That Tendou speech is easily the high point of the first two-thirds of this episode. (The high point of the entire episode is what's going to be the first screencap of tomorrow's Series Wrap-Up post.) I'll always prefer the vulnerability of his speech in 44, but I still love everything about this one. Him starting his Grandmother line and Negishi's face just dropping, knowing that his plan's about to terminally unravel; diving off of a broadcast tower; foiling the villain's scheme with Hiyori's goddamn flower; giving the most full-throated speech imaginable in support of humanity's capacity for growth... it's a really great speech, befitting the last one Tendou'll ever get to give. Of all the ways this final story let me down, they nailed that last big Tendou Talk.

The God of Battle ekes out a last-minute win!

I honestly think it was likely intentional to some extent. Like, Negishi's change in personality especially feels like *such* a conscious throwback I'd be amazed if they were doing this on accident. "Let's make the final battle feel all old-school 'cause it's the anniversary" seems like the sort of thought that would be kicking around in the back of the staff's heads for a while as a goofy, half-serious suggestion, before they got attached and decided "you know what? Yeah, let's actually do this!"

That about sums it up.

I will say though, even though Tendou is such a great speaker, his metaphors are getting pretty tangled at this point. Like, how can one man be the sun, the world, justice itself, and probably several other things he's said that I'm forgetting? I know Tendou is good (the best ever, if you ask him), but man, that is one heck of a resume. :lol

There is very little of this finale that stuck with me in the long term - which was kind of the whole Kabuto story, as I've mentioned before. I remembered Tendou destroying a meteor with a flower. I remembered Tendou in green screen Paris. I remembered Hiyori being heavily isolated from the actual plot and other characters. What I remembered most, though, was Kagami and Tendou. Not a specific moment with them, but I remembered this being an episode that really centered on their friendship. I still get that from the rewatch; I really love the scene after the fight where they're just hanging out on the rooftop.

I'm probably going to forget a lot of this again. The fight with Mishima is already fading, and I'm literally writing this immediately after I finished the episode. It's not an especially grand finale - Tendou's speech is great, but the villain is highly forgettable, the fight is really brief, and it all ends with an unnecessary self-sacrifice from Dark Kabuto to take out a Native mook. There are some good emotional beats, but they aren't even series high points. There's really not a lot here to hang onto walking away from the series. I'll definitely remember the show's real shining moments better now, but this isn't going to be one of them.

what if this whole series was also written by tendou, build-style

I think some of the reason the One Year Later epilogue hit me so hard was, like, this is what I want to remember from Kabuto. After 50-odd minutes of dumb plotting and confusing story decisions, there's this incredibly sweet epilogue that reminds me of why I enjoyed this show in spite of a weirdly high amount of forgettable storytelling. Not to be a broken record, but it's a lot of what the Series Wrap-Up post is going to focus on. Great characters in a not-great story.

KAMEN RIDER KABUTO - SERIES WRAP-UP

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That picture, man. That's the entire series of Kabuto for me, for better or worse. Two people I really care about, basking in a victory that's worth so much less than the celebration. That big smile on Kagami's face, his happiness overshadowing a lackluster superhero plot. And that's the show, really. Some excellent character development, some incredible performances, and a series plot that nearly always found a way to rob them of their hard work.

I mean, I crab about how forgettable/poorly-sketched the villains can be in the Phase 1 shows, but this has got to be a new low. The Worms are introduced as mysterious invaders, and basically just stay that way for the rest of the show? There's never any sense of an overall goal, or a grand design. We'll meet a random monster, they'll do some random murders (or have a random target), and then they get detonated. When we finally get a recurring villain in Worm Widow and Worm Widower, they aren't really an escalation of the plot or arc or anything. They're just, like, recurring. They take a few more episodes to get detonated than the average Worm, but they don't mean more to the plot. They're just there a bit more. The Worms are a constant presence, a consistent threat... but they're also background noise, well-designed wallpaper. They aren't really a story?

