Tsukasa's softening definitely feels like a reaction to Kaitou joining the cast, but I sort of wish it felt more like Tsukasa changing, not the writers changing Tsukasa. There's not a lot of explicit storytelling that goes into Tsukasa suddenly having this sincere bond with Onodera (like, even Onodera is a little surprised at Tsukasa thinking they're such good friends), and it's a big enough change to the dynamic where it needed to be less subtextual.

It's a positive change - Tsukasa is at his least Awful To His Friends than we've seen him since the debut episode - but it needed a little more groundwork laid for it. Comes off a little sudden.

A Kuuga-esque setting that shifts into an Agito-esque one? Insane!

As you’ve probably picked up, there’s a theme to Diend’s summons. Last time, he summoned anti-villainous Movie Riders (Kabuki and Rey), here he summons tertiaries with guns as transformation items. (Delta and Drake)

Our new G3/new Gills/new Agito is played by the same guy who played Habataki in the Hibiki movie.

Also, they didn’t kill the villain of the arc. Which totally fits with Agito (which had a similar ending), but still stands out.

What is really great about the Agito world was that Shoichi fulfills all three quotas for each rider identity. As G3 he was trying to be a rider, as Gills he became a rider, and as Agito he already is a rider. This really took me by surprise at the time and boy was it fun. Also, Onodera's subplot was fun too.
If I may point out a correction, Shoichi was Kamen Rider Kirameki in the Hibiki summer movie, the shachihoko motif oni who literally rode a kite to get around. :lolol

Diend definitely has Figuarts displays that seem random, but there's a secret reason why those five suits from different shows are all on one shelf together.

Yeah, these episodes did a good job with how they turned Agito's Riders into just, like, The Agito Rider.

It's a cool idea to have the World of Agito as a sequel to the World of Kuuga, since those two shows are loosely connected. This arc just takes that concept to the next level, by having actual fights between the Unidentified Lifeforms and Unknowns. Even Yuusuke using G3-X is meta, since that suit was based on Kuuga. Speaking of Yuusuke, he's the real MVP of this arc. After how much of a bystander he was in the World of Faiz (which doesn't get a Kamen Ride here, what gives Decade!), it's nice to finally see him get some more development. Especially since it involves him scoring hero points against Kaito. Even though G3-X is basically a downgrade for Yuusuke compared to the lightweight and versatile Kuuga, I commend him for wanting to honor Yashiro's invention. He also learns to accept that what Yashiro needs isn't him, but his counterpart in this world, Shouichi. So there's a good moral about moving on and not getting too stuck in the past and Yuusuke's and Kivaala's friendship gets a few cute scenes as well. Enjoyable arc!

Agito is 17/19 in my Heisei Rider Ranking, just above Kuuga. I agree with Die's assessment that Agito is a better Kuuga, which makes sense considering how Inoue wrote the best episodes of Kuuga IMO. Although I think Hibiki is also a better Kuuga, in a different kind of way. Man, even this paragraph is talking more about Kuuga than Agito! Well, one improvement with Agito is the villains. The Unknowns are boring characters, but as a faction, I think they're more interesting and philosophical than the unambiguously evil Unidentified Lifeforms at least. The summer movie is just awful though.

It's also pretty unique to have Ashikawa Shouichi be the counterpart of the whole Rider trio from Agito, who are all represented in his name. He goes from G3-X to Exceed Gills to his true Agito form. So it's like what if Hikawa was a dormant Agito and had to learn how to control that power, which is an intriguing concept that I think would have been cool to see utilized in the show, so I'm glad they did it here. Similar to Tatsumi Shinji, he seems to be a little edgier than his usually plucky main counterpart.

I think the thing that maybe didn't work for me in Decade's Shouichi is that, for almost the entire story, he's just Ryou? I know that my initial formulation for Shouichi was that he was mostly Hikawa, because of the Yashirozawa of it all, but he's missing so much of Hikawa's personality.

Like, the easy description is "G3-X who became Gills", but that misses how much Ryou and Hikwawa would deal with adversity differently. Ryou would grit his teeth and brood as the universe shit on him, then lash out at anyone who would pity him. Hikawa would assume that he brought it on himself... somehow, and then cheerfully step to the side so that his cosmic annihilation didn't upset or distract any of his friends/enemies. This Shouichi misses out on the Imposter Syndrome that defines Hikawa, the unshakeable belief that he isn't good enough to be worth cheering on.

I wonder if this Shouichi would've felt less like a cipher to me if he'd had that weird I Appreciate You Giving Up On Me energy that Hikawa had, rather than Ryou's more stock Please Watch My Misery antihero thing. I don't know.

This is easily one of my absolute favorite two-parters from Decade. It basically defines everything a good Decade story ought to be, with a plot that's firmly focused on its own original drama, while paying tribute to earlier shows in new and creative ways.

Exploiting the connection between Kuuga and Agito was just the smartest possible decision to make, for one. It's just such an enticing concept for die-hard Rider fans, and yet adding a few scoops of Kuuga into the recipe manages not to detract from that Agito flavor. Heck, while I think Yashiro makes a so-so Ichijou, she's a heck of an Ozawa.

