[Matrixbeast]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Den-O

The year Fourze aired actually commemorated the 40th anniversary of Kamen Rider. So in honor of Ishinomori they started using a bunch of properties he worked on. Now I can't tell you why so many of them turned up as villains. The situation however is very similar to the tail end of OOO's run, when the Let's Go Kamen Riders movie came out. That film was also billed as a 40th anniversary tribute and featured Ishinomori's other creations: Kikaider, Kikaider 01, Zubat, & the original Inazuman. They were all of course portrayed heroically.

Thematically the following year I guess they wanted to mix things up so they went with villainous version of the Akumaizer 3 & Space Ironmen Kyodain. Poitrine remained heroic but turned out to be an illusion as well. The new Inazuman started off evil as Sanagiman before turning to help Gentaro later on. It's an interesting turn to take after the previous years' film and it's unashamed celebration of Ishinomori and his heroes. But that 12 month span of films really honored the history of Toei so much better than I think anything else has in recent memory.

While I didn't mind the Space Ironmen being portrayed as villains, it's rather ironic that they chose to use the Akumaizer 3 as bad guys, considering their entire shtick was that they chose to leave evil behind.

Like, image if Kamen Rider didn't get it's resurgence with Kuuga in the 2000's. If in Gokaiger, Ichigou and Nigou returned as straight up villains despite a big part of the origin being that they left they abandoned Shocker to take up heroism (Well, I dunno about Nigou, but you get the idea )

I do wish the Metal Hero's brief comeback was more successful. It could've led to an Akumaizer 3 film, like Gavan or Kikaider.