Kamen Rider Decade - Episode 53 "The Endless Story"

[NeonZ]

this whole "Cross of Fire" thing is like an insult, trying to rewrite histories of the franchise,

It's actually a reference to the franchise's history though. "Cross Fire" was the project that eventually became the first Rider series.

 

[Clocktower]

I don't get the outright hate that some people seem to have regarding the plot of these two episodes. I can see some people disliking the inconsistent tone, like the changes of location in the first part and especially Amadam's behavior in general, but the story itself integrated a core theme for the franchise, rather than just bringing the Riders to fight. Considering how there were only two episodes to set up and play out this whole story, I thought that was a pretty decent concept. Hate for the action is even more baffling to me though, especially considering this second episode, but whatever.

The action wasn't necessarily bad, it just wasn't anything special. Granted, I'm sure it's very difficult to put something like this together with so many different characters, but that's my inherent problem with the whole thing. The two episodes were basically an incredibly convoluted excuse to have a dozen of really powerful guys come together and kick someone. There's no tension and little drama, just fan service and personally, I find it very hard to get excited for that, especially when it's the 1 billionth time we've seen all these guys come together.

 

[NeonZ]

The action wasn't necessarily bad, it just wasn't anything special.

Getting so many Riders attacking together on screen at the same time, using unique abilities of their own and attacks, is very rare and doesn't seem to be that easy. The big crossover movies with All Riders always only had standard choreography in scenes like those, only showing the Riders doing something unique if they got individual cuts. Even Sakamoto's Megamax and Ultimatum broke each Rider's participation into individual segments rather than showing them doing things together (aside from the combined Rider Kick in Ultimatum).

I guess if you didn't care for the group scenes it was nothing special though, but that's basically ignoring what was done here that hadn't been done in any of the other crossovers (well, alongside the Heisei Riders not being mute).

The two episodes were basically an incredibly convoluted excuse to have a dozen of really powerful guys come together and kick someone. There's no tension and little drama, just fan service

I can see why one wouldn't care about the drama here, considering how it focused on a not very charismatic child character, but how was there any less tension than usual? The heroes were put through setbacks, Haruto was direction-less for a while, there was the brief prospect of the Riders being just summons who had to obey Amadam, they were beaten up in the battle before turning things around... It seems like there was quite a few attempts at building tension here. It's not like we got long actions scenes that just went on and on with nothing happening in them.

 

[Hidden Masta]

Excerpts from the Glorio Blog's review of episode 53:
[HIDE]I don’t want to write about this episode. I want to forget it ever happened. Kamen Rider Wizard was the very incarnation of not very good, but it never deserved a disaster like this one. Last week was only the tip of the iceberg, with its confusing, idiotic plot, eye-cancerous direction and overall laziness. This episode was the nec plus ultra of abysmal, a bloated cash grab lacking the most basic elements of sensible screenwriting. When at the very end, this nightmare even tries to tamper with the laws of the entire franchise, it quickly reveals itself to be an insult, not only to the Rider legacy, but to its target audience as well. Even kids can tell this episode is an ugly, heartless mess.

The list just goes on, from terrifyingly amateurish directing (check Beast’s transformation scene; the camera is so close to his face, it actually has to zoom out and in again to show his full transformation) straight out of a high school video project, over criminal abuse of other Riders (Decade has no reason to be here, Beast gets defeated in five seconds and Gaim pops up as a convenient deus ex machina twice in a row) and an atrocious villain, to numerous contradictions and continuity errors, resulting in a plot almost as over-saturated and incomprehensible as this sentence.
Seriously, someone tell me how the hell everyone ended up on a bridge after the credits, Amadam suddenly changed clothes and Haruto somehow ‘betrayed’ the kids? Did Haruto even save the kids from becoming monsters? Is Amadam really responsible for the creation of Core Medals, Gaia Memories and the like? If the alternate world is an afterlife for monsters defeated by Kamen Riders, why do children turn into monsters? Why are there even children? Who is Amadam? How did he get here? Do the Rider rings summon the actual Riders, or alternate universe counterparts? Why did Tsukasa ally with Amadam, and then suddenly double cross him? When did Haruto learn to travel between dimensions? Why the hell did he give his Infinity ring, his most powerful weapon, to a kid? Who wrote this farce?
[/HIDE]

WOAH! The Glorio's Blog?! I can't believe this came from the Glorio's Blog! Just one thing. What the **** is Glorio's Blog and why should I care?

