Thousands of years ago, a battle was fought between high-powered beings called Undead, each representing their own species and fighting to see which would evolve to rule the Earth. Now the Undead are unexpectedly awakening, and a handful of special humans must fight them using the Rider System. The Rider System has the ability to seal the Undead into cards, and channel their power so that the Riders to can use unique attacks and (eventually) different forms.
At the outset there are two Kamen Riders: idealistic Kenzaki Kazuma (Tsubaki Takayuki) becomes Blade, and his rather serious sempai Tachibana Sakuya (Hironari Amano) becomes Garren. When their support organization is destroyed in a surprise attack, they are forced to rely on the help of their lone surviving team-mate Hirose Shiori (Egawa Yumi) and journalist Shirai Kotaro (Takezai Terunonosuke), who sets up a modest HQ for them in his home.
However, Kotaro's family have also taken in Aikawa Hajime (Morimoto Ryouji), who seems to be linked to the mysterious Kamen Rider Chalice... and Hirose's father was one of the scientists whose work may have freed the Undead... not to mention the fact that a powerful Undead is targeting young Kamijo Mutsuki (Hojo Takahiro), who may become either a new Kamen Rider or a new enemy! Fighting, fun and monsters abound in this superb slice of tokusatsu madness (which may even have surpassed Kiva as my favourite Kamen Rider show). Each Rider is well designed and has an interesting background and character, and they seem to spend as much time fighting each other as they do fighting Undead – which is actually a bonus! The plot of this show is pretty straightforward overall, but the show's dramas and battles are as often as not driven by character rather than plot, giving the story a more serious feel in spite of the comic relief. Even the comedy characters and situations are a little more restrained than usual, and as the plot's climax draws closer the comedy is all but forgotten.
The ending, where lots of toku shows shoot themselves in the foot, is both dramatic and satisfying, and even the movie is unexpectedly quality (not least because it features the ever-epic Nagasawa Nao as one of the franchise's rare female Kamen Riders). All in all this is an unmissable entry in the Kamen Rider series: first rate tokusatsu for young and old alike!
