That's just how it works I guess.

Me: I love W, don't be hatin'.

Me: I love OOO, don't be hatin'.

Me: I love Den-O, don't be hatin'.

Me: I like Ryuki so much I bought his Figuart after only five episodes.

Me: Wizard's pretty shitty, though.

Everyone: OH MY GOD DON'T YOU LIKE ANYTHING YOU'RE SO NEGATIVE.

I honestly don't like Wizard that much, but I've been watching it lately for the heck of it. I'm on the episode where Beast's granny comes over. The mahou shoujo thing just won Beast my favor, but I still don't like him very much at all. I can see what you guys mean when you're talking about how it can't figure out whether it wants to be funny or serious.

It also doesn't help that the show is just kind of devoid of energy. A BIG part of this is the music, though, which is as generic as they come. There's no memorable, energetic theme songs or fight tunes. If there's no good fight music the fights are basically only as exciting as the actual moves... which aren't all that exciting.

For as loud and energetic as the secondary cast is, the show itself feels totally lifeless. (seriously, I don't hate loud or hyper characters at all, but if EVERYONE except two people are these loud and hyper characters, it gets grating. I can stand Akiko because there's only one of her, for example. Imagine that in stereo)

I totally agree. Koyomi is the only secondary character I like, if only because she's not obnoxious, and even then she's boring to the point of having no real character to her. I also agree on the music, which feels totally lacking too, especially coming off of the past couple of series, which have all had great music. The fight scenes are still kinda fun every once in a while though. The choreography is a lot more interesting than it usually tends to be with these shows, but the triple-cartwheel backflip stuff really slowed down after Beast's arrival and the Dragon forms.

I just like my heroes to be more serious and dedicated without a lot of the really broad character traits that define most of the post-Hibiki Riders. The thing that really, really endears Haruto to me is that he's a character who's capable of a lot of subtle characterization and actions. One of the quintessential Haruto scenes for me is from Mayu's debut arc, where he and Shunpei are sneaking into her school. At one point Shunpei hands Haruto his shoe and what follows is a really funny bit of action on Haruto's part that is hilarious, but really understated at the same time. For the most part, Kamen Rider tends to go for very broad, loud, and slapstick humor, so seeing a character who's able to just be subtle - in both humorous and dramatic moments - really appeals to me. Especially when that character is in a show that's so heavily dominated by those kind of loud and obnoxious characters.

I'm honestly not sure if I'd like Haruto as much if he were in a show where everyone was more serious, but as the only sane man in a world full of rubber-faced lunatics I love the guy.

Maybe it's just because most of the Rider shows I've watched have excellent music with memorable tracks like Den-O and OOO, (and too a lesser extent the later tracks in W as well as the smooth jazz stuff) I feel Wizard has failed at something all too crucial to a Kamen Rider series. Even Ryuki has a badass fight song that sticks with you.

Also, on the point of Haruto. I feel it is because he is supposedly "serious" that he doesn't work in this show. He's too serious to accurately work off teh crazies. Putting a straight-man alongside the antics of clowns only works if he reacts as to them in a realistic way. But he doesn't. In fact he doesn't react to much at all. He just goes through the motions, speaks his lines in the same monotone and never changes his expression. Even in a show with more serious characters he'd be a stick in the mud. He doesn't act like any human being should and not ina unique, characterful way like he's socially awkward or comedically/tragically oblivious. He has more character when he's in his rider costume.

I disagree, therefore you are a soulless monster who hates everything.

:p

Honestly, though, I can buy why people don't like Wizard. It's a deeply, deeply flawed series; arguably even moreso than Fourze. I will stick up for Haruto, though, cause I think the dude is boss.

And like I said, Haruto is bland... but that's the worst of it. I would take Haruto, who at least gives a shit about other human beings over some certain riders who will gladly wait until at least two people have died before getting off their asses to do something. Being more developed doesn't automatically make you more enjoyable.

