[Kamen Rider Die]

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

"OOO wasn't perfect, it just did literally everything right."

Yeah, okay.You can try and be modest about it, but one day we're all going to have to accept the obvious truth here.

I love OOO! I do! But it's a show I frequently describe as "not the best at anything, but good at everything." There're shows with better suits, better villains, better theme songs, you name it. (Well, Ankh might be the best character. I don't know.) It's just that OOO never drops the ball, never makes me wonder why they made a particular story choice, never had me lamenting a focus on an actor who couldn't deliver, and it always entertained me. It was always good.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

As for Heisei Generations Final, I actually had the True Ending problem with the title, where I expected more of an upgrade from the first than it was. In retrospect, I think it's a fairly strong "sidegrade" that trades some of the bombastic fun of the original for a slightly more in-depth plot and probably better use of the returning Riders (I'm not totally sure on that one, but obviously, you know, Ankh).

I'd quibble about the plot being better (there is really not a lot to Bikaiser's scheme!), but the Legend Riders definitely get a bigger spotlight in this one. That's actually maybe part of the problem? All of that Legend Rider stuff, while being hugely entertaining and also sort-of necessary for the Banjou storyline, doesn't leave a lot of room for Emu or Sento to make much of an impression. Build and Ex-Aid, the title characters, are not super integral to the progression of the plot. I mean, yeah, Build does most of the investigating, but it makes for fairly dry, exposition-heavy scenes. There's not a lot of meat on those bones.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I disagree that you could just slap Ryuuga's arc on any secondary Rider and have it work as well. There are similar characters out there for sure (Beast is a good example), but Love & Peace, you're going to find is a major component of Build's themes as it goes along, and I think doing a little compressed version of his development from the show that gets to specifically contrast him against some of the most selfless Riders out there (and I mean, even by the usual standards, guys like Takeru and Eiji really like helping people) was a great idea.

It's simple and a bit trite in its delivery, but I think it's specifically appropriate for Cross-Z, and having a clear throughline and character arc is unfortunately not something we can take for granted in a Rider movie, so I'll give Final some credit for trying.

It's mostly that "secondary Rider has to learn the heroism and sacrifice necessary to be a Kamen Rider" is a storyline that happens basically every season of Kamen Rider. Like, variations on that storyline happened to (off the top of my head) Accel, Birth, Meteor, Beast, Necrom, and Brave. Also, Cross-Z just a few episodes prior. It's fairly stock. I don't mind it, though! It's a necessary part of the standard Kamen Rider story, a way of differentiating the main Rider from the secondary Rider, and a way of reemphasizing the primacy of the main Rider by making his heroism more heroic. Like, not mad at them for trying. And, yeah, it's definitely better that they tried something as a throughline, rather than just throwing Legend Riders up until the credits rolled. I just thought the answer they ended up giving Banjou for how his viewpoint changed was not exactly worth an entire movie's worth of focus. Like, he's fighting to protect the people he cares about? Okay? That seems like an incremental shift in character (it's not like he never cared about anyone) rather than the solution to a crisis of conscience.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Also, and this might just be because I haven't seen that movie in longer, but I don't remember a thing about Dr. Pac-Man, and I do about Bikaiser, for what it's worth. He- er, they were really fun, and the evil plan at play was memorable.

I mean, taking parallel worlds and smashing them together is some devious s***. You'd have to be a real jerk to wanna do something like that.

Dr. Pac-Man wore an evil Pac-Man mask and had a daughter who wore a lab coat longer than her skirt. What the hell else do you need to know?!