Well, according to the wiki I got them from, which was the KR wiki, Dark Rider and Alpha are the same suit. Rider is a male and Alpha is a female. Seeda is developed after Riotrooper and is meant for military, paramedic, and police use. Pyron was meant for recreational uses. That's all I remember right now.

That was hilarious. Way more entertaining than the show as a whole has been so far.

Huh. I knew about the stage show suits, but the unused ones are new to me. I honestly don't think they really look like proper Rider suits, though. They remind me more of something I'd expect from a non-Toei hero show like Ryukendo.

Today (April 1st), to celebrate, I watched an episode each from five different Kamen Rider seasons.

Well, Seeda does, kind of, look like it could be a modified/upgraded Riotrooper suit. I would like have seen it in action. The wiki said something about referencing Pyron to something from China called Pai Long, something to do with a white dragon. And that it hints to it on it's right leg, which you can see.

So 9 months after I got back into Tokusatsu, it took me that long to start watching another Kamen Rider series, the last one I saw was 6 years ago(Ryuki).

I started Kamen Rider Drive and from what I've heard people don't really like it, but I'm really, really enjoying it so far!

I dig the aesthetics and the structure of the season, integrating a detective story with monster doings and even bringing connections from civilians and the main characters themselves, it adds for breaking connections and character development from the characters.

Shinnosuke might just be my favorite rider protagonist so far. The guy really reminds me of myself more than any other toku character that I've encountered before and seems to be a good balance of a guy who can have fun, but when he needs to he can step up his game and fight against evil and for his friends, people and justice. Also to see a rider protagonist struggle with everyday struggles for some people is really heartwarming to see and it connects the viewer to the character more.

Kiriko is also awesome, I enjoy the antics between her and Shinnosuke and she seems to be the action girl of the series, assisting Shinnosuke and everybody while being to keep her own ground. I heard her character worsens as the series goes on by multiple people so I'll enjoy her while she lasts :)

Villains are interesting; I like how Heart and Brain are both pretty intelligence and powerful, but Chase intrigues me the most. He's like an assassin, but he reminds me of a Kamen Rider and it goes for a two sided blade of Drive and Chase, and he isn't all evil.

And Surprise Drive is awesome, no doubt.

Drive's biggest problem is that it starts off slow and really overdoes it on the goofy comedy. Once it hits about the midpoint, though, it gets really, really good.

So what are Roidmudes and why are they being fought with tiny little cars? And what are Shift Cars exactly?

Roidmudes are androids capable of evolution which gained consciousness and want to succeed the human race by force. They can slow down time around them. They were built by Professor Banno who utilized the Core Driviar technology of his colleague Krim Steinbelt. After the Roidmudes went rouge, Krim built the Shift Cars from the same basic Core Driviar schematics and granted them the power to counter the Roidmudes slowdown and destroy their cores, which is the only way to truly destroy a Roidmude.

Carrying a Shift Car with you makes you immune to a Roidmudes slowdown, utilizing one with the Kamen Rider technology makes you able to destroy their cores, by Rider kicking the shit out of them.

That should sum it up roughly. Haven’t watched Drive since it aired though, if I remembered something wrong please feel free to correct me.

My problem with that, was that once they hit the midpoint, I just could not bring myself to care about the bunch of goofballs like I get the impression I was meant to. I genuinely feel people were far too forgiving towards Drive.

I have resumed my Heisei "Journey through the Decade" and started Kamen Rider Hibiki by watching episode 1 and 2 last night. I found the big musical number in episode 1 rather jarring, but far too early to make any kind of judgement. Suits & Monsters looked cool from what I could see of them. TV-Nihon rips in 360p... not a good combination. Enough interesting aspects to it to at least keep my attention up to the infamous retooling.