[Frontier]

I'm not sure if the plot of Kuuga getting erased from existence quite explained away the connection between the actual Rider world and the real world or if the plot properly reckoned with the characters having to deal with the fact that their from a TV show or the actual metaphysics or logic behind it...but it all ultimately served the plot well.

I love how the first clue about the time travel aspect of the movie is that the older brother thinks Kuuga's about to premier and his younger brother goes "oh wow, I didn't expect a kid that age to actually know about Kuuga!"

Another W looked nice. I wish they were able to come up with something more poignant for W as a tribute, but there was enough going on in the movie as is.

Another Den-O was cool but I was really confused as to what the Imagin's actual goal in this was because we're so used to Imagin just using humans other than the few good ones that seeing a random Imagin actually trying to help the human he contracted with no drawbacks was kind of surreal. Like, was he using this as a way to get in with the Denliner crew or something?

Of a list of Main Riders who people didn't expect to ever see again in a Rider show or movie, Takeru Satoh is definitely up there. They even had him actually saying Urataros' lines instead of it just being Urataros so we could hear his voice again (and he gets to actually play a Taro by himself for the first time). And, y'know, him and Momotaros sharing a scene together after so long and it being a moment that means so much from both an in-universe and Meta level. So I was pretty happy with how they handled it.

There's something so poignant about a movie that talks so much about the fandoms' love and history with Kamen Rider and why it means so much to them that the Riders don't just randomly show up for their expected cameos but because the kids who literally grew up with them call out to them to save them and they show up. And you have the adult guy going "man, wouldn't it be nice if Kuuga showed up?" and then his inner child calls forth Kuuga. And Den-O shows up literally singing his theme song which is so Den-O I'm surprised it took them this long to actually do that.

I do appreciate that they at least used recorded dialogue for the returning Riders even if it wasn't anything "new," so unlike with stuff where you had seiyuu try to imitate the Riders and it sounding off it at least carries the illussion that it's really them even if the actors weren't involved. I think the only actors that recorded anything new were Ryuki, Agito, and Decade? Although they were so generic I'm not sure how true that is.

I love how everybody rides into the Kamen Rider Quarry on their bikes, just to remind you that, no matter how little screentime the bikes get these days, Kamen Riders ride bikes. Well, except Ryuki. And Drive. And Hibiki who forgets his bike (although I guess because of executive meddling we don't acknowledge it I guess?).

I liked the Kuuga Armor being more sleek and streamlined compared to the other Rider Armors. That's what the W Armor is for!

Another Kuuga is basically a giant CGI Rider Monster like Core, but I feel like it somehow worked better in terms of what a monstrous version of Kuuga would turn into.

I love the All Heisei Rider Kick in this movie because, unlike the one in All Riders vs Dai-Shocker, the Kicks were all show-accurate. And they even came up with Rider Kicks for Den-O Sword Form and Hibiki (I think the only time Sword Form ever used a Rider Kick as a legit finisher was in the Cho Den-O movie and it wasn't a traditional flying kick, and Hibiki never used a Rider Kick for a finisher). And the Triple Rider Kick with Build, Zi-O, and Kuuga really brought it all together.

I just loved seeing the brothers getting to grow up with every Heisei Rider together.