It’s another night of inactivity, making it perfect for a Knight. Or rather…

Androzani84 watches Gridknight Fight, Parts 2-3

Doing a double post, since as mentioned last time, these are pretty short.

Anyway, we continue where the last one left off, with Gridknight about to lay into Alexis Kerib for seemingly kidnapping Nidaime… or he would, if he wasn’t suddenly stopped and beaten up… by Anti?

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The announcer fills us in on who Anti is, as the kaiju fights and beats up his evolved form. Eventually, Alexis shows up again to laugh at the scene… causing Gridknight to send him scarpering by summoning the Gridknight Caliber… and throwing it at him (and not like a flying blade, either. Alexis literally gets hit with the hilt of the sword)

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And then it turns out that “Anti” is actually Nanashi B in disguise.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G03xEU0X...jpg&name=small

This, rather than making the fight even more one-sided, just gives Gridknight enough resolve to end the fight and the epusode by throwing this dummy off a cliff.

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Part 3 begins with Knight searching the quarry for Alexis with no results.

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Because it turns out that Alexis is stood right behind him.

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A rematch ensues, but this is interrupted as Anti and Nanashi B appear to double team Gridknight.

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After a while, the two kaiju inexplicably decide to turn on each other! Over who gets to kill Gridknight.

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The fighting evidently gets so boring that Alexis falls asleep.

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And Gridknight himself takes advantage of the infighting to turn the tides by summoning the reason I didn’t cover all of this at once: the Dynamic Cannon.

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After a long POV shot of the fireball he unleashes chasing the two fleeing kaiju until they explode, Alexis wakes up, as part 3 ends with Gridknight preparing for the final showdown.

To be concluded… at the next lull.

Amazing stuff! Thanks for the recap!

SSSS.DYNAZENON EPISODE 11 - “WHAT WISH CAN’T COME TRUE?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon11a.png

It’s a melancholy aftermath to Episode 10, where our cast of heroes largely looks to an uncertain future with a mixture of hope and trepidation, as our ostensible villains confront an aimless future with anger and ennui. Also, a giant monster and a giant robot show up briefly at the end!

This one was kind of a mixed bag for me, despite being a staunch advocate for this show’s laconic rhythms and heavy emphasis on the minutiae of relationships. It’s a little hard to invest in a concept like How Will The Cast Move Forward After Defeating Their Foes And Saving The World when there are a whole two episodes left, and not even a show that spends a delightful amount of frames on Yume enjoying a poolside churro is going to just sprawl out into a two-episode epilogue of Koyomi getting his resume updated. Clearly, we are in for some actual toku action and storytelling.

Said toku action and storytelling naturally revolved around Gauma and the Kaiju Eugenicists, as 1) everyone else pretty much processed their way through their traumatic obstacles last time out, give or take some final steps; and 2) Gauma’s backstory is still kind of thin on details, and his present is the only possibility that could provide a suitably epic framework in which to conclude this season. (Again, Koyomi’s potential job interviews are a little low-key, even for this show.) Gauma’s princess is maybe still out there somewhere, and Dynazenon’s arrival is a bit of a question mark. Gauma’s what this show is betting on for its conclusion, for better or worse.

I didn’t love that part of this episode? It’s fine, in its mixture of stakes (Gauma’s revival as a human has him on death’s door) and legible drama (Sizumu has been slowly evolving into a more coherent threat, and he’s diametrically opposed to Gauma), but we’re still slowly doling out little bits and pieces of Gauma, and I just can’t see him as clearly as the other cast members, which is frustrating to say in the penultimate episode of the season. I enjoy Gauma’s energy, and I like how he plays off of the other characters, but I don’t get him, in a fundamental way. I don’t feel emotionally invested in his foggy past, or his prophetic present, or his anger, or his sacrifice. With him, I feel like I’m watching a show, instead of being sucked into a story.

