This episode is a Hat Woz-heavy episode, and I sort of love how that makes Woz super anxious and weirded-out? There'd be some fun to both Wozez being the exact same high-energy flamboyant weirdos (like Double Sougos), but I like that the introduction of Hat Woz renders Woz totally freaked out and basically powerless. Woz understands that a hat denotes New and Improved!

I gotta tell ya, I was THRILLED with this episode's opening sequence, and sort of resented the rest of the episode steering violently away from it. Kamen Rider Shinobi looks awesome (big fan of the purple and black, plus the very Rider scarf), the opening fight was acrobatic and colorful, and the whole I Became A Shadow To Protect The Weak credo is really evocative. I liked that intro! And then the show said Just Kidding!

Just so long as we get the delayed-from New-Year's floating video screens, I'm good.

Well, we’re at the part where, instead of homaging past Riders, we’re homaging Rider’s rivals in the airwaves (Speaking of rivals, Decade is temporarily out because Inoue is a busy guy). In this case, the three ninja-themed instalments of Super Sentai; Ninja Sentai Kakuranger, Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger and Shuriken Sentai Ninninger (the latter in particular, since not only did the actor playing Rentaro appear in that show, but it shares a writing staff with Zi-O and the guy who does the Ridewatch jingles did the theme song for that show).

And speaking of watches and songs.

Miridewatch Playlist

https://youtube.com/watch?v=LeWekorm9TE

‘Transform with Miridewatches - Henshin! Kamen Rider Woz’

And the song I went with for him is Black and White, a theme song for him with a name that will make more sense next episode. https://youtube.com/watch?v=qxgIPCTqNdM

https://youtube.com/watch?v=BcKG9B4w9fs

‘Shinobi (忍) is written as ‘heart’(心) of ‘blade’ (刃). Kamen Rider Shinobi’

(And for some useless extra information I learned from an anime called Dinosaur King, Kunoichi s written as ‘woman’ over ‘shinobi’)

And to go with the homage, I have three songs (since of course, there is no Shinobi series, and thus no music I can pull from it)

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger https://youtube.com/watch?v=ku7r2x6d1sI

Hurricaneger Sanjou https://youtube.com/watch?v=9ar6S2wHZA8

And Saa Ike Ninninger https://youtube.com/watch?v=j3XNvtbRWNE

And because I never got to subtitle this back during my Tsukai Detour, no matter how much I wanted to, I?m doing it here.

Let’s go! We are Ninninger. The invincible NinJapan!


Dadada! Dadada! Dashing the heavens, cutting through the wind.
High and mighty, our five-coloured oath flapped in the air.

Embracing the radiance of the shurikens of justice.

Go flying towards the future!

We are serious! We are earnest!
Appearing suddenly!


Let’s go! We are Ninninger. (Wasshoi Ninja)
Changing at will, NinJapan!

Beating the foes of dreams!

Punish them! Do it! Do it! Do it! (Wasshoi Ninja)

Let’s leap! We are Ninninger!

That fiery bond of NinJapan!


Bring it together, Shuriken Sentai Ninninger!

And while I can’t show you a video for his Anotherwatch without spoilering the Another Riders for episodes 19-20 and 23-34, those same three shows had villain songs I could use for Another Shinobi: Kuro no Kikoushi

https://youtube.com/watch?v=W9B8OIPIrSY

Kunoichi Ichi Ichi Uchuuichi

https://youtube.com/watch?v=v1avB_rYVg0

And Yamiyo no Tsuki
https://youtube.com/watch?v=W1knTGW4R-I

And for the Another Rider compare and contrast, Rintaro is a contrast to HIMSELF (an idea only explored elsewhere in a fanfiction which had a cliffhanger that Another Blade was? Kenzaki. Cue Ondul-go reference) Whereas his 2022 self is a confident hero who fights those who abuse their powers, his 2019 self is an insecure person who uses his power to murder crooks who pose little to no threat to the world at large.

Design wise, since Shinobi has no original villains (his henchmen are reused from Fourze), his design is instead based on Hattori Hanzō from the obscure 80s tv series Shadow Warriors

I must implore everyone to see this video of Rentarou doing the Ryusoulger dance.


https://youtu.be/upy7Pua9zSU

You know, I can live with not getting Shinobi as an actual thing. But I would still want a sequel of sorts, they can't go around 2022 without mentioning him! Really his only existence in his own actual year, is getting a pin badge for TTFC! He needs more than that!

But the real sin, is the fact we do not have a Shinobi S.H. Figuarts! I want my ninja Kamen Riders, so it's a shame that Fuma doesn't have one, and nor does Shinobi! Thankfully, there's NinninComic and also Kenzan, but I cannot go without the one whose name is literally Shinobi!


https://scontent-hkg4-2.xx.fbcdn.net...Aw&oe=626B8B2F

Surprising given most of the molding is basically reuse of Ghost and Ex-Aid, so you'd think modifying/adding to pre-existing stuff would make it easier to make him.

