Episode 1 – Rider War
The episode starts with all Riders running around and fighting one unknown figure. It’s a scene that painted a single word, War. Not just any war, a Rider War and one woman is witnessing it, Natsumi Hikari. All the Riders were defeated by an unknown figure. Decade.
Natsumi woke up from her dream and an angry customer approached her talking about the crappy photo she received. It was Tsukasa’s fault. After she founds Tsukasa and does a laughing pressure point, talk about Tsukasa not belonging in this world, a strange event started to occur. Monsters started to appear out of nowhere and attack the city. While running away from the monster attack, Tsukasa and Natsumi got separated.
Tsukasa was transported to a strange world in which a man tells him where is his buckle and cards. Tsukasa, clueless, the man tells him about his mission. He must travel to nine Rider Worlds for him to stop the merging of the worlds. He also tells Tsukasa that there is no creation without destruction and after that he leaves. Tsukasa returns to their world and asked Natsumi to hand him the buckle and he transforms into Decade, saved Natsumi and had a taste of power as Decade. He checked his cards. All his cards are grayscaled.
They return to the photo studio in which Tsukasa tells Natsumi about his mission… and he doesn’t know how to go to the other worlds until Eijiro, Natsumi’s grandfather suddenly lowers a background and poof, they are now in Kuuga’s World.
On to the review, the first episode felt like a movie made for TV. I mean, the CGI, the explosions heck, everything felt like it came from a high budgeted movie! It’s one of the few episodes I love to watch over and over again. It felt like it threw a statement on me that says, “This is how your heroes will die.”
First impressions about the cast, my first impression about Natsumi are that she will not do anything major in the show. She was like placed there for the sake of eye candy. For Tsukasa, he made a great first impression in the first episode. He was like, “Sure my photography skills felt like a 5-year-old kid who played too much Adobe Photoshop but screw it, it’s your photo, take it.”
Wataru’s appearance in the episode felt like Wataru has finally become more mature. First, he was a complete shut-in until he started opening up and later, becoming a badass as seen in this episode. He never tells his name to Tsukasa, he just went straight to the point.
Overall, this is a strong start for the series, it established the central plot of the show in which as the series progressed, will be slowly forgotten thanks to a certain DaiShocker.