Like, I was a thousand percent more invested in Chise’s story of going back to school, and having to process saying goodbye to Goldburn. It’s such an intriguing and unique way of looking at self-improvement – wondering if there’s something valuable in the person you’ve just grown out of, and if the ways you coped with trauma still have use as you’ve theoretically outgrown them. It’s this episode’s metaphorical exploration of how we keep our troubled past as a testament to our strength, instead of shrugging it off as poor choices and psychological damage. The friendships these characters made were a way to pull them out of dark places, but that doesn’t mean they stop needing that support; we are never fixed, even as we keep working on ourselves, which is kind of beautiful. Chise doesn’t not need Goldburn just because she’s able to move on from her past, anymore than Yume doesn’t need Yomogi, or Gauma doesn’t need the team, or all of the rest. Seeing all of that through the lens of a kid incorporating all of herself into a quest for a happy future was way more my speed than a deteriorating mummy (?) struggling to rally against a 5000-year old monster rancher.

But, as always, maybe not how everyone else is seeing this show! I think the Gauma scenes are looped-in on this episode’s discussion of what we do with the parts of ourselves we’ve outgrown, or don’t need as keenly, but I like it better when it comes from a little girl trying to reclaim herself from fear, or two teens making a go of it when they spent years disconnecting from things, or a young man asking himself what his strengths are, like a resume was the judgment of the gods. For as slow as this episode might’ve been, I love it the most when it’s willing to indulge itself.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon11b.png

Probably the most notable episode for me, but rather than go through the faff of saying it again here, I?ll just quote what I said on the other guy?s thread to start us off.

And since I made that post, I?ve learned that the monster in question is called Gagular, after the Caligula effect, a psychological term referring to the guilt and excitement that comes after doing something that a person isn't supposed to do. (Named for Emperor Caligula, the Roman Emperor who ran the country into the ground through his incompetence and insanity. He got parodied on the Simpsons, with the parody also having irrational dislike for foreigners and people believing him to be a potential great leader since he was born into wealth. But there?s no obvious reason for an American show in the new 20s to add such traits to a tyrannical dictator s/)

And rather than any of Studio TRIGGER?s design crew, they got Masayuki Gotoh, the head designer at Tsuburaya, to design Gagula. He deliberately made it so it would be too complex to be made as a real suit? and then they went and made one anyway.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FB5aUhlU...jpg&name=large

FUNimation made SimulDub viewers wait two weeks for this episode.

Very cool! Thanks!

I'm sorry to hear that!

Exactly how fundamental are we talking here? Like, with all the information you've been given about Gauma in 11 episodes -- and not just the factoids told about a backstory, but all the things demonstrated from how he acts, the way he carries himself, *all* that -- is there at least some level on which you've been able to read into his character by now?

No? I swear I am not trying to be argumentative here, or obstinate, or unwilling to engage with the text of the show. I am also very much not claiming that the text is treating Gauma like some opaque cipher or anything. I also -- because I feel like people really like Gauma, and very much do not like it when I don't have strong feelings towards Gauma's backstory or motivations -- completely acknowledge that this is me not connecting with the material, not some obvious or glaring flaw in the show.

But no? I don't feel like I get him beyond the most surface aspects of his character, and the interactions he has with the cast. I just constantly slide off of his part of the story, to a degree where I can't read anything in particular into it, or find a metaphorical reading that speaks to me or my life experiences. He's a character in a story to me, and the story's fun, but I don't have any additional feelings about him beyond that.

I am very sorry if this is infuriating or a huge letdown!

I'm not seeing why being any sort of deep or complex is a requirement, exactly?

Just enjoy him for what he is, if you can.

I think I am?

No, it's fine, and I'm sorry I'm inadvertently creating some undue pressure on you by harping on about this. It's just kinda fascinating, because Gauma is a character where the blanks are so obvious and easy to fill in for me that I almost kinda forget a lot of what I'm perceiving is subtext? That is, I do have this little gut reaction deep down that kinda *wants* to be infuriated about this, but then I immediately realize I'm mostly just grateful to see another perspective for how that gives me pause to further consider my own. Which I think is like the whole mission statement of a forum for discussion, so again, please don't beat yourself up about it.

