Random ramblings on Kabuto.

They commemorated the franchise well by going back to basics motif-wise.
Even after 10 years the designs have not gone out of style and the gimmicks were on point.
The clock-up gimmick was an awesome addition allowing me to focus on the battles and the way Tendou stylishly finished off his enemies were awesome.
Cast-off I think was awesome and clever which probably was most likely inspired from the molting process of insects.
And then the additional riders. The first wave of additional riders, TheBee, Drake, and Sasword were equally awesome.
They were really well-designed and really emphasized their motifs very well.
And then Gatack joined the club being the Kamen Rider 2 to Kabuto's Kamen Rider 1. What I liked was that While Kabuto was a red and sleek design accompanied by Tendou's cool personality, Gatack was a blue and rugged design accompanied by Kagami's hot-blooded personality perfectly contrasting the other.
And then there was the late addition but a good one... The Hell Brothers.
Their brooding personalities were that of an angry teenager but boy did they make it look good. Plus the homage to the first two Kamen Riders could not have been done any better.
From the color palette to their finishers they all screamed OG double riders.
Anyways, that is my unorganized two cents on Kabuto.

I <3 Fourze. I see flaws with each rewatch but I can't ever bring myself to dislike it.

Gaim has the best told story in KR thus far. I could gush on about it for like, ever, but I won't. Also the suit designs for the most part kick ass.

Movie War 2010 is my favorite toku movie of all time. That ending scene with Shotaro and Tsukasa is by far the best part of the movie though.
Stay the Ride Alive is my favorite song of all time now by the way.

Speaking of crossovers, I don't hear much about Gaim/Wizard movie, but I adored the scene with Kouta, Mai, and Haruto when they were talking outside. It's what a KR crossover should do. The more experienced Rider gives a piece of advice stemming from his struggles that ties into the situation to the newer Rider. Perfecto.

Den-O had the most likable ensemble of any season with the possible exception of Fourze. I love how by the end with Ryotaro vs Momotaros you see how far they've come since the start of the season.

Eiji's backstory in OOO is my favorite backstory for a primary Rider except for maybe Shotaro.


Say what you will about Movie War Full Throttle but that scene with Drive and the 4 main Gaim Riders is my wallpaper at the moment.

Kamen Rider in general has had veeeery good storytelling for it's medium. Not to say Sentai or anything else Toku in Japan is subpar per se, but compared to PR, it's insane how seriously Japan can take it's stories and how well they can be executed.

I want to get into the rambling fun :) Let's talk Blade. (P.S. If you haven't watched Blade or plan on watching it, don't read this, spoilers will definitely ruin some of the experience and there's gonna be spoilers ;))

I'm not going to talk about the first 22 episodes since those SUCKED. Boring, slow, uninteresting characters don't make for a good show that's meant to be a flashy, in-your-face kids' show (don't kill me for saying that :p)

After those episodes however, there was a writer change and the show changed DRASTICALLY. I think I'm in the minority that thinks Round Zero~Blade Brave fits the show more than Elements, but other than that the show became one of my favorites after the change. Kenzaki became the prime example of how I want a main Rider IF they go the "I fight solely for other people" and super optimistic approach. His back story isn't the greatest... but his decisions felt like they had real weight to them and it was shown multiple times that Kenzaki meant it when he wanted to save people and there were consequences to prove it (the most drastic one I will explain later). Next is Tachibana. He's torn between Kenzaki and Hajime personality-wise. He wants to help people and really cares about Kenzaki and Mutsuki, but he wants power and he's easily the least powerful out of all the Riders. He allies himself with all the wrong people, which is why a lot of people dislike him, but I was okay with it. At the end of the show and in Missing Ace, it's shown that Tachibana learned from his mistakes and became a stronger person. Despite having his alliances in the wrong place for most of the show, him helping Mutsuki and creating new Riders show that all he wanted was the strength to help others. Now for Hajime, he's easily the fan-favorite Blade Rider. His mysterious backstory keeps you guessing and his alliances are never set until the end. Some might even say he's the main Rider as he gets a lot of screen time and is the most developed and interesting character in the whole show. When the Joker Undead part of him starts to take over, the conflict between all the other Riders grows as they have to decide how to deal with him. Hajime's relationship with Amane and her mother is also very strong, even if Amane herself is kind of annoying (even in Missing Ace when she grows up). Last is Mutsuki. He's probably the most hated Blade Rider as he's annoying when taken over by the Spider Undead, which is the whole middle part of the season. I actually didn't mind Mutsuki. He got his fair share of development with the Shima and the Tiger Undead to show how powerful the Spider Undead's control was (and to make it more satisfying when he FINALLY broke free) and his girlfriend was actually a good female side character that shows Mutsuki's dedication to his comrades. The side characters weren't annoying in this show like a certain show (you're expecting me to say Ghost right? I'm gonna say Den-O. Angry? Stop falling asleep and read my ramblings gosh darn it :D). Hirose was pretty helpful, but not intrusive to the story and her arc about her and her father was pretty good and her Trial father dying was a sad scene, especially for what some could say was a villain. Kotaro was pretty forgettable though and was supposed to probably be like Keitaro, but in Faiz, Takumei was pessimistic and moped around a lot so Keitaro needed to be stupidly optimistic to balance that out, but Kenzaki is pretty happy-go-lucky so Kotaro isn't needed and just kind of blends in.

