I REALLY want to watch a Rider series in between Gaim episodes, but I'm at a loss of what to watch...

The only Heisei shows I've yet to watch (past a few eps for some) are Kuuga, Faiz, Blade, Hibiki, Kiva, Decade and Fourze. I have no real interest in Kuuga. At all, but I'm willing to check out everyone else. Any suggestions?

Den-O? W? Agito? OOO?

I've said which ones I haven't seen. I've watched all those ones you mentioned.

Well, I thought Blade was pretty good though certain plots dragged a bit (*cough*Leangle*cough*). I really liked what I've seen of Hibiki, though I realize it's style isn't everyone's thing.

Kiva's just...bizarre.

I loved Hibiki and Fourze was a lot of fun.

I love Faiz, Blade, Kiva, and Decade. I'd go with any of those.

Watched Agito 7 and enjoyed it a lot. I loved Shouichi's conversation with Hikawa and how he basically said he was Agito and Hikawa thought he was messing with him. Shouichi is really fun. The little kid with Ryou was very intriguing. Hikawa reminds me of Ichijou from Kuuga a bit, so that's a good thing. It also reminds me of Faiz, having the one girl who was connected to the 3 characters.

I'd say Blade or Fourze.

Can't go wrong with Blade.

From those which I've seen out of your list, I'd say watch Fourze. Because Space Elvis and Disco ball Bruce Lee.

Ryuki 25

So I know Kanzaki invented the Rider battles and is basically the ruler of the mirror monsters and all, but he can essentially just change the rules however he wants? And just take away Rider powers...? That doesn't bode well...

I was suspicious of Asakura's sincerity when he told Reiko about his brother, but I didn't think he was the trickster type. But haha no, he's just fucking crazy and killed his brother. What a piece of shit.

But man, Ryuki, Knight, and Zolda teaming up at the end was pretty awesome. The monster of week was...pretty pointless. But them teaming up against Ouja was cool.

But uh....Ouja captured Raia's monster. Okay...so he had another card, but...holy shit he can combine them?! Whaaaaat?! Did Kanzaki just cheat and give Asakura the most overpowered cards imaginable.

Ryuki 26

Alright, a Kitaoka focused episode. I like that Goro has to take up his lawyer job now that he's injured. Does he even have any law schooling? Well, Goro's pretty competent, I'm sure he can handle it.

Shinji's pretty much given up on reforming Asakura, so he's decided to try with Kitaoka. Ren somehow thinks reforming Kitaoka is even more difficult than reforming Asakura, an unrepentant murderer. Alright, Ren.

Kitaoka does seem to slightly put Shinji's words about remembering the reason he became a rider in the first place. Them allying to team up against that monster was a pretty fun fight. IT was kinda weird.

Partially because, uh...maybe I forgot how these cards work, but how does Shinji using Kitaoka's cards let only Kitaoka use the weapons they produced? I don't even know, it was weird...

And Shinji just used Kitaoka's contract monster as a shield and it didn't seem to mind. Everyone was right. Magnugiga really just doesn't give a shit about anything.

Watched Agito 8-10, which were great. I feel like I can relate to each of Shouichi, Hikawa, and Ryou. The optimistic, out there-ness of Shouichi, the clumsy but still dedicated Hikawa, and the sorrow of Ryou. I love Blaze form, his sword looks so awesome, I want it lol. I'm glad Hojo ran as G3 because he annoyed me. Still I love Hikawa whether he is a detective or as G3 he is awesome. I love how he broke the saws helping Shouichi because that would be my clumsyness too. I just love how he interacts with people. Ozawa, I believe is the name of the one who works with Hikawa is very interesting with her background. Mana's powers are very interesting too and makes me want to know more about Shouichi's past. That Akigatsu or whatever it's called incident involving Ryou's father now definitely feels like a big event connecting them. Also that Miura woman seemed to know Shouichi, I wonder what did she know? It was fun to see Shouichi being interrogated, he was being silly. The guy in the black clothes is one of the biggest mysteries I want to know and why was Gills afraid of him. Can't wait for more, and hope to see more of Ryou, I hope he gets more screen time. Also with the mysteries, this show reminds me a bit of Gaim honestly.

Frustratingly, this is NEVER explained. Plenty of fans have theories, but never does the show explain why Ouja can do this. The most popular theory is that each deck has a special ability... which is BS, because that's never even hinted at, and many riders just have the same abilities.

