Kamen Rider Decade Episode 4: Second Movement ♬ Prince Kiva

One year prior to Kamen Rider Decade, the fandom was graced with Kamen Rider Kiva. The series focused on Vampires, an organization dedicated to slaying Vampires, and the connection through family lines. Couple Royal Monsters with the inclusion of Werewolves, Mermen, and Franken-things and you end up with the perfect Rider series for Valentine's Day.

No, I didn't mean to type Halloween instead. Kiva is the most romance-oriented Rider series of them all. But romance plays no part in Decade's story (a little too early for it), as we enter the World of Kiva.

"So how do the people on the lower floors get to the floors above the castle?"

Our episode begins with Yuseless being dragged through various different dimensions by some sort of white bat. For some reason, unbeknownst to me, Yuseless becomes a main character for the remainder of Decade's run. I wouldn't have a problem with this, he's harmless enough, but since he's a Kamen Rider, the fact that he only transforms in a few episodes is really frustrating. Half the time, it feels like he's forgotten he has superpowers, and it's why I call him Yuseless. Anyway, he lands in some sort of throne room, confronted by the Arms Monsters from the original Kiva series.

Tsukasa and Natsumi arrive, this time with Tsukasa dressed as if he were hosting a formal party, and toting a violin. When they see Castle Doran in the distance, it becomes clear they're in Kiva's World. Tsukasa admits he doesn't know why he remembers Castle Doran, but Natsumi recalls that it played a part in the Rider War.

To my utter terror, the Spider Fangire arrives at the Studio, with his original actor reprising the role. For those wondering why I'm terrified, you're better off watching Kiva to find out. He transforms from his human guise into his Fangire form so he can have his picture taken, but naturally our heroes don't take too kindly to a vampiric spider made of stained glass walking around. However, Eijiro shows them a document explaining that Fangires and humans live in peace, or at least are supposed to. This wasn't true in the original Kiva, but Wataru and Taiga were clearly working towards the idea at the end of the series. Spider leaves, complaining about the discrimination.

The Arms Monsters (and I'm not sure if the original actors are reprising the roles, but I don't think they are) complain that the Prince runs off when they mention him becoming King. We find AR Wataru, played by a new actor. A child actor. This cements the fact that none of the original actors to play the main Riders will be returning. Again, I'm not upset with it, it's to celebrate the spirit of the previous shows, but this one I have trouble defending. Seto Koji was right there in Episode 1 reprising the role of Wataru, and he does show up later on! Wataru, being one of my favorite Riders deserves better. Much like before, we won't call this kid Wataru. Instead, he is Vladdy.

He's the King of Vampires, but he also has a curfew.

Vladdy is hiding out in a run-down old house on the edge of town, much like where Wataru lived in the original show. Kivat, with his actor actually returning, asks him why he won't ascend as Tsukasa and Natsumi drive nearby. As they ponder how they can save a world where the monsters are at peace with humanity, we hear a violin playing. Vladdy's nowhere near as good a violinist as Wataru, not helped by the fact that he's using a busted-up violin. Tsukasa takes the violin he received at the start of the episode, and plays the classic Kiva violin piece. Yeah, Wataru and Otoya only ever seemed to play one song.

Vladdy comes outside and tells them to go away, displaying Wataru's anti-social tendencies, but for different reasons. He asks if his being a Fangire scares them, but Tsukasa says his problem is that Vladdy's such a brat. However, the group hears a woman scream, and we see Rook (not the same actor as the original member of the Checkmate Four) chasing a woman down the street. Tsukasa responds by turning into Decade and rather quickly taking down one of the more physically powerful monsters in Kiva. Weird.

Vladdy responds to Decade's presence much in the same way Yuseless did, calling him The Devil and becoming Kiva to fight him. The white bat, named Kivaara, is the one responsible for this, and returns to the man in the trenchcoat. Decade uses the cards he got last time to become Kuuga to fight back. Kuuga and Kiva more or less have the same powerset, save that Kiva's is more theatrical, so the two match each other blow for blow until Yuseless arrives to break up the fight. It turns out the woman was actually a Fangire who drained human life-force (which is what Fangires drink instead of blood), against the race's new law. As such, Bishop kills her. Executing those who broke Fangire law was Queen's job in the original series, but given that Vladdy, who should be King, is a kid, I'm guessing Queen's too young for murder right now.

