No Fear, No Pain

Another week, another Decade. Here we (finally) go.

Final Form Ride: Spoiler Warning!



Kamen Rider Decade Episode 3: "Transcendence"
Written by Aikawa Shô
Directed by Tasaki Ryuta

Love the title. It's very, very Kuuga-esque. Next episode looks like we're getting a Kiva-style title. I don't recall the others really having a unique title system like those two (Hibiki sorta does, but more so in the numbering itself.) But if they want to uphold this tradition, then a couple of the episodes shouldn't have an onscreen title at all, and just a number! You have to then go online to see what it's called (and for some, the website episode titles will be different than the working scenario titles.) I don't think they're going that far though.

I know it's still far too early to say anything for certain. It could all go down hill next week, or the week after that. Or even right at the end, when it needs to be at its absolute best. Maybe, maybe not. Whatever the case may be, I'll say it now: if Decade keeps it up, it might become one of my new favorite Rider series. For real.

The previous two episodes have been fantastic, and this one continues the trend. If I have anything to gripe about, I'll get it out of the way here: I do wish they used some old Kuuga music, or at least some of the famous motifs in a new arrangement. It would have made things even better than they were. Though considering how good they were, that might have dialed it from "totally kickass" up to "dangerous for your health." Thus I would not be able to write this review, because I'd still be lying on the floor, twitching and drooling from severe overexposure to awesomeness.

That said, the all-new music is fine too. I don't know if the themes heard here will be reused throughout the series, or if they're scored especially for the Kuuga debut episodes, because some of them sure very sound Kuuga-ish. I'm thinking especially of the "tribal" beat when we have the Grongi's head honcho awakening (heard last time as well.) I especially like the ominous battle music usually heard at the beginning fight (last week and this week as well.) I can't wait for the OST to come out now, but then, when can I ever?



I didn't mention it last time, because I wasn't sure if it was a one-time-only thing or a regular feature. Since it appears to be the latter, here we go: I like the recap. It's a good way of reminding us of all the stuff that happened last time, and leads nicely into the pre-credits scene. Of course, given how I've been re-watching the episodes in the intervening week before a new one airs, everything's still fresh in my mind regardless. But it's a nice touch.

It' also interesting that they have that bit of narration before the vocals of the theme song kick in. It's like a reverse of some of the older Riders, where that short series-encapsulating narration comes at the end of the song before the show proper begins.

That's a cool opening fight, and it's good to see they remembered how to do the Hoppers correctly. You know, Punch Hopper punches, and Kick Hopper kicks. They're treated as a real threat, like they should be. I know some people will say it's weird that Kuuga changes to Dragon Form (who is notably weak at punching) when going up against Punch Hopper, and without trying to stop and get a weapon. He puts himself at a big disadvantage.

I'd explain it away by saying he was trying to gain some speed and hopefully just be fast enough to keep up with Punchy. On the other hand, you could also say that it's Kuuga. He has no clue how to fight other Riders, because he never does! Well, aside from Decade, but Decade fights everybody, remember? The third excuse is that he had already read the script, so he knew the fight wasn't going to last long anyway and he just had to hang on for dear life.

Kick Hopper wigging out over Kuuga's exhale/snort/whatever is a bit funny, but then he's always on edge (and looking for an excuse to use one of his catchphrases) so it's in-character. I like the fact that Narutaki expresses frustration of the Hoppers' inability to target Decade due to their own neurotic obsessions. There's times when this episode gets extremely meta, especially as evidenced by the girls chewing out Tsukasa and Onodera over fighting. The "you don't need to fight the other Riders" thing is almost subversive self-commentary.

Also, Tsukasa's nose? It's sounded pretty broken there, I don't know how he got out of that one without spending the rest of the episode announcing himself as a "Kaubub Raibuh".

And how about that Delta & Tiger cameo? I love how they're throwing in things like that. "Look, there's a mirror. Ryuki appears!" It helps tie together the whole package and remind us just how important the past is with this show. The flip side to this is that the people who have been living under a rock for the past 9 series will probably be confused by a lot of this.

But I would sort of liken Decade to Kamen Rider Spirits, in that it's still enjoyable if you don't know what everything or even anything is. If you do know it all though, like me, it's almost unbelievable. I get a kick out of it.

I also like that Tiger's visor was lit up. Watch for it closely. Even the Hoppers, upon jumping into the void/wall/teleport/whatever thing, suddenly sport lit-up eyes. That rocks.



Of course, the other Riders are just icing on the cake. This predominantly still another Kuuga episode, through and through.

