[Fish Sandwich]

Ninnin Rewatch! Ninninger VS Drive (hey, why not?)

This was actually a lot better than I remember. It's just a tiny bit bogged down by the obligatory movie tie-in stuff (Hi Rider 3! Bye Rider 3!), but it otherwise hits pretty much every beat a good crossover should. The big thing going for it is the chemistry between Akaninger and Drive, who give the whole special a solid backbone by having Shinnosuke's arc of initially be frustrated with Takaharu's antics only to realize they have a lot in common. There're also a lot of fun scenes throughout. We're given the obligatory *misunderstanding* at the start with Drive mistaking the Ninningers for particularly odd Roidmudes, but the ensuing fight is made interesting by actually showing how they counter each other's wildly different abilities. Seeing Shinnosuke and Belt-san completely baffled by giant Roidmudes and giant robots is also a really great bit of perspective. As the audience, you just sort of accept these things as making sense. This special with written by Drive's writer, Riku Sanjo, but it actually works remarkably well as an episode of Ninninger. Everybody is very in-character and this is kind of the first time we really get to see Takaharu be the unexpected voice of reason, which will become more of a thing with him later on. He's the one who stops the fight with Drive to actually ask some questions. He figures out the monster's plan before Shinnosuke, a detective, can. And he gives a spot-on summation of their respective personalities toward the end ("If I'm a hotheaded idiot who rushes in without thinking, you're a hotheaded idiot who overthinks everything"). All around pretty good stuff. I mean, remember when the best you could hope for with a Sentai/Rider crossover was Super Hero Wars? We should really count our blessings here.

Oh, and seeing Shunsuke Nishikawa acting opposite Ryoma Takeuchi (Shinnosuke) for 48 minutes really puts into perspective why people thought his acting was crap.