Well that's an interesting choice to start from, wonder what your friends will think about the seaweed, SAIYOKO and Mutsuki.

Not really. It is the best of the franchise, so it is best to go with that. :lol The only other series they have seen so far have been Wizard, Gaim, and then what we coudl stomach of Drive and Ghost. Oh, and part of W.

Does it have to be spun from a TV show?

Because I would recommend ZO and J. Both great standalone movies.

Oh, I thought it was their first ever exposure to Riders, then I guess Blade's good. It's a bit boring in the beginning so I hope they're okay with it, but you already watched 6 of the episodes so if they are fine now they'll be fine later. Also, what subs are you watching? Somebody scrubbed all of the TV-N subs (Turn Up Scrubs) so you should watch that. Also, if you ever finish the season with them, watch this https://youtu.be/l7DGqKYubsE

They were hooked by the third episode.

Yes, we are watching Turn Up Scrubs' versions. I haven't touched TV-Nihon's subs since I bought the Region 2 DVDs as they were coming out. I'll take video quality over subtitles any day. Howver, because I wouldn't touch Nihon's versions, I could never show anyone else the show since they would be lost.

(as I've mentioned elsewhere, I'm a Kamen Rider scrub that's only seen OOO to completion)

I've been slowly making my way through Kamen Rider Fourze, Gaim, and Drive. I'm around 35 episodes into Fourze, and in the 15-18 range of Gaim and Drive. My Fourze-watching has stalled a bit because I prefer the other two in general, heh, but I like all three and I'll eventually finish them. All this Kamen Rider has slowed down my Sentai watching, too.

I also downloaded several other Kamen Rider shows, and watched the first two episodes of four of them. Some early impressions:

Kamen Rider Black: holy fuck what a great first episode. Starts with a chase scene, ends with a murder, and they give enough backstory and foreshadowing to be interesting and never boring. This show's great. The only other first episode of a tokusatsu show that compares is... maybe Liveman or Gokaiger? And the second episodes hardly slowed down. Anyway this show rules and I will definitely watch more later.

Kamen Rider Ryuki: I liked this one quite a bit! The way the mirror monsters murder civilians is almost out of a horror movie, and I thought the action was pretty solid. From what I understand of the plot, this show is basically Highlander, and has about as much Rider vs. Rider action as Rider vs. Monster action. Sounds dope. Kamen Rider Knight is basically Knight from the Grant Morrison JLA comics, which is definitely a good thing. Knight and Squire, two British acquaintances of Batman and Robin.

Kamen Rider Blade: I didn't like this show as much as the other three - I only watched the first episode. Since Blade has his powers from the get-go and we see the inner workings of a secret lab, almost immediately followed by a betrayal and the lab getting destroyed, it felt like the show started at episode 4 or 5 and not the first. There's also a lot of characters thrown at you right away, and I couldn't easily tell which ones would be important and which ones wouldn't. It wasn't a bad first episode, but I won't make this show a priority like Black.

Kamen Rider Den-O: Well damn. I was expecting this show to be slightly silly, and the first two episodes basically delivered on that front. I was pretty sure I'd hate the main character for being such a loser, but seeing him possessed by Momotaros (changing his hair and demeanor) made me like him a little more. If this actor successfully portrays five personalities well (I assume there are four Imagin, based on the OP and the buttons on his belt) then it'll be a pretty impressive performance. Anyhow, I like Den-O's premise and I didn't mind the silliness. I might go ahead with this one later, but I think I liked the first two episodes of Black or Ryuki more.

TL;DR I sampled some old Rider shows and thought Black was awesome, Ryuki was pretty cool, Blade wasn't as good as the others, and Den-O might have potential.

Yeah, Black has one of the all-time great first episodes. I love the first part with Kotaro running from the Gorgom priests.

Blade's known for starting rather slow tbh. Also, Blade doesn't start out with everything. Undead give Blade new powers

Been LOVING Amazons, makes me regret not watching it sooner!

Kamen Rider x Kamen Rider Ghost and Drive: Movie Wars Genesis.

I've heard a lot of negativity about this movie and I can't really understand why, I honestly thought it was pretty good. The giant crossover format works CONSIDERABLY better than the old Rider 1/Rider 2/Crossover format the other movies use, and I really hope they keep it going moving forward. The Ghost and Drive casts worked wonderfully together, and it was really nice to see Ghost back when it wasn't overblown with confusing plots and powerups to see why I was so hyped for it back in the early episodes. I genuinely forgot how great the Ore and Specter suits look onscreen because it feels like I haven't seen them in forever. The fight at the end was great (really loved seeing all the side characters get in on it), and I thought the "movie exclusive" way they introduced Toucan Boost was nicely done and didn't clash too much with its proper introduction.

That isn't to say it wasn't without it flaws though, as there was a lot of weird moments. Why was Mr Belt at the temple in the first place? Why was Takeru's father's death so different to how he remembers it? What makes Zero Drive so different than Proto Drive other than "movie retool"? Where did he even get the shift car for it? Why the hell don't Takeru and Shinnosuke recognise each other despite meeting before?. The resurrection of the Roidmudes didn't make a whole lot of sense to me even though they explained it either, but I guess they had to be pulled into the film somewhere and this was the best place to do it. And for all the complaining I and other people do about Onari, he was TAME in this movie compared to Honganji's antics. That whole sequence with him and Edith was one of the weirdest things I've ever seen in Kamen Rider, although I guess most of it was references that went completely over my head. The biggest shame however was probably Mr Belt being such a non-character in it, especially since his relationship with Tomari was one of Drive's best elements.

Hmm, maybe I didn't like it as much as I thought I did looking back on all those problems. Eh, I'd still take this movie over Core, Ultimatum and Sengoku any day.

Takeru Satoh's performance remains excellent throughout the series. I'm confident in saying he's among the best Kamen Rider actors ever.

That said, I'm not a huge fan of Den-O. I always wanted the time travel stuff to pay off better than it does -- and I get really annoyed by the interaction between the Imagin.

Yep, that's pretty much my assessment of the early episodes, too. Ryuki's subsequent episodes blow the early ones out of the water, though.