Before I revive my thing from the Blade thread, it’s etymology time!

Kendate = ken = blade, date = to rouse, literally “Blade Rouser”

Hishigata = “diamond shape”

Syacho = play on “shachou” (company President)

Kuroba = pun on “clover”

And now, the Undead Information Kiosk is reopen for business with the one I deliberately left out back during the Blade thread

Evolution Paradoxa

The Paradoxa Undead is the King of Hearts Undead. He is able to create a blade-like wind from his forearm to kill his target.

* Suit: Heart (♥)
* Category: King (K)
* Effect name: EVOLUTION
* Card name: Evolution Paradoxa (エボリューション・パラドキサ, Eboryūshon Paradokisa)
* Consumption points: EP +2800

https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/ka...20201126152312

As for the episodes, it does strike me as hilariously easy to get fired or demoted here. And as some of us discussed over discord yesterday, it opens up the question of how much knowledge the writers have of capitalism.

so what do you think of Tsukasa turning Kendate into a giant sword?

Die, where do you find these people? Someone who actually likes Doctor Who, smh.

But yeah, Blade arc! This one's strengths are all in it's main Rider - Kazuma here is no Kenzaki, but he's an interesting twist on the idea, showing the guy maybe if BOARD had better employee retention, and also needed Tsukasa to remind him he's supposed to never give up on Tachibana, no matter how many times he gets shot! (Either with bullets, or in this case, mean words).

The lack of Hajime though, as much as Die would have you believe Decade is about to morph into the Joker at any time (they're both destroyers and don't properly realise how until later in the series, that's another one for you buddy), does hurt this one for me, especially with how integral that relation becomes to the show's later portions, but I get it - the Ryuki arc was just about the bond between two Rider-men, one grumpy and closed off, the other idealistic and far too headstrong, you don't want to repeat that for every mini arc. So maybe focusing on Kenzaki's rise from the bottom to fight not because it gets him his shiny plaque, but because it protects people, is the better choice.

Out of all the Final Form Rides so far, it's on of the better ones. Blade turning into a Blade for Decade (The Blade Blade) makes more sense than Kiva becoming a bow and arrow, after all. The real confusing thing is why it's finisher involves blasting a laser at the Undead...

It's odd, cause BOARD is shown as being at least semi-functional, but I can't imagine randomly bouncing up and down in rank like that would be good for anyone!

I forgot about the Blade Blade! Again probably one of my favorite Final Form Rides purely because of it's name alone.

That being said, and this is my hottake, CEO/Chalice/Joker is probably the smartest CEO/Businessman in Kamen Rider? Especially later down the line when we get to a, a certain business related Rider Series whose business people I can only describe as incompetent due to their mindsets. The dude basically is holding all the cards and has no one from the monster side who would betray him. He's not stupidly thinking "Oh I shouldn't concern myself with the Undead because they won't backfire and betray me" and going along his merry way. He's made an alliance with them, and is able to business bullshit his way into taking out the other Riders as a result.

If Tsukasa wasn't here and he didn't get involved with Kazuma, then this story probably would have ended differently.

Anyway as for Blade AR being a sample for the series and me looking into it, it was pretty alright? Again, wasn't one of the Riders I had gotten into via Decade, we've still yet to hit those. The aesthetics were alright to me at the time but there wasn't much special for me to want to delve into more if I'm being honest.

Contrary to what I said before, I decided to cautiously skim through the World of Blade discussion. I can't really compare this world to Blade as a show, considering the most I know about that right now is what I've seen from Zi-O, something about a bench and that the Secondary Rider has a theme song dedicated to his apparent love of kara miso soup. So this is going to be a shorter post than the others, but there is still some Decade stuff I can talk about.

Tsukasa mundanely nicknames the BOARD Riders as Kamen Rider Salaryman, but their job is kind of like Kamen Rider Mercenary, right? At least, that seems to be the CEO's intention. War profiteering and starting from zero are themes most of us should be pretty familiar with from watching a certain show that aired in the Reiwa Era, but it's interesting to see how Decade deals with those themes here. I may not have much personal experience with jobs, but I think it's a good message that having camaraderie and the Ikigai concept is more important than standing on top and having lots of money. It's also clever how the arc with the materialistic final boss ends with a cameo of the very materialistic Diend, who I will be talking/complaining about very soon.

Honestly, I think I prefer that they keep their focus relatively constrained (this story is just about Blade as a character with which to explore the themes of the show), rather than have to spend more episodes building out a character we're never going to see again. I could maybe argue for an additional episode to give the Decade supporting cast a little more relevance to the plot (Natsumi! Natsumi.), but what's here is serviceable, and it doesn't come close to feeling padded or unnecessarily stretched out.

The BOARD CEO has everyone working as an independent contractor, because he is a villain.

It's neat! As stated, Blade Blade is the most Yeah Of Course option for Blade's Final Form Ride, and it's pretty fun to see Decade wield the prop version for a few shots. (I mostly tune out when it's the CGI version.)

DreamSword complains to me every time that no one on this board actually likes Power Rangers besides him, so that part of AkibaSilver's (if that's even their real name) backstory is probably more unbelievable.

Yeah, I think this is the big reason why they had to focus on different aspects of Blade's storytelling. It'd feel a little repetitive to have another story about a schism between two Riders that Tsukasa gets in the middle of. This one got at stuff that only Kabuto can also lay claim to thematically, and Kabuto's take is more about measuring yourself against other people. Blade's slightly more about Failure than about Teamwork, so I'm okay with the choice they made.

It's a plan so relatively smooth that it maybe didn't make the biggest impression on me before the reveal. The reveal, the Let's Make Ourselves Invaluable To The Government With A Forever War of it, was great! But a lot of what preceded that was a fairly standard Mercurial Boss, and that was sort of not compelling to me. I wish the role of CEO had a different take to it, maybe? Something more militarized, or more flamboyant, or something. Some of the casting for this story (Tachibanot, the CEO) needed a spark that just wasn't there.

oh god, do not say "secondary rider" for blade with any certainty or authority

that is a whole thing

The thing I like about how this story explores the concept of a career is that... like, it definitely views Applying Yourself At Your Job as a positive, but it also cautions you against putting too much faith in your employer. They can have goals that dehumanize their employees, and your humanity rests on your ability to make your work a positive in the world. It's a kids show, so it doesn't get into some of the trickier aspects of those lessons (You know who gets to pick jobs that are only a social good? Rich people.), but it's cool to teach kids to be on the lookout for shitty jobs and duplicitous bosses.

because its true

outright not canon. throw it out.

The salaryman quote fits with the opening few scenes, which makes BOARD look very much like an office beuraucracy, with papers needing filing, approval to henshin, and presumably office staff running to check the emails for insurance claims from Garren's stray bullets, but that quickly gets put by the wayside for less specific stuff about for Tsukasa and Kazuma's restaurant adventures.

