KR Decade 31 released

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KR Decade 31 released

Post by takenoko »

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Hmmm, that's odd, why is there an opening in the last episode?
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Straight to King Form, eh Blade? For some reason, Blade seems huge

Hey, all the previous bosses are back. Looks like you have to fight them again before getting to the last boss. That seems familiar...

At least grandfather said something good, since I guess this is the last time we'll see them in the series

Hey, Natsumi's dress looks familiar. Apollo Geist, you're too old to be marrying these girls. Also, stop making it your goal in life to be a big nuisance. No one likes a troll

I have to admit that I really like it when Tsukasa stops and gives his important speech of the episode. Plus it's the good one from Kabuto's World. Seeing Tsukasa and the others all line up was nice. I really liked how there was a lot of characterization between the main characters in the last few episodes

The parallelism with the first episode really was great. Wataru coming in and going "hey, you missed the key part of my message" as a twist really worked. I'm sure no one is surprised that Decade is the force behind the world's fusing, but who knew that his final enemies would be the original Riders from the original series?

And I liked the cliffhanger. It works here because unlike in Faiz, we know there will be a followup. It's kind of nice to have something to look forward to

On to Double!
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by Deka_Hero »

When i first saw the ending, i was like "This is it? WHAT BULLSHIT!!!!!!"

Though after having some time to think about it, the ending was pretty good, abet with a Cliffhanger (witch is NOT a way a series should end).

And i'm with you there take, I guess Apollo like younger girls. First he married Mari Mio Yuki, then he tried to with Natsumi.

Sariba, Decadeou
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by Lunagel »

/me waits for the stream of "WORST ENDING EVARRRR" posts
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by lonegamer7 »

......... WHAT THE-?! WE HAVE TO WAIT TILL THE END OF THE YEAR?! [Naruto] OH NOOOOOOOO!!! [/Naruto]
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by Aoiblue »

Awight, that's seriously gotta be one of the best cliffhangers in Kamen Rider History.
I'm soo psyched for the movie now.
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by takenoko »

I went through and broke all your unnecessary spoiler tags
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by zeta_gundam »

Hmmm, that's odd, why is there an opening in the last episode?
> Cause the war has moved to the movie screens! XD

Straight to King Form, eh Blade? For some reason, Blade seems huge
> I was wondering why only Blade (and Kuuga) changes to their final forms. And no OU Kuuga?

At least grandfather said something good, since I guess this is the last time we'll see them in the series
I have to admit that I really like it when Tsukasa stops and gives his important speech of the episode. Plus it's the good one from Kabuto's World. Seeing Tsukasa and the others all line up was nice. I really liked how there was a lot of characterization between the main characters in the last few episodes
> Both gramps and Tsukasa's speeches in this episode were really good compared to previous ones. Tsukasa's speech this time round reminded me of the Kabuto one as well.

I like the fade-in/fade-out effects for the conversation between Wataru and Tsukasa at the end. Also, stupid cliffhanger. Now we have to wait till next year for the DVD and subs...
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by PHurricane »

I think this is the type of episode where it helps to watch once, walk away from it for a day, then return and watch one more time before judging it.

I won't lie, this episode originally left me stunned. My initial reaction was pretty much an incoherent scream followed by a long, long period of silence as I tried to piece together what just happened because it felt like a horrible joke. I couldn't help but feel like, as a series ending, this episode failed. I enjoyed Decade - a lot - but at the same time I didn't want to make undeserved excuses. If you were expecting answers, you had to be disappointed and probably pretty annoyed as well. Not only did it leave virtually all of the questions unanswered, but it seemed to raise just as many new ones.

However, and this is a huge "however", this clearly is not meant to be the series ending for Decade. It was the last episode that aired on television, of course, but the 20 seconds after the buckle closes around Natsumi's face (if you're not still yelling at your television/computer screen) is proof that it wasn't supposed to be the ending. It's not a novel idea for a kids' show to wrap up story lines in a big-budget (or, at least, bigger budget) movie - for example, Disney Channel shows have been doing it for years. Granted, there are never gigantic cliffhangers involved like we have here, but I'd argue that there is some international precedent.

So for me, after mulling it over, that's what this episode boils down to - can you handle a cliffhanger ending, with the promise that the loose ends will (hopefully!) get wrapped up in a few months or, to put a spin on the wise words of Eijirou, does the cliffhanger make the entire journey a waste and ruin the series in your eyes?

