The Trilogy: Episode Red (Spoiler Version)

I'll say this for starters: This is the Spoiler Version of the review for the first part of the Chô Den-O Trilogy. That means there's spoilers. If you don't want to know about the plot details for the movie, there's a Spoiler-Free Version just above this one.

Also, yes, there was a trailed for the Double movie, though it's the one that's also online. Looks awesome. Philip held at gunpoint, Dopants running rampant, Futo under siege.

Alrighty then.

So how do you top the 1-2-3 punch of Rider movies from 2008 & 2009? Do 4 movies (and possibly more), 3 of which are actually part of a trilogy! So we come to the latest installment in the Chô Den-O series, aptly named the Chô Den-O Trilogy (well the real title's a lot longer, but I think most will refer back to the whole saga as that.)

I'm not going to get into a long thing about Den-O and how there's no stopping it. We've all read that enough times by now, haven't we? I'll just say that I have no problem with new Den-O movies as long as they're entertaining and offer up something new each time. They're not hurting anybody.

Double's still on TV, he's getting a movie. I'll be getting my G3-X and G4 Figuarts in the mail soon, and there's another Medicom Rider 1 coming next month I'll be needing (with New Cyclone!) Honestly, if I wanted to, I could just ignore Den-O the way I ignore Platinum Smile CDs whenever I look through the Rider section at any CD store. And even those make great coasters.

Of course, I can't ignore it, as I am obligated to write these reviews for some reason, and I also actually happen to like the crazy thing. Would I like to see another Rider get this sort of spotlight treatment? Sure, but I can admit that after Kamen Rider Kuuga The Movie 8: Amazing Ultimate Form vs. Ya Badabba Doo or Super Kamen Rider Blade The Movie II: Hajime Must Die!, somebody would still be voicing concerns about over-egging the pudding. We've got to play with the hand we're dealt sometimes. But hey, were it up to me, we'd at least get everyone in on the 40th anniversary series, and it'd be the real versions.

So, now that my long thing about Den-O and how there's no stopping it is out of the way, let's get to the movie review.

Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider The Movie: Chô Den-O Trilogy Episode Red: Zero's Star Twinkle

Synopsis

The movie opens with a long scene of Airi, Yuuto and the future Yuuto (hereafter referred to as Sakurai) standing in a field at night while Kohana narrates. They are the triangle tied by the stars, after all. There's some stock footage from the last episode when Sakurai disappeared, and he does so again here, leaving Airi and Yuuto behind. When I mentioned this scene was long, I wasn't kidding. Be prepared, the last scene is even longer.

The Milk Dipper is undergoing renewal/renovation. Things are in a state of chaos as Airi continually knocks boxes onto Ryôtarô. And yes, he's still de-aged, and no, she doesn't bat an eye. In fairness, Mizoguchi Takuya's adult-Ryôtarô impression has gotten so good, you can't blame Airi for not noticing anything's different. Ozaki & Miura show up and haven't changed a bit aside from Ozaki having different hair. Momotaros appears to possess Ryôtarô, and they take it pretty well (I guess Climax Deka did count for something after all.) M-Ryôtarô runs out and there's a huge exposition dump about the Den-Liner which, wait for it... has been hijacked yet again and is out of control. Hey, if it worked once...

It's around this time we get an opening credits sequence, which sort a middle note between full TV-style OP and the usual quick movie title splashes. There's scene from all 3 parts of the trilogy, and the whole thing reminds me a bit of the Dragon Knight opening, though not so much the "LEZZRIDE!" and more the jazzy Den-O music.

Anyway the new villain of the movie, the Piggies Imagin (SQUEAL PIGGY SQUEAL!) somehow got on board the Den-Liner and stuck a Rider Pass with his Rider Ticket in the Den-Bird, and now it's running amok, continually popping in between the Time Vortex that desert place and January 2010. I can think of worse places to be stuck in. And wait... Imagin? I'll get back to that.

M-Ryôtarô does a lot of running and jumping around. Airi and the guys go out, and this is where the movie starts to get a little... strange. These two thugs show up and one of them bumps into Airi, falls down, and complains. Loudly. Give him two slices of bread, and you'll have a ham and cheese sandwich. At this point my mind was already working, figuring out that there'd be some twist where Airi has been unknowingly, secretly possessed by an Imagin all this time, and has enhanced strength. Or maybe she's a cyborg. This has yet to pan out though.

