Film / Kamen Rider: Reiwa the First Generation

All spoilers for Kamen Rider Zi-O are unmarked. You Have Been Warned!

"What lies ahead between two intersecting worlds?"

Kamen Rider: Reiwa The First Generation is the eleventh annual Kamen Rider Movie War crossover film and the first of the Reiwa era, serving as a crossover between Kamen Rider Zi-O and Kamen Rider Zero-One. It was released on December 21, 2019. It was later released internationally on April 7, 2021 through Toei's official YouTube channel, and can be found here.

Twelve years ago, the Daybreak Town accident set in motion a chain of events that would lead to Aruto Hiden becoming Kamen Rider Zero-One to battle the people that would attempt to use HumaGears for evil.

Until it was all undone.

Under the pretense that they seek to erase the losses of that day, a new Time Jacker by the name of Finis travels to the past of Aruto's world, creating the Zero-One Anotherwatch and entrusting it to Korenosuke Hiden's secretary, Will. Now Another Zero-One, Will prematurely murders Korenosuke and takes over Hiden Intelligence, rallying every single HumaGear to declare a Robot War on humanity.

Now without Zero-One's powers or even his role as Hiden's company president, Aruto suddenly finds himself in a dystopian future where humans are oppressed by the very androids his grandfather had created so many years ago, and to make matters worse, his father figure Soreo Hiden has now become Kamen Rider Ichi-Gata, a turquoise Evil Knockoff of Zero-One powered by a Zetsumerisekey and a custom ZetsumeRiser to serve as a protector of HumaGears while Another Zero-One declares war against the human race.

Luckily, Aruto isn't alone. Is is still by his side even as a complete nobody in this new timeline, and Sougo, Geiz, and Woz are in hot pursuit against Finis's attempts to resume the chaos Swartz sought to bring upon their own world. Together, the four learn not only the truth of what brought them altogether and how Aruto became Zero-One, but also what it truly means to live for the present and change the future.

Tropes that appear in this work:

