I've started with Gaim and it was a great experience that encouraged me to seek out the other shows. Frankly, the newcomers care about seeing a good show rather than the one that is most typical for the franchise.

Which does not mean that Ghost is a bad show. I haven't seen it, I may end up liking it when I get around to watching it.

I think that was everyone's problem with Ghost, honestly. When you ask someone what specifically they hated about Ghost, you'll usually hear things about Specter and Necrom being pushed to the sidelines, the more interesting plots being done away with quickly (like early Makoto), and the lack of seriousness in what should be a serious theme.

And I've always maintained that having the parka ghosts work like Imagin and possess the rider using them would have made the show so much better. I loved the little characterization they did get, and really anything that results in less Takeru is a good thing. I truly, honestly, don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said Takeru is the worst, least interesting in protagonist I've ever seen in anything, ever. Seriously. Number one. Bottom of the barrel. He's awful.

Also, you can't set up an awesome, really creepy tone in the summer movie cameo, and then do a complete 180 on that in the actual show. You just can't do that and not expect people to be disappointed.

Of course people just want to see a good show, but i'd rather recommend somebody something that's more indicative of what the series is about than something completely out of left field. I wouldn't recommend somebody to start with Gaim just like I wouldn't recommend somebody starts with Go-Busters, and if somebody was interested in the Halloween films I wouldn't tell them to start with Halloween 3. Personally, when I got into Sentai I started with Zyuranger, but I wasn't sure what was a Sentai trope and what was unique to Zyuranger. When I started Dairanger afterwards, I was thrown off by the fact that a lot of what made me love Zyuranger wasn't present in Dairanger. If I showed somebody Gaim to start, they might go on to another series and be disappointed that it doesn't focus on Rider vs Rider action, and is mostly a MotW-styled show, something like that. I'd hate to ruin their experience with the series by giving them the wrong expectations going in

Unlike Asian fans that grew up watching dubbed Japanese Toku, I think most western fans are familiar with the common motw style toku from watching power rangers, so Gaim would be a unique breath of fresh air to them. Most of them probably found out about the existence of sentai and riders through zyuranger clips.

All I'm trying to say is that I know I tend to get fixated on elements of a series (or game or whatever else) that are unique to that individual entry. It's probably a problem that's more unique to me, but as a result I wouldn't start somebody with Gaim, simply because I don't think it gives a good indication of what Kamen Rider is all about. Somebody could watch it and love it, but they just might be a Gaim fan instead of a Kamen Rider fan.

I think Ghost is a good place to start because it's exciting, has a lot of action, doesn't do a whole lot out of the ordinary, and its flaws aren't as apparent if you're not familiar with Kamen Rider on a whole.

Don't forget, this is the controversial opinions topic :P

Well, that is definitely a Controversial Opinion!

The only reason to tell someone to start with Ghost is so that you can assure them that it doesn't matter what show they watch next, it's going to be better (assuming that someone watches Ghost as their first Kamen Rider series and somehow isn't turned off of the franchise forever).

Takeru was a complete Mary Sue and that's my biggest problem with him as a character. The show started to lose its edge early on, and from then on, it basically became the "Takeru and friends" show where pretty much every other character's story arc had to revolve exclusively around how great Takeru is and how much he changed their life and Takeru himself never struggles with his idealistic, upbeat nature which just makes him yet another typical boring Toku/Shonen protagonist without any of the edge that somebody like Godai Yuusuke has. And I get that the show IS called "Kamen Rider GHOST" after all, but Rider is typically good about making it seem like the secondary characters have a life outside of being second fiddle to the main character.

Hey, that's not a controversial opinion at all! Off-topic! :p

You know what I just posted it in the HiET thread but I'll post it here too, ghost had an admirable theme, "that everyone has the potential in them to do good and that no matter who we are we leave an impact on others be it small or large" and good ideas to it (alan and makato, the eyecon possession, science vs belief, redemption arcs for characters) I think it really just needed to get more focused and give more screen time to certain ideas.