Yuseless arrives at Hikari Studios and explains that Kivaara dragged him here. He ended up deciding the best course of action was to become a guard for Vladdy. Vladdy's actions as Prince have brought about the Human/Fangire treaty, and Yuseless reveals this was drafted because Vladdy had a human mother, so he's only half-Fangire. Tsukasa reminds him that Fangires are hunters by nature and likely won't willingly follow a King who refuses to let them follow their instincts, but Yuseless says he has to do something.

The Arms Monsters exposit that the Fangire throne has been vacant for the past 10 years. Dogga makes the obvious argument that Vladdy is way too young to be King, but Garuru shoots him down, saying without some 'great man', Vladdy's the only one who can transform into Kiva. We then see a Beetle Fangire that's killed a bunch of people. Gee, I wonder if he's that 'great man' they were mentioning a second ago.

Yuseless and Vladdy talk about Vladdy's feelings of not belonging anywhere and his anger toward Decade, but Yuseless more or less talks him out of it.

After another rampage by the Beetle Fangire, Tsukasa hears another violinist. This one's a grown man (who might as well wear a sign saying "I'm Beetle") and he can't play the solo either. The man explains the treaty will never work due to the Fangires' natural hunger, but Tsukasa retorts that apparently there's some sort of life-force tax that humans pay. I don't know how that works, but whatever. Apparently the man, who does admit to being a Fangire, fell in love with a human (the highest of Fangire crimes in the original series) and the two were made Pariahs as a result. Tsukasa asks him why he came back, and I shake my head at how obvious this plot twist feels.

Later that night, Tsukasa is confronted by Kivaara, whom has the trenchcoat man send Tsukasa through another distortion. He finds himself in what I presume to be the Tokyo Dome. Here he encounters Kamen Rider Kaixa from Faiz. The Kaixa armor was used by a variety of a characters, but it is Kusaka Masato's actor voicing him. Decade and Kaixa enter a shoot-out as the episode concludes with Beetle arriving to fight Kiva, claiming the armor is actually his.

Second Movement opens Decade to a lot of it's problems, but the episode itself is not bad. Yuseless accomplishes basically nothing outside of exposition, and the supposed plot twists they're setting up with Beetle are embarassingly obvious. On the other hand, it's nice to see that peace, even when well-meant, can have negative side-effects. You don't see that often in children's programming. The Kiva vs Kuuga fight was a good mirror match-up and does a lot to showcase Tsukasa's fighting style. I found myself looking at Tsukasa as being similar to Nago from Kiva. Somewhat prejudiced against the Fangire, shaky relationship with Kiva, full of himself, and scoffing at the idea of peace. Next time we can see how Kiva's arc comes to a head, for the good and the bad.

Kamen Rider Decade Episode 3: Transcend

"Don't get used to this image, fanboys."

Episode 3 picks up right where last time left off, with the Hopper Brothers fighting Kuuga and Decade. As such, the two agree to put aside their differences to fight off the invaders. The man in the trenchcoat monologues that he had wanted Kuuga to team up with the Hoppers to kill Decade, so he sends the Hoppers back through a Dimensional Wall. He then disappears, claiming that this is just the beginning.

The girls take this time to chew out their respective Riders. Natsumi rants to Tsukasa about how he shouldn't be fighting other Riders, and Yashiro asks Yuseless why he would try to kill someone who is clearly human. Tsukasa defends himself, claiming that he has sucessfully saved the world in stopping the ultimate evil from coming back. As such, Yashiro leaves to gather the police to destroy the Grongi's hideout on the mountain.

