I can't dislike Fourze. His movies, show, characters are always such a blast that I always leave them having had a great time.

Of course, while I don't dislike it as much as I've made it sound, but having some of Ishinomori's classic heroes be repurposed for villains is a little left field. I know they're different enough, and that people probably don't remember some of them, let alone care about them (save for Kikaider, who's still immensely popular), but having seen some of their backstories, via Toei Tousatsu World (who also seem to have permanently added the W Summer Movie), I feel a little tweaked about the characterization now that I know them better. Though, that doesn't change the fact that I liked this movie!

It's clear Toei saw some Hollywood action blockbusters and thought to add everything they thought was cool from them and shoved them into this movie. From the bus battle, space, and road rally moon battle, they went all out in the action here, and that's not a bad thing and fits Fourze's themes rather nicely. It's everything a thrill-seeking teenager wants in a movie!

And here's where Kamen Rider Wizard made his debut, and gosh does he not have one of my favorite designs of all time, that and his theme song. I love how he just adopts Kamen Rider because it sounded cool, which admittedly is something a lot of these Rider cameos tend to do, then flexes on Fourze's bad guys. What a guy!

Gentarou really can be friends with anyone, even giant death robots. No matter how dumb it might sound on paper, it always works in a way that I can't help but enjoy.

I think that's the thing that makes even the dumbest Fourze concept work: Gentarou's purity as a character. OOO was sort of defined by Eiji's hidden turmoil and Ankh's brusqueness. Wizard was defined by Haruto's confidence and mystery. But Fourze's all about Gentarou's enthusiasm and honesty, and that creates a core that nearly any dumb story can orbit around without diminishing your enjoyment. Gentarou's character (and the actor's charisma) is just unbreakable.

KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER WIZARD & FOURZE: MOVIE WAR ULTIMATUM (DIRECTOR’S CUT)

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...ultimatum1.png

I think, at the end of the day, I appreciate what these two stories were trying to say.

They’re both broadly about getting out of the way for the next generation. It’s a theme that fits Fourze a little better, which is why the Fourze section is a little more thematically-grounded. The Kaijin Alliance are a group of kids who are horrified by what the previous generation has left for them, and pessimistic on their own chances for happiness. Gentarou’s story is centered on his need to step back and let that next generation see that they’re in control of their own destinies, rather than operating at the whims of manipulative scientists or over-protective teachers. The only way the next generation can become the best versions of themselves is when they feel like their future is truly in their hands.

The Wizard section sort of hits on the same issues, where Poitrine is a character that disregards her responsibilities to indulge her own desires. She should be a guardian of children, but she’s too wrapped up in her deferred dreams to be of much real help. Her story is one of adulthood, the realization that you eventually need to be okay with how your life turned out and find some way to help the next generation along. It’s a sort of Wizard take on Fourze’s themes of growing up, where Poitrine’s depression and need to relive her childhood dreams risks destroying the people around here.

That’s unique ground for a Kamen Rider movie to cover, because it has a kind of maturity to it. It’s a story for the adults in the audience. Or, at least, it’s a story more about the adult anxieties of the production team. This whole movie is about how to protect children, and when to step back from protecting them, and how to live with the idea that it’s someone else’s turn. That’s nothing a kid is ever going to care about. It’s a perspective that only comes with age, and that makes for an interesting Kamen Rider movie.

Thematically, I think this movie has a lot to recommend it. Narratively and structurally, though… um.

The Fourze section has the roughest patch in it, where, again, I appreciate what it’s trying to say. Saburou is a villain who’s just lashing out from loneliness, and he needs someone his own age to tell him he’s worth befriending. It’s just, it’s a resolution that’s asking everyone around Saburou to bend over backwards to make him feel better, when he barely does anything to warrant it. It needs Miyoppe – who is victimized by Saburou – to ask for Saburou’s forgiveness for… I’m not even sure what? It’s Saburou who’s constantly harassing and endangering her, while she’s solely focused on her own goals and activities. It’s like she’s being penalized for not thinking enough about how the surly asshole in her class is feeling, selfishly focusing on her own happiness, and it’s gross? It’s a little gross, the way she’s made to bear responsibility for her bully. It’s preaching a moral that wants to say Sometimes Mean People Just Need Compassion, but it definitely comes off as Maybe You Had It Coming. Not a fan of that!

The other big thing that people are probably going to kick about from the Fourze part of this movie is Gentarou throwing away his Fourze Driver, and I’m of two minds on it. On the one hand, it’s completely the sort of Big Dumb Gesture that Gentarou would make. He’s someone who is very focused on the current interaction, and he’ll gladly toss away everything Fourze accomplished if it means getting through to one struggling teenager. On the other hand, the plot immediately shows what a short-sighted maneuver this is, since Gentarou needs to borrow a Fourze Driver if he’s going to save the world. There’s some obvious calculus here, about the needs of the many versus the needs of the one, and I get why Gentarou throwing away an apocalypse-averting piece of gear would bother folks. I think it works for the character, but I wish it was being done for a kid who maybe deserved it more? Gentarou’s throwing away a hero that saved millions of lives for a grumpy bully who’s making himself the victim. I don’t love that trade?

