It was a pretty alright movie. Geiz's' arc is certainly done well enough, and the action and comedy were always enjoyable to experience. My minor gripes aside, I feel it's very easily in second place out of the Zi-O movies, with HeiGen Forever being number one.

Also Geiz Majesty is the second best suit in Zi-O, fite me.

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

Movie Time! Majesty edition!

-I adoreeeeeeeeeee this movie, it's probably one of my favorite Rider movies of all time? My favorite flavor of KR special content is "fun/sweet character-centric story with either none or fairly little/low-stakes Rider Time", after all!

-Everyone slips wonderfully into this high school story that we saw in the finale. Our main trio seem to be childhood friends, Ora and Heure is the nosy rich kid and her sidekick, Swartz is our prinicpal! Everything that focuses on that is super on-point, love it!

-This also is a "Aren't Secondaries The Coolest?" movie, so there's a bunch here! Date, Terui, Kaito, even Kusaka! The minor cameos are all nice and dont overstay their welcome, and I very much enjoyed Geiz slapping Kaito.

-It isn't mentioned anywhere in the movie, but Geiz's name in this timeline is actually Keito Myokoin, and Geiz is a nickname! (presumably Sougo gave it to him, since he's the only person besides people who are aware of the past timeline who calls him that)

-The kids' reaction to all the Rider time shenagians, is like? The best??? Sougo and Tsukuyomi cheering on Geiz and commenting on Woz's speech is too good!

-It's kinda nice that the Rider plot is nice and simple, and doesn't bite off more than it can chew? White Woz is back, he's got the Another Diend watch from Kaito, let the hijinks ensue.

-But speaking of plot, um. What's with the mouth stuff in this movie, with White Woz eating the Diend watch and Woz voring White Woz.....actually scratch that, I don't wanna know.

-All in all, it's Not really trying to convey profound themes or a grand new adventure, just an incredibly solid Geiz-centered romp! And I love it that way!

-............I hope everyone's ready for next time, because we'll be stuck in Inoueland for the rest of our Zi-O journey.

It's a neat suit! I'd like it better if the Ridewatches were all gold, like on Zi-O's final form(s), but I still think it's fun to look at.

Right after Geiz does his first Henshin, there's a cut back to Sougo and Tsukuyomi, and it is the best. Sougo's like YES and Tsukuyomi's like COOL and I was so happy. There's no darkness to their powers in this one, which is sort of great? It's nearly antithetical to the core metaphor of both Kamen Rider and Kamen Rider Zi-O, but, like, these kids earned their antithesis.

"Stuck" is a weird way to phrase "excitedly returning", but who am I to critique anyone's writing?

Well, I’ve said my only thoughts on this movie, so I’ll skip to the regular stuff.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=f2fVOG1U2tg
(Off-note, while I predicted that something like this repaint would get released, I feel the standby is kind of a letdown, coming off Grand Zi-O)

“Vanquishing the great evil, the ultimate warrior, Geiz Majesty!”

And the obvious song here is the movie theme, Brand New Day https://youtube.com/watch?v=S8JpvxMcYdI

For the compare and contrast, White Woz is someone who makes it seem like he’s obsessed with Geiz, when he’s actually obsessed purely with his powers. Whereas Diend follows Decade around because it’s implied he has a crush on him. Design wise, Another Diend is a reuse of the Ayakashi Diend from the Shinkenger episodes of Decade (hence why some called that monster “Another Diend” back when this show was airing)

(Fish Sandwich also watched Kamen Rider Zi-O Next Time: Geiz, Majesty)

...Props for not forgetting that comma in the title by the way, Die!

Anyway, yeah, "total home run" is about right. Easily one of the best V-Cinemas Rider has ever had. If you told me it was the absolute best, even, I wouldn't try and argue that much. As soon as I watched it, it immediately became a Specter-level favorite for me. The crazy thing is, and I mention this in that old post, but it doesn't even have anything to do with it being about Geiz? Part of the appeal of the film should've been that simple factor of "finally, my favorite guy in his own movie!", but the quality of the final product is so high it just sorta blows right past that kind of thinking. I was so genuinely drawn into the emotions of the story that I feel like I could've hated Geiz the entire series and still loved this movie, if that makes any sense. (Not that it ever makes to sense to hate Geiz, when he's so awesome!)

It probably shouldn't be any surprise then, that Geiz, Majesty was also tied with Over Quartzer (a film you might recall I also think is at the top of the top!) when I was picking my favorite toku movie of 2020, so as a bonus, here's what I had to say about it then:

And hey, Die even lent some credence to my theory at the end there! :p

(Also, Brand New Day is one of my favorite Rider songs, as long a list as that is. Just like the movie itself, I think it's just plain great as a song first, before even thinking about what it's connected to. It gets at this really specific feeling of like, basically deciding to get out of your own way and finally push towards the future you want to see, and the upbeat vibe it has ends up being super human and relatable. ...Kinda like the movie it's attached to, which is about Geiz learning to break out of a funk he's in, so the theme song also fits perfectly, on top of everything.)