That's actually the one thing I really like about Haruto. He's way more proactive then the rest. He spends his days out looking for the monsters. If he thinks he has a lead on what the Phantoms are up to, he'll go check it out if he has no higher priorities (IE protecting gates). Most of the other Riders tend to just sit around until trouble is dumped on their doorstep. Like you said, a lot of the older heisei riders tend not to give two craps about anyone not killed right in front of them. It's like saving bystander is just a convenient side effect as far as they are concerned. Heck at one point Tendo (Kabuto) depowers Drake, The Bee and Sasword and wants to depower Gatack so that they won't kill a worm that he doesn't want killed. How many innocent people get killed with three less riders to fight the worms?

That's why I like Haruto. He's one of the few that honestly seems to put saving people as his top priority no matter what the situation.

I really enjoy Haruto but honestly he is about the only thing I enjoy now I'm caught up on the series but I did enjoy the early episodes a lot when I was watching a handful of episodes a day, it just has lots of life and energy and is just so much fun. But now we're coming to the end of the series it needs to be more than 'just fun' as it has a story to tell and a show to wrap up.

I still stand by the fact that Haruto is a deep and layered character who feels flat in comparison to a genre dominated by heroes who scream and shout until people confuse that for substance.

To me what makes a bland Rider is one who is unanimously good, perfect and flawless which is what put me off of Kabuto and what started to turn me off of Gen as episodes rolled on. But what I love about Haruto is he is able to be flawed, without being useless and is able to be a hero without the whole world swooning at his feet as he is perfect at everything he touches. He just seems to find a balance between Toku hero extremes and I like the balance he finds.

I have to admit, the more I hear people trash past riders for not being "subdued and quiet" like Haruto and say they "scream and shout and people mistake that for substance", I can't help but imagine them wearing sweatervests and thick-rimmed glasses with slicked back hair, even though I shouldn't.

Haruto represents the exact opposite of what people praise him for. He is not subdued, he is not deep or layered beyond anyone else. He has the exact same amount of depth to him as most riders, if not less. People are just mistaking bad acting and lack of emotion for some intent to be more "mature" when really he's just a bad actor and poorly written. (neitehr alone would condemn the character, but together it makes for a terrible, terrible rider)

There is not layering to Haruto. He never shows emotion, never cracks, never even bends. That doesn't make him badass or cool, it makes him emotionally dead or an idiot. Past riders "scream and shout" because they feel emotion and react liek a human being. Haruto just stands there with a vacant expression on his face like he's reading his lines off of a card offscreen.

I ahve never rooted for Haruto. I've never even been against him. I have no opinion of him as a person because he is not a person, he is a prop and we are told things about him. The only layer to his character is wanting to save people, somethign MOST MODERN RIDERS WANT TO DO.

I especially laughed when they explained the whole "Haruto is the hope for so many people, but who is his hope?" like it's trying to be deep or something when there's NO evidence of that in the show. Hell, we don't even know what him being their hope MEANS since it makes no sense in a practical or metaphorical sense. He's not carrying any burden. He fights a monster than leaves. The very basis for the character is a fabrication.

Haruto may not be the worst of Wizard or a truely bad rider, but that doesn't make him a good character. Hell, Den-O and W are vastly superior characters with far more interest right out of the gate. Ryoutaro may not be much of a man at first, but for someone who was, rather unfairly, drafted into a life-and-death struggle, and rather than meekly avoid the confrontation (I'm spoiling a bit here) he actually trains himself and takes his forced-apon role seriously. He's a champ. Shotaro, well, he's just fucking great. His driven, and despite repeatedly being called an idiot (and not exactly putting up a strong defense with his actions at times) he's, once again, placed with an unfair burden and shoulders it first out of guilt, then later out of respect and, too sound a bit corny, a genuine sense of justice. And of course, Philip also makes up part of W, and he has a very strong character by the end of the show. I mentioned it not long ago in reference to PuToTyra, but the Fang arc, despite being shorter, was a far greater service to the character and really bolstered the genuine bond between Philip and Shotaro.

Haruto... ugh. I mean, for all your talk about not being a fan of perfect, ultimate heroes Locke... Haruto is exactly that. He has, at least in what I've seen, yet to make any kind of mistake or be flawed realistically in any way. Plus, the show makes a point that he's getting stronger and harder to beat. Add to that his powers are literally just handed to him with no struggle. He has achieved nothing yet constantly succeeds. He's not a fighter, he's a chump who got lucky. The closest thing to a struggle he has is the barely mentioned struggle with his Phantom... which is ruined by, again barely being an issue, and because it's a silly CGI dragon that talks and just sort of does nothing.

