Post by Yuri Petrovitch on Dec 21, 2013 11:13:09 GMT -5
"The Destroyer of Worlds--Decade. What does he see as he travels the Nine Worlds?"
KAMEN RIDER DECADE
SYNOPSIS
[A note before we begin: Usually I try NOT to spell out every bit of a story because the point of these things is to encourage you to actually watch the show. Problem is, with Decade you kiiiiinda HAVE to spoil it to talk about it. So, HUGE SPOILERS]
Natsumi Hikari has a dream, and it's not a pleasant one. Somewhere, for some reason, the Kamen Riders are battling to death against an unknown foe and are losing badly. Standing above the bodies of the Riders is another Rider, one she identifies as Decade.
When she wakes up, she finds she has bigger problems--Tsukasa Kadoya, the new photographer that's taken up working at her grandfather's studio, might be perhaps the world's worst photographer. Unable to develop a picture that doesn't come out ghastly, Tuskasa, who even on a day with low self-esteem would be considered overweeningly arrogant, asserts that his photos probably don't turn out right because he doesn't belong in this world. Before Natsumi can explore this further, their world comes under attack by monsters--every monster from the past 10 series, from the Grongi to the Orphenocs to the Mirror Monsters are swarming over the world en masse, and Tuskasa can't do much abut it, because he's been spirited say to have a talk with Wataru Kurenai (who you may remember as Kamen Rider Kiva) who explains what's going on--There are 9 Parallel Worlds where 9 Kamen Riders were born, each its own story. But now those stories are becoming one, and the Earths are being destroyed as they merge. Wataru freezes the destruction of Tsukasa's world in place and tells him to travel (through the backdrop in Nastumi's grandfathers studio) to the 9 Alternate Reality Worlds and destroy the Kamen Riders there. Meanwhile, Natsumi looks terribly worried because the Rider Tsukasa transformed into looked exactly like the one in her dream: Kamen Rider Decade:
For the next few episodes, we establish a somewhat Quantum Leap-y sorta pattern--Tsukasa travels to a different Alternate World, which features a familiar Rider from the past ten years (starting with Kuuga, of course) which features a slightly different take on the original story from that series. Tsukasa, being that he doesn't belong in any of these worlds, usually takes on a role within that gets him closer to the Rider in question. Upon solving whatever problem they're having, Tsukasa find more cards unlocked that he can use (Decade's power is, to be brief, that with the right card he can access the form and powers of any of the past Heisei riders, and yes, that IS the toy gimmick for this year) and then they travel to another world. After leaving Kuuga's World, Kuuga joins them on their journey through the remaining worlds. Also, two more players soon reveal themselves.
Narutaki is an otherwise unassuming man in a trench coat and a hat, who seems to be able to cross dimensions like Tsukasa can. Also, he can summon Riders on his own and he seems implacably convinced that Tsukasa is the reason the worlds are merging and will be destroyed, and it's all his fault. We never quite work out his deal, beyond "whatever Decade's doing, I'm against it."
Daiki Kaito is a little easier to figure out. A mysterious man who can cross dimensions like Narutaki, but with a more easily graspable motivation--Kaito ("Kaito"="Bandit") lives to steal stuff and generally be a troll, often at one and the same time. What's more, Kaito is a Kamen Rider as well, and he uses the Diendriver to become Kamen Rider Diend:
Upon the completion of the Nine Worlds Journey . . .nothing happens as yet, but they keep traveling. Along the way they meet the Samurai Sentai, Shinkenger (the first time the current Kamen Rider and Super Sentai series crossed over) and soon learn that something else is behind the worlds merging--an organization called Dai Shocker (based on the Shocker organization that were the original antagonists in the first Kamen Rider show) led by Apollogeist (a bad guy from Kamen Rider X) The final battle with Apollogeist ends in victory and everything seems OK . . .
. . .and then the Rider War begins. The Riders converge and begin attacking Decade, and the series ends on one hell of a cliffhanger--Diend blasts Decade in the face at point-blank range.
The follow-up movie (All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker) ignores pretty much all of that, however, but gives us a glimpse of the "truth": Tsukasa is actually the leader of Dai-Shocker, and the Decadriver was meant to be used as a tool to connect the Worlds so Dai-Shocker could sweep in and conquer them. Upon regaining his memory, Tsukasa is soon betrayed by the organization and units with the Riders to finally destroy Dai Shocker, though what's happened to Natsumi's world is left unclear, because . . .
. . the follow-up movie to All-Riders vs. Dai-Shocker ignores the resolution of this and presents us with a Tsukasa who has wholly embraced his role as the Destroyer of Worlds and is annihilating Riders wholesale.It's up to Natsumi to finally stop him, as she becomes Kamen Rider Kivala (for some reason) to finally destroy Decade:
Upon doing so, she find that the Riders who were lost to the Rider War or Decade have all been restored--Tsukasa's role was, ultimately, to connect everything and be the catalyst that re-creates the Worlds. Thanks to Kaito and Natsumi's memories of Tsukasa (who would have been lost otherwise, because as Wataru says in one of the most hilariously meta moments err "Decade has no story") they are able to revive him, and Tsukasa continues to journey through parallel worlds even now (usually whenever Toei needs a crossover movie justified) as he recently showed up in the final episodes of Kamen Rider Wizard, which, as you might have guessed, was a big crossover fest.
ANALYSIS
I saved Decade for a few weeks for a reason which I hope I made apparent in the synopsis--it's kind of a beautiful mess. While it was the first show I'd picked up after many years of not watching Kamen Rider (someone sent me a few Kuuga episodes on VHS back in the day-THAT, people, was how long ago it was) and while I enjoyed it for what it was, it is, well . ..a sampler buffet. You never quite get a whole complete meal out of it, you're forever just getting bits from here and there.
You get different cool things--The traveling through worlds, meeting different Riders (this show works as a means to sample the previous 9 Heisei Riders shows without a lot of investiture of time--Decade is one of the shortest Rider series ever at 33 episodes) the notion that Tsukasa was actually the leader of Dai-Shocker, the fact that he may end up being the Destroyer of Worlds despite his best efforts not to be, but none of it is paid off in a way that really makes you feel like "Oh yeah, this is where we were going from the start" and that's really rather a shame, given the potential of the series.
The characters are, well. Tuskasa's a jerk, Kaito, a troll, Natsumi's perpetually annoyed, and Yuusuke (Kuuga) gradually gets shunted into the background after joining up. The Alternate Reality riders are typically not the same characters from the original (the actors who essayed those roles usually having moved on to other things) but are some sort of riff on the originals, but as we generally only have 2 episodes to get to know them, we really don't get very deep into their characters. Narutaki is. . .I don't even know WHAT his role in things was, is or was supposed to be. It would be nice if at some point, there was some movement or character growth to be had, or we learned that Tsukasa's journey had changed him or whatever, but that is mostly just informed rather than illustrated.
On the plus side, the the song, "Journey Through The Decade" is one of my favorites:
If you can get past the fact that Decade continually borks its attempt to wrap things up (and the frustration that they set up SO MUCH cool stuff that you really wanted to see pay off), you can have a lot of fun with it--as I said, as a sampler it works great. The action is awesome, it's great to see the old Riders in action, and there are a few promising twists on old concepts you might enjoy.
If you're looking for something that will feel more complete and might possibly make a little sense? Well . . .look elsewhere.
IN 3 WEEKS
Taking a break for the Holidays. Hopefully by the time I return I'll have completed watching one of the three series I'm following now--either Agito, Blade, or Den-O. So join us next year for a surprise!