Two things!

First, it's only Rinko who's called out as being always great in the subsequent parenthetical, which means that, by omission, I am saying that Shunpei is only great in these two episodes of Wizard.

Second, Shunpei's actor is legitimately funny, as witnessed in all of the non-canon Net-Movies, and AU stuff like this. The key detail is that these are all variations on Shunpei's normal character. I still find Shunpei's character to be incredibly irritating in the actual Wizard show. If anything, I find it more frustrating because the actor is clearly better than the material on the show!

I can sort of see it now, but I don't think it ever occurred to me on either viewing. Just felt like an AU Haruto.

...And just like Haruto, Kouta won't be calling himself that much.

Anyway, I find myself appreciating these two episodes more with time. I originally watched them right after Wizard's actual finale, which I thought (and still think!) ended on a great note, and even knowing the whole Basically A Decade Two-Parter thing going in, it still needed some distance I wasn't giving it. I'd give my overall opinion on it, but, uh, yeah, it's just the same one I give to most Decade two-parters. Very fun, cute little story; probably not to something to analyze too deeply, yet also weirdly clever in its meta themes in spite of that.

I'm sure I had a similar poor appraisal of it on my first viewing -- it's just a super-weird story to do right after the really stellar final arc of Wizard -- but with the added drawback of not having seen Decade, and not getting the whole Decade structure. It felt random and tangential, Wizard-but-not-really.

The thing is, finally being fluent in Decade's very specific storytelling decisions had me getting on this story's wavelength to a much greater degree. When I could only see the Decadeness of it, I appreciated what it was trying to say about Wizard, both as a show and as a character.

...Of course, watching a previous series shouldn't necessarily be a prerequisite for enjoying a current one, especially in a franchise that's normally as siloed by seasons as Kamen Rider is, so I don't begrudge anyone who wanted more of Kamen Rider Wizard's narrative in their Kamen Rider Wizard episodes. For me, I liked the mix of styles, no pun intended.

I think this special was the first time I was introduced to the concept of Kamen Rider's "fighting for humanity's freedom" rather than being straight-up Heroes of Justice (I hadn't watched the OG yet) which feels like a very Sho Aikawa concept to explore.

Also it was just really cool seeing all the Final Forms getting their licks in on the Big bad in the final fight.

Yeah, that's a real Tsukasa point to make, which is maybe another tiny mark against viewing this as purely a Wizard story. His main But Why Heroism moment is when he dedicates himself to protecting people's journeys, which is really just another way of saying "fighting for humanity's freedom". Thematically, it's so much more a Decade story (two kids need a lesson in self-determination and rejecting society's restrictions on their happiness) than a Wizard story, even if there's a heaping helping of Don't Give In To Despair for Haruto to push back against.

Also, I love that Tsukasa gave the big hero speech instead of Haruto, because Tsukasa always has to upstage the main protagonists of a story and deliver the moral instead of them. ALWAYS! It's his Final Form Ride!

When I first got into Kamen Rider, I first watched Gaim purely out of intrigue for the completely bonkers idea of spandex warriors who transform using fruit. Binged watched that whole show in the span of a month (was one crazy ride, I'll tell you that) before deciding to watch Wizard next. So when it came to the Decade two-parter I knew absolutely NOTHING about Decade so it was a strange experience for me. I definitely appreciate the episodes a bit more now, but yeah it was strange to be suddenly introduced to a Rider I had no prior experience with.

Oof, shots fired.

It was real neat watching these special episodes cause I did always like Tsukasa, so since I watched these after my initial binges of various Riders and catching up with Wizard before Gaim I had ended up loving how Tsukasa showed up again.

Overall fun little things. Not much else to say.