The thugs beat up Ozaki and Miura and proceed to... uh... carry off Airi? I guess. Before things can get any more disturbing, M-Ryôtarô shows up to kick the crap out of the guys. I know that the Den-O universe is about as crime-ridden as it gets (hey, there's a whole movie about it) but this is pretty silly. Our hero interrogates the guys about the Imagin. Logically, they're after Airi, so they're probably possessed by Imagin, right? The guys don't know what he's talking about. They're saved from any more embarrassment when M-Ryôtarô sees Yuuto, who proceeds to vanish. What's going on there?

And wait again... the Imagin? I'm getting to that. At this point the action moves to the Den-Liner, which has been briefly stopped by the emergency breaks, though they're not going to hold out long (and no one ever seems to think of removing the contaminated Rider Pass, though there's probably an explanation I missed in there.) The gang's all there, though no sign of Sieg, Teddy or Kôtarô. An aside: the Riderverse now has like 3 or 4 major characters named Kôtarô. Won't someone think of the children?

Ryôtarô gets the 411 from Kohana and Naomi. Owner shows up to drop some serious plot exposition when he recounts how the Imagin work to Ryôtarô, which I thought was a bit odd. Doesn't he know that he already knows? I guess Owner isn't fooled by Mizoguchi's acting and thinks they're in an AU.

Also, Anthopper Imagin cameo! In case you're keeping score.

Alright, I've been doing the "Imagin? Wha-?" thing enough now. No, as far as I could tell the movie doesn't have any explanation for how the Imagin are still around, keeping with the past movies and Decade episodes featuring them. Some are content to just write off everything as being in different universes, but I've always felt that's a bit of a cop-out, especially given how this movie is trying its damnedest to follow up with a plot thread from the TV series.

It's Den-O, a show about the flow of time (which is always changing), I can buy a continuity gaff here and there. What's more, it's Kamen Rider, and I think one of the most important things in being a Kamen Rider fan is admitting that continuity is only going to be there when they want it to be. The rest of the time, continuity is second to the story, so if Minami is bright and happy in BLACK RX after going through a Japan-crushing apocalypse, or nobody in Agito thinks to ever call up that Ichijô guy, well, that's just how it is.

But if you want some fan theories: I think that all the post-last episode Imagin were either already here when things went down (which doesn't really work given what we saw on screen, but I'm winging it) or they're traveling back from a point before they ceased to exist. Which makes no sense of course, but then again Kamen Rider has had some interesting takes on time travel before (including Ryuki's "had to happen for it to not happen" ending, Tendô saving his own ass, and Wataru's parental hijinks.) So I could buy that.

Alternatively, they're all just coming back from an alternate time line where Den-O lost to ensure that they will rule. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but then again this is time travel... alright the last one is that maybe they all slipped in the tub and somehow wound up back here.

(At least with Final Countdown, you can fanonize a pretty sound version: those 3 new Imagin are undead/spectral guys anyway so they're not bound by the same rules.)

Anyway, there's another interesting revelation during all the talking on the Den-Liner: there actually are other passengers aboard! And they're all pretty miffed at not being able to get to... wherever they're going. Given the period clothing, I guess the 19th or early 20th Century. Although, Owner looks kind of period. Are these in fact not people from the past, but more Time Lords like him? actually, better not go there. They're passengers.

Ryôtarô and co. speculate about the thugs who attacked Airi and the guys. If they're not connected to the Imagin, what's the deal? And what about Yuuto? Could it be that Yuuto had the guys attack Airi so he could rescue her and ensure that his future self and her get to tango down under the start? Could anyone seriously believe that? Fortunately Deneb (who had been in disguise amongst the Den-Liner passengers) shows up to explain things.

As I'll mention later, Deneb really saves this movie for me, and here's why. He relates his version of how things were supposed to go, which appears like an old silent movie (with Deneb doing everyone's voices.) You'll have to see it to get the full effect, but it's sort of this movie's version of the "Hijacking the Den-Liner" sequence from last time, in that the movie goes off on this strange, almost non-sequitur tangent. Except this time it ends with the implication that Naomi likes cuddling up to Deneb until Momotaros separates them. Bet you didn't call that pairing.