You got me, I'm actually a Tommy Zoom fan who wandered onto the forum and got too deep in to leave.
Even aside from his appropriation of Chalice's whole thing, the villain is pretty bland. Compared to every other Rider CEO, he's just some understated guy until we find ourselves in the Blade lab ("Comes with free glass bath full of green goo!") and he's summoning the forbidden trading card. But hey, Abyss / Padadoxa Undead is also here! And desipte being a villain for four episodes, he had no personality, no motives, and he didn't even try to steal anyone's motorbikes. Sad times.

Tsukasa is Blade's new secondary, thank you for listening.

Something I forgot to mention: one of my favorite little moments from these episodes was the scene where Yusuke and Kazuma rode off together on the Try Chaser and Blue Spader. We're fully in the part of the show where Yusuke has forgotten that he's Kuuga, but it's still neat to see two untransformed Kamen Riders tooling around on their bikes together. With most subsequent team-ups taking place in the post-motorcycle era of Kamen Rider, you just don't see that very often.

You know, between this and finding out everyone apparently watches Decade right away, I'm really getting into this running gag of Die constantly being told this singular toku backstory everybody who isn't him seems to have. :p

Anyway, I love these episodes of Decade. Back before I really knew Blade, I got really into the story on its own merits, finding that oddball friendship Kazuma and Tsukasa develop especially to be really endearing.

Going back to it with knowledge of its writer, I now think it also benefits from Yonemura's specific brand of intense nonsense. That opening sequence with the Riders needing to wait for approval to transform is super exaggerated, which makes it extremely effective at communicating the gimmick of Blade's world clearly right away. Plus, the strange corporate hierarchy of BOARD in general is quite memorable. (I kind of take it like promotions and demotions happen so constantly they basically mean nothing? Kazuma literally gets fired and is back the next day. Or, heck, was that the same day?) Tsukasa inserting himself into a system he actively displays contempt for and then immediately proving he's better at it than everyone else is also very, very Tendou, and as fun to watch as a lot of those plot threads in Kabuto were.

Going to back to it with knowledge of Blade, I also think it does it a fantastic job getting at the concepts it chooses from that show. Kazuma is a completely normal guy in much the same way Kenzaki was, and he's always been one of my favorite of Decade's versions of the old Riders. He's capable yet bumbling, and an all-around decent human being living a life that isn't as glamorous as you'd expect from a super hero, because he isn't a super hero – he's a guy working his job. Again, great fun to watch, whether he's being demoted for prioritizing human life over defeating a monster, or just breaking dishes in the kitchen like a total dork. What can I say? He really feels like Blade!

(The "cheese" thing is missing the point though; Kenzaki is supposed to mess up words because he talks so quickly, due to what an excitable person he is. Not just because he literally doesn't know how to say them.)

Also! These are Decade's first episodes directed by Ishida, and while there aren't a ton of big artsy moves in them, I think they still benefit all over the place in little ways from his usual touches. (And there's real fire when Decade blows up a monster as Ryuki, because of course there's real fire in an episode group by Ishida.)

Oh, and as a last note, while Kuuga's shiny red is something I barely register, you can tell in these episodes that the transparent bits on Blade and Garren's faces are starting to become discolored, making the silver underneath look wrong. (Or at least I think that's what happened? I've never been too clear on what exactly went down with those suits over the years or why it's never been fixed.) It's not literally gold yet, but it's on its way there!

So is it meant to be some roundabout reference to Ondul then?

Yes! It was very nice to see Blue Spader back again, even if just for a short while. It's not exactly a huge part of Blade, but it always felt distinctly Kenzaki in a way you didn't get, even a few series later in Den-O.

There's the scene at the end, where he changes back from the Blade Blade, and falls over onto his ass, where the episode's bent towards comedy almost goes too far. But then Tsukasa helps him back up, and he's not a comedy loser protagonist (that would be Ryotarou, it's not his turn yet), he's just a guy who isn't exactly a superhero, but he's still a *hero*. It's sweet.

I was keeping an eye out for that, but compared to what was happening with their cameos in the last few seasons, it barely registered.

I am very into this headcanon.

I feel like we've seen Decade ride his bike every episode so far, which is pretty unusual by this point in Heisei? Even that feels like the series wanted to try and honor both the Kamen and the Rider parts of the franchise.

Everyone's got the same backstory, and it's Not Mine.

Watched too many episodes of Decade, and now I'm watching reviews of CSM Decadrivers. And DX Neo Decadrivers.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade04c.png

Yeah, you're gonna destroy my bank account, you son of a bitch.

ugggggghhhhhh

Anyone want to chime in on the Drivers for this series? Any owners of the DX or the CSM? Positives, negatives? Thoughts?

Oh well I own the Korean Version of the DX Decadriver, it doesn't have an insane amount of stuff. Just the required 10 Kamen Ride Cards, and that's it. Not even the Final Attack Ride Card was included.

But I appreciate Korea's accuracy when it comes to this stuff because they removed all the Ganbaride info on them so they look extra accurate. Granted it's not so much accuracy, it's them not having Ganbaride so removing that. But it was also fun just buying random Ganbaride Cards to unlock new songs. Also this was before they started making the toys sound different.

Just be grateful you’re not going after the Legend merch. I have no idea how Kuroda financially justified ALL of OOO’s (I can barely justify getting a Ranger Key set)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=8F47KSxnTTY

Because it wasn't that much!! Some of the harder stuff like the Ridewatch I got the SG version of instead, and after that the biggest difficulty is finding some of this stuff instead of affording it! Those Gaia Memories and Signal Bikes, I tell ya...


So. Decadriver. I have one coming myself partly because from what I've heard, yeah, it's pretty awesome! Just having that many henshins in the thing is just fantastic, the cards look nice and it's a great motion. It's my favourite Rider Belt and I'm looking forward to mine coming in!


I guess I'll say this in advance though, uh, if you get interested in Diend's driver; do not get the original DX release. It's one of the most infamously bad Rider toys ever. If you must get a DX Diendriver, make it the 20th release instead

Please let me know when you get yours! I'm very excited to see what you think of it.

Oh, I was only looking at Tsukasa's Driver(s). Diend's Driver... not that into? It's okay - it's a gun that shoots Kamen Riders at other Kamen Riders! - but it isn't as silky-smooth as the Decadriver. There's something alchemical about it, the Decadriver, where it's the tactile opening process, the sheer number of nostalgia buttons it pushes, the easy storage of a stack of cards, the fact the CSM plays the Decade fight music, how all of the voice clips are in English... it's a very cool device.