Hmm, based on the responses in this thread, looks like I have the unpopular opinion of thinking this movie was kind of lame. I know FreshToku has an issue with it as well, but I'll let him elaborate on that. Not the worst V-Cinema I've watched though, at least it doesn't diminish or ruin anything the way Cross-Z New World did, which is one of the advantages of this movie existing in a new continuity.

I do like the acting in this movie, with how much energy New Sougo has here which is the result of him having friends and not being lonely anymore. I just enjoy how Mouri's style depicts Sougo in general, as being even more Sougo. I think there's potential to tell a good story in this new continuity with these familiar yet different characters, but the biggest mistake this movie makes is trying too hard to connect these characters with their previous iterations. Like, this is supposed to be Geiz's origin story in universe, it doesn't make sense for him to unlock his extra final form on his second Henshin. Nor does it make sense for New Sougo's first Henshin to be Grand Zi-O. Our Sougo had to work to obtain those Ridewatches for that form, but New Sougo's basically playing on New Game + and it's really annoying to me!

Same goes for Geiz being told about his previous iteration who lived in an overwritten dystopian future, like that's somehow relevant anymore. This is a different Geiz! So a lot of my complaints here are similar to Hibiki's summer movie, that the emotional value of this movie depends on me caring about a character I know little about, without doing the work to establish these characters first and why I should care about them. As an introduction to this new continuity, I don't think a Geiz V-Cinema was the right way to accomplish something like that.

The cameos were the thing that motivated me to watch this movie. But even that was kind of a disappointment. None of them really did anything, or even said their catchphrases. Most shockingly, Geiz asked Terui a question and Terui answered it! I was at least hoping to see Kusaka Henshin once more, since the last time was in Faiz. Kaito's back as well, even though it hasn't been that long since we saw him in Zi-O's finale. He's also completely to blame for Another Diend's existence (clever use of the Diend monster suit from the World of Shinkenger though!) by being in proximity to White Woz. Kaito makes everything worse here, as usual.

Something I find humorous though is that the Geiz Majesty Ridewatch implies that Geiz is Kuuga's Secondary Rider. I guess someone had to keep the World of Kuuga safe from Unidentified Lifeforms while Yuusuke was going on adventures with Team Decade! :lol

I should talk about this, huh? Cause while I did do commentary I guess I have things to say?

You know this might be the one sports movie I end up really liking? Cause as Dreamsword said during the commentary I was a part of, yeah no this is absolutely like a sports movie... but with Kamen Riders. And I really dig that? I wouldn't say like Geiz Majesty is my absolutely favorite but it's definitely high up in the V-Cinema rankings. Like I'd even say Top 3 or so?

That being said, pretty fun movie. I do like how while pushing in some Rider stuff, we aren't reverted back to the status quo. We're like in a new different one that basically took the entire movie to make, unlike a certain previous V-Cinema that decided we're just going to throw away all of that 10 minutes into the movie without much effort. So color me surprised to see them like, very much stick to the Highschool AU with this.

Seeing the Secondary Riders show up was also cool. Like we got Kusaka and Daiki before and that's cool but seeing Terui and Date show up was a treat.

Best stuff in this though is probably just Sougo being Sougo x2 his whole "Cuz we're besties" shtick is the best. And seeing him just so excited for Geiz is the best. Though I do have to give a shout out to Geiz going through the motions of Zi-O Episode 1 but in a more hilarious way in "He has no idea how any of this works".

Overall fun movie and a pretty good V-Cinema after a long slew of them I thought were okay/didn't really care for. Sad we didn't get like another V-Cinema involving these kids because I'd trade one of Zero-One's V-Cinema's for a new Zi-O Next Time one any day.

Edit: I forgot to talk about the form, Geiz Majesty. Uh... I actually like it's design and think the watches all over are cute especially cause he has to press the button to active them. Il Salvatore Time Burst is also really good for a call out. Though as much as I love those aspects the fight's pretty underwhelming. I still stand by the fact that the Sin Specter vs. Danton fight is the best V-Cinema fight by miles.

Except now it's got all of Woz'z fun theatricality!

Geiz is such a compelling weirdo, like all of these kids. This whole movie is about him watching his future vanish in an instant, and then trying to work out what comes next. That should be a movie full of disappointment and anger, but this movie builds out those obvious reactions with the way less obvious Geiz things of annoyed dismissal, frustrated embarrassment, and a steady stream of obstinate self-regard.

Happy to help!

I'm okay with this, because a lot of the main series was about characters like Geiz and Sougo learning lessons about societal responsibility outside of killing (Geiz) and how the safety network of friends is worth more than power (Sougo), and these versions either already know that, or are learning it in this movie. It's fine for the narrative to shortcut that stuff on a second run-thru, I think?

That's a bummer, for sure! Maybe there's a non-Covid timeline where Toei was able to give us "Tsukuyomi, Dynasty" or whatever.

