Kamen Rider Den-O (2007)

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Kamen Rider Den-O is very silly. This can be interpreted in many ways. It contains an absolutely hilarious protagonist in Ryoutarou, with the energy I can only describe as "sad wet dog". The allies Ryoutarou gains along the way are all fun in their own way and they have a great, silly chemistry to them. Deneb is an adorable character. Den-O is very much carried by its characterization and its strong, well-written humor.

That being said, it has very many flaws in its writing of the plot. Spoilers Ahead.




There really isn't much of a plot. The series is, a large majority of the time, 2-parters where the group deals with a monster that goes into the past. There is a mystery that is introduced near the beginning of the series and does not truly elaborate on the mystery until the last few episodes. I was hoping even a little crumb of lore would be given, but the characters themselves even have issue talking about the plot. The villain introduced is very... Odd. I think the character has potential, and there are things about him that work, but at the end of the day he is introduced so soon it feels very sudden to finally have a single, solid villain. Overall, the series pushes too much of its plot into the very very back end and doesn't really give enough solid, story-changing lore throughout the series proper to say it has a gripping story.

Overall, I do think Den-O is very fun, but if you're getting into a Kamen Rider series for a strong/interesting plot like you'd find in Geats, Ryuki, or Build, you'll be thinking something is sorely missing from this entry.

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Satoh Takeru was absolutely amazing in this drama, playing so many characters at once, so many versions of Possessed!Ryoutaro. And in certain moments, it also allowed him to showcase his fighting skills, though rather rarely, true. I also have to praise all the suit actors who played the various Imagin!Ryoutaros because you really immediately knew who was in charge, which Imagin was at the wheel, just from their body language alone. That was so great!

But!

Despite all that, I didn't enjoy Den-O nearly as much as Build, my top Kamen Rider series. Why? Because even though Ryoutaro was the lead, the main storyline was not about Ryoutaro - at all. It was about Airi, Sakurai and finally Hana while Ryoutaro was, well, he was basically the pawn. Even Yuuto had a bigger role to play within the main arc than Ryoutaro, a red herring, sure, but for a big part of the story, Yuuto was the focus of the bad guys, so...

Sakurai was the mastermind, Airi the linchpin and then Hana the one it was all about while Ryoutaro... well, he fought. Sure, he made all of it possible but he wasn't the focus of the main arc. Compare that with Build where Sento and Banjo were the fighters and the focus of the main arc - and Sento even was the mastermind who went toe to toe with the lead baddie. It's basically the difference between action and reaction. Sento acted - Ryoutaro reacted. Sento played chess with Evolt - Ryoutaro was getting dragged along. Sento was Sakurai - Ryoutaro was Grease.

Also, I didn't understand why Ryoutaro gave up his train ticket at the end. I guess I must've missed something, it's possible because with all the time hopping and junctions and Singularity Points speak, I was getting a wee bit lost in how the rules of this world actually worked. Oh well... Maybe it gets explained in one of the movies? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Overall, a good series but for me personally, it doesn't top Build, not even remotely.

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