Decade 31 special released

[takenoko]

I really like the new ending. I think a lot of people would have been less steamed if they just ended it like this

[Cheetah]

It's still not a good ending but in this one it full circles the series. At least with this ending it looks more planned and thought out instead of a kick you in the butt cliffhanger. If that makes any sense...

[Catastrophe]

Ties in better with intro, I like. Hopefully, with this change it still flows nicely into however the movie goes.

[Archon Divinus]

I've read that the new ending was put together so as to lead into the movie better, and I guess it kind of works as a more definite ending in a way, but I prefer the original. The new ending just doesn't work for me.

[takenoko]

To me I think it's better since like Cheetah said, everything comes for circle and it's less of a cliffhanger. With the original ending, you get this "did he get shot, did he not get shot" fade to black thing which really smacked of "find out the answer in the movie". Natsumi and Decade facing each other in the new ending, while it doesn't answer any questions, at least is kind of an ambiguous ending

[Phoenix512]

The original ending was so much better. It didn't need to be revised at all. It didn't need all the stuff from episode 1 to ruin such a good scene with DiEnd possibly shooting Decade in the very end. Thanks for ruining the original ending, Toei.

[takenoko]

What makes that a good scene? It'd be like ending Faiz in the middle of the fight with the Orphenoch King. It's not compelling, it's just a cliffhanger

[Phoenix512]

Because there's more of a personal effect with the scene than Decade floating in the air staring at Natsumi. Removing the possible DiEnd shooting Decade makes it less compelling because we already saw this scene before and already had a continuation of the dream in the previous episodes. Either way they are both cliffhangers which the original one is much better than the revised one.

[PHurricane]

As anyone in the channel could probably tell you, I was in shock when I saw they revised the ending. How do you change the ending to a series eight months after it aired? It boggles my mind.

In terms of emotional impact, the first ending is probably better. By that, I mean that emotions were certainly running high after it aired.

But from a story-telling perspective, I think this ending is a lot more satisfying. It doesn't answer any of the lingering questions (which Natsumi helpfully summarizes a bunch of in her voice-over), but looping back to the Rider War sequence from the first episode gives the series a much more complete feeling. What triggered the Rider War is sort of explained. DiEnd doesn't go from frenemy to comrade and back to enemy in a 10 minute span, which makes me warm up to his character a lot more than I did after the original ending. (Or maybe that's just the influence of the Den-O trilogy trailer.) Heck, I think even Narutaki comes off as a little less of a troll, if you assume that he really did know that Decade was supposed to destroy all of the Kamen Riders he came into contact with and wanted to see Decade destroyed instead. (Of course, we still don't know why he'd want that...)

They did a decent job with the footage they had, but unfortunately the little contradictions in the splicing add up. Was Yuusuke still revived, or did that change since we never saw him henshin into Ultimate Kuuga? Are there two Kuugas, since we see the red Kuuga on his bike a few seconds later when the footage switches back to first episode Rider War, or did he drop back down to the red-armor form for some reason that's not specified? Similar questions for Blade, who isn't present in the original line-up (because Kenzaki hadn't done the henshin yet), then appears in King form without the henshin sequence. I don't think they show his appearance in the Rider War footage, though, so that cuts out any confusion about him.

Yeah, it's probably nothing more than the unavoidable effects of working with what you have, but it's interesting to wonder how the people in charge of the revision want you to interpret (or ignore) the inconsistencies.

Now I just wish they had decided to do this quicker so both versions were included on the DVD.

[takenoko]

>I was in shock when I saw they revised the ending. How do you change the ending to a series eight months after it aired? It boggles my mind.

It seems like this is becoming an annoying trend. They revised the ending to the Rescue Force movie too. I guess it's less of a deal now that everyone is recording everything, so we know that some version exists somewhere on the Internet. But it certainly would have been nice if this were included on the DVD

>They did a decent job with the footage they had, but unfortunately the little contradictions in the splicing add up.

A wizard did it

[NeonZ]

I enjoyed Decade in general, but the very final scene of the original Decade running always just bothered me.

Diend attacking Decade without any emotional build up, to create a strong cliff hanger was just cheap, and I just felt empty after that, even after enjoying almost the entire series. So, I really like this attempt to change things. Although I'm annoyed they removed Kenzaki's final transformation, that was a good scene...

Are there two Kuugas, since we see the red Kuuga on his bike a few seconds later when the footage switches back to first episode Rider War, or did he drop back down to the red-armor form for some reason that's not specified?

Those really should be 2 different Kuugas, considering how the one in Mighty form is riding a bike and coming from the wrong side. There is a Blade Jack flying and a Ryuki and Kiva wielding the Zanbat sword standing on top of the Castle Doran too. It'd be really goofy if they tried to explain that they were the same ones on the ground running after Decade...

We saw that there could be more than a single Rider in different worlds (Ryuuga summoned by Narutaki and Ryuuga from Nega World, or the ones that Decade met in the series and Wataru's companions), so multiple Riders is not something impossible in this series, although there wasn't any scene showing two of the same Rider fighting at once.

[KickHopper]

I have a problem with removing the henshin of Kenzaki and Yuusuke in the new ending sequence. If they were gonna cut out Yuusuke's henshin, they might as well have just cut out U-Kuuga showing up at all, because it just takes away the impact of that moment. Honestly, if they were gonna splice in the dream sequence, they should've cut out the parts where Kuuga and Blade showed up for sure. Honestly I think Kenzaki should've transformed into Jack Blade from the get-go, even in the original version, as then it would've still matched up better with the dream sequence, even if it wasn't a direct dream sequence reshowing. Also, if you recall in the beginning of the series when the group is in Kuuga's World, Kuuga and Decade fighting triggers a flash back (or flash forward) of Natsumi seeing M-Kuuga get up from the ground in the dream sequence and become U-Kuuga. This, at least for me, alluded to the Kuuga in the dream sequence and the Kuuga they meet being the same Kuuga. They really did just make a total mess of things either way, in my mind. Throughout the series and especially in the final episode arc.

[Sloth MD]

Honestly, they should have had Yuusuke come back as Mighty instead of Ultimate. The narration was alright though, though maybe they should have put it to the original cut.

[Seventeen]

I'll stick with the original, It probably fit better with the writers original vision for the film. (The preview at the end of the original ending)

[Battra]

This was a much better ending for the series, especially since we still get the Tsukasa/Kaido love scene without that Diend shooting him and leaving a big WTF moment.

So I guess the big question is why didn't Toei decide to put this out originally, was this supposed to be the 1st ending before they deiced they were going to make another movie, or did they just listen to the fans who wanted a better ending the the cliffhanger movie lead in?

I guess both endings do a good job of pointing out that Decade just lacked focus on where they wanted to go with the series.