[Kamen Rider Die]

“SERIES” WRAP-UP



This is the point at which I’d usually look back on an entire series, and try and put it all into a context. Do like a This Series Is About Whatever post, try and draw together the various threads into something approximating a coherent viewpoint.

I can’t really do that here, obviously. Too many different creators. Too many different aesthetics. Too many different themes and objectives and tones. Heisei Phase 2 wasn’t, broadly speaking, About anything. (You could maybe sketch out an overall tonal shift towards Comedy or Spectacle, but I don't have the confidence in either thesis to push for them.) So all I can really talk about is what Phase 2 means to me as a fan, and what these Legend Rider projects said to me.

I love Heisei Phase 2. It is now, and probably always will be, my sweet-spot as a fan. It’s the era I came in with. It’s the style of Rider – colorful, melodramatic, high-energy, and with a cast of thousands – that I subconsciously consider Rider Done Right. With as many things as I found to love about Heisei Phase 1, it’s not as though I’d deny the quality of other styles, but Phase 2 is my Kamen Rider. It’s epic stories about tiny things: recognizing the ways our decisions impact each other; making friends with people different than you; always reaching out to people in need. The ways we can be better as people, but as gigantic superhero stories. A multitude of collectibles, sitting alongside indelible life lessons. Shows that are sugar-rush lunacy, wrapped around the biggest hearts in the world.

It was such a blast to experience all of these shows again, even in highly-concentrated movie form. Those theme songs, and Driver noises, and Henshins… god, it’s so good. Knowing that these characters are about to return in some form for Zi-O? I am incredibly excited.

So, it’s almost hard to say this: I don’t know if I like Legend Rider projects, as a concept. I sort of wish they didn’t exist?

I don’t know if those two paragraphs make any sense next to each other, so let me try and explain myself.

My favorite thing about Kamen Rider – as a superhero franchise – is its finality. Stories get to end, which is more and more of a rarity these days. Each September, a new Kamen Rider show starts. Each August, a Kamen Rider show ends. The series are built to tell one story to completion. A villain’s defeated, a lesson is learned, and a hero triumphs. That’s the in-universe reward, for the most part: the hero can stop fighting. As much as it can hurt to watch Philip and Gentarou and Shinnosuke walk away… they get to walk away. Their story has concluded, and we’re encouraged to feel good about that.

Looking over all of these projects the last couple months, it struck me that, maybe, Joe Odagiri declining to return as Yuusuke is the smartest move anyone in this franchise ever made. Kuuga’s story is that one season, and it can’t really ever be tampered with. There’s no additional villain for Kuuga to fight; no random Extra Super Secret Mastermind to battle. There was the show, and it told its story. Why draw it out?

There are Phase 2 series that seem built for further exploration. OOO, obviously. It’s a show that ends on a perfect We’ll Meet Again pseudo-cliffhanger, rendering future appearances and anniversary specials practically obligatory. Ex-Aid needed a bit more follow-up, probably, so it made sense to round out with a few specials.

But the bulk of Phase 2 was fine as it was. Shows like Fourze and Build were about a cast in a very specific environment, and that environment’s dissolution/detonation makes future stories sort of pointless; a party that looks sort of pathetic in the morning. Shows like Wizard and Drive and Gaim ended so definitively that you almost have to ignore the memorable emotional catharsis of the series finale in order to get onboard with those characters’ return appearances. (Drive specifically precludes any immediate follow-ups! But Mister Belt keeps leaving his self-imposed exile for One More Drive, like some endless encore...)

It… I get it. These movies play/prey on nostalgia, for which I am definitely not immune. Someone’s belt jingle starts, or some silhouette teases a familiar face, and I’m thrilled. It’s viscerally exciting to see old heroes show up to stem the tide of defeat. I love these characters, and I’ll never say no to seeing them again, in any form.

But I sort of wish I wasn’t given the option, I guess. I wish every series didn’t need to get an epilogue, a V-Cin, a Fan Club trilogy, a 10 Years Later Project, etc etc etc. You end a show where Ankh is gone, and Eiji vows to bring his friend back somehow? Fine, you earned that continuation. But letting some of these shows end is also fine. It’s not a failure to leave some corner of your franchise unexploited. If anything, it stands to make any return more special for its rarity. Knowing that every show has another 1-2 years of additional content to justify, or that we'll be seeing every hero again someday is… yeah, it’s not my favorite part of modern-day Rider.

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