It's a pretty big leap, mostly because there's very little context given for any of the non-Wizard Riders in these episodes. They're mostly just treated as Other Riders, interchangeable except for their powers. So, yeah, Tsukasa's almost bizarre prominence (he's the only one to de-Henshin) doesn't feel motivated by a lot. In retrospect, it's clear why he's being used instead of, like, Faiz (although: boy is this also a story Kabuto would've worked in), but if you're watching this story without knowing Tsukasa's arc, it's harder to get the significance.

Tsukasa just doing his whole Tsukasa thing, complete with a fake heel turn. It's adorable!

I'm going to be real with you all here. This was one of my favorite arcs in Wizard.

It has a nice setup, especially considering how I kind of see Tsukasa and Haruto being a little similar, Gaim gets introduced in a very un-Gaim-ly way, and yet I loved it. I kind of figured the kid was a proto-Haruto for having a damsel by the name of Koyomi, but mainly when Tsukasa said: "So this is Wizard's world?" It's also funny how the Legend Rider Rings are basically DiEnd's Rider Summons, and how up to this point he's met every Heisei Rider after his show (except maybe OOO, though I haven't seen Let's Go! All Riders! yet, sooo...).

I will also proclaim here, that I don't dislike Shunpei. He's an earnest, almost endearing kind of klutz, but not someone I have any major ire towards, in fact, I actually find him quite likable, despite how he could definitely have done better. I really should find time to watch those Net Movies.

That and just seeing every Rider together, along with their Final Forms (why did they give Kuuga Rising Ultimate, when it's AR Kuuga's Final Form, and therefore not an official Final Form!? I could care less about Super TaToBa, but that's because it's still an Eiji OOO form), is always fun. Sure, the Villain is kind of lame, but I guess that adds to his charm? Anyway, this was a nice way for Gaim to get introduced, since his show is nothing like what he's presented as here, which just makes it all the more interesting when people see Gaim afterwards.

So, Aikawa once shared the funny story behind Decade?s inclusion in this. When he started writing, he was told he could only have one returning Rider for the 15th anniversary of Heisei Rider and the producer would only let him have Kuuga (which was impossible, since Odagiri is not only super successful, but also has very specific conditions that Toei cannot meet for returning) or Fourze (which would be redundant, since they?d had a crossover a few months ago). And then the producer said ?Or we could bring back Decade.?

Decade is always in Toei's backpocket...

Like I've said before, I'm pretty sure Masahiro Inoue keeps a Decadriver by the front door in case Toei calls him up.

For all of its flaws (being an unnecessary extension of the season; being a Decade story in Wizard's clothing), this is a very enjoyable story. Like I'd said, it's got that Summer Movie feel, where it's faintly ridiculous, but it's dedicated to making you happy by the end. It wants to be a big, goofy Rider celebration that primes you for a brand-new series. It wants to bring you hope, you know?

I've always liked how often Tsukasa pops up after the end of Decade. His season might've been shorter, but he probably has enough post-season appearances to make up the episodes he was denied. I like that concept: him getting a full season, but over twelve or thirteen years.

KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER GAIM & WIZARD: THE FATEFUL SENGOKU MOVIE BATTLE

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...izardgaim1.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...izardgaim2.png

A super-standard Movie War outing! The only stuff that really got a reaction out of me were a couple (probably incredibly subjective) ups and downs.

Overall, there’s nothing to really complain about in this Movie War. It does a solid job of providing an epilogue for Kamen Rider Wizard, and it throws together a goofy one-off to explore some Gaim themes without changing the characters in any way. It’s the standard ratio of 1/3 Old Guy to 2/3 New Guy. There’s a brief shot in the credits for the new Gaim Riders who’ll be debuting after the new year. There are a whole bunch of Legend Rider costume appearances, and a whole bunch of new Legend Rider collectibles. It’s all very clean and straightforward.