Yuseless, for some ungodly reason, decides to eat a meal at the Studio with our heroes. He comments that Tsukasa's photos are terrible, and Tsukasa counters saying Kuuga's story is boring. He's none too thrilled by the cliched "Hero fights to impress the girl" idea. Understood, the original Kuuga's story wasn't based around that, but the even-tempered moral side of Yuusuke is still present in Yuseless, but we'll get to the character's real problem soon. Yuseless exposits that back when he first got his powers, the trenchcoat man appeared and told him that Decade was the true enemy. They see a news broadcast saying that black smoke is coming from the mountain. As if Decade wasn't weird enough on its own, we have to drag Lost into this. As Yuseless rushes to help, Natsumi tells Tsukasa his job's not done yet.

The Ultimate Evil fully awakens. The guy has a name, like all Grongi, but it's a long name, so we'll call him Boss Grongi. The smoke he spreads starts turning the people who inhale it into Grongi, who proceed to attack Yashiro and the other cops. Tsukasa attacks the Boss Grongi, who says he wasn't supposed to awaken. Tsukasa is knocked away as Yuseless takes Yashiro to the hospital.

At the hospital, the cops receive treatment as the city is quickly overrun with Grongi. Tsukasa theorizes that the same dimensional rifts that changed Yuusuke into Yuseless alongside everything else brought the Boss Grongi back, likely to justify why he never showed up in the original Kuuga series. Yuseless refuses to fight, opting to stay by Yashrio's bedside. Tsukasa laces up his boots to fight instead, citing that since he's from another world, the smoke won't affect him. Don't know how he came to that conclusion, but at least he's moral enough to go help those in need at the risk of his own life.

Yashiro asks Yuseless why he isn't out fighting the Grongi, to which he claims he has no more will to fight. His motive was to make her smile, which she always did whenever he would save the day, but now that she's on her deathbed, he doesn't see the point anymore. She brushes his statement off and makes him promise to kill her if she turns into a Grongi. Yuseless agrees and Yashiro gives him some advice. If fighting for her smile made him strong, fighting for the smiles of everyone on Earth will make him invincible. He takes this to heart and leaps back into action, Natsumi staying to comfort her.

"Maybe fighting these guys alone wasn't my best plan..."

Tsukasa arrives and the Boss Grongi claims that Tsukasa is a strange being who is neither Grongi nor Human. Given what we ultimately learn of Tsukasa, this makes sense. Boss Grongi says that the transformation of human into Grongi is only natural, given our violent nature. The goal of the Grongi in the original Kuuga was to make humanity a species as brutal as the Grongi, so this would be the natural conclusion to that concept. Tsukasa finds himself agreeing with Boss Grongi, but fights anyway. Decade puts up a good fight, but he ends up flailing wildly, and finds himself too far outnumbered and is knocked out of his armor. Tsukasa is terrified that his journey would end here so abrubtly, but fortunately Yuseless arrives to help in the clutch, telling Tsukasa about his 'smiles' philosophy.

With the arrival of Kuuga, Tsukasa gains his second wind and delivers a 'Shut Up, Hannibal' speech to the Boss Grongi. In spite of humanity's violent nature, there is also our caring side. Whether it be Yuusuke Godai, Friend to all Children, or Yuseless, fighting for people's smiles. As such, Tsukasa swears to defend Kuuga's smile for him. Boss Grongi asks Tsukasa who or what he is, which leads to only one response.

"I'm just a passing-through Kamen Rider. Remember that!"

Decade and Kuuga wipe out the Grongi army and Tsukasa's Kuuga cards return to proper working order. He activates a card labeled 'Final Form Ride', which transforms Yuseless into the Gouram, a beetle-themed armor for Kuuga's motorcycle. The Gouram form allows Decade and Kuuga to pull off a combo attack to finish Boss Grongi once and for all. In spite of this, Tsukasa claims he still can't remember where he came from.

The two return to the hospital, but Yashiro is already dead, Natsumi telling them she was smiling to the end. Tsukasa leaves Yuseless to grieve, telling Natsumi their job is done here.

Back at the Studio, Eijiro finds that one of Tsukasa's photos, one of Yuseless and Yashiro smiling, actually looks okay. It's still warped, mind you, but not terribly so. Tsukasa tells Natsumi that even if his end goal is unclear, he's saved Kuuga's World since the Grongi are all dead. Eijiro reveals a new backdrop of Castle Doran in the moonlight, indicating the next world they visit will be Kiva's.

