: and I don't even feel like Movie war 2010 gives a satisfactory answer to this problem

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I am not expecting a lot at this point!

ZATYME: and you're better off than a lot or people at this point
I feel like the only reason people look back at this season with a warmer reception nowadays is due to the missteps of some other shows endings making this one look not that bad in comparison

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It was just a gigantic bummer, to see such frustrating plotting for a finale. There's some interesting things in there about experiences being more than their resolution, and how you shouldn't let an unhappy ending sour your memories, but it's buried in unsympathetic characters doing things for unbelievable reasons.

ZATYME: looking at you Ex-aid taking 5 movies to actually conclude the plot

KAMEN RIDER DIE: But, like, Ex-Aid does resolve itself in the TV show! Not 100%, but the main character arcs and threats reach a resolution.

ZATYME: oh and the other Anniversary season in the Heisei era

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Here, everyone's trying to kill Decade in a quarry while the world is disintegrating maybe, THE END.

ZATYME: yup Decade was flawed from the start as a series
only given 31 episode to ensure Rider and Sentai were offset to help toy sales for both series
only having all of 4 DX roleplay toys with only maybe 2 being worth owning
and having the original writer leave part way due to producers wanting to shoehorn in Showa rider stuff into a Heisei Rider anniversary season for the last 6 episodes
on top of I hate to say it due to liking the 2 parter but the Shinkenger arc should of been removed to help give the actual plot room to breathe

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I feel like the Dark Riders story and the Shinkenger story... they seem like the first things you'd cut, but I really feel like they're two of the best stories about Team Decade? They're about the best parts of this show: the bonds between the characters.

ZATYME: unlike some other people I actually consider the AR riders a genius idea as now they don't have to scuttle any story plans and have the plot be dependent on what actors they can get back

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I really did like the A.R. Riders. I liked the stories being about the feeling of the shows being homaged, rather than a celebration of how popular they were. Excavating things from the shows, rather than just pointing to them.

ZATYME: almost like the show should of had the full 50 episodes or something

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Nah, it just... it needed to wrap up its series arc threat. It needed to -- at the very least -- clearly explain the stakes and the options for Tsukasa to resolve the dilemma.

ZATYME: almost two thirds of the show is taking up by the tribute episodes and with the writer change there was no room for them to breath to have a satisfactory ending

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I think it finished Tsukasa's story well, but it completely fumbled Decade's story.

ZATYME: they should of from the Dark rider arc onward played with the idea of maybe Tsukasa is going about it the wrong way and maybe he's an actual threat and problem instead of just having it all shoved into Narutaki a joke of a character who we NEVER learn the shtick of an the final 2 episodes of the show
it honestly has the same problem as the 2020 Digimon Adventure reboot
the show is so obsessed with showing off the budget in action scenes to help appeal to kids and sell merchandise that it never slows down and properly explains what's going on with the main plot until the final few episodes and still has trouble explaining stuff due to waiting until the end of the show to explain what's going on

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's not a great TV series finale, no!
Was there anything else from this story you wanted to touch on? Or from the TV series as a whole?

ZATYME: as a minor detail that's easy to miss is that if I remember throughout the show the Decadriver goes from the pristine model that Tsukasa initially uses to the more worn down look it had when Natsuapple found it
sort of implying that these events are doomed to endlessly repeat and that regardless of what Tsukasa did it would happen anew

KAMEN RIDER DIE: That is a detail that I would've liked a lot more if they bothered to acknowledge it in the show, but that might mean settling on an answer for their myriad questions, and I know that they are allergic to decisiveness.

ZATYME: I mean if the original writer stayed on it might of been acknowledged

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It feels like someone in the production team must've still wanted to include it, since scuffed-up props don't happen by accident. They probably could've found a way to mention it, if they wanted to.

ZATYME: hell NatsuCabbage could of commented on it in episode 30 and having an uneasy feeling due to it foreshadowing the inevitable Rider War

KAMEN RIDER DIE: That would've been great. Anything that helped nail down details for the end of this story would've been great.
And with that, I'm off to the World of Maybe A Movie Will End This Story In A Satisfying Way, and I am not exactly betting on leaving this narrative with a feeling of contentment and happiness. But is that even a requirement of a trip you take with friends? That it end well? We'll try and figure it out as we conclude our Journey through Decade!

I find it sad that after this show and the subsequent movie, we never see the full Decade cast together again after this. Natsumi, Grandpa, Kivala, and Yuusuke become completely absent afterwards, with the exception of ZvD but that's not even our Yuusuke. It just becomes Tsukasa and Kaito going forward. Which is sad, because it basically implies that after 2010, Tsukasa begins a journey all alone with a few run-ins from Kaito.

