Saturday, August 11, 2018

Tokusatsu Review: Kamen Rider Heisei Generations Final Part 1: Kamen Rider Infinite (Spoilers)

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 Another year, another Kamen Rider crossover movie that doesn't make you want to rip your hair out. Which is good because just like last year's Heisei Generations it's actually cannon with this year's series; Build taking place between episodes 14 and 15 and before the True ending movies for Ex-Aid that I reviewed last month. So if you haven't caught up on Build then watch and come back because this not only fills in some plot-holes but also introduces certain elements that were reintroduced into the show proper. Also, in case you forgot here's the links to last year's Heisei Generations movie.

Part 1

http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2017/07/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei.html

Part 2

http://ondavidsbrain.blogspot.com/2017/08/tokusatsu-review-kamen-rider-heisei.html

 Now that you're hopefully all caught up we open on Sento waking up from a dream where he; as Build comes across Ex-Aid and extracts his element after taking out Paradox. Puzzling to be sure but here comes a quick pick me up in the form of two new Fullbottles, Doctor and Game. He asks Misora what's with the double deal but she doesn't know anymore then he does and according to her watch it's "fuck this shit O'clock" and she takes a nice long nap.

 In the topside Cafe Nascita, the usual shenanigans are going on. As he and Banjo Ryuga (Kamen Rider Cross-Z) shoot the shit Banjo tells Sento that the Ex-Aid bottle was real leaving Sento more confused then he'd care to admit. Sento gets an alert of a Smash attack and rushes to the scene finding  off color Bugster foot solders instead. Sento and Banjo transform into Build and Cross-Z but find that they can't damage the Bugsters, until Sento uses the Doctor and Game Fullbottles to gain the power of Ex-Aid, and just like Decade when Build uses Legendary Rider Fullbottles he takes on the appearance of the Rider along with the powers which he uses to wipe out the Bugsters. As Banjo tries to use a new power up Build gets knocked out by a blue gear monster who takes the Ex-Aid bottles.

 Banjo chases the monster to the Dam where he finds a giant metal hand that the monster calls Enigma, which according to him can grant him access to other dimensions.

Admittingly it's not the most conspicuous way of traveling between worlds.
Though it's probably just as ridiculous any method I've encountered so far. 
But hey if it gets the job done then who cares really?
 After trying and failing to explain the multiverse theory to Cross-Z the Gear monster decides to give him a first hand experience and chucks him into Enigma. Build finally catches up to the monster who runs away after shorting out. We cut over to the main Toei Earth where we find Banjo dumped into a literal land of confusion as he sees the Skywall is gone. But his confusion is quickly replaced with horror once the two worlds start to collide; both figuratively and literally!
Now I'm no doctor but you don't need to have played "Operation" to tell you that if one of those is cracked, you've got some major problems.
 It's not just our heroes who notice Earth's extra landscape but also Rule 63 Madokami, a whiny ghostbuster, a hobo with an underwear fixation and a teacher with a silly hairdo. Earthquakes start happening on Main Earth releasing Nebula Gas as well as the Blue Bugsters from before that go on a rampage infecting anyone they come across making more Bugsters. After the title card Emu and Kujo make it to the scene. Emu tries to transform but since Build stole Ex-Aid's elements he can't. Thankfully Hiiro, Taiga and Kujo are still active so they transform to fight off the forces while Emu, Nico and Poppy evacuate the civilians.

 After the Bugsters are taken care of the riders find the one responsible, a red version of the blue gear monster from Build's world called Right Kaiser. Funky Kong admits that not only is he responsible for the Nebula Bugsters but that they'll serve as the energy for Enigma which is drawing the earth together so closely that both sides can see the alternate Earths in their skies!