The episode concludes with the trenchcoat man saying he'll never forgive Decade, as a white bat follows Yuseless after he puts flowers on Yashiro's grave.

Transcend (the full title is Transcendence or Transcendental, but we're keeping to the two-character theme here), wraps up the Kuuga arc nicely. Yuseless is given a good send-off and is painted as a hero in his own right. Which makes his continued presence irritating, but more on that later. Tsukasa is shown to be rather moral and thoughtful toward the greater good, but not utterly invincible due to his failure to fight off the army of Grongi. The theme of Kuuga, human kindness winning out over human violence, remains strong and ultimately sets a pretty good standard of what's to come for the Kiva arc. However, the Kiva arc is where the flaws of the series begin to show. My continued defense of Decade will go into the Kiva World with Episode 4.

Kamen Rider Decade Episode 2: Kuuga's World

In the year 2000, Kamen Rider returned to the small screen after an extended hiatus, shortly after the death of original series creator, Shotaro Ishinomori. His concepts for a new Rider series, which he was working on prior to his death, were made into Kamen Rider Kuuga with the tagline, "A New Hero, A New Legend". It is only fitting that Kuuga is the first world Tsukasa visits, but the production team has to tackle a major problem.

The actor who portrayed Kuuga, Odagiri Jo, actually went on to be a successful soap opera star in Japan after Kuuga ended. As such, he looks back on the series as "that silly superhero thing I did before I was famous." There was no way they were ever going to convince him to come back for Decade, so they recast the character. But, he wasn't the only one. More on that later, but let's focus on Episode 2.

"I think I saw this in a Wile E. Coyote cartoon once."

Our episode begins with Kuuga leaping into the fray as the female officer from before, Yashiro, tells the other officers to leave him alone and let him fight off the Grongi for them. Kuuga exposits during the fight that this attack continues a pattern of the murder of female police officers by the Grongi.

After the theme song, Tsukasa screws around with his new police uniform. Bad idea, seeing as he could get arrested for impersonating an officer, but Natsumi sets him straight. They find a newspaper explaining that recently beings classified as "Unidentified Life Forms" have been attacking, and that scholars believe them to be Grongi, an ancient tribe of monsters.

The original Kuuga series was an interesting departure from most Rider shows, in that the police actively tried to fight the monsters. Mind you, they weren't very successful, but knowing this leads Tsukasa to belive that, since he's randomly been put in a policeman's uniform, he should be fighting the Grongi. As he and Natsumi exit Hikari Studios they find that the building has displaced a different building that had been there before.

As Kuuga fights, Tsukasa explains to Natsumi that Kuuga has the power to change into different forms that let him use different powers to fight the Grongi. Mighty for hand-to-hand combat, Dragon for speed, and Pegasus for long-range. Kuuga defeats the Grongi but the officer is still dead. Yashiro arrives and is frustrated that Yuusuke isn't taking things seriously, as Yuusuke rather blatantly flirts with her. This isn't the same Yuusuke as the original Kuuga, and typing AR Yuusuke is a hassle, so let's call him Yuseless. You'll find out why soon enough.

"Miming is the true expression of heroism."

At the police station, the cops discuss the "Grongi Game Murder Theory", the belief that the Grongi are following some sort of system of rules to their attacks. The scene helps illustrate the nature of Kuuga as a series. It was a superhero show, yes, but it was also a police procedural, and Yuusuke's most trusted ally was an officer who helped him fight the Grongi. Tsukasa arrives at the station and starts acting like he owns the place. When the cops are called about another Grongi attack, Tsukasa rides off to fight the Grongi. He fails to save the officer and inquires why the Grongi are doing this. However, the Grongi speaks in Grongi language, so we don't have anything to go on. There are ciphers online that can translate Grongi language into Japanese, so have fun with that, I guess. Tsukasa turns into Decade to kill the Grongi, much to Yashiro and Yuseless's shock.

