Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010 (2009)

Essential viewing for Decade & W watchers

*pulled from my LB review*

A solid extended episode for W mixed with a proper conclusion for Decade that actually hones in on the series' raison d'etre, quite good!

The W portion shows us how everything started with Shotaro's mentor, getting the W belt, meeting Phillip and all, Akiko learning of her father's passing and Shotaro's renewed resolve to grow and become a great detective for the city. Fills in some key details the series didn't address thankfully, wasn't totally substantial in itself, but still an important supplement for W.

The Decade conclusion meanwhile provides a proper outlet for Tsukasa's brazen behaviour, though it would've helped if he properly arrived at this personality if he had a proper arc in the actual series that warranted his general standoffish attitude as more of a gradual thing rather than constantly being an outright jackass.

Nonetheless, the direction and context subtly channels his angst with a nihilist bend for him in a kill or be killed scenario where his fate and very existence threatens everyone else's worlds and he just wants to find a world to belong but now must kill everyone else so he can save himself.

Despite killing other Riders, the overwhelming number of people against him, his precise, chaotic counter-offensives and general demeanour show his desperation to live and bemoaning the situation he's in. With his sacrifice to Natsumi as the atonement for his murder in self-defence, he closes this first age of Kamen Riders (in Decade) with him, but his death bringing the subsequent rebirth of them and all their worlds, and it is then that the characters try to do the same for Tsubasa through their memories of how he affected their lives.

Thus, we hone in on Tsukasa & Decade's purpose: his life had meaning to those around him, and Kamen Riders, or the very idea of heroism, is borne through the tragedy and inspiration values of others in cycles. Tsukasa came to other worlds to fix them, needed to die at the end because there was no more "purpose" to his involvement anymore, no villains out in the open to defeat and all, then the evils leaked out in the chaos, but the memories Tsukasa made along the way bridging the gaps and anomalies in peoples' lives together, existing in the threshold as an adhesive then called for again.

It speaks to Rider's longevity in a way that reminded me of an optimistic Quantum of Solace - that the world will always need heroes and these positive values pass from generation to generation; the series' point perhaps a bit of a silly meta gesture that takes away from its more specific, individual value, but through this movie it became a decent homage to the franchise at least, almost wish this movie could function without the series given how it does all the heavy lifting for it, but at least it gave weight to the very idea of the journey.

Good combo feature, filled in W's hanging details and made Decade not completely pointless, nice.

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Super bizarre as a movie. Probably great for people who watched both Decade and W, but as someone watching this to round out my W experience, this was just really weird. I may be biased, but I think the W parts are more understandable even if you haven't seen W, but the Decade parts were really confusing with no knowledge of that show.

The tone shifts are really crazy, as the W section (while it has some emotion to it) is overall more lighthearted and slapstick, and the Decade section is split between edgy protagonist angst and ridiculously campy villain scenes. I want to reiterate that, at the point where the storylines converge, Decade has been going through deep discussions about his moral compass and struggle to be seen and is facing down a giant nazi airship, whereas W is chasing a character who has turned into a tire and is making onomatopeia sounds as he rolls down the highway.

Overall, though I ended up fast-forwarding through some of the Decade parts, I did enjoy the W bits, and the rating is primarily for the fact that I liked the Shoutarou/Philip backstory and that Skull is really really cool.

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