My best guess? It to simplify Faiz final arc for newcomers. Since the details aren't technically wrong; Faiz fights Orphenoch King, Yuji kill Kusaka it just decide to mash it into one flashback

The reason why the ending with the final fight between the Showa and Heisei guys is the way it is was because the movie doesn't actually have a firm ending. They filmed two endings to the fight, one where Showa wins and one where Hesei wins and put it up to an audience vote as to which to would show. The other ending is included with some fan translations. So there isn't really a set ending that they planned. It was all a popularity contest and not a properly written story element that mattered in the slightest.

It also really wouldn't work to make Takumi feel that guilty the way it originally happened, either, considering he wasn't even there.

I always felt it was just how Takumi himself was remembering it. It's all purely from his perspective and his point of view the way it's presented in the scene rather than an 'objective' flashback, so it's more about what he's focusing on personally

This is another movie I thankfully have a whole prepackaged opinion on, which saves me some time:

I think the key reason, for me, why I don't at all mind how stupid the actual Showa vs. Heisei conflict is boils down to it not ending that way? Which, you know, of course it ends with everyone getting along, but I don't know, there's just something about all those Riders standing on that beach saying that it's cool to truck with Showa and Heisei alike that makes me wanna forgive everything leading up to it. Like I said, I feel this one is maybe more than the sum of its parts. It's got so, so many of those typical dumb Yonemura movie flaws, but it's another one I maintain a notable soft spot for.

I've missed talking to you folks about Kamen Rider!

Shotaro's last appearance, if memory serves. He's typically great in this. He's maybe my favorite Phase 2 Legend Rider guy, for how he always elevates any story he shows up for.

You make some good points! I am always ready for someone to tell me Faiz is better than I think it is.

Like I said, I think the broad strokes of the story are right for Takumi's character (he will inevitably close himself off and think he doesn't deserve happiness!), but I feel like... like there's a story here about Takumi just looking for an excuse not to believe in himself, and the current excuse is Kusaka, but the movie's like No He Really Regrets Kusaka's Death. Like, I think the story Inoue would've told with these pieces would've landed on Takumi's general lack of self-confidence, rather than some real guilt over Kusaka decorating a beach.

However!

As much as I joked about how funny it is that the worst person in the cast is who Takumi is obsessed with... that's almost the point? The point isn't that Takumi bears responsibility, or that there's an absence in Takumi's life he can't get over. (Takumi would be good with Kusaka coming back and then running away forever!) It's that even Kusaka deserves to live more than Takumi, according to Takumi. The point is that Kusaka somehow clears a bar that Takumi can't clear for himself. The story's way flatter if he's pining for Horsepower.

And, again, I'm just seeing the whole Kusaka thing as another weird Takumi deflection. Living is hard. Believing in himself is hard. Without the constant, unceasing support of Mari and Keitaro, Takumi will probably devolve into a guy who stares longingly at a belt he doesn't feel he deserves. Easier to construct a narrative where Kusaka can live his life for him.

Yeah, boy, I'm sort of coming around on this Takumi arc? Can't ever count out Faiz!

Haruto being here, if anything, proves the Showa guys right about the Heisei kids! Haruto constantly has to give other Riders pep talks and tell them not to wallow in their sadness!

It's maybe the best decision this movie made - having Kusaka still be a smirking psychopath, even as Takumi is trying to resurrect him - but it's one that was baffling to me when I was watching Gaim. I could not figure out why Takumi was feeling so guilty about one of his rivals, one who clearly did not mellow in the afterlife. I get it, now! THEY'RE BOTH INOUE CHARACTERS!

Okay Boomer Taisen!

That's how I took it. Some of it is that it's easier to communicate to an audience why Takumi might feel guilty if they can show Faiz and Kaixa in one shot, but a lot of it is Takumi putting himself at the moment of Kusaka's demise so he can feel worse about it. He's torturing himself over something he had nothing to do with, because: Takumi!

Still, it would've been nice if they'd come up with something other than a reversal of their reversal. There's probably some other reason a bunch of dudes could've fought. I'd've even preferred a stakes-free battle of egos between Ichigo and Decade!

For me, it's trying to have its cake and detonate it, too, you know? The Showa guys spend the entire film blaming the Heisei guys for everything, then ten minutes saying Naw We Cool, then five more minutes saying Psych You Suck LOL, then two minutes saying For Real We Cool. I don't... I'm not sure I'd want their friendship after all of that? I definitely feel like they've exhibited the sort of behavior that even Kusaka would find too emotionally manipulative.

This movie felt like a fever dream to me so I don't remember much but I think I vaguely recalled Kyoryu Red and the ToQgers showing up or something?

