Kamen Rider DCD All Riders vs. Dai Shocker (SPOILERS)

[SPOILERS, etc.]

So by now, every man and his dog will probably have seen this film.

After several months of waiting, finally some of the big questions of DCD‘s early story arcs have been answered. We now know what Tsukasa’s original world was like and, even more importantly, we know his original purpose in setting out from that world.

The first important thing for me to say is that, regardless of how the series sort of petered out, All Riders was a good film and, even more importantly, a potential open-ended conclusion to DCD.

Secondly, I want to say that I’m really pleased to see Hibiki’s (apparently expensive to film hence why it was dropped from the series) Onibi attack again.

The story begins with a *cough* tournament of Kamen Riders, not entirely dissimilar to one that avid readers of fanfic.net might already have encountered. Following a series of battles between Riders and a meeting with Tsukasa’s long, lost (or rather forgotten) younger sister and this world’s version of Black/Black RX‘s nemesis, Shadow Moon, Tsukasa is revealed as the definitive leader of Dai Shocker and the man responsible for disfiguring an alternate version of Yuki Joji (Riderman).

Kaito is also revealed to have stolen the DiendDriver from Dai Shocker, hence Diend’s similarity to the presumably Shocker designed DCD armour. I don’t know how this matches up with the World of Diend back story from the series as that was one of the arcs I skipped, but it makes sense to me, considering Tsukasa’s role.

It’s also the only time in the entire canon that the whole ‘DCD, destroyer of worlds‘ schtick actually makes any sense. What this means is that Hat Man may well have been a good guy all along… and yet still it’s hard to care about him.

"In the Hall of the DCD King."

Yet as soon as Tsukasa sits himself on his throne and assumes his role as head of Dai Shocker once again, Shadow Moon usurps him and, with the assistance of Tsukasa’s embittered younger sister, dressed in a similar costume to Golgom’s Bishium from Black.

From there, Tsukasa gets a bit angsty but eventually, with the aid of Yuki Joji, discovers what it means to be a Kamen Rider just in time for the big battle and a harmless bit of fanservice for fans of W (as in Shotaro and Philip, not Tsuji and Kago).

What follows is the biggest Rider battle since, well, since DCD‘s opening, featuring DCD’s Final Form Rider, Kuuga’s Rising Ultimate form, the return of J., cameos from the original Agito and Black RX, and what might possibly be the Rider Kick to end all Rider Kicks.

The main problem with the film comes from the pacing and the obvious fact that certain key elements/scenes were not shown in order to make the Director’s Cut an essential for those who enjoyed the film. When viewed in that light, it’s easy to argue that this version of the film is nothing but a glorified trailer.

The film is far from being a return to the Showa era, but it is a Kamen Rider film in the traditional sense as well.

After this, I’m willing to put money on the fact that I think DCD will return for a ‘second season’ this September.