The Wizard section… boy. I really loved about 99% of it. The idea of Poitrine drawing strength from her love of toku, but needing to find a healthy way to incorporate it into her adult life? YES. Relatable! But, wow, to sort of it toss it all aside for a Gay Panic joke? When (and I know this was never going to happen in a million years) you actually have a sort of poignant trans metaphor to work with, something that could speak to a whole group of kids watching toku that never thought they’d get a chance to see something that spoke to their experience or perspective? It’s heartbreaking. It’s a great story about identity and expression and how hard it can be to not see yourself in the stories you love and how we get to pull the parts we want out of toku to make something just for us and how being an adult means keeping some of that love for toku out of sight… and then you find out its written by someone who thinks gay people are a joke, and that sucks. It super sucks.

Those disappointments aside, I think the movie works okay. It’s a Sakamoto joint, so the action is top-notch. (Folks complained about his male-gaze-y direction before, but this was the movie where I found it too distracting. Every girl in a skirt needed a close-up and slow-mo shot of her twirling skirt! There were a bunch of Nadeshiko butt bumps! Inga Blink was perpetually glistening!) Every Heisei Phase 2 Rider makes a return appearance, even if it’s just the main hero suit and zero dialogue. Eiji’s here, because Eiji’s cool. We get modern-day refreshes on classic Ishinomori characters. There’s a massive Mad Max-esque vehicle fight that lasts about as long as a Mad Max movie. It’s a gigantic action film with a ton of cool-looking characters, whatever its other failings.

I wish I liked this movie more. There are ideas and themes that I think are smart and original, but the execution tells me that the writers didn’t know what they had. Good attempt, bad follow-through.

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Never forget Gentaro saying that the belt is his dear friend and then immediately chucking it in lava. Being friends with Gentaro is a terrible idea.

Also why did this movie need to be over two hours long??

Didn't like this movie. It's currently at the bottom of the list for Kamen Rider crossovers for me.

Like I said before in the Kabuto thread, Movie War Ultimatum is my favorite Movie War and also my overall favorite Kamen Rider movie, so of course I can't think of a better way to spend Christmas Eve than giving lots of praise to one of the best winter movies I've ever seen!

I mean, there was that arc in Fourze about that guy Shun bullied becoming addicted to being a Zodiart and Shun feeling guilty about it. The only reason Shun and Miu ended up in Kamen Rider Club was cause Gentarou was the only person who saw beneath their untouchable status, that they were actually suffering people. As a teacher, he's trying to pass on that wisdom to Miyoppe, which is an important lesson for members of Kamen Rider Club. It's not so much that Miyoppe is being wrongfully blamed for Saburou's behavior, more like Gentarou's encouraging her to exercise empathy and look beneath the surface to see that Saburou is actually suffering inside. It's not just Miyoppe who learns from this, as Saburou realizes how his actions were misguided and makes peace with the old humans.

Kengo's line about Fourze Driver returning someday has an awesome payoff in a future winter movie! Gentarou can afford to throw Fourze Driver in to lava, cause Fourze Driver is his friend and he trusts that it will find its way back to him somehow. Kengo doesn't even attempt to explain how, he just kind of knows that the universe will make it happen. I think it's an extremely powerful statement of how much Gentarou trusts his friends and believes in the strength of each person to make a difference. Of course, Fourze Driver is only able to survive due to being technology. Throwing a human in to lava wouldn't have the same effect.

There is some meta payoff to this though. Yu's actress Kaba-chan completed her sex change transition sometime after Wizard ended. Which means she no longer identifies as a gay dude, but a straight girl instead. While the moral is good, I will admit that the delivery does kind of get a little diminished in the end, due to Haruto's typical insensitivity.

The action in this movie is so awesome, I have to mention it! Gentarou's and Saburou's parkour chase featuring a cute Moogle plushie. Rinko getting to clean the floor with a bunch of Ghouls like a bad*ss. Koyomi and Shunpei joining in despite not being experienced fighters. Wizard fighting a giant turkey. The explosive chase with the Riders on their bikes and the Akumaizers' armored truck. Fourze Meteor Nadeshiko Fusion States and Wizard Special Rush syncing their powers against Zaiderbeck in a giant pit of lava. What doesn't look awesome here?!

This was a pretty alright movie for me... I think it ranks at 9 out of 11 for me in terms of like all the Winter Movies that have aired.

