A Brief History of Time Travel

I'll tell you this for starters: There are spoilers ahead for the entire Kamen Rider Den-O series. And maybe some other Kamen Rider series too. But mostly Den-O. Because this is the big end-of-the-series Kamen Rider Den-O review after all! Or maybe it's more of a reflection. Or a recollection. Something like that. Anyway, if you haven't seen the end of the series (or the movie) yet, you might want to wait on reading this until you have. But make sure you read it at some point! Yuuto would want you to.

The Highs & Lows of Kamen Rider Kabuto Den-O

After 49 episodes of time-travelling mayhem, Kamen Rider Den-O finally came to an end yesterday. Anticipation for the climax (I promise, that'll be the only time I do that) ran high, and reactions to the finale were generally positive. One thing a lot of people seemed to have in common: they were sad to finally be parting ways with the Den-Liner and its occupants.

When Kamen Rider Kabuto came to a close early last year, I got the sense that a lot of people were either more than ready to move on or already adamant that whatever came next just couldn't be as good or engaging as Kabuto had been. As the first pictures of Den-O had started to materialize, reactions were mixed as always. Some dug the diverse, unique designs, and others wondered why they don't just get on with it and start making a new Metal Hero series. More details surfaced, including a train theme, the main hero being possessed by something called Momotaros, and drawing upon fairy tales and fables for inspiration.

When Kabuto's finale hit, reactions were all over the map, and then Den-O started up, and hey, look— they were still all over the map. Because after the grim, self-important (some would say pretentiously so) Kabuto, which did still have more than its share of humor, we had a show which was pretty much the most overtly comedic Rider series yet. An ineffective central protagonist, comedic villains (and non-villains), wacky antics, you name it. I think a lot of people didn't know what to make of the series at first, but a lot did, and they loved it. (Some people loved it long before it even started, but that's nothing new. Look at Kiva!)

But all throughout the show, Den-O managed to hold onto a considerable number of fans, both old and new to the Rider series. And its ending yesterday morning was met with a mix of joy and sadness. On the one hand, the adventure finally came to a close! On the other, well ...the adventure finally came to a close. I could go on and on about what other people thought about Den-O, but let's be serious, you don't really care about that. You do, however, care about what I have to say. Or at least you're interested to hear what I have to say. Or something like that. I don't know, I'm just making this up as I go. But you're going to hear what I think, so if that's what you came for, you're in luck!

Whereas Kabuto was a show which had a lot riding on it (being the 35th Anniversary and all), Den-O had no such burden. Really, the only thing it had to deal with was the fact that it was coming right after Kabuto, which depending on your mileage either made it a breath of fresh air, a crushing disappointment, or another show for another year that hopefully turned out to be halfway decent. Typically, the new, yearly, ongoing series fall into the latter group for me.

(Note: if you just want to get to the freaking' Den-O analysis already, skip the next paragraph because it's basically just a self-congratulatory rant.)

Maybe it's because I'm a jaded old bastard (I should mention here that I am not *that* old nor an actual bastard, I will admit to being pretty jaded about some things), but for me Kamen Rider hit its absolute high point right at the start, and everything since has been more or less riding that wave. I don't mean that it's all been downhill since then; I do mean that when I watch another Rider show, I watch it with an open mind and a hope that it'll be able to achieve the kind of greatness set by the original series. And you know what, a lot of the time, it does. Maybe not enough to usurp the title as Favorite Show In The History Of Forever Period #1 or something, but does it provide an entertaining 25 minutes every week or so? And get added to the list of things I'll watch again someday and try and force others to watch to partake of their greatness? You betcha.

So basically, as with Kabuto, I went into Den-O hoping for another good show. My days of being shocked at radical designs, plot lines and characters went out around 2002 (in which, for a period, I seriously thought I was one of about 5 people who actually liked Kamen Rider Ryuki. How times have changed.) So as I usually say, nothing shocks me anymore. With that logic in mind, how do I think Kamen Rider Den-O was overall?

I think Kamen Rider Den-O was great overall. I'm not sure I'd say it cracked my top 5 or anything, but out of all the series and especially out of all the Heisei-era series, it's a real winner. Obviously, it's not without its faults, and while there were a few, in a nice change of pace, a lot of things actually turned around by the end of the series, as I'll elaborate below.

