Yea I guess the newer Rider shows are generally more on the nose with their theme, which isn't that bad a thing in itself, but it kinda makes the episodic stories and Victim of the Week stuff in Wizard feel even more redundant. I did actually enjoy the last couple of stories I watched in Wizard, they went to a slightly different direction than I expected.

Haruto's a perfectly pleasant and capable dude, I just tend to gravitate more to either the more relatable ones (Shinji/Kouta/Shoutaro) or the complex outlier (Takumi). Lots of the show left though, so maybe he'll grow on me the way Kenzaki eventually did.

Now that work has been killing me slightly less, I finally started watching Fourze like I said I would ages ago. Only through 3 episodes so far, so all I can really thinks to say is...

It's Space Time.

Up through episode 8 of Fourze. And I gotta say... I'm not really clicking with it so far.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not out and out saying the show is bad or anything, and I totally get the message the show is trying to say, but like...

The problem is that, atleast so far, we're not shown any positive aspects of the Zodiarts users or the people Gentaro befriends before they have their inevitable 180. It makes it really hard to root for or care about their development.

"Everyone is going through their own struggle" is definitely a message I support though, so the show has that going for it. It also has Spooky Chick, who so far is my favorite character; She is hilarious to me.

So yeah, that's my starting impression of Kamen Rider Breakfast Club.

I've been watching Kamen Rider (1971) and in the early episodes, it's cool to see them create what Kamen Rider will be.

Pausing my current string of eps to say that Episodes 9 and 10 were more like it!

It's the two-parter focusing on Tomoko so already it's got points there, but here's the thing that makes it works compared to the others beforehand:

We actually had time to get to know Tomoko a little bit as a character beforehand. She had some positive traits about her, and her comedic bits were always great.

This two-parter going into her backstory actually works because she wasn't written as the type of character that I'd want to just go away and instead actually want to learn more about. Not to mention, her becoming Gentaro's' friend and her joining of the club was done really organically, unlike everyone else, IMO.

Ontop of that, the comedy and action were all on point here too. Heck, the only critique I can really make of these eps is how the rest of the KRC acts as though they've been friends and developing together for like 30 episodes, when it so hasn't been even nearly that long, even if we're assuming a good chunk of time passes between each set of episodes.

But yeah, here's to hoping Fourze keeps this pace up for the rest of its run.

The stretch of Ryuki 14-23 might represent the series at its absolute finest. Not that it jumped the shark afterward or anything like that, it remains very good to the end in my humble opinion, but this particular period feels to me like the most propulsive and purposeful the show ever was. It’s just so good, the way it features six very well-defined Riders bouncing off each other (IIRC this is the record high of Riders being active and alive at the same time throughout the series) and successfully navigates across some extreme tonal shifts (Reiko punking Kitaoka punking Shinji! Shinji in absolute despair, then turned in genuinely beautiful moment of relief with Goro! The juxtaposition of Ren being devastated for his inability to finish off Gai and Shinji being delighted at that very fact!)

Rider Design review: Gai belongs in the bottom tier of my ranking, which means it’s still pretty nice to look at (there are three tiers of suit design in Ryuki: “good”, “very good”, and “hell yeah franchise bests!!”). I like the way he input his vent in particular; that diagonal throw was so satisfying to watch for some reason. He uses his Strike and Confine vent in such a brutally effective and straightforward manner, and Shibaura plays his role well as a naïve and super unlikable chessmaster wannabe (even though his entrance scene and the whole ORE Journal takeover stuff felt a bit off to me).

Ouja… what else needs to be said? Simply the most iconic ‘Evil Rider’ design ever, barring Shadowmoon (if he counts). Everything about him just works, from the staff and ‘digital Arbok’ to Asakura’s whole mannerism and the power-up mechanism through absorption of other Advents. Basically, they totally nailed the escalation of Evil Riders from Sudou to Shibaura to Asakura.

