[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

?SERIES? WRAP-UP

...

You end a show where Ankh is gone, and Eiji vows to bring his friend back somehow? Fine, you earned that continuation. But letting some of these shows end is also fine. It?s not a failure to leave some corner of your franchise unexploited.

Funnily enough, I feel like your repeated use of OOO as an example of a show that's more justified than others in receiving continuations kinda underlines how subjective this whole thing can be. I mean, I was there in 2011, and there has never once been a moment in all this time that I've actually wanted to see that いつかの明日 Toei keeps teasing us with. The announcement of that V-Cinema that's coming out soon made me more apprehensive than anything, to be honest. Much like Blade, the bittersweet feeling of OOO's finale is where a lot of its beauty comes from in my mind. You had the two main characters both wrapping up their arcs in the most poignant ways possible, between Ankh affirming that he got to know what it truly means to be alive, and Eiji finding a new reason to keep reaching out his hand. (The latter of which is further highlighted in the extended cut of the final episodes, where Kougami does a Happy Birthday for Eiji, in contrast to the one he did for OOO as the series' start.) It was a complete story, and there wasn't anything it felt like it had left to say. Surely any follow-up to that would simply be missing the point? Even Mega Max wisely centers its emotional arc around an unrelated new character.

...But you know, the guy who wanted to things to end while they were still beautiful was also the bad guy in that finale.

I definitely have similar feelings to you on this matter, which is where that last big paragraph is coming from, but at the same time, I think I've mellowed out a bit on the idea over the years. Where I'm at now, I'd basically put thusly -- it's not okay to need constant continuations, but it is okay to have them.

The TV shows still stand on their own as those complete narratives, and while that's what can make it feel frustrating to have the characters still popping up constantly, that's also what makes it a non-issue how those later projects relate back to the source material. This might be colored by my general perspective as someone who doesn't focus on concepts like canon all that much, but like you said about Kuuga in that post, you can't ever really tamper with these things.

(And while it may be telling that the Kuuga movie sequel apparently never got off the ground because nobody could think of a satisfying enough plot, it's just as telling that they were all more than willing to give it a shot in the first place.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandComplete

Y'know I hate this whole Heisei Phase 1 and Phase 2 nonsense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I think there's a definite tonal difference between Phase 1 and Phase 2? The immediate focus on Collectibles -- pioneered by W -- is a massive alteration to the formula, and every single show that followed would need to address its assumption in some way. Add to that the ways Winter/Spring/Summer movies altered the storytelling structure, the Den-O-inflected comedy becoming more of a standard flavor, and more stuff I can't think of right now? It's not Heisei-to-Showa different, but there's enough identity to the two Phases to make it reasonable to acknowledge.

Oh, and speaking of which, I would like to emphasize that it's everyone's favorite Destroyer of Worlds that we have to thank for the current status quo. You complain about how awful a hypothetical Blade/Hibiki movie would've been, but that's only because Rider shows back then were explicitly being designed to not fit together, unlike the Showa era, until Decade came along, and like I mentioned at the end of the thread for show, he smashed all those rules to bits.

I honestly lean towards GrandComplete's opinion here, because I think the trends people associate with either era evolved far more gradually than people realize (we've been doing two-parters since Kuuga, for example), but if there's one thing that marks a very, very clear delineation between the two halves of Heisei Rider, it's definitely when Tsukasa's existence cemented the very concept of Legend Riders as we know it now.