And, just so I'm getting this right, was the Neo Decadriver not produced as a CSM? Was it only the Decadriver? Also, was there some additional set of Phase 2 cards that were produced? Do those not come with the Neo Decadriver?

To not be -too- spoilery, Neo Deca was produced for the Zi-O toyline and was a DX (though appears to have certain things from the CSM’s coding? For instance, Skull of all things still works in it), and that’s where the Phase 2 cards come from. CSM never had any phase 2 cards produced for it… but it is worth noting that W through Drive sounds were programmed into it, and the relevant cards from Neo Deca will actually activate them!

Very cool. Thanks for the info!

The original DX Diendriver, as memory serves, was infamous for not having a card reader. There were a few sound effects, but you couldn't stick in, say, a Zeronos card and hear the gun say "Zeronos."

Basically it. It cycled through the same three sounds (Henshin, generic summon, Finisher) even though on the show it could do uh. Quite a lot more than that

I don't see what it else it would be? I guess it's not impossible that it was simply some non-sequitur Yonemura thought would be hilarious. I mean, the jokes in Kabuto could be *pretty* surreal, so...

I adore the Blue Spader. Easily one of my favorite Rider bikes, not only for its design, but because Blade was definitely in the top class when it comes to Heisei shows that actually made it a point to regularly feature the bikes. So yeah, it was neat to see it sharing the screen with one of my other favorite prominently-featured Rider bikes, even for a brief moment or two.

Tsukasa is frequently lumped with Tendou (though yeah I'd say not 100% similar like what I said at the beginning where Tsukasa seems to be more emotional and cracks under pressure more) so of course him having cooking ability would be inherent (though the most resembling one to me is what both did to the law to save the day). I'd think yes like Blade's theme people have to learn about coping with failure and rise, or deal with suffering, but what Tsukasa does throughout the episode is what I fear can be justified for developing through misery or such, by deliberately making other's live harder, and excusing (either themselves or others who watched this) those as only them trying to make others around them better. While it is true that people have become stronger in the face of adversity, this does not mean adversity always makes someone stronger. Tsukasa's money and status part, it seems that he also veers into power abuse as he insists any of his commands to be obeyed without question as it's absolute coming from him, which is the character of abusive bad boss.

It's even more overt for Kazuma (well sorry :p) for the failures as he's outright resembling Ryotaro here for being treated like the pariah of people around him, especially Tsukasa, getting numerous physical and verbal abuse. I don't know if Garren and Leangle here are deliberately made to be unlikeable, of different alignment compared to their original versions in Blade, if you're talking about them being narratively thin (not that they're handled well here, just probably the way to improve also can involve not giving flashes of sympathy or such). For Chalice here, his role is just totally different from the original series one (focusing on Joker part instead of Chalice part as a role), but I'd think it has more interesting things going where the reality of heroism can be something that merely furthers the villains' goals where it seems to make sense here, the BOARD using monster fighting as something to fund them and they'd deliberately cause more monster fights to fund them more (though you claim it's misplaced as it's grounded motivation in comedy company episode, I find Ryuki 2-parter's Rider War before as something significantly more parodic), even then I'd find his Joker part to be underutilized if he's actually evil, just as the final boss fight without the threatening nature of Joker in original series. But Abyss/Paradoxa Undead wasn't even given more to do after extending his appearence.

Well true, Tsukasa has morality more resembling secondary Riders or often tertiary Riders for a main Rider, which'd make it suitable if you'd claim Tsukasa's the actual Chalice here, though of course for more reasons like not emotionally engage with him. I'd think that as Kenzaki was defined by failure, he wasn't usually on the losing ground against Hajime, where Kazuma here is quite Tsukasa's punching bag/lapdog. Kenzaki also was the one who influences Hajime to be a better person, while obviously for here, Kazuma cannot make any lasting impacts to Tsukasa. I'd think though Hajime has alien aspects, Tsukasa has some of that aspect too, as like Sh Ranger said. Tsukasa feels so ostracized and rejected by the world, due to excelling at everything the World Of [insert Rider] needs him to do, but sucks at the thing he actually enjoys as a hobby, photography. He can't have a dream for the future cause he doesn't even have a present or a past he can cling to. He's a passing through Kamen Rider, like a ghost who passes through his own life, without understanding his place or what he's supposed to do. As said there of course Tsukasa would be a help despite that he doesn't intend to help; he inadvertently helps not by moral but by hypercompetency.

Onodera's complaint is already infamous for Decade fanbase, earning him the nickname "Yuuseless", for Natsumi I guess her taking the maid job at BOARD should let her inflitrate more of it I guess right? The old man's name is Eijiro Hikari and he's Natsumi's grandfather. Decade tends to have praise for Tsukasa but criticism for most others relating to it.

This is something similar to Punch/KickHopper's appearence at Kuuga's arc.. wondering what's the relation for him to appear here.... Todoroki's someone who is highly emotional and eager to become better disciple under Zanki's guidance (and in some parts are really flanderized to become out-of-reality-touch idiot), where what he did here was beating everyone in a battle against Chalice and Paradoxa Undead. I guess I've said that they didn't use Punch/KickHopper's feud against Tendou in their Decade appearence before, but probably Mutsuki, as derailed as he's in this story, was the one probably having the trait Todoroki have the most, being the 'disciple' of someone who is eager to meet their expectations (to Tachibana).

I'm going to do a double recap here, because my schedule is pure chaos.

Ryuki arc: Not much to say here, but certainly helped get me interested in watching Ryuki (which I didn't actually watch until earlier this year...). I thought Abyss looked cool, the Final Form Ride was neat (albeit, not too original. Also, because I never said it, my first reaction to the Final Form Rides were simply "what the heck...?"), and at this point, I thought the bikes in Ryuki were the coolest looking things.

Now Blade, having semi-recently seen the first two episodes of the actual Blade show, is certainly an interesting take on the source material. Having the Riders in a sort of ranking system was clever, even more so with the four main Riders being the four card suits. And although Blade The Show had a tarot card theme, I was unaware of that upon my first watch, though unfortunately, I have been slightly spoiled about some things in it, I still plan to watch it eventually.

I couldn't help getting amused about Chef Tsukasa, constantly having the image of Gordon Ramsey in head, or even how despite him being a jerk to AR Blade, he ends up helping him in his own special way, whether intentional or not. Also, being reminded about his stupid quote about having the most heart among all Riders, is still one of my favorite Tsukasa Quotes.

Now that I think about it, could Decade's take on the Blade universe have been an inspiration for Zero-One's business theme?