The action was kind of funny to me because I was recalling the tanker sequence the other day with the Riders trying to beat the hell out of it. And then I see a gif of a bunch of Showa Riders dogpiling and punching a tank. So I guess this is just another Showa Reference in a pile of Showa References.

Honestly though they should have made one move Nadeshiko's signature while going forward. No butt attacks, no, give her the neck snaps. I still find it insane how brutal she was in Megamax when she did that to a Dustard.

Otherwise not much else to say about the movie other than uh... wow the ending to the Wizard segment isn't that great. I get what they were trying to go for but wow did they not stick the landing for this.

I rewatched most of this earlier this year to wrap up my Fourze revisit. I skipped the Wizard section at the time, so I don't remember much of it outside of the reveal of Poitine's real identity at the end, which... yeah, it's problematic. I get that different cultures have different views on LGBT people and Japan is not on the most enlightened end of the scale. It's still pretty bad, though, and it's still kind of a problem. There are better representations of queer characters in some of the recent stuff, but there's still at least one project that sticks Metal Yoshida in a dress as if the basic concept is the funniest thing ever.

I did like the Fourze part. They really doubled down on the epilogue nature with the jump into the future and I liked a lot of what we saw of the KRC in the far flung distant future of 2017. I loved that Miu is still hardcore dodging Shun, I loved that Ryusei and Nozoma are together (when he's not being a secret agent with a perpetually damp Inga Brink), and I love that Yuki is barely in the film. The movie does go maybe a bit too hard on the Ishinomori remakes between Akumaizer 3 and Inazuman, but it mostly works. The gag with future Gentarou asking his past self for the Fourze Driver and past Genatoru's reaction is still one of my favorite single jokes in all of Kamen Rider.

The final team up did disappoint me, though. After Mega Max brought back Shotaro and Philip, this was the first time we had to deal with (lowercase G) ghost suits. Even Eiji having a quick walk-on doesn't make up for W, Accel, and Birth being obvious stand-ins. I don't mind too much when you have a lot of Riders doing general cameos in the full team-up movies, but when it's a smaller cast they really stick out like a sore thumb. Add that to the fact that the film's climax was just a lot of motorcycle jumps in front of a truck and I found the whole thing pretty lackluster. Also, Fusion States with skis is easily one of the dumbest Rider forms ever.

Finally, to quote myself again:

Eiji walking in for two seconds and then not even voice OOO in the next fight was just really really funny. Why did they even bother lol

I remember feeling this movie for just how long it was.

But my biggest gripe is the same with the last one they made the Akumaizer 3 the bad guys just like what they did with Kyodain siblings. Except their whole shitck was that they were demons who defected and fought for humanity. So this one is even worst as a result because it misses the entire point of the original show moreso than Kyodain did. It's probably one of my least favorite trends to come out of Kamen Rider and I'm glad it didn't catch on

This movie definitely paints friendship as some weird power-disparity, where one person dictates terms to the other. I'm all for a friendship rooted in looking past first impressions and trying to see the good in people, but there's some story elements that support negative views on what's happening.

The problem for me is that movie doesn't show Miyoppe to be at any real fault? It's not like she bullies Saburou or harrasses him. She's going about her business, excited about space exploration, while Saburou ridicules her interests and uses his psychokinetic powers to imperil and terrorize her. The only times she says anything bad about him is after he's wished her idol a fiery death, and after he's mutated into a pupa-creature to try and execute their homeroom teacher. I'm not sure how she's judged Saburou unfairly?

If the movie wanted to go for a thing where she had to show compassion to Saburou, sure. If he was apologetic and she forgave him, okay. But he is mid-rampage and she has to apologize to him for not... I still don't get what. Taking his abuse with more of a smile? It's a very big ask of the audience, and the movie doesn't do a lot to make Miyoppe look like less of a doormat.

While that's great to hear, it doesn't really do a lot to forgive this story's missteps. Still, good info to have! Thanks!

I would've bet money that Sakamoto saw Fury Road and was like I'm Ripping That Off. But no! Fury Road came out a few years later! A very cool sequence.

It's really saying something that the Wizard ending is memorably problematic in a movie with so much problematic stuff in it. Really outdid themselves!

Yeah, this movie seems like the breaking point for bringing back Heisei Phase 2 dudes just because. Having a dead-silent Double is bad. Having Eiji appear out of nowhere to deliver a line about Reaching Out A Hand In Friendship before completely vanishing is not much better. We're not quite at Shouichi At The End Of The Dai-Shocker Movie levels of pointless cameos, but it's still a far cry from the Shotaro and Philip appearances in previous seasons.

I feel like after this movie, there's more of a sense of not over-promising with the Legend Rider appearances. If you can get an actor back in front of the camera or in a recording booth, their Rider can be upfront. If you can't, they're only in crowd shots.

I didn't know that. That's... hoo boy, that sort of sucks for Showa fans. At least there were a couple heroic Ishinomori characters, again?