SSSS.DYNAZENON EPISODE 12 - “WHAT WAS I ENTRUSTED WITH?”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon12a.png

It’s fitting, for a show about how we help each other be our best selves by working together and caring about one another, that the final episode is really two halves working in unison to conclude our narrative with the balance of grace and bravado that defined it.

The first half is all thrilling declarations and city-scale pyrotechnics, as our heroes reconcile with our villains and power through to a better tomorrow. It’s the best part of the fight to me, all of those little moments between the Kaiju Eugenicists and the Dynazenon team. Juuga relentlessly exposits his motivations to Gauma, who is no longer willing to accept responsibility for Juuga’s obsessions or resentments, and answers Juuga’s accusations with a rousing uppercut. Mijuna can’t see past her failures into the possibility of change – the ultimate irony for the Kaiju Eugenicists, their continual stasis from 5000 years ago to the modern day – and Koyomi accepts his role in denying her her dream, while also liberating himself from the need to live his life for someone else’s freedom, learning his lesson from Episode 10. And Yume and Yomogi are of one mind, pulling together in the same direction to make sure their friends are supported in the same way those friends supported them. It’s this show’s whole ethos brought to life, where the people around us right now are more important than the mistakes we’ve made, or the ways we’ve been hurt in the past; it’s a hand helping you up, rather than pulling you down.

And then Gauma dies, because he sort of has to. He’s like Dynazenon – a part of the story that was here to heal a group of people, and that’s done now. Gauma wasn’t revived to pilot a robot or defeat kaiju or reunite with a princess, he was revived to get a second chance at making friends. He did that. These people didn’t need him to follow their credo or push others away, like the Kaiju Eugenicists did, they just needed him to let them in, and care about them in return. This was his Episode 10 story, but as the entire series: connecting with a different group of friends.

I like that for Gauma, in the end. I liked that this was a show that took four human characters – Yume, Yomogi, Koyomi, Chise – and blew their tiny, personal stories up into grand Giant Robot adventures, while it took Gauma’s expansive multi-millennial story of epic tragedy and monster apocalypses and turned it into a story about a guy who missed having friends. The inversion of that formula between the poles of this story, that worked for me. I’m good with that.

And I’m especially good with our extended epilogue, that looks at the loss of Gauma as nothing to run from, because that heartbreak just affirms the characters’ ability to appreciate what they have. It’s not about life going on, it’s about letting the good and the bad change us into people that are better prepared to help ourselves in the future, which allows us the strength to help each other. It’s individual pilots combining into something bigger than themselves, which is a metaphor I think we all could use these days. I’m glad this show made it feel so precious and earned.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...nazenon12b.png

If you’ve seen a white Dynazenon on the net with a different chest plate and helmet and the dinosaur mode feet, this episode is why (namely, Gagula evolves into evil Dynazenon).

And to invoke the rule of three in my overall thoughts on the episode, to quote myself twice over, that episode left me with more questions than answers.

If one of the questions was "Why didn't the producers let us see Koyomi biffing 21 different interviews", I am right there with you!

I'll try not to rant for too long, as despite my gripes with Dynazenon as a whole, I'm not here to rain on the parade of anyone who loves the show for what it is.

Speaking solely for myself, this episodes left me with alot of mixed feelings back when I first saw it, and I still feel conflicted about it even now. Because even if I hadn't felt this way back during episode 4, this finale very much solidifies that Dynazenon never had my specific tastes in mind.

And the moment that symbolizes it very clearly to me is the part where Juuga begins to exposit more about the KE, and Gauma tells him to shut up. Which to me signified that the minds behind Dynazenon never planned to tell a condensed, coherent story from the getgo. And whether or not that's for the better, well, I won't give any sort of demand on that.

But the big thing is that, while I don't out and out hate the cast, I never really super liked them either, and that was made all the more annoying with the multiple episodes of "Man, are the KE really so bad?"