I's clear how different our tastes are, I don't think Haruto is a bad actor or emotionless, I find his subtle humour absolutely hilarious, much funnier than any of the goofball shit that toku tries to tell me is comedy the rest of the time.

These little hints into how Haruto sees the world and how his mind functions shows how good the writing is and how interesting he is as a character. He may not have as much depth as some Riders but has much more than Riders like Gen and Godai, much, much more.

It is true that most of Haruto's drama has taken place off screen and before the series started but little windows into him are always enjoyable perhaps because they are used sparingly. But still we've seen him struggle to hold things together and overcome the enemy many a time over the course of the series.

The difference with Haruto is he can actually live up to his bold claims and saves people because it's the right thing to do. They aren't world changing motivations but they are better than Godai's 'protect the smiles' (while millions of people die as he plays the piano for school kids) or Gen's (I'm gonna be friends with everyone and downplay all the drama and tension of my series while I do).

Although I will admit that now the enemies no longer kill, or even harm, it does become a lot harder to root for the heroes because there is never any real sense of danger. I mean you know they're gonna win, regardless, but their artificial struggle is only all the more artificial now they aren't really struggling against anything.

Wizard's lore still makes more sense than OOOs.

I couldn't stand that wimp from Den-O out of the gate, I loved Haruto from the start.

I would still class Haruto as a flawed hero, he doesn't just steamroll through every skirmish with no collateral and has struggles on and off the battle field, internally and externally.

Godai is a so perfect he is bland hero, Tendou is a so perfect he is bland hero, Haruto is detailed, fun and interesting.

Everything you said would be just fine... if this wasn't the MAIN CHARACTER OF THE SHOW.

"Little windows into the character" is not enough when this is the hero. It is not evidence of good writing, rather the opposite. We should not be told everything important about him. We need to see it, not get second-hand accounts that could be mistaken or lying. I can't believe I need to say this, but show, don't tell.

And that's even accepting that these "little windows" exist. Again, the problem with being a bad actor with bland, forgettable dialogue means eveyrthing you do is ingenuine. None of his struggles feel, not that I ever witnessed any, feel genuine because he's not conveying any emotion. I don't mean to play therapist, but how does any of this make him FEEL? We don't know, because he never shows it. We may sometimes have one of the stupid characters tell us, but their stupid so what could they know?

I sat through sixteen episodes of Wizard and Haruto never did a damn thing. Not once. Nothing I can remember. He never saved anyone in a memorable "man, that got me" way. He puts a ring on their finger, rubs their hand on his crotch, then fights a Half-Life enemy. No pretending to be a little girl's dead father to spare her the pain of learning the truth, no risking time to make sure a family isn't broken up by a misunderstanding, just "Plain sugar." Hell, it's like the writers realise how bland he is and made him pick the blandest, most unexciting doughnut there is as some sort of commentary on their own errible writing.

I mean really I read your post and think "where the hell did you pull that from?" Because nothing you said actually happened in the time I watched the show. Subtle humour? He laughed once, but that wasn't humour. He was laughing at Stinko dressed as santa or something. There's no humour about him, subtle or not. Windows into his character? Again, WHAT WINDOWS? What exactly ever happened that made him react in any way besides "I must fight?"

Oh, and Wizard's lore, what little there is, really doesn't since "because a wizard did it" is not an explanation, nor does it make sense. At least OOO showed us most of what happened all that time in the past. Wizard gave us one badly done flashback that they repeated for a bit for, like, five episodes before apparently what the villains are doing and why isn't important. Hell, Wiseman just showed up and he, aside from looking about as threatening as the Terror Dopant, has done, said, and generally been nothing.

Where does the "Past riders screaming and shouting" thing come from?
Of the series I've seen, Shinji (Ryuki), Kazuma (Blade), Tendou (Kabuto), Wataru (Kiva), Tsukasa (Decade), Shotaro (Double), and to a lesser extent, Eiji (OOO) rarely ever raised their voices beyond their "Emotional" moments or during fights.

