Not just in Sentai alone, but also looking at both shows' repertoire of actors. A pretty big recent example being the actress of Kanon from Ghost getting to play Sena/Kiramei Pink in Kiramager. Which, sure is a bit of a jump; but they're still core cast members and have similar traits. Sena honestly feels like how Kanon would be when she grew up...

Point is, you usually don't see it in Rider alone; but when you compare other shows you start seeing more crossover than you'd think.

Oh well I was talking about negative side being toxic qualities, and what you talk about Kin isn't one (self-sacrificing to a fault definitely isn't one). But ok I got you, Kin's martyr without a cause tendencies are definitely a flaw too, but a case of selflessness taken to the extreme.

It's unfair to Ryotaro (eh wait what do I expect)... Someone weak is given an useless default Rider Form, basically keeping it stagnant. Someone powerful is given a powerful thing from the start. No balancing on the Rider/wielder choice. The watered down version of the secondary Riders having less items than the primary Riders from Den-O, also sparks a comparison to me between heisei phase 1 Riders to heisei phase 2 Riders, for main Riders.

Well yeah, the worldbuilding in OOO is far more mature and complex than anything Kobayashi's ever written before. Both Ryuki and Den-O has this thing regarding the worldbuilding, not learning all that much and leaving unanswered questions. Den-O is the one that is commonly regarded as this in the community, bad plot but compensated by characters and comedy. Though for you, it's pretty much every phase 1 show as far as I've followed. Just talking about how Den-O is a birth of phase 2 tropes, like all you talk above the baggage car, but has this phase 1 thing that isn't.. your cup of tea (good or not is subjective, like the weird posing being the best part of that scene statement). The Owner seems to have a talent regarding stick of how he can skillfully kicking it up into his hand.

Well, I talked about how before Yuuto's abrasive demeanor can cause unnecessary infighting in team, that I want to use as an example of how being a hardass also isn't always a strength or making you more effective, but this time, it's Ryutaros who creates unnecessary infighting, especially for Zeronos-related reasons, that his transformation amount is limited. Ryutaros' mindset is based on how power is everything, and he's like a child. I guess that also comes as a truth for childs (including me at the past) who is focused only on action parts on everything, I hope this part can may be teach kids something about that.

Yuuto's negative trait shows more here, that as someone who is focused on the mission only, he only cares about that, and he's against helping people even the people in present time, which is what Deneb is doing, and he got abused by Yuuto for that. I've seen similar parts on KR series like Deneb dressing up as tiger though.

As an artist, I approve of the DenLiner residents trying not to step on them, treating them like hot lava, although they regularly walk on the chairs and the tables (do people take care of DenLiner's hygiene?)! I'd have some questions regarding this part, like where do they get more and more papers, but this is a bizzare gag scene which is likely just run on rule of comedy. Someone should come up with an idea to use those drawings as decorations in DenLiner.

Sena is Kirama Green, portrayed by Shinjo Yume. The actress you're referring to, Kudo Mio, portrayed Sayo.

Yeah, my mistake. I love both but "Kiramager girl with a four-letter name starting with S followed by vowel, consonant, vowel" mixes them up a lot in my head!

The power thing... I think it's a just a way for Ryuta to qualify his jealousy? Like, he's furious at Yuuto for having a connection to Airi, and he's looking for a) ways to understand why Airi would be interested in someone other than him or Ryotaro; and b) ways to be more Whatever He's Lacking than Yuuto. When Kin's like Women Like Power, that's all it took for Ryuta to want to prove that he's more powerful than Yuuto. If Kin had said that Women Like Baking, I imagine we'd've gotten a story where Ryuta tries to bake more food than Yuuto and why did I say that now I just want a story where Ryuta goes full Tsurugi on Yuuto and tries to best him in stupid and pointless ways.

"I'm the Imagin who's going to stand at the top of everything, 'kay?"

"Are you impressed by my noblesse oblige? Can't hear you!"

I just figured that, as soon as Naomi saw how much Ryuta's coloring was irritating the other Imagin, she just gave that kid a gigantic stack of blank paper. A good rule of thumb for determining how a situation on the DenLiner got out of hand: Probably Naomi.

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O EPISODE 22 - "AN UNSPEAKABLE FUTURE”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den22a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den22b.png

So, downsides for this story:

-The fact that Yuuto doesn't really know anything useful, beyond the possibility that Hana's future might possibly maybe exist or might possibly maybe return to existence... man, come on. That is a huge carrot to dangle in front of the audience (the truth about Hana's connection to the ZeroLiner!!!!), only to give a payoff of more questions. Real sour note for this story to end on.