They do! Fulfilling the absolute bare minimum for a Featuring credit! Kyoryu Red shows up for the big brawl at the end, and he mostly doesn't interact with anyone. The Weird Train Kids also show up to the big brawl at the end, do their Henshin, and form a big robot (with Equally As Involved In This Movie guest-star Den-O Sword Form as the legs) to take out the just-so-happens-to-be-a-giant Showa sub-boss.

It's all very minimal!

I think I did at least like that film more than the Super Hero Taisen movies, even though the Heisei vs Showa thing is a bit exaggerated and irrelevant now that we're not even in the Heisei era and the 2000s shows are not like the 2010s. Takumi's story could have been a bit better but it was at least nice to see what his actor looked like years later anyway!

One of the nice things about Legend Rider appearances in Phase 2 is that, generally, they all have more normal hairstyles. They look like adults now. That's awesome!

I knew I'd get you by telling you "the storyline featuring the Inoue characters was really good when you remember how Inoue wrote them". Your one weakness

I don't really like this movie, but I voted for the canon ending and it's relevant to Faiz, so I feel obliged to talk about it.

I want to agree with you here, since it's definitely in Takumi's nature to blame himself for everything, especially when you have Kusaka telling him he doesn't deserve to live and essentially putting those thoughts in his head (even though the instigating flashback scene isn't even canon to the show!), but I'm inclined to agree with Die on this one. It just feels like Takumi is going through the same moral he already learned. Yeah, he's never going to be totally okay with himself, but there was a point where he found pride and purpose in his role as Faiz, where he found the strength to bear the burden of his sins for the sake of his honorable mission. Kusaka's death wasn't even his fault, so while I can't fault Takumi for feeling the way he does, I feel like his internal conflict is pretty much just there to Justifaiz the Showa Riders' complaints, as an example of unhealthy attachment to the dead. He's there to make the very incorrect Showa Riders look marginally less incorrect, which isn't the best way I'd like one of my favorite Riders to be utilized. Not that I don't appreciate seeing Takumi again, but I think the next Kamen Rider War is a much better showing for him.

I was also surprised by the self-destruction of Jin Base, teaching Keisuke that you're not a real Kamen Rider unless you're always suffering and lonely! Exaggerating a little, but it's more like a form of tough love, pushing him to be more independent and stop being so whiny. After that, he learned to accept his existence as a remodified human. Maybe that's the lesson he wanted to impart on Takumi, to not get lost in his thoughts and focus on the fighting.

For all my criticism of this movie, I love how Haruto was presented here. I've only watched it once, but I fondly recall how he gave his sempai Takumi a punch to open his eyes and asserted that his connection to his dead loved one Koyomi is his hope for the future. Takumi and Haruto were like my favorite protagonists at the time, so seeing them fight together with Keisuke was a highlight for me.

In a way, Takumi did save Kiba though. He saved his humanity and inherited his wish to protect humanity in both humans and Orphenochs. Kusaka died resenting the cruel world that killed him and that's probably what weighed on Takumi's conscience.

I commend your very good taste, Frontier. Regarding the inaccuracy of Takumi's flashback, I do have a headcanon about that, concerning a certain event from the next Kamen Rider War....

I wonder if this movie was an experiment by Toei to determine from the vote which style of Kamen Rider was more popular with the fans, like if Showa had won, maybe future installments would have took more inspiration from that era, but since Heisei was the canon ending, they stuck with formula? I also consider how many Showa voters might have regretted their decision after seeing how their favorite Riders were presented as grumpy old men telling the youth to get off their lawn. Even the slightly better Heisei ending, Kouta protecting the flower feels like Yonemura stole it from Soutarou's action in Gaoranger VS Super Sentai.

I think we can all agree Decade was the best part about this movie.

Sure, it's exactly what happened with Super Hero Taisen, except they really do dislike each other, but there are some things about this movie that I actually did like.

I may not know anything about Faiz, but I did sort of like what they were doing with him, which sort of fits the theme where he in some ways despises himself, making the conflict between the Showa and Heisei Riders fitting in his case. And that's not to say some of the other returning casts didn't have leave a good impression on me. Shotarou was great to see again, along with Haruto, who despite didn't do much in this movie, was still great to see, especially with how well he plays into Takumi's arc. And I will never not be happy to see any of the Showa Riders return, ZX being a little surprising given how little people care about him.

The story with the kid isn't horrible, but not really a favorite, though Fifteen looks great. And of course, we get to see Tsukasa travelling around and starting conflicts (onore Decade!), being his usual self, in which it's every time he appears outside his own series, he absolutely steals the show. The Legend Rider Arms are pretty cool, and it's nice to see Ichigo Themed Power Ups.

