[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

Idk there's something magical about the crowd helping the Riders long enough for them to transform. The old guard that is the Showa Riders leaping in as the crowd cheers their names. Owner's speech about how as long as people have justice in their hearts, Riders will return. The Heisei Crew coming out next with W getting the special treatment as the most recent addition next to OOO. And then the appearance of four showa characters I didn't even know existed because I only assumed Kikaider and Inazuman were anime. And then there's this Pokemon dude named Zubat? But turns out the dude in the show is this super badass guy? Real good stuff. And that's not mentioning stuff like the cool All Rider Break at the very end.

I mean, yeah! I think this thing works well on first viewing for all of those reasons. It's a celebration of 40 years of Ishinomori-related tokusatsu, and they hit EVERYTHING. (Even some still images of secondary Riders, because that's when the budget ran out!) The whole point of the movie is to burnish the legend of Kamen Rider until it glows bright enough to last for another forty years. It's doing all of that exceptionally well.

It's just (for me) not really doing anything else, which made rewatching it sort of boring? It's just a celebration of Kamen Rider, without really telling a story outside of that. And... man, there's not much nuance to the Kamen Rider Is Great parts? It's these kids who think Kamen Rider is a joke, until they're willing to die for it. I respect the moral there -- I will never say no to a story about kids learning to be better because of Kamen Riders -- but there's not really a lot to chew on for a repeat viewing.

But, for sure, that finale was real good on the first viewing.