Film / Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen

Spoilers for all preceding Toei tokusatsu entries up to Kamen Rider × Kamen Rider Fourze & OOO: Movie War Mega Max and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger will be left unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

New Heroic Century: The Biggest Hero Battle!

Gokai Red: Each and every Rider... I will defeat!
Kamen Rider Decade: In that case, each and every Sentai... I will defeat.

Kamen Rider × Super Sentai: Super Hero Taisen is a film (released April 21, 2012) that pits Toei's two most prominent Toku franchises against one another in a giant Crossover battle. Captain Marvelous, AKA Gokai Red, has formed Dai-Zangyack and attacks the Kamen Rider universe, hoping to claim their Grand Powers and the Ultimate Treasure in the Universe, mainly assisted by the freshly renamed Rider Hunter Silva. Opposing them is Dai-Shocker, reformed by Doctor G and again led by Tsukasa Kadoya AKA Kamen Rider Decade AKA Great Leader. Meanwhile, Rangers and Riders on both sides of the conflict are left wondering what's going on and why they're even fighting to begin with.

Oh, and it features nearly 300 Rangers, Riders and villains fighting alongside one another.

• Main Cast:
  • Kamen Rider Decade: Tsukasa Kadoya/Decade (Masahiro Inoue), Daiki Kaitou/Diend (Kimito Totani), Narutaki (Tatsuhito Okuda)
  • Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger: Captain Marvelous/Gokai Red (Ryota Ozawa), Joe Gibken/Gokai Blue (Yuki Yamada), Luka Millfy/Gokai Yellow (Mao Ichimichi), Don Dogoier/Gokai Green (Kazuki Shimizu), Ahim de Famille/Gokai Pink (Yui Koike), Gai Ikari/Gokai Silver (Junya Ikeda)
  • Kamen Rider Fourze: Gentaro Kisaragi/Fourze (Souta Fukushi), Ryusei Sakuta/Meteor (Ryo Yoshizawa), the Kamen Rider Club
  • Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters: Hiromu Sakurada/Red Buster (Katsuhiro Suzuki), Ryuji Iwasaki/Blue Buster (Ryoma Baba), Yoko Usami/Yellow Buster (Arisa Komiya)
• Supporting Cast:
  • Kamen Rider Den-O: Momotaros/Den-O Sword Form (Toshihiko Seki), Owner (Kenjiro Ishimaru), Naomi (Rina Akiyama)
  • Kamen Rider OOO: Eiji Hino/OOO (Shu Watanabe), Hina Izumi (Riho Takada)
  • Choudenshi Bioman: Bio/Rider Hunter Silva (Kazuo Hayashi)

It was followed up in the Super Hero Taisen movie series by Kamen Rider × Super Sentai × Space Sheriff: Super Hero Taisen Z.

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This movie contains examples of the following tropes:

• Action Prologue: The movie opens with Captain Marvelous taking on the Seven Legendary Riders single-handed.
• All Your Base Are Belong to Us: Dai-Zangyack launches an attack on Amanogawa High School specifically to bring out Fourze so they can defeat him.
• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Big Machine, which was intended to be used by the Shocker-Zangyack Alliance but ends up hijacked by Kaito who, pissed off after being deceived by Tsukasa, uses it to vent on all the heroes.
• Awesome, yet Impractical: Don't misunderstand, having 200+ stunt actors to get in the suits and have at least one screen appearance is an amazing feat. However, action scenes can't include all of them fighting at once and admittedly it takes a lot of money to do this in the first place so they probably couldn't do it even if they had the time.
