[Deepsea]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DECADE - SERIES WRAP-UP



A couple of weeks ago, I watched the premiere episode for Only Murders In The Building. It was only alright, despite the high production values and stellar cast. It’s one of those comedies where everyone’s sad, and that just wasn’t what I was looking for. It didn’t really connect with me, except for on one very specific level.

The show is about three people (Steve Martin, Selena Gomez, Martin Short) who live in the same apartment building in Manhattan. They don’t really know each other. They aren’t friends. They pass by one another and avoid eye contact, anxious about getting drawn into someone else’s life. The twist is that they’re all super-fans of the same true crime podcast.

There’s a scene, midway through the first episode, that’s the most relatable thing in the world to me. The characters have all needed to leave their building due to a fire alarm, but it’s in the midst of the most recent episode of the podcast they follow. Steve Martin’s character sets up his laptop and notebook and theories at a table in a nearby restaurant. Martin Short’s character stops by, and Steve Martin visibly grimaces. He doesn’t want to deal with Martin Short, and he certainly doesn’t want to deal with him when there’s a new podcast episode to dissect. But then Martin Short recognizes the notes and theories and his eyes light up. He blurts out a recent theory, and then Steve Martin’s eyes light up. They start gushing to each other about new clues, and popular theories, and questions that’ve puzzled them for weeks. When Selena Gomez ends up in the same restaurant, she’s stand-offish… until she sees they’re superfans like her. Suddenly, they’re speaking the same language. There’s an immediate, deep connection.

That’s every fandom, isn’t it? The ideal version of it? We’re all different people, but there’s this one thing we have in common, and that opens a door. Making a connection in the world is nearly impossible, but if you meet a Kamen Rider fan, you’ve met a friend. It’s a rare commonality, a part of yourself you can immediately see in that other person. The differences melt away in the heat of that one similar passion. It’s empathy, transmitted via fandom.

I think that’s why Kamen Rider Decade ended up working for me, despite the many storytelling choices I regret/resent. It’s a show that’s implicitly and explicitly about the power of fandom to unite people. There’s a read on Tsukasa’s travels where he keeps meeting Kamen Riders, keeps meeting people different from him that share one thing, and that one thing is an unbreakable bond. But there’s also the end of the show, where the A.R. Riders’ literal fandom for Tsukasa is enough to bring him back to life.

This was a show that created almost nothing worthwhile as a series arc, a depressing waste of mysteries and teases, but still managed to tell the best Kamen Rider story there is to tell. It’s a celebration not of Kamen Rider as a franchise, a way to trot out old characters for nostalgia’s sake; but a celebration of Kamen Rider fans, and the ways these finite stories unite for an infinite experience. Watching Tsukasa spend a couple episodes in one story, then moving on? That’s us. That’s all of us. We throw ourselves into a show for weeks, months, a year, and then we move on to Saber, to Revice, to whatever comes next. And when we’ve explored every corner of the franchise, made every friend there is to make? Then we get to go back and revisit them, see if we’ve changed enough to add more dimensions to that relationship.

And the enjoyment of a fandom is so much larger than the product Toei puts out, or the product Bandai puts out. It’s here, on forums and chat rooms and social media. I wanted to do this project with other fans as a fun gimmick, a way of commenting on Decade’s parade of guest stars. I never realized how much it would feel integral to my enjoyment of Decade, how clear it’d make the show’s intentions. It’s there in the finale of the TV series, where Tsukasa and his friends all bond over their shared experience as Team Decade. That’s… that’s these threads? That’s this experience for me. The quality of the show is almost irrelevant, because sharing it with all of you is what’s valuable. Tsukasa doesn’t care if the world’s going to end, because his friends are with him. I don’t care if I’ve got to watch Showa tributes, because all of you are with me.

That celebration of the ways fandom unites people… that’s what makes it hard for me to understand the people who claim that Kamen Rider Decade didn’t have its own story. Honestly, the story of Kamen Rider Decade -- four people find common ground and friendship through the exploration of Kamen Rider stories -- is probably the part of this show I’m going to remember best. Team Decade is fantastic. They’re all different types of fans, with different motivations and backgrounds, but they cared about these stories. The differences added value to each other’s perspectives, the same way it does it here. You can watch these shows for the action, the drama, the effects, the humor, the themes, the songs, whatever; as long as you care about them, we’ve all got your back.

I started watching Kamen Rider series by myself. Kamen Rider Decade was a show about why it’s more rewarding to watch them with other people.

I wish I had something witty or smart to say here. I just wanna say y'all are great and I'm glad I can be on a forum of toku fans like all of y'all. I'm glad I can come here and always find a varied of opinions on all shows, and that people here are friendly and kind and stuff.


Also related: the ideas for adapt one of these threads into a video essay is still on my table.