Momo alone is popular enough to show up in an unrelated Ex-Aid movie nine years later!

Do you want to hear real quick what the second top image almost was?

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/den44b.png

It's brilliant in the way that it has this big Momo/Ryotaro blowup, splits the characters apart, lets them stew about their feelings (and everyone else backs off! There are no scenes with Ryotaro or Momo explaining their problems to other people! That is super crucial!), and then puts them back in conflict. It's an episode that's in no real hurry to address a pretty major schism, and I loved it for treating these characters with some seriousness.

And then, after they make up, Momo reminds Ryotaro that Ryotaro's bad luck will probably get him killed way before the Imagin disappear, and this show proves that it can do whatever it sets its mind to.

Commented on this part late due to being unable to access Tokunation server before. Btw how about the part where characters are acted differently from Shouko's? (I mean if they aren't energetic genki type).

Uhh read again that's actually what I was saying that she didn't rude to Urataros, to my relief? I've witnessed the opposite happened in Faiz where Yuka rebuffs Keitaro rudely in favor of Kaido. Well, though Faiz as a whole is written by Inoue, can't really call that an OOC/derailing or such (i̶n̶c̶l̶u̶d̶i̶n̶g̶.̶.̶ ̶Y̶u̶j̶i̶ ̶t̶u̶r̶n̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶e̶v̶i̶l̶?̶) but when that happened to other people's work...

I mean yeah, that's the morton's fork of time travel story, especially regarding you to plotting. As you said, they need to clarify what's happening, but exposition is a no to you. And this is the general consensus of Den-O having superb cast that you can care, but the plot isn't that good. Well, the thing about Yuuto is people forgetting him when he henshins, but it doesn't apply to Ryotaro. Singularity Point is quite simple that it means humans with the ability to exist independently of time itself, and be unaffected by changes in their own past, and thus Ryotaro doesn't forget about Yuuto. And well, you explained to me about this before, regarding of how Taros Imagins don't have physical form to have them partake and fight in real world, that's also the trait Singularity Points possess. I know you aren't enthusiasted but still won't talk more about this.

I mean Kai sees those like Ryuutaros as traitor, and previously he also has antagonized and mentally tortured him. I wonder why would you complain about Kai jeopardizing the Taros Imagins, when Kai has been doing this since his first appearence to Ryuutaros.

There are so many problems with the way this story is told after that.

I don't know about this complaint, that despite you insisting you "don't truck with Showa", this complaint sounds similar about how Kamen Rider formula should stay as it is, like those who stan Showa and takes it to the extremes. The phase 1 before has more of shows who experimented with certain things, like Ryuki containing evil Riders, Faiz containing good/neutral monsters, Blade with dummy long arcs or balanced Rider cast, Hibiki with slice-of-life approach, Kabuto (this one's playing it safe though) with morally ambiguous (and perfect) main Rider and idealistic secondary Rider, etc. Though well yeah, for the part of using evil to fight for good, those are mostly true for those stories, the Advent Deck being created by Shiro, the Rider Gears created by Smart Brain, the Undead Cards created by BOARD which is led by Tennoji, the Zecters created by ZECT, though I was confused about your complaint about Kuuga being walking natural disaster from the Rising Mighty nuke kick.

And how do you expect Ryotaro to ride a magical time train with his friends? Ryotaro still wants to fight, not letting humanity be doomed, still on the topic of Ryotaro being stronger., that the continuation is Ryotaro trying to handle things alone without risking the lives of the Taros Imagins. This is also similar to how Ryotaro responds to Yuuto fighting as Zeronos, in contrast to Kintaros (where you talked about it being Ryotaro's personality taken to the extremes), Ryotaro is really against sacrifice. He flips out of the possibility of the Taros Imagins just throwing their life without a second thought going down fighting. I think that the impossible decision dliemma is interesting here, figuring out what can Ryotaro do to give both of the choices good outcome, however...