What Worked:

Deneb: When I reviewed Kabuto last year, I said of Jiiya: "More Riders need charming old butler sidekicks!" Apparently, somebody at Toei agreed with me. Hands-down, Deneb was my favorite character in the series. You've probably read that sentence a lot, from me and from others. And why not? He was the ultimate buddy; Yuuto's very own sidekick / cook / manservant / protector / punching bag / human shield / partner-in-crime / power-up / surrogate-crazy uncle / ally & most importantly, his best friend. He was the ultimate nice guy, always ready with free candy or words of encouragement (and who doesn't like those?) He was cautious and worrisome, but when the going got tough he wasn't cowardly; Deneb got a piece of the action more times than I can count. He pulled through for Yuuto (and everybody, really) and made a couple classic saves. And he had guns in his hands.

In a lot of ways he was the glue that held together the Den-O gang & Zeronos, and deservedly played an important role in the finale. And he lived! Thank goodness for that. And perhaps most significantly, in a show where almost every major character seemed to have a comedic moment (if not a wholly comedic tone overall), Deneb definitely got some of the best laughs in the show. Be it his honest, open-faced disposition or wacky antics like dressing up in the most glaringly obvious disguises and still walking around in public, Deneb was truly one of the funniest characters in Kamen Rider yet. And one of the best.

The four main Imagin: I put Deneb separately because I like him the most, but you know, I loved the others as well. First of all, how much of a great idea were these guys? There's already an indication that Kiva will attempt something similar, at least after a fashion. Giving the hero a bunch of oddballs with clashing personalities to hang out with is pretty much a brilliant idea from a storytelling perspective. And with the Imagin, it worked to the point that at times, it almost felt like their show. Literally, these guys took on a life beyond the series itself: Imagin-specific merchandise (pens, notebooks, sticks, key chains, you name it) geared towards a different audience than usual (high school girls and um... me.) They got individualized T-Shirts (which I bought all of. The kids love 'em.) They got to sing their own version of the theme song! Toei realized that they struck gold with this bunch, and they made sure to give them a big piece of the pie every week. It probably didn't hurt that they were all great, well-rounded characters in their own right.

Ryuutaros took a while to grow on me. Admittedly, at first, he was amusing, annoying, and a tad disappointing (come on, everybody knows the story of how I wanted him to be a crackhead as opposed to a hyperactive dancer.) Then for a while he was just getting irritating, being a loose cannon which nobody seemed to like. He picked fights in all the wrong places, he led to one of the worst cliffhangers in the series (episode #15's), and while the dancing scenes were inspired, he just seemed to rock the boat (well, the train) a little too much. Thankfully, he mellowed out as the show went on. He got some much-needed development, and some actually rather moving scenes. Like Yuuto, he grew up in a sense. While he he ended up still being a crazy little guy on a permanent sugar high, he was at least one that I could feel for. And once he stopped being as much of a pain in the others' butts and started trying to get along with them (more or less), he really felt like one of the gang and not that odd man out who you just wish would leave the rest of your crew alone.

Kintaros I loved from day one, but I'm basically predisposed to love anybody in Kamen Rider with a Kansai accent, so there's that. Also, a big tough guy who means well but often breaks things unintentionally is pretty appealing. And while he did sort of fade into the back after a while (as they all sort of did, apart from Momotaros & Deneb), early on Kintaros had some truly classic moments, smashing through walls and throwing people hella far. And his oft-quoted catchphrase ranks as my favorite in the show, especially when he changes it around ("You ran away because of my strength!") He did spend a big chunk of the series sleeping, but when he was up and about, he was always fun to watch. And that parting in #47... yeah, we all know he comes back now (I knew at the time because of the last-3-episode preview the week before!), but all the same it was still a pretty spectacular way to go, and had he really died, it probably only could have been even more spectacular... although I'm glad he didn't die! Especially not at the hands of revived monsters, which is a fate worse than death, and I'm glad it's never happened befo... oh, right.

Urataros seemed to get the short end of the stick later on (apart from his show-stopping performance in #48), but early on, he was the man's man, baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay-be. I almost wonder if Toei intentionally had to tone down his antics or something, because jeez— I will never be able to watch #7 again without thinking that... er, things happened. Anyway, he provided a nice foil for Momotaros and eventually the others, and it was kind of a bummer that he seemed to just sort of be in the background for a big chunk later on. Although, as I said, so were Kintaros & Ryuutaros, so I guess it's no surprise. Overall though, Urataros was pretty sweet.

And then there's Momotaros. Wow. I don't think there's much that can be said about him which hasn't already been said by somebody else, and probably better, but he was an amazing character. Yes, I know, he was basically a hotheaded, impulsive, overconfident, cocky ball of fire, but how could you not like him? While some people would say that Ryôtarô is the antithesis of Tendô, I'd say that a more accurate comparison is that Momotaros is the antithesis of Ryôtarô. Because he was everything our main man wasn't, which was why their friendship was such a great driving force of the series. Yes, it was turbulent, and for a while it didn't even seem like a friendship. But by the end, man oh man. The opening moments of the last episode pretty much shows just how far they'd come together, how much they'd bonded after all they'd been through together. Ryôtarô was as much a friend of Momotaros as he was with Yuuto, or any of the others. And quite right too.