But nothing can really redeem the portrayal of the Showa Riders at the finale (it is surprising that there's another ending where the Showa Riders win, and that this was the popular voted ending, thanks guys!), which is even more disappointing compared to the random Sentai cameos, but to be fair, they never really marketed this as a Sentai Vs. Rider Movie. I get they wanted to have the two generations fight, but they could have done a better conflict, rather than just say "You guys are lame. What happened to bugs? You got too many toys. You had it easy." it really takes away from the veterans to have them being grumpy old men with petty reasons to despise the younger generation.

Overall, it's not at all a great movie, but it does have stuff I like about it, since it's always fun to see your favorite Riders appear together, and that's all that matters to me anyway.

I just remembered this but someone on Reddit pointed out a few months ago that the sundae Tsukasa ate in Drupers looks like Decade. It's a cute little detail that I didn't notice when I watched Heisei vs. Showa.

https://i.redd.it/divz3jjfjc751.jpg

Imagine if that got recreated on Binging With Babish. Actually there alot of food in tokusatsu that I want recreated chief of which being Fuuto Fumen Ramen.

I like to think that ZX's appearance here - as a monumentally unhelpful mole - is a tribute to his joke role in the Decade Net-Movies as a sweaty hanger-on, riding Tsukasa's coattails into newfound relevance. He got his wish, I guess!

Almost used that picture in the movie post, since it's a great reveal for Tsukasa entering the story proper. Very cool touch! Also, OH MY GOD is that a gigantic sundae! That would probably serve every Rider in the movie! It's so Tsukasa to order something huge like that, just for himself, and then wander off without finishing it.

KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER DRIVE & GAIM: MOVIE WAR FULL THROTTLE

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...drivegaim1.png

The Gaim portion of this movie was always going to be an uphill struggle. As an epilogue… like, Kouta and Mai became space gods. What could be a threat to them? What story is there left to tell with the title character of Kamen Rider Gaim?

The answers to those questions would turn out to be “Brainiac from Superman” and “Nothing, so let’s do a story about Micchi and Takatora instead”.

Megahex isn’t much of a villain, practically or thematically. This movie’s opening and closing thirds are about the power of individuality, and that’s fine. Megahex is all about homogenization triumphing over messy uniqueness, and the cast of Gaim is a prime example of messy uniqueness. But Megahex is overpowered from the start, a typical post-show villain: if the hero took 50 episodes to get a Final Form, the epilogue movie will immediately make that Final Form look like an HBV suit. Worse, he’s just some robot guy, looking down his robot nose at humanity’s inability to welcome its own destruction/salvation. He’s better than a bunch of movie villains, in that there’s even a token attempt to provide an origin that ties into the show’s backstory, but he’s still not that fun to see operate. There’s, purposefully, not a ton of variation to either his attacks or his personality. You get one fight, but multiple times in a row. Doesn’t make for the most compelling adversary!

That puts all of the pressure on a semi-redemption arc for Micchi and Takatora, and I just don’t feel like there’s a lot there? Despite cameos by Ryouma and Kaito, there’s a real sense of Well Who’s Still Alive to the plotting here. A redemption arc for either Micchi or Takatora is, in theory, the best possible use for a Gaim epilogue. But their utility in this particular story isn’t great, because the villain isn’t really built to say anything about their specific journeys. This is a villain attacking individuality, which doesn’t really mesh well with Pragmatism That Curdles Into Cruelty–

wait

Ha ha, OH SHIT, I get it now. Megahex is just their plan for the Genesis Ark (or whatever it was called) blown up to intergalactic proportions. Okay, yeah, absolutely, I get why Megahex is put up against those two. Wow. Clever plotting!

There’s still some stuff that didn’t work for me, though. Micchi’s story with Mai in the series is unbelievably tricky, and I don’t know that there’s enough time devoted to trying to untangle it. He’s mostly just trying to rescue her as a means of personal salvation, and that’s… I don’t know if that really gets the point of how he hurt her? She never brings it up, but Mai’s relationships with the men of Gaim are so horrifyingly toxic that I feel like Contrite Incel probably looks a lot like real friendship to her.

Also, I just find it super funny that they clearly did not have Kouta for a lot of days in the filming of this movie, and so we got a Gaim epilogue with a very small amount of face-time with The Guy Who Played Gaim. It’s a whole lot of VO for the co-headliner of this movie.

Beyond all that… man, I was all ready to be down on this film for its thematic flimsiness, but they really ended up trying to say something about recognizing your weaknesses, and pushing through them into a place of self-improvement. I have grown to like you, weirdly Gaim-less Gaim portion of this movie!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...drivegaim2.png

This, though! I do not need to convince myself of anything for this Drive story. What a delight!