The answer we'd eventually get is "No, they're fine" if Super Robot Wars is anything to go by. Wherein not only do the KE get to live, you even get to recruit them to the side of heroes wherein they get to pilot their own version of Dynazenon called "Relive." Some might support that decision, but I most certainly do not. Regardless of the fact that the SRW series is known for turning some mecha villains around.

You can see Dynazenon Relive in action here, if you're curious:

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

Yeah, I think this is a show where, like... if Gauma is the main character for you, I don't know if a lot of this show works. Gauma goes on a bit of an emotional journey in this series, but it isn't really interested in interrogating the specifics of that journey. Clarifying Gauma's story is like clarifying the Dynazenon robot's story, in that it just doesn't seem to be the story the producers wanted to tell.

Conversely, when viewed through the lens of Yume, Yomogi, Chise, and Koyomi going through the crucible of this series in order to come out the other side as better people, I think a lot of that lack of emphasis on the more fantastical elements of the story is a bit more forgivable. It's a show that's almost laser-focused on Yume and Yomogi in particular, with the exterior concentric circles of Koyomi, Chise, Gauma, and the K.E. becoming more additive to the Yume and Yomogi stories than anything else.

But, yeah, probably not going to be what you want to hear if Gauma was your POV character. I really appreciate you sharing your perspective, though! This was considered and interesting reading!

Way too many things I remember strongly from this finale to talk about right now. Perhaps chief among them is the phrase かけがえのない不自由, from Yomogi's conversation with Sizumu at the end, which is once again some insanely specific and nuanced word choice, and I think a lot of that gets lost in the subtitles' "irreplaceable bonds", which settles for bluntly getting the broad point across and trusting the rest to the larger context of the whole scene, which, you know, fair, I guess, because it's a tricky couple of words, and also a very good scene that'll probably get a viewer the rest of the way there.

I am for sure a fan of that scene! It's such a great distillation of the conflicting viewpoints of Sizumu and Yomogi, and how each of them is viewing the events of the series in diametrically opposed ways. Sizumu sees the bonds between people as necessary to get you to the point where you can figure yourself out, at which point those people are simply holding you back; they're a booster rocket, and then they're an anchor. But to Yomogi, figuring yourself out is most useful in preparing you to form bonds with other people; the point of self-improvement is to make you more able to connect with others. That scene is both of them being frustrated at the other's inability to see how they're each getting it backwards, which causes them to talk past each other.

And it's all symbolized through these infinite bars, which to Yomogi are This Is How I Reach You, This Is How We Connect, but to Sizumu, they're This Is Why I Can't Reach You, This Is A Prison.

Really good scene!

THREAD WRAP-UP

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And that’ll do it for “Kamen Rider Die watches SSSS.Gridman and SSSS.Dynazenon”! Thanks so much to everyone who came by to share their thoughts on both shows!

I’m pretty happy with how this turned out? I enjoyed the writing a lot more than normal – both the process and the result. I sort of focused more on that part of the experience, rather than treating it as a means to an end. Definitely made for a more enjoyable thread. For me, at least. Hopefully it worked for other people!

As a result, let’s keep this rolling with "Kamen Rider Die rewatches Kamen Rider Fourze" in January 2026. We’ll see if I can keep more of a steady pace than this time (the last couple weeks REALLY got away from me), but regardless, I look forward to revisiting the kids of the KRC alongside whoever makes their way to this side of the message boards.

Thanks again for giving me a space to talk about these shows! See you in 2026!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ssss/wrapb.png

Skipping Gridman Universe, huh?

I guess! I don't know what that is!

It's the movie finale to the franchise. You can watch it legally on CrunchyRoll if you're interested. It's like 2 hours long.

Oh! Okay. I will... try to fit that in sometime over the next week?

To build up to it, they did compilation movies for both shows that ended with an entirely new scene to lead into Universe.

The Gridman anthology ends with Yuta waking up and being greeted by Utsumi and Rikka.