That may be a lot of text, but I haven't gone much in depth with the Riders since even Hajime isn't good on his own. All the characters compliment each other very well and make the show even better. First, the visual subtleties really surprised me when I first thought about it. At first, Tachibana was like a sempai to Kenzaki. It shows when they fought together in earlier episodes, Garren would be in front of Blade, his bright red stood out more than Blade's more quiet blue and the red have off a feeling of power and leadership. Then, Chalice appeared. Blade and Warren's designs are similar but Chalice's is very different, and it matches his personality. He's an untamed wild animal, like how he has two horns sticking out of his helmet and the more angry looking compound heart compared to the flat helmets of Blade and Garren and the more subdued round, green compound eyes. Then Leangle comes in, and in his first appearance he's the strongest Rider, even beating Chalice to start. His suit looks very regal with the gold, more armor and long staff. Then, later in the season when Blade gets stronger with his Jack form, the gold on him stands out more than Garren's Jack form, where the gold just blends in with his red suit and he has less gold and smaller wings. The gold also helps him look more equal to Chalice and Leangle, who are very strong and have gold on them. Then King form comes in and draws some inspiration from Leangle's design to cement him as a king and the strongest Rider. His chest plate is smooth with his symbol in the middle, like Leangle, he has shoulder pad that are big and have points at the end, like Leangle, and his helmet is has gold on the inside and two things on the other side sandwiching the gold with compound eyes holding them together, like Leangle. He even has a huge sword to compete with Leangle's long staff. Lastly, Wild Chalice takes on a red color scheme and the heart on his helmet is now green. This may seem like an odd departure from his original design but there is a reason. At the time, Tachibana wasn't helping Kenzaki and was sticking to Hirose's father Trial and Hajime was starting to become Kenzaki's comrade. Wild Chalice's design reflects this by mirroring Garren's familiar color scheme that one would associate with a comrade of Blade. This ironically makes Wild Chalice look less wild and look more like one of Blade's allies.

The ending is probably what most people remember about Blade and everyone agrees it's probably one of the best endings in all of Kamen Rider, especially compared to its predecessor, Faiz. It brings an end to all the characters' stories perfectly and really cements all of their personalities. It's a real tearjerker when Kenzaki makes the ultimate sacrifice and I think the scene when his first drop of Undead blood was REALLY well handled. A perfect end to a great season. I'd also like to mention the novel, where Kenzaki as the Navy Joker starts becoming suicidal. I would like a chance to read it as it sounds interesting, but quite sad. Also the Drama CD that was released for Blade's 10th anniversary, it's a nice epilogue to Blade. I guess I should also state my thoughts on Blade's alternate ending movie, Missing Ace, it was okay at best.

TL;DR I like Blade quite a bit :D

I don't think the first quarter of Blade sucked at all. The focus on Tachibana early on made up for his dwindling power and relevance in the later part of the series (Note: Dwindled relevance, not worthless). It gave us a solid story arc with an interesting villain through the Peacock Undead. The loss of Sayoko and him finally mustering up his own courage was rather nice.
It wasn't perfect. Tachibana's over the top acting to portray him in shock or fear, the secondary characters having to hammer in their personalities and shtick over and over, Kenzaki was kind of in his aggressive jerk phase, and Hajime didn't really start his stride, so I can understand why some people would find it slow or dull. But that's the worst I'd say of it. I don't really think it's that bad.

