[Androzani84]

Honestly, I’m surprised as you are at the human sized Megazords. Most of these Final Live Tour shows tend to not feature the mechs, or find some way to incorporate them if it would look odd if they didn’t (Luckily, Go-Onger had a solution baked in, since the Mecha of that show consisted of the main bodies and some sound cards, the latter of which served as the show’s collectible).

Another thing these earlier Sentai live shows tend to have are a) the first monster from the next season playing a role in the form of a cheap costume (Dozerloid appeared for half a minute in Gokaiger’s show). And they do it here in the form of Debo Hyogakki (a play on “Hyōgaki”, Japanese for “Ice Age”) teaming with the hypochondriac invisible man. And b) the next Sentai getting two cameos. The former got phased out at the latest after this show, and the latter is still around as of the last show I watched (Zenkaiger’s)

As for thoughts… I liked the dude who kickstarts this plot and his habit of spraying everything.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

As for thoughts? I liked the dude who kickstarts this plot and his habit of spraying everything.

It is fitting for a guy who's a germophobe to think the virus-powered superheroes are his natural enemies!

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

TOKUMEI SENTAI GO-BUSTERS - FINAL LIVE 2013

Man, Die really out here just casually exploring corners of Buster lore I've yet to chart myself.

Actually, chalk that up as one more reason I'm bad at talking about Go-Busters: I really need to study up on this stuff more thoroughly. There's random tidbits like this and behind-the-scenes DVD extras and stuff out there and I've just been putting it all off for years for some reason? It's like, do I even have the right to make jokes about it always being Time For Buster at that point???

It's basically impossible for me to offer any meaningful insight on this, never having seen it, so I'll instead just take the opportunity to mention how happy it makes me seeing the push in recent years to start getting the more high-profile stage show stuff for Rider and Sentai subbed? Granted, maybe I just never looked in the right places, but I definitely don't remember it being nearly as easy to find these sorts of things back in the day, which I'm going to use as a handy excuse for why I got in the habit of not thinking about them.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

There's random tidbits like this and behind-the-scenes DVD extras and stuff out there and I've just been putting it all off for years for some reason?

Ha ha, I also need to watch the DVD game show featuring the cast! Randomly discovered I had it in a big file of Go-Busters stuff, but I don't think I'm going to write it up. It seems cute, the actors drawing stuff from the show in a way that mixes their characters with themselves, but I don't think writing about that stuff has ever felt especially crucial for me. Like, there's no narrative? It's just backup features? But, yeah, I'll still watch it.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Originally presented in “Kamen Rider Die rewatches Legend Rider projects (and more!)” on December 25th, 2021:

KAMEN RIDER X SUPER SENTAI X SPACE SHERIFF: SUPER HERO TAISEN Z

This isn’t one of my favorite types of Kamen Rider films. It’s not really trying to be about anything. There are multiple lead characters, but their stories barely overlap. It’s the kind of movie where the theme is conveyed by people repeating multiple variations on the same phrase over a 90-minute span of time. Most of the plot is just dozens of people appearing and disappearing from the narrative; quantity over quality. It’s all empty calories.

But, hell, it’s Christmas. I don’t really feel like complaining about this thing for hundreds of words on Christmas. So, in the spirit of the waning hours of the season, let me just try and engage with this thing on its own Let’s Throw A Whole Bunch Of Superheroes On Screen level.

KAMEN RIDER WIZARD




This isn’t really a Haruto story, despite his large amount of screentime. He’s there to convey the theme, as seen above, and that’s about it. He’s accused of Space Terrorism by Gavan, and while the story could ostensibly be about clearing his name, that’s all over and done with by their second meeting. Haruto’s there to bring Gavan hope, which is both the lowest-hanging fruit for a Wizard story, and also maybe perfect for a crossover film. It’s all capital letters, you know. Undiluted Haruto.

The main problem with Haruto’s contribution to the story is that he’s already hopeful, so it’s not like he’s challenged or changed by the plot. He’s already sure they’ll find a way to save the universe, and they eventually do. That’s it. That’s his story for this movie, and it’s not really the sort of thing I can dig into.