Geiz Majesty is some good stuff. Probably my favourite Rider V-Cin, outside of that time Knuckle went and beat up gang-members. I appreciate the commitment to the new world, I love the lower stakes of high-school problems meet a bunch of holdovers from the last world, I love the cameos. It's just good!

I think they tried to squeeze too much in to this story, by making it Geiz's origin and his extra final form debut and New Sougo's and Tsukuyomi's origin, even though their only contribution here is being Geiz's friends instead of having their own reasons. There was no commitment to doing this origin story for everybody. Maybe there should've been a time skip, where Kamen Rider Zi-O, Geiz and Tsukuyomi are already active after getting their powers offscreen, so you could just pick up Geiz's development from there and leave the rest to the imagination.

Not exactly a V-Cinema, but we did get Rider Time Zi-O VS Decade, which continues their story in a way that even I enjoyed. Look forward to that!

I love Hat Woz appearing as, like, an evil guidance counselor? It's perfect, for this story about what to do after high school.

I can see what you're saying, but, man, I would not want to go this whole movie without seeing Geiz fighting alongside his friends (and Woz), and I also wouldn't want to miss his friends geeking out over their own Ridewatches. And, yeah, this movie didn't really focus on the rest of Team Zi-O, but I don't think they need to? They're Geiz'z secondaries in this movie; it's okay to minimize their arcs in favor of his.

RIDER TIME: KAMEN RIDER DECADE VS ZI-O - “DECADE MANSION’S DEATH GAME”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/decadevs1.png

Ha ha, you know what? Okay.

It’s Inoue to the highest degree, and that’s always a good and bad thing. This series makes about 70% sense, with 15% Good Nonsense and 15% Bad Nonsense. It’s vaguely looped into Decade’s role as protector of journeys, with him specifically not being thrilled with folks getting kidnapped from their worlds, while still feeling like this story could’ve been handed off to four or five other Legend Riders. (Kabuto, for sure.) The Zi-O stuff is basically nowhere, with a villain whose appearance actively works against both its core metaphor and the end of the TV series. It’s a gigantic mess, this thing.

The 15% Bad Nonsense… let’s get that out of the way first since, while it’s worth mentioning, I can’t say it super bothered me. I legitimately do not understand why an alternate version of Sougo is still Zi-O, and he didn’t bother to Henshin until the very end of the story. Does he not care about all the people who were getting murdered? Could he not have tried to defeat Another Ryuki? This is an incredibly dangerous situation with monsters! If you can turn into a superhero, maybe do that! Just a thought!

The 15% Good Nonsense more than made up for it, though. When Onodera is revealed to be the killer, I had that brief flash of anger that I sometimes get in an Inoue story, where I think he’s being an asshole. But then Onodera Is The Killer rolls into Sougo Is A Robot (!), which rolls into Heure Is A Space Ninja (!!), which rolls into Mizuki From Amazons Was A Ghost This Whole Time (!!!), and I’m just laughing my ass off. It is the perfect conclusion to a Kamen Rider mystery, to just make everything impossibly dumb and unguessable.

So, yeah, the mystery or whatever… no one in this story or behind the camera cares about it. The important thing is to get a ton of Kamen Rider actors into the house where ZECT held Gon hostage, and then do a Stupid Squid Game on them for about half an hour. And it was super successful on that level! We’ve got the returning Zi-O cast of Sougo, Heure, Ora, Swartz, but playing brand-new-ish characters. (Heure’s still a whipping boy, Sougo’s still enthusiastic, Ora’s still a teenage monster, and Swartz is Complementation Weirdo Swartz.) Along those lines, we also get Sid from Gaim as a gangster, Bravo from Gaim as a housewife, the aforementioned Mizuki from Amazons as a student, Onodera as no one special (typecast!), and Narutaki as Narutaki. It’s a bonkers roster of Legend Riders, and they all seem to be having a blast. (Bravo and Sid, more than the rest.)

This was dumb as hell and fun as shit. Seeing Decade treat a murder mystery as substantially easier to solve once everyone’s dead, that’s kind of perfect in its needless PG-13 cruelty? And the guest cast proves that everyone who’s willing to be on a Kamen Rider show, any Kamen Rider show, is a nut. Everyone involved seems like they’re relishing a chance to go as far over the top as possible, knowing that Inoue has their back.

This probably wasn’t good, but it was unforgettable. (Heure was a SPACE NINJA and Tsukasa’s like Of Course.) Inoue Forever!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/decadevs2.png

Okay so like, I don't really care for either of these specials and I don't consider them that good? But... I do find them entertaining and I feel like that's the most important part?

Like listen, you'll hear me absolutely hate these things because of like, what they do with Oma Zi-O specifically given it's such a weird contrast and even then this Oma Zi-O doesn't even feel like the Oma Zi-O we know. Like just some weird time remnant of him that really has no purpose other than being generically evil.

But...

But like... that bit at the end where there's just twist upon twist upon twist was absolutely hilarious to watch. Especially capping it all off with jester man just dancing into frame and ripping off his mask to be like "It was I Onodera! It was I Narutaki all along!"

Also Inside Out is an especially good credits theme, really enjoyed it.