I'll probably get even more wordy in the series discussion thread (scary thought, given how long this ended up), but to put it briefly I fall in the first category. If I were to look at this episode as if I could expect another episode to air next week, I'd say this was a pretty good episode. Not without its faults, primarily characters acting too indecisive for my tastes or somewhat bizarrely given earlier events of the episode, but pretty darn good. The cliffhanger was a great hook and, by springing it on the audience unexpectedly, they maximized the shock value.

The Tsukasa we're left with by the end of this episode has come a long way from the Tsukasa we met with in the first episode. This Tsukasa may still be lacking his memories, but he's got a conscience, a heart, and those precious comrades that we heard so much about. I mean, he was crying when he listened to Wataru talking about Kazuma and his world disappearing! That type of personal growth was really touching to watch and made me want to root for him regardless of whether he was supposed to be the big-bad destroyer or not.

Heck, I even found myself rooting for Daiki a few times, which doesn't always happen for me. We still don't have firm answers about him, but I think his comment about being the only one to destroy Decade revealed his true purpose in the series. He was supposed to destroy Decade but, for some reason that has yet to be explained, he couldn't or didn't want to. So, if he couldn't do it before the series started, that means there's got to be something twisty about that final shot at the episode's end.

Natsumi, well, I've just come to accept that Rider girls lose a chunk of their brain cells when they need them the most, so I won't fault her for essentially walking into Apollo Geist. Where I will find fault is when she (and Decade and DiEnd to a lesser extent) is so chipper after Apollo Geist gets blown away. Did she really forget that Yuusuke had been injured so badly that he was knocked out of his Henshin? Yeah, she remembers a few minutes later right when the Rider War seems to kick off anew, but I had a really hard time believing that she could be so happy while one of their "important" comrades was badly injured or that she forgot completely about him.

Speaking of Yuusuke, I thought what happened when he was hit by Super Apollo Geist's attack was a little ambiguous (unconscious? dead?), but jumping in front of Tsukasa was a great moment for me regardless. Yuusuke really matured into the protector of the group. I won't say he was always effective, but it was a nice juxtaposition from, say, Den-O world where Tsukasa forced Yuusuke in front of him when he was about to get possessed again. Yuusuke was the type of person to do anything to protect a friend (and their smile), and the fact that he was willing to go so far to protect Decade even knowing that his world might disappear showed how strong his character really was. Of course, looking at all of that makes comparing his response to Kivaara's bite all the more shock-worthy. (And that bite makes me wonder if that's how Narutaki's displayed some of his more unusual abilities, but that's a tangent best left for another thread.)

Another nice touch was when the "kid" riders eventually paired up with their "mentors". By connecting back to the bonds that were formed in earlier episodes, it really gave them that extra bit of meaning. It also reminded me of the American superhero tradition of having a younger/in-training sidekick team up with an older, experienced superhero. Their colors were even similar! (Okay, I'm stretching that one, especially for DiEnd/Hibiki, but maybe if you squint a little the blue on black starts to look purple...or not.)

Neat to see Wataru - original Wataru - again. Helped give that bookend feel to the series. Kenzaki Kazuma I'm ambivalent about. He didn't act like the same Kazuma that I admired from the finale of Blade, and he seemed a little rusty since he couldn't even slide his card in the Rouzer properly, but I'm hoping more explanation on why he popped up is forthcoming in the movie.

It was also nice to see the opening one last time, although I couldn't figure out why the heck we were getting DiEnd's theme as the final insert song.

One other nit-pick - razor-sharp boomerang cards were just a little more absurd than I could handle at that point in the episode.

On a second watch of the episode, there seemed to be a lot of dialogue that hinted there was more story to come. In retrospect, I'm not sure why I was so shocked that it ended on a cliffhanger. I kept glancing at the clock on my first time through, wondering how in the world they were going to wrap up the Apollo Geist storyline and the Rider War storyline when there was only 10 minutes left, 5 minutes, 3 minutes, etc. I think I would be more disappointed today if the writers tried to force a resolution into such a short period of time than pulling the cliffhanger twist.

Sorry, that was a lot longer than I expected. One final note that has no bearing on the episode or series - I missed not having one last Super Hero Time featuring Decade and Shinkenger.
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by takenoko »

I have to say I wasn't too surprised, since some idiot spoiled the second Decade movie for me

I think that this episode works very well as a setup for the movie, and was a pretty decent TV finale considering the cliffhanger ending.

