Go! Go! Let’s Go!: Let’s Go Kamen Riders
Oct. 28th, 2011 11:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
akinoameThe story opens up with Eiji Hino, Kamen Rider OOO, battling three monsters that he thinks are Yummys, but when he hits them, Cell Medals don’t come pouring out. His partner, “I’m in it for the Medals” Greeed Ankh, helpfully lets him know that these aren’t Yummys, which Eiji figured out roughly before Ankh got there. The three creatures get away and find a little kid, who they promptly open up and fly within. As Eiji and Ankh wonder what the hell just happened, a train appears out of the sky and deposits another Kamen Rider dressed in blue and carrying a sword.
At some point during the opening credits, the Kamen Rider and his partner Imagin de-henshin and explain that they are Kotaro Nogami, Kamen Rider (NEW) Den-O and Teddy, and they’ve come on the time-traveling train DenLiner to try to stop the three NEW Mole Imagin that flew inside the boy and are trying to destroy the present by destroying the past. Kotaro holds a ticket to the boy, and it displays an impossible date: November 11, 1971. Teddy wonders how it’s possible that a little kid in 2011 has memories of 1971, but Kotaro knows they need to get to the past immediately. As Kotaro and Teddy board DenLiner, Eiji decides that he and Ankh should follow them, if only because now he’s curious what’s going on too.
Countdown to this backfiring? Let’s start with 40.
Though Eiji and Ankh try to keep from attracting too much attention, the DenLiner crew soon spots them—if only by virtue of coffee girl Naomi trying to serve them. And the other four in the dining car are all Imagin: Momotaros, Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros. They think Ankh and Eiji are weird. That’s saying something. A fight breaks out between Momo and Ankh, which is broken up by DenLiner’s Owner, who warns the new Rider crew not to fuck around with the past because there will be horrible consequences for everyone involved.
Kotaro and Teddy immediately start kicking some Imagin ass the moment DenLiner emerges in the past, though they lose one of them. At the same time, Ankh decides to separate from the half-dead body of Shingo Izumi and start meddling in time, and Eiji takes off after him. Ankh wants to try to start anew in the past, where he doesn’t have his rival Greeed to deal with, but Eiji tries to haul his hand back into the train. But at that point, the last Imagin arrives and NEW Den-O only just manages to destroy it in time. The explosion sends Eiji flying back, where he lands on Ankh, causing the Greeed hand to accidentally release a single Cell Medal.
Unaware of the loss of the Medal, the Riders return to the train, where the DenLiner crew tears into Eiji and Ankh for nearly screwing up all of time and who knows? Maybe resulting in the world being conquered by the bad guys forty years ago? All the while, none of them realize that a Shocker grunt has discovered the Medal and turned it into General Black, who knows that this is the key to destroying the Kamen Riders forever.
Eiji and Ankh are returned to 2011, and despite everything, Eiji’s still excited over a time-traveling train. But Ankh is cautious—he senses a powerful, oppressive desire in the air, and he points out to Eiji that for Tokyo in 2011, the streets are awfully empty. At that point, the little kid from before, Naoki, arrives with a friend in tow, Mitsuru, who points out that Eiji’s got something on his back. As Eiji goes to check it, Ankh grabs Mitsuru, who’d tried to pick Eiji’s pocket, only managing to get Eiji’s spare underwear for his troubles (if you’ve never seen OOO, don’t ask—enjoy your own explanations). Apparently embarrassed, the would-be thief stammers an apology before Ankh sends him and Naoki packing. The kids begin riding their bikes away before Ankh realizes that Mitsuru used the opportunity to steal his case of Core Medals, the source of OOO’s power. A chase breaks out, leading Eiji and Ankh to a post-apocalyptic slum they’re pretty sure wasn’t there before, but the cops arrive. Ankh tries to get them to apprehend the kids so he can get his Medals back, but the cops hit him for ordering them around. They insist that nobody orders around Shocker before transforming into Shocker grunts and a monster. Yeesh, talk about police brutality. Eiji and Ankh split up and run like hell while looking for the kids, planning to rendezvous at their home and workplace: Cous Cousier. But when Eiji arrives, the building is abandoned and in ruins, an old sign saying “Snack Amigo” in front, proving his friends haven’t owned it in a long while. Confused as all hell, Eiji enters, only to run into the kids from the slum again. It turns out that they’re a young resistance force trying to survive in the slums, and Ankh arrives to tell him that things have gotten really damn bad:
Forty years ago, a shadow organization called Shocker tried to take over the world through human cyborgs, often transformed into monsters. Their greatest success and failure in cyborg technology were Kamen Riders 1 and 2 (alternatively, Ichigo and Nigo). But the Riders escaped their brainwashing and fought and defeated Shocker, ultimately allowing other Kamen Riders to later rise up and defeat their enemies for the next forty years. However, Shocker’s now taken over the world, so the original two Kamen Riders failed.
Realizing that something has to be done to stop Shocker, Eiji tries to convince the kids to give them their medals and help them fight. But the cops arrive, and Eiji, Ankh, and the kids try to escape. Eiji, Mitsuru, and Naoki end up blockaded by the Shocker police, who have taken another of the children hostage. They demand them to surrender or they’ll kill their hostage, and Mitsuru tries to run for it, but Eiji argues that he has to stand by his friend. Mitsuru, whose father was captured by Shocker, hates them like nothing else, which is why he feels the need to run and survive long enough to become strong enough to get his revenge. Eiji, on the other hand, insists that they have to make a stand now and do whatever they can to try to help. He transforms, much to their shock, but more shocking is when he introduces himself as Kamen Rider OOO. OOO fights against the grunts and monster, giving the kids the chance to escape and hide. Unfortunately, he’s hardly a match for it, and two motorcycles arrive. The grunts come to a stop and salute as Kamen Riders 1 and 2 step forward…and beat the shit out of OOO. Seeing that OOO is clearly no friend of the other Riders and that he really needs help, Naoki convinces Mitsuru to give him the Medals, and OOO switches to his fast LaToraTah combo to grab the kids and run. But though they’ve managed to escape the Riders, they’re caught by General Shadow (Stronger), who gives OOO hell until DenLiner arrives to rescue them.
With the kids and Eiji safely aboard, Kotaro, Teddy, and Owner explain that forty years ago, Shocker discovered a Core Medal used to create Greeeds, but they were never able to get the damn thing to work. Until Eiji and Ankh fucked things up and dropped that Cell Medal, that is. The Core and Cell Medals combined and created the Shocker Greeed, who was too strong for Kamen Riders 1 and 2, and they were not only defeated, but captured by Shocker and brainwashed into becoming their greatest generals. And because of that, no other Riders came to exist The DenLiner crew believes that if they go back in time and find the Medal before Shocker’s Great Leader gets it, then they can save the present. As a singularity point, Kotaro is unaffected by any changes he or others may make to the timeline, so his memories of the original timeline will remain the same no matter what he does, and that will help restore the true timeline. Eiji and Ankh’s powers and memories remain because of their contact with Kotaro…which I guess makes singularity points contagious. Eiji and the hostage kid are dropped off in the local slum, where the other resistance kids and Eiji’s friend Hina, who no longer recognizes him, are fending off Shocker grunts. While Eiji helps them fight and escape, the DenLiner crew heads back one minute before they’d previously gone to 1971, and Kotaro and Teddy easily find the Medal destroy it. Unfortunately, Naoki and Mitsuru stowed away…and so did Ankh. Ankh and Momotaros get into another fight, and it results in Ankh dropping a bunch of Medals in the past. The kids, the Imagin, and Kotaro all try to find and destroy them (with Ankh making things harder on Momo), and after managing to get all but one, they find that a young girl with a Kamen Rider necklace has found the last. Kotaro, in his infinite wisdom, runs up to her out of breath with two monsters and a disembodied monster arm in tow, and says that the Medal belongs to them. Naturally, the girl takes it and bikes for her life. The girl, Nokko, calls into her necklace-communicator saying that she’s run into Shocker, despite Momotaros’s helpful shouts that they’re not with Shocker, but she runs into Naoki and Mitsuru. They try to ask for the Medal, and when she demands to know who they are, they ask about her. She says she’s with the Kamen Rider Scouts (KITsubs translation), which makes them break into helpless giggles because it sounds so lame. Here’s an idea: Don’t piss off the person who has what you want. Kotaro, Teddy, Momo, and Ankh catch up, being chased by Kamen Rider Scouts on bicycles, which officially makes them the lamest and most hilarious heroes ever. Kotaro tries to plead with them, and Teddy explains that if Shocker gets hold of the Medal, they’re all in serious trouble. Of course, during this delicate negotiation, Ankh decides it’s best to go over and try to take it from Nokko by force. Because that always works. A Shocker grunt gets hold of the Medal, and he punches Ankh, much to Momo’s amusement. General Black arrives and is presented with the Medal, and Kotaro henshins, much to the kids’ and the bad guys’ surprise. Listening to the Kamen Rider when he tells them to get to safety, the kids escape while NEW Den-O (with Teddy in sword form), Momotaros, and Ankh fight. A strike from NEW Den-O manages to get the Medal away from General Black, and Naoki, Mitsuru, and Nokko take it and run. But General Black shifts to monster form, LeechChameleon, and ends up being too much for NEW Den-O and Momotaros. Managing to hide in the Abandoned Warehouse District, the boys apologize to Nokko for making fun of her team, but a monster attacks them, cutting a large gash on Naoki’s hand, though he remembers Eiji’s persistence and insists to his friends that they can’t give up no matter what. Just when it looks like it’s the end of the kids, Kamen Riders 1 and 2 run in, to the music of the original 1971 theme song. They kick ass all around, giving Naoki and Mitsuru their first glimpse of what the two generals were like back when they were heroes and defenders of justice. The original Riders destroy the monster, and the kids run back to NEW Den-O, Momotaros, and Ankh, who are unable to fight the invisible LeechChameleon. He manages to take the Medal back from Naoki, but the Riders arrive, having learned everything they needed from Naoki, and they show that they had taken the real Medal, letting General Black seize a fake with a transmitter that will lead the Riders to Shocker’s base and their Great Leader. Before Ankh can try to reclaim the Medal, NEW Den-O blows it up real good, and the three Riders and Momotaros plan to invade Shocker’s headquarters under a lake.
