See, I can forgive it a little more in Kiva because his fangire instincts take over. Not only that, Wataru does start to change as the series progresses and gets closer to becoming one with his fangire blood by the end. It's still not great, but it's at least more explainable.

I kinda like how the seeds of agito riders each have their own weird distinct personalities when they are being riders.

Shouichi almost becomes a silent protector/noble hero
Ryou being quiet but then extremely feral as gills
and nothing for Kino since he's all agito all the time.

Finished off Kamen Rider V3 today and absolutely loved it from start to finish. The best Showa era Rider series I've seen and easily in my top 5 overall favourites.

As a direct sequel to the original it worked perfectly, having the double Riders there to make that connection but using them sparingly enough that the focus was always on V3. The characters were all extremely likeable, with even the Rider Scouts proving a vital asset to the shows' success. My favourite character though was without a doubt Riderman, who despite coming into the show a lot later than I expected left the biggest impression.

The only real weak link for me was the Archbishop Wing arc, as he was a rather forgettable general and sandwiched between the more interesting Baron Kiba and Marshall Yoroi arcs.

And to go further, since he embraces his heritage, it's possible to say that at the start his wimpyness was self-loathing and attempts at trying to be what he considered the opposite of a Fangire: quiet, gentle, non-violent. He knew he was Fangire and did not like it at all: And when he became Kiva, he believed that it wasn't really him fighting, but the Kiva powers themselves fighting, and he could wash his hands of that conflict. Look at the fight with Rhino: he was sickened by the Fangire's actions and let Kiva dish out the punishment since at the time, he still didn't have the nerve to do so.

As time went on, Wataru stopped seeing it as him using the entity of Kiva and realized that he IS Kiva.

Or that's at least how I see it.

Glad to see you liked V3. I like X a little more, personally, but it's hard to argue that V3 isn't the Showa era at its strongest (well, pre-Black Showa, at least). Everything V3 did just worked perfectly, outside of the Archbishop Wing episodes (which weren't even that bad; nobody was going to have an easy time following Baron Kiba).

I think that's what people call "game face", and I would argue it does show in Shoichi in subtle ways but that not many situations are as dire as the ones with the Lords.

So I was tempted to watch the first couple episodes of Ryuki since it's next on my list...I'm now 6 episodes in. I have to say that despite my previous hang-ups about KR series with multiple riders I've found myself sucked into Ryuki's story almost as fast as I was into Kuuga. I think for the most part the show has a fairly steady pace so far and we've just cleared the third rider.

I do have one observation though As far as the talks about how Riders behave vs their un-transformed state, at times Shinji seems way to good at fighting as Ryuki despite being a rookie journalist and not having any stated martial arts training. He fights like I would think a novice would until you give him a sword or have him perform his final vent. Speaking of which, it kind of bothered me that he just instantly knew how to perform his final vent on the first go. Even Godai had to practice his rider kick and it was a very good plotline.

Aside from that in the most recent episode Shinji just shows up with some weird Pauldron/sword combo and it's promptly thrown to the side for his final vent. That was weird and I feel like, having watched Kuuga, Agito, and now Ryuki in chronological order; this is the series that really jump started the merchandising aspect of Kamen Rider. Although I should clarify that I've never been much of a toy collector so I'm not too aware of the history of Kamen Rider merchandise.

I'll probably cap off Ryuki around episode 10 or so and finish off Agito.

Continuing on through OOO with Lace and as we have just finished episode 38 I must say this is proving to be one hell of ride. It was admittedly dragging a bit in the early episodes but holy shit this series really picked up once Date came around and now I'm saddened to see him go. *sighs* We hardly knew you Date.

Anywho, after Lace and I are done with OOO we shall be heading on to Fourze... there anyone who can vouch for the quality on that one?

Is rely okay.

I feel like Fourze is one of those series where most people are either gonna love it or hate it. It's definitely got a shift in tone that some people will accept more than others.

If you're looking for fun, Fourze is the thing to watch! It's not as strong as OOO and W on the overall writing, but it has some very good and unqiue moments too. If you enjoyed OOO, I'd say go ahead and watch Fourze.