It's not that the men are feminine (well, most of them) just that Japanese people are just generally thinner, more fit people. It's not racism, it's biological. It's reflected in their diet since they eat more fish and other "healthier" foods compared to America and it's many Macdonnals.

I guess I should be glad, because it makes Date's pecks pop.

I don't really have many feelings about Fourze episode 29 but it I guess I can use this time to talk about the Fourze Driver. Why does Gen seemingly, literally, pull it out of his arse? And why does he sometimes power down and it is still around his waist and other times it isn't? This is just messy editing.

Also fuck me that ugly braces teacher has never been so annoying, why don't they just tell him to fuck off and mind his own business?

... Are you having an affair with the mid-wife?

M-m...maybe.

You know I just realised 'The Fighting Doctor' Date http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__...ca/Datesan.png and Ichigo's Dad: http://www.bleachportal.net/fanart/a...Tru_Colorz.jpg who is a Shinigami and works at the Kurosaki clinic.

That's a rather odd turn this thread has taken.

What, that Date was inspired by Isshin?

So part of me really really wants to watch Ryuki again..though I will have to turn the last episode off about halfway through.

Tried watching OOO a bit more but I just am not feeling it. Hell I still have Kiva set to watch from months ago, only a few episodes in there.

Oh right, doesn't Ryuki have three endings? Like, two of them are movies? I'm pretty far off from that, but which one should I watch?

OOO is pretty poor until like episode 16, where it improves dramatically. Kiva is quite boring.

The series ending is the "final" ending. The 13 Riders special (which is meh) and Episode Final (which is great) are alternate versions from earlier timelines that Kanzaki erased by using the Time Vent card.

So when does Episode Final take place, just so's I know?

After episode 46, isn't it?

Yeah, but it probably works better if you watch it after you finish the show.
...I say probably because I tried watching it after the show (twice) and couldn't get past the forty minute mark. :/

Just finished The Next. Man, THAT was a movie.

That was just... I don't even know. It felt like a really long, overly gross, overly violent episode fo a not good rider series. The suits are still fucking awesome, V3 included, but this felt like snuff almost. (even had boobs for, like, two seconds) But at least now when someone whines that Kamen Rider should return to it's "roots in horror" I can just point at this to show them why they should be quiet and enjoy the brightly-coloured series that are actually entertaining. Two problems exist with the horror approach: 1. If the horror is being committed by silly rubber monsters, it's not that horrifiying, and 2. horror in a show with bug-themed heroes just feels cheap and out of place. This came out in 2007, same year as Den-O, a very light-hearted and colourful series with cartoonish antics. Den-O, despite that, was hugely popular and a fan-favourite retaining it popularity even now. This, however, is a nearly completely forgotten exercise in futility that even fans seem to either ignore or show contempt for.

Plus the plot was I don't even know. The riders were barely a factor. V3 was the brand new character, actually related to the weird ghost chick, and was barely in it. And Ichimonji died because... I don't know. I was bored to tears. This movie was about and hour and fifty minutes. It had enough story and action to maybe fill half that. Aside from the awesome awesome suits and one or two cool, if random fights, I just finished the movie and can barely remember anything good.

The First was okay, if confusing (due to lack of English subtitles) and felt less... immature than this It told a serious story that was, for the most part, focused and intelligent. This was blood, gore, skin and, well, exploitation. I felt actually kind of bad after watching it.

Think I'll watch an episode of OOO to make me feel better. Or just an ep of Ryuki. Hell, I'll even watch Wizard.

Considering I thought OOO 25 would be the sports melodrama one, it actually turned out to be a really great episode.

I loved how caring Date was in this episode, just the little things like shielding Brotou when Eiji henshined or the way Date pulled Eiji out of the fire, literally, to save him at the end. Stuff like that.

I also love Brotou since he doesn't even have a powers and he stands at Date's side providing covering fire and just helping out anyway he can, what a total badarse.

Plus the general mystery stuff around Ankh is really interesting.

They actually explain that in Kamen Rider The First. His body rejects the modifications made to his body without blood transfusions, which is why S.H.O.C.K.E.R. members can't leave. Hongo was the first successful cyborg because he didn't need the blood transfusions.

I still think it is hilarious that there is a movie called Ultraman: The Next and a movie called Kamen Rider: The Next. :lol

Episode 30 of Fourze was another good episode for my main man Ryusei.

The series does an okay job of world building but as the majority of the series takes place in the school you can forget sometimes that there is a world beyond it, which I guess is ironic considering the space theme. So it was good to see Ryusei's old school and friends, even if his old school is a massive shithole. Is it suggested as well that Ryusei has a thing for the goth chick? And I guess the focus on him will continue for a few weeks as Aries has awoken.

