[Kamen Rider Die]

KAMEN RIDER GHOST MISCELLANY FINAL PART - TRUTH! THE SECRET OF THE HEROES' EYECONS and RE:BIRTH: KAMEN RIDER SPECTER



Well, Saionji's back in "Truth! The Secret of The Heroes' Eyecons", despite dying 39 episodes earlier and not mattering at all to the plot since. Takeru's insistence on making an emotional connection with people, no matter how awful, is one of the lone bright spots in what is otherwise a complete waste of everyone's time. It's all so lazy. The Da Vinci Eyecon is reused from the (terrible) winter movie. The main set for the story is just a slightly/barely redressed version of the temple basement we've seen in 50 episodes of Ghost. The incredibly-late-in-the-game attempt to give Saionji some relatable motivation sort-of, kind-of makes sense, except that we never spent any real time with a Saionji and Ryu, so there's a ton of speechifying to set up exactly how and why Saionji held a grudge against him. Like a lot of times Ghost would bring a character from the first first act back, it feels so perfunctory, like a big ol' "Why not?" They're barely saying anything with the character, and no one really missed them, so why even tell this story? Far from reinventing or rehabbing a failed character, this story just reminds you why you didn't miss them in the first place.



I wasn't sure what could even be in a Specter-focused sequel to Ghost. Of all of the characters at the end of Ghost, Specter was the one that had the least story ahead of him. (If the show had killed Makoto and had Mockoto take his place, then, sure, story ideas for miles. They didn't ask for my input three years after the series ended, though, COWARDS.) Alain obviously is headed back to the Ganma World to save his people, and Makoto... goes with? To support his friend? That's not nearly enough motivation to build an hour-long movie around.

The solution, surprisingly, was to break Makoto down in the most catastrophically demoralizing way imaginable. I'm referring, of course, to the unspeakable: flashing back to elements from the Ghost Summer Movie. (Sorry, should've had a Trigger Warning.)

Yep, it's time for a new entrant in ALL DADS ARE DEAD, as Makoto's heretofore unmentioned third dad, Danton, arrives from space to be not only a very charismatic villain with a legitimate point of view, but also a way to try and salvage some embarrassingly shitty ideas from 100 Eyecons. Danton tells us that Makoto and Kanon are superclones from the Ganma World who were stolen to Earth by Daigo who, after changing his name from Godai for no apparent reason (who on Earth would even care?), "raised" Makoto and Kanon until he mostly didn't want to anymore and left for a cave.

(My absolute favorite part of a movie I generally enjoyed was that, when the producers needed to drop in scenes with Daigo to sell Makoto's love for his first dad, the best they could manage to describe Makoto's worst father was "strict", and the image they paired it with was Daigo giving no care to his son's rage at being abandoned. "Strict"!)

Bringing up the convoluted mess of 100 Eyecons, while possibly regrettable, is part of the larger overhaul RE:BIRTH is doing to Specter's backstory. The other major part is resolving some of the vagaries of all them Mockotos at the end of Ghost. The show mostly hand-waved at the notion that the Deep Specter Eyecon connected with the Ganmeisers somehow to make a mess of Mockotos, and while all this clone stuff is a retcon, it's a lot more compelling and sensible, sort-of. It makes for a complicated combination, where the Daigo part makes way, way less sense, but the Mockoto part makes way, way more sense. I guess it helps (like it did for me) if you liked the end of Ghost more than you liked one of the worst summer movies I've ever seen. Your mileage may vary!

The plot of RE:BIRTH was interesting, especially in how dark it got for the heroes. Alain's dream of fixing the Ganma World has, uh, mostly been killing people. A lot of people. The entire hope for his world hinges on Akari (who's looking great, I just gotta throw that in here) magically fixing a machine she's failed to fix six other times. So when a new, charismatic leader shows up offering an alternative to "hoping you don't die from atmospheric toxins", I feel like the Ganma aren't jerks for considering it? The movie is definitely pretty deep in the Pure Unaltered Humanity Is The Only Answer pocket, which, seems a little ableist, who am I to say, but it doesn't seem like the movie ever really disputes Danton's methods? Like, he's a lunatic, he kills people, bad guy, boo, sure. But before that, it seems like he saved a bunch of lives? And, yeah, Akari's device works in the end, but why not have two solutions? Alain never seems like he has a counter-argument beyond "I don't like that" and "My dad didn't like that", so, A+ leadership there. His dismissal mostly serves as a reason to have Makoto and Alain fight, which I guess is fine. More importantly, it's an excuse for some snazzy new suits.

Those new suits! Aces. The Mugen-ish design for Specter looks regal and yet still menacing, while Necrom's Burst design is a fun take on Ghost's Boost form. Two new suits! In one movie! We're being spoiled. I didn't love the Necrom/Specter fight (too dark and rainy), but I love those new designs we got because of it.

The final fight between Specter and Danton, though, probably the highlight of the movie. (I mean, you'd hope that the climactic fight would be the best one, but not always the case!) After just under an hour, I totally bought that this was an emotionally fraught battle between father and son. The action was intense and well-choreographed, with some very fun effects- and camera-work. (That Omega Drive!)

I mostly enjoyed RE:BIRTH. I wish it hadn't brought back nonsense from 100 Eyecons, but I sort-of respect them trying (and partially succeeding!) to make them better. A solid movie, and a pretty okay coda for the full cast of Kamen Rider Ghost, with the most Ghost ending possible:



ALL DADS ARE DEAD