• Adaptational Heroism: Fukuzoe and his lackey are a lot more affable towards Aruto in the altered history, choosing voluntarily to stand behind him as the future of Korenosuke’s dream.
• An Aesop: Don't try to pine over the past. Work to change what will be, instead.
• Arc Words: "The First" phrase is often spoken by various characters over the course of the movie.
• Awful Truth: Will was Not Brainwashed by the Zero-One Anotherwatch. It simply gave him the means to execute a plan he had already been working on, and a large portion of what went on behind the scenes is a part of unaltered history.
• Big Bad Ensemble: The Big Bad role of this film is split between the Time Jacker Finis who created the Zero-One Anotherwatch and later on becomes Another 1, complete with a more powerful form after absorbing Geiz's Time Mazine and Will/Another Zero-One.
• The Cameo: Shin Nagahama (better known as Akira Nijino from Ressha Sentai Toqger) makes an appearance as a Humagear teacher.
• Chekhov's Gag: Sougo's dream from Over Quartzer about Zero-One replacing him turns out to be the origin of the world of Zero-One, much like the other Future Riders. This grants Aruto Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory and is what drives most of his actions in the film as a result.
• Clipped-Wing Angel: Kamen Rider 001 is a kitbashed emergency form that's used only because Zero-One's regular powerset isn't available. The transformation itself is visibly agonizing, and 001 lacks Zero-One's array of tools and more powerful forms.
• Crapsaccharine World: The altered history is similar to Kamen Rider 555: Paradise Lost in that a race (more accurately a robot army) has taken over the world but resumes society in relatively the same manner, but even then, it's shown early on that even HumaGears aren't living in a perfect world. The Zetsumerisers still exist in their original state and with them, the ability to force a Painful Transformation into Trilobite Magia on bystanders.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Sure, Will has the powers of a Kamen Rider. But he's a businessman, not a fighter. He's completely defenseless against the expertly-trained Vulcan and Valkyrie and falls to them with ease.
• Demoted to Dragon: Due to alterations to the timeline Horobi and Jin, originally the leaders of MetsubouJinrai.NET, appear as members of Will's HumaGear uprising.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: After the battle with Ichi-Gata, Aruto holds his surrogate father in his arms as he shuts down, getting from him the "Yes" vote that grants him authorization over the Zero-One Driver.
• Dragon with an Agenda: Soreo acts as Will's ally during the Humagear uprising. He's actually working to protect humanity and discreetly assists Aruto to make that happen.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The Stinger shows the first appearance of Kamen Rider Thouser.
• Face–Heel Turn: Soreo Hiden, originally Aruto's HumaGear Parental Substitute who died protecting him, is a member of Will's HumaGear uprising in this timeline and fights Aruto as Kamen Rider Ichi-Gata. In truth, he's secretly protecting humanity, including his son, doing things such as secretly giving him a MetsubouJinrai Force Riser as a temporary transformation device until he regains his powers as Zero-One.
• For Want Of A Nail: The whole alternate timeline happens because the launch of the Ark wasn’t aborted like the regular timeline.
• Foreshadowing: There are several scenes in the movie that foreshadow future events of the main series:
  • 001's transformation includes a swarm of grasshoppers surrounding him and Another Zero-One's powers include summoning a swarm of grasshoppers to attack with. This is later shown in-series to be a transformation and an actual ability Zero-One MetalCluster Hopper uses under the Ark's control.
  • The film has both Aruto and Isamu resisting against Hiden Intelligence. The show's third arc has them doing the same thing albeit for different reasons.
  • Is announced herself for wishing to be with Aruto during her execution, mirroring the first episode of the third arc where Is initially chose to return to Hiden but finally deciding to side with Aruto for his guts to keep on doing what is the best for Humagear and humanity.
  • Isamu and Yua discussed about killing each other one day if they should become Magia mirrors the climax episodes of the Workplace Competition Arc in which Yua remains on the side of ZAIA Industries as the Jackal Raider and Gai's weaponization of Fuwa's head-chip containing Naki's HumaGear data.
  • Will's concern about the future of HumaGears foreshadows Jin's post resurrection attitude on liberating HumaGears to decide their own future on the third arc.
  • Will wouldn't be the first Humagear to betray Hiden Intelligence's CEO on what they stand for, as the Humagear MC Check-It-Out did after being exposed to political corruption by ZAIA's representative. This led to him choosing to become the second Dodo Magia willingly and ultimately ended with ZAIA completing their takeover of Hiden Intelligence.
  • Will uses Hiden Intelligence to sell Zetsumerisers, Forcerisers, Attache weapons, and all relevant equipment like common commodities, something Gai initially tries to do with the Raidrisers when he later takes the president's seat for himself.
  • The Battle Magia, mooks that hunt down humans, foreshadows the Battle Raiders, mooks that hunt down HumaGears
  • In the movie's epilogue, Aruto discusses a new business card design with Is to read that he's a President and Kamen Rider. His new HIDEN Manufacturing business cards show exactly that.
  • Will is a person with a simple yet highly destructive goal: take revenge on the people that wronged him. He receives a Transformation Trinket that by all means should brainwash him, but doesn't, and the Ark isn't directly influencing him into his mindset, either. Just like Aruto, as Zero-One's endgame deals with him willingly becoming Ark-One to get revenge on Horobi, not being influenced by anything unless it helps him achieve his goals faster.
    • A more subtle case is that around the beginning, Aruto wears the same outfit he has on by the time he becomes Ark-One.
    • The ending song "Another Daybreak" is about two people fighting a Hopeless War beyond their abilities while trying to remain virtuous and shouldering painful amounts of grief in the process. This is exactly what happens to Aruto and Horobi in the finale, and true to the song's lyrics, only by submitting to each others' blows do their futures begin to look brighter for themselves, such that "a new dawn is here to stay."
• Fragile Speedster: The only thing Kamen Rider 001 has going for it is its Super-Speed. It sucks at everything else.
• History Repeats: It's very strongly implied in the end that Sougo transforming one last time to wipe Aruto's memories of the incident is a lie; Zi-O's usual Transformation Sequence is visually altered to resemble Ohma Zi-O's own, and Sougo is battling Aruto to reset his own self so as to prevent Ohma Zi-O from rising again. The end of the next film suggests this will happen a third time and continue for an unknown amount of cycles.
• Lethal Joke Character: Another Zero-One can tank through regular firearms and sweep away passersby with ease, but its actual combat ability is next to none and its inability to fully hamper any of its patron Rider Systems the way other A-Riders can prevents it from having defenses against them. When it's forced against enemies that can fight back, it balks hard.
• Original Generation: While Will's backstory is rooted in Zero-One's world and lore, Finis has no apparent connection to the Time Jackers of Zi-O beyond using the same title, much like Tid from Heisei Generations FOREVER. In actuality, it's a case of Remember the New Guy?, as Finis is in fact loyal to Swartz, even starting the whole incident to get revenge on Sougo for killing and reincarnating him.
• Painful Transformation: The transformation into 001 is very painful, and Aruto screams and contorts in agony as he changes into this form.
• Remember the New Guy?: Finis was one of Swartz's supporters and interfered in Zero-One's timeline to lure Sougo there and take revenge on him. They never comes up during the show.
• Ripple-Effect-Proof Memory: It's heavily implied at the end of movie, Is is the only one that still have the memory of the event of the altered timeline.
• Robot Kid: The first sign that history has been changed is that Aruto sees a group of HumaGear children going to school, when as far as Aruto knows, HumaGear children don't exist. Sougo's school also ends up being attended by HumaGear students, resulting in a horde of robot teenagers attacking our heroes.
• Robot War: Will instigated one after seizing control of Hiden Intelligence, leading the HumaGears to attack humans.
• Screw This, I'm Out of Here!: After getting beaten by Geiz, Woz and Tsukuyomi, Horobi and Jin flee then be destroyed.
• Secret Test of Character: Soreo votes "no" during the Presidential referendum despite being able to secure Aruto's authority (and thus everyone's immediate safety) just to see if Aruto was truly serious about fighting to protect Humans and Humagears.
• Set Right What Once Went Wrong/Make Wrong What Once Went Right: Finis’s actions prevented the Daybreak Incident from happening, but they also led to Korenosuke Hiden dying several years earlier than he did in the original timeline and his HumaGear secretary taking power and waging a Robot War. It turns out, it never mattered, only doing it so that Sougo would come to the world of Zero-One and her getting revenge for him killing and reincarnating Swartz.
• Stealth Mentor: Soreo secretly assists Aruto from behind-the-scenes during the crisis, though his public persona paints him as The Dragon to Hiden Inteligence and Another Zero-One. He maintains this separation even when he has the chance to vote Aruto directly into the President's chair and tip the scales out of Will's favor; simply to ensure that Aruto could surpass him and ensure the future he's fighting for comes to pass.
• Still Wearing the Old Colors: Fuwa and Yua's outfits are made from A.I.M.S. fatigues.
• Suicide by Cop: As Soreo lies battered in Aruto's arms, he concedes that "this is how it's supposed to be" and that he wanted Aruto to surpass him to prove his seriousness about the two races co-existing.
• Super Prototype: Ichi-Gata is the foundation for what would become Kamen Rider Zero-One. Zerozero-One is only able to stand up to it at all due to it sharing Ichi-Gata's Super-Speed. It outclasses him in every other way.