I mean, I love this cast. I love Tsukasa's deep, sibling-like bond with Natsumi. I love the way Onodera feels integral to the dynamic while rarely contributing anything measurable. I love Photo Studio Hayao Miyazaki and Kiva-la hanging out, never really losing their good-natured charm and ignorance of the plot. It's an incredibly good cast.

But they can all go straight to hell, because after this story? I am 100% Team DiCade. Give me Tsukasa and Kaitou having a toxic romance across the multiverse forever.

And here's where the wheels just completely come off the wagon. With no more episodes left so W can have peak Christmas sales, Decade careens to a complete car crash of a finale.

I'm not sure how things went so wrong with this show. Losing the original writer obviously hurt as Aikawa either left no notes behind or Yonemura just didn't care about them. There's really no attempt to wrap up any of the plot threads that the show has established. Decade's plot has had a number of central mysteries from the start: who was Tsukasa before he lost his memory? Where did his powers come from? What is causing all these worlds to merge? Who is Narutaki? What is the deal with sea cucumber? All of those things went unanswered. Instead we spend the last few episodes running around after a brand new villain while characters continue to give Tsukasa vague orders about what he was supposed to be doing. Also, the real Kamen Riders apparently are here, too, which adds in so many questions about what the AU worlds even are that the show doesn't even pretend to answer.

Everything about this feels like the writer just gave up on anything making sense so he threw out a Hail Mary and promised resolution in the movie. And that ended up so badly that it resulted in two of Decade's more infamous moments. The first is that Japanese parents were so pissed off that Toei re-edited the last episode for its repeat airing that it just finished by replaying the big fight from the first episode. The second is that we got that trailer. The trailer for the Decade movie that aired with this episode ended up being complete bullshit. By the time the film came out it was completely rewritten and re-filmed, so that not a single thing in the trailer actually appears in the final movie and nothing from the original cliffhanger is followed up on.

It's such a shame that the show just completely imploded at this point, as a good, satisfying ending surely must have been possible.

I've come to a new appreciation to a lot of the unanswered questions from Decade.

Most of it is a headcanon but... it does make sense when you think about it. I'll get back to that when the time is right however. So expect it in like... idk, 2 or 3 years if I remember? We'll see.

Now before I actually watch this since I just woke up... let's talk about cliffhangers, right?

So basically, no matter how much anyone wants to tell you otherwise. No Kamen Rider series since Decade has ended like this. I don't care what people say about Ex-Aid, Zero-One, etc those wrapped up mostly everything. There were a few teases but those were basically just hooks to tell a Winter Movie story. But something concludes.

Here well... despite not watching it, nothing concludes. Which is where we get the trailer. It's telling in that this is the only time Toei's been able to do this and hasn't been able to say "Okay, see how this ends in theaters!" after this.

As for the trailer itself, nothing of consequence. Because as confirmed by the cast, it was just shot final day of in order to hype up the movie. I doubt a final script was penned by that point. Point is, this is a very unique phenomenon that will never happen again. No matter what people try to joke about in regards to Rider endings.

The weird thing is that, emotionally? There's some quality work inside these two episodes. I love how the show explicitly says that journeys shouldn't be about the ending, because I don't feel like Tsukasa's journey should ever end. I love how he's Kamen Ride Or Die for his friends. (*wink*) It's a series that's stripped Tsukasa of his claim to heroism, of his past, of any hope he'll be embraced by a world. It left him his friends, though, so he'll risk multiversal destruction to save them. I love all that stuff. Also, Team DiCade.

But I feel like they could've told that story and still had time for one single scene of Narutaki saying Here's My Deal? Or one scene of Actual Kenzaki saying Here's Why Decade Is Causing All Of This? But they don't, and it gets more unsatisfying the closer we get to the end credits.

Yeah, most of my complaints about Kamen Rider follow-ups is that the series resolved so much that you kind of end up in Kuroto Escaped Again territory. (And I like the Ex-Aid movies!) The story was basically finished, but here's some extra micro-conclusions to plots you assumed were over.

Decade is not that! It's a massive, 31-episode arc that goes Hey LOOK It's The Real Kenzaki and then runs away while you're distracted. Super grateful that this was the one and only time in the 19 Heisei series I watched that someone screwed up a finale this bad.

Boy do I have some choice words I have to say about this finale. The Kenzaki Kazuma and too a lesser extenet Kurenai Wataru we see here in this finale are some of the worst things to come out of Kamen Rider imo.

