Now that Decade’s journey is over, it is time to wrap up the entire series. In this wrap up, I will tell what are the show's bad points, good points, the parts that I was entertained and most especially, the parts that I am not amused with. For us to start with this wrap up, I will say this: FINAL KAMEN RAIDO... DECADE!
To be honest, the entire series itself is not bad but some people want it not to exist. Seriously, if Decade never happened, a thing called Let’s Go KAMEN RIDERS will not happen since it needs Decade’s elements and some Den-O elements for it to work. I mean, all the Riders will come together and their respective shows have various themes in it that will not make sense if they will do a crossover, especially the Heisei ones since they don’t exist in the same universe, except Kuuga and Agito.
To be honest, the entire series itself is not bad but some people want it not to exist. Seriously, if Decade never happened, a thing called Let’s Go KAMEN RIDERS will not happen since it needs Decade’s elements and some Den-O elements for it to work. I mean, all the Riders will come together and their respective shows have various themes in it that will not make sense if they will do a crossover, especially the Heisei ones since they don’t exist in the same universe, except Kuuga and Agito.
If I would rate Kamen Rider Decade overall, it would be a 7.5, the same rating I gave with Kamen Rider Kiva and Kamen Rider Den-O. What makes this series a 7.5, instead of a full 8 is that asides from the points I mentioned in analyzing Wataru’s speech in my Movie Wars 2010 review, the first half of the series felt like a long toy advertisement in simple terms, filler. Those arcs exist so that Decade will have his powers back while giving his inspirational speech in those worlds. Since I said that these arcs are filler, the episodes that had much importance are: Kuuga, Agito, Blade, Hibiki and Den-O (if you want to watch the film).
As for the use of AU Riders to replace the originals, it is in my opinion, a lame excuse to save money for the franchise’s 40th Anniversary and a cheap method for not alienating the new Kamen Rider viewers from the franchise while giving the viewers a taste on the themes that each series that they feature had. In my opinion, this method worked for me and some of the fans. To be honest, after Decade, I started watching other shows from the Heisei Era and to some extent, watched a couple of Showa stuff too and finished two Showa series, namely, BLACK and Amazon. Now, I am getting into the original series and once I am finished with the currently subbed episodes, I will be jumping back to Kamen Rider V3.
The second half of the series is when I can say that this is Decade’s show since he is not anymore giving speeches and instead, they were focus on developing Tsukasa’s character without him interacting with the major AU Riders. Also, in this half, this is when they really bank on fan service compared to before. Unlike the first half in which they let the action scenes do most of the fan service work, in the second half, they had some of the original actors back to reprise their respective roles. Sure, they had 90% of the original main Kamen Rider Hibiki cast and the 95% of the original Kamen Rider Den-O cast, but having most of the original actors in every arc in the second half less Amazon’s World, was something.
Asides from character development, I mentioned in my early Kamen Rider Decade review that there is a case of character derailment in the form of Narutaki. Seriously, what is his use in the series? He was useful at the early part of the series, but in the later parts, he is more of an eyesore than an important character. The epitome of his character derailment is when he joined Shocker just to contradict Decade. What’s worst is that he transformed into Colonel Zol without any proper explanation on how the devil he had Zol’s powers! What is wrong with them?!
Another character with this case is Daiki Kaito. In the episodes in which we saw his character developed, after that episode, he seems that the writers have forgotten how his character grew. Seriously, Daiki’s character had quite a potential but was a bit derailed as the series progressed. It’s character derailment was proven at the last few minutes of the Kamen Rider Decade: Last Story segment in which he just appeared out of nowhere and gets worried about Tsukasa dying. I mean, he just stole his cards earlier, and trolled him in the previous episodes and if you still stick with the original TV series ending, shot him in point blank range!
If there are problems with the series, probably is how messed up the timeline of this show, especially the movies and where does it take place. Even if All Riders vs. Dai Shocker is considered canon, a lot of fans have problems where to place the film. Some placed it after the BLACK x BLACK RX Arc, while official materials state after Amazon’s Arc. Just like, I said in my review about this film’s DC, it is set after Amazon’s Arc due to the factors such as Den-O’s World and how Apollo Geist worked in World of Rider War. As for Movie Wars 2010, it is set during December thanks to the crossover, but how many months after the series? Your mileage will vary on that. I decided to set a rough estimate of four months after since W started on September, but if you decide to use the timeline when they shoot Decade, it might be five months or six months after.