However, when they arrive, they find out that they’re not the only ones who can produce fake Cell Medals on the fly. General Black reveals that he’d dropped a fake—which meant that he’d been keeping one in reserve for a very long time on the off-chance that he’d find a real Cell Medal and then need to trick the Riders into thinking he’d lost it—and he gives it to Great Leader, who combines it with the Shocker Core Medal and creates the Shocker Greeed. Even with three Kamen Riders and an Imagin, the Greeed, Great Leader, and all of Shocker’s monsters are way too much to handle, and they’re forced outside. Kotaro and Teddy are forced out of henshin by the Greeed while DenLiner comes under attack, and 1 and 2 sacrifice themselves by volunteering to fight and lose against the Greeed so that the others can live. Reluctantly, the Den-O crew retreats, but Naoki refuses to leave the Riders behind, and he jumps off of DenLiner. Kotaro tries to go after him, but Teddy promises to protect Naoki, jumping ship instead. Unable to save either the kid or his partner, Kotaro can only scream after Teddy as an exploding DenLiner returns to 2011. Seeing the time train about to explode, OOO uses his TaJaDor combo and flies up to rescue Mitsuru, though the explosion forces Kotaro out of the train, and both Riders lose their henshin belts. Having been standing right next to him, Momotaros was also thrown, though the explosion destroyed all but his left hand, leaving him as a floating Imagin equivalent to Ankh, who just survived because he’s Ankh. They’re forced to watch in horror as DenLiner explodes, apparently killing everyone still inside: Owner, Naomi, Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros, to Kotaro and Momotaros’s horror and sorrow. Kotaro has to explain to Eiji that he failed to save the past, and now with DenLiner destroyed, there’s no way to go back again and fix things. Shocker catches up to them, led by General Shadow of the Delza Army. They prevent the Riders from reclaiming their belts, though Eiji and Kotaro order Ankh and Momotaros to take Mitsuru and get him to safety. The two Riders suicidally charge against the generals, and Ankh takes the opportunity to seize the OOO Driver while Momo gets Mitsuru to Hina and the others. While Eiji and Kotaro lose and are captured, Ankh rejoins with Shingo’s body and tells the others that he found Teddy. The kids, Momotaros, and Hina find a desolate site, with Teddy in sword form stuck into the ground, rusting. Momo tries to get his fellow Imagin to respond, but he breaks down when he realizes that Teddy is dead too. Ankh has the courtesy to remove Teddy’s body from the ground respectfully, though he notices that something was buried underneath. The kids and Hina unearth a time capsule containing the uniforms and communicators of the Kamen Rider Scouts and a message from Naoki. It explains how the Riders lost and were captured and how Teddy died protecting the Scouts, offering a goodbye and a final message to the future. While everybody but Ankh is in tears, Shocker attacks. Deciding to take a stand, Momotaros possesses Ankh…who’s possessing Shingo. Poor Shingo’s hair will never be the same. Momo-Ankh tosses the OOO belt to Mitsuru, then takes the MacheTeddy and tries to fight against them, but he’s overwhelmed and captured. The kids watch as Kotaro, Eiji, and Momo-Ankh are dragged behind a convoy to their execution, knowing that they’re the only hope of saving them.
The three (or four, depending on if you count Ankh as separate right now) are tied to crosses in the central square of the city, surrounded by various monsters from both the Showa and Heisei eras (including Mirror Monsters from Ryuki, which technically shouldn’t exist given the way that season ends). Momotaros tries to explain to Kotaro what happened to Teddy, but a depressed but strong Kotaro knows, still being able to feel their bond across forty years. As Shocker prepares to execute the Riders, the kids, now dressed in the uniforms of the Kamen Rider Scouts, go into action. General Shadow realizes that one of the Scouts is trying to get the OOO Driver to Eiji and attacks. The Scouts proceed to pass along the Driver among themselves in the crowd, playing keep-away with Shocker. Mitsuru finally gets it and races toward Eiji, but he’s caught by the Shocker Greeed. At that point, 1 and 2 arrive, much to Kotaro and Eiji’s horror. Mitsuru makes an impassioned plea, passing along Naoki’s message from the past that the Kamen Riders are the defenders of justice, but the Riders and Shocker laugh…until 1 and 2 reveal that they can’t stand Shocker’s brand of justice. In what’s possibly the most epic public “Fuck you” imaginable, 1 and 2 reveal that Shocker’s own scientists were so guilt-stricken that they intentionally screwed up the brainwashing process (possibly a shout out to 2005’s Kamen Rider: THE FIRST) and for the past forty years, they’ve had to fake being evil, committing atrocities with heavy hearts all while waiting for this day, when they could overthrow Shocker once and for all. The crowd breaks into a wild cheer, and the Riders go into action, fighting off the various monsters and grunts to free Mitsuru. Mitsuru is recaptured, but he throws the OOO Driver into the crowd, and the monster throws him aside to go after it. At this point, the crowd decides to get their Countdown to Destruction on and start beating the crap out of monsters and grunts, hurrying to free the captured Riders. As the powerless Riders help the civilians fight off Shocker, an older man dressed as a scientist tosses Eiji his Driver, allowing him to henshin, and the crowd goes absolutely insane cheering. Kotaro recovers his belt as Momotaros separates from Ankh, and Kotaro says that without Teddy, he’s going to need Momo’s help. He takes the Imagin arm and pulls it into himself, allowing Momotaros to possess him. The two henshin to NEW Den-O, with Momotaros becoming the MomotaSword, a really elaborate looking sword based on Momo’s own in Imagin form, and Kotaro affirms that they always start at a climax before an amused Momotaros urges him into battle.
It’s an absolute frenzy of every villain the Kamen Riders have ever fought: monsters like Ikadevil (Kamen Rider), generals like Apollo Geist (X) and Shadow Moon (Black), and for all their strength, the four Riders aren’t able to hold all of them off by themselves. As they fall, the civilians stand before them and form a barrier, but before Shocker can attack them, another henshin belt sounds off. Kamen Rider V3 (1973) appears and jumps in to fight off some monsters, and the memories of the Rider who never should have existed returns to the people as they cheer his name. And V3’s not the only one. As 1, 2, NEW Den-O, and OOO rejoin the battle, Riderman (also from Kamen Rider V3) jumps in the battle, followed by X (1974), Amazon (1974/1975), Stronger (1975), Skyrider (1979), Super-1 (1980), ZX (1984), and Black (1987) and Black RX (1988, who are the same guy, so you know there’s got to be something wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey involved). The cheering crowd suddenly goes silent and parts as Owner walks up. He reveals that the Kamen Riders can never be forgotten in the hearts of the people, and the crowd cheers wildly again. DenLiner arrives, completely restored, and hits General Black, forcing him into his LeechChameleon form. It’s the movie and Heisei era Riders’ time to shine as they all fight off their particular monster species, with Owner calling each of them by name: Shin (Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue, 1992), ZO (1993), J (1994), Kuuga (2000), Agito (2001), Ryuki (2002), Faiz (2003), Blade (2004), Hibiki (2005), Kabuto (2006), Kiva (2008), Decade (2009, who fights Shadow Moon—a Black villain featured prominently in one of Decade’s movies; being an anniversary season Decade only had featured other Heisei era villains, some Showa villains toward the end, and on one occasion, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger villains), and then there’s a pause as a ramen stand owner in the windy city of Futo is attacked by monsters and Shotaro and Philip arrive to help. They henshin into Kamen Rider W (2009/2010) and fight off the grunts and Dopants attacking. Don’t ask why they’re the only Riders other than NEW Den-O and OOO to appear out of henshin—Shotaro and Philip are apparently contractually obligated to appear in every Kamen Rider movie after their series, if the previews for OOO/Fourze: Megamax are any indication. NEW Den-O slashes through various grunts and the Albinoleo and Mantis Imagin (big bad Kai’s personal Imagin from the end of the series and the enemy Imagin from Kotaro’s last movie, Cho Den-O: Episode Blue respectively), setting the grunts on fire with the power of the MomotaSword. DenLiner passes by overhead, and a sword drops out of the sky, shifting form until it becomes Teddy again, much to Kotaro and Momo’s surprise. Kotaro’s voice is choked as he comes over to him, and Teddy affirms that he’s been waiting to get back to his partner for the past forty years. Seeing the partners reunited, Momotaros decides it’s time to let them have their climax (I’m sorry—there’s really no way to include Momo’s catchphrase without it sounding wrong) and he’s able to return to his complete form. Though, being Momotaros, he lands on his butt. At Kotaro’s finger snap, Teddy becomes MacheTeddy again as Momotaros takes out his (well, Ryotaro’s) henshin belt and transforms into Den-O Sword Form, to Owner’s announcement of “DEN-O!” But before he can get started, there’s one more reunion to be had: Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros run up, thrilled to see him again, and the four Imagin join together in the more powerful Climax Form. The two generations of Den-O join together their hissatsu attacks to defeat the three monsters coming at them. Owner calls out the introduction for OOO as Eiji takes on grunts and LeechChameleon, able to see through its invisibility through the abilities of his Taka (Hawk) Medal, and he destroys it with his claws.
The Kamen Riders all come together to join OOO—a team-up across forty years, with 1, 2, OOO, NEW Den-O, and Den-O standing at the front, before they all go into action. General Shadow decides that this is a good time to get the hell out of dodge, but an amused Owner notes that the Kamen Riders aren’t the only heroes out there, causing the crowd to cheer again, and in a tribute to their shared creator, Shotaro Ishinomori, Kikaider, Kikaider 01, Inazuman, and Zubat appear on a cliffside by the Shocker lake and destroy General Shadow.
The Riders unite against the Shocker Greeed and manage to destroy it, but Great Leader attacks and gives both Showa and Heisei alike a hard time. Ankh decides it’s time to put Shocker’s own power against them and takes the Shocker Medal and a Medal he left inside Momotaros, creating an Imagin Core Medal (just go with it). Eiji puts the Medals in with the Taka Medal, creating a new combo: TaMaShii (or spirit). With entirely too little screentime, OOO TaMaShii is able to channel the fire from Great Leader’s attacks and concentrate it into a sphere and blast it right back at him in a hadoken with the energy from his own Medals. With Great Leader destroyed, King Dark (X) grows huge and attacks. But he is dwarfed by a monster rising from the mountain range behind him.
Now, to get the proper mental image of how enormous this is, King Dark is the size of most giant monsters and mechs from Super Sentai/Power Rangers and Ultraman. In comparison to the size of this thing, King Dark is as small as the ordinary-sized Riders are to him.