It’s just not very clever? Or fun? The two villains suck. Ogre and Bujin Gaim both show up literally out of nowhere, try to bump off our heroes, and then get detonated. I’d seriously forgotten what either of these guys' deals were, or that they appeared in this movie. (I recently bought a Bujin Gaim figure ‘cause I loved the suit, and I hand to god thought it was from an HBV or something.) There’s nothing special about either one of them. Bujin Gaim gets the minor nod for at least inverting Kouta’s nascent pacifism/selfishness into a power-mad conqueror, but it’s not like he ever has a coherent philosophy beyond ORANGE YOU GLAD I RUN EVERYTHING NOW. (Ogre’s worse, because he just wants to destroy everything. He doesn’t even have a desire to subjugate his opponents, which is almost reprehensibly boring.)

The storytelling is smooth and faultless, though. Things happen in a reasonable way, the actors are present emotionally, and there’s a high level of competence to the proceedings. Solid, if unexceptional.

The couple parts for me that were worth spending time on were Koyomi, and Kaito.

Koyomi never really worked for me on Wizard. I found the performance to be too one-note, all Sad Girl Is Sad. I never really got a feel for what Haruto and Koyomi’s relationship offered either one of them, other than feeling protected (her) and feeling needed (him). With this epilogue, and its focus on their bond, I was really hoping for something that’d make it all work for me: a performance, a detail, an explanation that makes Koyomi finally feel like the rich, interesting character the show always implied she was.

I did not get it! Everything basically boils down to Haruto’s feelings about Koyomi, and those feelings are that he felt responsible for her safety, and that responsibility helped him believe in a brighter future. There’s a little more in there about him needing her so he won’t be alone, but… that’s bleak? That’s all sort of pathetic, in that it ends up treating Koyomi – AGAIN – as simply an object to be protected; a possession to treasure. (I mean, she’s literally an object to be protected in this one, so, like, I appreciate the consistency?) It’s all about Haruto’s feelings of being alone, and Koyomi’s ghost exists to smile beatifically and disappear. Everything in here feels more in line with the loss of a favorite Pokemon. It never felt on the show like Haruto and Koyomi had a nuanced and relatable dynamic, and it still doesn’t feel like it here.

And it really had a shot at providing that. With Dark Koyomi running around, I hoped we’d get a scene or two where she expressed some deeper emotions, some careful words on what Haruto meant to her. Instead, she’s just a sneering puppet who wants to kill Haruto. She’s just a henchwoman, nothing more.

Still, the Wizard section tries SO HARD to land those emotional punches, and I can’t fault them for the effort. Seeing Wizard and Ogre fight through scattered memories of Haruto and Koyomi’s friendship was a really sweet touch, but even those scenes aren’t really illuminative or anything. Great idea, but there just wasn’t ever enough substance for Haruto and Koyomi’s relationship to make this part of the movie as poignant as it was meant to be.

Strangely, while I didn’t have the fundamental problem with the Gaim section as I did the Wizard section, I think I liked the Wizard section more? The Gaim stuff… it’s slow going, comparatively.

It’s a story about Kouta learning to take being a Kamen Rider / Armored Rider seriously, which means we get a bunch of sequences where he’s either disengaged with the plot, or actively trying to avoid it. His reluctance is sort of the story, which is not nearly as much fun as the entire cast of Wizard fighting monsters.

Where it popped for me was when the story focused on Kaito, because Kaito is the best.

I love the simplicity of his schtick; that literally any situation he’s dropped into that has a power structure, he will battle his way to the top. Dude’s dropped in Sengoku Era With Riders, and he just rolls up his sleeves and starts annexing territories. It’s always funny, and it instantly propels nearly any dumb plot where you’re having trouble generating conflict. His grim dedication to any stupid contest or setting is absolutely charming.

Beyond that, I didn’t really get a lot out of the Gaim section? I feel like Is There Such A Thing As Ethical Warfare is maybe too big a topic for sixty minutes in a two-story movie (also, Build exists now), so a lot of the stuff about Ieyasu being a Good Warlord didn’t work for me. But the focus on Kouta realizing that fighting to protect others is different from fighting to dominate others – the franchise-specific take on using darkness to protect light – was okay, even if there’s stuff around the edges I can quibble with. (Good Warlord! Really not a fan of that!)

