Things I remembered about this movie, having only watched it when it came out:

- It existed (in your face, New Den-O movie!)

- It had a framing device where someone who NEVER helped showed up angry at W.

- That is literally it. Didn't even remember if I liked it or not.

Having watched it again, it looks like it was probably a really fun few days for the stunt team. Lots of running, jumping, fighting, and flipping. Genki Sudo definitely seemed to be having a hell of a time, even if his character is still incredibly problematic from the perspective of a different country and about a decade and a half of time. Minase Yashiro got to get some good smoldering on. Everybody was very shiny all the time.

The plot certainly exists and, like spending an entire episode of Lost to rationalize the fact that one of the actors had a tattoo, it gives us an explanation that we probably didn't need about something that could have been easily glossed over. Overall, I found it to be a decent action movie that was tangentially related the show I just finished watching.

The big thing I'm left with, now that I temporarily remember the movie again, is one question: what the hell kind of prison has a dress code for death row inmates that's an open-front shirt, sports bra, and short shorts?

(Rhetorical question, I know the answer is Sakamoto Prefecture Penitentiary)

I’ve watched this three times, and it’s telling that I remember a fan edit by the editors at TV-Nihon more than the actual piece (notably, they cut out most of the framing device (only retaining one scene of Mina standing against a skyscraper, which incidentally, is the only evidence in this cut that she survived in the end), and some of the extraneous “this is how this element in the summer movie came about” scenes).

And you were right, the cast for this one is a much easier job. Mainly, because they all fall under one category.

Sentai-lert!

First off, our narrator Mina is played by Rin Takahashi, who the previous year had teamed up with two other Riders in her more famous role as Shiraishi Mako/Shinken Pink (there’s also a weirdo online who for some reason thinks she’s the spitting image of Amy Jo Johnson, of Flashpoint fame, but that’s neither here or there)

And for Dr. Prospect’s two henchmen, the male of the two is Sho Tomita, better known as Yukito Sanjo/AbareBlue in Bakuryu Sentai Abaranger, and later appeared in Space Sheriff Sharivan: Next Generation as what is basically “the Arms Dopant if he was actually an undercover cop who got too into character”. Meanwhile, the female of the two is Shroud’s suit actress, Sanae Hitomi.

Finally, Dr. Prospect hismelf is Jyunichi Haruta, who previously appeared in Rider as Undad (as the watch thread for that series dubbed him) in Kamen Rider Blade. But prior to that, he was the Black Ranger in two consecutive 80s Sentai: Dai Sentai Goggle Five as Kanpei Kuroda and Kagaku Sentai Dynaman as Ryu Hoshikawa (the main difference being that the former is a chess player who talks normally, while the latter is a ninja who talks like he’s a Shakespeare character). He was also in the Metal Heroes series as two different arc villains: Mad Gallant in Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion and Bunzo Yazaki in Tokusou Exceedraft.

^ And he also played as Souji/Kyoryu Green’s dad in Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger.

Considering Skull got basically a whole-ass V-Cin in the winter crossover movie, and Accel just got a spotlight spin-off, Eternal's sort of the only remaining Kamen Rider you could even do an ancillary piece of media on for W. Honestly, better this than Kamen Rider W Returns: Uh Let's See What Makura's Up To I Guess.

!!!

And also his robotic successor, U.N.D.A.D.!

Wow, I definitely did not recognize him at all. I guess you could say I need my eyes checked.

And a samurai lion + bus hybrid in a world where it's still old timey Japan (Go-onger summer movie) with companions being Kamen Rider Faiz as a samurai condor + race car hybrid and Deka Pink as a samurai bear + dune buggy hybrid. :lolol

Someone please make a Father's Day card with undad on the cover. :lolol

I'd normally be all for this take, but given that a good chunk of the movie, the climax especially, is wrapped in lines and scenes like this:

https://i.imgur.com/A3VTqSi.png

It really does make it feel to me as though the romance angle is the main focus, with other forms of love as an afterthought. Especially in a movie where Terui claims that Akiko is the reason that he changed.