Decade's a pretty episodic (biepisodic?) series, and there aren't really that many story threads that persist from episode to episode. An exception to that is Apollo Geist, who plays the villain these last 6 episodes. A showdown between the Riders and Apollo Geist and all the revived bad guys is a pretty good way to end the TV series

The other threads, Decade's identity, his search for his true home, etc. These aren't really mentioned all that much in the series. They just get sprinkled in every once in a while as a reminder that this is the big picture. Love or hate the format, Decade the TV series has always been about the two episode sub story. In a way, it kind of makes sense that all this big picture stuff is taken care of in a bigger format like a movie. Like people said, it would have been too much to wrap up in a single half-hour episode

Also, I notice that Tsuakasa doesn't take any pictures in this world
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by zeta_gundam »

^He did take one. Remember the Blade vs Kiva one? And then it got turned to Hibiki vs. Kiva?
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by Phoenix512 »

I'm not annoyed by the cliffhanger ending as there will be something that will continue to build on the last two episodes of Decade. I like the part when Tsukasa accepted Kaitou as his comrade as it was touching. Yeah, what happened to the original Kuuga or is Yuusuke actually the original Kuuga?

I think I have a theory about Tsukasa's world. I don't think he has a world yet. If Decade is the cause of the worlds to be merging, perhaps this merging will be Decade's own world. Destroy everything, then start from anew. Well, let's see if my theory is right when the second movie comes out.
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by Cheetah »

I think cliffhangers can be good when used right but I think this one failed. I think cliffhangers should be, "So we finished or solved that, but... There's More!" I don't think they answered any questions in the series and it all seems pretty pointless at this point. Apollo Geist just didn't seem like the end boss and felt more like second or even third in command. They didn't build him up to be the mastermind of the series like they should have. If they'd done that I think I would have liked the ending just fine cause I do like how they full circled it.

My main complaint slash question is spoilerific so be sure to watch the episode first.
Spoiler
If Decade was suppose to destroy the AU Riders instead of befriending them then why are they disappearing? The result seems to be the same to me. *shrug*


Maybe they'll explain everything in the movie and I'll change my mind about the ending but with the huge hit to miss ratio with the endings that Kamen Rider has I'm not going to expect it. I'm probably biased too cause I never liked design for Decade. Especially his second form. Yikes! Good thing Double is here cause I'm liking the design and concept for them a lot but we'll see how it holds up once the series starts. Cya all there!
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by Silentwolfdog »

I liked how the last ep ended. Part of me think all original riders were brainwashed or something seeing how Kuuga was corrupted. But who knows. I mean if we have been following KR series from Kuuga (or Ryuki for those TVN fans) to Decade. We know riders are more noble than that, and yet they are acting a bit evilish in Decade. If they were true to themselves, I would like to believe they would have figured out a way to save all worlds with Decade rather than trying to kill a good guy like Decade. From what I am seeing, Tsu wasn't a evil guy nor were all other riders. It's like watching hero vs hero in this ep. Now I am looking forward to the movie.

I love when the girl said she saw this place before, it's like I also got deja vu along with her. Such creepy feeling. Kinda made me go "Uh oh..." with her.

So happy to see actor for Blade again. Such coldness looking from him is something I wasn't used to. It's nice to see Wataru again for the last ep. A fitting role, being there for the first ep and then again for the last ep.
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by Chariot »

"Tsukasa, you idiot! I said to destroy them! "DESTROY! Not "befriend"! You dumbass!"

Seriously, can you say "Bad End"?

Not to say it was a bad ending, or that I didn't like it, but that at first it seems like tragic ending, like when you make the wrong choice in a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel.

But of course, it's not the real ending.

I was actually expecting Kurenai Wataru to go straight into Emperor Form, after seeing what Kenzaki did.

@Cheetah: I don't think it was just a matter of the AU Riders disappearing. Perhaps all of the worlds, are at stake due to the merging, and letting the AU Riders continue to exist allowed it to go on. If Decade had just destroyed each Rider, their worlds as well as all of the other worlds would stop merging and be saved. The only missing thing would be the AU Riders. Maybe.

On another note, did anyone else find it funny when the multicoloured lasers just started up all of a sudden? I always thought those were pretty weird in episode 1, and their sudden start here made me laugh. Seriously, WHO is shooting those? They're coming from all directions!

Finally, it's pretty ironic, isn't it? That while most of the Rider movies are AU, Decade, having been filled with AUs, has a movie that is actually in continuity with it's series.
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Re: Decade 31 released

Post by Kogashi »

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Cliffhanger ending? The conclusion of which won't show up till December? Don't talk about - Phoenix512


There's only two Japanese words that can truly express how epic this episode was

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