YMMV / Kamen Rider Zero One Others Vulcan Valkyrie

• Alternate Aesop Interpretation: The film is Anvilicious about the Cycle of Revenge, but eliminating the sources of the conflict did break said cycle.
• Designated Hero: Vulcan & Valkyrie tip-toes around the fact that Metsubojinrai have been forced into a Hive Mind against their will and aren't in control of their actions in favor of the narrative that the berserk Rider's antagonism is a deliberate Suicide by Cop by its components meant to instigate further peace between Humans and Humagears.
  • This has the side-effect of turning Isamu's rant to Sold 9 about the dangers of "justice" excusing terrible things into a Double Standard, as Isamu's Last Stand against the Rider gestalt only comes about because he ignores the signs they're Fighting from the Inside to convince himself they're trying to die; the idea of trying something else first not even crossing his mind. The end-result leads to the now-infamous Downer Ending that gets everyone involved senselessly destroyed.
• Designated Villain: While not a villain, the secretary of defense is clearly meant to be seen as an antagonistic figure in the film, yet he isn't wrong for wanting to fulfill the campaign promises he was elected on, nor is he technically incorrect that AI being given free will is what caused the whole mess in the first place.
• Franchise Original Sin: While not the first V-Cinema, Vulcan & Valkyrie was the Cinema that started the now-maligned trend of killing off major characters through Happy Ending Override.
• Narm: The otherwise amazing Transformation Sequence of Vulcan's new form is kicked off by Aruto screaming Isamu's name with a loud echo, sporting a goofy smile in the face of Isamu preparing to Mercy Kill their friends.
  • During his fight with Metsuboujinrai, Fuwa has flashbacks of his various interactions with the members of the terrorist group of the same name. While this is meant to be an emotional Really Dead Montage of his farewell towards them and the bonds he had with them, it only applies to Naki and to a lesser extent, Jin, since he never interacted with Horobi and Ikazuchi beyond when they were enemies, making the flashbacks where he is clearly antagonizing them jarring.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Valkyrie is horrendously underutilized in this film, despite being half the title. She gets only one fight as Justice Serval that ends with her losing her ability to transform, and she only does temporary damage to Metsuboujinrai's Driver that ends up being easily repaired.
  • Solds 9 and 20 are set up as newly-independent Humagears questioning themselves and their existences. Instead of developing their own outlooks on life with help from their predecessors, the reverse happens - The duo spend the entire film being preached to by Fuwa and Yaiba to demonstrate the Character Development the two A.I.M.S. Riders carried over from the show. Each of them receive a Rousing Speech and take some sort of critical damage in defense of said Rider's philosophy ( 9 getting roughed up by the Rebels and 20 protecting Yaiba from the berserk Rider) before relinquishing their Transformation Trinket and being Demoted to Extra. The ending attempts to Hand Wave this with the implication they've " inherited Metsubojinrai's will," yet the two Solds remain silent and motionless in the background of Yua's History Repeats Itself speech like the mindless soldiers they started out as.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Despite the film being titled "Vulcan and Valkyrie", we never get a scene of Vulcan and Valkyrie fighting together with their new forms.
  • Fuwa's interpretation of Kamen Rider Metsubojinrai as a collective suicide perpetuated by the organization's members to facilitate further peace between Humans and Humagears is used almost solely to rally Isamu against the berserk Rider in a one-on-one duel. We never get to see how much of Metsubojinrai is left within the data of the berserk Rider and said Rider never says anything to give them a real motive beyond killing everyone.
• Too Bleak, Stopped Caring: While Others is generally regarded as a decent duology of films, they're also seen as bit overly gratuitous. The series and movie were borderline Anvilicious about the Cycle of Revenge and how it can be perpetuated by retaliatory acts of vengeance and scummy manipulators. Others essentially reverses this stance and treats KR Metsubojinrai's Roaring Rampage of Revenge as the answer to everyone's problems - killing (literally or figuratively) everyone instrumental to societal change and treating the demolition of just about every outlet as a step toward peace by the end; effectively pushing a bleaker message that overrides the themes Zero-One ended on.