And the Dynazenon movie ends with Koyomi disappearing from his bathtub mid-conversation with Chise.

So, and I get the feeling the answer to this is connected to the bit in this post about your writing process being different this time, but what made you decide to skip doing the usual series wrap-up posts?

Mostly just that these were such short series, and I felt like the final episode write-ups hit most of the points I’d want to talk about. With something that runs for 40-50 installments, I’d have more ground to cover; with an even dozen, I think it’s already there.

That makes a lot of sense actually!

Oh, and since you've already been informed about the movie, I'll be the one to mention that the voice dramas are absolutely worth checking out at some point, probably on your own time more than for writing anything about. (And I'm assuming they're subbed somewhere here?)

If you were invested in the mundane antics of these characters, I think you'd have plenty of fun with all those 5-ish minute skits released alongside the episodes to fill in the fringes of the shows' worlds in ways so minor and personal even the shows themselves didn't feel it was worth breaking the flow of the story for. Sure, Dynazenon thought you needed to see Yume eating that churro for a week straight (or however long that scene ran), but the voice dramas are the only place you'll find the unabridged version of Koyomi's awkward attempts at small talk in episode 6 of that series, or get to know what it's like when Akane, Anti, and Alexis Kerib all try to decide on a place to eat at... or heck, for that matter, what it's like when Yomogi and his dad try to decide on a place to eat at, because even the goofy voice dramas are full of rhymed scenarios and lines of dialogue, and without that knowledge, how are you gonna recognize when that stuff subtly spills into the actual animated parts of this franchise?

Talk about Voice Dramas and I will appear. Because despite expositing about them before to some people involved in this thread, no one I guess linked the resource I've brought up in the past?

I only get involved in watch-a-long threads in very specific circumstances nowadays so this will be the only post I make. Here is a link to a site that has the transcripts for every Voice Drama so far (I think we're getting more soon?)

You have the 11 Voice Dramas that aired after the first 11 episodes of each series. 4 Voice Dramas that were included with each Blu-Ray release for both series. 1 that was a bonus for each compilation film. And once you get past Gridman Universe, 3 voice dramas (1 film bonus and 2 home video bonuses)

https://barnnn.blogspot.com/p/ssssgr...ce-dramas.html

Please enjoy

Very cool! I appreciate the heads-up, both of you! I will bookmark this for later in the year!

Well, I’ve got some time, so I might as well wrap this up.

Androzani84 Watches Gridknight Fight Part 4

So we start where we left off last time, with Alexis having swapped out for his stunt double offscreen.

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And Knight tosses the Dynamic Cannon aside to grab Caliber for this battle.

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The fight soon turns in Alexis’s favour, until a familiar face emerges from a convenient power line… it’s Gridman, who chooses to manifest as Primal Fighter.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1Zv8wCX...jpg&name=small

After a rousing speech we don’t get to hear (Gridman’s VA costs money. Not crazy bring-Ryotaro-back-for-a-short-cameo money, but money nonetheless), Knight gets powered up enough to finish Alexis off with the Dynamic Cannon.

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And then Knight starts griping that he didn’t find Nidaime… who promptly comes running.

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And she reveals exactly why she vanished: she went to pick up a new set of glasses.

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https://pbs.twimg.com/media/G1Zv-GzX...jpg&name=large

And that’s the end.

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Final thoughts: Overall this mini was a fun, if not particularly deep, delve back into live action, even if some elements didn’t necessarily translate well outside of the anime format.

It's always nice to take a trip to the quarry. Thanks so much for sharing this!

GRIDMAN UNIVERSE

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ssss/universea.png

It is amazing to me that, after years of watching Kamen Rider, and seeing what felt like a million movies where they cross over different expressions of the franchise to muddled if not diminished results, that an animated movie I literally didn’t even know existed a week ago would somehow be the best inter-franchise toku movie I’ve maybe ever seen.