So I'm not really sure what the deal with the thugs was... but hey! Two more yakuza-looking guys go into the Milk Dipper and start trashing it while Airi screams at them to stop. What the hell? I know this is fiction, but I'd have an easier time believing there's a secret Destron base under my apartment than this. How many campy cliched tough guys can one movie have? What's next, Episode Blue features a scene with funny-haired highschoolers slurring their R's and duke it out with each other in a parking lot? Actually, if that happens, I quit.

Fortunately, Yuuto shows up to kick some ass. Bless the man. Also, Airi makes sure to protect that famous telescope from being wrecked. After that odd moment, he and Airi sit down and proceed to talk about coffee for a while. Well, that, and how Airi remembers that in the future, Sakurai will vanish. Or does she remember? I was never really clear on the Sakurai business, to be honest with you. Yuuto speculates that she wishes to see him again. And by him he means "the guy who is me but isn't me."

This is where we get to the real meat of the movie. Episode Red has been described as a love story, though I don't think it's one in the conventional sense. Deneb's definitely trying to keep Yuuto and Airi together throughout this thing, but in all their scenes together Nakamura and Matsumoto tend to underplay it, almost as if Yuuto's clueless about this whole "love" business and Airi looks like she forget if she left the stove on or not. After thinking it over though, it's really down to the script. If this is a love story, it's really between Airi and Sakurai, not Yuuto.

Now hold on, you say. Sakurai IS Yuuto, everybody knows that, right? Well, he is and he isn't. The movie even kicks off by saying that the Yuuto of the past and the Sakurai of the future (his future, Airi's past) are the same, and yet not. This is waxing philosophically (people change over time), metafictionally (they're played by different actors) and literally, in that they've pretty much become different characters.

Consider the relationship Yuuto had with Sakurai in the series. The movie basically puts forth the idea that in using his past self essentially as an agent (or less charitably, a pawn) Sakurai also doomed himself, which is why he vanished in the end, leaving his younger, changed Yuuto self that we know and love.

Of course the problem is that from Airi's point of view, she's meeting the younger version of the man she loved in her past, before he's supposed to meet her. Her Sakurai is the enigmatic man who likes star-gazing, not the time-traveling action hero who's best friend is a guy that gives people candy and turns into a gun. I'd make another Doctor Who reference here, but you probably know the drill by now. What we're basically left with is a fairly tricky relationship: Yuuto can't really fall in love with Airi because he already did that, but in the future (which is Airi's past.) Though to be fair, there's enough sweetness between them that you could probably still call this a love story, if a pretty subtle one.

Let me backtrack a bit though. Before all the business at the Milk Dipper, Ryôtarô & co. take some time to set up a means to keep the Den-Liner in one place with some rope, a big concrete block and some wooden pegs. The idea is the ropes go through a doorway into May 2010 and the concrete and wood act as an anchor. Crazy, but it makes sense by Den-O logic. Thus we get Ryôtarô, Kohana and the Imagin dressed up like construction workers. Hilarity ensues, and Momotaros herniates a disc or something, which puts him out of commission for a while. Hey, 72 minutes to fill, got to do something.

One other thing, which might explain the random thug attacks in this movie: there's this guy named Kikuchi who has pretty much been stalking Airi. He's peeking in the Milk Dipper door all the time and gets ticked off when he sees Yuuto open up a can on the thugs. And wouldn't you know it, he's in cahoots with the Piggies Imagin (SQUEAL PIGGY SQUEAL!)

I joke about it, but I'll be honest: this monster is awesome. It's like if you took Cerberus from Blade and played it for laughs. His 3 faces all talk and bicker with each other. I'm contractually obligated to praise the design now that I have met Nirasawa in person, but even still I always love the guy's work. I can barely remember what any of the Worms did other than Uca and Cassis, but they all looked cool.

By now we must be at least 25-30 minutes into the movie and we finally get some fighting that isn't merely good actors beating up supporting artists. Momotaros smells out Imagin in the area, but being injured and all, Urataros jumps in Ryôtarô and goes instead. He confronts Piggie and Kikuchi, and becomes Den-O Rod Form. Den-O and the Imagin go at it while the poor guy cowers in terror. Deneb shows up to help out and continues to be awesome ("Are you alright, Kametaros?") Everybody gets away unscathed since it isn't the final battle yet.

