Implementation.

Bad CGI sucks but when bad CGI is used for things that could be done just as easily, and probably cheaper, practically then it doesn't sit well with me.

From what I remember, and you have to remember I saw only maybe 15 episodes, there was more CGI than there was actually anything physical. Ranging from poorly animated CGI stunts, to completely animated vehicles to special attacks.

And yes I'm a contradictory douche because I don't mind shitty rubber costumes but I don't like bad CGI but I dunno, something about those rubber suits actually being there adds a sense of genuine...ness to it that poorly added CGI over the frame doesn't do for me.

Was it even three times? I know it's in the opening when they add Accel to it, but I'm not even sure I saw it happen in the show, myself.

I'm not sure. I think you could. I'll check an episode listing, there may have been an important story arc you should see before that, but if you saw the Sweets arc, that may be good enough.
Speaking of, I loved the first time we saw Terror transform, I thought it was awesome.

I think Terror's introduction would be more impressive if it wasn't for the massive hat with a cape.

If you last saw the Sweets arc, next up is Virus, which I think is a good story, but I don't recall if there's anything necessary in it. But if I recall there are some good character moments for Shotaro. And I love Shotaro, so they are worth watching to me.

Then the Question arc, which gives you more insight into the Sonozaki family, so you definitely need that one - that's episodes 13 and 14.
After that watch the movie, just the Begins Night portion though, skip the Decade shit (which is first), and though it will make little sense, the last 10 minutes where the two stories join, it's got good stuff for Shotaro.
Then the next several arcs are really strong, in my opinion. Fang, Nasca, are important for the overall story, and Ice Age introduces Accel.

So, you're done with the rough stuff, I'd say. From here on out, it's all pretty strong.

I guess when I'm done with Fourze and OOO, it's back onto W again!

Honestly I'd say give it a shot.

The only thing that you need to know is that the movie addresses the growing guilt and tension around Shotaro's boss being killed from the first episode. But the movie establishes that so I don't think you need to worry.

Also, just an aside note, but it's a crossover movie with Decade, and the first of the "movie war" movies. So the actual W portion doesn't start until about halfway into the movie. (since the first half is D-D-D-DICKADE)

EDIT: Also yeah, after the movie is the Virus arc, which is really cool/creepy. I deffinitely think that's where the show gets way, way better.

While I agree completely, I can't remember any time this was really done in W.

W only used CGI for stuff that they couldn't use for practical effects like giant inhuman monsters. (and would intermitantly cut to practical effects for closeups like the big ridiculous T-rex head)

Which again, these stopped being used very quickly. Also, it's worth pointing out, but the CGI actually gets better. I remember thinking the Queztelpretzel-thing dopant looked not too bad.

He used it in his debut, but now that you mention it, I think he only used it in finishers and with his tank thing that showed up, like, once. Also it showed up in A to Z, again for a finisher, where it looked pretty good. (then agin A to Z had a budget)

I'm not gonna lie, I also thought Terror was an underwhelming villain design.

Until, that is, it was revealed what his big silly hat actually does.

Okay, I'll say one more thing. Yeah, the costume is kinda silly. But it's not about the look, it's about the mood, and because the tone of the show grabbed me, the sincerity of Shotaro wanting to wipe away the tears of the city was real to me, I can believe that when Terror transforms, feeling of terror accompanies that.

Sure, the fear-goop is not a great effect, especially that first time, if I recall. And I actually HATE that toku characters can suddenly jump hundreds of feet up or forward out of nowhere when the plot requires it and never again - at least they justified it on Kuuga and gave him a whole new form for it - but I'm sold on the mood the show is trying to convey.

I know I'm not a very critical viewer, I tend to just take what I see at face value, and not really try to judge it. But there's a difference between me not being bothered by what I see, and feeling and accepting what I'm seeing, and W and OOO and Fourze, in particular, I feel were really good at establishing emotional connections with me, so that I can easily overlook things like poor CGI, or silly/stupid designs, because the characters are real to me.

I firmly believe that somewhere in Japan is a city called Fuuto that has that windmill tower, and that if I got there, I might run into Shotaro, or Teriu. Or that there's an AWHS that Gentaro and his friends graduated from, and I might could run into them some place.

And THAT's why I want to visit Japan. And also to visit a Mandarake store in person and buy everything they have.

Split Lip who have you become telling me it gets better later, you've become one of them! :lol

But okay, okay, I will give W another go in the future!

The difference is, "later" in this case is "well you're basically there, just watch the movie."

I mean, for everything you pick apart in W I can find three times as many giant flaws in literally any given show.

Also, while this has little to do with storytelling, I do recall someone once telling me that W had a smaller budget than the series before it, Decade, because Decade was this big anniversary celebration.

