megalate megalong MEGAMAX megapost
And now "mega" has lost its meaning for me, ack.
I know there are other write-ups of MEGAMAX out there already so this is probably unnecessary, but I finally finished mine and since I went through all that I thought I'd put it up anyway.
Since it took so effing long for me to finish though, some parts of it are probably inaccurate :\;;; Especially toward the end oh geez.
In addition to being extremely late, this post is, as usual, very long and very spoilery, so take care!!
Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie Taisen MEGAMAX
Disclaimer as usual: some parts of this may be in the wrong order or just plain wrong; things have most definitely been forgotten but I hope I left all the important parts in. Many apologies if I have! Also my "translations" of some of the dialogue is obviously paraphrased and exaggerated, so please don't take it too seriously.
also sorry for all the flailing during OOO's part. I... I just have a lot of feelings.
Unlike the other two Rider crossover movies we've gotten, MEGAMAX was split into not just three chapters, but FIVE: The beginning plot, OOO's side, W's side, Fourze's side, and the ending MEGAMAX chapter with all our heroes. We will naturally start from... the start!
Chapter 1: The Beginning
The movie opens in the final frontier of space! ...with a bunch of meteors/asteroids hurdling through it towards the Earth. The asteroids hurl past the moon and the Rabbit Hutch - inside, the members of the Kamen Rider Club pause their wacky high school shenanigans to wonder at the roaring noise and the shaking. The space rocks enter the atmosphere and crash into various places on the Earth. We see the asteroids falling in places like idk where, and past a young man dressed in horribly bright colors with a towel on his head carrying underwear on a stick - he turns and it’s Eiji, obviously! The Legendary Seven Riders appear out of nowhere to investigate the crater sites and defeat the monsters - Masquerade Dopants, Kuzu Yummy, and Dustards - that appear around them; they’re in places like Country A in East Europe and Some Place in China and Your Mother’s House, no joke (well that last one was a joke. Obviously).
At one of the sites in Japan, two men clad in the familiar white Foundation X uniforms are examining a substance found on one of the meteors, and put it into a capsule for transportation. Kamen Rider Stronger shows up on the scene, telling them to Halt! and all that, but they manage to escape in a helicopter. Elsewhere, four members of Foundation X meet, three of them revealing to the other woman that they plan to use the power of the alien substance (called SOLU or... soul), Medals, and Switches together to perfect their research and be all-powerful etc. The woman (apparently their boss) tells the leader of the other three, Lem Kannagi, to move forward with the plan.
Chapter 2: OOO
One of the meteors has landed in a bay or something in Tokyo, Japan, and from it arises a dark void thing. Some researchers from the Kougami Foundation are camping out doing research on it, when suddenly something comes out from the void, materializing on the dock with a spray of light. The guards by the researchers raise their guns as Kamen Rider Poseidon reveals himself. They open fire as Poseidon begins to advance, but their bullets have little effect, and Poseidon trashes the place like it’s nothing. He unhenshins into a young man with funny hair and all, snorts at everyone, and moves on to look for someone else to destroy - until a familiar voice yells out “SUBARASHII!!!!”
It’s Kougami, naturally! Hanging out as he usually does in colorful suits on everyone’s TV. He greets Poseidon from an upset TV monitor that’s still working somehow, congratulating him on a “HAPPY BAAATHDAY!!!” Kougami isn’t sure what to call this new person, though, but the man introduces himself as a Kamen Rider.
Cut to Kougami’s office, where Gotou’s just been summoned. He needs a haircut but he’s in a suit and that is never a bad thing! There are sheets of data and charts about Medals all over Kougami’s office, and he explains to Gotou that he’s been trying to develop his own Medals. He reveals that Poseidon is a Rider from 40 years into the future whose main desire is to fight. He’s currently in this time period looking for Kamen Riders to defeat. There’s a shot of the young man on the roof of a building somewhere, breaking a Medal in two and tossing it to the ground to make Kuzu Yummy - so Uva isn’t the only one who does this.
Meanwhile Satonaka and Hina are driving around the city, discussing the issue. Satonaka explains further that Poseidon is currently going berserk with his will to violence, and that it’s bad and all. Hina mentions that Eiji has been doing research of his own on the Medals, though he’s been focusing on bringing Ankh back rather than creating new Medals. She says that she and her brother have offered to do whatever they can, but...
Satonaka abruptly stops the car as they notice a mob of Kuzu Yummy approaching. Satonaka tells Hina to stay in the car (because a convertible mini cooper will keep you safe) while she grabs her Birth Buster and a canister of Cell Medals from the back seat and starts capping Yummies everywhere. Their sheer numbers are too much for even her, however, and the Kuzu Yummies soon start to overtake the girls. Satonaka gets a lot of action scenes in this movie, by the way. THEY ARE ALL FANTASTIC. Hina gets dragged from the car; though she manages to defend herself a little with her brute strength, she’s not trained like Satonaka so she is soon knocked to the ground, hurt. Satonaka, held up by her own Yummies, can do little but watch as the Yummies advance on Hina, who’s still on the ground.
Someone comes to Hina’s rescue, however, shoving the Yummies out of the way before they can get to her. Hina looks around, and whoa it’s Eiji! Eiji gives her a look before he goes about disposing of the Kuzu Yummies, but it’s a different sort of look than usual - very serious and kind of cold and lacking in Eiji’s usual friendly and optimistic demeanor. Hina exclaims “Eiji!” in joy, but there’s little time for chat as the Yummies continue being a nuisance. Both Satonaka and Eiji get back to kicking Yummies around, until Poseidon appears from nowhere.
“Are you Kamen Rider OOO?” Poseidon asks, and Eiji only has time to raise a brow cynically before Poseidon slashes at him and hits him with a blast that knocks him flat and several feet away. Eiji falls to the ground and doesn’t move; Hina quickly rushes to his side, trying to rouse him again, but it seems he’s down for good. Satonaka remembers what she was doing and aims her Birth Buster toward Poseidon, but just like the bullets from before, the Cell Medals don’t seem to have much of an effect.
That’s when Date - clean Date! - shows up with his Medal tank. Satonaka hands him the Proto Birth Driver and a Medal to transform with, and then we get Proto Birth on the scene! Proto Birth tussles with Poseidon, but doesn’t seem to be having much luck and kind of gets his stuffing served to him. Gotou turns up then on a Ridevendor and bike henshins into Birth; he jumps off the bike and lets it run into Poseidon (except Poseidon destroys it before it can hit him). Proto Birth is delighted to have his young friend back, and two Births jump into action, double-teaming Poseidon. Unfortunately for them, Poseidon is so strong that he does them in with ease, first taking out Proto Birth and completely destroying his Driver. Birth moves to cover the unhenshined Date, using Breast Cannon against Poseidon, but Poseidon deflects the shot and hits Birth with one of his own, knocking him back into civilian form. Poseidon snorts at how easy they were to beat, but as he’s gloating, something suddenly stabs him in the back.
It’s Eiji! Or Ankh! It’s Eiji with Ankh’s arm! Wait, what? Everyone is confused as Eiji fishes around inside Poseidon with Ankh’s arm attached to him, searching for Medals. Eiji makes a comment about how Poseidon has all the Medals that were caught in the Maki-generated void at the end of the TV series inside of him. Eiji, who had sounded like his normal self until then, begins to get more of Ankh’s voice, until it’s basically just Eiji’s body doing the talking with Ankh’s voice coming out. Ankh!Eiji yanks the Medals for Tatoba out of Poseidon and leaps away, landing on a nearby scaffold and lounging about in true Ankh fashion, with one leg propped up and all that. Ignoring everyone’s shock and surprise that he’s even there, he yells out “Eiji! Use these Medals!” and tosses the Medals down.
JUST LIKE OLD TIMES
The Medals go flying, and Eiji!Eiji [?] reveals himself from behind a tree or something to catch them in one hand, his underwear on a stick in the other. Eiji sets the stick down like a flag and gets to Henshin-ing, and yayyyyyy we finally get OOO Tatoba!
The fight shows off OOO’s Medal-changing abilities, with Ankh!Eiji throwing Medals at OOO pretty much every other second, and Poseidon’s actually beat for a bit because he’s either so taken off guard or really confused by OOO’s constant Medal changing. By the way, OOO goes through at least Tatoba, Gataradol, and Gatagorita in this fight (fuck random OOO combo names) before turning back into Tatoba. Poseidon’s regained himself by the time OOO gets back to Tatoba again, and they fight for a bit - at one point in the struggle, though, Poseidon pauses awkwardly as the two are neck in neck, and puts a hand on OOO’s shoulder. OOO is confused, but then Poseidon is attacking again and there’s no time to think about it.
They break away from each other, Poseidon apparently giving up for now, and he untransforms into the young man from before. He quickly takes off, though, jumping off into the distance, and Ankh!Eiji comes down from the scaffold, off-put that the guy got away. As he’s mumbling to himself about the guy getting away with the Medals and stuff, OOO comes up to him and kind of awkwardly taps him on the shoulder.
OOO: Could you stop using that form? Seeing myself like that, it’s kind of gross...
Ankh: Tch, I’m the one who’s grossed out.
OOO: (!! Hey...)
Ankh is just as snarky as ever, bless him ♥ Ankh goes back into the form he takes when possessing Shingo, looking over his shoulder with a smug look like he knows how much the fans everyone has missed him. Hina, who can’t believe it, runs to him, staring at him for a long time before hugging him (surprisingly, she doesn’t break him). OOO goes back to being Eiji, and he smiles on the two because awww yeah best set-up ever. OOOT3 IS BACK TOGETHERRRRR
Later, the three of them rendezvous at Cous Coussier, naturally; Chiyoko prepares a huge plate full of ice candies for Ankh, who takes them without thanks (though he’s totally pleased at having them, you can tell). The restaurant’s theme this time is apparently Heian princesses or something, or in any case Hina and Chiyoko get to dress up in really pretty costumes.
Hina asks how Eiji managed to get Ankh back, but Eiji doesn’t give a very good explanation - he was just as surprised as Hina, really. Flashback to when Eiji was arriving back in Japan at the airport or in a subway somewhere - as Eiji walks through a crowded hall (with his underwear on a stick still, sigh), he suddenly notices a familiar face. It’s Ankh! And there’s no real explanation as to why he is suddenly there. As Eiji explain this to Hina, he passes his hand over his pocket as if feeling for something, then gives Ankh a puzzled look.
Eiji then goes on to talk about Poseidon and how he thinks something’s off about him. He references the odd pause in Poseidon’s attacking, when he put his hand on OOO’s shoulder, and says that he thinks Poseidon doesn’t really want to fight after all. The guy is apparently going berserk, after all. Eiji suggests that maybe if they force him out of his henshin, in the same way that Ankh and Hina stopped him when Putotyra first showed up, they might be able to help him.
Somewhere around here Eiji also suddenly remembers - he forgot his underwear back at wherever they were fighting!! He’s obviously devastated, but Ankh is just like “who cares” and Eiji responds with a tart, “I DO” because he needs that underwear, it’s Underwear for Tomorrow!! Ankh says Eiji is an idiot like always, to which Eiji makes a smart comeback somewhere along the lines of “Yeah, well, you’re a jerk like always!!” More effectively, he steals Ankh’s ice candies and confiscates them, saying Ankh will eat too many. Ankh gets PISSED naturally and they start hissing and spitting at each other until Hina seizes them both by the ear and yells at them to stop fighting, it’s been so long since they’ve seen each other! Regular ooot3 antics aaaa ♥
Meanwhile, Satonaka is updating Gotou and Date on the situation at the hospital. Both Birth users are bed-ridden because of the damages they took. The funny thing is that Gotou is all dressed up in the hospital pajamas and stuff and Date is just kinda hanging out without a shirt because Date gonna Date. Not that anyone minds. Satonaka explains that they won’t be able to use Birth for a while because, yeah, Proto Birth is basically gone now I guess, and they’ve both taken so much damage. Date tells Gotou that he ought to hurry up and sleep since that’s the only thing they can do at the moment - and promptly crashes himself. Oh Date-san you are silly even without your beard.
