So, watching Ryuki and I have a nagging question: Why can't they just kill eachother as people? I get why guys like Ren and Kido don't, but why does Kitaoka pull the wheel from Gorou when the juggernaut tries to run him down like the rockstar of a bro he is? Why not just run him down? Is a reason ever given? Even Ouja hasn't done much besides weakly intimidate. I'm sure Shiro has a reason, but what's stopping the riders from taking matters into their own hands?

Considering how the Rider war is so important... it kind of doesn't exist. They sometimes fight in the mirror world, but most of the time just kind of... don't. Ryuki is obviously trying to be non-combative, and Zolda seems to be drifting more and more to his side and also has a life he tends to constantly. But Ren just kind of lazes around and Ouja doesn't do anything. Also, last episode we saw Tiger briefly, and there's this guy who has a really intimidating voice who looks to be fucking with the mirror world stuff. I don't trust him.

EDIT: OH MY FREAKING GOD Ren's girlfriend's parents are dead too! God damn, is their anyone in this show who has a healthy, living relationship with their parents?

No, I'm serious. It's like as soon as your child reaches and impressionable age the Grim Reaper decides to start going door-to-door. It's practically a parody at this point.

You know what'd be awesome? If someone was abandoned by their parent or parents. Er, I mean from a narrative point of view, of course. Having a parent walk out on you sucks I know, but it's a dynamic that I really wish would be explored. It's like writers can't grasp parental relationships and just off them as cheap backstory. I mean, Batman lost his parents tragically and that's the entire basis for the man he is. Toku usually seems to do it just as a "oh yeah and his/her parents are dead but anyway..."

Holy crap, Ryuki Survive is awesome looking. His blaster/sword is kind of lame, but the suit itself? Wicked.

Also, I just love Zolda he is shameless. He'll totally toss aside dignity to grovel and beg for his life. Nothing is off limits as long as he comes out on top.

EDIT: Oh, sorry for double-posting. Usually this thread is active enough I just assume there'd be a reply before this one.

So I just watched Super Hero Taisen.

Do you guys remember when Decade was airing and Diend looked like an interesting character, instead of being a guy whose defining character trait is being badly written.
I miss those days.

Also it seems that the whole idea about "Riders being out of sync, with Super Sentai" that Decade introduced, was completely dropped.

Oh and Fourze was also in it, he was spacey and stuff.

What were Kitaoka and Gorou doing with those Jouralist girls? I've never seen people sing kareoke in such badly lit surroundings.

EDIT: Oh man, Odin's "death" was HILARIOUSLY bad. They seriously did the whole sword-under-the-arm thing to show him get stabbed. I just, I can't. Oh God are you serious? And then Knight's super awful and corny scream while he looks at his hands like "WHAT HAVE I DONE!?" That was freaking daffy.

I mean, that scene would have been less silly if Knight said "I have to fight the aliens" and Odin said "No Knight you are an alien" and then Knight was an alien.

EDIT 2: Okay, seriously? What the fuck. Ouja summons Metalgelas just by holding his card to a window? SINCE WHEN IS THAT POSSIBLE? That's not how advent cards work! My God, he is a bad writing black hole. A super condensed mass of dumb from which no logic can escape. They just make shit up when he's around, and it's so, so dumb. How did he even fit that card in his mouth? And the police never shook him down when he was arrested? And the cop justs tood there and didn't shoot?

This is the stupidest thing ever. How is Japan still standing. Apparently their police force is employed by morons who are all on their first day of the job. How is this writing? How is this entertainment? This is just stunningly bad. Also, why doesn't that useless woman just tell Ren his girlfriend's awake instead of just shouting his name and expecting him to grow a brain out of nowhere?

So after taking a break from Black - no reflection on the show but with a forum like this I'm almost discovering new shows daily and I lack the focus to stick with a single show when so many new shiny ones are being thrusted at me. I watched episode 16 and it did a lot the series hasn't so far, and I feel the need to address the series as a whole up to where I am. Inb4 "judging on only sixteen episodes?! I watch the whole series four times before I make a judgement, even if I hate it!"

Firstly, the plot, there is none. About four of these episodes have been plot focused, if that, and although there is the vaguest of hints that all of these of the week episodes are leading somewhere, unless it all comes together soon then I'm still gonna say this is still badly paced. Like worse than Wizard paced and OOOs paced.

