#kisekae insights
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Kisekae Insights #46: Kamen Rider Zi-O Part 4 - King’s Dominion
“The powers of the Kamen Riders have finally been inherited. Now, the curtain rises on the final battle to decide the true king of time. Joyful all ye nations rise, join the triumph of the skies!”
The finale arc of the original Zi-O was something I definitely wanted to improve on. Despite the series being about time, the finale arc changed focus to it being about Rider worlds, cementing its status of being Decade 2.0. With all plots and footage available from the entire series used up, the plots for the final arc of the series are adapted from the final episodes of Kamen Rider Zero-One, which still worked to my benefit despite the pandemic affecting production of that series.
Let’s dive into the final arc of the series and see how my adaptation skills fared.
Episode 31: Scaredy Boys and Fearless Girls ~ Between Quartzer 2019 ~
Adapted from the Hyper Battle DVD Kamen Rider BiBiBi no BibillGeiz and Decade episodes 24 and 25. This was originally going to be separate DVD extras/specials until I realised that I needed a filler episode and the specials were short enough that I could combine them into one.
The boys and girls get their own focus in this episode. In the first half, Sougo, Kazuto and Mark set up a haunted school for Geiz after he got scared the night before watching classic Doctor Who. As everyone realises that the school could be actually haunted, Geiz obtains the Bibill Ridewatch.
Meanwhile in the second half, Luna has breakfast with Akari, Narutaki and Veronica. They were originally waiting on Kayley, but she was being held up by a Makamou named Chinomanako who steals her Diend Gunmorpher (non-X). The Makamou uses it to transform into Chinomanako Diend aka Gedou Diend, a hybrid Another Rider who can summon monsters through the Gunmorpher.
Kensuke breaks his partnership with Swartz as he sets the Quartzer Riders on him. The girls manage to defeat Gedou Diend, but Swartz uses the non-X Gunmorpher’s power to create the Diend Anotherwatch. Despite this setback, the girls head for an overnight hot springs trip before Luna comes home to the boys who are still spooked over what happened at the haunted school.
In other scenes, the other Sougo becomes Ohma Zi-O; Changyue recalls how he paid two Soulbound villains to create a distraction so he can steal the technology for the Ridewatches, Ziku Drivers and Time Mazines; and Swartz meets with Heure and Ora and gives them the Diend and Gold Drive Anotherwatches…
Episode 32: An Eternal Party ~ Another World 2019 ~
Adapted from Zi-O episodes 44, 45 and 46, namely the Another Worlds arc but without Another Drive because that’s already been done. Sougo’s birthday is rejoiced in this episode.
Previously, we had Woz servants for Sougo and Geiz, namely Kazuto (Black Woz) and Kensuke (White Woz), but this episode features a new Woz named Akihito Hayasaka (Red Woz), who serves the queen of time Tsukuyomi ABC and transforms into Kamen Rider Woz The Next, taking the place of Kamen Rider Aqua in the adaptation of this arc. However, Luna makes it clear to Akihito that even if were to become the queen of time, she won’t rule unless Sougo and Geiz are with her.
Heure and Ora make their appearance as Another Diend and Another Gold Drive as they fight Tsukuyomi and Woz The Next followed by Proto Woz and the Quartzer Riders. This is just after Swartz sent them into another world to fight G4, Fuma, Dark Ghost and Rey.
Tetsuya Iwanaga reprises his role as Yūni Yamishima, aka Kamen Rider Eternal, and to be honest, I didn’t picture him hitting as hard compared to Mitsuru Matsuoka as Katsumi Daidou. Oh well, Iwanaga’s the only guy we could get who can fluently speak English.
E-Zen Tiforp returns from episode 2 and new OCs Rainbow Lightspeed and Alchemic Flower are introduced. Replacing Yukihiro from the Den-O tribute in the original is Another Fourze/Faiz from episode 3, whose Another World has him seeing his girlfriend alive and well. Proto Woz’s summoned Rider is Mad Rogue, who engages Tsukuyomi as Proto Woz fights Woz Ginga Finally as part of their plan to send the two of them into Geiz’s Another World. As part of this plan, Kensuke also steals his Future Note back from Narutaki.
Episode 33: The Power of ABC ~ [REDACTED] Would Bang 2014 ~
Adapted from the Over Quartzer movie.
The title of this episode is a reference to Akari Ichigo and her real name, which has been redacted for privacy reasons. Basically in Year 9, people continued to learn about my crush on Akari and one of the boys managed to rhyme a shortened version of her name with “would bang”. The year 2014 in the title is a reference to Akari Ichigo being the main villain of the two Doctor Who series I produced and broadcast in that year.
In the last episode, Kensuke went back in time and recruited two villains relating to Hiroki’s past in different timelines (as parallel isotopes); in 2014, he recruits Akari Ichigo, who had just killed her husband in their final battle, then in 2013, he recruits the main villain of The Name of Hiroki Ichigo, who had spread himself all over Hiroki’s timestream inside his grave on Trenzalore - let’s call him Hisahide Matsunaga. In case I haven’t mentioned him before, Hisahide was one of my fans at high school in Year 7 and 8 who started teasing me when he got put in my class in Year 9. Together, Hiryuu Kakogawa, Hisahide Matsunaga and Evil Akari Ichigo are Kamen Riders Barlckxs (pronounced “Barukus” but not like “Baracus”), Zonjis and Zamonas. The three Riders can use the power of the Ancient Kamen Rider Ridewatches to utilise powers associated with them. Hiryuu’s goal with Quartzer is to restart the Heisei era from scratch, not his Superboy-Prime attitude of “things were better in the Showa era!” which was what he said in the final stage show.
Later, Swartz has Heure and Ora recreate the remaining Another Riders that hadn’t been recreated previously by forcibly contracting people; if an Another Rider is created and destroyed twice, the Time Jackers can summon them as they please without requiring contracts. As the Time Jackers come into conflict with Barlckxs’ group, Kensuke confronts Sougo’s group and sends duplicates of the Sisterhood of Karn to fight them. The defeat of Sougo’s group in that battle leads Luna to agree to Akihito’s offer for a new power and he uses the power of Geiz Revive and Woz Ginga Finally to create the Tsukuyomi ABC Ridewatch, which combines with the power of Ohma Zi-O to allow her to assume her upgrade/super form, Tsukuyomi ABC.
At the end of the episode, Akihito gives Sougo the Woz Ridewatch. It is also revealed that Akihito is working with Kensuke and Quartzer as he is sent to go undercover with the Time Jackers…
Episode 34: Assorted Spirits of the Past ~ Villain of the Chaos 2013 ~
Adapted from Zi-O’s final stage show.
In a similar vein to the last episode, the year 2013 in the title is a reference to The Name of Hiroki Ichigo being produced and broadcast in that year. The tagline is a reference to how Hisahide Matsunaga prided himself as a villain in Samurai Warriors 4.
Akihito obtains two blank Ridewatches from Swartz, then uses one of them to turn the Dark Ninja into Another Ninja in 2022. Once Another Ninja is destroyed by Ninja, Okachi and Mizuna, Akihito uses the other blank Ridewatch to create another Ninja Anotherwatch, which he uses on Iroha Kagura in 2019. Kensuke makes contact with the three Riders and offers to help them stop Another Ninja as he brings them to 2019.
Back in 2019, the Time Jackers recreate Another Shinobi, Another Quiz and Another Kikai as well and set them on the Ninja Riders as they fight Another Ninja. Sougo and his friends arrive at the scene only for Kensuke to send the Dorks out at them. As Zi-O’s side manages to gain the upper hand, Kensuke demoralises Zi-O by revealing that in 2013 of the actual (Hiroki’s) timeline, he would murder the Dorks’ leader. Upon returning home, Mirror World Sougo berates Sougo for getting scared over killing one person in the future when he would end up killing many more people as Ohma Zi-O. Hearing his friends talking about his past, Sougo heads downstairs to explain himself, which is received by reassurance from the others that it isn’t his fault that people see him differently.
Elsewhere, Hiroki and Kayley are upgrading their K-Touches to be compatible with their X equipment, creating the K-Touch 21 for Hiroki and the Ultimate Complete Form upgrade for Kayley with the help of Firerose, Narutaki and Akari contributing their powers and assistance to streamline the Rider powers more efficiently.
Later, Akihito brings Lugiel, Copper Plume and Rally Flag to fight Hiryuu’s group while the Time Jackers and Another Riders attack the city, where they are met by Kensuke and the Ninja Riders, who in turn are met by Sougo and his friends. Sougo and Geiz use Zi-O Woz Armor and Geiz Bibill Armor in the ensuing fight alongside Woz Ginga Finally and Tsukuyomi ABC, though they end up having to upgrade to Grand Zi-O and Geiz Revive. Hiroki and his friends also arrive, with Hiroki and Kayley debuting their new extra final forms, Decade Complete Form 21 and Diend Ultimate Complete Form. The other Sougo sees this battle happening and summons Rentarou, Isamichi, Reimondo and Handles to help defeat their Another Rider counterparts.
At the end of the battle, Rentarou and Isamichi see that Another Ninja was actually Iroha and they encourage her to enrol in the Leapfrog Ninja Academy so she can protect herself. Akari Ichigo reveals to her husband that because the Future Riders didn’t originally exist in this timeline, they are contributing to the worsening distortions in time and space, which leads Hiroki to finally decide that this world will be destroyed. With this battle, the Time Jackers have their full Another Rider Army.
Episode 35: Sonika Unleashed ~ Second Coming 2020 ~
So, you know how I initially cancelled my plans for Crestor Calandia as Another OOO after Chris-chan’s arrest in late-July 2021? Nearly a year later, it was revealed that Chris was attempting to get his mother placed in an aged care home in order to be able to return to 14BC. I think you can see what inspired me to write this original filler episode.
Sougo and his friends are walking on the waterfront when they notice an island in the distance that was never there before. Sougo and Geiz go to investigate and they discover that Swartz and Kensuke are investigating as well. Agreeing to a truce for the time being, the four of them discover that they are in this project’s version of Cwcville, namely Hayasaka. As the four are attacked by the Sonikas and Rosekas within Hayasaka, their comrades are being attacked back on Minato-Sugaru Island and are forced to retreat after being overwhelmed. This scene’s battle features the main Sougo using Decade Armor Origin (because Decade’s power was given back to Hiroki though he still had a remnant of it for Grand Zi-O) and the return of Geiz Genm Armor. Yeah, I’m one to highlight lesser-used forms to get more value for money out of them.
Later, Hiroki and his group head to the mysterious island to investigate while Crestor Calandia goes to 9TO5 to get Mark to clean three medallions. From Hiroki requesting Shinbu Serizawa to do some research in the Reading Room and Crestor talking to Mark, we get the backstory of this situation; Megumi Sonozaki snitched on Crestor’s “soul bonding” with his mother Beatrice and was forced out of his home by police, at which point he also “borrowed” some money from his mother’s account. Crestor was arrested for this, but during the trial, his previous crimes and transgressions were taken into account because his universe is one that has no sympathy for eccentrics like Crestor. As a result, Crestor was imprisoned in Stormcage, the most secure prison in his universe.
Even though Crestor remained largely compliant and resigned to his fate, he managed to manifest psychic powers over time and escape with the help of Sonika and his comrades, eventually managing to commandeer a spaceship and escape to Sougo’s universe. The authorities in Crestor’s universe have authorised a shoot-to-kill order on sight because they have been unable to contain his power.
After meeting back up with Sougo, Hiroki overhears Mark’s call with him and upon hearing medallions being mentioned, they and their friends quickly rush to 9TO5, but they are unable to stop him charging up his medallions and prevent the second coming of Crestor. Following this, Sougo and Hiroki’s groups team up with the Time Jackers and Quartzer to fight Crestor and his forces. During the battle, Zi-O briefly notices Another Decade defending Another Diend and Another Gold Drive from being ambushed.
Crestor and his forces are all defeated, but the island where Hayasaka stands flies out of the ocean and to the location of the battle as it shoots at everyone. It is revealed that the Crestor they fought was just an avatar; the real Crestor is inside the mayor’s office, which is the cockpit for his spaceship that was disguised as an island. Barlckxs, Zonjis and Zamonas sabotage the ship with their Ancient Rider powers before the Riders destroy it with their Rider Kicks.
Episode 36: A Girl Named [Akari] ~ Showdown 2019 ~
Adapted from Zero-One episodes 34, 35, 37 and 41.
This episode was named after Akari Ichigo’s real-life inspiration like I didn’t do just that 3 episodes ago. During this final week of episodes, Kazuto begins counting down the pages until the end of the world.
After Sougo and his friends defeat some of Sougo’s old enemies that were summoned by Kensuke, Swartz confronts them as Another Decade, proclaiming that he will subjugate humanity and create a paradise for the oppressed. It is then that Button Mash comes from nowhere and attacks Another Decade; Another Decade shoves him off, but his father, Janbit, stands between them, not wanting to let his son be hurt. Later, Swartz recalls how he protected his family on separate occasions in the last few episodes. Sougo also realises this and decides to help Swartz remember who he really is.
Meanwhile, Kensuke goes to the 2012 of Hiroki’s timeline and creates another parallel isotope; namely that of Akari Ichigo around the time when the Hiroki of that time became Sougo. Using his Future Note, Kensuke manages to send 2012 Akari through an Aurora Curtain into 2019. As Sougo fights Swartz in an attempt to convince the latter that he was a father before he became a Time Jacker, Heure joining in the battle before Swartz ends up defending him, 2012 Akari suddenly appears. The sight of her causes Sougo to regain the rest of his memories (which he had been slowly regaining since episode 30) and he quickly takes 2012 Akari away, only managing to escape the pursuit of the Quartzer Riders thanks to Woz Ginga Taiyo.
As Parker and his army decide to make camp on the island following heated tensions on the mainland, Sougo introduces 2012 Akari to his friends at 9TO5. The reason why Sougo hasn’t fully regained his memories despite meeting Akari previously is because 2012 Akari is from the same time period as Sougo and thus is in sync with him. Kensuke tells Hiryuu’s group that 2012 Akari is Sougo’s lynchpin to becoming Ohma Zi-O.
2021 Akari tells her younger self about what will happen to her in the future despite Hiroki warning what would happen if she did that. Sure enough, 2012 Akari becomes horrified by this and runs off. Hiroki receives a report from his comrades back home, who inform him that paradoxes are forming in his world and having two parallel isotopes of Akari are causing them to expand faster. Meanwhile, Kensuke reveals Quartzer to the world in a press conference and announces their intention to eradicate the Time Jackers. As the two groups meet up with their forces and begin fighting each other, Sougo goes to help Swartz while the others help find 2012 Akari. This might go against Sougo’s character, but even if he decided to go find Akari, chances are she’d continue running.
Zi-O manages to defend Another Decade from Proto Woz’s Time Explosion to show Another Decade that despite his goals, he still cares for his family. The two of them agree to a truce and they work together to defeat Proto Woz, who angrily retreats. Though Swartz admits that he underestimated Sougo, he makes it clear that his stance on humanity still hasn’t changed.
Meanwhile, the others find 2012 Akari, who says that she doesn’t want to see Sougo again if it means he will become a monster (not the vilest and evilest demonic overlord, though). They convince 2012 Akari that 2019 is the best place for her to be right now because of all the paradoxes and she eventually agrees to stay at 9TO5 as their new tenant.
Episode 37: The All Riders All-Out Attack ~ Ohma Time 2068 ~
Adapted from Zi-O episode 49 and Zero-One episode 42.
2012 Akari dreams about being saved from Ohma Zi-O by Sougo, only to be shoved aside as Swartz transforms into Another Decade Complete and rushes at Ohma Zi-O. Akari wakes up after this and heads downstairs to find Sougo, who had woken up a bit too early. The two decide to go on an early morning walk when they are attacked by Hiryuu, Hisahide and Evil Akari, who defeat Sougo and steal the Zi-O II and Grand Zi-O Ridewatches.
As Queen Fifi, Angelina and Karen Brewer meet with Parker, Kensuke combines the power of the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch into the Zi-O II Ridewatch, which is the key to Sougo becoming Ohma Zi-O. He also adds in battle data from Sougo’s friends and the Quartzer Riders, which will allow the power of each and every Rider to be drawn to Ohma Zi-O like a magnet.
Sougo is brought back to 9TO5 as he is returned the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch in a package. Meanwhile, the first of the enemy fleets arrive on the island as Parker readies his army to defend it, with the Legend Riders assisting in the defence as well. Seeing the chaos happening, Swartz hijacks a news crew’s cameras and announces that the Time Jackers’ subjugation of humanity begins now.
Swartz summons half of his Another Rider Army, but 2012 Akari goes to him and tries to convince him to stop the fighting, telling him to look into his heart and believe in humanity. Swartz, however, says to 2012 Akari that he doesn’t need a heart because he never had one, before proceeding to kill her with an energy blast. Swartz was originally an AI program; an avatar created by Hiroki and placed in a supercomputer with the purpose of looking after his former wife and even his creator when the time came for it, only to go rogue and break out with his family to enact his revenge against humanity.
As Zi-O is fighting the Another Rider Army with his friends, he hears an explosion and goes to find the dying 2012 Akari, who tells him that if he loves her, then he should help Swartz find his heart. Suddenly, all the Riders who hadn’t given their powers away or had their powers stolen, save for Sougo’s friends, Decade, Diend, Kuuga and Shugo, suddenly find themselves detransformed as their powers are stolen; the only reason why it doesn’t happen to the latter four is because they voluntarily channeled a portion of their power into Ridewatches.
As the Time Jackers confront Geiz, Woz and Tsukuyomi, the battle is suddenly intruded by Ohma Zi-O; Sougo’s voice menacingly ordering Kazuto to rejoice is what reveals him to have become the ultimate king of time; the true Ohma’s Day has arrived. Another Decade tries to take Ohma Zi-O’s power for himself but the power overloads him as Ohma Zi-O easily shrugs him off. Ohma Zi-O launches an attack that detransforms everyone before being detransformed himself due to being overwhelmed by his new power. It is revealed that Evil Akari absorbed 2012 Akari’s body into the Zi-O II Ridewatch and gave it back to Sougo, who uses it in his Ziku Driver to turn it into the Ohma Zi-O Driver and thus transform into Ohma Zi-O. The end of the episode has Sougo breaking down into tears as Evil Akari tells him that she will be by his side, addressing him as her God Almighty…
Episode 38: Overlords and Gods ~ Judgement Dawn 2003 ~
Adapted from Zero-One episode 43.
Ohma Zi-O goes to the mainland and passes judgement on Sougo’s past-life enemies by using his powers to brutally kill them. Heure asks Swartz why he killed 2012 Akari, to which a guilt-ridden Swartz says that all he did was execute justice. Quartzer reveals to Sougo’s friends that Sougo has not only become the vilest and evilest demonic overlord, but he has also become the purest and dearest god and judge of humanity (最浄最愛の神様), much to Kazuto’s disdain of his overlord being addressed in such a manner. Akihito also reveals to Sougo’s friends that he was working for Quartzer all along.
Back at 9TO5, Geiz and Luna are hesitant to tell Mark the truth but Kazuto does it for them, saying that they can’t lie to him when the fate of two timelines is at stake. As such, the three promise that they will bring Sougo back to normal. Hiroki and his friends come in and they are filled in on what is happening.
Sougo later heads back to Minato-Sugaru Island where he is confronted by Hiryuu, who mocks Sougo for saying that he wouldn’t become the vilest and evilest demonic overlord before becoming one anyway. The two of them fight, but Ohma Zi-O manages to defeat him. Sougo’s friends try to stop him, but he brushes them off. The other Sougo calls him out for losing his way; the two Ohma Zi-Os fight and the other Ohma Zi-O is beaten; he notes that he could feel an even deeper sorrow in the main Zi-O’s attacks and offers his help, only to be met by silence.
Sougo then uses his powers to see into different timelines of himself and manipulate Hiroki’s timeline. This would be seen by Hiroki, who transforms into Decade Complete Form 21 to fight him, knowing the truth about who continually manipulated his timeline. Sougo responds in kind by transforming into Ohma Zi-O and projecting the memories around him into Decade’s brain. However, Decade retaliates by projecting memories of himself and his friends in his own timeline like how the Thirteenth Doctor escaped the Matrix (with the instrumental chorus to Journey Through the Decade playing in the background). The two of them defeat each other and Hiroki manages to escape.
Swartz assembles the other half of his Another Rider Army as Sougo confronts him in battle…
Episode 39: Find Your Heart ~ Twilight Dusk 2018 ~
Adapted from the Geiz Majesty special and Zero-One episodes 43 and 44.
Ohma Zi-O fights Another Decade. After making quick work of the Another Rider Army, Ohma Zi-O prepares to finish off Another Decade only for Heure as Another Diend to leap in and take the attack, which kills him. As Zi-O leaves, Hisahide arrives and uses a blank Ridewatch to absorb Heure’s body and create the Decade Complete Anotherwatch.
Swartz announces that Sougo has become Ohma Zi-O and because he killed Heure, there will be no place for him in his paradise of the oppressed, making his crusade against humanity personal. As Sougo runs away out of fear and guilt at Parker and his friends constantly asking him questions upon seeing him, Swartz goes to the mainland and does the same thing Sougo did when he became Zi-O, which is to initiate his powers by killing Sougo’s past-life enemies. Later, Ora meets with Swartz and tries to tell him that he has a heart, but his mind is too clouded by the desire for revenge to even realise it.
The Kamen Riders have split into two camps; with the exception of those affiliated with Sougo, Hiroki, Kayley, the Kougami Foundation, Torchwood North or Quartzer, the Riders are marching around the island to demand answers from Sougo regarding his actions and the loss of their powers. Among one of the protesting groups, Marcello pushes through the barricade and charges towards Yūki Tachibana, leading him to be held down as a result. Yūki orders Birth to fire at Marcello’s head; as Birth hesitates, Luna and Kazuto arrive and tell them not to shoot. At the town centre, Parker and his comrades also plead with another group of protesters to believe that Sougo will find the true way of becoming a hero.
Elsewhere, Geiz finds Sougo with the intent to carry out his promise of killing him when he became the vilest and evilest demonic overlord; Kayley arrives as well to ask Sougo if he is betraying his own dreams and the hearts of the Kamen Riders who entrusted their powers to him. Kayley throws a spare K-Touch to Geiz, which becomes the Geiz Majesty Ridewatch that Geiz uses to fight Ohma Zi-O, only to end up failing.
Later that night, Sougo recalls Geiz and Kayley’s words as he is lost in his own thoughts. It is then that he hears the vaguely familiar sound of a materialising TARDIS, with the Doctor coming out to talk to Sougo…
The next day, the Riders have agreed to stop protesting as Geiz and Hiroki’s groups meet with Yūki Tachibana. Ora is revealed to be present as well, giving them the Diend Anotherwatch in the hope that they can restore Heure’s consciousness because like Swartz, he was an avatar as well.
Meanwhile, Sougo and Swartz finally meet as they transform into Ohma Zi-O and Another Decade Complete to duke it out once and for all…
Episode 40: Parting in the Daybreak Hour ~ Apocalypse Over Quartzer 2019 ~
Adapted from Zero-One episode 45, Zi-O episode 49, the Over Quartzer movie, the final stage show, Reiwa The First Generation and the Geiz Majesty special along with Ryuki episode 50.
Fun fact: The Japanese translation of this title would be 彼は誰時に別れ (Kawataredoki ni wakare). Just as Ōmagatoki 逢魔時 refers to the witching hour, or the sunset, Kawataredoki 彼は誰時 refers to the daybreak hour, a time when you can’t tell someone’s presence in the dark, or the sunrise (I’ve seen it refer to the sunset as well, but Wikipedia seems to make reference to the the sunrise so it was a good complement).
Ohma Zi-O and Another Decade Complete fight to determine the true king of time, this battle being a reflection of their adapted roles as Aruto Hiden as Ark-One and Horobi as Ark Scorpion. During this battle, there are Legend Rider weapons scattered around which are picked up and used by both opponents.
Meanwhile, Geiz and the others manage to resurrect Heure, who tells Kensuke, Akihito and the Quartzer trio that they don’t understand the real reason behind this battle as they have lost their righteous hearts. Another Decade Complete manages to defeat Ohma Zi-O as the latter puts his life at stake to show the former that he has a heart like anyone else. This was inspired by the Doctor’s words to Sougo, that true strength isn’t about how much power one has, but about what is in one’s heart. Swartz finally realises the impact of all the people he killed and admits that it was his fault that Heure sacrified himself, that he was scared of all the human feelings getting in the way, because despite what he may say, he does have a heart. Ohma Zi-O’s power leaves the Ohma Zi-O Driver and creates the Zi-O Over Quartzer Ridewatch, allowing Sougo to transform into Zi-O Quartzer, appearing identical to his default form. Zi-O manages to defeat Another Decade Complete with the Quartzer Time Break, but refraining from killing him as there isn’t a need for it anymore.
Heure and Ora meet with Swartz as Andrew, Hiroki and their friends meet with Sougo; they were able to restore Heure’s body after the Decade Complete Anotherwatch was destroyed, plus the Riders have regained their powers as well. The Zi-O Riders, Decade Riders and Time Jackers are confronted by Quartzer, who have brought an army of Kachinebots from the future. The enemy armies from the mainland begin invading the island, but they are held off by Parker and his allies. As the group transforms, Sougo transforms into Zi-O Quartzer while Geiz transforms into Il Salvatore Geiz thanks to some of the former’s power going to his Ridewatch (again appearing identical to his default form).
Most of the Quartzer Riders are defeated, but Proto Woz, Woz The Next and the Quartzer trio manage to defeat the Decade Riders and Time Jackers, before defeating Zi-O and Geiz as well. The Quartzer trio summon seven Dai Mazines from the future (instead of bring them back up from episode 8) to launch into space and link up in the sky, opening a portal into the Time Vortex that begins to suck up everything and everyone born in the Heisei era. Sougo is thrown into the Time Vortex as well and after a quick speech from Ohma Zi-O, transforms the Zi-O Quartzer Ridewatch into the Ohma Zi-O Ridewatch, which he uses to transform into Zi-O Ohma Form, officially inheriting the demonic overlord’s power.
The Kamen Riders, Time Jackers and Parker’s army work together to destroy the enemy armies and Kachinebots. Kensuke still remains undefeated, however; the Quartzer trio combine their personal Ridewatches together with the Ancient Rider Ridewatches and the Zi-O and Zi-O II Ridewatches to merge into Another Ohma Zi-O, while Kensuke and Akihito combine with the Woz Ridewatch and Ohma Zi-O’s power to merge into Another Ichigou.
As the other Riders are defeated, leaving only the primary Riders (in their final forms) and Geiz, the other Sougo arrives as Ohma Zi-O and assists the main Zi-O in fighting Another Ohma Zi-O. Hiryuu, through Another Ohma Zi-O, tells the main Zi-O that it is his fault the Heisei era is such as mess and asks him how much more he wants to mock him before he is satisfied, to which Zi-O tells him that he will lose because anyone who doesn’t look forward is only doomed to be left behind in the past.
Another Ohma Zi-O is defeated by Zi-O Ohma Form and Ohma Zi-O; as a weakened Another Ichigou sees this, he absorbs Another Ohma Zi-O into him to evolve into Another New Ichigou, acting as the giant Barlckxs from the Over Quartzer movie. Zi-O, Geiz and the primary Riders finish them off with the Heisei Rider Kick, kicking through a shield that Another New Ichigou conjures to form the kanji characters for Heisei (平成) before each Riders’ series logos fly out from the explosion. Another New Ichigou is destroyed along with the Quartzer commanders.
The other Sougo farewells the main Sougo as he leaves on his own journey to the future. The main Sougo meets with his friends, including Hiroki, Parker, Swartz and Mark. Although they have saved the world and can rule over it together into glorious perpetuity, Sougo refuses as he decides to destroy this timeline and restore everything back to normal. Although he may never have a chance to be king again, he also wants to create a future where he can fight together with Geiz, Luna and Kazuto. Sougo farewells his future self and his friends as the timeline is destroyed. The Time Jackers are returned to the supercomputer with a new mission to watch over humanity and walk the path of kindness instead of revenge. The Kamen Riders (and any allies who originally came into the Ohma War) float away from this timeline as it disappears.
Time goes back to normal in July 2012 of the main timeline, but with some minute changes. The original Kazuto ends up back in the cell he was in when Ohma Zi-O rescued him, but it has now become a storage room after the war ended and Kazuto is a free man. The Hiroki of that time (who never became Sougo) makes an impromptu stop at 9TO5 where he gives something to Mark to repair, but just as he goes in, he encounters Geiz, who was just leaving, and the two look at each other with vague feelings of familiarity, like Shinji Kido and Ren Akiyama did at the end of Kamen Rider Ryuki.
The parallel isotope Kazuto witnesses Hiroki and Akari sharing their first kiss before farewelling the audience. He meets with Ohma Zi-O in a white void as his timeline is disappearing; the demonic overlord thanks Kazuto for his service and releases him to live his own life, but Kazuto says that his original self is doing just that and that he wants to follow his overlord to the end. Hearing this, Ohma Zi-O gives Kazuto his final order, which is to find the new timeline that Sougo created and look over the Sougo in it, for there may come a time when the demonic overlord must rise again. Kazuto thanks Ohma Zi-O and takes his leave as the demonic overlord disappears, finally free of his pains and burdens.
Although the series’ endgame was adapted from Zero-One, I thought it was paced better than the original Zi-O’s endgame. I strived to improve on the failings of the original series and in my opinion, did a good job despite 80% of the series being a carbon copy of the original and the rest being a walking ego-fest. If you think I could have done a better job adapting the series, feel free to share your thoughts and opinions.
While the main series of Zi-O is done, there is still more to cover, namely the Before Quartzer mini-series, the After Quartzer specials, the background to the series and some clarification on character details. See you for the last few instalments of this run of Kisekae Insights.
#kisekae insights#kamen rider#kamen rider zi-o#kamen rider decade#equestria girls#my little pony equestria girls
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japanese picrew vocab!
i’ve noticed a lot of fun picrews going up lately (see my favorites below!) so i thought i’d make a short vocab list both for us japanese learners and for anyone who just wants to know what button they’re pressing on a cute dress-up game. rōmaji are included with every item. 行きましょう！
summary page
Xの画像メーカー (X no gazou mēkā) = X’s image maker
きせかえ (kisekae) = dress-up
info page
ヘルプ (herupu) = help
あそぶ (asobu) = play
個人 (kojin) = individual
(非)適用 ([hi]tekiyou) = (not) applicable [i’m not super clear myself on what this tag is supposed to mean—if anyone has insights, please let me know!]
加工 (kakou) = creating, making
女の子 (onna no ko)・少女 (shoujo) = girl
design page
完成 (kansei) = completion, perfection
とじる (tojiru) = close [after you open the dice menu]
全てランダム (subete randamu) = randomize everything
アイテムランダム (aitemu randamu) = randomize items [full disclosure, i have no idea how these two buttons are different, they seem to do the exact same thing to me!]
ランダムボタンは無効です (randamu botan wa mukou desu) = randomization buttons are unavailable
全部リセット (zenbu risetto) = reset everything
download page
完成しました！ (kansei shimashita) = completed!
画像ダウンロード (gazou daunrōdo) = download this image
シェアしてみんなに見せてみよう！(shea shite minna ni misete miyou) = let’s share this and show it to everyone!
シェア用テキスト (shea-you tekisuto) = text used when sharing
Picrewの「Girl Maker」でつくったよ！(Picrew no “Girl Maker” de tsukutta yo) = I made this on Picrew’s “Girl Maker”!
もう一度つくる！ (mou ichido tsukuru) = make one again!
タグで探す (tagu de sagasu) = search by tags
おすすめ画像メーカー (osusume gazou mēkā) = recommended image makers
my favorites
lastly, a list of my favorite きせかえ picrews!!
buffalobelle
ummmmandy
citruslucy
astrolavas
goronggorong (this one is cats!)
notbecca
Sangled
also, you can see my self-portrait picrews on my main blog here! thanks for reading, everyone! 読んでくれてありがとうございました！
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ENF SPORTS CONTEST RESULTS
First and foremost I’d like to thank everyone who had entered this contest! It was incredible to see all the variety and such you were all able to create. The healthy influx of quality content now added to the genre is exactly what I wanted to see, and I think people did a great job of pushing themselves to do well here. Some artists I knew already, others were new to me and definitely people I’ll be keeping an eye on now! I, without a doubt, plan to host more of these contests. There will be some changes to the format perhaps a bit, but overall this has been a great experience I want to see repeated. You can probably look forward to that in the next month or two probably!Now, without further ado, here are the results! Only the top half of placements will be shared. Everyone under the halfway mark still did very well in a lot of cases. And, I know some results you might not all agree with. The categories had 3-4 judges, and each ranked everyone last to first., then averages were taken. So some judges may have liked your stuff, but others may have not.