SPACE SHERIFF GAVAN



He’s okay! It’s predominantly his story, this movie. He’s the one who changes and grows, moving from a glowering executioner to a hopeful Freelance Peacekeeping Agent. I like a story where someone learns to be a hero thanks to a Kamen Rider, and that’s what this ends up being. Geki’s change is all down to one guy being like Don’t Give Up Hope, and so he doesn’t? Eventually? It’s blunt, but it manages to be the only real dramatic arc for this movie.

It took me a while to warm up to Geki. He’s just some by-the-book space cop for the first few scenes, and then he’s a grumpily chastened ex-space cop for the next few scenes. It’s only after he starts teaming with Gai that he develops a little bit of lightness, a little bit of humor. (I laughed out loud at when he tried to bypass Space Ironmen Kyodain by pointing out that he was also from space. Pretty good gag!) By the end, when he and Sharivan were punching each other in the face to prove their dedication to their principles, I was sort of won over by Geki. Not a dude I’m looking to see more of, but he anchored this film dramatically, and I appreciate it.

YELLOW BUSTER



This is what I’m talking about when I say that these stories don’t really overlap. Youko’s whole thing about feeling lonely and forming a friendship with Psykoron, it’s not really about keeping hope alive? It’s just about friendship, which feels more in line with a Fourze crossover film than a Wizard one. I liked it, it’s very cute, but every scene felt like it was edited in from a completely separate film. (It does not help that Youko, like the other two, would just randomly disappear for chunks of the story.)

Youko’s real fun. I wish she’d felt more central to the story. I don’t know that I thought she needed to be in this movie, but the performance was fun. I bought her motivation. She’s charismatic in a way that, frankly, the two male leads weren’t. (I don’t really care for Haruto that much, in general.) Her scenes were probably my favorite, because she brought an energy that no one else did.

GOKAI SILVER



Well, almost no one else.

Gai’s in this one, basically in the Shunpei role. He’s a sort of random inclusion. You’d think he’d be teamed up with Geki for a whole criminal/cop thing, playing off of Gai’s frequently-stated profession as a space pirate… but, no, the space cop never once brings it up. (I feel like a space cop should be mildly interested in space piracy? Maybe that’s not technically against the space law. I’m no space lawyer!) Instead, Gai’s just here to be the occasionally-angry conscience, for some reason. Feels like it should’ve maybe been handled by Haruto or Youko, but we have Gai doing it.

Gai showing up was basically when I gave up on this movie having anything to say. He shows up out of nowhere, in the middle of a different out-of-nowhere Sentai appearance, and he doesn’t seem to have a big reason to take part in the story. The actor does a good job in his scenes, but his inclusion reeks of This Was All We Could Get.

KYORYUGER



Ha ha, oh god, why bother? Why bother talking about them?

They randomly appear at Kamen Rider Stadium to shout some catchphrases and have a quick stakes-free hero fight, and then show back up at the end with their Zords or whatever. They don’t further the plot or the themes in any way. It’s just more characters to eat up the runtime, the end.

ALL THE REST



Same thing!

A million Riders and Sentai show up to pose and say their names, and I was just checking the counter on VLC to see how close I was to being done with this movie. It’s fine, in that Look At All The Heroes way, but it isn’t clever or anything. It never has a scene approaching the Marvelous/Decade fight from Taisen, where the Sentai and Rider aspects complimented each other. It’s just a hodge-podge of suits. Cool to see them, but I don’t like getting it in lieu of a narrative.

The villains were the same thing. I did laugh at Shocker immediately rebranding themselves as Space Shocker; just putting Space in front of all their names, them being so proud of it. But they’re just there to be suits to fight, nothing interesting. Shadow Moon finally gets some dialogue, but he could’ve been literally any Showa villain. The main guy, Raider, has a needlessly convoluted plan that culminates in a giant monster rising up from Kamen Rider Quarry, so who cares.

It’s a weird movie, you guys. It keeps shoveling in new characters for, like, a scene (hello, Rinko, Shunpei, and Shinken Yellow!), and then it never brings them back. The finale is a bunch of random new power-ups with zero establishment in the plot. The main Kamen Rider for the story is gone for about twenty minutes and it’s never explained where he went or why. Lazy writing, front to back.

