Generally speaking, I enjoyed this movie. It’s called OOO-Den-O-All Riders and, for the most part, it lives up to its name. By that, I mean that OOO, Den-O and the Double Riders get roughly equal screen time and heroic moments. Compared to Climax Deka or Onigashima Battleship, where Kiva and Decade only get a few minutes of screen time despite being billed in the movie title, it’s incredibly well balanced.
My biggest complaint (and it’s a doozy) is that the resolution of the time-traveling in this movie really makes my head hurt. As convoluted as Den-O’s time travel plots got during the series and the various movies, I’ve always been able to figure out how the timeline works (a) within the movie’s plot and (b) how it connects to the larger Den-O timeline. But this movie - I can’t even come close to figuring it out. I just keep going around in circles.
Overthought timeline ponderings where I started to ramble:
Timeline 1 - The “normal” timeline. Naoki is destined to travel into the past and get stuck in 1971 because his younger self has memories from 40 years ago. Ankh and Eiji don’t board DenLiner (or don’t get off DenLiner) because Shocker doesn’t get the cell medal and, thus, Shocker Greeed is never created. All Rider series proceed as viewers know them.
Timeline 2 - The timeline Eiji and Ankh are dumped into. Shocker Greeed created after Ankh loses one cell medal in 1971. Double Riders defeated by Shocker Greeed and are brainwashed. No Riders after the Double Riders exist. Naoki was not taken to the past, so the Double Riders continue to work for Shocker. However, Mitsuru’s dad is a scientist that was taken by Shocker.
Timeline 3 - The timeline Koutarou creates by destroying the cell medal that Ankh lost. Black Shogun still gets a cell medal because Ankh loses multiple cell medals after the first is recovered. Naoki taken to the past, where he gets stranded. Double Riders work with Den-O (and Momo) to try and defeat the Great Leader, but Shocker Greeed is created. Teddy gravely injured while stuck in 1971. Double Riders eventually defeated and brainwashed. DenLiner destroyed. As an adult, Shocker scientist Naoki undoes the brainwashing on the Double Riders. Unclear if any Riders after Double Riders exist.
Timeline 4 - The timeline at the end of the movie. Potentially a combination of the other timelines. Naoki from present day was stranded in 1971 and grew up from that point in time to become a scientist. People remember Riders (more than just the Double Riders) as allies of justice. DenLiner is fine, and drops off a perfectly healthy Teddy in the present day.
Really, the only way I can make sense of the timeline is if we call Owner the ultimate singular point. We already know from the Yuuto-disappears arc in Den-O that timeline changes don’t affect Owner, so it stands to reason that he is a singular point, and he probably has been around to see all of Rider history. Between that and his memory of other people’s memories of the original timeline, it might be possible for one of the alternate timelines until the timeline where all the Riders existed and were heroes (Timeline 1) snaps back into place. Therefore, the reason we get the execution scene in the square is because the ripple from the timeline change from 1971 hasn’t caught up to the present day.
At least, I hope that’s what happened. The alternative, based on the dialogue at around 1:03:15 is that the Double Riders were playing along with Shocker for 40 years while it took over the world...which doesn’t exactly scream “ally of justice”. And none of it explains why Naoki remembers Timelines 2-4, unless Timeline 1 didn’t snap back into place.
One last timeline nitpick that's simple compared to the above: Koutarou’s explanation on why Eiji remembers the “normal” timeline is necessary, but still doesn’t quite fit Den-O logic. Although it does fit post-Decade Den-O logic, where all Riders seem to be immune to timeline changes. It also doesn’t necessarily explain why Ankh remembers the normal timeline, since even the Imagin who bonded to Ryoutarou were affected when the timeline changed from Yuuto’s temporary disappearance. Maybe being more like objects than humans gives the Greeed some level of immunity?
Enough critiquing. Some things I enjoyed:
-Hi again, Mole Imagin. Have they beaten the Riotroopers as most mass-produced enemies yet? And did they always have different colored coats?
-I love Teddy. A walking Kamen Rider encyclopedia - with demonstrations! But I lied - one more minor nitpick. Teddy’s explanation of an Imagin makes it seem like they’re following Den-O rules... but was that kid really a contract holder? It looked like the Mole Imagin just randomly jump into him.
-Evidently Shocker can take over the world, but Ankh’s iPhone still allows him to connect and research on the internet.
-I’m seeing shades of Gokaiger, what with the heroes fooling one pickpocket technique only to get taken in by another. It was nice to see the kids later repeat their hand-off trick against Shocker in the crowd.
-Cheers to Nokko for displaying a surprising amount of common sense - faced with a blonde-haired guy, two monsters, and a disembodied arm - she flees and calls for help! Granted it was only other kids, but it was still backup.
-I can appreciate the fake-out Black Shogun pulled, but how did he create an identical Cell Medal less than a minute after he saw it for the first time?
-I’m kind of surprised that Ankh didn’t flee when Momo possessed Shingo’s body.
-Owner’s appearance in the crowd, while unexplained, is pretty cool. I like to imagine that since Owner was still in the crowd, it was Naomi that drove DenLiner straight into Black Shogun.
-Oh Shin, as violent as ever.
-Looks like a lot of care was taken to make sure the Riders were facing off against notable enemies from their respective series.
-I enjoyed the (presumably unintentional) irony of Kabuto being the last one to join the All Rider line-up.
-Not sure if it was intentional or not, but it looks like something/someone flies away from the explosion of Rock Great Leader. Probably just debris, but who knows.
-What Rider had the really big bike with five jets on the back?
I understand the thought behind the appearance of the non-Rider heroes, but it felt very random to have them show up. Disrupted the energy that was building from all of the Riders gathering, too. And as much as I love W, having Shoutarou and Philip show up just to Henshin and throw out their catchphrases also caused a hiccup in the Rider intros.
Even though this movie was longer than the theatrical cut of any other Rider movie I can think of, I hope that there will eventually be a DC released. Some of the scene cuts felt very abrupt, and I’m hoping it was because they had too much footage to use. Some clarification on the timeline issues would be appreciated too.
