Film / Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai

Spoilers for all preceding Toei tokusatsu entries up to Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle and Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen feat. Super Sentai is the third installment of the Super Hero Taisen movie franchise, following Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen and Kamen Rider × Super Sentai × Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Z. It is the first of these movies heavily leaning towards the Kamen Riders over Super Sentai, rather than focusing on them entirely. Toei allowed the fans to vote for whether Heisei or Showa won, much like the multiple endings of the 13 Riders special for Ryuki.

Some time after meeting the Toqgers and fending off the Badan empire, Kouta hears rumors of a strange new world being discovered underground. Deciding to investigate with Mai, they indeed travel to this new world and meet Shuu, a boy with the mysterious power to reverse objects. He wants to do... SOMETHING but doesn't know what, so Kouta and Mai help him out.

However, they are interrupted by Takeshi Hongo aka Kamen Rider Ichigou who demands Kouta hands the boy over and refuses to acknowledge Kouta as a Kamen Rider. Kouta doesn't buy any of it, but the discussion is interrupted when goons attack. Ichigou deals with them and lets Kouta go.

It's here that, when they return to Drupers they find none other than Tsukasa Kadoya aka Kamen Rider Decade, who tells them that the Badan empire hasn't been thwarted at all. He's trying to gather the 15 Heisei Riders together to stand against them, but the Showa Riders are making things difficult by trying to kill them, not to mention that the Riders themselves all have their own problems...

A movie celebrating the fact that both Showa and Heisei series have 15 members now, the show is a commemoration of all things Kamen Rider, and a long-awaited showdown between the two eras.

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Tropes featured in Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Wars feat. Super Sentai:

• Achievements in Ignorance: Kagura getting grabbed and swung around actually lets her execute a Death Blossom!
• Achilles in His Tent: It's implied that Takumi had never transformed into Faiz since Kusaka died, as he refuses to transform to aid Decade against Fifteen and suffers from PTSD that he doesn't get over for quite awhile.
  • On the other hand, the movie also shows Takumi recognizing X after seeing his transformation, which seems to be a tacit acknowledgment of Faiz's appearances in the previous crossovers alongside the other Riders.
• Action Prologue: This movie opens in the midst of the Rider civil war, featuring Stronger, Kabuto, Skyrider, Fourze, J and Gaim, before going back to the beginning.
• Adaptational Villainy: Downplayed. In Takumi's flashback to how Kusaka died, while it still kept that Kiba ultimately killed him (during his villain arc), there's the outright implication was that he was fighting with the Oprhnoch King during the final battle (after he made his Heel–Face Turn) rather than against him.
• Adapted Out: No mention is ever made of Phillip, who should be crucial to the appearance of Kamen Rider Double, leaving Shotaro to fight as Joker before returning as Double in the final battle (perhaps Phillip was in on Murasame's plan and was waiting for Shotaro in the Helheim Forest). There's also zero mention of Takumi being an Orphenoch or Delta partaking in the final battle.
• Art Evolution: When Hongo transforms for the first time, he gets a classic 70s-ish henshin scene. When he transforms for the final battle between Riders, he gains a brand new sequence.
  • It's also very Mythology Gag-laden: his first transformation is the first transformation effect in the old series (which ironically was actually Hayato Ichimonji's; the early episodes where Hongo was sole Rider did not have one.) with new effects. His second transformation is based on the later one. Also, before the effect finishes, the armor as it is forming is his original look (which underwent a few tweaks over the course of the original series and V3 before it settled on its familiar design.) Then a final burst of light turns the green gloves and boots white, the dark green helmet a lighter sea green, and brings the white stripes on the arms and legs, becoming his final Shin Form.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: In the opening conflict between the Heisei and Showa Riders, the giant Kamen Rider J shows up and defeats Fourze Rocket States with a punch only to fall to Gaim's Suika (Watermelon) Arms.
• Badass Boast: Takeshi Hongo gets one of the type that's badass because of who says it and how rather than the words themselves being grandiose. The first Rider, who's saved the world repeatedly in his series and in team-ups, makes a dramatic slow-mo walk as we slowly see him from the ground up. Even his footsteps sound dramatic, as is the music. We finally get a good look at his face as he steps into the light. How does the supreme badass, now the supreme Cool Old Guy, introduce himself? "I am Takeshi Hongo. I fight for the sake of people's freedom to the best of my ability."
• Bad Boss: When the Generalissimo joins the final battle, he opens fire on the Riders, with little care for the mooks that were in the line of fire.
• Behemoth Battle: Gabutyra, ToQ-Oh and DenLiner go up against the Generalissimo of Badan.
