[Fish Sandwich]

The timing for Ryuki and especially OOO here is a little messed up, but since I'm at that point in Den-O, and the whole concept of this endeavor is to compare and contrast, I'm going to go ahead and do a bit of a movie night special. I'm not sure if this comes across whenever I talk about most of them, but I actually like Rider movies a whole lot. The summer movies, anyway. There's just something appealing about pretty much all of them that keeps me coming back. I struggle to describe it, but for these three it shouldn't be too hard.

Ryuki: Episode Final

I must confess I've always had a huge soft spot for this one. Part of it is probably down to it being the first Rider movie I ever saw, but even though I have my gripes with the story here, I find myself coming back to this one relatively frequently. I don't keep track or anything, but it's almost certainly up there with stuff like Paradise Lost in terms of Rider movies I enjoy rewatching every now and then.

The big thing in Episode Final's favor is that it's from an era where the jump up in quality from the small screen is very evident. It feels like a huge movie, and having rewatched Project G4 recently, I think it pushes it even further than that in places. There's an inherent novelty to seeing all the Riders from Ryuki fighting each other with fancier camerawork, massively upgraded picture quality, and generally quite lavish production values. All the action in this movie is quite memorable and I've always remembered the final battle between Ryuki and Ryuga especially fondly. It's mostly a straightforward fistfight, and that simplicity keeps it pretty intense.

The plot, on the other hand? Eh, it's alright. Inoue wrote it, and it definitely reeks of him a lot more than his work on Ryuki usually does. He managed to cram almost every one of his usual tropes just into Femme's plotline alone, and that's before mentioning how the actual ending part of this alternate ending pulled a Faiz before Faiz even existed. It's fairly schlocky, to say the least. And if we get on the subject of the movie's connection to the show... I honestly don't even feel qualified to talk about it. It would've actually been more convenient to do this after finishing the series again, because it's been way too long for me to remember how much of the lore revealed here looped back onto TV, meaning I can't touch on one of the big draws of the film. It's also more confusing the more you think about it. I mean, I like Ryuga because I'm a sucker for evil repaints of heroes, but I can't tell you a thing about who or why he is. I also don't know how or when Odin tapped out of the Rider Battle in this version of the story, because, presumably for the sake of streamlining the narrative, he's explicitly ignored here.

It's serviceable enough, and Ryuki was already a show that kind of begs the viewer not to read too much into the mechanics of the universe, so it'd be hypocritical of me to complain too much about that. I do have a new observation after this rewatch that there was probably a real missed opportunity to give the movie a better through line by making it centered more on Shinji and Ren. The series at its core is their story, but while the very end comes back around to them, Ren is largely out of focus here, making things feel a bit more limp than they could've been.

One last unrelated thing I wanna mention. The brief cameos from the Agito cast are awesome. They can't possibly live up to Hiroshi Fujioka popping up in Project G4, but once I had actually seen Agito, it was super cool watching this again and going "oh, I get it now".

Den-O: I'm Born!

This one, I haven't actually seen since the first time, and frankly, I'm kicking myself a bit over that right now, because this movie is great. I don't know why it didn't leave more of an impression at the time. Considering the amount of buildup the show gave it, maybe I was expecting some kind of be-all, end-all Rider movie, which it probably isn't. It is, however, a classy flick that, in choosing to explicitly be part of the show's continuity, gets to really represent Den-O as a whole, telling a simple but effective story about the Den-Liner getting hijacked by our obligatory movie-exclusive Rider that packs in all the humor, excitement, and sentimentality that make the series so great.

The huge movie feel here is achieved by packing the adventure with loads and loads of really strong high concept ideas that just scream "come see this movie". A short film before the movie starts! Chibi Den-O! The Imagin get to run around with their weapons and everything for the first time! All of Den-O's basic forms fighting together! An adventure through multiple points in history culminating in going to the day our hero was born! I mean, dang. It has creativity in spades, and it's clear they wanted to make Den-O's chance to shine on the big screen count. Kobayashi delivers on the script as always, keeping things from being all flash and no substance by putting an emphasis on Ryoutarou's past. It's cool seeing him interact with his childhood self (who would ironically go on to become his future self, but that's a story for another day), and the through line with their shared desire to remember their parents more leads to a decently touching little ending. The theme song at the end complements the mood perfectly, too. Definitely one of the best songs a Rider movie has ever had.

Even the weaker elements here still work well. Gaoh (shouldn't that be Ga-O?) is a ludicrously flat villain, but the guy playing him gives him enough gravitas I don't mind all that much. Come on, this is Den-O. We're nearly 30 episodes into the show and it still hasn't gotten its own big bad yet. It's always been about the heroes, and they're all great here. Momotaros steals the show for sure, but everyone gets a cool moment or two.

OOO: Wonderful: The Shogun and the 21 Core Medals

I actually already watched this one a second time on a whim a couple years back, so I've already had the revelation that it was way better than I remember it. Actually, that seems to happen every time I watch a Rider movie twice, which would explain why I end up watching so many of them more than once. Anyway, aside from the fact that it's more "continuity adjacent" than straight up canon, and the way less to the point title, most of what I said about the Den-O movie applies here too. Lots of really cool ideas (seeing Eiji as Birth still doing OOO's poses has gotta be my favorite), and a story with a clear, focused theme. Even compared to I'm Born, it comes off as a real feel-good kind of movie. It's got that signature OOO bounciness to it and an emphasis on the heroic action. Eiji is portrayed great here, which is to be expected when this was also written by Kobayashi herself, but still.

My biggest complaint was going to be that I don't miss the next Rider cameos we were getting for a while there, but then the movie made a liar out of me, because I just can't NOT be happy seeing Gentarou. Also, Eiji brings up his "Riders should help each other" line from his original appearance in the W movie, and I have to give points for continuity like that.

There's simply not a whole lot to pick apart here. This is a rock solid Rider film with great pacing, a plot that doesn't overcomplicate itself, and all the characters you like from the show actually acting exactly like those characters, which puts it way ahead of a lot of the competition.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreshToku

And hey, it's when Shout Out finally got played when I was wondering if they just skipped that song.

Yeah, I wish. Unfortunately, ShaUTa would have to wait something like half a year for that wrong to be finally be righted. Meanwhile, TaJaDor could sit around doing yoga and Time Judged All would still play like it was the coolest thing ever.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Drive was a little less overt about it (no one directly turned to the camera and said “go see the movie”), but it did have a lot of set-up for its summer movie in the series, too. Gain also had a whole episode dedicated to setting up the dumb soccer AU for its movie.

I actually thought about mentioning Drive, but aside from the Blade-esque mini episode things, I don't remember anything about how that played out, so I figured I shouldn't bother. To be honest, that Gaim episode totally slipped my mind while I was writing that, but I still feel comfortable saying the way Den-O did it is one of a kind even now. Episode 27 is legitimately a linear narrative where the end connects directly to the film's beginning without skipping a beat, which you can't say about Baron's Wacky Soccer Adventure. And of course, Den-O did that on top of all the other setup (and payoff) in the show. No other series has worked the movie in nearly as thoroughly.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

They also had that Kikaider tie in that no-one remembers. What an episode.

No one remembers? How could anyone forget an episode that awesome?! Ryouma could've just stayed as Hakaider for the rest of the show and I would've been happy.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kiwami

Kouta develops a deep, emotional connection to a robot because it reminds him of a puppy he couldn't keep when he was young?

But then, I also think this sounds totally in-character for Kouta. You know what? Maybe I just shouldn't be talking about Gaim.