Kamen Rider. At this point it's a franchise pretty much everyone knows.
When something has been running this long, everyone ends up with their own favorite Kamen Rider.
Among them, the one I push hardest is Kamen Rider OOO.
Announced as the 12th Heisei Rider, OOO made waves with its novel transformation gimmick of combining three medals. The medals broke down into two main types: Core Medals and Cell Medals. Core Medals were used when OOO transformed, while Cell Medals were charged into weapons and bikes for combat—the uses were clearly separated. When it aired, some regions even had medal shortages.
Whatever else you say about it, you can't go wrong because this show was written by Yasuko Kobayashi. Kobayashi handled series composition on still-popular Kamen Rider entries like Ryuki and Den-O, and in the sentai world she single-handedly wrote nearly all of Gingaman, Timeranger, Shinkenger, and ToQger. More recently she's served as series composition and screenwriter for every season of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, and she's also a specialist who wrote all of the live-action Rohan Kishibe series.
The main theme of this work is 'Let me reach out my hand,' and the protagonist, Eiji Hino, will extend a helping hand to anyone within reach—good people, of course, but even villains. This comes from the trauma of being unable to save a single girl when he was in a conflict zone, and so he tries to help others even at the cost of sacrificing himself. Later on, becoming a Kamen Rider gradually costs him his humanity, but even so, Eiji never gives up on saving people.
And opposite Eiji is the other protagonist, Ankh, a monster who is nothing but a right arm. He hijacks the body of a police officer named Shingo Izumi and, as a business (?) partner, joins Eiji to take down enemy organizations and seize Core Medals. Core Medals are the precious medals that form both the enemy monsters and the 'Greeed' like Ankh—without three of them, they can't even take human form. But what starts as a business partnership gradually blossoms into friendship, and in the end they become irreplaceable best friends...
Now, this time the story is the theatrical film of that very Kamen Rider OOO. Remarkably, this movie is a crossover with Abarenbo Shogun. So the score features the BGM familiar from Abarenbo Shogun, arranged in OOO style.
Take 'Shogun & OOO,' for example.
The familiar chanbara (swordfight) music (originally composed by Shunsuke Kikuchi) is arranged by Kotaro Nakagawa into a collaboration track between OOO and Lord Yoshimune.
And what that very Shogun entrusts to him is the film-original Burakawani Combo.
It's a combo activated by the Cobra, Turtle, and Crocodile medals, which for some reason are said to have been passed down and stored within the Tokugawa family for generations.
Here's the theme of that Burakawani Combo.
Now, the crossover with Matsuken Samba at the end of this movie is another great touch.
'Let's Join Hands ~Matsuken × Kamen Rider Samba~'—the theme of joining hands ties right into OOO's worldview.
Please do watch the film and give 'Let's Join Hands ~Matsuken × Kamen Rider Samba~' a listen.