At the end of the day, this was a movie that didn’t really screw up the pacing enough to lose my interest, but had almost nothing that’s going to stick in my mind a week from now.

Well, except for the Legend Appearances in this one being entirely secondaries and supporting cast. NAGO! KENGO! DATE! RYU! AKIKO! That stuff was awesome. I gotta hear it, one more time!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...izardgaim3.png

"Return your wicked life to the Lord"

Has a vampiric Rider at his command.

In all seriousness though, the Legend Rider Arms were a genius move on part of this movie. Correct me if I'm wrong but was this movie the first instance of Riders using Legend Rider powers on-screen post-Decade?

Okay yeah, this movie is like my 8th favorite out of all the Winter Crossover Movies? I remember putting it that low mostly cause it was fairly standard and didn't really wow me all that much.

It had some fun stuff in it, Kaito is a blast like always, but that's about it.

And just to get some rankings out of the way of what we've seen so far in regards to the annual Winter Crossover.

2nd: Megamax
7th: Movie War 2010
8th: Sengoku Movie Battle
9th: Ultimatum
10th: Movie War Core

Die I thought you said due to the rapidness at which you watch kamen rider not a lot of it sticks in your brain.

Rikiya Koyama, Joe the Haze himself, as a villain Rider is still kind of neat.

I think so? The Fourze/OOO movie has some Legend Rider Medals and Switches, but they just unlock the Riders who've been imprisoned. This is certainly the first movie to do new Legend Rider suits for the current heroes, that I can remember.

He's just operating on a whole different level than the rest of the Gaim cast in this. He's so enthusiastic about being in an alternate dimension where the Sengoku period is mashed up with modern technology and also Kamen Riders!

Some stuff sticks even less than normal! I did not remember Ogre at all. I remembered Dark Koyomi, but I could not have told you beforehand what villain was responsible for her heel turn.

I had to look him up, but I guess he was the voice of Bujin Gaim? No wonder Black couldn't find him back in that Decade story; he was off conquering another dimension!

I know that I’ve seen this movie, but I’ll be damned if I can remember a single thing about it.

For me, it was basically the secondaries and support actors coming back for a couple shots (this movie is maybe the only time I thought Ryu and Akiko were in an adult relationship, so that was fun) and Dark Koyomi. That's it. Which made the Kaito stuff such a pleasant surprise! Because I could not remember what he was up to in this story at all! Even a little bit!

I remember one thing even though I havent seen this. When Takatora goes "it's space," pauses and goes "and that's enough of that"

Not sure what that says.

I always thought of it as a gag where everyone's channeling the Legend Rider's personality and the stoic guy brushes off the genki energy of his powerup.

The big thing I remember about this movie is that at the time I was watching Gaim (and a little later Wizard), the only subs I could find available for this movie were like, really really bad ones; Gridman-level quality, and it made it both awful and hilarious. Aside from that... yeah, pretty average movie! Not the worst or anything, Wizard portion has some nice ideas and Gaim has some hilarious cameos, but all in all there's not a lot here. It's A Movie!

The Gaim stuff in this movie is pretty fun. It's always been especially hilarious to me that these movies are the only time you'll ever see Gaim's main four Riders fighting alongside each other, which is one of those things about movies involving Gaim that really makes you think about how particular a writing style Gaim the show had. I also remember enjoying the pretty drastic contrast between Haruto and Kouta's personalities once they're together.

The Wizard portion, though, I adore that, the same way I adore Wizard in general – way more than most people probably do. (And definitely more than Die does!) Made for a fantastic addendum to the series, and a rather touching story that plays perfectly off of one of Wizard's central themes, which was the importance of not letting yourself get stuck in the past. Having Haruto ultimately decide to literally leave that ring in his memories at the end was... I mean, can I even say particularly brilliant, when there's so much like that in here? Definitely my favorite Movie War epilogue of any series that got one, but then, this is also my favorite series that got a Movie War epilogue, too, so there's that.