DRAWINGS
6th Place:
“In the Long Run”
By RRRrrricoSSSsssuave
http://rrrrrricossssssuave.deviantart.com/art/In-the-Long-Run-For-ANew-s-ENF-Sports-contest-682803540
4th Place:
“Shirts VS Skins”
By Arta-Shrike
http://arta-shrike.tumblr.com/post/161431802718/shirts-vs-skins-is-an-informal-sports-game-in
4th Place:
“Just an Accident”
By X-Guy
http://x-guy5467.deviantart.com/art/Just-an-Accident-684494633
3rd Place:
“Improper Sports Attire”
By Saawaat
http://saawaat.deviantart.com/art/Improper-sports-attire-684143641
2nd Place:
“Rock Climber in Distress”
By Electrofoxart
http://electrofoxart.deviantart.com/art/Rock-Climber-In-Distress-681443487
1st Place:
“Strip Tennis”
By Anew
https://anewenfartist.tumblr.com/image/161186021917
I was very happy with the variety of styles with this drawing category. We had artists of a bunch of skill levels bringing something here.
I will admit I feel a bit ‘bad’ for winning in my own contest. I was trying my best, and I guess it worked out in the end. I’m really honored the judges on an average felt mine was the best.
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WRITING
7th Place:
“Lady of the Rifts”
By Nedland
http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=58894;article=58654;title=The%20ASN%20Story%20Board
6th Place:
“Just a Normal Basketball Game”
By T-araGO
http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1255760/1/just-a-normal-basketball-game-boram-eunjung-qri-soyeon-tara-hamkyul-soram
5th Place:
“Katelyn’s Exhibition”
By Ewong
http://ewong247.deviantart.com/art/ENF-Katelyn-s-Exhibition-sports-contest-entry-683301113
4th Place:
“F-101, K’al’anna Ball”
By Divides
http://divides.deviantart.com/art/Anew-s-Contest-F-101-K-al-anna-Ball-683850169?src=MC_deviation_stack
3rd Place:
“Gooball Fantasy, A Sapphroria Story”
By Tyvadi
http://tyvadi.deviantart.com/art/Gooball-Fantasy-A-Sapphoria-Story-684595854
2nd Place:
“ENF Late Night at the Gym”
By AnonENFFan
http://anonenffan.deviantart.com/art/ENF-Late-Night-at-the-Gym-Contest-Entry-681916219
1st Place:
“Winning Streak”
By Prince Buffoon
http://princebuffoon.deviantart.com/art/ENF-Sports-Contest-Winning-Streak-679103308
The writing category didn’t pull punches. This category had the most entries as well, which is very impressive. There are some fantastic stories here! Congrats to Prince Buffoon for his great story, I know I had a lot of fun reading it! Going to be nice to see at least two scenes from our top 3 winners get visualized!
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KISEKAE
5th Place:
“Cheerleading Gone Wrong”
By Inoueninja94kisekae
http://inoueninja94kisekae.deviantart.com/art/Cheerleading-Gone-Wrong-681783926
4th Place:
“Disqualified for Accident”
By Kakuyaz
http://kakuyaz.deviantart.com/art/Disqualified-for-accident-684440844
3rd Place:
“Swimming Trouble”
By Zephros542
http://zephros542.deviantart.com/art/Swimming-Trouble-680298490
2nd Place:
“Watersports”
By 12thtimelost
http://12thtimelost.deviantart.com/art/Watersports-No-Not-That-Kind-684570741
1st Place:
“Shirts vs Skins”
By MidiFang
midifang.deviantart.com/art/Shirts-vs-Skins-681944861
When I first created this contest, I wasn’t sure if I would include a Kisekae division. I knew enough people who used it though, and then included it on a whim… and I’m glad I did! I think some people give content created in Kisekae a bad rap, but like with any medium, there’s different proficiencies. The contestants here, especially our top winner Midifang, I think help show that not everything done with it is so “samey.”
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Prizes!
Contestents who won, you will be notified via note/PM with details about what you’re being offered. 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in Drawing and writing will get one. 1st and 2nd in Kisakae will get a prize too. 2nd and 3rd place winners will have to wait to hear their options, as I want to make sure the place ahead of you is set with who they will be getting art from.
Critique
Many of the judges wrote up comments about each piece. Original plan was to upload it all now, but we have some still working on it, and some concern was brought up. We realized some of you wasn’t expecting criticism. I think the words from the judges are insightful, helpful, and worth hearing. Yet, perhaps some of you weren’t ready for your stuff to be judged too publicly.
Please, within the next week, let me know how you feel about the critique on your work being shared publicly. I would like if I could for ease share it with everyone. I think other artists are able to learn from the critique as well. Yet if you’re shy, and want to keep it private, that’s fine. Or, you don’t have to see at all either.
Closing Words
I consider this all a success! I like to think we all had a great time, and all the fantastic artists here got that extra bit of exposure they were hoping for. I look forward to hosting and competing in another of these some time soon down the road~
The list again of the pictures and stories for anyone who missed it before:
Drawings:
https://thejakebolt.tumblr.com/image/160330008821
http://grave17.deviantart.com/art/Bike-Ride-679160703
http://electrofoxart.deviantart.com/art/Rock-Climber-In-Distress-681443487
http://megaf1sh.deviantart.com/art/RAISING-TEAM-SPIRIT-AMONG-OTHER-THINGS-681806387
http://rrrrrricossssssuave.deviantart.com/art/In-the-Long-Run-For-ANew-s-ENF-Sports-contest-682803540
https://anewenfartist.tumblr.com/image/161186021917
http://saawaat.deviantart.com/art/Improper-sports-attire-684143641
https://poprox101.tumblr.com/post/161394775908/official-contest-entry-pro-tip-be-cautious-when
http://x-guy5467.deviantart.com/art/Just-an-Accident-684494633
http://arta-shrike.tumblr.com/image/161431802718
http://ehns-universe.deviantart.com/art/ENF-Spots-Contest-Entry-HOT-DOGS-684551041
http://skylindworm.deviantart.com/art/Pom-Pom-Panty-Streak-684537632
http://gekigamix100assartin.deviantart.com/art/The-Carry-to-Bare-Anew-s-ENF-Sport-Contest-684611715
Stories:
http://princebuffoon.deviantart.com/art/ENF-Sports-Contest-Winning-Streak-679103308
http://kinkyquill.tumblr.com/post/160681765394/internarrative-striping-sports-festival
http://anonenffan.deviantart.com/art/ENF-Late-Night-at-the-Gym-Contest-Entry-681916219
http://ldnnld.deviantart.com/art/Bare-Competition-681327480
http://jawolfadultishart.deviantart.com/art/Melty-Times-at-the-Pool-Contest-Entry-682799317
http://pokemorphomega.deviantart.com/art/contest-Stripshooting-680527642
http://yalniffinlay.deviantart.com/art/Don-t-mess-with-Becay-ENF-Sports-Contest-682857642
http://rrrrrricossssssuave.deviantart.com/art/Wielder-of-the-Spear-For-ANew-s-sports-contest-683005855
http://ewong247.deviantart.com/art/Katelyn-s-Exhibition-entry-to-anewenfartist-s-sto-683301113
http://www.asianfanfics.com/story/view/1255760/1/just-a-normal-basketball-game-boram-eunjung-qri-soyeon-tara-hamkyul-soram
http://lunagold1.deviantart.com/art/Strip-Basketball-683619069?ga_submit_new=10%3A149619
http://divides.deviantart.com/art/Anew-s-Contest-F-101-K-al-anna-Ball-683850169?src=MC_deviation_stack
http://disc.yourwebapps.com/discussion.cgi?disc=58894;article=58654;title=The%20ASN%20Story%20Board
http://hypnobat98.deviantart.com/art/2v2-684256469
http://tyvadi.deviantart.com/art/Gooball-Fantasy-A-Sapphoria-Story-684595854
Kisekae:
http://zephros542.deviantart.com/art/Swimming-Trouble-680298490
http://inoueninja94kisekae.deviantart.com/art/Cheerleading-Gone-Wrong-681783926
http://midifang.deviantart.com/art/Shirts-vs-Skins-681944861
http://ghostwarrior674.deviantart.com/art/It-Was-For-A-Good-Cause-682062581
http://sta.sh/01h4aix02fbo
http://megaf1sh.deviantart.com/art/CHEERING-WITH-REGRET-682683407
http://brooms17.deviantart.com/art/A-Sisterly-Duel-682905367
http://rocuevas.deviantart.com/art/EFW-682635414
http://kakuyaz.deviantart.com/art/Disqualified-for-accident-684440844
http://12thtimelost.deviantart.com/art/Watersports-No-Not-That-Kind-684570741
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Kisekae Insights #31: My Little Pony Part 1 (Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor – Friendship is Magic)
Well, it’s finally happening. Time for a big thing to start. That’s right, to kick off the fourth run of Kisekae Insights, we’re finally covering My Little Pony, one of the major aspects of my personal project that will unlock the path to covering Gokaiger, Decade and Soulbound.
I got into My Little Pony for a brief time as I was starting my Doctor Who writing back in 2012, which was the early years of Friendship is Magic. I dropped out a couple of years later and got back into the fandom a little when I was writing Gokaiger and Decade, and some elements had evidently evolved.
This is going to be a really deep segment (maybe not as deep as #15/16), so buckle up as I take you back in time to cover the involvement of a series that has had quite an impact on my personal project.
Preludes
During the New Series and Next Gen Series, the Fifth Doctor’s run on my version of Doctor Who closely followed MLP:FiM from the tail end of Season 2 to the end of Season 4. The events of Ultraman: The Equestria Chronicles where we cover the backstories of Ginga, Victory and X take place during the events of Seasons 5 to 7 before Storm Dasher’s return to Equestria in the middle of Season 8. Soulbound Series 3 takes place following Season 9’s The Ending of the End and somewhat disregards The Last Problem. And boy do I have a doozy for you when we get to Soulbound Series 3.
Technically, the Fifth Doctor was the incarnation of the Doctor who discovered the existence of Equestria and his pony counterparts, which took place in the 2012 Easter Special The Pony Doctor that was set between the first two series/ seasons of both shows. However, previous versions of my personal project did have the Fourth Doctor meeting the ponies in stories that basically adapted Friendship is Magic and The Return of Harmony, where the former story does feature a companion (Kagami Hiiragi/Donna Noble) and the latter story features the Doctor travelling alone. At any rate, it can be assumed that the Doctor did previously travel to Equestria before his fifth incarnation.
Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor
When the Fourth Doctor regenerated at the end of The End of Time, the Fifth Doctor wasn’t the only incarnation of the Doctor that came out of it. Due to the force of the regeneration and the damage to the TARDIS (along with fixed points in time), the Doctor used up six regenerations in one go, resulting in him regenerating into his next incarnation, splitting two pony Time Lords out of him, creating one Earth pony and splitting two human lives that had been merged into him by Yuki Nagato in an effort to help him in his final battle against the Master and Rassilon. Yeah, I don’t know why I did this, but this was a time when my storyline was such that Zhuge Liang became the Doctor by drinking Time Lord blood or something. Come to think of it, that might be why the Doctor was able to survive being shocked by the Master’s energy blasts or falling through the glass roof of the Naismith mansion.
So anyway, the ponies that had been split or created from the Doctor were given a pocket of regeneration energy which they could use to regenerate. Doctor Whooves, the Pony Doctor and Jee Gun were the ponies that resulted from this.
First of all, let’s talk about Doctor Whooves:
(source for doctorwhoovesde appears to have been lost, but here’s the source for 1414holyflanders)
Now I’m sure you know full well that Doctor Whooves is based on the Tenth Doctor in BBC Doctor Who (Hasbro/DHX really missed a big opportunity not getting David Tennant to voice him) and that he is also known as Time Turner in merchandise. But how can Doctor Whooves live in Ponyville and be travelling in the TARDIS at the same time? There is only one answer: the Ponyville Doctor Whooves is actually the Meta-Crisis (Tentoo) incarnation. I’ll explain this a bit later.
You know, come to think of it, my image of the Eleventh Doctor Whooves (based on the vector images above) looks quite similar to the Tenth Doctor Whooves, only with the bowtie. Oh well, it’s not like my attempts at recreating them are any better.
Anyway, onto the Pony Doctor:
The Pony Doctor is my take on the Fifth Doctor of my personal project using generalzoi’s Pony Creator (which is still accessible despite the deprecation of Adobe Flash thanks to Flashpoint Infinity). The bowtie usually worn on the collar is changed to being worn on his head like Apple Bloom because the first version of Pony Creator didn’t have that option. I probably won’t redo it because without the bowtie on his head, he’ll just look like a recoloured Storm Dasher. I’m not kidding.
When I first created the Pony Doctor in 2012, I envisioned him as an olive green colour with fluro green garments (basically not bothering to change anything else but the bowtie, garments and body colour). When I posted that version to my Facebook, one of my friends pointed out that the olive green on the Pony Doctor actually looked like [snow] (deep meaning), so the year after, I did a minor redesign (that was not exactly a regeneration) and that design made its debut in the 50th Anniversary Series.
There was a storyline where the Pony Doctor fell in love with Twilight Sparkle, but circumstances meant that they were forced to part. His main companion for (the first year of) his adventures would be Daring Do.
So that’s it for the introductions. Let’s get into the story.
Doctor Who Equestria
(Artist’s impression of The Pony Doctor. Original work by Muniversal Arts)
In the 2012 Easter Special The Pony Doctor, (set between Series 1 and 2), the Doctor heads to Equestria and meets Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor in the midst of a Reaper attack on Ponyville. At the time they were travelling with their companions, Twilight Sparkle and Derpy Hooves, before they swapped companions at the end of the special. In hindsight, I should have written the episode and/or called it Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor. Oh well.
The Doctor would visit Equestria again with Ritsu, Kunikida, Kanade and Yuzuru for Shining Armor and Princess Cadance’s wedding, an adaption of the MLP:FiM Season 2 finale, A Canterlot Wedding. The story would follow the Doctor’s perspective of the Changeling invasion as he faces off against Queen Chrysalis, an agent of the Silence under the Kovarian Chapter, going so far as to wash an imposter Chrysalis and a bunch of Changelings into a laser-drilled hole under the Zhuoshui River in a rip-off of The Runaway Bride.
You may notice that I just mentioned the Zhuoshui River in Changhua, Taiwan, and that’s because at the time I put Equestria (at least just Ponyville and Canterlot) in that area before the Doctor’s actions separated it into its own planet (or returned it to its original place in the Equine Zone) after it was displaced during the Dimensional Merge. I would change it so that Equestria was always a separate planet in the Equine Zone, but then a later plotline relies on it being in Changhua so I wrote myself into a corner there. Anyway, the separation (or replacement) creates a time lock around Equestria that opens every 61 minutes with the timing reset at midnight.
I wrote a fanfic adaptation of this on Fanfiction.net, so feel free to check it out. Also, the Doctor does meet Doctor Whooves in this story, but not the Pony Doctor as he had gone to Kyontong Island before he was stuck dealing with Cybermen in Antarctica.
Series 3’s Paradox Love Revelation features the debut of Jee Gun and his subsequent prototype, Storm Dasher. It also features the debut of Ayala Kikuchi and the Kikuchi clan, the main antagonists of Series 3 and 4. We’ll get to more detail about Jee Gun and Storm Dasher in the next instalment.
(Art by Naur)
During Parallax of Love and Time (created as a mini-drama for the end of Series 3 but condensed into the first four episodes of Series 4), I rip off a portion of The Stolen Earth/Journey’s End to have Doctor Whooves regenerate, pour his regeneration energy into his spare hoof, then Derpy touches it and it creates the Meta-Crisis Doctor Whooves. Later on, Doctor Whooves is killed again and although unseen, the Pony Doctor sacrifices his one regeneration to allow Doctor Whooves to regenerate into his next incarnation, which resembles the Eleventh Doctor in BBC Doctor Who. The Meta-Crisis Doctor Whooves is left in Ponyville with Derpy, who has become the DoctorDerpy for obvious reasons. Doctor Whooves (in his new incarnation) and the Pony Doctor team up with the Doctor again in Return of the Kikuchi (created as a Series 4 mini-drama before being condensed into 7 episodes) alongside the Eleventh Doctor from the original BBC series. This one rips off the BBC Series 3 Master three-parter and the BBC Series 5 finale.
The opening three-parter of Series 5 sets up events for an adaptation of the classic fanfic My Little Dashie by ROBCakeran53. Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor team up with the Fifth Doctor, the man who would become Terry Mizukoshi and the main characters of the anime Natsuiro Kiseki as they help the ponies defend Equestria from a four-fold invasion of Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans and Weeping Angels. Rainbow Dash would be sent back to the past after being touched by a Weeping Angel and that’s my take on how My Little Dashie happened.
My next MLP:FiM adaptation would be the 2012 Christmas Special, Curse of the Crystal Empire, which adapted the Season 3 opener, The Crystal Empire. For the Doctor, this was set between The Angels Take Manhattan and The Snowmen (and following the events of the Salacian Time War and his brief time with Tsukasa Hiiragi and Squid Girl). By this time, Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor are travelling with different companions, namely Rainbowshine and Merry May.
One of the major changes I made to the story was that King Sombra was working for the Daleks; during one of his first adventures travelling through Equestria’s history, the Pony Doctor visited the Crystal Empire in the past and saw a Dalek ship crash into a cave outside the Crystal Empire as King Sombra enslaved the Crystal Ponies. The Pony Doctor saw this and tried to talk Sombra out of it because his slavery didn’t seem to have any objective; Sombra apparently agreed to free the Crystal Ponies, but just before he could do so, the Daleks entered into the Crystal Empire and Sombra made a alliance with them just as the Pony Doctor was finding a way to deal with them. As a result, the Pony Doctor was discovered by the Daleks and he was forced to flee. The ensuing Dalek attack that occurs during the race for the Crystal Heart causes the time lock to be broken. This story is also available as a fanfic adaptation on FanFiction.net.
Following their involvement in the 50th Anniversary Series, Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor would not be featured prominently in the Next Gen Series and Moushouden Series as budget cuts meant that even their spinoff series had to be cut. They would make a return in Soulbound Series 3 and 4, and of course they were also some of the Doctor’s incarnations who helped save Gallifrey in The Day of the Doctor.
I’d go into more detail about the adventures of Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor, but I didn’t write their spinoff episodes, so this is where I move on.
Return of a classic
(Art by Starbat)
In the Next Gen Series, the ponies’ focus became centred on Storm Dasher, though there were still a couple of adapted episodes along with a couple of original adventures.
Two of the three 2014 Chinese New Year Specials featured ponies; the former was a direct adaptation of the Season 4 opener, Princess Twilight Sparkle (during which the Pony Doctor also disappears alongside Princesses Celestia and Luna), while the latter shows Storm Dasher celebrating Chinese New Year with all of Equestria by teleporting them all to Earth showing them how humans celebrate the occasion. The equipment Dasher uses becomes overloaded and the Doctor has to help him get everyone back to Equestria.
The 2014 Christmas in July Special, Day of the Kanpu Neppa (Icy Heatwave) set between Series 8 and 9 of the Next Gen Series, features a bigger return, namely that of Megan Williams from MLP G1. The Series 8 finale foreshadowed a Dalek-Girl Power invasion of Livenploy that was delayed thanks to Hiroki and the trickery of Akari’s cousin, Narutaki.
The Doctor, Hiroki and Angelina head to Equestria to respond to a summons from Princess Celestia, who had just received a message in the Kaled language. The TARDIS lands near the Paradise Estate on Equestria’s twin planet, Ponyland. Hiroki comes out and is confronted by Megan Williams pointing a shotgun at him, but when the Doctor tries to tell Hiroki that he landed in the wrong place, Megan shoots at the TARDIS and the HADS activates, leaving Hiroki behind. All was not lost for him though as Megan reintroduced him to Momoka Mizutani, meeting for the first time since the end of 2013.
Megan’s backstory, adopted from that of Starbat’s, was that following the events of G1, she realised that the ponies needed to “grow up” and returned home. The gateway to Ponyland closed for five years and when Megan returned five years later, she found herself leading the ponies into the Parallax War, but the portal closed again and she couldn’t return home, forcing her to stay in Ponyland.
The Doctor and Hiroki learn that ten thousand Dalek ships are heading for Equestria; Momoka has the Pony Doctor’s TARDIS that he lent to Hiroki (he just forgot to ask for it back after the Manchester Campaign) so Hiroki, Megan, Momoka and the Ponyland Spike (from G1) use it to head to Equestria. Upon meeting with the Doctor, Hiroki and Megan head off in Momoka’s TARDIS to infiltrate the Dalek flagship while the Master confronts everyone, hypnotises most of the Mane Six and restrains the Doctor and the others.
After Hiroki plants a compressor bomb on the flagship and manages to escape in Momoka’s TARDIS with Megan, he heads back to Canterlot just as the Daleks begin landing in Equestria. He fights the Master, but he ends up getting shot by Shining Armor just as he is about to kill him. As I stated in #16, this bit was based off a storyline in the 2013 TVB drama Brother’s Keeper (巨輪), and if you haven’t read it, the below is a summary of how it went:
The compressor bomb detonates and the Daleks are forced to retreat. The captured Master is taken to trial and sentenced to be executed by means of molecular dispersal, which is carried out by Princesses Celestia, Luna, Cadance and Twilight.
Following this adventure, Storm Dasher and Rainbow Dash, alongside Momoka and a Girl Power defector who is renamed Satoyuki Saitō, join the Doctor, Hiroki and Angelina for a TARDIS team of seven throughout most of Series 9. The Doctor took Megan Williams home as well and she wouldn’t be seen again until the post-Gokaiger Space Squad movies, at which point she is revealed to have joined the Shadow Proclamation and became the commander of the Space Squad. Her younger siblings, Danny and Molly, would also join the Earth defence teams Xio and UPG respectively, with Danny becoming Ultraman X and Molly working alongside Storm Dasher who would become Ultraman Ginga, but that’s for the next instalment.
The eleventh episode of Series 9, Twilight’s Kingdom, is another adapted episode adapting the Season 4 finale of the same name. At the end of the Christmas in July Special, Lord Tirek is shown being freed by Madame Kovarian and the Silence in exchange for him killing the Doctor. At the end of the ninth episode of Series 9, Storm Dasher is given a parting gift from an alternate Hiroki that is revealed to be the seventh Element of Harmony, the Element of Time, which of course becomes one of the keys of the Tree of Harmony’s chest.
Some differences in my version of the episode is that Tirek shouts “EXTERMINATE!” before destroying the Golden Oaks Library, Dasher uses the Doctor’s ShodoPhone to transform into Samurai Mode and fight Tirek as the Green Samurai Ranger, and after Tirek is defeated, he proclaims to the Doctor that “Silence will fall when the question is asked” before the Silents electrocute him for his failure. Evidently this episode takes place before my adaptation of The Time of the Doctor (which takes place during the Series 9 finale).
Other FiM-related tidbits
A lot of this would be in the next instalment but I needed to balance both of these instalments.
Canterlot has a Security Department that would later become UNIT Equestria.
Applejack's parents, Bright Mac and Pear Butter, were killed by one of one of Yapool's choju/Terrible-Monsters, Vakishim, when it attacked Sweet Apple Acres after Yapool was discovered to have been stealing apples at night. Dasher, who had ended up at Sweet Apple Acres in the past while in pursuit of Yapool and disguised himself to work on the farm in order to discover what happened to Applejack's parents, managed to defeat Vakishim as Ultraman Tiga (not Ginga) before he scattered Bright Mac and Pear Butter's bodies into stardust.
Although Rainbow Dash’s parents are shown to be alive in Equestria, Rainbow Dash’s Equestria Girls counterpart is an orphan.
Sunset Shimmer's parents were converted/killed by the Cyberponies with the Pony Doctor unable to save them. This was what led her to obtain power through any means necessary so as to not be a weakling.
Spike would become the host to Ultraman Victory after unwittingly eating a gemstone that turned out to be a Victorium stone. The underground Victorians found Spike and he helped them defend their kingdom from Alien Chibull Exceller. Initially, Spike was bound to the three-minute limit while fighting as Victory, though he was able to fight for longer after molting. Additionally, thanks to him being an Ultra host, Spike can assume a human form as well, which is helpful for differentiating himself from his Equestria Girls counterpart, who is a dog.
Stay tuned for Part 2 where I talk about Jee Gun and Storm Dasher in detail as well as the involvement of Equestria Girls in my personal project.
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Kisekae Insights #28: Queen Fifi
Fifi Forget-me-not just won’t stay dead. The reason why I wrote out Fifi in 2013 was to allow for the relationship between Hiroki and Akari. Aside from her involvement in Three Kingdoms (which was justified due to it being a flashback series), Flowertot Garden reappeared in Kamen Rider Decade, with Fifi herself reappearing in the third Age of Riders post-series movie.
In the first half of Soulbound Series 4, the supercomputer housing Fifi’s data ghost is wiped and turned off, with no way of turning back on. This storyline teases something that will be explained in Kamen Rider Zi-O. The second half of the series, however, introduces a bombshell new character, namely Queen Fifi Forget-me-not, queen of Never Land.
This story takes place in a three-parter that introduces the final arc of the series. Queen Fifi is actually from a parallel universe where she didn’t die of cancer. When she and Hiroki broke up in 2011, Hiroki encouraged her to be strong and follow her own heart, leading Fifi to stop pining over Hiroki and agreeing to apply for divorce. Over the next decade, Fifi would become the queen of Never Land; when Fifi appeared in Soulbound Series 4, I saw her as a badass queen, wearing something that’s a cross of her dress in Belle of the Ball (image left) and the raincoat that came with the talking Fifi doll (image right) while wielding a sword that resembles Xiahou Dun’s scimitar (podao) in Dynasty Warriors.
In the first part, Hiroki seals himself in a shopping centre as he fights parallel versions of himself, preventing them from heading outside. This leads Akari to break in and save Hiroki; as the two hide in a department store and are about to be found by the parallel Hirokis, it is Queen Fifi who steps in to save them, much to Hiroki and Akari’s surprise.
In the second part, Queen Fifi is blandished along with the other interdimensional aberrants thanks to Betti and Silvia’s watermelon bomb containing blandishing water. The third part begins with the words “Bad Wolf” appearing everywhere (because back in 2008-09, Fifi acted as the counterpart of Rose Tyler in my version of Doctor Who). Of course, this catches Hiroki and the Doctor’s attention, leading them to make contact with Fifi in her universe, where she used a Void Beacon to send a message to every parallel universe.
Now, back in #2, I said that there were no plans for a “Jenova reunion theory”, but things had changed by this point as the Doctor and Parker use Hiroki as a main conduit to connect with his prototypes in their respective parallel universes (since they had been imprinted onto the universes of the people they were constantly around), using them as anchors to help the Doctor and the others find the right universes. Naturally, Queen Fifi is brought back to the main universe as well.
Queen Fifi is next shown a few episodes later helping our heroes defeat Hiroki, who had become the Supreme Ego Monster, Hokkinlai, due to the side effects of what happened previously. She and Karen Brewer, alongside Akari, are shown wielding the Weaponrisers to perform attacks on the monster. Soon after in the finale four-parter, Queen Fifi helps Parker with the Harmony Signal that would prevent the Ultimate Dimensional Merge and restore all universes to normal before they join the battle against Metallic 5 and Crestor Calandia in New Hayasaka alongside our heroes. In one of the battles, Parker and Queen Fifi utilise Decade Complete Form and Diend Complete Form with the original Beltmorpher and Gunmorpher while Hiroki and Kayley fight as Decade and Diend with their Beltmorpher X and Gunmorpher X.
After the entire multiverse is destroyed and restored with the Harmony Signal, Queen Fifi returns to her universe. When Parker asks Queen Fifi if she managed to find someone else after leaving Hiroki, she reveals that she is married to Bumble, who rules as the king of Never Land, though she chose not to reveal this to Hiroki. Also, Karen Brewer heads back to Stoneybrook. Why did I mention Karen here? Because this is also low-key a part-sequel to #22 and I didn’t feel like mentioning her in the beginning since she doesn’t have that much focus in this instalment.
Queen Fifi and Karen Brewer do make appearances in Kamen Rider Zi-O, but as their counterparts from the timeline where that series is set in. Their main involvement is in the ninth and tenth episodes, the final two-parter of the first arc that adapts fight scenes from Heisei Generations FOREVER. They do have interactions with Sougo, who thinks that he did meet them in his past, but after revelations that are revealed in the second half of the series, it’s not quite true but also true at the same time.
So that’s the story of how I milked Fifi Forget-me-not for a few more stories in the past couple of years. I’m so glad it’s all over now and I don’t have to keep milking the nostalgia cow anymore. I hope you liked this quick instalment. I’ll see if I can do something bigger for the next one.
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Kisekae Insights #50: Kamen Rider Zi-O Part 8: Background
After a month of non-stop typing in preparation, we have finally reached the end of this Kamen Rider Zi-O miniseries. In this instalment, not only will I be talking about the background to this series, I’ll also talk a little bit about the overarching Final Kamen Rider Chronicle along with the three Chronicle series broadcast from 2019 to 2021. At the end, there will be a song list of music featured in all three works.
Background to Zi-O and The Final Kamen Rider Chronicle
Kamen Rider Zi-O was created as part of The Final Kamen Rider Chronicle, an trilogy of Rider series alongside Ex-Aid and Build created in lieu of a fifth series for Three Kingdoms and Soulbound.
Each series was allocated 40 episodes of 45 minutes in length, making it the equivalent to 80 episodes in half-hour timeslots. This was the amount of time I gave the creators of the other two series’ adaptations for which to adapt the entirety of the series content, including the crossover winter movies, the traditional summer movie, the post-series V-Cinemas, the Hyper Battle DVDs and other web/media specials. Naturally, you can imagine what the other two teams felt when I announced After Quartzer. To be fair, though, Ex-Aid and Build haven’t had any other self-contained post-series specials and the Decade/Zi-O miniseries came out in 2021.
The Final Kamen Rider Chronicle was announced in June 2019 for broadcast in July 2020. Initially, it was delayed by a year due to the coronavirus lockdowns, but when the fourth lockdown hit, I decided to do away with the scheduling and let the creators release the series when they were ready. The fact that I intended this trilogy to be broadcast 5 times a week and I had started working full-time did not help things, as these delays were made worse by Soulbound Series 4 not being completed at the time.
One of the ideas I gave for Kamen Rider Build was multiple Build clones that mainly used the Best Matches of other territories. I don’t think I had other ideas for Ex-Aid though. Hey, remember that rumour where Ex-Aid’s Riders would be based on file extensions?
I started work on Zi-O in February 2022 after finishing Soulbound Series 4. I finished the main series in August, then took a brief break before completing After Quartzer from September to November. On a good day, I could work on three episodes, finishing off the first, completing a second and starting work on a third. When I got to the fourth part, that was a difficult schedule to keep due to the episodes largely being original. In fact, original episodes would always take longer to write. The episode that took me the longest to write was episode 33 at 18 days, as it was the start of a new status quo with the Quartzer trio. The special that took me the longest to write was Rainbow Rider Revolution at 38 days.
As I watched Zi-O during its original run, I knew that I wanted to adapt it eventually, being “Decade 2.0” as people called it. Like all non-Doctor Who series in my personal project, Zi-O is another egofest. In fact, it’s an egofest on a brand new level as I played Ohma Zi-O, Swartz and Hiroki Ichigo along with a bunch of Riders and characters. My twin brother played Sougo and the other Sougo, Takeru and Hikaru Azuma, but let’s face it, you might as well say that I played them. I originally played Parker Zhou and Hiroki’s prototypes before I decided to outsource them for the Moushouden Series; given how I ended up playing multiple characters again, fat lot of good that was.
Given that the series was produced by Shinichirō Shirakura and written by Kento Shimoyama, it had flaws that people had already seen in previous works. As such, my goal with the adaptation was to improve on them to the best of my ability, though I’m unable to guarantee that I managed to catch all of them or improve them sufficiently.