... yeah the execution doesn't sit well with me either here, I mean Ryotaro already got Liner Form now, and that's not the Imagins taking part in the fight, other than the sword can be rotated to communicate with certain Imagins. I guess the show is trying to reinforce that friendship, but this is the part of the plotting that suddenly forgets what has been set up before, like was Liner Form a joke to him?

Heh. Well, Ryotaro was being standoffish here yeah, and was glad that Ryotaro turning standoffish isn't a good way, I mean, for you who is thrilled on character conflicts, and has accepted characters suddenly turned into jerks before for the sake of it. Leave the character infighting to those who had the personality to incite that, like Ryuutaros, don't turn morally white characters like Ryotaro into that just for the sake of conflict. Or the fact that tough-love decision isn't necessarily the best choice for anyone to make, despite the popular belief.

Well, I guess you're getting about the people's complaint about Kai here (not saying they're right of course), that the complaint is about this, but instead is applied to each Kai's appearence instead of only at this point.

I fondly recall the emotional scene with Ryoutarou, Momotaros and the atmospheric lava lamp, which could be symbolic for the heat between them. Even if the time nonsense is still just time nonsense, this episode does a great job and establishing once more the connection between the two co-protagonists and the thing this show never fails at. It's fitting though, that Den-O keeps coming back since everybody remembers him.

The moral of protecting the present first and worrying about the future later is something I've also seen in Wizard and Kobayashi's previous time travel show, Mirai Sentai Timeranger. You can try and protect the future, but if you don't protect the present, there won't be a future.

I guess I wasn't clear on what you were saying? Can you give it to me again?

I mean, I'm not sure I'd say exposition was a "no" to me. You need a certain amount of exposition when you're telling any year-long story, and that goes double for one with alternate timelines. I think my negative reactions are usually to dull exposition: something that's just a character giving a dry recitation of facts in a visually boring way, or information that's already well-known.

Yeah, that's a great read on it. There's a ton of work done, on this time travel show, to center everything on the present. Yuuto's someone whose future is destroying his past. Kai's someone who seems to exist in an eternal Now. And Ryotaro's handicap for the second half of the series is that he's at his least powerful when he's anywhere but in the present.

Definitely a program that's trying to talk about not dwelling on the past or overinvesting in the future!

This was a really good episode with some great emotional elements and a good showcase for the show's different suits. It's a good emotional climax for the team leading into the final arcs, as well. There's some excellent striking visuals, especially in the Momotaros v. Ryotaro section. All around, a really good episode and I have no idea why every single second of it felt completely unfamiliar to me. I didn't remember anything about this episode and that's really weird, given how good it is and how I know I've already seen it twice.

OK this, but I dunno if this talk would incite an argument...

Right, the episode still starts with Ryotaro acting harsh on the others like Momo forcing him to leave him alone as his wish now. But that got quickly brushed away. And you know, no offense, while Ryotaro comes off as(s) spiteful jerk before at the cliffhanger, Ryotaro at this part of episode shows, a significantly better way of conveying what his deal is compared to Yuuto acting standoffish to others, which is just being straightforward and explaining the situation of him not wanting others to disappear. And you're ok now with disappearing Imagins, which was your previous complaint there due to how Ryotaro acts now?

Well for Ryotaro, I guess I've talked before about how people use the misguided definition of hero as simply someone who saves other's lives and/or put their live at risk for others, but Ryotaro here... he's an ideal hero, but his approach is also a complete opposite to that norm people hold on, that he's really against people sacrificing themselves, especially as it's unnecessary, you die just accomplishing that 1 heroic deed, then you can't do anymore. Ryotaro prefers to let others alive, so they can keep doing heroic deeds. This is also seen before when Yuuto continues fighting as Zeronos.