Oh god, is this what I've been doing to people? I feel out of breath and I wasn't even reading that out loud. But I understand. A show as awesome as Blade cannot be contained to mere anecdotes.

Okay, cool, that gives me an opening to defend the undefendable then. I can't be as thorough as I want to, since it's been years, but I'll do my best. First off, and this isn't in the spirit of this thread but I think it needs to be said, TV-Nihon's subs for Blade are some of their earliest work and it really shows. I always get surprised when I go back and watch an episode of Ryuki and see (now that I have a decently functional knowlege of Japanese) how many extremely obvious things are either clunky beyond comprehension or just plain incorrect, and while I haven't rewatched as much of Blade its the same deal.

Just looking at the dang theme songs, even, their translation of Blade Brave (which, by the way, I'm in that same minority with you), for example, somehow mistakes the "kibou zetsubou" line as some complete nonsense about hope being "acute"(?!), which is half right I guess but the half they got wrong results in the line meaning nothing and sounding stupid. Their translation of Elements is comparatively fine.

I think this profoundly impacts people's enjoyment of the early episodes because they have this very busy, mysterious sort of feel to them, unlike later when everything is nice and established and just moves in a straightforward fashion. I think those early episodes are absolutely fine at worst and even have some great moments (again, SAYOKO!!!!), but because people are getting inferior subs, a lot of the quality gets blurred out.

You're supposed to be confused by them, but not that confused.

I also agree with this. Mutsuki even annoyed me a tiny bit, but it becomes so worth it as soon as Kenzaki tosses him the King Rouzer. One of the most memorable scenes in the whole show.

Speaking of defending the undefendable, I think Faiz's ending episodes are great, and only brought down by a certain 15 second scene in the epilogue that really does not need to be there, and I still have no clue what Inoue was thinking with it. I'm being vague specifically because I think people who've seen it know what I'm talking about.

It bothered me a bunch while I was watching it, but in retrospect I don't think it detracts that much from how great the stuff around it is. Takumi and Kiba's character arcs come to really nice conclusions, and the final scene with Takumi on that hill wraps the show up really nicely.

Is it? I haven't really read any summaries or anything but part of the reason I like Blade's ending so much is because of how deliberately open it is, so I've always been sketchy on the idea of adding on to it. I think they already said everything they need to just with the show.

Just Live More is so addictively catchy. I used to just think it was okay, but it is one of those songs that gets more awesome the more you hear it. To be fair though, most Rider main themes are catchy as all get out.

I have it on my iPod.

You think I did that in one sitting? I poured my blood, sweat and tears into that! :p

It's short and sweet. I love how open ended the ending is but it hurts so much... After finishing Blade I hunted for ANYTHING Blade I missed, I just loved the show that much and the ending hit me that hard. No matter how good the ending, no matter how sketchy Jefusion is, I want this: http://www.jefusion.com/2016/08/kame...movie.html?m=1

Agreed. At first I thought it was a bit weird but now it's on my most played playlist (according to my phone).

Thank god that came to the American iTunes right? Too bad I'm strictly Android Master Race :D, Argh me hearty

I've got a story about that. On first listen, I hated that song. I really didn't like it, and didn't think I ever would. Second episode rolls around, the credits come on, and it's suddenly one of the best theme songs I've ever heard. I don't know how it happened, but it's still up there in my top 3 themes ever.

Yeah, well, I know that feeling. I actually wrote the opening post and the one about Drive in Notepad and just copy-pasted them here. Believe it or not, those are what the refined versions look like. I can't even begin to imagine how incoherent I'd get if I just did this stuff off the cuff.

Well I don't know what your criteria are, but what I like about it is how its lyrics are extremely relevant to the show. They only make more and more sense as the show goes on, which is pretty impressive.

The reason I joined the board was because my friends were sick of me constantly talking about how good Riders were, especially Blade. I think i might want to make another wall of text, but I'll give you time to breathe. ;)

This. Although I feel a lot of Rider themes do this too. I remember reading one person saying that Rider themes are more J-Pop and fit in as normal songs while Sentai themes are just for Sentai. I think the meanings behind the lyrics are what connects the song to the show and they have to work harder to remind you that it's related to the show since Sentai always announces the team name and the Rider themes don't most of the time.