One thing I improved on in the first part was how the Another Riders worked and how their creation affected time. The erasure of the Riders’ history caused by the Another Riders being created early in their counterpart Riders’ timelines was seen as disrespectful and as such, this was improved on by removing the history erasure element and having the events of Zi-O be a continuation of the Legend Riders’ timelines. I also incorporated the W and Kuuga tributes into the main series to show Sougo’s acquisition of their Ridewatches, in a two-parter adapting Heisei Generations Forever.
The second part contained original episodes consisting of an adaptation of Kamen Rider Shinobi, a Ryuki tribute that also serves as a prequel to Sougo acquiring Zi-O II and a totally original episode featuring the other Sougo and Parker Zhou. The third part introduced Quartzer into the series as a new villain group, added an Amazons tribute, extended the Hibiki tribute to include a Magica tribute and made Kamen Rider Ginga’s appearance a full episode with two original Riders.
The finale arc of the original Zi-O was something I definitely wanted to improve on, due to it going back to the merging worlds plot already used in Decade. As such, the final three episodes were adapted at the end of the third part and the fourth part was adapted from the final episodes of Kamen Rider Zero-One. Initially, I didn’t intend on adapting the Over Quartzer movie and the movie Riders because of Showa elements, but I ended up adapting it in the end.
Hiryuu Kakogawa also felt underused during his appearances in the series. As such, Hiryuu joined Quartzer for the fourth part as I made the unprecedented move to adapt Zi-O’s final stage show for plot elements. A Facebook group I was in run by the people behind Genm Corp fansubs and the Henshin Fever fanpage posted a subtitled version of Build’s final stage show in 2019, making me realise that there was an untapped market for fansubs. I think other fansubbers and groups have caught on to this because more tokusatsu stage shows have been subbed since then.
Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi and Sougo as Ohma Zi-O appeared to be rushed out for the finale of the original, so Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi was introduced at the end of the third part while Ohma Zi-O was made into the Ark-One of the series.
In preparation for this series, certain Kamen Riders and power-ups were introduced earlier, more specifically in Soulbound Series 4, as a build-up and foreshadowing to this series. Of note, the Decade Beltmorpher X and Diend Gunmorpher X were introduced as upgrades given to Hiroki and Kayley after making a deal with Ohma Zi-O. Kamen Rider Aqua was also introduced before his appearance in Zi-O, even though he ended up being used in an original arc with his counterpart in the original series being replaced by Akihito Hayasaka as Kamen Rider Woz the Next.
The main portion of my personal project had concluded in Soulbound Series 4; Zi-O is both a continuation of the story for the Kamen Riders and a side story for everyone else. The events of this series take place in a separate timeline to the main universe as the main characters of the series are parallel isotopes; individuals whose timelines have been splintered by them being displaced from their own timelines. By the end of the series, the parallel isotopes are erased with the destruction of the timeline, however new versions of the main characters are created in a new timeline as shown in the After Quartzer specials.
Chronicle Series
Following the conclusion of Doctor Who, three weekly Chronicle series were commissioned. The Chronicle series follows the premise of Ultraman Retsuden and other Chronicle series in that they are mostly recaps and reruns of previous episodes.
Doctor Who: The Equestria Chronicles is the first such series, broadcast from July to December 2019. The series takes place during the events of the eighth season and follows Storm Dasher as he teaches the Young Six about the adventures of Doctor Whooves, the Pony Doctor and himself. Some special guests join Dasher’s classes/lectures as well, human, pony or Time Lord alike.
Ultraman: The Equestria Chronicles was broadcast from July to December 2020. This series consists of 6 mini-arcs that can be separated into individual series, covering the adventures of Storm Dasher as Ultraman Ginga, Spike as Ultraman Victory, and Danny Williams as Ultraman X, the latter being an adaptation of the original series. In hindsight I probably should have fleshed it out into a proper series myself, but this was for the best since my work on Soulbound Series 4 would occupy me for two years.
The Zhuge Family Chronicles was broadcast from January to June 2021 in preparation for The Final Kamen Rider Chronicle. This series follows Jee Gun, Sunset Shimmer, Copper Plume, Rally Flag, Starlight Glimmer and Sierra Nightingale as they learn about Hiroki Ichigo and his family, the Zhuge family, and their adventures at the Strawberry Academy. Being inspired by Ultraman Chronicle: ZERO & GEED, this series carries the classroom setting through to the end whereas the original had to abort it towards the end due to the pandemic. The series culminates in a final exam for the six students, which they pass with flying colours.
Music
Chronicle Series:
Doctor Who: The Equestria Chronicles: Hope the youth (opening)/ギンガローグ (Ginga Rogue, Japanese version of 沙漠駱駝, ending 1)/放浪 (Wandering, Japanese version of 狂浪, ending 2)
Ultraman: The Equestria Chronicles: MLP (USA parody, opening)/明年今日 (Japanese ver, ending 1), ねずみは米がすき (老鼠愛大米 Japanese ver, ending 2)
The Zhuge Family Chronicles: Heroes (opening)/Heart on Fire (ending 1)/ネバーマインド (ending 2)
Final Kamen Rider Chronicle:
Ex-Aid: EXCITE (opening)/愛のしるし (ending)
Build: Be The One (opening)/piece of truth (ending)
Zi-O: Over “Quartzer” (opening)/時の描片 ~トキノカケラ~ (ending)
Zi-O insert themes:
(character themes remain the same as from the original)
Episode 12 (Shinobi crossover): IZANAGI
Episode 21 (Agito tribute): BELIEVE YOURSELF
Episode 31 (Luna goes to the hot springs with the girls): Me Armastame Suplemist (Estonian song, title means “We Love Bathing”)
Episode 36 (Sougo regains his memories upon seeing 2012 Akari): Super Driver
Before Quartzer themes:
Zi-O and Decade: Ride the Wind -Zi-O Remix- (by Fuuta, opening)/Bright! our Future (ending)
The Other Zi-O Part 1: 流星ミラクル (opening)/CHOSEN SOLDIER (ending)
The Other Zi-O Part 2: ブルーバード (opening)/Winding Road (ending)
Geiz and Woz: M八七 (opening)/明日もし君が壊れても (ending)
After Quartzer themes:
Revenge of Quartzer: Sea Princesses opening theme/雷鳴 (opening)/Mirage Mirror (insert theme)/GAME CHANGER (ending)
Rainbow Rider Revolution: Equestria Girls opening theme/Brand New Day (opening)/咲いて (insert theme)/Fantasista～ファンタジスタ～ (ending)
The Game in the House of Death: INSIDE-OUT DECADE ver. (opening)/世界が終るまでは… (ending)
The Seven Sougos: INSIDE-OUT ZI-O ver. (opening)/You are the HERO (ending)
Post-series tributes:
Three Kingdoms: 若者のすべて
Soulbound: Message
Rider Chronicle: P.A.R.T.Y. ユニバース・フェスティバル
Personal project/Hiroki Ichigo: ドラマティック
And so we have reached the end of the Zi-O miniseries and with it, the fourth run of Kisekae Insights. We’ve gone through 20 instalments in 7 months, which is a little more than the first run’s pattern of 16 instalments in 6 months. I would have released the Zi-O miniseries over one month instead of two, but at this point I’m just buying time until the 1000th Post Special. I hope this makes up for the lackluster third run in 2022.
With My Little Pony, Gokaiger, Decade and Zi-O out of the way, all that’s really left for me to cover is Three Kingdoms and Soulbound (unless you want me to retread previous topics for content). Don’t expect the fifth run to come out until 2025; I’ve got enough on my plate at the moment with the upcoming Sea Princesses 20th Anniversary and Koei Warriors Retrospective.
If you’ve got any questions about anything in this series, feel free to contact me on Facebook or shoot me an ask or DM on Tumblr (anons disabled). Until the next run, I say.
#kisekae insights#kamen rider#kamen rider zi-o#kamen rider decade#my little pony#my little pony equestria girls#my little pony friendship is magic#doctor who#ultraman
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Kisekae Insights #49: Kamen Rider Zi-O Part 7 - A look at the characters
Now that we have covered the entire plot of my Zi-O adaptation, I’m going to do a quick overview of the main characters in it. Some details about each of the characters can be seen throughout the last 6 parts, but this post is dedicated to summarising them in detail.
While I have maintained the use of adaptation names for certain characters, some characters have been referred to by their original names throughout this mini-series for Kisekae Insights. I’ll elaborate more on this as I go through them, but the tl;dr is that I’m appealing to readers’ familiarity with names of their original counterparts.
Sougo Tokiwa
Sougo Tokiwa is a parallel isotope of Hiroki Ichigo taken from July 2012 (at the end of the Three Kingdoms series). After finding himself in the Ohma War of 2068, he ends up in July 2018 with amnesia, hence why he is only 15 years old at the start of the series and not 21.
In the original series, Sougo appears to act like the Sentai Red Rangers of recent years - overtly positive with a repetitive catchphrase, abstract goals and a lack of character flaws. At least in the adaptation I can attribute this to Sougo’s amnesia and having dreams beamed into his head from the future, plus his prime self’s autism playing a significant role in his cloudcuckoolander personality.
Sougo will go out of his way to help people wherever he can, as that is what he believes a king should do. This goes to the point where he would even go so far as to help his own enemies, such examples being convincing his other self that there are people who care about him, encouraging Kensuke to keep fighting despite his ideal timeline no longer coming to pass, and helping Swartz realise that he does care for his family and that despite being a rogue AI program, he has a heart (he also prioritised this over 2012 Akari which goes to show how much an idiot like Sougo can care about people).
The other Sougo Tokiwa (Ohma Zi-O)
The other Sougo is native to the Zi-O timeline and is also the one who would be involved in the bus accident in 2009 and become the Ohma Zi-O we see in 2068. The main Sougo’s interactions with Ohma Zi-O alludes to how the latter crossed paths with his main self several times in the past.
After having lost his parents, the other Sougo gets a drive to set off on his own and become king, but over the next nine years, the pain of leaving Parker behind and losing three female companions made him a cold and bitter figure. It’s only thanks to meeting the main Sougo that the other Sougo begins to loosen up and appreciate that there are people who still care about him.
When the main Sougo becomes Ohma Zi-O, the other Sougo tries to remind him of his dream to become the nicest and kindest demonic overlord, but in his defeat, he senses a deeper sorrow from the main Sougo than he had experienced before. When the main Sougo makes his decision to destroy the timeline, the older Ohma Zi-O happily accepts this as he can be set free from his pain and sorrow.
Geiz Myoukouin
Geiz Myoukouin, also known as Andrew Cui, was an officer from the mainland in 2011. Late that year, he worked with Yuki Nagato to resurrect Parker Zhou before she sent him into the future to answer an influence coming from it, becoming a parallel isotope in the process. Geiz ended up in 2063 with his memories scrambled and joined the Resistance. Five years later, their forces would suffer near annihilation at the hands of Ohma Zi-O, which led Geiz to steal a Ziku Driver and some Ridewatches from him before taking a Time Mazine and heading to the past.
Geiz’s motivation to defeat Sougo comes from his serious and blunt attitude; while he was hostile to Sougo at first, he warms to his optimism and kindness, going so far as to convince him to give up the Ziku Driver and his dream of becoming a king. When that failed in part due to the Time Jackers’ actions, Geiz ended up convincing Sougo to become a king again, promising to defeat him if he became Ohma Zi-O. In the original, Geiz in his dying breaths would eventually trust Sougo enough to become the nicest and kindest demonic overlord as Ohma Zi-O. In the adaptation, however, Geiz makes good on his promise to defeat Sougo when he becomes the vilest and evilest demonic overlord, though his intent isn’t to kill him, but to save him.
When Kensuke arrived with the prophecy that Geiz would become a saviour, his stance towards Sougo becoming Ohma Zi-O wavered. After Geiz elects to defy Kensuke’s prophecy and fight together with Sougo, he seeks a future where he can become a saviour alongside Sougo as the demonic overlord.
Luna
Luna, real name Mahina, was the daughter of the virtual Hiroki and Fifi Forget-me-not in the supercomputer on Never Land. After having her memories and powers sealed by Swartz as a little girl, Mahina was thrown into the Time Vortex and ended up in the year 2058, where she was taken in by the Resistance and given the name Luna. Ten years later, she was saved from being turned to dust by Ohma Zi-O when her guardian pushed her into a nearby trench.
As Geiz travelled back in time in an effort to kill Sougo before he became Ohma Zi-O, Luna took a Time Mazine and followed him, managing to rescue Sougo and get him away from Geiz. Her approach to dealing with Ohma Zi-O was to prevent him from becoming Zi-O in the first place instead of outright killing him. When that failed, Luna was convinced that Sougo would not become the Ohma Zi-O they knew in the future because she found almost no evidence to that conclusion. However, when Sougo gained Zi-O II, she sided with Kensuke as she suddenly realised that the reality of him becoming Ohma Zi-O was becoming more possible by the day. After saving a young Sougo (who unbeknownst to her at the time was the version native to this timeline and not the Sougo she knew), she came around to the idea that the future could be changed.
In the third part, Luna discovered her power to stop time and was horrified by it, but thanks to Zhuge Sōta’s help, she was able to accept who she was. Although Luna wasn’t interested in becoming a Kamen Rider initially, thinking of it more as a boys’ thing, she would come around to it after finally discovering her past and realising that her failure to prevent her father’s plans made her a burden to her friends. With the help of Sougo and Ohma Zi-O, Luna would become Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi and fight alongside her friends.
My face claim for Luna is Marny Kennedy, who is best known for playing Taylor Fry in Mortified. This really is the 30-year-old teenager situation from Power Rangers, isn’t it? As a tribute to the classic Australian children’s series, some more actors from the series (along with Parallax) have appeared in the Geiz and Woz episode of Before Quartzer as part of the Resistance in 2068.
Mark Roberts
Like his original counterpart Junichirō Tokiwa, Mark Roberts doesn’t have much of a role in the series besides running 9TO5 and being the guardian for Sougo, Geiz, Luna and later Kazuto and 2012 Akari (for a short time, anyway). In the year that Mark got to know Sougo, he noticed all the people coming and going from his repair shop and when Geiz and Luna temporarily left, he gained the courage to tell off Sougo for hiding his loneliness, encouraging him to be honest with his feelings so that he won’t become a king lacking in empathy.
Throughout the series, Mark does catch on to Sougo and his friends being Kamen Riders (particularly because they tend to openly discuss their matters within earshot of him), so when the reveal exposition dump happens in episode 30, he’s cool with it and he asks Sougo to continue using his powers to protect people. When Mark hears about Sougo becoming Ohma Zi-O, he is optimistic that the nice and kind Sougo he knew is still there as his friends promise him that they will do their best to bring him back to normal.
The entire thing with Junichirō being able to fix the Ridewatches in the finale comes out of nowhere and is never explained, so I decided not to write that in for Mark in the adaptation. Him fixing things other than clocks I understand, but it doesn’t work like that for Ridewatches.
My face claim for Mark is Andrew Blackman, who played Taylor’s dad, Don Fry, in Mortified (tbh he kind of looks older nowadays than the actor who played his original counterpart despite being younger than him). Fun fact, in Year 10, Andrew Blackman and his team from the Complete Works Theatre Company came to our school to perform some scenes from Shakespeare’s Macbeth and answer questions about it because it was a study topic in our English class. I volunteered to play Lord Ross (they got other students to play some smaller roles as well). Suffice to say I don’t have the same confidence for acting and public speaking than I had back then and- holy shit, that was 10 years ago? It’s been so long since the Day of Retribution (deep meaning).
Kazuto Hongō
Kazuto Hongō acts as the counterpart to Black Woz in the adaptation.
Kazuto was originally from an adult visual novel series called Koihime Musou, which is a feminised version of Dynasty Warriors, or more accurately, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. After being transported to the Koihime world based on late-Han Dynasty China, Kazuto returned to the modern world and brought his harem with him. Allying himself with the Chōsōkabe clan, they would come into conflict with Parker and his army, which he and his harem would join.
Kazuto’s harem wouldn’t be brought up in the series, but they would become lost following the Genesis Meltdown.. He initially opposed Parker after his army split but then joined him again as part of the Date Army. In the normal timeline, Kazuto would continue to have adventures with Parker in The Kongming Adventures.
After the Date Army’s defeat at the hands of the Sanada Army in 2011, Kazuto was captured and would have been executed if not for Ohma Zi-O bringing him to 2068 to be his right-hand man. I think you know the rest of his backstory from here.
Kazuto is devoted to the mission that Ohma Zi-O gave him to ensure that the main Sougo would become the demonic overlord according to the history written in his book, the Twilight Chronicle. He would do anything to ensure this goal, going so far as to work with the Time Jackers to achieve this. As time went on however, Kazuto would come to accept Sougo becoming a different demonic overlord to what Ohma Zi-O was, which led him to be greatly surprised when Sougo actually became Ohma Zi-O towards the end of the series.
After Sougo destroyed the timeline and returned everything to normal, the parallel isotope Kazuto was given a new mission to look after the Sougo in the new timeline before Ohma Zi-O released him from his service.
Swartz, Ora and Heure (Time Jackers)
Swartz, Ora and Heure are the family from the supercomputer on Never Land, Swartz being the virtual Hiroki, Ora being Fifi Forget-me-not, and Heure being their son Takuhiro. Swartz wiped their memories and changed their appearances when he threw Luna into the Time Vortex and began his crusade against humanity.
When he created a new body for Hiroki after he destroyed his old one, the virtual Hiroki absorbed his negative emotions and memories while also gaining the ability to stop time. Seeing the truth of humanity in how other people treated people like Hiroki led him to go rogue (ironically triggered by the arrival of Sougo from the future), creating a convoluted plan to seek revenge against humanity by creating Ohma Zi-O, then having him liberate Hiroki in his past before working to make him Ohma Zi-O, from whom he would steal his powers at its peak to usurp him as the king of time.
Swartz carried out his plans with a ruthless demeanor, being willing to conduct experiments on even his own allies, as shown when he made Ora and Heure into Another Riders. Despite turning on his fellow Time Jackers to take back the time powers he had given them, he does start showing care for them by giving them the Gold Drive and Diend Anotherwatches and even instinctually defending his children from enemies. This would lead Sougo to convince Swartz that he did have a heart despite denying that he had one, something that would normally be the case for an AI avatar like him.
Ora appears to be more laidback however she is actually cunning and manipulative, creating Another Riders by having their users make contracts with her when they are on the verge of despair. Given that she was supposed to be based on Fifi Forget-me-not I would have cast an older actress instead of a teenager, but I don’t suppose it matters that much.
Heure, being the youngest of the Time Jackers, acts a bit childish as he hides a ruthlessness within himself, revelling at the suffering of others. His villainy does have his limits as when he suspects Swartz of colluding with Kensuke in secret, leading him to ally himself with Kazuto to steal Kamen Rider Woz’s powers and build an Another Rider Army for Hiryuu.
Kensuke Nitta
Kensuke Nitta acts as the counterpart to White Woz in the adaptation.
Kensuke is the protagonist of the Sengoku Koihime series, being a spin-off sequel to Koihime Musou in the vein of Samurai Warriors. He is the nephew to Kazuto and in the games, he is transported to another Koihime world based on the Sengoku period of Japan, where he gains a harem just as his uncle did before.
In this series, Kensuke comes back to the past from the year 2040. Unlike Kazuto whose allegiance is to Sougo and Ohma Zi-O, Kensuke’s allegiance is to Geiz as the saviour Geiz Revive. In contrast to Kazuto’s Twilight Chronicle, Kensuke possesses the Future Note, which he can use to will the future by writing or speaking into the tablet-like device.
Kensuke’s goal to push Geiz into becoming the saviour contains sinister aspects to it that he does not disclose to anyone. Unlike his uncle or even Swartz, Kensuke is amoral, sociopathic and manipulative, willing to stop at no end to push Geiz into becoming the saviour. He has a tendency to go into fits of rage when things don’t go his way, even going so far as to allow the world to be destroyed when he future he envisioned would no longer happen. Thanks to being encouraged by Sougo, however, he decides to establish Quartzer with the new goal of becoming the keeper of time.
Later on, Kensuke would directly work towards achieving his goal by force, working to ensure that Sougo becomes Ohma Zi-O on the true Ohma’s Day and making him fight Swartz as Another Decade Complete with the intent of having them destroy each other. When Geiz transforms into Geiz Majesty for the first time to fight Sougo as Ohma Zi-O, Kensuke’s initial goal was indirectly achieved.
In the megalomania caused by the thwarting of his ultimate plan, Kensuke reveals his true feelings about Kamen Riders, that they are no different from the powers of evil and that they were originally created to be weapons for destroying humanity. Of course, he is proven wrong by Sougo, the other Sougo and their fellow Kamen Riders.
Hiryuu Kakogawa
As I stated before, Hiryuu is modelled on a friend I used to know when I was little because our mums knew each other.
Hiryuu Kakogawa would have ended up as collateral damage from the accident in 2009 if it weren’t for the other Sougo saving him. He witnessed the other Sougo freezing people in time and rewriting their memories while he was stuck on a hospital bed without any powers, leading him to resent the other Sougo. Thanks to Swartz’s manipulation, he was led to believe that the accident was the main Sougo’s fault and sought to obtain the powers of former Another Riders as Another Zi-O, coming into conflict with Geiz over fighting Sougo before being defeated by the combined efforts of the two.
Sougo tried to convince Hiryuu to let go of the past and live for the present, but he was unable to do so, instead opting to take what he deserved from Sougo as he changed the timeline as Another Zi-O II. When Hiryuu failed and Swartz abandoned him, Kensuke recruited him into Quartzer and gave him a mission to obtain the Ancient Kamen Rider Ridewatches. At this point, Hiryuu learns of how the Heisei era became such a mess with all the rewrites and retcons, blaming Sougo for it because he just wanted someone to blame. He would work with Kensuke to achieve his goal of resetting the Heisei era and ruling over it as the keeper of time.
When Sougo became Ohma Zi-O, Hiryuu would gloat at Sougo’s proclamation of being the nicest and kindest overlord as his vile and evil actions were made public. After becoming Another Ohma Zi-O himself, Sougo has to tell Hiryuu again to let go of the past and live in the present as he and the other Sougo defeat him.
Akihito Hayasaka
Akihito Hayasaka acts as the counterpart to Red Woz, who was created from Black Woz in the final stage show.
Akihito is the protagonist of Harukoi Otome, the predecessor to the Koihime series. It’s set in the same school where the other two protagonists went, with some references to Harukoi Otome being made in Koihime Musou.
Initially, Akihito acted as Tsukuyomi’s Woz servants so that he could give her the power of Tsukuyomi ABC, then he lent his assistance to the Time Jackers. This was done on the orders of Kensuke, his true boss. After revealing his true allegiance to Quartzer, Akihito works with Kensuke to fight the Riders as they merge to become Another Ichigou, later merging further with Hiryuu and the Quartzer trio to become Another New Ichigou.
I’m not good at writing character development so the characters in the adaptation are essentially carbon-copied from the original, with some influence from Zero-One during the final part of the story. Regardless, I hope I’ve been able to do better in adaptation than the original.
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Kisekae Insights #48: Kamen Rider Zi-O Part 6 - After Quartzer
Starting with W before continuing from Gaim onwards, each Rider series has featured post-series direct-to-video specials known as V-Cinemas, which serve as epilogues or side stories to the main series. In some cases, series have been known to receive streaming-exclusive specials on the Toei Tokusatsu Fan Club years after the series ended. Such specials typically feature new Riders or new forms for existing Riders, and of course, this series is no exception.
There are two blocks of post-series specials, each consisting of a longer and shorter special, that were released in November and December 2022. These specials are set in the new world created by Sougo after the destruction of the main series timeline, with all characters being recreated in the new world. The first block features major crossovers with highlighted franchises (featuring their respective opening themes at the start) while the second block consists of adaptations of the two TTFC Rider Time miniseries written by Chris Chibnall Toshiki Inoue.
Let’s jump into the post-series specials for Zi-O and the true ending for my personal project.
Decade vs Sea Princesses: Revenge of Quartzer
Adapted from Kamen Rider Genms -The Presidents- and -Smart Brain and the 1000% Crisis-.
Unlike the other specials, this special is set in the main timeline instead of the new world created by Sougo.
The Quartzer Riders continue to run rogue in the main timeline despite the defeat of their commanders. The Decade Riders, allying with Shugo, OOO, Birth and the non-Quartzer affiliated Salacian Riders, are tasked with suppressing the rogue Riders. Suddenly, Daniel Camielez (Ryuki) is afflicted with the Game Disease, causing a Bugster Kuroto Dan to emerge from his body. As a result of this, Daniel transforms into Ryuga instead of Ryuki. Genm defeats Ryuga and infects the Salacian Quartzer Riders, turning them into zombies under his control. After Ryuga is defeated, Dark Daniel (who is able to act independently from his host) separates from his body and covers the Salacian Riders’ escape.
In another battlefield, Decade and Diend are fighting the Quartzer Riders alongside Shugo Guardian Form (based on Den-O Liner Form), OOO Yadopangaru Combo (introduced in Soulbound Series 4) and Birth X. Akari’s rogue cousins join the battle on Quartzer’s side, only to be stopped by Accel Booster Form, Bravo King Durian Arms and Gridon Lychee Arms. The Quartzer Riders are captured and taken in by UNIT, but on the way, their cavalcade is surrounded by Zombie Gamers and the remaining Quartzer Riders are taken from it.
Hiroki and Daniel confront Kuroto alongside their allies. During the battle that ensues, Dark Daniel transforms into Ryuga Survive (a recolour of Ryuki Survive), which transforms Dragblacker into Blackranzer. As the other Riders are infected and Ryuga, Decade and Diend are defeated by Genm’s Mighty Critical Strike, time pauses and a Bugster Masamune Dan arrives to confront his son as Cronus. As the father and son argue, Daniel manages to convince the two to work together to achieve their dreams, allowing Kuroto to merge with his father and gain the Genm Musou Gashat. The new power allows Genm to summon his zombified Riders to charge at the remaining Riders; as Hiroki and Kayley transform into Decade Complete Form 21 and Diend Ultimate Complete Form and use the Gekijouban Attack Ride cards to summon all primary and secondary Riders, Daniel and Dark Daniel merge together into Kamen Rider RyukiRyugaSurvive, taking cues from EvilytyLive with the transformation pose of Kamen Rider Century.
All the Riders are released from Genm’s control as they are defeated and transformed. After Decade and Diend launch their shooting Final Attack Rides at Genm, RyukiRyugaSurvive launches the Impulse Dragon Rider Kick, which has Dragranzer and Blackranzer running laps around Genm as the combined Rider bounces off them similar to Drive’s SpeeDrop. With Kuroto’s disappearance, Daniel is cured of his Game Disease and the Quartzer Riders are forgiven since they have been punished enough already.
Zi-O vs Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rider Revolution
Adapted from Zi-O episodes 1, 49 and the Geiz Majesty special.
In the new world, Sougo Tokiwa and Akari Ichigo have become friends after their past conflicts and coincidentally, they apply to be transferred to Canterlot High. Geiz Myoukouin is transferring to Canterlot High as well while Luna Roberts is a local student living with her great-uncle Mark at the homestay house where Sougo, Akari and Geiz will be living in, also known as the clock repair shop 9TO5.
On the first day of school at Canterlot High (Sougo, Akari, Geiz and Luna are wearing the uniform), Akari quickly goes back to get her pencil case as she forgot to take it. It is at this point that Sougo, Geiz and Luna are met by Kazuto, Kensuke and Akihito, who inform them of the Minato-Sugaru Rider Championships happening around the island, encouraging them to win and set off on their path to glory. At the same time, Akari finds a Genesis Driver and Lemon Energy Lockseed beside her bed and takes it with her pencil case as she is in a hurry.
At Canterlot High, the students meet Vice Principal Swartz (working alongside Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna) along with two students resembling Heure and Ora (who are also wearing uniform). Heure and Ora show the four around the school as the students are getting ready for the Rider Championships which are happening throughout the first week of school (after summer break). As Ora remarks how she hates how the championships have made everyone hostile towards each other, Sougo and the others realise that they have their own Drivers and collectables, leading Heure and Ora to tell them to enter the championships and beat everyone.
Sure enough, Sougo and his group enter the championships, which are co-hosted by Superintendent Abacus Cinch, Principal Cadance of Crystal Prep Academy, and Vice Principal Swartz. Other teams joining include Team Decade, made up of Hiroki and Kayley from the main universe, and Team Barlckxs, made up of Hiryuu Kakogawa and two obscure figures from my past; in this timeline, Luna’s parents were killed by the Matsunaga Army, whom Hiryuu was a part of, when she was eight years old.
There are a total of five rounds in the championships with 32 teams duking it out. The Rainbooms are Team Wizard, the Shadowbolts are Team Gaim and the Dazzlings are Team Faiz. To get 32 teams, some non-primary Riders, namely Meteor, Nadeshiko, Beast, Sorcerer and Wiseman, are given their own teams supplemented by monsters, while the Future Riders from the main series return, forming their own teams as well.
Throughout the first three rounds, Sougo, Geiz and Luna gradually regain their memories of the old timeline through their Ziku Drivers and Ridewatches, while Kachinebots attack the city, which are defeated by Birth X and Kaixa from the main universe. Akari loses against her opponent in the first round (against Team Gaim, though it was a two-on-one fight for each of them), but manages to defeat Equestrian Twilight Sparkle in the second round. When Geiz and Luna are defeated in the second round against Team Nadeshiko, Kazuto gives the Zi-O II Ridewatch to Sougo so he can turn the tides.
In the third round, Kazuto joins Team Zi-O as they fight Team Barlckxs. During the battle, Sougo transforms with Geiz and Kazuto into Zi-O Trinity when Luna and Akari are at risk of being defeated. It is then that Sougo, Andrew and Luna remember everything of the old timeline; as they talk to Kazuto and Akari about what they know, Kazuto reveals that the births of Gaim to Zi-O took place earlier than normal due to the Rider Championships, adding that he is also investigating who is pulling the strings behind the scenes. Sure enough, it is revealed that Kensuke and Akihito are the ones pulling the strings alongside Team Barlckxs.
The fourth round is an all-out session featuring Team Zi-O and Team Decade against Team Wizard and Team Fourze, the latter side bringing their eliminated allies to the battle. In addition to Kazuto, Kensuke and Akihito also join Team Zi-O to even out the numbers as Geiz and Luna are given the power of Geiz Revive and Tsukuyomi ABC. Sure enough, Team Zi-O and Team Decade are victorious and will be fighting each other in the fifth and final round.
The fifth round is fought by Sougo and Hiroki as the representatives of their teams. This round will have them running a course as Riders around the island, encountering enemies which they need to defeat before they fight each other upon finishing the course. Sougo is given the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch by Kazuto while Hiroki uses Decade Complete Form 21. During the battle, it’s shown that Decade, like Grand Zi-O, can summon Riders (final forms) by touching the card holders on his armour.
Elsewhere, Kensuke and Akihito are about to create Another Geiz and Another Tsukuyomi when Ora unknowingly stops them. Hiryuu throws his Revolcane-like sword at the two, but Heure manages to deflect it, making Swartz realise that they are starting to recover their Time Jacker powers. Kazuto reveals the truth to everyone; Kensuke knew that Kazuto would betray him, but Kazuto says that his loyalty has always been with his overlord and nothing more.
Kensuke, working with Kazuto and Akihito, teamed up with Changyue and Hiryuu to bribe Abacus Cinch to allow the Rider Championships to take place, then replicated all the Rider equipment from the old timeline and distributed them to those who were willing to fight in the championships. Kensuke’s objective is to take the powers of the Kamen Riders and Time Jackers so he can become the true saviour and rule over the world. It is then that Swartz betrays Kensuke as well, saying that he was secretly working with Kazuto because he would not walk the same path he did in the old timeline. Kensuke reveals that he can still steal Geiz and Tsukuyomi’s powers through the Future Note, but nothing happens when he writes in it; his abuse of the Future Note’s power to make the Rider Championships happen caused it to overload, rendering him unable to will the future.
Kensuke and Akihito transform and fight Team Zi-O alongside Team Barlckxs. After being informed of the situation, Hiroki forfeits the match so Sougo can hurry back and help his friends. Akari struggles in battle until Narutaki (from the main timeline) arrives and gives her the Dragon Fruits Energy Lockseed. Kensuke, Akihito and Team Barlckxs are defeated, but the former two show up again at the abandoned warehouse district. Transforming into Another Diend and Another Gold Drive, Kensuke and Akihito summon an army of Kachinebots before they are eventually defeated by the Riders, with Kayley giving Geiz the Geiz Majesty Ridewatch once again.