Later, Yuseless and Yashiro arrive at Hikari Studios, as the Studio has taken place of a cafe, but Natsumi's Grandpa, Eijiro, is nice enough to make them some coffee anyway. Yashiro believes that Decade, despite being an "Unidentified Life Form", could help fight the Grongi, but Yuseless is hesitant. It's of note that Yuseless's name is Yuusuke Onodera, rather than Godai, and that Onodera was Shotaro Ishinomori's surname by birth. Yuseless rides off in frustration, but Natsumi asks him about why he's fighting for others. Yuseless denies it, but asks her in turn if there's anyone she's worried about.

Back at the station, Tsukasa notes to the cops that there's a pattern to the murders. The last number of the dead officers' birthdays are 3-7-5-6, which in Japanese spells "Mi-na-go-ro". As such, the next victim will have been born on the 4th, 14th, or 24th to spell "Minna goroshi", or "Kill Everyone". Meanwhile, the Grongi have a scene where they speak their own language, but it's clear from context that they intend to revive something.

Tsukasa returns to the Studio to develop the pictures he's been taking of Kuuga's World. However, they're just as distorted as the ones from Natsumi's world, indicating that Tsukasa is not from Kuuga's world either. Lacking any further ideas, he calls Yashiro and tells her he might have been wrong about the numbers theory.

Yashiro and Yuusuke meet Tsukasa near a moutain. Tsukasa reveals the scenes of the various murders have all been equidistant from this mountain and that he was lying about the "Minna Goroshi" theory. Turns out, Tsukasa speaks Grongi and got information off the one he killed earlier. As part of the Grongi ritual to resurrect the ultimate evil, they need to kill five female human warriors equidistant from the mountain, and Yashiro is now in place. The Grongi attack, but Tsukasa punches Yashiro, drawing blood. The other rule was that the women had to be killed without spilling any blood, so the ritual is over.

Tsukasa transforms into Decade again as Natsumi rushes to the mountain, noting that there is a distortion filter near it, like in her world. Decade beats one of the Grongi as Kuuga kills the other, only for Kuuga to start attacking Decade. Kuuga exposits that someone told him that Decade would arrive here and kill all the Riders, going so far as to call Tsukasa The Devil. He brushes this off, and assumes fighting Kuuga might help bring his memories back. Kuuga and Decade have a pretty even fight, but once Tsukasa starts using his Attack Ride Cards, Kuuga starts to falter.

Natsumi arrives and the fight causes her to have a vision. In it, she sees the end result of the Rider War again, but after the Riders are all supposedly dead, Kuuga stands back up, and enters his Ultimate Form to finish Decade once and for all. Ultimate Kuuga and Decade clash and the end result is unclear. Natsumi shouts for the two to stop fighting, both in her vision and in the real world, to no avail.

We see that near the battlefield there is a strange man in a trenchcoat muttering to himself how Decade doesn't belong in this world. A distortion passes through Decade and Kuuga, and they turn to see they are no longer alone. Kamen Riders KickHopper and PunchHopper from Kamen Rider Kabuto are here (voiced by their original actors, no less), and the episode ends as the two attack Kuuga and Decade.

"Kuuga's World" continues to set the status quo for the series following "Rider War". It's here we see that the merging of the worlds and stories of the various Rider worlds means things are not quite as they should be, with Kuuga and his supporting cast radically altered. I don't mind this as much, since the spirit of Kuuga is still alive, focusing on a hero who has little in the form of allies, and the police struggling to catch up. Decade is shown to be more effective at killing monsters than this new Kuuga, but given that this Kuuga has only fought 6 or 7 monsters up to this point, it's forgiveable in that this Kuuga doesn't have the combat experience of the old one. Yuseless starts out as a likeable enough character and is portrayed as a bit of a hotshot, which works. We're also introduced to the character who comes closest to being a main villain, though even to this day his goals remain somewhat unclear. The episode keeps up a steady pace, intoducing the concepts quickly, and then letting them guide our heroes through the story, which will reach it's conclusion in Episode 3.

