Riders Series' Direction

Lynxara said:

But it didn't. It made up new versions of the characters in the suits and then put them in the same roof. A lot of those characters were nothing like the originals and we only saw them for a little over two episodes. Why should anyone into the actual Heisei TV shows care about that?

More to the point, Decade didn't connect them in any meaningful way. So what if the suits have appeared onscreen together? That just means that Toei hired enough suit actors to film those scenes. You can't say they all live on the same Earth, which is how the Showa continuity worked.

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You have a point, since Decade rebooted everything to where the Riders now can co-exist with each other.

Ok, so what if they are in the same world? Each of the Heisei riders had their own themes and stories to tell. The "reboot" kind of "unjustly" removed the complexities of each Heisei Rider's story, simplifying kamen rider down to just being a guy in a costume fighting.

Sorry, I really don't like Decade and I don't like to see credit given to it for anything that isn't important.

Personally, I don't see KR as that. Just an opinion

Hidden Masta said:

Is the 1% Den-O? And where did you read all that stuff about Ishinomori? Sounds interesting.

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There's no shortage of material that makes the Kamen Rider series really seem like Hirayama's baby, he did a lot of the initial planning and creative work on it. While Ishinomori definitely played a large role and gets his credit for it, I think a lot of people tend to forget, or not even know of Hirayama's role.


http://igadevil.blogspot.com/2008/01/secret-origins-part-1.html
http://igadevil.blogspot.com/2008/01/secret-origins-part-2.html
http://igadevil.blogspot.com/2008/01/secret-origins-part-3.html
http://www.igadevil.com/2008/02/secret-origins-part-4.html

Igadevil did a really great overview of a manga that focused on him.

Lynxara said:

But it didn't. It made up new versions of the characters in the suits and then put them in the same roof.

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That's not completely true. What about All Riders, which had an emphasis just on recreating each Rider, rather than adding any unique twist to them? Yes, there was no characterization, but each Rider already had their own tv series for that.

More to the point, Decade didn't connect them in any meaningful way. So what if the suits have appeared onscreen together? That just means that Toei hired enough suit actors to film those scenes. You can't say they all live on the same Earth, which is how the Showa continuity worked.

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They're still in the same continuity now, even if they're different universes, which is the only possible way they could fit together without just insulting the viewers anyway. The important detail here is that it leaves open the possibility of more events like it. Even if you didn't enjoy Decade itself, that's much better than the seemingly previous alternative (an eternally closed book - unless you're Den-O).

At the end of the day, all I can say is this... Decade left me with a feeling that Decade himself will always be traveling around worlds ready to bring together all the Kamen Riders if it is ever needed. They all might be alternate versions, but if luck sees fit, he might be able to find his way into an original/actual rider universe; which is why he and Double were able to fight together two times. So if you care for only seeing the Riders and the powers they weild but you honestly don't care about seeing actors or the stories they may have, then Decade can give you what you want. So, in his own way, Decade really can bring all the Riders together. Just don't expect them to be exactly the same as you remember them.

A Kamen Rider is a hero of justice that fights monsters to protect world peace. They also ride motorcycles.


...Or something like that. Anyway, I haven't seen the majority of the Showa era shows (just Black and Amazon), and from Heisei, only Kuuga, Agito, Blade, Kiva, Decade (grudgingly) and what we've seen of Double.

The two showa era shows I've seen and Kuuga really captured the feel of a "hero of justice". Double, has also captured that feeling. Shotaro wants to protect Futo and the people living in the city. Kiva, Decade, and Agito didn't really capture that feeling. Agito SORTA did, but... Eh. It didn't as much as the others.


This is just how I feel. I grew up on superhero shows, primarily starting with Power Rangers and re-runs of the old Batman live action with Adam West or whatever.

SamuraiEchidna said:

At the end of the day, all I can say is this... Decade left me with a feeling that Decade himself will always be traveling around worlds ready to bring together all the Kamen Riders if it is ever needed. They all might be alternate versions, but if luck sees fit, he might be able to find his way into an original/actual rider universe; which is why he and Double were able to fight together two times. So if you care for only seeing the Riders and the powers they weild but you honestly don't care about seeing actors or the stories they may have, then Decade can give you what you want. So, in his own way, Decade really can bring all the Riders together. Just don't expect them to be exactly the same as you remember them.

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To be honest, that's really what Toei (and in true essence, Bandai) wanted to accomplish all along. Toei may have cared about the "older Rider fans," but not enough to bring back all the actual characters.

It's more financially beneficial for Toei/Bandai to just say "hey old school Rider fans, we'll team-up all the Riders together again like we use to, but only in suit-form because we're too damn cheap to pay the big names to come back and play their characters again."

It's a shitty way of looking at it, and it prolly has offended more old school Rider fans in the process........but Toei/Bandai are some cheap bastards at the end of the day. Them and their mediocre level CGI :disappoin

:buttrock:

big_j_ny said:

To be honest, that's really what Toei (and in true essence, Bandai) wanted to accomplish all along. Toei may have cared about the "older Rider fans," but not enough to bring back all the actual characters.

It's more financially beneficial for Toei/Bandai to just say "hey old school Rider fans, we'll team-up all the Riders together again like we use to, but only in suit-form because we're too damn cheap to pay the big names to come back and play their characters again."

It's a shitty way of looking at it, and it prolly has offended more old school Rider fans in the process........but Toei/Bandai are some cheap bastards at the end of the day. Them and their mediocre level CGI :disappoin

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i completely agree toei is cheap now a days when i saw diff actors i was like WTH I want godai not him

The problem is that some of these actors don't want to come back, even if they were offered a lot of money. It's mostly those who careers picked up after toku.

While others might want to, except they're contracted to different projects or want more money.

Speaking of Joe Odagiri, who played Godai. He was asked in a magazine if he would ever play that role again. He said no, due to it being difficult.

I am still puzzled why Toei decided to cast Kento Handa for the Go-Onger movie, but not for Decade.

Are you seriously telling me that hiring an actor to do a role in a full length movie is cheaper than hiring him for a 2-episode cameo in a TV-show? :sly:

The problem with Decade is not only because of the lack of original actors. During the early rumours, many people, including myself, hoped that Decade would focus on the original stories and tell us what happened afterwards. It was a big opportunity for the writers to give shows like Faiz a proper ending and cover up some of the plot holes that had been left previously.

Instead we got a show that gave us even more plot holes.
Decade might have brought the Heisei and Showa universes together, but it was done with absolutely no care. It was all about toy selling and nothing else. I know that these shows are made to sell toys, but at least some of them have been shown a bit more care than others.
Compare the final episodes in Stronger to the All Riders movie, and you will see what I mean.

Heck, it was painful just to see how desperately the writers tried to give Tsukasa a story outside of his suit.
I am willing to believe that Toei would have preferred if Decade was just an empty, walking suit.
Almost every episode of Decade felt like the writers were saying "We should get Tsukasa to transform as fast as possible. Just give him some dialogue and make him say Henshin"

Decade represents the 2 things I hate most about the Heisei era Riders:

Writers that can’t figure out how to handle a story, and Bandai having 99% of the power

There are some exceptions, W being the latest one.