As the defeated Kensuke and Akihito retreat, Sougo, Geiz, Kazuto and Luna find their power-up Ridewatches disappearing. Kazuto comments that being in a new timeline doesn’t mean that they can use their strongest powers that easily, but Sougo comments that a new timeline also means a new start, meaning that they will just have to work to earn their powers again.
Team Zi-O are presented with the championship cup as the other Riders’ equipment and collectibles disappear, with the exception of Team Zi-O and Team Decade. The next week as school starts for real, Sougo, Geiz and Luna decide to have a race to see who can achieve their dream of being the demonic overlord, saviour or queen first. Akari is asked who she wants to cheer for, but she says that she wants to join the race instead, opting to become a princess since Luna already took the position of queen. Kazuto, of course, backs Sougo, just as he always has been, while he opts to chronicle this new timeline himself.
This special was designed to be a pilot to a new hypothetical series featuring Team Zi-O earning their powers again, hence why all their power-ups disappeared at the end (because they were brought in from the old timeline). The implication of Another Geiz and Another Tsukuyomi being created is an allusion to the Zi-O novel, where the aforementioned Another Riders alongside Another Woz were featured. The prologue was translated by revolutionpotato and nobody else has picked up the novel because they stopped posting after 2022 and nobody cares about Kamen Rider novels. The novel is a Woz-centric story, which is possibly what a Next Time Woz special could have been if Shinichirō Shirakura hadn’t nixed it with the reasoning that it wouldn’t feel like Zi-O anymore if they made it.
Decade vs Zi-O and the Game in the House of Death
A direct adaptation of its original counterpart. Where the original special featured Yusuke Onodera along with pastiches of the Time Jackers, those characters are changed to original characters as I wanted to highlight more forgotten figures from my past (though believe it or not, there have been some that I would rather stay away from).
Between scenes, the Decade Riders (save Narutaki) are in the Reading Room waiting for Hiroki to signal his location to them once he finds the new demonic overlord, the true Sougo. We also get treated to Akari talking about how she and Hiroki are a sex-positive couple.
After Narutaki reveals herself as the true identity of the masked jester, she admits that she has become tired of serving the true Sougo and would join Zi-O and the Decade Riders in the final battle against Ohma Zi-O. Zi-O gives Decade the Ninja Ridewatch because he apparently can’t use it. When Ohma Zi-O defeats the Decade Riders, though, Hiroki finds himself in the same quarry but with a jeep nearby (he ended up in a different pocket dimension).
Zi-O vs Decade and the Seven Sougos
Another direct adaptation of its original counterpart.
A week prior to this story, new world Sougo and Geiz are given Saturday detention by Vice Principal Swartz as they have been falling behind on their schoolwork due to their duties fighting monsters whereas Luna and Akari have been able to catch up. Luna volunteers to join Sougo and Geiz as well while Akari hangs out with the Rainbooms, but on the day, Luna forgot to bring her homework so she went back to get it, which caused her to end up somewhere else when Canterlot High was brought into the pocket dimension. We also learn that after the Rider Championships, humans are being transformed into various monsters thanks to something known as the Kaiju Factor.
The love plot between Sougo and Heure is changed to Heure and Ora playing Magic: The Gathering. Swartz holds a tutorial for the detention students about how to play the game, but by the end, Heure and Ora are the only ones playing. Heure’s life is spared thanks to this.
Micro Chips is shown playing the water coin drop at Sougo A’s mini-carnival, replacing the goldfish catching game from the original. Danielita and Alchemic Flower also appear in this special.
In the original versions of the last special and this one, we had a supporting character named Misa Kuon played by Rena Takeda. In the adapted versions, she is named Charlie Quander and because the actress I (hypothetically) cast for her face claim is a rising talent who is still rather obscure, I won’t go out of my way to name her. However, I will say that Charlie’s actress also plays Windy Adams, aka Kamen Rider Poseidon; I initially had her in mind for Charlie, but later on, I needed an actress for Windy and I didn’t want to bother finding a new one, so I went with Charlie’s actress and left it at that.
At night, Sougo A helps Swartz make food out of monster meat. Swartz suggests that they cook a feast the next time he checks up on Heure and Ora; Sougo questions if this is okay, to which Swartz says that it is because Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna are outright having relations with students. There are also original characters named Eva Fukada, Riley White, Brandi Mikami, Johnny Katō and Carter Shimizu. Just saying.
On election day, the ballot box is knocked over, though Micro Chips manages to give his ballot to Swartz. This version highlights that it was a failed election and that Sougo A won in an undemocratic process to lampoon how it was done in the original.
As the true Sougo transforms into Ohma Zi-O, Decade gives Zi-O the Ninja Ridewatch, which allows him to transform into Decade Armor Ninja Form (based on Ninja’s Tri-Battlizer form but keeping the default Decade Armor design). Though Decade is seemingly killed in Complete Form 21 by Ohma Zi-O, he ends up in the Reading Room with his friends thanks to the recall systems they have in their vortex manipulators and Drivers.
The pocket dimension is destroyed and everyone returns to their own universes. Sougo B says his goodbyes to Sougo A before he rides back to his own universe. Since Luna was late for Saturday detention, she will be joining Sougo and Geiz for real; since Swartz sent everyone else home, Sougo, Geiz, Luna, Swartz, Ora and Heure get to work cleaning up the school. And this is where our story ends after 11 years (it would have been 10 if it weren’t for the pandemic and real life getting in the way).
And thus ends the story of Zi-O. Our final two instalments for this run will cover background information on the characters of the series and the series itself.
#kisekae insights#kamen rider#kamen rider zi-o#kamen rider decade#equestria girls#my little pony equestria girls#sea princesses#princesas do mar#princesas del mar#el reino de acuatica
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Kisekae Insights #47: Kamen Rider Zi-O Part 5 - Before Quartzer
Since Drive, the Blu-ray collections for Rider series have contained spin-off drama miniseries that serve as tie-ins to the main series, providing context to a character or an element in it. Before Quartzer serves the same purpose, but it provides background to multiple characters.
If the main series itself is “Over Quartzer”, then this miniseries is Before Quartzer while the post-series specials (that I will cover in the next instalment) is After Quartzer. As I stated in the last instalment, Between Quartzer was originally going to be two minisodes before they were merged into a filler episode.
Let’s take a look at the miniseries and then after that, I’ll share a summary of the original elements introduced in the main series.
Part 1: Zi-O and Decade
This minisode is a clip show consisting of various clips from Three Kingdoms and Soulbound with references to the demonic overlord and Hiroki Ichigo trying to investigate its identity as he finds his own timeline continuing to change despite efforts to stop it. The threat of Ohma Zi-O’s existence is described as on the level of the Time War, the Dimensional Merge, the creation of the dimensional bridge, the Parallax War and the black hole paradox.
There are some original scenes showing how Hiroki and Kayley got their X equipment from Ohma Zi-O and how the Kamen Riders were assembled for the Ohma War. There is also a scene showing how Mark found an amnesiac Sougo in the laneway before the start of the series.
Part 2/3: The Other Zi-O
The backstory of the other Sougo is covered in this two-parter.
In 2006, Sougo and Karen are friends who live twenty years apart from each other and frequently hang out in each other’s eras. Over time, the portal linking the two years shrinks and by the Battle of Chibi in 2008, the portal has fully closed.
A little while after, Sougo meets Fifi Forget-me-not and they become a couple. When the accident that killed Sougo’s parents happens the next year, he briefly returns to pick up Fifi before they elope as Sougo pursues his new dream of being king.
The next part skips to 2012 when Parker’s army fights the Sanada Army. The Flowertots are offered to be taken in by the fairies of Never Land and Fifi decides to part with Sougo. A few months after during the Salacian Rebellion, Akari and Narutaki are killed by Tubarina and Marcello before Veronica is saved from Marcela by Sougo, who kills the three Salacians before escaping with her. After some deliberation, Sougo allows Veronica to travel with him. Yes, Veronica, Akari and Narutaki’s cousin, never got her chance to shine because she went to a different school than her cousins; she only got introduced as part of the Teiro Army/Kurayami Alliance in 2014. I never got to know Veronica personally because of this (although some of my schoolfriends apparently did), so this was my chance to give her a bit of time in the spotlight.
The Battle of Sekigahara and the Ōsaka Campaign take place in 2015, a year later than in the original timeline. At this point in time, Sougo’s time powers (that were granted to him by Swartz in 2009) have developed to the point that he can freeze time, but because he usually allows Veronica to move with him in frozen time, the freezing effect is reduced to merely slowing down time. At Ōsaka Castle, the two of them make their way up to the top floor of the main keep and defeat the enemy commander. The dying enemy commander uses the last of his strength to shoot Sougo, but Veronica takes the shot; in her final moments, Veronica tells Sougo to be the best king he can be and not to let anything stand in his way, adding that the time she spent with him was the happiest she has ever been. Sougo is reported to have disappeared after this.
In 2018, Parker sends a letter to Sougo, pleading for him to return as the entire land has become his enemy and he needs Sougo’s help. However, Sougo’s attention is focused on a package that was, unbeknownst to him, sent by Swartz, containing the Ziku Driver and Zi-O Ridewatch. As he is confronted by Polvina and a small army seeking revenge for their fallen allies, Sougo transforms into Zi-O for the first time and defeats them, dedicating his first battle to Parker, Karen, Fifi and Veronica. He then goes back to the box and finds some more Ridewatches along with a laptop and Ridewatch dock, containing a message telling him to unlock all 19 Legend Ridewatches by collecting battle data, which he does over the next few months. The Ridewatches the other Sougo would unlock are merely emulations of Rider powers rather than the actual powers, thus they are not affected by the main Sougo unlocking his set of Ridewatches using the Riders’ actual powers.
Sougo then meets his main self during the events of episodes 9 and 10, then creates the Zi-O II Ridewatch from his end before going on to meet his main self again during the events of episode 16. After this, he is shown sending off his Cyberman figurine to his main self before hallucinating Veronica waving at him, being unknowingly seen by Queen Fifi and passing by a now-older Karen Brewer who had reunited with Sougo, albeit his main self.
Part 4: Geiz and Woz
The last minisode shows the backstories of Geiz, Kazuto and Luna, to an extent, showing how they ended up in Ohma Zi-O’s future and their time with the Resistance before they decide to go back in time to 2018.
Luna is found by the Resistance in 2058; having no memory of herself or her name, one of the Resistance leaders decides to adopt her, giving her the name Luna.
Geiz, also known as Andrew Cui, assisted Yuki Nagato in resurrecting Parker Zhou after his execution following the battle with the Sanada Army in 2011. After returning home, Geiz is visited by Yuki and sent to the future, having been tasked by the Data Overmind to guide him to an influence coming from the future.
Kazuto Hongō was captured in the battle with the Sanada Army and is sentenced to be executed as well, only to be saved and given a new purpose by Ohma Zi-O.
Geiz and Kazuto are brought to the year 2063 where they are taken in by the Resistance and Ohma Zi-O respectively. Kazuto is given his mission to join the Resistance as a spy and he does so, managing to beat Geiz and the other Resistance members during training.
Five years later in 2068, Kazuto leads a splinter unit with Geiz and Luna in it. The Resistance are visited by the Decade Riders who offer to assist them in defeating Ohma Zi-O. Kazuto reports this to Ohma Zi-O, who has Swartz working for him as his advisor in Kazuto’s absence. It is Swartz who gives Ohma Zi-O to guide another version of himself into this timeline to become the next Ohma Zi-O, despite Kazuto’s objections.
The Ohma War happens and Ohma Zi-O brings the main Sougo from the 2012 of his timeline to 2068 before sending him to 2018 while scattering the Riders throughout time. Swartz disappears after this and Kazuto is sent back to the Resistance.
Later, Kazuto offers to act as a spy for the Resistance; this is the perfect opportunity for him and Ohma Zi-O to deal with the Resistance once and for all. Kazuto is ordered to get the Resistance to bring everything they have to one place before he is tasked with heading to 2018 and guiding the main Sougo into the way of the overlord.
Most of the Resistance is defeated at the hands of Ohma Zi-O, with Geiz and Luna among those surviving. Geiz follows after Ohma Zi-O and steals the equipment he would use to become Kamen Rider Geiz, using it to confront Ohma Zi-O and avenge his fallen comrades. Ohma Zi-O had foreseen this and fights Geiz, who steals the Ghost and Drive Ridewatches out of his hands before leaving. Geiz goes back to the Resistance camp and takes one of the Time Mazines (that had turned red in response to Geiz’s awakening Rider power) to head back to the past. Luna gets into another Time Mazine and follows after him, leading into the events of the series.
Summary of original elements for this series
Zi-O Decade Armor
W Form (Double CycloneJokerXtreme)
Kuuga Form (Kuuga Ultimate Form)
Origin
Another Riders
Another Growing Kuuga (N-Daguva-Zeba)
Another Double (other Half Changes x7)
Another Magica (replacing Another Kiva)
Another Shugo (replacing Another Den-O)
Another Gold Drive (recolour of Another Drive)
Another Ninja (recolour of Another Shinobi)
Another Decade Complete
Kamen Riders
Kamen Rider Wakusei
Kamen Rider Taiyou
Kamen Rider Woz The Next
Tsukuyomi ABC/Zikan Ratchet
Rapier Mode - Zaba Zaba Strike
Hatchet Mode - Jiri Jiri Hacking
Pick Mode - Wabu Wabu Picker
Diend Ultimate Complete Form
Zi-O Quartzer (same as main form)
Il Salvatore Geiz (same as main form)
The Zi-O Over Quartzer Ridewatch and the Il Salvatore Geiz Ridewatch are identical to the aurora-plated Zi-O Ridewatch and the China-exclusive Geiz Ridewatch, which is practically metallic armour for them. Zi-O Quartzer’s transformation tune is based on what would come later for Zi-O Ohma Form and Il Salvatore Geiz’s transformation tune is based on that of Geiz Revive Shippu.
“レベレーションタイム! 仮面ライダージオウ! クォーツァー!”
“Revelation Time! Kamen Rider Zi-O Quartzer~!”
“セイビアータイム! ゲイツゲイツゲイツ! ゲイツゲイツゲイツ! イル・サルバトーレ ゲイツ! ゲイツ!”
“Saviour Time! Geiz~Geiz~Geiz! Geiz~Geiz~Geiz! Il Salvatore Geiz! Geiz!”
So, you know that one Supplementary Plan episode where they joked about Tsukuyomi becoming a Rider before it actually happened? We made the Ridewatch a real thing. Tsukuyomi ABC’s main design element is that the Ridewatch (the artist says that he got the dial’s direction wrong, but to me it fits perfectly for this) and helmet visor uses the “TSUKU” lettering as shown in the gag, otherwise the rest of the suit is the same as the base form. This form also grants her an original weapon, the Jikan Ratchet, which is a retool of the Jikan Despear made to be held at the hilt like a rapier, hatchet or pick-axe, therefore the touch panel is positioned as such. The transformation tune is a hybrid of Geiz and Tsukuyomi’s transformation tunes.
“ライダータイム! 仮面ライダーツクヨミ♪ ツ・ク・ヨ・ミ! ABCタイム! 仮面ライダー♪ A・B・C!”
"Rider Time! (Elegant electronic music) Kamen~ Ri~der~ Tsuku~yomi! Tsu-ku-yo-mi! ABC Time! (Electronic beat) Kamen Rider~ (Cut back to elegant electronic beats) A-B-C!"
Another Decade Complete is an original monster to the adaptation which serves as Another Decade’s upgrade form. It is accessed through the Another Driver, with the Decade Anotherwatch on the right side and the Decade Complete Anotherwatch on the left side (this is the inverse to conventional Ride Armor use on the Ziku Driver and is done so due to how Anotherwatches are made for the right side of the Driver).
“コンプリートタイム! 完全無欠裏ライダーの力… (アナザータイム!) 極まれりせよ! ディケイド! コンプリート!”
“Complete Time! Kanzen muketsu ura Rider no chikara (Another Time!) Kiwamareri seyo! Decade! Complete!”
Akihito can transform into Kamen Rider Woz The Next, the suit being of Zi-O Woz Armor but without the scarf and with the helmet of Kamen Rider Woz.
“投影! フューチャータイム! 限界! 展開! 世界! 仮面ライダー ウォズ ザ ネクスト!”
“Touei! Future Time! Genkai! Tenkai! Sekai! Kamen Rider Woz The Next!”
This adaptation’s version K-Touch 21 removes the button for Zero-One and replaces it with the Clear button like on the original. The 21st power for Decade Complete Form 21 is that of Kamen Rider Ninja, being highlighted due to being the odd one out of the Heisei Riders (that is, he wasn’t a Heisei Rider or an original Rider created to replace a Heisei Rider).
Diend’s upgraded K-Touch (for Diend Ultimate Complete Form) uses the 5x4 screen with a card that has the power of all 18 secondary Kamen Riders (with the exception of herself and Kuuga because his series didn’t have a secondary Rider).
Speaking of Decade, I have a theory about how Decade (using the Neo Decadriver) could use the powers of other Rider forms while in their default forms. A friend of mine shared this to me from a Discord server he was in:
The NeoDecadriver needed codes to accommodate the Heisei 2 Riders, so they cut out all the subforms for everyone except for finals. The attacks and items for a Rider are now accessible in their base forms.
I initially thought they were being fucking lazy when they had Agito using the Flame Sword in his base form and Wizard using water in Flame style, but after seeing how they did the cards for the H2 Riders (and how Agito's individual form parts were apparently always available), that had to have been intentional
...now that I think about it, that may be why DecadeArmor uses the first upgrade forms (when applicable).
Fucking Tsukasa gave Sougo his leftover cards as a watch.
As for why Zi-O’s Decade Armor forms switch between being based off of upgrade, super and final forms? Aside from availability, another reason could be that they had to select forms that didn’t conflict with the Decade Armor parts for the torso and shoulders, mostly the undersuit-based forms. This likely explains why Decade Armor Ghost Form uses Grateful Damashii and not Toucon Boost if the other Decade Armor forms are based on “first upgrade forms”.
In terms of Decade Armor W Form and Kuuga Form, why did I pick them to be based on Double CycloneJokerXtreme and Kuuga UItimate Form? For Double, FangJoker is a form that uses Philip as the body and thus, Shoutarou wouldn’t be able to just upgrade into that form without detransforming. As for Kuuga, the Rising forms and Amazing Mighty are merely upgrades of the base forms and thus the undersuit looks rather plain compared to Ultimate.
Let me tell you something about the Mirai Driver. In the centre where the different faceplates can be placed, there are four holes on the bottom which are buttons used to trigger the different sounds in the P-Bandai DX release. With the right-most button being used as the activation trigger, there are three buttons left which are used to detect which faceplate to activate the sounds for. Each button would correspond to Shinobi, Quiz and Kikai, but then we have Ginga, which is activated by holding down the two centre buttons. When you consider the combinations you can make with three buttons, that means that there are three more combinations that are not used.
If one of those combinations are for Hattari, then the other two combinations are for Wakusei and Taiyou. Their faceplates are rehashes of Shinobi and Hattari, with Wakusei’s faceplate being a circular planet model revolving around a central point and Taiyou’s faceplate being a picture of a sun that can be spun. Wakusei’s finishers are the Planetary Spark, Big Bang Utopia and Extinction Blast while Taiyou’s finishers are the Supernova Bolide, Sunstorm Energy Impact and Destruction Burst.
My version of Ginga’s faceplate would work differently in that it has a standby loop like Shinobi and Quiz. It’s unfair that we never got a henshin sequence for Ginga and he honestly deserves one.
Next time, we’ll take a look at the post-series specials that are collectively known as After Quartzer.
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Kisekae Insights #45: Kamen Rider Zi-O Part 3 - Road to the King
“The last of the Kamen Riders have been gathered as they await the passing down of their legacies. Once all their powers have been inherited, the path to the final chapter awaits. Hark the herald angels sing, rejoice for the one true king!”
Last time, we saw Ohma’s Day being delayed for the time being as Sougo is tasked with obtaining the final six Ridewatches. With all the Riders now in 2019, the Time Jackers would resort to creating Another Riders in that year, meaning that the Legend Riders would be another obstacle in their plans. Also, Kensuke Nitta still remains despite Geiz Revive’s future no longer coming to pass. What are his plans and why did I write this into the plot? Let’s find out now.
Episode 21: Unknown Memory ~ Awaken the Agito 2001 ~
In the original series, we never knew who Another Agito’s identity was. No, it’s not Kino from Decade. In this version, Swartz goes to the Tomb of the Unnamed Lover in the Valley of Dusk (in Salacia) and uses the Agito Anotherwatch to resurrect the slain husband of Mermaid Princess Selena as Another Agito.
G3 is working with the Minato-Sugaru Police to establish a G3 Unit on the island. Meanwhile, Zhuge Sōta, Zhuge Shu’s son, is working with Duante at the Surf Shop Agito, which replaces Restaurant Agito from the original.
In the last episode, we learnt that Kazuto was originally a member of the resistance in 2068 before he was revealed to have been a spy for Ohma Zi-O, giving them false information that would lead to them being slaughtered. Luna was found in 2068 with no memories; not knowing her real name, the resistance decided to name her Luna. In this episode though, Luna unconsciously causes herself to freeze time. Swartz notes that Luna’s power is reawakening and that it is only a matter of time before she remembers the truth.
Episode 22: Sea Amazons ~ Unlock the Quartzer 2016 ~
This is an original episode that follows from the events of the Agito tribute. The Amazon Riders are attacking the city alongside Kamen Rider Woz. This Woz, though, isn’t Kazuto, but Kensuke. Despite having his Rider power stolen from him, Kensuke still had some lingering power left which was used to manifest the Zi-O Trinity Ridewatch earlier. This means that he can still transform into Kamen Rider Woz, he just can’t use the Jikan Despear or his Futurering forms. He is therefore Kamen Rider Proto Woz. To differentiate between Kazuto and Kensuke, Kazuto will tend to use his Futurering forms more often.
Kensuke has established a new organisation called Quartzer, gathering anyone from unaffiliated Riders, monsters or soldiers to establish a new future with himself as the keeper of time. Quartzer in the original series is a group played by ISSA and the members of DA PUMP who are the antagonists of the movie Over Quartzer, a rehash of All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker which I hate because it robs the protagonists of their agency. It’s like the Timeless Child arc of Doctor Who, only not as bad. Because Kensuke was inspired by Sougo to establish Quartzer, everything else that happens with them is kind of his fault. Insert surprised Pikachu face here.
Kensuke’s plan, with the Amazon Riders under his wing, is to flood Swansea by using Tlaloc particles to control the water. Akeno Shiranui (New Omega) and Miss Marla (Neo Alpha) are revealed to be spies for the goddess Salacia. Together with Salacia, Windy Adams and Duante, Zi-O and co stop Quartzer’s plans, however Kensuke has a tablet (similar to that of Luna’s) which he uses to summon simulations of Riders and monsters that move and act like the real thing. In this episode, Kensuke summons the Mole Amazon (second form) and the Crow Amazon along with Dark Kabuto, Orga and Dark Drive.
Sougo asks Luna if she would like to become a Kamen Rider someday, but Luna says that she would rather stay as she is because she always saw being a Kamen Rider as a boys’ thing. Luna is told that it isn’t just a boys’ thing because there are a few girls who are Kamen Riders and Sougo offers to see what he can do.
Episode 23: Entering the Reiwa Era ~ Hit the Beat Keep Your Beat 2005 ~
As the title of this episode implies, we have entered May 2019, when Japan transitioned from the Heisei era to the Reiwa era. The Hibiki tribute is extended from the original and combined with the Magica tribute for a two-parter episode with a mix of original and adapted plotlines.
Aside from Marcela (Hibiki), Marli (Ibuki), Caramelo (Todoroki) and Delfi (Zanki), all the other Oni Riders have joined Quartzer. Takumi Kamijō is shown struggling against the rebel Oni Riders when Marli, Caramelo and Delfi offer their assistance to him. Another Hibiki and Another Magica are respectively Kyōya and Kasumi Shinomiya from another universe, only they have different names. The two Another Riders were respectively created by Heure and Ora.
Sougo has dreams of marrying Akari Ichigo, but he doesn’t know who she is. Later that day, after witnessing Todoroki chasing after Another Hibiki during their fight, Sougo and Geiz are met by Marcela, who offers them the Hibiki Ridewatch if they undergo special training. Because it’s not Sougo’s birthday, Kazuto doesn’t join in the training to find out a way to celebrate because there’s nothing to celebrate here. Sougo and Geiz can’t keep up with Hibiki and she tells them to go lift some weights.
Luna and Kazuto inform Sougo and Geiz of Another Hibiki’s reappearance; the latter two go to help Caramelo fight him while the former two meet with Takumi, Marli and Delfi, who are trying to find Yuki Yamaki (Magica) in the hope of finding out what Quartzer is planning with their friends. Kensuke arrives and he fights Kazuto, only for Ora to send in Another Magica to stop the fight. Meanwhile, Marcela learns from the Disk Animal Akanetaka that Another Hibiki and Another Magica are from another universe.
Later, Sougo and co are confronted by Kensuke, Another Magica and the Oni Riders. Though the Quartzer forces are defeated, Kensuke’s trump card arrives in the form of Yuki Yamaki, who transforms into Magica and defeats Zi-O and the other Riders with a finisher attack…
Episode 24: Shatter the Unchangeable ~ The Bow of Justice 2008 ~
Yuki Yamaki explains to Marcela and Takumi that he sided with Quartzer because time is about to be violated on a level never seen before and that the rise of Ohma Zi-O caused it. Sougo fights Yuki again but he is defeated, with Kensuke telling everyone that they will meet again at the time of Orochi.
Back at 9TO5, Takumi explains to Sougo that he is his son, which comes to Mark’s shock until they explain that Takumi was joking. Marcela explains that Kensuke is planning to manually trigger Orochi by channelling massive amounts of Ongeki power into the Earth and causing hordes of Makamou to roam the earth. Suddenly, the sky turns dark as Another Magica causes witches, familiars, Nightmares, Wraiths and Uwasa (rumours) to be summoned around the city, which is surrounded in an artificial witch barrier created by it.
The Riders head out and deal with the chaos. Zi-O, Geiz and Woz knock Another Magica out of the sky, but Yuki arrives and summons illusions of his Torchwood Pleiades comrades to fight them. Suddenly, the Orochi ceremony is about to begin and the Quartzer forces fall back, taking down the artificial witch barrier in the process.
The Disk Animal Asagiwashi, which Marcela gave to Yuki when they last saw each other, returns to the former; Yuki tells Marcela where Quartzer is conducting their plans, informing her that he has a plan to betray Quartzer at the last minute and that Jaune and Goldina are willing to help him.
Sougo and co head to Afan Forest Park, where the Ace Riders and the summoned Psyga, Skull and Exceed Gills stand in their path. Kensuke confronts Sougo, Geiz and Kazuto as Zi-O Trinity, telling them that the rebel Oni Riders don’t have enough Ongeki power to trigger Orochi and that only the Ongeki power of Hibiki, Ibuki and Todoroki, being the strongest masters of percussion, wind and string Ongeki, have enough power to do so. Sougo wonders whether he should keep fighting Kensuke or stop Hibiki and the others, but Kensuke and the rebel Oni Riders manage to keep him distracted.
Yuki goes to destroy a pillar that Quartzer hammered into the earth that would absorb the Ongeki power and trigger Orochi, but he is backstabbed by Jaune and Goldina just as he does so; Kensuke anticipated his treachery and allowed the two princesses to accompany him so he could see what he would do. Kensuke and the Quartzer Riders decide to retreat, but Another Hibiki and Another Magica still stand in their way. Zi-O Trinity and Hibiki defeat Another Hibiki while Magica and Serranon defeat Another Magica.
However, when the four Riders meet with Marli, Caramelo and Delfi in a clearing, a mutant Bakegani comes up from the ground, having been woken by the Ongeki power. The seven Riders work together to defeat the mutant Bakegani and neutralise Orochi in a special Ongekidou ceremony sequence replicating that of the final battle in Decade episode 19, with Hibiki, Ibuki and Todoroki playing their respective instruments on the Bakegani while Zanki, Zi-O Trinity (percussion), Magica (wind) and Serranon (strings) acting as support on the ground. Sougo, Geiz and Kazuto are also shown beating on taiko drums within the shared space of Zi-O Trinity’s consciousness.
Following this, Sougo reunites Kyōya and Kasumi with their parents, who are a version of Sougo and Akari from another universe. They were the couple he saw getting married in his dream. Marcela and Yuki allow Sougo and Geiz to take their Rider powers, leaving three Watches remaining to be collected.
Episode 25: Hearts Come Together ~ Finally Time 2021 ~
This episode adapts the Kiva tribute plot, but the Kiva tribute is excised so that the episode fully focuses on Kamen Rider Ginga. This is also a crossover episode with the Soulbound series that takes place after the events of that series.
In space, Soulbound protagonists Shinbu Serizawa, Mogoro Kuwabara and Eigen Kasamisoka evade Kamen Rider Ginga’s attacks in the Barrier Base as they try to hold on. Shinbu manages to hit Ginga with a cannon blast that knocks him away, but the Barrier Base has taken too much damage and they land on Minato-Sugaru Island to repair. Harking to the Den-O tribute arc, the three seek the help of Mark to help them repair some parts in the Barrier Base because of course he would know. While doing so, they meet Sougo and co and they tell them all about their adventures in the multiverse. Soon, they are attacked by Kensuke, Topsy the Kangaroo and Melanie Yang who they begin fighting, but they decide to help the civilians when Kensuke’s Kurokage Troopers attack them.
The Riders assist two civilians who resemble Copper Plume (by ImperfectXIII) and Rally Flag; the Barrier Base trio see this and immediately stop them because they are Ginga’s disciples. Sure enough, the two kick the Riders away before they transform into Kamen Riders Wakusei and Taiyou. Sougo, Geiz and Kazuto fight them off, but the two are no match for them. Later, Dark Lugiel, aka Storm Dasher/Hikaru Tomokaze, would arrive in a meteor. Wakusei and Taiyou would combine with Dark Lugiel to become Kamen Rider Ginga. After Shinbu, Mogoro and Eigen fail to fight Lugiel, allowing him to transform into Ginga, Zi-O Trinity fights Ginga but to no avail, forcing everyone to retreat.
Ginga, Wakusei and Taiyou’s backstory is that in some universe, they were weighed down by regrets and left behind by the times because of lost loves, missed opportunities and passed-on possibilities. Dasher merged himself with Dark Lugiel and Copper and Rally sold their souls to him for power, allowing Ginga to become a Rider of raw, unfiltered power that will lead universes to extinction. Ginga’s existence was brought to the attention of the Barrier Base trio and they pursued him to Sougo’s universe.
Sougo’s group, the Barrier Base trio, the Time Jackers and Quartzer form a temporary alliance to deal with Ginga and his disciples. During the battle, Ginga is weakened and separated upon being hit by Zi-O, Geiz and Woz as the sky becomes cloudy. However, when the sun shines again, Ginga is able to combine again and continue fighting at his most powerful. Ginga is eventually defeated and his power harvested into a blank Miridewatch by Swartz which is then taken by Kazuto. Dasher, Copper and Rally manage to escape. Because of Wakusei and Taiyou’s addition into the series, the Ginga Miridewatch contains the power of three Riders and not just one.
Kensuke summons the Kabutick Riders and sets them on the group, but Kazuto transforms into Woz Ginga Finally for the first time to defeat them. Since his proclamation was shortened in the original episode, I’ve taken the effort to make an extended proclamation here:
“Rejoice, one and all, for my power has traversed time and space to become the strongest in the universe. And my name is Kamen Rider Woz Ginga Finally! Bear witness to a new stage of my evolution!”
At the end of the episode, Mark has finished fixing the Barrier Base parts and Shinbu, Mogoro and Eigen farewell everyone as they leave.
Episode 26: Brothers from Hell ~ Next Level Kabuto 2006 ~
This episode is another close adaptation of the original with some alterations. In the original, only PunchHopper was a Worm, but in this version, both of the Hell Brothers are copied by Worms. KickHopper still becomes Another Kabuto as with the original.
Because Hiro Mizushima was blacklisted* from Toei productions by his former agency, Ken-On, for breaking his contract and going on to start his own agency so that he could look after his wife who was sick at the time, Yuki Satou reprised his role as Kagami Arata/Kamen Rider Gatack and would go on to become Kamen Rider Kabuto as well in the Kabuto tribute arc. In this version, Tommy Cooper (Kabuto) is stated as having gone to Brazil to study the teachings of Monja Coen, but when Kyle Bonlin (Gatack) is defeated in the final battle against Another Kabuto and PunchHopper, Tommy returns and Kyle is effectively sidelined due to the original footage.