• Back from the Dead: A shedload of villains from both Kamen Rider and Super Sentai, as this movie features the return of Dai-Shocker and the introduction of Dai-Zangyack. Though admittedly Dai-Zangyack's range of villains is far less diverse than Dai-Shocker, while the latter has many villains from both the Showa and Heisei eras, Dai-Zangyack mostly has villains from the past few years and only two Showa villains, though it helps that one of them (Rider (nee Bio) Hunter Silva) becomes the top dog of Dai-Zangyack. Literally every single villain in this movie, whether they are from Dai-Shocker or Dai-Zangyack, has been brought back from the dead (with the exception of Dai-Shocker's Doktor G, since he's actually Narutaki in disguise; also not counted is Kamen Rider Diend, who is just an Anti-Hero who decided to be a dick at the end)
  • An interesting case occurs when Joe and Don with Daiki and Hina travel via the DenLiner to 1976, the days of Himitsu Sentai Gorenger, where they encounter Baseball Mask, the Monster of the Week of Gorenger #53, witnessing his destruction at the hands of Akaranger (actually a Gokai Changed Gokai Red who is also trying his best Akaranger voice impression). This is not a depiction of his original demise, so he must have been brought back to be killed a second time.
• Back-to-Back Badasses: ALL OVER THE GODDAMN PLACE in the final battle. On both sides. You want an example? Seriously, you can literally take your freaking pick as it happens more than once, both with Riders and Sentai, Sentai and Sentai, Riders and Riders, and even various Villains doing it with other villains!!
• Bad Boss: When Warz and Akudos are enlarged, they open fire on the Riders and Sentai, with little care for the mooks that were in the line of fire.
• Behemoth Battle: Go-Buster Oh against Warz and Akudos Gill, then the Big Machine.
• Big Bad: Starts out as an Ensemble between Tsukasa and Marvelous, but it's really a Duumvirate between Narutaki/the fake Doktor G and Silva.
• Big Badass Battle Sequence: Kamen Riders and Super Sentai vs. Shocker-Zangyack Alliance.
• Big Damn Heroes: The Gokaigers (sans Marvelous) get two of these: First when they jump in to fight the Dai-Zangyack monsters harassing Fourze, then when they swoop in to protect the Go-Busters from Dai-Zangyack.
• The Cameo: Ryosuke Sakamoto, Yudai Chiba, Asaya Kimijima and Hiroaki Iwanaga provide voiceovers for their characters (Red One, Gosei Red, Kamen Rider Birth and Birth Prototype respectively), but don't appear out of costume.
• Co-Dragons: Dai-Shocker and Dai-Zangyack both have a bunch.
  • Dai-Shocker has Apollo Geist, General Shadow, Shadow Moon, General Jark, Doras, N-Daguva-Zeba, El of the Ground, Nurikabe's Douji, Arch Orphnoch, Joker, Gryllus Worm, Bat Fangire, Alligator Imagin, Ten-Faced Demon Llumu Qhimil, Weather Dopant and Mezool.
  • Dai-Zangyack has the Black Cross King, Hades God Dagon, Ashu Questers Gai & Rei, Rageku, Long, Yogoshimacritein, Dokoku Chimatsuri, Brajira of the Messiah, Warz and Akudos Gill.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The Gokaigers change into their respective colors or the closest match when using OOO's combos. Which means that, for better or worse, Gai gets the gray SaGoZo Mighty Glacier form, while the purple PuToTyra Super Mode goes to Ahim.
• Combining Mecha: Dai-Zangyack and Dai-Shocker combine their spaceships (Crisis Fortress and Gigant Horse) into a Humongous Mecha simply called "Big Machine".
• Continuity Nod
  • Don recognises Baseball Mask, having seen him in Gokaiger the Movie.
  • A subtle one occurs as Joe and Don do not take the sight of Decade "killing" the Goseigers well, keeping in mind that the Gokaigers fought alongside them.
• Counterpart Combat Coordination: All over the place.