Clouds of ash swallow up the Riders, turning the daytime skies pitch black as lava explodes from the mountains and the Great Leader rises once more in his true form, Great Leader Colossus. He causes the earth to split open, devouring King Dark and the other generals (whose names I don’t know because I’ve only seen parts of the Heisei era series). With all hope seemingly lost, the lead Riders are saved by a promise from Akira Date, Kamen Rider Birth (OOO), and his fellow secondary Riders to always have their backs. And yes, damn near all of the secondary Riders from Agito through OOO are standing on the cliff—sure, there are some missing (I don’t see about two of the 12 other Ryuki Riders, for instance), but chances are one of your favorites is in there. Unless they’re only from a movie. That wasn’t Ryuki.
1 rallies the Riders together, and they all leap onto their bikes (whether they had one in Rider form or not or had to share like the Den-O duo), forming a 40 in the air, and plowing through Colossus in what is simultaneously the most corny and epic way to defeat a super-giant monster ever. The Riders all emerge from the exploding Colossus, but only OOO and Den-O/NEW Den-O touch down. 1 (at least, I think it’s 1) tasks Eiji and Kotaro with protecting the world until another day comes when all Kamen Riders must join forces once more, but they will watch over them. The Scouts and Hina make their way over, and mid-celebration, Momotaros admits he thinks they forgot something, only for Kotaro and Teddy to suddenly remember Naoki is still in the past. They’re about to run off to save him when the scientist who gave Eiji the OOO Driver earlier says that there’s no need. While Teddy wonders exactly how a complete stranger knows his name, Mitsuru recognizes him and runs up to hug him—his long-lost father. Mitsuru’s dad hugs his son back, revealing a scar on his hand that Kotaro immediately recognizes as being Naoki’s. Naoki confirms his identity and explains that after he and the Scouts were forced into hiding, he fell in love with Nokko and got married, working hard to get an education under Shocker’s command and to become one of the scientists charged with brainwashing the original Riders and sabotage it—which indicates they were captured or brainwashed a lot later than the rest of the movie implies, but whatever. Also, you can see everybody there, even the seasoned time travelers of Den-O trying to wrap their minds around this wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. Owner and Naomi innocently remark that this time-trippin’ ride made Naoki a very important part of Kamen Rider history, as if they didn’t plan the whole thing from the start.
Ankh discovers that the Imagin and Shocker Medals are apparently only temporary, disintegrating into sand and blowing away—possibly indicating that per the rules of Den-O, the timeline is healing itself into the closest possible fix. Naoki is proud of how the new generation has done fulfilling his role in maintaining faith in the Kamen Riders, and he hopes that they’ll pass it along to future generations, and as part of the future generation, Kotaro says those are big shoes to fill. Eiji promises to continue fighting hard, and Naoki is pleased. DenLiner arrives to take Kotaro, Teddy, and Momotaros home, and Kotaro and Eiji shake on the promise of a new tomorrow when their timelines will cross again. Momotaros tries to offer a hand to Ankh, but that doesn’t go well, and DenLiner takes them away as Teddy tries to keep Momotaros from killing Ankh.
Kamen Rider, created in 1971 by Shotaro Ishinomori, was the story of Takeshi Hongo, a young genius who was captured by the massive criminal organization called Shocker and converted into a cyborg to become one of their warriors against justice. Rescued from his brainwashing, Hongo decided to fight for justice and dedicated himself to fighting against Shocker as Kamen Rider. When lead actor Hiroshi Fujioka was injured during a stunt for the show, a second Kamen Rider, photographer Hayato Ichimonji, was introduced so that Fujioka could take time off to recover. When he did, both Hongo and Ichimonji joined forces on-screen as Kamen Riders 1 and 2, the double Riders who gave Shocker hell.
Kamen Rider started off as a dark and gritty story, similar to Ishinomori’s earlier manga Skull Man, though to prevent cancellation, the tone was lightened up. Still, the series even today generally maintains a more mature tone than it younger sister series, Super Sentai—the adopted predecessors of which, Sentai series Himitsu Sentai Goranger and J.A.K.Q. Dangekitai, were also created by Ishinomori. Most seasons have a much smaller cast than Sentai teams (though there are notable exceptions), which can give it a chance to focus a little more on deeper character development. The hero was usually created by the evil organization, or at the very least, his powers were created by them, and he had to fight against them with their own technology. The franchise ran on TV continuously until 1981, and in 1984, a TV special called Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together! was created to celebrate the birth of the newest Rider, would-be Badan Empire agent ZX (this special was later rewritten into the plot of the 2001 manga Kamen Rider SPIRITS). In 1987, Kamen Rider Black premiered, changing up the usual formula of kidnapped men being converted into cyborgs (though Amazon already had a different kind of origin story) and told the story of a young man raised by a cult alongside his adoptive brother, who he was unable to save from becoming brainwashed into becoming the evil Shadow Moon. As the “Child of the Sun,” Black, Kotaro Minami (yeah, you’re going to find quite a few Kotaros and Shiros running around here) fought against this organization and tried to save his brother. The emotionally hard-hitting Black was followed up with a direct sequel, the more lighthearted Black RX, had Kotaro fighting against the Crisis Empire after his transformation device was broken and then resurrected in a new form. It was notable for introducing the concept of form changes for the Riders and for a very bad adaptation by Saban (of Power Rangers fame) that has forever resulted in English-speaking fans disavowing the term “Masked Rider” (the literal translation of the title) and even resulted in the Power Rangers themselves apparently retconning the show (which had crossed over with theirs back in ’95) in their time-travel season in 2001.
These series and special are known collectively as the Showa era, as they aired during the reign of Emperor Hirohito, whose posthumous name is Showa. The current era, with Emperor Akihito on the throne, is known as the Heisei era. The three movies that followed the Showa series, Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue, Kamen Rider ZO, and Kamen Rider J aired in the Heisei period, but due to the involvement of Ishinomori, English-speaking fans group them with the Showa era.
In 1998, Shotaro Ishinomori died of heart failure, and children all over Japan lost the creator who’d brought them such exciting adventures throughout the decades. He died leaving behind notes for two series: Kamen Rider Kuuga and a series that would eventually become Kamen Rider Hibiki. Kuuga was the first Kamen Rider work after Ishinomori’s death, but it was widely regarded as a worthy heir to the mantle. It essentially rebooted the franchise, avoiding references to the previous series and movies, though in some respects, it still felt like a Showa era Kamen Rider series. The next two in the lineup would create an entirely new style, establishing the Heisei Riders. Agito introduced the concept of multiple Riders fighting at one time, having the main Rider with mystical powers, another with biological powers, and the third with technological powers, honoring the three types of power in the franchise. Ryuki introduced the idea of enemy Riders, with its thirteen Kamen Riders fighting against one another for an ultimate power. It also created the first official female Kamen Rider, Femme (the first henshin heroine in the series was Tackle in Stronger, though she was not considered a Kamen Rider herself), and it created this superstition among fans that female Riders will always die. Notably, like Black RX, Ryuki was adapted in America with a changed plot, though its parent company, Adness, shied away from too much Power Rangers influence. This adaptation, Dragon Knight, had much better production than Saban’s Masked Rider, but it wasn’t particularly strong in ratings; it was dubbed back into Japanese to coincide with the Heisei 10th anniversary, where it proved to be much more popular than its source material.
With the exception of Agito, where the G3 powers were created in response to the events of Kuuga, the Heisei Kamen Riders all existed in a vacuum, with no indication that any of the Riders in either era existed before each of them.
In 2009, to celebrate the tenth Heisei Rider, Kamen Rider Decade was created as a bit of a crossover to homage all the Heisei Riders who came before him. Possibly due to the reluctance of Kuuga’s actor to return, Decade decided to use alternate versions of each of the Riders, with only a couple of the original actors returning to reprise their roles (notably Kotaro Minami as Black/Black RX and the entire cast of Den-O—in a sense). Decade implied that each of the Heisei series took place in a different alternate universe and that even though Decade was fighting within the worlds of alternate Riders, the Riders we knew and loved still existed in their own universes—implied by the existence of Wataru Kurenai of Kiva, who set Decade on his mission. Decade not only brought back the references to previous Riders, but it also created a new tradition: the Movie Wars. Beginning with Movie Wars 2010, starring Decade and W, a triple-feature would air: one movie on the previous season’s Rider, one on the new one, and then the two stories would be combined together in the third in a massive fight. In the case of Decade/W, Tsukasa Kadoya’s story came to an end in Final Chapter as he fought to stop the merging of the worlds while the other Riders fought against him, and Shotaro Hidari and Philip remembered the night they became partners in Begins Night as they fought against the apparently resurrected Kamen Rider Skull. Both Decade and W joined forces when their enemies came together in Movie Wars 2010, the final segment of the movie, focusing on both Riders and bringing a conclusion to their movies. The Movie Wars setup was clean enough to be recycled for W/OOO: Movie Wars Core, though it may be tweaked with in the upcoming OOO/Fourze: Movie Wars Megamax. Let’s Go Kamen Riders definitely takes a note from the Movie Wars series: much of the storyline revolves around Eiji and Kotaro not being around one another, giving each a chance to discover how the world has changed, and in different ways. The two finally come back together at the end when they have to fight Shocker with all of the other Riders.
2007’s Kamen Rider Den-O was the biggest tone shift of the series, being very much an adventure-comedy. Created by Yasuko Kobayashi, who had previously worked on the much bleaker Ryuki, it introduced the concept of some of the monsters being good guys. Ryotaro Nogami was a young man with absolutely terrible luck—like the universe looked at him one day and decided, “I don’t like this guy.” But despite being God’s plaything and a complete woobie sometimes, Ryotaro was very special: he was a singularity point, a being who could exist independently of the timeline and could not be affected by changes to it. As a singularity point, he was naturally able to resist possession by an Imagin, a wish-granting monster that would use its contract holder’s most precious memory to travel to the past to destroy the timeline, and these qualities made him perfect to become Kamen Rider Den-O. However, his weak spirit and body meant he didn’t have much in the way of power, so he formed contracts with four Imagin to help him: Momotaros, Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros, to give him four different fighting styles.