When Luna uses her time powers to save a mother and her child, she sees visions of her younger self with her family in the supercomputer on Never Land (they are obscured but Fifi’s head is a dead giveaway). Hiroki approaches Luna and takes her into the supercomputer in his universe where they indeed meet the rest of her family, consisting of her mother Fifi Forget-me-not; her older brother Takuhiro; and her father, a younger version of Swartz. The present Swartz discovers this and kicks them out before having Hiroki take Luna back to her time so she can stop the gargantuan meteor.
Mark making sandwiches is the alternative to onigiri in the original. At least we show that Mark is actually making sandwiches and not just calling onigiri “sandwiches”, let alone “jelly donuts”.
And before you ask, we corrected Gatack’s belt voices in this version of the episode. Fuck Shinichirō Shirakura and Kyōhei Yamaguchi.
(* yeah, apparently people, even the man himself, are saying that Hiro Mizushima wasn’t blacklisted, but he’s barely been in anything since 2016 and while it is true that he wasn’t asked to reprise his role in Zi-O, maybe agencies and production companies aren’t going out of their way to look for him because he’s still shadowbanned from the industry and they fear getting blacklisted.)
Episode 27: All Hearts Unleashed ~ Grand Climax 2007 ~
Kamen Rider Shugo is defeated by Nega Shugo, Shugo Nexta and Shugo Special and her Shugo belt is confiscated. However, Zhuge Qiao reveals that she still has the Shugo Ridewatch before she rushes to give it to Sougo. It is revealed that the three are trying to prevent this because they saw into Ohma Zi-O’s future through the Road of Stars.
Sci-Twi is struggling to juggle her work, social life and personal life when Ora transforms her into Another Shugo and tells her to unleash the hearts of everyone on Minato-Sugaru Island. Dasher Arekawa leaves Wallflower Blush’s apartment when Another Shugo unleashes their X-Egg and Mystery Egg, turning them into the Rat Fangire and Mole Imagin. Another Shugo continues to do this with the rest of the people in the city.
As Zi-O Trinity and Shugo attempt to deal with Another Shugo’s forces, the other three Shugos and Kensuke alongside the summoned Fifteen and Bujin Gaim stand in their way. Tsukasa Amakawa is shown to be working for Quartzer, but then Kensuke knows that he is a spy because of all the spies he found in his army previously.
Eventually, Zhuge Qiao is allowed to give the Shugo Ridewatch to Sougo, allowing him to combine the 20 Ridewatches and transform into Grand Zi-O, with the initial transformation being stretched out to fit with the length of the standby announcement. Zhuge Qiao can’t transform into Shugo as a result of this, but she remembers that she only put half of her Rider power into her Ridewatch because she knew her comrades would try to take her belt away from her. Sougo uses his power to recover the Shugo Belt and allow Zhuge Qiao to transform once again. Another Shugo, the Rat Fangires, Mole Imagin and Quartzer Riders are defeated and everything goes back to normal.
This episode featured the Humane Six and Shadowbolts along with Big Mac, the Equestria Girls counterparts of the Wonderbolts and some other OCs not seen before in the series, namely Sierra Nightingale (by NightieTime), this universe’s versions of Copper Plume and Rally Flag, Winter Sky, Paladin Colt (to be changed to Shadow Warp in 3.0) and Skittle (by Skittle_Cuddler, not to be mistaken for a different OC than the one in the description).
At the end of the episode, Sougo disappears as Swartz prepares to make his move with Hiryuu Kakogawa. Sougo ends up in 2068 where he prepares to face off against Ohma Zi-O…
Episode 28: The Reverse Overlord ~ Reset World 2019 ~
Grand Zi-O fights Ohma Zi-O, but Ohma Zi-O is able to hijack the former’s summoning of Drive to defeat him, revealing that he hasn’t actually obtained the Drive Ridewatch yet.
Sougo is sent back to 2019 (two months after his disappearance), where Hiryuu has taken over Minato-Sugaru Island as Another Zi-O II and his friends don’t remember him, with even Kazuto siding with the new demonic overlord. Hiryuu’s motivation for doing this is because he felt humiliated by Sougo’s shallow platitude to let go of the past and live for the present. Hiroki manages to rescue Sougo from Hiryuu before Narutaki infiltrates Hiryuu’s base. Swartz catches Narutaki and gives her some of his power, allowing her to freeze time as well, which she uses to take the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch.
Luna is captured by the Time Jackers and brought to Swartz; in the original, it is revealed that Luna’s counterpart is Swartz’s little sister, but in this version, Swartz confirms that Luna is his daughter.
New OCs featured in the Another Zi-O II arc include Danielita/Dany Melody (by Danielitamlp), Draco (Knight) Blaze, Roxy Vorpal Sword (by Dynasty-Dawn) and Shy Wishes.
Episode 29: The False King ~ Luna Confidential 2019 ~
The first half of this episode concludes the Another Zi-O II arc from the previous episode. Swartz reveals (or rather confirms) to Luna and the other Time Jackers that they are indeed the family from the Never Land supercomputer shown 3 episodes ago; Swartz is the Hiroki avatar, Ora is Fifi Forget-me-not, and Heure is their son Takuhiro, whereas Luna was created after the events of Decade and was actually named Mahina.
In the original, Swartz only took back Ora’s time power whereas in this version, he takes back Heure’s time power as well before going on to take Luna’s reawakened time power as well. He mentions that their time powers were gifted to them by Hiroki Ichigo; hold onto that thought for now.
Swartz erased his family’s memories and changed their appearances in order to evade detection from their enemies. When Luna asks why she didn’t remember the other Time Jackers, Swartz explains that someone made him realise that she would get in the way, so on top of erasing Mahina’s memories and suppressing her time power, he threw her into the Time Vortex and left her to die where she would end up. Mahina ended up in 2068 and would be named Luna by the Resistance.
Narutaki gives the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch to the Time Jackers so they can give it back to Sougo. Kazuto manages to escape with Luna once he has taken her time power. Sougo, Geiz, Kazuto and Hiroki work together to defeat Another Zi-O II and his Another Rider Army. During the battle, Decade’s power is stolen into an Anotherwatch thanks to Gold Drive’s help. Hiryuu is defeated and Narutaki takes the Zi-O II Anotherwatch for herself, Hiryuu being of no use to Swartz anymore. Swartz asks Sougo to choose which of the three paths he will choose; his friends, Hiroki Ichigo, or Ohma Zi-O.
The second half of the episode skips ahead to adapt episode 47. With the world now restored, Sougo and the others try to work out what Swartz is planning when he makes his move, transforming into Another Decade and sending out monsters to attack all over the island.
Hiroki takes Sougo and Luna back to the supercomputer in an effort to find out what Swartz was planning; it is revealed that his ultimate plan is to subjugate humanity and become the king of time himself. When Swartz saved Hiroki’s soul after he destroyed his own body, he ended up absorbing his memories and negative emotions while also obtaining the power to control time. Swartz’s ultimate goal is to take revenge on humanity for how they treat people like Hiroki for being who they are. He intended to do so by going to another universe and making the Sougo of that timeline, aka the other Sougo, become the king of time, then have him liberate Hiroki in the past (before he became Hiroki) and make him become the Sougo we’ve been following throughout this series. Meanwhile, Swartz would covertly assist the main Sougo by creating the Another Riders, then once the main Sougo became the king of time, he would then take his power for himself and rule in place of the two Sougos.
It is then that Sougo poses the possibility of Luna growing up to be stronger than her father, which then leads him to throw Mahina into the Time Vortex and establish the Time Jackers. Sure, the whole show is an idiot plot, but the whole show revolves around time just like Doctor Who. The whole thing’s a satire to myself, Shinichirō Shirakura and the toku fandom. Anyway, Swartz sends a blast at them and Hiroki takes it, killing him in the process. Narutaki uses the Zi-O II Anotherwatch to revive Hiroki, but it transforms her into Another Zi-O II. Hiroki takes the Decade Ridewatch from Sougo and uses it to recover his Rider power, because he placed half of his power into it anticipating that something like this would happen.
Decade and Zi-O work together to defeat Another Zi-O II, but after this, Geiz and Kazuto report that warships have surrounded the island. It is then that the Riders are confronted by Kensuke once again, leading the Teiro Army led by Akari’s cousins…
Episode 30: Reconciling the Truth ~ Full Throttle 2014 ~
In the original Zi-O, there was no real Drive tribute arc as it was split between the Over Quartzer movie and the series finale arc, therefore we never got to see Sougo inheriting Drive’s power. Let’s fix this right now as we adapt the final arcs of Zi-O into this episode.
Daniel is the new Kamen Rider Drive (replacing Shinnosuke Tomari) and David is Another Drive. Three more cousins also appear as Kamen Riders Zerodrive, Protodrive and Overdrive (Super Dead Heat Drive). Together with Mach and Chaser, they cause a time slowdown that affects the whole of the island except for Kazuto as Woz. They then make the slowdown stronger, equivalent to the Time Jackers’ abilities, before defeating Zi-O, Geiz, Woz, Decade and Gold Drive with their Rider Kicks, Kensuke following that up with a Time Explosion. This destroys the Drive Ridewatch and causes the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch to disappear. It is revealed that while Akari’s cousins don’t have any beef with Hiroki, their beef is actually with Sougo for the past. Diend and Kuuga lead some Riders to escape as the chaos continues, the other Riders assisting where they can.
Thanks to this attack, Sougo begins to remember his past before becoming Zi-O. After leaving his secondary school army in July 2012 at the age of 14 to become a ronin, he walked through a portal and ended up in the midst of the Ohma War. As a result, the Sougo we’ve been following is a parallel isotope of Hiroki, having been displaced from his timeline due to Ohma Zi-O and Swartz’s machinations. The Ohma Zi-O in 2068 is the older version of the other Sougo, who is native to this timeline. He was the one whose parents were killed in the bus accident and Swartz purposefully made Hiryuu lash out at the main Sougo. It is possible that Ohma Zi-O fabricated Sougo’s history (as shown on Luna’s tablet in the first episode) to obfuscate the truth of his origins.
On top of this, Geiz and Kazuto aren’t actually from the future; they are parallel isotopes brought to 2068 nearly a year before Sougo was. Geiz was brought into the future thanks to “some woman” while Kazuto was a prisoner of war just as he told Sougo before. Mark finally learns the truth about Sougo and his friends being Kamen Riders (like they weren’t doing a good job of keeping it a secret in the first place) and encourages them to continue using their powers to protect the people.
Sougo decides to face off against Ohma Zi-O again while Geiz, Kazuto, Hiroki and Narutaki deal with Drive and Quartzer. Luna also tells Sougo that she has made her decision to become a Kamen Rider as well. Before Sougo heads for 2068, however, Hiroki warns him that he will need to make a choice as to whether he wants to stay in this timeline or go back to his original timeline with him; if he stays here and becomes king, his original timeline will be destroyed, but if he goes back, he will never be a king or a Kamen Rider until he becomes Hiroki. Sougo says that Swartz gave him a similar choice and that if there was another option that doesn’t involve sacrificing either timeline, he will happily take it.
Geiz, Kazuto, Hiroki and Angela arrive to assist the other Riders as the rest of Quartzer arrives to help Kensuke and the Drive Riders. With the Drive Riders defeated, the Drive Anotherwatch is destroyed while Andrew takes Drive’s power from Daniel to regain the Drive Ridewatch. Despite this, Swartz’s monster army is still attacking the island and to make things worse, Zerodrive, Protodrive and Overdrive don’t care that their other cousins have decided to stop fighting.
In 2068, Sougo has his rematch with Ohma Zi-O and manages to gain the upper hand by using Zi-O Trinity, saving Geiz and Kazuto from being defeated by Another Decade and the three rogue Drives using the Trailer Cannon recklessly. Zi-O Trinity defeats Ohma Zi-O before Sougo sends Geiz and Kazuto back. Sougo confirms that while the Ohma War dream he had was caused by his amnesia, the other dreams he had been having were Ohma Zi-O psychically projecting them to him through time. He learns about Ohma Zi-O’s true power to create and destroy time before asking him to make Luna a Kamen Rider. Instead of having the time loop shit where Sougo meets Geiz and Luna in the midst of a fight against Ohma Zi-O, Ohma Zi-O infuses some of his power into a blank Ridewatch and gives it to Sougo, who quickly heads back.
Luna is still being attacked by the three Drives when Another Decade suddenly defends her for some reason. When Another Decade comes to his senses, Sougo returns with the Ridewatch and together with a Ziku Driver from Kazuto, Luna transforms into Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi for the first time and defeats the rogue Drives alongside Mach and Chaser. After this, Sougo, having regained the Grand Zi-O Ridewatch, challenges Another Decade again. In the original version, this would be where the main Sougo becomes Ohma Zi-O, but instead in this version, his friends are there to help him. Swartz is defeated and his summoned monsters are eradicated, but before he retreats however, he takes back the time power he gave to Narutaki and also takes a portion of her Rider power to create the Gold Drive Anotherwatch.
Elsewhere, Hiryuu is found by Kensuke, who offers him another opportunity to become king by giving him the task of collecting the fifteen Ancient (Showa) Kamen Rider Ridewatches and obtaining a power rivaling that of Ohma Zi-O…
Kamen Rider Tsukuyomi was only introduced in the finale of the original series so all plots and fights involving her are original to this version.
Also, on the Rider Wiki episode pages for the three-part finale, I attempted to create a list of all the monsters that appeared in those episodes, but my changes were undone by the jannies. I understand if they wanted to maintain a consistent format for episode pages, but at the time of writing, they have monster lists for Decade’s premiere episode and the Wizard epilogue two-parter. As such, here is a list of all the monsters that appeared in the adapted arc, including monsters exclusively seen in this version. Fuck Rider Wiki jannies.
Gurongi: N·Daguva·Zeba
Mirror Monsters: Darkwing, Volcancer, Evildiver, Metalgelas, Omegazelle, Biogreeza, Dragblacker, Raydragoons, Hydragoons
Makamou: Bakegani, Amikiri, Ooari, Ubume, Ittanmomen
Dopants: Violence Dopant, Utopia Dopant, Masquerade Dopants
Yummies: Bison Yummy, Kuzu Yummies
Zodiarts: Orion Zodiarts, Sagittarius Zodiarts, Dustards
Phantoms: Argos, Ghouls
Inves: Shika Inves, Lion Inves, Elementary Inves
Roidmudes: Mashin Chaser (original only), Blazer Roidmude (this version only), Plain Roidmudes
Gamma: Katana Gamma, Gamma Commando
Bugsters: Revol Bugster, Gamedeus, Bugster Virus
Faust: Guardian, Kamen Rider Evol
So with this, the entire plot of Kamen Rider Zi-O has been adapted. However, there are ten episodes left, the Time Jackers and Quartzer are still standing, and Sougo is still yet to become Ohma Zi-O. Join us next time when we arrive in the final days of this timeline.
#kisekae insights#kamen rider#kamen rider zi-o#kamen rider decade#equestria girls#my little pony equestria girls#sea princesses#princesas do mar#princesas del mar#el reino de acuatica
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Kisekae Insights #44: Kamen Rider Zi-O Part 2 - Ohma’s Day
“Hark, Ohma’s Day! The future of the Kamen Riders lie in a battle for the fate of time. Will a saviour rise or will a king take his throne? Peace on earth and mercy mild, past and future reconciled!”
The first arc had Sougo and Geiz gaining the cooperation of Decade and all the Riders that came after him. The second arc takes us into 2019 as Kamen Rider Woz makes his debut, bringing forth the existence of new Riders and powers that will take us to the dawn of Ohma’s Day.
Episode 11: Men from the Future ~ Happy New Woz 2019 ~
The episode closely follows the original, the only difference being that Rentarou’s friend in this episode is actually Isamichi Konjou, who will also appear in the next episode.
Kensuke Nitta (White Woz) makes his debut as Kamen Rider Woz. He is Kazuto’s nephew from the year 2040 and has come to 2019 to guide Geiz to become the saviour Geiz Revive. His Future Note allows him to manipulate events by writing or speaking into it.
At the end of the episode, Rentarou and Isamichi decide to enrol in a ninja academy…
Episode 12: The Amazing Era of the Future ~ Future Time 2022 ~
Inspiration for this episode was taken from Rider Time: Kamen Rider Shinobi.
In the original series, Geiz was unable to go to the year 2022 to find Rentarou because it is an alternate timeline created by Sougo’s dreams. In the last episode of this version, Geiz does go to 2022, but it is pretty much the same as 2019 and Kamen Rider Shinobi is nowhere to be seen. However, Another Shinobi’s defeat does allow Kamen Rider Shinobi to exist in 2022, something that Sougo discovers when he decides to head there in this episode.
In 2022, Rentarou, his sister Iroha and his friend Isamichi are studying at the Leapfrog Ninja Academy. Rentarou took on the banner of Kamen Rider Shinobi to fight the Rainbow Serpent Clan led by the Dark Ninja, but right now, he is being tasked with investigating three of their operatives, namely Hikaru Azuma, Kanon Azuma and Moe Nakajima of the Wind Ninja Academy. Yes, these are the Hurricanegers, aka the “unofficial” ninja Kamen Riders from Decade’s Nine Riders Arc. Kazuto suggests to Sougo that he gain Hikaru’s power as Kamen Rider Ninja so they can gain the upper hand on Kensuke.
Andrew, Luna and Kensuke arrive in 2022 to find Sougo, but they are confronted by Kanon and Moe, who transform into HurricaneBlue and HurricaneYellow, aka Kamen Riders Mizuna and Okachi. Kamen Rider Fuma from the Ex-Aid movie also appears as another Dark Ninja operative to attack Sougo and Rentarou, but Isamichi comes to their rescue as Kamen Rider Hattari. The Dark Ninja tries to kidnap Iroha but fails to do so, leading him to capture Isamichi instead.
Zi-O, Geiz, Woz and Shinobi work together to free Ninja, Mizuna, Okachi, Fuma and Hattari. The Dark Ninja admits his defeat and leaves. Sougo doesn’t take Ninja’s power as he believes he and his allies can help Rentarou and Isamichi in 2022. After saying their goodbyes, Sougo and his friends head back to 2019.
Episode 13: The Parable of the Hyperstudious Father ~ Your Final Answer 2040 ~
Due to the modifications made for this episode, the scenes featuring Another Quiz’s creation are brought back to the last episode.
Like how Shinobi and later Kikai were created from Sougo’s dreams, Kamen Rider Quiz is also shown to be likewise where it wasn’t originally. Sougo is being chased by Bugster Virus footsoldiers in 2040 when Kamen Rider Quiz appears and fights them. Quiz asks Sougo, “You will wake up from your dream,” and the answer turns out to be true as he kicks some Bugsters into him, causing him to wake up.
Quiz’s identity is a man of Vietnamese descent named Reimondo Doan, born to his father Jeremy and his mother Mylena. The O and X part of his gimmick is translated as “true” or “false”, which is essentially what those symbols can represent.
Episode 14: Battride War Salacia ~ Advent 2002 ~
Inspiration for this episode was taken from Rider Time: Kamen Rider Ryuki. If I followed that mini-series more closely, some Rider identities would change. Also, imagine Soraia having Unite Vent sex with Marcello before betraying him the next day lmao.
This episode is an additional tribute to Ryuki that serves as a prequel to Sougo gaining the Zi-O II Ridewatch. I’ve covered most of this episode’s plot in #27.
Linsum makes contact with Dark Daniel from Mirror World and gives him the power of Another Ryuki. Dark Daniel then goes to confront Daniel Camielez and Polvina; they are defeated, but Daniel is nowhere to be seen after.
Sougo, Geiz and Luna are having a picnic on a beach when the Shark King, Lorah and their Riders attack from the sea. Sougo and Geiz transform to fight them; they are no match for the power of thirteen Riders as they are defeated, with Sougo being taken by the Salacians as well, having been willed to do so by Kensuke to get him out of the way of Geiz becoming the saviour. However, Geiz insists that he will fight Ohma Zi-O his own way. As Sougo is interrogated at the Shark Palace regarding Polvina and Daniel’s disappearance, Kazuto is nowhere to be seen as he has gone to meet with Ohma Zi-O to obtain half of the Zi-O II Ridewatch.
Andrew and Luna are approached by Daniel to ask them for the way to Salacia and they head there. As the Shark King is informed of this by Tata and goes to investigate, Ester and Tubarina meet with Sougo and the latter gives him the Ryuki Ridewatch after telling him that the Daniel with Andrew and Luna is the imposter Dark Daniel because the real Daniel and Polvina would never leave each other behind if they were in trouble.
Sure enough, Ryuga reveals himself and the Salacians Riders fight but to no avail. Ryuga summons Dragblacker but Kensuke arrives in his Time Mazine and uses Woz Future ring Quiz to fend him off before using his book to free Sougo, Geiz and Luna as Ryuga transforms into Another Ryuki. The fight is brought to Dryland, but despite help from Knight, Saga and Poseidon, the Salacian Riders are defeated. The goddess Salacia chides the rest of the Salacian Riders while Kelvin Galvarro gives Geiz the Knight Ridewatch. Sougo and Geiz use the Ridewatches they obtained to defeat Dark Daniel. The Ryuki Anotherwatch is picked up by Swartz, which he uses his power on to reform it into the Ryuga Anotherwatch…
Episode 15: Making the Time Connection ~ Zi-O the Strongest 2019 ~
In a basement somewhere, the other Sougo creates the Zi-O II Ridewatch by coming the data from his Zi-O Ridewatch with the data he recovered from the destroyed Time Mazines. This creates the left half of the Zi-O II Ridewatch, which the other Sougo holds against a mirror to complete its other half and duplicate it as well. The left half would be given to Woz in 2068 while the Mirror World right half would be given to Sougo in 2019.
The rest of the episode follows the original, with the differences being detailed in #27 already. Polvina takes the place of Okubo as Sougo encounters her while handing out fliers to help find Daniel. Mirror World Sougo is a more toxic version of his other counterpart as creating the Zi-O II Ridewatch copied his personality over to him. Mirror World Sougo merges with Sougo as his version of the Zi-O II Ridewatch is completed, unlocking Ohma Zi-O’s power to rewind time.
“Inside and outside, past and future. This is the Watch that will rule over both worlds!”
“Good and evil, light and dark, I accept it all! And with this power, I will forge my future!”
Sougo uses Zi-O II to defeat Another Ryuga and Dark Daniel makes peace with Daniel as he reunites with Polvina.
Episode 16: Soldiers Facing the Enemy ~ Musou 2008 ~
The Japanese title of this episode is based on the Japanese kuji-kiri, namely 臨兵鬥者皆陣列在前 (rin-pyou-tou-sha-kai-jin-retsu-zai-zen). This is an original episode with no reliance on the original Japanese plot or footage.
Multiple armies are being defeated across the land. Parker in the east gets a call from his friend in the west asking for reinforcements, but he can’t do anything because his side is being invaded as well. On top of that, Queen Fifi is upset with Parker over her Never Land reinforcements being killed every time he borrows troops from her. Sougo heads on an excursion to the mainland and is brought in by one of Parker’s allies. Parker is relieved that Sougo has returned, only this Sougo doesn’t remember him.
We then learn about the history of the land; the land turned into chaos after the Battle of Chibi in 2008, made worse by Sougo’s parents being killed the year after. The armies of the land blames each other for causing the accident; Parker had enough of this and decided to unite the land by any means necessary, whether by making alliances with friendly groups or violently subjugating hostile groups, some who blamed him for the accident. At some point, a demonic overlord appeared and it turned out to be Sougo.
Sougo offers to help defend Parker’s camp when enemy troops arrive. While fighting as Zi-O, he is confronted by his other self and they fight. The main Zi-O is defeated, but he meets with his other counterpart later, telling him that he will have to help Parker’s ally in the west sooner or later.
After the main Sougo asks a favour from Kensuke to will it into happening, the two Zi-Os fight again in their different forms. It is in this battle that we also get the Decade Origin Ridewatch and Decade Armor Origin; the Ridewatch does not have the extra slot for Ridewatches, making it similar to the Gashapon version of it, and the transformation sound is the shortened version as used for the Decade Violent Emotion Ridewatch; the Armor is identical to the main counterpart’s but the helmet is styled like that of the other Armors instead of being a screen. The main Zi-O wins and the other Zi-O agrees to help Parker’s ally in the west. This battle between them was for the main Zi-O to teach his other counterpart not to take the people he meets for granted. The two Zi-Os save Parker’s army as Zi-O II before Kazuto comes to pick up the main Sougo and take him home.
Episode 17: My Best Friend ~ Man or Machine 2121 ~
“Are you man, or are you machine?”
Another direct adaptation of the original plot. However, due to Sougo no longer going to school, the retest study plot is changed to Sougo coming down with a fever after coming back from the mainland. The Humanoise in the year 2121 are named Cyberdroids in this version, being Cybermen that have taken on human disguises and are using emotional emulators to blend in, which admittedly does go against their creed of abandoning emotions. Yes, 2121 Earth is the early years of the Cyber-Wars, which in the Doctor Who extended universe didn’t happen until the 2150s with the Vogan War. Minato-Sugaru Island has become a human enclave against the Cybermen, though the Cybermen are doing all they can to infiltrate it.
Kamen Rider Kikai is Handles Machina (you can guess what the inspiration for that name was), who was a Cyberdroid until he grew a heart and became the friend to a group of children escaping the Cyber-Wars. His power source comes from the solar generator satellite Zeark (and the autists at the Kamen Rider Wiki who called it “There” can go fuck themselves), which the Cybermen hack to turn Handles evil.
Because Heure had already become Another Kuuga in episodes 9 and 10, Ora is the one who Swartz turns into Another Kikai in this episode, swapping the roles of the two in this version. In the end, I never understood Ora and Heure’s nature in the series because their origins and motivations are never explained.
In this episode, the other Sougo sends the main Sougo a gift to thank him for the lesson he taught him in the previous episode. The gift is a Cyberman figurine with “WILL BE THE KING” written on it, which Luna intercepts because Sougo was still in bed when it came. Of course, Sougo’s initial password guess “WILL BE THE BFF” is retained from the original version because Engrish.
Geiz and Luna realise that Sougo isn’t just seeing the future in his dreams, but creating them and the Future Riders with them; the Another Riders are merely a side effect of that. As the two decide to leave 9TO5, Kensuke brings the Shinobi, Quiz and Kikai Miridewatches to bring forth the Geiz Revive Ridewatch…
Episode 18: The Reverse King ~ Another Zi-O 2019 ~
Admittedly, this arc is my favourite arc of Zi-O.
This version of the series adds some backstory to Hiryuu Kakogawa and how he became Another Zi-O. With Sougo’s acquisition of the Zi-O II Ridewatch finally allowing Swartz to create the Zi-O Anotherwatch using the research taken from his previous experiments, Swartz finds Hiryuu in the middle of a battle against Parker’s army and rescues him from being killed by the other Zi-O, revealing his identity to him and offering to make him the king of time. Aside from the Anotherwatch, Hiryuu is also given the Another Driver, which is the black Ziku Driver that appears when he transforms into Another Zi-O, only we made it an actual thing that Hiryuu uses to transform.
Hiryuu is modelled on a friend I used to know when I was little. His mum and my mum were friends and we used to go to the same playgroup and church together. Then, my friend went to a different school and we just lost contact with each other. The last time I saw him and his mum was at least a decade ago at this point. I’d never brought him up when I was searching for characters to put in my stories and his significance in my youth made him a perfect candidate to be Sougo’s nemesis. Oh wait, I’m giving away the story at this point, aren’t I?
So, Hiryuu goes around attacking the previous Another Riders to obtain their powers. Sougo and Geiz try to stop him but to no avail. Luna tries to ask Mark about Hiryuu but the name doesn’t ring a bell to him. She finds Karen Brewer’s number and asks about Hiryuu; she doesn’t remember much about Sougo because it has been so long, but she looked into his past and learns that his parents were killed in a bus accident in 2009. However, because the Sougo we know only arrived in 2018, Karen is referring to the other Sougo, and the connection isn’t made clear to the others until later.
Luna heads to 2009 and goes to the hospital where Sougo and Hiryuu ended up. A nurse gives Sougo the Cyberman figurine from the last episode before he freezes the nurse in time and rewrites their memory before getting dressed and leaving. This is seen by both Hiryuu and Luna.
Geiz apparently sees Luna being killed in the crash, which gives him the determination to unlock the power of Geiz Revive, something that is rejoiced by Kensuke. Geiz sends Another Zi-O fighting before he turns his attention to Zi-O…
Schwarzer is a newly-featured OC in this episode as the owner of a magic café where Trixie now works.
Episode 19: The Day It All Began ~ Geiz Revive 2019 ~
Kazuto interrupts the fight between Zi-O and Geiz to take the latter away. Geiz fights Kazuto, but despite Geiz Revive’s side effects, Kazuto is no match for him. As a result, Kazuto goes to the Time Jackers for help and Heure helps him steal Kamen Rider Woz’s power from Kensuke using blank Miridewatches (and not blank Ridewatches as shown in the original). The words Kensuke uses to take back Woz’s power is changed to “Kamen Rider Woz’s power returns to its proper owner” in adaptation.
Kazuto transforms into Woz in an attempt to stop Geiz from fighting Sougo, but just as they are about to fight, Hiryuu comes in to fight the two with his Another Rider Army. Sougo and Geiz work together to defeat them and Sougo encourages Hiryuu to let go of the past and live for the present.
Meanwhile in 2009, Luna gets onto the bus that Sougo and Hiryuu were on, which is being driven by Hiroki Ichigo. Sure enough, Swartz hijacks the bus and takes the children to the alternate 2019 with the Dai Mazines attacking, the only difference being that Sougo was the boy that Swartz was looking for from the beginning and that their meeting wasn’t by chance. After saving Sougo and Hiryuu from being killed, Swartz gives some of his power to the former before taking the two back to the site of the bus crash where their parents and everyone else onboard were killed either in the crash or in the alternate 2019.
Luna is sent back to Sougo and Geiz in 2019. She and Geiz return to 9TO5, only this time, Kazuto decides to join them as well. With his version of Ohma’s Day now never coming to pass, Kensuke concedes his loss to Swartz.
Episode 20: The Trinity Begins ~ Blade Joker 2004 ~
You are supposed not to know about Trinity. You would have known if you’d been following Kisekae Insights up to now.
The BOARD Riders fight a Kamen Rider Blade from another universe before Swartz takes their powers upon their defeat and creates the Blade Anotherwatch. That Anotherwatch is then given to Kensuke for him to use as he pleases.
The Blade from another universe is, of course, Takeru Tenkuuji from an alternate Dai-Shocker universe. Another Blade is this universe’s counterpart of Serena, the mother of Mermaid Prince Seretao aka Zhuge Shu, Kamen Rider Chalice. Zhuge Shu is present in this universe, but he isn’t really her son; he only stayed with her to make her happy, though after the entire ordeal is over, Serena is happy with looking for her son on her own because seeing Zhuge Shu gave her hope that he would still be out there somewhere.
The biggest change in this episode, though, is that Daiki Kaitou as Diend is changed to Narutaki as Gold Drive, meaning that Diend’s fights had to be reshot. She didn’t appear in episodes 9 and 10 because she was working for Ohma Zi-O following the Ohma War.
When Another Blade absorbs Blade and Chalice’s Rider powers and causes the end of the world, Sougo talks with Kensuke as he, Geiz and Kazuto go to confront the Another Rider. Sougo convinces Kensuke to fight for the future he wants until the very end and so, he manifests the Zi-O Trinity Ridewatch from himself along with the Zi-O II and Geiz Revive Ridewatches. How could Kensuke have done that when his powers were taken? That will be explained next time.
After Another Blade’s defeat to Zi-O Trinity, Takeru flees and Zhuge Shu allows Sougo to keep the Blade Riders’ Ridewatches. Kensuke does not disappear after his future of Geiz Revive does not come to pass, but he throws away his Future Note as he prepares to become Sougo’s new rival in a different way. The Future Note is taken by Narutaki, who confronts Sougo and Geiz with a message from Ohma Zi-O; there are six more Ridewatches left for Sougo to obtain, one of them being the Drive Ridewatch despite it being in Geiz’s possession.