And the main villain, the real threat... I mean, Negishi doesn't even get introduced until episode 45 of a 49-episode series. That is over ninety percent of the show before he shows up, and we don't even find out he's a villain until episode 47. His plot isn't even explained until the penultimate episode! That leaves this series stringing together the occasional clever plot with a raft of forgettable one-offs, with no real story progression to speak of. It's just a rotating cast of antagonists and adversaries without anything feeling like we're going anywhere. ZECT is a threat, until they're a joke, until they're nothing, until they're a threat. Goro is a second-in-command until he's randomly the final monster. Dark Kabuto is in, like, two stories. The Natives aren't in opposition to Kabuto until the last half-hour. Worm Widow and Worm Widower have a deeper crew of monsters, but their activities are just them being more or less public as the plot demands.

It's a show that is massively confused about what the villains are up to, and any attempt to encapsulate the threats the heroes face would sound like you hated the show. (See above!) Nearly any part of the series that tried to foreground the series arc was boring at best, actively confusing at worst. If my mind ever strays to the plotting of the season, I just get angry about it.

But, man, the characters in those plots are so goddamn good.

Tendou is a character that, on paper, 100% should not work. He starts the show as an arrogant know-it-all, and ends the series as a slightly less arrogant know-it-all that you love regardless. His arc is one of the saving graces of the show, as he never really smooths out his rough edges, while still making you feel like he's worth caring for. Tendou's all about one of the main themes of the show, that individual success is a societal good. He's a hero who is more interested in protecting people's potential than in protecting people; encouraging them to become their own heroes, asking them to succeed so the whole world could be that much better. He's like the sun, shining down on the world. The sun isn't creating millions of individual beams of light, personal and unique. It's bathing the world in light, and trusting you to go bask in it or not.

Kagami was the opposite, able to see the worth in everyone. He'd risk it all for a single person, anyone. While Tendou hid his heart behind a god-level view of the world, Kagami and his Very Big Feelings were us, were the people who could never be Tendou. Kagami was achievable, recognizable. Kagami embraced the world, and tried to make sure everyone in it was happy. Tendou was someone who wanted to let people achieve; Kagami was someone who understood what it felt like to not achieve. Kagami was the other main theme of the series, that humility is the key to pursuing success. We got to see Kagami struggle to live up to the success of others. We got to see him feel like he'd never make anyone proud. But then we got to see him succeed on his own terms, by not trying to be Tendou or Yaguruma or his dad or anyone else. Once he owned his limitations, stop judging himself for his shortcomings, stopped measuring himself against others, he could finally succeed. He's the beating heart of this show.

Or, y'know, maybe Hiyori is? The most relatable character of the show (YMMV), Hiyori was the most fascinating character to follow in the early going. Someone who was like a raw nerve, exposed to the world, expecting everyone in her life to let her down. She was rude, closed-off, and endlessly watchable. Getting to see her grow into a friendship with Tendou, to see her faith restored by Kagami, those were some series highlights. It's unfortunate that we never really got to see what the show would've done with her. I honestly never liked the reveal that she was Tendou's sister, but maybe that plot would've won me over in time. (It was super easy to forget about in later episodes, which I really appreciated.) As it is, her absence from the show leaves her diminished in my memory, all of those beautifully acted scenes as present in my mind as episodes of Hibiki, or Blade. Her return to the series is like an afterthought, a story that becomes more about Tendou than her. Her journey feels like it stopped at the midway point, and that's a real shame.

The rest of the cast was fantastic, up and down the credits. Tsurugi, the adorable comedy relief who got the loveliest send-off, living happily in France. Yaguruma, always keeping the core of his identity, no matter the shell he was in. Kageyama, a ridiculous man who died a ridiculous death. Misaki, the only one at times who seemed like they were saying things I believed in. Tadokoro, stuck between a shadow war with monstrous invaders on one side, and two insubordinate underlings who needed to tell him everything ZECT is doing wrong on the other side. Juka, who is incredibly well-fed. And Daisuke and Gon, who were on this show just often enough to remind me that they're great, while always feeling like the show had to stop to accommodate them. (Worth it!)

I love these people. I loved getting to spend a couple months with them. I cried actual tears when I realized that my time with them was coming to an end. I loved their arcs, the themes of achievement and humility that they embodied.