  • Kamen Rider Decade vs. Gokai Red (Power Copying)
    • Kamen Rider Blade vs. Spade Ace (Playing Card Motifs, specifically the Ace of Spades)
    • Kamen Rider Hibiki vs. Battle Japan (combat artists based on Japanese culture)
    • Kamen Rider Ryuki vs. Geki Red (animal summoning, specifically Tiger Versus Dragon)
    • Kamen Rider 1 vs. Akarenger (First Installment Wins)
  • Decade vs. Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters
    • Kamen Rider Faiz vs. all 3 Go-Busters (Shoe Phone gear)
    • Kamen Rider Kabuto vs. Red Buster (Super-Speed)
  • Gokai Red vs. Kamen Rider Fourze (Elemental Powers)
    • Denzi Red vs. Fourze Elek States (Shock and Awe)
    • Magi Red vs. Fourze Fire States (Playing with Fire)
  • Gokai Red vs. Seven Legendary Riders:
    • Red One (Cybernetic heroes, except for Amazon)
    • Ninja Red: Training from Hell
  • Decade vs. Tensou Sentai Goseiger (Cards of Power)
• Crazy-Prepared: Kaito on his travels made sure to steal a cup of pudding from the Den Liner, which he uses to have Momotaros immediately sniff him out and bring the train to his immediate location, just in case he'd ever need to time travel at some point.
• Crisis Crossover: Comes naturally as Dai-Zangyack and Dai-Shocker make it their mission to wipe out all the Kamen Riders and Super Sentai respectively.
• David Versus Goliath: Go-Buster Oh is dwarfed and overwhelmed by the Big Machine. It is only through Fourze's Astroswitches augmenting Go-Buster Oh that the Big Machine is destroyed.
• Defeat Equals Explosion: Played straight for every villain we see getting destroyed. We also have a couple of non-fatal examples with Narutaki appearing after the explosion of Kani Laser and Diend surviving the destruction of the Big Machine.
• Demoted to Dragon: Major villains playing second fiddle to a Rider and a Sentai warrior? They're not doing so intentionally but Marvelous and Tsukasa do play them all for fiddles to screw their plans.
• Demoted to Extra: The initial press release stated that around 200 Sentai warriors will be featured in the movie, implying that all the heroes who were in 199 Heroes were going to be in it alongside the initial Go-Busters roster. However, the final lineup of Rangers was reduced down to 173. None of the sixth rangers and other extra heroes were featured with the exception of Gokai Silver and some of the non-sixth extras were missing as well (specifically the Gouraigers, Abare Black and Abare Killer; Geki Violet and Chopper also make cameos in a flashback and in the background during the final fight when Den-O Rod Form, Den-O Gun Form and Den-O Ax Form trip into a puddle). On the other hand, the number of Riders was increased from the initial 40 to 50.
  • Justified Trope: Every one of those suits requires a person in a suit, making it a logistical and money challenge. Also, even with reducing Sentai's numbers and adding to Rider's numbers, all pictures of all the heroes still have the Sentai out number the Riders. Toei just made the numbers more even, or as even as possible when one show has a new Five-Man Band or at least a team of three for almost every one of its 35 years and another only got one hero per series until very recently and even then rarely getting to 5 Riders or more.
  • One of the most notable ones in the villain side is probably the Black Cross King from Himitsu Sentai Gorenger and Gokaiger Goseiger Super Sentai 199 Hero Great Battle. He goes from being the first main villain of the Super Sentai franchise and the main villain of a movie where almost all Super Sentai powers needed to be used to defeat him to just a minor Dai-Zangyack general without much importance to the story who's defeated by Kamen Rider Double and Kamen Rider Accel in a Deleted Scene (thus, all he does in the final film is, uhhh, stand around). Meanwhile, the first villain of the Kamen Rider franchise, the Great Leader, is represented here by one of the protagonists, Kamen Rider Decade, who is the nominal leader of Dai-Shocker and yet again takes the name Great Leader.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: As the first major post show Gokaiger appearance it seems to make it look as if the Gokaiger gained the ability to Gokai Change to any other team entirely on their own power as they can do it here despite all the other Sentai teams still being active and fighting alongside them. After this though it would establish that unless they seek out the other teams and borrow their powers with the other teams permission then they can only use their regular Gokaiger forms.
