[Locke]

Decade 15. That visual gag with the owner is really weird, and pointless. Especially with how understated it is.

The connection between Momo and Tsukasa if I knew well... anything about the guy. I apologise as I don't remember who said it, but a poster summed up as Decade as something like 'it's really fun until you look back and realise none of Decade makes any sense' and that is kinda exactly it.

I was so distracted by the worlds, I didn't really pay attention to the most basic of questions like... well... what exactly is going on? I know that there is at some point in the timeline a huge war between Riders, I know each Rider show (at least nine of the Heisei ones) take place in their own universe, which results in monsters from one world becoming Riders in another (that concept sure was wasted, huh?) but what I've described to you is a blurb, not fifteen episodes worth of story, and as this show is practically half the length of your ordinary season it makes it even worse.

Why are all of the worlds AUs? I know why they are for production reasons, but what is the in show reason? And despite the show showing off the Rider War like every damn episode, we have zero context for that, what's the dealio? While we're at it, what's the dealio with the Decade powers, DiEnd and whoever the dude in the rain mack is who basically has DiEnd's powers without a Driver? What the fuck is actually going on? We're half way through and I've not got a fucking clue.

Speaking specifically for the episode, although I actually don't remember it being very well realised in the actual show, the use of memories as the core frame for time travel in Den-O is genius in its simplicity. For such an insanely convoluted sci-fi concept, it's so nice to see it presented to simply, and based more on sentiments than technology. It's the kind of time travel we all use in day to day life realised on the screen.

Everything else was fantastic, Yusuke actually got to transform - even if it was more at his expense, rather than some fantastical moment. Killer Croc was a great addition to a pantheon of fantastic designs in the Imagin canon - and the way he was taken down was pretty sweet as well. Plus that gag at the expense of sentai giant stuff was brilliant. Shame Decade is the most boring thing in this show.

Ultimately Den-O's world reminds me a lot of Kuuga's, it doesn't have some new twist or epic novelty like Kiva or Ryuki's worlds but what it does have is huge entertainment value and uses the source material lovingly. Probably the second best arc after Ryuki's honestly.