Something I didn't realize until later is the significance of the fact that Time Jackers are now creating Another Riders in the present (even though Another Shinobi's number is 2022 instead of 2019 for some reason). Remember all those girls Sakuma killed in the space of 15 years? They're fine now, cause none of that ever happened. But what about those guys killed by Another Shinobi? A consolation is that events in the past are preserved, so Rentarou can still become the true Shinobi cause he's not Shinobi yet. This show's brand of Time Nonsense can have dangerous implications if you really think about it.

Nah, I wouldn't call them actual friends yet. Maybe Sougo would, but Geiz sure as hell ain't going to admit that. As far as he's concerned, there's a possibility he still needs to murder Sougo at some point. What they have is an understanding. Geiz accepts that Sougo is going to try and become king no matter what and Sougo accepts that Geiz is going to try and kill him if he follows the path of the evil Oma Zi-O.

I think the contrast between the two Wozes here could be symbolic of a larger contrast between the Riders of the past and the Riders of the future. I love this arc for many reasons, but I remember how intriguing it was to see these new "Miriders" in both concept and execution. So far, the show has been about the Legend Riders' legacy to Zi-O. But this arc is the first where we instead get to see Zi-O's legacy to the future. Kamen Rider Shinobi literally didn't exist until last episode where Sougo decided to become a king once more. The future is changing!

The BeyonDriver has one of my favorite standby jingles!

Does it make you excited to watch Rider Time Shinobi?

Isn't Rentarou already an experienced Rider, like Haruto or Wataru? The time placement of Sougo's dream implies that he's been active since 2021 at the latest. However, we might not get the same Kagura Rentarou unless they can get Tawada Hideya to return.

Dude, you got the kanji mixed up!

He put a lot of enthusiasm in that performance for sure! His actor having previous dancing experience from Ninninjer's ED was very convenient.

Did you see the date on that video though? It's the Day of Oma! :eek:

Same here. I don't expect a full-length season with Shinobi, but damn, we seriously need a sequel!

Give him an appearance in 2022 Rider's winter movie, that'd be fun. (Though I'm sure current events might've thrown a wrench in any kind of plans they had for him.)

I just love how confused the BeyonDriver sounds. To me it sounds like it's going

"Kamen Rider Woz! Woz????"

Absolutely wonderful.

This episode introduced two of my least favorite parts of Zi-O. The first of these is Hat Woz. Kind of. Hat Woz himself is fine, although his existence raises a whole lot of questions about Woz's nature that absolutely do not get answered to my satisfaction. No, what I absolutely despise is his book. Hat Woz's book is one of my least favorite things in fiction: a lazy plot device. It serves no purpose other than to make put characters and events into position without having to bother explaining it. It's bad, lazy writing and I hate it.

The other part that I dislike is Shinobi. Again, kind of. Shinobi is also fine on his own, and I know that he has a pretty decent amount of fans out there. I dislike him more as a concept than a character. By this point in the show I was watching Zi-O entirely for the legacy characters, not for anything that Sougo, Geiz, or Tsukuyomi were doing (not that Tsukuyomi was doing much of anything, at this point). The Oma Zi-O stuff did nothing for me, the Time Jackers did nothing for me, I was 100% here for the anniversary tributes. So it may not come as a huge surprise that I was not a fan of doing fake anniversary tributes for original characters that the show just made up (because we all know that whatever follows Revice is not going to be a Shinobi series). I was especially butthurt over this at the time, seeing as we'd already gotten Fourze and Faiz crammed together into one two-parter while Kuuga, W, and Den-O all got shunted off to a movie. I've mellowed on these episode over time, but in the moment it seemed like kind of an insult to spend entire two-part episodes on this when some real shows weren't given that much time.

Definitely on my list of favorite toku opening songs.

"New Year 2022" lol so accurate to the actual real life now. Otherwise, Shinobi is about a tragic figure, Rentarou has Kamen Rider sensibility, wants to become a Rider due to protect the helpless, but all of that got ruined by the Time Jackers who turned him into his antithesis instead, the one who misuse their power. This part actually shows the consequence of Sougo returning to fight as Zi-O, that it changed the flow of time.

It'd be White Woz (this one's shouldn't be a spoiler) where the current Woz we've known before is Black Woz. White Woz is all about nightmare he caused for the cast now. Even Black Woz doesn't smirk like his usual confident and suave persona!. And White Woz can potentially overwrite Black Woz's existence and becoming an even bigger threat with White Woz's rewriting future powers being absolute. Other than that, White Woz would potentially cause bad outcome to both Sougo and Geiz, as the former could've been killed by Geiz's hands that even when there's a better future possible, that'd be likely preferable as last resort to Sougo (as well as potential Ohma's Day happening in 2019, thus he got 1 year). And for the latter, due to how those 2 become friends, Geiz would want to stop Oma's Day without having to take Sougo's life, just like his partner Tsukuyomi now, of which him killing Sougo would happen now according to Another Woz's history. BTW actually Geiz is visually uncomfortable with being heralded as a savior/messiah for beating Ohma Zi-O, so it's not actually his dream?

The thing is, "Rejoice" means "Iwae".