Back at Cous Coussier, everyone’s more or less getting along (Ankh gets ice cream again!), when suddenly Ankh looks toward the door, alarmed. Before anyone can ask, the doors burst open, Kuzu Yummies swarming in. Since there are regular customers in the shop as well, everyone starts freaking out, and Eiji and Ankh jump to beat the Yummies down. Hina’s kind of worried that the shop is being devastated, but Chiyoko tells her not to worry about it because this is more important. And then she punches a Yummy in the face like a boss (err, which she is, I guess). Hina and Chiyoko evacuate the customers as Eiji and Ankh fight the Yummies. There is a LOT of fighting here actually, and Ankh actually does it! Yay Ankh actually fighting for once. Eiji does a lot of impressive stunt work here too, so go him.
Apparently Cous Coussier is right next to a convenient quarry because as soon as Eiji and Ankh manage to beat their way outside, they’re in a quarry and face-to-face with Poseidon. Poseidon challenges OOO, but Eiji refuses to henshin, saying that he wants to help Poseidon, because he’s just going berserk, right? It’s just like the times when he was going crazy with Putotyra and Ankh and Hina stopped him by reversing his transformation, Eiji says. Ankh calls him stupid because he’s going to get his head chopped off, but Eiji moves forward anyway, intent on trying to calm Poseidon down. Eiji wants to reach out to Poseidon, but Poseidon isn’t letting him near him, and sends a blast at Eiji as he tries to approach. Ankh rushes in to save Eiji’s butt, but they both get caught in the explosion, causing that one scene from the trailers where they go flying while stuff explodes behind them.
Exploding stuff mmmm Kamen Rider
Ankh is all like “YOU’RE AN IDIOT” but Eiji gets up and tries again, because he’s more determined than ever to save Poseidon. He starts running toward Poseidon, who keeps throwing blasts at him that blow up all around him and stuff goes flying. He finally catches Eiji in one of them, sending Eiji flying into the hair, spinning and whirling. Eiji lands painfully on his head and oh god I cringe every time and how is his neck not broken and then he doesn’t get up again because yes he SHOULD BE IN PAIN. Poseidon advances on him, raises his spear, and brings it down on Eiji.
Ankh cringes, everyone cringes, Eiji cringes - but he’s not dead! The spearhead is buried in the ground by Eiji’s side, having narrowly missed him and only grazing his arm. Eiji looks up at Poseidon, surprised, and Poseidon has some internal errors, before finally yelling at himself like a crazy person and reverting back to the young man. Except this time he is not evil!
Later, Eiji, Ankh, Hina, and the young man (who they find out is named Miharu Minato) rendezvous in an abandoned warehouse somewhere. Hina finishes patching up Eiji’s arm as Ankh is being his usual pissy self, and Miharu is sulking in a corner. Miharu obviously feels terrible about something or other, so they ask about it, and Miharu begins explaining his backstory. He’s from 40 years into the future, where these monsters have started appearing and terrorizing people. He was given the power to henshin into a hero to fight people using the power of water.
“So you’re a Kamen Rider, then, aren’t you?” Hina asks, because yeah, he should be one, right? But Miharu shakes his head and says that he couldn’t do it. He’s not very good with water. Eiji and Hina look down awkwardly because they don’t know what to say to that, but Ankh finds it HILARIOUS and laughs openly at Miharu because lol fail Rider~
Eiji and Hina throw things at Ankh.
Miharu goes on, explaining that he was frustrated with his own weakness and wanted to fight and all, when suddenly this old dude who said he was from the Kougami Foundation suddenly came up to him and gave him a driver and three Medals to use and HAPPY BIRTHDAY and all that. “Even in the future... Kougami-san is like that...” Eiji muses with a slight grimace. Miharu continues: even with his new powers as Poseidon, though, he was still too weak to defeat the monsters and save people. That was when the void opened up and he got all those Medals that were absorbed when Eiji and Ankh defeated Dr. Maki-Greeed; and from that, he started going berserk.
So basically Miharu blames everything on himself - if only he’d been stronger, none of this would have happened...! “Yeah, pretty much,” Ankh agrees kindly. Eiji rolls his eyes and puts a towel over Ankh’s head. Hina attempts to pick up an old oil tank or something to hurl at Ankh (but Eiji stops her: “AHHH HINA-CHAN WAIT!”). They decide to retire for the night, anyway, because it’s getting late, I guess.
In the middle of the night, though, as everyone else is sleeping, Miharu is creeping around. He approaches Ankh, clearly intent on something, but Ankh catches him: “If it’s Medals you’re after, don’t even think about it” (or something like that). Eiji jumps out of nowhere and grabs Miharu from behind, restraining him, and says that they were waiting for him, because oh look Poseidon is possessing Miharu again. Hina runs over with the OOO Driver and puts it on Eiji; Ankh turns into his arm form and shoves the Sagohzo Medals into the Driver. Hina helps Eiji henshin by scanning the Medals and all in all it’s really great because my ooot3 you can’t stop meeee
With Sagohzo holding onto Miharu, Ankh stabs into him, trying to get the Poseidon Medals I suppose. But somehow (I can’t exactly remember how, sorry), Poseidon actually manages to escape Miharu altogether, pulling away and forming its own body made of his Core Medals and Cell Medals. He grabs Miharu and holds him hostage as he yells angrily at Team OOO, before shoving Miharu at them (he’s not needed) and taking off.
Later Miharu is feeling like crap again, but Team OOO needs to move out to beat Poseidon again. The only thing stopping Eiji from going right this second is his lack of undies. Sigh. Ankh is like “what is wrong with you” but Hina proves herself to be the best girlfriend ever and gives Eiji an entire bag full of underwear! Eiji is totally thrilled and is like “YES WE CAN GO NOW” but as they’re heading off, Miharu is like “how can you do that?!” because he’s hopeless, the poor thing. So Eiji goes back and hands him some colorful underwear (Miharu is just kind of “???” about the whole thing) and tells him with that Underwear for Tomorrow, there’s hope and all. Miharu doesn’t get it; he doesn’t need any underwear - but Eiji explains: it’s not the Underwear that’s important, it’s the “for Tomorrow” part that matters. Because it’s Underwear for Tomorrow, that means there will be a tomorrow, something to protect and to look forward to. Because tomorrow will come, you have to look forward to it.
...In other words Eiji just spits out a whole bunch of cheese and Miharu totally buys it. Team OOO heads off then to face Poseidon.
Eiji and Ankh find Poseidon hanging out somewhere by the water, examining the void from which he came, I think. As they approach, Poseidon spawns some Kuzu Yummy for them to deal with; as they fight their way through the useless crowd, Eiji calls out to Ankh, saying he never did get a chance to ask how Ankh got back. Ankh just tells him that he doesn’t need to worry about it still and that they have to fight. Eiji agrees - though it may be their last fight together, he adds. As they finish off the Kuzu Yummies, Ankh tosses Eiji the Tatoba Medals, and Eiji does a dramatic slow-walk henshin.
OOO faces off against Poseidon for a bit, OOO switching into Shauta to battle him in the water, and then suddenly Gotou and Date show up on water bikes to help. By help they must actually mean do fancy tricks on water bikes, because I’m not sure if they actually contribute to the fight, but whatever. They eventually get knocked down by Poseidon, but another bike comes roaring (and spraying water everywhere) into play - it’s Miharu! Who has magically gotten over his fear of water! Miharu henshins into Aqua; the way his belt spins while he does it looks a lot like Kamen Rider 1’s, except blue, so nice homage there. He uses more fancy water bike tricks to battle Poseidon (this time it actually does things though) and eventually knocks him back onto land, where OOO can deal with him.
Aqua and OOO fight Poseidon together, eventually using their finishers on him. OOO uses the Tajadol Combo (yes yes yes yes yes) here and it’s all beautiful as usual; Aqua attacks him with this sliding kick thing and Tajadol Scanning Charges down from the sky, and they effectively take Poseidon out of the picture as he explodes in a shower of Medals and funtimes.
Miharu does a victory lap around on his water bike, using the underwear he got from Eiji as a sort of flag thing (WHY THOUGH), and then he jumps back into the void, saying he’ll definitely protect everyone’s Tomorrow in the future and all that. Eiji and Hina bid him farewell, with Ankh standing some ways behind them. As they look on at the closing void, Eiji suddenly says “Ankh, you...”
Hina looks over her shoulder at Ankh, only to find that he’s now disappeared. Alarmed, she cries, “Eiji! Ankh’s gone!” but Eiji knows already. He says that he’s sure Ankh came from that void, just like Miharu - which means that Ankh came from somewhere in the future. Pulling Ankh’s broken Core Medal from his pocket, he tells Hina that he had thought it was odd that Ankh had suddenly returned when his Medal was still like this, so it must be that he came back when the void opened. But that means that they manage to bring Ankh back in the future, somehow. So they’ll keep moving towards that tomorrow, some day, so that they can meet him again. Aww yay.
Suddenly, though, they’re being attacked; Eiji shields Hina from a blast behind him and they’re both knocked to the ground. Medals spill out (I guess Eiji gets to keep them now) and roll out everywhere, including Poseidon’s Cores. As Eiji and Hina get to their feet again, they see the three members of Foundation X led by Kannagi walking towards them. Kannagi stoops and picks up Poseidon’s Medals, claiming them for himself - Medals from the future! They leave in their van thing without taking anything else, and Eiji and Hina look on in confusion, not knowing what’s going on.
Chapter 3: W
Meanwhile somewhere in Fuuto, Shotaro is biking around being his usual half-boiled self when suddenly he’s cut off by this big truck and nearly loses his head. Apparently an angry driver, Shotaro speeds up to meet the truck by its driver window and yells at them, “WTF ARE YOU DOING MAN CAN’T YOU DRIVE” but he is all shock and surprise when he realizes that Foundation X people are in the truck!
Anyway he stops the truck eventually and is trying to investigate when monsters come out; Shotaro hops off his bike and pulls out the W Driver, saying “Phillip, let’s go.” Phillips is busy, however: “Shotaro, I’m in the middle of a look-up...” and totally blows Shotaro off, but Shotaro is hard-boiled like that (cough) so he doesn’t mind - he pulls out the Lost Driver instead and henshins into Kamen Rider Joker to fight.
At one point in the tussle, Joker manages to knock the capsule with the mysterious SOLU substance away, and it hits the ground somewhere and pops open. The SOLU goes down a drain in the street (ewwww the water) before the Foundation X members can get it back, but they get the capsule back and escape anyway. Joker is disappointed that they got away, but there’s little he can do about it.
Meanwihle, the 7 Legendary Riders have discovered Foundation X’s secret base, and infiltrate as Kannagi rants about his secret plans to use Medals, Switches, Memories to create the ultimate being. They burst in, prepared to stop his shenanigans, when Kannagi pulls a fast one on them and activates a switch that traps them in some kind of attack that effectively drains them of their powers. Oh no!
But then, without seeing what becomes of the Riders, we quickly move on to...
Chapter 4: Fourze
It’s school festival time at Amanogawa High School, and the Kamen Rider Club is in the middle of preparations for their Kamen Rider PSA panel. Gentaro is futzing around somewhere making preparations, and as he runs out of the building to find the rest of the club, he’s stopped by a not-so-mysterious fortune teller. The fortune teller predicts his future with a snap of his suspenders, and tells Gentaro that ~romance~ is in his future. BUT! This will only come true if he can set up his teacher Ohsugi with a certain Ms. Sonoda -- Gentaro flips Ohsugi’s fortune-telling table and tells him he’s gotta run.