Plus I know Fourze uses the Kamen Rider asshole of the week style of storytelling but I don't mind as much with this show because the characters are so likeable and the emotions played so on point that you're able to feel invested even when you barely know the characters.

It also helps that, in Fourze, these are juveniles who haven't really had the chance to live, so their pettiness and assholishness is rather fitting for high school students.

Much less so with Wizard having full grown adults acting more childish than Fourze's school kids.

Yeah they make full use of the setting, it's great.

Anyway OOO 26, I liked the way they tied the punch drunk boxer back to Eiji, it's nice to see a Rider who you can actually believe is in the suit in the first place (if you don't question why he needs no training at all) but it's even better when it becomes a story point as well.

It's strange though, Kamen Rider - at least the shows I have seen - seem to have very little interest in exploring the powers and making them feel awesome, which is a shame given transforming into lots of different forms with lots of different powers is the crux of the series. Even upgrades a lot of the time they just go 'cool', like Eiji you can turn into like a phoenix thing don't you wanna like go fly round the city or something?

Fightingwise...eh, Date using all of his powers at once could have been awesome if it didn't look absolutely terrible. I thought Kamen Rider didn't make suits that flimsy

Also Doctor Maki has a creepy sister complex? This guy just gets more ew by the second.

Just wait until you find out his actual story. He's just... he's something.

But yeah, I always wondered why there isn't some show where the Rider just kind of wants to use his powers because he's a superhero. I know lots of riders are responisble, but no-one thought "damn I'm late for poetry slam, I'll just use my rider powers to fly there!" Or how about when confronted with a non-monster problem? I mean, remember when Eiji had to dissarm those bombs and ran there out of the suit despite having, ya know, cheetah legs?

Plus, I think I've seen a lot of rider series where a non-monster threat shows up and, instead of using their amazing powers to stop it, they let the problem grow and become worse. Den-O was once held hostage by a guy he thought had a bomb, and once more at gunpoint. Both instances could've been solved instantly as a rider, but to an even lesser extent he can be posessed by powerful spirits that could have quelled the situation instantly. Momotaros even once tried to stop it, but they stopped him. He once even left the hostage situation posessed by Momo to fight a monster! Then again that was played for laughs and the hostage taker was quite clearly not a serious threat.

It's just weird that these people with great power, while understandably focused on the larger threat, never use them for anything except a monster fight.

It reminds me of that flat-out frog-retarded episode of Power Rangers Ninja Storm where the yellow ranger got in shit for using his powers to stop a robbery. You know, helping people.

I don't mind unmorphed action sequences, since they at least convince you that the person is in the suit but yeah, stuff like the OOO bomb thing was just stupid and I just like...yeah.

I want to see the powers explored, I want to see the heroes having fun with them and have them saying like 'this is cool, this is awesome!' and just doing stupid shit like leaping off buildings and stuff because now they can.

They subdue the actual fun factor of the powers so much most of the time it actually pulls me out of the show because quite often, even in a series with hugely flashy attacks, the actual transformation feels arbitrary like they've just put on their costume rather than accessed a new form with ungodly powers.

I think it's more of a cultural thing. Generally, the Japanese take what they get and don't really strive for more. While there are exceptions to the rule, it would make sense that in a Japanese children's TV show, the show-runners would try to influence Japanese children to follow this mindset, just like how in American children's TV shows, they try to encourage children to strive for more.

That doesn't explain not using superpowers to save lives.

Watched Kamen Rider: The First this weekend. I...was unimpressed. The pacing was weird and things happened with little to no explanation. For those of you who have seen it, does the movie basically work off of the assumption that you've seen the original series? Because I was hella confused by the end of the movie.

Pros: suit designs were cool, some action scenes were really well done, overall acting was pretty good
Cons: slightly confusing story, how the main rider turns back to being a good guy, the CONSTANT water crystal shots, the pointless hospital side story

Ankh is a GREEED-y dastard.

Yeah, the water crystal shots were cute at first, but they got annoying a little afterwards. I didn't find the story to be that confusing, and I thought the hospital side-story was sweet, although it was a bit pointless. I'm attributing Hongo's heel-turn to a psychological shock caused by snow, which reminded him of the water crystals that he worked with quite often.

But Eiji had the Cheetah medal.

Anyway, Ryuki 14: Ah, so that's what they mean by contract. It's a literal deal with the monster. They get to play "the game" while the rider defeats the other monsters so that their's can feed. If they die or give up, the monster gets to eat the rider. Like collateral. Interesting.

Cool! I'm glad to see that you're enjoying Fourze.

Huh. The contract thing wasn't explained until episode 14? Didn't remember that (Haven't seen Ryuki in 3 years). I thought it was expanded upon when Scissors bit the dust...