It... there's a thing I think it's easy to misconstrue with Blade's themes generally, and what this show is saying about it specifically. It's not about suffering and powering through, or dealing well with adversity. It's recognizing that you have failed, stopping, and trying to move forward from that. It's not about trying to salvage an unsalvageable situation, or about keeping your wits about you when things are falling apart. Onodera's whole point to Kenzaki is that he's already lost his job, lost being Blade. That's done. Now, he gets to decide what comes next, whether that's becoming someone who deserves to be Blade or not.

I cannot stress this enough: it is totally unintentional. Like, there's eventually a benefit for Tsukasa treating Kenzaki like absolute shit, but we're in some real A Broken Clock Is Right Twice A Day territory. He's completely being a jerk to Blade for no other reason than Blade makes it incredibly easy to root against him in the first half of this story.

We are landing on the World of Faiz, and there're very few people who care about Faiz as much as our next guest host. Say hello to SH RANGER!

---

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Sh Ranger! Thanks for joining me on this Decade project! We'll eventually be talking about Faiz (and I am so thrilled to get to talk more about Faiz), but I wanted to start things off by finding out a little more about you. How did you get started with tokusatsu? How'd you first discover the genre?

SH RANGER: Oh yeah, I'm always excited to talk more about Faiz! But for my introduction to Tokusatsu, that was Power Rangers Dino Thunder way back in 2004, then Engine Sentai Go-Onger in 2008 and finally got to Kamen Rider with Decade in 2009.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Okay, let's start with Dino Thunder. What was it about Power Rangers that caught your attention? Do you remember?

SH RANGER: Surprisingly I remember it pretty fondly. I think it was all the bright colors and the dinosaurs that got me interested. It was something that I hadn't really seen before with the usual Marvel heroes like Spidey and X-Men. It was a lot more spectacular, even with the lower budget. I also thought the high school and superhero life balance was a cool story element.
Oh and Tommy Oliver, he's cool as well.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Did you keep going with Power Rangers after that?

SH RANGER: For sure! I also went backwards, watching the seasons that came before on reruns. It'll always be one of my favorite franchises and I appreciate that Hasbro are taking it in a new direction with Dino Fury.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I feel weirdly the opposite? It's a shame to see Hasbro being so derivative of Kamen Rider shows like Revice, with all of that dinosaur stuff. Either way, is all of that Power Rangers interest what led you to Sentai?

SH RANGER: Haha, well Dino Fury is adapted from Ryusoulger which came before, so it's more like Revice being the derivative one. I also have a theory that Toei are trying to compete with the upcoming Horizon Forbidden West. But yeah, I remember finding Go-Onger on a whim by searching for what would be the next PR after Jungle Fury.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Was Go-Onger next? I am totally clueless when it comes to Sentai, other than ones about weird train kids.

SH RANGER: It's funny that the only Sentai you know about is the one I dislike the most. But yeah, Go-Onger was adapted as Power Rangers RPM in 2009, the year after Jungle Fury.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: How did you enjoy Go-Onger, coming from so much Power Rangers? Was it a step down, a step up, or more of a lateral move?

SH RANGER:At the time, probably a step-up. Unlike Decade, Go-Onger has maintained a lot of nostalgic value for me as my first Sentai and it's a really fun show on its own. It was awesome, getting to learn Japanese and the culture and all the talking cars.
Not that I don't like Decade or anything, it's just that Go-Onger is more special to me.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Was it at all difficult for you to adjust to a Japanese toku franchise?

SH RANGER: Yeah, a little. I didn't know any Japanese in grade school so all I had to understand was from the subtitles. But you know how you eventually start learning stuff as you keep watching. It was a unique experience.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Did it compete at all with your Power Rangers fandom? I know a few people who sort of abandoned Power Rangers once they moved into Sentai and whatnot. It sounds like you're still a Ranger fan, so I'm guessing they maybe strike different chords for you?

SH RANGER: There are a few "Sentai purists" out there and some of them actually give pretty good reasons so I respect them for that. But I still like both more or less equally. I like to watch a Sentai and then see how it gets adapted. Sometimes it's similar and sometimes it's totally different but it's always good fun and I think it's important to keep teaching good morals to the viewers.
Dino Fury and Zenkaiger are both doing great on that front.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, I do recall ToQger teaching kids the lesson that it's wrong to kidnap people, even if a Kamen Rider is the one asking you to do the kidnapping. An important lesson for children from any country.
Speaking of Kamen Riders! How'd you get into Decade as your first Kamen Rider series? Was it just what happened to be running at the time?

SH RANGER: And the ToQGers were the ones doing the kidnapping! Decade is a more interesting case though. He made a cameo in Samurai Sentai Shinkenger and I thought something like "hey, that pink guy seems cool, I should check out his show".

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Pink Riders are inherently cool, absolutely. Was it tough, jumping into an anniversary series for a franchise you'd never watched? Or did it make you excited and curious about who these other characters were?

SH RANGER: Bit of both. It was educational and a good way to learn about the 9 Heisei Riders who preceded him. But at the same time, there were all these different Riders and I didn't know which show they were from. I have a lot more to say about this in particular but I think it'll be more relevant when we're talking about the Faiz arc.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I'm always amazed at the folks who start Kamen Rider with an anniversary season. After Decade, did you find yourself heading back to earlier shows, or just continuing on with Double for the time being?

SH RANGER: Yeah, I personally wouldn't recommend Decade to others as a first season, from my experience. It's a little messy with all the anniversary stuff. I did move on immediately to Double but I watched it alongside Kabuto as my second Phase 1 show.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Why Kabuto?

SH RANGER: I have a bias for speed types.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: As good a reason as any, when you've got nine Heisei series to choose from. Are you still keeping up with all those different toku franchises? Sentai and Rangers and Riders?

SH RANGER: Yep! Sentai, PR, Rider and Metal Heroes as well.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Dang! Full plate!

SH RANGER: And there was the Satria franchise I mentioned before as well.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I imagine someone who watches that much toku would need a fan community to share the experience with. How did you make your way to TokuNation?

SH RANGER: I came to TN from another forum that was sadly declining in activity after a few years of moving servers. And I found that TN was a good, non-toxic place to move to.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: They're good people, is what I always say. Where do you spend most of your time on the boards? I know you were a regular presence in DreamSword's Memory of Heroez thread. Anyplace else on TokuNation you hit with regularity?

SH RANGER: Yeah, as someone who really enjoyed playing Memory of Heroez, it was fun to share that experience with DreamSword, Androzani and the others. I usually comment on the weekly episode threads for the currently airing Sentai and KR and the rumor threads.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Merch stuff at all? Are you a merch collector?

SH RANGER: Not really. If Memory of Heroez counts as merch, then that's pretty much all I got. Although I know a friend IRL who collects and I envy him a little for that.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Oh, man, if you're someone who follows three major annualized franchises? It is probably the smart move to not collect merch. Just one of those would be enough to put a hurting on your wallet. Three? You'd be selling plasma daily. Stay safe! Don't collect!
On the topic of self-destructive behaviors, let's talk about Faiz! Tell me a little bit about what Faiz means to you as a series.

