[DreadBringer]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

SABER X ZENKAIGER: SUPER HERO SENKI

Where it starts to lose me is when it sort of just devolves into KAMEN RIDER IS GREAT AND WILL ALWAYS BE GREAT celebratory stuff. It’s these grandiose speeches about the beauty and invulnerability of Kamen Rider, coupled with an Everyone Fights At The Quarry battle scene, and all I can think is that I’m not surprised Toei feels strongly about the strength of a 50-year toy-selling juggernaut. Like, the story indulges in its superiority so uncritically all of a sudden that I feel like I’m supporting commerce more than I’m supporting art, so I can’t help but check out a little at the climax.

Though the movie had the franchises being mocked as recycling the same premises over and over, but it's coming from the big bad. Asmodeus claiming that everyone can be protagonist including him is true though, there can be villain protagonists. I'd say though, kinda wish that Saber perhaps would have this kind of premise in the actual series of entering stories or such like in this movie. Mei seems to be real intrigued with Shotaro Ishinomori and his works here. I kinda like it that Shotaro Ishinomori's work is related with Mei's job, of her suggesting to have his comic got noticed by her editor. The authors are described as the gods of the stories, and Shotaro Ishinomori displayed his invulnerability inside, though it's used against him by Asmodeus to demotivate him and erase every heroes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Hard to go wrong when we get our first official Touma/Aruto team-up, right? The inclusion of the last few Riders made this movie feel like a bit of a make-up gift for the COVID-era restrictions, and then a little extra consideration for fans by tossing in the Den-O cast, as well. (I don’t really know the Sentai actors, but hopefully fans of that franchise enjoyed seeing them.) The minor appearances of so many different types of characters, as they’re being wedged into classic fables, helps sell the ending’s point that there’s enough uniqueness to each season’s cast and world to dodge charges that the Kamen Rider and Sentai franchises might derivatively regurgitate the same heroic morals every year. All of these goofs are so bizarre and memorable that they’ll naturally warp any boilerplate story concept into new and interesting shapes. Aruto’s going to take a story in a different direction than Touma, even if the destination is the same.

You mean, the Arutouma team up ~ (why next protagonist name didn't start with "ma"). I guess the other parts outside of Saber and Zenkaiger (the ones who aren't the part of final ensemble) like Zi-O or Den-O is the "Super Hero Senki" part on the title too. Unfortunately, this movie seems to have more focus on Kamen Riders, for Sentai fans, with them not getting a lot of screentime. About Touma thinking that he makes the characters suffer in his story compared to his real life Kamen Rider work, that'd seem like a view of not separating fiction and reality, of which it's often discouraged. As it's pointed out that there are stories where the characters don't suffer, that'd mean perhaps Touma has room of improvement as an author to get more perspectives in writing.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

And the overall point about how we need to see our humanity in heroes in order to be more heroic ourselves, I like that a lot. Square-jawed heroes that exist above us can’t really teach us anything important; flawed heroes who battle against their own failings to become better than they started, though, that’s always going to be a compelling story. The power of the Kamen Rider franchise isn’t in its heroes’ power, or their costumes. It’s in how nobility can be found in even the darkest of places, and that we all have the ability to be a better version of ourselves. This is a movie that argues against avoiding conflict, because only through overcoming conflict do we improve as people. Perseverance through adversity leading to a better world for everyone, which is a pretty apropos sentiment for a franchise that’s been around since 1971.

About the term of flawed heroes, that's usually used by fanbase to refer those who have awful or nasty traits, while people like Arutouma are (mistakenly) viewed as perfect and flawless due to them having little to no negative traits. Wonder if you'd also include the likes of them or most other main Riders among the flawed heroes, because it's true that being a nice guy doesn't mean they're flawless, but gotta have a distinction about their type of flawed to the ones more morally flawed. I'd also think for the people who witness heroes, this is a reminder to not have impossible expectations of a hero and like, not immediately ditch or purge them (doesn't mean no criticize) when they don't meet your expectations. Stories can be conveyed in varied things though, the paragon types who are above humanity can provide alternate perspective to view the conflict in, providing some other themes and premises through their perspective.