There's some Team Zero-Liner talking about Airi that ends with Yuuto clotheslining Deneb. Some things never change.

Piggies and Kikuchi talk things over. The guy basically wants Airi bad, so his contract with the monster is that he'll get a chance to prove himself as a hero and save her from some peril. He keeps missing his chance (since there are so many wannabe badasses that covet Airi, apparently) so Piggies comes up with a plan...

That thing our heroes were making to stop the Den-Liner? It doesn't last long, and Ryôtarô watches as the ropes snap and the time corridor closes, becoming just another doorway. The Den-Liner goes out of control again, reappearing throughout January 2010 (with reused scenes and everything!) Cut off from his friends, Ryôtarô continues to look for the Imagin and his contract guy.

Airi is out with Ozaki and Miura, who are bandaged up and acting as her bodyguards after their thrashing last time, wielding pepper spray and sai. Piggies shows up and knocks them out instantly, grabbing the girl. Ryôtarô appears, as do Yuuto and Deneb. Despite the lack of his Imagin buddies, Ryôtarô goes to Plat Form and does what he can. Plat Form even uses the DenGasher Sword mode, but gets his butt kicked and is knocked back to being Ryôtarô.

The Den-Liner continues to go wildly out of control, tossing everyone and everything about. Also, random observation: the coffee cups are different! I don't know if this happened in an earlier movie, but they're not the ones I remember from Decade.

Realizing he has to save Airi, Yuuto becomes Zeronos Zero Form, with Deneb joining him as the Denebick Buster. Piggies Imagin is tough though so he beats up on Zeronos easily.

Kikuchi is in a nearby truck, and dreams (literally, they have a scene and then reveal it's his dream) of being a hero, driving into Piggies Imagin and saving Airi. He hesitates too long though, so Piggies goes for plan B, grabbing Airi and throwing her in the back of the truck. Kikuchi is horrified to hear that his contract is complete, and he begins to split open... but he rejects it, driving off with Airi! Whoa! He picked a heck of a time to grow a spine! Piggies is furious so he jumps on top of the truck. Zeronos gives chase as the Zero-Liner swoops down to pick him up. Ryôtarô runs off, trying to figure out some way to intercept and help out, when he runs into... Momotaros!?

Momotaros, looking like a hobo and fending off a dog, reveals that he's been living with some homeless guys under a bridge since January 2010. You couldn't make this up if you tried. It turns out that as the out-of-control train appeared in our world, Momotaros (in a delirious state) opens one of the doors and falls out, and has been spending the last few months here. He tells of how he saw Kikuchi seeing Airi for the first time, so captivated that his bike collided with a pole and knocked him to the ground. I'm guessing it also knocked a few screws lose, but this is just a theory. Anyway, Momotaros is glad to be reunited with his friend and they race off.

Alright, a confession: I love this idea. I hinted at it earlier up in the non-spoiler section of this review. While Episode Red doesn't have much time-traveling per se, it does some fascinating things with time. There's the Yuuto/Airi stuff, and this time-displacement business. I just kind of wish it had gone on longer, like having him spend years in the past. Hell, it's worth a spin-off movie in its own right: Momotaros lands in 1971 and silently helps out in the background during major events throughout Rider history (frees Hongô, saves Riderman, tells Minami to go to that party he was going to skip, gives his boat ticket to Tsugami... the list goes on.)

Piggies has been riding on that truck for ages as it careens through what looks like the set of Kamen Rider THE NEXT (I guess that's the Toei Truck Chase Backlot™.) Zeronos (who has changed to Vega Form) gives chase on the ZeroHorn. That flying helicopter thingy that makes up the back of the Zero-Liner also gets some action. Piggies gets knocked off just in time for Momotaros and Ryôtarô (riding a bicycle) to arrive and collide. Somehow this also involves both Imagin getting hit in the groin (it is a Toei movie.) Ryôtarô escapes injury however and transforms into Den-O Sword Form.

The Den-Liner's still going out of control, at one point entering weightlessness(!) The King Liner shows up to make the save, and there's a requisite cameo from the Station Master guy since two Ishimaru performances are better than one. Also, throughout the movie Owner has been mucking about with a tape measure, measuring everything, and the Station Master is also seen to have one. Why is never answered, though it is brought up at the end by Naomi. Just another quirk, or a subtle hint towards an as-of-yet-unrevealed plot line?

