[Daikaijuman54]

Dropping in late, but when am I ever on time.

So for the first episode, as I said in my previous post, really hooked me in with how they presented Decade, then journeying through the decade (pun intended) showing us a sneak peek of what's been in each one of these Kamen Rider shows that our heroes faced, it sold me to the series as a whole, and showed off some really cool suits, those being of the Heisei mains. And might I add, the music was sensational, having that dramatic pre-apocalyptic theme, which is used every time Decade says his iconic catchphrase, to that jazzy guitar theme as his transformation theme were all fantastic. There's one more theme that sticks out to me, but I'll wait for the episode it appears in, first.

The Kuuga arc, fitting how the first major arc is the first Heisei season, introduced the AR Yuusuke (or as Die might like to call him, Palmtree head), who, having recently seen the first two episodes of the original Kuuga, isn't quite as interesting as Odagiri, but is still to me, an enjoyable character on his own, and can see some of the similarities to his predecessor, he even watched all of Kuuga to prepare himself for Decade, even knowing he could never "replace" Odagiri.

Tsukasa kind of felt like those stinking genius Anime protagonists here, which at first kind of bothered me, but began to warm up to with his shrewd personality, for lack of a better term. He acted like a jerk being all, "isn't it obvious," which eventually I found kind of funny, but still a little off. Now, seeing his finisher for the first time was perhaps the greatest, stupidest thing ever, seeing him jump up into the air and smash through holographic cards before blasting right through the enemy. It was that moment, I knew I was going to like this series.

In context of the story, some of Tsukasa's actions feel like he read the script before arriving in the world, which isn't a trait I particularly enjoy, but getting around that, the action and worlds were still fun to explore. AR Kuuga's story was pretty well done for only two episodes, and kind of fitting for him to be the Secondary in this Anniversary, and I really enjoyed him throughout. I find the supporting cast's quirks to be between fun and "what?," Natsume (Summer Mandarin) being of the latter, acting as a moral compass to Tsukasa, to Grandpa (I don't remember his name) who sometimes bounces from one to another. The "road trip" format, is pretty clever, though mostly blends the magic painting world approach with the canvases, and I love how Tsukasa always has a weird role in the world he's visiting, complete with a makeover.

I originally planned to re-watch the first two episodes to refresh my memories, but haven't had time, so I'm just taking everything I can remember about this show the first time I saw it (2017?), and I'll post my thoughts on the Kiva arc at a later date, because I don't like going on for too long.