I think that is the problem though, as we've discussed before, none of Kuuga's powers are epic. He has White Base Form, a Red Form which shows no real noticeable differences in power from the White form unless the plot says otherwise. Blue Form which allows Godai to jump higher and poke things to death. Then Green Form, the cool form that is of course too taxing on the body so we'll barely use this one.

And it isn't just a question of 'well this is just an old series' Sentai around the same time was doing some absolutely crazy things, Sentai was doing more like a decade before this series and yes I know different franchises, you don't need to tell me that, but I have no real other comparisons. I can only assume they had basically no money to make this at all.

Kuuga has epic powers though, you just aren't there yet.

If you want to know some of it:
Rising Mighty's kick causes an explosion 3 km wide. I'm pretty sure they say people died in that explosion. Then there's the ridiculous statement that Ultimate Kuuga's kick could destroy the entire world.

It's like they went from mundane powers, all the way to the opposite spectrum and pulled a Gurren Lagann with the scope of his abilities.

Like I say I'm looking forward to it, and there is enough to keep me engaged out of the battles, but the fact I'm almost half way through the series and I haven't got to the 'good forms' yet is, in my opinion, shocking.

Why do so many shows structure themselves like this? What is the point in watching the first half if everything interesting is in the second half? I'm not saying this first half isn't good, but I seem to get told to wait a lot on this forum, the good stuff seems to always be coming somewhere on that horizon and it is never here right now.

Kuuga is a good show, so I don't really mind, but I ain't got time to wait around for a series to spend twenty episodes getting its arse in gear.

I know, I just found it funny how, because of Yuuske...Tsukasa helped Kazaki, and didn't at all intend to.

To be fair, every show should get better as it goes on. If a show remained at the same quality and level all throughout (AAAAGGIIIIIITTOOOOOOO) it'd be just as bad, or worse since you're expecting improvement.

It's not the "it gets better" comments that get me. I expect that. It's the "it gets good later" which make me feel like I'm wasting my time because it's not good to start. OOO "get's better" because the plot advances, the charatcers expand and the stakes get higher. That's what I want and expect.

Not like Kabuto where you trudge halfway through nonsense and horrible characters and people start saying the second half isn't as good as the first. (He's a troll! That makes everything okay because trolls are so endearing, likable and make for great heroes!)

Speaking of, I notice a disturbing trend in some rider series of the main rider being almost wholey apathetic towards the destruction and often death or injury of those around him, and focuses only on his problems and beating teh monster. Kabuto and Agito could barely be paid to give a rats ass about all the innocent, just going about their lives oblivious to the lurking danger, folk who get horribly murdered leaving behind grieving families. (Another reason W, Black, OOO and Den-O are my favs, and why I still like Wizard despite him being very subdued, borderline bland. He at least gives a shit about other human beings besides himself, sometimes the secondary rider and whatever pair of boobs is standing arund at the time)

I personally enjoyed Kabuto.
I have no idea what made Tendou endearing to me. Hell, he blatantly told Kagami he wouldn't help someone else out (He did in the end, though).
There really seems to be no middle ground with Kabuto. Either you find the interactions between Tendou and Kagami to be fun and the series to be good, or you find Tendou to be a complete monster and hate everything about it :lol

That is what I meant. A show should get better as it goes, but it should also start good as well. I cant believe the amount of people on this forum who are happy to sit through 20 - 30 episodes of something they cant stand just because other members told them it gets good after that. Crazy.

Yeah the few episodes I watched of Kabuto I found really boring.

I find Kuuga funny in a reverse kinda way to your point. Kuuga is all about saving people, all about protecting smiles and all that cheese, yet he relies entirely on Ichijou to lead him to the battles and Ichijou is only informed of the attacks after sometimes hundreds of police/civilians have lost their lives, they're trying to present Kuuga as some kind of hero but I'm guessing close to thousands of people have died under his watch already.

This wouldn't usually be an issue, I mean hell look at all the exploding buildings in Sentai, but the show constantly rubs the body count in my face while simultaneously trying to represent Godai as a Paladin and I just find it funny in how little that works.

