Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Final Part 3: Pepsiman the movie! (Spoilers)

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Let's see how many of these guys actually show up for Zi-O.

 Now we've come to the conclusion of Heisei Generations Final. Take a good look because we might not be getting a good Kamen Rider Movie for a while if Zi-O is going the way I'm expecting it to turn out. I honestly hope that I'm wrong but considering the staff in charge of it; also the fact that Toei's anniversaries are cursed in one way or another Zi-O may be no exception. But that's a week from now so lets focus on Build and Ex-Aid. Here's the links to the previous parts of the review for those just joining us.

Part 1

http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2018/08/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei.html

Part 2

http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2018/08/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei_18.html

 Now that we've caught up we move on to Sento's plan to stop Cranky and Funky Kong from merging the worlds and destroying them, by merging the worlds together and destroying them..... wait what? Even Banjo is confused because it wasn't even 12 O'clock when the merger started. But the bridged worlds does give Sento and Parado a chance to ride the Enigmas to meet back with Emu and Banjo back on the main Earth. Sento gives Emu the Ex-Aid bottles back thus restoring his powers. With that out of the way the reunited hero groups as well as back up from the previous riders make their way to the Enigmas to stop the Siamese Psychos once and for all.

For the trailer!!!!!!

 Which is great timing since Cranky and Funky use the Kaiser System to assume their strongest form.

Behold, the ultimate ruler of creation, RC Cola Bot!!!

 The veteran Riders take on the Guardian Bots and sever the connection between the two Enigmas using their strongest available forms (even using their original battle music too) while Ex-Aid and Build take on Rc Cola Bot on the two flying Enigmas. At first RC Cola is holding his own against the two at least until Ex-Aid goes into Hyper Muteki Gamer form. That's when Cross-Z delivers Build's latest toy I mean power-up and Build becomes the one warrior who can stop the worlds from being destroyed by RC Cola.

 With Build's new Rabbit Tank Sparkling backing up Ex-Aid the tide turns; especially since because the World merger was activated prematurely Rc Cola Bot isn't an immortal all powerful god, just another jackass with a knock off Rider form and delusions of grandeur. So with both of our heroes delivering a full powered double rider kick they destroy RC Cola once and for all! Our movie then ends with Build and Cross-Z giving their thanks to the senior Riders before returning back to their world. We also get some small epilogues of our heroes getting either some closure or seeing their journey continue with renewed hope for the future. But after the credits we see Build and Cross-Z fighting Guardians and having the Phoenix and Robot Fullbottles stolen by the as of yet introduced Kamen Rider Grease.

 So that was Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Final and as usual I have some closing thoughts about this final ride for the Heisei era. First off it was really cool getting to see Eiji, Ankh and Gentaro one last time especially considering that this may be the last cannon time we get to see Fourze outside of an AR world scenario or Legend Rider Power Up or something like that. As I said before; this movie has to have taken place before Movie War Ultimatum because unless Fruit Jesus intervenes I doubt anyone can recover the Fourze Driver from a flaming hot smelter intact, for either party! As for Eiji we do get the hint that Ankh can be recreated in the future and perhaps this incident was the inspiration for the method behind that future resurrection. Though sadly there wasn't anything new for Ghost or Gaim, but I guess since there wasn't anything for them to wrap up and get closure for there wasn't a need to tack on anything unnecessary for them to come and help.

 Speaking of returning characters it was really great to see Foundation X as the villain backer for this threat instead of rehashing Shocker again. Just like in Megamax we see they're still continuing to improve and refine their Core Medal and Astro Switch research, even managing to recreate a dummy version of Ankh. Though thankfully they don't seem to be stupid enough to recreate the Purple Dinosaur Core Medals since those things are unstable and the antithesis of the normal Core Medals. It also seems that they've expanded their research to include Game Syndrome and the Nebula Gas making them a more dangerous threat for the future. (At least as long as Shirakura doesn't try to retcon them as being a literal new brand of Shocker or something stupid like that.)

 Though speaking of our villains both the Kaisei's are decent ones. Though their plan is more then a bit familiar. As I joked about in the first part of this review the plan of the Kaisei's really is a mash up of Alex Luthor's plan from Infinite Crisis and their collaboration seems to borrow almost note for note the collaboration between Yi Suchong and Jeremiah Fink in BioShock Infinite Burial at Sea Episode 2 except the Kaisei's are the same person and aren't trying to steal from the other. Merging both of their worlds together to create a new perfect reality for themselves and sharing their world's unique technologies to accomplish their goal. Though I have to wonder when they merged into Bikaiser did their personalities and conciseness merge together or was it like when Zamasu and Goku Black fused and they just became one being since they were both the same guy?

 Though one thing I did like with these two is the portrayal for both world counterparts of the same guy. Main Earth Kaisei was a loud obnoxious sadist who seemed to be much more enthusiastic about killing as many people as he could, especially the Riders; not surprising considering he's a member of Foundation X. Where as Build Earth Kaisei was far more cold and ruthless, more obsessed with attaining his godhood and getting his revenge on Takumi for not only the betrayal but also scaring him. It really demonstrates how the same person can be so different considering their circumstances and backstory yet still be the same person, in this case both were power hungry lunatics just with different flavors of psychosis. I have to admit that it must have been fun for Kaisei's actor to portray the same character but with radically different personalities, though I'm betting the costuming was a bit of a pain getting that mask for Build Earth Kaisei and the scar make up for Main Earth Kaisei.

 Just like with last year's Heisei Generations this movie serves to explain previously unanswered questions in Builds narrative and also serves to foreshadow the conclusion of the current series. In this case we get the explanation behind why Build stole Ex-Aids powers at the tail end of Ex-Aids show as well as explaining how he did it since that cameo was before the first episode where we learn it's an alternate Earth with the Skywall and all that jazz. We also get to see some narrative purpose behind Kuroto's Build Gashat though in both cases sadly they didn't lead to any Legend Rider form for either character's power set, which I speculate was due to budget constraints. After this movie the Kaiser System was repurposed by Utsumi to create the Hell Bros which only served to be Nanba's Bebop and Rocksteady. Also the world merging will be seen again, but since it was so recent I won't reveal how it was utilized here.

 So in the grand scale of Kamen Rider movies this is one of the good ones. The fights were nicely choreographed, the return of older Riders and their brief interactions were a treat and the threat was competently presented. Though there were some moments that made me scratch my head like the aforementioned time Takeru forgot he had the Ex-Aid Eyecon where it really could have been useful. Also I kind of forgot but why exactly did Onari leave the temple again? I mean I mostly forgot about the events of Ghost mostly because it wasn't really worth it but still at least he was useful to placate Kuroto and get him to help (even if it involved feeding into his delusions and God complex) but I still kind of prefer Heisei Generations since it focused more on Ex-Aid and was called back to more in the main story giving it much more necessity.

 Since Kamen Rider Build ended recently I'll just give my thoughts on it here. It was a decent series though some people complained that the war plot dragged on way too long and that Evolt overstayed its welcome. I can certainly see where they're coming from but for me Build is one of those series whose pros outlay the cons. The major pro was the acting from the main cast, especially Atsuhiro Inukai's portrayal of Sento, the best instances of his acting skills I've seen in the show was his PTSD after going berserk with Hazard Trigger and when he recovered his memories as Takumi, he really conveyed portraying a completely different character before that plot point was resolved. Like I said at the beginning I want Zi-O to be a good series, but considering the staff in charge of it I won't be surprised if it winds up pissing everyone off, only time will tell.

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Pepsiman is owned by Pepsi Japan, created by Travis Charest.