I still think the bad CGI complaint is silly when nowadays we have Wizard which basically makes it's money off of terrible, unnecessary effects like his bike/dragon thing. (I never got how he used his bike to give the dragon wings when shouldn't it already have wings?) Or how Hurricane Dragon has silly CGI wings to let it fly, even though regular hurricane can already do that.

:lol

Oh yeah those Wizard sections are really, really shit. A lot of his powers and suits look really shitty in honesty (I've upgraded look at my rain mack!) but the fights are very polished and fun. I still don't think W's fights flowed well but the thread just calmed down again so let's leave that for another century.

The worst part is he gives the dragon wings, but when he gets his dragon upgrades one of them is wings, which the dragon shouldn't have if he has to give them AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

I don't see what makes the fights in Wizard better than W. He still just hits and kicks and it looks no different except he sometimes uses a sword that, to it's credit looks like it's actually made of metal, but just means he's swinging his arms around. I'm not a huge fan of swords unless it's like in Den-O where he swings the thing so freaking fast and hard it really looks like he's just clubbing the dude with the prop almost.

Also, I've slowly grown to find Wizard's design utterly aweful. The suit is just too basic and "first step" while being simultainiously too flashy with the coat and giant jewel head. It's not attarctive to look at. And that goes for all forms. It's like, with W he had the half and half gimmick, and when he changed forms evne though they kept the same design, the colours completely changed and whatever the memory colour was became that entire side. Wizard's main colours aren't even the whole suit. It's like "hey guys look, I changed my accent colour and shape of my face and it's suppsoed to be a big upgrade!" At least with W the six memories all felt like part of his base form and swapped instantly. Wizard has to reset his driver, put his ring on, then hold his hand in front of his belt for a full second before and overly long transformation happens.

Also, I've realized that the Wizard directions have noticed that the belt is obtrusive and loud.
While "Shabadoobie" hasn't been dropped, "Luppachi Magic: Touch Go!" hasn't show up in ages.

The show seems to HATE them, with the belt still shouting in the background long after the show has moved on.

I dunno, I guess because of the mix of forms and powers meant it didn't feel quite like it was going through the motions. Once all of W's forms had been introduced and combos and so on, the thing felt like it was in a rush to get the flashy finishing moves. Kuuga does the same. Only Kuuga can't do flashy. So it's more just like...a move.

I kinda like Infinity because it's the first time the whole jewel thing has actually worked for the costume and I grew to like Flame Style due to it feeling so familiar but all the rest...yeah. The horrible colours for Land and Land Dragon. The rainmacks. The stupid helmets. Not great.

Plus, it doesn't look like a Wizard. At all. Not that the show has a clear explanation of what a wizard is.

Wizard looks kinda like what happened to the superheroes in the 90s. I know that Wizard's don't need to be like dudes in cone hats with long beards but since when was a wizard a leather trenchcoat and some cheap plastic jewellery?

And when he uses Excite, he looks even more like a 90's Super hero! :p

I guess the same time a wizard became "dude who just puts on rings and thus I guess he can control magic."

Seriously, without the rings or driver he wouldn't be a wizard in any capacity.

It's even really poorly done like a true Liefeld drawing.

LOL this is so true and it becomes really awkward later when he wants to really casually show off his powers and he has to fumble with his rings and obnoxious Driver.

So, I went back to Ryuki. I'm only halfway through episode 3 but I quite like it. It's moving along respectfully, having just brought up "there can be only one rider" interesting. Ryuki himself is a cool guy, hotblooded and driven and not taking any of Batchump's shit. (although he owes him $300 now) Speaking of, it's a real shame Batface is such a titanic asshole because he looks awesome.

Speaking of, the cinematography really bugs me. Lots of weird angles, but most of all the actual production value of the show is... weird. It's like the framerate or something is too high. It's so odd and nothing like any Rider show I've seen before or since. Agito didn't look like this.

You should know what to expect with Knight :lol

It's really jarring when something who looks so much like Batman be a smug twenty-or-so year old who, rather than acknowledge a potential ally and offer aid in return for help, or remove him if he is a genuine hinderance to the whole "one rider" thing.

Basically a strange man has entered my world dressed as my icon and is speaking a language I don't understand and acting completely dumb and nutty. It's like post-DKR Frank Miller Batman all over again!

EDIT: And because I nearly forgot, I watched Super Hero Taisen and I have one main question: ummm... so is DiEnd dead?

I think it's the quality of film or video they used. It always reminded me a bit of the video they use in the few snippets of soap operas I've seen over the years.

Glad you're liking Ryuki, though. I didn't care much for the show at first, but upon rewatching it I really enjoyed it a lot more.

Oh for fuck's sake, this girl's parents are dead, too! Is there anyone in Toku/Anime who doesn't have dead parents? It's kind of sucking the gravitas out of the situation when EVERYONE'S PARENTS ARE DEAD. You know, you don't have to kill them off, writers. Whatever happened to good-old walking out on your family? Worked for me.

