You can't disregard Shinji being an embarrassment. That was the entire point of the first fight. To show that you're not following the hyper competent super warrior, but the newbie who has no idea what he's doing. It was supposed to be face palm worthy (And I agree that Shinji grew into his own character. I loved Ryuki, both the show and the character).

As for the Rider vs. Rider situation, the fact was that the people who got Rider decks were either desperate and broken or sick and twisted, sans Shinji. That's why there was so much animosity between each other (That and the prize. Gathering the Twisted Metal cast and removing the cars doesn't make them any less murderous).

Also, to be fair, technically, Birth never followed the jerk rider pattern. Gotou was antagonistic towards Eiji, but it was before he became birth, and Date was always friendly with Eiji.

You're right in the initial encounters he may not have been an outright douche but he did butt into battles to steal cell medals very often and was a jerk about it. And then Date wasn't so friendly and he briefly allied himself with Maki .

I guess that's true. But the Maki alliance was short lived, and very rarely was it Birth vs. OOO

I've only now found the time to get to Blade 42.
So far, my theory is that everyone is going to turn into something by the end of the show but Garren. Mutsuki is going to give up being a Rider because of Nozomi stopping him from becoming the Spider Undead, but Hajime is totally going to go full Joker, and Kenzaki will need to use King Form to seal him. In doing so, Kenzaki will become a Joker as well, and be sealed by Garren.
I'm probably completely wrong, but this is getting so good. Even if I didn't like the whole Tiger Undead woman, I think she really does well to contrast Nozomi, who I really like. I'm wondering where the third Rouze Absorber came from though. I don't remember anyone handing it off to her. (Nevermind.)
I also think it's really cool that Mutsuki's King Form is technically Shima.

Working on Episode 7 of W right now (progress has been slow on this series for me for some reason). Really am enjoying the show, I like the tone it has, love the theme and mood, the whole detective angle and whatnot, I love the main cast so far, especially Phillip. I do wish W had a bit more to his design though, I like the concept immensely, and it was done well, but all of his forms are just palette swaps, which is kinda lame IMO, at least Wizard's forms have different designs to them despite mostly being color changes, and Fourze had a lot of differences between states and just when using his various modules. Not to say I dislike W's design, I like it for the most part, I just wished he did more than change colors.

Really loving the talk about Ryuki as I am currently in the middle of it, episode 24 to be exact. I felt bad for Raia and I'm really digging Ouja. Can't wait for the other Riders to show up. I'm really enjoying watching KR as I enjoyed Kuuga then Agito and now Ryuki though I'm slightly worried since not a lot of people have nice things to say about Faiz and its next up for me since I like to watch the series in order.

I believe the Absorber was Garren's, but it's been awhile since I saw that episode. There is definitely not a third one.

Kamen rider black- 5. Lord goat takes control of a small village. 5 episodes in and we've had 1 suicide and 1 attempted suicide! I never did catch a reason that Golgam wanted this village in the first place. If their even was one.

Considering he swaps between different combos, I'm wondering if the fact that he's merely a colour swap was so that every form is symmetrical. I like Cyclone Joker the best, though.

Just finished episode 36 of Agito last night. I really like Agito's powered up form. Very cool and sort of Showa-era looking. I don't think I'm going to like Another Agito though. The design looks very retro but I dislike the character at this point. Also...that new theme that started with episode 36? It needs to die horribly in a fire. I preferred the original version much more than this abomination. I get that they're trying to do what Kuuga did and update the theme when the show took a dramatic turn but at least Kuuga's music was the same theme with new lyrics! This new Agito theme is grating on the ears...thank goodness for the fast forward button! :p