That's basically where I'm at too, and why I specifically called out Evol -- Build definitely, definitely felt like it was doing something very intentional with the term Kamen Rider, and all the corruptions and layers that came with it. If anything, I think Build beating Evol in the end was kind of the cap on that. It was essentially his final thesis of Kamen Rider being exactly that -- something that is good, and how dare you even call yourself a Kamen Rider. There's obviously a lot more overt stuff going on in that final fight scene, but it certainly felt like something sneaked in between the lines.


Meanwhile, Wiseman, Cronus, and a thousand movie riders including everyone's Eternally favourite darling... just, kind of, are called Kamen Riders.

In retrospect, and unless I'm remembering this wrong; I really REALLY like that Banno only ever called himself 'Gold Drive'. Not Kamen Rider Gold Drive. Just Gold Drive.

Also ALSO in retrospect, I've always found it very fun that Kuuga and Fourze are the only Heisei Rider series to not have a 'Dark Rider'. Even OOO eventually got Poseidon -- but Fourze wants absolutely nothing to do with that. And I like that.

I'm fine with whatever. I tend to prefer big bads who are similar, but different(Daguva, Shadow Moon, etc). But as long as the big bad themselves are a well written character, I tend not to dwell on it too much.

And why should he when that was a show written by Riku Sanjou? The second episode of Drive was literally titled "What Is a Kamen Rider?", it treated that title with some dignity! Same goes for Double, actually, which, unless I'm imagining this, made it a point in a few spots in the movie that Phillip and Shoutarou are angry at Eternal for having the nerve to call himself a Rider, which again, as they should be, after going through all that trouble to get Accel on the same page.

Wizard is a grey area. The White Wizard was never called a Kamen Rider, but nobody in that show had fancy names. Wizard is called Wizard like a few times early on, but like everyone else, is nearly exclusively referred to as "____ mahoutsukai", so I guess make of that what you will, but I don't recall Wiseman being officially deemed a Rider until after the show was over.

Yes.

I mean, in half the actual shows, Kamen Rider is barely used outside of the merch. In the context of his own series, Wizard isn't a Kamen Rider, he's a Magician, same as Fueki, same as Mage, not really the same as Beast. And in a lot of shows with Dark Riders, they are challenged, and called out on it, not just Build! Drive does a lot of the same, with Lupin and Chase's arcs especially coming to mind.

And, in lots of shows where it is used, and outside of that, it means what is says on the tin. Masked Rider. Their power all comes from the same source, does it really make sense to differentiate between them? Take Alternative Zero. In the context of Ryuki, yeah, he's not a Kamen Rider in that sense, but outside of that, in terms of the overall franchise? He wears a mask, he's based off a bug, he fights. Isn't it close enough? Especially if you're a toy company just trying to get kids to buy a ridewatch.

Idk, the sense of "A Kamen Rider needs to fit this specific tragic mold designed back in 1971" feels really overly prescriptivist to me. Some series (Kuuga, W, Gaim, Drive, Build) want to explore the question of what really makes a Kamen Rider and that's cool, but others want to do their own thing, and that's neat too.

Hey so why does the Assault Trigger work with Shining Hopper anyway

That's a bit of semantics, though. Lots of series don't explicitly call themselves "Kamen Riders."
In Agito, they never uttered the words. An Agito was merely a psychic human that evolved into that stage. To be an Agito wasn't necessarily to be a Kamen Rider (It is now, granted).
Gaim were Armored Riders, Hibiki were Oni. It wasn't until we started getting the endless deluge of crossovers that characters, in series, started referring to themselves as "Kamen Rider ____".

For those who are rider-like but not considered riders I find the term pseudo-riders appropriate starting with Shadow Moon.

Yua theroize that Zea predicted the Ark being reactivated and creating the Assualt Wolf Key and Trigger so it made Shining Hopper be able to use to the Trigger to thier advantage.

All is going according to the will of the Ark.

(Alternative, equally silly answer, is that the Ark and Zea are better at compatability requirements than most major tech companies today)

Sad news, but Masahiro Inoue (Decade of Kamen Rider Decade) and Jaimie Natsuki have split-up!

http://ukiyaseed.weebly.com/ukiyasee...-their-divorce

In the Kamen Sentai Go-Rider spin-off, Emu leaves a numerical sequence which operates as a coded message for him to solve the mystery of who is in charge behind the scenes (trying not to spoil too much here). When we finally learn the meaning behind the numbers in Part 3, the pronunciation of the numbers is vastly different from how numbers in the Japanese language tend to be pronounced (from a tokusatsu standpoint at least), but the difference in pronunciation is the basis for Emu's message.

All that being said, I guess my question is: How do the numbers genuinely say what Emu says they do?

https://scontent-lht6-1.xx.fbcdn.net...ea&oe=5EF7C6DB
Japanese number wordplay is a league of its own for the sounds you can get out of them.
(Look it up under Gorowase if you're interested!)

The worst part is, from what i understand, Emu was reeeally stretching what that list can do.

Not only was he basically switching number-sound sets mid-word, but the set he used for Blade (2 0 10) as he intended comes out as (Fu Rei To), I guess being the closest approximation of (Bu Rei Do) that he could get.

I mean, that that same Wikipedia page explicitly says "Variants of readings may be produced through consonant voicing or gemination, vowel lengthening, and the insertion of the nasal mora n (ん)."