Due to its comedic nature and the antics of the Imagin, Den-O was wildly popular and remains, as the time of this review, the most popular of the franchise. But before they knew just how popular it was going to be, the story was slated to end with Farewell, Kamen Rider Den-O: Final Countdown, a movie where Ryotaro had been taken by the enemy and was forced to fight against his friends, so his grandson from the future, Kotaro Nogami, was called in to help. Kotaro, as NEW Den-O Strike Form, was strong but arrogant, bearing a chip on his shoulder against his grandfather for the constant comparisons his parents had made to him. According to supplemental info provided with the movie, this is the reason for Teddy’s name: Kotaro had originally named him Neotaros, in honor of his grandfather’s Imagin partners (which is why he also looks similar to Momotaros), but disillusionment led to him changing his partner’s name to Teddy. Why Teddy, we’ll never know. Seeing that Ryotaro was physically and apparently emotionally weak, he rubbed his own strength into the Imagin’s faces, especially with them unable to transform without Ryotaro (he had the only Rider Pass to activate the belt at the time). But being defeated by Kamen Rider Yuuki made him realize his own weakness, and Momotaros spoke to him about how his determination was his greatest strength and Ryotaro’s, giving him a new appreciation for his grandfather and the Imagin. When Ryotaro was able to break free of the evil Imagin’s control, Kotaro proudly joined his grandfather and Momotaros to take down the enemy.
Kotaro later appeared in two of the four movies following Final Countdown, movies created during Decade that were dubbed the Cho Den-O series. While he mostly served as a hostage throughout Onigashima Battleship, Cho Den-O Episode Blue: The Dispatched Imagin is NEWtral continued his character arc. Owner revealed that the contract between Kotaro and Teddy was really only supposed to last until they saved Ryotaro in Final Countdown, so by default, Teddy would form a contract with Owner. Though he fought with Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros (Momotaros was injured at the time), Kotaro discovered that his own natural defenses as a singularity point prevented them from possessing him in Rider form, causing them to become a weapon the way Teddy had. But Teddy was the only one he was really synched with, and he couldn’t fight with his grandfather’s Imagin effectively. Both Kotaro and Teddy realized just how much they depended on one another, with Teddy suppressing his own desire to stay with his partner in favor of his obligation, and Teddy broke his contract to return to Kotaro.
Fittingly, Kotaro is much more mature in Let’s Go than he was in his previous appearances. He’s slightly older and significantly wiser, humble before the original Riders and relatively friendly but slightly guarded toward Eiji. Having apparently taken on the role of Den-O permanently, he faces his first real failure when he can’t prevent the Riders from being defeated in the past. And I think this is why it had to be Kotaro instead of Ryotaro as Den-O’s representative here. True, during Decade and the connected Cho Den-O series, Ryotaro was de-aged to his preteen years, but he’s still got all of his experience as a teen/young adult. Final Countdown was his chance to prove that he was Den-O, not the Imagin. He came out of the series and especially that movie a much stronger character, so it seems unlikely he would have made that mistake of losing a Cell Medal in the past just once, let alone twice. Kotaro, on the other hand, is still new as a Kamen Rider. It’s implied in Episode Blue that he doesn’t see a lot of action, that his appearances in the movies are his missions and he mostly just hangs out in the future with Teddy. He’s called on when he’s needed, and Ryotaro was still able to handle things. Sure, he may have appeared over the course of three years, but he’s really only been on three missions before this. He’s just as much of a rookie as Eiji.
Kotaro instead seems to be becoming more and more like his grandfather, most notably when he’s in 1971. The way Dori Sakurada breathlessly pleads with Nokko sounds almost exactly like Takeru Satoh as Ryotaro. While he’s still got a trace of his cockiness—for example, still doing a countdown with Teddy to how long it’ll take for them to defeat the Imagin—it’s tempered by his experiences. Every time he’s been called in, it’s because something terrible has happened: his grandfather was kidnapped and possessed by a very powerful evil Imagin, his grandfather was de-aged and his Imagin are missing throughout time and Decade is here doing something, his grandfather and Momotaros are injured and now Teddy has to leave him. He doesn’t get the easy stuff, so it’s forced him to reach the state of mind that Ryotaro had reached by Final Countdown at a relatively faster pace for his appearances, metered out by the possible passage of time (being from the future, we don’t know exactly how much time has passed for him). And it probably shows best with his solemn acceptance at the news of Teddy’s death. It’s not the first time he’s been through this. Teddy was badly injured in Final Countdown and apparently died in Episode Blue. It’s not easy for Kotaro to go through, but he’s been prepared for it, and both he and Teddy are tough enough that they want to try to carry on without one another (though Episode Blue proved just how hard it is for them). In terms of his character development, Let’s Go Kamen Riders is pretty much a sequel to Episode Blue: we have the bond between Kotaro and Teddy surpassing death once more, and we especially have Kotaro wiser and more subdued from his experiences. Furthermore, Kotaro is able to successfully synch with Momotaros, which is appropriate given how respectful their bond is in Final Countdown and Episode Blue, with Momotaros treating him with a similar protectiveness that he does to Ryotaro, though it’s almost paternal, given that he knows this is Ryotaro’s future grandkid. Also, Episode Blue drops a line about Teddy being a “special” Imagin, which may have allowed him to survive breaking his contract with Owner and re-form his contract with Kotaro. This may also explain why Teddy comes back to life once DenLiner returns. He’s special.
Kamen Rider OOO was also written by Yasuko Kobayashi, and in a way, it’s kind of like a less insane version of Den-O. Again, the monster of the week is created in response to a person’s desires and tries to fulfill them according to their own interpretation of the desire (i.e.: whatever causes the most destruction). The ones pulling the strings however, are the Greeed, monsters created from animal-themed medallions called Core Medals, their bodies comprised of Cell Medals. All it takes is one Cell Medal and one human desire to create a Yummy. But one of the Greeed, Ankh, who was unable to regenerate as anything other than an arm, betrayed his kind for his own personal gain and teamed up with Eiji Hino with the intent of making him the new Kamen Rider OOO, the being that had sealed the Greeed eight-hundred years ago, to destroy the Yummys and collect their Cell Medals, hopefully finding Ankh’s own missing Core Medals.
This story takes place right about in the middle of OOO, so to avoid giving too many spoilers, I’ll say this about Eiji: He’s a nice guy, but really messed up. We learn fairly early on in the series that he traveled the world, but he was caught up in a civil war and was unable to save a little girl he’d befriended during the attack, traumatizing him and causing him to return to Japan. He’s very friendly and nice, but there are times when you can see the scars of his experience in the war, and that typically shows up when it comes to battle, or when kids are in danger. He takes up the role of OOO because he wants to be able to save everyone he possibly can, and this stubborn desire tempers Ankh’s….well, assholishness.
Just like it helps a lot to see Kotaro’s movies to understand his characterization, it helps to see at least some of OOO to understand Eiji. He starts off excited, this whole thing seeming like a great adventure. But the moment he realizes just what’s going on, he’s desperate to try to protect the kids from harm. Just knowing that little bit of his past, the very first flashback we see early in the series, you know that there’s a lot more going on than him just wanting to protect the innocent. In a way, he’s making up for his failure to protect one child by fighting against everything to protect all of these children. Like Kotaro, he is facing his greatest failure ever: had he and Ankh never stowed away on DenLiner, had he kept a better handle on Ankh, the next forty years would never have become a dystopia ruled by Shocker.
But like how Kotaro takes center stage in the past, trying and failing to protect the original Riders and Naoki, Eiji is the one through whose eyes we can see the Shocker-controlled present. Having become a singularity point by proxy, he remembers the way things are supposed to be, and he’s horrified to realize just what’s going on. And just like he tempers Ankh’s impulses, he really acts as a conscience for the kids, especially Mitsuru. The kids are tough, hardened by oppression. They have painful and potentially lethal makeshift weapons, such as electrified poles, that they threaten the OOO crew with. Eiji manages to calm them down and try to talk reason into them. And when Mitsuru is ready to abandon one of his friends to Shocker, Eiji is the one to convince him never to back down, to do all he can, no matter how little it is, to try to win. Which sums up Eiji in a nutshell: he knows he’s only doing a tiny bit, fighting as OOO against the Greeed. He knows that he can’t possibly save the whole world. But he knows that little bit is doing a lot of good, and it takes a little bit from many, many people to make a difference throughout the world: the essence of the generations of Kamen Riders and other heroes fighting to protect the world, each saving a little bit at a time. And so, it is Eiji who inspires Mitsuru and Naoki to do all they can to help the Riders and stop Shocker, changing the course of history.
In the middle of all the spectacle, it’s easy to miss these little production aspects, but there’s one that I felt needed to be brought up: The director did absolutely everything possible to make the 1971 scenes look like they belonged in an episode of the original Kamen Rider. The original music played as the double Riders charged into battle. Their henshin sound effect played when they arrived and when they, NEW Den-O, OOO, and all the rest leapt on to their bikes to defeat Colossus. And the scenes shot in the past had the colors all washed out to match footage of the original series. Many of the Heisei actors were too young to have seen the original series: Most of the lead actors even from Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, and 555 were born in the late ‘70s to early ‘80s. I’m willing to bet that most of the people watching the fansubs probably aren’t much older. So it’s a bit of shared nostalgia, giving even these newbies a chance to feel like they’re sitting in front of the TV watching an episode of the original. So what if the Shocker monster costumes look ridiculously rubber? That they’re not as impressive as Orphenochs or Fangires when you finally get to see them all side-by-side? Shocker and the original Riders are treated with the utmost respect the way their fans remembered them. It’s not meant to be a case of one era one-upping the other. It’s two lead Riders for the Showa era, two for the Heisei era. Shocker brought all of the villains together, winning thanks to a Heisei villain concept. No matter how cheesy things can look, it’s still a fun ride, just the way you’re supposed to see it when you’re a kid—no matter what era you lived through and what season you watched. Everyone gets their time to shine, getting all the respect they should.
Except maybe Ankh and Momotaros. And Shingo Izumi’s body. Because half-dead people are funny.
Finally, we come to what might be the most controversial part of this whole movie: the end theme song. In honor of the 40th anniversary of Kamen Rider as celebrated in this film, Avex put together a girl group called Kamen Rider Girls, and they performed a remix of the original Kamen Rider theme, “Let’s Go Rider Kick! 2011.” I’ve heard a lot of complaints about it, but to be perfectly honest? I don’t mind it. Sure, it’s annoying in that it’s ridiculously catchy and will not leave your head from the moment you hear it, but that’s a trait of all pop songs. Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up with Kamen Rider and I don’t have an emotional connection to the original “Let’s Go Rider Kick.” Maybe I’d feel differently if they remixed a song I do love a lot, like “Journey through the Decade” or “Alive A life.” But I don’t find this nearly as bad as people claim. And in any case, it’s all Kamen Rider, Den-O, and OOO background music throughout the movie anyway. If you don’t like this song, it’s only in the credits.
OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let’s Go Kamen Riders was written by Shoji Yonemura and directed by Osamu Kaneda. As the cast is huge, I’m going to have to just link to the Wikipedia page. It’s actually easier to list who was not in it: the actors for X through Kabuto, Kiva, and Decade did not return, nor of course, either of Ryotaro’s actors, and barring Date-Birth, none of the secondaries returned.
At some point during the opening credits, the Kamen Rider and his partner Imagin de-henshin and explain that they are Kotaro Nogami, Kamen Rider (NEW) Den-O and Teddy, and they’ve come on the time-traveling train DenLiner to try to stop the three NEW Mole Imagin that flew inside the boy and are trying to destroy the present by destroying the past. Kotaro holds a ticket to the boy, and it displays an impossible date: November 11, 1971. Teddy wonders how it’s possible that a little kid in 2011 has memories of 1971, but Kotaro knows they need to get to the past immediately. As Kotaro and Teddy board DenLiner, Eiji decides that he and Ankh should follow them, if only because now he’s curious what’s going on too.
Countdown to this backfiring? Let’s start with 40.
Though Eiji and Ankh try to keep from attracting too much attention, the DenLiner crew soon spots them—if only by virtue of coffee girl Naomi trying to serve them. And the other four in the dining car are all Imagin: Momotaros, Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros. They think Ankh and Eiji are weird. That’s saying something. A fight breaks out between Momo and Ankh, which is broken up by DenLiner’s Owner, who warns the new Rider crew not to fuck around with the past because there will be horrible consequences for everyone involved.
Kotaro and Teddy immediately start kicking some Imagin ass the moment DenLiner emerges in the past, though they lose one of them. At the same time, Ankh decides to separate from the half-dead body of Shingo Izumi and start meddling in time, and Eiji takes off after him. Ankh wants to try to start anew in the past, where he doesn’t have his rival Greeed to deal with, but Eiji tries to haul his hand back into the train. But at that point, the last Imagin arrives and NEW Den-O only just manages to destroy it in time. The explosion sends Eiji flying back, where he lands on Ankh, causing the Greeed hand to accidentally release a single Cell Medal.
Unaware of the loss of the Medal, the Riders return to the train, where the DenLiner crew tears into Eiji and Ankh for nearly screwing up all of time and who knows? Maybe resulting in the world being conquered by the bad guys forty years ago? All the while, none of them realize that a Shocker grunt has discovered the Medal and turned it into General Black, who knows that this is the key to destroying the Kamen Riders forever.
Eiji and Ankh are returned to 2011, and despite everything, Eiji’s still excited over a time-traveling train. But Ankh is cautious—he senses a powerful, oppressive desire in the air, and he points out to Eiji that for Tokyo in 2011, the streets are awfully empty. At that point, the little kid from before, Naoki, arrives with a friend in tow, Mitsuru, who points out that Eiji’s got something on his back. As Eiji goes to check it, Ankh grabs Mitsuru, who’d tried to pick Eiji’s pocket, only managing to get Eiji’s spare underwear for his troubles (if you’ve never seen OOO, don’t ask—enjoy your own explanations). Apparently embarrassed, the would-be thief stammers an apology before Ankh sends him and Naoki packing. The kids begin riding their bikes away before Ankh realizes that Mitsuru used the opportunity to steal his case of Core Medals, the source of OOO’s power. A chase breaks out, leading Eiji and Ankh to a post-apocalyptic slum they’re pretty sure wasn’t there before, but the cops arrive. Ankh tries to get them to apprehend the kids so he can get his Medals back, but the cops hit him for ordering them around. They insist that nobody orders around Shocker before transforming into Shocker grunts and a monster. Yeesh, talk about police brutality. Eiji and Ankh split up and run like hell while looking for the kids, planning to rendezvous at their home and workplace: Cous Cousier. But when Eiji arrives, the building is abandoned and in ruins, an old sign saying “Snack Amigo” in front, proving his friends haven’t owned it in a long while. Confused as all hell, Eiji enters, only to run into the kids from the slum again. It turns out that they’re a young resistance force trying to survive in the slums, and Ankh arrives to tell him that things have gotten really damn bad:
Forty years ago, a shadow organization called Shocker tried to take over the world through human cyborgs, often transformed into monsters. Their greatest success and failure in cyborg technology were Kamen Riders 1 and 2 (alternatively, Ichigo and Nigo). But the Riders escaped their brainwashing and fought and defeated Shocker, ultimately allowing other Kamen Riders to later rise up and defeat their enemies for the next forty years. However, Shocker’s now taken over the world, so the original two Kamen Riders failed.
Realizing that something has to be done to stop Shocker, Eiji tries to convince the kids to give them their medals and help them fight. But the cops arrive, and Eiji, Ankh, and the kids try to escape. Eiji, Mitsuru, and Naoki end up blockaded by the Shocker police, who have taken another of the children hostage. They demand them to surrender or they’ll kill their hostage, and Mitsuru tries to run for it, but Eiji argues that he has to stand by his friend. Mitsuru, whose father was captured by Shocker, hates them like nothing else, which is why he feels the need to run and survive long enough to become strong enough to get his revenge. Eiji, on the other hand, insists that they have to make a stand now and do whatever they can to try to help. He transforms, much to their shock, but more shocking is when he introduces himself as Kamen Rider OOO. OOO fights against the grunts and monster, giving the kids the chance to escape and hide. Unfortunately, he’s hardly a match for it, and two motorcycles arrive. The grunts come to a stop and salute as Kamen Riders 1 and 2 step forward…and beat the shit out of OOO. Seeing that OOO is clearly no friend of the other Riders and that he really needs help, Naoki convinces Mitsuru to give him the Medals, and OOO switches to his fast LaToraTah combo to grab the kids and run. But though they’ve managed to escape the Riders, they’re caught by General Shadow (Stronger), who gives OOO hell until DenLiner arrives to rescue them.
With the kids and Eiji safely aboard, Kotaro, Teddy, and Owner explain that forty years ago, Shocker discovered a Core Medal used to create Greeeds, but they were never able to get the damn thing to work. Until Eiji and Ankh fucked things up and dropped that Cell Medal, that is. The Core and Cell Medals combined and created the Shocker Greeed, who was too strong for Kamen Riders 1 and 2, and they were not only defeated, but captured by Shocker and brainwashed into becoming their greatest generals. And because of that, no other Riders came to exist The DenLiner crew believes that if they go back in time and find the Medal before Shocker’s Great Leader gets it, then they can save the present. As a singularity point, Kotaro is unaffected by any changes he or others may make to the timeline, so his memories of the original timeline will remain the same no matter what he does, and that will help restore the true timeline. Eiji and Ankh’s powers and memories remain because of their contact with Kotaro…which I guess makes singularity points contagious. Eiji and the hostage kid are dropped off in the local slum, where the other resistance kids and Eiji’s friend Hina, who no longer recognizes him, are fending off Shocker grunts. While Eiji helps them fight and escape, the DenLiner crew heads back one minute before they’d previously gone to 1971, and Kotaro and Teddy easily find the Medal destroy it. Unfortunately, Naoki and Mitsuru stowed away…and so did Ankh. Ankh and Momotaros get into another fight, and it results in Ankh dropping a bunch of Medals in the past. The kids, the Imagin, and Kotaro all try to find and destroy them (with Ankh making things harder on Momo), and after managing to get all but one, they find that a young girl with a Kamen Rider necklace has found the last. Kotaro, in his infinite wisdom, runs up to her out of breath with two monsters and a disembodied monster arm in tow, and says that the Medal belongs to them. Naturally, the girl takes it and bikes for her life. The girl, Nokko, calls into her necklace-communicator saying that she’s run into Shocker, despite Momotaros’s helpful shouts that they’re not with Shocker, but she runs into Naoki and Mitsuru. They try to ask for the Medal, and when she demands to know who they are, they ask about her. She says she’s with the Kamen Rider Scouts (KITsubs translation), which makes them break into helpless giggles because it sounds so lame. Here’s an idea: Don’t piss off the person who has what you want. Kotaro, Teddy, Momo, and Ankh catch up, being chased by Kamen Rider Scouts on bicycles, which officially makes them the lamest and most hilarious heroes ever. Kotaro tries to plead with them, and Teddy explains that if Shocker gets hold of the Medal, they’re all in serious trouble. Of course, during this delicate negotiation, Ankh decides it’s best to go over and try to take it from Nokko by force. Because that always works. A Shocker grunt gets hold of the Medal, and he punches Ankh, much to Momo’s amusement. General Black arrives and is presented with the Medal, and Kotaro henshins, much to the kids’ and the bad guys’ surprise. Listening to the Kamen Rider when he tells them to get to safety, the kids escape while NEW Den-O (with Teddy in sword form), Momotaros, and Ankh fight. A strike from NEW Den-O manages to get the Medal away from General Black, and Naoki, Mitsuru, and Nokko take it and run. But General Black shifts to monster form, LeechChameleon, and ends up being too much for NEW Den-O and Momotaros. Managing to hide in the Abandoned Warehouse District, the boys apologize to Nokko for making fun of her team, but a monster attacks them, cutting a large gash on Naoki’s hand, though he remembers Eiji’s persistence and insists to his friends that they can’t give up no matter what. Just when it looks like it’s the end of the kids, Kamen Riders 1 and 2 run in, to the music of the original 1971 theme song. They kick ass all around, giving Naoki and Mitsuru their first glimpse of what the two generals were like back when they were heroes and defenders of justice. The original Riders destroy the monster, and the kids run back to NEW Den-O, Momotaros, and Ankh, who are unable to fight the invisible LeechChameleon. He manages to take the Medal back from Naoki, but the Riders arrive, having learned everything they needed from Naoki, and they show that they had taken the real Medal, letting General Black seize a fake with a transmitter that will lead the Riders to Shocker’s base and their Great Leader. Before Ankh can try to reclaim the Medal, NEW Den-O blows it up real good, and the three Riders and Momotaros plan to invade Shocker’s headquarters under a lake.
