So, Movie War 2010 was an alright attempt at trying to do the yearly team up with last years cast, while I, like many others, wasn't fond of the fact the film was essentially just two episodes of both respective shows with a big climatic battle at the end, while Decade's true ending may have been firmly wrapped in the series (meaning anyone just coming for Double would be confused on what half the story is about) the W portion was a good revelation of the origins into W's character and what had brought the two heroes together. Naturally, seeing as how I already watched Wizard and its respective Movie War, the format didn't change in the 3 year interval between W and Wizard, so its not like it can disappoint me in that way. But you know, sequels should always be an improvement, so this should be no exception, right?...I listed this as one of my least favorite episodes of OOO's what do you think?!
President Kougami talks about one of the greatest men to ever exist in the history of mankind, Oda nobunaga, and that appearently he has found his final resting place, (even though a google search can tell you he is buried at the Kenkun shrine), anywho for some reason, he decides to have him revived via a homculus powered by cell medals, the revived Nobunaga soon meets up with Eiji and the two become quick friends, but said friendship may be tested as a monster that is very similar to the Greeed begins to attack others and Nobunaga begins to act, well, like Nobunaga. Meanwhile back in the city of Futo, Shotaro and Phillip are fighting a pterodactyl Yummie and are soon helped by Ryu...without his driver or memory. Why, because Akiko doesn't want him to endanger and is more worried about her wedding with Ryu rather than the fact he is putting him in more danger without it...will get back to this. Anywho, she also bemoans the fact her father can't walk her down the aisle and wonders why he became a Kamen rider, which the Yummy overhears and uses the Memory...Memory(I don't name this stuff don't ask me) To show her, and the audience the origins of Sokichi Narumi, Futo's first Kamen rider, Skull.
So yeah, as stated before, I don't like the setup of these early team up movies, instead of feeling like this big epic crossover between shows, its two episodes of both shows daisy chained together with some connective tissue to give them a reason to team up in the end, and that's just the setup, while I will go over issues in Skull's feat W's portion, there a ton of issues with the continuity of OOO's portion, and I know, movie, these are sometimes never taken into consideration with Canon, their just fun little diversions from the main story for some better effects, with would be fine if it weren't for the fact that the next movie treats this as canon. Now one can just say that the movie takes place over a longer than average time, that it doesn't just take place within a single day or week but maybe months. And look, this seems very nit picky for a yearly movie that often exist in its own bubble, but the other problems of OOO's portion only make it more noticeable.
OOO's PORTION
So in the show, Eiji was a travelling hermit who extended his hand out to those he believed needed help, this was also probably meant as a deconstruction of the trope of the selfless hero who does something because he thinks its right as a way of Kobayashi making clear some of her distaste for the early era of Kamen rider in the showa era. But he was also shown to be smart enough to be able to often outsmart ankh and use him to get what he wanted, the ability to extend his ability to help others. What he wasn't was some saint of Vincent De Paul who handed out 5,000 yen bills to people who say they needed, but that's what we have here where Eiji after doing a job is just handing them out to a line of people. Now, why would Eiji doing something so odd and out of character if you've watched the series so far, well it just takes a simple look at the credits and see who the writer is, Toshiki Inoue.
Apparently, he was brought on to write this because Kobayashi was busy writing the main series and had to write a story that takes place around the 20's based of the rough draft for the premiere. Now like or hate the work he has done (I haven't watched a series where he was the head writer yet at this point so I really don't have full opinion outside of the episodes he wrote for Ryuki, and its special and film.) the way this portion turned out cannot entirely be blamed on him, why they didn't have one of the two backup writers (Nobuhiro Mouri and Shoji Yonemura) write, though maybe it was the fact that they hadn't really been involved yet, Yonemura came in about episode 11 while Mouri first wrote for OOO's after Tajadol's introduction so maybe they weren't involved in the series yet and Inoue was brought in because the two had worked together in the past, 8 years prior to OOO's and the fact that Inoue apparently doesn't like Kobayashi because he thinks her views about Kamen Riders showa era are disrespectful towards his father, who was also by the way, the man who was the head writer for the original Kamen rider.
Okay, most of what I went on is wild theory's on my mind and really have nothing to do with the review so back the pain, yeah Ankh also really isn't in character to, seeming really focused on the monster who is killing people certain people. Ankh in the series was only really a hero in the case that he was helping the heroes because he was getting something out of it, he was entirely focused on getting core and cell medals to make himself more powerful and getting his body back, he only really helped the heroes because he needed Eiji's help, seeing him taking the initiative on finding this monster more than Eiji was shocking to me.
As far as anti-villains, Oda is fine, as sort of a opposite of this films version of Eiji of a man with so much ambition and desire but finds himself incapable of being intent, that being said, he does lean a bit into Gary stu territory with how he is able to fix an issue with a computer program that isn't out yet just based on information he gleamed from books in the library that are, god knows how old. Again, this could lean into the theory that this takes places over a longer period of time instead of a singular month seeing as how he goes from a simple worker to owning the company, but that also can't save him from some very stilted dialogue in certain segments, for example after taking over the company that he initally helped he has a celebration dinner and they talked about the girl he chose to win is an ancestor of one of the people who betrayed him before, its extremely awkward and feels ham-fisted to give people a quick run-down about Oda's past. His monster form is alright, it gives this sort of demonic look but it just a little too simple for my taste
Oh yeah, their is also said girl, Yoshino Akechi, she's literally eye candy and an object that Oda is after in order to complete a collection of treasures, she also has the second most stilted delivery of a line when her leg is broken and she is all over the place with that, I think we could've gotten that she has lost a lot from her leg.