 As if an apocalyptic event like that wasn't bad enough; Hiiro, Taiga and Kujo can't transform again due to Enigma somehow disrupting their Gamer Drivers and Gashats, but Funky's still in tip top shape. He does the smart thing and tries to kill them in their powerless state but Kamen Rider Ghost shows up and saves the CR team forcing Funky to peace out after telling them that the world is doomed in 24 hours. But since they don't have Jack Bauer they're pretty much screwed. At a makeshift shelter Emu thanks Takeru and Onari (who for some reason is dressed like Jigen from Lupin the 3rd with an afro) for their help but Banjo arrives asking about the Skywall and Emu thinks he's Build since he sees him wearing the Build Driver.

 He stops when he starts to hear Parado's voice whose currently shaking down Sento to return Ex-Aid's power. Apparently Parado's been trying to find Build for 2 years when it's later revealed that he's only been gone for a week in the main earth. Blood Stark shows up to do what pretty much every main show villain is reduced to in these movies, play the exposition buddy. In this case he explains about the Nebula Bugsters, that they're Bugsters infected with Nebula Gas and that only the power of Ex-Aid's riders can destroy them. He also tells Parado that he can communicate with Emu by holding the Game Fullbottle to his ear like a phone, how he knows it can do that is never explained.
No, this is the boss DiavoOOOOOH DAMN IT YOU KNOW WHO I AM NOW I HAVE TO KILL YOU!!!
 It does work and the two compare notes with Ex-Aid's group deciding that the Nebula Bugsters take top priority. Back with Sento and Parado; Stark tells them about a thesis paper that talked about using the Skywall to gain access to parallel worlds published by a former Touto government researcher named Kaisei Mogami and that he might be the mastermind behind the world merger. He leave behind the Robot and Phoenix Fullbottles as a little gift before walking off to cash his cameo check. Speaking of villains back on the main earth the God Dan Kuroto's been released from his tablet to take on the Nebula Bugsters using the Kamen Rider Build Gashat that he made at the end of the series. It does work allowing him to transform into Genm Level X, but when it powers down after only 23 seconds he just devolves into a Tom and Jerry cartoon, shocking I know.

 It's not much but it's a start and only after Onari plays into Kuroto's God complex does he get started on creating more Build Gashats for the others. Back on Earth B Sento gets the info about Kaisei from Gentoku. Apparently he discovered the Bugster virus 10 years prior and used that as the basis for his Parallel worlds theory and began his research into Enigma. But the government obviously thought he was full of crap so Kaisei left to work for Nanba Heavy Industries. This information was provided to the Touto Government by his old assistant, Takumi Katsuragi.

 While he was with Nanba; Kaisei discovered a way to utilize the Bugster virus in conjunction with Nebula Gas to create the Kaiser system. However to power Enigma he needed much more of the Bugster virus to power it. Afterwords, after Katsuragi helped him complete these two devices Kaisei disappeared with the blueprints. This is confirmed when Sento discovers the research from Takumi's research files, including his many visits to Ex-Aid's world using Enigma. With this piece of information Sento learns that Takumi was the Build who stole Ex-Aids elements.

 How he had that dream is unexplained (Spoilers it was a repressed memory as I mentioned in my recap special Sento is an amnesiac Takumi) for now. The reason why Takumi would go to all this trouble was most likely because he knew of Kaisei's plan to merge the two worlds together and tried to stop it. Because he knew that if Kaisei succeeds then both worlds would be destroyed. So with this bombshell this seems like a good place to take a break for now. So come back next time as we continue and answer even more questions with that beautiful tool known as hindsight, also the highlight of the movie is just around the corner so get hyped!

Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.

Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai.
Kingdom Hearts is owned by Square Enix, Disney Interactive Studios, Tetsuya Nomura, and Shinji Hashimoto.
Exiles is owned by Marvel Comics, The Walt Disney Company and Judd Winick.
Bioshock Infinite is owned by Ken Levine, Irrational Games, 2K Games and Take-Two Interactive.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure is propriety of Hirohiko Araki, David Production, Tokyo MX, Warner Bros Entertainment and Viz Media.

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