It’s tough to pick a favorite Phase 2 series. It’s really the sweet-spot for my Kamen Rider fandom: I came in through Ex-Aid, devoured W through Ghost, and then started my TokuNation membership with Ghost and Build. I ended up loving all of them, for different reasons. OOO is usually what I’ll cite as the Best Kamen Rider series; and Ex-Aid will always be my Unimpeachable Kamen Rider series, since it was my first; but, man, Drive might be my favorite?

Shinnosuke is almost definitely my favorite lead Rider. There’s just the right mix of Competence and Weirdness to allow for both propulsive mysteries and comedic interludes. There’s a part in this section of the film where he has to mourn the (definitely not final) death of his crime-fighting partner - a talking belt named Mister Belt - and it is heartbreaking. He is so present, emotionally, for every single scene in the film, no matter how ridiculous they might seem. He’s the most committed actor in the story; and he’s the most charismatic, as well. You’re just rooting for him, you know?

And the Drive Team is such a memorable selection of weirdos, where everyone contributes to Drive’s success. This isn’t some coffee shop or other coffee shop (I genuinely could not think of a non-cop shop, non-coffee shop example), this is a collection of trained individuals who all have applicable skills. They all have a reason to be in the story, which is… not a guarantee!

So, boy, this was a real delight, getting to spend time with a Drive adventure. And it’s a good one! It’s Cop Toku Hero versus Thief Toku Anti-Hero, an idea that would never again be dealt with in tokusatsu. I don’t know that the ensuing story is any great shakes – the “mystery” doesn’t exactly play fair, but it barely matters – but the bones of this are terrific.

A ton of it is in the iconography. Ultimate Lupin! I mean, if you need a thief, there’s your guy. Kamen Rider Lupin is a dazzling costume, a fun powerset (those film reels!), and a Villain With A Code that slots in perfectly with the overall Drive themes of self-actualization and personal evolution. He’s like a Mach mixed with Chase, another thing I just made up that is unique to this post. Add in his backstory that quotes from Krim’s (much like Megahex’s Helheim notes), and you have a really solid, really fun one-off Drive adversary.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...drivegaim3.png
https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...drivegaim4.png

And that fun just spills over into the movie’s finale, which is mostly an excuse for The One Returning Gaim Character You Hoped Would Appear, and a much wackier Gaim/Drive team-up than I was prepared for.

Kaito! Kaito came back! It’s only really a couple three beats, but they’re good ones. It’s hilarious to see him resurrected for the purpose of unifying all life, only for him to go Why Did You Think I Would Do That. He’s a character that’s always been about his own personal struggle, so a race that wants personal victories subsumed into their collective… HA HA HA HA JESUS. They literally could not have picked a worse Gaim character to resurrect.

All of the Gaim/Drive stuff is priceless. I love how low-key bummed Kouta seems when he realizes that someone else got to be the Car Kamen Rider. He really loves Drive's aesthetic! It probably doesn’t help that Kouta seems adorably unprepared to defend his motif or life choices. I don’t know if it’s the Drive Is A Cop energy permeating into the finale, but there’s a real buddy cop thing going on in the finale, where Kouta and Shinnosuke are both about 40% more manic than on their respective shows. Whatever it is, it absolutely works for the end of this movie, making the movie-only form changes hysterically tongue-in-cheek and the final victory disarmingly thrilling.

I found the opening third a little dull (if smarter now than when I was watching it), but once Drive shows up? This thing is in top gear, all the way to the credits. It’s like the best-ever theme song says, I guess: All We Need Is Drive!

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/...drivegaim5.png

Noteworthy that it's got one of my favorite movie themes!

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

Seeing Mai play a damsel in distress (again!) was a bit weird to me. She's the Woman of the Beginning for crying out loud. She traveled through time! Surely she has other powers? It might have been a bit more forgivable if she tried to actually defend herself instead of just running away before Megahex captured her.

Regarding her relationship with Micchy, however, I think her forgiveness and willingness to give him another chance fit in perfectly with her character of being this bright, optimistic and bubbly person who's willing to see the good in others. Personally though, I would've preferred a scene where Mitsuzane actually apologises to her about all the crap he put her through, they have a heart-to-heart talk and then part on good terms. I feel like Mai's forgiveness would then feel more natural and have a more solid weight behind it instead of just 'water under the bridge, no questions asked'.

I really don't like the Gaim portion of thos movie. I admittedly went into it biased because I dont' like how Mitsuzane's arc ended in the show, but this movie went in an even further direction I didn't like by having him prove himself by rescuing Mai... even though his obsession with 'protecting' her was one of the reasons he was evil to begin with. It kiiiinda feels like here he is finally being rewarded for his 'commitment'. You are totally right about Mai's relationship with all the guys being horrible, but at least in the show, her thing with Mitsuzane was supposed to look bad. Not anymore, I guess!

