New to Kamen Rider - Watching Agito Blind
 

So, I have always had sort of an interest in checking out KR in the past. I decided to finally act on it and watch Agito. As someone who grew up watching Power Rangers Wild Force I sort of knew what to expect from this type of show. What I didn't expect was to enjoy it as much as I did, so much so that I made an account here to rave about how good the first 7 episodes were. I finished episode 7 today and I just have to say this show is really ballsy. Even if its for kids the fact that they dont gloss over murder or other darker themes is really really cool to me. I also just love all the main characters. Especially the cop guy (can't really remember his name at this point lol)

Hope you don't mind me literally making my first post to rave about something I've barely started!

I liked it for its Twin Peaks-esque tone and that the three main riders are very unique from each other. Hope this leads to you liking other toku.

Happy to hear it! I've always thought Agito would make a pretty good first Kamen Rider show, and it tends to get a lot of praise in general, so you made a pretty darn good choice. It's a show with great characters, an interesting plot, and some good action, so you really can't go wrong with it. If you thought just those first 7 episodes were good, you're in for a real treat.

Agito isn't a bad place to start. It was the first Rider show I really got to watch past a couple of episodes. I really liked how the show set up a lot of mysteries and slowly developed them over the course of the series.

First of all, welcome to the forums and kamen rider! Personally, Hikawa/G3 is my favorite character from agito. Glad you're enjoying it, and hopefully you'll enioy the other shows as well.

Really? Didn't know that

Not to be rude (or discourage people from watching agito; everyone is entitled to their own opinion), but I found agito to be a little weak with pacing/story. Just my opinion (then again i had high expectations after how much i liked kuuga, so I'm probably biased). The suit designs are excellent, though.

I'm all about Shouichi myself, but everybody in Agito is pretty great.

Well obviously it's not like I've talked to everyone who's ever seen it, but that's always the impression I get. I think it might be more appropriate to say I rarely see anyone say they didn't like it.

I think part of the hype I've seen it get has to do with being the last Heisei show to get proper fansubs, which built up this sort of mysticism around it. There were the old Cruel Angel (is that right?) subs that some people used for a while but they weren't readily available? I can't give the full story here since I didn't watch Agito until just a couple years ago, after it stopped being an issue. Maybe ask someone else. That's part of the delight of being a Toku fan lately, though. We're even getting official Super Sentai DVD's and simulcast Ultraman now, it's nuts.

I think you could accuse Agito of taking it easy but I think Kuuga was about as slow and light on overarching plot as (Heisei) Kamen Rider gets, so I'm a little confused what you mean by that.

Welcome! I'm glad you're enjoying Agito! I loved it myself (much, much more than Kuuga) and I hope you continue to be entertained by it. As most everyone seems to be mentioning their favorites, I'll toss my $.02 in in favor of Sumiko. Her beer drinking is the stuff of legend! :)

Oh my god, I can't believe I forgot about her. Let my correct myself. Shouichi is my favorite Rider in Agito, but my favorite side character is definitely Sumiko. She's just so much fun, and Hikawa would be totally screwed without her.

Only kind of related, but I've been thinking about going back and watching some early Heisei. I've seen Showa, I've seen Neo-Heisei...but no regular Heisei. I was thinking Kuuga. What do you mean by slow and light on overarching plot though? Is it more like the Showa stuff than the later Heisei stuff?

Ankh is still the best side character in Rider ever. Just saying :)

No. The early Heisei shows, especially Kuuga and Agito, are more like drama series that have some action in them. They spend a lot more time on character interactions and dynamics. Some episodes have only a brief action scene near the end or beginning and the rest is drama. Generally, the show's feel much more serialized because of all the ongoing character stuff. The two-episode arcs are still there, but less obvious.

That sounds like something I could get into.

I hope you can, these shows are awesome. Who needs Ghost when you have Blade? :p

Switchblade described it pretty well but I'd like to note that Kuuga is kind of in its own little style. Agito's sort of close, but not too similar.