It starts with how smartly this film took what SSSS.Gridman was best at – talking about how we learn about ourselves through toku, and in turn how we reveal ourselves through our toku fandom – and weds it to what SSSS.Dynazenon was best at – talking about how we only become our best selves by connecting with other people, and the compounding of those connections is how we find happiness. There’s a threat in this story that starts mundane and becomes metaphorical, that can only be resolved by making as many friends as possible. This movie uses Gridman to talk about Dynazenon, and then Dynazenon to talk about Gridman. It’s perfect, that engine. Best goddamn way to use these two casts.

Just… that moment when Yuta has to go outside of Gridman Universe (the story) to see the scope of it, to understand that it’s a story Gridman’s telling about them, made up of the story they’ve been telling about Gridman… I love stuff like that? I loved the way SSSS.Gridman foregrounded toku fandom, and how we tell stories to make sense of our world, so you know I’m in the bag for a movie where the connective tissue is the cast of Gridman writing a play about Gridman. (I mean, it’s no TV series adaptation of their adventures, but these are just kids! They got no budget!) It’s all them processing their shit through Gridman – Rikka, mostly, but Yuta as well – and it’s the literal text of this story. We are big screen now, and it’s time to push the subtext into the biggest, boldest conception of the themes and messages of these shows.

Which, y’know, helps to have the cast of Dynazenon here, too! While their job here is a little more Unfinished Business amongst their own cast, owing to the messiness of their show’s conclusion versus the cleanliness of SSSS.Gridman’s, their presence is the power of their show, brought to bear on the dilemma of collapsing narratives and chaotic guilt. “It’s fun with more people around,” as a main theme. Gridman’s power is that he’s a story that the kids can tell about him; this movie just adds more voices, more perspectives, more ideas to the mix. Gridman’s power-up at the end is basically that there’s no story you can’t tell with toku, no such thing as tonal dissonance, and everyone here proves that.

Also: Holy shit this thing was just a blast to watch! The new designs for old characters were uniformly great (Gauma/Rex and Chise S-Tier, everyone else really good), the action was continuously appealing, the various weirdo sequences were jaw-dropping (Yuta outside the Gridman Universe! THE LIVE-ACTION PARTS!!!), every good song showed up somewhere, the jokes were reliably perfect (Chise losing it at Access Flash killed me), and I genuinely could’ve watched this thing for another two hours. I cannot believe how good this movie was.

I was honestly sort of trepidatious about watching this? SSSS.Gridman’s ending was so tight it was practically hermetically-sealed, while SSSS.Dynazenon’s ending was elliptical and open to interpretation – I sort of didn’t want to see a continuation of either one, for completely opposite reasons. And yet, this movie not only worked in its own right as a thrilling adventure that beautifully wedded two different shows’ messages in a way where they felt like one cohesive statement, but it honored where each of those shows ended by shining them up just a little bit with some sweet grace notes: Yomogi and Yume are doing well, and he brings her to meet his family; Gauma and the Princess reconnect sweetly -slash- in the most ridiculous way possible, but just for her to tell him to stop living in the past; Akane helps her friends, the way they helped her once; and Rikka and Yuta finally tell each other how they feel. It’s not massively evolving or undoing or explaining or inverting anything from either show (you could seriously skip this movie and you’d be fine on both shows), but instead it feels like a charming and inessential epilogue – little moments that reflect their successes, nothing more. It’s what these shows did best: finding the mundane in the extraordinary, to find the extraordinary in the mundane.

This was such a treat to get to watch. What a gift this was to fans of both shows, and toku in general.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/ssss/universeb.png

Kamen Rider Die watching Gridman Universe:

https://i.imgur.com/xK6CaGE.png

Fish Sandwich watching Gridman Universe:

https://i.imgur.com/zywNLHo.jpg

DreamSword watching Gridman Universe:

https://i.imgur.com/XKgO6BP.jpg

Have to say, I probably wasn’t expecting them to reveal Knight and Nidaime were simply clones of Anti and Kaiju Girl, but in retrospect, it probably makes some amount of sense.

