Why doesn't the Paradoxa Undead look like the Mantis Undead/Chalice?
Spider and Tarantula look similar, and Beetle and Caucasus are literally modified suits of each other, while we never saw the Stag Undead.

But why does Paradoxa and Mantis look so dissimilar to each other?

Because Paradoxa was created years later on a completely different show that had a... "unique" approach to Rider continuity.

I guess it makes sense. They completely missed the point behind the Ryuki suits and completely overdesigned Abyss, too, so I shouldn't be surprised.

Still, it's just an odd choice. Hell, they probably could've gotten away with a modified Wild Chalice and that would've made more sense for Paradoxa...

This ultimately begs a question: Just how many Villains/Kaijin in Decade were, by definition, "original"?

Some were just newer versions of older characters, like the re-imagined Apollo Geist of Dai-Shocker!

A part of Decade's problem for me was the fact that they had way too many monsters and suits, with some of them being recycled and others just shoved in somewhere almost randomly.

N Gamio Zeda from AR Kuuga
Beetle Fangire and Thorn Fangire from AR Kiva
Paradoxa Undead from AR Ryuki and AR Blade
Tiger Orphenoch from AR Faiz
Buffalo Undead from AR Agito
Alligator Imagin from AR Den-O
Phylloxera Worm from AR Kabuto
Gyuki from AR Hibiki
Chinonamako Ayakashi Rider ver. from Shinkenger World
Schwarian from AR RX/BLACK
Ten-Faced Demon Llumu Qhimil from AR Amazon

So throwing in Abyss, that's one new enemy for each Heisei Rider. Neat

And I don’t know about the others, but they actually did get a Black RX’s monster designer to create the villain for that arc.

Yeah I was a bit hesitant to include Abyss so I just listed it as Paradoxa.

You know, now that manga Kuuga has appeared in the Zi-O film, it kinda makes me hope that, in the next crisis crossover movie, we get 5 Kuugas.
Godai/OG, Onodera/Decade, Manga Godai, Miku/Novel, and the SIC Hero Saga Kuuga :lol
Hell, while we're at it, have the SIC version be stop motion :p

Anyway, in other news, steadily making my way through Build. While I'm not exactly blown away, I will say it's first half is stronger than Drive's, so that's nice. I just feel this constant conga line of twists and shock reveals kind of diminish the next one, as if they're just trying to one up the twists at this point.
The fake out with Grease and Misora was funny, though :lol

It's unlikely we going to see Joe Odagiri reprising his role because he doesn't really care for tokusatsu as a genre and the reason why he took on the role of Kuuga is as a favor to producer Shigenori Takatera.

Since Takatera was fired due to the Troubled Production of Kamen Rider Hibiki, he has no real motivation to reprise his role.

No Shigenori Takatera, No Joe Odagiri.

Well, one thing you have to keep in mind is that KR isn't afraid to use characters in suit only. While it would be wonderful to actually get the characters to reprise the roles, it's a rather well known fact that Odagiri doesn't want to come back (Granted, it's been 20 years. Maybe he's had a change of heart?)

Anyway, another question. What's the point of Best Matches in Build? When I first saw Hawk Gattling, I could immediately see the benefit what with the homing hawk bullets. However, no other Best Match has any real synergy.
Panda Rocket doesn't offer anything any other claw/pointy weapon could use with Rocket. Hell, Porcupine is objectively better since it's points can extend at will.
Nin Nin Comic has a special sword, but Build had to design and build that sword after he found out about the Best Match. So, without the sword, what makes that combo worth using? Same goes for Pirate Train and it's bow.

I really wished Best Matches were akin to OOO or Double combos, where the "Special" combos offered unique abilities that only said combo could achieve, like GataKiriBa's cloning or LunaTrigger's curving bullets...

Well, you can blame this on Soichi.

The Fullbottles were created by the alien entity Evolto based on memories of his host, the astronaut Soichi Isurugi. Evolto did this by asking Soichi questions. He first asked him for 30 things that he liked. Soichi answered with things from Misora's picture book, which was then used to create the Biotic Fullbottles. Evolto then asked Soichi to name 30 things that could destroy each of the ones he had just named. Soichi initially answered with objects such as tanks and guns, but soon started naming random objects to protect the things that Misora loved once he realized Evolto's motives. Pairing a Biotic Fullbottle with the Abiotic Fullbottle representing the item intended to destroy it results in a particularly powerful combination, called a Best Match. (Well, it’s complicated)

Even Evolto was baffled by Soichi’s choice for things to destroy like Comic and Cake. :lol

I feel bad for the Heisei shows before Decade in general, there wasn't really any kind of follow-up or conclusion for most of them for years. Zi-O's Kiva tribute was at least marginally better than Decade's, but it still didn't tell us anything about what actually happened after the show. At least they finally had Kagami as Kabuto, that was a natural choice considering Hiro Mizushima isn't likely to reprise his role for anything.

Uuuh, they're only about 20 or so episodes in; spoilers...

Don't worry. Once I read Evolto I basically hit the eject button to avoid spoilers :lol

Here's a question. How do you pronounce Chalice?

