Yeah, a lot of Toei's more recent projects have to really rush to fit in all the collectible gimmick merch Bandai wants shilled. Just kinda the nature of being merchandise-driven, unfortunately. Personally, I thought Shinobi managed to handle it in a way that didn't at all detract from the quality of the story, but we'll see how you feel by the time you finish the series, Die!

It may seem that way, but that was all part of the general tribute to the Heisei era that Zi-O was doing. Each part of the giant mecha refers to a different Rider show. Obviously, the dragon and train are references to Ryuki and Den-O, respectively. The dog, meanwhile, is Chaco from Faiz; it's not clearly stated in the dialogue, to be fair, but it's basically the entire premise of the show's opening theme, “Boku wa Chaco-kun” (I assume your fansubs didn't translate the lyrics).

The other two are a bit more subtle, though, so I'm not surprised if you didn't pick up on them. The dump truck is the kind used for large scale mining operations, which is an homage to the Rider Quarry and all of the episodes filmed there. And finally, the red robot pilots the mecha from a chair, which is likewise a nod to a common Rider environment, namely the many sit-down dining establishments seen over the years.

I had the dog as Gills' dog Count Zero, from Agito, but I definitely wouldn't've gotten those other ones. Felt like the dump truck was maybe a reference to Drive's Type Technic, but I'm sure you'd know better about Zi-O's homages, being such a huge fan of the series. Thanks for the info!

That would have been much less of a stretch, wouldn’t it?

Know what Shinobi reminds me of? Anime. Specifically, the craziness in it. We have the main character who is seemingly goofy on the outside, but is actually a super powerful legendary ninja. We have his little sister who is also really skilled and just so happens to be in love with the titular character's secret identity. She's also the main heroine.

We also have the secondary character who is also romantically interested in the main heroine. It's very anime-esque in my opinion. And I like that about this mini series.

But there's something I want to talk about as well. Specifically Kamen Rider Woz's suit. And even more specifically, his Figuarts.

Woz's S.H. Figuarts is the last third retail release of a Kamen Rider series. And he's a pretty good release being the last, too. He was $55 upon release, you can find him for as low as 25-30 nowadays, he comes with his weapon along with said weapons' form changes and just overall looks nice.

I don't currently have the right pic for it, but most of his green is actually bare plastic. Which means when put under blacklight, he will glow. Pic related below isn't quite that but you can kind of see how the green plastic glows.

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/DDb2c39yXGU/maxresdefault.jpg

Nice to see someone got some enjoyment out of this series, even if it was April 1st when it went up.

Another fun touch from Decade's Armor Time is that each illusion copy has a single solid part of the armor on them so when all of the copies form on Zi-O the full armor comes together.

The hat?!...is white.

Not that Geiz is someone like Button Man, of course, but it's not only regarding Sougo, but also regarding Another Riders previously too. The self-righteous type of characters often are utterly merciless in dealing with those whom they consider evil, of which it applies to both Sougo and Another Rider for Geiz, and can be prone to consider all crimes to be equal, with Geiz looking for excuses to blame Sougo including light offenses as a plausible reason to kill him. That also had him somewhat having With Us or Against Us mentality, that Sougo's disagreements with Geiz with dealing against the Another Rider was also a reason for Geiz to brand him as ultimate evil too (Tsukuyomi was the only person Geiz would listen that time, so she's a clear exception). I guess dunno if Geiz is really about fear and psychologically adrift, or if he won't be necessarily able to carry out his acts, but I thought Geiz showed some characteristics present in characters who'd never felt they're in the wrong.

Kamen Rider being there for hardship? W̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶f̶ ̶K̶a̶m̶e̶n̶ ̶R̶i̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶i̶t̶s̶e̶l̶f̶ ̶c̶r̶e̶a̶t̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶h̶a̶r̶d̶s̶h̶i̶p̶?̶ Otherwise, it'd be still healthy for those who still can live normally like having steady job, while enjoying those KR stuff, but this distinction isn't really easy to spot or distinguish or acknowledged.