• Easily Forgiven: After it's revealed that it was all a ploy, no one seems to mind that Tsukasa and Marvelous went went around assaulting other heroes left and right on what looked very much like a serial killing spree. The only exception is Diend, who's so pissed that he becomes the Final Boss, and even he's immediately forgiven for that.
• Evil Plan: While seemingly opposing each other, Dai-Shocker and Dai-Zangyack's plan all along was to wipe out the Sentai and Riders, then come together and combine their flagships into the Big Machine. Tsukasa and Marvelous were aware of this plan, and so played Fake Defector to draw it out.
• Evil Versus Evil: Dai-Zangyack vs. Dai-Shocker, before they drop the act.
• Fake Defector: Tsukasa becomes Great Leader of Dai-Shocker again, while Marvelous becomes Emperor of Dai-Zangyack. In reality, they are both playing the villains.
• Fake Shemp: Inevitable, even before one takes into account the actors who died, retired from acting, or are too busy.
• Final Battle: All the assembled Riders and Sentai against the Shocker-Zangyack Alliance.
• Forshadowing: Gokai Red and Decade notably always go out of their way to land the killing blow on every Rider and Sentai member, frequently abandoning a current opponent to rush over and kill steal from someone else who was winning just fine and about to finish them themselves.Since they aren't really killing them and would want to stop them from actually dying.
• Hijacked by Ganon: Inverted. In a movie with Akudos Gil, the Black Cross King, and Narutaki, the one piloting Big Machine is Diend.
  • Well, at least Narutaki is part of the Big Bad Duumvirate. But the other member? Silva.
• Jerkass: Diend. He takes it to the next level by stealing and piloting the Big Machine...simply because he feels emotionally betrayed by Tsukasa who didn't inform him of his gambit beforehand.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Many were shocked at Diend's turn towards the end of the movie, but it is understandable he would want to get back at Tsukasa and Marvelous, he did have a point. Compared to Joe who went from being at the point of tears after being betrayed by Marvelous, charging at him with his sword practically screaming in anger at him to, literally six minutes later after the truth was revealed, scolding Marvelous as if he drew a moustache on his face while he was asleep.
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When the Go-Busters first see the old Kamen Rider minions, Yoko says that they look "dated".
• Legion of Doom: Dai-Shocker returns from Kamen Rider Decade (with a few additions like Doctor G, N-Daguba-Zeda, the Weather Dopant, the original Shadow Moon and the Greeed); the Super Sentai side has Dai-Zangyack, which includes Warz and Akdos Gil, Brajira, Long, Chimatsuri Dokoku and Bio Hunter Silva. They ultimately merge to form the Shocker-Zangyack Alliance.
• Let's You and Him Fight: Unlike past "Vs." movies, this one will actually pit the Riders and Rangers against one another.
• MacGuffin: Marvelous is after the Best Treasure in the Kamen Rider Universe, and needs the Greater Powers of the Kamen Riders to acquire it.
• Make My Monster Grow: Warz and Akudos Gill are enlarged by the Gigant Horse.
• Massive Multiplayer Crossover: This film has the first 36 Super Sentai teaming-up all main Kamen Riders and then some.
• Meaningful Rename: Bio Hunter Silva becomes "Rider Hunter Silva" due to his new role as an enemy of the Riders.
• Me's a Crowd: Much like in the mecha fight in Gokaiger Goseiger Super Sentai 199 Hero Great Battle, Brajira battles OOO and the Births in four of his established forms at once (His Goseiger vs. Shinkenger form is sitting out the movie this time).
• Mind Screw: The film's very premise, out of and In-Universe. Nobody except Tsukasa and Marvelous seems to know why they're fighting. This causes Kaitou, Hina, Joe and Don to join forces and try to figure out what's going on.
• Mooks: In addition to the Dai-Shocker Combatmen, Destron Combatmen, Dogma Fighters, Chaps, and Makamou Ninja are also seen fighting for Dai-Shocker.