Getting out into the countryside, the breaks on the rusty old truck give out so it goes out of control, rapidly approaching a conveniently-placed cliff. Zeronos somehow leaps out of himself as Altair Form, leaving Deneb riding the ZeroHorn. Zeronos busts into the truck and rescues Airi (who knows he's Yuuto, as she saw him transform earlier.) He tells her that this is looking pretty bad, but she tells him it's okay. Holding tight, they leap out of the truck at the last second. Deneb shoots out the tires so it tips over on its side. Everybody lives!

Den-O gets his butt kicked by Piggies Imagin, who even stabs him in the back with his claws! Curiously, this hurts Momotaros more than Ryôtarô, and we see sand spilling out of his back. Whuh-huh? I thought... oh who cares at this point, Momotaros = Den-O. Fine. Anyway with the Den-Liner back in working order, access to our world becomes an option again so it's time for Climax Form.

There's a good bit that we've all been waiting for when Climax Form's various "masks" all talk and Piggies Imagin (who works in a similar manner) finds it extremely disturbing. He's also upset at having one less than Den-O. They combatants charge each other and Climax Form uses a Climax version of his "Hissatsu!" to cleave up Piggies Imagin into chunks which then explode.

And that's really it. Kikuchi survived and is last seen crying like the loser that he is, and there's some cursory wrap-up exposition on the Den-Liner (including Ryuutaros complaining about Momotaros smelling like a dog now... I thought he liked puppies?) But really, the majority of the ending is made up of Yuuto and Airi stuff, and it goes on forever. I mean, I know this is supposed to be the movie about them (though I reiterate that there isn't as much Zeronos screen time as you'd be led to believe) but they really linger on the long shots of the ZeroHorn cruising down what must be the longest road in history.

Granted, I'm not one to complain about motorcycle scenes in Kamen Rider, but this is basically that "ride with me" scene from THE FIRST, but a lot longer. Okay, they do stop to look at the stars, and there's flashing back (or, uh, forward?) to Airi and the adult Sakurai. The kiddies around me were getting restless at this, but the adult fans ate it up.

And fittingly, Deneb gets in a last word, concluding that even if the Yuuto he knows now and Airi aren't exactly meant to be, they will... some day. I... guess.

There's an Imagin Anime short at the end, and trailers for the next two episodes. Episode Blue I'm not sure about yet; it's got NEW Den-O cleaning house on evil and Teddy in serious trouble, literally crumbling away before our eyes, but there's some business with a girl complaining about something that I'll have to wait to see. Episode Yellow looks like it'll rock, with Daiki all over the place and a time cop (with a golden gun!) shooting him in slow-mo. Also: Riotroopers!

The End... for now.

Review

In short: Mostly good, but it's going to be a hard one to judge.

It's difficult to really say how it works as the first part of a 3-act story, if it's even that. I have a feeling that the overarching structure of the Chô Den-O Trilogy is that they're all movies with Den-O in them, and there's a "guest" Rider along for the ride, but otherwise, they're independent of each other story-wise. You could watch them in any order, or just watch one or two, and get complete stories. This, as opposed to something more continuous wherein each part must be viewed in order to get the entire story.

Admittedly, I'm basing this theory off of just one installment, so I could turn out to be wrong. I actually hope I am, and that there's a plot thread being weaved through Episode Red & Episode Blue that will pay off in the final installment, Episode Yellow. If there is though, it's insanely cleverly subtle, as on first viewing Episode Red seems to be a pretty self-contained story. So that's how I'll have to judge it for now.

Longtime readers will probably recall that the original Chô Den-O movie (from early last May) is the first Rider movie in years I actually never wrote a review for; I went on about it at length in one of those HJU Radio podcasts I keep forgetting to link to, but the short version is this:

That movie melted my brain and left me in a catatonic state for a month. And when I went to see it again before the theater stopped screening it, it did it all over again. And the strange part is, I like the movie! Quite a bit, actually. Though I think the main point of contention is that it's just an all around average movie, not soul-crushingly bad, nor anything particularly incredible. Out of 2009's fare, one movie I loved (All Riders) one I liked, even though I had issues with it (Movie War 2010) and then there was the annual Den-O offering which, really, was pure cotton candy: fills you up, tastes great, but still feels like a lot of air.