Kenzaki Kaumza the man who fights because he loves everybody, who wouldn't sacrifice his best friend to stop the end of the world. Now in Decade is a cold sociopath who goes straight for the kill on Tsukasa. Slowly turning his friends against him all while having a deadpan expression on his face. Just wow I don't have anything that can convey how messed up this all is.

And too a similar extent to Wataru as well. I know by the end of his show he become a little more cold with his King persona and I can see that he channeling that in hus peformance but it's too cold. Where the sweet anxious kid that still underneath?

This is a minor complaint but Den-O here. We've establish that there is no A.R Den-O. So this is at the very least Momotaros from the show and from Decade stuff and to see him be completely silent as he attacks Decade with the other riders despite knowing Tsukasa on a more personal level then the others.

Oh speaking of the other Riders this feel contradictory to what we saw in Dai-Shocker where all the Riders fought alongside and even encourage Tsukasa to continue the journey. I know movies are always kind of wonky in terms of canon. Especially Decade didn't have the time to reference the movie by the time it came out. But can you imagine continuity wise how Tsukasa feels right now. Going from fighting alongside them to atone for your sin and then the Showa and Heisei Riders encourging the one thing that gives you purpose which is your journey. To the Heisei Riders deeming your entire existence a threat and deciding to end your journey. I can't even fanthom how this came to be honestly.

There another thing I wany bring up in regards to movie but I'm saving for when you watched the movie cause man this is getting long.

Damn, my post from earlier failed to appear. Oh well I’ll do it again.

While the finale isn’t much in terms of quality beyond Decade Complete Diend (I literally forgot the Legends of Evil were revived until I rewatched it), I can say that the story of what happened next behind the scenes is very interesting. They had a plot set up, actors booked and costumes made… then Toei saw that W was planning to do their own movie releasing on the same day and decided to merge them into one release, despite their incompatible plots. The Decade half had to be scrapped and rewritten from scratch, though still using the same cast and costumes.

But rather than discuss the results now, there’s a new Fangire, and with it, a new Fact Fangire-le.

Thorn Fangire

True name: Perishing at the Altar, Silence from a Deep Kiss (滅びゆく祭壇に、沈黙より深いキスを, Horobiyuku Saidan ni, Chinmoku yori Fukai Kisu o)

Human identity: Yuki

Rank: Queen

Class: Aqua

Main actor: Yuria Haga

Man it was absolutely wild, watching the re-aired versions and then the original versions with the nonsensical Decade Final Movie trailer attached to it.

I... I kind of prefer the original version of Decade's ending... up to a point. And I feel like you could have easily edited around the final shot of Diend shooting Decade and switched it to something else. Just from what I remember of Movie War 2010, and how its set up, them repeating the beginning of the show in the re-aired version makes no sense from what I recall. Because the beginning of the show is showing us the end of it all. Tsukasa destroying everyone as Natsumi watches in horror.

I do get what they were going for with these episodes sans the abrupt ending, and well, I suppose the ending doesn't pack as much a punch for me in any kind of way due to the fact that I knew it was coming. It was an inevitability for me on this journey to return to Decade.

It's so frustrating! All the setup was there to give the show an ending, or at least a checkpoint, with Natsumi's dream becoming reality, even a dark ending that has Tsukasa resigning himself to his role as a destroyer and unlocking Violent Emotion, leaving something to resolve in the Movie War. But instead, it's just Natsumi running towards the viewer, explosions and that's all folks. It doesn't leave me with any satisfaction, like that feeling when you eat a meal too fast and forget that you ate it so now you're hungry again. Even with Decade being my first season, I cannot deny or defend how lame this "ending" was and I'm glad Toei learned their lesson for pulling such a mean stunt.

Kaito becoming Tsukasa's friend doesn't really negate him being a complete a**hole rival though. He still hasn't changed that much, just showing his vulnerable side to Tsukasa. That's probably why he feels like he doesn't have any other friends, since he's seldom honest with anybody.

Agreed. This version of Mio isn't even likable, since she's evil and gets destroyed with little fanfare.

Wataru "teaming up" with the Fangires isn't even a big deal like they make it out to be, since that's literally the default setting of his world. Of course, Yonemura wasn't head writer then, so maybe he failed to do the research. Actually, Yonemura pretty much failed here in general.

The OG Heisei Riders are such bullies to Tsukasa. Like how World of Negatives Otoya wasn't really Otoya, I'm convinced these guys aren't themselves either. I can't speak for Blade, but there's no way Wataru would oppose someone who fights for co-existence. No way!