However, when they arrive, they find out that they’re not the only ones who can produce fake Cell Medals on the fly. General Black reveals that he’d dropped a fake—which meant that he’d been keeping one in reserve for a very long time on the off-chance that he’d find a real Cell Medal and then need to trick the Riders into thinking he’d lost it—and he gives it to Great Leader, who combines it with the Shocker Core Medal and creates the Shocker Greeed. Even with three Kamen Riders and an Imagin, the Greeed, Great Leader, and all of Shocker’s monsters are way too much to handle, and they’re forced outside. Kotaro and Teddy are forced out of henshin by the Greeed while DenLiner comes under attack, and 1 and 2 sacrifice themselves by volunteering to fight and lose against the Greeed so that the others can live. Reluctantly, the Den-O crew retreats, but Naoki refuses to leave the Riders behind, and he jumps off of DenLiner. Kotaro tries to go after him, but Teddy promises to protect Naoki, jumping ship instead. Unable to save either the kid or his partner, Kotaro can only scream after Teddy as an exploding DenLiner returns to 2011. Seeing the time train about to explode, OOO uses his TaJaDor combo and flies up to rescue Mitsuru, though the explosion forces Kotaro out of the train, and both Riders lose their henshin belts. Having been standing right next to him, Momotaros was also thrown, though the explosion destroyed all but his left hand, leaving him as a floating Imagin equivalent to Ankh, who just survived because he’s Ankh. They’re forced to watch in horror as DenLiner explodes, apparently killing everyone still inside: Owner, Naomi, Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros, to Kotaro and Momotaros’s horror and sorrow. Kotaro has to explain to Eiji that he failed to save the past, and now with DenLiner destroyed, there’s no way to go back again and fix things. Shocker catches up to them, led by General Shadow of the Delza Army. They prevent the Riders from reclaiming their belts, though Eiji and Kotaro order Ankh and Momotaros to take Mitsuru and get him to safety. The two Riders suicidally charge against the generals, and Ankh takes the opportunity to seize the OOO Driver while Momo gets Mitsuru to Hina and the others. While Eiji and Kotaro lose and are captured, Ankh rejoins with Shingo’s body and tells the others that he found Teddy. The kids, Momotaros, and Hina find a desolate site, with Teddy in sword form stuck into the ground, rusting. Momo tries to get his fellow Imagin to respond, but he breaks down when he realizes that Teddy is dead too. Ankh has the courtesy to remove Teddy’s body from the ground respectfully, though he notices that something was buried underneath. The kids and Hina unearth a time capsule containing the uniforms and communicators of the Kamen Rider Scouts and a message from Naoki. It explains how the Riders lost and were captured and how Teddy died protecting the Scouts, offering a goodbye and a final message to the future. While everybody but Ankh is in tears, Shocker attacks. Deciding to take a stand, Momotaros possesses Ankh…who’s possessing Shingo. Poor Shingo’s hair will never be the same. Momo-Ankh tosses the OOO belt to Mitsuru, then takes the MacheTeddy and tries to fight against them, but he’s overwhelmed and captured. The kids watch as Kotaro, Eiji, and Momo-Ankh are dragged behind a convoy to their execution, knowing that they’re the only hope of saving them.
The three (or four, depending on if you count Ankh as separate right now) are tied to crosses in the central square of the city, surrounded by various monsters from both the Showa and Heisei eras (including Mirror Monsters from Ryuki, which technically shouldn’t exist given the way that season ends). Momotaros tries to explain to Kotaro what happened to Teddy, but a depressed but strong Kotaro knows, still being able to feel their bond across forty years. As Shocker prepares to execute the Riders, the kids, now dressed in the uniforms of the Kamen Rider Scouts, go into action. General Shadow realizes that one of the Scouts is trying to get the OOO Driver to Eiji and attacks. The Scouts proceed to pass along the Driver among themselves in the crowd, playing keep-away with Shocker. Mitsuru finally gets it and races toward Eiji, but he’s caught by the Shocker Greeed. At that point, 1 and 2 arrive, much to Kotaro and Eiji’s horror. Mitsuru makes an impassioned plea, passing along Naoki’s message from the past that the Kamen Riders are the defenders of justice, but the Riders and Shocker laugh…until 1 and 2 reveal that they can’t stand Shocker’s brand of justice. In what’s possibly the most epic public “Fuck you” imaginable, 1 and 2 reveal that Shocker’s own scientists were so guilt-stricken that they intentionally screwed up the brainwashing process (possibly a shout out to 2005’s Kamen Rider: THE FIRST) and for the past forty years, they’ve had to fake being evil, committing atrocities with heavy hearts all while waiting for this day, when they could overthrow Shocker once and for all. The crowd breaks into a wild cheer, and the Riders go into action, fighting off the various monsters and grunts to free Mitsuru. Mitsuru is recaptured, but he throws the OOO Driver into the crowd, and the monster throws him aside to go after it. At this point, the crowd decides to get their Countdown to Destruction on and start beating the crap out of monsters and grunts, hurrying to free the captured Riders. As the powerless Riders help the civilians fight off Shocker, an older man dressed as a scientist tosses Eiji his Driver, allowing him to henshin, and the crowd goes absolutely insane cheering. Kotaro recovers his belt as Momotaros separates from Ankh, and Kotaro says that without Teddy, he’s going to need Momo’s help. He takes the Imagin arm and pulls it into himself, allowing Momotaros to possess him. The two henshin to NEW Den-O, with Momotaros becoming the MomotaSword, a really elaborate looking sword based on Momo’s own in Imagin form, and Kotaro affirms that they always start at a climax before an amused Momotaros urges him into battle.
It’s an absolute frenzy of every villain the Kamen Riders have ever fought: monsters like Ikadevil (Kamen Rider), generals like Apollo Geist (X) and Shadow Moon (Black), and for all their strength, the four Riders aren’t able to hold all of them off by themselves. As they fall, the civilians stand before them and form a barrier, but before Shocker can attack them, another henshin belt sounds off. Kamen Rider V3 (1973) appears and jumps in to fight off some monsters, and the memories of the Rider who never should have existed returns to the people as they cheer his name. And V3’s not the only one. As 1, 2, NEW Den-O, and OOO rejoin the battle, Riderman (also from Kamen Rider V3) jumps in the battle, followed by X (1974), Amazon (1974/1975), Stronger (1975), Skyrider (1979), Super-1 (1980), ZX (1984), and Black (1987) and Black RX (1988, who are the same guy, so you know there’s got to be something wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey involved). The cheering crowd suddenly goes silent and parts as Owner walks up. He reveals that the Kamen Riders can never be forgotten in the hearts of the people, and the crowd cheers wildly again. DenLiner arrives, completely restored, and hits General Black, forcing him into his LeechChameleon form. It’s the movie and Heisei era Riders’ time to shine as they all fight off their particular monster species, with Owner calling each of them by name: Shin (Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue, 1992), ZO (1993), J (1994), Kuuga (2000), Agito (2001), Ryuki (2002), Faiz (2003), Blade (2004), Hibiki (2005), Kabuto (2006), Kiva (2008), Decade (2009, who fights Shadow Moon—a Black villain featured prominently in one of Decade’s movies; being an anniversary season Decade only had featured other Heisei era villains, some Showa villains toward the end, and on one occasion, Samurai Sentai Shinkenger villains), and then there’s a pause as a ramen stand owner in the windy city of Futo is attacked by monsters and Shotaro and Philip arrive to help. They henshin into Kamen Rider W (2009/2010) and fight off the grunts and Dopants attacking. Don’t ask why they’re the only Riders other than NEW Den-O and OOO to appear out of henshin—Shotaro and Philip are apparently contractually obligated to appear in every Kamen Rider movie after their series, if the previews for OOO/Fourze: Megamax are any indication. NEW Den-O slashes through various grunts and the Albinoleo and Mantis Imagin (big bad Kai’s personal Imagin from the end of the series and the enemy Imagin from Kotaro’s last movie, Cho Den-O: Episode Blue respectively), setting the grunts on fire with the power of the MomotaSword. DenLiner passes by overhead, and a sword drops out of the sky, shifting form until it becomes Teddy again, much to Kotaro and Momo’s surprise. Kotaro’s voice is choked as he comes over to him, and Teddy affirms that he’s been waiting to get back to his partner for the past forty years. Seeing the partners reunited, Momotaros decides it’s time to let them have their climax (I’m sorry—there’s really no way to include Momo’s catchphrase without it sounding wrong) and he’s able to return to his complete form. Though, being Momotaros, he lands on his butt. At Kotaro’s finger snap, Teddy becomes MacheTeddy again as Momotaros takes out his (well, Ryotaro’s) henshin belt and transforms into Den-O Sword Form, to Owner’s announcement of “DEN-O!” But before he can get started, there’s one more reunion to be had: Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros run up, thrilled to see him again, and the four Imagin join together in the more powerful Climax Form. The two generations of Den-O join together their hissatsu attacks to defeat the three monsters coming at them. Owner calls out the introduction for OOO as Eiji takes on grunts and LeechChameleon, able to see through its invisibility through the abilities of his Taka (Hawk) Medal, and he destroys it with his claws.
The Kamen Riders all come together to join OOO—a team-up across forty years, with 1, 2, OOO, NEW Den-O, and Den-O standing at the front, before they all go into action. General Shadow decides that this is a good time to get the hell out of dodge, but an amused Owner notes that the Kamen Riders aren’t the only heroes out there, causing the crowd to cheer again, and in a tribute to their shared creator, Shotaro Ishinomori, Kikaider, Kikaider 01, Inazuman, and Zubat appear on a cliffside by the Shocker lake and destroy General Shadow.
The Riders unite against the Shocker Greeed and manage to destroy it, but Great Leader attacks and gives both Showa and Heisei alike a hard time. Ankh decides it’s time to put Shocker’s own power against them and takes the Shocker Medal and a Medal he left inside Momotaros, creating an Imagin Core Medal (just go with it). Eiji puts the Medals in with the Taka Medal, creating a new combo: TaMaShii (or spirit). With entirely too little screentime, OOO TaMaShii is able to channel the fire from Great Leader’s attacks and concentrate it into a sphere and blast it right back at him in a hadoken with the energy from his own Medals. With Great Leader destroyed, King Dark (X) grows huge and attacks. But he is dwarfed by a monster rising from the mountain range behind him.
Now, to get the proper mental image of how enormous this is, King Dark is the size of most giant monsters and mechs from Super Sentai/Power Rangers and Ultraman. In comparison to the size of this thing, King Dark is as small as the ordinary-sized Riders are to him.
Clouds of ash swallow up the Riders, turning the daytime skies pitch black as lava explodes from the mountains and the Great Leader rises once more in his true form, Great Leader Colossus. He causes the earth to split open, devouring King Dark and the other generals (whose names I don’t know because I’ve only seen parts of the Heisei era series). With all hope seemingly lost, the lead Riders are saved by a promise from Akira Date, Kamen Rider Birth (OOO), and his fellow secondary Riders to always have their backs. And yes, damn near all of the secondary Riders from Agito through OOO are standing on the cliff—sure, there are some missing (I don’t see about two of the 12 other Ryuki Riders, for instance), but chances are one of your favorites is in there. Unless they’re only from a movie. That wasn’t Ryuki.