Much like before, this is also never explained. The cards have NO consistent use in this show. When Ryuki's contract card is taken, he loses the contract and reverts to blank, even though that makes no sense because to whom then does the contract belong? (and thus why does Ouja need multiple contract cards, instead of just stealing cards like a school yard bully?) Then later, Ouja summons Metalgelas untransformed without using his staff simply by HOLDING the contract card, which makes even LESS sense than Ryuki using Zolda cards and them coming to Zolda. I guess those card slot things are just totally pointless, huh?

Ryuki's biggest downfall by far is it's nonsensical, inconsistent portrayal of the rider powers and cards. It just doesn't add up, and they can basically do whatever you want, regardless of logic.

I am eternally perplexed by the fact that Magnugiga is a suit with a guy in it and not a rigged prop. He never DOES anything except move his arms once or twice.

Yeaaaah. I feel like they occasionally forget that they're supposed to have a time limit in the mirror world too, or maybe the riders just finish their battles in time.

Kanzaki being able to fuck with the rules whenever he wants is kinda grating too. But at least it (sorta) makes sense in his case since all of this mirror world stuff is his creation.

Yeah, the "time limit" is just ridiculous. Why it exists, I have no idea, since it's entirely arbitrary.

But despite this all, I still really like Ryuki. When it's bad, it's bad, but when it's good, it's damn good.

BTW, I checked out episode 2 of Blade (having seen episode 1) and just couldn't get into it. I checked out the first episode of Decade and... I couldn't even make it to the theme song. :lol Probably gonna retry Fourze or Kiva.

Got back into watching Wizard with episode 34... Holy crap, why did I ever drop this show back when it was airing?

Because, sadly, those really awesome moments are overshadowed by filler and crap.

Sadly I have to agree with you. I think episodes 34 & 35 are a shining example of what was wrong with Wizard. It has some very interesting ideas and moments that are truly awesome but when it tries to be funny... boy does it fail and just comes off as trying way too hard. In short, Wizard please stick to the world building and complex story lines that you're good at and stay far away from comedy.

Blade endgame

Wow, this endgame was a good on my scale, not amazing like Ryuki's final episodes but still I enjoyed it. The show treats Tennouji the supposed final human villain before the joker and he wasn't very intimidating at all. I like his plan, and his use of Kerberos was interesting but it felt like just another arc not something leading up to the end.

With the completion of Kamen Rider Blade, I say its probably my favorite Rider series out of the ones I've currently seen. Best pacing, character development, interesting villains and heroes, great ending, and the card gimmick actually didn't bog down the show. I'd argue that it made it better by embodying the themes of the show, having power within your hands and have it be able to be taken away from you and change others' and your own fate.

I do have a few complaints for the series though. Tachibana and Mutski kinda felt pointless in the end. And I don't just mean the final battle but in the overall story. I like their characters but most of the time they're either obstacles for Kenzaki and Hajime or to demonstrate and enemy's power level by having their asses getting kicked. I mean they were useful when the 2-10 and royal undead were still prominent in that they sealed quicker but by the time King form and the Trials and Wild Form show up, yeah they're kind of there only to give moral support.

Mutski becoming free of the Spider Undead's will. Again, I like his story arc and resolution (though he really didn't change that much from the first episode he appeared in to episode 49) but it should have been happening in the middle of the series not god damn episode 42. You know the middle, where the Riders were fighting the Jacks and Queens and not much was happening and Mutski's full submission to the spider rather then his "embrace the darkness" BS towards the end that made him act like he normally does except more like a dick.

Kotaro. What was the point of this character other then to ex posit to when new shit happens. explaining stuff to the audience through a character in a similar situation is a great way of explanation but that character still needs to be useful afterwards. Here we have this journalist sleeping in the same house as a Kamen Rider and gets to talk with him everyday, this would have been a great subplot about getting the truth about Riders out there. Seriously, where the hell was Kotaro with his journalism skills when King was filling the internet with horrible Kamen Rider rumors and speculation. I think we see Kotaro at his job once in the actually series. Hell, I think in Blade vs Blade we got more about what Kotaro does then in the entire series combined.

For all 0 of you keeping track of my top Kamen Riders list, here it is updated. These are all of them I've completed or near completed.

1 Blade
2 OOO
3 Ryuki
4 W

And Way further down in quality..

5 Wizard
Worst: Kuuga

^Ryuki and W that low eh?

Out of seeing 6 series in total and having 2 in the middle, it's kind of hard not to make it look like W and Ryuki aren't good. Because they are.

I suppose. I never really could get into OOO myself so seeing it above my top 2 just felt odd to me hahaha.

Still need to get around to Blade. I wanted to partake in the LWW for it, but I was busy watching something else at the time I believe.

