[Kamen Rider Die]

Originally posted to "Kamen Rider Die watches Kamen Rider Ghost" on August 29th, 2019:

KAMEN RIDER GHOST MISCELLANY PART 3 - RIDER SPIRITS



It's hard to talk critically about this series of shorts because it is 100% fan service. Like, there's sort-of a story, but the whole point is to debut Rider Spirit Eyecons. Any themes are purely accidental, I'm sure. If a good story is a balanced meal, consisting of a variety of ingredients that all support a healthy experience, these shorts are a pile of candy. Even more so than the average sugar-shock episode of a Kamen Rider show, there is no nutritional value to these shorts. They're designed to spike your system.

Much like eating too much candy can be bad for you, watching seven of these shorts in a row got a little exhausting and maybe gave me a headache. I love all of the shows these forms were calling back to, but the pattern of "old monster reappears, Ghost or Specter get beat up, Rider says totally out-of-character phrase that calls back to a Legend Rider, collectible item appears, Rider Spirit henshin and catchphrase, monster explodes" was maybe done four or five too many times.

But, dang, how mad can I really be? I liked seeing the old monster suits again, I liked the Rider Spirit suits, I liked hearing those goddamn catchphrases again... It's fan service, and as a fan I felt served. Why complain?



~EVENTUALLY, IN 2022~

Yeah, didn’t exactly change my mind on this one. By the time you get to your fifth Ghost Or Specter Suddenly Has Strong Feelings About Hopes Or Cities climax, you’re pretty exhausted. The pacing on this series is just nowhere, with a repetitive structure and absolutely no explanation to anything. Xibalba is just there, Frey/Freya are just there, nothing in the vague backstory helps explain who was behind the creation of the Alexander Eyecon in the Kamen Rider 1 movie -slash- how any of this intersects with the movie beyond Rider Collectibles… it’s just Suits, and that’s about it.

Well, there’s one other thing: returning villain voices!

It’s weird to see that I didn’t bother to bring this up, because it’s arguably a bigger selling point than the suits. (Heisei Grateful or whatever is gorgeous, the rest are a real mixed bag.) I probably didn’t even realize they were the original villain voices, is the thing. I have a really tough time picking out voices in other languages, so I’m not sure I would’ve gotten that it’s The Original Baron or whomever. I was a little curious this time, so I checked the Wiki, and, yep! All the original villain voices.

It’s a nice idea, bringing all those villains back for a few lines of dialogue. Heisei films would reuse villain suits constantly, but they’d all just be mute fodder. Here, they’re actual characters. They’ve got their actual motivations! It is awesome to see Baron get brought back as a pawn, only for him to immediately assert his need for autonomy and just walk off. (To, uh, do exactly what Frey/Freya wanted him to do in the first place, but still!) The resolution to all of those villains’ motivations coming into conflict with our heroes was… less awesome (when Specter has to give an incredibly convoluted speech to get to Don’t Make This City Cry, I was rolling my eyes so hard I could see the Gaia Library keyword of “tenuous”), but at least it feels like the sort of thing these villains would get up to, rather than helping Shocker or whatever.

So, yeah, I liked the little story in each episode, but I didn’t love seven repetitions of it.