I actually found episodes 9-24ish to be quite lackluster for OOO.

I have my own reservations about OOO, even though I quite like the show, but I was commenting more on structure verses subjective assesment.

Like, there's "subjective" opinions which is what you like and stuff, and "objective" opinions that are still opinions and you're not forced to agree with anyone, but they use more measurable basis. Stuff you can actually hold up and say "this isn't how it's usually done/intended to be."

My biggest problem with OOO was how lackluster the center of the series turned out. Random gaining and losing medals, the Greed sitting around, Maki not doing much of anything during that time, no Date, Gotou still being an abrasive ass, etc.

But I do enjoy OOO. It had a strong start and finish, a great protagonist, a very interesting anti-hero, a weird antagonist, and some cool designs (IMO).

The reason I don't hold OOO's middle against it is because to it's credit, the characters remained interesting enough to keep it worthwhile and as soon as I said to myself "man this is kind of dragging" it instantly picked up. I, seriously, felt the very end was the most dissapointing. (though the finale was excellent. Again, it keeps it worthwhile) But yes, the musical medals was VERY annoying and exactly what I as afraid would happen with the rider shows that are based around collectible gizmos. (and again, credit to W for not even coming close to ever doing this. He starts with six memories and gains a few special ones, but no "gotta catch 'em all" or switching and swapping. I heard Fourze was bad at this, with there being so many switches)

Yeah. The medal swapping did seem forced, but compared to Fourze, I actually preferred it. OOO's combo possibilities changing every other week kept things fresh and kept him on his toes.
Fourze had 41 switches, and he used about 20 of them twice, max. It was insane and fights got tedious since Gentarou relied on the same switches because he had no reason to ever not use the likes of Rocket or Cosmic.

As for OOO's end, I actually enjoyed it. Then again, I was one of the few who liked Ankh turning.

I've been catching up on Wizard recently, I'm about half way through episode 35. Holy crap, Sora being a murderer before he became a Phantom is a bit darker than I expected. Somehow though... I LOVE IT.

Yeah. That part was awesome. I loved it!

It's just a real shame that his Phantom side is so boring, just like pretty much every villain on the show.

I know this point has come up a few times, but i'll repeat it, cuz why not?
Being the first in a new run of shows, they had to figure the formula out.
I've said this before, too, but I'll say it again, I felt finding out about each form was interesting, I wasn't waiting for the kill-everybody form, because I thought each new form was interesting on it's own.

Newer shows definitely pace it differently, so maybe more people feel like you, that the upgrade powers are more interesting to get to sooner than spending so much time with the other standard forms, but liked how Kuuga did it, and it just struck me that Kiva did it fairly similarly too, except he only got one upgrade form, instead of 7 or whatever Kuuga has.

Few shows start out strong from the get go, I've found almost across the board that every Kamen Rider show has the weakest story arcs at the beginning, because they have to find their groove, but once they do they all get better as time goes on. Better to start out weak and improve, than start strong and go downhill. That said, I've also found myself sufficiently drawn in by each beginning story arc so I've wanted to continue.

But certainly, don't force yourself to watch something you don't enjoy because people tell you it gets better. As has been stated, there are better things to spend your time on than something you don't enjoy. That's why I bailed on Dekaranger and Gokaiger- I gave them as long as I could, longer than I should have, and finally dropped them after 20-ish episodes because they weren't working for me. I love Kiva, but I'm not going to say somebody should force themselves through just because I thought it kept getting better and better.

I'm glad you're enjoying Kuuga enough to continue with it, hope you feel the satisfaction you're looking for once the Rising forms start hitting. Think it's time for me to watch another couple of episodes myself.

The show was definitely at its strongest when it basically a string of two parters introducing and showing off the new forms but that aspect seems to have been dropped from the show entirely, so maybe it would have actually been better for them to spread the forms out further in this first half and make each form more interesting to watch.

I probably could have appreciated the forms more if we didn't get four over ten episodes and like none over the next ten, and ironically his base White form has had more kills and uses than the Blue and Green forms combined so far, so what the hell is the point of them? Especially if these next ten episodes are set to replace them with even more powerful versions of themselves.

