Hibiki 15

New instrument in the opening means new recurring oni, I've figured.

Ugh...I didn't need that close-up shot of Asumu's appendix. Ah, so Jiro or Zanki, and what I assume is his apprentice are oni. And their weapons are literally electric guitars!

Zanki seems to be off his game, however. And his leg seems to have twisted. But hey, he still killed the Makamou with sick guitaring!

Hmm, the tea-master's daughter seems to have a crush on Zanki's apprentice, though he seems nervous about it. Zanki plans on retiring? Hmm.

And, ah! We find out only certain instruments can affect certain Makamou. Interesting.

Oh cool another new Oni, Sabaki. I figure it's one of the ones we never see unsuit. He's fighting a giant bull-porcupine. Cheap cgi or not, I love the giant makamou.

Decade episode 19:

I think that this was the best arc so far. It was pretty well paced, and the characters were interesting. However, what bothered me about the episode in particular was Kaito. I feel like that whole speech was out of character for him. Yes, I know it was a joke, but I don't want jokes at the expense of a characters...characterization, if that makes any sense. He went from just being himself to "Okay, now I'm going to stop being a jerk, and I'm going to help this kid." Narutaki makes me laugh, since I imagine him as Matrix every time he talks. :lol The crab battle was epic as well.

I took a bit of an OOO break yesterday and just started episode 19 a few minutes ago. As I am too impatient to wait until the end of the series: do we ever get an explanation for Doctor Maki's creepy doll?

Yes you do. And it's just as creepy as he is.

Creep[/B]ier[B]

Good. I'd hate for it to just be there without background. To be honest though, that thing is more unnerving to me than the scary puppet from W.

No he gets an explination. For the doll, and why he feels everything should end while it's still beautiful.

The Doll never gets a full explanation though, does it? I mean Maki's actions and reasoning's are only ever implied and never fully laid out. At least from what I remember.

No, it gets a full explination. I'll spoil it so it doesn't ruin it for Thess.

Maki's sister was a real peace of work. Emotionally abusive, the whole bit. Well, before her wedding day and the day she set to abandon him, he took a candleabra to her bedroom. With her in it. Burning the doll she gave him in the process and turning it into that creepy thing he carries now. Ever since then he decided that his sister lived to long, to the point she became ugly. So he decided that everything should end while it's still beautiful and that's what he strived for. To end the world before it became ugly.

I wonder why I never ended up comprehending that when I watched the show.

I dunno :lol

So I'm 14 episodes into Agito, that's basically 1/4 or 1/3, something like that. Anyway.

So far the show has been largely unlike what I'm used to from Inoue's writing - which is to say, I love what he does on Agito... mostly - the mystery stuff enters obnoxious levels of "ASK ME WHAT IT MEEEANS" but that's always the way with older Heisei Rider shows.

But yeah - the drama and miscommunication is all evenly placed, the peaceful slice-of-life moments are fun, the humor is actually funny and doesn't feel stale. What HAPPENED between this and Faiz that caused Inoue to become so different? (Apologies if you like his work, lol I'm awful about ripping into him)

Started Decade a few days ago. It's alright so far.

OOO 27 & 28: Man, Date is entertaining during the movie filming. His Tatoba bit cracked me up. All the fourth wall breaking is bizarre, but entertaining. I'm sure I'm missing 99% of all the references.

Well, one thing that's easily overlooked is, apparently all the extras in that 1000th episode special were only there because the kanji in their names could spell out the number 1000? Something unbelievably random along those lines. :lol

Then there was the random Susan Boyle reference which comes out of nowhere. That and the Bob Marley joke at the end of the show were some of the weirdest scenes for me.

Yeah, while I enjoyed the episodes, most of it went right over my head, sadly. The Susan Boyle joke was quite a weird one.

I paused OOO to start to watch Let's Go Kamen Riders in its proper place. I'm glad I didn't really look into the film, because Momotaros (and the rest of the original Den-O gang) were a very pleasant surprise. Of course, I'm only about ten minutes in at this point, but I am indeed loving it.

LGKR for all its little flaws is a pretty fun experience, and I'm always a fan of seeing more Den-O. The fact they're able to get that bunch of actors back, each time, is pretty exciting

Finished ep 19 of Aigito. Intriguing police drama stuff this time, and it did actually throw me off a bit. Agito is shaping up nicely so far, apart from the guy in black and the man whose name is Tsugumi Shou--. They're still obnoxiously mysterious. Bit intriguing, though.

Wizard's over too, ain't it? I was a big supporter of Wizard - without spoilers, my summary of Wizard is that it played itself a bit too safe, but was still fun for me, and the ending couldn't have ended any better for me. I'm quite pleased with it and am looking forward to what Gaim has to offer.

Let's Go is excellent. I really hope you enjoy it!

I watched Episode 13 of 555/Faiz and another really good episode, I am very intrigued with the school and students from Mari's past. Loved Takumi in the tennis court scene and the beginning rivalry with Masato. He's pretty cool as Kaixa so far but we'll see how that goes. I love the weird love angles going on with Kaidou liking Mari, and Keitaro liking Yuka and Yuka liking Kaidou just so weird and funny a bit. Also lots of Trinities in this series right now the 3 main Faiz group, the 3 good Orphenochs, and the 3 kids left from Mari's school. Really loving this series so far.