Yeah, it's a fun gag! Takatora always being sort of vaguely resentful of the toyetic elements of the narrative is a solid recurring bit in non-TV Gaim projects.

I can't believe that I forgot that Todoroki's actor was in this, as one of the Mage Trio, and then they didn't use him in the Gaim section as Hibiki's lord. WHAT A WASTE! I take back everything good I said about this movie, and no one can say anything that'll change my mind.

This was very nice to read. I don't connect with the Wizard section in nearly the same way you did -- I think I wanted more of a Haruto/Koyomi story, instead of a story about how Haruto feels about Koyomi -- but I liked reading how it worked for you. I don't disagree that there are a ton of sweet moments that thoughtfully conclude Wizard's narrative, but Koyomi just never felt like enough of a character for this conclusion to hit hard emotionally. She always just felt like a plot point to me.

(I really think a lot of it is the actor? She never found much variation in her performance, even in this one as a villain. If this movie had been about Rinko dying in the TV finale, I'd've probably claimed it as my favorite Movie War. Rinko was the best! Koyomi was... not my favorite!)

But, yeah, thank you for sharing your thoughts on the movie! This was a good part of my day.

Man, I didn't even think about that... now I hate this movie too!

Imagine, this movie almost made Takatora break character, even the in-universe Riders are influenced by Fourze.

It's been a while, but I did like the Wizard portion, even if like everyone, I wish they made better with Koyomi to make this all really land. Maybe it's because I like Wizard, or maybe it's because I genuinely enjoy the dynamic and themes that it was going for, but I did like this one, definitely more than the Fourze X Wizard Crossover.

The Gaim portion is an Isekai. But not the worst Isekai if I'm being honest (anything with cool suits and fruit samurai can't be that bad). I like the idea of the Sengoku Rider factions and returning actors (I only got the W one after I watched W), but it's still your standard-issue Rider Crossover Movie, where the two title Riders have to team up to defeat some kind of bad guy with some grand scheme, and of course, some Brand New Toys (Legend Rider themed)! But in all seriousness, I feel like the Gaim movies are probably Gaim's biggest weak points (of course, I did kind of enjoy his Summer Movie), since even with the standard Movie War format, the Gaim portion doesn't have the kind of weight some of the others have (though I do know the W X OOO one has a bit of a bad reputation). But at least the Legend Rider portion was fun, even if it's just another Deus Ex Mai, as a wise man once said. That and Bujin Gaim.

HEISEI RIDER VS SHOWA RIDER: KAMEN RIDER TAISEN FEAT. SUPER SENTAI

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../krtaisen1.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../krtaisen2.png

Oh, Yonemura.

It’s the Decade stuff he gets the most correct in this movie, I think. He treats Tsukasa like Doctor Who, and that’s just the best. Tsukasa shows up out of nowhere, mostly understands the objective, and immediately constructs a plan of attack for everyone else to execute. A lot of that plan hinges on Tsukasa convincing people to follow his lead despite *vaguely gestures at everything Tsukasa has ever done in regards to things like Friendship or Communication or Compromise or Transparency*, but his ability to innately understand motivations allows him to rally a group of variably committed participants. Eventually, the day is saved.

I just like Tsukasa here. He’s on the playful end of his spectrum, where having to navigate a Showa empire’s revival amidst a Rider War is just another day at the office. He’s nimble in his strategies, charming in his entreaties, and overall just the right level of easy-going about this weird-ass story of dead children and apocalyptic fathers and mournful mothers.

The rest of it, though! Oh, Yonemura.