Oh, absolutely. For every dumb thing about the special that occurs to me (How does Onodera from another world recognize Tsukasa? Isn't Tsukasa, like, a universal constant? Isn't there only ever supposed to be one of him in the multiverse?), I just end up thinking about something hilarious, like Mizuki getting a stack of bills from the Old Man and Bravo being like YOINK. Or Swartz finding a pot under a comforter. Or Ora getting caught trying to stab Heure in the back and going JK LOL. Or Narutaki acting hurt that no one ate the poisoned dumplings. Or or or.

Eh? I don't really wanna?

I didn't and don't think anybody actually cares but I'll say just in case that I probably won't be posting in this thread much or anymore because uh... I really don't have anything positive to say about any of these post series Zi-O material ^_^;; The finale really soured me, that sour feeling only conitinued onwards, and I'm tired of that feeling (yet it will persist for many years to come x_x). But the posts in the thread are still engaging to read!

I mean, for what it's worth, I do care what you have to say about Zi-O, even if it's negative. That said! I totally get not wanting to spend a ton of time trying to explain all the ways a piece of art let you down. There've been a few absolute disasters over the last couple years of these threads, episodes that made me actual angry, and by 48 hours I was pretty publicly like Please Stop Making Me Talk About This. Who wants to be reminded of stuff that makes them unhappy?

Appreciate hearing that ^_^

Funny thing is I'm pretty sure a lot of your worst experiences with Rider that you've posted about came from Inoue, who's also responsible for a lot of your absolute best experiences. Seems only right that the last thing you tackle in this thread, the culimination of twenty years of television, is another miniseries tackled by the man.

We've come a long way from me declaring him my nemesis during Kuuga, and we've also barely moved at all. He's my muse and my tormentor; my savior and my demon king. INOUE FOREVER!

(Hilariously, one of the first things I need to do when this thread's a little bit in the rearview is to catch up on DonBros. INOUE! FOREVER!)

Special Time! Mystery Edition!

-I like how all the members of the game are all Rider cast alumni? I mean, there's the obvious Zi-O rep, Yusuke, Sid and Bravo's actors.....but then we have the actors for old guy who was the MOTW for Kabuto's doctor arc, and Mizuki from Amazons? (And to add on top of this, I'm pretty sure this is that one place from Kabuto where someone was kidnapped for for a bit?) It's a really fun decision.

-Speaking of! Yusuke, nice to see you again! (even if it technically isn't you we know!) I know the other two members of the DCD quartet tend to get lost in the dust in terms of post-show rep (despite both being Riders....) But man, seeing Kivala near the end makes me wish we actually did get Natsumikan's actress back in some Zi-O content, even if for a fairly small role.

-Do like how it's a fairly standard death game drama for two episodes, and then the third episode.....Happens. The ridicilous amount of blood for Heure's death to make up for our fairly tame V-Cin, the silly way Sougo dies, the ridiculous "well, actually I'm-!" reveals, Narutaki being the mastermind, For Whatever Reason.....

-I Mean. On one hand, Oma Zi-O being alive depsite Everything makes sense(as along as Sougo exists, so does he), but like......I don't like it here? Like personally I interpereted the end of Zi-O with him conceding to the kind of the future Sougo wants for himself, so why are you seemingly up to no good again? Oma Zi-O is only a fun antagonist *as long as* Sougo is sitting in the protagonist seat, but he's not really here, so it's really weird?

-I enjoyed it parts of it, but it's not particularly a favorite of mine.

It is!

Yeah, it's... the idea of Oma Zi-O surviving is fine. Oma Zi-O should survive, because his metaphorical use is to be something that Sougo can never really think is gone for good, because that potential is always within Sougo.

But Oma Zi-O being trapped in a pocket dimension (?) and recruiting Narutaki (??) to find someone powerful enough to go into the purgatorial pocket dimension instead of him (???) is just a dumb, dumb storyline. It might as well be some returning Shocker general, for all the impact he has on the story.

So fun fact, the producers actually did release some explanations for the worlds the characters come from (I don’t remember them all off the top of my head, so I’ll wait for Fish to do his ‘also watched’ post, so I can retrieve them from the original thread). And they’re just as insane as the reveals themselves, yet still kind of make sense.

And now we look at the watch Decade said he couldn’t use.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=yl2Ulvuj8eE

“The pen is mightier than the sword, the holy sword of fire’s chosen Rider is… Saber”

And unlike Zero-One, I will go with the series theme (mostly because every other song in the series is written to fit the scene it gets played in, not giving me a lot of choice) Almighty - Kamen no Yakusoku (Promise of the Mask) https://youtube.com/watch?v=uk3ihzv9g20

Next time: Nute Gunray thought two of them was getting out of hand? Now there are SEVEN of them.