Like, if while he was talking to her, or even during the drive with Aoi, we got a flashback to times such as when Shotaro told Terui that there were people who care about him, then I'd be willing to give the movie more leeway, and probably see Terui's' talk to Akiko as him wanting to make his wife feel special. But we don't, and instead get alot of Terui's' past recontextualized at best and retconned at worst.

I refuse to rewatch this movie on the grounds that I found it insufferable the first time around.

One thing I will note though is a line from the subs I watched it with(I forget which group), wherein Main Girl claimed "No one knows what he was really like." Which I found to be a laughably bold statement, given that she knew Daido for a grand total of like 24 hours.

I basically put it at 1.10x speed the entire way (minus a few parts). The only other movie I've done that with is Biku: The Movie from GARO. Both were absurdly boring me to the point that I just wanted it to go by faster.

This is probably the worst V-Cinema. Because it does the one thing I hate in this genre, being boring. As much as I disliked Vulcan and Valkyrie's V-Cinema, at least I felt something about it? There was an emotion there compared to Eternal's which is just big fat nothing.

Anyway here are random scraps I noted:

-Kind of a neat spin that we're apparently dealing with folks getting pre-production Gaia Memories at this point. Really shows how far the business has fallen since Museum's end.

-They somehow turned Luna Dopant into an annoying as hell character. Like yeah Luna was quirky before but dude is the worst in this movie.

-Eternal Red Flare is a laughable excuse for a Movie Exclusive form. And yet I think it somehow got an SHF?

-I'm glad we kind of decided to explain Utopia having weird abilities that wasn't his energy draining and face stealing stuff. We knew he was a NEVER from his final episodes, but there were weird psychokinetic stuff that didn't seem to really match Utopia's powerset.

-Speaking of Utopia, is it just me or is the color grading in this movie odd in some aspects? Like, in the show his suit is dull gold to me, in here... the concept of there being gold aspects/armoring to the suit that pop against the dull gold actually happens here? Did they repaint the suit? Is it because movie cameras? Unsure but I definitely noticed a strange difference in how Utopia looks here.

-The Ending Theme: Cod-E ~E no Angō by SOPHIA is easily the best part of the movie. Really good song, Eternal's actor really doesn't miss with the music he sings.

I guess what probably gives this movie points over Movie War Core is that at least I went into it knowing that there would be very little W content.

Fair!

Good point! I forgot about that stuff!

There's about as much W content here as in Movie War Core, actually. Hell, at least this story about Eternal is for them!

Shame to hear you didn't enjoy this as much as I did. The most memorable scene for me was when Daido played that song to calm down the Quarks, then he admitted that it was something he only understood cognitively, rather than anything he could actually feel, due to his NEVER-induced apathy. It's ironic that a man with no reason to live can become an inspirational advocate for others to live, which is the tragedy of Daido's hollow existence. It even adds new meaning to his goal in Gaia Memories of Fate, that a world of mutual suffering would be fairer than one where people like him, his crew and the Quarks suffer prejudice at the hands of Foundation X.

I recall it was the Sweets Dopant.

I believe that Shoutarou and Phillip at the end were mourning the person who Daido used to be, rather than the person he was when he Die-do. While it's true that Daido was totally a villain by the point of Gaia Memories of Fate, I think it's fair that Mina would want him to be remembered for all his deeds, not only the evil ones, as well as remember the evil deeds that done to him. Like, Mina is living proof that the world was a little better for having Daido in it, despite his sins.

Hmm, that's not quite right. Kuroda is actually a shogi player.

Fair enough. Being written by Sanjo, I think his romantic bias shows here, but at least the moral can still be interpreted in other ways that can be beneficial outside of romance. It's easy enough to simplify to just, "you don't need to be alone". That's a good statement even for people without current love interests.

Yeah, Foundation X have their fingers in every pie, so it makes sense that they would be mixing together different powers like that.

I can neither remember nor pronounce the title of that song, but I agree that it's a great song for sure and I think it could be about how Daido was a small beacon of hope in Mina's life.