Gentaro joins the rest of the Kamen Rider Club for their panel. They’re all dressed (badly) as the 7 Legendary Riders, each one as the Rider their character pays homage to through Toei’s horrible puns (though I admit I do enjoy the pun on Miu/V3’s name). Miu is making some fantastic speech about the Riders and how great they are, and no one is really paying attention despite the fact that QUEEN MIU IS PRESENT. They take a roll call, everyone posing and saying their Rider names, until they realize that JK’s missing, that jerk!
Miu is vehement and they all go off to find JK, who’s lounging about in a classroom, still dressed as Kamen Rider X. When Miu demands an explanation as to why wasn’t out there embarrassing himself with the rest of them, he answers that he doesn’t want to embarrass himself, and it’s not like anyone in the school would pay attention or care anyway. Everyone hurts him.
As they’re busy punishing JK, they suddenly hear cries from outside in the school yard. They rush outside and see this cute girl falling from the sky; everyone’s pointing and screaming and doing nothing about it, until Gentaro runs up because KANOJOU KITAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
That’s kind of fast, Gentaro.
But oh well; Gentaro catches her and does not break his arms in the process, wow; he realizes that she is SUPER CUTE OMG and it’s love at first sight. They take her to the nurse’s office because she’s passed out and just fell from the sky omg; eventually she wakes up and they start asking her things. They ask her who she is and where she’s from, but she can’t seem to remember anything and doesn’t seem to be able to talk much. Someone finds a wallet on her with her student ID and they discover her name is Misaki Nadeshiko. Gentaro is totally infatuated, so much that he can barely even speak to her, and it’s actually really cute.
Before they can ask her much, though, a whole bunch of Stardusts appear, and the Club jumps into action, scattering and running off to evacuate people. Nadeshiko automatically takes off on her own, and Gentaro, alarmed, goes after her, finding her again in the school festival being attacked some more. He grabs her and kind of uses her a bit to ward off the Stardusts (Gentaro, what is with you and using other people to fight? ie OOO Wonderful) before planting her by one of the booths and fighting on his own. Nadeshiko stares at him, perplexed, as he does this, until Gentaro grabs her again and runs off toward the school. They rendezvous with the Kamen Rider Club inside the school building, getting Ohsugi out of the way first, and then as more Stardusts appear, Gentaro goes forward because he can finally henshin with no one around. The KRC turns into excited fanboys and fangirls as he henshins; Nadeshiko watches curiously from where she’s standing.
So Gentaro henshins and then it’s UCHU KITAAAAAA and fighting time! As he’s fighting, though, Nadeshiko suddenly breaks away from the Kamen Rider Club and runs forward. Everyone flails and tries to stop her (but they don’t try very hard), but then she pulls out her own Fourze Driver. As the rest of the club drops their jaws in shock, Nadeshiko puts the belt on, flips the switches (her belt only has two switches and is kind of lopsided), says “Henshin!” very cutely, and poses -- UCHU KITA~~~!!
Gentaro is stunned and amazed that Nadeshiko has turned into a Kamen Rider as well, but before anyone can ask any questions she jumps into battle too, recklessly punching people in the face and looking like she’s really enjoying herself. Her fighting style is really girly and all her moves are accompanied by blooming twinkling flower noises (if that makes sense), in case anyone needed reminding that KAMEN RIDER NADESHIKO IS A GIRL!! She does this thing where she’ll repeatedly kick or punch someone very happily, yelling all the while, and Gentaro gets so distracted by watching her that he kind of doesn’t realize when he’s beaten an enemy enough and keeps kicking at thin air.
Eventually they all move outside somehow; Gentaro uses Rocket Arm and starts flying/beating people with it, and Nadeshiko, after observing this, pulls out her own Rocket Arm switch and helps out. They beat all the Stardusts in good time, and then untransform into their normal selves (Nadeshiko has to watch how Gentaro does it first). The rest of the Club shows up and Kengo immediately demands to know how she got her belt/where she got it from, but Nadeshiko just looks at him blankly and says nothing. Yuuki doesn’t care though, and she bounces up to Nadeshiko and does the Friendship Handshake with her, saying that they’re friends and allies and all that now. She then shoves Nadeshiko and Gentaro together so that they can do the handshake too, but Gentaro is really embarrassed and bashful and doesn’t want to do it for some reason.
Gentaro and Nadeshiko end up going on a date of sorts for some reason that I can’t remember anymore; I think he just kind of drags her out on his own. He buys two huge nikuman for them, and when Nadeshiko just kind of stares at hers, he takes a bite of his own to show her what she’s supposed to do. Nadeshiko follows him by biting into hers -- and swallowing it whole. Gentaro is all “???!!!?!?” but then Nadeshiko stares at his nikuman; he offers it to her, and she swallows it similarly. Gentaro is kind of weirded out, but apparently not entirely turned off yet because then Nadeshiko points to a nearby ferris wheel, gesturing that she wants to go there. Gentaro takes her to the ferris wheel; as they’re nearing the top, he comments that they’re really high up. Nadeshiko nods happily, chirping “High! High!” with a smile -- Gentaro, surprised, says it’s the first time he’s seen her smiling. “Smile! Smile!” Nadeshiko says happily. That makes Gentaro happy too, obviously, and then he asks if she likes high places. Nadeshiko points to a skyscraper somewhere nearby, motioning that she wants to go even higher.
They’re on the rooftop of the building and Nadeshiko seems happy to be so high up. Gentaro tries talking to her, but then Nadeshiko is running toward the edge of the rooftop, climbing up on the guard rail like she’s going to jump. Gentaro runs and grabs her before she can fall or anything, pulling her towards him and ending up embracing her from behind in that scene from the trailers and stuff. Gentaro soon breaks away though, embarrassed, and Nadeshiko blinks at him before offering her hand for the handshake. Gentaro still seems hesitant to do it with her, though, and in order to get away from the subject, he decides to take Nadeshiko to the highest place he can think of: the moon!
They sneak into the Rabbit Hutch, making sure the rest of the Club is absent. “Good, everyone’s gone,” Gentaro says as he peers into the space clubhouse, and Nadeshiko nods, “Gone! Gone!” Nadeshiko is really cute by the way. Gentaro takes her out onto the moon’s surface in space suits, and Nadeshiko tries jumping at one point. Gentaro has to grab her before she goes too far, though, and as they face each other, Gentaro slowly leans toward her until their space helmets bump. Gentaro seems to have forgotten that they’re wearing the suits so he’s kind of cockblocked here, but then Nadeshiko pulls her helmet off and smiles at him. “Good idea!” Gentaro says, reaching to remove his helmet too until he realizes that they’re in space. And that there is no oxygen in space. And how is Nadeshiko alive?!
Nadeshiko continues to smile at him, but then she turns into this silvery gooey substance oh god what D: D: DD:
They’re all in the Rabbit Hutch later, and Kengo is explaining that Nadeshiko is actually a space substance called SOLU who specializes in mimicking other objects. As a way of demonstrating, Nadeshiko looks at the Burger Meal before her and then quickly replicates it with a flick of her finger. Kengo says that the SOLU probably just replicated the real Misaki Nadeshiko sometime before they met her and that she’s not real and all, so whatever -- Gentaro, who was sulking by himself until the point, jumps up and says that’s not true! Nadeshiko is Nadeshiko. Kengo tells him to stop being stupid, but Gentaro, upset, leaves the Rabbit Hutch at a run
Gentaro is sulking on one of those rises next to a river that you see in school dramas like Gokusen and Kinpachi Sensei; Yuuki and Nozama approach him cautiously. Gentaro sniffles and says something about guys being allowed to cry about four things or something (I forgot what they were, but heartbreak and when your old man dies were two of them I think), so he’s justifiably upset since Nadeshiko is... well. Yuuki attempts to cheer him up, saying that it isn’t like him to get down and stuff. Nozama meanwhile is playing with this blue sticky glue stuff on two sticks; I have no idea what it was but maybe it’s a kids’ toy or something. Yuuki gives Gentaro some inspirational words of advice and friendship, and in the end Yuuki and Nozama get Gentaro to cheer up again. They tell him that if he wants to make things right, though, he’d better hurry since Kengo is trying to give SOLU back to some organization. So Gentaro takes off at a run again, off to find his ~true space love~!
Kengo and the Kamen Rider Club are meeting with Kannagi’s cronies from Foundation X (it’s not like they know it’s an evil organization, they’re just in high school!!!) and is handing over SOLU in its container from before. But before he can give it to them, Gentaro comes charging in and grabs the container. The Club cries out, but Gentaro clutches SOLU to him, shouting about how it doesn’t matter whether Nadeshiko is a girl or alien or space glue or SOLU or what; he likes what he likes, and that’s all that matters!!
The audience is quietly going “No, Toei, no D:” at this point, but Toei’s probably done weirder relationships than this so whatever; Gentaro’s inspirational speech about free loving and all that somehow convinces the Kamen Rider Club that he’s totally right!! Gentaro opens the container and dumps SOLU out; it returns to being Nadeshiko, who hugs Gentaro and is really happy that he cares about her so much. The Kamen Rider Club goes “Awwwww.”
The members of Foundation X are not so easily swayed by cheesy high school romance, however, and get into action. Solaris (aka the Hot Evil Lady of this movie) runs at Gentaro and attacks, breaking him and Nadeshiko apart, and some other grunts start attacking too. Solaris grabs Nadeshiko and drags her toward this truck the Foundation has there; Nadeshiko calls out to Gentaro as she’s shoved into the back of the truck. The truck starts up, and Gentaro sprints after it and actually manages to catch it; he busts his way into the truck and kicks people around until he himself gets kicked out of the truck onto the street. The truck drives away without him and Nadeshiko inside.
Gentaro is out of luck -- OR IS HE?? Kengo shows up on... Fourze’s bike whose name I don’t know. ...apparently it’s called the Machine Massigler but I’m disowning that name; so anyway Kengo shows up on Fourze’s bike and apologizes, saying he was wrong. He encourages Gentaro to go after his girl and gives him the bike. And then Gentaro’s off again!!
He chases the truck to another quarry and I think it’s around here that he knocks some random Foundation dudes down as he’s doing so. They were carrying this briefcase, but in the confusion they drop it and it slides off to the side, mostly unnoticed (except by the camera). Gentaro somehow manages to get Nadeshiko back (though I don’t remember if he’s transformed at this point), and Shun shows up in the Power Dizer also... somewhere around here. One Foundation member has had enough of these darn kids and their dog (?) too, so he transforms into this big beast thingy. Gentaro and Nadeshiko hop to it, transforming into Fouze and ...Kamen Rider Nadeshiko. They fight and it’s all explody and awesome; Fourze and Nadeshiko end it by using their respective Rocket Arms and Limit Breaking the stuffing out of the enemy.
Once the battle is over (the rest of the KRC has showed up by this point), Nadeshiko and Gentaro look at each other and have a Moment, until Kannagi shows up and uses one of his weird powers to draw Nadeshiko to him. He grabs her as she struggles, then stabs her with some kind of needle-gun mechanism. Nadeshiko begins to disappear, the life being drained from her by the syringe-type thing, but before she disappears completely, she reaches toward Gentaro one last time. Gentaro is shocked by the whole thing, and demands to know what just happened, but Kannagi just laughs and shows him the Switch he just created from stabbing Nadeshiko with the mechanism. He says that Nadeshiko’s life force is contained in the Switch or something... or, put simply, that Gentaro’s cute girlfriend is now dead.
