[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I'd hate for you to have some happy feelings from this movie that I didn't cruelly stamp out.

Wait, who are you talking to here again?

This movie is basically nostalgic for me at this point, and I feel like I get a tiny bit more fond of it every time I go back to it. While those episodes of Decade got the ball rolling by getting me to watch this on a whim (I think I was aware Decade was a glorified cameo), this is kinda the thing that truly pointed me in Den-O's direction. Which is weird! Because, like, if you asked me right after I watched it the first time, it's not like I was blown away by its staggering quality or anything. It was just some quaint but amusing Den-O adventure, but it's honestly pretty good at being that? The story is basic but cohesive, and it feels sort of unique among the Den-O movies in that it seems to consciously present it all in a way that's very friendly to people who are new to Den-O. Yuu makes a great audience surrogate character, and through him, I learned to love Deneb and the rest pretty quickly. Heck, to this day, I'm weirdly fond of New Den-O in huge part thanks to this being my introduction to him, rather than Final Countdown, where he's not very easy to like. I honestly sort of feel like being someone who hasn't watched Den-O is maybe the ideal way to go into this film, because it makes it much more of a novel thing than if you've already seen dozens of adventures with these guys. It's not aiming very high, I'll admit, but I don't know, there's a lot about this movie that rubs me the right way. Again, it didn't even impress me a ton of first viewing or anything, but it's been sitting with me surprisingly well in the long-term.

Oh, and the abundance of Ryuki monsters is apparently due to that particular monster of the week having a bunch of suits made to act as cannon-fodder grunts in Dragon Knight. Just one more way that show subtly influenced the franchise.

This is also the second instance of the actor playing a main villain in Den-O going on to have a major role in Ultraman Orb, and I gotta say, it's weird that happened more than once.