Edit: Just finished Episode 3 of Kabuto.

Not too much happened this episode. We learned a little bit more backstory and a touch more about Zect, and a few plot threads are starting to develop (such as this Ryou guy that Kagami keeps shouting about/seeing).

I..actually kinda like Tendou. I think that may not be the popular opinion from what I gather. He's kinda like if Kitaoka's character was done wrong, but at the same time in a way I like that about him too. I dunno.

Glad we're finally starting to see some different designs for the worm. And I thought the use of clock up in this episode was a bit more interesting than the last, with them fighting around the amusement park and seeing the effects when the clock up is over. I also got a bit of a chuckle out of Kagami's line about them using the clock up again after the first ended.

Tendou does seem to be able to take out the worm pretty easily though, I mean he really just had to land a rider kick and that was it. It just made it seem a bit of a no effort affair. I'm sure once other riders and threats are introduced that things will hopefully change a bit in that regard though.

So yeah. So far the season is off to an alright start. I'm certainly interested enough to keep watching.

So is it true Hibiki's video quality is shit? Has no other group taken over and attempted to release higher quality rips? I'm looking for a new show once Goseiger has finished but seeing comments on Hibiki like 'I literally cannot tell what is going on' really puts me off.

It's not great, no. A little better than the Blade fansubs, though, and definitely a step up from the original Faiz and Dekaranger subs. KITSubs was working on a new sub with dvd rips, but that project died when they lost the raws in the great filesharing apocalypse of 2012. I assume the raws have gotten back out there again, but KIT has a lot on its plate now and their main guy is really busy with life stuff.

Blade's video quality was pure shit, but I could at least tell what was going on. So I guess I'll give Hibiki a chance.

The first episode, the first couple scenes, are a little.... odd.

It's mostly clear, but there are some places early on where the low resolution and unique cinematography really don't work together. If you can still find them, I'd say start with the two redone KITSubs episodes, then switch to TVN.

I can find KITsubs page with Hibiki on it, but no download links.

Yeah, when scenes are given that blurry 'humid" filter, the low quality REALLy makes it look old.

Hibiki is super different, but that's, I think, what makes it stand out in a good way.

I sort of agree, but when watching it on a big HD tv the shitty resolution becomes much clearer.

Den-O 28. Great episode. You can really tell that Ryoutarou has grown attached to the Imagins. That scene when he ran into Den Liner to only see Momo and the owner there was heart breaking. Climax Form was ok I guess. I was expecting a little bit more design wise though Hyper Kabuto wasn't much either. I guess I'd like to see the ultimate form to badass looking like Blade's King Form.

29. Was an alright episode. I liked it when Hana just punched the guy that tried to scare her. The Imagins were funny here too.

30. The fight between Airi and Ryoutarou was fun to watch. And when she threw him a bike...woah! Really intrigued as to what Yuuto is gonna do now since he's down to his last card. I guess its nearing the point when Hana gets pulled off the show since she was hardly in this episode.

31. I think this is the first of the Hana-less episodes. Just...just give me a moment...

I don't think I'll look the show the same now that she's gone. Its kinda like eating a hotdog sandwich w/o mustard. I'll still eat it but it would have been better with mustard.

Yuuto will need to step up as a character now since Hana was Ryoutarou's support before but now that she's gone Yuuto needs to pick up the slack.

I'm missing Hana already. I'll just go watch some Yuriko Shiratori youtube videos...

I've been watching Faiz recently and I'm currently up to episode 7. Aside from the extremely depressing stories of the Horse and Crane Orphnochs, Takumi being kind of a dick and the subs using way to many translation notes it's not bad so far. The plot is interesting me, the suits and fights are very nice and the pacing is fine.

Faiz is probably going to be my next series. I was going to start it up at the same time I did Kabuto and see which one would grab me more and stick with that before moving on to the other, but I ended up just going with Kabuto before even starting the first episode of Faiz.

Definitely want to watch it, I like the darker seasons, but I'm not going to balance watching a bunch of seasons at once.

I might actually pick Faiz up again after finishing Goseiger, you can't really stop watching a show just as a motorbike transforms into a robot.

Pretty much the code of the toku isn't it :lol

Episode 4 of Kabuto

Easily the best episode of the season so far. The way the worm used Ryou's memories against Kagami was just messed up, and it made for some great drama (what can I say, I like me some drama in my Kamen Rider), especially towards the end of the episode.

The fight in the rain was also really really cool, but again over all too quick.

