[Kamen Rider Die]

OH CRAP! I knew there was something I was forgetting to do!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Future Miku's menacing behavior is targeted specifically towards Present Miku, as a result of self-loathing for not appreciating her grandmother enough. It's a recurring plot in both this movie and Episode Yellow, the desire to use time travel to rectify a mistake in the past, with varying outcomes.

Sure, and it's something the TV series also hit upon regularly. It's not that it's a weird plot for a Den-O story to try. It's just, the plot in Episode Blue doesn't have enough moves on it to make it seem fresh.

And Rinko From Wizard From The Future's, like, haunting of Rinko From Wizard is more about trying to set up the fakeout of some evil doppelganger/Imagin, and it just keeps going long after that's obviously not the case. It's a character acting in secrecy for dramatic reasons, not logical reasons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

What would be alternative though? They're both the real Miku, so it's not like she can just choose. I think making them compete with each other does a lot to show the shallowness of Present Miku's problem, how she simply ceases to appear in this movie as soon as Future Miku gets rescued by the Denliner crew. Her objective was merely to get Future Miku out of her life, which seems pretty spiteful considering that the grandmother actually enjoyed having two Mikus, while Future Miku was the only one taking the competition seriously to get to spend important time with her grandmother. Present Miku probably spends the rest of her time with her friends offscreen, giving more reason for Future Miku to oppose her. She wants to save that lost time and the ending is bittersweet, with the grandmother destined to die soon, but at least Miku eventually gets closure. It fits with Den-O's prominent theme of inevitability but allowing small consolations that can have profound effects on people in the future. Miku's actress totally sells the emotions as well, so it's not surprising that she would later portray main characters such as Rinko from Wizard and Magical Goth Girl (I don't remember her name right now) from Travelers Dimension Police.

It's a story that pads out its time by having characters not just say the main thing that their performance is SCREAMING at the audience, and I didn't have a ton of patience for it. I needed something from Rinko From Wizard From The Future that was more honest, and I needed something from Grandma that was more blunt. I don't know. It was a story where the entire second act didn't work for me, because there was no surprise or tension.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

Honestly, it's not even much of an original moral, being something that Den-O has covered several times already.

I mean, I see what you're saying about it being a necessary part of Kotaro's evolution into A Real Den-O, but my problem with that element is my same problem with the Rinko From Wizard stuff: I just don't feel like it was doing anything fresh or clever with those ingredients? It was trying to evoke similar feelings from the Den-O TV series, but that just reinforced for me how hollow and repetitive the movie's story was. It missed trying to warp or twist any of those beats in a clever way, instead leaning into the trope of People Being Jerks To Teach A Lesson, which always comes off as unimaginative and lazy to me.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sh Ranger

It's a little more hidden in Kaito and debatable whether or not it's actually genuine, but against my better judgment, I also like to think that he did all this not just to protect his own treasure of the golden gun, but Reiji's treasure of his mother's letters as well.

Yeah, he really wanted to help this one guy not be such a grump. It's such an adorable goal.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

Oh, this movie may also be where I first began to like Arc? He's just a big dude! I like how much they play on him just being a Big Dude here in the summon visuals and it's great. He should be around in more stuff so we can have more fun groupshots like this one

Kamen Riders come in all Shapes and Sizes, which is a nice lesson that Kaitou -- the Rider who is the best with children -- can teach the young viewers of this movie.

Quote:

Originally Posted by VilaVanilla

This thread makes me want to watch Kamen Rider Den-O again. I actually watched this a long time ago when I'm not fluent in English so there are still a lot of things that I don't understand, so it will be interesting to watch this again and fully understand the story.

That's very cool! I hope you enjoy it more the next time. This thread will be here if you want to use it as a group of friends from the past who are watching along with you. It's a form of time travel!