All spoilers for Kamen Rider Drive are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!
The seventh annual winter team up movie between Kamen Rider series, this time between Kamen Rider Ghost & Kamen Rider Drive. It premiered December 12, 2015.
Tropes associated with Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Ghost & Drive: Super Movie War Genesis are:
- Action Girl:
- Kiriko, as usual, during a fight against the Mooks in the penultimate battle.
- While they don't normally qualify as Action Girls in their own series, Rinna and Akari get a chance to delve into this trope when they join in the above mentioned fight scene with wooden boards as weapons.
- A God Am I: The Da Vinci Ganma often makes these claims.
- All There in the Manual: The first of the Ganma Superiors to appear is named "Ganma A" to distinguish him, being the only one of the four not to have a unique form.
- Alternate Timeline: Though this movie has a lot of details that prevent it from fitting into the continuity of either series, the Ghost Tie-In Novel reveal that the events of this movie occur in an alternate timeline created by a space-time anomaly that appears in the novel.
- Ass Kicking Pose: Subverted. The group prepares to perform one for the Final Battle… only for Shinnosuke to realize he doesn't have a transformation device. Then Double Subverted when Mr. Belt shows up on his own.
- Badass in a Nice Suit: Kiriko spends most of the movie in a suit, and she gets to show her skills during one of the final battles.
- Back from the Dead:
- As a result of a temporal mishap, the Roidmudes including Heart, Brain, Medic, as well as Chase are all brought back.
- Jun is briefly killed while trying to fight the Ganma as Kamen Rider Jun, but the hermit meets him in limbo and sends him back.
- Back for the Dead: The Roidmudes' revival gets erased from the timeline.
- Big Bad: The Leonardo da Vinci Ganma.
- Big Damn Heroes: As the Riders are about to transform together as a group, they stop when they realize that Shinnosuke doesn't have any transformation device. Cue the Tridoron bursting from the ground and delivering the Drive Driver to him, with Mr. Belt remarking that he knew this day would come.
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Takeru says one of Shinnosuke's lines ("I'm done thinking about it!") when he snaps out of his Heroic BSoD.
- Breaking Old Trends: This film deviates from the standard Movie War formula in a few ways.
- Previous Movie Wars follow a three-act structure; act one is a Grand Finale to the story of the previous series, act two is a new story within the current series, and act three is the actual crossover that follows up on the narratives of the previous acts. This movie instead tells a single, continuous crossover story featuring the characters of both series, akin to the Super Sentai VS Movies.
- Movie War films usually have a Theme Music Power-Up with the opening themes of the involved seasons (MegaMax, Ultimatum, and Full Throttle) or omit both theme songs entirely (2010, Core, and Sengoku Movie Battle). This movie is the first Movie War to feature a Theme Music Power-Up with the opening theme of only one season ("Warera Omō Yue Ni Warera Ari") but not the other ("SURPRISE-DRIVE").
- Every Movie War since the very first one has had some element of Kamen Rider Double in it; Double fought alongside the other riders in the first four, was represented by a Bujin counterpart in the fifth one, and Fūto Tower had a background cameo in the Drive portion of the previous Movie War. This is the first Movie War film where any traces of Double's series are completely absent.
- Butterfly Effect: This trope is explicitly mentioned verbatim when explaining how Shinnosuke and Takeru getting sent to the past resulted in the timeline changing so that the Roidmudes are alive.
- Call-Back: When Takeru and Shinnosuke are in the past and see Takeru's father alive, Shinnosuke has to stop Takeru from running over to him and calling him dad, warning that it'll just freak the guy out. Aside from common sense, Shinnosuke is probably speaking from experience, as he knows what it's like to have someone from the future randomly run to you claiming to be your son.
- Damsel in Distress: Akari's younger self in the past gets kidnapped by the Ganma.
- Demoted to Dragon: The Roidmude Executors are either this or a Big Bad Duumvirate with the Renaissance-themed Ganma. It's kind of vague. The Renaissance Ganma is still the final Big Bad of the movie, though.
- Early-Bird Cameo
- This movie features the first appearance of Kamen Rider Necrom.
- A downplayed example in the Ganma Superior form, which first appears in this movie. For context, this film premiered following the episode which introduced Jabel but before his debut as Ganma Superior.
- Evil Costume Switch: The revived Heart, Brain, and Medic are shown wearing all black clothes rather than their usual attire.
- Flawed Prototype: As he's in the past, Shinnosuke has to use the first generation version of the Drive system, Zero-Drive, which is by far the weakest version of him. Shinnosuke is just experienced and skilled enough to make it work despite that.
- Furo Scene: There's an extended dialogue between Takeru and his younger self while they're in a bathhouse with Shinnosuke.
- Fusion Dance: The Renaissance Ganma trio merge together to transform into the Renaissance Ganma.
- Heroic BSoD: Takeru falls into this after failing to prevent his father's death in the past.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Ryū takes a fatal shot from the da Vinci Eyecon to shield his son from it.