But does anyone care? I mean, I do, I didn’t like watching this movie, but that’s only because I care about stories. This wasn’t really even trying to tell a story. Chastising it for lazy writing is like chastising an Oronamin C commercial for breaking continuity. Those aren’t the goals it set for itself, so it’s maybe unfair for me to judge them by it.

I don’t have to like it, though. I hold these things to a high standard (for a Designed To Sell Toys To Japanese Children-level of “high”) because I know what they’re capable of. To see something this uninspired and slap-dash is… look, it’s Christmas. This was bright and colorful and some of it was entertaining. I don’t want to complain today. They get a pass for the holiday.

Merry Christmas, TokuNation.



–



All of that, plus Shelly and Yoko don’t have a single scene together, minus a million points.

I can’t say my opinion of this movie changed substantially, even as I was more invested in the Yoko stuff now. I mean, I already liked the Yoko stuff the best, so a deeper appreciation for the random cameos (J! Nakamura! Morishita! Kuroki with new, cooler hair!) wasn’t going to turn night to day or anything. This is still a deeply uninteresting movie that has so little connective tissue on its various plots as to be three barely overlapping adventures of various importance to its characters. (Wizard’s gone for, like, 40 minutes, and it just feels like he did not give a single shit about what was going on for a lone-wolf Space Sheriff and a lonely teen superhero.) The bond that Yoko has with Psyclone is a storyline that only impacts Yoko, and it means that whenever Yoko isn’t around, that plot just vanishes. You’ll just randomly be in a scene where Fourze fights a Shocker guy, and none of it feels like it’s moving the story forward in an emotional way for any of the ostensible main characters. Geki has a thing he’s doing, Yoko has a thing she’s doing, Haruto is fulfilling his contractual obligations, and it all just feels like it’s coincidentally happening on the same sets. Fun to see Yoko again (and Ryuji and Hiromu, very very briefly), but I’d’ve liked this a lot better if it were just a 15 minute Yellow Buster TTFC special.

[Androzani84]

Had to rewatch this to gather my thoughts on it beyond what I remember and see what impression I have now that I’ve actually watched all 16 Metal Heroes series (that are subbed and were considered as such at the time of release).

The answer I can give is… I like the film overall, and it has a lot more respect for the Ishinomori characters the Fourze villains were based on, given all of them get a more sympathetic/traditional portrayal with their limited screen time. (Though I still wonder how Inazuma got there, considering he’s 4 years out from his origin story, but someone suggested the Madou portals were bridging time as well as space, so I’ve adopted that as my theory). And for once, Gai Gokai Changes into one of the Go-On Wings instead of the weird hybrid he normally uses (which looks alright, aside from the helmet, which is the main draw of these suits).

And despite Gavan being the POV for the Metal Heroes side, this is more of a Sharivan homage. It was his 30th at the time, the bad guys are his villain group and even the final boss is an updated version of the show’s big bad. All that’s missing is a trip to the Genm World (No relation to Kuroto. It’s Sharivan’s version of the Makuu Space).

If I have to criticise something, it’s that they remade the Redder, Blue Beet, B-Fighter Kabuto, Jiraiya, Janperson and Jiban suits… and didn’t give them a fight scene. It’s basically a promo for a bunch of Ranger Keys (with there being 3 years between them and a set with the other 10 protagonists).

And now, to revive the feature I’m doing for all your Rider threads through Wizard.

Sentai-lert! (note, all characters from Rider that don’t debut here will be covered when their debuts pop up in later threads)

First and most obvious, the guy playing the old Gavan (who is now the chief of the Galactic Federal Police after the actor who played the old chief died between the Gaven movie and this one), Kenji Ohba got his start in the first Sentai as a suit actor for Akarenger, before getting the more prominent roles of Battle Kenya and DenziBlue in the first SUPER Sentai, Battle Fever and Denziman respectively. Gavan was partially created based on how popular the actor was (also partially because Kamen Rider was dependent on Ishinomori having an idea and the Sentai character designer’s fun side project getting seen by a producer).

In addition to reprising Shelley, Suzuka Morita also returns to her role as Shinken Yellow, Hanaori Kotoha, for the purposes of a brief gag that helps save the day.

