Yeah, I obviously can't speak to if there was a better choice of Showa series to slot in here, but I think Amazon made for a solid choice. The emotional stakes are all very legible, thanks to a Legend Rider who lacks subterfuge or suspicion. I mostly don't know if does a lot with Tsukasa, but as an exploration of a Rider's ability to weather the rage of a world, I think it handled things well.

I will never pass up a chance to restate my love for the insanity that was the Shocker Youth go-kart team from that Drive movie.

These episodes always felt a lot more like time-filler to me than the Black arc, but I'm probably biased because I like Black so much more than this relatively anemic version of Amazon. I also cannot forgive it for having a chance to update the most bonkers Rider monster design ever and doing something so boring with it.

I remember the Amazon arc for one thing and one thing only.

When Amazon said: "Amazon has not touched a person in a long time"

And I laughed my ass off.

https://i.imgur.com/IN6If5h.jpg

I crave a Shin Godzilla-esque take on Dai-Shocker, where we delve into the administration of this world. I want to know more about the Shocker Combatman who serves as a school superintendent. I want it more than I want the next two episodes of Decade!

That is a pretty terrific/funny/terrifically-funny monster design.

I thought this one had a clearer emotional arc for the Legend Rider, which puts it ahead of the Black/RX stuff for me. It was leveraging Amazon's specific worldview in a way that was easy to invest in, even if the actor was a massive obstacle. I got what was happening, why it was happening, and why the characters cared about it. That may sound like a pathetically low bar to clear, but not every Decade story has managed to clear it!

This was a fun set of episodes. I always dig the insanity of delving into a Shocker infested society. EEEE!

I do not like this actor for Amazon in the slightest, just like I didn't back then. His battle grunts are weak, and his A-ma-zon is even weaker. He works in some instances but he really looks like he's ready to just fall asleep of boredom.

Jyumenki was really cool though, like I know he's a redesign of an old monster but I love that his gimmick is countering the as of now 10 Heisei Riders. Kind of a shame it's just for a one-off guy like him too since that would have made a really cool multi-episode threat for Tsukasa. He was my highlight of these particular episodes cause I just dig concepts like that.

It's the second-best part of this story, after Narutaki being like Murder Decade And I'll Give You This Card and Diend being like Or I Could Just Murder You And Take The Card J/K I'm Just Gonna Take The Card. It's the stupidest Narutaki appearance to date, and that is saying something.

But, a world run by Shocker! Pretty great! I like how it's all about how miserable it is to live in a world where everyone is out to get you, something both Amazon and Decade can viscerally relate to... but then it's sort of about how soothing it can be to let an organization fill that void of trust? How it's easy to get suckered in by an organization when you don't feel like it's worth putting your trust in people, and the organization provides the fulfillment you used to find in others. Like, this episode doesn't do a ton with it, but it still manages to touch on the cult-like seduction of misinformation and conspiracy theories, and how the gravitational pull of peer pressure can make people work against their own self-interest. The fascist elements of Shocker are long-standing, but this arc hits a little closer to home in the age of COVID.

Yeah, that episode title you point out is unfortunate? Amazon proper had an actual episode with a similar title (The Strong, Naked Speedster), which incidentally enough was co-written by this episode’s director.

For other Amazons references, all of the monster Jyumenki has battling for him have the same motifs as the Beastmen, Amazon’s monsters of the week. Also, he Mole Beastman that Grandpa claims to be is an actual character from the show, as are those two kids that are so important (in the show, they were the children of a professor Amazon’s as sent all the way from Brazil to find by his village elder).

As for the episode, I do like Jyumenki’s gimmick, like Zero. But I do have to wonder what’s going to happen now that he’s gone. He wasn’t the only villain in that world, right?

Also between this episode and the last, there was a spin-off story featuring Decade visiting the World of Stronger, though I won’t bore you with the details here.

Yeah, that episode title you point out is unfortunate? Amazon proper had an actual episode with a similar title (The Strong, Naked Speedster), which incidentally enough was co-written by this episode’s director.

For other Amazons references, all of the monster Jyumenki has battling for him have the same motifs as the Beastmen, Amazon’s monsters of the week. Also, he Mole Beastman that Grandpa claims to be is an actual character from the show, as are those two kids that are so important (in the show, they were the children of a professor Amazon’s as sent all the way from Brazil to find by his village elder).