Three Equestria Girls characters make cameo appearances in this episode; Fluttershy is shown at the beginning working at Serena’s cafe, wishing her luck in finding her son before leaving. Sougo and co encounter Photo Finish when Another Blade attacks her studio, then Geiz and Luna encounter Juniper Montage at another photo studio where they find out where Zhuge Shu is staying.
Ohma’s Day was originally the day when Sougo would become Ohma Zi-O. Thanks to Sougo briefly giving up his destiny, a divergent timeline was created where Geiz Revive would dethrone Ohma Zi-O and become the saviour of the world. Despite delays to Zi-O and Geiz’s grand duel caused by various parties, Ohma’s Day still came to pass, but with Zi-O Trinity being born instead. Despite this, Sougo is still destined to become Ohma Zi-O, with the true Ohma’s Day still yet to come.
The Time Jackers’ machinations would continue, but Kensuke would set his own plans in motion as well. Join us next time to see how their plans come into conflict with Sougo’s quest to collect the Ridewatches.
#kisekae insights#kamen rider#kamen rider zi-o#kamen rider decade#equestria girls#my little pony equestria girls#sea princesses#princesas do mar#princesas del mar#el reino de acuatica
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Kisekae Insights #43: Kamen Rider Zi-O Part 1 - Birth of Zi-O
“The Kamen Riders were defeated by Ohma Zi-O and exiled throughout time. Now the time has come for their legacy to be passed down to the future. Hark the herald angels sing, rejoice for the newborn king!”
After much tribulation, we have finally come to Kamen Rider Zi-O. OK, not really, I’m skipping ahead quite a bit because I want to mix things up. In this instalment, I’ll get right into my version of Kamen Rider Zi-O and cover the background throughout the next few instalments. I want you to experience it as if you were watching it without the background context (aside from Kamen Rider Decade as it forms the core of the story as Decade 2.0), but I do recommend you watch the original Zi-O as 80% of this is a direct adaptation from the original.
Some preliminary things to note - each episode is 45 minutes long and this series has 40 episodes. My adaptation follows the series closely so I won’t mention inspirations unless they deviate from the original series order. Also, this series is set on Minato-Sugaru Island and I’ve stolen appropriated numerous Equestria Girls OCs from Derpibooru, so the creators probably won’t know they’ve been hit until I credit them as they rightly should. The potential Toei vs Hasbro lawsuit would be an unstoppable force against an immovable object.
Anyway, please enjoy. Also note that a number of posts are links to Derpibooru, which can be NSFW if you have set the filters to display such content.
Episode 1: Meeting You in the Witching Hour ~ Best Match 2017 ~
Fun fact: The Japanese translation of this title would be 逢魔時に出会い (Ōmagatoki ni deai).
Remember the Natsumi Rider War dream sequence I cut out of the first episode of Decade? Kamen Rider Zi-O starts off with that. Portions of the original footage from Decade with a filter applied are combined with original footage of newer (and unseen) Riders to create the scenes of the Ohma War. Sougo Tokiwa sees himself standing in the middle of the conflict before Ohma Zi-O sends out a wave of energy that makes all the Riders disappear.
Of course, that is revealed to be a dream as Sougo wakes up in his room atop 9TO5 (Kujigoji-do), a clock repair shop in Langya City where he lives with its owner, Mark Roberts (Junichirō Tokiwa). It is September 2018 and 15-year-old Sougo has been living with Mark for a few months ever since he was found by him in a nearby laneway with amnesia.
Sougo is sent out to buy groceries when he encounters Kazuto Hongō (Black Woz). Not long after, he is chased by a red Time Mazine piloted by Geiz Myoukouin (Andrew Cui) until he is saved by a silver Time Mazine piloted by Luna (Tsukuyomi). Luna explains to Sougo that she and Geiz came from the year 2068, showing a video of the human resistance (whom Geiz and Luna were a part of) being defeated by Ohma Zi-O, who she says will be Sougo in 50 years’ time, having become the vilest and evilest demonic overlord ever known. I should note that “demonic overlord” is my way of translating 魔王/“demon king”, partially because of Over-Time subs and partially because it sounds cooler that way.
We skip the prehistoric era with the frankly embarrassing T-Rex that shouted like an elephant and head to the Victorian goldfields in 1868 (filmed at Sovereign Hill in Ballarat/Foshan), which replaces Edo-era Japan from the original episode. Luna shows Sougo her research of his past, which he claims is wrong because he is only 15 years old whereas her research shows him as 21 years old (born in 1997).
Geiz catches up with Sougo and Luna and they escape; during this Sougo falls out of Luna’s Time Mazine into 2017, where he encounters Kamen Riders Build and Cross-Z, who had already gone through their story and settled in the New World. After being returned to 2018, Sougo stumbles onto Luna fighting off Another Build, created by Time Jacker Heure (Linsum). Kazuto presents Sougo with the Ziku Driver and Zi-O Ridewatch; despite Luna’s objections, Sougo decides to become “the nicest and kindest demonic overlord this world has ever seen”.
“Rejoice, one and all, for he is the one to inherit all Rider powers, the king of time crossing time and space to reign over the past and the future. And his name is Kamen Rider Zi-O! Bear witness to the advent of the newborn king!”
The rest of the episode follows the original story with the Build tribute, though with some modifications and deviations. In the adaptation, the counterparts to Souichi and Misora Isurugi are shown running the nascita café - when Sougo heads there during the fight with Another Build to find Build and Cross-Z, Souichi and Misora tell him that they haven’t seen them in a while. However, Sougo remembers the year on Another Build and gets the idea to find Build and Cross-Z in 2017.
In 2017, Build and Cross-Z encounter Another Build, but the two Riders’ power becomes unstable as they fight him. Sougo and Geiz join the battle, at which point Build and Cross-Z’s power is drained into Another Build, transforming him into the actual Rider. After fighting the fake Build as Zi-O and Geiz, it turns back into Another Build as they are granted the Build and Cross-Z Ridewatches. Zi-O transforms into Build Armor and uses it to defeat Build alongside Geiz using the Cross-Z Ridewatch. Following this, Geiz and Luna decide to rent the empty rooms atop 9TO5 so they can keep tabs on Sougo.
One of the main criticisms of Zi-O’s first arc is that it disrespected the Riders by tying the Ridewatches to their history and having them forget being Riders around the first episodes of their series. This adaptation fixes it by having it be set after the end of the Legend Riders’ stories, using the Ohma War as a basis for the creation of the Another Riders. And of course, the Legend Riders’ memories remain unaffected.
The Another Riders are also shown to have the potential to actually become their respective Rider by gradually draining their power. This was inspired by the Agito tribute later in the original series, though for budget and logistic reasons, this was only done for Another Build and Ex-Aid.
Episode 2: The Back to School Undercover Operation ~ No Continue 2016 ~
This episode is the beginning of a mini-arc by which this episode is named after. Geiz and Luna have discovered Another Rider activity happening around Minato-Sugaru Island and in order to find them, they decide to go undercover as students at Canterlot High School, but in actuality, Sougo is the only one going to class as Geiz and Luna convinced Principal Celestia to take him in and let them observe him (because Geiz and Luna are 18 whereas Sougo is 15). This is also so that Sougo will have something to do and for Geiz to prove that he will become Ohma Zi-O. Despite Canterlot High being a uniform-optional school, Sougo decides to wear the uniform which is inspired by Osipush’s vector designs.
In this tribute to Kamen Rider Ex-Aid, Button Mash is being taken to hospital in 2016 after his heart gives out. His dad, Janbit Circuit Switcher, offers to go in the ambulance while his mum, Cream Heart, and brother, Gibson Joystick Padder, stay at home. It is then that Time Jacker Ora (Saini) transforms Janbit into Another Ex-Aid. Janbit’s name is a reference to JanAnimations, the creator of Button’s Adventures, and inspiration for his character is taken from deviations by Mythilas and VulfixEVEn. Gibson was only shown in an animatic for the second episode of Button’s Adventures, which was cancelled following a C&D from Hasbro; I gave him his full name. ShadyVox would reprise his role as Button Mash and also voice Gibson, and EileMonty would also reprise her role as Cream Heart even though she only has like two lines.
Back in 2018, Sougo’s homeroom teacher is Mr Cranky Doodle. At lunch, he evades Geiz and Luna in the gym’s supply closet, where he meets a student named E-Zen Tiforp playing the Mighty Action X-esque game, causing Another Ex-Aid to appear. E-Zen is taken to the Minato-Sugaru Central Hospital, where he is cared for by the counterpart to Haima Kagami, who is a visiting doctor there. Haima’s son was a visiting doctor at the hospital two years prior, but he hasn’t been able to make contact with him for a while. Sougo and gang head to the Central Hospital in 2016, where they meet Hiiro Kagami’s counterpart, but not Emu Houjou’s counterpart.
Up to this point, here is what we know about the Another Riders in my version of the series; the Another Riders are corrupted versions of the Legend Riders created by leaching their power into Anotherwatches. They have the potential to become the actual Riders themselves unless they are defeated with the power of said Rider. If Another Riders survived the year of their creation, they effectively became immortal because Sougo and Geiz didn’t have the Ridewatches needed to defeat them. Although the actual Riders do experience power fluctuations as they become unstable, they do not have their memories of being Riders removed. On top of this, the “time loop” element of creating Ridewatches is eliminated, so the creation and destruction of an Another Rider along with the inheritance of that Rider’s power effectively happen in the same year. Once an Another Rider is defeated, the effects they would have had on the future are negated from time.
Episode 3: My Dear Friend ~ Switch On 2011 ~
From the pattern you’ve seen so far, the Heisei Riders were exiled to different years in time depending on when their series premiered. Jee Gun aka Fourze, however, is in 2018 and is a teacher at Canterlot High (replacing Amanogawa High), therefore taking Chuta Osugi’s place in the episode (where Souta Fukushi was unable to reprise his role as Gentarou Kisaragi). Don’t worry, all will be explained in time.
The counterparts of Sakuma and Karin Yamabuki are homages to two people who had committed suicide when my cohort was in secondary school. After Karin died from a car accident in 2003, Ora gave Sakuma the power to become Another Faiz, however as time went on, his power weakened and in 2011, Time Jacker Swartz (Changyue) gave him the power to become Another Fourze, depowering Jee Gun as he was fighting the Scorpion Zodiarts.
Although Old Major appears in this episode, Masato Kusaka’s place is taken by Noel Swarovski, the mercenary leader from Decade. Snips and Snails are shown as members of the Kamen Rider Club in 2018, overseen by Jee Gun who gives Sougo the Fourze Ridewatch. Nurse Redheart also makes a cameo in this episode (voiced by Ashleigh Ball).
When Sakuma is defeated by Zi-O and Geiz in 2011 and 2003, Sougo borrows Luna’s FaizPhone X and uses it to call Andrew so he can help relay 2018 Karin’s words to 2003 Sakuma on top of her saying them to 2018 Sakuma as he disappears with her.
Episode 4: The Beauty and the Beast ~ Magic Showtime 2012 ~
In 2012, Starlight Glimmer and Trixie are working at Grapefruit Face’s magic theatre (to an audience of Dasher Arekawa and Rainbow Dash) when Heure transforms Trixie into Another Wizard. As a result, Trixie becomes the star of Grapefruit Magic House as the Great and Powerful Trixie.
Later, Trixie breaks down upon learning that Starlight and Grapefruit intend to shut down the theatre and get married, Starlight not knowing of her feelings for Grapefruit. After being defeated in 2012, Sougo does the same thing he did last episode and has Geiz pass his phone to Trixie so her future self can tell her past self to be brave and tell Grapefruit how she feels.
In addition to Flash Sentry appearing as Kamen Rider Beast, Sunset Shimmer makes an appearance as Wizard whereas the original counterpart (Haruto Souma) did not have his original actor (Shunya Shiraishi) reprise his role. Flash keeps his Ridewatch, but he tells Geiz to go to 2012 and meet with Sunset to obtain the Wizard Ridewatch. Sure enough, Geiz does so, but Sunset says that she can’t talk for long because the other version of her is in a really bad place at the time, referring to how she used to be a bully at school before the events of Equestria Girls.
Episode 5: The Overlord, the Genm Master and the King ~ Taka Tora Batta 2010 ~
This episode covering the OOO tribute was originally intended to feature Crestor Calandia as Another OOO, but that was changed following CWC’s arrest, reverting back to the counterpart of Kuroto Dan. The episode is also set on a neighbouring island.
Ruby Big Heart by Ribiruby is the focus OC for this episode, with her taking the place of Hina Izumi in this episode.
This episode shows Geiz following through with his conviction to defeat Sougo upon seeing him working with Another OOO after taking a more cautious position over the last three episodes. A common criticism of Geiz is that he seems to flip-flop between wanting to kill Sougo and wanting to see how things play out, but this dragged out character development eventually allows Geiz to see Sougo for who he really is.
Episode 6: Me & Me On Parade ~ Hanamichi On Stage 2013 ~
The Gaim tribute episode has some changes to have the plot make a little more sense. The Sougo from three days after is changed to five hours after; present Sougo is made aware of Another Gaim’s existence thanks to the later Sougo informing Luna about it. Present Sougo would obtain the Gaim Ridewatch, which would be thrown into the Helheim Forest by Swartz.
Later, the two Sougos would change (not swap) into the others’ shirts before going to fight Another Gaim. When Geiz gets out of Helheim, he gives the Gaim Ridewatch to present Sougo, who goes to fight Another Gaim in 2013 while the future Sougo would fight Another Gaim in 2018. After Another Gaim is defeated in 2013, present Sougo would encounter Akari Ichigo, who has been trapped in a strange dimension (replacing Fruit Jesus Kouta from the original). Akari would send Sougo back in time by five hours and allow Another Gaim to survive into 2018.
Team Baron in this episode is replaced by the Shadowbolts, led by Zoe Star Pink (by Zoe-975). Ruby Sunshine (by the late Tavi959 and is now owned by his girlfriend, JaneBlood969) was kicked out of the Shadowbolts when Swartz transformed her into Another Gaim. She would send Zoe into Helheim and take over as leader of the Shadowbolts. When Raisy Seaweed (by RandomTripleS) discovers that Ruby can turn into a monster, Ruby sends her into Helheim.
The Teddies and Rat in a Hat make cameos in this episode as Rat decided to open his shop on the island while he is unable to return to Cuddlestown. Most of this episode takes place in 2018 so it is clear that the Teddies and Rat were able to escape exile.
Episode 7: Triple Threat ~ Go Go Go Ghost 2015 ~
This episode marks the end of the Back to School mini-arc, with Jee Gun and Mr Cranky Doodle farewelling Sougo as he heads home. Meanwhile, Silver Dawn has enlisted the help of ghost hunters Takeru Tenkuuji and Hideko Kimihara to find her boyfriend, Shadow Warp (I may change this to Paladin Colt in 3.0). As the episode goes, Shadow Warp is revealed to be Another Ghost, who is also dead after initially refusing to contract with Heure in 2015.
Hiroki Ichigo makes an appearance as Kamen Rider Decade in this episode, wearing the Decade Beltmorpher X, and Kazuto colludes with the Time Jackers in an attempt to set Sougo on the correct path. With Takeru’s help, Sougo saves Shadow Warp from being killed but he is transformed into Another Ghost anyway. Geiz loses the Ghost Ridewatch when Decade erases the version in his possession, him giving the Decade Ridewatch in exchange (say thank you to Decade), though Sougo would regain it from Takeru.
Aside from Kamen Rider Specter, Kamen Rider Necrom is also featured in the fight against the Gamma Commandos.
Episode 8: Back to 2068 ~ Forever King 2018 ~
This story follows the original episode closely as seven Dai Mazines appear all around Minato-Sugaru Island while a Kachinebot (pronounced like “machine-bot”) arrives on the orders of Ohma Zi-O to eliminate Geiz and Luna.
Sougo mentions to Geiz and Luna that he has had three recurring dreams during his time on the island; a dream where he is a king ruling over people, the Ohma War dream from the first episode and the dream we learn about in this episode, where a mysterious man told him that his mission is to become king and save the world from destruction.
As Decade fights Zi-O, there is a little change made - when Decade transforms back from Build into his original form, he doesn’t insert his card like other Riders would do to change forms; changing into Legend Rider forms is like a second-level transformation, meaning that it’s an unnecessary movement when you could just power down.
At the end of the episode, when Ohma Zi-O is restored to time, the Dai Mazines remain standing as another Sougo Tokiwa looks on…
Episode 9: Counting Up My Sins ~ CycloneJoker 2009 ~
This episode and the next episode adapts Heisei Generations Forever and prominently incorporates the events of the movie into the series itself. Also, In the first two episodes of the series, Sougo said to Build and Ex-Aid, “I’ve got a good feeling we’ll meet again someday.” This is a foreshadowing to this two-parter which is also a crossover between Zi-O and the two Riders.
The episode begins with the Bananas in Pyjamas theme before we flash to Cuddlestown on fire (in 2009) as B1 and B2 are running from Masquerade Dopants. This scene transitions from the live-action Bananas to their CGI versions before they transform into Kamen Rider Double and defeat the Masquerade Dopants. As more of them appear, Double powers up into CycloneJokerXtreme, but it is then that Swartz transforms Double into Another Double, rendering them unable to detransform as the Xtreme Memory flies off.
Back in 2018, Sougo tells his friends about a weird dream he had when he was young and a young girl played with him. They would meet again every now and again until she told Sougo that they could never see each other again, farewelling him with a stroke on the chin. Yes, this is my version of the “Miss Sailor” plot from the Kiva arc.
UNIT identified Sougo, Geiz and Luna as the ones responsible for the Dai Mazines appearing and they send Karen Brewer to raid 9TO5 and arrest the three on charges of espionage and treason. This is because in 2018, the Mazines, Ridewatches and Ziku Drivers are in development at a top-secret facility and the schematics of their equipment are exactly the same as their development blueprints.
As the three are being interviewed at the Minato-Sugaru Police Headquarters, Kayley arrives with a group of Riders to cause a commotion by summoning many Inves using Lockseeds, allowing her and Flash Sentry to free Sougo, Geiz and Luna. It is also here that we see Kayley using the Diend Gunmorpher X. Sougo and Geiz recover their equipment, but Kayley takes their Legend Ridewatches with the exception of Decade’s. Learning that Hiroki has returned to 9TO5, the three head back there. With a number of Riders guarding the shop, Hiroki explains to the three and Kazuto about the Ohma War.
Hiroki and the Legend Riders come from the 2021 of another timeline. He became aware of Ohma Zi-O’s existence and brought the Riders to 2068 to fight him, but they were unsuccessful as Ohma Zi-O scattered them through time. Some of their allies, namely Haima Kagami, Hideko Kimihara and Noel Swarovski were caught up as well, through Hiroki has accounted for them (again, Souichi and Misora Isurugi are native to the current timeline as they don’t recognise Build or Cross-Z in the first episode). Hiroki has managed to find some Riders and bring them to 2018, but he couldn’t reach all of them due to anomalies in the Time Vortex. Therefore, Hiroki needed the Ridewatches that Sougo and Geiz collected so he can create a nexus point in time to bring everyone else in.
Meanwhile, Swartz explains to Heure and Ora that when Ohma Zi-O scattered the Riders throughout time, it caused temporal instabilities in their powers which they could exploit to create Another Riders. Swartz created Another Double out of the actual Rider as an experiment; he decides to conduct another experiment and create a super Time Jacker by turning Heure into Another Growing Kuuga (appearing identical to N-Daguva-Zeba’s Perfect Form). The reason why I did this is because the “super Time Jackers” Tid and Finis from the crossover movies never served much purpose to Swartz’s plans because he never mentioned them. You could say that they were from alternate timelines, but then recent Rider movies have made the effort to fit them into their series’ timelines.
The next day, Sougo and Geiz fight Another Double. In the original movie, Another Double was only shown using the power of the Luna Memory; this two-parter expands this so that Another Double can transform into all of Double’s basic forms. It is then that they are confronted by the other Sougo, who does not recognise Kazuto from him calling Sougo “Waga Maou”/“My overlord”. The other Sougo transforms into Zi-O and fights Zi-O and Geiz. Another Double escapes, but he is confronted by Build and his comrades.
Zi-O and Geiz are defeated and the other Sougo leaves. Geiz goes after Another Double while Sougo goes after his other counterpart. On the way, Sougo encounters Rat and the Teddies, who give him the W Ridewatch only for him to be apprehended by UNIT forces afterwards. Meanwhile, Another Double attacks the Central Hospital and is confronted by Ex-Aid and his allies. Geiz arrives to assist, followed by Another Growing Kuuga, who defeats the Riders before Queen Fifi Forget-me-not arrives, causing Swartz to call a withdrawal.
Sougo is interrogated by Karen and they have a weird feeling that they met each other. Kazuto arrives and borrows the W Ridewatch from Sougo, which he uses (instead of his book in the original) to access the Gaia Library and help them unlock memories of them having adventures together when they were younger. Two UNIT colonels enter the room to arrest Karen, but Kazuto takes her and Sougo away.
Back at 9TO5, Geiz notes that the other Zi-O was able to use the same Rider Armors he and Sougo could use. He and Luna go around the island and see Hiroki and Kayley handing the Legend Ridewatches back to the owners of their powers. This is despite the other Zi-O having his own Ridewatches, but I’ll come back to that later.
Meanwhile, Sougo, Kazuto and Karen confront the other Sougo, who confirms that he was the one who sent out the Dai Mazines in the last episode, having gotten them from “some guy who probably stole them from the future”. The two Sougos fight; while the other Zi-O transforms into Ghost Armor, the main Zi-O uses W Armor to counter him.
“Now then, would you like to tell me your sins?”
“I have nothing to say to someone as half-boiled as you!”
Build and Cross-Z see the battle and they inadvertently help the other Zi-O before they are attacked by him. Heure is sent in to defeat them all, but it is then that Queen Fifi, Firerose and Lilimuro come to the rescue…
Episode 10: Nexus Time ~ Smile 2000 ~
The second part of this story begins with the Fifi and the Flowertots theme as Firerose transforms into Kuuga and begins fighting Another Growing Kuuga. Another Double is sent out again, but the Time Jackers retreat when Ex-Aid and Brave join the battle. Queen Fifi notes that Sougo doesn’t remember her; while the Gaia Library has records of them being together at one point, it is still unknown how they split or how Sougo lost his memories.
Hiroki explains that he and Kayley took the Ridewatches so they could create the nexus point now that they have enough Riders in one time period to make it viable. However, they still need to deal with the other Sougo and the Time Jackers first. Sougo offers to deal with his other counterpart and Kazuto follows. It is here that we learn how Kazuto came to serve Ohma Zi-O; he was a prisoner of war saved from execution and given a new purpose as Ohma Zi-O’s loyal servant.
The other Sougo is confronted by the Time Jackers, who send the two Another Riders at him until the main Sougo arrives and transforms into the adaptation-original Decade Armor W Form, based on Double CycloneJokerXtreme, but the other Sougo attacks him as well. Irritated, the main Zi-O defeats his opponents with the Ultimate Time Break. This detransforms the other Zi-O and frees the Bananas, but it only made the Another Riders stronger, with Another Double splitting himself into nine bodies based on the individual Half Changes and Another Growing Kuuga evolving into Another Kuuga, also known as Another Mighty Kuuga.
Hiroki and the Legend Riders are preparing the nexus point when UNIT forces surround them, fearing that their actions would damage space and time. Swartz sees this and summons an army of foot soldiers to join the battle against the Riders. After defeating the UNIT forces, the Riders plead their case, which leads UNIT to trust the Riders to defeat the Another Riders. Zi-O, Geiz, Double, Build, Cross-Z, Gaim, Baron, Ryugen and Zangetsu defeat the nine Another Doubles. Another Kuuga goes after the nexus point equipment, but Kuuga and Build commandeer Zi-O and Geiz’s Time Mazines to fight him before Zi-O, who had been given the Kuuga Ridewatch, uses it to transform into Kuuga Armor and defeat Another Kuuga with the Mighty Time Break.
The nexus point is activated and all remaining Riders are gathered in 2018, including Akari Ichigo. Another Kuuga’s power suddenly goes out of control in Heure, causing him to absorb Luna, Hideko, Karen, Queen Fifi and Lilimuro to become Another Ultimate Kuuga. The fight is brought to the quarry in Jungong City, where he is defeated by Zi-O, Build and Kuuga alongside the other Legend Riders. After being defeated, Heure is taken away by the other Time Jackers.
It is then that the other Zi-O arrives with the seven Dai Mazines. The main Zi-O offers to fight him by himself as transforms into Decade Armor W Form once again.
“Now then, tell me your sins.”
“You may sound a little more hard-boiled than last time, but I still have nothing to say to you!”
The main Zi-O dodges the Dai Mazines’ attacks and defeats his other counterpart with a Double Prism Xtreme powered by the W Final Attack Time Break. The other Zi-O admits his defeat and allows his main counterpart to destroy the Dai Mazines, which he does by transforming into Decade Armor Kuuga Form, based on Kuuga Ultimate Form, and performing an Ultimate Kick powered by the Kuuga Final Attack Time Break, engulfing the quarry in a huge explosion that destroys all seven Dai Mazines. The main Sougo reports his victory to his friends and they all celebrate while the other Sougo leaves for home.
Here's the reason why the nexus point plot was created. In the original Zi-O, the time travel plot was used less for Rider tribute episodes due to how it apparently disrespected the Legend Riders. As such, Another Riders would be created in 2019 and we would see the Legend Riders fighting alongside Zi-O and his allies.
The scattering of the Riders throughout time was done to match the initial setting of the plot in the original series, but since time travel plots were no longer used for Rider tribute plots from this point on, it makes sense for them to be brought into the present day, hence why the nexus point plot in this two-parter.
Sougo gave up his dream to become king briefly until he decided to take it back up, causing new opportunities to appear in the timeline. Join us next time as we meet Kensuke Nitta and explore the run-up to Ohma’s Day.
#kisekae insights#kamen rider#kamen rider zi-o#kamen rider decade#equestria girls#my little pony equestria girls
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Kisekae Insights #42: Kamen Rider Decade Part 2
The background of Hiroki’s character arc in Kamen Rider Decade is his relationship with Akari, what he did to achieve it, what he did to defend it, and what he did to take it back. Although Akari’s cousins and friends were Hiroki’s enemies previously, this series is the culmination of his reconciliation with them, because despite whatever may have happened between us in real life, I didn’t want our grudges to continue, at least in my mind.
This portion of this series (alongside Gokaiger) was notable for being interrupted by delays even though certain aspects were already planned up to 3 years prior to the premiere. At any rate, let’s continue with the New Worlds Arc of Decade, an arc that clearly reflected this due to how much I had to write for it.
Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger vs. Kamen Rider Decade Easter Teamup Special
In Gokaiger, there was a mini-arc featuring Kamen Rider Fifteen from episodes 7 to 9 (after the international adventure mini-arc). In Decade, this was accompanied by some prelude shorts which shows Fifteen obtaining and subsequently losing his power. These and the Easter Teamup Special form the prelude to the TV Movie Special. This special takes influences from the Super Hero Taisen movies and the teamup preludes that came before the final entries.
All across the land, Power Ranger teams are fighting the Kamen Riders. Eventually, as Decade and his allies confront the Gokaigers, Decade stops the fight after hearing the rumours being spread between both sides and suggests that they gather the other Rangers and Riders together to find out what is going on, a common point of criticism in the Taisen movies where their infighting enables the enemies plans that they don’t realise it until it is too late.
The main enemy of this special is Kamen Rider Wizard, aka Akari Ichigo from an alternate universe; Evil Akari if you will. Representing (Dai-)Shocker, Evil Akari was the one who spread rumours among the Rangers and Riders before teaming up with the Zangyack Armada, the Questers and Bangrey to attack the two groups and kidnap Hiroki. She also has three Dark Riders under her wing, namely Ryuga, Orga and Dark Kabuto. UNIT manages to trace Hiroki’s vortex manipulator and both the Gokaigers and Decade Riders go to rescue Hiroki before the Rangers and Riders team up to defeat Wizard.
Lessons taught: You can drive someone away if you don’t like them, but taking your anger out on someone else isn’t going to help./There is no point in having a dream if you are just going to trample over the dreams of others.
TV Movie Special: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker
Adapted from the All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker and Blade MISSING ACE movies.
Evil Akari as Wizard is not the only antagonist Rider foreshadowed in this movie. Older drafts for the movie involved an evil Gaim as the other main antagonist Rider, but he was demoted to general status as Kamen Rider Sorcerer took his place. This movie was also intended to be set in London, with the attached poster reflecting such.
And before you ask, yes, I am aware that we already have a Gaim in this series, plus Sunset Shimmer will be featured as Wizard in the second arc of the series. Four Riders set to debut in the remainder of the series make cameos in this movie; they are Fourze (Jee Gun), Wizard (Sunset Shimmer, who detransforms to reveal herself so as to not confuse her with Evil Akari), OOO (he was played by the same guy as evil Gaim in this movie due to remnants of old plans for the remainder of the series) and Ghost (whose identity isn’t revealed until the Age of Riders movies).
Decade and his friends end up in a parallel world where all Riders except one have been killed at the hands of Dai-Shocker; the remaining Rider is that world’s counterpart of Hiroki’s past incarnation - let’s call him Takeru Tenkuuji, aka Kamen Rider Blade. If the reference isn’t obvious to you now, you’ll get it later.
Evil Wizard and Sorcerer are assisted by their mentors, Solaniou Flumanteki aka Kamen Rider Wiseman, played by Peter Capaldi (and look, I made Sou Fueki’s name from Japanese into Greek) and Yūni Yamishima aka Kamen Rider Eternal, played by Tetsuya Iwanaga who is better known for playing our lord and saviour Kuroto Dan (and if you think Mitsuru Matsuoka, who played Katsumi Daidou, would have been a better fit then I refer you to the song HARD WORKER by SOPHIA).
The movie follows Takeru’s last stand against Dai-Shocker as he fights to take back a treasure that was stolen from him; that treasure was, in fact, Evil Akari, who never loved him back. Narutaki tries to get Hiroki to see the parallels between his and Takeru’s backstories despite Hiroki simple-mindedly believing that Takeru is doing this to save the world from Dai-Shocker.
Evil Akari was set to marry Sorcerer (as stated, Evil Gaim was in his place in older drafts), but Takeru crashes the wedding with a machine gun and shoots the place up. Hiroki, who was originally following Takeru, is brought to the scene by Sorcerer to see what he is defending. Then the people who Takeru shot dead get back up as they are revealed to be Necro-Overs. Takeru is also revealed to be a Joker Undead who maintained control over himself after sealing all 52 Undead; after being defeated by the Dai-Shocker Riders, Takeru uses all four Category King cards in the Rouse Absorber to fuse with all 52 Undead and become Jashin-14. After Jashin-14 is defeated by the Dai-Shocker Riders, they are then in turn defeated with the help of the Riders from Hiroki’s universe.
Decade’s Final Form Ride isn’t to a giant Decade Beltmorpher however; due to J not being adapted for my version of Decade (his Jumbo Formation playing a part in the original movie), Decade is gigantified into Complete Form Jumbo Formation as he destroys the Dai-Shocker base with the Final Dimension Kick.
Fun fact about the (Dai-)Shocker Combatmen from the original movie; they were shown performing Nazi salutes and hitting buildings as missiles. An old idea I had was to have them shouting “Allahu Akbar” as well as ISIS was the current thing when I was writing the movie. In the end, I ultimately abandoned those ideas as I thought that SJWs would find those elements problematic in current year, plus I thought it was better to focus on Girl Power anyway. Given how Nazi salutes have recently been declared illegal in Australia, I’d say I wasn’t far off.
Aside from Peter Capaldi and Tetsuya Iwanaga, there are a number of guest stars from Super Hero Time series of recent years. Also, Chonny, Dalena, Tom and Joe (datjoedoe) make appearances as the monsters who get defeated by Sunset Shimmer as Wizard. Fun fact: Chonny, Tom and Joe previously appeared in the Series 8 finale two-parter as Hiroki’s Hongmen flunkies.
Uniquely, this movie was going to be more like the Super Hero Taisen movies where the climax of the movie involves a giant villain being defeated by the Power Rangers in a Megazord. To be honest, in a Rider-centric movie like this one, having such a conclusion would be anti-climatic. If only Shinichirō Shirakura and Shōji Yonemura knew this…
The ending theme of this movie is The Next Decade, as with the original.
Lesson taught: Pursuing another bad guy doesn’t make you any less of a bad guy, no matter how you justify your actions.
Episode 10: Complete Evolution X
Adapted from Decade episodes 20 and 21.