I was looking forward to watching this one most of all, for this project. I’d seen it originally way before I watched Faiz, and I wanted to revisit it in the aftermath of my favorite Phase 1 show. But, boy, it mostly didn’t work for me.

The idea of Takumi spending a decade riddled with guilt over Kusaka’s death (KUSAKA), unable to find a reason to fight… no? No, I don’t think that’s right for the character? The series had ended with an optimistic future for Takumi, ready to engage with the world for maybe the first time ever, so it’s a colossal bummer for another writer to go No, He’s Constantly Depressed. And, I can see why a writer might go there, because: Takumi! If any Phase 1 guy is going to fall into a ten-year funk, it’s probably the Grumpiest Rider. I just don’t feel like this movie made a great case for it.

Like, basing a lot of Takumi’s guilt on the fact that he’s alive while Kusaka isn’t, that is hilarious. The movie constantly reminds us - sometimes in dialogue! - that Kusaka was a giant asshole who is inarguably less-deserving of a long life than Takumi. So having Takumi believing that he doesn’t deserve to live instead of Kusaka, only for Kusaka to show up and outright say I Deserve To Live Instead Of You… it’s incredibly funny, but I don’t know that it does a lot to make Takumi’s plight feel something other than pathetic.

And it… that’s always the sort of tricky line, when it comes to telling stories with Inoue characters, let alone trying to continue them. Takumi can totally beat himself up over something that a) wasn’t his fault, b) happened to the most deserving dude in the Faiz cast, and c) isn’t really something he can ever fix, but it needs to feel more balanced than this. If you told this story a year or so after Faiz, in the never-produced Faiz/Blade Movie War, I’d be okay with it. (I wouldn’t love it, because of the show’s A+ ending, but I’d be okay with exploring the concept.) But to do it a decade later, with the idea that Takumi never got over Kusaka’s death (KUSAKA), I just can’t get on board with that.

(It also doesn’t help that the Faiz suit has shown up in probably a half-dozen All-Rider things, including things with both Gaim and Decade, so I guess his reluctance is a lot less firm than he lets on. Maybe he was just really committed to the laundry when Tsukasa came up to him, like he said!)

It’s a movie full of stuff like that, where a germ of a reasonable idea (Takumi feels bad about himself!) gets telescoped out into something laughable and insane.

Like the Showa Riders!

Setting aside that this is all yet another We Secretly Fought To Trick The Villains bullshit plot, the Showa Riders almost all come off as colossal pricks in this movie. (X largely escapes the massively unsympathetic portrayal the other old guys get saddled with, but he still ends up being a violent jerk to Takumi for half the film.) The tension it seems like the movie is going for - Showa guys bravely confront their pain while Heisei guys let it consume them - instead comes off as glowering old guys threatened by modern versions of masculinity. Like, Takeshi Hongo immediately says that Kouta is too weak to be a real Rider! IMMEDIATELY! It’s how he’s introduced to a new generation of Kamen Rider fans! As a dude who is telling the star of the movie that he’s too soft!

And, y’know, I’d like to write that type of negative interaction off as a ruse, the Showa plan to draw out Badan… but then at the very end of the movie, all of the Showa guys go No, We Actually Do Think All Of You Heisei Guys Are Weak.

I don’t understand why you’d make that your story? Why you’d not only spend an entire film with Showa Riders trying to murder Heisei Riders, but then after you’ve given a little bit of cover to the possibility that the Showa Riders actually respect the Heisei Riders… to then double-down on the Showa Riders looking down their masks at the Heisei Riders? Why? Why?!

And, sure, Gaim saves a flower, because he’d rather die than let the beauty of nature be destroyed (I guess him riding a motorcycle through Helheim Forest didn’t harm the botany?), and now the Showa Riders can see that the Heisei Riders are real heroes, but it’s as borderline inexplicable as everything else in the film.