I can't talk about the Imagin without mentioning the amazingly talented people that brought them to life; the guys behind the masks and the guys doing the voices. Each one felt unique and diverse enough from the others, and that's not even taking into account their designs (which were all great, although Momotaros ranks as my favorite design-wise.) It all came together to create four very unforgettable characters, and while I might think they started to use the "Imagin are disappearing" plot device a lot towards the end, it worked every time because people, I did not want to see these guys just fade away forever at the end. And I'm glad they didn't!

Sakurai Yuuto: As in the one who turned into Zeronos. Er, and hung out with Deneb. You know. The young one. I'll admit that when it was announced that Nakamurua Yuuichi was being cast in the role, I was a bit ambivalent. Hibiki's Kiriya wasn't exactly the worst character ever, but he wasn't one I'd say I particularly liked. While most of the time it takes a good actor to make a character you can genuinely loathe, Kiriya was more of the type who was just irritating, and it didn't seem as if Nakamura really had to act his socks off or anything to get the job done.

So I was basically expecting more of the same, because after all, "Rival Rider" usually means either "Misunderstandings will occur", "He's a Jerkface", or "He's Evil!" Well, Kamen Rider Den-O, congratulations; you completely defied my expectations on this one. Yes, Yuuto was initially incredibly arrogant, rude, and there was obligatory Rider-on-Rider violence (although to be far, Ryuutaros started it.) But hey, what's this? Over the course of the series, he changed. He grew up. He stopped thinking just of himself, and started to care about the other Rider in the show. And as we learned more about him, we began to understand why he did what he did.

And while he didn't lose his edge, he did soften and become a totally likeable character, and well before the finale, which worked out wonderfully. Because for what seems like the first time in a long time (well okay, Hibiki) we had two Riders who got along wonderfully; who weren't having fights with each other every couple of episodes. While they might not have always seen eye to eye, they did by the end, and really, that's exactly the kind of Rider/Rider relations I like to see. And, as with Deneb, he survived! Okay, I'll get back to that point later...

Ryôtarô: When the show started, I don't think I knew what to make of Ryôtarô. He was... well, different. Even Shinji, who was like the class clown/underachiever of Kamen Rider human aliases, seemed more cut out to be a hero. Ryôtarô was weak, spineless, and shivered like Scooby Doo at the slightest provocation. He meant well, and his heart was in the right place, but you got the sense that a gentle spring breeze would have been enough to take him down. And he had the worst luck in the world. Fortunately, all this changed. And quickly. No, Ryôtarô didn't turn into an action hero overnight or anything, and by the end of the series he'd still probably have trouble breathing if say, Hibiki came up and slapped him on the back, but otherwise, whoa.

What a change. The funny thing is, Ryôtarô's personality itself didn't actually change that much. He got a bit braver, a bit more confident in himself, a bit more open with others, a bit less timid, and a bit more self-assertive. But all those bits added up to something great. I mean compare the scene in episode #4 or so where he fears jumping off of a building even though it means letting an Imagin get away with a victim to the one in the last episode where, under his own power and with complete determination, he charges into Kai and goes over the edge of the building with him. See what I mean? If the events of the series did any one thing for Ryôtarô, it was that they made him start believing in himself. Well okay, they did one other thing: they showed him that he has friends who believe in him too, and sometimes, those are all you need.

Mostly good designs: The original Den-O Forms grew on me quickly, and the rotating armor is especially inspired. I liked both the Zeronos forms as well. Wing Form was... well, it didn't show up much, did it? But it looked good when it did. As for the upgrades, Climax Form looked like a mess in the pictures, but after seeing it in the show (and buying the toys!) it actually looks pretty neat, in a clunktastic G3-X/Blade King Form sort of way. Liner Form seemed odd in how removed it was from the others, but it's pretty standard fare when it comes to ultimate/final forms.

Zero Form felt like a bit of a last-minute addition, but it had a nice story to go along with it, and it was nice that Zeronos got something else to add to his arsenal. And as for the Imagin, while I have some issues with characterization (more on that later) they looked really neat, but Nirasawa Yasushi's stuff is pretty much awesome across the board so that was a given. The villain recycling was a little more obvious this year (never more so than with the Zectroopers!) but it didn't hurt or anything. As for the trains and stuff... they looked okay I guess, but became so inconsequential after a while that I forgot about most of them.