Kamen Rider Decade Episode 1: Rider War

Kamen Rider is a long-running Japanese Superhero show that currently airs on Sunday Mornings as part of a block on TV Asahi called "Superhero Time". After an extended hiatus, the series returned to TV in 2000, and ten years later, as part of a celebration of the series' 10 years of success, as well as the anniversary of Toei, the production company in charge, they celebrated with Kamen Rider Decade. Decade was... divisive among fans, some people hated it, others thought it was okay. I fall into the latter camp, and wish to defend my position. As such, I will go through each episode, one-by-one, summarizing, and giving my thoughts.

"There can be only one..."

We open on a girl in a tattered white dress, always a sign of good things. As explosions start going off behind her, we see that Kamen Rider Kuuga is there as well. Kuuga leads the charge as an army of Kamen Riders charge at an unknown enemy.

The Riders put up a good fight, sending out their mechs, support monsters, and Kiva even brings out Castle Doran for support but none of them survive the encounter. As the Riders lie dead, the girl sees the mysterious figure they were fighting.

"Decade", she calls him.


http://youtu.be/5kono82Z7K8

We then have the theme song 'Journey Through the Decade' by Gackt. Even Rider fans who absolutely hate Decade can agree that the song is spectacular. It begins very smoothly and calmly, building to the chorus where the orchestral bursts out declaring that some wanderer on a journey will come out of nowhere to save us.

After that awesomeness we cut to a girl waking up. Yup, that epic battle where an army of superheroes died fighting an unseen, unknown force referred to solely as Decade was just the dream of a teenage girl. This girl is named Natsumi Hikari, she will be our female lead for the series. Most people say that the character is bland, and... they're right. Even I can't deny that Natsumi was a dull character who contributes little in the long run. Natsumi's inner monologue exposits that this isn't the first time she's had this dream and it always seems to make her cry.

But enough about her, let's get to the characters who do things, shall we? She's set upon by irate customers who complain that photographs they had taken of themselves are warped and distorted. Natsumi's Grandfather brushes it off as being artistic, but as you can guess, nobody buys that. Natsumi guesses they were taken by someone named Tsukasa and she turns out to be right.

Natsumi exposits some more about how Tsukasa just showed up one day with no memory of where he came from, and his only long-term goal appears to be taking pictures. As she tracks him down she hears the sound of the Mirror World from Kamen Rider Ryuki, but brushes it off as nothing.

At the park, Tsukasa is taking more pictures before being harassed by thugs. The thugs are complaining about how bad his photos are, but he brushes it off with vague remarks about how his photos always come out like that and how his end goal is to capture the world. He does seem frustrated by his failures, though. Suddenly, Wataru, the main character of the previous year's season, Kamen Rider Kiva, appears and addresses him as 'Decade', telling him that his world ends today.

After Natsumi saves him from the thugs, they meet up on a park bench, and discuss the problems with his photos. Natsumi points out the obvious, that since she and her Grandpa are running a photo studio, they probably shouldn't be keeping him on the payroll. Tsukasa defends himself by saying that the world is twisting away from him, rejecting him somehow. Natsumi doesn't buy it until strange distortion things start destroying nearby buildings.

Natsumi and Tsukasa are seperated by some sort of distortion, and Tsukasa meets up with Wataru face-to-face. Wataru shows him that there are nine different versions of Earth. He asks Tsukasa where his buckle and cards are, saying that Tsukasa's power will be needed to save the world.

Meanwhile, Natsumi joins the public at large as they're chased by an army of Undead from Kamen Rider Blade. Natsumi gets away, only to be attacked by the Fangires from Kiva. This continues as she's attacked by Imagin from Kamen Rider Den-O and Makamou from Kamen Rider Hibiki. As she runs away, she finds a rusted belt buckle and metallic binder full of cards.

Tsukasa and Natsumi meet up again, but the distortion still seperates them. Natsumi is then attacked by a Worm, a shape-shifting monster from Kamen Rider Kabuto. Natsumi hands him the objects she found and they return to proper working order. On instict Tsukasa transforms into Kamen Rider Decade, whom Natsumi recognizes from her dream.

