Recap/Mini-Review: Kamen Rider Geats – 4 Aces and the Black Fox

Just as another season of the DGP is about to begin, a strange tree has appeared in the middle of Tokyo. Huge fruits begin falling to the ground and hordes of Jyamato pop out as they burst. Michinaga, Keiwa and Neon hurry out to battle the Jyamatos with Ace arriving fashionably late. But a “Final Boss” arrives to the glee of two mysterious viewers.

As Ace tries to deliver a finishing kick at the tree, the two viewers suddenly reset the game. This results in four different worlds being created at the same time. Michinaga finds himself in a Wild West world, Neon is in a feudal Japan and Keiwa seems to be in the 80s.

Tsumuri discovers that this is a banned game in which the goal is to wreak as much havoc as possible in order to feed the world tree as fast as possible. She realizes this has to be the doing of Future People.

These Future People are Mela and Melo who are excited to watch some world destruction.

Tsumuri floats down into one of the fragmented worlds by the sea and realizes Ace has split apart, with one Ace in each of the four worlds. She also notices that each of the Aces seem to be missing something.

Just then, Jyamato begin attacking the worlds. Michinaga henshins, but is a bit confused why Ace seems to have no idea what is going on. Neon, meanwhile, is pulling Ace in a carriage and he ends up having to vomit when they come to a stop.

Tsumuri finds her Ace gets by on luck. And suddenly, Sae appears out of nowhere.

In the Wild West world, Win comes galloping up on a horse, but Ace wants Michinaga to ride him instead.

Tsumuri believes Ace has fragmented into strength, intelligence and luck. But they are unsure who the Ace with Keiwa is.

The Kyoto Intelligent Ace realizes the Game Masters Mela and Melo are after rare characters. And that’s when Jyamato capture him.

The Boss Jyamato appears in the Wild West world to capture Strength Ace and then onto the beach to grab the Lucky Ace.

Mela is excited to have collected three characters already and believes the fourth Ace is just whatever was leftover outside of strength, intelligence and luck. So he really doesn’t care if he is able to Gotcha that fragment at all.

The four worlds recombine and everything seems to be back to normal except for the missing Ace fragments. Keiwa brings Leftover Ace back to the green room where Tsumuri bandages him up.

The Riders think about what they can possibly do without Ace being able to take care of everything. Michinaga believes they don’t need him anyway. But Keiwa wonders who this remaining Ace is and thinks it has to be a part of the Ace that they know.

Just then, Mela and Melo pop up on the broadcast and Tsumuri tells the Riders that they like to play games that result in world destructions in different time periods.

Mela and Melo explain that humanity had already left Earth in their time and escaped to space because Earth had been destroyed and ruined. Jyamato were made from the remaining seeds that were on the destructed Earth and that’s why they are being used in the DGP.

Mela and Melo drop more fruits in Tokyo, releasing fresh Jyamato. The Riders hurry out to take care of them and get people to safety.

But Mela and Melo float down in a balloon to witness the destruction of the world in person. And Mela suddenly henshins to XGeats.

Michinaga battles Mela, but is no match.

The remaining Ace wants to go out, but Tsumuri ties him up to keep him here. That’s when Grandpa Tanba appears and says the Ace that remains has the same strength that shone to him on the day he was eliminated from the DGP. Tanba unties Ace and he hurries out. Tanba says Ace reminds him of when he was young.

Keiwa joins Michinaga in battling Mela, but he is still too powerful.

Meanwhile, Tanba decides to go help and he henshins to take on the base Jyamatos rampaging downtown. His back starts to act up, but just then, Hopper1 appears. And right behind him is Houtarou aka Kamen Rider Gotchard.

Houtarou is able to take care of the Jyamato as well as the Final Boss Jyamato. Houtarou gives Tanba a special Card as thanks for helping him Gotcha Hopper1.

On the other side of town, Michinaga and Keiwa are both forced to dehenshin. That’s when Leftover Ace appears. He henshins to Magnum. But he is forced to dehenshin.

Ace refuses to give up because he says he has what is most important to him right in his heart. As long as you never give up hope, your wish will come true one day.

The others are encouraged by Ace’s words. It isn’t just the intelligence, strength or luck, but the determination in his heart.

Mela flies up into the sky and fuses with the tree in order to try and deliver a finisher. Keiwa and Michinaga shield Ace from the attack as it reverberates like an atomic bomb.

Mela and Melo think that this world has already been destroyed.

Tsumuri walks on a deserted beach and is very sad. However, she sees a Buckle in the sand and then sees Ace who she wakes up. He seems to have returned to his full self and he can’t believe he actually lost a game. But Tsumuri says the hopes of the audience and his friends were able to keep him safe. He now has a Core ID that contains those hopes and dreams.

Tsumuri says he is still a Kamen Rider and hands him a treasure box with a new Buckle and the Chemy Card that Houtarou gave Grandpa Tanba. Ace fully accepts the hopes and dreams of the people and uses it to power himself up.

Meanwhile, Melo and Mela are deciding what era they are going to destroy next. But Ace surprises them when he appears in their living room, alive. He reiterates that a belief in each other and the hope in your heart is the strongest power. Though everyone has their own desires, their hopes come together as one. And because of that, anything can happen.

The blank Chemy Card now becomes a Kamen Rider Geats Card. Ace calls on all his friends to help him and be with him in this next battle.

Both Ace and Mela henshin and battle. Mela is taken aback by Ace’s new power and can’t believe he isn’t able to beat Geats with Geats power. Ace says it’s because he has the shared dream power of everyone.

Melo thinks Mela is lame now and decides to spice things up herself. She embiggens Mela and leaves him to deal with Ace by himself. Melo wants to become the sole destroyer of worlds. But Tsumuri comes and kicks her on her ass.

Suddenly, all the Riders are back alive and joining Ace in a final stand against Melo. They all refuse to give up and vow to work together to finish this. Ziin asks the audience to send their support. And the Riders use that support to send Ace flying up to deliver a finishing blow at the embiggened Mela. Ace kicks Mela into the tree and it explodes.

Ace reunites with all his friends and thanks them for the good work. They are all happy that Ace is back to normal. Tsumuri says Mela and Melo have been sent back to the future.

The others hope that Ace does not forget his fragmented self and they think he’s much cuter than he lets on. Ace wants them to forget this world. And the world returns back to normal.

Ziin tells the audience that he does love all the Riders and hopes everyone can join him being their fan as well.

Movie Thoughts

It seems like this movie was able to get the message across of working together and having bonds much better than the series tried to do with its finale. Lol I believed Ace, Michinaga, Keiwa and Neon all had a bond through their shared hopes and dreams much more in the movie than I ever did in-series. Lol

This movie also showed that Ace is not this invincible godlike person like the series repeatedly made him out to be. It was great to see different Aces. And it would’ve been awesome to see perhaps an arc in-series touching upon the different “fragments” of his whole person.

I much prefer this version of Ace in the movie than the one we were fed in the series. They did more to flesh out Ace’s character in this movie than the 49 episodes. What? Yeah! I think so.

At least, that’s how I felt after watching this movie. Perhaps it’s a combination of the distance from the series itself and Gotchard being much more enjoyable for me.

Or maybe the Geats story is much better in more manageable chunks. Though that’s what I thought the series itself was going to be like. Having different “seasons” of the DGP throughout the year instead of the story we did get. One in which it felt like it wasn’t sure what it wanted to do in the end.

Anyway, I had a positive and satisfied feeling after watching this movie. Maybe it’s my low expectations. Or it really was much better put together than the series. Either way, I actually enjoyed it a lot.