And they put Takatora into the inferior Genesis Driver suit for the back half! (Really funny that this is Ryoma's second time being a robot though)

I really like the Drive part though! I actually really like all the Drive cinema stuff, and I think a big part of it is how much I like all the action across Drive material in general. There's such a consistent physicallity to it all that I enjoy that for me, strikes a perfect balance between the more style-focused flash of Wizard or the methodical slugging in Gaim. I could watch Drive or Chaser or anyone else from that series duke it out all day any day.

The story's nice too! They fit in a surprising amount with Lupin's introduction, Krim's 'death' and Shinnosuke's comeback, in just a portion of a movie, but none of it feels too cramped? I honestly think this one third of Movie War is on par and maybe in some ways better than Surprise Drive (and I like that movie a bunch!)

The team part at the ene is also a lot of fun. The two heroes are mostly just goofing around and I'm all for it. These team ups rather expectedly treat these occasions as momentus occasions and when the heroes have to look their most composed or competent, but I think I much prefer Gaim and Drive trying badly to fit into a car and yelling over each other on the (space) road.

Ah yes, in terms of rankings this movie is currently #6 on my rankings and because of how things end up going, it's basically my second favorite Movie Wars styled film of the Winter Flicks, with Megamax beating it out.

So just to keep tally since I will keep doing this.

2nd - Megamax
6th - Full Throttle
7th - 2010
8th - Sengoku
9th - Ultimatum
10th - Core

Anyway I really enjoyed this movie! I feel like Takatora's an easier guy to redeem than Mitchy who really got his hands dirty during the latter half of Gaim. And while I'm alright with Mitchy nowadays, Takatora is like right there. And I'd honestly like to say that he's basically taken up the role as Main Rider in Gaim now that Kouta is currently busy doing God stuff. The henshin with him slapping the belt on and getting the bodysuit to protect himself before he fully transforms was great, love Henshin's like that.

The Drive portion was just wonderful honestly, Kamen Rider Lupin is great (may his suit rest in peace due to recent stageshows) and his aesthetic is just... it hits so many of my likes in a suit. If I had a better sense of where to buy P-Bandai at the time I would have gotten the Lupin Gunner for sure. Also I love the little bits in this movie that end up tying into the Final Form debut in the series. All the Shift Cars resonating to help revive Mr. Belt, Shinnosuke and Mr. Belt resonating to overpower Lupin, it's basically Type Tridoron but super downscale and I love that.

The third part of the movie is also a delight. I definitely got a Buddy Cop vibe from the ending team up. And it's just cool to see the villains get a piece of the action because they're like "Yeah no, screw this braniac ripoff" and you just get this entire pile of heroes and villains fighting off cloned monsters. Meanwhile you get Drive and Gaim using fruit power to drive a car to a Death Star planet and blow up its glowing weak point in an exciting chase sequence ending with a really cool Rider Kick.

Overall, real fun movie. Despite being in the middle of my list (spoilers, it does go beyond 10), it's still a real fun movie all the way through for me.

I mean, it's from the guy who brought you the best-ever opening theme, so I'd expect nothing less!

If Mai wasn't solely used as a source of power to be alternately protected or rescued, with no sense of what her personal goals might be, I might not know I'm watching Gaim.

Remember when Kouta stuck her on a train and asked those Weird Train Kids to kidnap her? But in a friendly way? Good times.

Sure, and that's sort of my point: Mai has such a dearth of emotionally-fulfilling and balanced relationships with the men in her life that she might not even realize that she should probably harbor a bit of animosity towards Micchy! Micchy only slightly gaslit her, and he feels bad about it, which is leaps and bounds above the men who used her as the prize in an apocalyptic battle royale.

But, yeah, I too would've liked it if there'd been some genuine closure to Micchy's arc, rather than just everyone deciding not to make a big deal about it.

when life gives you horrible men, make horriblemenade, i guess

Ha ha, bold stance! I don't know that I've got a favorite for Zangetsu? I like them both, honestly. I appreciated that, not only did we get both suits in the Gaim portion, they both got Big Hero Moments.

~DELETED SCENE~

RYOUMA: That's right, Takatora! I'm back! As a robot! And I've got this robotic jaw! From the space robots! They've transformed me!

MEGAHEX: WE... WE DIDN'T DO THAT, ACTUALLY. HE DID THAT TO HIMSELF.

RYOUMA: They've made me a cyborg, Takatora! Aren't you impressed?!

