[Fish Sandwich]

Fish Sandwich also watched Super Hero Senki

This is one of my favorite toku movies ever. I could go on about this thing endlessly, which is itself one of the reasons I love it so much. This'll be super disorganized, but I think I'm just going to pick random topics for a bit here before hopefully talking about how that all comes together to form the bigger picture.

First things first -- the score is REALLY good! It's not every day that the background music in one of these movies immediately jumps out at me to this level, but there's a ton of clear effort put into this one, and I think it's one of the keys to why the film flows so smoothly. Music for a film, it's ideally not simply about sounding good, but how it helps communicate the story to the viewer, and this one does that great as the narrative flows from beat to beat, especially in how it makes use of motifs in great spots. Allow me to get a little Kiva here and share some of that stuff right now to help illustrate.

There's the theme for the film itself, which first comes in just a bit at the end of this track, right as the title card appears:

And then right before the climax, it comes back in a little slower and more dramatically as Touma reveals the literal Super Hero Senki book in the film, leading us into the prelude of the big climax, with the theme coming in again, this time at absolute triumphant full force as we finally get the entire line-up of every lead Rider and Sentai Red there's ever been.

So all that stuff is great, but also, as a Saber fan, it really does right by that show in how it makes use of the titular character's own motif in spots. It's there like normal for the big Rider roll call of course, but before that, it's used to excellent effect to help sell the drama as Touma deals with the revelations of this movie's darkest hour. First, you get this like, broken version of it, as Touma and Mei find out their entire story is exactly that.

Then, as Touma resolves to face that story, it starts to kick back in again, almost building up to its usual more triumphant sound, before getting just that bit more melancholic and slow again as Luna appears, and Touma is reminded exactly what he's giving up to do this.

And the whole film is like that! Not merely music that fits the scene, but very considered compositions that go out of their way to match the exact emotional tone of a given beat within each scene, whether it's briskly-paced fun action or those more wistful dramatic moments. Saber's composer and the two from Zenkaiger are all credited on Super Hero Senki, and they all did a wonderful job with it.

Oh, and since I've got all those thumbnails sitting there, can I just take a second to mention how much I love the posters for this movie? Like, the cool blue color is nice, everyone's doing awesome poses... they did the whole cheeky thing where Revice is just on there like it's no big deal, even though nothing about that show had been officially revealed yet? Like, a lot of us just thought the pink guy was named Kamen Rider Revice! Really fun visual to represent the movie.

Plus, speaking of this movie and fun visuals, Ryuuta Tasaki! He was Zenkaiger's main director, which unfortunately means he didn't get to do any episodes of Saber, but thanks to this film, I still got to see him applying his usual ludicrous amount of talent to these characters I love so much. The shots and the editing and everything strictly visual about Super Hero Senki, it's all the same stuff I just said about the score. The way it flows is impeccable, and it always does a fantastic job helping the viewer through the narrative by enhancing whatever emotion the script is going for at that moment. There are more slick little shots in this movie than I could possibly call out all at once, which makes rewatching it a huge treat, because just when you think you've noticed them all, you'll realize how sweet some other new visual is.

And this movie is seriously rewatchable! There's so much detail packed into every scene that I'm consistently still discovering new things every time I go back to it. Even though I haven't had the time to outright rewatch Saber for this thread, I couldn't help but give Super Hero Senki another go, and I only just now figured out Shiguru makes a cute reference to his most iconic bit from Kiramager, for example. Oh yeah, and I've rewatched this thing a ton? You'll already know this from my original post about the movie if you read it, but I was kind of instantly obsessed with Super Hero Senki as soon I saw it, to the point where I saw it again, and again, and again. There are just so many dang layers to this movie -- so much action and fanservice crammed in there, so many different themes the story touches on, so many fun character interactions -- it's hard to get tired of it.

Like, here, just as one thematic thing: Touma encouraging a young Shoutarou Ishinomori really gets at a lot of stuff that hits me pretty deep as someone who cares about art the way I do. Shoutarou talks about his views on fighting, and how that informs the heroes he tries to create, making them feel as much evil as good, leading to this simple exchange:

"That's no hero at all!"
"No, Shoutarou. That's the kind of hero only you can draw."

And that's so beautiful! You've got a young Ishinomori worried he's doing something wrong because his ideas for stories don't conform perfectly to the expected tropes and conventions of the genre, and Touma telling him in no uncertain terms that his unique voice as an individual is exactly why he *should* be expressing those thoughts in his stories. How much value there is in that honesty.

That's just one level that scene -- which is clearly a highlight of the entire film -- is operating on, and I could dig into this stuff for a long while yet, but I'd imagine you're all getting the gist of how much I adore Super Hero Senki by this point. I see it very much as a sort of sister film to Over Quartzer, which I adore for a lot of similar reasons (excellent Tasaki direction and a very Shirakura story, namely), but Senki's broader scope and the two shows it's primarily pulling from mean I probably enjoy this one even more? Like, it's got Saber, so of course I do, but I don't know -- words fail to truly do justice to how much affection I have for this. It's kinda like when I talk about Magine that way!

I already linked the whole post up top like always, but just for the sake of it, I'm going to repeat here the same note I left that post on, because it's about as good a summary as I can give of my opinions on this film.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Superhero Senki isn't anything as lowly as "the best one of those crossovers yet" or whatever; it's a fantastic crossover, plain and simple. It combines the beautifully unashamed sentimentality of Kamen Rider Saber with the insane amount of layers and detail in the production that Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger brings to the table, and the resulting mix is something to behold. I love it enough that... well, I mean, I've already watched it around half a dozen times in like half a year, so I think that about says it all. Or at least, as close to "all" as I feel like getting right now!