1 rallies the Riders together, and they all leap onto their bikes (whether they had one in Rider form or not or had to share like the Den-O duo), forming a 40 in the air, and plowing through Colossus in what is simultaneously the most corny and epic way to defeat a super-giant monster ever. The Riders all emerge from the exploding Colossus, but only OOO and Den-O/NEW Den-O touch down. 1 (at least, I think it’s 1) tasks Eiji and Kotaro with protecting the world until another day comes when all Kamen Riders must join forces once more, but they will watch over them. The Scouts and Hina make their way over, and mid-celebration, Momotaros admits he thinks they forgot something, only for Kotaro and Teddy to suddenly remember Naoki is still in the past. They’re about to run off to save him when the scientist who gave Eiji the OOO Driver earlier says that there’s no need. While Teddy wonders exactly how a complete stranger knows his name, Mitsuru recognizes him and runs up to hug him—his long-lost father. Mitsuru’s dad hugs his son back, revealing a scar on his hand that Kotaro immediately recognizes as being Naoki’s. Naoki confirms his identity and explains that after he and the Scouts were forced into hiding, he fell in love with Nokko and got married, working hard to get an education under Shocker’s command and to become one of the scientists charged with brainwashing the original Riders and sabotage it—which indicates they were captured or brainwashed a lot later than the rest of the movie implies, but whatever. Also, you can see everybody there, even the seasoned time travelers of Den-O trying to wrap their minds around this wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey. Owner and Naomi innocently remark that this time-trippin’ ride made Naoki a very important part of Kamen Rider history, as if they didn’t plan the whole thing from the start.
Ankh discovers that the Imagin and Shocker Medals are apparently only temporary, disintegrating into sand and blowing away—possibly indicating that per the rules of Den-O, the timeline is healing itself into the closest possible fix. Naoki is proud of how the new generation has done fulfilling his role in maintaining faith in the Kamen Riders, and he hopes that they’ll pass it along to future generations, and as part of the future generation, Kotaro says those are big shoes to fill. Eiji promises to continue fighting hard, and Naoki is pleased. DenLiner arrives to take Kotaro, Teddy, and Momotaros home, and Kotaro and Eiji shake on the promise of a new tomorrow when their timelines will cross again. Momotaros tries to offer a hand to Ankh, but that doesn’t go well, and DenLiner takes them away as Teddy tries to keep Momotaros from killing Ankh.
Kamen Rider, created in 1971 by Shotaro Ishinomori, was the story of Takeshi Hongo, a young genius who was captured by the massive criminal organization called Shocker and converted into a cyborg to become one of their warriors against justice. Rescued from his brainwashing, Hongo decided to fight for justice and dedicated himself to fighting against Shocker as Kamen Rider. When lead actor Hiroshi Fujioka was injured during a stunt for the show, a second Kamen Rider, photographer Hayato Ichimonji, was introduced so that Fujioka could take time off to recover. When he did, both Hongo and Ichimonji joined forces on-screen as Kamen Riders 1 and 2, the double Riders who gave Shocker hell.
Kamen Rider started off as a dark and gritty story, similar to Ishinomori’s earlier manga Skull Man, though to prevent cancellation, the tone was lightened up. Still, the series even today generally maintains a more mature tone than it younger sister series, Super Sentai—the adopted predecessors of which, Sentai series Himitsu Sentai Goranger and J.A.K.Q. Dangekitai, were also created by Ishinomori. Most seasons have a much smaller cast than Sentai teams (though there are notable exceptions), which can give it a chance to focus a little more on deeper character development. The hero was usually created by the evil organization, or at the very least, his powers were created by them, and he had to fight against them with their own technology. The franchise ran on TV continuously until 1981, and in 1984, a TV special called Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together! was created to celebrate the birth of the newest Rider, would-be Badan Empire agent ZX (this special was later rewritten into the plot of the 2001 manga Kamen Rider SPIRITS). In 1987, Kamen Rider Black premiered, changing up the usual formula of kidnapped men being converted into cyborgs (though Amazon already had a different kind of origin story) and told the story of a young man raised by a cult alongside his adoptive brother, who he was unable to save from becoming brainwashed into becoming the evil Shadow Moon. As the “Child of the Sun,” Black, Kotaro Minami (yeah, you’re going to find quite a few Kotaros and Shiros running around here) fought against this organization and tried to save his brother. The emotionally hard-hitting Black was followed up with a direct sequel, the more lighthearted Black RX, had Kotaro fighting against the Crisis Empire after his transformation device was broken and then resurrected in a new form. It was notable for introducing the concept of form changes for the Riders and for a very bad adaptation by Saban (of Power Rangers fame) that has forever resulted in English-speaking fans disavowing the term “Masked Rider” (the literal translation of the title) and even resulted in the Power Rangers themselves apparently retconning the show (which had crossed over with theirs back in ’95) in their time-travel season in 2001.
These series and special are known collectively as the Showa era, as they aired during the reign of Emperor Hirohito, whose posthumous name is Showa. The current era, with Emperor Akihito on the throne, is known as the Heisei era. The three movies that followed the Showa series, Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue, Kamen Rider ZO, and Kamen Rider J aired in the Heisei period, but due to the involvement of Ishinomori, English-speaking fans group them with the Showa era.
In 1998, Shotaro Ishinomori died of heart failure, and children all over Japan lost the creator who’d brought them such exciting adventures throughout the decades. He died leaving behind notes for two series: Kamen Rider Kuuga and a series that would eventually become Kamen Rider Hibiki. Kuuga was the first Kamen Rider work after Ishinomori’s death, but it was widely regarded as a worthy heir to the mantle. It essentially rebooted the franchise, avoiding references to the previous series and movies, though in some respects, it still felt like a Showa era Kamen Rider series. The next two in the lineup would create an entirely new style, establishing the Heisei Riders. Agito introduced the concept of multiple Riders fighting at one time, having the main Rider with mystical powers, another with biological powers, and the third with technological powers, honoring the three types of power in the franchise. Ryuki introduced the idea of enemy Riders, with its thirteen Kamen Riders fighting against one another for an ultimate power. It also created the first official female Kamen Rider, Femme (the first henshin heroine in the series was Tackle in Stronger, though she was not considered a Kamen Rider herself), and it created this superstition among fans that female Riders will always die. Notably, like Black RX, Ryuki was adapted in America with a changed plot, though its parent company, Adness, shied away from too much Power Rangers influence. This adaptation, Dragon Knight, had much better production than Saban’s Masked Rider, but it wasn’t particularly strong in ratings; it was dubbed back into Japanese to coincide with the Heisei 10th anniversary, where it proved to be much more popular than its source material.
With the exception of Agito, where the G3 powers were created in response to the events of Kuuga, the Heisei Kamen Riders all existed in a vacuum, with no indication that any of the Riders in either era existed before each of them.
In 2009, to celebrate the tenth Heisei Rider, Kamen Rider Decade was created as a bit of a crossover to homage all the Heisei Riders who came before him. Possibly due to the reluctance of Kuuga’s actor to return, Decade decided to use alternate versions of each of the Riders, with only a couple of the original actors returning to reprise their roles (notably Kotaro Minami as Black/Black RX and the entire cast of Den-O—in a sense). Decade implied that each of the Heisei series took place in a different alternate universe and that even though Decade was fighting within the worlds of alternate Riders, the Riders we knew and loved still existed in their own universes—implied by the existence of Wataru Kurenai of Kiva, who set Decade on his mission. Decade not only brought back the references to previous Riders, but it also created a new tradition: the Movie Wars. Beginning with Movie Wars 2010, starring Decade and W, a triple-feature would air: one movie on the previous season’s Rider, one on the new one, and then the two stories would be combined together in the third in a massive fight. In the case of Decade/W, Tsukasa Kadoya’s story came to an end in Final Chapter as he fought to stop the merging of the worlds while the other Riders fought against him, and Shotaro Hidari and Philip remembered the night they became partners in Begins Night as they fought against the apparently resurrected Kamen Rider Skull. Both Decade and W joined forces when their enemies came together in Movie Wars 2010, the final segment of the movie, focusing on both Riders and bringing a conclusion to their movies. The Movie Wars setup was clean enough to be recycled for W/OOO: Movie Wars Core, though it may be tweaked with in the upcoming OOO/Fourze: Movie Wars Megamax. Let’s Go Kamen Riders definitely takes a note from the Movie Wars series: much of the storyline revolves around Eiji and Kotaro not being around one another, giving each a chance to discover how the world has changed, and in different ways. The two finally come back together at the end when they have to fight Shocker with all of the other Riders.
2007’s Kamen Rider Den-O was the biggest tone shift of the series, being very much an adventure-comedy. Created by Yasuko Kobayashi, who had previously worked on the much bleaker Ryuki, it introduced the concept of some of the monsters being good guys. Ryotaro Nogami was a young man with absolutely terrible luck—like the universe looked at him one day and decided, “I don’t like this guy.” But despite being God’s plaything and a complete woobie sometimes, Ryotaro was very special: he was a singularity point, a being who could exist independently of the timeline and could not be affected by changes to it. As a singularity point, he was naturally able to resist possession by an Imagin, a wish-granting monster that would use its contract holder’s most precious memory to travel to the past to destroy the timeline, and these qualities made him perfect to become Kamen Rider Den-O. However, his weak spirit and body meant he didn’t have much in the way of power, so he formed contracts with four Imagin to help him: Momotaros, Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros, to give him four different fighting styles.
Due to its comedic nature and the antics of the Imagin, Den-O was wildly popular and remains, as the time of this review, the most popular of the franchise. But before they knew just how popular it was going to be, the story was slated to end with Farewell, Kamen Rider Den-O: Final Countdown, a movie where Ryotaro had been taken by the enemy and was forced to fight against his friends, so his grandson from the future, Kotaro Nogami, was called in to help. Kotaro, as NEW Den-O Strike Form, was strong but arrogant, bearing a chip on his shoulder against his grandfather for the constant comparisons his parents had made to him. According to supplemental info provided with the movie, this is the reason for Teddy’s name: Kotaro had originally named him Neotaros, in honor of his grandfather’s Imagin partners (which is why he also looks similar to Momotaros), but disillusionment led to him changing his partner’s name to Teddy. Why Teddy, we’ll never know. Seeing that Ryotaro was physically and apparently emotionally weak, he rubbed his own strength into the Imagin’s faces, especially with them unable to transform without Ryotaro (he had the only Rider Pass to activate the belt at the time). But being defeated by Kamen Rider Yuuki made him realize his own weakness, and Momotaros spoke to him about how his determination was his greatest strength and Ryotaro’s, giving him a new appreciation for his grandfather and the Imagin. When Ryotaro was able to break free of the evil Imagin’s control, Kotaro proudly joined his grandfather and Momotaros to take down the enemy.