Also I like Rogue Kaiser Gridknight mostly because it fixes my biggest gripes with Kaiser Gridknight. Less keen on Knight Powered Zenon, due to how weird the head looks.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iMbYo8X_...ioaA8An1b5Fn-A

(There’s no Sounderous Battle Mode in that video because that toy is only coming out this month)

Also, I didn’t do it when DreamSword watched the movie (focusing a bit too much on a subtle hint that everything was going wrong), so I’ll include references to the OG Toku here.

The fortune teller on Utsumi’s horoscope flier is a traced screenshot from a fortune telling game featured in the episode “The Day Earth Died” (and its Syber Squad adaptation Que Sera Servo).

The CG model seen when Anti and Kaiju Girl explain the Gridman universe is taken from the first episode of the original show, with Gridman taking his form and name from said model.

Also referencing the first episode, our final boss Mad Origin is a homage to Gilarus, the monster from that episode, even down to sharing the same VA (specifically, before being a mindless monster, Gilarus was the protagonist of an online video game, Monster Gilarus’s Torture Dungeon, who the local misanthrope repurposed as a computer virus).

Utsumi’s shirt near the end features on screen computer text from the original show, most evident with the fact it read “Inoue Yuka” (the show’s female lead).

There’s also a novelisation of this movie, and it’s kind of a once a thread thing for me to explain interesting tidbits from it. Most notably, it reveals that Yuta’s first thought upon waking up and being told he’d spent two months possessed by an Ultraman like being was to think he was being pranked (then he realised Rikka woudlnt prank him like that and checked the date), and has Gridman and DynaSoldier fight off the Noirdogma horde using their individual combos (Max Gridman and Striker Combine, Buster Gridman and Diver Combine and Sky Gridman and Wing Combine) before doing the big ones.

And finally, before I do the casting trivia, I’ve already mentioned two of our monsters are Mad Origin and Noirdogma, but the other two are Dimorgan and Domgiran. I’ll let you figure out the theme naming.

In terms of casting:

Maya Uchida (the Princess) previously portrayed Hiroyo Hakase in adult-oriented Sentai Hikonin Sentai Akibaranger, in addition to performing the ED to both SSSS shows.

Nobotoshi Canna (Mad Origin)in addition to the aforementioned Gilarus, was also Giant Beast Hunter Bangray in Doubutsu Sentai Zyuohger.

Neat! Thanks!

Music to my ears. :rock:
Now, go watch the 1993 toku. :lolol
Just kidding, I'm really glad you enjoyed Gridman: Universe, though. I remember watching it and thinking this is just like a really satisfying Kamen Rider Movie Taisen flick.

Gridman Universe means way more to me on a deeply personal level than I can possibly get across in any condensed fashion, so rather than even attempt to do that, I'll instead simply focus on trying to enrich the experience of Die and anyone else reading the thread by adding further context to some of the things in the film.

For starters, the music video for the theme song is basically mandatory viewing. (It even comes with subtitles!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m4vjI6InDJM

The song itself is great, of course. Doing the same thing UNION did where the lyrics cleverly speak literally about the story while at the same time speaking to the potentially quite jaded target audience. Yuuta forgot about Gridman; you maybe forgot about the wonder of imagination, that sort of thing. It's an extremely uplifting tune, and the video makes for a great way to remind yourself over and over and over again of any good times you had with these shows and this movie. It also goes much much further than just that, because it was personally directed by Akira Amemiya himself, which absolutely shows in how detailed the choice of images gets. In particular, the entire thing is constantly highlighting the many times shots in these projects are quoting one another, complete with a speedrun montage of all those Dynazenon backgrounds that were secretly just Gridman backgrounds the whole time, and many other moments you'd have to be pretty hardcore to notice totally on your own. So it's even handy as a study guide, worth going through frame-by-frame at points, on top of simply being a fantastic way to celebrate the franchise.