In terms of smaller matters, a bit of the way into the film the other Greeed (who really could've been cut from this film entirely seeing as how they do nothing besides this one thing which is completely contradictory) bringing up how Giru is back. Who the hell is Giru you may ask...Good question, I think he was originally going to be the Kyoryu Greeed before Maki was selected and this just comes off as a what could've been for the series trivia but it is ultimately pointless in the grand scheme of things. Oda also becomes Birth which may throws a wrench in on that whole months thing since their are only really two of them, the finished one and a prototype and this can't be the prototype since it doesn't have the red rings around it, so this has to be the official birth driver that Kougami gave to Oda because he shows a lot of desire, as far as sneak-peeks go, its fairly inconsequential in the story and kind of feels like it was thrown in as a sneak preview for the secondary rider.
Whether or not you feel that Inoue gave it his all for this or just pushed through to get this done is something others will have to decide, but the OOO's portion of Movie war core is not good, not counting the numerous continuity errors that are going to happen no matter how hard you try to fit it in, no one here acts how they are suppose to, Eiji isn't Eiji, he's gullible nice guy who couldn't trick a goldfish, Ankh is some anti-hero who is not concerned with medals and its just not OOO's, that the biggest sin against this isn't OOO's.
W'S PORTION
In terms of open stories that we have yet to see the end of, the Origins of Skull is probably the one's that had been finished, and what little we get of Sokichi from previous works has been good for him. The big elephant in the room here is pretty obvious, Akiko acting rather selfish in terms of how she treats the guys still being Kamen riders, but, it actually makes sense. Keep in mind, most of the people she has been close with recently are Kamen riders, and two of them have died, yeah Phillip came back but she lost a good friend and how it affected Shotaro, she probably is tired of losing people around her, especially Ryu since the two are getting married, it'd make sense why she would be against the two fighting. Granted, it doesn't help that this is Akiko we are talking about who probably wasn't on many viewers good side so its easy to not feel for her. Skull's story is very much a noir story, a much more toned down, sorrowful tale that the W's more modern mystery detective, and I do think it works here. Sokichi still is just as cool as he was in beginning night, but we get more depth from him from his relationships and how he is initially unwilling to use the gadgets shroud gives. That being said, the two major characters introduced are not the best, Sokichi's partner Matsu seems to work similarly to Phillip, but him not appearing in the main series tells you one of two things, he either dies in this movie or he is the main villain and ends up dying at the end, which ends up being the latter, and the way he is caught is rather contrived, you think he would try to hide a character tic he had so he wouldn't be caught considering you know, your detective friend is the one in charge of the case, while Melissa is fairly standard in terms of the femme fatale many noir stories do, the character that ends up puttingour character in a worser place before the story begins. The use of a spider and Bat as the main villain dopants is more a tribute to the showa era considering the first two villains were a spider and bat and I got to admit, while the bat dopant user is really kind of forgettable, her death is really funny, with how she asks for help from Skull but Skulls just like "Can't" I really like that in a sort black comedy sort of way.
Honestly if the OOO's story was more respectful to the series it would represent, this and that story would have made for a better sequel to movie war 2010, W's portion isn't perfect by any means, some of the new characters introduced for this aren't the best, but it has good heart, it expands the lore in meaningful ways and its more Sokichi Narumi, which makes it a little disappointing with how this all turns out.
WAR PORTION
In terms of main villains that go for it, what main villain, Kamen Rider Core is basically just something for the Riders to fight, who is core, he is created from the black core medals that were in Nobunaga and the Memory Memory which contains the memory of the kamen riders and the True Gaia memory, he is fairly generic in terms of 'Grahh, I am super powerful and the only ruler of the world." I know I haven't talked about Drive yet, but its movie war does this whole the foes of both parts of the movie thing a lot better in the way that one essentially consumes it to make it more powerful. But anyway, the main riders transform and spend a good bit of time getting their but handed to them before deciding to go under the hole that Core was birthed from and find a crystalized form of the earths energy that they destroy as Core comes down and the two call him out as not being a true Kamen rider and they continue their fight. Eiji transforms into Tajador when he about to be kill and they kill Core, oh and Birth and Accel kill the pterodactyl yummy after Ryu tells Akiko why he continues to be a Kamen rider. Shotaro and Phillip return to Futo while Eiji...Somehow ends up in Rio de Janeiro, even though Japan and Brazil shouldn't be opposite of one another. Akiko and Ryu get married and Melissa shows up to give her a message from as Sokichi walks her down the aisle in spirit.
CONCLUSION
Of the Movie war's I have watched, Movie War Core remains the most disappointing, while Ultimatum felt wound up in the whole legacy toku stuff which came at the expense of the rider's, Core had the makings of being better than 2010. W's portion is once again the best portion but then theirs OOO's portion, leaving aside the fact that Inoue had to work from a rough draft and stuff that was likely initial stuff as a reason to be less mean towards it, it still is not very good, characterization is far from what show was at this point, Eiji is treated like a complete moron through out, and the whole Nobunaga homonculi could've worked if it didn't dive into Inoue's worse tropes. If your wanting to finish out watching everything related to W then this is worth watch for that, but overall, its a disappointing follow up to what was a fairly average movie.
FINAL GRADE: D
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