Considering the amount of Rider vs. Rider stuff, it’s almost a miracle that the non-transforming human characters also got their ample time to shine! It feels like a testament to how this kind of characters can be utilized best when they constantly have something else to do beyond just gravitating around the MC and sheep along for whatever the main plot brings. I just adore the interaction and chemistry between the ORE Journal staff, while Goro’s awesome as always.

Unfortunately, while I don’t really mind the Mirror World and Shiro (as hilariously one-note as he can be) part of the plot, it’s still painfully obvious how much of a weak link Yui is among this group of characters. She just veers dangerously close into a Plot Device category through this stretch, and I think there’s a missed opportunity by not having her spend a longer time as a temp in the ORE Journal (the few scenes she had with Shimada were subtly hilarious!).

Finally, Tezuka’s exit and his lie is such a bittersweet moment. A perfect time too, narratively speaking, to have our first ‘Good Rider’ casualty. A pretty great character, and while I kinda feel the backstory about his friend should’ve been told sooner, I enjoyed all the moments and battle scenes he had—especially the one when he teamed up with Ryuki (that twin Strike Vents!).

Every now and then, I still yell out Tezuka's name in my head. Actually, is he the first 'tragic major character death' in heisei rider history!? At the very least, I don't really think anybody was that broken up about Kino in Agito.

Do you think that, Goro is OOC if he obeys Kitaoka to do a morally questionable thing? Like faking his death as Zolda to drive Shinji to suicide? Their usual is that, for Goro, he respects Kitaoka, but not blindly, and for Kitaoka, he cares for Goro and knows that he's loyal to him, but he won't exploit Goro; actually he brings his better side.

My Rider design review for Ryuki: Odin > Knight Survive > Knight > Zolda > Tiger > Ryuga > Femme > Ryuki > Abyss > Ouja > Scissors > Verde > Ryuki Survive > Raia > Gai > Imperer

Unpopular opinion but for me Ouja isn't the top design wise for me. I'm not into his helm, though his body suit is nice.

“Tez-kaaaa!!!”

Possibly, I haven’t seen Agito, but by the time I watched Ryuki for the first time I was already prepared for it. The sense of desperation and perpetual possibility of a major character’s death has always been there in KR, dating back to the Showa era. Off the top of my head, Tackle in Kamen Rider Stronger is a very notable example, although my first experience of ‘traumatizing major character death’ happened to be the one kind monster and the sentient bike in KR Black.

Oh, for sure. With the little girl sub-plot and just in the general way he carries himself, Goro’s been established as a fundamentally Good Person. He’d do most sorts of legally questionable things for Kitaoka, but I think there are moral lines that he wouldn’t cross—at least not without being torn up about it. I think this particular case still made sense because the circumstances with the Riders' Battle kinda forced their hand, and Goro hasn't got to know Shinji yet. The way he reacted (purely through facial expression and body language, which is another thing I loved about his characterization) when Shinji cried in relief in front of him seemed to show that, in retrospect, he felt pretty bad about the charade.

Incidentally, I LOVE that particular scene, where they frame Kitaoka, Ren, Shinji, and Goro together in ways that told so much about these four men. Ren’s “He may be a fool but he’s a better man than you and I” line was unexpected (the first time he ever said something nice about Shinji! Too bad Shinji’s too busy crying over Goro to even notice!), but it’s such an awesome moment for his character development and the general situation at hand.

My tiers, taking Vents into account (Tiger’s badassery rises even more when he has his Strike Vent equipped, for instance):

Godly: Zolda, Tiger, Knight, Ouja
Great: Ryuki, Femme, Imperer, Verde, Ryuga
Good: Raia, Gai, Odin, Scissors

My own unpopular (?) take: bikes aside, I prefer the regular version of Ryuki and Knight over their Survive forms.

The Ryuki portion in Decade is wack, but Abyss’ design is the one good thing that came out of it. Definitely fits well within the general aesthetic philosophy of the 13 Riders, I’d consider him borderline great.

If we're talking suit design, my own unpopular opinion when it comes to Ryuki is that, for the Ryuki suit itself, they should've just axed the compound eyes entirely. Blasphemy I know, but I feel like the helmet would've looked way better that way. They work great on the Survive Mode helmet, though.