All these characters are subdued and grounded, they're not fireballs, they're more like steady flames.

Where are you pulling this "Past riders are all yelling and screaming and everyone confuses that for characterization" bullshit? I'm honestly confused.

You shouldn't use the shows pacing as a reflection on the character. Haruto is sound the show just gives him very little focus because it wastes all its time on the Gate of the week.

Really the criticism of the lack of insight into Haruto as a Rider is a flaw I'd have with all of Kamen Rider, cheesy and clichéd as it was, whenever the Power Rangers would morph for the first time in their respective season and they'd have that fight where they'd do a dramatic morph and test out their powers with gleeful exclamations of how awesome all of it was, it made a big difference between feeling like something has happened and that they've just put on a costume but Kamen Rider seems to rarely have that, it rarely seems to explore what the character is going through in their battles or how the powers effect them and all the fun things they could do with them.

It's like Date right, love the character, but I would have rather there was no bullet subplot and instead he was hurting simply because of the effect the suit has on its body. No matter how hard the show tries to make him feel like Ironman his general lack of interest in the suit and its powers reduces it to feeling as plasticy as it actually is.

Haruto's humour is usually in the form of wry comments, I guess if you don't have a dry sarcastic sense of humour you might not even pick up on what he is saying as jokes. I picked up on it and laughed every time. Also when you see his Underworld you get a much better feel of the character and his motivations and he gets stronger from there. Although I liked him before that.

Also there is more to Wizard than the White Wizard and you're just being facetious now, so I feel no reason to debate that at all.

Again, this seems like a very knee-jerk "Well you say that this rider is dull, that's just because he's not, uh, er... SHOUTING everything, yeah! He's not loud like past, stupid riders, he's subdued, not dull!"

The only thing is maybe he means how most riders have some kind of bold, unobtainable claim that makes them look naive... but agian, nobody does that. Shotaro has "no tears in my city" and Shinji has "I will stop the fighting between riders" but out of those two Ryuki's is totally doable, and Shotaro's isn't a claim, but rather indicative of his general opinion on emotions and what controlling your emotions means. He's a heart-on-his-sleeve guy, but aspires to be reserved and hardboiled like his boss was, not realising until later that emotions aren't something you do away with, that they fuel you. It's him finding the fine line of being tough and "hardboiled" and let your emotions out when appropriate, which is probably one of the reasons so many love him.

But no, "plain sugar" is far more deep.

HATER!!! :p

I-it kind of is, yeah.

I didn't realise I'd need to disclaimer this every time but as people are clearly very forgetful *out of the shows I have seen. Not every Rider series since the dawn of mankind.

Maybe there are all these other shows that do Haruto better but so far I've come across a lot more goofs than I have characters of any substance or depth and that is why I find both Haruto and Eiji so enjoyable.

Hm...well out of the ones I've seen, here's my rankings.

1. Gentarou
2. Wataru
3. Ryotarou
4. Haruto
5. Tsukasa (I haven't finished Decade yet, so who knows? maybe he'll move up.)

Okay, a lot of what you say here doesn't have a lot to do with what we're talking about, so I'm only going to respond to what is in an attempt to streamline our posts.You typo'd or autocorrected or something so I'm not sure what you're saying, but yes, I can absolutely use the show's pacing as a reflection of the character, because the show's pacing affects EVERYTHING IN IT.

People have a habit of pointing out aspects as if they standalone, not remembering that all these terms like 'pacing' go together to make the show what it is, and they all affect eachother. If anything you are just reinforcing my arguement taht teh show has no redeemign factros if it's pacing is affecting an otherwise acceptable character.

Except it isn't, and you can't even come close to saying that. I just went on an abridged tirade about Shotaro's character and what we find out about him in the first sixteen episodes. Ditto Shinji. Haruto has no excuse.

Except you see, I feel like that would be the easy and typical way out. Hell, you yourself complained about Eiji's initial strain from combos.

Oh wow, you actually used "it's not the show, it's you." Almost word-for-word.

Haruto does not have a wry sense of humour, he has no sense of humour unless it's to the really silly stuff. And even then it's forced and unnatural. To put it bluntly, you're making up excuses and character aspects that don't exist.