The guy doing Kuuga's theme song sure liked saying Kuuga, haha!

I feel we've been getting especially good themes these past couple years. I already mentioned how good Just Live More and Surprise Drive are, but listening to the short version of Ghost's theme before it premiered is actually what put me on the same wavelength as the show. I found it really interesting the Kamen Rider who's dead has a theme song all about how cool being alive is and sure enough, that's what the show is all about too.

It just goes to show how Kuuga is part of a sort of transition between two styles of Kamen Rider. You know, Kuuga has a proper "bragging" theme song. Agito just has a normal song but the name is still tokenly in there, and then Ryuki completes the evolution by just being a song.

Kuuga's OP is still very much Showa in nature IMO. This faded away as Heisei progressed; I think after Agito they even stopped mentioning the titular hero’s name in the song for a while. But I love it, Kuuga's opening music is one of my favorites.

And did you know they made a "Masked Rider" version of Kuuga’s opening song in English? It’s hilariously terrible.

I gotta hear this~

I warned you! :lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYSV...170DF&index=11

Mas-ked Rider KUUUUGA!

Metamorphing Mas-ked Rider Kuuga.
Well, it's about the same as the Japanese version :p

Also, I need a lyric sheet to this. His accent is too strong, I have no idea what he's saying half the time :lol

That's why I said most of the time. :p Kuuga, Agito and Drive are the only Heisei exceptions I can think of. Also English Kuuga, I can't understand what he's saying so it isn't terrible besides METAMORPHING MAST RIDER KUUGA! I heard one for Time ranger. They like English in Japan, most of Drive's belt calls reflect this.

Drive doesn't even really count because it uses the word drive in the obvious sense of driving a car and also in the sense of having the drive to do something, as well as the dude the show's about. That triple layered wordplay is my favorite thing about it.

I'm also pretty sure the "got it move~" in Just Live More is supposed to sound like "Ga i mu~" too, which is kinda neat.

You know, it's still the Kuuga theme song and that still makes it awesome.

Some more random thoughts on some random shows:

- Kuuga is another series with awesome episode titles. Every one is a single word made up of two kanji. I like short and sweet titles so this is just one of many things that makes Kuuga a favorite of mine. Extra props for having the last two episodes be "Kuuga" and "Yuusuke", in that order.

- The way Agito (almost) always looks at least 90 degrees away from exploding monsters while also posing. Sometimes he even dramatically turns 90 more to face the camera.
- Gills' opening mouth. It didn't get too much use since it was just some clunky prop but it was a neat way to rub in that he wasn't supposed to just be a guy in a suit. I kinda wish Amazons had borrowed this idea.

- I gave Shinji credit for his evolving fighting style and I can't believe it skipped my mind when I wrote that first post that Blade does the same thing but even more noticeably. Kenzaki distinctly gets his crap kicked most of the time in the early episodes, relying on Garren and Chalice to do a lot of the work, and while he gradually gets a bit better as he acquires more cards (he can't even do a Rider Kick at first), it isn't until he gets Jack Form, coinciding with a personal revelation about why he fights, that he becomes genuinely competent. From this point he goes on to become THE best fighter of anyone in the show, even before he gets King Form, and the show draws your attention to that by having the lead up to him getting said form involve (I think this is a pretty minor spoiler but I'm sure someone cares) him defeating the Caucasus Undead in his base form after all his cards are taken. It's the point where the show really starts to make Kenzaki cool, if you hadn't already come around to him by then.

--

As sort of a companion piece to that thread I made about Gaim, here are even more nice things I have to say about it, mostly minor stuff I didn't want to further clutter my rantings there with.

- The sponsors bit at the end of every episode is made strangely epic by having the main four Riders pose dramatically while sweet music plays.
- The zipper effect that literally opens and closes every episode is quite cool.
- Kouta is another protagonist who becomes noticeably better at fighting as the show progresses.
- I also find it neat how he keeps the Orange Lockseed clipped to his belt when not transformed. He still pulls his Driver out of thin air, but whatever.
- Lastly, the soundtrack is really nice. I think this is true of pretty much every Kamen Rider, but the background tracks set the mood nicely and the songs all have nicely relevant lyrics. Special mention to Ranbu Escalation, which highlights both the similarities and the differences between Kouta and Kaito as characters.