I disliked the world they were in. Rarely did any of plots live up to the characters' or actors' potential. (The Inoue stories did, mostly. The Dark Chef one was maybe the best two-parter this show ever had.) The plots were occasionally fun, but never really added up to much. The series arc was a huge drag, actively working against what this series had going for it.

But, again, look at that picture up there of Kagami, beaten but joyous. It doesn't matter what stupid story he just had to go through, or the flimsy motivation of the monster he just had to defeat. He won, him and Tendou both. They did it.

I can't be too mad at a series that can make me this happy.

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It's really funny to me that Tsurugi gets to 'go to France' but when Kageyama met basically the same (albeit ludicrously quick in comparison) fate, you're just like 'welp, hes gone I guess'. I totally relate though.

It was really fun reading you navigate through this show's high-speed highs and also the various bizarre lows. I'm pretty sure the main duo of the show are all I'm gonna truly keep close in my mind even now when I think back to it, but it sounds like just about everyone in the cast has wormed their way into your heart in one way or another.

Kageyama died like he lived: ridiculously.

Thanks! It was very fun to watch this show, regardless of any negativity I just posted. Save for a few absolutely dire installments, Kabuto was a real good time. And, yeah, I dig this cast. They're almost all exceptionally weird, and could handle serious drama as well as they could slapstick humor. I'm a sucker for the ladies of Kamen Rider, since they're usually so maligned/ignored/underserved, so I'm super happy that one of the final images of the show is of Juka, Hiyori, and a weirdly resurgent Sally, all supporting each other. Little shit like that, you know? Fun cast to think about.

I feel that this is the last show that really has that J-Drama feel. Shows after it feel as though they remembered "Oh crap we're supposed to be appealing to kids not just their moms and/or dads" not that there's anything wrong with that in fact I generally prefer Rider shows post Kabuto. Den-O through Decade is basically like a transitional period between Heisei Phase 1 to Phase 2.

Dude.. I already talked about Tendou becoming more open to Kagami, several times. And I also included that here that "I probably find it uncharacteristic for him to act this way to Kagami, Tendou seems to value him more openly previously against Cassis Worm!"

I mean, it's about what the real villains of the series doing, so they're supposed and intended to do bad stuff? xenophobia is only a baddie thing here, and it's only restricted to their plan. Though yeah, other species villains commonly has xenophope thing going on, with them feeling that their race are the most superior and seek to replace the inferior one with theirs. Series like Faiz also had this going with Smart Brain and Lucky Clovers to replace the humans with Orphnochs, but that has the humans being killed instead of being overwritten. But I do think that this episode, quality aside, has a theme that is brought out in Kabuto previously though. The villain here Negishi (Mishima is just pure evil) thinks that the solution of creating world peace is turning everyone into Natives, the same species as him, because he thinks peace between humans and Natives can't coexist, the villains don't understand about the theme that Inoue brought up about self-acceptance and stop judging yourself, which means about that your species don't matter, your self does ("X is X"), Negishi thinks that peace is determined by what species your are, and thinks that human won't create conflict with Natives if they turned into that too, lacking the understanding that it's your personality that decides how they act, not their species; even humans can kill other humans for their criminal needs!

Probably your (and likely mine too) bummer here is caused by the fact that, Kagami doesn't try to help people in larger way here? He now just chooses ZECT's side and declare Kabuto as enemy. Kagami is supposed to be someone who takes any sides and help them right? (him leaving Shadow for Tendou is wrong, him killing Tendou for ZECT is also wrong) But well, something about Kagami feeling that Worms should be allowed to live, aren't that something you already discussed before about Ryou and Makoto? Well, the one thing that I questioned is about Kagami suddenly being completely vengeful again (including to Tadokoro and Tsurugi, the latter he tried to help before) about the Worms on ep. 41, and him suddenly tolerating Worm again on ep. 46. But well, I never believed that Tendou is down or letting himself to be down, unless it's stuff that involves his family like Hiyori (to Dark Kabuto), probably Tendou has his other hidden plan, Tendou won't die or beaten by Kagami that easily. Like the time where he faked defeat from Yaguruma. Tendou is the one who knows that the true purpose of the necklace is turning everyone into Natives, that he works to destroy them previously.