 

[Shynilyte]

So, Overtime's seems like the correct one there to me. Amadam never claims to be the original source of Riders and monsters' power.

Uh, from OT's .ass file for this episode:

Dialogue: 0,0:13:43.56,0:13:46.26,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,He can steal power from Kamen Riders...? {what, like Diend?}{Diend 'borrows' powers, this guy actually takes them}{you've got a weird definition of borrowing}
Dialogue: 0,0:13:46.26,0:13:47.22,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,Wrong!
Dialogue: 0,0:13:47.22,0:13:49.47,Default,,0000,0000,0000,,This power has always been mine!

He specifically states that he is not "stealing" their powers in that scene, but their powers were "always" his. I'm not sure how that works, unless Amadam is some sort of meta-representation of Rider villains in general.

 

[HurricaneDragon]

I almost want to say that this is likely in the same non-canon category as OOO's 1000th episode thing, but on the other hand, I'm willing to bet it will be canon for Wizard's future appearances (no Infinity ring), any Decade ever has (he'll likely reference it), and naturally whatever Gaim does in the future.

In any case! I thought the episode was alright. Not as silly fun as the one before it, but it was okay. It was great seeing everyone going crazy (didn't appreciate the "proper" Kuuga going Rising Ultimate though), and all in all it wasn't... completely terrible. Definitely preferred the shenanigans with Haruto in 52 though.

I really think they could have used something more well thought out than whatever Amadam was supposed to be. For one, at least a handful of the Heisei Riders don't get their powers from monsters or anything like that, and for another, a lot of his lines were just really contradictory. Ah well.

One thing that really bugged me was the use of shaky cam. That really hindered the fight scenes, I felt.

... Also, anyone else find it weird that Alternative/Alternative Zero was used as a kaijin? (Assuming this hasn't already been brought up.) That is probably the most memorable thing about this whole thing for me, to be honest.

And that's a wrap.

 

[Xtreme RX]

... Also, anyone else find it weird that Alternative/Alternative Zero was used as a kaijin? (Assuming this hasn't already been brought up.) That is probably the most memorable thing about this whole thing for me, to be honest.

According to the writer, Alternative was used because he was a grasshopper-based antagonist, and he wanted the villains present in that scene to be enemies with a Kamen Rider motif-mixed in (Batta Yummy, and Orphenoch King included)

 

[Shynilyte]

IIRC, Decade's Nega World also sort of treated Alternative as a kaijin, or at least he "ranked" below actual evil Riders.

 

[billySEEDDecade]

I really think they could have used something more well thought out than whatever Amadam was supposed to be. For one, at least a handful of the Heisei Riders don't get their powers from monsters or anything like that, and for another, a lot of his lines were just really contradictory. Ah well.

Well, most of them have share the origin or is related to the monsters. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Kuuga : The Holy Stone Amadam is the same stone that transformed the Grongi, but purified.
Agito : Agito's power originate from the Overlord of Light, and force humans to evolve.
Ryuki : Power come from Mirror Monster and are essentially made for Kanzaki's purpose.
Faiz : Need to have Orphnoch DNA to use, and created to protect the Orphnoch King.
Blade : Use Undead DNA to transform.
Hibiki : Oni is pretty much demons like Makamou, although Oni have a sense of justice.
Kabuto : Created by ZECT using Native Worm's technology.
Den-O : Need to have Imagin to fully unlock potential, ironically.
Kiva : The Kiva armor is pretty much the combined creation of Fangire and Kivat Race. Need to be a Fangire to use.
Decade : Created by DaiShocker or some will of the universe to destroy and reset everything.
W : Use Gaia Memory just like Dopant. The only difference is that W memories are the purified one.
OOO : Use the Greeed's Core Medals. Created to help the original OOO rules Europe.
Fourze : The Astro and Zodiart Switches are both made from Cosmic Energy.
Wizard : Need to have Phantom in the body.

And I'm sure Gaim's Lock Seed will have something to do with the origin of Inbess.

 

[Burkion]

And of course it goes all the way back to the original Rider. It's just Kamen Rider's thing.