I mean of course, Ryotaro acting as a spiteful jerk for just a mere moment and have him being in the wrong is a journey. But the thing is, from audience talk, I don't like that, I know that people here including me rightfully complained about Ryotaro acting OOC at the end of previous episode before, but people usually tolerate the screw-ups (Ryotaro did) that is caused by someone acting jerk or being a hardass, but if a screw-up is created by ordinary flaw (which is what is more expected for Ryotaro), like lack of confidence, then that one will usually earn more hatred from audience, even correlating that flaw with kindness to view that as weakness.

I still stand by the previous poor decision of Ryotaro's attempt to be heroic, that being stuck on Plat Form, but I still see Ryotaro's act here as the continuation of Ryotaro getting stronger plot (Momo said it himself to not get cocky just because of being stronger), that Ryotaro wants to fight threats alone, not sacrificing himself, and I'd like if Ryotaro makes use of Liner Form to do that (I think the sword is only radio, not Imagins taking part on battle and risking their live by possessing).

Also, about Ryotaro not seeing heroes inside other people, I don't think that it had correlations of others being fragile (remember, it's Ryotaro the loser who is fragile), but as Ryotaro is the most morally upright, I guess Ryotaro sets up too high of a standard of heroism, like those who are grey shouldn't partake the way the morally white like Ryotaro can (well, Ryotaro's moral does take the good part of the adventure like breaking the "rule" of protecting the flow of time by helping the contract holder in the past), which, well, personally I would also say that grey part of someone can't be overlooked and make them lumped together with ideal toku hero like Ryotaro and that they should improve themselves, but doesn't mean that they can't be any use in saving the day even if like, they only cover the fighting monsters part, I think instead of others being fragile, it's more about Ryotaro thinking in terms of black-and-white; even the slightest gray to him is immediately treated as black at the earliest opportunity. Also, the thing about Zeronos, it's not merely fighting for the right reasons, but there are other aspects as the worldview, methods, etc. Zeronos is pragmatic hero, that he can stoop into dirty tactics to get the job done, though Ryotaro should also let himself partake, which is by trusting him enough.

Momotaros, as this episode summed up, still a violent misfit that wants to take part in battle due to enjoying fighting too, so never seeing him as a hero (well, Momotaros is an anti-hero for fighting against evil but having several negative qualities, and that is still a subset of hero albeit morally grey) is brought up in the episode too. As previously has shown, Momo cares about Ryotaro a lot after a rough start, and I would see him as less concerned about the other Imagins compared to Ryotaro (I still see relationships with less conflict as the closer one, albeit of course there are exceptions, for this one, well Momo's main concern is Ryotaro, and he can see other Imagins as competition for taking care of Ryotaro, and he had almost no conflict with Ryotaro after Momo fully cares for him), but about being heroic, what they should do (except for Kin, but as you said he resorts to self-sacrifice at any opportunity, he really needs to learn about Ryotaro's outburst here about not sacrificing) is care for more than only what's close to them, like only between the Taros Imagins group, or Airi for Ryutaros. They should care for people less related to them, like the strangers, as heroes are about taking care of them.

So, capabilities wise, it seems that the Imagins are weaker than the Riders, that they fare worse to Armadillo as the default form Imagins (well I talked before about the Imagins taking part of the fight, and finally it happened now albeit against an Imagin too powerful), albeit they fare better than Plat Form. It seems that Den-O saves the day by stacking the strength between Plat Form and the Imagin's power. I also like if the fights showcase every Rider's capabilities, and that's my favorite for Rider's fights, which is also what I complained about the phase 2's handling of forms and powers.

But that's the purpose of episodes being continued.. to complete what's started and lacking in the previous episodes.

Well of course, getting help from others isn't only about your life being saved, Airi doing this stuff is crucial too, as there are many life problems than just being put in life or death situation. Though this is a contrasting view from your reception where Airi and Hana first met (it could've been a good domestic scene but is hampered by Milk Dipper setting which is infested by Airimirers - and there are no Airimirers bugging that scene actually!)