Kivaala reviving and brainwashing Yuusuke in to black-eyed Ultimate Kuuga to join the others in killing Decade came totally out of nowhere as well. Why did she do that and how did she do that? It doesn't make any sense!

I also enjoyed the Negatives and Shinkenger arcs for how they developed Tsukasa and Natsumi. While I dislike the Worlds of Black and RX more, I think the most negligible in terms of plot advancement would be the World of Diend. But I know there's probably a few people who would disagree with that, so I'm just speaking hypothetically. Nothing really needed to be cut to make this final arc work, it just needed to be focusing on the show, not what comes after. That's where this story fails.

The concept of alternate worlds is intriguing for sure. I mean, if you can't get Godai back as Kuuga, your best option is to make a New Hero for a New Legacy, which was the whole intention of Kuuga to kickstart the Heisei Rider Era. I like the idea of taking some fanfic what if concepts of different seasons and exploring them from Team Decade's perspective.

I respect that we disagree about shipping in this show, but you're at least joking about the "they can all go straight to hell" part, right? Natsumikan, Yuusuke, Kivaala and Eijirou are still good characters.

I think the movie answered those questions simply enough. Both are tied to his backstory with Dai Shocker.

Looking forward to seeing you try and make sense of this. Good luck.

While EX-Aid and Zero One leave some loose ends hanging for V-Cinemas to resolve, they at least have the courtesy to leave you at a checkpoint, to put it in video game terms. Decade leaves you in the middle of a fight. There's no feeling of progress here, rather it feels like going in reverse from the great conclusion to Tsukasa's world-searching subplot in the movie. Apollo Geist Fangire doesn't even feel like a final boss. He goes down way too easily. He's a joke compared to the original version.

To be honest, it was still confusing to me. Then Late August of 2019 happened and well... everything made a lot more sense.

I suppose you could say it wasn't the original intention but as the years go on, more pieces have been added to the puzzle to where, if you think about things. It just makes sense. I know I'm being vague but I'm trying to avoid spoilers here for future entries.

Regardless, I already made a post on twitter back in that time that summed up my thoughts on it. But I had yet to watch Decade again. This rewatch has sort of given me more clarity on the bigger picture as my fanfic brain tries to take what pieces of information we have and put em together.

On an unrelated note, as someone who has been working on a Kamen Rider Zi-O Crossover, rewatching Decade has been a great boon to me.

Either way I need to go on a different journey before I meet up with everyone in the World of Movie Wars. Time to rewatch the first Rider I got into, W.

I think I know what you mean by Late August of 2019 and actually, I had my own theories of what that was leading to.... Until I turned out to be completely wrong. Everything made a lot less sense to me, but at least you were able to find something to work with.

I plan on starting my third watch of W at some point as well, although I doubt I'll have enough time to catch up before Die watches the Movie War. Besides, my current objective is to start and finish Blade before he reaches the Day of Oma. I also plan to rewatch the Shinobi arc on January 1st 2022.

Whether people got something out of it or not, in the end, the show was just a result of marketing so that Toei and Bandai can postpone Kamen Rider W to start airing in fall and avoid major toy sale conflicts with super sentai as of 2009.

Every Kamen Rider show made after Kuuga is the result of marketing, though

But they weren't created to stall time. Decade pretty much was. That was my bad, should have been more specific.

Still, they could’ve found some way to do so without screwing over the show’s storyline especially its endgame arc.

They should have but didn't cause the show was last minute from beginning to end last I checked. And this was evident I think especially after all the Heisei rider reimaginings were visited.

"Apollo Geist really wanted to get married..." This arc in a nutshell.

The Rider War was a great concept for the finale, along with the Journey being more important than the destination which fits Decade so well. And yet, this whole final arc left me thinking "where does it go from here?"

And then DiEnd shot Decade. The End (Or should I say, DI-END!).

Funny enough, I saw the All Riders Vs. Dai-Shocker after this, and then the Movie Wars, just because I really wanted to see how it ended. With how things were progressing, I almost thought they'd pull off the old It Was All A Dream nonsense (which I'm honestly glad they didn't do), but this ending just feels... empty? Nothing feels like it's completely resolved, or any big farewells, it just ends.

Now I do like how (Real) Blade and Kiva appeared as different entities than the ones Decade met, but I feel like this arc was just buildup and more buildup, and then the producers said "That's all, folks!"

And for real though, the Apollo Geist plot was just sooo dumb, it would have been better to make him just flat out take Natsumi and her grandfather hostage and declare he's making a public execution or something, because gosh darn, it's like he didn't want to waste the cake, so he was willing nab any young maiden off the street. Heck, I thought Narutaki pleading for the heroes to defeat Dai-Shocker would have made a great turning point in the show and his character, buuut...