But I'm glad you understand, with the way the internet goes on it's like you have to force yourself through the entirety of a series you dislike just to have an opinion on it, like what a load of crap.

But yeah, I can't wait to see those new Rising Forms!

Well, to a certain extend though, it's understandable. I've only seen around 8 episodes of Kabuto, so I can't really give a fair assessment of the show. I can say that I didn't enjoy Dekaranger, but I can't say it was complete crap, because I didn't even make it half-way thru (and honestly, the arc I ended on was the best one to that point).

But if you don't like what you've seen so far, there's little point in forging on, no matter what fans may say about. Even if you're wrong, and maybe it would become something you like after 15 more episodes, it's okay if you miss something you may have liked, there's more to life than just watching TV

Or so I hear, I duuno, I love Kamen Rider, and haven't started a show I didn't like yet.

Anyway, I started Kuuga episode 27 reminds me of another thing I really like about Kuuga, the opening credits sequence changes 3 or 4 times during the run of the show.

Now, obviously newer shows do that to, I think Fourze's changes shortly after each new State is acquired, but some of that is adding new characters, such as Meteor, but now that I think about it, some of it is just updates to show the new forms.

Kuuga doesn't just add the new forms, like Fourze did though, they changed a lot more of the sequence, and each change I felt brought a somewhat different mood to the opening. Though I do wish they hadn't added in all the Rising forms until they had debuted in the show, feels like spoilers to me.

I also like that around this time the Gurongi change their mode of operation around this time too, that their rules become more complicated, and at the same time, more difficult to predict. This arc in particular, I remember really liking for some reason, but I don't know what. I rather hope it's not because Rising Dragon form debuts here, because now that you bring up how fast they introduced the regular forms, at least there was an arc in between each new form. I think I got Rising Titan 2 arcs ago, Rising Pegasus last arc, and now I think I get Rising Dragon this time.

I do remember the pacing of this show was off, there were a couple of stretches where it did drag on, but they're not the first things that come to mind when I think back on it. All I really remember is the awesomeness of it all.

The only reason I disagree with the whole sentiment is that although those last ten episodes may change your entire opinion on the show, no one should expect you to sit there and get to those episodes before you join in a discussion. Sure you may not be able to form an informed opinion overall, but you can form an informed opinion on what you have seen, individual episodes the aspects that come with them exist to be critiqued just as much as shows do as whole units. You are allowed to say you didn't like the show even after checking out only the first few episodes, no matter what the internet says.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the pacing of Kuuga...as such... but it is kinda weird that they've done the show in blocks with the first ten episodes being dedicated to new forms and the second ten being dedicated to character and story.

Since a lot of the acting is pretty weak in this show, I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more if they spaced out the new forms by slotting in the character focused episodes in between them, I think it would have all flowed better and been a lot more interesting.

I just realized that Kuuga gets his Rising forms in the reverse order he gets his regular forms.

Watched episode 36 of OOO, poor Uva, he's my favorite Greeed. Love the Putotyra form though. I'm sad about I'm almost done with OOO.

That is kind of random!

Kiva 14: Wow, so that Frankenstein form ia powerful as shit. A bigass hammer that shoots pit electricity, paralyzes opponents in place and summons a giant ghost fist to punch the shit out of people too?

Kiva 15: Checkmate Four, huh? Interesting. Looks like the main villains are startimg to show themselves and the modern day part of the plot is start is starting to pick up while the past plot continues to stay interesting.

Also really interested to see Ixa's new...battle Crane thing?

Hibiki 3: The musical numbera are always gonna throw me off even when I expext them. Also, are the fights ever going to get less...blurry? I suspect I'd really like them if I could see them clearly.

I rewatched OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let's Go Kamen Riders because I felt like it.
Fun little movie. Somewhat disappointing climax, but the rest of the movie is cool.

The Checkmate Four are awesome, I think, and they deserve Figuarts.

Don't worry, you'll never see it again.