I don't think Ataru is happy, he clearly had a tragic moment of losing Shingo as well as him feeling so lonely. Not all case of wanting to escape from reality is caused by sadness (like playing games can be done just to have fun), but Ataru's a clear case of that, he wants to avoid the troublesome real life it hands him for. And I guess for him making a wish to Futaro and being desperate of holding his fantasy in shows that he's not done yet for his vow of fixing his problems by meeting Kamen Riders, which'd mean he's still emotionally troubled to that point. It's not a case of someone being troubled finally being able to act upon it (and previously harmless) after gaining superpowers, but Ataru's someone who does come across Imagin wish (also Futaro's a rarity of an Imagin that isn't actually malicious, despite first scenes implying he is), and he had done some mistakes in his choices like what Sento pointed out, him causing grief for his friends like Kazumi, he's not malicious about it but he's still quite desperate with the explanation of this being all fantasy.

He does react with glee when meeting Riders, but I don't think that it means being happy in general, sad people can show occassional excitement like that. And other than that, he reacts the same way when he met Tsukuyomi of what's mistaken as a crush... as well as Tsukuyomi not recognizing that name when he refers to her as that; it should provide some foreshadowing regarding her later. Other than that, I'd like to see what'd be Asumu's reaction, when he met more morally ambiguous Kamen Riders (well, Banjou, Kazumi, and especially Gentoku were, but he met them at the end of the series albeit the former 2 wouldn't be harmful for civilians to approach), or especially an evil one.

Albeit he does eventually lose faith in Kamen Rider when Kazumin refuses to save him from fodders (but that still shows how depressed he is and it became worse), but him as Another Den-O is still likely a corrupted version of him as per usual Another Riders. I guess it's not what the movie intends or what's intended as a consequence for Ataru, but that quite shows, though it's not that KR was fictional but turned fictional by Tid, fantasy fiction stuff existing can make life harder, that there'd be more danger like those monsters Ataru faced, as Kamen Riders would have superpowered foes too, so it wouldn't be better for those stuff to exist in real life.

I'd think that the movie's premise is interesting, to have the Kamen Rider characters being pitted against a world where it's like real world, that Kamen Rider is a fictional media (̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶w̶a̶s̶ ̶a̶l̶s̶o̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶U̶l̶t̶r̶a̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶m̶o̶v̶i̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶k̶i̶n̶d̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶p̶r̶e̶m̶i̶s̶e̶)̶. For some 4th wall breaking potential like trivias that the characters learned, or even more regarding the pursuit of erasing Kamen Rider media from history.... like those ".5" episodes that Sougo talked about blowing up Toei building or such. I also think that, though it's inevitable it'd be a mindfuck, pitting Den-O and Zi-O together in time related stuff is also good, like no DenLiner? Use Time Mazine instead.

But I do think that there are some wasted potential or left out stuff (like the Another Double there too, I agree), like Tid's motive for erasing KR, or the missing memories for some of the Riders which'd create some new dynamics between the characters, other than Sougo himself who was a cocky academic ace (as seen in contrast to the ending of him not taking the exam) and then after regaining his memories he reacted surprised to others who also lost their memories. But for others, it was never touched upon of what they're going through or after their memories returned. For Kuuga part, well it's Joe Odagiri not liking toku and leaving it so... I don't think they'd want for Kuuga to appear only like that. Tid is given Kuuga counterpart of "only I can smile" and a shade of Kuuga (Ultimate) Darkness at the end.

Otherwise, there can be negative consequences for KR, as a practiccally violent show (for fighting). It can be concerning when kids watch them is that they play into children imagination and fantasy, so children start to fantasize about being vigilantes (of which this practice should be discouraged). And for the lessons or such, the inherent difficulty in those shows is that all sorts of problems have to be resolved by violence and fighting (otherwise those shows won?t have any action elements), and there are helping people psychologically but it can be overshadowed (like it can involve MOTW).

I'm very grateful that no one seems to want their Zi-O Figuarts, because it means I should be able to pick up (at a minimum) Zi-O, Geiz, and Woz pre-owned for under $100. Pretty big surprise for figures that are only a few years old!

Oh, was it April 1st? I keep forgetting!

But Woz doesn't wear a hat! And that hat is sort of wearing Hat Woz!

I propose a compromise. How about we call him White Hat Woz, or Hat Woz for short.

Best of both worlds!