Gentaro drops to his knees and lets out a cry of despair (it’s a very good scream, actually). Kannagi, now having obtained his goal for the time being, continues to laugh and heads back toward a plan that they’ve got around here with the rest of his group. They leave behind the Foundation member Katal (aka the Token Black Guy) to deal with the kids. Katal transforms into a dragon beast thing and starts attacking the Club, but Gentaro is still too shocked and miserable to react -- fortunately, Gentaro has friends, and friends help each other out in times of heartache and need!
Shun comes in with the Power Dizer again, holding the dragon off until he gets knocked out of the machine. Yuki, Miu, and Nozama chuck Foodroids at the monster, and Kengo uses Fourze’s bike to attack until he’s knocked back, too. Even JK does his part, in his own way -- after getting knocked back by an attack, he reaches into his coat and pulls out a handkerchief, saying that although he’s useless when it comes to fighting, he can at least offer that.
Gentaro, moved by the efforts of his friends, slowly gets to his feet. The Club gathers behind him as he thanks them and pulls out his driver for one last stand. They’re all bruised and battered, but they’re on their feet, and together, the Kamen Rider Club counts down to Gentaro’s henshin. Now Fourze, Gentaro begins his final battle with the dragon, and there’s lots of Hyper Beams and explosions until Fourze finishes the thing with Fire States.
The battle now done, the Club gathers again in the quarry, being all smily and friend. Someone suddenly notices something on the ground and picks it up - it’s a Switch, for Super Rocket! They realize that Nadeshiko must have created it, just before she disappeared. Awww. I think it’s also here that they pick up the briefcase that was dropped earlier by the Foundation X members; looking inside, they find some very strange Switches and Medals...?
But before they can really make sense of anything, the sound of a bike can be heard, and who is it but Eiji showing up on a Ridevendor!! Eiji asks Gentaro for help, and of course Gentaro accepts because he’s Gentaro and because it’s time forrrrrr
Chapter 5: MEGAMAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXX
Awwwwww yeeeaaaahh Rider team-ups awwwww yeaaa
I could basically summarize this portion by saying it is ALL THE FORMS ALL THE COMBOS ALL THE SWITCHES ALL THE EXPLOSIONS!!!! plus two really ugly forms I could do without seeing ever. And it’s all fantastic (except the two forms, obviously).
But if you want to know more, then here goes:
Eiji and Gentaro rendezvous with Phillip and Shotaro in a parking structure. Eiji is the middle-man here so he introduces Gentaro to Phillip and Sho; Shotaro is all condescending about Gentaro’s Regent get-up, but as soon as he realizes that Gentaro has a Passionate Burning Fire Heart of Gold, there is immediate MAN BONDING!!!! Phillip watches serenely, but Eiji is kind of on a busy schedule here so he breaks up the bromance and is like “Guys seriously.” Anyway Shotaro is totally won over by Gentaro and it’s awesome to see Riders interact hnnnggg ;u;
Founation X arrives with some convenient timing (including Solaris from before); they all have Switches and turn into Orion, Chameleon, Unicorn, and Hound Zodiarts as they walk dramatically toward the Riders. The Riders can’t be out-drama’d though, so they line up and TRIPLE RIDER HENSHIN EEEEEE. W does his “count up your sins!” line, Fourze UCHU KITAAAAAAA’s (and freaks the fuck out of Shotaro, his poor heart), and OOO... doesn’t have a catchphrase cough*; anyway they get to fighting.
[*actually I picked up a funny gag comic about this. Have a bad-quality pic/scanlation of it here.]
Just before they henshin, though, Gentaro says something to Phillip and Shotaro, ending it with “senpai.” Phillip is obviously amused by this because a) he’s Phillip and everything’s amusing, but also b) he’s not used to being anyone’s senpai. He considers this new title as he and Shotaro gear up for their henshin and doesn't seem altogether unpleased by it. idk I just thought it was cute and awww Phillip
Anyway then they henshin and it’s all awesome. NOW IT’S FIGHT TIME.
W holds off the Foundation X guys while OOO and Fourze make for the plane where Kannagi is. The two confront Kannagi in front of the plane rocket thingy, and he sends a bunch of Stardusts/Kuzu Yummy/Masquerade at the two and climbs aboard his plane thingamajig
which basically means it’s COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF EXPLOSIVES TAIMU
First we get to see W taking on the four Zodiarts; W goes through each of his forms (Cyclone Joke, Heat Metal, Luna Trigger) and W-B-X is in the background and there’s all this beautiful choreography and wirework and aaaaa; eventually W goes into W Extreme and beats the living crap out of the Zodiarts, destroying them.
Over with OOO, it’s a WONDERFUL (get it) mess of COMBOS COMBOS COMBOS ALL THE COMBOS; OOO is changing Combos pretty much every second (he only uses the full Combos, not random ones) and the special edit of Anything Goes (the one with Shu singing) is playing in the back and everything is exploding and it’s really really really awesome and colorful and OOOOZU
Then we go to Fourze, who uses EVERY SINGLE SWITCH in quick succession so it’s a whole bunch of computerized voice droning out every single Switch name while grunts are exploding everywhere, with Switch On as BGM. I liked this because it was totally confusing and a huge mess but it’s cool to see so many Switches in action, since we only get to see a couple at a time during the show.
Eventually they beat all their respective enemies; W says he’ll leave the rest to the others. Meanwhile at where OOO is, a void suddenly appears in the air, and Aqua pops out for a second from the Future! He hands OOO a Combo of Medals; they’re special Tatoba Medals from the ~Future~! Why didn’t you bring Ankh instead!? Lauren demands, but OOO is grateful for what he gets as Aqua swooshes back to the Future. Fourze meets up with OOO again, and they use the strange Switches and Medals that the Foundation X members dropped before.
Turns out that the Switches/Medals are actually what became of the 7 Legendary Riders when Kannagi trapped them earlier on. By using the Switches and Medals in their respective belts, Fourze and OOO free the Riders from their weird, gimmicky confines, and the 7 Legendary Riders are back!! There are some introductions here, and Fourze introduces himself as the man who’ll be friends with all the Kamen Riders, Kamen Rider Fourze!! (Cue Amazon stealing the title of CUTEST EVER by happily muttering “Tomodachi~ :>” here)
I guess there were some grunts still left from the fight, because Stronger tells OOO and Fourze that they’ll hold the fort here and to go after Kannagi. Fourze uses the Super Rocket Switch that Nadeshiko left him, then, and turns into this ugly creamsicle-colored abomination of a Kamen Rider with two Rockets for arms. He takes off to catch up with the super space plane rocket thing that Kannagi’s been escaping in, and OOO grabs onto him and holds on for dear life, screaming the entire way. Eiji has not had very good experiences with Gentaro, has he.
They break into the space jet rocket plane satellite machine thing and confront Kannagi. He apparently hasn’t had the brains to use his new invention yet, but anyway now he shows it off to the Riders/audience - it’s a belt, with slots for Poseidon’s Medals and the Nadeshiko Switch. Using it, he turns into this really ugly monster thing because apparently the theme for this chapter of the movie is Explosions and Ugly Things. OOO and Fourze (who’s back in his normal State) gear up to fight, but Kannagi’s newfound power is so great that he easily smacks down the both of them. He’s faster than the eye can follow, he’s super strong -- he basically just tosses the two of them around the ship until he actually knocks Fourze out of the ship altogether. Fourze barely manages to cling onto the ship, but something happens and he’s knocked off completely and falls back to Earth, leaving OOO to face Kannagi by himself.
Fourze doesn’t die, though! Of course he doesn’t; as he’s falling back to Earth, he’s suddenly caught by the Power Dizer (I think Kengo is using it remotely instead of Shun driving it). Power Dizer goes into the Tower Mode, and Kengo tells Gentaro to use it and the bike to get back to the plane space jet rocket satellite machine... yeah that thing. So Fourze blasts off, abandoning his bike halfway and using the momentum to clear the rest of the distance.
Meanwhile, OOO has been getting kicked around by Kannagi. Eiji is totally not okay with this, being the secret control freak/normal human being who doesn’t like getting beat up that he is, and he pulls out the Combo that Aqua gave him a little earlier. Using them, he transforms into Super Ugly OOO Super Tatoba OOO, which is just... sigh. With this new Combo, however, he can actually move faster than Kannagi, who was already moving too fast for the eye to follow -- so basically OOO now has the advantage and makes his comeback!
They eventually take the fight to the roof, and Fourze finally shows up again, having blasted off from Earth with the bike (though he abandoned the bike halfway and used the momentum to clear the rest of the distance). Fourze goes into Super Rocket State, and together with Super Tatoba OOO, goes to kick Kannagi around in a very obviously CG-animated fight. Almost the entire thing is done in CG, and it looks... okay. There is a very very big and obvious difference as to when they’re using CG and when it’s live, though. Eventually OOO and Fourze use their respective finishers; Fourze’s Limit Break is also super-charged by all these ~feelings~ he suddenly gets from Nadeshiko’s soul, or whatever. They take Kannagi down in a massive explosion of Rider Justice and SEIYAAAAA (Eiji :’D), and the plane explodes along with the monster. The two Riders fall to Earth; Fourze uses Parachute to cushion his fall while OOO is a baller and has wings from Super Taka. The credits start around here. As Fourze falls, though, he’s suddenly taken to some other space that looks a lot like the wormhole connecting Amanogawa and the Rabbit Hutch. There, he meets Nadeshiko.
Nadeshiko tells him that she was happy to have meet Gentaro and that she made a whole bunch of good memories with him. Gentaro is awkward, but then Nadeshiko steps forward and puts her hands on his shoulders, then reaches up toward him -- the camera cuts to their feet, where Nadeshiko is on her toes. AWWW YOU GUYS TOEI ALMOST DID A KISS SCENE!
Gentaro goes back to reality and sees some sparkly (which we can assume is SOLU/Nadeshiko) stuff flying out toward space, as if Nadeshiko is finally free and where she belongs.
Back at Cous Coussier, the place is in ruins, but Chiyoko, ever the optimist/capitalist, is probably scheming to use it to her advantage by making it into some sort of theme. Gotou and Date are helping clean up, and Eiji and Hina are left being cute with each other. I forgot what they talked about, but it was probably something about looking forward to tomorrow and a future in which they can find Ankh again yes yes.
Later, Gentaro and the Club are at a train station. Gentaro catches up with the rest of the Club, but as he does so he sees a pretty girl bidding her friends goodbye - it’s Nadeshiko?! She says farewell to her friends, then starts walking in Gentaro’s direction -- Gentaro freezes, but the girl walks straight past him without even batting an eye. The Club lets out an unconscious sigh, and Kengo comments about how she must be the real Misaki Nadeshiko. Gentaro is a little bit shaken, but the Kamen Rider Club is there for him, and together they go off to do whatever happy fun Club activity they’ve got planned for the day.
After the credits finish rolling, there is the mandatory Second Rider Reveal scene.
Sometime during the night, a couple of stray Foundation X members are escaping down a dark alleyway - but they’re stopped by a mysterious black and blue sparkly Rider. The two transform into Masquerades, but this new Rider is hardly threatened; he displays how he fights, complete with the yelling and the craziness. Pressing a Switch on his arm, he uses Saturn to cut finish off the poor guys. Afterward, he untransforms into who we now know is Ryusei, saying maybe (I don’t remember, sorry) about how that was boring, but how things will probably get more interesting once he gets to Amanogawa High School. Dun dun DUNNNNNNNN~~!!!!
So that was yet another super-long and super-overdue write-up post from me!!
I haven't seen Gokaiger vs Gavan yet, and I'm not entirely planning on seeing it, but if someone wants to persuade me then maybe I'll go watch and do a write-up for it? 8D; I know nothing about Gavan, though.