I always love whenever a Rider gives a throwback to the older generation with a scarf or scarf-like object. Riders like Another Agito, W, and that body double of Blade come to mind.

Honestly, W's scarf makes the character like 10x more awesome.

Total agreement.

Love that avatar, BTW.

I was feeling a little nostalgic and rewatched Blade and Fourze's finales today. I was considering putting this in the "what are you watching" thread but I think it fits better here since I can be neither negative or objective about this.

So first I watched Blade and that's still cool and all and a lot of you already know how great Blade is so instead I'm going to focus on Fourze. In a word: Wow! In two words: Holy s***! In a lot more words:

Fourze probably has one of the best finales of any Rider show. Not just the ending or the climax even, but the whole episode is basically a 22 minute love letter to you the audience for sticking with the show for a year (or however long it took you to watch in retrospect). I could basically do play-by-play commentary because so little time goes by between great moments but I'll try to pick some highlights. If you haven't watched the show, I will be genuinely mad at you if you read these spoilers. Just go watch the show. Seriously, why are reading some idiot's forum-rantings when you could have Fourze in your life? Everyone needs some Fourze in their life. Can you tell how biased I am? Anyway:

- I love the scene where Yuuki reads Kengo's letter. It gets me every time. It really cements how much the cast has grown over the course of the show.
- I love how the final fight in the quarry or wherever involves extended bike-action. Fourze's single setting made bikes kind of irrelevant but they always got them in where they could.
- I love how they also have Fourze use all him forms in the order he got them one last time.
- I love everything about the climax. It's another emotional scene and finishing things off with one last Rider Kick was a great choice for the 40th anniversary.
- I love the bookending role-reversal with Kengo telling Gentarou not to throw letters away. Perfect bit of closure.
- I love how my boy Haruto is in there! OOOs did something similar and I guess this would've been a tradition if they didn't start doing this crossover nonsense afterward. I prefer this. Nice and subtle.

Fourze is a show that's really near and dear to me and every time I rewatch the finale it almost makes me question how the heck I can call a show like Wizard my favorite. Almost. I really like it, if you haven't noticed.

So I've been wanting to post in this thread for months but since I wanted to post a ton here it's taken me like 6 months to do it but still since I had this post saved I am totally posting it.

Ex-Aid: I just love Emu's character and the whole theme right now. Also intrigued with the Bugsters so I can't wait to find out more. I also love all the characters so much, Parad is so much fun, Lazer was a blast, Brave is cool, and I love Snipe.

Ghost: I absolutely love Takeru right now, he's very relatable to me and that I kind of like the weak characters who grow strong because I have always been like that my life and have been on my own journey to grow strong too. He's also very understanding and helps me belief in myself too. I also love his forms and his powers to. I also love the supporting cast in the show, Onari is a gem, Akari is useful. Makoto's story and Alain's journey both have been fantastic. Adel is one of my favorite villains too and the whole Ganma world is intriguing too.

Drive: I freaking love Mach, Gou is one of my favorite secondary riders ever, and his story as well as being a little brother helped me connect with him, also the action, the detective story, and all the chemistry between everyone made this an amazing show. Also Shinnosuke and Chase were both badass too. Heart, Brain, and Medic were amazing and Banno was an asshole. So much amazingness here.

Gaim: As I bitch about Gaim all the time there are some good fruit in the bunch; mainly Knuckle. Everything about Zack is amazing he really stood out and honestly was my favorite and in my opinion best character from the show. He stood for what he believed in and honestly was one of the truest heroes on the show. Oren was another highlight and his silly and serious combination made him a fantastic character. Jonouchi, Takatora, and Kaitou were also awesome too. Gaim had some fantastic characters but also some of the worst but this is about what we love so Knuckle rules!

