STOP MAKING WORK FOR ME

AND NO

One of my weird hypocrisies is that, despite watching all of the Phase 1 shows in order to watch Decade (well, technically to watch Zi-O, but still), I am watching Tsukasa's story out of sequence and sort of loving it? He shows up a few times in Phase 2, and I never could get a read on him. I knew he was a Big Deal, but I couldn't figure out his weirdly closed-off demeanor. Like, the first thing I saw was the epilogue to this series in the Double winter film, and he's fighting all of his friends! It's really bleak, just like most of his later appearances (when they even make any sense), and it's so unexpectedly exciting to see him as a flustered, unfulfilled hero. I sort of know how he ends up, but now I get to see how it happened. So, yeah, I sort of get how folks could come to this show first and then go watch the other Phase 1 shows.

Yeah, this show has that Phase 2 feel, where the Rider's abilities are expandable with the introduction of more collectibles. Ryuki had Advent Decks, and Kiva had Fuestles, but this is something where the Rider is collecting more shit as the show goes on, which an order of magnitude more toyetic than the last ten years' worth of shows. You, too, can be like Decade if you buy more cards!!!

Ha ha, yeah, he's pretty engaged here! His Phase 2 appearances... you could read it as confident, or laconic, but it always read to me like the actor would rather not have to make these appearances. Maybe that's in character for Tsukasa by the end of this series! I really hope so!

holy shit, it's seriously everyone

first time i'm like whaaaaaat

eighth time i'm like cool i've done everything wrong as a tokusatsu fan

INOUE FOREVER!

They made a video game for Decade, if that helps!

That line seems...very Inoue.

He doesn't have time for your details and demands! He's trying to make you feel something.

OK, neat elaboration of that. I don't know much about Decade, purposely not looking into it (due to reputation, due to avoiding spoilers too) and I would just accept this info as new one. I guess Tsukasa feeling so ostracized is... another low point of him (or it's just extension of his photography weakness) unlike the protagonist similar to him, Tendou, who is effortlessly popular like with ladies (in contest with Daisuke).

Well but did you have a discussion about Tsukasa saving the world due to the fact that he lives there? And negative trait can show up not in things other than motive, which some people can make cruel takes from that like if someone has good motivation then they're innocent regardless what they've done to achieve that goal solely due to the motive - I don't know about Decade yet for the later part (and ofc no spoiler), but example of this case are well-intentioned extremists, who achieves their noble goal by solely doing bad things like lots of bodycounts - the one adopting "the end justifies the means".

And, saving multiple Earths are huge task, but I wanna remind that people who succeed doing that aren't necessarily more heroic (not that it's not heroic, but you saying it 'very' heroic which seems to elevate him higher than anyone due to bigger accomplishment), but they have much more power to do that.

Not saying it's 100% the same but Gaim's intro do have some resemblance to Decade's here. And for "characters you already have an investment"... I mean dunno about the ones in the war, but the Kuuga world at the end of the episode already features different cast.

So something that'd be similar to Takeru Satoh portraying different aspects of Ryotaro between just himself and his self possessed by each of Taros Imagins?

Inoue is the name of Tsukasa's actor... Masahiro Inoue.

No offense, this sounds like what Sh Ranger said in Kabuto thread regarding Hopper Brothers... "the type that never learns from his mistakes and is desperate for people to notice him even if it's bad publicity like being a loser and a joke", which is the type of character he hates the most (I wouldn't approve of this behavior either, as it's a trait in real life iirc possessed by numerous trolls or edgelords - of which the Hell Brothers qualify).

Oh hey, catwhowalks. Welcome back, dude!

However, I'd like to correct you on your claim of there being no Power Rangers in 2009. That was the year of RPM, a very popular season and the end of the Disney Era.

You know what's really weird though? Tsukasa's actor is also called Inoue, same kanji and everything! Then there's another Inoue who recently wrote for Kiramager, yeah the same job as a writer, still with identical kanji. What's with all these Inoues?!

EDIT: Ninja'ed by DreadBringer.

So I decided to drop by, since Decade was, to nobody's surprise, my first completed Rider season. The first one I watched would either go to the original's (1971) first episode, or Amazon's (1974) first half.

First off, some factors as to why Decade is probably one of the ones people usually start with being, is that it introduces the Kamen Riders (at least their suits and themes) to get people interested in watching those seasons, and since they're all alternate world versions of them, there's no risk of spoiling the past seasons to them. Second, it's that bridge between the Heisei Phase 1 style and Phase 2's robust and toyetic gimmick merchandise that the franchise leans more into, allowing people to see whether either style is the one they want to see. And third, of course, is the shorter season, meaning more people have time for it before deciding if their interested in seeing more of Kamen Rider.

Now I'm guessing there are a fair number of people who might have felt conflicted with the way they perceive Decade, which probably makes some people wonder what's so special about Kamen Rider. The answer to some of those questions I can only say to that is, there's 50 years of shows to choose from afterwards, a lot of them with very different themes and stories of which surely one of them you're bound to enjoy. And then I watched Fourze and Wizard afterwards.

Because I don't want to take too much of people's time here, I'll just lay down some of my experience with watching Decade for the first time here, then maybe post here and there later. Decade was, for lack of a better word, very different from what I was used to seeing at the time. First there was that opening sequence with the whole war going on before Decade defeats everyone. That scene blew me away at first, seeing so many cool things on screen just going ham, then seeing who was to be our main character just destroy everything and looking like a villain, all while wearing magenta (Yes, I said it).

Then there was the opening itself, which for me, was how I started getting into Kamen Rider. I watched the original's opening first to see where the series started, then picked whichever one sounded cool, being the names, where I saw Wizard's and got hooked. When I was opting for Decade, which was one of the one's often recommended to newcomers, I was taken aback by how, for an anniversary season, the theme song sounded melancholic and the visuals filled with, what I assumed at the time, the Riders being villains. I still, strangely enough, love the route of having the heroes you've rooted for go against the new hero, and the scenes of them all standing ready to oppose Decade, with Natsume behind them. I just didn't know what to make of this show at first glance, and that's probably what made it so exciting for me. It wasn't like some of the Anime I'd been watching while I was getting into that, nor anything I normally watched, which brought me into this franchise and it's many wonderful series.

I'll probably talk more about the shows in another post, since I don't usually like to go on for this long. But before I go, I'm going to leave this here.

"It's time to D-D-D-D-DDDDDDD-Duel!"

In 2008 it was ranked 16th most common surname in Japan. Personally I say it is still one of the most common surnames around in Japan.

Tokusatsu staff and cast certainly seem like a pretty accurate sample of that. I guess that's what Inoue Forever really means. :p

At the end, sure. But when the episode starts? Not the case! The pre-title sequence in Episode 1 works so well because you don't know that these aren't The Real Kuuga and The Real Hibiki and and and. There aren't any clues in the intro that we aren't watching the last nine years worth of heroes (and Kaixa) get detonated by Decade. It feels very real!

This is a little surprising to me, that Decade might have an unflattering reputation. Between the continuing appearances of Tsukasa over the next 10+ years (he just got a new crossover special!) and the number of fans who say they came in through Decade (basically everyone but me), I thought it was an upper-tier show. Curious now to try and figure out what might not work for people!

It's odd, because while Decade-the-character seems to have stuck around as one of the more popular Riders, Decade-the-series has always had a mixed reputation? Even in this thread, we've already had people calling it the best, the worst, and someone must consider it average, right? (Me. It's me.)