What I remember is the disparity in the final fight where you have Fourze and Wizard fighting the Akumaizer's and Wizard's just finessing and making a show of it while Fourze is getting his butt kicked. Felt like they didn't handle both Riders well at all and were showing favoritism towards Wizard.

Also Meteor Nadeshiko Fusion States was just too much.

I think that sort of fits the characters, though? Wizard's whole thing is showmanship; finesse. Fourze's is enthusiasm; recklessness. It makes sense that Wizard would be a better fighter than Wizard, just like it makes sense that Fourze could draw more power from his friends.

I get that from a conceptual standpoint but if you're going to execute that in a fight scene maybe don't do it in a way that makes it look one-sided in favor of the current Rider instead of his predecessor when the final fight in a team-up should be about showing them both off equally against the bad guys.

That's fair. I can't say I noticed, but it's definitely a failing in the Movie War format. The final fight is written by the new show's writer, and the movie is more to promote the currently running show than buff up the old guy. It usually ends up relying on the current Rider to be the most awesome.

I guess for me it stood out more compared to past Movie Wars where I never felt like there was a sequence that was that one-sided, particularly in the final fight, so I wish they had handled it better.

KAMEN RIDER X SUPER SENTAI X SPACE SHERIFF: SUPER HERO TAISEN Z

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBLbqHThbrc

This isn’t one of my favorite types of Kamen Rider films. It’s not really trying to be about anything. There are multiple lead characters, but their stories barely overlap. It’s the kind of movie where the theme is conveyed by people repeating multiple variations on the same phrase over a 90-minute span of time. Most of the plot is just dozens of people appearing and disappearing from the narrative; quantity over quality. It’s all empty calories.

But, hell, it’s Christmas. I don’t really feel like complaining about this thing for hundreds of words on Christmas. So, in the spirit of the waning hours of the season, let me just try and engage with this thing on its own Let’s Throw A Whole Bunch Of Superheroes On Screen level.

KAMEN RIDER WIZARD

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This isn’t really a Haruto story, despite his large amount of screentime. He’s there to convey the theme, as seen above, and that’s about it. He’s accused of Space Terrorism by Gavan, and while the story could ostensibly be about clearing his name, that’s all over and done with by their second meeting. Haruto’s there to bring Gavan hope, which is both the lowest-hanging fruit for a Wizard story, and also maybe perfect for a crossover film. It’s all capital letters, you know. Undiluted Haruto.

The main problem with Haruto’s contribution to the story is that he’s already hopeful, so it’s not like he’s challenged or changed by the plot. He’s already sure they’ll find a way to save the universe, and they eventually do. That’s it. That’s his story for this movie, and it’s not really the sort of thing I can dig into.

SPACE SHERIFF GAVAN

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He’s okay! It’s predominantly his story, this movie. He’s the one who changes and grows, moving from a glowering executioner to a hopeful Freelance Peacekeeping Agent. I like a story where someone learns to be a hero thanks to a Kamen Rider, and that’s what this ends up being. Geki’s change is all down to one guy being like Don’t Give Up Hope, and so he doesn’t? Eventually? It’s blunt, but it manages to be the only real dramatic arc for this movie.

It took me a while to warm up to Geki. He’s just some by-the-book space cop for the first few scenes, and then he’s a grumpily chastened ex-space cop for the next few scenes. It’s only after he starts teaming with Gai that he develops a little bit of lightness, a little bit of humor. (I laughed out loud at when he tried to bypass Space Ironmen Kyodain by pointing out that he was also from space. Pretty good gag!) By the end, when he and Sharivan were punching each other in the face to prove their dedication to their principles, I was sort of won over by Geki. Not a dude I’m looking to see more of, but he anchored this film dramatically, and I appreciate it.

YELLOW BUSTER

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This is what I’m talking about when I say that these stories don’t really overlap. Youko’s whole thing about feeling lonely and forming a friendship with Psykoron, it’s not really about keeping hope alive? It’s just about friendship, which feels more in line with a Fourze crossover film than a Wizard one. I liked it, it’s very cute, but every scene felt like it was edited in from a completely separate film. (It does not help that Youko, like the other two, would just randomly disappear for chunks of the story.)

Youko’s real fun. I wish she’d felt more central to the story. I don’t know that I thought she needed to be in this movie, but the performance was fun. I bought her motivation. She’s charismatic in a way that, frankly, the two male leads weren’t. (I don’t really care for Haruto that much, in general.) Her scenes were probably my favorite, because she brought an energy that no one else did.

GOKAI SILVER

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Well, almost no one else.