Everyone have a nice day!
I know there are other write-ups of MEGAMAX out there already so this is probably unnecessary, but I finally finished mine and since I went through all that I thought I'd put it up anyway.
Since it took so effing long for me to finish though, some parts of it are probably inaccurate :\;;; Especially toward the end oh geez.
In addition to being extremely late, this post is, as usual, very long and very spoilery, so take care!!
Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie Taisen MEGAMAX
Disclaimer as usual: some parts of this may be in the wrong order or just plain wrong; things have most definitely been forgotten but I hope I left all the important parts in. Many apologies if I have! Also my "translations" of some of the dialogue is obviously paraphrased and exaggerated, so please don't take it too seriously.
also sorry for all the flailing during OOO's part. I... I just have a lot of feelings.
Unlike the other two Rider crossover movies we've gotten, MEGAMAX was split into not just three chapters, but FIVE: The beginning plot, OOO's side, W's side, Fourze's side, and the ending MEGAMAX chapter with all our heroes. We will naturally start from... the start!
Chapter 1: The Beginning
The movie opens in the final frontier of space! ...with a bunch of meteors/asteroids hurdling through it towards the Earth. The asteroids hurl past the moon and the Rabbit Hutch - inside, the members of the Kamen Rider Club pause their wacky high school shenanigans to wonder at the roaring noise and the shaking. The space rocks enter the atmosphere and crash into various places on the Earth. We see the asteroids falling in places like idk where, and past a young man dressed in horribly bright colors with a towel on his head carrying underwear on a stick - he turns and it’s Eiji, obviously! The Legendary Seven Riders appear out of nowhere to investigate the crater sites and defeat the monsters - Masquerade Dopants, Kuzu Yummy, and Dustards - that appear around them; they’re in places like Country A in East Europe and Some Place in China and Your Mother’s House, no joke (well that last one was a joke. Obviously).
At one of the sites in Japan, two men clad in the familiar white Foundation X uniforms are examining a substance found on one of the meteors, and put it into a capsule for transportation. Kamen Rider Stronger shows up on the scene, telling them to Halt! and all that, but they manage to escape in a helicopter. Elsewhere, four members of Foundation X meet, three of them revealing to the other woman that they plan to use the power of the alien substance (called SOLU or... soul), Medals, and Switches together to perfect their research and be all-powerful etc. The woman (apparently their boss) tells the leader of the other three, Lem Kannagi, to move forward with the plan.
Chapter 2: OOO
One of the meteors has landed in a bay or something in Tokyo, Japan, and from it arises a dark void thing. Some researchers from the Kougami Foundation are camping out doing research on it, when suddenly something comes out from the void, materializing on the dock with a spray of light. The guards by the researchers raise their guns as Kamen Rider Poseidon reveals himself. They open fire as Poseidon begins to advance, but their bullets have little effect, and Poseidon trashes the place like it’s nothing. He unhenshins into a young man with funny hair and all, snorts at everyone, and moves on to look for someone else to destroy - until a familiar voice yells out “SUBARASHII!!!!”
It’s Kougami, naturally! Hanging out as he usually does in colorful suits on everyone’s TV. He greets Poseidon from an upset TV monitor that’s still working somehow, congratulating him on a “HAPPY BAAATHDAY!!!” Kougami isn’t sure what to call this new person, though, but the man introduces himself as a Kamen Rider.
Cut to Kougami’s office, where Gotou’s just been summoned. He needs a haircut but he’s in a suit and that is never a bad thing! There are sheets of data and charts about Medals all over Kougami’s office, and he explains to Gotou that he’s been trying to develop his own Medals. He reveals that Poseidon is a Rider from 40 years into the future whose main desire is to fight. He’s currently in this time period looking for Kamen Riders to defeat. There’s a shot of the young man on the roof of a building somewhere, breaking a Medal in two and tossing it to the ground to make Kuzu Yummy - so Uva isn’t the only one who does this.
Meanwhile Satonaka and Hina are driving around the city, discussing the issue. Satonaka explains further that Poseidon is currently going berserk with his will to violence, and that it’s bad and all. Hina mentions that Eiji has been doing research of his own on the Medals, though he’s been focusing on bringing Ankh back rather than creating new Medals. She says that she and her brother have offered to do whatever they can, but...
Satonaka abruptly stops the car as they notice a mob of Kuzu Yummy approaching. Satonaka tells Hina to stay in the car (because a convertible mini cooper will keep you safe) while she grabs her Birth Buster and a canister of Cell Medals from the back seat and starts capping Yummies everywhere. Their sheer numbers are too much for even her, however, and the Kuzu Yummies soon start to overtake the girls. Satonaka gets a lot of action scenes in this movie, by the way. THEY ARE ALL FANTASTIC. Hina gets dragged from the car; though she manages to defend herself a little with her brute strength, she’s not trained like Satonaka so she is soon knocked to the ground, hurt. Satonaka, held up by her own Yummies, can do little but watch as the Yummies advance on Hina, who’s still on the ground.
Someone comes to Hina’s rescue, however, shoving the Yummies out of the way before they can get to her. Hina looks around, and whoa it’s Eiji! Eiji gives her a look before he goes about disposing of the Kuzu Yummies, but it’s a different sort of look than usual - very serious and kind of cold and lacking in Eiji’s usual friendly and optimistic demeanor. Hina exclaims “Eiji!” in joy, but there’s little time for chat as the Yummies continue being a nuisance. Both Satonaka and Eiji get back to kicking Yummies around, until Poseidon appears from nowhere.
“Are you Kamen Rider OOO?” Poseidon asks, and Eiji only has time to raise a brow cynically before Poseidon slashes at him and hits him with a blast that knocks him flat and several feet away. Eiji falls to the ground and doesn’t move; Hina quickly rushes to his side, trying to rouse him again, but it seems he’s down for good. Satonaka remembers what she was doing and aims her Birth Buster toward Poseidon, but just like the bullets from before, the Cell Medals don’t seem to have much of an effect.
That’s when Date - clean Date! - shows up with his Medal tank. Satonaka hands him the Proto Birth Driver and a Medal to transform with, and then we get Proto Birth on the scene! Proto Birth tussles with Poseidon, but doesn’t seem to be having much luck and kind of gets his stuffing served to him. Gotou turns up then on a Ridevendor and bike henshins into Birth; he jumps off the bike and lets it run into Poseidon (except Poseidon destroys it before it can hit him). Proto Birth is delighted to have his young friend back, and two Births jump into action, double-teaming Poseidon. Unfortunately for them, Poseidon is so strong that he does them in with ease, first taking out Proto Birth and completely destroying his Driver. Birth moves to cover the unhenshined Date, using Breast Cannon against Poseidon, but Poseidon deflects the shot and hits Birth with one of his own, knocking him back into civilian form. Poseidon snorts at how easy they were to beat, but as he’s gloating, something suddenly stabs him in the back.
It’s Eiji! Or Ankh! It’s Eiji with Ankh’s arm! Wait, what? Everyone is confused as Eiji fishes around inside Poseidon with Ankh’s arm attached to him, searching for Medals. Eiji makes a comment about how Poseidon has all the Medals that were caught in the Maki-generated void at the end of the TV series inside of him. Eiji, who had sounded like his normal self until then, begins to get more of Ankh’s voice, until it’s basically just Eiji’s body doing the talking with Ankh’s voice coming out. Ankh!Eiji yanks the Medals for Tatoba out of Poseidon and leaps away, landing on a nearby scaffold and lounging about in true Ankh fashion, with one leg propped up and all that. Ignoring everyone’s shock and surprise that he’s even there, he yells out “Eiji! Use these Medals!” and tosses the Medals down.
JUST LIKE OLD TIMES
The Medals go flying, and Eiji!Eiji [?] reveals himself from behind a tree or something to catch them in one hand, his underwear on a stick in the other. Eiji sets the stick down like a flag and gets to Henshin-ing, and yayyyyyy we finally get OOO Tatoba!
The fight shows off OOO’s Medal-changing abilities, with Ankh!Eiji throwing Medals at OOO pretty much every other second, and Poseidon’s actually beat for a bit because he’s either so taken off guard or really confused by OOO’s constant Medal changing. By the way, OOO goes through at least Tatoba, Gataradol, and Gatagorita in this fight (fuck random OOO combo names) before turning back into Tatoba. Poseidon’s regained himself by the time OOO gets back to Tatoba again, and they fight for a bit - at one point in the struggle, though, Poseidon pauses awkwardly as the two are neck in neck, and puts a hand on OOO’s shoulder. OOO is confused, but then Poseidon is attacking again and there’s no time to think about it.
They break away from each other, Poseidon apparently giving up for now, and he untransforms into the young man from before. He quickly takes off, though, jumping off into the distance, and Ankh!Eiji comes down from the scaffold, off-put that the guy got away. As he’s mumbling to himself about the guy getting away with the Medals and stuff, OOO comes up to him and kind of awkwardly taps him on the shoulder.
OOO: Could you stop using that form? Seeing myself like that, it’s kind of gross...
Ankh: Tch, I’m the one who’s grossed out.
OOO: (!! Hey...)
Ankh is just as snarky as ever, bless him ♥ Ankh goes back into the form he takes when possessing Shingo, looking over his shoulder with a smug look like he knows how much the fans everyone has missed him. Hina, who can’t believe it, runs to him, staring at him for a long time before hugging him (surprisingly, she doesn’t break him). OOO goes back to being Eiji, and he smiles on the two because awww yeah best set-up ever. OOOT3 IS BACK TOGETHERRRRR
Later, the three of them rendezvous at Cous Coussier, naturally; Chiyoko prepares a huge plate full of ice candies for Ankh, who takes them without thanks (though he’s totally pleased at having them, you can tell). The restaurant’s theme this time is apparently Heian princesses or something, or in any case Hina and Chiyoko get to dress up in really pretty costumes.
Hina asks how Eiji managed to get Ankh back, but Eiji doesn’t give a very good explanation - he was just as surprised as Hina, really. Flashback to when Eiji was arriving back in Japan at the airport or in a subway somewhere - as Eiji walks through a crowded hall (with his underwear on a stick still, sigh), he suddenly notices a familiar face. It’s Ankh! And there’s no real explanation as to why he is suddenly there. As Eiji explain this to Hina, he passes his hand over his pocket as if feeling for something, then gives Ankh a puzzled look.
Eiji then goes on to talk about Poseidon and how he thinks something’s off about him. He references the odd pause in Poseidon’s attacking, when he put his hand on OOO’s shoulder, and says that he thinks Poseidon doesn’t really want to fight after all. The guy is apparently going berserk, after all. Eiji suggests that maybe if they force him out of his henshin, in the same way that Ankh and Hina stopped him when Putotyra first showed up, they might be able to help him.
Somewhere around here Eiji also suddenly remembers - he forgot his underwear back at wherever they were fighting!! He’s obviously devastated, but Ankh is just like “who cares” and Eiji responds with a tart, “I DO” because he needs that underwear, it’s Underwear for Tomorrow!! Ankh says Eiji is an idiot like always, to which Eiji makes a smart comeback somewhere along the lines of “Yeah, well, you’re a jerk like always!!” More effectively, he steals Ankh’s ice candies and confiscates them, saying Ankh will eat too many. Ankh gets PISSED naturally and they start hissing and spitting at each other until Hina seizes them both by the ear and yells at them to stop fighting, it’s been so long since they’ve seen each other! Regular ooot3 antics aaaa ♥
Meanwhile, Satonaka is updating Gotou and Date on the situation at the hospital. Both Birth users are bed-ridden because of the damages they took. The funny thing is that Gotou is all dressed up in the hospital pajamas and stuff and Date is just kinda hanging out without a shirt because Date gonna Date. Not that anyone minds. Satonaka explains that they won’t be able to use Birth for a while because, yeah, Proto Birth is basically gone now I guess, and they’ve both taken so much damage. Date tells Gotou that he ought to hurry up and sleep since that’s the only thing they can do at the moment - and promptly crashes himself. Oh Date-san you are silly even without your beard.
