Agito 37-And now Kino has all the parts I hated from Tendou, with wanting to be the only one and attacking Ryou. Good to see Ryou is getting help from Shouichi, Mana, and the one guy from the Akatsuki-Gou I think his name is Masumi or something. Shining Form is so badass, it's one of my favorite Ultimate forms and I can't wait for more of it. I hope Hikawa learns that Kino is playing him and not the Agito he's met. Can't wait to see what Hojo thinks of Shouichi is Agito.


Also I didn't realize the girl who plays Mana in this comes back and plays Naomi in Den-O. It's like when I didn't realize Mari from Faiz was also Mio in Kiva. They are really cute.


UPDATE:

Agito 38-Intriguing with Kino's arm stopping him from killing Ryou which I am glad for. Great to see more into Shouichi's past but nothing really new. I am glad Ozawa and the police found out that Shouichi is Agito, Ozawa seems really happy about it which is awesome. Hikawa learning Kino isn't the Agito who has helped him made me happy how he reacted, and big points for Hikawa to strike the Unknown with the Motorcycle without his G3-X armor too. Can't wait to see Hikawa's reaction to the news and Exceed Gills next can't wait for more.

*Bro-fist*

:thumb:

The classic masked Shocker goons don't arrive until Hayato's first episode. Until then the goons wear face paint that's designed to reflect the specific monster they work for.

*Bro-Fist* it's something I've wanted to do for a long time, so I figured why not now.

I can't wait but I'm enjoying the beret-shockers for some reason :lol

Ryuki episode 30 to me felt filler, but it was the introduction to a new character so I can get by that. I would of liked it if Zolda finished the monster instead of Sinji. The expressions at the end of the episode were pretty funny/neat to me and I can't wait to see where the series goes from here.

Old man Shoutarou may possibly be the funniest thing I have ever seen in Kamen Rider.

DAMN! Terui got fucked up!

Old man Shotaro was awesome.

It's funny...these are are titled simple kid shows...but yet...they have so much emotion, so much action, so many themes that make them more then kid shows. I knew this before but...W...W has shown me that these are not just simple kiddie shows, or action shows. They like many other great things are art, able to bring out a variety of emotions. And it took this simple show making me cry something which I don't really do even if a family member dies to realize this.

The original Hongo run is really cool. The show did some cool stuff with effects and cinematography in those days that it kind of moved away from after Hayato came in. The show was still really good, but it looked more conventional.

Kamen Rider is a strange beast. It's aimed at kids, but accesible by many ages.

Aye. Even something like Fourze, which was incredibly lighthearted and fun, managed to have some dark and emotional moments. And then you get seasons like Ryuki which don't even remotely seem like they'd be marketed for kids. Then we have W, which is still far and away the best example of a balance between the darker, more serious tone of older seasons and the lighthearted fun of Fourze or Den-O.

Ryuki is still my favorite series, but W definitely gets my vote for best KR ever. I'd go more in depth, but everything has probably already been said about it. The series is so good and I am happy...no glad I saw it.

Kamen Rider Ep 02

Hongo and the Zombie Bat Slave Apartment Building. This show is better than I thought it'd be, then I didn't really know what I thought it'd be. Enjoying it though. The BatMan (I snickered) was beautifully old school. And the idea of a sentient virus, and how his virus turned people into Shocker Troops.
The fight scenes were good to. Alot of seventies action jump cuts, but I loved it. And now Ruriko knows the truth about Hongo.

Onward to Scoprion Man!

Kamen Rider Kabuto- Finale

Wow. I still don't know what to say about this. In terms of writing, this show just sucked. They didn't stick with their own logic, changed things midway to stuff that made even less sense, the cast was somewhere between loveable over the top and downright annoying, depending on the episode, and whenever they tried to insert actual comedy, it felt like they were doing net movies. But at least the whole thing was so ridiculous that it made me laugh from time to time because I couldn't take it seriously.
Love the HBV though.

Faiz 5-16

Its nice to see the Crane Orphnoch be less tense about everything after the stuff with Snake Orpnoch going all rogue. And HOLY JESUS DID SHE JUST KILL A BUNCH OF RANDOM THUGS? Wow, she's a terrible person. But I guess that she has to get one off every once in a while. (Hint that was a masturbation joke)

Before she went on a date with Keitaro, I was making the joke in my head that's she needs to get laid in order to get less stressed.

Faiz's sword comes out of AutoVajin's handle, that's..... odd.

And Mari is the best character in the show, although she's become more shy as of recent episodes. She tells people what to do and doesn't take shit from nobody and now she's kinda the standard background girl.

So the president of Smart Brain goes from trust random street thugs in order to get back the Faiz belt, to his circle of friends/ mercenaries. Although seeing a black guy in Kamen Rider is really cool. Is the black guy a Dinosaur Orphnoch? Because he sorta looks like a dinosaur in his monster form.

Yay Kaixa! I actually liked the idea of a group of people using the Kaixa belt to protect themselves and each dying off one by one as they used it. Granted, that was a one episode thing but hey, I liked it. Oh hey and this Masato guy is now Kaixa, he's not as bad as people say he is...