Gai’s in this one, basically in the Shunpei role. He’s a sort of random inclusion. You’d think he’d be teamed up with Geki for a whole criminal/cop thing, playing off of Gai’s frequently-stated profession as a space pirate… but, no, the space cop never once brings it up. (I feel like a space cop should be mildly interested in space piracy? Maybe that’s not technically against the space law. I’m no space lawyer!) Instead, Gai’s just here to be the occasionally-angry conscience, for some reason. Feels like it should’ve maybe been handled by Haruto or Youko, but we have Gai doing it.

Gai showing up was basically when I gave up on this movie having anything to say. He shows up out of nowhere, in the middle of a different out-of-nowhere Sentai appearance, and he doesn’t seem to have a big reason to take part in the story. The actor does a good job in his scenes, but his inclusion reeks of This Was All We Could Get.

KYORYUGER

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/legend/taisenz6.png

Ha ha, oh god, why bother? Why bother talking about them?

They randomly appear at Kamen Rider Stadium to shout some catchphrases and have a quick stakes-free hero fight, and then show back up at the end with their Zords or whatever. They don’t further the plot or the themes in any way. It’s just more characters to eat up the runtime, the end.

ALL THE REST

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Same thing!

A million Riders and Sentai show up to pose and say their names, and I was just checking the counter on VLC to see how close I was to being done with this movie. It’s fine, in that Look At All The Heroes way, but it isn’t clever or anything. It never has a scene approaching the Marvelous/Decade fight from Taisen, where the Sentai and Rider aspects complimented each other. It’s just a hodge-podge of suits. Cool to see them, but I don’t like getting it in lieu of a narrative.

The villains were the same thing. I did laugh at Shocker immediately rebranding themselves as Space Shocker; just putting Space in front of all their names, them being so proud of it. But they’re just there to be suits to fight, nothing interesting. Shadow Moon finally gets some dialogue, but he could’ve been literally any Showa villain. The main guy, Raider, has a needlessly convoluted plan that culminates in a giant monster rising up from Kamen Rider Quarry, so who cares.

It’s a weird movie, you guys. It keeps shoveling in new characters for, like, a scene (hello, Rinko, Shunpei, and Shinken Yellow!), and then it never brings them back. The finale is a bunch of random new power-ups with zero establishment in the plot. The main Kamen Rider for the story is gone for about twenty minutes and it’s never explained where he went or why. Lazy writing, front to back.

But does anyone care? I mean, I do, I didn’t like watching this movie, but that’s only because I care about stories. This wasn’t really even trying to tell a story. Chastising it for lazy writing is like chastising an Oronamin C commercial for breaking continuity. Those aren’t the goals it set for itself, so it’s maybe unfair for me to judge them by it.

I don’t have to like it, though. I hold these things to a high standard (for a Designed To Sell Toys To Japanese Children-level of “high”) because I know what they’re capable of. To see something this uninspired and slap-dash is… look, it’s Christmas. This was bright and colorful and some of it was entertaining. I don’t want to complain today. They get a pass for the holiday.

Merry Christmas, TokuNation.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/legend/taisenz8.png

I think I mostly liked this movie because it was like all these intersecting adventures all happening and there was really no big "Hero War" caused by stuff. Like you have the Space Sheriff's being prejudiced against Wizards but that's about it.

It's probably one of the better Taisen ones for me if only because well, it cuts out the stupid infighting for the most part honestly.

The net movies for this film are perfection.

Yeah, but my problem is that it fills up that Heroes Fighting part with a hundred random characters. The villain's plot isn't any more complicated than the previous Taisen movie, but now there's no additional layers of conflict.

I don't remember seeing those? Unless you're talking about the ones for the summer movie, which are PERFECT.

This was brought up in the GoKaiger/Gavan movie, but the GoKaigers, in spite of being the pirate sentai, have not actually commited piracy. They only attack the evil empire that the space sheriffs consider criminals themselves and that isn't counted as piracy, apparently.

They get officially cleared by the Space Sheriffs as not being criminals of any kind.

See, this is why I'd be a terrible space lawyer. Thanks for the info!

When I read Die's post, I was going to point out the same detail and then I saw that someone beat me to it.

Basically, this was addressed back during the Dekaranger Tribute episode in Gokaiger when Ban says that the charges of piracy were pushed by Zangyack to discredit their character and de-legitimize them. In the Ohranger Tribute episode, Momo is clearly following the "pirates-in-name-only" rationalization. However, we know that the Gokaiger themselves actually wear the pirate moniker as a badge of honor, so the legal quandary is weird to say the least.

In Gokaiger VS. Gavan, Don references that Dekaranger cleared them when Gavan OG tries to arrest them.

The primary villains in Taisen Z are largely based on the villains from Sharivan, which is why Neo-Sharivan recognizes their castle through the portal.

The film is terribly clunky and filled with a lot of stupid decisions. It seems asinine to blame Wizard and Beast for something that any number of magical Toku Heroes and Villains could be just as responsible for, which only serves to discredit the "brilliant" investigative work on the part of Gavan's Agency.