Decade VS Zi-O and Zi-O VS Decade aired back to back, so watching Zi-O VS Decade alongside this does give new meaning to some of the weird things that happen here. Decade VS Zi-O serves as a prequel though, so unlike most of us who watched them that way, you'll have the perspective to understand more about Tsukasa's intentions after surviving the Death Game. One of the 7 Zi-Os has already appeared here, Oma Zi-O, specifically Our Sougo after he became Oma Zi-O in the finale! Basketball Sougo counts as an eighth Zi-O (relative to the other 7, it's more if we include all the other Zi-Os), who sacrificed himself to save Tsukasa.

I thought Decade VS Zi-O was the more consistently good of the two spin-offs. Murder mystery is definitely my kind of genre and it kept me guessing until the end. It was nice to see Tsukasa's emotional side once more, instead of just his smug side. There were five players by the last episode. Despite Ora being the most suspicious, her alibi for Swartz's death convinced me it was someone else. I was pretty sure it couldn't be Tsukasa or Basketball Sougo. When Heure was murdered, I determined it had to be Yuusuke due to his lack of alibi! I also thought Basketball Sougo's little romance with Misa was cute.

Not just any space ninja. That was Demost from Sekai Ninja Sen!

(Fish Sandwich also watched Rider Time: Kamen Rider Decade VS Zi-O - "Decade Mansion's Death Game")

I've forgotten a lot about this series beyond how bonkers the ending was, which was the only part I remember feeling particularly entertaining. Not that I outright hated what I was seeing, so much as this one was just... kinda boring to me? Not a lot of strong feelings either way about Decade VS Zi-O, which is probably why I ended that old post by bringing up Go-Rider. It was a cheap shot, I know, but like -- Go-Rider is soooo good. (Ah man, now I'm getting distracted all over again.)

Wait, has this thread been keeping you from watching Donbrothers?! 'Cause if you need to take an extra day off every week when you get to Zero-One or something, you should maybe do that! You can watch Kamen Rider shows late whenever you want, but this is the first year in a very long time that Inoue is writing a whole toku show. Donbrothers was basically a gift to you, man; you should savor every week it's on the air! (Not that I get to dictate your viewing habits, obviously! But nosy as this is, I can't help but feel you won't regret being able to say Donbrothers was the first toku show you actually kept up with when it was new.)

Ok, decided to simply, go ahead and just share this.

I can definitely agree with Fish on putting Zero-One aside for Sentai, I think that's one of the best choices you can make :p

I also second advising Die to take a day off for Donbros! Feels like a shame to let Inoue's biggest fan to miss out on the year-long festival of watching the show live!

Yes, I third or fourth or whatever these points, Die should take off as many days as needed so he can catch Donbros weekly.

I haven't been keeping up too well (I hardly do weekly watches with Sentai) but from what I've heard it's been pretty great.

Zi-O handing Decade a Saber Ridwatch - in the midst of a pitched, losing battle - and then Decade going I Can't Even Use This is easily in the Top 5 of the funniest/dumbest things in that Vs special. Thank you for reminding me of it!

It was definitely cute! They had fun chemistry. And, actually, Sougo was my #1 suspect for most of this special, because it seemed like the most unlikely scenario.

Oh, for sure. Go-Rider by a mile. I enjoyed this one as a fun dessert to watching all of Zi-O, as well as it being my kind of idiocy. Go-Rider's definitely the better side project!

So, here's the problem. My brain is broken in a very specific way that both makes these threads possible, and also makes juggling two toku shows kind of impossible.

It's not that I dislike DonBros, mind. I like it a lot! The three episodes I watched were hitting some big Inoue Themes, which is more appealing to me than him banging out some short-run goof-off special. DonBros was talking about how the world doesn't make sense in a way that's kind of horrifying, but people don't make sense in a way that's kind of beautiful, and I like when he does that. (Or, to put it another way, the world doesn't care about individuals, so individuals better care about each other.)

But, like, these threads flex a part of my brain that DonBros also flexes, and I can't do both. One episode and post is about two hours of my day, not counting any forum reading and responding. Watching DonBros after that... it's like running a marathon, and then cooling off with a jog. It's the opposite of relaxing? It's me watching a show I love when my brain is least able to appreciate it in the way I want to?

And taking days off... no? I like the routine of these threads, for one thing. Getting back to a daily(-ish) regimen after the two-to-three per week posting of the movie rewatches, I really like it. I like it the best. Doing these less often is, again, like exercise. If you do it less often, it's harder to keep at it. You do it every day, it becomes second nature.

To do Zero-One less often and accommodate DonBros, that's like the worst of both worlds. Zero-One's harder to do because I'm taking more breaks, and DonBros has to exist alongside a lot of thought about Kamen Rider. My brain's just literally not built for that. Watching Kamen Rider, it just expands that narrative out to fill up my entire brain. No room for DonBros, sadly.

I appreciate everyone's concern, though! And slight shade at the quality of Zero-One!

Space Squad world represent! I don't think that makes any sense, but represent none the less!

But yeah, this one... I can't say I enjoyed it much? It just has a sense of lethargy in it to me, the guest cast all feel suffocated by the murderous atmosphere, until you get to the end and a lot of weird stuff happens all at once. Narutaki looks and sounds tired, and tbh, I feel that. But hey, good to see him back, still a friend to all Kamen Riders.