(I have a headache, so I really don’t want to spend another couple pages complaining about this movie, but I zero percent understand how Fifteen works. How did he get to the land of the dead? Was he dead already? Then why didn’t he disappear at the end when Shu did? Did he just abandon his family at some point? How did he get a Sengoku Driver? Where did the other Rider Lockseeds come from? How did he find the Badan Empire?)

There’s some stuff in here that I actually liked. The themes of how to move on from your grief were smart, in that it’s not a choice between Wallowing or Ignoring; there’s nuance to it, there’s the ability to harness your grief for a better future, to honor someone’s loss by living the life they couldn’t. But the way it’s articulated through Fifteen and Takumi just doesn’t work for me. They’re both stretched so far out of a recognizably human shape that they lose all emotional power. Fifteen’s a deranged madman with limitless power who wants his son to be alive so that he won’t be dead, a scenario that’s so devoid of human connection that I actually had to keep reminding myself that Fifteen had a son. Takumi’s bound up in paralyzing survivor’s guilt for someone who was The Worst, the kind of guy who comes back from the dead to heckle Takumi’s pity. The hooks a story like this needs to draw in a viewer, it’s too absurd to have them. No one here makes a lot of sense.

But the fights are really good!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../krtaisen3.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/.../krtaisen4.png

I only liked two things in this movie.

Tsukasa, obviously. He's done well here.

Second, Shotaro. I liked him going Joker first and facing off against BLACK/RX, I think that was a cool fight. It reminded me of what could've been had Double's final episode not happen. Just Shotaro being alone as Kamen Rider Joker.

I actually really really liked the Takumi-feels-guilty-over-Kusaka stuff in this movie? It might not do the best job of selling the idea of Takumi being guilty over it, but... well, survivor's guilt is a thing! I 100% believe that even in the most positive ending of 555 where he's surrounded by friends, eventually a few years down the line as he just continued living life, those thoughts would enter his head. Getting away from someone like that is extremely difficult -- and that was always Kusaka's whole thing! He is a colossally, irrefutably awful person who still manages to get in your head, still manages to fill you with doubt. And I don't like the idea that this is what would immediately happen after 555 or even a year after, like a V-Cin or something; but as you said this is more than ten years later, so I'm able to buy into this a lot more! I think it's a very well rounded arc for him and that his stuff with Keisuke actually had me thinking at one point that I would absolutely love this if it was just some random 555/X crossover that happened to come out around now. Seeing Kusaka explode into dust two new times is the icing on top of that cake!

... oh, and, uh, there's a whole movie around that as well, isn't there? ... I love this movie! I think, ending fight aside and the general annoying contrived Showa Guys Being Mean plan all throughout aside; it's actually a very good movie and one that's far ahead of anything else SHT managed to churn out (unless you count the spin-offs 4 and 5 get later). I think it's just a fantastic movie tackling the idea of generational differences which expertly parallels that of the Showa/Heisei Riders with that of Fifteen and his son he can't let go of, with a solid string of great characterisation led by Takumi and Tsukasa all throughout.

... It is a shame though, yes, that it has one of if not the stupidest endings I've ever seen in a Tokusatsu movie! Every criticism you've said of it here and that has ever been said I wholeheartedly agree with. It is painful to see what is for me such a solid-at-worst, secretly-possibly-amazing movie end in a downright bad generic fight which feels like it's purely tacked on for the trailers. I love just about everything else in this movie (a characterisation of Takeshi Hongou so bad it made his actor tackle the anniversary movie in a couple years head on himself aside), but on rewatches this always threatens to bring it down.

The thing is, the Showa Riders being all salty and mean IS what breaks the entire movie that I'd have to disagree it being a very good movie.

It screwed with Hongo. He's such a different character from what I remember him as, despite me only watching a few Showa stuff.

No, actually, most of the Showa Riders were out of character, just to justify the happenings of this movie.

I feel like most of the Rider and Rider interaction downtime moments of this movie I enjoyed a decent bit.