And it's with this one that I truly come to understand why there's a new Kuuga in Decade, and why they're doing the "recasting" thing at all. As should be obvious by now, they're not so much merely recasting the actors as recasting the characters themselves. I don't know if that makes a lick of sense, but what I'm getting at is that it doesn't matter that a new guy is playing Kuuga here, because he's not trying to be the old Kuuga anyway.

And this story would not work with the old Kuuga we know. I mean the basic trappings (Grongi Army, Hell on Earth Tokyo, Character Death, Rider team-up) are all still feasible, but the way in which events actually play out, and where they're going to go from here. That is something which is original to this series and its new spins on old faces.

You could make the argument that if that's the case, why bother to make it Kuuga at all? Why not create 9 all-new Riders? Well, it's a neat idea, but for an anniversary series? Probably not. There's a lot more to play with here rather than trying to think up 9 different new worlds which would probably bear a resemblance to past ones anyway. And why have a straight Kuuga rip-off when you can have Kuuga, albeit as covered by a different band? It's not the original, but it can still be good in its own way. Okay that's a pretty awful analogy, but the bottom line is what's done is done and this is the show that brings together the TV Heisei Riders, one way or another.

First of all, Tsukasa's pivotal to the development of the story. In a lot of ways it's all his fault, though not literally. You can't blame him directly for what happens, but he does have a crucial role in moving it all along to the conclusion it eventually takes. I'm going to get back to this later because it leads to the best scene in the episode (and there's a lot of good ones.) Needless to say that without him, things would have turned out differently. But then, the story had to have him. It was built for him. I don't think you could put him in the original version of Kuuga and have it play out like it does here though. Here's why:

As we saw last episode, Onodera has seemingly only been Kuuga for a relatively short time. This is important. What's also important is how he became Kuuga, which, as we learn in this episode, appears to be very different than how Godai became Kuuga.

In the flashback (which he describes as when he first got the belt) Onodera is meeting with Narutaki, who tells him the whole "Decade = Devil" spiel. That Decade is his "true enemy". Wah-ho-ho! Already you should be seeing how this clashes with established Kuuga mythology.

But it's crucial, because it ties into what isn't actually stated, but I think heavily implied: Onodera became Kuuga by way of Narutaki. He either gave him the belt, or was at least somehow important in him finding it, or learning about it. Onodera's actions in the scene seem to indicate that he's just gotten it, so I think there's a connection. I also think this somehow ties into Wataru ("our" Wataru from episode #1.) Are these new Decade-edition Riders replacing the "real" ones? That remains to be seen.

What I'm getting at here though, is that the back story of this world already had Narutaki running around in it, well before Tsukasa & co. arrived. And since Narutaki seems to have a major hate-on for Decade, it's almost as if this Kuuga world (and presumably, the rest) has been tailored for his eventual arrival. This is what I mean by this story not working with the original Kuuga. That was his world, his story. You could have a guest Rider appear in it, and even use some of the same ideas, but it wouldn't be what happens here. This is Decade's Kuuga's World. Crazy, no?



You can extend this to probably all the other Riders who will appear. It's looking more and more like they're all going to be played by new actors, in new pastiche versions of the TV worlds. They're the ultimate in alternate universes. I generally dislike alternate universes, because I think they're just a lazy excuse for the writers to kill off as many main characters as possible and then pull the "Oops! AU!" card. You might as well use the lame old "it was all a dream" excuse.

I don't mind actually having the alternate takes (for example, I love both Blade's TV ending and the movie version of events.) But ideally, I'd *prefer* to just have one. 13 Riders is great and all, but I so would have preferred Verde just showing up on the TV series to be what he always had the potential of being: the evil bastard rich guy Rider, a dark reflection of what Kitaoka could have been had he lacked his romantic side and moral grounding in the shape of Goro. For a guy who has like, maybe 25 minutes of screen time total (if even that) Verde's a helluva fascinating character to me. That's another story though.

There's like, two or three times I've ever seen alternate universes I really liked, and both of them involved characters from the main series universe crossing over and meeting alternate versions of people they know. Yes, one of them was in the latest Ultraman movie, which did go some ways to making me warm up to AUs more.

I'd still prefer it if I could just say "The Kiva movie happens around here" rather than "The Kiva movie happens around here if you disregard that and that and that." To get to the point though, the fact that Decade uses alternate universes as a critical part of the story, and not just as some gimmick to say "hur hur hur let's kill off Kuuga!" (yet) means that this is one of those times where actually, I don't mind them at all.