• Big Bad: The Generalissimo of Badan, the incarnation of the original Great Leader in Kamen Rider ZX.
• Big Damn Heroes: Riders 1, 2 and V3 storm in their Cool Bikes when Badan has Gaim on the ropes.
  • The remaining 28 Kamen Riders are summoned from the Helheim Forest, backing up Gaim and ZX against Badan.
  • Baron, Ryugen and Zangetsu-Shin return to take down Yamaarashi-Roid.
  • The ToQgers joining the fight against Badan.
  • Kyoryu Red and Gabutrya arriving to face the Generalissimo of Badan.
• The Cameo: Schwarz, one of Ressha Sentai ToQger's bad guys, shows up briefly to offer the Badan Empire the Shadow Line's services to put Den-O out of commission.
  • Famous Rider fans Kenichi Suzumura and Hiroshi Kamiya provide several of the Fake Shemp Riders' voices, most noticeably Suzumura as Kamen Rider Fourze and Kamiya as Kamen Rider Nigou.
  • The big guy who's dragged kicking and screaming to Jin Keisuke is played by Jiro Okamoto, suit actor best known for Kamen Rider BLACK.
• Canon Discontinuity: While Kamen Rider Ichigou is in his silver-gloves-and-boots 'new' appearance, Kamen Rider X does not go with his second henshin sequence. Probably because it's less interesting.
• Combining Mecha: ToQ-Oh combines with both the Kyoryuger Ressha (transformed from Gabutyra) and Den-Liner to form ToQ-Oh Kyoryuzin feat. Den-Liner.
• Continuity Nod:
  • In the final episode of Wizard, Tsukasa informed Haruto that they will meet again someday, and sure enough, here they do.
    • Kouta also recognized Tsukasa's Decade parfait because of his Early-Bird Cameo in that same episode.
  • Haruto compares the circumstances of Takumi's brief Face–Heel Turn to his own situation which allowed the Ogre Phantom to create the false Koyomi.
  • Poor Takumi still can't stand hot food, referenced first in the ramen shop and then again when dinner at Keisuke's office turns out to be a hot pot.
  • Although Takumi and Keisuke Jin don't recognize each other face to face, they do recognize each other once they transform, which seems like a nod to X and Faiz's previous suit-only appearances in past crossovers.
  • Shotaro's back to finding lost pets, and the ending even shows his "Be the cat" act again.
  • Tsukasa and Shotaro are obviously acquainted, having first met when the latter came to help the former in years back in All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker before fighting together in Movie War 2010. Likewise, Fourze coming to help his 'buddy' Wizard against Fifteen is a subtle nod to Movie War Ultimatum.
• Continuity Snarl:
  • Kouta, Armored Rider Gaim, does not recognize Hongo's use of the term "Kamen Rider" initially and needs a child to explain it to him despite learning what one is from Wizard in the last episode of his show, which implicitly took place during the first few episodes of Gaim.
  • Kusaka's death is entirely different from how it actually played out in 555, to the point that the "Flashback" is completely new footage. Though it's possible this is some kind of AU take on it.
  • The entire premise for the most part, as Showa Riders were not shown to have any kind of hostility towards their juniors in previous appearances where both groups appeared together. While some of it is for show for the plan it's still geniune to an extent.
• Cool Old Guy: Keisuke Jin. The man talks down a hostage taker and later beats the hell out of Badan mooks without transforming into Kamen Rider X.
  • Let it not be said that Takeshi Hongo and Ryou Murasame did not have badass moments of their own.
• Creative Closing Credits: The film has an animated sequence with the 30 Riders riding on their Cool Bikes past the historical Rider hang-outs including Snack Amigo, Cous Coussier, Jaracanda, Antique Shop Omokagedo, Coffee House COL, Milk Dipper, Café mald'amour. Humorously, Shin has no bike^note In his movie, Shin had used a motorcycle in human but not Rider form. and so runs.
• Curbstomp Battle: Gaim Ichigou Arms delivers one to Fifteen, beating the stuffing out of him. Probably justified by the fact he now has the skill of the first Kamen Rider and the power of the newest one.
• Darker and Edgier: Duh. Since this movie focused more on Kamen Riders, this trope was invoked.
• David Versus Goliath
  • Fourze and Gaim vs. Kamen Rider J.