Jesus it's like once you have a kid it's a nineteen year countdown until you die. Man, is Kamen Rider secretly owned by Disney?

In fairness, Yui's parents' death is a pretty major plot point.

And the only Rider character I can think of who explicitly has two living parents is Yuuki from Fourze.

I never said that it makes a complete 180, just it gets...I guess slightly more serious, or relatively (in terms of Fourze) serious.

Kiva 32

King arrives! And of course he's Wateru's old childhood friend and...half-brother, I suppose? His job is actually pretty evil. Owning a massive company and agree to sponsor the projects of things that would benefit humanity for the sole purpose of killing the owner of said projects because you don't believe humanity should be allowed to develop. Pretty villainous.

And Queen's job is killing fangires who fall in love with humans. Bishop's job seems to be to keep them all together. And Rook....Uh. ...What's Rook's purpose? To run around playing psychotic games? I mean any Fangire could do that, so why is he the Rook? Guess he just got in by being really strong...

I like how Riki just sort of showed up and told Otoya, "Hey dude, Maya's a Fangire. Here lemme fight her to show you." Then he got beaten up a little and just sort of limped off. Otoya's reaction just seemed to be mildly perplexed but otherwise he seemed cool her being the Queen Fangire and beating up one of his monster pals. Though...that's likely because Maya's hot and Riki's just a weirdo.

I had the same reaction. The Checkmate Four are pretty evil. Everything they do, and their motivations are to do everything they can to maintain their race's superiority.

Kiva 33

And just finished Kiva 33. I never mentioned it before but, I liek that there's a moose Fangire. Moose's are a rare animal to be based on, it seems. I think the friendly turtle fangire has my favorite Fangire design. I like how the shell is a hood or whatever.

Wateru's acting all mopey again about Mio being betrothed to Taiga, but at least it didn't deter his fighting ability. For someone with the job of Fangire King, Taiga seems...fairly cordial. He and Mio seem like the most sane of all of the Checkmate Four members.

Felt kinda bad for Yuri. I mean, given how the future works, she wasn't gonna stay with Otoya or whatever, but...I felt like that subject could've been written better.

What's Taiga's henshin...sidekick thing supposed to be? A UFO? Either way Saga is a pretty cool form, though for some reason, I felt I wouldn't like it's design, judging from the preview pics. It looked pretty cool in action though, so..


Well, most of them. Rook just wanted to have some messed up fun.

I think Sagark is an artificial Kivat.

True.

No, he was there right at the end of the film.

Got a couple of episodes further into Amazon and still loving it. So refreshing to see a semi-naked man/giant lizard rider biting and clawing at enemies after watching numerous series of fancy attacks and special effects.

Hmm, what I have been watching that's Rider related lately?

Well, before I get into that, I figure since I never brought them up previously I should talk about the last two Rider shows I finished: NO FEAR, NO PAIN (Kamen Rider Kuuga) and CLOCK UP (Kamen Rider Kabuto).

Lets get the lesser of the two out of the way first: Kabuto.
Overall I liked it, but holy crap did it shove way too much shit into its last 15 or so episodes. Seriously, what the hell guys? By some sheer miracle it didn't completely derail the show and was offset by some awesome stuff (mainly the Hopper Bros.), but it did impact on my enjoyment of the show enough to mention it as a negative. Other than that, it was solid. I dug basically every Rider (yes, even Drake) and really liked seeing Kagami grow and evolve as a character...and on the flipside seeing Kageyama get promoted to a position that he was not in any way trained for and get shat on repeatedly by the show for it. Like at one point, Gorou-Chan uses TheBee Zecter through sheer force of will and despite the Zecter fighting against him, STILL does a better job than Kageyama. Really the only reason he got the thing was because TheBee's preferred user (Kagami) rejected it in order to become his own man.

Now, the movie on the other-hand (God Speed Love)...was downright awful. Just holy crap, how did they fuck this up so badly? What made it worse was the damn ending, which turns Tendou into the thing that people that hate the character think he is: an unbeatable asshole that can make EVERYTHING better just by using Hyper Kabuto to stop an asteroid, go back in time and use said asteroid to hit another asteroid and URGH. Just thinking about that movie hurts my brain.