It was hard to put anything down to paper (or screen), though the one sentence I managed to continually scrawl out over and over last spring was that it feels like a Zeronos movie to me, despite pulling off the amazing feat of not having Zeronos in it. Yuuto's there, but even he's a cameo appearance. No, the movie feels like a Zeronos movie to me because of Deneb and, on every viewing after the first, Yuu.

Deneb is the glue that holds the movie together, whilst Yuu drives everything forwards. Even if we never see a second of Zeronos in the movie, it somehow still feels like he's everywhere. His aura is ever-present. Maybe that's just me, but it's interesting to consider when looking at Episode Red, which literally is trying to be a Zeronos movie.

Do they achieve it? Certainly, Zeronos does appear in it, and Yuuto is central to the plot, but this is the Chô Den-O Trilogy. The main man is undeniably Den-O. The marketing plays it up as being loaded with Zeronos action, though it's as much of an ensemble piece as past Den-O movies were. The "We gotta stop Den-Liner" plot is a big deal, even though it only connects with what Team Zero-Liner is doing on occasion.

But let's go back to the marketing for a second: in the trailers, magazine articles, poster, etc. for this episode, Zeronos Zero Form is the biggest thing. Heck, it's called Episode Red presumably after him! When I think Zeronos the first color that comes to mind is green, so you'd think they were making a big deal of Zero Form here or something. While the use of all 3 forms is welcome (as I like the original 2 a lot) I have no idea what the deal is with them anymore. I thought he ran out of tickets, then had some extra ones, but then didn't? Or did he? Arrrrrrgh!

And of course, as you know after reading the synopsis, Zeronos only appears for the final battle. Yuuto's around earlier, but even he doesn't get his ass in gear until a good ways in, until then merely being an offstage presence or hiding behind trees. It's almost as if someone tapped into my brainwaves about the last movie and thought "hey... yeah, what if Zeronos suddenly appeared at this point? It feels like he should be here." And there you have it.

What's more, he doesn't even get to destroy the monster! I found this really odd. Unexpected, sure, but wouldn't watching the trailers make you think that it's the big Z who lays down the final blow? They show Climax Form slicing up Piggies in the commercials! I saw that and thought "Oh, he'll probably have some power where he merges back together and Zeronos has to help destroy him." Nope. He saves the girl, though I'm not sure if he gets her.

The Yuuto/Airi stuff was, to be honest, probably not as complex as I've made it out to be in my head. The timey-wimey stuff is there, but you have to look for it. It's not like they sit around trying to work it out like I did in the synopsis. Most of their scenes together are more about what isn't being said; the long stretches at the beginning and end have other people doing most of the talking. I can see the merit there, focusing on the emotion of the scene rather than the details. Our inner fanboys/fangirls all want to work how where all these Imagin are coming from and why the Den-Liner interior still hasn't reverted, but the real story is in two people standing in a field looking up at the stars, separated by time itself.

Ultimately, even if this isn't Zeronos' finest hour, it's still a good showing for Yuuto. This particular plot thread (the Sakurai/Future Yuuto/Airi/The Past Should Give Us Hope thing) feels like its reached a good ending; I look forward to seeing Zeronos as part of the 'crew in the future, but as far as who Yuuto is, where he's from and where he's going, I think they've taken that about as far as it needs to go.

So with that out of the way... how does everything else stack up? Again, mostly good, though I should get the problems out of the way first.

Probably my biggest issue with the movie is that it feels like an average episode of the TV show expanded to 72 minutes, and there haven't been many accommodations made to fill it out. Generally, Rider movies either have an epic enough plot/concept to sustain that length, or they're not much longer than an average episode, earning their cinematic wings by making everything bigger, louder and better than ever. Sometimes both. Episode Red feels a lot like something you'd see on TV, only now at the movies. And that's about it.

Climax Deka was supposedly this, originally a direct-to-DVD feature that got upgraded to movie status (though I'm not certain so that could be incorrect.) However that film compensated with a ton of big idea- evil Den-O! Evil Taros! Kiva! Cop Movie Pastiche! Naomi in a China dress! Any TV production cheapness it might have had was mostly indiscernible.