SH RANGER: For me, Faiz is definitely a story about friendship and love and what obstacles can get in the way of those things. The two characters that I relate to the most are Takumi and Yuka. They want to have those things in their lives but there are those obstacles, like Takumi's lack of self-confidence and Yuka's messed up past. I have experienced similar problems, although theirs are definitely more dramatized.
Lack of confidence, I mean.
Not lack of self-confidence, which just negates itself.
No actually, that was right the first time I think.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a show with maybe my favorite cast of dysfunctional and self-sabotaging weirdos, somehow beating out Blade, the Kamen Rider show explicitly about failure. I love how blatantly unheroic the show starts as, and then sort of takes that Look Out For Yourself sensibility and turns it into a societal good? It's a show that places a ton of importance on learning to be comfortable in your own skin, and I really like that.

SH RANGER: It's amazing how it can have both the Primary and Secondary Riders as ass*hole characters, but I think it works here, since Kusaka plays an important role in making Takumi a better person, even though Kusaka is a terrible person to learn from. But it's an interesting dynamic those two have as a duo who never get along and barely tolerate each other. Takumi learns from Kusaka that he can't be indecisive or people will get hurt. There are a lot of deep philosophies in this show which only someone like Inoue can deliver.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: For real. He makes shows that I just can't stop thinking about. Or talking about. Hopefully, we're about to watch some Decade episodes that celebrate Faiz in the way it deserves. SH RANGER! Let's find out if this show can justifaiz its focus on Kamen Rider 555 in these episodes of Decade!

---

KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 10 - "THE PHANTOM THIEF OF FAIZ HIGH”
The World of Faiz welcomes not only Decade, but also Kaitou, otherwise known as the world-hopping treasure hunter Kamen Rider Diend! The two Riders are at an impasse, as Tsukasa's mission to uncover the identity of Kamen Rider Faiz runs up against Kaitou's goal to steal Faiz's belt! With our two heroes/”heroes” unable to work together, who's going to keep the ruthless teens of Lucky Clover from ruling Smart Brain High School?

KAMEN RIDER DECADE EPISODE 11 - "555 FACES, 1 TREASURE”
Faiz's identity is revealed as Takumi, and then his other identity - that he's an Orphnoch - is also revealed! Shunned by a world that previously ignored him (it's not a-- it's not a huge swing in this story), Takumi needs to get a patented Tsukasaffirmation in order to find the inner strength to overcome his own self-loathing and work together with Decade (and a slightly mystified Diend) to defeat Lucky Clover. It's another successful mission for Team Decade! Except for Onodera and Natsumi and Kivala and Photo Studio Hayao Miyazaki, who contributed nothing to this story!

---

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade10a.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Look at him! Look at our shiny new Rider!
This story saw the formal debut of Diend, and we get a name for our mysterious dine-and-dasher from the last story, Kaitou. I've got a bunch of thoughts on Kaitou's debut, and what it means that it happens in a Faiz story, but tell me what you thought of this guy's initial story. Did you like it? Are you into that suit?

SH RANGER: Well his initial story seems pretty straightforward, he likes treasure and doesn't seem particularly interested in anything that doesn't have tangible value. It's an interesting contrast to Tsukasa, who acts more introverted but does have moments where he cares openly about his friends and the Rider of the fortnight. The suit takes a while for me to get used to, like the eyes are pretty hard to notice with them being the same blue color as the rest of his suit. But I don't mind it. I think Kaito is a wild card who can cause problems for both sides.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: This was a story that I had a hard time finding a lot of Faiz themes and storytelling in ( a lot of surface elements and callbacks, but not much of the meatier stuff), but a Rider debuting as a nice guy who all of the supporting cast love, despite him having nefarious goals and an untrustworthy code? That sounds like Kusaka to me! The way that Kaitou shows up, cooks everyone breakfast, and then apologizes for Tsukasa? And then Tsukasa spends an entire episode getting into a pissing contest with Kaitou? FAIZ! VERY VERY FAIZ!

SH RANGER: Oh yeah, this guy definitely gives me the feeling of Kusaka, with his outwardly friendly appearance but actually he's kind of an a**hole, even more than Tsukasa. Another contrast between the two could be how they view sentimentality. Tsukasa is very sentimental, since he wants to capture all the worlds he passes through, but Kaito is just thinking like, how much value can he obtain from the treasures of the world. Kaito has a very morally ambiguous agenda, much like Kusaka does, and it's very suspicious with him casually hanging with Narutaki, who seems pretty on edge about his sudden appearance. And then you have Tsukasa playing the role of Takumi here with his brief game of tennis, but actually succeeding compared to Takumi's epic fail in Episode 13 of that show.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: And then you have Kaitou trying to join Lucky Clover, which is, like, a Day One Kaixa scheme. If you're going to have a contentious relationship between your main two Riders (sorry, Onodera), you should probably couch it in a Faiz story.
Getting back to the suit... I don't know if Diend's ever done it for me? The width to both the helmet and the chestplate is very distracting to me. It feels aesthetically linked to Decade's suit, so I don't hate it or anything, but it reads as Cumbersome in a way that I don't love for Riders. You said it took you awhile to get used to Diend's suit, but do you actually like it?

SH RANGER: Yeah Kusaka literally tried to do that but got betrayed due to being a human. Regarding Yuusuke though, even if he's not the true Secondary Rider, you could still consider him the Kiba of Decade, with how important he is to Tsukasa's development. But back to Diend, honestly, no, I don't like it. I mean, I don't not like it or hate it or anything like that. I just feel very indifferent to it. It probably doesn't help that with me starting with Decade and just having two arcs where the final boss of Ryuki was a Blade villain, I kind of just assumed Diend was a Smart Brain Rider, like how you thought Drive was a Ghost Rider. Maybe it would've been less confusing if Kaito appeared earlier. The suit though, yeah, not really a favorite at all but I can think of many worse suits.
However, one good thing I can say about Diend's debut is that it's accompanied by an awesome new insert song. Did you notice it?

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I did! It wasn't Decade's fight song (which is iconic to me now), but it was pretty good. What was it that you liked about it?