It actually has a very distinct two-parter structure and while there's definitely a plot that progresses the show is way more about the interactions between the characters. The "action scene" of some episodes consists of Yuusuke transforming, throwing like one punch, and the episode cutting to credits.

Agito-Blade have the key difference of central mysteries that things focus around but in Kuuga any mysteries are more of a background element. It's a show about a normal dude who hangs out with other normal people and sometimes he fights monsters. The others are like that too but it really defines Kuuga in a way that makes it distinct from every other Kamen Rider in my opinion.

I... do not like Agito at all to be honest. I'm glad other people can enjoy it more than me though!

(Psssh, I like Faiz anyways, you probably shouldn't listen to me.)

I like Ghost. We are few, we are proud.

From what I can tell, Kuuga is sort of unique in the world of Rider, while Agito is a bit closer to what the series would start to evolve into

I feel like that would drive me crazy, actually. I'm okay with good drama, but if you're going to have fights you can't just have short teases like that.

The only Heisei shows I've seen are Drive and Ghost, but I think my favorite element of both were the investigations. Drive focused on a police team and Ghost on a paranormal investigation team, both of which would investigate mysterious events that usually ended up being connected to some sort of MOTW. How similar are these earlier Heisei shows to this style? If I liked the investigations in Ghost and Drive, would I like them as well?

I'll probably watch Kuuga sometime soon (W is next up, so maybe after that?) but I'm not entirely sure how I'll feel about it. Guess we'll see, huh?

That's what I've always felt. Agito really cemented the style Heisei Rider shows had for the next half decade or so and some of the stuff in it, like multiple Riders, is still a big part of the show now.

It's a total non-issue watching it now. Just pretend Kuuga is an hour-long show and the action is paced out fine. There's a fight in the "middle", and a fight at the end.

Well, Kuuga's plots basically follow a formula of:
1. Monster starts killing people
2. Police investigate the patterns in how they're killing people
3. Kuuga's cop buddy calls him in
4. Kuuga fights the monster
5. An explosion

...so it's actually pretty close to the Neo-Heisei shows in a sense. The other shows still have elements of this but I remember them feeling way more like a single narrative than Kuuga.

Fun fact: Kuuga is the only Kamen Rider show I actually burned out on to the point I just decided to rewatch the dozen episodes I'd already seen when I eventually got back to it. It's also one of my favorite shows and in my opinion one of the best.

It's really unique and I love it for how daring it kind of was, but it's a relaxed enough show I can see some people finding it boring. The general consensus seems to be that it was pretty good, though.

Yeah I understand how that sounds. I think my problem is that Agito tried really hard to set up an overarching story (which I appreciate) but failed to follow up on it. There's some cool stuff that isn't explained. I don't think it's bad, but it felt a bit disappointed. (fwiw, I think the show could've been better if it had focused on G3) But that's just my opinion.

Yeah, watch W next. It has the best version of those Kamen Rider mystery solving bits.

Ahhh... I sort of get that. I think everything played out pretty naturally but I can see how someone might have a problem with it.

Also, it's f***ing W. What other reason do you need? :D

I was torn between that and a couple of others. But W seems like the correct next series.

I remember the catch phrase for each rider in Agito was:

Agito: The man who is Kamen Rider

G3: The man who wants to become Kamen Rider

Gills: The man who has become Kamen Rider

I really like these catch phrases as they set up each rider very well.
Dang, now I regret not getting that Shining Form figuarts.

Well between the fact that it's great, you liking Drive, and me already pitching the show to you in a way that made it sound cool, you're probably going to really enjoy it. The only question is if you want to hold off on watching Movie War 2010 until you've seen Decade.

Oh man, those really say a lot for how little they say. I remember the one sentence pitch I always heard was that Agito was "the story of three Kamen Riders" and both of those really show what makes Agito a bit unique compared to other multi-Rider shows.