Not even Deneb dressed up in all his Station Master merch? That's the main thing about this story!

I don't think praising Shouko's character is being intolerant to another character? Please don't read too much into what I'm saying! If I'm paying a compliment to one character or performer, I am not insulting another one by omission. Something can be good without something else being bad!

I didn't mean it was literally lacking something, like a conclusion. I was more referring to 44 feeling true to the characters and emotionally relatable in a way that 43 wasn't. To me, 44 was easy to enjoy in a way that 43 wasn't.

KAMEN RIDER DEN-O HYPER BATTLE VIDEO - "SINGING, DANCING, BIG TRAINING!!”

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/denhbva.png

This was an exquisite disappointment.

I mean, the gold standard for HBVs (at least for the shows I've watched) are Faiz and Build. Faiz is legendarily bonkers, rendering the themes of the show in a musical fever dream. Build is absurdism hiding a beating heart, taking a random piece of tie-in media to talk about toxic male role models and media's tendency to favor paternal narratives over maternal ones. Those two massively exceeded what I expected, in ways that maybe colored my expectations for this one.

Like, I really thought this one would try and do something fascinating, and it did, but not at all in the way I was hoping for. I thought we'd get some intriguingly brief look at emotional well-being, or the ability to draw strength out of tragedy. Instead, we got a workout video?

It's seriously just a ten-minute workout video featuring the characters of Den-O. There's a fight scene at the end, where Ryotaro puts his exercise lessons into practice, but there's just about zero story here. Ryotaro wants to get stronger, tons of working out, Ryotaro defeats three returning Imagin. There isn't really an arc so much as there's cause and effect. Narratively, it's nowhere, and there's nothing happening in it to talk about.

But conceptually, I find it absolutely fascinating. In a lot of ways, Den-O is a series about self-care. It's incredibly internal, focusing a lot of the storytelling on how we live with ourselves (not to give away the Series Recap post for next week), and that topic is filtered through Ryotaro and the Imagin. So taking the HBV and turning the emotional self-care into physical self-care, making the lessons about physical fitness instead of mental fitness, I think that's a really cool idea. It's not, y'know, a compelling story (I will not be taking Ryotaro's advice and watching this video again, probably ever), but it's a completely worthwhile idea that's largely supported by the series' themes.

So, yeah, not really much here to talk about (I ate pizza and watched Wrestlemania with a roommate tonight; I am not doing calisthenics), but a pretty neat concept that I applaud the creators for attempting.

https://kamenriderdie.com/images/kr/deno/denhbvb.png

THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Deneb shows up but Yuuto doesn't, which communicates to me that the show absolutely knows which part of the Deneb/Yuuto team is paying the bills.

-Sieg's appearance... was it just because of the movie? It's so totally random to have a two-episode character pop back up for a scene that I've got to assume the producers thought it'd help if they had a movie character show up. I don't know. It's a great surprise, but it's insane that Sieg's first post-movie appearance was in the HBV. (Unless I'm forgetting him showing up again in the show? I assume he'll be somewhere in the next few episodes.)

HBVs having any narrative heft is definitely the exception rather than the norm. I think KumaTelevi really spoiled you!

That said, if you ever need some encouragement to get in shape, just plug in this video and you too can one day be as capable as Den-O (Is that a good thing...?)!

I guess the biggest surprise/disappointment for me was the lack of any new suits or gimmicks? With all of the ways Den-O blazed a trail for Phase 2 Heisei to follow, I would've bet money that the HBV had some kit-bashed new Form to show off as a goof. Nope!

But, yeah, Phase 1 didn't really seem to know what to do with the format of the HBV yet. A ton of recap stuff, and maybe a couple good jokes, and a fight. That's about all you got. Phase 2 would start to play around with DVD technology to create quizzes and branching narratives, before abandoning that to mostly focus on new suits that could be sold down the line (or packed-in; not sure how that works) while building in a bit more story to sell those new suits.