As for the episode, I do like Jyumenki’s gimmick, like Zero. But I do have to wonder what’s going to happen now that he’s gone. He wasn’t the only villain in that world, right?

Also between this episode and the last, there was a spin-off story featuring Decade visiting the World of Stronger, though I won’t bore you with the details here.

Black is currently re-aired on my TV, and perhaps I should give a Showa era a taste, for the part of escaping to America, would like to see on how they filmed the location, as mostly from the Heisei part I watched, the location filming is rather limited for KR, like multiple similar location is re-used and many of them are quite locked in Japan. I do feel that Kuuga got several Showa feelings in the fights or special effects, and other phase 1 IMO, probably except Den-O, also does have more of Showa feel in the recording tone or such.

Even Shinji would claim that Rider War is too much for a girl in Episode Final movie. Though yeah, I'm never a fan of 'regrettable chivalry' like that too, though I'd be more repulsed if it's showing that only female are worth caring, while males are expendable, like.... Kabuto's Daisuke (it's 1 character though instead of a theme). I'd like for the 'masculine nobility' more though as in to make the cast relatively more grounded that not every cast somehow having pretty-looks or such.

I don't know if this is about the Tsukasa forgetting his lessons being too old now and that it grates on you know where you tolerate it more before, but yeah that's something DreamSword did brought up before about Tsukasa having memory loss, which I agreed too. I do feel weird too about hating the word friend, but personally think though, Tsukasa's declaration of being unable to feel other's pain is worse than declaring that he hates companionship. I do think however, Kotaro is one of the people that Tsukasa genuinely fully respect of, he's the most courteous when interacting with him, with little to no talking down or such. Though still, as Switchblade talks about the changing writer, that'd be the reason if you'd ask why it's inconsistent and feels lazy, changing writer does can eff some stuff up in a series.

Probably yeah, Narutaki is an example of someone who should be treated as a joke in-universe, or like the memes people make about him, for his ridiculous hate on Decade to improve, probably that way he can keep his radical personality.

Like you, I do think that as much of a douchebag Tsukasa is, I do think that Kaitou is clearly worse. Not on Faiz level, but when a show has a jerk main protagonist where the secondary one is made worse just like usual.... and Kaitou's action in this episode is one of the worse one coming from him to just put Natsumi's life in danger for his own selfish treasure-seeking desires. Albeit there's a redeeming quality in his fairness which leads for Natsumi's life to be saved. Still that'd be similar to "push you to the cliff then pull them back up" kind of thing.

You know, she would've been anyway, but Tomoko was my absolute favorite character in Fourze before the show even started simply for being the one named after the Showa Rider who was my absolute favorite before even watching his show. (Which means that Tomoko is like, my double favorite, by the way, so I'm glad to see you taking this chance to get her in the thread, Die!)

Amazon's just a great concept, you know? His design and character are so immediately endearing, there was basically no way I was ever going to be as interested in any of those other guys right out of the gate, when I was first learning about the franchise. I remember reading stuff like that he was friends with a mole monster or how he was initially scared of motorcycles(!), and even without those details, the basic premise of this wild yet gentle guy fighting evil while struggling to fit into the strange civilized world around him was inherently intriguing to me.

I believe I had seen a few episodes of Amazon before going into Decade, which would slot it right alongside Ryuki and Kuuga as the only ones I had watched any of prior, and, yeah, I think this two-parter captures that inherent appeal of Amazon pretty well. Again, it's sort of a hard concept to get wrong? The actor's performance feels like a directing choice that didn't ~quite~ pan out in the end (the original Amazon had WAY more range than this, rest assured), but the character is as lovable as ever, and wrapped around all this, we've got a world that's sort of Yonemura's prototype for what I feel are the most fun crossover movies he's written, plus some continuing development for Tsukasa and Kaitou's impossibly unhealthy relationship (that last scene!), which is fun in its own right.

I guess maybe that's where Decade is at in this last stretch? It's a little crazy to think that these are the penultimate episodes of the series, considering how relatively thin the drama is, but man, when they're still busting out standalone story concepts this enjoyable, it's a lot harder to be upset.