The premise of this episode is just the TV Movie Special on a smaller scale. As we begin the New Worlds Arc of this series, Hiroki meets another version of his past incarnation as Kamen Rider Caucasus as he fights to reclaim Akari Ichigo alongside his allies Hercus and Ketaros.
This episode introduces a new class of enemy henchman known as Spermtroopers, easy to defeat yet easy to harvest. I would have created Eggtroopers as well and created a bunch of original monsters made by fusing the two, but that would take time (and money) I did not have.
The three Dark Riders from Gokaiger vs. Decade return as different Dark Riders, namely Dark Drive, Skull and OOO Putotyra Combo.
Foundation X is the new villain group of this arc, working to resurrect Dai-Shocker. Their generals are Patrick Han, aka Wiseman/Kamen Rider Jam (he previously appeared in Series 8); Saehiko Serizawa, aka the Unicorn Dopant; James Mackey, aka the Kyoryu Greeed; and Glemley Blue, aka the Ophiuchus Zodiarts (a Horoscopes-class Zodiarts based off the Perfect Gammaizer from Ghost).
This entire episode takes place in a dream world produced by a hologram projector (a plot point also utilised during Patrick’s previous appearance in Series 8). Charlie the Monkey returns to guide Hiroki (and his friends) out of the dream world while also granting him the K-Touch to allow him to transform into Complete Form.
Lesson learnt: “I am who I am, and no one can blame me for it!”
Episode 11: Friends of Passing-Through Kamen Riders
An original episode.
Hiroki, dressed like Shintaro Goto and riding a Ride Vendor motorcycle, rolls up at the doors of the Kougami Foundation to meet OOO and the other Kougami Riders as they fight Foundation X.
One of Akari’s friends is part of the Kougami Riders; during a talk with Hiroki, she makes him promise that Akari will be looked after as he has been “unnecessarily cruel” to her as a result of her betrayal towards the end of the Time War on Earth.
Hiroki and Kayley also meet with Melanie Yang, aka Kamen Rider Marika, and they bring full circle their meeting from the first episode by having her find Kayley’s past self and head to UNIT HQ, saying Hiroki’s catchphrase to her together. The episode ends with Melanie doing just as Hiroki and Kayley suggested.
Lesson learnt: Forgiveness breaks the cycle of cruelty.
Episode 12: Equestria Girls Gone Wild
Adapted from Decade episode 30.
Towards the end of Gokaiger and Decade, uni got busier and the premieres were quickly catching up with my writing. I was writing Gokaiger’s TV Movie Special up to a week before broadcast, hence why I ripped off several movies for it in the end. Episodes 10 and 11 were moved down a week, but despite this, I wasn’t able to buy enough time to finish off both series. In the end, I cancelled an intended Doctor Who special (to celebrate the 10th anniversary of its return for my version of the RTD era) and paired Gokaiger and Decade’s final episodes together to be broadcast in two-hour blocks on two separate days over a month after Episode 11’s premiere. Also, the reason why this episode is named the way it is is because I was starting to get horny for Equestria Girls on Derpibooru. That’s pretty much it.
Hiroki and his friends end up in the Rider War World, aka Minato-Sugaru Island. Hiroki sees Shugo and Blade’s groups fighting and is disgusted to the point that he just decides to leave, hence the rest of the adapted story has Narutaki in Hiroki’s place. The disappearing AR Worlds as a result of them merging into one is changed to the Riders disappearing due to their bases being transported close to a black hole paradox that formed in the area.
Meanwhile, Hiroki goes further into the island and meets Kamen Riders Fourze, Wizard, Beast and Meteor, representing various groups based on the pony types of My Little Pony; the Kamen Rider Club (Earth ponies), the Antique Shop Omokagedo (unicorns), the Pegasus Gentlemen’s Club (Pegasi) and the Minato-Sugaru Police Special Investigations Department (neither, though it could represent humanity at a stretch).
The climax of Decade’s plot has Hiroki and his newfound comrades on a stakeout outside the Pegasus Gentlemen’s Club, where Dasher Arekawa is having one of his “Friday Night Pegasus Parties” (inspiration link NSFW). It is revealed that Glemley Blue is using the Gentlemen’s Club as a Spermtrooper factory in a plot involving aphrodisiacs, hypnotic fields and psychic contraceptives. Flash Sentry, who was able to resist the hypnotic field, transforms into Beast and gets everyone out before the Riders fight and defeat the Ophiuchus Zodiarts, who summons the Gammaizers to fight alongside him and transforms into his Nova Form (resembling the Great Eyezer).
Over the past few episodes, Decade’s use of Complete Form causes him to forcibly detransform in a cloud of purple smoke due to the strain it puts on his body. In actuality, this was a result of his negative emotions amplifying to reawaken Evil Death’s power within him before Evil Death proceeds to possess him, becoming the “destroyer of worlds” he tried so hard to debunk. Hiroki’s transformation turns most of Minato-Sugaru Island to dust as he becomes Decade Violent Emotion for the first time.
Lesson learnt: Human or not, they (referring to Hiroki and his comrades) will defend the Earth with everything they have.
Episode 13: The Destroyer of Worlds
Adapted from Decade episodes 1, 31 and Movie War 2010.
The disappearing Riders plot continues from the previous episode as the black hole paradox’s pulling effect accelerates. Tommy Cooper in Kabuto Hyper Form replaces Blade King Form as he attacks Narutaki. Kayley does not get kidnapped like Natsumi was in the original, but Patrick does challenge Angela to battle, which she accepts despite it being a trap.
After Wiseman’s defeat, Firerose disappears with the remaining Riders. Old Major appears and takes what was Wataru Kurenai’s scene with Tsukasa in another world, saying that the complexity of Hiroki’s existence and timeline created the black hole paradox (this would later be partially disproven as this conclusion was purely made by the Riders’ speculations). It is here that all the main Riders are revived from the cards and turned into villains as they attack Gold Drive and Diend as Kamen Rider Ghost watches from afar. As the battle goes on, Decade Violent Emotion suddenly arrives, allowing both Narutaki and Kayley to retreat.
Lesson learnt (by Narutaki): Even if the whole world was an enemy, people will fight to protect those dear to them. “That’s what friends are for.”
As the adaptation shifts to Movie War 2010, we then skip to two days later as the pre-Ghost Heisei Riders fight Decade. Due to my decision not to adapt Showa elements into this series, Tackle’s involvement is cut. Narutaki is informed by Good Death that she is the only one who can defeat Decade due to Evil Death’s influence.
Meanwhile, Patrick has resurrected Dai-Shocker and intends to invade Earth while Decade defeats all the Riders so they don’t have to. As all the Heisei Riders are defeated, Narutaki finally confronts Hiroki and they fight, ending in a scene where they punch each other in the face ala Genm vs. Lazer. Evil Death manages to recomplete himself, but the power of good from Hiroki and Narutaki overwhelms and destroys him.
Kayley meets back up with Hiroki and Narutaki as they realise that Dai-Shocker is attacking, but thanks to them possessing the Kamen Ride cards of all the Riders they defeated, they can remember them, their comrades and their bases back into existence, reversing the damage the black hole paradox caused.
All the Riders are revived at their home bases, but they still need a way to get them to UNIT HQ, so they enlist the help of their new friends on Minato-Sugaru Island to repair his and Narutaki’s vortex manipulators and connect them to open Aurora Curtains. Hiroki also takes the chance to modify the K-Touch to reduce its energy output and alleviate the side effects caused by it.
The group meets back up with Firerose and they fight the Dai-Shocker forces together with the other Kamen Riders. Decade transforms into Strongest Complete Form has the Riders assume their Final Form Rides (or flying forms with the exception of Magica, Shugo and Double who stay on the ground) before having them all assume their respective Final Forms (or super forms for Secondary/other Riders) to defeat the remaining monsters.
When I first watched Decade I was confused as to why the Nine Riders would be fighting Decade, but later I’ve come to realise that this was Shinichirō Shirakura and Shōji Yonemura turning heroes into villains with no appropriate justification. My adaptation made the justification more ambiguous, first keeping the whole thing based around rumours spread by Narutaki (Evil Death by proxy) and Dai-Shocker before killing off the Riders and reviving them so as to justify their vilification of Decade as a kind of mind control, but Faiz and Kabuto in this are not shown to have been killed, so they’re still being assholes based on rumours. Just goes to show how Smart Brain and ZECT are villainous organisations whose Rider equipment was appropriated by heroes for good.
So anyway, UNIT gives Kayley and Firerose their own vortex manipulators as they prepare to go on their own journey with Hiroki and Narutaki.
Age of Riders Genesis: Decade and OOO
Adapted from Movie War Core and Super Movie War Genesis.
Although the titles of the Decade post-series movies highlight two Riders, there are other Riders highlighted in each movie. In this case, the other featured Riders are Shugo, Faiz, Kabuto and Drive. Kayley and Firerose are sidelined for this movie, but they are shown transformed towards the end. Akari Ichigo becomes the third Kamen Rider Duke temporarily before she takes up the role permanently in Soulbound Series 3.
An attempt to reconcile Hiroki with Akari’s cousins goes awry when the Gamma attack the area. Decade and OOO meet each other and team up to fight the Gamma before they are attacked by Kamen Rider Ghost. Later, Hiroki returns to UNIT HQ, where he is kidnapped by the Gamma and brought to where Ghost is. It is then that he learns that Kamen Rider Ghost’s identity is Takeru, his counterpart from the Dai-Shocker World; upon being defeated as Jashin-14, Takeru was able to resurrect himself through the Ghost Driver and Eyecons that he created as a backup plan; with these and his powers as the Joker Undead, Takeru was able to create an army of Gamma as well. Hiroki and Takeru transform and fight, but Narutaki and Akari arrive with OOO and his comrades. They end up fighting the Gammaizers and Hiroki manages to escape.
As Akari and her cousins come to terms with what happened over the past few years, Hiroki does the same, going to the other Riders for advice. Hiroki then goes to confront Akari, transforming into Decade Violent Emotion (he can do so if he focuses his power into his Rider Card) to fight Duke, before detransforming and breaking down over what he did to Akari. Akari forgives him and her cousins apologise for their actions as well. They head out for dinner to try reconciling again, but Ghost has the Renaissance Gamma combine into a giant Gamma to attack.
The group head to Sekigahara, where the giant Gamma appeared, but on the way, the Riders encounter the Gammaizers. Hiroki lets OOO continue on before he, Narutaki, Akari, Veronica (their cousin, aka Kamen Rider Gridon) and Michael (Kamen Rider Mach) transform together to defeat the Gammaizers before continuing on as well. At Sekigahara, OOO, Shugo, Faiz, Kabuto and Drive are fighting the giant Gamma in their strongest (final) forms. Takeru arrives as Hiroki and the others do, asking him why he still loves Akari when all she ever did was step on his heart and eat the remains; Hiroki tells Takeru that he could never understand what it feels like to have a second chance, let alone with someone, and that the Akari of his world never loved him - the only reason why Hiroki helped him back then was because Dai-Shocker was taking over the world.
Decade Strongest Complete Form defeats Ghost empowered by eight Damashii (7 luminaries + Ore). Takeru admits his defeat and Hiroki forgives him, causing them to be granted the power of Toucon Boost Damashii and the project-original Decade Ultimate Complete Form. The latter upgrades the K-Touch with a bigger screen (and more icons on the card) and gives a red form which superimposes Ghost’s Heisei Damashii armor onto the Decade Complete Form undersuit, replacing the Rider emblems (from Kuuga to Ghost including Ninja, Magica and Shugo) with holders for their respective cards and recolouring the magenta elements of the Complete Form helmet into red. For combining 18 (or rather 17 excluding himself) Rider powers into one, this was the strongest of Decade’s forms until Kamen Rider Zi-O. With the giant Gamma split back up by the five Riders in their final forms, Decade and Ghost are joined by OOO Tajadol Combo as they defeat the three Renaissance Gamma.
This movie marks the return of Takeru from All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker, now as Kamen Rider Ghost, who will be featured throughout the Age of Riders trilogy. Arguably, you can say that this movie should have been named after Decade and Ghost, but the movie titles typically refer to the main protagonist Riders. Plus, it also reflects my initial plans for the New Worlds Arc. Hiroki would have “handed over” Akari to OOO, having reflected on his past following All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker and realising that he was no longer worthy of her. The conclusion would involve Hiroki’s friends helping him get over his insecurity and reconcile with Akari.
The ending theme for this movie is Stay the Ride Alive, as used in Movie War 2010.
Lesson taught: As above during the final fight between Hiroki and Takeru.
Age of Riders Ultimax: Decade and Magica
The title of this movie is taken from Movie War Mega Max and Movie War Ultimatum. This movie was initially titled Ultima after an Eleventh/Twelfth Doctor Movie War fanfic I wrote back in 2015/16 (the sequel which I never completed), but I added a letter to the end of it to make it sound better. This movie is also a full crossover with Sea Princesses and gives context to Magica and Hibiki’s backstories. As such, the other featured Riders are Ryuki, Agito and Amazons.
In a parallel world, Yuki Yamaki and his fiancée, Saya Endō, had returned from a Torchwood mission some months prior to prevent the Beta Uprising by ensuring that Elliot Rodger did not survive the Day of Retribution. However, their comrade and the movie’s main antagonist, Alex Schmidt (played by comedian and former OnlyFans collaborator Alex “Shooter” Williamson) deserted them, going back and convincing Elliot not to kill himself. The incels, Chads and Stacies were spurred into fighting and over the years, the Beta Uprising ravaged the world with normies being scattered in the crossfire. Since Yuki Yamaki is a version of Hiroki (at a stretch, he was originally a version of Parker Zhou/Zhuge Liang), his existence was somehow motivating the incels to continue fighting even after the Internet was shut down. This led Alex Schmidt to collaborate with the Chads to kill Yuki and his comrades in both 2018 and 2028, bringing 2028 Yuki back to 2018 and “fixing him up” before pairing him with Hideko Kimihara.
At the same time, Marcela’s guardian, Hibiki (played by Yūki Kubota) sends her on a mission for Takeshi to defend Yuki from the Chads. As she arrives at the wedding venue, Yuki makes a contract with Kyubey and becomes a magical boy, his emotions and desires causing a dimensional hole to open and suck in Hiroki, his comrades and the Salacian Riders, who were about to sign a peace treaty between Dryland and Salacia; Takeru was also sucked in from wherever he was as well. Hiroki realises where he is and what is happening, at which point the past Marcela arrives and thwarts the wedding, allowing him to take the past Yuki, Marcela and Hideko with him as he escapes with his comrades.
HIroki, Kayley, Firerose and Angela elect to take one version of Yuki or Marcela and Takeru is tasked with guarding Hideko while the other Riders attempt to rally as many incels and normies to fight the Chads and Stacies. Despite their best efforts, the past Yuki and Marcela along with Hideko are captured.
The Riders gather to where the past Yuki and Marcela are captured and they begin charging the Chads and Stacies. During the battle, Ghost unlocks Mugen Damashii from his ten Heroic Eyecons while Magica, Hibiki, Ryuki and Knight fight in their final forms. As super-soldiers are created from Yuki and Hideko’s DNA, Yuki falls into despair and becomes the witch Legendorgarc (resembling Kamen Rider Arc’s Legend Arc form). Hiroki notices Yuki trying to fight back and convinces him not to give up, allowing him to cast away his witch form and transform into Kamen Rider Magica for the first time. Hiroki destroys the Progenitor creating the super-soldiers, but as he and his friends are about to leave, they are confronted by past Marcela, who has been brainwashed by the Stacies into fighting past Yuki, also explaining their initial in-series animosity. Past Yuki offers to stay and fight past Marcela while the others leave.
Following this, the Riders storm Torchwood to find a way to escape this world. Hiroki confronts Alex and learns that aside from Yuki and Hideko giving hope to the incels, the idea to marry them just came into his head from another universe as someone, a version of the two are shouting love from the rooftops and that is somehow ringing out into other universes, explaining why I’ve used that plot point numerous times over the years. On top of this, Alex has built a delta wave generator that targets neurodivergent individuals and blows their brains out, but Hiroki reveals that he wiped the calibration data and turned the delta wave to maximum, meaning that Alex would be killing every living thing on Earth if he pulled the lever. Hiroki also reveals that Alex created a paradox when he killed 2018 Yuki and brought 2028 Yuki back in time, but it hadn’t taken effect because he and his friends’ vortex manipulators were holding it back.
In the next ten minutes, Hiroki kills Alex and the Chads, destroys the delta wave generator and prepares a dimensional hole back to his own universe. Hiroki lets the paradox take effect while taking his friends and the past Yuki and Marcela back to his universe, destroying a world devastated by the Beta Uprising. The past Yuki and Marcela are taken a little further back in time and left to allow their timelines to play out. Marcela’s brainwashing would be broken
Later, the Dryland-Salacia peace treaty is signed, but upon leaving Salacia, Hiroki suddenly parts with his friends when a fleet of spaceships attack them…
The ending theme of this movie is FOREST OF ROCKS, as used in Movie War Ultimatum.
Lesson taught: Neurodivergent people have unique abilities that can benefit society and without them, the world wouldn’t be as it is today. Also, Alex and the Chads never thought about the people they had an effect on during the Beta Uprising.
Age of Riders Forever: Decade and Wizard
Calling back to what I said about the first movie, this movie was going to be titled Final and the Riders credited would be Decade and Ghost. Ultimately, I thought this title was boring, so I was inspired by the announcement of Heisei Generations Forever to name it the way it is. Also, the story didn’t focus on Ghost as much compared to the first movie, so it was changed to Wizard due to it putting more focus on the Equestria Girls. The other featured Riders are Gaim, Fourze, Double and Blade.
In Never Land, the supercomputer in the Winter Woods Library has gone into overload. The Flowertots attempt to contact Hiroki on the mainland, but they are unable to as it is under attack.
Hiroki goes to Minato-Sugaru Island alone and asks Twilight Sparkle for time travel. After finding no information about it on the blueprints of the vortex manipulator (since UNIT deleted it in case it fell in the wrong hands), they go to visit Sunset at Omokagedo, where she says that she created the Time Ring after studying Star Swirl’s time travel spells. They then head to the Kamen Rider Club’s base and barricades himself inside with Sci-Twi and Sunset as he modifies his vortex manipulator with the Time Ring and uses his own body to calibrate it. This sends him flying through the Time Vortex and into his past, meeting his past self in various occasions that are covered in Three Kingdoms Series 2 and 3.
Meanwhile, Hiroki’s friends arrive in Cuddlestown and ask Charlie the Monkey for help finding Hiroki. They deduce that Hiroki is headed for Minato-Sugaru Island and thanks to a friend of Bernard the Dog’s, they are able to hitch a ride on a freight ship to the island. A boy named Takuhiro shows up at BOARD headquarters asking for Hiroki when Marco Quesillo gets word of spaceships attacking the area. The Riders fight against helmeted soldiers from the spaceships, which are versions of Hiroki Ichigo from different realities that banded together to form this series’ counterpart to the Citadel of Ricks.
Everyone, including Hiroki is brought to the Citadel and Hiroki is brought before the Council, where he is tried for destroying a universe along with other crimes against time. The Council sentences Hiroki to be dispersed out of time and space, though they offer leniency if he does something for them; detonate a memory bomb near Hiroki and Akari in a time just before they met in the original history and erase the events in time where they met before that point, as those events were manipulated into happening by the Daleks (Hiroki also had something to do with it as well). Hiroki successfully does so, bringing full circle his pre-series debut as Decade near the end of Three Kingdoms Series 3. Although Hiroki escapes capture by the Council, the paradoxes caused by constant contact with his past self destroy his body as his vortex manipulator was focusing the damage on him to minimise the damage to the universe. At the same time, Hiroki’s friends are allowed to be released except for Takuhiro, who is revealed to be a ghost (not like Takeru, though).
Hiroki finds himself floating inside a vortex (it’s actually the Void), looking around at visions of himself in various universes, before being yanked out and brought into the supercomputer on Never Land, where the virtual Fifi Forget-me-not and the avatar of himself he left with her split him into a new timeline and resurrect him into a new body, which is like his old body but also part-fairy and part-Flowertot. The residents of Never Land bow down at the presence of their godly figure, Hiroki, and he leads them to rescue his friends from the Council by teleporting Never Land to the Citadel’s location. At this point in time, Grubby is now a butterfly and we see Hiroki riding him alongside Princess Buttercup on Flutterby as they fly through an oxygen corridor.
Returning to the Citadel, Hiroki slaughters the other versions of himself, including the Council, before finding the source universe where he and Hideko Kimihara are shouting love from the rooftops and killing those versions of them with his Violent Dimension Kick. After setting the Citadel to self-destruct, the Riders fight the Hirokis that survived its destruction along with a large group of monsters. Dasher Arekawa, Trixie and the Humane Six offer to fight as well and Sunset gives them the power to do so while Kayley uses a blue K-Touch she got from Charlie to transform into Diend Complete Form, combining the powers of the first seven Heisei Secondary Riders along with Mach to make eight (instead of seven evil movie Riders and Skull as in the original).
This movie also shows Jee Gun proposing to Sunset Shimmer. They would be in an open relationship when they next appear in Soulbound Series 3.
The ending theme of this movie is Life is Beautiful, as used in Ex-Aid True Ending.
Lesson taught: When the Citadel was formed, the other Hirokis have become less of themselves as they persecuted Hiroki, making him feel that it was a crime to be himself. No matter what, he will always defend the right to be himself and crush those who get in the way of it.
And so this is the end of Kamen Rider Decade, but unlike the Gokaigers and the Power Rangers, you will still be seeing Decade and the Kamen Riders for a while yet, starting from the next instalment when we begin covering Kamen Rider Zi-O. If you thought Decade was more of an ego-fest compared to what came before, then you haven’t seen anything like it.
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Kisekae Insights #41: Kamen Rider Decade Part 1
Kamen Rider Decade had a deeper story and nostalgic tributes compared to its sister work, Gokaiger. This is because Decade is meant to be a character development piece for its main character, Hiroki Ichigo. Contrary to my image of him, Hiroki was never the good boy I thought he was. He’s been disowned by his parents, he’s broken a billion billion hearts to save his own and he’s done some shady things to get to where he is today. Hence, his journey as Kamen Rider Decade is a journey for Hiroki to repent and learn lessons about his childhood sins while also teaching others along the way. His reward is gaining the cooperation of the Kamen Riders and unlocking their powers for his own use.
This series takes place in a smaller timeframe compared to Gokaiger (their adventures started in December/January while Decade’s adventures started in April), but its main premise involves Hiroki travelling back a month in time to gather the Kamen Riders and prevent the destruction of his city at the hands of an initially-unknown enemy. Be witness to Hiroki as he goes on a Journey through the Decade, beginning with the Nine Riders Arc.
“Just a passing-through Kamen Rider. And don’t you forget it!”
Episode 1: The Wildflower
Adapted from Decade episodes 1, 2 and 3.
During the events of Gokaiger, Hiroki was travelling with the Pony Doctor… even though he was missing for some time when Gokaiger happened. Out-of-sync timeline maybe? Inversely, the start of this episode takes place following the end of Gokaiger when the Power Rangers have scattered around to fight off remnants of the Zangyack Armada, because even after concentrating all their soldiers on Earth, pockets are still bound to remain somehow. This isn’t really made clear in the series.
The start of this series excises the Rider War dream from the start of episode 1, but hold onto that for later. Instead, we dive straight into the mysterious attack on the city as Melanie Yang and Kayley Karlington arrive in search of Hiroki. During the attack, dimensional walls (also known as Aurora Curtains) appear all over the city, bringing monsters with it. Hiroki meets with Melanie and Kayley and they head to UNIT HQ, where Hiroki is given the Decade Beltmorpher and Swiss Booker before he tests out his powers on some monsters, transforming into Drive, Ninja and Magica before his Kamen Ride cards turn grey. Hiroki is then given the Vortex Manipulator Mark 2, which has a randomiser function that automatically transports Hiroki to where each Rider is, then transform his attire depending on where he arrives in. After being given his mission to seek the Nine Kamen Riders and gain their powers, Hiroki is sent back a month in time alongside Kayley, who offers to travel with him.
In a tribute to Fifi and the Flowertots, the rest of the episode’s plot follows that of the original episodes with some modifications. Hiroki arrives in Never Land where he finds himself dressed as a defence-talent fairy (the equivalent of their police force there). The Gurongi, who manifested from human darkness brought to Never Land by babies’ first laughs, are targeting fairies (Fairy = 妖精 = ようせい = ジョグゲギ = jogugegi) in their sacred Gegeru based around Mt Meltlight to revive the “ultimate darkness”. Firerose, aka Kamen Rider Kuuga, encounters Hiroki as Decade and fights him, having heard from Narutaki that he was the “devil”.
Despite Hiroki stopping the sacred Gegeru, Narutaki’s summoning of the Hoppers causes N-Gamio-Zeda to be revived anyway, spreading darkness across Never Land that causes Gurongi to emerge from the dirt (instead of turning fairies into Gurongi). Firerose’s ally, Jolena, is attacked by a Gurongi and is brought to the Hospital Tree where she later dies. Being encouraged by Jolena to fight for everyone’s smiles, Firerose helps Hiroki fight and defeat N-Gamio-Zeda.
Lesson taught: Even if people seek strength through battle, there will be people who want to make others smile.
Episode 2: What?! The Guardians Return?
Adapted from Decade episodes 4 and 5.
Hiroki and Kayley leaves Never Land and arrives in Handan City, the home of Torchwood North for a tribute to Shugo Chara. Around the same time, Firerose is brought from Never Land to Handan as well by Hakushi using his TARDIS.
Hiroki finds himself wearing a lab coat with a Torchwood North ID card in his pocket. He heads to Torchwood North with Kayley and they meet with Zhuge Qiao, who asks for his help in reviving Torchwood North to its former glory. It is then that a man corrupted by an X-Egg appears, becoming a Fangire as a result. Hiroki transforms and fights the Fangire before Zhuge Qiao transforms into Shugo and fights him; she had heard from Narutaki that Decade was the “devil”, but she didn’t really know that Hiroki was Decade and it took both Firerose and the now-purified man to convince her that Hiroki isn’t a devil.
Going back to Torchwood North, Hiroki and Kayley help Zhuge Qiao and Tsukasa Amakawa bring the Guardians back from the Road of Stars, after they had sacrificed themselves to repel the Dalek fleet during their invasion of Earth years prior. However, Narutaki is cooperating with the Daleks to stop Torchwood North from reviving the Guardians, leading an army of Fangires and Imagin, the latter being humans who were given ruby necklaces by Narutaki. As Narutaki’s army approaches, Tsukasa is sent to fight them and buy time, transforming into Kamen Rider Duke using the Genesis Driver before he is defeated and Narutaki takes the Driver from him. Tsukasa would then fight as Kamen Rider IXA from that point on.
Although Hiroki and Firerose manage to hold off Narutaki’s army, the Daleks end up thwarting Zhuge Qiao’s plan, resulting in the four Riders working together to defeat Narutaki, her army and the Daleks. Shugo’s Final Form Ride is summoning the giant Guardian Sword to perform an attack akin to the team finishing attack from Gaoranger/Wild Force.
Following this, Firerose joins Hiroki and Kayley on their travels.
Lesson taught: Failure does not mean giving up – there will always be a solution, even if it is a compromise.
Episode 3: The Awakening
Adapted from Decade episodes 12 and 13.
Hiroki’s gang arrives in Swansea, Wales as Hiroki appears dressed as a Salacian prince. Fun fact - my description has it as “a mix of Marcello and the Shark King” which is practically just Veto and I wrote his wiki page before I started work on this series. This episode isn’t a tribute to Sea Princesses (yet, though it is a pseudo-tribute), but to My Bride is a Mermaid. The featured Salacian Riders are the four Amazons Riders, Juli, Jessi, Agostinha and Squid Girl. We also meet Lilimuro, a Flowertot who left Never Land and ended up helping Zhuge Shu and his family.
I’ve written about much of this and the next episode’s plot in #13 so I won’t bore you with all the details. I brought Another Agito since its suit was remade for Gorider, which begs the question why they didn’t remake the suit for regular Gills as well if both suits were water damaged.
Lesson learnt: While humans are misled by power because they are foolish, it is only so that they can achieve success. Humans may stray from their path, but they still continue on their journeys, even if it is a mistake.
Episode 4: Driven to Destruction
Adapted from Decade episodes 8 and 9.
Hiroki arrives in Chipping Cheddar and finds himself dressed in tights and a leotard in a tribute to Angelina Ballerina. I’d say “I’m not kidding” here, but that would be sexist given that male ballerinas are a thing.
A portion of the Animal Army, an original villain group among the monsters appearing in the first episode, is led by Garfield as Kamen Rider Psyga and Arlene as the Smilodon Dopant. Mirroring the scenes from the original episode, Caramelo makes an appearance as Todoroki, but his identity isn’t revealed as he was just a summon by Narutaki.
At the end of the episode, a Roidmude takes on Lilimuro’s form, foreshadowing the conclusion of the series’ first arc. We also get a cameo from Terry and Saki Mizukoshi along with Jon, Liz, Odie and Nermal from the Garfield franchise. Narutaki breaks into Charlie the Monkey’s laboratory and takes a Genesis Driver along with the EFTPOS Gunmorpher.
Lesson taught: Old enemies will be old enemies. If they want to clear a mutual obstacle in front of them, they need to show compassion and work together to eliminate it.
Episode 5: Animal Farm
Adapted from Decade episodes 10 and 11.
This tribute to Bananas in Pyjamas is named after the George Orwell novel of the same name. Hiroki is dressed in pyjamas and fedora for this one.
Hiroki and gang arrive in Cuddlestown where he learns from Rat in a Hat that animals have been acting strange for some time. As a bunch of chickens combine into two Megatori monsters outside, they are defeated by B1 and B2 as Kamen Rider Double. Other animal monsters also appear but they are defeated by the Teddies as Gaim, Baron and Ryugen.
Following the battle, the group meets with Charlie in his lab, where we learn that he and other UNIT scientists created the Double Driver and Genesis Driver by reverse-engineering the Lost Driver and Sengoku Driver(s) that came from a dimensional hole two years prior. It is then that Old Major, aka Kamen Rider Faiz, is spotted outside Rat’s shop; Rat goes to fight him as Zangetsu but is defeated by Faiz Axel Form. Narutaki uses her EFTPOS Gunmorpher to activate Faiz’s Final Form Ride and defeat Decade and the other Riders.
A group of mercenaries led by Noel Swarovski capture Hiroki and Old Major, hoping to gain the backstory of the latter. The mercenaries are unable to extract that information from Old Major, but Hiroki manages to do so, learning that the Animal Army was founded with assistance from an activist group known as Food Chain Breakers (FCB), who gave animals human sentience so they could rebel against them. At the same time, Charlie also reveals that he created the Decade Riders’ equipment, with the Diend Gunmorpher and EFTPOS Gunmorpher being created as backup equipment for the purpose of stopping Decade should he go rogue. Kayley is given the Diend Gunmorpher for fear that it would fall in the wrong hands, making her the first female Secondary Rider on a currently-running series before Toei would do so in Kamen Rider Gotchard with Majade. (There are also a number of female Primary Riders in my personal project, but they are not the main protagonists and it’s unlikely that Toei will ever do so for their flagship Kamen Rider series.)
The FCB and the Animal Army attacks the mercenaries’ lair at full force, leading the Bananas and Teddies to head to the scene alongside Kayley, who makes her debut as Kamen Rider Diend. The FCB leader, Grant Walliday, makes his appearance as the series-original Edge Dopant (with swords for hands) and is defeated by Decade and Double with the latter’s Final Form Ride. Narutaki arrives with Rat, ordering him to transform into Zangetsu Shin and kill the Riders before she brings Diend to another dimension to fight Kamen Rider Ryuga. Decade and his allies win and Hiroki’s gang goes off to their next destination.
Lesson taught: If people want to be vegetarian (or vegan) to show their compassion for animals, then it is their own decision, but they should not force others into making that decision for them.
Episode 6: Lights of the East
Adapted from Decade episodes 16 and 17.
The group arrives in Tokyo and they meet the Hurricanegers, Hiroki finding himself dressed in a noragi similar to that of Souji Tendou in Kabuto. Recognising Hiroki as Decade, the Hurricanegers take him in for safety and they go to a café owned by Grandma Cooper and her granddaughter Beth, which serves clam chowder (replacing oden from the original episode). Grandma Cooper’s grandson is Tommy Cooper, aka Kamen Rider Kabuto and the leader of the New Tongmenghui. The Faiz Riders are also featured in this episode, starting a mini-arc where the featured Riders of an episode reappear in the next episode.