In fact I'm sort of glad they are in one way, and this is getting back to how this episode works. It's almost like a series finale, in more ways than one. It's grim. It's unrelenting. It does things to Kuuga's world that I wouldn't want to see done to the Kuuga world I already know and love, because as nasty as that place could get (see my last episode review), it still has to follow things through to it's ultimate conclusion. I can totally see how you could do post-series adventures for the original Kuuga (yes, even taking into account how the final battle ends.) But in the thick of the series itself? Best kept to this alternate take, I think.

What I mean is, by creating a familiar-but-still-new spin on Kuuga, you can play around more and get away with some of what this episode gets away with. And it gets away with a lot.



Let's talk about the regulars. I've been thinking all week about a good way to sum up just what it is that I like about how they handled Tsukasa's "arrogance" last episode. I mentioned how things come back to bite him, and that's really it: his actions all have consequences. He can pull off the "lookit me, in your world, doing stuff" gig, but it can only get him so far. He runs into walls. He screws up. He sets traps, but they can spring on him as easily as they can on others. He really blows it this time with his assumption of the failed Gegeru, and it pays off at the end big time.

It's a fascinating bit of characterization. In this episode he goes up and down the ladder, from being at a severe disadvantage to literally controlling a fight in which he's so badly outgunned, it's a miracle he lives through it (more on that later.) I mentioned how he moves the story along. He is an enabler as much as he is the hero. Look what he does for Onodera. He motivates him, even more so than the guy already is. His speech about protecting the smiling face of a man who protects smiling faces is awesome.

On that note, I loved the fact that they kept that from the original Kuuga. It's one of the greatest, most simple and beautiful themes of the series, and it was good to see it brought up here.

We also get Tsukasa's "a Kamen Rider passing through" line here. It's good stuff. It sums him up perfectly. And again, I love the fact that "Kamen Rider" is being tossed about left and right in this show. But then, it kind of has to be for any of this to work!

As for Onodera. I love what this episodes does with him. It's further established that he's a very different guy from Godai, especially in one very notable way: he doesn't do the thumbs up! He might've in one of the last two and I missed it, but I seriously haven't noticed it. This is interesting, because that was always such a big thing with *Kuuga* as well as just Godai; almost any Kuuga figure that can seems to include the "thumbs up" pose hand. It's like, up there with Rider 1's signature pose!

I think it's probably very much intentional that we don't get it. Again, I could be wrong and just missed it, but I've watched the episodes over a bunch of times each and I have yet to catch it. We might, or might not. It's a good way of distancing this character from Godai though. That was distinctly his thing. He even had the little smiley thumbs up logo with the mole! As this isn't just another actor trying to ape Odagiri's version, it makes perfect sense.

Also, his attitude throughout. Here again I want to get into how this story wouldn't work the same way in the original Kuuga. If, towards the end of his series, Godai found out an army of Grongi were running wild throughout Tokyo, he'd probably be out there in a flash. Even up against overwhelming odds, he'd roll with it. Onodera on the other hand suddenly turns defeatist, but this surprisingly isn't a bad thing. It's a very natural reaction, because he's still new to all this, and suddenly the f----in' King of the Grongi comes knocking. He confesses an inability to fight that. It's too much, all at once. What's more, there's the deal with Ai.

I postulated last time that Onodera didn't have many friends, and his "I fight for myself" attitude and proprietorial feeling over fighting the Grongi came about from some personal loss. Well, I was almost right! It doesn't seem like he has any other friends, and the personal loss actually comes after the fact. It's what spurs him on to whatever role he'll take for the rest of the series, but I'll get back to that later. The fact that Ai is the only person he seemingly had any connection to is significant. Godai was surrounded by friends, his outgoing and generous personality had a habit of winning everyone over. He's the kind of hero you'd want to hang out with.

In contrast, Onodera's suspicious of Tsukasa and not exactly very warm with anyone but Ai. True, we don't see him interact with anyone else, but that seems due to the fact that there isn't anyone else for him. He doesn't have a Sakurako equivalent or a stand-in sister. He doesn't have some teacher guy he respects or an Oyassan to chat with. What I'm getting at is that when you take this into account, his attitude and actions last episode start to make a whole lot more sense. This Yuusuke is lonely. His one and only friend gets hurt, and even with all the power he's got he's helpless to do anything about it.

Once again though, there were still little flashes of his predecessor here and there. Especially during the goofy dinner scene with Tsukasa and Natsumi. Watching it again on the computer I don't notice it as much, but on first viewing (the TV's further away from where I'm now sitting) I swear he almost looked like Godai again, for a brief flash. Same with when he gets on the bike at the end. That's probably just me, but it's pretty cool.



I've been talking about getting to various other things up above, so let's get to them.