There are a couple of things that Decade did to the entire franchise. Asides that he started the use of multiple items that will be used for transforming, at the same time can be collected, in Decade’s case, the Kamen Ride Cards, Decade returned the famed crossovers. Because of this, like I mentioned in my Movie Wars 2010 review, the Riders which appeared for only a year will appear again next year to meet the new Rider and team up, thanks with the Movie Wars films. Asides from that, Decade also started the tradition of Rider cameos in their respective Summer films. What’s more is that since Decade ended up a bit early, we have two Rider shows airing in the same year! See the impact Decade made?
To end this wrap up, does Decade deserve the hate he receives? A short answer to that is no. Sure it messed up at the near end, but look at the series overall, Decade is a good show in a short span of time. Sure, it is not as good as Kuuga or Agito or heck, even W but in terms of the merchandise aspect of things, it was successful that it cause Bandai to sell Gaia Memories and Medals that cause collectors to burn their own pockets.
Asides from that, in the story side of things, especially the last parts of the series, they tried to revive the “Lonely Kamen Rider” aspect that the original Kamen Rider series is known for by billing Decade as the Destroyer of Worlds. Alienating him from the other Riders who save their own worlds, and they both fail and succeed in that. Fail because he doesn’t have that emotion that I saw in Hongo in the episodes of Kamen Rider that I watched because he tried not to be lonely by acting to be strong and a dick but even if he tried to hide it, deep down inside, he can’t accept the fact that he will destroy everything, connect everything.
Succeed because in the later part of the series and at the film, Tsukasa felt a bit lonely since he doesn’t know what world he belongs and he has this feeling that he had no hope in going back to his own world. Sure, he returned to his own world briefly but his own organization, his friends and even his family later rejected him during the events in the film.
When he accepted his duty as the Destroyer of Worlds, he accepted his fate that he will be forever be hated by everyone because on what he did to the Riders so he go with that flow and let the Riders attack him instead of hunting them. He accepted the uniform of the Destroyer of Worlds, a man with no allegiance and haunted by the ghost of the Riders that he killed. This is the aspect where they succeeded; they made Tsukasa someone whom you can’t talk to because you know that he might kill you if you are a Rider, making him a tragic character at the near end.
To wrap the entire series, Decade even with the mediocre writing, it was one heck of a ride. Like all series, it has its own imperfections but because of these imperfections, it made Decade a memorable series. Seriously, if you tried to remove in the entire franchise, we might not have Let’s Go KAMEN RIDERS since All Riders vs. Dai Shocker was just a dry run of trying to use Shocker again without using the Shocker name with all the organizations own to man in a single umbrella. Same case with Movie Wars 2010 in which they used Super Shocker in which they tried on playing on having a single main bad guy with a couple of bad guys supporting him. Also, the series succeed in the merchandise side of things, causing Toei to think more ideas to sell small toys and now it is rumored that we are having eggs after OOO!
As for the characters, they were a memorable bunch especially Narutaki, yes, especially Narutaki and his constant screaming that everything is Decade’s fault. For what I can say about the Decadriver, check my thoughts about it here and as for my thoughts with the Complete Form, check it here. As for the use of CYMK color scheme and the suits, it was mixed, Decade’s suit was something that compliments with every suit placed beside him due to how neutral the suit look like in every angle when place beside those guys. As for Diend’s suit, eyesore as for the other suits, they are looking fine with me.
And so, even with all the hate, outside the main series, Decade and his comrades will continue on traveling the worlds, helping them with Tsukasa taking bad pictures that looked like some five-year-old kid played his brother’s Photoshop software. He will continue his journey, not anymore traveling the nine Heisei Worlds, but more than that, he will journey beyond the Decade.
Random Rant:
Special thanks to all these people who partly inspired me to write this namely: HJU members, Igadevil, Lynxara and NeonZ because of their replies on various Kamen Rider Decade threads which helped me analyze the entire series overall. Seriously, you guys are awesome.
To GekiDan for letting me post these reviews on JEFusion's Facebook Fanpage, and if you decided to request me to repost it in the main blog, I would be happy to repost it. Finally, to my parents and most especially, God for giving me enough health to finish it.
Now that I am done with this review series, what’s next? Answer, the Cho Den-O Trilogy! All I need to do is DL the other two films and I am done.
Special thanks to all these people who partly inspired me to write this namely: HJU members, Igadevil, Lynxara and NeonZ because of their replies on various Kamen Rider Decade threads which helped me analyze the entire series overall. Seriously, you guys are awesome.
To GekiDan for letting me post these reviews on JEFusion's Facebook Fanpage, and if you decided to request me to repost it in the main blog, I would be happy to repost it. Finally, to my parents and most especially, God for giving me enough health to finish it.
Now that I am done with this review series, what’s next? Answer, the Cho Den-O Trilogy! All I need to do is DL the other two films and I am done.