SH RANGER: I think Inoue has a pretty good singing voice and I just really like the fast and exciting beat it has in the chorus.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a good track, for sure. And the idea that Diend's song has vocals and Decade's doesn't actually feeds into maybe my favorite aspect of this story:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade10b.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: A lot of the surface parts of this story I found sort of dull. But there's a read on Diend and Decade that had me paying a lot closer attention. Admittedly, this is one of those I Am Reading Too Much Into It things, so I am definitely not saying this is all intentional by the creators. But... like, this show is about Fandom to me. It's about how we as fans internalize parts of these shows, and what it means to leave them and return to them. Tsukasa is us, basically. He's a guy experiencing Kamen Rider stories. He isn't the point of those stories, he isn't the star. He's a passing-through Rider.
But Kaitou isn't that. He dives into stories and takes what he wants. There's a thing in Faiz's story that's valuable, but Faiz and its story isn't inherently valuable to Kaitou. He's willing to break the story to get what he needs out of it.
To me, it makes Tsukasa the representation of the Passive Fan (someone who experiences the show and moves on), while Diend is the representation of the Transformative Fan (a fanfic writer, a fanzine writer, someone who latches onto a few things from the narrative and makes something new from them).
Putting those two types of fans into opposition, and then exploring the ways they overlapped... I don't know, I really enjoyed that part of the story.

SH RANGER: But if Tsukasa is us, then does that mean we're passive fans as well? I think your description of Kaito would probably fit me better, as someone who takes the morals and wisdom from watching the show and then turns that into fanfic or uses those morals IRL where they might be applicable. Of course, that only works for this specific analogy, since Kaito is more like a collector of merchandise, someone who thinks Kamen Rider looks cool (which is true) but doesn't really care too much about the scenario happening around it. Kaito is all about aesthetics, whereas Tsukasa is more about the life of the world, hence why he's so irritated when Kaito completely misses the point about there being a greater treasure than the Faiz Gear, which is the humanity that Faiz represents, regardless of whether or not Faiz is a human. But I can certainly see how you could make some apt analogies between these two Riders. I think they're definitely referencing something, but I can't quite get a read on Kaito, the way I can with Tsukasa.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: I like the idea of exploring Kaitou as a merch collector (dude geeked out hard for those CSM belts at the end), but I think in terms of the narrative, Kaitou reads more to me as the type of fan who drills into one element of a show (a ship, a theme, a suit), and then sort of claims ownership of it, elevates it beyond its significance to the larger story. Which, I don't think that's a bad thing! I don't think the show's take, if you buy this read, is that it's a bad thing. It's more about exploring how these two types of fans seem incompatible, before finding common ground. That's the part of this story that was maybe the only thing I felt super dialed into.

SH RANGER: Yeah okay, I can see where you're going with that idea. I guess it's possible to envision yourself as both Riders for different reasons, but from the outside looking in, people will label you as one or the other right? Tsukasa's always on the outside looking in and then that plays into the whole misunderstanding (Faiz!) where the Rider of the fortnight is tricked by Narutaki into thinking Tsukasa is a devil. I guess that could mean not to judge by appearances and get to know a person first. Since Tsukasa doesn't really do good first impressions, while Kaito does and turns out to be not so great when he shows up to steal treasure.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: There is definitely an attempt to loop in the Faiz themes of the story with Diend's introduction, despite it not really paying off. Which, okay, maybe we should grudgingly talk about this two-parter's actual story! And the tribute aspects that I did not love!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade10c.png

KAMEN RIDER DIE: This one really didn't work for me as either a Decade adventure, or as a Faiz tribute. How about you?

SH RANGER: I actually really enjoyed this arc as an introduction to Faiz and it may have contributed to me falling in love with that show years later. The first fight in the cold open has the seldom seen Illuminated Faiz! Is it something about the high school setting that didn't work for you here, cause I do have some thoughts on that.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a bunch of things. A lot of it is the necessary pruning of so much of what I love about Faiz to fit it all into a Decade two-parter... and then substantially more pruning to make room for all of the Diend stuff. As it is, we got The Main Character Is Hiding That He's A Monster, and the shape of Lucky Clover, and that's it. This Takumi isn't a jerk, there's no Kiba, there's no Mari, there's no other Smart Brain Riders... all of the things that make Faiz a memorable show for me got stripped out.
And what they kept... there's still some elements of Takumi's story from Faiz The Series, with this Takumi feeling like he has to hide who he is or he'll be ostracized, but the the series blew that up to a much larger story about finding social groups, and about arguing for your right to participate in society, and how self-actualization can only happen if you're willing to throw off outside judgments. Here, it's just a guy who has a crush on a girl? And the girl being okay with him as a monster makes it all good?
Like, this story 100% locked in on Takumi Is An Orphnoch to the exclusion of so many other things, and that bummed me out.

SH RANGER: I think all of the AU Worlds are abridged stories of the shows in some way, but yeah, I can see how the lack of a Kaixa and all those others characters, in favor of Kaito making his official debut here, might make things seem a little compressed, especially after all the characters who showed up in the last two arcs. But even if Ogami isn't an a**hole like Takumi, I think this is still a likable character who we should sympathize with. It's also a little weird that Smart Brain High School excludes Orphenochs and allows humans, which is totally the opposite of what happens in the show, but then that's pretty normal for these AU Worlds. Personally, I think this arc does a pretty good job at taking Yuka's high school problems and merging them with Takumi as Faiz. Kind of like the hypothetical scenario where Yuka's introductory arc wasn't just an arc but rather the whole show, so I thought that was pretty interesting to think about after watching Faiz.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: And I'd've been into that aspect, if the show really committed to it. A story about high school cliques, but it's all about humans and Orphnochs and Riders? Hell yes. Instead, it feels way too small to be a high school story. That's kind of my whole thing with this setting: they don't really do a lot with the social elements of high school, which Faiz is maybe more suited to than any other Phase 1 show. There's real gold to be found in that setup, but here we just get some random-ass bullies (that lanky Bishop-looking dude is not and will never be Houjou) and a tiny romance. I would have loved for this to be the high school drama that you're describing.

SH RANGER: For sure, that's probably why I love Fourze so much, since it takes that idea here and goes all the way with it! I think the idea here was novel enough to work for me though.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Sure, and while we're briefly on the topic of our new Lucky Clover:

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../decade10d.png

SH RANGER: Miura Ryosuke!

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Holy shit, Ankh was in this!

SH RANGER: He sure was!

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Took me longer than I'd've liked to figure it out (it's the Ankh hair, him not having it makes it too weird), but I got there in the end. I like little things like this, where a guest-star in one series eventually becomes a huge deal in a future series.

SH RANGER: Of course, like for people who watch OOO first, that's a super big deal. And was also a big deal for me rewatching Decade a few years ago and realizing that it was him all along.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Yeah, and he does a pretty good job with a very weird role! He's not really playing off of anyone from Faiz The Series (Murakami? Maybe?), but he finds some entertaining notes to his Smug Prick persona, enough to make a casting director in a couple years have a ready-made answer to Who Can We Cast As The Smug Prick In This Series?