But like, even more than that, she's Yashiro, and I think that's what ~maybe~ most impressed me about these ones – how well they work as Decade episodes. (It's a tough call though; the all-in-one Agito Rider concept for this Shouichi is utterly brilliant, both as another fun concept and as a way to streamline the narrative.) It's a story all about Newsuke that very successfully grounds its drama entirely in what viewers of this show know about him, and it's a great example of why it's really not that crazy that so many people watch Decade without having seen the previous nine shows. You can go into this with no context beyond it being about our pal Yuusuke Onodera arriving with the rest of the gang into this weird new world that's kinda like his weird new world, and it works simply on that level, above all else. I think his character arc here, basically overcoming this temptation to chase something that isn't there, is super compelling, and everything that springs out of that all ties together very cleanly, in my opinion.

I honestly don't at all agree that this development for Tsukasa is abrupt. Pointing to the lack of focus for Newsuke over the past four episodes seems like a bit of a... mathematical way to look at things? There's been a month of distance, sure, but I don't think that changes how the Ryuki arc made a huge point of how much Tsukasa values Newsuke's friendship. (That two-parter literally ends with Tsukasa calling a picture of the two of them together a photo of the best team.) I don't see much about Tsukasa's attitude throughout these episodes as being particularly out-of-character, especially with how he refuses to be explicit about his motivations (even changing the subject the second Newsuke figures it out.)

That whole "don't make me sound like a villain" exchange is one of my favorite Tsukasa bits ever, and the whole reason why is because Natsumi really isn't giving him enough credit? He's got an attitude problem and he revels in trolling people, but Tsukasa, since day one, has never actually been that hesitant to help people out – he's mostly just bad at it, because, by his own admission, he's not great at understanding people. So yeah, he pulls some stunts every now and then, but if he can do something nice for the one guy cool enough to stick up for him even when he's mocking Blade for getting fired, and maybe score some Agito trading cards in the process, I mean, why wouldn't he?

Mind you, I also don't expect much from character development in Decade, so I don't know, I'm probably just giving a way too optimistic reading of Decade's apathetic attitude (...just like Newsuke in those Blade episodes!) Still though, yeah, even with potential issues regarding Tsukasa here, this is a very strong set of episodes all around.

Which, yeah, they've definitely done some episodes that draw those characters closer together, but there hasn't been much follow through lately. (Also, man, I don't know if the Ryuki episodes were as much about Friendship as they were about Respecting Differences, at least to me.) They left this partnership at Pleasant Coworkers, and that was a month ago. For Tsukasa's sacrifice/vow/heroism to make sense to me, I feel like we at least needed a couple warmer scenes at the Photo Studio. I don't think it's asking too much for a big plot development like this to have a bit more buildup than something that occurred two stories prior? These types of stories are so much better when they're incremental, and that wasn't how this story played for me.

I always felt like it wasn't that Tsukasa didn't understand people. it's that he could read people too easily. In most of these adventures, his abrasive tendencies are down to him lacking the patience to let people tell their own stories. He already knows what they're going to do and why they're going to do it, so god just let him take care of this already. Even here, he knows exactly what Onodera's doing and why he's doing it, which is why he's declared himself Shouichi's protector.

It... I don't feel like Tsukasa's unaware, or disinterested. I think he's a guy that doesn't fit in, and he's trying to be a good friend/hero, but he keeps rushing things.

Given how close Agito and Kuuga is in certain aspects, I do love the idea that the Agito world is a parallel twist on the Kuuga world. It's like Jay Garrick and Barry Allen to me.

I mean true people can have preferences, but it's different yeah between praising him while putting others down or explaining while acknowledging it as subjective like being your preferences. Like how it's difference to express that you don't enjoy something; between "I wasn’t a fan of <something> due to weird pacing, inconsistency...." and "<something> is terrible and people shouldn’t enjoy that, it contains everything people should hate....". Also I wasn't refering to you for the Kusaka one, but it's also another excuse for some people to defend terrible characters (Kusaka's mostly known as terrible and people meme that).

I didn't refer to myself or such of being mocked, not talking about appease everybody. What I want for being transformative fan is to influence the developers or such from fan's suggestions to make it better or such (me and others). Another example of this is about how most of game's adaptations like movies are done by companies with no passion regarding the media, making them a terrible adaptation, while fans will probably handle it better due to their passion, but don't have the publicity or occupation for that. I mean you did bring up Emu submitting game ideas to Kuroto, but for real life one, my point isn't about , but about the fans being unreachable to the companies so any of their contribution cannot be known by the companies.