2 episodes later.....

Holy fuck this guy is evil.

Episode 15 is having the communication problem people make fun of Faiz about. And people are not kidding about how bad it is.

Overall, I like this show so far, I wouldn't say its anywhere near my top 3 KR series yet but it does have a lot of good points about it. Every scene feels relevant to the story and every episode is perfectly paced. I like the villain focus and the blurry lines about what it means to be human and when killing is okay. The mystery is grabbing me, as its getting not only deeper but more interesting. I'm not all that into Takumi yet and my likability for Mari is going down as she 's sort of having her personality being worn down by the "generic female character" role that the show is trying to fit her into.

I like the suit designs and the interesting tools that Faiz uses for his final attacks. The fight scenes aren't the best though, and I think this is the first time I've said that about a Rider show. I think the problem is that each Rider has sort of a generic approach to combat combined with he fact that there's no mannerisms when they do make moves. Asides from Faiz's wrist flick in between a succession of punches and kicks, Masato and Takumi feel kinda generic when they fight.

Fun bit of trivia: this episode is one of four from the original series that were later remade in V3.

Kabuto's head writer really has trouble maintaining any kind of long form narrative. That's why I always dread it when I hear he's doing another All Rider or Superhero Taisen movie.

That's why W is my favourite.

When I started actively posting I considered changing my Avatar to the W logo instead of the PR one. But I figured PR looked better.

Ryuki 31-33: These were a pretty good set of episodes, seeing Eri dying and affecting Ren was good development for the character, since you know kill every other rider thing. Megumi, seeing Sinji come out of the glass was neat, and seeing the magic trick was good as well, as well as Reiko thinking the trick was how people disappeared, but not knowing about the monsters. Overall, to me Ryuki is starting to pick up to me again, I guess it's because I've been watching these episodes more frequently now so, onward with Ryuki.

But as well as after Ryuki which rider show should I watch?

Faiz or Blade. They also have similar feels and are very enjoyable. Plus, watching these two will help you to understand the masterpiece of Gaim better.

I say give Hibiki a watch. I liked a lot of it for reasons similar to Ryuki. Namely the characters. It has a really old school feel and, especially early on, some amazing cinematography and useof sound.

OOO is my favourite Rider show ever, but I find it's a personally taste thing. I know that is always the case, but I find that especially with OOO. For me OOO is all about the characters.

When I think back over why I loved it so much, I can't think of many fight scenes for example that really stand out, except maybe the shows climax. I still don't really understand the shows internal mythology and my GOD Eiji had so many forms and barely any of them were necessary.

But, despite all this, as said - the characters were just so wonderful, so well written, their arcs so well paced. I just loved it.

OOO is a series everyone should watch, I think.

But yeah, the forms got out of hand. ShaUTa was totally plot-essential, right?

And - hey we finally got all of Ankh's medals together, considering how crucial Ankh is to the plot and the way he is as a character, this is surely a pivotal character moment!

Lol nope, time to use this dinosaur form for like thirty episodes after it comes completely from left field and never finds any kind of internal context aside from same vague POWER INSIDE shit.

That's why I like W, again. All his aquired forms have some kind of plot significance.

And that's all I'm gonna say because I don't want to spoil. :p

That was another problem with OOO as well, much like W, I LOVED watching Eiji chain medals together for new effects. Now W has a finite number of memories, which all have a clearly defined purposes so when he chains stuff together, it's logical and we can follow why.

But remember how Eiji would use a medal out of the context of its Combo form for like one episode, and in that one episode, it'd have a power that it NEVER had previous and will never have again? That shit was so unnecessarily stupid.

I don't recall that happening.

Gata's shock ability?

That was so OP, and he used it maybe twice? Or Cheetah's super speed kick? I bet there's other examples, but that's just it, they only happened once so we don't remember.

And the one with the super vision, that could like see through walls or whatever.

Taka or Sauchi?

Because he actually had TWO helmets with super vision.

OOO really had more powers than he could manage

W 06.

Nitpicky, maybe, but W's suit actor annoys me. I'd kinda assumed Phillip controlled the right side, Shotaro the left and it seemed this is exactly what the suit actor was trying to convey through his movement, it was impressive stuff. But then randomly it's like the suit actor gets confused and no one tells him. I mean HELL the whole end of the episode rested on Phillip learning something Shotaro didn't.

At one point the Luna arm, which is on Phillip's side, punches the water in frustration (a very unPhillip like motion) while Phillip tells Shotaro to 'stop fighting the water.'.

Or the Shotaro Kamen Rider handflick (whatever happened to those anyway?) that he does on the Joker side every time he transforms, was in this episode done by the Cyclone (Phillip side) when fighting Nazca.

The episode itself was so-so. It was pretty clichéd Japanese melodrama, but I really like Shotaro an Phillip and their reactions to things made the episode enjoyable.