MEGAHEX: WE TOLD HIM IT WAS WEIRD. KAITO'S GOING TO COME BACK LATER IN THE FIGHT, AND HE DEFINITELY WILL NOT HAVE A WEIRD ROBOT JAW.

RYOUMA: I'm a machine god, now!

MEGAHEX: THIS IS SORT OF AWKWARD. IT'S MAYBE CULTURAL APPROPRIATION. HE'S REALLY INTO CALLING HIMSELF A ROBOT. WE'RE GOING TO GO.

One of my favorite moments in the entire film is when Drive's like You Guys Must Be An Awesome Team and all of the Gaim guys are suspiciously quiet. None of them want to explain how many times they've tried to murder each other... or how many times they've succeeded!

It is for sure easier to have a redemptive arc when all you have to do is not collaborate in a genocide. Low-hanging fruit, so to speak.

I love how they execute on the hat. It's almost a shame that Lupin wasn't reused in the show proper (if I remember right), but then I might not get the ending I got, and I can't risk that. I love Drive's ending with Heart so much. (Also: Heart was great in this!)

Errrrrm?.


Anyway, this was my first real experience with Rider crossover movies (which keeps that link somewhat on topic) and I was kind of confused by the two segments format. I was like ?When?s Drive gonna show up?? I hadn?t watched either show at the time, but I did get most of the plot. I just didn?t register the cameos.

Oh wow, I didn't even realise you were skipping Gaim's summer movie (or that you skipped Wizard's!). Just feel the SHTs are enough for a solo outing for them?

This movie was fun. Not much more to it than that but it's kind of hard to beat the Tridoron flying through space on orange slice wheels to blow up a representation of collective consciousness, right? I remember just having a good laugh when I watched it years ago. Fun stuff!

He did have his own special which was one of the many they sprinkled throughout the show to mow down the number of Roidmudes faster. And that was the Type Lupin special where we follow up on Lupin and get some closure with him.

That being said, I really adore the design and I kind of wish a Kamen Rider game that came out during Gaim had come out during Drive post this movie. Because it was all about movies, and had a really fitting villain named Cinema. He looked cool too. Of course he just ends up possessing the most recent villainous movie Rider, Bujin Gaim, to be the final boss and I always thought it was lame. Now if it were Lupin? I'd be down because both really managed to match aesthetics for the most part.

So with the Wizard/Gaim movie I said that I remembered watching but forgot everything about it. I can’t even remember if I watched this one.

So Megamax was, like, one of the first Toku things I ever saw and the fact it landed with me says a tonne about the strength of that movie. Then you have the Gaim/Wizard movie the year after, and while I really like the Wizard portion of that (Your monthly reminder that Wizard is, in fact, good!), the Gaim portion is messy. And then you get to Gaim/Drive, a movie where I both understood the Gaim backstory, and enjoyed the Drive side-story! It's a win-win!

I got real complicated feelings about Gaim (that I'm not sure I've ever mentioned in these threads?), and they were probably never more complicated than somewhere after the midpoint in Drive's run on TV when I would've first watched this thing. The only time I've watched this one, I think? I know I kind of forgot to get around to it when I was rewatching Gaim, and that was already like five years ago at this point, so...

Anyway, without getting into the details (especially since I'm long over most of this now), a lot of Gaim's plotting decisions toward the end left me feeling burned, and in part because of that, I greeted Drive with immense enthusiasm right out of the gate. The typical line I always always see about that show is "it got really good halfway through", and while I understand the added appeal and intrigue of Chase's arc hitting its turning point, the way Gou really settled into a nice groove, a more personal storyline for Shinnosuke, greater development for Heart and the other Roidmude bosses...

Uh, what I was trying to say again? Oh, right! As good as *all that* stuff obviously is, the vibrant, energetic simplicity of that first quarter or so, it basically totally rekindled my love of this whole franchise after basically the only thing that's ever even slightly dampened it happened, and for that alone, I would always be fond of Drive. Everything else I love about it, including how strong that later material is, it's almost like a bonus. It's nearly up there with the level of fun I had following Fourze week after week, and just like Fourze, I'm a little upset with myself that I don't actively consider it a top tier favorite, even though it's so special to me. (Instead, like Fourze, I inexplicably fell even more in love with the boring show after it that everyone hates.)

I realize I'm not really talking about the movie itself here, but since I don't remember nearly enough about it to offer any real critique, I'll just say, at the time, I remember figuring the Gaim part would have the usual Gaim movie weirdness but be palatable enough, and was crazy excited for the idea of Drive's showdown with some kind of epic phantom thief rival character. It pretty much lived up to those expectations, with the bonus of the team-up part being WAY more fun than I would've guessed.