SH RANGER: Well he seems to be standing in for Mr. J, since the Crocodile Orphenoch doesn't appear in this world. Which makes sense considering how having to defeat the same characters thrice in two episodes would take too much time. He does have the same affability that Murakami has though and Smart Brain are the first villains to actually care about their publicity and how others see them.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: No tiny dog, no Mr. J. I don't make the rules!

SH RANGER: It's a shame. But hey, Ankh's a decent substitute.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: True. So I got all of my criticisms and weird theories out. Was there anything else you wanted to cover from these episodes? We definitely didn't talk about Onodera and Natsumi, who.... I think still exist?

SH RANGER: Natsumi and Yuusuke definitely didn't have much to do this episode, since they weren't enrolled in Smart Brain High School. Even though Yuusuke didn't get a chance to henshin last arc, he still got some important moments. But here, yeah, they ain't doing a lot.
I guess I could mention that Faiz and Decade both have cameras as part of their arsenal.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Even the normal Tsukasa Translator bit was unnecessary, since Tsukasa straight-up told Yuri what the story's theme was! Onodera had to watch Tsukasa do Onodera's one job!

SH RANGER: Pretty much. They had to forfeit their focus to Kaito instead.

KAMEN RIDER DIE: Well, maybe Onodera will have more to do when the team lands in the World of Agito! Not only is Onodera's sister there (it's probably just a quick bus ride from the World of Kuuga), but Onodera might have found his true calling! We'll find out soon as we continue our Journey through Decade!

Me: "Ah, Die's theory of Tsukasa being Hajime is pretty wild, I'm sure he won't beat that today."
Die: "Diend is a fanfic writer."
Me: "I stand corrected."

But yeah, sad to hear Faiz didn't work out for either of you. Maybe that's what you get for making me realise, after 10 years, Diend's face actually has eyes on it.

At the time I was hoping they would give us a reverse-Chako, any big dog named Kocha but they missed it. :lolol
This world I think is great in that it captures the underdog protagonist vs antagonistic student council trope common in Japanese fiction, recent example being Kill La Kill but with a Faiz twist. That said, a shame we never got a delinquent Masato/Kaixa and Shuji/Delta. To this day my headcanon for this world's Kaixa is that he is a purple and gold haired pompadour meathead and Delta is a dorky and timid kid who helps out last minute after standing up for himself.

Man, you seriously did just get a dozen people all telling you the same story about growing up watching Power Rangers and how Decade was one of their first shows, didn't you? I mean, you picked "Kamen Rider Die" as a screen name, but I didn't realize you'd be living up to the whole classic lonely Rider archetype so much. :p

...And hey, speaking of names, one pretty exciting thing about the name "Diend"? That spelling isn't a mere stylistic choice, apparently! It's not only "the end", but a combination of the words die and end. ...Because, like, death is an ending too, or something? I don't actually know why. But maybe that trivia will make you feel some extra kinship with this possible(?) obsessive Rider fan, as he spices up the show with his phantom thief antics and ridiculous suit. Diend has one of those designs I li– or no, actually, I'm not going to even attempt to quantify it with any verb.

Diend's suit transcends that. It's a very straightforward copycat of Decade's design that immediately identifies him as part of that show, which was important in a series that has *everybody* in it. It's weird and Heisei-y with its lack of proper eyes (apparently they even almost designed him to not even have the shapes that imply eyes) and those yellow lines on his chest to look like the number 11 in contrast to Decade's X for 10. Kaitou is apparently trying to one-up Tsukasa in the most literal way possible. The cyan body color also keeps the subtractive color theme going by contrasting Decade's magenta, obviously. (They were also considering using yellow, even.) ...Oh, and he also looks like an original model PlayStation 2, so that's a thing. Pretty sure that last one wasn't intentional though.

His gun is sweet though. I can easily quantify that. One of my favorite transformation devices in Rider, and I honestly prefer it to the already cool DecaDriver. The motion of it extending is just so cool. There's definitely a lot to love about Diend for me, between aspects of his design (I like blue things), the fun character concept, and even just that Diend marks Eitoku's very first big secondary Rider suit acting gig, but with all that in mind, he's still never quite been a favorite for me.

Maybe the same deal with these episodes overall? I've always remembered them very clearly, and they're quite fun, but I also agree the story doesn't quite rise up to any truly amazing heights. That being said, I'm pretty sure I felt they did a better job than you guys seem to? Like, in terms of the Faiz themes, I mean, that is a dense show, and I see huge echoes of how I felt about the Ryuki arc in Die's opinion on how they handled that impossible task, but here, I feel a lot better about it. You've got a main character hiding a secret because he fears his own identity (I kind of view this Takumi's personality as being like Takkun and Kiba mashed together, too.), and you've got a focus on dreams that's absolutely true to that part of the show.

Like, Tsukasa's moral of the fortnight here, about the importance of protecting those tiny hopes and wishes we have? That's literally the note Faiz ended its entire story on, and I really enjoyed how not-Mari's love of photography played into the plot. I'd have even been upset if Newsuke was the one explaining the lesson here, because it's very specifically appropriate that Tsukasa can feel a bit of an extra connection to her through that shared passion, and express what he's trying to say in a manner nobody but him could. Of all the jerk Rider protagonists out there, I've always liked Tsukasa because I feel he's sort of a warmer person all around than most of them, despite how much he enjoys giving people trouble, and that cameraman shtick is key to that. I mentioned how I've been reading the episode guides from back in the day as part of this, and it was especially enlightening to read the one previewing episode 8, which details the process of how the staff hashed out why he takes pictures, and how their big breakthrough was Tasaki chiming in to say it's how he expresses his affection, in his own weak way. The camera is like a wall he puts between himself and the world(s), and that distance is reflected in how he has a camera he looks down into, away from what's being captured, as well as the "bad" nature of the photos themselves. But he takes photos all the same, because he loves the world(s), no matter how hard it is for him to show it.

So yeah, I don't know, I really enjoyed that aspect of the story, even if it was only one small aspect of it. Beyond that, I think it's still very solid on its own merits, and just plain fun, the way Decade always is. That tennis match, man! It was something else! (Also literally a reference to something else, possibly? I understand Masahiro Inoue was in some Prince of Tennis stage musical thing prior to Decade?)

Oh, and Ride the Wind IS Decade's song, by the way, not Diend's, and you'll be happy to know the full version directly incorporates bits from his regular BGM into a guitar solo, on top of generally having the same Latin flair.

DAMN THAT WAS ANKH?!

I really didn't realize until you pointed it out.

Anyway aside from the cool glowing lines of Faiz and just how chonky his equipment felt. This was another world that didn't really do much for me in interesting me in Faiz. So that's another one passed, at this point I wondered if I'd ever find like another series I'd want to watch like I did with Kiva. Well only time will tell as I continue to comment.