- In Spite of a Nail: The presence of Drive and Ghost in the past ultimately does nothing to prevent the death of Ryū Tenkūji.
- Kid from the Future: Takeru becomes this when he meets his father in the past, though Shinnosuke warns him to not make it too obvious.
- Lovely Angels: Throughout the movie, Rinna and Akari work together using their scientific knowledge. They cement themselves as this trope when the two head off into battle together with wooden boards, with Rinna calling the two of them the science sisters.
- Non-Serial Movie: Zig-Zagged. There are numerous issues that keep this movie from fitting well into the continuity of both Drive and Ghost, such as Saionji being alive while Makoto is Takeru's ally, the circumstances of Ryū Tenkūji's death, Ghost and Drive initially not recognizing each other even though they met in Drive's final episode, Shinnosuke being in possession of Proto Shift Speed, etc. However, the movie depicts Shinnosuke and Kiriko's wedding, which is known to occur canonically, the Tie-In Novel for Ghost reveals that this movie occurs in an Alternate Timeline connected to the main continuity, and supplementary information indicates that, ignoring the alternate timeline aspect, the events of this movie would take place during a time between episodes seven and eight of Ghost.
- One-Winged Angel: The Da Vinci, Raffaello, and Michelangelo Ganmas fuse into the gigantic Renaissance Ganma for the Final Battle.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Takeru calls out his own past self on his cowardice, having no ambition, and not appreciating others.
- Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: Akari has no recollection of her past self getting kidnapped by the Ganma, so she can't give information about how to resolve that crisis. Rinna tries using some helmet device to fish the memories out of her brain.
- Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Takeru is very tempted to stay in the past long enough to prevent his father's death. He fails.
- Series Continuity Error: In Drive, one of Proto Drive's biggest weaknesses was its inability to perform a Full Throttle Finishing Move, which meant it couldn't destroy Roidmudes permanently. This movie's Zero Drive, developed a decade earlier, can perform a Full Throttle. But then, this is only one of the issues surrounding Zero Drive's inclusion in this movie.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Rinna and Akari work together to create a wormhole-generator that can bring Takeru and Shinnosuke back from the past. Right after they finish the device, Takeru and Shinnosuke return in a time portal.
- The Slow Path: Da Vinci Ganma realizes if he waits for Takeru to become Ghost, he'll have more Eyecons he can swipe, and thus hides for ten years for them to return so he can claim them.
- So Proud of You: As he's dying, Ryū tells Takeru that he knew all along that he was from the future, and is proud of the selfless man he will grow up to be.
- Stable Time Loop: The end result of the film's time travel plot: Da Vinci realizes that Takeru and Shinnosuke are from the future and decides to just wait for Takeru to grow up, so he can not only get the other two Renaissance Eyecons, but the other ones he will obtain when he's an adult. This results in the time alterations undone with some minor changes… but Da Vinci marching on the temple in the present with an army of Ganma.
- Theme Music Power-Up: The opening theme song for Kamen Rider Ghost, "Warera Omō Yue Ni Warera Ari"Translation plays in the background during a big fight scene with all the characters, including the supporting casts of both Drive and Ghost fighting alongside the Riders (e.g. Kiriko, Genpachiro, Onari, and even Rinna and Akari join in the battle). Strangely enough, Kamen Rider Drive's opening theme, "SURPRISE-DRIVE", does not get played at all despite being used for this trope in Drive regularly and most Movie War films playing both series' theme songs.
- Timey-Wimey Ball: The effects of time travel on the plot are rather vague and somewhat confusing, though much of this is Hand Waved by an offhand line referring to the Butterfly Effect. In the end, it's a Stable Time Loop with some alterations to the past, as Da Vinci realizes part way through the fight if he waits ten years he'll be able to not only get the other two Renaissance Eyecons, but Takeru will collect more of them for him to steal, resulting in him being waiting for them in the future.
- Took a Level in Badass: Takeru's past self starts out as a whiny layabout, but he gets better after a serious reality check from his future self and the situation of Akari's kidnapping.
- Villain Team-Up: The Renaissance Ganma trio and the Roidmude executors work together.
- Wacky Marriage Proposal: While stick in the past, Shinnosuke decided to bury his proposal ring underground with the Eyecons so that when his friends unearth the Eyecons in ten years, Kiriko will find the ring.
- Wedding Finale: Shinnosuke and Kiriko marry at the end.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It's never explained why Mr. Belt was at the Tenkūji Temple in 2005, or why he was even a belt back then for that matter.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Invoked for the first time in a long time. The Ganma events in Kamen Rider Ghost are not only referenced directly, but somehow come under Honganji's jurisdiction - he's been promoted, but still based in Kuruma like all of Kamen Rider Drive was.
- Write Back to the Future: While in the past, Shinnosuke and Takeru decide to bury the Eyecons of the first two Ganma they fought in the past in a place where no one would find them until the others could unearth them in the present. Shinnosuke also uses the opportunity to bury a wedding ring so that he could propose to Kiriko when they dug up they Eyecons.