Yeah, I'm sure that's it.

Well, that doesn't help your point, since you've only seen like, what, four? five?

It also doesn't help that you never mention which series you've seen. And the way you talk you basically imply you've seen, like, the entire Heisei era when you list off, like, four riders and then say "much, much more."

And the thing is, you mention you've seen more "goofs" then Haruto and Eiji, which basically means you're callign Gentaro, Shotaro, Ryoutaro and Godai "goofs." Can't speak for Godai and I'll give you Gen, but no way in any sensible hell are Shotaro and Ryoutaro "goofs." Again, do yourself a MASSIVE favoure and at least check out the W portion of the W and Decade movie so you can finally at least get a hint of what's to immediately come in W. You could not have picked a worse time to bail on that show. Ryoutaro is far from a goof. Even when he's meek and timid he's not a goof. He's got terrible luck and is the butt end of slapstick, but he himself is not goofy, just terribly unfortunate,

I will be the first to admit Wizard is poorly paced but I've yet to watch a Toku series that isn't. Most Kamen Rider series I've seen would have worked just as well with half the episodes, normally the middle section being a painful and slow crawl until the show realises it needs to wrap things up.

OOO is really the only one that booked the trend so far by having awful and bland episodes for the first third of the series, then really getting its act together in the middle.

ONCE AGAIN all of the Rider I HAVE SEEN. Why do I need to keep reminding that bit? Isn't that a given? Using examples from shows I haven't watched doesn't prove anything, maybe if I watched that then I wouldn't like him as much but as I haven't...I do like him as much as I do.

Did I complain about Eiji's initial strain? I don't really remember, I eat those words then because I appreciate that Gen and Fourze feel like the same person and that Eiji and Os feel like the same person but they are really the only Rider's I have come across yet that do.

Saying Haruto's humour flat out doesn't exist because it went over your head is just as flippant as well.

I've caught up to one show, completed two others, almost finished a further two. But I've also tried out like ten others on top of that.

I meant much much more in terms of Haruto being whatever I was talking about in that context not much more Riders.

Godai wasn't just a goof, he was a frustrating moron. My least favourite Rider so far.

I said I'll get back to W eventually but I have stuff I actually want to watch first.

You're either lying or your like of KR street cred is jiving you upside, homie.

I will admit, I've yet to see an excellently paced KR series just because it every series seems to need to be "broken in" befor ethey hit full stride, but Wizard's pacing is not even pacing. It's tanding still.

BECAUSE YOU KEEP ACTING LIKE WHAT YOU'VE SEEN IS ALL THERE IS. And you act like watching the first episode of every series is indicative of the show overall based on your above addendum.

Bullshit. You cannot look at Shotaro and W and not think they're the same guy. I almost thought it was Shotaro in the suit because the guy who is in the suit (the same guy who plays every Heisei rider besides Kuuga and Hibiki) matches his body language so freaking well.

And when it comes to Den-O, well, that's the point. But I don't think you meant him.

Except it didn't and that isn't. It didn't go "over my head" (BTW thanks for outright calling me stupid bro, you're a peach if I ever saw one) it isn't there. At least not in the first sixteen episodes where the dude BARELY FUCKING TALKS about anything besides a phantom let alone has any humour.

I don't even know why argueing Haruto is even the main point here. He's LITERALLY the only part of Wizard we disagree on. But I seriously, seriously cannot agree with anything you say about him having any kind of character or personality. I'm almost inclined to keep watching Wizard, not so much to find support for my claims, but find out where this mysterious missing personality has been hiding from me.

Lying about my street cred, what? My problem with Wizard is that it always feels like the interesting part of the show is always happening in the background and instead we focus on all the completely uninteresting and pointless sidestories which would never usually be the focus of anything. This has been especially true since I caught up to the show, damnit.

I think you should be able to judge individual episodes, without talking about the series as a whole, they are made to be watched a week apart after all.

I never got a sense that Philip and Shotaro were W in the episodes I watched, they gave Sho a few stunts and gadgets but that didn't make me assume he was the brilliant marksman and brawler he was whenever he transformed. And considering how much Philip helped in the fighting despite showing no such thing even in his nature is even worse. Maybe it gets better when the good part of the show starts.

