[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sylarking

So basically what is your favorite form ride? Your favorite Alternate rider story? favorite character? Favorite villian?

I would love to hear your answers to this (along with everyone else's!), but if I can remember Decade at all after not watching it for a week:

FAVORITE FINAL FORM RIDE: Decade as Decadriver
It was almost Den-O as Momotaros, because that is literally what Den-O turned into, a Momotaros delivery mechanism, but I honestly love both the visual of Tsukasa turning into his own Henshin device -slash- the best Henshin device, and the thematic relevance of it. I talked a little bit about it when we covered the All-Riders movie, but Tsukasa's Final Form being a way to pass on other Rider's powers and stories... YES. That super duper nails Decade's place in the franchise.

FAVORITE ALTERNATE RIDER STORY: Hibiki
That ending. There're a million little smart things that story does -- from how it casts Kaitou as the story's Hibiki-substitute and recontextualizes the original show's generational struggles -- but the ending was what I wanted the original show to do, and they didn't. The ending of the Hibiki story, with everyone in the cast jamming out a song, was something the original series version of Hibiki (the "good" version of Hibiki, even!) fumbled, so seeing it put right in Decade was... god, it was like a little gift, just for me.

FAVORITE CHARACTER: Diend
Best actor in the show by a mile. His spotlight story wasn't great, and there're a string of episodes where multiple writers couldn't seem to figure out why he was on the show, but I completely bought Kaitou's character. His chemistry with Tsukasa was a frequent bright spot, and rote scenes got elevated by his intensity and charisma. Series MVP, for sure.

FAVORITE VILLAIN: Social anxiety
The actual monsters and whatever, I couldn't care less. Narutaki was interesting for about one episode, when I could read a thematic purpose to him. Apollo Geist was a fun roadblock, but not much more than that. Dai-Shocker wasn't great. The individual story villains were nothing memorable. (Kaitou's brother, maybe, if he even counts.) But the internal struggles for our heroes were what was always compelling. This was a show about making friends, and it's portrayed as the terrifying ordeal it can feel like in real life. Nearly every story is about Tsukasa fighting to be understood, or accepted, or... like, just be seen. I feel like a lot of us have been there, felt like the world was actively rejecting us? And then here's this show about superheroes, going through the tokusatsu version of that psychological battle. That was the recurring, season-long villain I was most interested in.

Very curious to hear everyone else's choices!