After finally mustering up the willpower, I watched the Ryuki: Episode Final movie. It was actually pretty good, and I prefered it in some ways to the actual ending of Ryuki. I tend to enjoy the AU Rider movies in general though, regardless of the actual quality. Femme has a GREAT design I have to say, it just looked so elegant. Probably the most surprising moment for me had to be when Hikawa and co. from Agito had a cameo, I just can't escape the Agito curse I guess.

I finished Kamen Rider OOO last week and loved it! Now I'm in the late 20s / early 30s episode ranges for Fourze and Gaim, but maybe don't love them as much as I liked OOO. I'm also early on in Kamen Rider W, but I'm watching with a friend and have to wait for her to be available, so that one's going slowly.

I haven't even downloaded any episodes from a show earlier than W. What are considered to be the best Kamen Rider shows of the 2000s pre-Decade? I've heard that Den-O is popular, but sort of weird and silly? I basically only have YouTube top 10 lists to work with, here.

I really like Ryuki, and I think it's still pretty well-received. It was co-head written by Toshiki Inoue, the head writer of Jetman (which I believe you've seen) and the anime version of Death Note, and Yasuko Kobayashi, the head writer of ToQger, Shinkenger, Go-Buster, Timeranger, Gingaman, KR OOO, KR Den-O, and KR Amazons (a few of which I believe you've also seen). So if those names inspire any confidence, I think you'll be happy with that series.

And I'd never recommend it outright because it's an extremely divisive series, but I fucking love Kiva (also head written by Toshiki Inoue).

For 2000's series, I always recommend Blade. Bit of a slow burn during the first quarter, but it picks up and gets really good in the mid teens~

Also, glad to hear you enjoyed OOO!

With Den-O it all boils down to if you like the Imagin or not. And it's enough to watch the first 5-ish episodes to realize that. You love the Imagin? You'll usually be entertained enough to ignore most flaws the show has. You hate them? You will stop watching the show.

So if you like the look of Den-O, try it.

Aside from that, I personally enjoyed most of the pre-Decade shows. Kuuga is good, Agito is good, Ryuki’s good, Kabuto is good. I hate Faiz and I occasionally argue with myself if I have the strength to watch that terrible show just to be able to say that I watched it, but I can't recommend this show, it sucks.

Blade I want to watch next and Hibiki sounds cool too, but the second half is trash because of issues with the producers.

Kiva I'm not sure what to think about, but I haven’t watched it so I can't say watch it or stay away from it, I don’t know myself yet.

So as far as my opinion goes:

Kuuga: Yup.
Agito: Sure (but maybe wait and watch it after Kuuga)
Ryuki: Absolutely, fantastic show.
Faiz: Nope. Don't.
Kabuto: Yeah it's cool
Den-O: Try it

So I would say try out Ryuki, I think it's the best pre-Decade show. At least the best I've watched so far.

Yeah, I've seen 10 Sentai shows to completion, including Jetman, ToQger, and Shinkenger. I think I'll give Ryuki and Blade a try.

Thanks for the recommendations, everyone!

Hibiki is worth watching even if you do the smart thing and stop after episode 29.

I've been watching Hibiki actually, and I rather like its style so far. Of course I know that it will probably be ruined once I reach the point where the staff got shafted, but I have so much morbid curiosity I'm going to watch that part too.

You bet!

The one thing you need to watch out for is the video quality of the pre-HD KR series. Unlike the SD Sentai shows, which were shot on 16mm film and are thus pretty decent to look at, the early-2000s Kamen Rider series were shot on suuuuper low quality video. It can take some effort to get past the home movie-ish images -- it's worth doing, but it can be alienating for some people.

Also second checking out Ryuki. It's a pretty awesome show, with good themes, ideas and action. Shinji and Ren make for an awesome duo.

So, got through about 20 episodes of Kuuga. Holy shit, I'm impressed. For the revival of Kamen Rider, they really hit it through the park.