I'll be sure to compare Blade's performance to Hibiki's here when I finally get around to watching Missing Ace!

Oh that totally would have been a great callback for sure. Like if it made Natsumi and Yuusuke sneeze out the brain bugs or something.

Alright, Kaito's world featuring Blade Movie Riders. I agree with Kurona, I'd have no idea these were Blade Riders, even when I was like "Are those Blade Drivers?"

Of course, I also thought this would highlight Kaito's relationship/rivalry with Tsukasa, granted, the fact you mention them being like Bettas and not being able to tolerate someone like them does fit, I was also interested in seeing if the show would spotlight it. That said, this was still a pretty good arc for our boy Kaito.

When you mention apocalyptic politeness, I actually thought it was more of a hive-mind situation, and that Kaito sought freedom from the suffocating grip of this united world without conflict, where everyone is the same. Of course, maybe giving the Blade Movie Riders might have just been because someone in production liked them enough to give them a whole world to themselves, then throw Kaito in for good measure. But dang did I not like that guy's smile, or how he politely says antagonistic lines. Well played.

Boy did I lose it when they showed the next world being Shinkenger (I still have yet to watch it), and how Narutaki described it. I hadn't gotten into Sentai yet, but I found it extremely hilarious.

I have only seen the first two episodes of Blade, via Toei Tokusatsu World, so I am familiar with the legendary Ondul. Sat through all eleven minutes of this insanity you have given us, I guess it goes to show that even if Blade has ended, Ondul is eternal.

This was a weird one for me. I actually really liked the first episode way more than I remembered. The set up for the world is interesting, the small town setting is a refreshing change of pace from the usual stock filming locations, and bringing back the Missing Ace Riders is a really neat use of familiar but underdeveloped characters (even if Junichi's smile will haunt my dreams for the next forever or two).

The second part fell a bit flat for me, though. I liked the emotional resolution of the Super Kaito Bros. conflict in theory, but it didn't feel especially earned in practice. Junichi being a willing bad guy fits with Glaive's role in Missing Ace, but didn't really fit with the way he was shown on screen looking and acting like the Japanese version of a Stepford Wife. I also just cannot wrap my head around the idea that Daiki is a former Happiness Patrolman. It just doesn't fit with the character as we've seen him for me.

I can't believe I had a whole discussion of Die and someone else made the Doctor Who reference about a society where you're forced to be happy or else.

Would Glaive be improved if he were made from sweets?

All that’s. Kissing is Diend having a philosophical discussion after which he puts his Diendriver down.

Hey, the name isn’t just to be cool, you know.

I mean, obviously.

...Oh, and I should probably talk about the actual episodes, too!

I really enjoyed the banter throughout that post, by the way. I feel like that was exactly the right tone to have for the weird Missing Ace Kaitou Backstory two-parter

One other person who could've demanded it – not only is Inoue back from Missing Ace, but these ones were directed by Ishida! (I feel like this is part of why Junichi's smile is so perfect.)

I am fairly certain Tsukasa is meant to be referring to Larc and Lance there.

Anyways, yeah, this is a weird pair of episodes. I kind of dig them, but I'm not sure if I'd call them good or bad or whatever other label. You guys touched pretty nicely on how the plot has to create from scratch the entire arc it wants to resolve with Kaitou, and that highlights a big part of why I keep likening Decade two-parters to movies – I definitely prefer to think of them as standalone things a lot of the time. (Also, the way the recaps at the start of each episode are structured reminds me of movie trailers, with the epic music and everything.) It's why Die can be like "there should've been a more gradual build-up to Tsukasa and Onodera's friendship thing in the Agito story", and I can be like "what are you talking about there was one other story!" It was honestly impressive to me going back to find that Decade did that much work with a character arc, because I associate the show so much more with stories like this.

These episodes generate all this retroactive baggage for Kaitou out of nowhere, and it's so odd, and probably pretty ill-advised, but that's also kind of the charm of Decade to me. I can't help but have some fun with the way these episodes do their whole thing of revealing that Kaitou's got his own pain and regrets buried under the surface, and how in his past, he was once even dedicated to ideals and all this other stuff that, even though I've seen these episodes already, I was not at all thinking about hearing some of the hints about his past in the Hibiki arc. It's a backstory that feels so haphazardly attached that even though I remember it, my brain refuses to connect it with other appearances of the character, even though the whole point of a story like this is to make you look back and think "wow, this guy was secretly dealing with all this the whole time."