Back at Cous Coussier, everyone’s more or less getting along (Ankh gets ice cream again!), when suddenly Ankh looks toward the door, alarmed. Before anyone can ask, the doors burst open, Kuzu Yummies swarming in. Since there are regular customers in the shop as well, everyone starts freaking out, and Eiji and Ankh jump to beat the Yummies down. Hina’s kind of worried that the shop is being devastated, but Chiyoko tells her not to worry about it because this is more important. And then she punches a Yummy in the face like a boss (err, which she is, I guess). Hina and Chiyoko evacuate the customers as Eiji and Ankh fight the Yummies. There is a LOT of fighting here actually, and Ankh actually does it! Yay Ankh actually fighting for once. Eiji does a lot of impressive stunt work here too, so go him.
Apparently Cous Coussier is right next to a convenient quarry because as soon as Eiji and Ankh manage to beat their way outside, they’re in a quarry and face-to-face with Poseidon. Poseidon challenges OOO, but Eiji refuses to henshin, saying that he wants to help Poseidon, because he’s just going berserk, right? It’s just like the times when he was going crazy with Putotyra and Ankh and Hina stopped him by reversing his transformation, Eiji says. Ankh calls him stupid because he’s going to get his head chopped off, but Eiji moves forward anyway, intent on trying to calm Poseidon down. Eiji wants to reach out to Poseidon, but Poseidon isn’t letting him near him, and sends a blast at Eiji as he tries to approach. Ankh rushes in to save Eiji’s butt, but they both get caught in the explosion, causing that one scene from the trailers where they go flying while stuff explodes behind them.
Exploding stuff mmmm Kamen Rider
Ankh is all like “YOU’RE AN IDIOT” but Eiji gets up and tries again, because he’s more determined than ever to save Poseidon. He starts running toward Poseidon, who keeps throwing blasts at him that blow up all around him and stuff goes flying. He finally catches Eiji in one of them, sending Eiji flying into the hair, spinning and whirling. Eiji lands painfully on his head and oh god I cringe every time and how is his neck not broken and then he doesn’t get up again because yes he SHOULD BE IN PAIN. Poseidon advances on him, raises his spear, and brings it down on Eiji.
Ankh cringes, everyone cringes, Eiji cringes - but he’s not dead! The spearhead is buried in the ground by Eiji’s side, having narrowly missed him and only grazing his arm. Eiji looks up at Poseidon, surprised, and Poseidon has some internal errors, before finally yelling at himself like a crazy person and reverting back to the young man. Except this time he is not evil!
Later, Eiji, Ankh, Hina, and the young man (who they find out is named Miharu Minato) rendezvous in an abandoned warehouse somewhere. Hina finishes patching up Eiji’s arm as Ankh is being his usual pissy self, and Miharu is sulking in a corner. Miharu obviously feels terrible about something or other, so they ask about it, and Miharu begins explaining his backstory. He’s from 40 years into the future, where these monsters have started appearing and terrorizing people. He was given the power to henshin into a hero to fight people using the power of water.
“So you’re a Kamen Rider, then, aren’t you?” Hina asks, because yeah, he should be one, right? But Miharu shakes his head and says that he couldn’t do it. He’s not very good with water. Eiji and Hina look down awkwardly because they don’t know what to say to that, but Ankh finds it HILARIOUS and laughs openly at Miharu because lol fail Rider~
Eiji and Hina throw things at Ankh.
Miharu goes on, explaining that he was frustrated with his own weakness and wanted to fight and all, when suddenly this old dude who said he was from the Kougami Foundation suddenly came up to him and gave him a driver and three Medals to use and HAPPY BIRTHDAY and all that. “Even in the future... Kougami-san is like that...” Eiji muses with a slight grimace. Miharu continues: even with his new powers as Poseidon, though, he was still too weak to defeat the monsters and save people. That was when the void opened up and he got all those Medals that were absorbed when Eiji and Ankh defeated Dr. Maki-Greeed; and from that, he started going berserk.
So basically Miharu blames everything on himself - if only he’d been stronger, none of this would have happened...! “Yeah, pretty much,” Ankh agrees kindly. Eiji rolls his eyes and puts a towel over Ankh’s head. Hina attempts to pick up an old oil tank or something to hurl at Ankh (but Eiji stops her: “AHHH HINA-CHAN WAIT!”). They decide to retire for the night, anyway, because it’s getting late, I guess.
In the middle of the night, though, as everyone else is sleeping, Miharu is creeping around. He approaches Ankh, clearly intent on something, but Ankh catches him: “If it’s Medals you’re after, don’t even think about it” (or something like that). Eiji jumps out of nowhere and grabs Miharu from behind, restraining him, and says that they were waiting for him, because oh look Poseidon is possessing Miharu again. Hina runs over with the OOO Driver and puts it on Eiji; Ankh turns into his arm form and shoves the Sagohzo Medals into the Driver. Hina helps Eiji henshin by scanning the Medals and all in all it’s really great because my ooot3 you can’t stop meeee
With Sagohzo holding onto Miharu, Ankh stabs into him, trying to get the Poseidon Medals I suppose. But somehow (I can’t exactly remember how, sorry), Poseidon actually manages to escape Miharu altogether, pulling away and forming its own body made of his Core Medals and Cell Medals. He grabs Miharu and holds him hostage as he yells angrily at Team OOO, before shoving Miharu at them (he’s not needed) and taking off.
Later Miharu is feeling like crap again, but Team OOO needs to move out to beat Poseidon again. The only thing stopping Eiji from going right this second is his lack of undies. Sigh. Ankh is like “what is wrong with you” but Hina proves herself to be the best girlfriend ever and gives Eiji an entire bag full of underwear! Eiji is totally thrilled and is like “YES WE CAN GO NOW” but as they’re heading off, Miharu is like “how can you do that?!” because he’s hopeless, the poor thing. So Eiji goes back and hands him some colorful underwear (Miharu is just kind of “???” about the whole thing) and tells him with that Underwear for Tomorrow, there’s hope and all. Miharu doesn’t get it; he doesn’t need any underwear - but Eiji explains: it’s not the Underwear that’s important, it’s the “for Tomorrow” part that matters. Because it’s Underwear for Tomorrow, that means there will be a tomorrow, something to protect and to look forward to. Because tomorrow will come, you have to look forward to it.
...In other words Eiji just spits out a whole bunch of cheese and Miharu totally buys it. Team OOO heads off then to face Poseidon.
Eiji and Ankh find Poseidon hanging out somewhere by the water, examining the void from which he came, I think. As they approach, Poseidon spawns some Kuzu Yummy for them to deal with; as they fight their way through the useless crowd, Eiji calls out to Ankh, saying he never did get a chance to ask how Ankh got back. Ankh just tells him that he doesn’t need to worry about it still and that they have to fight. Eiji agrees - though it may be their last fight together, he adds. As they finish off the Kuzu Yummies, Ankh tosses Eiji the Tatoba Medals, and Eiji does a dramatic slow-walk henshin.
OOO faces off against Poseidon for a bit, OOO switching into Shauta to battle him in the water, and then suddenly Gotou and Date show up on water bikes to help. By help they must actually mean do fancy tricks on water bikes, because I’m not sure if they actually contribute to the fight, but whatever. They eventually get knocked down by Poseidon, but another bike comes roaring (and spraying water everywhere) into play - it’s Miharu! Who has magically gotten over his fear of water! Miharu henshins into Aqua; the way his belt spins while he does it looks a lot like Kamen Rider 1’s, except blue, so nice homage there. He uses more fancy water bike tricks to battle Poseidon (this time it actually does things though) and eventually knocks him back onto land, where OOO can deal with him.
Aqua and OOO fight Poseidon together, eventually using their finishers on him. OOO uses the Tajadol Combo (yes yes yes yes yes) here and it’s all beautiful as usual; Aqua attacks him with this sliding kick thing and Tajadol Scanning Charges down from the sky, and they effectively take Poseidon out of the picture as he explodes in a shower of Medals and funtimes.
Miharu does a victory lap around on his water bike, using the underwear he got from Eiji as a sort of flag thing (WHY THOUGH), and then he jumps back into the void, saying he’ll definitely protect everyone’s Tomorrow in the future and all that. Eiji and Hina bid him farewell, with Ankh standing some ways behind them. As they look on at the closing void, Eiji suddenly says “Ankh, you...”
Hina looks over her shoulder at Ankh, only to find that he’s now disappeared. Alarmed, she cries, “Eiji! Ankh’s gone!” but Eiji knows already. He says that he’s sure Ankh came from that void, just like Miharu - which means that Ankh came from somewhere in the future. Pulling Ankh’s broken Core Medal from his pocket, he tells Hina that he had thought it was odd that Ankh had suddenly returned when his Medal was still like this, so it must be that he came back when the void opened. But that means that they manage to bring Ankh back in the future, somehow. So they’ll keep moving towards that tomorrow, some day, so that they can meet him again. Aww yay.
Suddenly, though, they’re being attacked; Eiji shields Hina from a blast behind him and they’re both knocked to the ground. Medals spill out (I guess Eiji gets to keep them now) and roll out everywhere, including Poseidon’s Cores. As Eiji and Hina get to their feet again, they see the three members of Foundation X led by Kannagi walking towards them. Kannagi stoops and picks up Poseidon’s Medals, claiming them for himself - Medals from the future! They leave in their van thing without taking anything else, and Eiji and Hina look on in confusion, not knowing what’s going on.
Chapter 3: W
Meanwhile somewhere in Fuuto, Shotaro is biking around being his usual half-boiled self when suddenly he’s cut off by this big truck and nearly loses his head. Apparently an angry driver, Shotaro speeds up to meet the truck by its driver window and yells at them, “WTF ARE YOU DOING MAN CAN’T YOU DRIVE” but he is all shock and surprise when he realizes that Foundation X people are in the truck!
Anyway he stops the truck eventually and is trying to investigate when monsters come out; Shotaro hops off his bike and pulls out the W Driver, saying “Phillip, let’s go.” Phillips is busy, however: “Shotaro, I’m in the middle of a look-up...” and totally blows Shotaro off, but Shotaro is hard-boiled like that (cough) so he doesn’t mind - he pulls out the Lost Driver instead and henshins into Kamen Rider Joker to fight.
At one point in the tussle, Joker manages to knock the capsule with the mysterious SOLU substance away, and it hits the ground somewhere and pops open. The SOLU goes down a drain in the street (ewwww the water) before the Foundation X members can get it back, but they get the capsule back and escape anyway. Joker is disappointed that they got away, but there’s little he can do about it.
Meanwihle, the 7 Legendary Riders have discovered Foundation X’s secret base, and infiltrate as Kannagi rants about his secret plans to use Medals, Switches, Memories to create the ultimate being. They burst in, prepared to stop his shenanigans, when Kannagi pulls a fast one on them and activates a switch that traps them in some kind of attack that effectively drains them of their powers. Oh no!
But then, without seeing what becomes of the Riders, we quickly move on to...
Chapter 4: Fourze
It’s school festival time at Amanogawa High School, and the Kamen Rider Club is in the middle of preparations for their Kamen Rider PSA panel. Gentaro is futzing around somewhere making preparations, and as he runs out of the building to find the rest of the club, he’s stopped by a not-so-mysterious fortune teller. The fortune teller predicts his future with a snap of his suspenders, and tells Gentaro that ~romance~ is in his future. BUT! This will only come true if he can set up his teacher Ohsugi with a certain Ms. Sonoda -- Gentaro flips Ohsugi’s fortune-telling table and tells him he’s gotta run.