I appreciate how much Os and Fourze match up to Eiji and Gen's body language and I appreciate that we see Eiji and Gen achieve things out of the suit, including fighting, to add believability it is still them when they transform.

Missing a joke isn't a mark of stupidity, I often ask where the joke is in an episode of Big Bang theory while the laughing track is screaming away. I think you'd have to be pretty stupid to find Big Bang Theory funny not miss the jokes. :lol

I hope you warm up to Haruto as you go (:

I'm rewatching OOO and I had a random thought.

Anything Goes is a great theme song. But OOO is one of the series' where the form themes are better then the opening theme. Tajador being the perfect example.

While Fourze's theme is much better then any of his form themes. Except maybe Cosmic Mind.

I agree. That's one of the reasons I'm not a big fan of Wizard. The individual episodes feel... hollow.

And don't mistake my "overall" comments to mean you can only appreciate the show once it's done or somethign, it's just once you ARE done you can't help but remember the show and see the big picture.

That's just the crux of these kinds of shows. You don't see the rider fight outside the costume much early on becaus ethey want the figths to be the suits since they're still selling the the series. Plus Shotaro only gets super brawly because that's the power of the Joker memory, it offers increased agility and fighting skill. It's funny, because in a later movie we actually see both Philip and Shotaro fight side-by-side in human form against an enemy to show how far they've come.

Also, Philip doesn't contribute physically to W in his main forms. The movie and later the series explains that, and I'll spare you the details, Philip is basically designed to be part of W. He's like an onboard computer for whoever uses the actual W driver, and this is expanded upon later. It also puts everything in perspective when you realise W isn't a rider with guidance from a floating arm or a train-full of weirdos, he's a detective figuring things out. Think of it like Batman in his early years.

They deffinately get better with this as time goes on. I think it's just the range of the suit actor snce, like I said, it's ONE GUY playing every Heisei rider. tehy cna't always gel seemlesly, but teh ammount of times they do is impressive. Even if I don't like Haruto, I'll still agree it feels like him in the suit.

Goddman we agree on so much why must we clash on things like Wizard and W?

And I hope if you ever get back to W you'll at least see why it's as popular as it is. It's not perfect at all, I could probably find things wrong with it, but like I said every aspect of the show goes together to make a cohesive story, and W does that really, really well once all is said and done. Plus the last movie is excellent.

At first it was okay because The Gates were part of the shows mythos and Haruto would take trips into their inner Underworlds and the show would fill in gaps with flashbacks to the Sabbat and it worked well but then the show never really changed as villains should have really been getting a plan together and really stepping up but still the show just seemed to continue the same arc over and over again. I mean sure they had the Phoenix Gremlin mix up half way through but that also feels totally random and out of place.

Sadly for me by the end of the series I normally end up hating it :lol I find with most shows I watch, the first third is the strongest as that is when they can take their time to just explore things and find their feet, it's when the show has to get its act together that it falls apart. Which is why it surprised me so much that when OOO had to get its act together it did...and in a big way.

You always make W sound much more interesting than I found it :lol I guess the good stuff comes later, just a shame about the slow pacing.

I've always loved how different Haruto and Wizard feel and yet how much it works. It's almost like whenever Haruto transforms he lets loose and has some fun and it's hard not to be swept up in it all.

Also just watched Fourze 40 which was really bland in some areas and then awesome in others. So many twists. Tomoko no! Taurus is probably one of my new favourite Horoscopes but Virgo is also pretty epic in all her transgender awesome.

I loved that the explanation for Taurus' motivations were hormones, I dunno whether they intended it to be hilarious but it was. Almost like a knowing nod at just how meaningless and stupid Fourze is as it all takes place in a single high school in Japan and has so far had very little effect outside of said school.

Also I've only just noticed (slowpoke) just how mismatched Ryusei is to Meteor, his suit actor is like twice his height and build. What, is he Justin or something?

