[Sh Ranger]

Final Countdown is an okay Den-O movie, but it reuses a lot of things that were seen before. The Edo Era, the tragically butchered Gaoh suit, Ryoutarou being out of action, multiple Den-Os, these are all things that were done in Ore Tanjou and I think that movie was more meaningful for how it focused on the bond between Ryoutarou and Momotaros and the value of memories.

This movie does touch on some of the important themes from the show, but they're mostly experienced through the perspective of Koutarou, who doesn't understand all the hype about the Den-O of the present day. I actually like Koutarou and Teddy and everything about New Den-O and their counting gimmick. But in a movie that was being advertised as the last Den-O movie, it seems like a weird time to be introducing these new characters instead of focusing on the ones we're already familiar with. Koutarou will get more chance to shine going forward with the Chou Den-O Series though so look forward to that. His name is of course a reference to kid Ryoutarou, who was nicknamed Koutarou in Ore Tanjou as distinction from adult Ryoutarou.

Shirou gets the accolade of coming up with the whole "replace living with dead" plan before Kamen Rider War, but honestly I think even that crazy movie made it sound more plausible. Here, it's basically just more classic Time Nonsense, compounded with Owner's ineffective reassurance that everything makes sense at the end. Shirou isn't even that interesting as a movie villain, compared to bad*sses like Gaoh and Negataros. His whole motivation is that his girlfriend died and while that is definitely sad, I don't think it's something that would necessarily push most people to inverting time. Kamen Rider Yuki is also the reason why the awesome Gaoh suit doesn't exist anymore, so I'm a little bitter about that.