Was also some really solid humor in the episode as well. Reminds me a bit of W in managing a nice balance between the two.

Kabuto's fight scenes were one of the reasons I dropped it really early on. The whole Clock Up thing was a really cool concept, and captured and stylised really well but they clearly didn't have the budget to truly do what they wanted with it, so they tried to play off the fight scenes as 'badarse' but instead they just felt clunky and rushed.

So long as they pick up later or everything else remains solid I can look passed it I think. But I definitely agree that they are pushing Tendou as a badass that can win fights without much effort in an attempt to cover that fact up, and it is definitely to the detriment of the series because it takes away any potential tension a fight may have.

Watching Episode 5 of Kabuto right now.

Starting off with the coolest Worm yet, that was a surprisingly graphic kill for a season that is this recent.

Interesting having the attack on the Worm canceled. I mean I'm kinda glad, I was gonna feel totally ripped off if it went down so early, but it would have been nice to see the Zectroopers do something rather competent like that. I'm sure there is some reasoning behind it, mayhaps HQ wanting to use this as a chance to see the worm's motive(s).

..or it can just be to use it as bait for Kabuto. That works too.

You know Tendou, that bike is like the complete opposite of subtle. Then again, he's not given me reason to think subtle is his style.

Quite a bit of resentment and tension between Kagami and his father.

Maybe it's just my inner (or outer) fat guy speaking, but I do rather like the focus on cooking and food in this season.

The constant shots of that tower really remind me of W and Fuuto tower.

Pretty fucked up how they're just letting the worm go free though, all those people that it's killing. Damn. Zect is pretty heartless.

Oh and we got a bit of backstory for Hiyori earlier. Doesn't really explain her cold demeanor all that much, though I guess it at least tries to. Though it does give a bit more meaning to her drawings, especially the shot of her in the rubble with the flower. I'm guessing a connection between these fairies she's drawing and the worm.

And that infrared camera totally reminds me of the MIB animated series.

And Tendo also is opting to let the worm be. Well, pretty obvious he knows that if Zect is ignoring it that they're clearly up to something, especially since, as he said, it's really odd for them to be allowing newspaper articles on the attacks, making it really obvious that they're trying to bait him out.

Pigeon!

Oh and Kagami comes to save the day. Good for him. Kagami's a chill dude.

So Tendou comes to save the day afterall.

Poor Hiyori.

Well Zect finally has their hands on Tendou.

Looking forward to the next episode. Cast off!

Edit: And now on with Episode 6 of Kabuto!

Not the best episode, but not bad either. There were some decent moments, got a few chuckles out of me, little bits of characterization here and there. Tendou is continuing to grow on me, probably for reasons a lot of the reasons people seem to hate him though. I liked the interrogation scenes with him, and when he and Kagami bump into eachother when they were dressed as Zectroopers. Also, Kagami is just a good guy, even if he is a bit forgetful at times.

Episode definitely picked up towards the end though, with the worm impersonating the head of that Zect team and the other dude, taking the belt, and going after headquarters with Misaki in tow. I'm actually really starting to like the worm as villains, especially since we're getting ones that make better use of their ability to mimic humans. It makes them seem a more dangerous threat.

Juka laid some truth down on Hiyori, hopefully it sinks in. Also, I dunno but Hiyori's kinda growing on me, not my favorite girl from any of the season's I've watched, but she's pretty hot.

Another really disappointing battle with the worm though. I think I'll be able to look passed these for the most part, but it definitely is a mark against the show.

Also, Tendou may be a bit conceited, but that stunt he pulled with Hiyori's drawing on Tokyo tower was pretty awesome.

Really solid ending to the episode too. A bit of a look into the broader picture, something darker and more sinister going on. Also, a new rider appears!

Agito 11-I am really enjoying the mystery aspect of this series, it seems to further develop and grow. I loved when Shouichi and Ryou passed by each other that was awesome. I am intrigued in Shouichi's past a lot, same with Hikawa and Ryou too and how they are all seemingly connected some how. Can't wait for Shouichi and Ryou to meet each other. Hikawa was outstanding in this episode fighting against the Unknown without the G3 armor and helping save a woman too. I hope he gets the armor back soon, I am getting slightly annoyed with Hojo. I really enjoy the 3 person dynamic with Shouichi, Ryou and Hikawa, who are some really interesting and fun characters that I love more with each episode.

I've never complained about the quality of fight scenes in Rider. I have complained about length but not about quality. I don't know if that's just me though.

Although speaking of good fight scenes, I've always wondered what a Clock Up fight scene from a $100 million dollar Kabuto movie would look like.