Why don't they go after Magiranger instead? Cause they aren't new enough to bother so they aren't suspects. Also kinda dumb that they didn't have them in this movie to do some funky magic with Wizard. Missed opportunity, Toei!

As cool as it is to see Inazuman, the appearance was still random. As was the reappearance of Groundain and Skydain, who are played as tragic villains here despite dying as egregious ones in the Fourze Movie.

It's become a tiresome plot point for Geki to constantly be fired or suspended cause he fights for the right thing when everyone else has a bad habit of being stupid or so procedural to the point of madness

So Geki has Metal Hero Keys despite just getting his powers back!? So anyone with Toku Powers can have a "Ranger Key"?

Shadow Moon was just a villain with no leadership capacity in the previous Taisen, but here he's back to a leadership role. The only good thing about his inclusion is that he's vaporized by Kyoryuger!

I kinda wonder if the plot is based on how many actors they can get back, then they write the "script" to fit the characters they have to work with.

I do think this is one of the better instances in which the Mecha of the Next Generation Uchuu Keiji are given significant screentime. They tend to be painfully underutilized.

It's a movie you can enjoy if you aren't looking for anything deep or serious. When you have heroes acting like idiots and arguing over how to best protect the Earth, you aren't going to be absorbing any great philosophical truth.

If Earth has an alliance with the Uchuu Keiji Agency, I'd seriously consider suing given the whole "blow-up-a-planet-with-a-mega-cannon-we-don't-use-in-any-other-movie" thing!

P.S.: Nice Death's Head reference, Die!

I sorta figured! Also, Sharivan outright says that he's most familiar with Raider's gang -- from fighting them for years -- so they definitely establish the history.

It does not make the Space Sheriff organization look competent, no! The first time I watched this film, the evidence was so flimsy and the resolution was so ruthless that I just assumed the leadership of the Space Sheriffs was corrupt/infiltrated. Nope! They're just terrible at protecting people!

I never saw this one. My general thoughts were that I did not want to sit through another movie like Superhero Taisen. I don't really regret it, even though I do tend to like the modern Gavan stuff (Toei seems really committed to making new Gavan work, even though I get the sense that it's not especially popular). I don't really have much else to add, other than I hope this film included the Gavan theme because it is probably my all-time favorite tokusatsu song.

I honestly don't get the appeal of the Gavan stuff, at least from this movie. (Which, apparently, is not great at communicating what's appealing about Gavan!) It's all very dull, and the coolest thing Geki does in this movie is quit. I got nothing against a cop show toku thing (Drive! Agito!), but this was just bland officiousness and Our Hands Are Tied unhelpfulness.

I’ll point out that Geki quitting/ getting fired or demoted is a pretty common thread in his movies. As I pointed out in my review of Gavan vs Dekaranger, he doesn’t get along with his bosses at all. The most surprising thing here is that the boss is OG Gavan, who normally has a good working relationship (I imagine either the stress of taking over as boss is getting to him, or the role had to be rewritten after the original chief’s actor died a few months prior to the movie).

As stated, Madou and Psycho are the bad guys from Sharivan. The main difference from Gavan’s bad guys Makuu is that these guys are connected to white holes, whereas Makuu and Don Horror were all about black holes.

I’ll also point out that in this movie, Raider is played by the guy who played Kagami’s dad in Kabuto. Which you’d be hard pressed to tell with that make up.

It's hard to say much about this movie since I haven't seen it in like 9 years, but I remember adoring the Fourze portion, and finding the rest ~okay~. It was kind of inevitably going to be a step down from Mega Max, so I don't inherently hold that against the movie.

(What I DO sort of hold against this movie is how it uses Akumaizer 3, so I'll take this opportunity to link to my review of the real deal, because that is an amazing show I still wish got more attention.)

But still, that Fourze portion is real good, from what I remember! I always like when these shows find ways to stress that the heroes aren't heroes because of all the cool material items they have in their possession, kinda fighting against the whole merchandise-driven nature of toku, so Gentarou literally destroying his own Driver was something I loved seeing. Really cemented how great I find his character, and this is after a whole series that already did that for me!

In this particular case, the Wizard and Ultimatum parts were actually written by Yoshio Urasawa, who I don't believe had anything to do with Wizard beyond this, but WAS Poitrine's head writer!

I kinda legitimately love this one? Like, recently I finally rewatched it after years and years of frankly way better crossover movies after this, and something about it is still so charming to me. It helps that it's literally about all my favorite characters? Like, we've got a Super Hero Taisen that is for some reason focused on Wizard, Beast, Yellow Buster, and Gavan Type-G, and they're all doing stuff that's in line with what I love about them. Geki is bringing that intense Showa energy into the modern age (and also getting fired again), Youko gets a lot of very human emotional stuff, Nitou is weird, and Haruto is immediately talking about hope, and takes offence to Gavan's plan to destroy magic or whatever specifically because of how that would affect Koyomi, before he thinks of anything else wrong with all of this.

