[Androzani84]

Had to rewatch this to gather my thoughts on it beyond what I remember and see what impression I have now that I’ve actually watched all 16 Metal Heroes series (that are subbed and were considered as such at the time of release).

The answer I can give is… I like the film overall, and it has a lot more respect for the Ishinomori characters the Fourze villains were based on, given all of them get a more sympathetic/traditional portrayal with their limited screen time. (Though I still wonder how Inazuma got there, considering he’s 4 years out from his origin story, but someone suggested the Madou portals were bridging time as well as space, so I’ve adopted that as my theory). And for once, Gai Gokai Changes into one of the Go-On Wings instead of the weird hybrid he normally uses (which looks alright, aside from the helmet, which is the main draw of these suits).

And despite Gavan being the POV for the Metal Heroes side, this is more of a Sharivan homage. It was his 30th at the time, the bad guys are his villain group and even the final boss is an updated version of the show’s big bad. All that’s missing is a trip to the Genm World (No relation to Kuroto. It’s Sharivan’s version of the Makuu Space).

If I have to criticise something, it’s that they remade the Redder, Blue Beet, B-Fighter Kabuto, Jiraiya, Janperson and Jiban suits… and didn’t give them a fight scene. It’s basically a promo for a bunch of Ranger Keys (with there being 3 years between them and a set with the other 10 protagonists).

And now, to revive the feature I’m doing for all your Rider threads through Wizard.

Sentai-lert! (note, all characters from Rider that don’t debut here will be covered when their debuts pop up in later threads)

First and most obvious, the guy playing the old Gavan (who is now the chief of the Galactic Federal Police after the actor who played the old chief died between the Gaven movie and this one), Kenji Ohba got his start in the first Sentai as a suit actor for Akarenger, before getting the more prominent roles of Battle Kenya and DenziBlue in the first SUPER Sentai, Battle Fever and Denziman respectively. Gavan was partially created based on how popular the actor was (also partially because Kamen Rider was dependent on Ishinomori having an idea and the Sentai character designer’s fun side project getting seen by a producer).

In addition to reprising Shelley, Suzuka Morita also returns to her role as Shinken Yellow, Hanaori Kotoha, for the purposes of a brief gag that helps save the day.

The voice of Sharivan is Riki Miura, who is perhaps better known as Gou Fukami/GekiViolet from, erm, Gekiranger

Psycolon, the cute owl robot is voiced by popular voice actress and singer (how popular? She was invited to sing before the Emperor of Japan) Nana Mizuki, who is currently voicing female villain Itasha in Boonboomger.

Rider-lert

While Reidar is a villain from Sharivan, this movie out of necessity (the old actor having died two years prior) recasts the role with Hirotaro Honda, who was previously Kagami’s dad in Kabuto.

Special Guest Alert

Reprising the role of Demon King Psycho is Shozo Izuka, who was a prominent VA in Toku throughout the 70s and 80s, with most of his roles after being one-off monsters or villains in anniversary or reunion shows (within Heisei Rider, he was one of Smart Brain’s wirepullers in the Faiz movie and the Alexander Ganma in Kamen Rider 1 and the last episode of the Legend Rider Souls mini).

And finally, the voice of Shaider is Hiroaki Iwanaga, who started out as Tomica Hero Rescue Force’s mentor, but he’s got a bigger role in the next show in “Kamen Rider Rewatches”.