And don't let the naysayers drag you down, Die! Zero-One is a zero-'won'deful show!
ARUTO JA NAITOOOOOOOOOOO

He's definitely a friend to Kamen Rider Oma Zi-O, that's for sure.

One of the things I sort of liked about this special is how it critiqued the solo, post-series Tsukasa appearances, and how much less heroic he gets as the years drag on. It's almost Oma Zi-O-esque, honestly: this guy who was a hero, goes it alone, stops seeing the worth of individuals as he defends a larger scale of humanity, and eventually becomes indistinguishable from a villain. (He's pretty disinterested in the people getting murdered in this special!)

But then Team Decade pops out of a floorboard, and he's a hero again, risking everything to save all of reality from someone else's narrative and nemesis.

Like, that's Zi-O's message as a show? That we need other people to keep us in check as well as lift us up?

INOUE!

That is 1000% not what I meant! I'm just asking Die to leap towards his dream of getting more Inoue, and watch the shows he wants by his own rules!

...And that rule is that we aren't meant to go past our limits, apparently! A respectably Kiramager-esque stance, Die! Even when Sentai loses out, it seems it wins in spirit. :p

RIDER TIME: KAMEN RIDER ZI-O VS DECADE - “7 ZI-OS”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/ziovs1.png

Man, thought this one was going to be right in my wheelhouse, but it sort of petered out for me?

It’s the run-time, probably. I don’t think this story needed to be twice as long as Decade Vs. It doesn’t really go anywhere major, and brevity is the soul of wit. Keeping this thing to a tight 30 would’ve added more snap to the humor, and kept the Decade Being A Violent Weirdo parts to a blessed minimum. (I just don’t love Tsukasa threatening teenagers, and then being like Oh No The Bad Guy Is A Child. Like, you’ve murdered several children, guy! Pick a lane!) There’s a lot of spark to the first episode, and then the second one kinda meanders, and then the third one has a few bright spots and a whole lot of stuff I’ve already forgotten. Sort of a straight downward slope, for me.

Fun slope, though, like a slide in a playground. I like how much this special works within a Teen Dramedy palette. As much as the end of the special strips a lot of that away (such a bummer to see Swartz and Ora back as Time Jackers), there’s so much commitment to insane teachers and teen crushes and making friends and violent bullies and afterschool clubs, so it’s not like Inoue up and abandoned the premise. He wrung a ton of juice out of it, and a bit of pulp, too.

For example, I appreciated Inoue trying to do a queer-positive plot with Heure, and I honestly think even the more negative elements can be explained. Like, this is a story that treats Heure’s crush on Sougo as a natural thing, and not something that deserves mockery… while still remembering that Sougo doesn’t do great with romantic attention, Geiz is very protective of Sougo around potential suitors for reasons that are certainly not worth examining, Ora loves torturing Heure in every timeline, and Heure sort of exists in the narrative to be the butt of the joke. Even within all that, we get a story where Heure isn’t treated any differently for being gay. That’s kind of nice?

(Okay, so, Heure does get exploded at the end of the story, which is some real Bury Your Gays 101 shit. But! A romantic interest getting exploded to solidify the hero’s resolve is, like or not, a pretty standard tokusatsu trope, and also Swartz outright says that Heure’s bound to reappear as a Time Jacker. It’s a little tacky, for sure, but I don’t think it’s incriminating or anything.)

I’m not sure the rest of the story really resonated with me. The other Sougos were fun caricatures, but nothing that felt like it was saying anything about Sougo himself. The entire story ends up being a riff on Sougo’s early-series realization that being a king doesn’t mean much if you’re all alone in the attempt, but faster and with less nuance. (INOUE!) It’s cute, but it’s not really stretching the metaphor or re-examining the themes. It’s just doing it all in high school, and that’s plenty cute.

Until Decade shows up, which hurts me to say as much as it makes some people happy to hear. I don’t know why Decade needed to be in this story? Where he’s murdering teenagers? And wearing the dumbest-looking upgrade suit I’ve ever seen? And then just sort of randomly dying, until Woz goes Nah at the end? He not only doesn’t add anything of substance to this story, he’s actually detracting from it. And worse, sort of hurting my feelings as a Decade fan/defender, which is not how I expect Inoue to treat me.

So, yeah, didn’t love this one! Started great, with Swartz badly explaining romance and various Sougos letting that actor play around, but then it sort of limped across the finish line, as uninspired as Tsukuyomi’s new haircut. Helluva note to end these posts on! Sorry! I still love Zi-O, though! And INOUE FOREVER!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/ziovs2.png

The runtime differences are actually because this was part of a Telasa vs. TTFC (Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club) sort of deal with both series. Each airing on a separate web service. So the short and long runtime of each likely have to do with each streaming service. But yeah this special didn't entirely land for me but I did like a lot of small little details. So I'll list them out from what I remember.

-The Sougo's having unique Henshin Sequences, it's that level of absurd that was just great. Like the bike horns for bancho Sougo or like... cute Sougo and his teddy bear thing.

