Finished watching 'Kamen Rider Decade' franchise (includes 1 tv series & 2 movies) a few months ago. Had been putting the series on hold while I tried to finish watching all 'Heisei' Kamen Riders series preceding it.
The reason for doing so is because 'Decade' franchise was produced to commemorate the 10th Kamen Rider series of the 'Heisei' era.
Therefore the series is mainly about the protagonist Decade travelling through the different alternate universes of the different 'Heisei' Kamen Riders series, 3 'Showa' Kamen Riders series ('Amazon', 'Black' & 'Black RX') & even a crossover into the world of the Super Sentai series of 2009 - 'Samurai Sentai Shinkenger' (the movies went on to showcase all Kamen riders from both 'Showa' & 'Heisei') .
I thought that to fully enjoy the series, I would need to finish watching all the preceding Heisei Kamen Rider series (I even finished the series after 'Decade' - 'Kamen Rider W' but that's another story for another time).
Well, I'm glad to say that doing the above mentioned really enhanced my pleasure in watching the different alternate universes of the different riders & spotting the similarities & differences of the alternate universes compared to the original series (very coincidentally, the only 3 Showa series I've finished watching r the ones shown in 'Decade', but I'm finishing up 'V3' soon :).
Hell, the original actor of 'Black' & 'Black RX' even showed up as the alter ego of both riders - Minami Kotaro again after 20 yrs ('Black RX' was a 1989 series)!
The main success of the series 'Decade' is that the different alternate universes are pretty interesting on their own & the unprecedented crossover of Decade & Super Sentai story arc was a pleasant surprise.
The main problem is with the main story arc of the 'Decade' franchise. The 1st episode of the series teased us with footage of the main female character dreaming of the super big riders war involving all the Heisei Kamen Riders (its like the riders war in 'Ryuki' X 100), which was supposed to be a premonition of upcoming events.
This became a major problem when the short 31 episodes tv series (normal Kamen Riders series goes ard 50 episodes) ended with a cliffhanger of the above mentioned riders war starting (but already seemingly on a smaller scale, though all the 10 Heisei riders were present). Then on came a commercial about the then upcoming Kamen Rider Decade movie 'Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010' that was meant as a finale to the tv series.
After watching 'Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider W & Decade: Movie War 2010', I have to say that I felt played out by the production team of Kamen Rider Decade.
The highly anticipated riders war wasn't shown at all in the movie, the movie portrayed the events after the war! How ridiculous is that?
A couple of loose ends were also not addressed (eg. why Diend betrayed Decade by shooting him in the face), like they have never happen in the series or the issues were already resolved off screen in the time between the series and the movie.
The 'Decade' franchise over promised since the 1st episode but greatly under delivered by the end & thus turned a series that had so potential into one that became so disappointing.
The designs of the two riders (Decade & Diend) in the series & their various forms were the ugliest of all the Heisei series in my opinion. The anchoring rider characters were also not very likeable & difficult to relate to as not much screen time was dedicated to character development, most of the time was used for the different gimmicks of the show (my favourite character ironically was Yusuke Onodera, the alternate universe version of Kamen Rider Kuuga).
Speaking of gimmicks, I really find the gimmick of Decade's ability to transform & use the various older Kamen Riders as weapons very demeaning to the exact riders that the series 'Decade' was supposed to pay homage to.
Last point is obviously the girls of the series :) since Heisei rider series are known for eye candies for both the male & female demography (usually hiring gravure idols aka sexy photobook models to attract otaku, though they tend to cover up as Kamen Rider main target audiences are kids).
The main female character in the series is Hikari Natsumi, portrayed by Mori Kanna. She didn't catch my attention initially but she started to grow on me more as the series progressed & I gradually find her attractive. I also started to notice that she got great legs as the series progressed as her long socks started to get shorter & shorter :)
Overall, the 'Kamen Rider Decade' franchise is only good for having some fun in seeing all our favourite riders appearing again (albeit in different ways), but expect some decent story or even a complete story & you will find yourself disappointed like me.