Plus the shows tone is really all over the map, from a story perspective it seems to take itself deathly seriously but then as the show is trying to construct an engaging mystery, we have Kotaro with his seeming superpower to just turn up at the right time, place and moment like whenever Mighty Morphin would jump cut from American to Japanese footage, in a goofy series you can shrug it off but here it seems somehow so much more ridiculous. Plus, it's so...campy and unashamedly so but yeah it kinda feels like the one person not in on the joke, is the show itself. You can't take a very adult premise, stick a goofy costumed monster in the middle and act like that shit is cohesive.

Right now these sixteen episodes can be summed up by 'dudes in bed sheets, dry ice, unrelated mutant, made up science, oh Kotaro didn't have the strobe transformation that means he wont win this fight...oh there is the strobe fight, the mutant is dead, mutant has no relevancy to the story, but it's dead, so I guess the end then'.

I mean it's action heavy enough to balance this, I suppose, featuring surprisingly larger quantities of action than pretty much any of the modern series I'm watching, and it's really well done action but, there is always a but.

Sniper, whose name was barely mentioned in the episode so Sniper he is, kinda made me realise how...boring Black is. I mean don't get me wrong, the action is well done please don't focus on the negative, but Black has no new forms, no weapons, no secondary Rider, no real human support character. Most modern Riders are overkill with too many forms, pointless secondary Riders, along with those and the episodes pointlessly stretched out into two, it feels like the Heisei series have everything Black needs and shows like OOO or Wizard or whatever could probably take a few pointers from Black. I guess it's lucky I have been consuming this show so slowly because I assume it'd get really boring, fast.

Watched 29 and 30 of Fourze

I'm not really feeling Gentaro as a Sempai, imo he works as an annoying and energetic younger sibling, not an older one.

The Musca Zodiarts arc wasn't that interesting either. This is like the 4th time they rely on the "throwing something into a lake" plot.

Next time we'll meet Aries so that probably will be better.

Oh and Meteor Storm still exists... Now I love Meteor base design, funny how that worked out.

Ryuki 38: So this is Alternative, huh? He's something. He functions like a normal rider but everything about him is off. Like his advent cards looking far more basic and technical, and instead of being inserted into something he scans them like a credit card and they burn away. Also his... thing has a woman's voice. A quite cheery one at that. But he apparently can't work in the mirror world very well since it breaks.

But what I don't get is that Shiro is seeking the useless girl... but, he can find her and talk to her whenever he wants. He has many times. He can LITERALLY talk to her and see her any time. That's... not what seeking is. Also this kid is creepy the way he acts, like I think the character may have some sort of mental thing because he really seems weird.

I watched Blade 21 and 22, and well I love this cast even more so. Also I love Garren and Blade training Mutsuki. Also I am really enjoying this Leangle arc honestly. I am intrigued with where this is going with Chalice too.

Decade Agito and Den-O worlds:

Agito was ok. I found it weird how Gills went straight to Exceed. I also find it odd how every other Rider world is AR except for Den-O.

Just finished watching the Kiva movie... I rather liked it. It's not the best I've seen, but it had some good moments. Rey and Arc were cool and it was rather awesome seeing two IXAs at the same time. Also, that ending man (:cry). Also, does anyone know the name of the song that played in the credits?

The regular Gills suit had fallen apart and was unusable. That's also why Another Agito never appears in Decade.

Ah I was wondering about that myself.

"Circle of life", I actually cried in that scene :cry

While the movie and the series by extension weren't necessarily great the Father/Son angle was handled very well

Thank you very much! :D

Well I for one find Kiva to be absolutely awesome and it's quickly challenging W as my favorite series.

Watched Blade 23-25 intrigued with the new angles for Leangle and Chalice. I'm enjoying these new Undead villains for Garren and Blade so far.

Yay someone else who likes kiva.

I like you. You have good taste. :D

Kiva was my first toku series, and I love it dearly, but I honestly felt that it suffered much from being Den-O sucessor (nothing agaisnt Den-O, what little I've seen from it looks great) the Arm Monsters, The giant fangires and castle dran, felt at times like leftover from another series, and were badly used.

Also the humor at least imo was very hit and miss (and in my case very often missed) which sort of reduced dramatic impact and forced some characters (Nago in particular) in ridiculous situations.

That said Kiva had excellent ideas, impressive suit designs and fight choreography, plus some very memorable characters. Also dividing the narrative into two different periods was very creative, and worked almost seamlessly, even if it we knew that the fangire had to survive 1986 to appear in 2008.

So yeah I love Kiva, but felt that the dramatic and comedic parts, crashed at times, badly.

Hell yeah!

Fair enough. I personally did find Nago to be getting a little... pathetic around episode twenty or so.

Just finished the Kamen Rider Shin movie and I thought it was atrocious, the plot was nonsense, the acting was terrible, the special effects were awful, the unnecessary gore and nudity was...unnecessary and although turning Shin into a literal monster was a stroke of genius, he felt completely tacked on in his own movie.