I'll always especially remember how cute it is when Drive introduces himself as a humble civil servant in response to Gaim's claim that he's a space god, because man did that ever demonstrate why I was so ready to cling to Shinnosuke after where Kouta's character ended up in his show.

While a lot of series have challenged Drive for my undivided affection, to this day, I'd readily offer Shinnosuke as one of my favorite Rider protagonists ever. You're right on about him having a notably committed and charismatic actor. Ryouma Takeuchi's performance is absurdly strong, and unlike a lot of Rider leads, it didn't even take him a bit to get there. There are two moments in particular that I always find myself thinking back to with him. One is the "take a good look at my face" speech from episode 4, and it's like, that was only the fourth episode! The other is a single line from Surprise Future that I'll have to remember to bring up when you rewatch it.

Basically every song Mitsuru Matsuoka has done for Rider is a huge winner? The couple we got out of Double were already fantastic, so Drive multiplying that number the way it did is just one more reason Drive is awesome in my book.

If people aren't being reminded of this *at least* weekly, then I apologize for not doing my job properly. :p

I...I legit don't remember this.

As someone who started with the Heisei Generations format, I was also initially perplexed by the Movie War split-narrative thing. Especially for how much it never seemed like one of the stories connected in a logical way. Here, it's the Drive section, which is 99% a Lupin tale and then 1% Look A Space Robot. I mean, the Wizard/Gaim movie does the exact same thing, but with the opening segment (Beast gets snatched by a dimension-hopping monster) instead of the middle segment.

I've never liked that, as a storytelling decision?

The basic criteria for this project's coverage is that the content should include some sort of Legend Rider crossover, or at least debut a new Rider. I don't think the Wizard summer movie introduced anyone (Gaim would debut in the two-parter), and ditto for Gaim's. I don't know if I'm completely right on that, but I want to say my list uses that criteria to figure out inclusion.

also it is grueling to watch and write up a minimum of two movies each week and i'd like to watch zi-o before autumn

It has a really crowd-pleasing conclusion. It doesn't just lean on Okay There Are A Dozen Riders, it really tries to construct a finale that is kinetic and gripping. I liked the back third of this movie more than I'd've thought!

Man, Drive has some of the best adversaries. Do another Lupin project for the Fan Club, you cowards!

this was the gaim movie with absolutely no soccer, if that helps

Understanding what's going on isn't a prerequisite for enjoying Kamen Rider, but it's sometimes a help!

Yeah, the start of Drive is maybe my favorite part? It was instantly firing on all cylinders, if you'll pardon the automotive expression. I like the supporting cast a lot, and Heart's final scene is one of my favorite moments in all of Kamen Rider, but the series opens with some much energy and optimism that I was totally in love from the start. It was a nice swing from the messiness of the Gaim finale, into a pure team-oriented crime-solving paradigm.

I think about this two-parter more than anything else from Gaim.

Ohhhh...the ToQger crossover. Now I know what you meant by "weird train kids."

To be honest what I remember most is Narutaki claiming to be a "friend of all Kamen Riders" (kind of sus), the random cameos, and Taketora berating someone on the phone over how ridiculous a giant Mecha fighting a monster is while it's happening literally outside his office (and with the added logic that, lacking imagination, Taketora never would've been able to see it anyways).

Yeah, the crossover special between ToQger and Gaim is a lot of fun. Take away the unnecessary cameos of Kamen Riders 1, 2, V3 plus the appearance of Fifteen as well as Narutaki and the crossover special would be perfect.

Between that and his appearance in Kamen Rider Taisen, maybe him and Tsukasa had a nice chat off-screen and he realised he was wasting his life going round causing trouble, and decided to retire and become a friend to all heroes. And also get his own Ticket puppet.

SUPER HERO TAISEN GP: KAMEN RIDER 3

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There’s a nice moral in here, about owning up to mistakes rather than doubling down on them. It’s something broadly related to the Catching Criminals Kamen Rider Show, where it’s investigating the psychology that keeps people from atoning for their transgressions. It’s a movie that’s trying to understand recidivism, you know? That’s very cool.

It’s also a Super Hero Taisen movie, so there’s a frustrating inability to create a cohesive storyline that uses all of its characters effectively. That’s not very cool!

I liked this one by the end, though. I liked the story they told about Sangou. It’s poignant, a guy who only felt like a winner by losing everything. His mentality - that winning/survival determines the morality of an action - is the same thing assholes from throughout history have leaned on to obviate their guilt. Spending a movie with him, going on that journey to reach a point where he’s able to admit culpability in something truly heinous, and then see him willingly accept the consequences to make it right? That’s a solid Hero’s Journey. I almost immediately wanted to buy a Sangou Figuart after watching this movie, for whatever that’s worth.

