This happens a couple times in Kamen Rider. Notably in Kamen Rider Build, the main villain is about to 'take the fight serious' and go to their strongest form, but Build stops him from doing so. Build WINS that fight, and what happens?
The main villain goes "ah, Gg's man. I'll let you have this one" then CASUALLY WALKS AWAY. Like he doesn't teleport, or do ANYTHING that would stop Build from chasing him. He literally just turns around and walks away. This guy was planning to destroy the earth btw. Like, what, would it be UNFAIR to kill him now cause its not the final episode or what?
I will point out that in Build specifically, there are several times where soldiers will open fire on Build or Cross-Z as they start their transformation sequence, and the bullets are shown bouncing off the framework that forms around them. Similarly, the first time Kamen Rider Zeztz transforms, the Gun Nightmare tries to shoot him, only to find out that he literally turns into smoke during the transformation before reforming into Zeztz.
There are, in fact, plenty of tokusatsu shows that actively explain why villains don't attack during the power-up sequences.
As for letting the main villain go, that's less excusable, but honestly I can't remember it happening all that often in Build. Far more often is when he just steals their latest power-up after getting "beaten" ("getting the crap kicked out of me was all part of my 87 step plan, you see!") and uses it to immediately make himself too strong for them to fight.
Yeah, I feel that happens quite often in KR where they explain the transformation actually protects them (shout out to Riders whose henshin actually double as attacks, like Blade's turn-up shoving a guy away, or the like). Not to mention halfway through the series they usually just start running into the fight, then transform off-screen so they jump into the fight transformed. That scene in Build though really stood out to me cause it genuinely makes no sense to just let him run away but Build's writing wasnt exactly the cleanest anyway.
In Ex-Aid, it actually becomes a major plot point that the main villain tries his hardest to NOT let Ex-Aid access his power up that turns him invincible. He tries to stop time before Ex-Aid goes to use it (it doesn't work)
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u/Bladebrent 3d ago
This happens a couple times in Kamen Rider. Notably in Kamen Rider Build, the main villain is about to 'take the fight serious' and go to their strongest form, but Build stops him from doing so. Build WINS that fight, and what happens?
The main villain goes "ah, Gg's man. I'll let you have this one" then CASUALLY WALKS AWAY. Like he doesn't teleport, or do ANYTHING that would stop Build from chasing him. He literally just turns around and walks away. This guy was planning to destroy the earth btw. Like, what, would it be UNFAIR to kill him now cause its not the final episode or what?