But yeah. I actually like how Ryuki does it. It's a deal with the devil sort of thing, where instead of the devil making you sign your name in blood, he turns into your personal attack dog and gives you a bitchin' sword.

I'm also a fan of "Unlikely hero" stories, where the main character isn't designated by god to be Superman, but a guy who is just thrust into this huge set of circumstances, which makes Shinji's deal with Dragredder more interesting.

Oh my god... IT'S KAMEN RIDER MADOKA... or Ryuki Magica or or... contract?

This time it's explained outright. It was obvious that when you lose you get eaten, but this sort of laid it all out what the contract is for, not just the terms of termination. It's so that the monsters can feed off dead monsters energy and grow in power.

It's interesting how the MM sort of get treated like the attack dogs when they're really calling the shots. Like how Zolda and his monster faked his death, or how Ryuki stopped Dragredder from taking a monster's energy once.

Gotta say, though, that was a fumbled plot. Ryuki gets all down because he kills Zolda and it's treated all serious, but then when he finds out he didn't he grovels and then it goes into bumbling comedy. Uh...

BTW, I think it's really weird how the aesthetics of monsters clash. There's no reason given for why monsters under contract look clean and cool wheras the rogue ones look like, well, regular Toku villains. Kind of shoddy, really. Not a single monster they've fought has actually looked like a contract beast, yet supposedly Dragredder and Darkwing were once contractless rogues.

I don't know what you're talking about.

Ah, alright then.

And I guess that they don't expand enough on the Mirror Monsters and the contract aspect enough, when 9 times out of 10 you'll see a monster like Darkwing or Magnugiga only ever show up just for finishers.

And plots involving Kitaoka and Shinji do feel more comedy, it's odd when Kitaoka is generally more of a serious character when in a scene with literally any other character.

Yeah, Zolda himself is serious, but well-rounded and sort of endearing as a villain. It's really his world and we're all just living in it. But stuff around him feels... at odds.

Still, he's such a jerkhead, but he's not always smugging and mugging. Stuff can get to him, and that really helps him avoid the trap of just being unlikable.

So, episode 15: This is Gai, huh? He's uh, lame as hell?

Seriously, the design I thought was okay, but the suit is ridiculous. And seriously, who's in charge of casting who's in the suit, buecause when I look at Gai I do not think "scrawny punk bitch" on the inside. At least Knight is tall, dark and brooding to fit his suit. Kamen Rider has the nasty habbit of putting people in the suits who look nothing like the character present in the design itself. Everytime Gai speaks it sounds like a gag dub. I'm reminded on Den-O and Ryuutaros. Such a dark, almost threatening design made into a child. It like there's no communication between designs and writers.

Also, big rhino contract beast... not so big here. In fact he's kind of hilariously undersized compared to, say, whatever Zolda's monster is.

Kamen Rider Ryuki is starting to sound a lot like Puella Magi Madoka Magica, a dark and unintentionally subversive take on the magical girl genre in anime. What with all this talk about contracts, battling in pocket dimensions and characters dying if they don't fight and being killed by the very thing that gave them their powers... funny world isn't it?

Magnugiga is the most beastly of beasts for contract monsters.

You know what's not funny?

Cards. Riders that depend on a piece of freaking paper for their powers. I knew this would happen sooner or later. Ryuki lost his contract because Gai took his card.

Okay, this is beyond stupid in many colourful ways.

One, it's heavily implied that once you make a contract, that's it. You and that monster are bonded for life. So, what's to stop a rider from just tossing away their advent card to break the contract?

Two, he only has one? wait, I thought the deck had MULTIPLE copies? It's seriously five cards? What happens to the cards once used, how do you choose which ones you want when you draw them? How are they reused? Can you only use them once a fight? (I assume the deck "resets" after every transformation)

Three, he seriously can just take it? Dragredder doesn't, like, have a problem with that? The last episode very firmly established the monsters are the boss. Now, I know they can't speak, but doesn't Dragredder know Gai already has a contract? What, are he and the rhino gonna split Gai if he dies?

Four IT'S PAPER. God, I was kind of okay with it because the decks DIDN'T appear to be one set of cards, but this is just dumb. Why make these incredible abilities into cards? This is dumb, even dumber than when the Cockroach dopant stole W's memories. See, the W driver is a very experimental device, and W himself is pretty quick. Plus, the Roach dopant had super speed. This is just... why did Ryuki even hesitate? He was using his ADVENT, not his Final Vent. Dragredder wouldn't have killed Gai, just fought the rhino.

I'm not buying Zolda until I can afford him and Magnugiga.

Madoka Magica isn't intentionally dark though, the creator said that they just wanted to make a good story with interesting characters.

Whoops, I meant to say unintentionally. That was a typo, my bad. :lol

I have a question: Is Raia genuine in his want to stop the fighting, or just another fuckhead messing with people?