Tsukasa and Shotaro were some of my faves though in terms of who showed up.

Other than that... Oh, Yonemura...

They absolutely were! You're entirely right on Takeshi Hongou and all of them being completely out of character. For me though it doesn't break the movie since it's generally a minor part of it and without the ending it's excused as ~part of the plan~. Way better movie without it, but for me it just knocks a few points off against the greater whole of everything else it has to offer

I'm neutral on this movie overall though Decade's brief fight with Fifteen early on was a really funny highlight because the former honestly sounded insecure over the other guy having a higher number. I had never seen any of the Showa riders before this movie, but I didn't need to for me to know there was some serious generalisation and character-assasination going on.

I liked the little 555 bits okay, though I think what would have at least been a better angle is if Takumi's survivor's guilt was for Kiba rather than Kusaka, though there's multiple reasons why that couldn't have happened. (Though even if the movie just decided to go with like archive footage for Kiba, Kusaka is definitely the one character aside from Takumi himself that everyone remembers even a decade later from that show, so I get that it would probably have been an easy decision no matter what.)

Also until I took a quick glance a short moment ago, I had genuinely forgotten Wizard was in this movie.

And it's total bullshit, too. Black spent half of his series moping about his lost brother and my very favorite moment from X is when the AI modeled after X's dad blows itself up because it thinks X has become too attached to it (this is, by the way, approximately 2 minutes after they meet and it takes X's cool underwater base with it).

So I straight up love this movie right up until this point. This is the exact moment where you can tell that someone at Toei said "we should have a movie where the Showa and Heisei Riders fight each other!" and Yonemura obviously had no idea how to work that in organically. It is so blatantly forced, half-assed, and tacked on to what I felt was an otherwise enjoyable movie. The ending of the fight was also decided by a fan vote, which means that there's an alternate ending where Gaim is about to finish off Rider 1, then has a change of heart because of something stupid.

Up until that, though, I am all in on this movie. I really enjoyed the way that it worked in the guest stars, especially with Tsuakasa serving as kind of the marshal of the Heisei Riders. I also like the idea that trying to get the Heisei Riders together is like herding cats while the Showa Riders are much more cohesive as a unit. Shotaro was as fun as always and made a great foil for Kaito. We also got Shun Suguta as Kamen Rider ZX for literally only the second time ever.

My favorite part, though, was the Takumi/Keisuke stuff. It didn't really fit with the show version of Takumi, but I loved seeing the two characters from different eras interacting with each other in ways that weren't just fighting. Even with both being a bit off-model, I'd have loved to see more of this pairing. It also gave us the Haruto cameo, which I love because a) Haruto and 2) it does a much better job than normal of selling the idea that these are all the actual Riders, even though very few of them are ever out of suit.

Seems perfectly in line with the third act of Faiz to me!

Thinking about this for a minute, I feel like this all would have worked much better if Masayuki Izumi hadn't passed away and could have reprised his role as Kiba. Kusaka trolling Takumi from beyond the grave 100% fits him, but the Takumi stuff would have been so much more in-character if he'd been regretting his failure to save Kiba instead.

My biggest issue is that they keep repeating thst Showa and Heisei can't mixed when like that ignores the last 5 years worth of crossovers where that same thing decrying happens. And even after this movie ignores and have Showa and Heisei work together. The worst part is that most of these were made by Shirakura and Yonemura.

I feel like, even compared to the Rider vs. Sentai movies, this film definitely got hit with the "we need to pair up two significant groups with strong and passionate fanbases that we'll rile up in the most controversial and contrived manner possible for ticket sales" gimmick.

I always did find it kind of amusing that Gaim focused so much on the Riders as "Armored Rider" concept and in this movie suddenly they have to deal with Kamen Riders and the "Heisei Rider" and "Showa Rider" divide.

Also, Faiz was my first Rider, he's my favorite Rider...but did they really need to retcon how Kusaka died?