Kotaro later appeared in two of the four movies following Final Countdown, movies created during Decade that were dubbed the Cho Den-O series. While he mostly served as a hostage throughout Onigashima Battleship, Cho Den-O Episode Blue: The Dispatched Imagin is NEWtral continued his character arc. Owner revealed that the contract between Kotaro and Teddy was really only supposed to last until they saved Ryotaro in Final Countdown, so by default, Teddy would form a contract with Owner. Though he fought with Urataros, Kintaros, and Ryutaros (Momotaros was injured at the time), Kotaro discovered that his own natural defenses as a singularity point prevented them from possessing him in Rider form, causing them to become a weapon the way Teddy had. But Teddy was the only one he was really synched with, and he couldn’t fight with his grandfather’s Imagin effectively. Both Kotaro and Teddy realized just how much they depended on one another, with Teddy suppressing his own desire to stay with his partner in favor of his obligation, and Teddy broke his contract to return to Kotaro.
Fittingly, Kotaro is much more mature in Let’s Go than he was in his previous appearances. He’s slightly older and significantly wiser, humble before the original Riders and relatively friendly but slightly guarded toward Eiji. Having apparently taken on the role of Den-O permanently, he faces his first real failure when he can’t prevent the Riders from being defeated in the past. And I think this is why it had to be Kotaro instead of Ryotaro as Den-O’s representative here. True, during Decade and the connected Cho Den-O series, Ryotaro was de-aged to his preteen years, but he’s still got all of his experience as a teen/young adult. Final Countdown was his chance to prove that he was Den-O, not the Imagin. He came out of the series and especially that movie a much stronger character, so it seems unlikely he would have made that mistake of losing a Cell Medal in the past just once, let alone twice. Kotaro, on the other hand, is still new as a Kamen Rider. It’s implied in Episode Blue that he doesn’t see a lot of action, that his appearances in the movies are his missions and he mostly just hangs out in the future with Teddy. He’s called on when he’s needed, and Ryotaro was still able to handle things. Sure, he may have appeared over the course of three years, but he’s really only been on three missions before this. He’s just as much of a rookie as Eiji.
Kotaro instead seems to be becoming more and more like his grandfather, most notably when he’s in 1971. The way Dori Sakurada breathlessly pleads with Nokko sounds almost exactly like Takeru Satoh as Ryotaro. While he’s still got a trace of his cockiness—for example, still doing a countdown with Teddy to how long it’ll take for them to defeat the Imagin—it’s tempered by his experiences. Every time he’s been called in, it’s because something terrible has happened: his grandfather was kidnapped and possessed by a very powerful evil Imagin, his grandfather was de-aged and his Imagin are missing throughout time and Decade is here doing something, his grandfather and Momotaros are injured and now Teddy has to leave him. He doesn’t get the easy stuff, so it’s forced him to reach the state of mind that Ryotaro had reached by Final Countdown at a relatively faster pace for his appearances, metered out by the possible passage of time (being from the future, we don’t know exactly how much time has passed for him). And it probably shows best with his solemn acceptance at the news of Teddy’s death. It’s not the first time he’s been through this. Teddy was badly injured in Final Countdown and apparently died in Episode Blue. It’s not easy for Kotaro to go through, but he’s been prepared for it, and both he and Teddy are tough enough that they want to try to carry on without one another (though Episode Blue proved just how hard it is for them). In terms of his character development, Let’s Go Kamen Riders is pretty much a sequel to Episode Blue: we have the bond between Kotaro and Teddy surpassing death once more, and we especially have Kotaro wiser and more subdued from his experiences. Furthermore, Kotaro is able to successfully synch with Momotaros, which is appropriate given how respectful their bond is in Final Countdown and Episode Blue, with Momotaros treating him with a similar protectiveness that he does to Ryotaro, though it’s almost paternal, given that he knows this is Ryotaro’s future grandkid. Also, Episode Blue drops a line about Teddy being a “special” Imagin, which may have allowed him to survive breaking his contract with Owner and re-form his contract with Kotaro. This may also explain why Teddy comes back to life once DenLiner returns. He’s special.
Kamen Rider OOO was also written by Yasuko Kobayashi, and in a way, it’s kind of like a less insane version of Den-O. Again, the monster of the week is created in response to a person’s desires and tries to fulfill them according to their own interpretation of the desire (i.e.: whatever causes the most destruction). The ones pulling the strings however, are the Greeed, monsters created from animal-themed medallions called Core Medals, their bodies comprised of Cell Medals. All it takes is one Cell Medal and one human desire to create a Yummy. But one of the Greeed, Ankh, who was unable to regenerate as anything other than an arm, betrayed his kind for his own personal gain and teamed up with Eiji Hino with the intent of making him the new Kamen Rider OOO, the being that had sealed the Greeed eight-hundred years ago, to destroy the Yummys and collect their Cell Medals, hopefully finding Ankh’s own missing Core Medals.
This story takes place right about in the middle of OOO, so to avoid giving too many spoilers, I’ll say this about Eiji: He’s a nice guy, but really messed up. We learn fairly early on in the series that he traveled the world, but he was caught up in a civil war and was unable to save a little girl he’d befriended during the attack, traumatizing him and causing him to return to Japan. He’s very friendly and nice, but there are times when you can see the scars of his experience in the war, and that typically shows up when it comes to battle, or when kids are in danger. He takes up the role of OOO because he wants to be able to save everyone he possibly can, and this stubborn desire tempers Ankh’s….well, assholishness.
Just like it helps a lot to see Kotaro’s movies to understand his characterization, it helps to see at least some of OOO to understand Eiji. He starts off excited, this whole thing seeming like a great adventure. But the moment he realizes just what’s going on, he’s desperate to try to protect the kids from harm. Just knowing that little bit of his past, the very first flashback we see early in the series, you know that there’s a lot more going on than him just wanting to protect the innocent. In a way, he’s making up for his failure to protect one child by fighting against everything to protect all of these children. Like Kotaro, he is facing his greatest failure ever: had he and Ankh never stowed away on DenLiner, had he kept a better handle on Ankh, the next forty years would never have become a dystopia ruled by Shocker.
But like how Kotaro takes center stage in the past, trying and failing to protect the original Riders and Naoki, Eiji is the one through whose eyes we can see the Shocker-controlled present. Having become a singularity point by proxy, he remembers the way things are supposed to be, and he’s horrified to realize just what’s going on. And just like he tempers Ankh’s impulses, he really acts as a conscience for the kids, especially Mitsuru. The kids are tough, hardened by oppression. They have painful and potentially lethal makeshift weapons, such as electrified poles, that they threaten the OOO crew with. Eiji manages to calm them down and try to talk reason into them. And when Mitsuru is ready to abandon one of his friends to Shocker, Eiji is the one to convince him never to back down, to do all he can, no matter how little it is, to try to win. Which sums up Eiji in a nutshell: he knows he’s only doing a tiny bit, fighting as OOO against the Greeed. He knows that he can’t possibly save the whole world. But he knows that little bit is doing a lot of good, and it takes a little bit from many, many people to make a difference throughout the world: the essence of the generations of Kamen Riders and other heroes fighting to protect the world, each saving a little bit at a time. And so, it is Eiji who inspires Mitsuru and Naoki to do all they can to help the Riders and stop Shocker, changing the course of history.
In the middle of all the spectacle, it’s easy to miss these little production aspects, but there’s one that I felt needed to be brought up: The director did absolutely everything possible to make the 1971 scenes look like they belonged in an episode of the original Kamen Rider. The original music played as the double Riders charged into battle. Their henshin sound effect played when they arrived and when they, NEW Den-O, OOO, and all the rest leapt on to their bikes to defeat Colossus. And the scenes shot in the past had the colors all washed out to match footage of the original series. Many of the Heisei actors were too young to have seen the original series: Most of the lead actors even from Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, and 555 were born in the late ‘70s to early ‘80s. I’m willing to bet that most of the people watching the fansubs probably aren’t much older. So it’s a bit of shared nostalgia, giving even these newbies a chance to feel like they’re sitting in front of the TV watching an episode of the original. So what if the Shocker monster costumes look ridiculously rubber? That they’re not as impressive as Orphenochs or Fangires when you finally get to see them all side-by-side? Shocker and the original Riders are treated with the utmost respect the way their fans remembered them. It’s not meant to be a case of one era one-upping the other. It’s two lead Riders for the Showa era, two for the Heisei era. Shocker brought all of the villains together, winning thanks to a Heisei villain concept. No matter how cheesy things can look, it’s still a fun ride, just the way you’re supposed to see it when you’re a kid—no matter what era you lived through and what season you watched. Everyone gets their time to shine, getting all the respect they should.
Except maybe Ankh and Momotaros. And Shingo Izumi’s body. Because half-dead people are funny.
Finally, we come to what might be the most controversial part of this whole movie: the end theme song. In honor of the 40th anniversary of Kamen Rider as celebrated in this film, Avex put together a girl group called Kamen Rider Girls, and they performed a remix of the original Kamen Rider theme, “Let’s Go Rider Kick! 2011.” I’ve heard a lot of complaints about it, but to be perfectly honest? I don’t mind it. Sure, it’s annoying in that it’s ridiculously catchy and will not leave your head from the moment you hear it, but that’s a trait of all pop songs. Maybe it’s because I didn’t grow up with Kamen Rider and I don’t have an emotional connection to the original “Let’s Go Rider Kick.” Maybe I’d feel differently if they remixed a song I do love a lot, like “Journey through the Decade” or “Alive A life.” But I don’t find this nearly as bad as people claim. And in any case, it’s all Kamen Rider, Den-O, and OOO background music throughout the movie anyway. If you don’t like this song, it’s only in the credits.
OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let’s Go Kamen Riders was written by Shoji Yonemura and directed by Osamu Kaneda. As the cast is huge, I’m going to have to just link to the Wikipedia page. It’s actually easier to list who was not in it: the actors for X through Kabuto, Kiva, and Decade did not return, nor of course, either of Ryotaro’s actors, and barring Date-Birth, none of the secondaries returned.