Meanwhile, Narutaki colludes with ZECT, Smart Brain, the FCB, the mercenaries from the previous episode and the New Tongmenghui for her triple-layered plan to commit genocide; convert humans into Orphnoch using Rassmussen’s video from Sleep No More, then cause a global nuclear disaster to kill all humans and Orphnoch while also killing the 20 million Zygons living on Earth or mutating them into Worms. Some of Angela’s co-conspirators rebel as a result of this and Hiroki works with them and the Hurricanegers to defeat her and thwart her plans.
Hiroki’s encounter with HurricaneRed, Hikaru Azuma, causes him to become ashamed of himself due to his autism and as a result, being reminded of Hideko Kimihara, someone he would rather forget due to how people used to ship the two of them together (in forced-marriage plots) and because he loves Akari and not Hideko. Hiroki learns from Hikaru and his friends that being autistic isn’t something to be ashamed of and that many people learn to accept and embrace it. This plot point is a result of this episode being a tribute to the manga With the Light.
Lorah, Hugo and Tata, the featured Salacian Riders, are working with ZECT in this episode, but at the end of the episode, they are knocked out by Narutaki and copied by Roidmudes.
Lesson learnt: Autism isn’t something to be ashamed of. Anyone can have the potential to be remarkable and we should learn to accept ourselves for who we are.
Episode 7: Displaced Spirits
A largely original episode with minimal adaptation.
As with before, I’ve covered this and the next episode in #13 so I won’t repeat myself again here. Yuki Yamaki is the featured Rider in this episode as this is a tribute (of sorts) to Naisho no Tsubomi, a manga anthology centred around different girls named Tsubomi as they learn about puberty and other things. It is also a pseudo-tribute to Torchwood, Madoka Magica, GARO and Sea Princesses, with the featured Salacian Riders being the Oni Riders led by Marli and Maurico along with Kamen Rider Hibiki aka Marcela, the lost Hammerhead Shark Princess. Tubarina also makes an appearance as Kamen Rider Ouja but she merely serves as an informant for Narutaki.
Kabuto and Gatack make an appearance with the New Tongmenghui and they are the Riders who get taught a lesson in this episode. They return to Grandma Cooper’s café at the end of the episode. Hiroki is dressed similar to Captain Jack Harkness, who makes a cameo at the end to compliment his outfit.
After the main battle of the episode, Narutaki confronts Hiroki about the Hybrid and alludes to him being it as she notes that he has never been entirely human all his life and that he has been slowly losing his humanity for a number of years now. Hiroki asks Narutaki what she has become and she replies with his usual catchphrase.
Lesson taught: Children need to learn the difference between right and wrong from their parents. Freedom has its limits.
Episode 8: The Searching Boy
Adapted from Decade episodes 7 and 8. Also a sequel to the Sea Princesses episode The Boy.
Finally, the actual tribute episode to Sea Princesses. Narutaki makes her debut as Kamen Rider Gold Drive in this episode and would alternate between the two power sets until Soulbound Series 3. The Octonauts also make an appearance following Doctor Who Series 8 in 2014.
Hiroki is dressed as Squid Girl as some Core Driviar technology is given to him in the form of Shift Cars and Signal Bikes. This episode is the first of a two-parter plot involving Narutaki triggering the Global Freeze to conclude the Nine Riders Arc. The Goddess Salacia makes her debut as Kamen Rider Saga and is also revealed to have been copied by a Roidmude. Kayley is the one who teaches the Shark King a lesson in place of Hiroki, even going so far as to use his catchphrase.
Although Decade, Ryuki and their allies manage to stop Narutaki’s plan, she reveals that this was merely a test for the true Global Freeze when she double-crosses the Shark King. Regardless, this marks the start of a new peace between Drylanders and Salacians as Polvina reunites with Daniel Camielez (aka Kamen Rider Ryuki, the Drylander boy from the titular episode) and Marcello reunites with Marcela.
Lesson taught (by Kayley): You cannot rely on yourself to fight for or protect something.
Episode 9: Who is the real Kamen Rider of Silverhatch Racetrack?
Adapted from Drive episodes 44, 45, 46 and 47.
Hiroki arrives at Silverhatch Racetrack and finds himself dressed as Toramata Suzuki (鈴木虎亦), modelled on real-life commentator Toshihiro Suzuki (鈴木敏弘) from that one video of his hilarious race commentary. He is hired as a replacement commentator after Big Chris decided to take family leave (this was around the time when Peter Kay had cancelled all work projects for family reasons; I wasn’t sure what to do with Big Chris so all he got was a cameo in the final episode of Gokaiger), with Violet joining the team as their replacement mechanic.
Hiroki commentates a race as Flash crashes it towards the end in Tridoron. Narutaki sends forth some Roidmudes and Flash transforms into Kamen Rider Drive to fight them in a staged battle before Mr Carburettor fights him as Mashin Chaser. After Drive escapes, PC Pete informs everyone that Tridoron and Drive’s equipment were stolen from Shinnosuke Tomari. Hiroki and Mr Carburettor go with PC Pete to investigate and they find Akari’s brother, who transforms into Kamen Rider Mach and fights Decade. Later, Shinnosuke plays a video that Krim Steinbelt made for Hiroki and the others, allowing them to learn of Narutaki’s collusion with Tenjūrō Banno to trigger the Global Freeze.
You will recall that certain characters were copied by Roidmudes in previous episodes. Firerose’s friend, Lilimuro, was copied by Roidmude 006, whose evolved form is the Blazer Roidmude (I don’t remember the inspiration for it so I think it was original). Lorah was copied by Roidmude 088, whose evolved form is the Aqua Roidmude (resembling Kamen Rider Aqua) and the Goddess Salacia was copied by Roidmude 055, whose evolved form is the Ocean Roidmude (resembling Kamen Rider Poseidon). Hugo and Tata were copied by Roidmudes 039 and 093; though they do not have evolved forms, they can transform into Drake and Sasword just like their templates. Blazer, Aqua, Ocean and Gold Drive are the four Super Evolved Roidmudes used to power up the Sigma Circular. Heart tries to stop her but he is destroyed by Drive Type Formula.
Narutaki begins digitising humanity as she unleashes all the Roidmudes on Hiroki and the others; the Ryuki Riders arrive to assist as well, being spared from the effects of the Global Freeze thanks to them modifying Time Vent using technology Narutaki left in Salacia. Firerose finds his determination to continue travelling and protecting the smiles of everyone around the world, allowing him to unlock Kuuga Ultimate Form (the Rising Forms were not featured due to time constraints). Narutaki is defeated as she is sent flying; Hiroki takes her back to Silverhatch and leaves her there before he leaves with his friends. To be honest, if I’d known that Banno’s destruction scene at the hands of Gou would be such a meme (in China), I would’ve adapted it for a bit of tension between Hiroki and Narutaki.
Having completed his mission, the randomiser unlocks and Hiroki is allowed to return, but he decides to take the long way around as he still has some time left and there are also other Riders who are not part of the original Kamen Rider Project that he can meet.
Lesson learnt (by Firerose): There is just as much evil on Earth as there is on other worlds (including Never Land) and people need to work together to overcome it.
This ends the Nine Riders Arc; we continue in the next instalment with the TV Movie Specials, the New Worlds Arc and the Age of Riders movies. Although plans have changed during the development years, the stories are still epic.
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Kisekae Insights #40: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger Part 2
And we’re back with Gokaiger, covering the TV Movie Special, the final four episodes and the Space Squad trilogy. You’ll know about the fate of our villains and the rise of new villains that will bridge us to the end of our Doctor Who.
Having the equivalent of 28 half-hour episodes made it impossible to implement everything from Gokaiger when this series combined elements from three other Super Sentai series and featured a number of post-Gokaiger Gokai Changes. As I’ve said before, I could have given myself more episodes to adapt more episodes from the original series, but then again, this reduced episode count has allowed me to cut through the fluff even if it ended up becoming the concentrated cash grab it is with every episode featuring a new Zord or power.
TV Movie Special: Disciples of the Black Cross
Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 10 and 33, the 199 Heroes movie and the summer movies for Gokaiger and Boukenger.
This movie introduces the three Ancient Ranger teams, namely the Gorengers, JAKQ and Dairangers, voiced by the casts of ABC shows Shaun Micallef’s MAD AS HELL and The Checkout along with Sammy J and Randy. The Black Cross King portion of the 199 Heroes movie is adapted for this movie.
This movie is also the only time where the Megazords for Ranger teams who do not have Megazords are shown. It’s explained that UNIT were building Megazords for each of the teams thanks to funding from the United Nations, but their blueprints for the new Megazords were lost following the conclusion of the fight with the Black Cross Fortress.
The ending theme of this movie is Super Sentai Hero Getter 2016, following its use in episodes 8 and 9 as a special ending theme.
Episode 10: Homunculus Fall
Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 35, 36, 37 and 38 and Boukenger episodes 40, 41 and 42.
Emperor Mavro and his men make their debut in this episode in preparation for the series’ endgame. This episode features the culmination of the Questers’ plans from their gathering of the components for the Ultimate Quester from Damaras, Fifteen and Bangrey. It also shows the creation of the Turbo Falcon Zord from the data of the racecars at Silverhatch Racetrack.
After the Gokaigers fail to fight the Ultimate Quester with the Legendary Q-Rex Megazord, they head into a pocket dimension to tame the Turbo Falcon Zord when it goes on a rampage due to each of the racecars’ consciousnesses fighting each other for domination. In the end, Roary comes out as the dominant mind before the Gokaigers destroy the Ultimate Quester in the Legendary Turbo Megazord before using the Go-Ongers’ powers to defeat the Questers for good.
Episode 11: The Megabeast Hunter Strikes Back
Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 37, 38, 42, 43, 48 (the last three are only really adapted symbolically) and Zyuohger episodes 34 and 35.
Unable to capture either Cube Whale or the Ultimate Quester, Bangrey decides to set his sights on the Turbo Falcon Zord instead.
During the plot to deceive Bangrey with a fake Turbo Falcon Megazord, it is revealed that Bangrey could summon the fake Gokaigers without needing to scan anyone’s minds because after scanning the Doctor’s memory five times, he has a backup of his memories and can summon anything from them anytime he wants. When the other Gokaigers are seemingly killed, it’s revealed that they survived by using the Ninningers’ Megazord Powers to hide in the ground. The Ultimate Legendary Megazord is formed and Bangrey is defeated.
Episode 12: Shining Friendship Galaxy
Adapted from Gokaiger episode 41.
The Gokaigers are called to Equestria to help them find Doctor Whooves, the Pony Doctor and Storm Dasher, who have gone missing. Spike makes his debut as Ultraman Victory before Storm Dasher makes his debut as Ultraman Ginga. Dasher is also revealed to have become an alicorn during his absence from Equestria.
Zatsurig is also revealed to be the host of Dark Lugiel, revealing himself after Zatsurig’s defeat at the hands of the Ultimate Legendary Megazord. Dasher sends some Spark Dolls and Ginga Light Sparks to the Gokaigers, allowing them to transform into Ultramen (based on Ultraman Orb’s Fusion Up components) to defeat Dark Lugiel’s summoned monsters, Tyrant, Five King and Magata no Orochi. Ginga and Victory defeat Dark Lugiel with the help of the Mane Six using the Elements of Harmony alongside Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Starlight Glimmer.
At the end of the episode, Storm Dasher is crowned Prince Storm Dasher, Protector of Equestria. Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor are saved as well just as UNIT HQ makes contact with the Gokaigers, asking them for immediate assistance…
Episode 13: Defenders of the Earth
Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 1, 49, 50 and 51, the 199 Heroes Movie and Power Rangers episodes Countdown to Destruction (Part Two) and The Legendary Battle: Extended Edition.
While the Gokaigers were in Equestria, Prince Vekar and his generals invaded Earth enmasse. The other Rangers defeat Prince Vekar and his generals before sacrificing their powers to eliminate his fleet. However, this was just a feint as Emperor Mavro orders the second fleet to advance, forcing the Rangers to retreat.
As the Gokaigers rush back to Earth, the other Rangers’ powers go into the Ranger Keys before they form the Zaferian Tregenie Uniwish (from the name Zaferia Stones, if you know you know). The story follows the Sentai more than its Power Rangers counterpart did as aside from featuring all the past Rangers, there are also appearances from former companions Yuki Chesterland and Ian Wright alongside Nayu, Yuzuru and Kanade from earlier episodes. When Redker arrives to begin the slaughter of humanity (yeah, we’re not sugarcoating references to death here, this isn’t just for kids), these former companions and the Ranger Key thief from the first episode lead the resistance against humanity with their “I am a Power Ranger!” proclamations adapted from Countdown to Destruction.
Bangrey’s ship, which was modified by UNIT using parts from fallen Zangyack Armada ships, is used by the Doctor and Kai as they ram into the Gigant Horse to fight Emperor Mavro. During the final fight, I decided to break the rules due to the amount of teams featured, meaning that certain Ranger teams are represented more than once. One of the non-Silver Rangers also morphs into a Sixth Ranger during the fight, but who cares, I was already striving to be better than what Super Megaforce was.
After Emperor Mavro was defeated, I adapted the final battle scene of The Legendary Battle featuring all the Rangers, having had their powers returned to them, fighting the remaining Zangyack troops alongside the Gokaigers. The “Hello, old friend!” scene with Cyber Knight is done with GokaiSilver in a slight to Super Megaforce. Then, the ending of the episode goes back to Gokaiger again.
Space Squad Part 1: Sheriffs of the Shadow Proclamation
The first post-series movie for Gokaiger features the formation of the Space Squad, a group established by the Shadow Proclamation featuring the Gokaigers, Ultramen Ginga, Victory and X, and Space Sheriffs Gavan, Sharivan and Shaider. Other Ranger teams featured in the movie are the Zyurangers, Kakurangers, Ohrangers, Hurricangers, Dekarangers and Ninningers.
As the Rangers are fighting off Zangyack Armada remnants, the existence of the intergalactic criminal conglomerate Fūmakūdō (made up from the names of the Space Sheriffs’ villain groups) is brought to their attention, hoping to take over the vacuum created by Zangyack’s defeat and continue where they left of. The Space Squad are split up into three groups to fight Zangyack remnants on Tivoli (whose inhabitants didn’t want them to leave), San Helios (which has been recolonised after it was devoured by alien stingrays) and Raxacoricofallapatorius.
The Space Squad are then called back to Earth after Ashurada activates the Axis Converter and opens a portal to the Makū Dimension. Inside the Makū Dimension, Kai reunites with Gavan’s predecessor, who once saved him from a burning building when he was a child and brings their meeting full circle by freeing him.
The ending theme for this movie is JUMP by Tsuyoshi Matsubara and Akira Kushida from the Gokaiger vs. Gavan movie.
Space Squad Part 2: Ultramen of Friendship and Magic
The focus shifts to the Ultramen for the second movie as Equestria and the Space Squad are alerted to Dark Lugiel’s return. The Space Squad are split into five groups and sent to investigate pools of darkness in different places of Equestria alongside Storm Dasher, Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor. The pools of darkness turn into Dark Lugiel copies which when defeated, become various monsters and footsoldiers. After those monsters and footsoldiers are defeated, Dark Lugiel is revived and Ginga separates from Dasher to transport himself and Lugiel into a pocket dimension to buy the heroes some time.
Meanwhile on Earth, the Gekirangers, Go-Ongers, Shinkengers, Goseigers and Zyuohgers have been suspended due to them defending their homes against criminals (this is in reference to the apparent crime wave in Melbourne that had been happening since 2016 that Dictator Dan and the left kept denying, leaving devastated victims in their wake). UNIT initially allows the Zyuohgers to be released when a Dark Lugiel copy appears on Earth before the government grants them permission to release the rest of the Girl Power Rangers. They never meet the Space Squad in this movie.
When Stygian apparently turned to darkness and became the Pony of Shadows, he actually became a servant of Dark Lugiel. Just as the Mane Six used the Elements of Harmony to save Stygian from the darkness, they could use it to seal Dark Lugiel into his Dark Spark. Once the heroes are ready, Ginga and Lugiel are brought back from the pocket dimension when the three Ultramen transform, with the Young Six, Doctor Whooves and the Pony Doctor also being granted the means to transform into the Heisei Ultramen.
Lugiel is seemingly defeated by the Ultramen, but his body isn’t complete yet, which leads him to head to Earth in an effort to reabsorb the remaining portion of darkness into himself. The eight Ultramen give their power to Ginga’s Strium Brace, upgrading it into the Ultra Fusion Brace which allows Ginga and Victory to combine into Ginga Victory. With the help of the Mane Six and the Pillars of Equestria, Dark Lugiel is defeated and sealed into the Dark Spark before being thrown into limbo by Dasher.
The ending theme of this movie is Unite 〜君とつながるために〜, the ending theme from Ultraman X.
Space Squad Part 3: The Penance of the Doctor
The Magirangers, Boukengers, Go-Busters, Kyoryugers and ToQgers gather at UNIT HQ as the head of UNIT Central Control, Rastillo Masuron, arrives to inform the UNIT commanders that UNIT Central Control have voted to decommission the Superhero Project and disband the Space Squad, citing budget limitations and ordinary citizens being involved in military operations without their consent. The TARDIS has also been stolen from the hangar on Rastillo’s orders; he materialises it in the Makū Dimension and integrates the Axis Converter into it, causing the TARDIS console to explode and portals to appear on many planets.
As the rest of the Space Squad and the Rangers are sucked into the Makū Dimension to fight Fūmakūdō forces in multiple locations, Rastillo confronts the Doctor on Trenzalore and reveals himself to be Rassilon, the former Lord President of Gallifrey who was banished in Hell Bent. The Doctor is forced to watch as his TARDIS grows bigger and bigger, eventually becoming the tombstone seen in The Name of the Doctor. The rest is explained in #14.
When the Doctor returns from the heart of the TARDIS, Rassilon transforms into Basco’s monster form for the final battle, killing him and destroying his body. In the aftermath, the Doctor hands his Mobirates and Ranger Key to Kai, making him the leader of the Gokaigers, before leaving in the TARDIS. The rest of the Gokaigers decide to go their own ways as well, making a pact to reunite if more monsters come to attack the Earth.
The ending theme for this movie is 運命のしずく〜Destiny's star〜 from the 2010 Ultraman Zero movie.
Post-series: Doctor Who Series 12
With Kai taking on the mantle of GokaiRed, the Gokaigers assist the other heroes in fighting off the Monks in their country for six months. Later at Christmas, the Doctor returns following his regeneration and Kai asks him to fight as GokaiRed again as they work together with the Space Squad and the Kamen Riders to fight the High Council.
Later in Soulbound, the Gokaigers become the only active Ranger team due to budget cuts at UNIT, but they are reinstated briefly for Series 4 following the pandemic. At the end of the series, the Superhero Project disbands again and so do the Gokaigers, though they promise to be there for each other.
With my declining interest in Super Sentai post-Zyuohger, it has led to me putting more and more focus on Kamen Rider over the years. Next time, let’s begin turning the focus over as I begin with my version of Kamen Rider Decade.
#kisekae insights#super sentai#power rangers#doctor who#kaizoku sentai gokaiger#power rangers super megaforce
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Kisekae Insights #39: Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger Part 1
As I stated in #35, I didn’t work on Gokaiger for as much time as I did Decade, so the series was basically straight-up adaptations of episodes for the most part. You can clearly tell how my passion for Super Sentai died down post-Zyuohger lmao. But seriously, despite this, my bar was to be better than Power Rangers Super Megaforce and practically anyone can manage that in fanfiction.
Let’s start off with the first nine episodes of Gokaiger, covering the introductions of new Zords and powers as we pay tribute to the icons and figures of my childhood. And if you think the Doctor doesn’t carry or use weapons and therefore shouldn’t be a Ranger, let alone GokaiRed, then allow me to provide you with this counterpoint:
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Once again, the preludes are covered in #26. Sorry for taking so long to post this, a lot of things got in the way.
Prequel: Dawn of the Space Pirates
Adapted from Gokaiger episode 1, Decade episodes 18, 19 and the 199 Heroes movie. Broadcast as the Doctor Who 2017 Christmas Special.
The Zangyack Armada approaches Earth and the Doctor gathers the Gokaigers together to defeat Action Commander Shibakanen while the other Rangers defeat the rest of their landing force. Meanwhile, Hiroki Ichigo is transformed into Gyūki by the demon Suira, who transforms into the demonic ogre Dokkaebi and fights the other Rangers alongside Patrick Han, who transforms into the legendary Chinese New Year monster Nian.
Dokkaebi uses a trumpet to steal the Rangers’ powers before releasing them as physical forms, leading the Gokaigers to work with the Goseigers to fight them and return the powers to their owners. Dokkaebi takes in Nian and Gyūki’s powers to become the Krlunk Smasher, which grows giant and is defeated by the Gokaigers in the Legendary Megazord.
Episode 1: A New Adventure
Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 2, 17, 18, 21 and Boukenger episode 31.
The series opener is a triple-act featuring the Boukengers in a tribute to K-On. In the first act, the Doctor confronts a boy who steals one of his Ranger Keys after his grandfather died in the Time War (at the Battle of Shizugatake). The boy is challenged by the Doctor to try fighting the Zangyack Armada, but when he fails, the Doctor tells him to find a different way to protect Earth. While the Gokaigers fight Action Commander Bongan, the Boukengers face off against the Questers, Mig and Benglo, and their robot, the Blazing Quester.
The Gokaigers’ main task in the first episode is to find a suitable candidate to be their sixth Ranger, GokaiSilver. Near the end of the first act, the Doctor loses the Gokai Cellular and GokaiSilver Ranger Key during the fight with Bongan. Unbeknownst to them, they were picked up by Kai, who abandons his current role as BoukenSilver to fight as GokaiSilver in secret. Eventually, both teams discover Kai’s secret as he defeats the Action Commander of the second act, Almadon.
In the third act, Kai is tasked to prove that he is worthy to be GokaiSilver and he ends up confronting Action Commander Osogain alone before the Gokaigers join him, officially making Kai a Gokaiger. After Osogain is defeated, the Questers resurface with a replica of the Atlantis Temple. Though the Q-Rex is defeated, the Boukengers defeat the replica using the Boukengers’ Megazord Powers. The episode ends with Kai in the GokaiGalleon waving goodbye to his birth family.
Episode 2: The Magic of Justice
Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 3 and 5.
While the Gokaigers are tasked with gaining the cooperation with the other Ranger teams, Kai’s task is to gain the cooperation of the Sixth Rangers. Due to footage reasons, there were some plots where I needed to write out Kai, or rather relegate him to the B plot so as to not make him feel neglected. As such, Kai was separated from the others following their first confrontation with Action Commander Salamandam. Takumi Kamijō, aka MagiBlue, takes the place of Kai Ozu (MagiRed) while Marco and Alice take on the roles of the other’s original counterparts. Kai Ozu’s testing of the Gokaigers is replaced with Takumi expositing about what happened to Homura Akemi after 2013, which you can read in #18. Takumi then allows the Gokaigers to use the Magirangers’ Megazord Power, the MagiDragon, because the real test isn’t with them.
Elsewhere, Kai Hirasawa is tested by Kyōsuke Kamijō to fight Homura as Wolzard; GokaiSilver manages to defeat her initially but when it escalates to a Megazord fight, Wolzard gains the upper hand and defeats GokaiSilver. As the other Gokaigers defeat Salamandam, Kai is brought to UNIT HQ where he is tested by the Dekarangers’ Sixth Ranger, having him undergo harsh training. By undergoing the training without question or complaint, forcing himself to keep going despite the strain, Kai’s efforts allow the Gokaigers to gain the Dekarangers’ Megazord Power, the Delta Runner Zord (PAT-Striker). The Gokaigers, Dekarangers and Magirangers then work together to defeat Homura and her various Madoka Magica minions.
In the original Gokaiger episode 5, the four Gokaigers (save Red) are shown fighting footsoldiers as the Go-Ongers and Dairangers. With the equivalent fight necessitating the production of original footage, I took the chance to substitute the Dairangers for the Kyoryugers in that fight as remember, I hadn’t made the decision to implement them yet. This is just one example of how I improved upon Super Megaforce.
Episode 3: Ninjas with Attitude
The first part of a two-parter. Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 25 and 26 and Ninninger episodes 3 and 7.
This is the start of a mini-arc featuring the Gokaigers travelling internationally to visit other Ranger teams, starting off by heading to Elwood City in the US to meet the Ninningers, Kakurangers, Zyurangers and Gouraigers. The characters of Arthur are depicted as being ten years older, meaning that Arthur and his peers are college freshmen. Their character designs would be based on those created by KeysComics on DeviantArt.
General Ripcon, formerly Gabi Raizo of the Kibaoni Army, is the main villain of the two-parter, but his subordinates, Shimazu and Vexacus, are the MOTWs of the first part. Due to the aforementioned reasons regarding Hurricaneger, the crossover is not adapted with the exception of the Megazord fight between the Q-Rex Megazord and Vexacus. The other main highlight of the episode is the Gokaigers facing off against the Rangers of Elwood City in a tribute to Arthur.
There’s a bit of an allusion to the Morphin Grid in this episode. When GokaiGreen, Pink and Silver try to morph into the Gouraigers and Shurikenger, it fails and they are forced back into their base forms. It is revealed that the power emulation of the Gokai Changes don’t work if the Ranger they are morphing into is already morphed within a 2km radius. Later on, the power emulation turns into actually borrowing the Ranger’s power due to something that would happen in the finale.
In the episode, Kai makes a snide comment that the Zyurangers are weaker than the ninja Sentai because their suits and weapons are more simplistic. Since their fight was delayed by the Zangyack Armada’s attack, Kai’s opponents, Mr Ratburn (DragonRanger) and Bud Compson (KibaRanger) team up with the Tibble twins (Gouraigers) and Cameron Watanabe (Shurikenger) to teach him a lesson. GokaiSilver is defeated and he apologises to Mr Ratburn for his remark.
Episode 4: Elwood City Party Night
The second part of a two-parter. Adapted from Gokaiger episode 46 (45 was a clipshow) and Ninninger episodes 11, 12 and 43.
While the Ninningers granted their Megazord Power to the Gokaigers, the Kakurangers decided to have Cameron (who takes over Ninjaman’s role in the adaptation) test them first to see how the Gokaigers perform. Angelina, Alice and Kai take on Cameron’s training before they are attacked by Action Commander Juju. As in the original episode, Alice and Kai are affected by Juju’s arrows and the Doctor’s investigation leads him, Marco and Yui to a cave. It is then that Ripcon comes back to challenge GokaiRed, leaving the other two to confront Juju in a minor reshoot to the Sentai footage. Ripcon manages to defeat GokaiRed, but he manages to make it back to his team as they fight Juju as the Kakurangers with GokaiSilver and Shurikenger dealing with the Bruisers. The Doctor collapses and Juju is enlarged, but he is defeated by the arrival of StarNinger (who had saved the Doctor earlier) on the Bison Megazord (BisonKing).
In the second part of the episode, the Doctor is incapacitated while the Gokaigers sans Kai confront Ripcon, who is attacking the city. Despite his injuries, the Doctor joins the others and they morph into the Ninningers, Red fighting Ripcon while the others deal with the minions. Ripcon is defeated, but he is enlarged against his will, leading to Cameron granting the Gokaigers the use of Fūraimaru to defeat him with the Legendary Ninja Megazord.
Episode 5: The Megabeast Hunter
Adapted from Gokaiger episode 31 and Zyuohger episodes 23, 24 and 25.
We begin a new storyline adapted from Zyuohger with the introduction of Megabeast Hunter Bangrey. The Gokaigers head to the island of Sodor to meet the ToQgers and Ohrangers in a tribute to Thomas the Tank Engine.
As with the original, Bangrey can summon anyone by scanning their memories, though they are mostly (human) enemies from past years. In this episode, Bangrey summons Shibakanen to fight the Gokaigers before later summoning the Doctor’s very first companion, Susie Leon (or Susan Foreman) from his memories before killing him in front of the Doctor. We then get an adaptation of the Ohranger tribute as GokaiSilver fights two giant enemies in the Q-Rex Megazord while the other Gokaigers fight enemies on the ground.
Episode 6: Lion of the Samurai
Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 9, 11 and 12.
In an homage to Power Rangers being produced in New Zealand (at least at the time), this episode features the Gokaigers heading to Auckland to visit UNIT NZ, headed by Richard Yang. Former companions Yuzuru Otonashi and Kanade Tachibana also make an appearance here (in a tribute to Angel Beats) along with some others.
This episode closely adapts the Gaoranger and Shinkenger tributes, but references to Gaoranger are replaced by references to Go-Busters. As a result, the Red Lion Zord is made to be a prototype of Tategami LiOh. The Valiant II also makes its debut as a rebuild of the original being used as a hangar for Megazord development, this time disguised as a floating island much like the Animarium.
Episode 7: Friends Forever
Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 29 and 32 and Zyuohger episodes 17, 18, 19 and 26.
The Questers are joined by Bangrey and the tertiary villain of the series, Kamen Rider Fifteen.
This episode also serves as a tribute to Lucky Star, who are the Kyoryugers in this series. As such, the Kyoryugers’ secondary Megazord Power, the ability to combine into the Legendary Q-Rex Megazord, makes its debut in its episode. The Megazord’s finisher name from the Sentai, Gokai Rex Drill, is renamed to the Legendary Q-Rex Brave Finish.
Zyuoh TheWorld and its Megazord, Tousai Zyuoh, are first featured as tools of the Questers made from stolen UNIT technology. UNIT creates the GokaiGalleon Buster and grants it to the Gokaigers towards the end of the episode, with its first victim being Zyuoh TheWorld, who is freed from the Questers’ control as a result.
Episode 8: Silver and Gold
Adapted from Gokaiger episodes 19 and 40, the 199 Heroes movie and Zyuohger episodes 37 and 38. Former companion Nayu Hayama (among others) makes an appearance in this episode.
The Gokaigers (save Kai, who was tasked with bringing Zyuoh TheWorld back to UNIT HQ at the end of the last episode) decide to take a trip in the TARDIS, but due to the TARDIS not liking its occupants carrying weapons, the Doctor makes an emergency landing in May 2011, where they make their pre-series debut cameo as shown in Three Kingdoms Series 3 before quickly leaving. The Gokaigers are next shown fighting the Goseigers before the former team disappears.
Meanwhile, Kai, who is the main focus for this episode, is introduced to Cyber Knight, a “Cyberman” made by UNIT to be the Goseigers’ Sixth Ranger. Cyber Knight is able to form the Gosei Ground Megazord with the Knight Brothers Zords. As Kai and Zyuoh TheWorld are sent to deal with an attack, they encounter the Questers’ backup tool, ZyuohBird. Kai is suggested to combine the fifteen Sixth Ranger Keys into the Gold Anchor Key, allowing GokaiSilver to assume Gold Mode and defeat ZyuohBird with the Gokai Legendary Finale.
Episode 9: The Champion of Champions
Adapted from Zyuohger episodes 28 and 29, practically the main reason why I wanted to adapt Gokaiger (with post-Gokaiger Gokai Changes) in the main place.
The episode follows the Sentai episodes closely, though the past Sentai villains in the final fight are replaced by various Doctor Who monsters summoned from the Doctor’s memories by Bangrey, namely the white Supreme Dalek (from the New Dalek Paradigm), a post-Cyber War Cyberman (from Nightmare in Silver), a Sontaran, a Silurian, a Sea Devil, a Judoon and a Zygon. The same fight also features the participation of ZyuohBird.
It is revealed that the Gokaigers’ antagonism towards the Goseigers and Zyuohgers was the work of Kamen Rider Fifteen, who had managed to hypnotise the Gokaigers into believing that they had to destroy the two teams to prevent the destruction of the world. Following a brief fight, a giant Fifteen replaces Gokdos Gill in the ensuing Megazord fight. Fifteen’s powers are destroyed upon his defeat, forcing him to return to his own universe.
The closing credits of this episode and the last one also used Super Sentai Hero Getter 2016 in place of the usual closing theme. In spite of most of the teams not being adapted for this series, the song serves as a speedrun primer to Super Sentai, particularly for those who are unfamiliar with the franchise.
Next time, we’ll cover the last portion of Gokaiger along with the movies.
#kisekae insights#super sentai#power rangers#doctor who#kaizoku sentai gokaiger#power rangers super megaforce
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