All spoilers for Kamen Rider Gaim are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
The sixth annual winter team up movie between Kamen Rider series, this time between Kamen Rider Gaim & Kamen Rider Drive. It premiered December 13 2014.
Gaim's section, titled "Charge into the Last Stage!", set after the end of his series, involves a new, unknown metallic life form known as Megahex. It crashed on Kouta & Mai's peaceful planet with the aim of destroying both it and Gaim. Kouta fought it at his strongest... but was still defeated?! Meanwhile in the now peaceful Zawame City, the remaining Kamen Riders, with restored powers, must take on a seemingly revived Ryoma Sengoku.
In Drive's section, titled "The Challenge from Lupin", the Special Division must track down Zoruko Tojo, aka the Ultimate Thief Lupin. It won't be so easy, as not only he somehow possesses the power to cause Slowdowns, he is also able to transform like Shinnosuke can, turning into the villainous Kamen Rider Lupin!. His goal - to steal the title of Kamen Rider itself. The mysteries pile up - Why does Tojo desire the title? What is CyberRoid ZZZ? And how does Mr. Belt fit into all this?
Tropes
- Alien Invasion: Megahex's onslaught especially when he calls in his army of clones.
- Assimilation Plot: Megahex's goal is to assimilate everything in the universe and become the sole supreme being.
- Back from the Dead: One of Megahex's powers. Ryoma Sengoku, after his gruesome defeat at Overlord Baron's hand, comes back as a Cyborg, having been assimilated and now serving Megahex. It also attempts this with Kaito Kumon, only for him to turn against Megahex and fight alongside his friends.
- Backseat Driver: One of the movie's funniest moments has Gaim shouting directions at Drive, who is very obviously much more experienced when it comes to driving.
- Big Bad: Megahex for the first part, Zoruko Tojo for the second, and Megahex again as ZZZ Megahex for the third.
- Big Budget Beef-Up: The Tridoron gets a lot more use within action scenes when they can actually afford it.
- Body Surf: Zoruko manages to survive his defeat by hijacking a viral core. That said, he now considers Shinnosuke his Worthy Opponent and thus is less likely to cause trouble.
- Brain Uploading: Cyberoid ZZZ was intended to be used for this purpose, but its intended user Krim couldn't use it due to the mental requirements. However, Zoruko Tojo was able to, using it to get himself a fresh, new body to replace his old and weak one. It's implied that it may have taken a toll on his sanity.
- Chase Scene: Drive's portion puts the increased movie budget to excellent use with an extended chase.
- Crisis Crossover: Between Gaim and Drive. This is the first time they meet, since Drive didn't have an Early-Bird Cameo, debuting solely within his own TV series.
- Ironically, this is the first since Core not to have other series' Riders to have a guest appearance.
- The Dragon: Mecha Ryoma Sengoku to Megahex.
- Decoy Protagonist/Supporting Protagonist: Kouta is this in the Gaim part of the movie. Kouta gets killed by Megahex at the start in which case the story follows Micchy and Takatora as they try and stop Megahex. Kouta does come back at the end to help the two brothers, but only after the two finally settle their own personal demons.
- Early-Bird Cameo: Mach can be seen talking to Mr. Belt in the Drive Pit.
- Eldritch Abomination: Megahex, a star eating Cosmic Horror whose power rivals Kouta's as the Man of the Beginning. And its true form is actually a planet. Given Kouta is now a Physical God, it's no surprise his enemy is one of these.
- Enemy Mine:
- Mashin Chaser helps Drive against Lupin because Lupin is a human using a Roidmude body.
- The Roidmude executives aid the Riders in the fight against Megahex because of its callous use of Roidmude technology, as well as because they disagree with the idea of an Assimilation Plot, believing in the importance of individuality.
- Evil Counterpart: Megahex is this to Kouta. Both being god-like beings who managed to survive Helheim's arrival, but where Kouta decided to start anew and make his own planet to rule, Megahex seeks to assimilate all life in creation.
- Evil Versus Oblivion: The Roidmudes vs Megahex. While the Roidmudes ARE villains, Megahex would absorb everything on the planet and remove individuality, so naturally they're on the heroes' side this time.
- Expy: Megahex is basically the Big Gete Star. Including the ability to make numerous clones of itself until finally having its core destroyed.
- In the context of Gaim's story, Megahex is a robotic Expy of DJ Sagara, as both are the avatars for a massive, powerful, extraterrestrial collective that seeks evolution.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: During the fight scene between Chase and some numberless Roidmudes, one can see Fuuto Tower in the background.
- Floating Continent: Kouta's planet is more or less composed of these with a central pillar going up through the middle and a massive land mass composing most of the bottom.