I haven't seen shin, but from what I've seen...If there's one thing Toku fans universally agree upon, it's that Shin is complete and utter shit.

If Shin is supposed to be the truest form of Kamen Rider, I'm happy to keep living a lie.

So, what does Shin ride?

Nothing. He transforms only a handful of times, one of which to have the same fight twice, the other to kill a defenceless, unarmed, man. I think we only see him Ride in human form once as well. Why is his codename 'Masked Rider' then? I have no fucking idea.

Ryuki episodes 9-16 and Dragon Knight 3-5

Nice to see both Kiwama and Ren get some character development along with hinting at what created the Advent decks. And hey Shinji, every one else found out who Zolda was 2 episodes ago so please keep with the times. I love when Kiwama gets exposed for the corrupt lying bastard he is, the reporter messing up his gift he sent to her, and the complate and utter EXPOSAL at the end of one of the episodes.

Finally, the Rider war gets into gear with the introduction of Raia and Gai. Kamen rider Raia seems pretty cool, although I don't understand why Ren doesn't want to be associated with him. 3 riders vs the remaining 8 I think is a pretty good deal. Also, Kamen Rider Gai is a dick. I was wondering where the hell Zolda was, 4 riders fighting and he doesn't get a piece of the action?

One thing I have to say is that Dragon Knight is a hell of a lot more action oriented then ryuki. In ryuki, the beginning and end of the episodes have the fights and the majority of the time is character development/plot where as Dragon Knight seems to take its inspiration from Power Rangers and have 2D characters and a lot of action. I don't think I can pin down the personalities of Len and Kitt come to think of it. Len is just all muscles and Kitt is just, "I don't want to fight, I just want to find my dad".

I have gotten used to the Visior voice in Dragon knight by now. I like how they took the elements of the ORE journal investigation subplots and put it in Maya with her own paranormal spin rather then being led into it, although all of her friends annoy me. Incisor's defeat was super lame, just like Ryuki. I liked the idea of Xaviax using a person's desires and manipulating them to be Riders but from Incisior, that's gonna lead to hella annoying lines.

"Hey you look like a million bucks!!"

"See that on your suit, that's a dollar sign."

WE GET IT, YOU NEED MONEY YOU HOMELESS BASTARD

Dragon Knight does have a plot, more epic and much darker than you'd expect from a kids show but yeah really it is much more character focused than anything else, as we deal with the horrors of violence and death and what motivates us to fight and kill others, and let's just say that not everyone is motivated by doing the right thing or justice or whatever.

I've watched EZ rider's review on Dragon Knight but I'm still watching it to compare to Ryuki, but the big Retcon near the end pretty much negates most of what you said. I can't say because I can't find the stupid black bar button on my post editing options

I never really had a problem with Venting. It works in exactly the way death works in many religions, and the show wouldn't have been able to kill off the characters in the ways they did if they didn't have a reset button. I think it works more than it doesn't, even if you may have to make excuses for yourself.

IXAcise!

Okay, that was terrible.

Yeah, but it always brings a smile to my face :)

I miss Kivat, best belt ever.

Kivat: The only belt that can wake up in a bad mood.

Kivat is awesome! I absolutely loved him and Tatsulot.

On 37 of Den-O,

Pretty good, finally got to Liner Form, DenKamen Sword is awesome, but the Sakurai stuff is as confusing as Nogami has formsto change into :lol

Episode Nine of Den-O, all I could think of was this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qu4Tf5me_JI

Great episode though! Hana is turning out to be an Ichijou, a fantastic supporting player which can hold up the series when the protagonist sucks. Plus Anti-Troy is really cool, I love his design, personality and fighting style and although I don't care much for Rod, I love how big but strikingly different all the different personalities are and having them all playing off of one another is really fun. Rod is kind of a badass, in many ways more than Momo is, so it's a shame Rod Form sucks so bad.

Got in from my run and watched episode ten of Den-O, another fantastic episode thanks to Kintaros. Axe Form is so fucking awesome, Dynamic Chop!, it actually made the horrendous CGI fights that come with new forms worth it, unlike Rod.

I also loved it when Momo lost his shit when Hana got caught in a sneak attack by Rhino Bastard. OTP <3 (:lol)

Okay what the heck is up with the coffee in Den-O? It looks like the food the lost boys eat in Hook.

Miura-Kun is hilariously awesome.

I may not have finished all of Den-O yet, but episode 5 is already my favorite. It's just so fucking funny.

There's like three people watching Den-O at the same time, and it's awesome.