  • Gabutyra vs. the Generalissimo of Badan, a good little T-Rex up against a big mean one. ToQ-Oh improves the odds somewhat but it takes the addition of the DenLiner and the resulting Combining Mecha to take down the Generalissimo.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: This trope is played straight not just for all defeated villains (Even the Generalissimo of Badan falls in the end.) but the Kamen Riders defeated during the Heisei vs. Showa war, the latter being a non-fatal example as the Riders are being secretly transported to the Helheim Forest while leaving behind Lockseeds to be collected by Badan.
• Demoted to Extra: Super Sentai for sure. It was well known there would be a big showdown 15 Heisei Riders on 15 Showa Riders and various cast appearing from both sides, but the only confirmation that any Sentai would appear in this movie was the title itself until ToQger and Kyoryuger were confirmed at the end of January. Even in the trailer aired with the Super Hero Time on January 26th, while the title appears on-screen, the narrator only reads Heisei Rider vs. Showa Rider: Kamen Rider Taisen.'
  • On top of that, the only Kyoryuger to actually appear in the movie is Daigo/Kyoryu Red, which doesn't help the accusations that he stole the spotlight from his own teammates.
  • Gets even worse when you include the fact that they only appear near the end of the movie!
  • Haruto's cameo amounts to a single scene where he talks down Takumi when the latter is briefly swayed by Badan's plans.
• Double Knockout: Several instances occur during the Heisei vs. Showa war. Firstly, Agito (Trinity Form) and Super-1 take each other out with their respective finishers. During the survivors' showdown, Rider 2 lands a punch on Decade, who uppercuts him at the same time, then Joker and Black fall to each others' Rider Kicks. Lastly, Faiz and X-Rider take each other out with their swords.
• The Dragon: In the hierarchy of Badan, Ambassador Darkness is this to the Generalissimo of Badan, but then he turns out to be Ryo Murasame in disugise.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Inverted. There was an hour long special teaming up the Ressha Sentai ToQger with Kamen Rider Gaim that acted as a Prequel to the film. It aired one day after the movie premiered.
• 11th-Hour Superpower: Gaim's Rider Ichigou Arms and the Kyoryuger Ressha.
• Evil Plan: Badan intend to place Shu in their Mega Reversal Machine, his power allowing for them to flip the worlds of the living and dead, reviving all deceased villains at the cost of life on Earth.
• Fake Shemp: With such a heavy emphasis on a grand total of 30 main Riders, this is unfortunately going to be a thing. Sadly, this happened by default to Riderman and Stronger due to the passing of their actors. Ultimately averted for nine Riders (Ichigou, X, ZX, Faiz, Den-O, Decade, Double/Joker, Wizard and Gaim).
  • This being the first appearance of General Jark after his voice actor Seizō Katō's death in January 2014, he is noticeably heard only grunting during his only solo fight scene.
• Final Battle: There are two. First, the Kamen Riders (feat. Super Sentai) unite to take down Badan, then the Heisei and Showa Riders duke it out one last time.
• Generic Doomsday Villain: Kamen Rider Fifteen has major shades of this. Though expanded universe materials give him more characterization. Ultimately, his reasons are very human.
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose: How the multiple endings actually work. In both endings, Ichigou wins his battle against Gaim. One through forfeit and the other through outright defeating him. The only reason why the latter counts as the Heisei victory is that Ichigou saw that Gaim was protecting a flower and realizes he's kind-hearted enough to protect even the smallest of life.
• He's Back!: Takumi's return to being Faiz, saving Keisuke's granddaughter. Then Keisuke kicks his ass.
• How the Mighty Have Fallen: Poor Shoutarou - he's been stuck hunting down lost pets. Tsukasa gives him so much trouble over it and one incident cheeses off Kaito.
• How We Got Here: The movie opens with Kouta joining the fight against the Showa Riders before going back to show how Zawame got embroiled in the conflict.
• Improvised Weapon: Kouta's uses Orange Arms, Strawberry Arms and Ichigou Arms in odd ways - he uses Orange Arms as a shield, he kicks Strawberry Arms at Fifteen to get him away and he makes like Kamen Rider Shin and brutalizes Fifteen while Ichigou Arms is over his head.
• In Medias Res: The movie begins with an Action Prologue showing fights between Kabuto, Stronger, Fourze, J and Gaim. They return to this part halfway through the movie.
• Insistent Terminology: Despite technically being made in the Heisei Era, Shin, ZO and J are clearly labeled as Showa riders. This is because Shotaro Ishinomori had direct involvement in their creation.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Kusaka's retconned death scene has him more or less calling out Takumi on his (initial) "hollow" behavior "with nothing to protect". As disturbing as it was, even he was trying to protect Mari to the very end. At the very least, Takumi seems to believe that he might have been right.