-Sougo's little festival thing is a really cute idea and I just loved seeing when that'd pop up again.

-Tsukuyomi in general despite getting injured and unable to really participate further after that? Like just the small little things we get to know about Tsukuyomi in this special, how she was doing charity work with children. I though that was a cute little tidbit tbh that really helps expand her a bit more.

-Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi was probably the highlight fights for me? Given her isolated nature I thought she would've been the "oh she tries to fight but dies" role that sometimes happens. But no she gets two fights and we get to see more of her Rider suit, and despite getting injured I dug it since you know, more Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi is a good thing.

-Inves are just edible without any adverse side effects? Like I'll be real I thought eating Inves would've turned people into Inves but nope. I mostly thought like that since the preview for the 3rd episode had the Inves in the school and I'm like "oh no" but then it was just Tsukasa opening the flood gates.

-Complete 21 is absurd and really, if you got rid of the 02 Card and just made the horns extend above the Decade Complete Card, got rid of the cards on the cape then you'd have a pretty alright and serviceable form. Really it's only sin is that it does nothing.

-This is in general but Inside Out is a pretty good song, both versions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skZ6sC2lUcI

Anyway I do have to ask, despite not being much, which non-standard Sougo was your favorite to watch?

There's a thing she does in here that is maybe one of the coolest finishers I've ever seen. She's hurt her leg, and the Inves are leaping at her while she's on the ground, so she does her Rider Kick on the ground so that the Inves land on it. Such a cool move!

Probably Sougo B, since it meant I'd also get to see more of Mizuki From Amazons in very tiny shorts, and, well, I'll leave the further explanation to the Love Master:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/sadlytrue1.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/zio/sadlytrue2.png

Special Time! 7'o clock Edition!

-What's with the rep with this one? I know the way Heure's treated would probably be more or less the same regardless of either his or Sougo's gender considering some of the romances Inoue's had a hand in, so it stings less (still pretty :/ tho!) but like. Did you have to throw in that "But he's a dude line?", from one of our main heroes no less?! (At least that line being there gave birth to one of my favorite jokes about Zi-O)

-The ghost girl wanting to look for a guy like Sougo if she were to be reborn, and here she is snuggling up with DJ Sougo, that's a bit cute?

-The gimmick is 7 Sougos, and like. yeah, I'll give it, it's a bit amusing to see 6 slightly different preformances from the same actor. I especially like Deliquent Sougo, who is a fun departure than Sougo's normal self. Also a shoutout to Teddy Sougo, something about one's comfort object turning into one's armor, that's a really cool idea?

-Everyone in the quartet has slightly different haircuts! The only one who looks real good is Woz, who looks goregous with long hair honestly? (Geiz looks so unnatural with neat hair and Tsuku......oof. The wigs the Sougos' wearing are Fine Enough but they look really weird from certain angles?)

-The wiki says it's set one month after the Geiz movie, and......I honestly hate that? A lot? Like the special is straight-up the antithesis of why I liked the Geiz movie, so having them be connected puts a pit in my stomach. Let Sougo and friends be happy in their little high school AU, won't you?

-Really funny that since the series has no mooks of its own, they have to use the Inves? (Speaking of, since they brought it up, I wonder what Inves meat tastes like? What's the tastiest Rider monster, I wonder?)

-I don't get this "True Sougo" plot at all. Once again, the whole point of Oma Zi-O is that it's always a potenial future for Sougo, so why do we have to fight over which Sougo becomes him????? Sougo's in the protagonist seat, but it still feels like they're treating Oma like Random Rider Bad Guy #28420 instead how they did it in the actual show, and I don't vibe with that at all.

-Tsukasa being relieved that his journey's at a end through death.....hm. I don't know how to feel about that.

Overall.....I don't really like this one, rather not watch it again. It felt like it was vaguely trying to say something about Sougo as a character, but utilmately didn't deliver. Probably not the way I'd like a "Zi-O special that involves Decade and also make sure you promote the Saber Ridewatch please!" to go, but we can't have everything I guess.

-I'm pretty sure a lot of ppl didn't like these specials, so when Donbrothers' writer was revealed, and *this* and the Kiva arc was the most recent pieces of toku he's written, it's safe to say some ppl got apprehensive about the show. Glad those were only misguided fears tho!

Yeah, and maybe I'm just letting Inoue off the hook as usual, but I didn't read it so much as Geiz being a homophobe, as Geiz Can't Believe You're Hitting On Sougo Right In Front Of Him And He Can't Articulate Why That Bothers Him. Still not a great look, even if everyone else in the cast treats it like no big deal.

Boy, disagree? Woz'z longer hair just doesn't work for me. Too busy! (Geiz'z haircut was fine, but a little dull.)

It's not his best work, these specials. He did a lot of really fun two-parters for other people's shows in Phase 1, but his Phase 2 stuff... not great!