That sums up an alarming number of things in Kiva.

It's starting to sound more and more like I made the right decision not continuing with that series.

I only remember 2 or 3 things not ever being seen again.

Something are never explained, like why Castle Doran is a dragon/castle, or why it's hiding(?) in a building in the present, but just lounges about in a forest in the past.

Castle Doran's little partner is the one that always drove me nuts. It's another castle dragon, it shows up out of nowhere with no explanation, Wataru totally recognizes it, and it's never shown or mentioned again.

don't forget about that booster for his bike too.

Yeah, the Checkmate Four are interesting villains (I hate Bishop though).

Don't listen to him...he hates Kiva.

He used that twice didn't he?

Yeah, Kiva has some issues, but they're pretty minor.

Haha I don't hate it, that is a little strong! But I did check out a few episodes and it didn't do anything for me, yeah.

Does that mean no one should listen to me because I hate Decade?
Because I certainly hate that show :p

Oh, how can I count the ways?

Ah. Which one's this Dai-Chan guy?



To be honest, I'm not sure what I think of Kiva yet. I mostly stuck around to see how the past plot developed bit with 15, I'm starting to get interested in the present plot again...

Otoya is still 1000% more interesting than Wateru currently, though.

Episode 20 of Kuuga was a really enjoyable watch, although the acting in this series isn't great you really do feel the chemistry between the cast and it really showed how attached I had become to these characters in how much I could share their joy in the fact that Godai is alive.

These really were some of the most heartwarming exchanges between characters I've seen in Toku, without it getting cheesy as all fuck. The pacing isn't perfect in this series, far from it, but I really have enjoyed watching all of these characters grow close and closer together.

I really do think that by the end of this series Ichijou is gonna go down as one of my favourite characters, period. It's a shame more series don't get a great side character like him.

I hope whatever Rider series I move onto after this, it keeps that same sense of reality in the emotions and relationships between the characters, it really makes everything feel like it actually matters.

Once again my only real complaints are around Kuuga himself, the action sequence with Number 26 was certainly much more satisfying this time than it was last time but after so much build up, done with such great special effects, the fight felt so very brief. I assume more is to come of this, but the fight still felt a little tacked on. Which is kinda weird that the tacked on fights are better than the key narrative ones.

Just saw Kamen Rider Accel, and man Terui deserved this movie! For those that don't know, Accel is my all time favorite secondary rider (from my all time favorite series no less) and this movie only made me like him even more. Seriously, Terui is such a bad ass that he goes basically the entire movie with out being able to transform (and when he finally can he has to deal with a busted leg) and he still kicks ass, all while hand cuffed to a fugitive.

It was awesome and occasionally made me ask "Am I really watching a Kamen Rider movie?" It had a great story, good tension and great action . And then there's the outstanding performances from Minehiro Kinomoto (Accel) and Hikaru Yamamoto (Akiko) as a cherry on top adding to my enjoyment. I know a lot of people bitch at the writers for putting Terui and Akiko in a relationship (especially with them being married in this movie) but I don't mind it.

The one problem I have is that Booster Form (the form that is built up throughout the movie) is a little underwhelming and moves a tad too slow for my taste. Though again, that's probably due to the number of injuries Terui had accumulated up til then.

Oh, and there's an Eternal movie too? This just gets better and better!

Man the Eternal movie was just, meh. Never cared much for the character anyway but the movie certainly didn't improve my opinion of him.

But you liked Accel's right?

As a hardcore W-is-the-best-series-to-me-no-contest fan of W, Eternal was a waste, and I actually kind of get mad when I think about it. It was such a lame attempt at adding depth to a character that was a complete wash and was just nonsense that was only good for expanding on why Utopia was a NEVER.

Eternal, the lamest looking, lamest everything rider from W gets a movie, and all Skull gets is a flashback bit part in W and Decade and most of half a movie in War Core? Such grave injustice. Skull was such a cool charatcer and concept, and what little we saw of the beginning of his rider career in War Core was just begging for a movie showcasing him as a full-time superhero and metting/mentoring Shotaro.