I fell out of watching KR during Ghost, but Ex-Aid brought me back big time a few months ago. I also decided to go through and watch all of the Heisei KR series in order as well, just finished Kuuga this morning. Overall I have mixed feelings on it.

On the plus side, I really enjoyed Godai as a protagonist. Sure his personality is kind of one-note, but when that one note is just being a really likable and nice guy, it works for me. Godai really embodied to me what it means to be a hero, in ways other than beating up monsters.

I liked the supporting cast as well, Ichijou in particular. He had a good dynamic with Godai and their interactions were always enjoyable to watch. It was also nice to see a non-Rider getting to see so much action, and be so effective at it.

The main problem I had with the show is that the pacing dragged, and the actual plot just wasn't that interesting. The story moved very slowly, with very little happening. Almost the whole show was just the same thing over and over: new Gurongi shows up, they try to find its methods to pin it down, then Godai beats it. It was more or less a monster-of-the-week format, which I don't generally like anyway, but was held back even more in this case since there was hardly any plot development alongside it to keep things interesting up until the very end. I also thought the Gurongi were boring villains for the most part.

Ultimately, I'd say Kuuga is a show with a great main Rider and supporting cast held back by a dull plot and poor pacing.

Black 43: Curse Golgom and their devious mind-control Fitbits! I also have to acknowledge the episode 41, with the time traveling samurai. It was like a precursor to those late-season cracktastic episodes Heisei seasons so love.

W is done, moving on to Wizard and Gaim to kill some time while I wait for my copies of Cutie Honey the Live to arrive so I can watch that again.

Currently working through Wizard, plan to go back for W and OOOs, but might just continue to gaim after wizard

After finishing Blade...

Damn, that final episode was some good stuff. Kenzaki is a real hero, the type that someone like Takeru only wishes he could be.

Binged my way through the last of Black. It was a good overall experience, but in typical Showa fashion had way too much uninteresting filler. The ending was quite good, I really enjoyed the dramatic showdown and Shadow Moon really driving the point home that Kotaro will have to deal with the guilt of killing his brother for the rest of his life, and it has a pretty cool apocalyptic vibe overall. The very last episode with the other Riders randomly appearing in a clip show was just silly though! I also really liked Kotaro as a protagonist, and his interactions with Kyoko and Katsumi tended to be absolutely adorable. Ultimately though, I don't know if Black can beat the short and sweet insanity that was Amazon as far as Showa goes. Guess I'll hit up the 2 Black movies and then I might as well start Black RX.

Oh man, I'm so torn here. It's like, I wanna stick up for Takeru, but on the other hand, Kenzaki is objectively the s***, so... :lol

I usually don't feel like I've missed something when I miss a Rider series. But I sincerely feel as though I missed something not watching Amazons. I may have to change that this week.

If it makes you feel better, you could replace Takeru in that statement with Emu and other riders that fill in the same selfless archetype. The way Kenzaki solved the entire conflict is just awesome. :D

A bit early to toss Emu in there. Probably, but we don't know just yet!