[DreadBringer]

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DIE: And I think it's successful at that goal, maybe more in the second half than the first half. There's all the normal Momotaros bluster and idiocy (this story is twice as long as it needed to be, thanks to Momo), but there's a sense of him needing to step out of Ryotaro's shadow and become, like, a real boy. He's always been the most fleshed-out and nuanced Imagin on the show, but we're starting to get him in a full-on Legend Rider mode. The arc of it, that evolution, I think it worked well here.

True, Den-O's the revisit that actually keeps the original cast, except for Ryotaro. I guess as the Den-O's actors are all very available (except Yuriko Shiratori) due to Toei milking out Den-O so they have to standby (not yes sir) for more of that. But still that'd mean it's unknown how would the Imagins got parted away from Ryotaro at the first place, as Kohana is a.. family member of him, and she's there. The Imagins here freely possess random amount of people like you said below. If actually Ryotaro wasn't there, I wonder how the Taros formed a team or such (it's due to Ryotaro). I guess because Den-O's mostly character stuff rather than plot, so they tell what's primarily about Den-O which is about the Taros hijinks and how Imagins and DenLiner work?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DIE: And it's, again, cute. (Everyone Ura possesses looks stupid hot.) But it's indicative of this set of episodes being more about showing off how cool Den-O stuff is (Natsumi manages to show off Ax, Rod, and Gun Forms in about two minutes), rather than telling a solid story. There's some interesting emotional stuff in the second half, and a few killer gags, but the plot of this story is, like, Episode 1 Den-O stuff. An Imagin is going back in time to destroy stuff, and the heroes need to stop him. It's boilerplate, and that made me pretty impatient for the first part of this story. I love the characters, but there's almost nothing interesting for them to do here.

ENCHILADA645: Yeah I can see how you'd feel like that given Den-O wasn't that long ago for you. Even less time given how you've been tackling it.
For me it sorta felt like a nice nostalgic wave since I haven't revisited older Den-O Content until this point. Admittedly I was mostly trying to figure out if the ending of the first part feeling weird and confusing to me was just a "Me as a first time viewer thing" or not. And I'll still say I never really got what they were going for with the end of the first part.(edited)

I guess the part of Tsukasa, Natsumi, and Onodera getting possessed, is instead to show off their actor's skills to portray the different personalities of the Taros, as Takeru Satoh got his fame due to that. You said "only" about the one getting possessed by Ura becoming stupid hot... but while Tsukasa's nickname for Natsumi is Natsumandarin, the fanbase's is Natsumelon. For the episodes being skippable without meaningful story, that'd be what I think (probably misguided) about formulaic tokus, but I guess they'd still have appeal from the fanbases in those medias, like these revisit not being without merit. I don't know about how Momo falling off a building being cliffhanger.... as it's a Kamen Rider and thus falling from heights isn't a fatal danger, all the way since Kuuga.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

ENCHILADA645: True.
Though much like the rest of the arc past that point, I sort of just push it off since I'd rather not think of timey wimey stuff too hard with Den-O.

I̶t̶'̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶e̶a̶s̶y̶,̶ ̶b̶u̶t̶ ̶I̶'̶d̶ ̶w̶a̶n̶t̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶o̶n̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶w̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶e̶x̶p̶l̶a̶i̶n̶ ̶a̶b̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶s̶t̶u̶f̶f̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶D̶e̶n̶-̶O̶.̶ Though personally I think the explanations in this 2 parter are rather easy to understand, just basic stuff that Imagins (a boss and his henchmen) time travel to the past and their activities in the past affect the present.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DIE: THIS GAG! WITH ONODERA FINALLY BECOMING KUUGA AGAIN AND KICKING THE WRONG GUY!

ENCHILADA645: The fact that he even hangs in the air for a good several seconds too, still in kicking position really helps too!

True, that gag is golden. Onodera mistaking Momo as an enemy due to him being technically an Imagin and thus kicked him. I'd think this is one of my favorite gag in the entire franchise. I wonder if Tsukasa was a part that dragged the 2 parter as well as Momo's main complaint is about him losing his physical body, and the solution is only to become Decade and perform a Final Form Ride on him, but it's probably neglected due to Tsukasa's airheadness or such. For Onodera, him forgetting to henshin for me is especially prevalent on the last Agito 2-parter, like he's already Kuuga, why focus on controlling G3-X, when you already have a better weapon? For Natsumi, one of her first episode scenes was running away from Imagins, and I think they wasted a chance to bring up that, albeit throwaway moment, and she should hear them wanting to grant wish on her. But for Den-O series, I don't think many of the contract holders got possessed? Only Singularity Point like Ryotaro got directly possessed, typically Imagins when possessing a contract holder manifest a physical form based on their imagination. I think even among the Taros Imagins, there are parts of them sharing a body and fighting over control as Climax Form.

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Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER DIE: It's a fun parallel, Tsukasa and Momo. Tsukasa's a guy desperate to find the world where he makes sense, but is slowly learning to appreciate the life he's built for himself. Momo's a character defined by his relationships to others, who literally can't exist without someone defining him. Having Tsukasa be the one to tell Momo that it's better to find some comfort in your current circumstances than to be frustrated at what you don't have... like, I did not see that moral coming!
And, just, I love morals about self-actualization, and about brushing aside outside views in favor of being true to yourself. Very happy when that's the point of a story.!

Other than Tsukasa telling Momo that, it highlights another one of Kaitou's unpleasant nature, his racism/prejudice for non-humans (who he're already jerk too) like Imagins, treating them as only valuable collections instead of living beings. This one's not the only portrayal of that in KR, like how the franchise can have a human Big Bad turn themselves into a monster by the final story arc, kinda sending a signal to the audience that "They're not human any more, it's okay to kill them now" (other than their power up ofc), and it happens in several series as well, like Parado in Ex-Aid voicing up for this with humans being hypocritical by creating living beings with villain roles in video game that they could beat up to feel better, as from his point of view Bugsters matter as much as humans do.

Still, I think being true to yourself isn't necessarily something moral. As 'be yourself' and 'brushing aside outside views' can be abused by rotten people who'd reject any suggestion to better themselves, embracing their nature and insists others to mind their own business, which is being true to yourself in horrific way.