The only difference between フレイト and ブレイド is two dakutens (the things that dictate a consonant is voiced). It's not that much of a stretch when the whole point of goroawase to begin with is basically to cheat the system. Who cares about Go-Rider anyway?! The only series of numbers Rider fans really need to know how to read is 753! :p

I’m watching Zero One and just finished episode 7. So does Aruto destroy Humagears when he defeats them or not? Because Kobe was still coaching at the end, but the previous episode had the replacement daughter unambiguously destroyed. At first I just assumed it was a replacement Kobe, since he seems to be being taught by the students, but they mention how he’s grown. They also flashed back to one of the first Humagears Aruto beat which was definitely saved, the guy with the arm wrap.

It’s just confusing because the show is basically establishing the Humagears are, or are capable of becoming, people, but nobody seems upset when they’re destroyed even though Aruto clearly gets upset over the idea of them dying. Did I miss something?

So the original humagears are completely destroyed, but they're replaced with one of the same model. This is bad because it means it resets on all their growth and learning, so the unique Humagear personality that was grew out of its learning is dead, which only Aruto cares about because that's his character.

I don't remember anythign specific with Kobe, but they could have just left him a while to grow. He won't be the *same* as the old Kobe, but he's close enough.

As far as I remember, every single HumaGear (aside from a few selected ones, spoilers so I won’t go into detail) has a cloud backup, so when they are destroyed Hiden produces an identical copy and loads the backup into it.

Aruto's rage and sadness stems less from the fact that the ones he destroys don’t come back or only in an altered way, but from his personal views. He believes HumaGear to be individuals and part of his family, so the act of them getting hacked which forces him to attack and destroy them is what upsets him.

The daughter from episode 6 is an exception to the rule as her appearance was illegal, it is forbidden for HumaGear to bear the resemblance of deceased people who cannot consent to this act, and so after she was destroyed she couldn’t be replaced.

I was also confused by this early on because the act of replacement was never really shown until later and the backup was explained in a completely different context.

FWIW, the very next episode I watched after posting explained that the Dodo assassin survived via a backup. It’s just weird that the Hiden Humagears are never explicitly said to be recovered or backed up before this point but that seems totally logical.

But then... Kobe again seems weird, since it’s not stated whether he was reset or not? Because if he was either reset or replaced, the remark about him growing along with the basketball team makes no sense, but if his learned personality was preserved then him seemingly having to be taught how to play makes no sense.

I guess the whole Humagear thing is otherwise so consistent these things stand out as “wait is that supposed to mean something” or “wait is that a mistake?”

I recently saw a question without an answer (not on a TokuNation Thread) and it's a curious one: What is with that odd background music in Ryuki 32 at about 10 Minutes, 19 Seconds? To set the scene a little, Reiko is talking to someone about Shirou. The sound is brief, but comes across as distorted.

Decided to quickly check it out. I like it enough; is there a problem? Is it not on the OST?

Not sure about the OST; it's more of a question regarding such a weird sound. It sounds so distorted, almost like an error.

Do you guys prefer Kamen Rider 2 with default helmet, or the black helmet?

I like the black helmet more just, because it helps differentiate KR 2 from KR 1 when they're in a line-up

Who would you consider to be the first real secondary rider? Nigo, Riderman, or G3?

I like the black helmet And red gloves since they help more clearly differentiate the two. Their original suits were significantly different and I like having more than just a stripe to tell them apart.

Riderman.

I like the black helmet. It's his original helmet color and helps make him immediately recognizable.

As for secondary riders, I gravitate towards G3. Nigou literally replaced Ichigou for a good 30 or so episodes, while Riderman I have no opinion on because I've yet to watch any V3 :lol

Mega Max had Rider 2 with the black helmet, and I think that tells you everything you need to know.

Also it legitimately does look a lot sharper in my opinion, on top of the benefit of differentiating him from Rider 1 more.

V3 is great, probably the most consistent early Showa series. Riderman is very much the model that future secondary Riders would follow.

I just watched the Brave Spin-off and Precursor to 2017's Chou Super Hero Taisen, Kamen Rider Brave: Let's Survive! Revival of the Beast Rider Squad, and aside from its bloodiness, it left me with a few questions:

- Why is King Dark the one who summons the Beast Riders?

- Why is Beast among the Beast Riders and acting as a villain? I know the Movie itself had the ability to summon duplicate Riders and Sentai so is every Beast Rider just a duplicate as opposed to the real person?

- Why did Foundation X use a random "Big Bad" as a hologram, especially since they have NO OBVIOUS ROLE in the Movie!?

Black helmet for me as well. It just looks better with the red gloves in my opinion.

Because he had a vacation week so he had the free time.

Because they bribed Nitoh with offers of mayonnaise.

Because they're still holding out hope that their plot thread has significance.

... Beast Squad was a precursor to CSHT?

Beast Squad has more connection to Heisei Geneations Final than CSHT, of all things.

Why did they leave Black Hole Evol's arms and legs unpainted... Did they not have spares for those parts? I've never gotten over how not-great it looks because of that...

They didn't. They painted them red, blue & gold :p

You Black Hole Finished me with this reply...

It’s just a Super Hero Taisen, you should really just relax.

I am terrible with catching up on every little film etc, contrast with British TV shows where some only last for 6 episodes!

Everyone prefers the black helmet because it helps differentiate Nigo better. It's weird why Toei went back to the normal helmet.