And while we're on the subject of the quotes in these things, there's one in particular that's a great example of what the actual purpose of them can be as a storytelling tool, beyond simply being a reference for the sake of it. In the final episode of the original Gridman, the very last shot consisted of the main characters standing on a hill, looking off into the distance and expressing their thanks to the titular hero for everything he's done.

https://i.imgur.com/LbpqPB7.jpg

In Gridman Universe, the scene where Gridman leaves is set on the same exact hill, and framed almost the same way.

https://i.imgur.com/0C2TShc.jpg

...but it's the parts that *aren't* the same that are important to note. They're both scenes about saying goodbye to Gridman, but they're also mirrored images, because in the live action show, the sun is setting, drawing the adventure to a close, whereas in Universe, the sun is rising, which I think connects to how the goodbye in this context is now more of a new beginning, a "see you later" that reflects the overall nature of this particular story, which is in part actively about how creative works infinitely inspire further creative works. Maybe that all seems like a stretch to some people, but even though my exact reading of it is entirely my own, the sunrise/sunset thing itself is something I know for a fact was intentional, because I heard it straight out of the director's own mouth.

That's the magic of it all. Everything works well enough on its own without any wider reading, but knowing more about where some of these things come from can add further meaning that makes a good story that much better. The first time I saw this movie, it had been long enough since I'd watched the original Gridman that I didn't realize the play Ustumi and Yuuta see is a recreation of a specific episode of the old show, but not only did I catch it after rewatching everything, I realized that particular episode is kind of a microcosm of the broader plot of the show, which was also the broader plot of SSSS.Gridman. Which is neat, just like how that guy on the motorbike who helps Yuuta go meet Gridman is another voice cameo for the actor of Gridman's original protagonist Naoto, this time even quoting his own character from his show's first episode, calling attention to how the story beat is basically the old hero coming in to save the day without having to derail the plot by making that too concrete or explicit.

Really, the references alone could already provide me enough material to keep talking about for a good while. Another particular highlight is a recurring background character with a design that sticks out way too much for a mere extra... because apparently she's actually a refugee from a completely different concept for the film's plot they ended up abandoning to do what we got instead, which, like... just think about that fact alongside what the finished plot ended up being about.

Again, the specifics are way too much to get into, because there are just that many layers to even seemingly inconsequential details, whether they involve references or not. Heck, I could do a whole 12-part analysis of my own just on how cute Yuuta is in this thing, if I really wanted to. I was profoundly moved by this film, to say the least. It's so intricately crafted in a way that made me immediately go watch it again, because it's like every single shot is entertaining in its own right, and as I just spent paragraphs talking about it, it's the kind of film that only gets more entertaining the more familiar you are with it, rather than less. It inspired me to go watch all the previous shows again, it helped inspire me to get back to posting on this forum again, it just inspires me in general, really? The whole movie is such a sincere expression of gratitude, and it makes me grateful right back, even if I can't express it anywhere near as well as they can.

It really is, even if they sort of invert the normal Rider crossover thing of having the newer cast get stranded in the older cast's setting, and the wraparound plot is all about the older show. But it definitely scratched that itch of seeing weird combinations play off of each other, and it helped highlight how unique each show's cast was. (Like, Yomogi is not just New Yuta! And Yume is not just New Rikka!)

I just watched an entire two-hour movie last night because you guys twisted my arm! Stop giving me more work to do!!!

But, yeah, that was a pretty neat video! (Song's not my fave, but that's just a stylistic thing.)

To your point about the callbacks and whatnot... like, I never saw those old shows, but there's a framing in this movie where I felt like I could always tell that something was a reference, even if I couldn't tell what that reference was. For example, I didn't know who the guy on the bike was for sure, but he's so prominent at that point in the story that I just assumed he was a guy from the original show or something. Same thing with background details that the director spends a little too long on: I assume the chalkboard reference of "Escape From The Killer Vacuum Cleaner!" is from somewhere? It all felt like a nod to hardcore fans, but it never usurped the narrative or anything, so I just appreciated it as a nice thing for someone else. I'm glad it meant so much to people!

This franchise is way too smart for me.