It's like they actively tried to make the most ludicrous helmet in the history of the human race.

Decade 22.

I'm on the home stretch and honestly...I don't hate the show. I know there are gonna be cries of hypocrisy but hear me out. Decade is flawed, massively flawed. Tsukasa is the worst character in it despite being our protagonist, it makes no damn sense and every creative decision leaves you scratching your head. And yet, the thing is, even though there are shows with much smaller flaws they just aren't as entertaining as Decade is. And at the end of the day, Decade is so entertaining I can largely look past the flaws as I'm having so much damn fun.

Baffling as it may be, the choice to do this anniversary season from scratch is one I actually really like. Most of the shows Decade covers are shows I've either never seen, or never really liked much. So taking this shows, starting them from scratch, giving them all new casts, worlds, mythos and a budget to try and live up to their original ideas, I just think it's great.

Speaking specifically more of the episode, it was a pretty typical Decade episode. Nonsense held together with selotape made of baffling creative decisions that are entertaining enough to work despite themselves.

It was nice to get a chance to discover movie only suits, these Missing Ace Blade Riders look somewhere between Faiz and Blade and they look sweet. It also turns out Larc was played by a MEGA babe.

I'm with you on that. I see most the flaws people point out in hindsight, but I have so much fun watching it that I just don't care. Though I do like Tsukasa, he's my favourite Rider even. I like a guy that's clearly a hero, but still likes to mess with people for fun.

Also, a bit of fun trivia: all three 'Missing Ace' Riders have their actors return for Decade. Larc gets her first name changed, because her Blade version was named Natsumi, while Glaive gets his last name changed to match his new role as Diend's brother. Also the twist about him in Decade is foreshadowed by his role in Missing Ace.

I'm still flabbergasted by the fact that, out of the dozens of actors who'd played Riders during the 2000s and would willingly return to those roles, someone decided that getting the original actors from the Blade movie was a priority.

That is the thing. Although I think possibly the show is too fast, hopping from Rider World to Rider World was such a wild ride I largely didn't notice that the show was a big pile of gibberish until the end of the nine world journey was around the corner. Maybe distracting you from flaws is the wrong way to go about things, but it has to be said for the quality of the show that I didn't notice the flaws as I was enjoying myself.

I think a big reason why I don't like Tsukasa is he is very similar to Haruto but Haruto already captured my heart - he's probably my all time favourite main Rider other than Eiji - that I can't help but miss Haruto every time Tsukasa spouts a bit of wry humour. I will say that I love how he seems to really enjoy his role, and he is a total badass, he's just not my Haruto.

Wow Decade was foreshadowed in other media?

Foreshadowed isnt really the right word to use here. Missing Ace was in 2004. Nobody even knew that Decade would exist one day.

Kamen Rider Black 4, 5, and 6

All Showa Rider shows are episodic like this, I assume? Either way, I liked these. I honestly wasn't too impressed with the Gorgom at first, but I kind of grew to like ow unambiguously cartoony supervillainish they are compared to the Heisei ones? I'm not sure if I'd want them to go back to this, but it's pretty fun here.

Their plot's remind me of old school Power Rangers vllain plots, but instead of constantly sending villaisn to screw with the hero's life, thewy cook up schemes that would seriously fuck up the world. Ridculous schemes, but f they ever succeeded....

I mean, in these episodes they had: We must find out this hero's weakness! Quick, let us experiment on other male humans to find out his weakpoints. And these experiments....will somehow turn our test subject into a wolfman?!

Then there's a world peace conference! Quick, let's turn the village the conference is being held in into an evil cult that will attack those attending the conference, thus ruining world peace forever!!!

And lastly, the business world runs on competition, so let's kidnap the greatest artists we can find and train them to use esp so they can psychically copy down the blueprints of the world's most famous technology companies and then get hired by said companies so that they can sell the rival companies secrets to them, destroying all sense of comeptition between the two. And we'll do it again and again! Until humanity's economy comes crashing down! Anyone who finds out our secret will have their memory erased by our top scientists!

And as for Kotaro, he's pretty awesome. I like how in episode 4, he was injected with that fear toxin by the flea monster, but resisted it because he remembered how the Gorgom killed his father and overcame it through sheer willpower!

Also I like how he has nothing to sense the Gorgom with, so he he has to figure out on his own when they're involved (not that that's difficult honestly) and manages to save people by taking action.

So yeah, I'm liking. The episodic nature isn't' really bothering me like I thought it would. Though I know there'll be a plot somewhere down the line, since I know Shadow Moon's gonna show up at some point.

For the most part, yup. You do get some two parters every now and then though.

Pretty much. Some of the shows have some ongoing story arcs (there's a great one in Black RX, for example, when we first get RoboRider and BioRider), but it's largely evil plot of the week stuff.

I love that episode. It's possibly the single dumbest and most nonsensical evil plot in Kamen Rider history. And I've seen the episode of V3 where Destron wanted to turn people into exploding flying squirrels.

Black's main plot kind of drifts in and out of the show; you'll get an episode where the hunt for Nobuhiko is front and center, then it will disappear again for another 4-5 episodes. It gets more serialized near the end, though, and the last five or six episodes make up a really great little ongoing arc.

Great, now I have to see V3 to see that happen :lol.