[AkibaSilver]

Kamen Rider X Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie Wars Mega Max

This is one of the first Kamen Rider related things I ever saw. I don't think it was 'the' first, I think the first few OOO episodes and the Eternal V-Cin of all things beat it out, but it's close. As a young teen back on Jefusion of all places. I had no real idea what was going on, who the hell any of the characters were, but it certainly seemed cool. And here I am, revisiting it 12 years on. Does it still hold up to what is childhood nostalgia? Mostly, yeah!



The OOO portion of this is a lot more streamlined than I remember, but it still works. I'd forgotten how nice these early-Heisei epilogue stories were, back when this was the final chance to see these characters as a unit, and this one handles the obvious cliffhanger from OOO that still looms large over it today - Ankh. It's a well that they've returned to, what, three times now, and I was surprised at how low-key it is here. There's no dramatic reunion, no over-emotional departure, just the team of Eiji and Ankh back in action like the old days. But because it's this Rider team, it works. Just because the emotions are understated doesn't mean they aren't there. The other members of the cast are here, and it's nice to see them even if they're here to job to Poseidon.

Also, 10 year on, and Poseidon still slaps incredibly hard as a suit. I love him. And Miharu as both Poesidon and Aqua is our victim-of-the-movie, and he's adorable. I like how the conflict is resolved by Eiji reaching out to Miharu and befriending him and offering confidence. It's a nice touch to show him at the end of his journey, the superior older Rider to Gentarou later. It's a very brisk 30 minutes of story, but it works pretty well.


The Fourze section, it's pretty inessential, but it's cute! I appreciate the fact that the big movie drama here is Gentarou falling in love, considering how overdramatic teenagers are about that stuff. It's not as if Gentarou is Takeru-style chaste, he was totally distracted by JK's pretty girls that one time, but his love here is both incredibly fast (he knows Nadeshiko for the better part of a day! But hey, that's Kamen Rider!) and a little surface-level, but it's Gentarou, I can totally believe how he would be baffled by something more than friendship but still do his best at it. I'm not 100% equipped to analyse that, my brain skipped the whole romance thing, but it's cute. Nadeshiko herself is a bit of a non-character, whose development is mainly other people talking about her until the end, but she gets two whole fight scenes! We're making it out of the Rabbit Hutch with this one!

And the rest, the crossover bits... god, I'm just a sucker for this era of shared universe. I'd forgotten Shotarou and Philip were here too, and they get a fight scene to WBX, and then the Seven Legendary Riders are here purely because Sakamoto likes them for the 40th, with updated effects, and Foundation X randomly having deep connections to every villain (Kamen Rider Outsiders wishes it was as coherent as this). It's just a very fun connecting tissue, elevating what could be forgettable to something fun.

It's not a perfect film. Sakamoto is at his Sakamoto'st, lots of women in short skirts doing kicks, lots of people being thrown across rooms by explosions. Nadeshiko ain't winning any prizes for feminism either, as I mentioned above. But both individual parts work seperately, and the crossover part, while not having any deep emotional connection between Fourze and OOO, is fun.