Music: The upbeat jazzy soundtrack fit with the overall lighter feel of the series, and you know the CM bumper music after the opening credits? I really, really, really like it. As for the theme songs: "Climax Jump" took a while, but after a few weeks I bought it completely. I actually kind of like the Liner Form version even more, but then again, keep in mind that this is a man who will admit without shame to liking Amano's song "rebirth" from good ol' 2004. And then there's the multitudes of "Double Actions", almost too many to count. I think it was a clever idea and a nice way to get in "character songs" that actually worked out well, and I actually wish we had gotten a few more; a "Hana Form" and "Owner Form" were much-missed. I can live without "Ozaki & Miura Form" though.

Naomi: Due to the unexpected Hana-related issues that cropped up later in the series, it really fell to good 'ol Mana-chan to pick up the slack. And despite not getting a costume change (as opposed to Hana's outfit-for-every-location style) and basically hanging around on the same set for most of the series, I'd say she did well. And hey, her name was third in the credits after that! Now bring back so more previous Rider Girls to play side characters, Toei! It tends to work.

The Movie: Can I just say that the decision to not only tie in the movie with the TV series but also devote several episodes to building up the story (and showing the aftermath) was a stroke of genius? Considering the time-travelling premise, I was fully prepared for another alternate universe or parallel timeline ending or something, but no; they actually went out of their way to make the movie matter this time. While that might not be ideal if you don't get to see the movie until about the point the series ends (or after it's over), I think they handled it well enough so that you could not see the movie and not be totally lost at to what was going on.

Also, it helped that the movie wasn't a big life-changing experience which you had to see to understand the core of the entire show itself. It was just a big runaround madcap adventure with lots of fighting and explosions and plenty of fan-friendly moments. And to tell you the truth, that's really all I want from the movies. I liked Ore Tanjô! enough that I seriously think my top 5 movies list is in need of a shake-up. And you know, Kobayashi wrote this one (as opposed to Inoue), so I don't care if she hasn't seen enough Kamen Rider or whatever: lock her in a room with a pile of Kamen Rider DVDs and tell her to write the sequel to THE NEXT. I bet it'll be incredible and trump whatever Inoue has planned (I'm betting on a buddy comedy theme, or a musical.)

The Hyper Battle Video: Being in Japan at the point where Billy Blanks suddenly became the hottest thing since like, forever, I totally got the joke behind this one. And it wasn't a bad little HBV either.

Hana: Unfortunately, my memories of Hana will forever be marred by Hanagate™, so I'll just say I enjoyed it while it lasted, and even though Kohana was around for far longer than they could handle (and it shows), her actress did a pretty amazing job considering the shoes she had to fill.

Sieg: Hey, I can't forget Sieg! Well, in spite of the fact that the show did for a while. What little of him we did see was nice though, and everything I said about the other main Imagin applies here. And it was great that he was in the last episode, and got a lot more to do than Daisuke did in the Kabuto finale! And he drinks Oronamin C in the movie. Awwwww, yeah.

Everybody lives!: I've mentioned this one a lot, but let me reiterate; considering Kobayashi's last efforts for Rider had ended with pretty much everybody dying (and coming back, but you know how it works), it was amazing that she managed to get through the whole series with only minor main character casualties (I know, oxymoron.) We had some nice fake-outs, and we did have at least two major deaths (one of which is pretty vague and can be read several ways) but the nice thing is they weren't people we really cared about, unless you liked Kai.

This is something I had hoped they would try last year, but I guess that was pretty much wishing for the impossible. But Den-O pulled it off, and it couldn't have happened to a better show. Because really, this is the one where I wanted to see everybody make it to the end. And they did.

The Train fighting: The biggest surprise of the series, possibly. I was expecting these to be pretty bad. And they were pretty good. In fact, I kind of missed them when they went away. And now I wonder why we had them at all when they were such a minor part of the whole deal. What exactly was up with the GiganDeaths anyway? Who knows? But like so many other gimmicks (cards, Cast-Off, death by music, etc.) they worked out way better than I expected.

It worked out a few bumps along the way: Early on, I probably would have told you I didn't much like Owner, Airi, Ozaki & Miura. But given time, they had turn-arounds, and I don't think I can say they were really faults now that it's all said and done. Owner bugged me at first with his seeming disregard for everything that wasn't food, his endless obsession with chahan, and his poor man's Kagami Riku routine. But you know, after a while, I got used to it. And then the movie happened, where Owner isn't just important, he literally saves the day (in a moment which referenced one of Tendô's most outrageous stunts, believe it or not.) And while he didn't exactly add much to the end of the show (he basically turned in Hiyori, spending the last few episodes playing with food while everyone else was out beating the crap out of each other), I'll admit that his quirkiness had its place in he greater scheme of things. And his actor? Could seriously break me (and probably everybody else reading this right now) in half!