Watched Kuuga 12 and 13 today too, I loved episode 12 with his old Teacher learning that he has kept his promise about learning 2000 skills and the Thumbs up. Also liked that Yuusuke was training to make sure he could beat Zu-Zain-Da. Loved the scene at the end and the guy who runs the shop's niece is such a fun character. In episode 13 I love when the police actually talk about strategy fighting against the Grongi and not just relying on Kuuga. The guy pretending to be a Grongi is intriguing, the new Fish/Shark Unidentified Life Form is pretty frightening to be honest. Intrigued with what Jean found and I feel bad for all the work that Sakurako as to do. Kuuga has to be one of my top favorite fighters especially one of my favorite main riders along with Wataru (Kiva), Date (Birth), and Kagami(Gatack).

Yay someone else who thinks wataru is cool.

Wataru is cool and his character was loaded with potential, but the final run of Kiva undid all of the good things they had done for Wataru as a character...

He's still memorable for being a Rider with a very unique personality, but he could have been handled way better.

yesss I agree entirely

ohhh if I actually had more of a drive for it I would want to write my own Kiva just to make it more to my liking :lol

I also really wanna see a new Rider who's an artist, Wataru had that going for him. Music, yes, but still an art.

*High-five* Kiva really enjoyed to leave plot points hanging and then completely dropping others, Otoya was the one that suffered the least, but even then I have some gripes with the way they handled his relationship with Maya.

And yes so much yes! If I wrote fanfiction my number one priority would be to fix Kiva, just a few changes here and there and Kiva would be amongst the best Rider shows.

I really miss Wataru music, recent Riders are sorely lacking in the artistic department.

I think I need to watch Kiva :eyebrow

It's an interesting series, love it or hate it, it defintely gives a lot to talk about.

The fact that it takes place in two different time periods makes it very interesting from the start, and Otoya is simply awesome, one of my favorite Riders ever.

Chances are you'll love it, if not you'll join us in the "could have been great" club. :lol

Then onward I go into Kiva :lol

キバっていくぜ！
Kivatte Ikuze!

I'm still watching it so no spoilers please. :D

I think it's one of the worst Rider shows ever. You'll probably love it.

Oh hush you.

It's a great show, don't let Switchblade's impression of Wataru from the first part of the series, which he does evolve from, deter you from watching it. The whole show is about growing changing and evolving to meet the needs of Wataru's life and Kiva's battles. By the end he's a true badass. Progression is the whole point for Kiva.

I like what I like :lol

I'm looking forward to it. Once my brother leaves, I'll marathon the first five episodes or so.

*claps*Well said.

That's one of Kiva's main flaws, for a series that focuses on personal growth (and family, can't forget family) it's character development is very hit or miss, Otoya is overall very solid, Wataru has excellent development for the first 30-something episodes, and then the show proceeds to backtrack his development, Nago... is Nago, the very definition of randomness (he challenges Diend on development...), Kengo is UGH!, Mio goes nowhere, Shizuka is basically dropped, and Saga role in the series can be defined as "he exists".

On the other side the visuals are impressive, the music and setting incredible, the story is solid too, it's just that the characters and upgrades are badly handled. Oh and the humor clashes with the more dramatic parts, mostly on the 2008 side, Otoya on the other hand makes it work.

It's definitely a series worth watching, most of my complaints come from the 2008 side, 1986 is really solid.

You do have a tendency to see greatness where others see suckyness, without a doubt one of your good points. :D

Yay! Looking forward to your opinions on it.

Thanks :lol

No prob. :D

Had it not been for you I would have never given Goseiger a try, watching it right now. :lol

You've made a wise decision!

It's definitely one I'd tell people to give a shot despite my opinions of it - it was more enjoyable than it was bad.

I need to give that a shot... I heard a lot of bad for a while, then friends of mine got into it and apparently loved the hell out of it. But that's unrelated to this thread, lol.

What IS related: Been further marathoning Agito today and am starting on episode 25 now, with the last few focusing on the introduction of G3-X. I was not expecting THIS much focus on it - kind of digging the stuff this show is doing with the Riders now that it's slowly drifted away from the mystery stuff for the moment.

Also, real talk? Episode 24 had like no fighting in it at all (apart from the recap), then the episode ends as soon as G3-X shows up to fight the monster. I... don't think I've ever seen an episode in a Rider show where the lead Rider is never seen. o_o

Very glad I listened and watched 1-2 of Kiva. Wataru is.. odd, we'll say? But very enjoyable to watch in his oddness. Otayu is a little creepy. So far though, out of the two I've seen :lol, Spider Fangaia is definately my favorite design. And I also love the switching back and forth between her mom in 1986 and the now with Kiva.

Definately a series I'll keep watching.

Indeed he's different but delightful in his own way. Otoya is overbearing at the start, those guys are retty much polar opposites. :lol

The Fangire have excellent designs, the glass motif is simply beautiful.

Glad to hear you'll keep watching. :)

And I left out the best part! That theme song, OMG, that theme song..