The Grongi were out in full force, after a couple here and there last week. There were tons of 'em! The whole idea of humans turning into Grongi is a bit unusual. It's like, the exact opposite of what the Grongi were all about!

On the other hand though, the original series did suggest a connection between the two races, and if you consider the talk of "darkness" spreading that popped up a lot towards the end of the series, you could come to the conclusion that this is sort of putting that idea to the test. Maybe, not quite. It's different, but interesting. It is rather funny that the humans just turn into fully-formed Grongi.

And thus we get multiple copies of them running around. That's influence from Kuuga's successor series, I think. They've sort of lost their individual identities as a result. The direction seems somewhat aware of this fact and makes them move almost zombie-like. Check out the crowd scenes when they're getting ready to tear apart Tsukasa. Braaaaaaaains! Of course, I'm probably over-thinking this: they're a rehashed monster army. Maintaining accuracy to the originals is not top priority.

I'm pretty sure these are all the original suits. They look a bit worn out, patched up and somewhat baggier than I remember. Notice how some of them (including Zu Gumen Gu) have what look like excess scarves and wrappings.

It's cool though. They're only needed to shamble around and fight. Old monsters need not be in top condition when you've got a ton of them back like this. Also, Grongi fans take note: that's the mutated version of Me Ginoga De running around back there.

And hell, it's just good to see them back! I love the fact that I can look at the crowd shots and instantly know who everybody is. Good old times. Dorudo's back and Tsukasa gets to punch him in the face, I appreciated that.

Of course, the real star is their king: N Gamio Zeda. After his brief cameo last week, he's out and about here. I'm going to say that he's cool. I wouldn't say scary. N Daguba Zeba was scary. Both back when we didn't know what the hell he looked like, and later on when he is played as the slimiest smug-faced little scumbag ever. He's deceptively evil because he's both 1) a pretty normal looking guy, compared to his subordinates and 2) is predominantly white and gold, appearing almost "heroic" compared to the dark, fearsome Ultimate Form.

By comparison, Gamio is more straight-up "Bwahaha" villainy, but he's cool. He doesn't even bother with a human form (though none of the Grongi do in this Kuugaverse, it seems.) I like that the script plays up his strength. He's so badass he knocks Decade down with one punch. Our hero can't even take the guy in a face-to-face confrontation. He needs Kuuga's help. That's a neat touch. I like Gamio's look too. It's cool that he was based off some unused Grongi designs. They remembered to give him the proper belt buckle too.

This leads into the fights. Or specifically, the fight. Decade's first encounter with Gamio goes so badly he gets a bloody lip as a result. This is finally the episode where all the preview shots of beat-up Tsukasa come from, and man: it's worse than I thought! He gets absolutely thrashed here, and so does Onodera. Well once again, it wouldn't be Kuuga without some blood!



I mentioned before how this is almost like a series finale. The big rumble's incredible! It's almost cinematic. I talked of how things go up and down for Tsukasa. He goes from being in control at first, to turning outright hysterical as he's overwhelmed. It's a miracle he survives once he's knocked out of his Decade armor, but I'll chalk it up to Hero's Luck/Plot Shield. Then it all turns around again once Kuuga arrives.

And the bikes see some usage. It's brief, but it's there, and very welcome. Kuuga's slow-motion rescue was something I'd been looking forward to ever since I first saw the clip, and it does not disappoint. I love that wheelie he pulls right through the crowd. Classic Rider, that is.

And there's that brief pseudo-flash to Growing Form! I loved that. It's all done with CG and not quite how it used to be, but I appreciated that they tried. It was a neat little easter egg almost; look away and you'd probably miss it.

I mentioned in my review of the first episode that Kuuga's "tincan" voice modulating came across as a bit odd. But here they've toned it down, or gotten it just right so it feels more like the old Kuuga. I also think they've gotten the Henshin and sound effects for Kuuga just right here. They were a bit off in episode #1, but by now they've done it a few times so they're coming across more naturally.

It's good to see that kind of development going on from episode to episode. On a related note, I really love Decade's "stuttering" jump sound effect, and the "VROOOOOOM!" when he pulls a card out of the Ride Booker.

And speaking of cards, there's some new ones used here. The Final Attack Ride is pretty cool; presumably this gives Decade access to the other Rider's finisher. In this case the old burny Mighty Kick. And as for the Final Form Ride...

Well, this is probably going to be a bit controversial. Everyone probably knew that Kuuga was going to somehow turn into Gouram. But it's not just that. He turns into Kuuga Gouram. As in, the upcoming Final Form Ride figure. And I mean that literally. The transformation is even the same, and if you look closely you can still see the Kuuga "parts" on this Gouram. He's grabbing Gamio with his legs, which is kind of bizarre.