But it takes a while to get there, and in the meantime we get a rapidly shifting group of protagonists, with a corresponding lack of narrative momentum. It’s that typical Taisen thing where, like, Shinnosuke misses the entire 2nd act of the story. But it’s compounded by how many protagonists we have to cycle through before the big Grand Prix in the 3rd act: Kiriko, Black, Shinnosuke for a couple scenes, Gou, Yuuto, then finally Shinnosuke full-time through the climax. The thread of all that is Sangou’s story, but he’s purposefully an enigma for the first two-thirds of this movie. He’s difficult to invest in, and so our investment is being handed from one character to another for close to an hour. You’re ready for Shinnosuke to get revenge on Shocker for “killing” Kiriko, and then it’s a road trip with Gou and Yuuto for fifteen minutes. Just when you’re like Oh Yuuto’s Our Guy, he’s chained up and it’s Shinnosuke’s story again. The story keeps moving, but there’s no sense of stability to it.

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And the selection of Legend Riders is pretty random! Black RX, sure: he’s got the Ridoron! Yuuto: I mean, this is a story where time’s been rewritten, so, yeah, sure! But why is Faiz here? I love Takumi, but he’s extra disinterested in this movie’s plot, even for him. And Black seems to be here to set up Black RX, and it’s like, Why not just have Black RX and that’s it? Garren gets to do the most abbreviated A to B version of his story ever (betrayal, and then friendship), and his inclusion is another Why Not moment in this movie.

(Also, holy shit, please do not get me started on the Ninninger kids' out-of-nowhere arrival at the movie’s climax, and how tonally inconsistent it was amongst Gou’s “death” and Sangou’s sacrifice.)

But… man, I still liked the movie. Sangou’s actor is fantastic, which carries a lot of the haphazard plotting and bonkers alternate reality non-explanations. (Shocker just created a machine that changes history? That’s… that’s it?) There’s a weariness to him that gets played as both Determination and Regret, which is perfect for the character. He’s tough to get a bead on, which is maybe not awesome if he’s the character you spend the most time with for the movie, but it makes the ending all the more heartbreaking. He gets to be a guy who made one terrible mistake, and then spent decades trying to redefine that mistake as a choice. The arc of that, just that arc, it’s incredibly smart.

And, yeah, it’s another lazy Taisen movie, with its lazy Legend Rider appearances… but YUUTO! Yuuto’s back! Basically proving why they should’ve just given him and Deneb the Den-O franchise a few years earlier! I don’t know that Yuuto’s mini-arc about Fighting For Your Friends really landed with me (that’s just not really a Yuuto story?), but I will never say No to a Yuuto subplot in one of these projects.

The other guys… eh. Takumi is a glorified cameo here, seemingly only around because he had a good time in the last Taisen film. (He’s also back to his longer Faiz hair, which I don’t like as much as his shorter hair.) Tachibana gets his little WHYHAVEYOUBETRAYEDUS thing, which is cute. I like both those actors, but they aren’t really part of this movie’s themes. (Tachibana maybe is, but the movie barely spends any time on him reconsidering his allegiance with Shocker. It’s mostly just that he wants to help his friends.)

Which is, like, the legacy of the Taisen films, I guess. A whole bunch of actors who don’t really add much to the film’s themes or morals, which makes it all the harder for those themes or morals to come across. I liked what this movie was trying to talk about - and I loved Sangou - but I wish it had been talking about it in a more coherent way.

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I almost feel like Faiz was here because of the TTFC special that's a sequel to this, which talking of which; it is insane to me that Gou just dies in this movie, it has zero effect on him in the show and it's only followed up in a special that a fraction of your casual viewerbase will be watching. Like, what! That's so funny!

This is also the first (I think?) Kamen Rider movie to have a full-on MCU-style post-credit scene that sets up another project -slash- reverses an in-movie plot point. Like, we had one where Beast debuts, but this is the first Sprawling Franchise sort of stinger I can recall them putting in. It feels so much more modern, since the expectation for every single superhero movie is that it'll have one to three post-credit bits of advertising.

I actually dig the whole Black first then evolving back into RX thing as a consequence of the time getting messed up. Certintly better than Black and RX just existing seperately for no reason. Though what frustrate me is they had been still a good guy in the altered timeline for no reason despite there being a perfectly good reason that they ignored/didn't research about. You see Black immune to time travel changes. So I though going into this hey kudos to writers for remembering that small detail about Black and why he still a hero but nope!

Yeah, he's just so goddamn heroic that he broke through Shocker's programming and fought to save fascist children. I'm not sure if that's better or worse? Hopefully some Black/RX fans can chime in on this oversight.