• Kids Versus Adults: Considering the ages of the Riders and their actors, it can basically fall into this trope.
• Leader Forms the Head: Played for Laughs. The DenLiner combines with ToQ-Oh, but Daigo says "No, that's wrong!" and literally shoves the DenLiner out of the way with the Kyoryuger Ressha, taking the head spot and forcing the DenLiner to be the legs (a fact which Momotaros complains about continually).
• Legion of Doom: In a surprise move, it's not Shocker or Dai-Shocker or whatever Shocker, but the Badan Empire, a group that only had one real appearance outside of Kamen Rider Spirits.
• Let's You and Him Fight: We got a third (fourth?) Rider War on our hands and the Super Sentai are caught in the middle.
  • Even better, the fans get to vote to determine who will win the battle.
• Make My Monster Grow: A heroic inversion. Kamen Rider J first appears as a giant during the war between the Riders, then resurfaces as man-sized when he joins the fight against Badan.
• Mooks: In addition to their own Combat-Roids, Shocker Combatmen, Destron Combatmen, and Chaps are also seen fighting for Badan.
• Multiple Endings: Much like the 13 Riders special for Ryuki, Toei held a poll where you can vote for the Heisei or Showa riders, with the winning side deciding the ending of the movie while the losing side having to wait for the home video release for an alternate ending. The endings:
  • Heisei Ending (winner): As Ichigou performs a Rider Kick at Gaim, Gaim spots a flower growing on the beach and tanks the attack. When Ichigou sees why Gaim did so, he realizes that kindness to protect even the smallest life form CAN be true strength and stands down.
  • Showa Ending: Gaim notices that Ichigou had been holding back during the battle, extending it to draw out his power. He acknowledges that Ichigou's kind strength is correct and stands down.
• Mutual Kill: Subverted. The aforementioned Double Knockouts are taken as this before it turns out that the Riders survived.
• Mythology Gag: Kamen Rider Joker (Shotaro's solo form from Double's movie) was heavily based on Kamen Rider BLACK, and Renn Kiriyama (Shotaro's actor) is a huge fan of Black. Joker's first fight in the movie is against both Black and Black RX. In the final battle, he even gets to both defeat and be defeated by Black when he and Joker perform their Rider Kick on each other at the same time.
  Shoutaro: Black Riders, huh? I feel an odd camaraderie between us.
  • During Gaim and Fifteen's final battle, Gaim leaps on Fifteen and "chews" on him with Ichigou Arms; this refers to how Ishinomori originally intended the Riders' "Crusher" mouths to be able to open and close like human mouths (which is seen extremely rarely in the franchise, most famously on Gills.)
  • Hongo's improved transformation at the end of the film has him briefly changing into his original form (currently dubbed "Old Rider Ichigou") before turning into his Shin Form.
  • Although she's a different Mari, Auto Vajin's main directive is still to protect Mari.
  • During the battle between the Riders and Badan, Skyrider can be seen fighting Suddendath Beta from the Fourze Hyper Battle DVD, the modified version of the first Suddendath from Movie War Mega Max, whose costume design was in turn based on Suddendass a monster from Skyrider's movie, Eight Riders vs. Galaxy King.
• New Powers as the Plot Demands: From out of nowhere, Rider 1 hands Gaim the Showa Rider Lockseed to match the power of Fifteen's Heisei Rider Lockseed.
  • Zyudenryu Gabutyra spontaneously transforms into a train, the Kyoryuger Ressha, in order to combine with ToQ-Oh. Turns out the DenLiner can join in as well.
• Nobody Calls Me "Chicken"!: The first preview trailer comes out and Hongo pretty much says that he doesn't recognize the Heisei Riders as real Riders.
• Original Generation: The new Rider, Kamen Rider Fifteen.
• Plot Archaeology: The Kamen Rider ZX special was originally made to promote a TV series that never took off. It's plot would be brought back however when the villains from it return in this movie to try to resurrect an army of past villains to take over the world.
• Powered by a Forsaken Child: The whole point of the Badan Reversal Machine is to take Shu and amplify his power to Apocalypse Wow levels.
• Power Copying: Decade transforms into Kuuga and Hibiki, and even uses one of Diend's abilities. Then there's Kamen Rider Fifteen, who uses a Heisei Rider Lockseed to copy the Wizard and Fourze Arms from Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Gaim & Wizard: The Fateful Sengoku Movie Battle and two new Arms representing Gaim and Decade; his Decade Arms also allows him to copy the first nine Heisei Riders' powers as he briefly demonstrates by pulling out Hibiki's weapons.
  • Beyond that, Gaim also gets his hands on a Showa Lockseed and uses it to assume Rider Ichigou Arms.
• Power Creep, Power Seep: One of the biggest fears from newer fans is that the Heisei Riders, with their multiple forms and Super Modes, would make their fight with the Showa Riders a Curb-Stomp Battle. While some fights are easily one-sided (Kabuto takes out Stronger with just a Rider Kick and Fourze uses Rocket States to defeat Skyrider), the Showa Riders are no slouches as well, with even Riderman easily defeating OOO via Rope Arm.
  • Notably, in their respective series, the Showa Riders were portrayed as capable of mass destruction, with Hongo/Rider 1 himself capable of tanking nuclear weaponry unharmed. Thus, it stands to reason that lack of special effects doesn't mean lack of strength, especially since all transformations, Stronger's electric powers, Skyrider's various special attacks and X-Rider's energy X-es that were once just the letter on a black background received the Big Budget Beef-Up treatment.
• Rearrange the Song: A remixed version of Dragon Road from Kamen Rider ZX is the ending theme.
• Retcon: In Kamen Rider 555, Kusaka died by having his neck snapped with no one noticing. In the movie, it's changed so that Kusaka dies in Takumi's arms, setting off his Heroic BSoD. Also, Kiba fights alongside the Orphenoch King, where in the series, he did kill Kusaka, but Kusaka had it coming. It's Kiba who wears the Kaixa armor in the final battle against the Orphenoch King.
  • The nature of Badan changes as well: In Birth of the 10th! they were merely another evil organization who claimed to inherit the will of the previous organization. Some monsters that had been killed before were in their group, but the plot didn't focus on them. Meanwhile Spirits had them as followers of an alien god who resurrects legions of soulless Undead to boost his troops. In this movie, they're depicted as an army of the dead who wants to break into the land of the living so they can enact their vengeance against the Kamen Riders.
• Shut Up, Kirk!: An odd variation. When Hongo tears into the surviving Heisei Riders because their attachment and will to bring back the dead allowed Badan to revive, Kouta, Tsukasa and Takumi fire back that their idea of casting aside their feelings is meaningless.
• Skewed Priorities: At one point in the movie, Keisuke decides to treat a wounded criminal that held Mari hostage. Fair enough when considering the situation, but then a group of police officers intervene to arrest said criminal, causing Keisuke to stop them via physical violence. Not exactly what you'd expect a Kamen Rider to do.
• Sliding Scale of Idealism Versus Cynicism: The main conflict between the Showa and the Heisei - the Showa believe that, to protect humanity's future, attachments and regrets towards the fallen must be cast aside and they must focus on the present and future. The Heisei wish to keep those feelings and use them to give them the strength to keep moving forward.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: True to his nature, King appears near the end to take the credit for the fight, essentially using his Ressha to push Momotaros' Denliner to the legs while he takes center stage.
• Stealth Pun: ToQ-Oh Kyoryuzin featuring DenLiner's finishing attack is the "ToQ Brave Arrival Slash", fitting for a train mecha.
• Stylistic Suck: X Rider's X Kick performed here as compared to it being performed in Movie Wars Megamax.
• Superdickery: Hongo and Murasame had planned the war between Riders, however, it ends up being subverted - their feelings towards the Heisei were genuine. Once the Badan were taken care of, the Showa were ready to take care of things.
• Super-Speed: Kamen Rider Kabuto uses his Clock Up to defeat Kamen Rider Stronger.
• Supporting Protagonist: Even though this is a Gaim movie, there's a much greater focus on Takumi, including introducing a new plotline that suggests he's a Shell-Shocked Veteran following the events of Kamen Rider 555.
• Transforming Mecha: Gabutyra transforms into the ToQger-style Kyoryuger Ressha.
• Unfinished Business: To cross over to the other side, all Shu needed to do was apologize to his mother, turning his last note backwards. Obviously, this would be a Spanner in the Works for Badan's plans.
• Versus Title: The conflict between the Heisei Riders and Showa Riders. Though the fight which opened the movie was an act, there are underlying issues between the two factions which are reconciled at the end.
• Villain Team-Up: The ToQgers' enemies, the Shadow Line, lend a hand to the Badan Empire due to their mutual goal of seeing darkness prevail over the light.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Hongo tears into the surviving Heisei Riders over their attachments towards the dead, as they were the reason the Badan came back. The Heisei Riders fire back that the idea is meaningless.
  • Keisuke combines this with Get A Hold Of Yourself Man by decking Takumi after he decides to briefly Face–Heel Turn.

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