It's still totally incohesive, and less of an event than the original SHT, but it is infinitely more enjoyable for me. I was honestly surprised to find out that hasn't really changed at all so many years later.

Our little group actually did have a discussion to this effect on Discord.

-Fourze X Wizard: Movie War Ultimatum:

It's been a long time since I saw this one. But I liked the Fourze portion in how we get to see what happened to the cast after they graduated, seeing what they're doing with their lives, and Gentarou becoming a teacher is pretty accurate for his character. I also find it strangely funny how he travels back in time to take his past self's belt for the final battle.

The Wizard portion is okay, don't know if I'd say better or not than the actual show, but not something that stands out to me that much.

And as you saw, Akumaizer 3 became the bad guys this time, which at the time, I didn't know who they were (other than that they looked cool) so I didn't have any attachments until I saw their first two episodes. At least Inazuman and Poitirne were good guys, until they revealed who Poitirne was, which was kind of funny but sort of falls into the same camp with Kyodain and Akumaizer 3's treatment. Though I love the team up fight.

-Super Hero Taisen Z:

This is the first time I saw Metal Heroes, and I'm interested in checking them out after seeing Space Sherrif Gavan's first two episodes. Other than that, at least they weren't doing the old "we're only pretending to be evil" shtick, though having Gavan wanting to destroy all magic users was both understandable (in the sense that they didn't make it "the Riders and Sentai all deserve to die") and kind of stupid in jumping the space gun.

Not a lot to say about this movie, but seeing all the Super Heroes fighting around the world (or just Japan, it's been a while) was fun. And I'm glad at least Kyodain 2.0 got to not be the villains this time around. Some good bits, but I honestly can't remember a lot of this movie, despite rather enjoying this one quite a bit.

Ah, the 2010's, when Toei would realise Metal Heroes existed, and try to make something of them every couple of years. Some of that stuff is pretty good, even if, as Die said, it really makes the Space Sherrifs look easy as hell to infiltrate. (Where's that Space Squad 2, Toei?) Some of that is not. Super Hero Taisen Z, if I'm remembering my 15 year old self's opinion right, is not one of the good ones. But hey! It's better than the original SHT.

Nah. SHTZ got its own set of net movies, and they are by far my favorite set.

Oh those are the ones where Baltan's dating Tackle right

I definitely did not pick up on that. Thanks!

Yeah, it's a great part. Gentarou's always seen being Fourze as a way to make even more friends and help even more people, but it's always been a means to an end. Once it's an obstacle to either of those things, as it clearly is with Saburou, he'll toss it aside.

Hey, lemme goof on Koyomi again for a minute.

One of my pet peeves with the Kamen Rider Wizard series is that, either because of story decisions or actor availability, Koyomi rarely contributes anything to the plot. (She does contribute to both the tone and the setting, but those are different things.) And, of course, she doesn't really contribute to the plot of Taisen Z, either.

But she does a thing in Taisen Z that is, like, the nadir of her usefulness.

It's in the beginning, when Gavan and Wizard are duking it out. A huge chunk of masonry is dislodged during the fight, and it's about to crush a parent and child. Wizard, Gavan, and Koyomi all see it. Koyomi runs over to the civilians... but she's smaller than the parent and larger than child, so she doesn't shield them or anything. Wizard ends up pulling them all to safety, which he was about to do before Koyomi ran over. All Koyomi contributes is an additional body to pull to safety.

I laughed incredibly hard at that scene.

My favorite decision for the Fourze epilogue is skipping over their college experiences. I cannot imagine anything more redundant than Fourze: The College Years.

One of my favorite superhero tropes is when villain alliances break down over who's going to kill the heroes, so I really dug Kyodain's whole We've Saved You, We're Even, Now We Can Kill You bit interfering with Space Shocker's own murder attempts.

I cannot imagine this movie improving since age 15, but who really knows? You owe it to yourself to rewatch it.

(You do not owe it to yourself.)

Sorry to necro this thread, but HELLO!

This week has been insane, and it's left me zero time to watch toku. (Or even talk about toku! My interaction with the community over the past week has mostly been deleting thread notifications, since: zero time.) A medium-sized project at work this week has ballooned into an all-consuming stress in my life (complete with easily-interpretable stress dreams), and I'm only now able to speculate on the existence of daylight. My plan is to be back in this thread to talk about wizards, fruit-themed dancers, and passing-through Riders on Saturday. No promises, unfortunately, but that's my hope... because talking about Kamen Rider with you folks is the hope I need.

Thanks for your patience! Have a great rest of your 2021, and I'll see you (hopefully) on New Year's Day!

I kinda figured -- it's only Christmas and New Year one after the other, the busiest time of the year for retail and entertainment! I just hope you've got enough time for proper rest

Godspeed die, I know you'll get that project done!