W̶o̶u̶l̶d̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶h̶a̶v̶e̶ ̶n̶i̶c̶e̶ ̶p̶e̶o̶p̶l̶e̶,̶ ̶g̶o̶o̶d̶ ̶f̶o̶l̶k̶s̶,̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶u̶r̶n̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶t̶o̶ ̶a̶ ̶h̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶m̶e̶a̶n̶s̶ ̶i̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶a̶ ̶b̶o̶r̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶a̶s̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶g̶e̶t̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶o̶n̶g̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶p̶a̶r̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶c̶e̶s̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶ ̶m̶o̶r̶e̶ ̶d̶r̶a̶m̶a̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶f̶l̶i̶c̶t̶?̶

Though both have the same family name in Yashiro, their given names are actually different which obviously explains that they're not the same, the Kuuga world's given name is Ai, and the Agito world's given name is Tohko. Also no, Yashiro's actress Hiroko Sato have the same height as Ozawa's acrress Tōko Fujita. The one that is actually really tall but wasn't addressed before was Yuri Aso's actress Yu Takahashi. Oh speaking of that, I wonder if Yashirozawa's given name is based on Ozawa's actress is purposely made as reference? For Yashiro being angry at the early G3-X operator, I won't condone that like you asking if ti's justificable (though Yashiro takes significantly softer stance to Onodera). Of course it's practically a defense force, and that everyone must be subjected to trials and challenges, but still giving overboard burden to them is still a wrong approach, if right from the start someone's subjected into the very toughest's training programme, it'd end up breaking their body apart, if not killing them, because that sort of training programme is too tough at first; put them in a less intense programme, and let them hone their body and work their way gradually up to the more intense training regimen.

I guess it's in the name at the first place for him being 80% Hikawa. Like you said it's AsHIKAWA and the family name is combination of Gills' and G3's, but other briliance.. English way is that if you spell out the full name while separating the Hikawa part, it'd be "Shouchi as Hikawa". From Faiz's one before, I think this is the reverse scenario of Faiz's revisit, where Ogami wasn't a jerk, but this Shouchi was a jerk, example is him roughly keeps others away like Tsukasa's assistance to him. He's the combination of every Agito's primary three Riders, but even with Shouichi's namesake, like you said, I do feel that ironically the actual Shouichi part is the least dominant of this composite character (and with him being a jerk, I think inherently he's mostly Ryou), which I dunno what'll Agito fans who wants Shouichi adaptation think regarding this. But my problem is that, him being Agito at the end is just kind of shoehorned at the end to prove that he is Shouichi for me (probably like you said too of him not being known much pre-mutant), it just suddenly appears and Tsukasa declares that it's his real power, without any set up or such. Otherwise, you'd be ok if a revisit did adapt something even if it's only a few part, not all of them (if you think Faiz adapted none of the series except the surface)?

But it's a lucky stuff for Shouichi! Because of the weaker suit being damaged, he had the stronger one to fend off unwanted threats! Design isn't important, what's important is the power it holds as it's a survival!

I think the others questioning Tsukasa about him being suddenly altruistic here kinda confirms your view at the talk in the beginning of the episode where Tsukasa wants to save the world, but only because he lives there. You also claim that saving multiple Earths means he is very heroic, but other's suspicion of Tsukasa kinda confirms about my reply there where people who succeed doing that aren't necessarily more heroic than others, just that they have much more power to do that (and anniversary Riders tend to be OP, and Tsukasa's certainly OP in human form too like the tennis match against 3 Orphnochs). But true like Switchblade said, I see this including the suspicion for Tsukasa as more of an inconsistency, like how DreamSword discussing about Tsukasa forgetting lessons before. Like the end of the 2 parters have Tsukasa seemingly learning his lesson like making speeches that favors humans (not only here) or helping/encouraging kid Wataru. Though if I have to sum up, like you said before, Tsukasa wants to save multiple Earths, Tsukasa's someone who mostly focuses in only the saving people/the world part, but is apathetic to life problems other than living or dying (and probably only so that he'd survive). You said that there's character growth and this is unwarranted, but this is honestly a bad take and misinterpretation of it when they pile up changes on characters each moment which can lead into inconsistency.

Probably Kaitou is here for the usual entertainment for what morally grey characters can do where you don't really know what they will do in a situation (though I'm personally not swayed by that, I know that someone selfish can help out if they got mutual benefit). Or even then, I wonder that you don't see him as an entertaining shit-stirrer like usual dick-ish characters, such as you mentioning him as Hojo before (or he's somehow fits, not as bad, but similar to the likes of Kotaro in Den-O movie...)? I think Yashiro assumed something significantly worse (justified though) regarding Kaitou that she'd better destroy the MacGuffin rather than letting him use it like for evil purposes in Yashiro's assumption.

No offense, but personally this story also had some unnecessary difficulty for me, with, yeah, many complaints about Onodera not using Kuuga's power. I'd probably tolerate it better when there are reasons of Onodera not being able to henshin into Kuuga, but here, it's just unnecessary difficulty for the story to have him undergo probably unnecessary set up for G3-X to fight off monsters like Grongi or Unknowns. With no reason, I think Onodera should've been able to easily prove himself by turning into Kuuga, either for him going back into impressing Yashiro (probably also getting him accepted into work at the G3 team), or him fightiing for others here.