Anyway I enjoyed this one quite a bit at least in regards to Tsukasa, making Daiki the foil to him is good. Because you can really tell while he still has his very jerk qualities, he only really ever used them on Lucky Clover. I think this episode is a good one, purely because it basically sets up our new status quo.

Because well, you saw how Daiki acted this episode, especially at the end. He's going to be causing trouble for quite a while.

Diend, I don't like the suit too much, but I don't hate it. That being said I love the ability to summon other Kamen Riders. Especially given he can just summon any dang one he wants.

It really makes you wonder what kind of Decade Rider you'd even make for an OC you know, Decade's got the transforming into other Riders down, Diend's got summoning. Any Decade OC that only limits itself to two or does both feels like it's not really doing anything unique you know? I feel like you'd have to go really out there and make another one summon weapons or something.

It wouldn't be a tribute to Faiz without me concocting a wildly-dubious reading of the themes! Welcome home!

It's a little weird that these episodes even bothered with Lucky Clover as the antagonists, because, like, just have Ankh play Kusaka! Sure, he's not an Orphnoch, but I think it might've made for a more fun episode if Faiz High School was just a bunch of Riders fighting each other for questionable reasons. Kaixa as the bullying upperclassman, Delta as an entire club that has less members every scene... yeah, boy, they missed out on this story.

If there's one thing I want this thread to accomplish, it's bringing every fan together through a shared background... except me.

I think I just described it yesterday as "a gun that fires Kamen Riders at other Kamen Riders", and as soon as I made that connection, I liked it a lot more. Still nothing I want to own, but Kamen Rider-Firing Gun is a pretty hilariously great concept.

Yeah, this was a nice part that I didn't really touch on. Tsukasa's a guy that desperately wants to find a place where he fits in, a place where he makes sense. The idea of him feeling that connection with another photographer, a girl who's trying to express herself even in the face of bullying and harassment? That is a very nice thing for this story to make room for.

It would clearly be a delivery app that summoned all of the previous supporting cast members who worked at cafes.

And Treasure Sniper is also Decade's :lol

This is how I feel pretty much anytime one of these cameos comes up.

Only the ones that worked at cafes? Dang, and we so close to having a Rider who defeats foes with the power of Jean. :p

No spoilers, but if there's a Dark Decade? His first Kamen Ride is Jean.

Probably too late of a warning by this point, but I wanna use this time to give a short PSA about RiderTime's' subs, incase anyone is thinking of using them like I've been.

Now, I don't think they're bad per se. Having compared some lines with Die and En-chan's' use of the EarthlyScrubs, there are a handful of lines I actually like better in RT's' version.

The problem is that I am 100% convinced that they did not have a proofreader. Or much in terms of quality control.

There are typos all over the place, mostly in the form of words outright missing from sentences. And in the case of episode 11, the encoding was weird meaning that the subs weren't showing up and I had to fix it.

I really, really hope they go back and fix them up and release a V2 batch, because man, it's not making my getting through this season any easier.

An entire two-episode tribute and not one person does a single load of laundry. Do you even Faiz, bro?

I actually don't hate the high school concept for this world. It's a strong theme and gives the show a way to rework Faiz and Lucky Clover that captures some of the spirit of the conflict. We even get to see the belt change hands a few times. The whole thing still feels a bit flat, though.

I think any show was going to lose out by being Diend's debut. There's too much to juggle to let everything get room for focus and Takkun mk. 2 definitely drew the short straw. The first episode is all about Tsukasa, Lucky Clover, and Kaitou looking for Faiz while Not Mari talks about pictures and he's just this other guy in the background. Even rerunning the Takumi = Orphnoch story doesn't really give the character much to do as we see other people talking more about his dilemma than we really do seeing it play out.

Honestly, I wish they'd saved Diend for the Den-O episodes since that crew was getting a movie anyway and didn't need the series to be their sole appearance. Of course, that would take screen time away from Den-O shenanigans, though, and Toei likely wanted none of that.

As for Diend himself? Not a huge fan. Tokusatsu does the whole "thief who talks a big game but really has a good heart" thing a lot. It was a big part of Gokaiger, the main premise of Lupinranger, and it's literally happening on Ultraman Trigger right now. It leaves Daiki feeling very much like a stock character. I honestly like him more in his post-series appearances where he gets a bit more room to breathe on his own. The suit, meanwhile? I don't love it, but it grew on me, radiator face and everything.

Well, everyone’s already said what I wanted to say so I’ll just say I totally guessed Sh Ranger would be the guest for this (or failing that, MaskedRiderAsakura) and share the video for Ride the Wind (I’ve been holding onto it since Kiva’s episodes)

https://youtube.com/watch?v=usR36pAwAaw

Though I will say that Diend does demonstrate how the Final Form Ride gimmick can be used without the Rider being present.

Wow, that worked out perfectly in your Chicago time!

I loved the Faiz stuff in this arc. Really I did. I just think it could've been better if there was more time dedicated to it, instead of Diend. His blue eyes though, yeah, they don't stand out at all on his blue suit and you can only see them if you're actively looking for them.

I was about to bring that up, but Die moved on to the next point of discussion before I got a chance. I was hoping Inoue being the voice might have implied it was an insert for Decade.

You're just a passing through Kamen Rider in the World of TokuNation.

I thought Lupinranger was a pretty intriguing deconstruction of the phantom theme genre, with Patranger serving as the more conventional lawful good altruistic heroes to challenge their moral code. I agree that Diend and Gokaiger play it too straight though.

So far, I think everybody's been predictable except for DreamSword. I have no idea who could be doing Agito though, so I look forward to finding out.

Ride The Wind, man, such a great song! Not as much as I love Cyclone Effect and Supernova, but it's probably in the top 10 for me, at least. I figure me throwing that ranking out there this time would be less redundant than me just repeating how much I love Faiz.

Yeah, I wouldn't say I hate the high school concept. It think it has a ton of potential for Kamen Rider stories (I mean, Fourze!), and I think it's especially clever to try an apply it to arguably the most melodramatic and overheated series in Phase 1 Heisei. It's more how the 2-parter picked and chose stuff that didn't seem as relevant to the setting as other stuff might've been. Weird to do a high school setting without the Kiba/Takumi relationship, is maybe the main one for me.

Considering Kaitou ends up looking a lot like Ryutaros possessing Ryotaro, I feel like debuting Diend in a Den-O story might've been unexpectedly confusing, visually.

Ha ha, I wish I could say that was left in on purpose! Of all the timestamps I forgot to edit out, though! AMAZING.

That was my bad! Sorry!

I made some reference at the start of this thread, that I was going to be like Kamen Rider Decade over the course of this project, and I didn't realize how much I sort of already was? This has been a weird few months, and it's probably only going to get weirder.