Fourze: Since I haven't seen Wizard yet I am moving to Fourze. I absolutely adore Gentarou and Ryuusei they were some of the best rider teams ever. Also the KRC was pretty amazing too. I thought the story was very well done when some of the things you learn by the end helped expand the earlier story. Gentarou's message and sticking by his friends will always be one of the best things in Kamen Rider. Also he's one of the few Kamen Riders who sticks to his believes the whole time and doesn't have the scared moment like some others. Ryuusei was just a badass and developed really well. Also the Zodiarts were very intriguing villains too.

OOO: Oh OOO was special to me, it was the first series I fully watched through and really made me obsessed with Kamen Rider. Eiji and Ankh were both amazing. Kougami was so much fun and intriguing too. The supporting cast was amazing. Everything was amazing here. Dr. Maki is one of my top favorite villains ever too. The message of the show really resonated with me about desire and fighting against greed and showing compassion too. Also Date and Gotou were both brilliant. I loved all the combos and seeing what OOO will use each episode and stuff was a lot of fun also Putotyra was kick ass and he had some of the best movies too.

Decade: As I haven't finished W now on Decade. Tsukasa was freaking amazing, I like how he fit into each world though I would say that I love him in his appearances post-Decade a little more at times though. He's still a fun character. DiEnd was great too and the supporting cast was fun. It also had a lot of great episodes too and I loved seeing the returning actors too. Also the different fight match ups were a lot of fun too.

Kiva: The visuals of this series was freaking amazing. So was the music, I love all the music from this series. Wataru was very intriguing and I loved the hell out of him and Otoya too. The most intriguing part of this show was how well it did two storylines now sure people would complain that it had unanswered questions but that didn't bother me. Also you have Kenji Matsuda in it and he was wonderful as well. Great action and great forms too. I also love Ixa as well I thought Nago was a combination of craziness and awesome.

Kabuto: Still just going with the shows I've seen. The character stories in Kabuto were absolutely phenomenal. I loved Yaguruma and Kageyama's stories and how they became the Hoppers and the path of Darkness. Kagami is such a badass and is the best Rider. Tsurugi's story was very sorrowful. Tendou was something else, I liked him most of the time and then didn't care for him but then liked him again. Drake was great too though I wish he had more screen time. The overall story with the Worm was intriguing but it was the characters that made this show awesome.

Hibiki: My god I loved so much about Hibiki and I even enjoyed the 30's and more of it. Todoroki is one of my favorite Riders ever and his story with Zanki was amazing. Ibuki and Hibiki were awesome too. This show was just totally badass with the Oni's, the Elements, the Instrument Weapons and so much. I wish he would have been received better but it's still one of my favorite Kamen Rider shows. Their was so much fun and heart here.

Blade: Was such a wonderful show, the 4 main Riders were simply amazing. Mutsuki was the weakest link among them but I liked him by the end. The other 3 were truly special and all amazing favorites. The fighting against fate angle at the end was something spectacular (Learn from your predecessor Gaim!) Blade Vs Joker Undead was one of the best final fights ever. This was a very great show and I love so much about it.

Faiz: I freaking loved Takumi and he's the first character that I called my Spirit Animal. Mainly because of my own communication issues but also how he's managed to rise up no matter what issues he dealt with. He was the best rider of the series and the best part of the series. What I loved about this show was the parallelism between the Main characters and the Orphenoch team. I enjoyed the drama in this series too also the special effects too. I enjoyed Kaixa as well he was something else.

Agito: As I still haven't seen Ryuki moving on to the next one. Agito has 3 of my favorite riders and I can't pick between who I love more and the Agito Trio is always on my list. This was one of my all-time favorite series because of everything this show did right. It was the next show I loved as much as OOO and that didn't happen for a while. The characters and the villains were something else and this is perfection.

Kuuga: This was just the awesome tale of Yuusuke, who is one of the epitome's of Kamen Rider. He wants to protect people's smiles and didn't lose himself to anger in the end. He transformed through his gentleness. I will always love that about Kuuga. Also the supporting cast and the villains were really amazing this season.

The Heisei Movie Trio: These were all awesome movies when I saw them. Shin was brutal and felt more like something new. ZO was my favorite, and J's giant action was badass.

Basically all the Showa era series I have seen are all badass shows and about badass heroes saving the day and helping inspire people. Kotaro is outstanding, Shigeru is fun and cocky, Kazuya helped inspire me a lot, Keisuke was badass, Amazon was brutal and learned a lot, ZX was fun, and I am loving SkyRider right now.