“Romance is the ultimate avoidance of reality”

I cannot hate this for that line alone (that and, as I said when I posted on the thread for this special, it doesn’t not feel like a Zi-O thing or a Decade thing)

But all good things must come to an end. Fortunately, so must this Ridewatch playlist (I still need to think of an interesting gimmick for the Zero-One thread)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=4YcVTpgNA5M

“Continuing into Reiwa, the photo album Rider, Decade Complete Form 21”

And the last entry on the list is Inside Out (Decade ver.) https://youtube.com/watch?v=skZ6sC2lUcI

And unlike Zangetsu Kachidoki, they released the repaint almost immediately rather than making you wait for a CSM version (they also reissued the Neo DecaDriver for those who wanted this, but missed the original release.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=8IlzgZLG0oE

Also, imagine the headlines when the press discovers Schwartz and Ora are missing. “High school Princpal Elopes with Underage Heiress”

This special was plain bad, probably one of the worst pieces of Rider media I've ever seen; but it did give us the best Rider suit ever in Complete 21, so I've made peace with it. Can't stay too mad at it with that thing around

Ooh yeah, I really loved that just impromptu Rider Kick she pulled out. We really need more finisher's like that where the hero clearly can't get set up properly or is backed into a corner and they just need to improvise immediately.

You know what? Absolutely fair.

As someone who really disliked Tsukasa's depiction in Kamen Rider Zi-O, yeah, I think the best thing this spin-off does for him is show that he's more than the Destroyer of Worlds and a mysterious interloper, he's a human as well and maybe the last 10 years of journeying alone caused him to forget about that. When Yuusuke tried to murder him, Tsukasa wasn't merely surprised, he was hurt. It's the first time I've seen him like that since Dai Shocker betrayed him and it reminded me why I sympathized with the character who got me in to this franchise in the first place.

Tsukasa losing his sense of self, again, that's pretty much the most tragic thing that could happen to him, right? And that's what happens when nobody's around to affirm their belief in him. It's a great analogy that Inoue's worst work is usually when nobody is around to keep him in check and Tsukasa's personality was based on that guy, after all. Really enjoyed seeing the old Tsukasa back!

Anyway, since I did a review for this at the time....

Sh Ranger also watched Rider Time Zi-O VS Decade


Don't mind the small part about Reiwa First Generation and "Pseudo-True Sougo", it's mostly nonsense.

I stand by a lot of my points here though. This spin-off succeeded where Geiz Majesty failed for me, by giving me a reason to care about the new versions of the characters. It introduced a whole bunch of other Sougos, specifically to show how each Sougo is unique and has the right to exist. Even the villainous Delinquent Sougo was mourned by New Sougo for this reason. It puts Sougo back at the center of the story, putting seven of them in conflict to decide who is most worthy of the destiny of becoming Oma Zi-O, with the conclusion that they all are. Cause they're all Sougo. Zi-O VS Decade is a celebration of the character of Tokiwa Sougo, in all his forms. IWAE!

For anybody curious, here's all the Sougos I've counted, in chronological order:

SOUGO
Oma Sougo
Our/True Sougo
3 Days Ago Sougo
Dark Sougo
New Sougo (A)
Basketball Sougo
Hipster Sougo (B)
Prep Sougo (C)
Delinquent Sougo (D)
Teddy Sougo (E)
Coward Sougo (F)

Total: 12

At least it's better than Tezuka/Jun, Inoue's last attempt at slash. I appreciate how Heure's love confession to New Sougo feels honest and romantic, as an expansion of their previous selves becoming friends in the Another Drive arc. But the reactions from Geiz and Ora diminish a lot of that subplot, by making Heure think he's weird and sabotaging him. That line, "is it okay for a man to love another man?", sounds more like something a middle school student might ask, but it sounds incredulous coming from someone as old as Heure. Fortunately, his heroic sacrifice at the end was truly an expression of unconditional love, so it wasn't all bad.

So you didn't have the perspective advantage from Decade VS Zi-O like I predicted? Tsukasa was trying to save the world by destroying Oma Zi-O, the True Sougo he learned about from the Death Game. But since he doesn't know which Sougo is his target, he basically functions as pre-development Geiz, with his plan being Just Kill Sougo. Unfortunately, it's another blow to his heroism, since some of those Sougos did nothing wrong.

Who are you and what have you done with En-chan?

Hipster Sougo for sure. I mean, look at how he rides a motorcycle like a true Kamen Rider and Henshins with a blow kiss from his gf. The only way he could be any cooler is if his baseball cap was backwards. Why does this guy not have a V-Cinema?! Also, it's nice that a version of Sougo and Misa got the happy ending they deserved.

It's implied that this Oma Zi-O turned crazy (crazier, I mean) from exhausting his power to create the other 6 Zi-O's worlds. Being left alone to rule outside spacetime after the loss of Geiz and Tsukuyomi probably didn't help his mental welfare either.

He'll be back as long as someone remembers him.... Or when Shirakura summons him.

I'm one of the minority who enjoyed Kamen Rider 1, Rider Time Ryuki, the Kiva arc, Decade VS Zi-O, Zi-O VS Decade and Donbrothers!