• Mythology Gag:
  • Although there is no In-Universe reference to the events of the World of Shinkenger crossover in Decade which was the previous — and first ever — Sentai/Rider team-up, there are a couple of nods. Marvelous transforms into Shinken Red during his fight with Diend!Kaitou. Aside from that, one of the many revived monsters in the Shocker-Zangyack Alliance is Chinomanako, the Ayakashi that became the Big Bad in the World of Shinkenger arc after he stole Daiki's Diendriver, he only appears in the background but can be noticed at one point during the big battle getting beaten up by Kamen Rider Amazon.
  • In the Super Hero Taihen net Movies, the two Murder Mystery movies end with Kamen Rider Faiz using his Faiz Driver to call ahead for dinner reservations. This is precisely what happened during the Kamen Rider Decade stageshows.
  • The Rider/Sentai teamups in the movie are all nods to the Super Hero Time block itself, pairing up the shows that are running back-to-back during their time; Den-O and the Gekirangers, Hibiki and the Magirangers, Kiva and the Go-Ongers and even a pre-Super Hero Time example (Black with the Maskmen). This naturally extends to some of the main stars; OOO and the Gokaigers and Fourze and the Go-Busters.
  • Decade personally defeating the Goseigers is, on top of the card-themed Counterpart Combat Coordination, also a subtle nod to the Super Sentai Dice-O trading card arcade game, which debuted alongside Goseiger, being a blatant Sentai counterpart to the Kamen Rider Ganbaride trading card arcade game, which debuted alongside Decade.
  • When the remaining heroes travel to the past via DenLiner, Owner mentions that the Kamen Riders lost "that slot" to the Super Sentai and the Super Sentai wouldn't have existed without "that slot". "That slot" is the original timeslot the Kamen Rider series had before Goranger came on and replaced it.
• Never Trust a Trailer: The trailers and other promotional material suggested that it would be a big ol' slugfest of massive proportions between the complete forces of Riders and Rangers with Fourze and the Go-Busters as the frontliners. The actual plot can be best described as "Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger vs. Kamen Rider Decade", there's only one actual army fight between some Riders and Rangers, and Fourze and the Go-Busters only appear in the first and third acts.
• Power Copying: Features the characters best known for it from each franchise.
  • We also have Decade changing into Rider #1, his first-ever Showa change.
  • And some participants copy each other's powers: Gokaigers with OOO keys, Go-Buster-Oh with Fourze and his Switches, and the various card-based Riders with Gosei cards.
• The Power of Friendship: what both the Riders and Sentai decide to be the Greatest Treasure in the Universe.
• The Present Day: The last 40 minutes of the movie explicitly take place on April 21, 2012 — the movie's release date.
• Pun-Based Title: The tie-in net movies are mystery stories, with the title Super Hero Taihen.
• Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: A girl with Super-Strength, a Phantom Thief and two Space Pirates working together to investigate things behind the scenes.
• Shout-Out: In Super Hero Disaster #6, when Gai is discussing the name "Ranger", he says "On the other side of the ocean we're called Power Rangers".
  • In a later episode, after Blue Buster and Gorisaki try in vain to solve the mystery, it turns out that the letter wasn't a code, but a perfectly straightforward letter...that's asking for Akibaranger to be made official.
• Spotlight-Stealing Squad: Joe arguably has the most screen time in the film than everyone else.
• Stealth Pun: Fourze will be co-piloting Go-Buster-Oh through RH-03, Yoko's mecha. Why? Keep in mind what Fourze's Home Base is called.
• Superdickery: You've got two purported heroes leading Legions of Doom and picking fights with each other.
• Supervillain Lair: Dai-Zangyack is based on the Gigant Horse, reconstructed after it was destroyed in Gokaiger's finale. Dai-Shocker is based on the Crisis Fortress, which originally served as the base of the Crisis Empire then Super Shocker.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The Go-Busters' Humongous Mecha using Fourze's Super Rocket and Super Drill Switches.