...Wait, I think I was trying to defend this one, wasn't I? The point is, I feel like I've gradually been becoming more and more of a Diend fan ever since initially watching Decade, so, while I can rag on the lack of cohesion or whatever, going back to that movie mentality, and treating this as its own thing, I do like the way it paints Kaitou. It's like... it's a type of story I enjoy, it has some fun concepts, solid direction, and even a great Blade meme or two. The material itself is quite interesting.

That being said, I kind of actively loathed what Inoue did with Newsuke here? He used to be a Cool Guy in-training who set off on this adventure with everyone to honor Yashiro's wish for him to protect people's smiles, but now apparently he's just looking for a world where everyone is already smiling to settle down in? It's like Inoue asked for a description of the character, and whoever he was talking to got as far as "Well, he can be rather naïve, and gets into his share of embarassing situations, but—" before Inoue said he got the gist of it, and, man, I mean he might have actually not known this guy was supposed to be Kuuga?

Still, for how much I felt Newsuke's character was totally off the rails in these ones, I got a kick out of Tsukasa's impromptu psychoanalysis of Kaitou throughout the second half, which encapsulates both what Die was saying about how Tsukasa reads people too easily and what I was saying about him not understanding people. That was one of those disagreements we had that I don't actually think was a disagreement.

It's that whole New Game + analogy that I still feel perfectly sums up how Tsukasa helps people out. He's great at knowing what motivates people and where their stories are going, but I feel like he often acts on that in this slightly detached way that suggests to me he genuinely can't really feel that stuff on an empathetic level the way your average Rider protagonist can. Again, as though this is just some quest in a video game to him that he's trying to speed along to its conclusion. Which gets you moments like him telling Kaitou at the end that since he's found The Treasure Of Self-Confidence or whatever in this world, he won't need to steal stuff anymore, only for Kaitou to immediately inform him he's off to go steal more things. I don't know. Tsukasa's most of the way there, but I feel like he stumbles in these weirdly specific areas, and it's a fun thing about his character.

On an unrelated note, before I forget, the theme song switches to the second verse starting with 22 to signify this being the second big chapter of the show, which is a nice bit of detail.

Are we talking about Inoue? Were we talking about Inoue? I wanna say a few words about Inoue.

I like Inoue. I have this weird love/hate relationship with his works, that it all just circles back to me appreciating him.

He has all these neat pics with Murakami, it's cute.

But going back, I honestly kinda feel bad for him too, since after Kiva he seemed kinda burnt out on Toku on his later years. I feel it may be showing on his stuff in ZI-O. I wish we could get another Inoue season in modern rider, but I know that'll be next to impossible to happen since it'll be a toss-up of either Inoue completely willing to write the WHOLE SHOW and Toei not letting him, or Inoue simply not feeling it and writing only two episodes.

He's one of the few writers we got who absolutely wants to do something that goes absolutely out of the 'safe' radar, and that's a blast to watch when the execution is great. Faiz still being one of my favorites out of him. I unironically feel we need more of him.

In terms of Decade, this two-episode arc for Diend, is a favorite of mine and also cemented Diend as one of my favorite secondaries. I was extremely disappointed what they did to him in SHT, and then I was completely enamored when he came back for ZI-O. This also gave birth to the amazing meme that is Kamen Rider Glaive.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3JoPbwVMAAqHgt.jpg

Forgot to check in on a notification and missed an entire day of thread chatter! WHOOPS!

Kamen Rider stories have been built over flimsier premises, so maybe! Like, those Missing Ace suits are pretty cool, and that's halfway to making a good story.

This is such an Inoue thing, where I really enjoy the point he's trying to make about free will being worthwhile even if people act badly because of it, but Junichi's actions make almost zero sense. It's a plot point that fails as narrative while somehow succeeding thematically. You can't really resolve Kaitou's story without it, but it's a twist that almost nothing in the preceding forty minutes (including a flashback!) actually supports. Not my favorite moment!

INOUE: "Alright, time to start these Decade scripts. Lemme look at the notes here... oh, one of the characters is named Yuusuke! Like Kuuga! Oh, that's a fun reference. I'll have him be ecstatic about this world of smiles. People'll love the Kuuga reference. God, I wonder what this show did for the Kuuga tribute episodes? I should ask later."

Yeah, I think it's the sort of thing where Tsukasa looks at someone like Kaitou and says Just Feel A Different Way, and he can't figure why Kaitou won't do it already. Tsukasa is getting better at a lot of things about being a Kamen Rider, but he'll never have that easy empathy, that deep connection. He cares about people, and he loves their capacity for change in a way that I'm really charmed by, but he mostly treats them like characters in a game/show. He's invested, but as an observer.