Also, since the Hyper Battle DVD was mentioned, I haven't seen it either, nor had I even knew he had one.

For those who don't know and are curious, the only real differences between the original and specials cuts come at the start of episode 30, and the end of episode 31.

In the original cut of episode 30, Natsumi doesn't say much during her dream sequence, and Narutaki appears to taunt her about how she could've stopped the Rider War from happening. Then when the trio go outside, Natsumi thinks to herself about how she still has faith in Tsukasa. The special version recuts it to where Natsumi narrates her thoughts throughout the dream sequence, cuts out Nautaki's' appearance, and has her talking to herself out loud as she wakes up. She later then says how she wants to protect Tsukasa no matter what.

As for episode 31, the original cut ends with Kivala reviving Onodera and turning him into Dark Kuuga, and then a unique fight sequence between Decade and the rest of the Riders breaks out, ending with Diend appearing and shooting Decade. Roll credits. The special edition changes it to where Kenzaki's' Henshin is completely cut out and Ultimate Kuuga just appears on his own before transitioning into the War sequence we saw at the start of the show. Everyone dies, the end.

I'm not gonna go back and check, but I'm pretty sure I was one of the only people defending Wataru's appearance in Episode 1. I liked it for the way it used a recognizable Rider -- dude was literally the main Kamen Rider a week earlier! -- as a way of communicating what Kamen Riders As A Concept were passing down to Tsukasa. It sort of needed to be the previous Rider, for that metaphorical baton-passing to work. I was okay with it. I didn't really see it as Wataru.

Here, it's like the show wants to have its Guest Star cake and eat it, too. There's almost no way it can be the Kenzaki we knew in the Blade TV series (him being on Rider War World means that his Earth is now getting destroyed by the Sealing Stone; more importantly, he's just massively out of character and a huge dick), but the show clearly is using the actor to get you to go REAL BLADE and connect the dots between Blade's ending and Decade's. It's making connections and ruining connections simultaneously, and it's way harder to defend.

Hilarious! Thanks!

I mentioned this to Zatyme on Discord, but I saw the Decade movie when I was watching W for the first time, and nothing from that "trailer" looked familiar to me. I was like, how did I forget this much of the movie?!

It is incredibly weird for a series whose mandate seemed to be Celebrate Heisei, to then spend the last few minutes of their finale making the Heisei Riders seem like homicidal creeps.

https://c.tenor.com/DXZVgqq3ORsAAAAC...-dodgeball.gif

Yeah, it... they honestly didn't even need to do a lot in this final story? They didn't exactly have a convoluted series of plot points like Den-O, or some impossible scenario like Blade. With Dai-Shocker's introduction, you even have a villain who can be cathartically defeated by Team Decade And Friends! They'd done most of the heavy lifting to square away the various character relationships by Episode 29, you only have to close out the Disappearing Worlds stuff. Two episodes should be plenty! Why did they work so hard to avoid actually ending their story?!

Yeah, just jokes. I really did like the cast for this series. They deserved better!

I sort of enjoyed Apollo Geist's role in this story? He just wants his powers back and to be a big theatrical villain. Dude's motivation is super-clear, which is something that's in short supply for this two-parter. Once he got his powers back (via Fangire Wedding, which is a really smart decision in the script), he really wanted to kill Decade, so he kidnapped Natsumi and creepily threatened to marry her after killing her friends. It's... like, it's INSANE, but it's legibly insane. Everything he does feels like the decision-making process of a Showa villain. Not really any complaints about Apollo Geist in this one from me.

Blade's ending has recently been on my mind a lot recently for how perfect it is and how it's maybe one of my favourite Kamen Rider things ever even without the rest of the series surrounding it (which is amazing Kamen Rider itself but for, uh, completely different reasons); so Kenzaki's appearance here... I've never liked it but I REALLY don't like it here. It's like the exact opposite of everything Blade stood for and while "Kenzaki would NEVER do that" might sound like I'm putting a character on a pedestal... well... Kenzaki would NEVER do that!!

It's instead easier for me to read into him not as Kenzaki specifically, but as an expression of the attitudes of the worlds in general towards Tsukasa at this point. Decade is to begin with an extremely non-literal series so that works as part of that; and it makes sense of the drama and what they're really going for here; with Kenzaki's actor probably just being the easiest or one of the easiest ones to get back at the time -- they probably just figured they wanted a past Heisei Rider to come back for this role who wasn't Wataru, and Takayuki was down for it.