"I'm NOT pink. I'm Magenta. There's a difference."

Decade's suit looks absolutely awful. Again, I'm here to defend the series, but I cannot justify the suit. The barcode motif to go with the barcode reader of the cards just looks ugly and makes it difficult to believe he can move around in the thing, and it is actually the heaviest of the main ten suits. The color doesn't bother me as much. I understand them going with the CMYK color scheme for the series, given the focus on photography, and at the time, Toei was adamant about the Main Rider being Red. One would think that the last three riders being primarily Red would be enough, but no, we didn't get a non-Red Main Rider until the next year. As such, Magenta. It looks a little silly, but the color is negligible in the face of everything else.

Decade's tranformation shatters the distortion barrier and he draws a card from the binder. Using the card, he becomes Kamen Rider Kabuto, and using another card, activates Kabuto's Clock-Up ability. In his super-fast state he kills the Worm, but the Kabuto card turns gray and he changes back into Decade.

Decade then grabs Tsukasa's motorcycle, which, par for the course, already share thematic elements with his Rider suit, even though he hade the bike before he became a Rider. They rider off, only to find the thugs from earlier killed by Orphenoch from Kamen Rider Faiz. Decade turns into Faiz to fight the Orphenoch, and uses another card to change his bike into AutoVajin, Faiz's robotic ally from the series, to protect Natsumi. However, the cards again turn gray after use.

When they are set upon by Makamou, Tsukasa becomes Hibiki, and he begins to wonder why he already knows what each Rider's powers are and how his own powers as Decade work. He and Natsumi retreat as all of the non-Decade cards turn gray and the Makamou annihilate the city.

Time suddenly pauses as Wataru appears before them, claiming there's still time left to save the world. He asks Tsukasa if he remembers anything, to which he replies no. Wataru explains that the nine previous seasons of Kamen Rider took place in nine alternate universes. Somewhat odd, but fair enough given how weird it would be if all these things were going on in one world and nobody ever butted heads about it. The problem is that all nine worlds, or rather, 'stories' , are starting to merge into one, which jeopardizes all of them. It's Decade's job to go to the other worlds and fix things. Wataru says that Decade will kill the Riders. Wataru's not happy about this, but reconciles it away, saying there can be no creation without destruction. Wataru concludes his exposition by saying he'll keep the world safe until Tsukasa's journey is complete.

Tsukasa and Natsumi return to Hikari Studios and consider this information. Tsukasa is more than willing to comply and promises to take pictures in every world they arrive in. Natsumi is less sure about things, wondering how this connects to her dream from earlier, but plans on going with him. However, they both realize Wataru never told them how to get to the other worlds. Natsumi's Grandpa gives a knowing look claiming "everyone is on a journey", and reveals a backdrop in the Studio's sitting room.

When Tsukasa walks outside, he finds they've moved to a new location, and that he's suddenly wearing a policeman's uniform. His walkie-talkie alerts him to the prescense of an "Unidentified Life Form", revealing that this is the world of Kamen Rider Kuuga.

We see a group of police officers keeping a monster at bay, and we find that things are not as they should be. A female officer named Ane is the one calling for Yuusuke's help, and Yuusuke looks a lot different than he did when we last saw him about 10 years ago. As this Alternate Reality or AR Yuusuke transforms into Kuuga, the episode ends.

"Rider War" does a good job of introducing what it needs to, and does so well. This leaves the issue of giving it very little breathing room, but this allows the chaotic nature of the situation to shine through. The opening scene illustrates that this will be a large-scale conflict and that everyone will have a part to play. The monster fights show that the series will be versatile, aided by the suit actor for Decade having done the stunt work for 7 of the previous 9 Riders. The ending and Wataru's vagueness towards Tsukasa add a layer of mystery to the series, nudging viewers to come back. Long-time fans will appreciate the shout outs to various previous seasons, but they aren't too confusing for new fans to appreciate the level of conflict going on. The ending also can appeal to both sides, long-term fans wondering why things are different, with new fans excited to see this other hero leap into the fray.