Might sound like a stupid question, but if you notice in Blade, Chalice's name is pronounced with a hard K sound, instead of a Cha sound, making his name in Japanese sound like "Kalice."
So, do you guys pronounce it as it's spelled in English, as Cha-lice, or how it's said in show, as Ka-lice?

I usually pronounce all the names as they're spoken in the show. So "Kalice" for me.

I generally tend to do the same, Kalice instead of Chalice, Zabee instead of The Bee. I just say Wizard instead of like, Wizardo or whatever though.

How about W? I say "Double" and write "W"

That one depends for me. I say Wizard instead of Wizardo like you, but others - I do call Emu "Ekusaido" in my mind instead of "Ex-Aid".

I say "Double" and write "Double" or "W" randomly without preference :lol

I... I thought the english word -was- pronounced as 'Kalice'

I used to mentally pronounce it like "Cha-lice", but now I've actually watched some Blade it's changed to "Ka-ris", like some kind of weeb.

I'm the opposite. I pronounced it "Kar-is" when I watched the show and in the months following. I eventually got over it, though, and just pronounce it "Chal-ice" now. I also say "Rider 1" and "Rider 2" instead of "Ichigou" and "Nigou."

I kind of waffle back and forth. When I see it written, I think of it as Chalice, but when I actually see the character, my mind goes straight to Kalice :lol

Then again, I am a filthy weeb who calls 1 and 2 Ichigou and Nigou :p

I end up pronouncing it as Kharis when I read it in Japanese, and pronounce it as Cha-lice when I read it in English. As for Kamen Rider W I will read it as Double even if it is written as W because I cant help but accept that is the intention so I just make an exception for that.

(wrong post)

I'd act like all of you are crazy for even thinking to pronounce Chalice taking the katakana at face value, but then, Ex-Aid will always be "Eggs Aid" to me, so I guess I'm just a huge hypocrite. :lol

If you say "Karis", does that mean you also have to say "GYAHren", too?

No, it's pronounced "TACHIBANA-SAN!", obviously.

For me, Chalice is the only one I get fancy on. Though I'm sure I've said Bureido jokingly before.

Now Leangle I've always been uncertain of exactly how to pronounce. I just say "Langle" like Bangle but with an L.

Also, upon thinking about this more yesterday I came up with two Riders whose names I always say wrong: Hibiki and Kabuto.

I say h'BEE-key instead of He-bee-key

and ka-BOO-toe instead of KA-bu-toe.

If there's one thing I've consistently noticed when meeting other Rider fans rl, we all say these names differently.

Well, considering most of us are all English speakers talking about characters whose names are in Japanese, it's to be expected.
Especially when they use English words and then mispronounce them in Japanese :lol

Man, that just reminded me of something.

When Kabuto was starting to promote it upcoming summer movie they did some short skits at the end of each episode with some of the characters watching clips from older Rider shows. One of them was a clip of Stronger doing his iconic "the heavens cry out!" catchphrase. Tendou, naturally, being the arrogant dick that we all know and love, makes a joke something along the lines of "if he's Kamen Rider Stronger, then I'm Kamen Rider Strongest." Hiro Mizushima is fluent in English, though, so he pronounces both words in correct English ("stronger" instead of "sturonga") and it sounds so fucking weird.

Also, if it helps, I don't know much about the Japanese language, but there are two tricks I know when it comes to pronunciation: vowels always sound the same and there are no stressed syllables in Japanese.

Exactly, thank you.

It's the same kind of audio whiplash you get when you watch the news in English, but the newscaster goes out of their way to use the Spanish pronunciation of a name.

The way Mizushima is able to perfectly switch accents for a single word in the middle of a sentence, and then go right back, twice in a row creeps me out, man. It's flawless to a degree that's unnatural and kind of off-putting... kinda like Tendou. Huh.

How does Zeronos' Zero Form work? It's made from Yuuto's memories right? so what does the rusting represent?

It's made from other people's memories of Yuuto. The rusting represents the fact that he disappears from those memories every time he uses the form (until that stops being a plot point). The basic idea was that Altair and Vega used memories of the older Sakurai, but once those ran out Yuuto had to start using the memories of people that he'd met during his time in the present.

Ooooh, okay, that makes sense.

Edit: Thanks Switch!

If you've got the skill, flaunt it :lol
It'd be like expecting a native English speaker in a Japanese show to intentionally speak slowly and stilted to show that he's not a natural Japanese speaker.

I know Tendou isn't coming back (Cries), but I'd love for him to just to creepily pronounce characters' names correctly, like Mach instead of "Mahaku" :lol

Why are there two different designs to Kamen Rider Stronger's bike? One seems to have a big chunk on the back, but the other doesn't. I checked the wiki, and for once in its life, it doesn't even mention it.

https://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/image...1112181727.jpg
https://cdn-ak.f.st-hatena.com/image...1112181723.jpg

Which Kamen Rider shows that have the worst use of 2 episodes format?

Den-O is the first one to do 2 episodes format following by Kiva, Decade, Double, OOO, Fourze and Wizard as Gaim is the first to break the 2 episodes format.

But which one that have the worst use of 2 episodes format and very unnecessary to drag out?

Drive. It got more serialized later on, but there were so many early episodes where it was really obvious that all Machine Chaser was doing was showing up to pad out the running time and drag out the story.