Gentaro joins the rest of the Kamen Rider Club for their panel. They’re all dressed (badly) as the 7 Legendary Riders, each one as the Rider their character pays homage to through Toei’s horrible puns (though I admit I do enjoy the pun on Miu/V3’s name). Miu is making some fantastic speech about the Riders and how great they are, and no one is really paying attention despite the fact that QUEEN MIU IS PRESENT. They take a roll call, everyone posing and saying their Rider names, until they realize that JK’s missing, that jerk!
Miu is vehement and they all go off to find JK, who’s lounging about in a classroom, still dressed as Kamen Rider X. When Miu demands an explanation as to why wasn’t out there embarrassing himself with the rest of them, he answers that he doesn’t want to embarrass himself, and it’s not like anyone in the school would pay attention or care anyway. Everyone hurts him.
As they’re busy punishing JK, they suddenly hear cries from outside in the school yard. They rush outside and see this cute girl falling from the sky; everyone’s pointing and screaming and doing nothing about it, until Gentaro runs up because KANOJOU KITAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!
That’s kind of fast, Gentaro.
But oh well; Gentaro catches her and does not break his arms in the process, wow; he realizes that she is SUPER CUTE OMG and it’s love at first sight. They take her to the nurse’s office because she’s passed out and just fell from the sky omg; eventually she wakes up and they start asking her things. They ask her who she is and where she’s from, but she can’t seem to remember anything and doesn’t seem to be able to talk much. Someone finds a wallet on her with her student ID and they discover her name is Misaki Nadeshiko. Gentaro is totally infatuated, so much that he can barely even speak to her, and it’s actually really cute.
Before they can ask her much, though, a whole bunch of Stardusts appear, and the Club jumps into action, scattering and running off to evacuate people. Nadeshiko automatically takes off on her own, and Gentaro, alarmed, goes after her, finding her again in the school festival being attacked some more. He grabs her and kind of uses her a bit to ward off the Stardusts (Gentaro, what is with you and using other people to fight? ie OOO Wonderful) before planting her by one of the booths and fighting on his own. Nadeshiko stares at him, perplexed, as he does this, until Gentaro grabs her again and runs off toward the school. They rendezvous with the Kamen Rider Club inside the school building, getting Ohsugi out of the way first, and then as more Stardusts appear, Gentaro goes forward because he can finally henshin with no one around. The KRC turns into excited fanboys and fangirls as he henshins; Nadeshiko watches curiously from where she’s standing.
So Gentaro henshins and then it’s UCHU KITAAAAAA and fighting time! As he’s fighting, though, Nadeshiko suddenly breaks away from the Kamen Rider Club and runs forward. Everyone flails and tries to stop her (but they don’t try very hard), but then she pulls out her own Fourze Driver. As the rest of the club drops their jaws in shock, Nadeshiko puts the belt on, flips the switches (her belt only has two switches and is kind of lopsided), says “Henshin!” very cutely, and poses -- UCHU KITA~~~!!
Gentaro is stunned and amazed that Nadeshiko has turned into a Kamen Rider as well, but before anyone can ask any questions she jumps into battle too, recklessly punching people in the face and looking like she’s really enjoying herself. Her fighting style is really girly and all her moves are accompanied by blooming twinkling flower noises (if that makes sense), in case anyone needed reminding that KAMEN RIDER NADESHIKO IS A GIRL!! She does this thing where she’ll repeatedly kick or punch someone very happily, yelling all the while, and Gentaro gets so distracted by watching her that he kind of doesn’t realize when he’s beaten an enemy enough and keeps kicking at thin air.
Eventually they all move outside somehow; Gentaro uses Rocket Arm and starts flying/beating people with it, and Nadeshiko, after observing this, pulls out her own Rocket Arm switch and helps out. They beat all the Stardusts in good time, and then untransform into their normal selves (Nadeshiko has to watch how Gentaro does it first). The rest of the Club shows up and Kengo immediately demands to know how she got her belt/where she got it from, but Nadeshiko just looks at him blankly and says nothing. Yuuki doesn’t care though, and she bounces up to Nadeshiko and does the Friendship Handshake with her, saying that they’re friends and allies and all that now. She then shoves Nadeshiko and Gentaro together so that they can do the handshake too, but Gentaro is really embarrassed and bashful and doesn’t want to do it for some reason.
Gentaro and Nadeshiko end up going on a date of sorts for some reason that I can’t remember anymore; I think he just kind of drags her out on his own. He buys two huge nikuman for them, and when Nadeshiko just kind of stares at hers, he takes a bite of his own to show her what she’s supposed to do. Nadeshiko follows him by biting into hers -- and swallowing it whole. Gentaro is all “???!!!?!?” but then Nadeshiko stares at his nikuman; he offers it to her, and she swallows it similarly. Gentaro is kind of weirded out, but apparently not entirely turned off yet because then Nadeshiko points to a nearby ferris wheel, gesturing that she wants to go there. Gentaro takes her to the ferris wheel; as they’re nearing the top, he comments that they’re really high up. Nadeshiko nods happily, chirping “High! High!” with a smile -- Gentaro, surprised, says it’s the first time he’s seen her smiling. “Smile! Smile!” Nadeshiko says happily. That makes Gentaro happy too, obviously, and then he asks if she likes high places. Nadeshiko points to a skyscraper somewhere nearby, motioning that she wants to go even higher.
They’re on the rooftop of the building and Nadeshiko seems happy to be so high up. Gentaro tries talking to her, but then Nadeshiko is running toward the edge of the rooftop, climbing up on the guard rail like she’s going to jump. Gentaro runs and grabs her before she can fall or anything, pulling her towards him and ending up embracing her from behind in that scene from the trailers and stuff. Gentaro soon breaks away though, embarrassed, and Nadeshiko blinks at him before offering her hand for the handshake. Gentaro still seems hesitant to do it with her, though, and in order to get away from the subject, he decides to take Nadeshiko to the highest place he can think of: the moon!
They sneak into the Rabbit Hutch, making sure the rest of the Club is absent. “Good, everyone’s gone,” Gentaro says as he peers into the space clubhouse, and Nadeshiko nods, “Gone! Gone!” Nadeshiko is really cute by the way. Gentaro takes her out onto the moon’s surface in space suits, and Nadeshiko tries jumping at one point. Gentaro has to grab her before she goes too far, though, and as they face each other, Gentaro slowly leans toward her until their space helmets bump. Gentaro seems to have forgotten that they’re wearing the suits so he’s kind of cockblocked here, but then Nadeshiko pulls her helmet off and smiles at him. “Good idea!” Gentaro says, reaching to remove his helmet too until he realizes that they’re in space. And that there is no oxygen in space. And how is Nadeshiko alive?!
Nadeshiko continues to smile at him, but then she turns into this silvery gooey substance oh god what D: D: DD:
They’re all in the Rabbit Hutch later, and Kengo is explaining that Nadeshiko is actually a space substance called SOLU who specializes in mimicking other objects. As a way of demonstrating, Nadeshiko looks at the Burger Meal before her and then quickly replicates it with a flick of her finger. Kengo says that the SOLU probably just replicated the real Misaki Nadeshiko sometime before they met her and that she’s not real and all, so whatever -- Gentaro, who was sulking by himself until the point, jumps up and says that’s not true! Nadeshiko is Nadeshiko. Kengo tells him to stop being stupid, but Gentaro, upset, leaves the Rabbit Hutch at a run
Gentaro is sulking on one of those rises next to a river that you see in school dramas like Gokusen and Kinpachi Sensei; Yuuki and Nozama approach him cautiously. Gentaro sniffles and says something about guys being allowed to cry about four things or something (I forgot what they were, but heartbreak and when your old man dies were two of them I think), so he’s justifiably upset since Nadeshiko is... well. Yuuki attempts to cheer him up, saying that it isn’t like him to get down and stuff. Nozama meanwhile is playing with this blue sticky glue stuff on two sticks; I have no idea what it was but maybe it’s a kids’ toy or something. Yuuki gives Gentaro some inspirational words of advice and friendship, and in the end Yuuki and Nozama get Gentaro to cheer up again. They tell him that if he wants to make things right, though, he’d better hurry since Kengo is trying to give SOLU back to some organization. So Gentaro takes off at a run again, off to find his ~true space love~!
Kengo and the Kamen Rider Club are meeting with Kannagi’s cronies from Foundation X (it’s not like they know it’s an evil organization, they’re just in high school!!!) and is handing over SOLU in its container from before. But before he can give it to them, Gentaro comes charging in and grabs the container. The Club cries out, but Gentaro clutches SOLU to him, shouting about how it doesn’t matter whether Nadeshiko is a girl or alien or space glue or SOLU or what; he likes what he likes, and that’s all that matters!!
The audience is quietly going “No, Toei, no D:” at this point, but Toei’s probably done weirder relationships than this so whatever; Gentaro’s inspirational speech about free loving and all that somehow convinces the Kamen Rider Club that he’s totally right!! Gentaro opens the container and dumps SOLU out; it returns to being Nadeshiko, who hugs Gentaro and is really happy that he cares about her so much. The Kamen Rider Club goes “Awwwww.”
The members of Foundation X are not so easily swayed by cheesy high school romance, however, and get into action. Solaris (aka the Hot Evil Lady of this movie) runs at Gentaro and attacks, breaking him and Nadeshiko apart, and some other grunts start attacking too. Solaris grabs Nadeshiko and drags her toward this truck the Foundation has there; Nadeshiko calls out to Gentaro as she’s shoved into the back of the truck. The truck starts up, and Gentaro sprints after it and actually manages to catch it; he busts his way into the truck and kicks people around until he himself gets kicked out of the truck onto the street. The truck drives away without him and Nadeshiko inside.
Gentaro is out of luck -- OR IS HE?? Kengo shows up on... Fourze’s bike whose name I don’t know. ...apparently it’s called the Machine Massigler but I’m disowning that name; so anyway Kengo shows up on Fourze’s bike and apologizes, saying he was wrong. He encourages Gentaro to go after his girl and gives him the bike. And then Gentaro’s off again!!
He chases the truck to another quarry and I think it’s around here that he knocks some random Foundation dudes down as he’s doing so. They were carrying this briefcase, but in the confusion they drop it and it slides off to the side, mostly unnoticed (except by the camera). Gentaro somehow manages to get Nadeshiko back (though I don’t remember if he’s transformed at this point), and Shun shows up in the Power Dizer also... somewhere around here. One Foundation member has had enough of these darn kids and their dog (?) too, so he transforms into this big beast thingy. Gentaro and Nadeshiko hop to it, transforming into Fouze and ...Kamen Rider Nadeshiko. They fight and it’s all explody and awesome; Fourze and Nadeshiko end it by using their respective Rocket Arms and Limit Breaking the stuffing out of the enemy.
Once the battle is over (the rest of the KRC has showed up by this point), Nadeshiko and Gentaro look at each other and have a Moment, until Kannagi shows up and uses one of his weird powers to draw Nadeshiko to him. He grabs her as she struggles, then stabs her with some kind of needle-gun mechanism. Nadeshiko begins to disappear, the life being drained from her by the syringe-type thing, but before she disappears completely, she reaches toward Gentaro one last time. Gentaro is shocked by the whole thing, and demands to know what just happened, but Kannagi just laughs and shows him the Switch he just created from stabbing Nadeshiko with the mechanism. He says that Nadeshiko’s life force is contained in the Switch or something... or, put simply, that Gentaro’s cute girlfriend is now dead.