You won't get an argument out of me! These four Decade episodes are, narratively, some of the least successful episodes in the series so far. But, man, I've been thinking about them more than the objectively good episodes, which is always how it is with me and Inoue. Even the not-great ones are sort of fascinating in their specific failures.

Not only about Inoue, but there's also you proclaiming your like for characters like Kai in Den-O, where I have not seen any praises for him outside here. For being cognizant of his reputation, but still I wonder if you know about the (which may be also the source of his reputation too) TV production team keeping him on a leash or about his side work like the novels; him without leash.

I already shared it in my thread like better finishers one, but it seems that the only way for it to be noticed is to directly post the image.. Otherwise thanks and good that you.. are able to understand what I meant in the pic (unseen: all of that are done in Hyper Clock Up speed).

I have to probably stir shit again here that, a dystopian world where the citizens are forced to be nice or such is a thing that exist in a handful of media, like here and here. I don't know about the lesson of letting people being a douchebag, though obviously forcing them to be nice is a dubious and underhanded approach. I'd be the most against people getting away with their evil deeds against others (I mean like about everyone approving making excuses for that people while making others scapegoats or such, not about them escaping or winning battles with power). To some degree, there are still some rules, though not in dictatorship, that enforce people to be more good, including the Tokunation ones... is this a petition to remove all the rules in disguise?! The advantage of letting people be assholes, it would be knowing to stay away and/or act rather than being unknowingly screwed up over two-faced acts? (internet also can be used by people to reveal their true nature via anonymity) This feels like pushing the edgy misantrophic agenda of how "there are no good people in this world, if they're good, they're just faking". and there are some who conflates that realistic = edgy and dark and that everything should be made that way. The Armed Hibiki part, would say that's one of the better Decade Complete's Final Form Rides.

So even a real jerk like Kaitou got the same treatment when the story is also about flashbacks, like a normal person like Natsumi before. Probably I'd still think that the story didn't do it enough for Kaitou to show his past other than his disapproval of Junichi's method and that Junichi learns that Kaitou is a Rider, who for present time is only being taught a bit by Tsukasa about how treasure isn't only about power and valuable items, but also about relationships people invest our time, etc. something that can be enjoyed for eternity. I don't know if it'd be used as a development tool, or just let them be, but yeah I'd think for the greedy, this is a good route to develop or teach for KR series. Inoue with free reign is on the novels or such.

I mean, didn't you like Kai due to the lack of information regarding him? Narutaki's simply made to oppose Decade and blame him for everything, and he lives off the hammy acting and the memes in KR community, the "Onore Dickeido!" memes. Though otherwise, he seems to be a self-righteous zealot, he wants to oppose Decade, but will use any means necessary, even if he can accomplish some evil himself for opposing Decade.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/onore-decade

That's Decade's perk yeah, to travel into various different worlds. I'd want to see a multiple-world type of series that isn't anniversary, whose previous world mostly will be based on the previous Rider serieses. Wonder how they'd handle it. Fourteen does declare that he self-righteously creates peace. Though of course it's not valid, when he'd think peace is only when people are not fighting, only the outward part, the methods don't justify his endgoal. There's a certain series about how the well-intentioned extremist's goal is to create peace by brainwashing everyone or turning them into hive mind, and of course they'd be a (anti-)villain, yeah true that (both with superpowers) a good/neutral selfish jerk is better than villains who put the world into jeopardy for their supposed well meaning end. The Hibiki part of Kaitou is.. the standard secondary Rider soft spot that can surface like... the other Kaito saving a child from a tree.

The female Rider also didn't die here. Also, a meme says (spoiler-y, but this is about phase-2 I guess), "Golden Riders always Bad"
https://media.discordapp.net/attachm...676&height=670

Otherwise, the Missing Ace movie Riders, in this story, other than Junichi (who is irredeemable in Missing Ace), they seem to lack the negativity seen in he original movie, even if they're the same character with same actors (except the other Natsumi turns into Haruka), the reverse of the implementation of other Hibiki Riders before who are more selfish and control freak.

There's Onodera thinking that the world being an ideal one at first which is yeah, a neat and believable reaction from him. Natsumi also enjoys the people's kindness and she tried to return the favor when she found someone who carries a heavy stuff. Though of course Natsumi's at that time is genuine, but the others aren't necessarily.... that.. that can be a positive effect from the dystopian world?! (though Natsumi can be already like that before visiting this world too)!=