[Kamen Rider Die]

Had a monster of a day at work today, what with the store's internet being out since Friday and spending all day on the phone with AT&T, so I'm a little late to everyone's feedback and thoughts. Sorry! Let's see what we've got!

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Originally Posted by TheRaizin

Kamen Rider was exactly what I needed. Something that was genuine in its stories of heroism. Not the heroes saying their catchphrase and going "Wait, that's not right.", just the heroes being, well, the fiction larger-than-life heroes that they are.

Yeah, I think this is a super-genuine film, as far as what it wants to celebrate and how it wants to celebrate it. There're a couple super in-jokey gags (the Kazumi/Otoya thing on the bus is real Ask Your Parents stuff for the kids in the audience), but the rest of it just this really earnest exploration of what twenty years of Kamen Rider -- and Kamen Rider fandom -- means.

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Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

It's the whole "regaining belief in the things you threw away because you deemed it to be childish and embracing that they give you hope/strength", which I usually enjoy, but something about the way it's done just falls flat for me. Maybe because how long it dragged?

I'm not sure I'd describe Ataru's plot in that way? I saw it more as Ataru losing his faith in Kamen Rider as a franchise, and that he stopped connecting with it emotionally. He's still a fan and a collector, but he's tuned out the more uplifting and helpful messages of the franchise. A lot of what he learns in this movie is that it's not right to dismiss Kamen Rider as escapism; it's actually trying to teach kids (and adult American fans) something that can make them better people.

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Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

Yknow I'm glad I didn't have any expectation for the Kuuga/W content, because holy hell there's a lot of Nothing here!

Instead of that slideshow of all of the Heisei Riders in the beginning, it should've been a slideshow of the emails that Toei employees sent to the agents for Philip and Godai's actors, begging them to appear in this movie.

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Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

Den-O! Of course it's Den-O! If you're going to do a movie about how memories keep things alive forevermore, it has to be Den-O! We get to see all the Imagins, the Owner, the Denliner, as well as....Ryotaro! Man I knew he was in this movie, but actually seeing him just hits different.

It's such a big moment. The movie completely carves out a space for The Den-O Stuff, and it's super smart. Just let that group of oddballs have the spotlight for a scene. And Ryotaro... man, so nice to see him back, giving a little speech about how people aren't ever gone as long as you remember them. And that long take on him and Momo locking eyes! So good!

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Originally Posted by cosmicrescend0

But yeah. Who cares about how the slog of a plot for about 2/3 of the movies when we's got Big Fanservice Battle. It really is a wonderful sequence of events.

Honestly, the last third is kind of the part I thought was a slog? It's probably from watching, uh, every preceding crossover movie, but I don't ever need another scene of Riders showing up to the delight of Japanese citizens, or another Finishing Move Cavalcade at Kamen Rider Quarry.

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Originally Posted by Androzani84

Design wise, aside from having no thumbs (something Fish can explain the significance of), Another Kuuga?s bigger, more monstrous appearance is based off the Grongi from the Kuuga manga, which are basically ?bigger and more monstrous?, as a design philosophy.

I really disliked Another Kuuga, but this is a neat note. Thanks!

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

For example, the one thing that always sticks out in mind most about this movie isn't even any of the big fanservice (although it was great seeing Ryoutarou and hearing bits of Sahashi's Kuuga soundtrack in the score), but how perfect it was that Build happened to be the previous Rider, because Sento Kiryuu is already a fictional person in-universe -- a made up identity cast in the role of Kamen Rider -- so he's basically the ideal guy to bounce back from being told he's not real, because it wouldn't be the first time that's happened to him.

It's such a perfect trait to weave into the story. Sougo's going through the absolutely natural Existential Breakdown of someone realizing that they were created by someone else to be a positive force for justice that can't ever actually change things, and Sento's like Here's The Scripts To Kamen Rider Build That I Wrote About Someone Making Up My Life.

Hell, Sento's perfect for this as a Kamen Rider character and a Kamen Rider writer!

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Originally Posted by Switchblade

Oh man, I just realized something. Possibly the single biggest missed opportunity of Zi-O is that they didn?t get Ryouta Murai to play Another Kuuga.

why would they get that cop from the den-o police movie to come back

DreamSword got so mad when I said that Onodera was this movie's Kuuga. So mad!

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Originally Posted by FreshToku

it honestly reads as a really nice sort of final extra chapter for Sento and Banjou (until the New World movies came and ruined that but whatever)

There was about half a second when I couldn't figure out why Banjou was so surprised to see Grease and Rogue, before I remembered that the New World movies hadn't come out yet. Sort of makes this whole Recovered Memories plot kind of pointless!

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Originally Posted by Frontier

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.

It was so nice! I'm a sucker for scenes where Momo has actual feelings (besides Anger and Frustration), so it was great to have the movie honor that old Den-O partnership.

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Originally Posted by Frontier

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 want to say that Momo is the only Main Rider (or Co-Main Rider) who's actually sung a broadcast version of his own theme song? So, canonically, Momo might be the only Rider who actually knows his own theme song in Heisei!

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Originally Posted by Daikaijuman54

Another Kuuga is pretty much just another big bad CGI monster boss, but the idea that it's the first Heisei Rider, I like to think that because it's the progenitor of the Heisei Era of Riders, it's grown to become a monster in its own league, moreso than it's peers.

Ha ha, sure! I'll accept this!

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Originally Posted by Daikaijuman54

While I do agree this is, much like the Decade X Den-O crossover film, this does have a lot more to do with Den-O than Zi-O and Build (haven't seen Den-O yet), but you know what? that's fine. This was still a fun movie, which I enjoyed immensely, especially the Build Boys, Sento and Ryuga.

Aside from the Ryotaro sequence, I don't know that it has a ton to do with Den-O, despite the Imagin stuff. It's more that it's using the template and themes of a Den-O story: Time travel as a way of fixing trauma; memories as a way of rescuing parts of of ourselves; metaphysical conundrums getting washed away in a wave of emotion; how sand gets everywhere.

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Originally Posted by AkibaSilver

The atmosphere isn't for me, but the scene at the end, where all the past Kamen Riders come back, as people recall when they fell in love with this dorky show about bugmen saving people from evil? Probably my favourite reason for ever for why we're getting an all-suits battle. This isn't some convoluted Tsukasa plan, or the latest SuperDai-Shocker multiverse schme, this is people calling on their love for heroes and bringing them too life. As someone who's been into the franchise for 10 years now, and had some great times through it all, it just feels good, ya know?

Super weird that that one dad had such fond memories of Onodera from Decade, and someone out there loved Blade's appearance in Goriders, but I'm not that dialed into the Japanese fan community.

Honestly, though, yeah. It's a great moment, seeing fans of all ages use their happy memories of Kamen Rider to save the day. Very sweet message.

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Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Anyways, that scene with Ryoutarou! I still really do love everything about it, but it's that last line from Momotaros that clinches it for me. You might remember that in my rant about Chou Super Hero Taisen, I took an outdated potshot at how Toei never gets Takeru Satoh back, frustrated with how they keep pretending Momotaros by himself is Den-O, and that made that moment in this movie so very cathartic for me. Like, yeah, how could you ever forget Ryoutarou? That dude is the coolest, just like the show he came from, and that's why these rainbow-colored cartoon goofballs haven't stopped showing up in stuff since 2007. It's such a touching little tribute to one of Rider's biggest success stories in the middle of a film that was already doing a pretty dang solid job paying tribute to Kamen Rider, and it was wonderful to see.

Kotaro fans out there just gutted.