[SPOILERS, again, for Chou Den-o...and a bit of DCD and speculation on one aspect of the August DCD movie]
Kiva is the first item on the agenda. That’s what, three, four times outside of his arc now? Again, I have to wonder how much Kiva merchandise Bandai have left over from last year that they hope to shift. I was also surprised to find out that two characters from Kiva are turning up in the new Chou Den-o franchise – it’s really beginning to feel like Kamen Rider has become the testing ground for elements Toei hope to include in their spin-off franchise.
But enough of the complaints, let’s talk about this episode and let’s talk about what was good about it: for starters it was an improvement on the first part of the Den-o arc, secondly, I’m firmly of the opinion that the inclusion of Momotaros as an actual character improves anything. Even if part of the way in which he was used seemed somewhat random to me, I will fully admit that he was one of my favourite things about the original series and, quite possibly, one of my favourite things regarding the entire Heisei era. Kintaros comes a close second but as far as I’m concerned, Momo is the Imajin man.
People who aren’t the man are, obviously, girls and, speaking of which, it’s hard not to see that the actress who plays Kohana has grown a lot since I last saw her in the abysmal Climax Deka. She’s still not a patch on the original Hana but, considering she was a quick-fix for Shiratori Yuriko‘s absence, I wonder what Toei will do when they finally realise that their new girl is now a teenager and unable to play the same Kohana they originally foisted upon the series.
The other girls who primarily do nothing during this story are sadly, Natsumi and Naomi. The latter I didn’t expect much storyline for but I was hoping that the former might get a bit more, especially considering the whole End of the World sequence in the last episode. Perhaps, however, this was asking too much as the second part of Rider World arcs are always crammed with the majority of the action so there was never really much room for her here.
I won’t pretend to understand the whole DenLiner Form card vs. Momotaros Form card in this episode, but I am pleased to see Yuusuke as Kuuga once more and even more pleased to see Kuuga and Momo as a team – even if the Final Attack Ride card for this episode was a bit weird even by DCD‘s standards.
"Don't cross the streams!"
Undeniably though, my favourite aspect of the episode was Diend’s use of the RiotTroopers from Faizu. Mass-produced armour characters are one of my favourite aspects of this kind of show (quick, spot the Gundam fan!) and so it was great to them here – plus, their inclusion amongst Diend’s deck and the appearance of RiderMan in the trailer for All Riders vs. Daishocker (or whatever it’s called), gives me faith that maybe, just maybe, we might get to see an AU version of Tackle in that film.
"I Predict a Riot."
To wrap up, despite being an improvement on the previous episode, I still felt there was a lot lacking in #15. This wasn’t helped by the ‘two-ending’ phenomenon – i.e., having to have an ending for the arc and then having to bolt on a continuation point for the rest of the Onigashima Battleship movie and the necessary DCD cameos in that. I could have done without that.
I am however, believing that things will be back on track next week. I couldn’t stomach the Stronger!lite stylings of the Hibiki killing team of Inoue Toshiki and Yonemura Shoji scripted Kabuto and avoided watching even the opening episode for so long due to feelings of resentment towards Toei. In the opening episode of that series, I found little to convince me to follow the show – I’m hoping that Aikawa Sho (the writer, not *the* actor) will be able to bring the source material alive for me.
If anything though, I’m just pleased to be back in the realms of a storyline without tie-in considerations.