- Flying Car: The Tridoron becomes this with the power of Shift Fruits. The connection between oranges and space travel is left for the viewer to puzzle over, though it might be related to Gaim introducing himself to Drive as "some kind of Space God."
- Foreshadowing:
- Riders and Roidmudes fighting on the same side? Ridiculous!!...However, it later occurs near the end of Drive.
- Megahex's plans closely mirror those of Banno.
- Fūto Tower can be seen in the background during Chaser's battle with Lupin's numberless Roidmudes. In Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser, Tōkyō and Fūto are shown to be adjacent to each other, and there's a jurisdiction conflict between the Special Investigations Unit and the Fūto City Police Department over the comatose body of a shared suspect laying on that border.
- Fusion Dance: Megahex combines itself with the CyberRoid ZZZ, to become the movie's Big Bad, Megahex ZZZ.
- Irony: The Megahex mechanized themselves and their planet to survive infestation by Helheim, and then proceeded to start assimilating planets like a mechanical Helheim. Since there's no golden fruit and no evolution for the species assimilated, Megahex is actually WORSE.
- Mook Maker: Megahex.
- Mooks: Megahex creates its own army of Mecha Inves and Mecha Roidmudes, based on their pre-Monster of the Week forms respectively, Elementary Inves and Low-Class Roidmudes. Lupin also creates a trio of his own Roidmudes, one for each animal type, via his Lupin Gunner.
- Non-Serial Movie: Averted. Gaim's story is the Grand Finale for the series, while Drive's portion is referenced in the show proper. Adding the fact that Type Technic appears in the movie enables us to pinpoint the exact placement is the show's timeline - between episodes 9 and 10.
- No-Sell: When Mitsuzane approaches Megahex's compound, the Mecha Roidmudes he faces quickly shrug off blasts from his gun.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Megahex's actions allows Takatora to regain both of his Armored Rider Zangetsu powers. As Zangetsu, he duels and wins against Cyborg!Ryouma while Micchy saves Mai. Then as Zangetsu Shin, he manages to steal the Kiwami Lockseed Megahex had on it which allows Kouta to return.
- Not Quite Dead:
- During their fight at the beginning, Kouta seemingly destroys Megahex, only for it to step out of a portal behind Kouta unharmed. Justified, as Kouta did destroy Megahex, just there happens to be multiple avatars. Megahex's core has to be destroyed to actually put it down.
- Kouta is seemingly killed by Megahex in their first fight, but managed to back himself up in the Kiwami Lockseed, allowing him to resurrect later.
- Outside-Context Problem: Megahex is an out-of-context villain who seemingly appears just to wreck Kouta's planet. Subverted however, as Cyborg!Ryoma later exposes that Megahex was how one planet managed to solve the Helheim Forest's problem.
- Megahex is absolutely this from the perspective of Drive. It literally shows up out of nowhere, merges with the burnt-out Roidmude body of Cyberoid ZZZ, and flies off. It has no other connection to any of the backstory and lore of Drive.
- Person of Mass Destruction: Megahex is basically a walking Robot Apocalypse.
- Planet Eater: Megahex.
- Power Copying: As is tradition for recent crossovers. Drive and Gaim get to exchange their forms, with Drive assuming Type Fruits to use Orange Arms' powers, Daidaimaru and Musou Saber, while Gaim gets to use Drive Arms, getting access to Type Speed's abilities as well as the Handle Sword. As an added bonus, Tridoron turns into A SPACE CAR.
- Kiwami Gaim uses his powers to lend the weapons of the other Armored Riders to his allies.
- Resistance Is Futile: Megahex says this a few times.
- Scenery Porn: There are some GORGEOUS shots of Kouta and Mai's planet.
- Shout-Out: The final battle on Planet Megahex manages to combine Down L.A. Drain with the trench run from A New Hope!
- And the fake Roidmude/Inves army turns out to be a Keystone Army just like the Chitauri.
- Soul Jar:
- Turns out Kouta turned the Kiwami Lockseed into his.
- Megahex's core back on its planet of origin is this for it. So long as Planet Megahex is still active, destroying its bodies is pointless as it will make more copies.
- Zoruko gains a Roidmude-style core as a result of merging with Cyberoid ZZZ, allowing him to survive his defeat.
- Third-Person Person: Megahex tends to refer to itself in the third person.
- Villainous Breakdown: Megahex has one in response to Takatora stealing back the Kiwami Lockkseed from it. It has to take a few moments to process the amount of rage it's feeling.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Megahex sincerely seems to believe that its Assimilation Plot is the ultimate form of evolution, and thus is making beings become the Ultimate Lifeform by absorbing them.
- The Roidmude Count: 90