-Similarly, the conflict between Ryotaro and Ryuta is acknowledged, but there's no real solution to it. There's this middle point in the episode, where Ryuta and Ryotaros are at this total impasse, where it seems like the episode is going to have to touch on this again. It's this huge problem, so this story needs to address it. Nope! Isn't really relevant for the rest of the episode, since Ryotaro is able to defeat the story's monster(s) with Rod Form.

-The story with the candy guys is funny, but it doesn't really have any layers to it. They're just two jerks who don't learn any lessons. It's a story that needed some change from them, and it basically doesn't have it?

Upsides:

-It was hilarious and any complaints are irrelevant.

This story... I don't want to say you're wrong to judge it by any metric other than Are You Laughing, but that's sincerely the only way to talk about this story. As long as you're laughing, the story works. It's that binary.

Like... there're points where this episode could've gone darker. Hana's injured by Ryutaros! Yuuto might hold the key to Hana's missing timeline! But the episode might allow for a moment to affirm the stakes, while basically throwing them away when you're not looking. Each new scene resets the story to Extremely Wacky, and anything that'd counteract that gets ignored. Hana's injured, but as soon as she's like I Need To Wear This Tiger Costume To Save My People, the episode stops treating her injury with any seriousness. Ryuta tells Ryotaro that he's still going to try to murder Yuuto, and Ryotaro tells him Literally Over My Dead Body, and then the end of the episode is Ryuta trying to hit Yuuto with Deneb candy and telling Yuuto not to come back. (One of the best gags, incidentally. Deneb shields Yuuto from the thrown candy, and then bows to Ryuta in... apology? Gratitude? It's insane, and I adored it.)

But who cares! Who cares. This is an episode where Deneb produces a basket of apology Deneb candy from under his skirt. This is an episode where Momo's only contribution (he's very grumpy about this story!) is flinging some dude a world-record distance. This is an episode where an imagination monster from the end of time is nearly thwarted by a dude who can't remember that he made a wish, leading to a woefully unenlarged Time Hole. This is an episode where Kin and Uta exist as hourglass ghosts inside an Elephant and Penguin mascot costume, respectively. This is an episode where Rod Form asks a monster if it'd like to be reeled in, and the monster says I'm Not Into That. This is an episode where Deneb's attempt at a catchphrase is that he can't think of a catchphrase.

It's hilarious. It barely works as a story (stakes that go under-addressed, a plot that everyone probably should've walked away from), but it's so unrelentingly funny that to cite any other attribute is like decrying water's inability to be dry. It's funny as shit, and that's more than enough for me tonight.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den22c.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-I really love Vega Form's transformation! The way the cape deploys, the whole thing with the drill flashing open into a star-shape, the Reassuring Shoulder Guns... it's so good. It's easily my favorite form change so far.

-Very weird to have a story where one to two plots are entirely about Airi, and then Airi doesn't make an appearance in the second half. Sort of thought the Ryuta plot could've used her, but nope! I did appreciate Ryotaro telling that kid he'd kill them both if he can't contain him, since it's Ryotaro treating Hana's near-death experience with the appropriate severity. It just feels like the show didn't think of a way to even temporarily defang Ryuta, so we're left with I Guess He Won't Try To Kill Yuuto Today, which... maybe our heroes should aim higher than that? It's a thought!

I'm not sure why, but I'm really amused by how little effort went into developing the contract holder this time. The show knows that its main focus right now is working Yuuto into the cast, so it gives us the bare minimum of a monster of the fortnight plot (speaking of, I always disliked this monster and his weird rabbit brother - not sure why, but I find both to be really obnoxious). That said, I was constantly amused by seeing both him and his boss in full, end of It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World-style traction.

My favorite scene of the episode, though, was the aftermath of Momotaros hurling the random thug, where Ryotaro is trying to transform without falling over. I just love how Yuuto is standing there, realizing that this madness is what he has to work with.

Let's see, other points... I liked the last bit before the credits where Ryotaro stands up to Yuuto over the promise to Hana. I've said before that I really respect Ryotaro's willpower and this was an excellent example of it. And we got to see Naomi outside of the Denliner. That's pretty rare and it's fun to see her get more involved in the story.

Which reminds me, Hiroshi Miyauchi who was Kamen Rider V3 was also acting in sentai shows back-to-back for Gorenger and JAKQ, having played Akira/Aorenger and Shokichi/Big One respectively. And Kenji Ohba of Gavan fame was Shiro/Battle Kenya in Battle Fever J, and the very next year went on to play Daigoro/Denzi Blue in Denziman.

Showa actors went wild with this back in the day!

Don’t really remember much about his episode (doesn’t help that the next couple are ones I have some fairly vivid memories of and have something to talk about for all of them). Though I will point out that unlike DenLiner, ZeroLiner’s two modes don’t have names. They’re simply called Drill Mode and Naginata Mode.

Though I do like that Isurugi gets another moment to shine. Especially considering how little attention the concurrent Sentai series gave to its ancillary mechs.