Each of the three protagonists is equally important and they each bring something important to the table. Shouichi is the emotional glue that holds the show together, and thus the "main" character, Hikawa is the relatable one, and Ryou brings the internal drama. They complement each other in a way I don't think any other show has quite matched.

Agreed and agreed again. Shoichi is the main focus being the titular hero but ultimately all three are equal as protagonists and are great at it. And although not part of the regular roster, Props to Inoue and Shirakura for bringing us this(although I am sure the actual conception was by someone that is unknown).

http://i.imgur.com/vaqhrHA.jpg


Oops, wrong one.

http://i.imgur.com/FmruBMu.jpg

Never going to shake that mental image now. Kamen Rider Tokomon...

Yes. Love that.. Someone needs to make that a thing. XD

http://i.imgur.com/YtK7CMI.jpg

I made it a thing.

Is bootiful. *wipes away tear of joy*

PROFIT *grins*

Alright time for a little update. Just finished episode 11. Really compelling stuff for real, I don't think the fight choreography is really that great its a lot of slow punches and stuff. But it more than makes up for in the drama aspect which has been a+++ so far, all 3 of the riders are compelling and interesting characters. and even the side characters i have strong feelings about (FUCK Houjou).

Hey, Houjou is just doing his job! Except when he isn't.

But yeah, the action in Agito isn't too special. There are plenty of cool moments but I think it's actually a step down from Kuuga in a lot of respects. Shouichi is the master of the dramatic entrance, though. The music helps.

I liked Agito.

I've been working my way through the Heisei era of Kamen Rider, from Kuuga, up to and including Decade (Currently on Den-O). I feel like although Kuuga was the "revival" of Kamen Rider as a regular TV show, Agito is the true spine of what Kamen Rider would be in the 2000s. Things it does are more what Rider would be in the 2000s in a way Kuuga wasn't.

There are worse choices for a first show.

I think that Ryuki probably had the strongest influence on what the Heisei shows became, but there's no denying that Agito had it's fair share of influence too.

I'd say Kuuga was probably the model and Agito became the template. The idea with Kuuga was that it would "destroy" what Kamen Rider was up to that point. There really has been no Kamen Rider series quite like it. Kuuga was a show that, most of the time, felt like it served no master above its story. Agito took a lot of Kuuga's strengths and improved upon them while making it a more balanced show overall.

Ryuki: Multiple Riders= Multiple toys! Also, the monsters started looking a lot more like whacked out Riders around mid-show.

Personally, I like the shows where the Riders are of all persuasions: hero, anti-hero, villain - better still when they kind of bounce back and forth. I don't mind monsters, but I prefer the Rider focus. Plus, BIG fan of the driver "science bullshit" aspect of Ryuki, Blade and Gaim. EX-Aid seems to be continuing that aspect, so I'm hyped.

hi im back after a brief hiatus. real life issues came in the way. Im absolutely enjoying the show a lot now. i just finished episode 22 and i just gotta say im blown away by some of the stuff thats been happening. The whole mini Aki arc was handled super well and i got real Dark Willow from Buffy vibes from it.

also i made this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeJS22I3jTQ

Haha! Man, that's brilliant!

Good to see that you're back and enjoying Agito :)

Yes! :lol

Moral of the story. Don't drop that pastry.
Oh, and glad you enjoying Agito.

Oh man, some of those murders in Agito were pretty brutal huh? :lol

Good to see you're still digging the show. If I remember right the stretch you're coming up on is actually where I felt the show really took off but I'm not sure. Not like it wasn't already great though.

its so good you guys. I just finished episode 30 and im so invested in this story now. theres still a few confusing things to me here and there. but goddamn if it isnt compelling as hell. im fully enthralled in all 3 of the main plots and now that they are finally starting to connect to eachother its going to be wild. my only real issue is i dont really know who the bad guy is supposed to be? or anything about him really, except that he gives evil monologues out of a hotel room.

https://puu.sh/s76ki.gif