[Daikaijuman54]

So I decided to drop by, since Decade was, to nobody's surprise, my first completed Rider season. The first one I watched would either go to the original's (1971) first episode, or Amazon's (1974) first half.

First off, some factors as to why Decade is probably one of the ones people usually start with being, is that it introduces the Kamen Riders (at least their suits and themes) to get people interested in watching those seasons, and since they're all alternate world versions of them, there's no risk of spoiling the past seasons to them. Second, it's that bridge between the Heisei Phase 1 style and Phase 2's robust and toyetic gimmick merchandise that the franchise leans more into, allowing people to see whether either style is the one they want to see. And third, of course, is the shorter season, meaning more people have time for it before deciding if their interested in seeing more of Kamen Rider.

Now I'm guessing there are a fair number of people who might have felt conflicted with the way they perceive Decade, which probably makes some people wonder what's so special about Kamen Rider. The answer to some of those questions I can only say to that is, there's 50 years of shows to choose from afterwards, a lot of them with very different themes and stories of which surely one of them you're bound to enjoy. And then I watched Fourze and Wizard afterwards.

Because I don't want to take too much of people's time here, I'll just lay down some of my experience with watching Decade for the first time here, then maybe post here and there later. Decade was, for lack of a better word, very different from what I was used to seeing at the time. First there was that opening sequence with the whole war going on before Decade defeats everyone. That scene blew me away at first, seeing so many cool things on screen just going ham, then seeing who was to be our main character just destroy everything and looking like a villain, all while wearing magenta (Yes, I said it).

Then there was the opening itself, which for me, was how I started getting into Kamen Rider. I watched the original's opening first to see where the series started, then picked whichever one sounded cool, being the names, where I saw Wizard's and got hooked. When I was opting for Decade, which was one of the one's often recommended to newcomers, I was taken aback by how, for an anniversary season, the theme song sounded melancholic and the visuals filled with, what I assumed at the time, the Riders being villains. I still, strangely enough, love the route of having the heroes you've rooted for go against the new hero, and the scenes of them all standing ready to oppose Decade, with Natsume behind them. I just didn't know what to make of this show at first glance, and that's probably what made it so exciting for me. It wasn't like some of the Anime I'd been watching while I was getting into that, nor anything I normally watched, which brought me into this franchise and it's many wonderful series.

I'll probably talk more about the shows in another post, since I don't usually like to go on for this long. But before I go, I'm going to leave this here.

"It's time to D-D-D-D-DDDDDDD-Duel!"