The actual transformation, with Decade "opening" Kuuga and then his head folding back as his arms become the "feet" and his legs become the mandibles... hmmm.

I would say it's equal parts weird, funny, cool, disturbing, painful, clever, perverse and damn crazy. I mean it's just like the toy! I imagine some kids might love it, some Kuuga fans will probably loathe it and most everybody else will wonder what the heck is up with it. I personally have gotten used to it after a couple repeat viewings. It's like, a nifty idea, but certainly a strange one and not how I would have done the ultimate co-op Rider attack. But I guess I'll have to save that for my Rider series.

I have to say though, that I am thrilled at the prospect of Kabuto being made to turn into a giant Kabuto Zecter and have Decade ride around on it.



Gamio's powered-up antics are pretty wild too. Well, the whole final battle just gets more and more over-the-top as it goes, but I loved it. It definitely feels like Decade's been allocated a bigger budget than usual, which is a good thing.

And yet, as good as all that is, there's still what is for me the best scene in the episode. It's after the fight. The heroes rush back to the hospital, and find Ai... dead.

Now, her dying was not that great of a shock. It's foreshadowed earlier on, with her crushing request to Onodera that he kill her if she becomes a Grongi. Seeing as how she's just been considered a "guest" character, in the past week I decided she probably wouldn't join the regulars, and thus her survival rate plummeted. Once Gamio is defeated and the black smoke stopped, it seems as if she'll make it out okay though. But she doesn't, and that's because of the very gutsy move this episode makes.

The people who are turned into Grongi don't just magically change back. They die, they vanish, and that's it. Imagine if the "everybody goes Native" antics of Kabuto's finale had been like this. It'd be a whole different story! It's pretty downbeat. It's unfair, but then Kamen Rider is often at its absolute best when it's like that.

The great tragedy of the fact that even if you beat the bad guys, the things they did still stick. People still died. It's a grim concept that deserves to be spotlighted more. That there are consequences to everything, and as hard as you fight, it's always an uphill struggle until the end.

But even that's not it. Ai didn't become a Grongi, she doesn't vanish away and was still human to the end. But she still died. And as much as that hurts Onodera Yuusuke, go back and watch the scene again, and keep your eyes on Tsukasa.

His look. It seriously got to me. It's incredible. He looks slightly bewildered, shocked, and unsure all at once. As if he simply can't believe that they won and yet still lost. Look at his stance. It's not the dejected sadness, it's disbelief, it's edginess. And yet you know that right then and there he feels awful.

It's only when he turns away and finally speaks that it seems to all fully set in. No matter how powerful he may be, no matter how hard he fought, even he couldn't save everyone. It's a nice reflection on Onodera's earlier self doubt. To be honest, it shocked the hell out of me. Again, not so much Ai's death, but Tsukasa's reaction to it actually happening.

And then, I found myself almost as disbelieving as he was. They really killed her! Again, I think Onodera's the one who's really crushed in that scene, but Tsukasa's still definitely affected by it. It's either some stellar acting on the part of Inoue or bum direction which yielded solid gold. I'd cite this as one of my top moments of the series thus far, but I bet there will be a ton of 'em.

And this sets things up perfectly for Onodera. Lacking any reason to stick around in his world, with the Grongi defeated and his only real friend gone, it looks like he'll be off on a quest of his own. And as the altered opening credits for this one hint, he'll be crossing paths with our heroes again. I love how his last scene involves the blue sky.

And I like how, once back home, Tsukasa cheers up. You know he's hurting, but he deals with it and moves on. That's actually a very Kamen Rider-y sort of thing I think. They're surrounded by death and destruction, but they accept it and try to keep pushing ahead. It's a very heroic thing really, but especially with Kamen Rider, where for me it's always been about the "mask" the heroes wear, both literally and figuratively.

Two more things: Narutaki appearing at Gamio's cave is interesting (I think we all know what it means), and then there's that thing at the end. You know the one, it will no doubt play into the next few episodes. I can't wait to see what happens.

So all in all? This one was pretty great. It's the second half of a new spin on the show that kick-started the Heisei era on TV. It's different, it's strange, and it's wonderful.

Next Time: Hey, didn't we just leave here? The heroes go to Kiva's world. Except now there are friendly Fangire, Wataru is a kid and... wait, Wataru is a kid. I don't know how that's going to go over, but I'm hoping it'll be cool. Decade hasn't let me down yet. Also, get ready. Get set. He's back and he's even got his correct voice. Kaixa returns!

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