[Magnugiga]

Finished Decade sometime around last year, and... whew, what a mess. I can't remember the last show I've watched, KR or otherwise, that left this many holes and unresolved plot threads. I proceeded immediately after to watch the two movies (All Riders vs. Dai Shocker and Rider War) that were supposed to fill in the gaps, and ended up being even more confused and underwhelmed.

I couldn't care less about Dai Shocker and every villain that shows up here, everyone's motivation and backstory were all over the place, and basically there were just so many why's and pointless characters (Narutaki being the most obvious). I actually didn't mind the AR concept and not being able to have most original characters/actors back, but the AR episodes are mostly bland at best and extremely nonsensical at worst. It may actually be better to watch Decade without the frame of reference for the previous KR shows, just so you wouldn't be dismayed over weird knock-off version of your favorite shows/characters.

It's not all bad. Tsukasa was occasionally entertaining, even with the cognitive dissonance when he goes all "aight I spend most of this two-parter acting like a snarky douche, now lemme give the obligatory love and friendship speech to wrap things up!" I didn't mind AR Kuuga/Yusuke, and I liked Kamen Rider Kiva-la's movie appearance and role (they really should've featured her in the series proper, so Natsumi wouldn't just be your token girl character/forgettable bystander). The Hibiki episodes aren't half bad and made me decided to check out the actual show.

For a show that's so heavy on crossover and callbacks, it's a bit ironic that my favorite episodes are the mostly stand-alone Negaworld one, which gave a strong Twilight Zone-esque vibe. The image of AR Natsumi continuing to fight on and fend for herself in this desolate nightmarescape reminded me of the Future Trunks saga in Dragon Ball, an uncompromisingly bleak chapter that left strong impression in an otherwise uplifting, all's-well-that-ends-well, show.

Overall, easily the worst of KR I've seen, though I'm glad I got this one off the list early. Still many more to go!