Shotaro and Phillip are basically a moron and an autistic but the show is crafted so well, and their performances are so solid, you love both of them. No matter how stupid Shotaro gets, and he gets real stupid at times, he does everything out of the goodness of his heart and the fact you know his heart is constantly in the right place is the reason his stupidity is loveable rather than annoying.

Same for Phillip, he can come across as extremely harsh at times, but the show makes you constantly aware of the logical point he is coming from, that he never feels mean spirited - not to mention he is always caring as well, but not in quite the full blown, in your face, manner of Shotaro.

He grounds Shotaro, thinking about the reality of the long game, while Shotaro fixes on the problems of the right now. The perfect duo.

Actionwise, it was once again So-So.

Nazca's design doesn't do a whole lot for me and normally when they do these 'shit gets real' battles, they are normally more well...interesting than this, Nazca kinda waved his sword around for a bit and then W 'got wild' (came in really close for a ridiculous, contextless, kamikaze attack). Not to mention that Nazca's human form actor is so bad.

Ironically it was the fight with the monster of the week that was more thrilling, firstly because I love seeing W save people but I also really enjoy watching them rapidly change forms and combo all the powers at their disposal.

Although Trigger Full Burst was surprisingly lame, as was the shameless toy ad and horrible looking all CGI fight. I'm so glad the giant toy stuff is dropped swiftly.

Oh yeah, one had like thermal vision as well didn't it?

I love how neither the audience, nor the writers, could keep up.

Well...

http://i59.tinypic.com/n4e5ps.gif

http://i62.tinypic.com/etxsls.gif

Even with that in mind, why is Phillip telling off Shotaro - and Shotaro letting him - if it's MEANT to be Phillip losing his temper?

Suzu's just making a joke. W's sides are not soley controlled by their respective guys. The two aren't operatingly W independantly, they're LITERALLY one, with Shotaro having dominent control since, well, it's his body. Either "half" can control either side. Phillip is sort of like an onboard AI when using the base six memories. He can assume control when Shotaro lets him, but cannot force control.

Likewise it's switched when they're FangJoker. Whoever's the body gets to call the shots in the end, with the "soul" half riding shotgun and offering a second dynamic. They actually often use this mechanic of W to their advantage.

It's interesting looking back on Shotaro and Philip. Philip REALLY seemed distant at first, which is of course the point. Shotaro was also way less competant, largely due to him trying to come across serious and tough like his boss. The two' developement and dynamic is easily the highlight of the show.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGf9qtIeyBg

Ah okay then. With the way the actor conveyed his movement I assumed it was an equal split.

Nah, it's not quie as even as they let on. Generally the two act evenly in control, but Shotaro is physically W, and Philip is the "soul" without spoiling too much. This is especially true eariler on, pre-movie, when they're less in-sync.

This is reflected in their memories. Philip's are all elemental, esoteric abilities (fire, wind/speed, and distortions/illusions) with bright colours, while all of Shotaro's are physical abilities (weapons, hand-to-hand skill) and subdued colours.

I agree with this statement. Faiz and Blade are some of my big favorites.

Thanks for the info all.

Okay, skipping to episode nine of W!

This episode was nice since it focused on Akiko and showed she isn't a complete waste of space. Although her overacting and attempts to squeeze laughs out of every movement is pretty infuriating.

I remember a big part of my dislike of the first few episodes is how much she was on screen, and how annoying she was the whole time. Luckily the Papa arc dropped her into the background, for occasional, but utterly annoying gag scenes but I can live with that since they were infrequent.

Simarly, I find Shotaro and Akiko's bickering really annoying. I get the undercurrent of sadness, as at this point Akiko doesn't know the truth and Shotaro is just trying to protect her but the bickering scenes are too drawn out and lose their purpose.

ALSO how dense is Shotaro? Has he never heard of CCTV? Just transforming right there in the Sonozaki house and hanging around their gates.

This weeks Dopant was awful, that is one of the worst suits I've ever seen and Terror isn't much better. But still seeing W save the day, then fight the monster, is still as enjoyable as ever. And Sonic Shaft was cool - Metal is a Memory I really enjoy in general, something about fighting with a staff is just really cool to me.

I'd love the Heat Metal Sic, but I don't really want Lunar Trigger.

W 10 - as Shotaro continues to grow as my new favourite main Rider.

I'm sorry but that scene where they introduce Terror is so naff. Really a lot of the action was pretty uninspiring this week, although I must say I really did like when Nazca chased W on foot, while W fought him off with one badass bike, Joker Grenade was sweet as well. And it was nice to see Akiko find herself.

Did we really need to see Nazca's bum? With his fucked up relationship with the Taboo bitch? The things you do to climb the ladder...

Before I watched W, I thought anotehr Dopant was the main villain. Then I saw Terror...

It's not a terrible villain design, but it's clear that something changed as the series went on and later-appearing dopants have much better designs. It's very odd, and not exactly "terrifying."

Yeah I'm not gonna lie, Terror Dopant for me sucks on the design. It's the head that kills it for me.