I would've probably figured it out from the file names, but I'm glad to hear they're both entertaining and integral!

Neat! I've never really looked that closely at Violent Emotion before, but that's still nice to see the subtle differences to the suit. Also, I just realize this could be one of the basis for the Reiwa Final Forms.

Oh nothing against W or his inclusion in the movie, since I like W and Begins Night was still very enjoyable and set up my experience with the show proper. And creative (if you can call most of them that) movie finishers are always extremely satisfying to behold.

While I might rate W higher than Decade (depending, I might wait until I've seen more Rider shows first), I definitely agree Decade's endings could have been better, but overall, Decade was still an enjoyable show, not sure if that's just nostalgia or something, but I definitely see that.

Anyway, Zi-O's .5s Episodes are the closest things to Net Movies I've seen (I'll get around to the Decade ones or any others from shows I've completed). And good thing we're preparing Die for Zi-O's "scheduling" since unlike Decade, it's going to be a full season, and not as consistent as the former all things considered.

The .5 episodes are a weird mix of in-universe background and production context. I think they're where I first really wrapped my head around how the early tribute episodes' gimmick worked and it explained some of the guest casting decisions.

Yeah, Decade was doing the whole "Base Form but better" thing before it was cool and I think it's still the best example of the concept! Violent Emotion is truly an intimidating form representing Decade's nature as the Destroyer of Worlds, as he becomes like an inescapable grim reaper to any Rider who's unlucky enough to be in his proximity. The only downside is that it makes Complete seem pointless.

Sorry if I was unclear, 6/19 means my sixth favorite out of 19 Heisei Rider shows that I've watched. So I also prefer W to Decade.

Decade was an enjoyable show for sure and even though I agree with pretty much everybody about how lame the ending was, I can't help but appreciate the journey. Maybe that nostalgia bias is also affecting my judgement, but it's hard for me to hold it against Decade the same way I would hold it against Hibiki or EX-Aid for similar problems. There's something about Decade, in how open-ended it is, that keeps the journey moving and fresh.

I think the only thing this list is missing is "Kamen Rider Blade: The Joker's Path" which takes place before episode 29 of Zi-O. Although it is a Drama CD, so I dunno if Die would be down for it.

PLEASE Watch Shinkenger and Kamen Rider Black. :lolol

Don't sweat it, I probably should have realized this beforehand (who scores 1 out of 19? :lol).

Only saw the two episodes of Hibiki, courtesy of Toei Tokusatsu World (still need to get around to some of the others), and Ex-Aid, have yet to see the True Ending Trilogy. I'm currently considering Den-O or Gokaiger for my next Toku binge after Code Geas.

Well, there can be a villainous central character, and there can be unscrupulous approach to achieve one's goals, and not everything has ties to moral lesson... but I guess if, Tsukasa is OOC here, then go ahead criticizing this part, because yeah being a jerk =/= being (anti-)villainous, and I'd be also more critical on OOC depictions of a character (including when it's portrayed as joke moments too though); or anything unfaithful to the source material (except if it's on purpose to improve). Though Tsukasa's attitude here still flows well IMO on his usual, albeit of course acting differently including to his friends such as throwing away the camera with.. ehem.. violent emotion. Albeit probably it's just his great acting despite the setting here. I feel like this 'teaches' the end justifies the means mindset, with how Tsukasa kills all the Riders, but it makes the world better at the end, which'd mean you have to be completely ruthless on your mission to do the greater good, and that humane traits like emotion are just weakness. Unfortunately, though Tsukasa can be OOC here, this is what people can argue about heroes being "actually bad" (if pitted against well-intentioned extremist baddie), that they only hinder the "actual hero" (said extremist)'s plan to make the world better; end justifies the means ofc, doesn't matter what atrocities the extremist had done.

For the Wataru explanation, I never got a sense that this'd be a Build-like ending of unifying worlds though, the premise iirc is always only about keeping the world getting destroyed, and this time Earth crashing into each other only means their destruction instead of unifying like Build (logical :p), I guess this is the new reveal instead of more explanation about previous stuff, as it wasn't explained about the end part of the rider battle. As usual though, there are arguments of Onodera just starting that the Ultimate form is weaker, but it's a punching bag again to Decade, albeit Violent Emotion is also considered as one of the stronger Riders (outside of that certain one). Other than that, there's a new flavor of Decade Complete's ability here where he calls out all previous Riders in their Ultimate form at once, instead of just calling one.

I guess the explanation of how everyone comes back is similar to Tsukasa here.... as other Riders "died" just like Tsukasa.

Didn't you think that the asshole term means if someone is malicious? Otherwise true Natsumi is one of Riders, and it's probably canon if this is the continuation of the TV ending. Still wonder why Natsumi didn't henshin when she's together with Kaitou against the Shockers. Probably that way, it means that Natsumi.. still can't fight outside of the suit? Usually Riders after fighting for a while with a suit can fend off mooks just fine, and it's also seen in Kaitou. For wanting the movie to stuck on that story... I wonder what's the execution you'd want for Natsumi being the one to stop Decade.... killing Decade before he kills other Riders? Kinda totally different outcome that it means Decade didn't win, and it feels like Natsumi submits to Narutaki's propaganda instead of keep her faith on Tsukasa...

I don't really love plotting out better/more appealing stories. I try to keep criticisms to the material, and where I think the material goes astray. I don't... I'm not a fanfic guy. There's what happened, and it's either good or bad. I liked it or I didn't.

That said, I think you can do a story where Tsukasa brings in his friends on his plan, and it still ends up with Natsumi having to physically stop Tsukasa. Looking at how conflicted and betrayed Onodera is in the movie, that's the template for how you include the regular cast for Decade's plan: they hear out Tsukasa's plan, they're all onboard with the ugly necessity of it, and it eventually becomes something that Tsukasa starts feeding off of. Something where we see the shift from Decade to Violent Emotion, and Natsumi realizes that she has to do something about it. (Onodera wouldn't because he'd just lose, and it's not like Kaitou would ever just shoot Tsukasa in the face or anything stupid like that.) There's plenty of scaffolding in place for that story, if the production team had felt like using it.

It was great to see you get so much out of Decade, Die, even as the series continues to evade any attempt to end in a reasonable and/or satisfying manner. Especially when there are aniversary series out there which take Decade's anniversary concept and manage to be a lot more crowd-pleasing (Gokaiger, it's Gokaiger), this lovable-but-frustrating show still has some unique things that make it stand out. I don't think it'll ever be one of the all-time greats that always gets recommended, but it's interesting how I've seen the atttude on it changed from "Worst of all time" to "It's got some good ideas".

Also you missed Wataru's infamous "Decade has no story" line, 0/10 review.