That is completely excusable and absolutely acceptable.

No worries, friend! Take all the time you need. :thumb:

KAMEN RIDER WIZARD EPISODE 52 - "THE KAMEN RIDER RINGS"
KAMEN RIDER WIZARD EPISODE 53 - "NEVERENDING STORY"

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../wizard52a.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../wizard52b.png

It’s a cute little story about the anxiety of puberty, which is a tricky topic for Kamen Rider to cover.

It makes sense to try, though. The kids watching this show are only a few years removed (if that) from a massive upheaval in their lives. Hormones are going to flood their brains, their bodies are going to change drastically, and they’ll come out the other side completely transformed. They’ll be unrecognizable to themselves, and that’s going to be scary.

But, y’know, it’s a process that you have some control over. If you hold onto the lessons you learned as a kid, there’s no reason you can’t be a good person. Kamen Riders have harnessed darkness to fight for justice, so, like, there’s no reason you can’t become a not-horrible teenager. All you need is hope!

So a story where a kid is terrified to grow up, because growing up means he’ll turn into something he doesn’t understand? I’m into that. Kamen Rider shows usually stick to Growing Up metaphors that are more about pre-pubescent concerns: respecting your elders, seeing things through, honesty, sacrifice, etc. To have someone attempt a story where a kid is afraid of how he’s going to change into an adult, that works for me. That’s some Hibiki stuff, you know? Not really a major part of these shows' storytelling tricks.

The metaphor of this story was fun, but it’s the structure that really had me excited.

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

This is a Decade story. It’s 100% a Kamen Rider Decade two-parter, just produced three years later. It’s a story about Wizard’s themes and conflicts – hope, despair, Koyomi being worthless to the story and always in need of rescue – but shuffled, rearranged. It’s even got Tsukasa and a kid version of a Rider, so it’s not exactly being subtle about what it’s doing. (Decade flat-out says that this is the World of Wizard!) It’s about using Haruto’s personal growth to help a different Rider overcome a thematically-similar trauma. There’s a gigantic Rider War-esque finale! Just… new Decade episodes, man. YES.

Really fun to have Tsukasa in this story about whether Kamen Riders are evil if they drew their powers from evil, because he does not care about binary concepts like Good and Evil even a little bit. Tsukasa’s moral ambiguity and general exhaustion with *gestures broadly* all of this makes him a fun foil for Amadam’s attempts to induce despair in Riders. It’s a very Tsukasa solution to an existential threat: not caring about a villain’s perspective. Tsukasa’s been good, and he’s been evil, and it’s nothing that’s inherent to his power. It’s all choices. It’s up to people to decide, not something baked into them at conception. We aren’t destined to be anything other than ourselves, and it’s up to us what that means. That’s some solid Decade theming right there.

It’s, of course, written by the guy who was the original Decade showrunner. It’s got the same pros and cons as those early Decade episodes. It’s nailing the themes of Wizard while sort of punting on its characters and relationships. Rinko and Shunpei are great, but they’re almost brand-new characters. (Rinko is always great, though! I loved her extra-aggressive take on her character.) Kid Haruto and Kid Koyomi are representations of the story’s emotional content, not fully-formed characters. Nitou’s appearance is some hand-wavey time travel stuff. It’s all fun, but it’s not a great finale for Wizard.

Which, who’s expecting that? The tone of this all is very Extra Summer Movie, where it’s just about telling a quick, light, guest-star-heavy story. And it’s great at that! Tons of costumes, some jaw-dropping long-take fight choreography, and even a debut:

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

GAIM! And also, Actual Kota! Very little interaction with him as a specific kind of hero (it’s the standard I Heard Someone Needed Help stuff), but I did appreciate the call-back to Wizard’s debut in the Fourze, where he learns what a Kamen Rider is, but now he’s the one explaining it to the next Rider. That sort of baton-passing, I’m a mark for it. I like that rare moment where a Kamen Rider is fully-grown, and able to be the adult for another Rider who’s about to start their journey.

And Haruto gets to be that twice in this story, to both Gaim and a younger, alternate version of himself. (It’s bonkers to me that the story saves Kid Haruto’s name until the very end. Once you know the girl is Koyomi, and this kid has a Wizard belt, why wouldn’t you assume it’s Haruto?) He gets to bring hope to other Riders, which is as Wizard-but-Decade as I can imagine.

This was nice. It was a nice story to come back to after an unexpected toku break, and it’s a nice one to start a year with. It genuinely brought me the hope I needed!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/legend/wizard53.png

Ah-HA! I HAVE IT ALL ON TAPE!

Anyway, this two parter pulled Decade off better than Decade's' own show ever did, and I'll always appreciate that about it if nothing else.

(Also I totally thought that Kid Haruto was Kid Kota at first)