The voice of Sharivan is Riki Miura, who is perhaps better known as Gou Fukami/GekiViolet from, erm, Gekiranger

Psycolon, the cute owl robot is voiced by popular voice actress and singer (how popular? She was invited to sing before the Emperor of Japan) Nana Mizuki, who is currently voicing female villain Itasha in Boonboomger.

Rider-lert

While Reidar is a villain from Sharivan, this movie out of necessity (the old actor having died two years prior) recasts the role with Hirotaro Honda, who was previously Kagami’s dad in Kabuto.

Special Guest Alert

Reprising the role of Demon King Psycho is Shozo Izuka, who was a prominent VA in Toku throughout the 70s and 80s, with most of his roles after being one-off monsters or villains in anniversary or reunion shows (within Heisei Rider, he was one of Smart Brain’s wirepullers in the Faiz movie and the Alexander Ganma in Kamen Rider 1 and the last episode of the Legend Rider Souls mini).

And finally, the voice of Shaider is Hiroaki Iwanaga, who started out as Tomica Hero Rescue Force’s mentor, but he’s got a bigger role in the next show in “Kamen Rider Rewatches”.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Androzani84

(Though I still wonder how Inazuma got there, considering he?s 4 years out from his origin story, but someone suggested the Madou portals were bridging time as well as space, so I?ve adopted that as my theory).

Inazuman specifically calls Fourze his teacher, which Gentaro doesn't understand, so I'm also assuming there's some time dilation happening in that scene.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

KAMEN RIDER X SUPER SENTAI X SPACE SHERIFF: SUPER HERO TAISEN Z

I don't any factual information to back this up, but based on vague things I've heard over the years, and the film that got made, I think this might be the Taisen film that most clearly demonstrates the probable reason so many of these movies aren't *about* things?

Like, it's really all down to how tight the filming schedule is, isn't it?

This one in particular, with the way Haruto just ejects himself from most of the runtime? How the Kyoryugers got even more minor of a presence than the Go-Busters did in the first Taisen film? How the characters with the most consistent presence are one from a show that just ended, and a guy who never had his own show to begin with? A lot of "storytelling choices" in this movie definitely reek of literally not having the actors available even more than they usually do.

And you know, if that was the kind of environment they had to somehow scrape a feature film together in, I guess that means it was even more pleasant of a surprise than I already thought back in the day that I actually really enjoyed this movie? I believe I rewatched it back when you did that Legend Rider thread and felt nothing had changed, even. It's not cohesive at all, and there's obviously no great moral lesson I took away from its complex themes or anything of that sort, but on a moment-to-moment level, I'm usually vibing with what it's doing, and really enjoying myself. Definitely doesn't hurt how many of those characters walking in-and-out of the plot are characters I really like, either.

[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

And you know, if that was the kind of environment they had to somehow scrape a feature film together in, I guess that means it was even more pleasant of a surprise than I already thought back in the day that I actually really enjoyed this movie? I believe I rewatched it back when you did that Legend Rider thread and felt nothing had changed, even. It's not cohesive at all, and there's obviously no great moral lesson I took away from its complex themes or anything of that sort, but on a moment-to-moment level, I'm usually vibing with what it's doing, and really enjoying myself. Definitely doesn't hurt how many of those characters walking in-and-out of the plot are characters I really like, either.

I certainly prefer the Three Overlapping But Inconsequential Stories approach that this Taisen movie took over whatever the Outsiders episodes are trying to do. At least this one had a few character get through the entire film?

I guess my gripe with this approach is that, if getting the currently-airing series actors to participate is such a(n understandable!) chore, maybe don't make them the focus of the marketing and artwork? This movie would've been about 90% more coherent and enjoyable for me if it had just been a Yoko/Gavan/Gai film, with a million suits at the quarry and a tiny cameo by Wizard and the Samba Dinosaurs.

(Like, it still completely cracks me up that Haruto is like I've Got My Own Mission but completely vanishes, we don't check in with him at all until the climax, no idea what he was doing, might as well have just been eating donuts. They don't even bother to concoct a reason he's not around, he just goes the other direction. Amazing! A+ writing!)

[DreamSword]

The one thing I can give this movie is that it resulted in my all time favorite Net Movies. Love all of 'em.