  • The Gokai Galleon Buster being powered by the OOO Keys.
• Unexplained Recovery: It's never explained how all the dead villains got resurrected.
• The Unfought: Finally subverted for Narutaki, who takes the form of Destron commander Doktor G, revealing that this and his previous Colonel Zol form are mere disguises rather than true identities. While Narutaki did not assume the Werewolf form of the original Colonel Zol in The Last Story, he does here assume Doktor G's Kani Lazer form, which is actually a whole new costume and much more powerful than the original. In this form, he is seen being easily able to hold off around a dozen Kamen Riders via, you guessed it, lasers. He is only defeated when the Tensou Sentai Goseiger lend their new reflect cards to Decade with Blade and Ryuki, allowing them to deflect Doktor G's lasers allowing them to finish him off with their respective finishers.
• Took a Level in Badass
  • Akaranger, even more so than usual. Marvelous, while using his power, destroys Baseball Mask with a mere slash of his Red Whip. For context, it was extremely rare for older Sentai monsters to be taken down by anything short of a combined team Finishing Move.
  • Warz Gill of all people. Though his demeanour is as buffoonish as ever, he boasts firepower on par with his father when they grow and attack the superheroes. Of course this is a moot point since his father is now a Degraded Boss, with both falling to the bigger fish that is the Big Machine.
• Visual Pun: Fourze Elek States vs. Denzi Red. Sword Sparks galore!
  • When the Gokaigers charge up the Gokai Galleon Buster with the OOO Keys, all subtitles show "Let's make a shOOOw of it!".
• Void Between the Worlds: The space where all the Sentai and Riders who were supposedly wiped out by Tsukasa and Marvelous lay in wait for the final battle. At first glance it looks like hell, being full with the purple flames seen when Tsukasa and Marvelous finished off the heroes, but is actually fairly hospitable.
• We Have Reserves: Tsukasa delivers a speech to his minions saying (paraphrased): "Your only strength is that you keep coming back no matter how often you're killed, so go out there fully expecting to die and don't give up until all the Rangers are defeated!"
  • Which obviously makes him a Bad Boss.
• What Happened to the Mouse?
  • After Marvelous "kills" Meteor, Fourze is seen fleeing from the Crisis Fortress' firepower. Likewise, after Tsukasa "kills" Luka, Ahim and Gai, the three Go-Busters flee from the Gigant Horse. They then spend a substantial portion of the movie absent before spontaneously reappearing for the Big Badass Battle Sequence with Meteor, who does not come through the dimensional void like the other eliminated heroes. It remains a mystery what exactly became of them whilst Joe, Don, Kaito and Hina were looking into why the Riders and Sentai were fighting. One can speculate that they were looking into the same mystery.
  • A flashback shows G3, Knight and Zolda among the Riders being "defeated" by Gokai Red. However, they do not reappear for the Final Battle.
  • While the Gigant Horse is destroyed once again, the fleet of Dai-Zangyack ships which passes the Rabbit Hutch do not appear again after staging the attack on Amanogawa High School. Provided the Gokai Galleon did not take them out in an Offscreen Moment of Awesome, they may have fallen in line with Bacchus Gill's Zangyack faction.
• "With Our Swords" Scene: Heroes from each side lend the other their powers: OOO loans the Gokaigers his Core Medals, which turn into Ranger Keys for his six single colored Combo forms, while the Goseigers loan Decade, Blade, and Ryuki their Attack Reflector cards in order to battle Kani Laser.
• The Worf Effect: Painfully so; In the first scene Gokai Red manages to go toe-to-toe with almost no effort with the first seven Showa era Kamen Riders. This is the equivalent of a red belt (albeit in 35 different disciplines, though he only uses two here: Bioman's Red One and Kakuranger's Ninja Red) going against seven veteran black belts.
  • Conservation of Ninjutsu in full force, people.
  • Poor Ackdos Gil...six finishing moves to kill him in human size, but one smack from Big Machine to kill him at giant size?