Well it's time for the first two episodes written by Yasuko Kobayashi who I believe is overrated because of Gingaman, Timeranger (her Magnum Opus IMHO), Shinkenger (which gets tons of praise) and ToQGer (which I think was the lowest point in her career BUT it won the Railroad Day award during its airing). So, how did Yasuko Kobayashi fare in her first two episodes for Decade? Granted, she's the head writer of Kamen Rider Den-O (and maybe she should've been Ryuki arc's head writer and maybe, the A.R. Ryuki characters would have had more personality than Sho Aikawa can offer) so I'd like to give my blunt opinion on the merits and demerits.
So what happened to Ryotaro Nogami? He has been de-aged due to some timeline error or did I miss something? Regardless, Takeru Sato didn't reprise his role for a reason. Busy schedule? Too busy getting swordsmanship lessons? What's more interesting is that in the Kamen Rider OOO movie where Shocker took over the world -- a new character named Kotaro Nogami shows up and he's the grandson of Ryotaro! But let's focus on Kobayashi and how she fared in writing two episodes and a movie. Granted, I'm not a big Den-O fan. I still think Timeranger is better than Den-O though the latter did something right -- by giving us more time-traveling scenarios than Timeranger and Time Force ever could! Remember how Den-O would travel back in time to right a wrong?
The Den-O arc starts with some issues such as the good Imagins losing their bodies and trying to correct the timeline. I always found Momotaros possessing A.R. Yuusuke's body to be funny. Personally, I FREAKING HATE A.R. Yuusuke -- he's a disgrace to Yuusuke Godai the one true Kuuga! Momotaros possessing A.R. Yuusuke gave that bland wimpy character more personality. Like WTF I have nothing against wimpy looking heroes but A.R. Yuusuke just lacks the personality of mainstream Yuusuke!
The two episodes seemed like a wrap-up. They would head to the past in an hour-long feature film. Most of the film is dedicated to de-aged Ryotaro and his past. He's a Tokyo boy and hates the countryside. The film itself is entertaining for actually trying to develop the de-aged Ryotaro and get him to embrace the countryside. We also get to have some nice throwback to Japanese popular culture and some nice comedy. Though as said Daiki does arrive for a short while to ruin everything.
So I wonder what would Den-O be if Decade didn't come into its timeline? Is this the mainline Den-O or an alternate Den-O? Granted, a lot of series by Toei are usually self-contained so maybe it's an alternate universe as well. But it's nice to see some of Den-O's cast make their appearance in contrast to the previous other Kamen Rider episodes.
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