Here, we've got a story with two Riders, one monster, a couple of supporting characters, the regulars, and a pretty good script... but alas one that still struggles with the running time. On the one hand, I am glad that it's a movie-length movie. At 1800 yen, it better be longer than an average episode. However, it does feel like they were struggling a bit to make it a movie, which is funny to me because so far, I find that Den-O works best in movie form. The costlier effects, the larger scale and scope... even if they do tend to go back to Toei Studio Park-era Japan a lot, it's more interesting than just popping back to 2005 when... uh... well outside of a Hibiki team-up, not much of interest.

I'll take a guess and say that the budget here was split across 3 movies, and maybe Episode Red took the most hits (seeing as how the other two feature new characters, forms, weapons, etc.) We do get Piggies Imagin, who looks great, but on the whole there's not much else here that makes me think "big budget movie!" The Den-Liner CGI is good, but I bet they could have done that on TV. As for the action, it's pretty much what I've come to expect from Den-O movies: good entertaining fun, but I'd be hard-pressed to name a particular fight I thought was really, really spectacular. It's mostly going through the motions. Though the ZeroHorn likely gets more screen time than ever before.

One thing's for sure: they must have blown the budget to get back almost all the TV regulars, because the supporting cast... well, to be fair there aren't any great roles, but man. The thugs ham it up so hard, even Narutaki would tell them to tone it down. The guy playing Kikuchi isn't that bad, but it's a pretty thankless part. If we're supposed to sympathize with him, we never really do. Even when he's shown to have a crisis of conscience, it just makes him look like a wuss. Fun fact: He played a Native in Kabuto, so clearly things didn't turn out too well for them after that whole pendant fiasco. You'd kind of hope for more than that though... whatever happened to the girl who was falling for D-Yuuto anyway?

Fortunately, there's the regulars. Mizoguchi's awesome as always. While in my head, Ryôtarô is always going to be that guy who then went on to be Tendô's brother in the Mei-chan Whateveritwas Show (where Nago was in the background sometimes) he's getting dangerously close to usurping him. Give him a couple more movies at least. His vocal inflection is nearly spot-on, coupled with a slightly deeper voice despite the age difference, and you can really buy the idea that he's an older, wiser and more bad-to-the-ass Ryôtarô, despite being younger.

Nakamura's technically a guest star here, so I'm not expecting to see him in the next two episodes, but he does good work as usual. Seeing him kick the crap out of people is somehow cathartic. He's good in his scenes with Airi, though as I said the strange nature of the relationship means it's not quite high romance.

As has been the trend lately, Momotaros and Deneb are the top guns while the other Imagin are just sort of there, but all get their 15 seconds. Not a problem though since they're my two favorites. Both get some classic moments and Deneb once again steals the show. I'd call his strange little silent film experiment a movie-saving scene, it's just such a funky thing to throw in an otherwise pretty straightforward movie (from a faux-film student perspective.) Everybody else is good. Owner's up to something I think, or maybe not.

Getting back to my gripes though, while Piggies Imagin is pretty cool... I feel like there should be more. Rider movies traditionally have at least some other kind of villain to go along with the main one. Shin at least got some soldiers to fight. There's all those random thugs that keep showing up, but they're a joke, the sort of thing Asakura has nightmares about becoming. Piggies really needed some out-of-work Worms or something to hang around with him. One of the coolest bits of the last movie was the Gelnewts: no it made no sense at all, but the official pamphlet even admits it: they're those Gelnewts. You fanonize the rest!

Especially coming after All Riders and Movie War 2010 with their legions of evil, the bar has been raised on movie baddie hordes. Okay, the second one didn't make a whole lot of sense, but it still means that a movie made in 2009 had Hiru-Chameleon in it. And that's the kind of world I want to live in.

Also, you got to love the subversion going on here. The Three Little Pigs are evil! I kind of regret them not giving him some cool power to tie in with that- he throws bricks at people, hits them with sticks and spits out killer hay. Ah well.

Lastly, the music is good. Usual Den-O stuff with some interesting techno-y themes at times for the evil stuff. The ending song's alright, though I've already forgotten how it goes. The CD'll fix that.

All in all, it's an interesting little movie. Whether it is really act one of a three-part story or a the entirely self-contained installment of a ready-made anthology remains to be seen. Taken on its own? It's worth a watch, though probably best meant for hardcore Den-O/Zeronos fans.

Or anyone who likes seeing random thugs get beaten up. Plenty of that too.

Next Time: He's NEW, he's blue, and he's back.

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