On to something amazing: Kamen Rider Kuuga.
This...this is my favourite Rider show, just edging out W for the spot. It was...sniff...just everything I could ever want out a Rider show. Great fight choreography that isn't overly flashy, great use of the bike, TERRIFYING villains that actually KILL civilians and that you can't understand the motives of, leaving you just as confused as the characters are as to why everything is happening, one of the best supporting casts ever that all contribute in some way to the world, the best police force in the HISTORY of the franchise (or at of the Heisei era) that actually HELPS the Rider out, the greatest non-secondary Rider character to ever support a Rider (motherfucking Ichijo), one the best main villains ever, the best Rider of the Heisei era (baring Shotaro of course), one the best uses of form changes in a show, some of the best MOTW designs of any Rider show, one of the best worlds of any Rider show (baring the Windy City of Fuuto), one the best OPs ever, and, of course, one of the GREATEST endings to ever grace a Rider show.
I just can't say enough how much I ADORE this show. Everything worked and even when the plot wasn't moving; stuff was STILL happening, so I was NEVER bored. I honestly hope that MCS can get their v3 versions of the episodes back on track again once they finish Stronger, because I can't wait to watch this show again.

Now, onto what I've being watching lately:

Started Blade. I'm 6 episodes in. Its great. Haven't watched any of it recently but I figure I'll resume it sometime within the next couple of weeks; which I'll be doing raw since the TVN versions are...really awful. Not to mention I've kinda sworn off ever watching TVN again unless I ABSOLUTELY have to after a little blog post they made a week or so ago.

Up to episode 20 something in Fourze. Really enjoying it. Gonna watch more of it probably next week. Also watched Megamax, which was amazing. Didn't watch the OOO section since I didn't wanna spoil myself on that, but everything else was beautiful.

Up to episode 3 of the first Kamen Rider, aka Kamen Rider: The Adventures of Hongo and Ichimonji. Really digging it. Well...except for the MISUNDERSTANDING subplot in the first two episodes. Was not a fan of that. Everything else was excellent though.

And finally, I've been counting medals (Kamen Rider OOO for those not in the know) lately. Up to episode 13. Really digging it. Also watched Movie War Core which...I didn't hate as much as I thought. Sure, it, apart from the AMAZING Skull section and the ending in Fuuto, was awful: but it didn't hurt me or anything. Mainly because I went into those sections with SUPER low expectations and knew what to expect. The Skull section exceeded my expectations and I now join SPLIT LIP in the boat of wanting a Kamen Rider W Returns: Skull movie. Like holy crap was that amazing.

:thumb:

Watched Fourze episode 2. Very enjoyable episode, Gentarou so far reminds me of what would happen if you crammed Eiji, Date, and Gotou from OOO into a blender.

I think I'm going to stick to Kiva just had this growing need to watch Fourze lately lol.

Also watched Kiva 9, man Ixa looks so awesome. I love the design theme of this season.

I'm enjoying reading peoples thoughts and feelings on some of my favorite shows, Kiva, Kuuga, Fourze. Makes me want to watch them all over again, even though I just finished Fourze last week, and I'm already in the middle of rewatching Kuuga.

So I guess it just makes me want to watch Kiva again.

Why no Saga Figuarts, STILL? :'(

Even when I bash Kuuga? :lol

Nah, for Kuuga I was talking about Megabattimus. You suck. :lol

No, I've enjoyed our discussions. I still think you're doing it wrong, especially with regards to the Gurongi, but I think our talks have been nice and friendly and interesting.

:lol

Kuuga seems to be less of a touchy subject than W so our discussions were a lot more constructive. But I still wish I knew the villains motivations this point...or even anything about them. It went from a mystery to standing on lego in the dark.

I guess I can understand that. I guess I was fine with them wanting to kill the Linto for killing's own, or the game's own sake.
There IS a reason for the game, but honestly I had kinda forgotten about it, until you asked the question. Not to say it's a bad reason necessarily, but the reason must not have had as big an impact on me, as just the method of the games did.

It's just because I didn't know anything about them, it took the context away from their violence. And at first the random, unknowable violence was effective because you are like 'how can you do something so horrible?!'.

But it's hard to remain invested when you've been asking that very question for the last 38 episodes.

Speaking of 38 that was a great episode even if the whole colours and moving box thing was kinda dumb.

The Power Rangers logo thing is Daguva, some kind of magical maguffin that the ULs and Kuuga (who I guess is a UL as well) can use to access new powers. Although the white wig is pretty dumb, Batman's new form is pretty fucking cool. I really like that Kabuto UL as well.

I am enjoying that there is more focus on Kuuga himself again, part of what made the first fifteen or so episodes so enjoyable was the focus was entirely on him, the mystery of what he is and his powers were. Sadly once the base forms were introduced this aspect of the series just kinda fell out of it until new forms were introduced again. So although not consistent I'm glad whenever it comes back again and I'm glad that means a new form is on the way. Hopefully a lot cooler than the Gold forms.

Also it's sad to see Ichijou get hurt, then again I'm not surprised it hasn't happened sooner, this is ground in the real world this series so the idiot shouldn't go around provoking the ULs without any backup. Or provoking them at all. The speech he had about Godai was a little gay though and if Ichijou has the hots for Godai power to him!