Well yeah, the setup is that, the real main antagonist of the series (the equivalent of Banno in Drive, Masamune in Ex-Aid, Evolt in Build) is Mishima, the plot twist kind villain, and I thought you got the clue already on Hyper Kabuto's debut? And that him being dismissive to everyone isn't enough of the indicator already? (many plot twist villains don't even show their villainous personality before the story reveals that they're the real villains!) It means that he has no empathy to others and expresses shallow emotions, some of sociopath hallmarks! For this time Riku is the leader of ZECT, while Mishima serves under him and can only persuade to disregard human lives, but the berserk system plays a part that, Mishima is a Starscream-type, he and Negishi starts overthrowing Riku Kagami as leader of ZECT after Negishi found out about them. This shows that Riku is actually a good guy, despite his sinister-like portrayal before, while Mishima is actual bad guy. The movie had Riku being the bad guy together with Mishima though...

I find something appealing about Negishi that, at first glance, he looks so casual and nobody, and had unprofessional behavior too with him acting fun-loving, foolish, and innocent, his Native form is even the fodder Worms that recently just got killed easily by the ZECTroopers' guns! Unlike Mishima's who is Gryllus Worm, the strongest Native. But the truth is that he's masterminding his visionary plan and is in charge within it. Crouching moron hidden nightmare, it's like characters such as Shunpei or Onari, but is given total "more than meets the eye" status, albeit in evil way. Negishi is the type of doing bad things for good reasons, the end justifies the means type mindset, which means him being extremist anti-villain, in contrast to Mishima who..

Mishima is also one of the most irredeemable villains on the whole franchise as well (like those 3 I mentioned). Dark Kabuto is crucial in the story for Mishima's motivations. In the past, Mishima captured the young boy that would become Dark Kabuto and performed horrendous experiments on him to unlock the power of the Hyper Zecter, keeping him as a prisoner for years inside a ZECT facility in Area X. Assigned to oversee the development of the Gatack Zecter, Mishima wastes no time in sacrificing the lives of his own soldiers to see who is worthy of its power. Mishima allies himself with the Worms to stop the independent non-ZECT Riders, framing Daisuke for the murder of a rival makeup artist and later sending an agent whom he forced to eat nothing but dry boiled rice for the last seven years of her life to assassinate Tendou. In AM Bomb operation, Mishima is disappointed in his superior for attempting to save the hostages, telling Kagami that if he fails the negotiation, he'll just nuke the entire district. After the existence of Worms is announced to the world, Mishima turns himself into Gryllus Worm and conspires to do the same with the rest of the world by usurping the position of general and, just so he doesn't get to lose his status after all the Worms have been exterminated, manipulating the population into wearing a pendant that detects Worms, but actually converts those wearing it into Natives.

And you don't seem to appreciate KickHopper murdering PunchHopper here? From what I read, people can find Hell Bros' personality annoying, but they got a heartbreaking ending enough to make them sob. Kageyama is a victim of Mishima's grand plan where he got turned into Native, and Yaguruma is forced to kill him. Kageyama wants to die as himself, a human, not as a Native. Oh right, probably this resembles something in.... ep. 46 so yeah...

Probably b, and that Souji Kusakabe suffers a lot, where he's tortured by Mishima for his grand plan which likely means he found the reason of Dark Kabuto's villainy, and tries to instill Hiyori's behavior and situation to him as she also suffers but lives normally, and saving him means partially foiling Mishima and Negishi's plans.

I think I'm okay with that? There's an energy to the Phase 2 stuff that... I don't want to say I miss it, that would make it sound like I don't appreciate what the Phase 1 stuff is trying to do. But I definitely respond better to that tone than I do some of what Phase 1 is trying for.

Or, man, maybe I don't? I keep thinking I want the sugar-rush storytelling of Phase 2, but the more emotional, slowed-down and spaced-out stories are the ones I can't stop thinking about. Hmm.

Either way, I'm excited to see how the next three shows manage that transition!

Sure, but I think of that all as more of an Inoue theme than a Kabuto theme. A lot of what's happening at the end of Kabuto feels like it'd've been a better fit for the end of Faiz, and that's not an indicator of great writing?