Chou Den-O Blue: A Return to Grace

I'm sure by now you've either read my review of Chou Den-O Red or you've watched it yourself (hopefully both), so you know that it's probably the worst Kamen Rider movie ever. Seriously, if I want to watch a five minute motorcycle scene with no point, I'll watch Twin Peaks. At least that would be more interesting, and I get to see a woman hold a conversation with wood.

Luckily, Chou Den-O Blue: The Dispatched Imagin is Newtral, marks the redemption of the Chou Den-o name. Honestly, I didn't think that I would like it as much as I did, since I'm not the biggest fan of Kotaro, Teddy or Chou Den-O. Kotaro really proved his worth in this film, and saved this movie trilogy from being a disaster.

The movie centers are the relationship that Teddy and Kotaro have forged since their last appearance in Farewell, Kamen Rider Den-o: Final Countdown, as Teddy has become Kotaro's good luck ward of sorts. Whenever Kotaro is about to be, say, crushed by a giant spherical work of art or splashed with a bucket of water, Teddy predicts the outcome and protects him from the pitfall. Kotaro seems to take this protection fro granted, as he hardly notices when Teddy bursts in the save the day.

After Ryotaro is injured during a fight with a new Imagin, the Owner calls Kotaro in to investigate, but there's a twist: the Owner is reissuing Teddy's contract, reassinging him to his own side and giving him the name Aleksandrovic (more like AleksandroBITCH). Teddy reluctantly goes along with the plan, but is too passive to say anything about it. Kotaro, visibly broken up, is teamed up with Kintaros to chase after the Mantis Imagin.

Kotaro is hopeless without his good luck charm, Teddy. Almost everything that can go wrong, does go wrong. Meanwhile, Mantis is helping her contract owner, Miku, replace herself in the past. Kotaro is finally able to track her down, and tries in vain to take care of the Imagin. Of course, since he is not use to using Kintaros, he fails miserably at satisfying her "battlelust."

The new forms for Chou Den-O: "Ax" form and "Rod" form

Back on the DenLiner, Aleksandrovic is . . . polishing spoons? Wow, Owner. You really needed help with that task. After some awkward conversations, Kotaro take Ryotaros off with him to investigate the double Miku problem. When they get there, Miku's grandmother is testing both Mikus to figure out which is real. After a cook-off and a tennis match, Mantis gets frustrated with Other Miku's lack of progress, and decides to intervene. Kotaro decides to kidnap Other Miku while Den-O Gun Form makes a distraction.

Aboard the DenLiner, Kotaro tries to convince Other Miku that the Imagin Mantis is just using her to steal away her time. They have simultaneous revelations, with Kotaro and Miku coming to the conclusion that you don't miss something until it's gone. Elsewhere, Ryutaro is getting is ass kicked by Mantis. Ryotaros is forced out from the Henshin, leaving Ryutaro in Plat Form. Kotaro and Urataros go off to save Ryotaro, New Den-O taking on a Rod Form (literally, his weapon is a fishing rod).

He's still go good enough to take out Mantis, but he does get her . . . motivated. She eventually forces him out of his Henshin. Teddy, realizing that he misses his boo, too, and rushes off to save him from peril. Normally, as the Owner describes earlier in the movie, this action leads to the destruction of the Imagin, since they break their contract. Teddy doesn't care.

Together, they manage to defeat Mantis, and sure enough Teddy begins to disappear after the fight. Right as he completely vanishes, he gives Kotaro an interlocked star charm to act as his new luck charm. Aw, how sweet!

Back on the DenLiner, everyone is sulking over the loss of Tendon. Don't cry gang, 'cause it looks like Owner has a surprise: Aleksandrovic! Turns out that he's just reset the contract and returned to his previous owner because their bond was so strong. He reassumes the name Teddy, and all become right with the world.



All in all, Blue is sooo much better than Red. The action is larger, the story is much more interesting and it actually makes you like the main protagonists more, unlike Red which was 72 minutes that I can never get back. 9/10!!!

OOO 13 is out, I just haven't watched it yet (visitors + finals = no free time for blogging), but I intend to get to that tonight. I do have a review of Yellow coming soon, along with a review of Death Game Park, Star Wars: Force Unleashed 2, Vampire Girl vs Frankenstein Girl, The Scott Pilgram Blu-Ray, and Golden Sun: Dark Dawn, if I can finish that in time. Ciao for now though!