And that's what drives me crazy. :lol The first sixteen or so episodes are establishing a lot, like the usual stuff like setting and villaisn and methods, as well as stuff like Philip not remembering his family and Shotaro's guilt in preperation for teh movie and show's future. I mean, you don't even know who Skull is! It's really the movie war where we finally see that W is gonna have a lot to it. I mean, plenty of Rider shows have history and backstory before the series itself, but W really has a "wow, it's WAY bigger than we thought it was" and that's the best part.

Also on Meteor: yeah, sometimes they get actors who match the secondary rider stunt man (again, pretty much all secondary riders are the same dude under the suit. I wonder if he and the main rider actor ever hang out) sometimes they don't. Hell, Den-O kind of becomes a giant when you see him next to Hana, who's shorter but about the same size as Ryoutaro out of the suit. I think for Henshins they sometimes stand the actor on a box or somethign to match the suited rider.

You would think, considering these fights are made specifically for these shows and aren't adaptations that you'd match the suit and out of suit actors up together properly. I mean like Power Rangers has no excuse either I get that but being that they're getting new out of suit actors they do have to try a bit harder to make it all match up but here they should fit together perfectly with no excuse.

Anyway I just watched OOO 38, Maki's plan was brilliant in its simplicity, rather than sending an enemy one at a time he just sends them all out at once, duh! Shit really got real.

For once I'm actually glad they went back on a death and just had them leave instead as even seeing Date leave breaks my heart as he was my favourite character. Please tell me he comes back? Although I do recognise I only have like ten episodes left...

Brotou was fucking badass this week though.

You have not seen the last of Date.

Every time this conversation comes up I swear I'm the only person who actually wanted Date to leave :lol

I hate it when new characters become the secondary riders. It was no different with Date just strolling into town as Birth leaving GOtou high and dry after all that training. I resent the character over that, even after he leaves and comes back later. I enjoy the secondary role he has when he comes back but I couldn't stand him for a majority of the series.

Date's "death" was great, especially his X] face.

Date was, IMO, a brillliant move for making Brotou the secondary rider. You may not like it Den-O, but neither did Gotou. If he had been Birth from the start, he would've just been another punk secondary rider who maybe loosens up later. Here he actually struggles and achieves his goal and makes him a better character.

Watched Kiva 23-24, and Oh my god Emperor Kiva looks so fucking awesome!

Yeah I love Gotou's story arc of eventually becoming Birth. Date training him and being Birth at first through me for a loop but he ended up being one of my favorite parts of the show. Gotou as well.

The one I remember is where He had to take his shirt off to help that girl. 24? I think.

"But Sentai! He didn't have to fanservice take off his shirt!"
Yes. Yes he did.

I loved Date, and his arrival and departed helped make Gotou into the man he was supposed to be.
If early Gotou had been Birth from the get-go, he would have still been the rage filled dick who would refuse to help Eiji because he worked with a Greed. The show needed Date to make Gotou grow up.

Date was just awesome.

I thought he was just acting really bad but then when he sat up I realised it was in character and on purpose. Normally I hate 'cop outs' like this but I almost squealed with relief when he sat up, never been happier for a character to turn out okay.

I guess the only real disappointment is that as much as I love Brotou and how much he has grown as a character, I was so enamoured with Date that I can't really be excited for Brotou taking the mantle because I didn't want Date to lose it.

I'm just glad to know he will be back.

And he won't just be back, he'll be back in style.

Fourze 41: holy crap this episode was good! There was so much good I barely know where to start. Tachibana makes his in person appearance and is a fucking badass. I cried manly tears as the Rider club fell apart. Virgo fucking amazed me by really making shit get real. I love all the hinted romance between Ryusei and Tomoko and the sense of duty Ryusei shows Gen. And that twist at the end, what the fuck is going ooooon?

My only real issue with the episode is the fact that Libra is asking what exactly the big bad wants, seven episodes away from the end. I mean that is pretty worrying. If even the generals under him have no idea what his plan is then the audience has no hope.

And where the hell did this Rocket form come from and who is Nadeshiko?

Also, dat wet Shun ass.

for that watch the Fourze and ooo Movie

Is it actually worth watching? I'm fairly knew to the Japanese side of things and I never know which films are actually canon or need to be watched. Plus with the amount of KR films I've seen taken to the cleaners in this thread I just kinda assume none are worth watching :lol