Kamen Rider Brain was never something that needed to exist. But I'm so glad it does. It's hilariously funny, but never betrays Brain's character to be so. At least, any more than the show evolved the Roidmudes between Episodes 1 and 50 (I find them a strange group of villains, tbh). It plays on the Showa tropes, but in a playful way, laughing with them rather than mocking. And it's just really good and fun? A 20 minute spin-off based off a one-line joke on Brain's ego, several years after the show it spawned off from has been moved past, is the kind of thing you roll your eyes at, but in the hands of a good writer, even something that doesn't beg to be made, to answer a hanging question or loose plotpoint (althougb Brain also hints at that! That ending!!!) can tell a good story, some good jokes, and remind us why we fell in love with these characters several years later.

It's such a weird, sad story, when you think about it. The whole Kamen Rider Brain narrative is some dream Brain has of finally being valued. Even the death of his liberator, Professor Crystal Peppler, is only something he mourns because it's the death of someone who thought he could achieve more. Brain's existence is to be a joke, to be belittled. (Even in an incomplete, incorporeal limbo, Medic's like Ugh Brain.) His dream isn't so much to be the hero - Heart doesn't even show up in the dream, which is a dead giveaway - as it is for someone to admit that he has something to offer the world. There's egotism to it, how he gets to show off and be theatrical, but there's this heartbreaking need to be acknowledged that keeps it all from going catastrophically off the rails.

Kamen Rider Drive was such a good series!

Just an fun fact, I stopped watching drive cause the episode preview showed brain getting merc'd by gold drive, so I just kind of stopped to avoid the sads. Brain for all of how ridiculous he is, is kind of tragic. A person who's core trait is jealousy, who has his status always under threat.

The Kamen Rider Brain miniseries is, like the Rider 4 one, one of those things that I saw the first part of and never found the second part because it wasn't handled by my usual subber at the time. I remember liking how goofy and self-aware the first part was, though.

Yeah, he's... it's weird how sympathetic the character ends up being?

If anything, it gets goofier and more self-aware in the finale!

KAMEN RIDER DRIVE EPISODE 48 - FINAL STORY (SPECIAL EDITION): THE CASE OF GHOST

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/legend/drive48a.png

What an outstanding send-off to Kamen Rider Drive.

There’re a million little things I’m going to call out - this episode is so joyous in its celebration of everything that made Drive great - but my absolute favorite part is how they used the themes of Ghost to tie-in with this conclusion to Shinnosuke’s story.

The whole plot to this episode is Shinnosuke trying to wrap up the case that got away from him during his pre-Episode 1 backstory. He’s trying to hunt down the remnants of Neo Shade, the same group that he was hunting down during the Global Freeze; the time when his partner got injured and left the force.

It’s a case Shinnosuke is trying to solve as he’s still dealing with the loss (however brief it might be) of Mister Belt. Just as Shinnosuke’s trying to put the past behind him in a case, he’s struggling not to regress in his personal life. It’s Hayase all over again, with Shinnosuke losing his focus as he finds himself alone.

But Shinnosuke isn’t alone. Gen gives him this short but amazing speech, right before they meet Ghost, about how Shinnosuke isn’t the solo act he was a year ago. He’s got all of his friends to get him through this rough patch, so he should just lean on them. He’s stronger for the connections he made, more powerful for the lessons he learned, so he’s able to face the future.

It’s… that’s all the themes of Kamen Rider Ghost. Shinnosuke overcomes this last hurdle by following the example of the next Kamen Rider series.

I love that? I love that. Any show could have the new hero give their But Why Heroism to the old hero, but it’s a million times better to have the preview for the new show be this, be the themes of the new show spilling over onto the old show.

And, y’know, it still totally works within the boundaries of Kamen Rider Drive. (Like, this isn’t a final episode of Blade where it’s all about raising an adolescent boy.) Teamwork and perseverance and major themes from Drive's show, so it’s not a huge shock that Shinnosuke would be able to trust in his friends and push through his grief. But it feels a bit more spiritual here, a little bit more like Shinnosuke sees how he’s connected to the people around him. I mean: GHOST! That’s a Kamen Rider Ghost thing!

The episode itself - the non-thematic elements - are also top-notch. There’s a bit of a flashback, so we get to see Go and Chase team with Shinnosuke for a fight scene. Krim gets to deliver one last lesson for his old partner. The Ghost debut uses this swinging camera effect in a single take, creating an unsteadiness to the fight that’s unlike any of the Roidmude battles. (They also set the big fight in a factory with a gigantic square chasm, so you get these gorgeous deep background shots of Shinnosuke.) Ghost himself is helpful and generous, a much more on-point intro for the character. (He’s a very sweet boy in this!) The climactic moment of the episode is all about Shinnosuke and his partner having enough faith in each other to pull off a crazy maneuver and still catch the criminal at the site of Hayase’s accident. The longer version of the best-ever opening theme plays over the credits.

It’s a fantastic final episode. I wasn’t sure it was going to be, on rewatch? I didn’t remember it being anything special. Now, having watched Ghost, I think it’s exceptional. It puts a button on Kamen Rider Drive’s story, and that button is The Themes Of Kamen Rider Ghost. What a way to lead out of one show, and lead into another.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/legend/drive48b.png

I... am now spending half an hour before driving to work on unpleasantly snowy roads by watching this again, because these threads are often a source for new appreciation of episodes or series that I had fewer positive feelings about the first time around. :)

I'm really glad that today seemed like a good day to see what was going on around here after not having lurked for months, by the way, because the love for the Kamen Rider Brain special absolutely made my morning. It was cute AF and thematically resonant with the show and the characters and I also have no idea why it got made but I was very glad it did when I first saw it.

Ha ha, I'm sorry for eating up part of your morning! Please don't be late for work! Or, if you end up being late for work, let me know and I will try and smooth things over with your boss. I've been told that my ability to defuse tensions "probably exists"!

But, to your point, I've had a really similar experience on this project, where stuff I have no recollection of -- and certainly no positive feelings for -- comes out of nowhere to deliver some exemplary storytelling. It's nice when that happens.

Yeah, one of my all-time favorite Build things is an HBV that didn't even need to be good, let alone great, so I'm always hopefully that these little off-shoots can create something special.

I don't have the data for this, but it feels like the shorter a project is, the less likely it is to feel half-assed? Most of the stuff that I come away feeling indifferent to are 90-120 minute movies. The single episode stories, the twelve minute shorts, those always feel well thought-out and thematically rich. Weird how that happens.

If I were to throw in my own speculation, I'd say that there's likely less corporate oversight over the smaller projects like this -- over what they have to be, what they have to include, what beats they have to beat etc. Since they're not a big feature-length movie put in theaters over the Summer or Winter periods, or a TV show selling a toy company's most successful toyline in the country, and are just smaller things put out to a niche audience on a budget that is maybe at best selling one thing on Premium Bandai... there's a lot less at stake, so corporate likely takes a more hands-off approach with them and lets the creatives do whatever they like as long as they follow certain broad guidelines

You're probably right, but it's difficult for me to square Corporate Oversight with Three Inoue-Led Kamen Rider Series In One Decade.