Post by Yuri Petrovitch on Dec 5, 2015 15:20:22 GMT -5
"Who says justice is needed to be on the on the winning side?"
D-VIDEO SPECIAL: KAMEN RIDER 4
SYNOPSIS
In the wake of the battle with the Great Leader and the destruction of the History Modifying Machine, time . . .is in the process of returning to normal and resolving the paradox that created Kamen Rider 3 and the alternate world that Shocker ruled. But since Shocker isn't the type to let a little thing like running something until it breaks hold up their plans, they've salvaged the bits of the Machine that still function and have locked the timestream into a single, endlessly repeating loop wherein Kamen Rider Mach keeps dying in a battle with the Shocker cyborgs. What's more, every time the loop re-sets, Shocker grows even stronger . . .
To save Mach from dying and to re-set the timeline, Drive tries to interfere and prevent Mach's death, but that doesn't go anywhere until he gets the assistance of Kamen Rider Zeronos (who, as a Singularity Point, remembers the original timeline and can escape the loop) and Kamen Rider Faiz (who is there for . . .well, spoiler-y reasons) who are racing against time to stop Shocker from achieving their plans, which are wrapped up with the creation of Kamen Rider 4, who, unlike the previous Riders they've created isn't a cyborg, but a robot, and purely dedicated to destroying the Riders and ensuring Shocker conquers the world.
Then they have a fight, the winner of whom will literally dictate the course of time going forward:
ANALYSIS
If my synopsis sounds a little bit spare it's because it is. Kamen Rider 4, being a little extra for the Kamen Rider 3 movie and basically a chance to have wall-to-wall fighting for three episodes. And while it's not bad, it's just . . .kind of slight and never really commits to anything, apart from having a few awesome fights, a few bits of fanservice, and a few continuity nods.
And for what it is (a three-part special that was partly released as a DVD for people went to the Kamen Rider 3 movie with the latter two released for some website in Japan with a proprietary media player that meant I first watch the last 2 episodes as vertical cel-phone recordings. That wasn't fun.) It's perfectly acceptable, on a gee-whiz action-movie level. The fights are really well-realised, Kamen Rider 4 has a bunch of cool gimmicks and my big takeaway was wishing he had a bit more screentime.
Because the stuff with the Groundhog Day time-loops is interesting, and any chance to hang out with the Special Crimes Unit, even if a messed-up alternate timeline, but it both goes on too long and doesn't go on long enough to be the slowly-unfolding mystery they want it to be. Plus, really, Groundhog Day-style plots don't really work well in the milieu of Kamen Rider. Did the movie end with Bill Murray Rider Kicking Stephen Tobolowsky? No? Then I rest my case.
I suppose I should throw in a brief little bit about the big retcon this makes to the final episode of 555, and honestly, that thing would be "pretend this never happened, because trying to reconcile it will tie a knot in your brain." Apparently Takumi, who was never portrayed in 555 as being especially intelligent (at least enough to do what was involved in altering timelines) initially started the time loops, as he was trying to prevent people from dying, which explains the retcons in Kamen Rider War, among others, and . . .well . . .this might be one of those times when it's just as well to say "y'know, he shows up because he does."
Needless to say, this is the sort or thing that if this was your initial introduction to Kamen Rider, would probably make you run away screaming. But taken with several licks worth of salt and no small charity, it's. . .not bad.
NEXT TIME
It's the last Kamen Rider show in my backlog and probably the last one I'll review at the TI (I'm watching Kamen Rider Ghost, but I'm not as high on it as I have been on other series. It's not actively bad, but it is mediocre with a focus and intensity only seen in things that aren't mediocre. Even if it wasn't it'll be 2016 by the time that finishes, and I have no idea how many layers this board will be under by then. That's the problem with year-long series like this, alas) Join us for the long-awaited (and better than I thought it was gonna be) Kamen Rider Drive: