[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER 555 MURDER CASE: THE PROBLEM



So, we get this anniversary movie, and it’s great. It’s a nuanced and thoughtful look at the themes and conflicts that powered the original series, told with humanity and shot beautifully. It was a movie that felt weighty with age and regret, and used that to tell a story about how we can always find the idealism we thought we’d lost. Everything you’d want, right?

Wrong. The movie’s great – one of my favorite pieces of non-series Kamen Rider media – but it doesn’t really cover the totality of the 555 experience. Kamen Rider 555 wasn’t just a show of thematic intricacy or complex motivations. Kamen Rider 555 was also a show of incredibly broken people being colossal assholes to each other at the drop of a hat, led by a title character who was a gigantic, whiny baby whenever he didn’t get his way, and this TTFC project nicely honors that side of the Kamen Rider 555 experience.

Thankfully, there’s really nothing in the way of theme or metaphor this time out. It’s just an AU where Team Old and Team Young all live under the same roof and annoy each other, which is as loving a tribute to the original series as Paradise Regained was. It’s a comedy special full of prickly Inoue nonsense, abetted by Tasaki’s expert staging and timing (the incredibly long shot of the incredibly fake goldfish on the street!!!), leading to the sort of absurd warmth that 555 managed on a staggeringly consistent basis.

Like, Takumi. He’s so on in this one! He hates that everyone likes the goldfish, and he’s a total pissy baby about it! Across all of Heisei, he’s probably the most insufferable Kamen Rider, and it’s nice to see that that aspect of his character will never, ever change. Paradise Regained had him grumpily bringing a bottle of mayo to explain his long absence and off-screen heel turn, while Murder Case has him refusing to do any work, and feeling indignant and slighted if anyone around him is happy. It’s incredibly sweet of Toei to give fans the chance to celebrate this side of Takumi, in addition to the world-weary fatalist, because Takumi is a giant bundle of off-putting personality traits, some of which are very funny.

I don’t care even a little bit about the murder mystery, some of which is because I was implored to solve it (in the most insulting way imaginable) by Kusaka, and eff that dude. No, I will just bask in the ridiculous radiance of Mari bringing home a goldfish to a bunch of teenagers, a creepy would-be love interest, and her melodramatically unhelpful best friend.

I missed this side of of these characters, so much.