[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER X KAMEN RIDER THE MOVIE: CHO-DEN-O TRILOGY
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EPISODE YELLOW - "TREASURE DE END PIRATES”



Fun Diend movie!

I keep going back and forth on how this worked as a Den-O movie, though. It's got all the trappings: the cast, the time travel (...ish), how the past can become a weight on the future, a climactic and largely irrelevant rice battle, etc. It's pretty thorough on the Den-O aesthetics.

It's just, it's 100% a Diend story. That actor has a way of warping stories just by sheer charisma. He's like Nega New Den-O, where his mere existence gets you invested in his schemes and stratagems, rather than confused and irritated by his presence. (YMMV!) It's Kaitou's story, and the Den-O characters are just along for the ride.

Probably no surprise that this one turned out great, considering that a) it's written by the guy who did the Hibiki arc on Decade, a.k.a. The Best Kaitou Story, and b) it gains a lot of its power from hitting that story's beats. (No, uh, pun intended.) It's a fun heist story where Kaitou makes a bunch of people's lives miserable in pursuit of a rare trinket... and some small kindness that can assuage his flatly-denied guilty conscience.

It's sort of fascinating, to see Kaitou back in that Reluctant Hero role. His entire motivation here is that he accidentally robbed a young boy of the emotional closure needed to stop resenting an absent mother, and he goes to INSANE lengths to rectify that mistake. He makes a deal with an Imagin to draw out Den-O. He somehow makes his way to the past, just in time to grab Sword Form's predictably-discarded DenPass. (I love that a huge plot point rests on Den-O always throwing away the very important DenPass, almost as much as I hate how lazy it is that Kaitou can suddenly time travel now.) He hijacks the DenLiner, multiple times. He tries to murder himself in the past. It's all incredibly convoluted, and it's all just so he can fix this one kid's life that he accidentally ruined.

Which, I like that! I like a Kaitou who will spend the entire movie being a frustrating asshole, telling everyone he manipulates that Feelings Are Dumb, while he would literally kill himself to get this kid to stop hating his own mother. I like it because it's what the Phase 2 of Diend's story could've been. It's Tsukasa's influence, and you can tell. This isn't something Kaitou decided to do until after he joined Team Decade, and it's not something he's doing to get Reiji off of his back. He just, y'know, felt guilty! And so he stole a time train at gunpoint!

And this is the only character that can get away with being so frustratingly opaque and resolutely uncooperative. He's so damn charismatic that you can buy Urataros (who can see the squishy feelings inside the most dismissive of liars) and Ryotaro (who just innately believes in people) being willing to help Kaitou. He's someone who can spend an hour as a selfish thief, but you're still able to say But Maybe He's A Good Guy. I can't ever stay that mad at Kaitou, and neither can the narrative.

It's a solid story, too. The idea of a Den-O "cops and robbers” story that mostly revolves around the danger of strict adherence to rules in the face of mitigating circumstances is a pretty fun one to tell. Reiji always comes off as a vengeful goon, which helps refocus Kaitou's scheming as the lesser of two evils. Den-O as a series always saw value in judging individual situations without bias, and it's nice to see those values carry over into this movie. It's a story that largely rejects things like Rules and Justice in favor of holistic solutions and personal responsibility. It definitely flatters Kaitou's view of the world!

This is the last little bit of Den-O I'm going to have for a while (I think Pretty Den-O will land in the space between Zi-O and Zero-One, unless anyone can think of a reason not to), and it's funny to see it finally figure out a way forward for the franchise just as it's about to run out of track: as perennial guest stars. This movie works great because it tells a Diend story in a Den-O language. It's not even vaguely interested in pushing forward Ryotaro's story, or Momo's story, or whatever. All of the Den-O cast is there to help support Kaitou's journey, and that's great. Den-O's cast... I mean, what the hell is there left to learn about them? They've had 49 TV episodes, 7 movies, countless specials and short films... their story is over. Having them star in anything is just... why? But having them show up to provide a comedic bedrock for someone else's time-traveling journey towards a life with less regrets? That's pretty much ideal.



THE BAGGAGE CAR

-Ha ha, I just remembered I used to do these for Den-O episodes! WHOOPS.

-Diend Complete being powered entirely by Movie-Only characters is... a choice! It's cute, but it doesn't have nearly the visual impact of Decade Complete's collection of Final Forms. Like, G4? Okay, sure.

-Absolutely unclear why the Time Police had a Diend-themed K-Touch (complete with a carrying case emblazoned with Diend's logo!), but that can get filed alongside a bunch of other things under the heading Best Not To Think About. I am not entirely sure that this story fits comfortably between Kaitou's Missing Ace backstory and where we find him in Decade Episode 9. Maybe! Feels like a tough fit, though.

-I liked Kamen Rider Den-Officer's suit! Reminds me a bit of the Space Sheriff design, which helped subconsciously sell it as a Cop Rider.

-The Station Master Vs Owner contest at the end is, as Momotaros is infuriated by, the flimsiest bit of nonsense that could be used to pad out this thing's runtime (story ends about two-thirds of the way through), but I also completely don't care. It's terrific. Of all the fan-servicey callbacks this post-series contest has dredged up, I will never get sick or the Station Master Vs Owner rivalry. NEVER.

-Naomi peeling off her own skin to reveal Kaitou underneath is some of the most horrifying imagery I've ever experienced in tokusatsu, or possibly all of media. Cannot believe this movie was aimed at children.