Gentaro drops to his knees and lets out a cry of despair (it’s a very good scream, actually). Kannagi, now having obtained his goal for the time being, continues to laugh and heads back toward a plan that they’ve got around here with the rest of his group. They leave behind the Foundation member Katal (aka the Token Black Guy) to deal with the kids. Katal transforms into a dragon beast thing and starts attacking the Club, but Gentaro is still too shocked and miserable to react -- fortunately, Gentaro has friends, and friends help each other out in times of heartache and need!
Shun comes in with the Power Dizer again, holding the dragon off until he gets knocked out of the machine. Yuki, Miu, and Nozama chuck Foodroids at the monster, and Kengo uses Fourze’s bike to attack until he’s knocked back, too. Even JK does his part, in his own way -- after getting knocked back by an attack, he reaches into his coat and pulls out a handkerchief, saying that although he’s useless when it comes to fighting, he can at least offer that.
Gentaro, moved by the efforts of his friends, slowly gets to his feet. The Club gathers behind him as he thanks them and pulls out his driver for one last stand. They’re all bruised and battered, but they’re on their feet, and together, the Kamen Rider Club counts down to Gentaro’s henshin. Now Fourze, Gentaro begins his final battle with the dragon, and there’s lots of Hyper Beams and explosions until Fourze finishes the thing with Fire States.
The battle now done, the Club gathers again in the quarry, being all smily and friend. Someone suddenly notices something on the ground and picks it up - it’s a Switch, for Super Rocket! They realize that Nadeshiko must have created it, just before she disappeared. Awww. I think it’s also here that they pick up the briefcase that was dropped earlier by the Foundation X members; looking inside, they find some very strange Switches and Medals...?
But before they can really make sense of anything, the sound of a bike can be heard, and who is it but Eiji showing up on a Ridevendor!! Eiji asks Gentaro for help, and of course Gentaro accepts because he’s Gentaro and because it’s time forrrrrr
Chapter 5: MEGAMAAAAAAAAAXXXXXXX
Awwwwww yeeeaaaahh Rider team-ups awwwww yeaaa
I could basically summarize this portion by saying it is ALL THE FORMS ALL THE COMBOS ALL THE SWITCHES ALL THE EXPLOSIONS!!!! plus two really ugly forms I could do without seeing ever. And it’s all fantastic (except the two forms, obviously).
But if you want to know more, then here goes:
Eiji and Gentaro rendezvous with Phillip and Shotaro in a parking structure. Eiji is the middle-man here so he introduces Gentaro to Phillip and Sho; Shotaro is all condescending about Gentaro’s Regent get-up, but as soon as he realizes that Gentaro has a Passionate Burning Fire Heart of Gold, there is immediate MAN BONDING!!!! Phillip watches serenely, but Eiji is kind of on a busy schedule here so he breaks up the bromance and is like “Guys seriously.” Anyway Shotaro is totally won over by Gentaro and it’s awesome to see Riders interact hnnnggg ;u;
Founation X arrives with some convenient timing (including Solaris from before); they all have Switches and turn into Orion, Chameleon, Unicorn, and Hound Zodiarts as they walk dramatically toward the Riders. The Riders can’t be out-drama’d though, so they line up and TRIPLE RIDER HENSHIN EEEEEE. W does his “count up your sins!” line, Fourze UCHU KITAAAAAAA’s (and freaks the fuck out of Shotaro, his poor heart), and OOO... doesn’t have a catchphrase cough*; anyway they get to fighting.
[*actually I picked up a funny gag comic about this. Have a bad-quality pic/scanlation of it here.]
Just before they henshin, though, Gentaro says something to Phillip and Shotaro, ending it with “senpai.” Phillip is obviously amused by this because a) he’s Phillip and everything’s amusing, but also b) he’s not used to being anyone’s senpai. He considers this new title as he and Shotaro gear up for their henshin and doesn't seem altogether unpleased by it. idk I just thought it was cute and awww Phillip
Anyway then they henshin and it’s all awesome. NOW IT’S FIGHT TIME.
W holds off the Foundation X guys while OOO and Fourze make for the plane where Kannagi is. The two confront Kannagi in front of the plane rocket thingy, and he sends a bunch of Stardusts/Kuzu Yummy/Masquerade at the two and climbs aboard his plane thingamajig
which basically means it’s COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF EXPLOSIVES TAIMU
First we get to see W taking on the four Zodiarts; W goes through each of his forms (Cyclone Joke, Heat Metal, Luna Trigger) and W-B-X is in the background and there’s all this beautiful choreography and wirework and aaaaa; eventually W goes into W Extreme and beats the living crap out of the Zodiarts, destroying them.
Over with OOO, it’s a WONDERFUL (get it) mess of COMBOS COMBOS COMBOS ALL THE COMBOS; OOO is changing Combos pretty much every second (he only uses the full Combos, not random ones) and the special edit of Anything Goes (the one with Shu singing) is playing in the back and everything is exploding and it’s really really really awesome and colorful and OOOOZU
Then we go to Fourze, who uses EVERY SINGLE SWITCH in quick succession so it’s a whole bunch of computerized voice droning out every single Switch name while grunts are exploding everywhere, with Switch On as BGM. I liked this because it was totally confusing and a huge mess but it’s cool to see so many Switches in action, since we only get to see a couple at a time during the show.
Eventually they beat all their respective enemies; W says he’ll leave the rest to the others. Meanwhile at where OOO is, a void suddenly appears in the air, and Aqua pops out for a second from the Future! He hands OOO a Combo of Medals; they’re special Tatoba Medals from the ~Future~! Why didn’t you bring Ankh instead!? Lauren demands, but OOO is grateful for what he gets as Aqua swooshes back to the Future. Fourze meets up with OOO again, and they use the strange Switches and Medals that the Foundation X members dropped before.
Turns out that the Switches/Medals are actually what became of the 7 Legendary Riders when Kannagi trapped them earlier on. By using the Switches and Medals in their respective belts, Fourze and OOO free the Riders from their weird, gimmicky confines, and the 7 Legendary Riders are back!! There are some introductions here, and Fourze introduces himself as the man who’ll be friends with all the Kamen Riders, Kamen Rider Fourze!! (Cue Amazon stealing the title of CUTEST EVER by happily muttering “Tomodachi~ :>” here)
I guess there were some grunts still left from the fight, because Stronger tells OOO and Fourze that they’ll hold the fort here and to go after Kannagi. Fourze uses the Super Rocket Switch that Nadeshiko left him, then, and turns into this ugly creamsicle-colored abomination of a Kamen Rider with two Rockets for arms. He takes off to catch up with the super space plane rocket thing that Kannagi’s been escaping in, and OOO grabs onto him and holds on for dear life, screaming the entire way. Eiji has not had very good experiences with Gentaro, has he.
They break into the space jet rocket plane satellite machine thing and confront Kannagi. He apparently hasn’t had the brains to use his new invention yet, but anyway now he shows it off to the Riders/audience - it’s a belt, with slots for Poseidon’s Medals and the Nadeshiko Switch. Using it, he turns into this really ugly monster thing because apparently the theme for this chapter of the movie is Explosions and Ugly Things. OOO and Fourze (who’s back in his normal State) gear up to fight, but Kannagi’s newfound power is so great that he easily smacks down the both of them. He’s faster than the eye can follow, he’s super strong -- he basically just tosses the two of them around the ship until he actually knocks Fourze out of the ship altogether. Fourze barely manages to cling onto the ship, but something happens and he’s knocked off completely and falls back to Earth, leaving OOO to face Kannagi by himself.
Fourze doesn’t die, though! Of course he doesn’t; as he’s falling back to Earth, he’s suddenly caught by the Power Dizer (I think Kengo is using it remotely instead of Shun driving it). Power Dizer goes into the Tower Mode, and Kengo tells Gentaro to use it and the bike to get back to the plane space jet rocket satellite machine... yeah that thing. So Fourze blasts off, abandoning his bike halfway and using the momentum to clear the rest of the distance.
Meanwhile, OOO has been getting kicked around by Kannagi. Eiji is totally not okay with this, being the secret control freak/normal human being who doesn’t like getting beat up that he is, and he pulls out the Combo that Aqua gave him a little earlier. Using them, he transforms into Super Ugly OOO Super Tatoba OOO, which is just... sigh. With this new Combo, however, he can actually move faster than Kannagi, who was already moving too fast for the eye to follow -- so basically OOO now has the advantage and makes his comeback!
They eventually take the fight to the roof, and Fourze finally shows up again, having blasted off from Earth with the bike (though he abandoned the bike halfway and used the momentum to clear the rest of the distance). Fourze goes into Super Rocket State, and together with Super Tatoba OOO, goes to kick Kannagi around in a very obviously CG-animated fight. Almost the entire thing is done in CG, and it looks... okay. There is a very very big and obvious difference as to when they’re using CG and when it’s live, though. Eventually OOO and Fourze use their respective finishers; Fourze’s Limit Break is also super-charged by all these ~feelings~ he suddenly gets from Nadeshiko’s soul, or whatever. They take Kannagi down in a massive explosion of Rider Justice and SEIYAAAAA (Eiji :’D), and the plane explodes along with the monster. The two Riders fall to Earth; Fourze uses Parachute to cushion his fall while OOO is a baller and has wings from Super Taka. The credits start around here. As Fourze falls, though, he’s suddenly taken to some other space that looks a lot like the wormhole connecting Amanogawa and the Rabbit Hutch. There, he meets Nadeshiko.
Nadeshiko tells him that she was happy to have meet Gentaro and that she made a whole bunch of good memories with him. Gentaro is awkward, but then Nadeshiko steps forward and puts her hands on his shoulders, then reaches up toward him -- the camera cuts to their feet, where Nadeshiko is on her toes. AWWW YOU GUYS TOEI ALMOST DID A KISS SCENE!
Gentaro goes back to reality and sees some sparkly (which we can assume is SOLU/Nadeshiko) stuff flying out toward space, as if Nadeshiko is finally free and where she belongs.
Back at Cous Coussier, the place is in ruins, but Chiyoko, ever the optimist/capitalist, is probably scheming to use it to her advantage by making it into some sort of theme. Gotou and Date are helping clean up, and Eiji and Hina are left being cute with each other. I forgot what they talked about, but it was probably something about looking forward to tomorrow and a future in which they can find Ankh again yes yes.
Later, Gentaro and the Club are at a train station. Gentaro catches up with the rest of the Club, but as he does so he sees a pretty girl bidding her friends goodbye - it’s Nadeshiko?! She says farewell to her friends, then starts walking in Gentaro’s direction -- Gentaro freezes, but the girl walks straight past him without even batting an eye. The Club lets out an unconscious sigh, and Kengo comments about how she must be the real Misaki Nadeshiko. Gentaro is a little bit shaken, but the Kamen Rider Club is there for him, and together they go off to do whatever happy fun Club activity they’ve got planned for the day.
After the credits finish rolling, there is the mandatory Second Rider Reveal scene.
Sometime during the night, a couple of stray Foundation X members are escaping down a dark alleyway - but they’re stopped by a mysterious black and blue sparkly Rider. The two transform into Masquerades, but this new Rider is hardly threatened; he displays how he fights, complete with the yelling and the craziness. Pressing a Switch on his arm, he uses Saturn to cut finish off the poor guys. Afterward, he untransforms into who we now know is Ryusei, saying maybe (I don’t remember, sorry) about how that was boring, but how things will probably get more interesting once he gets to Amanogawa High School. Dun dun DUNNNNNNNN~~!!!!
So that was yet another super-long and super-overdue write-up post from me!!
I haven't seen Gokaiger vs Gavan yet, and I'm not entirely planning on seeing it, but if someone wants to persuade me then maybe I'll go watch and do a write-up for it? 8D; I know nothing about Gavan, though.
Everyone have a nice day!