Airi on the other hand, turned out to be incredibly important, and thank God. The "stupid Airi" routine really wore out its welcome after a while, but fortunately they gave us a good reason for it, and when Airi did get serious, we saw a side of her that I was honestly not expecting, so there was another turn around. Ozaki & Miura... uh, well, they never went anywhere really. But I don't dislike them, so that's good. So in other words, a couple characters who basically felt like throwaways in an otherwise strong cast got some depth (mostly) after a while, and they came out all the better for it.

Gaoh: Hey, isn't it nice to have an evil Rider who's basically just a total bastard? No gray areas, no childhood trauma or misunderstood motivation or anything like that. Gaoh is just plain evil; he's everything Den-O isn't, and that made him the ideal bad Rider for the movie. And I liked how he was always eating something.

Less is more: After the overload of Riders in 2006, we had just two this time, with one in the movie (and I guess you can count the "other" Zeronos if you must.) Sure, the multiple forms made it seem like multiple Riders, but at the end of the day it really was two characters who just happened to have other characters use their bodies from time to time. Er, right... Anyway, I used to say that I'd take a ton of Riders over a ton of forms, but I think Den-O had made me reconsider that view (although I'd still like a show with just one or two Riders with maybe one upgrade for each... like that'll ever happen though!)

What Didn't Quite Work:

The Mishandling of Hana: Okay, I know this one was kind of beyond their control, but hear me out. While it wasn't this big crushing blow or anything, and I wouldn't have minded it if it were temporary, the fact that it never really gets resolved makes it just feel like a dirty spot on the otherwise clean rug. I think that, had they known they wouldn't be able to get Hana's original actress back, they might have plotted it out a bit differently. As it is, the whole event feels so removed from what had gone on before. It's not quite as bad as just recasting Hana and not explaining it at all, but it does look every bit as desperate as it feels. Yes, they had a pretty good cover story, what with Hana's history being rewritten and all. But still... I think I'd be able to overlook the whole thing if not for the fact that Hana was important to the story, critically so at the end. And considering that, as Kohana, she was sidelined for so much of it. This ties into my other major gripe:

What's My Motivation?: I really want to like the evil Imagin, I really do. But has there ever been a Rider villain group as confused about their mission as these guys? The idea that they want to go back to the past to destroy the future is essentially sound, but once Kai shows up and we learn their true motives, things start getting confusing. First they're after Sakurai (the older one) to stop his involvement in undoing their future. They eventually figure out that seeing as how Zeronos is the younger version of that dude, they can make him not exist by killing his younger self. So they go after the younger Sakurai, but then it turns out neither Sakurai is as important as they originally thought, so suddenly they're after Airi. Somewhere along the line Kai seems to develop a hate-on for Ryôtarô too, so he's on the list. Then, in a last-minute twist, Kohana is the real target, despite the fact that Kai & company weren't aware of this fact earlier when they had her in their grasp. Yet obviously they had to know what they were going after in the first place to go back and get it, right? Right? I think the scene that sums this whole problem up is the one in #18 where the Wolf Imagin finally gets back to the past... and realizes he has no idea what to do next. Top of the class guys. Top of the class.

And that's actually it. Viewing the series again before the finale really helped, and a lot of the things which stuck out as odd the first time through actually didn't bother me or made more sense. There's probably a few other things I'd say weren't spectacular (Kai was a bit of a let-down as a villain; I'm not sure why exactly they felt the King-Liner was needed, episode #15's cliffhanger, etc.) but they don't really detract from the overall show that much. At least there were no Hoppers to mismanage this time.

And now we come to the finale. I think this thing is getting close to 5,000 words so I'll make this brief and paraphrase myself from elsewhere. If you were expecting answers to every question and an explanation of every mystery, you were probably disappointed. If you wanted a couple good twists and revelations with virtually every major character getting a moment to shine (plus a veritable list of the catchphrases this show coined), it was a pretty good ending. There's plenty left unanswered, but I think the tone of the show allowed it to get away with it. That said, it was a pretty finite ending. I think I'd have to say that it was one of the best endings of the Heisei era, and a pretty decent ending overall.

And that's basically that. Hopefully all that rambling made some sense. After writing all that, I'm now not going to even talk about Den-O for another month.

Coming Tomorrow: I talk about Den-O!

"From the moment I get started, it's the Climax!"

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