I've heard some pretty bad things about Faiz, but it seems to have a pretty diehard fanbase all the same. From what I've seen of the show, it has awesome suits, decent fights and a cool bike. It was enough to convince me to keep going.

I've heard some pretty bad things about Kiva, but I'm a diehard fan all the same.

It also has awesome suits, decent fights and a cool bike. :D

I just found Matrixbeast's Youtube channel, so I'm watching SD Riders. It's pretty good; what is ZX's deal? :lol

W 37.

Okay, this episode was pretty bad, but let's talk about some good stuff first. I love how Terror is this cute, chubby old man which makes it all the more terrifying when he transforms and starts sucking the room into goo land. Similarly I love how his executioner...is his pet cat.

But yeah the rest of the episode blowed. I think the scene on the bridge was meant to be romantic but it was just irritating. They were both completely overacting the scene, to try and smother the reality that they have no chemistry.

Faiz 01.

I figured since I've already seen a bunch of these episodes, and that I really don't want W to end, I'm gonna pair off my watching of the final leg of the show with the beginning leg of Faiz.

Although I don't usually like this kind of tone for a tokusatsu show, there is something beautifully operatic about the opening episode of Faiz. Even in its intense melancholia, it's profoundly beautiful - within the limits of this genre, of course. I find it sort of wonderful. It just immediately catches your attention, even though the actual Rider action is for like ten seconds at the end of the episode. And yes, I can even tolerate the copious amounts of broken English.

I dunno, I just love it all. The action - I usually hate those underplayed Rider kicks, to mask budget limitations but I dunno the way they do it in this episode is almost tongue and cheek with the confused blinking of the monster. That monster design as well, both he and the horse are awesome. Faiz is really cool as well, with that sexy driver voice. Plus the way the horror seems to actually be trying to be about something beyond just base shocks. Although you can clearly see Daisuke is breathing when he's laying in the grass.

The only slip up is the Faiz girl. If she's transporting the belt - and knows how to use it, and is riding Auto-Vajin, why is she confused when the people start dying in the way that they do? From the opening sequence we can deduce that people turning into sand is something people do around Orpenochs. So she must have known what was happening.

Terror makes a better father than a Dopant.

Mick is just awesome. He's a fat, fuzzy cat who lurks and spies. I always found it funny that Terror and Mick kind of look similar, wouldn't you say? Like if the actor was a cat, he'd look like Mick?

I-

Actually, it's best I not. You'll see.

I really should re-upload that in one solid video now that YT removed the 10 minute limit...
Forget ZX. V3 is a dick :lol

Yeah I think the problem is, Terror isn't very well...scary. I kept waiting for the goofy charm to wipe off his face, but even when he slams his hand on the table and starts growling I just don't feel it. But then at other times I find it kinda works, because as everyone around him is doing their best frowny face while it feels like Ryubei is just having the time of his life. This suggests this fiercely arrogant belief in his own power, which is scary in itself.

And oh my God, I can't unsee what you said about Mick.

Oh Jesus. Now you people are gonna make me want to watch Faiz, too.

Ryuki, W, Blade, Hibiki, and now Faiz. This thread is gonna be the death of me.


BTW, does anyone know of plans to scrub Faiz now that the Blu-Rays are being released? The promise of an eventual HD fansub would certainly help me prioritize the next Rider series I watch. :lol

I only watched the first part. :p

Don't worry. I didn't spoil much :lol

As far as older Rider shows go, the DVD fifth anniversary rips by TVN are fantastic.

I'm not touching Faiz till I watch Blade...which I'll watch when I finish Kuuga...eventually.

From the four or so episodes of Faiz I watched in the past, I liked it a lot better. It doesn't feel nearly as cheap as Blade.

Was 555 even shot in an HD format? Or are they upres-ing an SD source to an HD frame size?

If they're doing an upres, the DVD quality probably isn't that much lower than the Blu-Ray.

Hmm... If only someone had the first season ripped, we could see.

W 38.

So what was the point of that Hopper chick? She came out of nowhere, was seemingly important, but then immediately died. Honestly so much happened in this episode, I feared I may have passed out and actually watched several episodes.

Plus man that Hopper suit looks shit, is it possible that Faiz could have had a bigger budget than this show, despite its age? Because the Orpenoch's definitely look better than the Dopants. Even good Dopant designs are profoundly tacky and cheap looking.

Also, don't get me wrong. Trial is cool as hell, love that classic rider hand flick thing he does before he starts fighting. And as the form was introduced just as the show is starting to run out of track, I'm happy for them to squeeze as much out of it as they can. You gotta question the logistics of him chucking away his sword and Accel Memory every time he transforms though, let's hope he ain't near any drains!

And Hopper VS Trial was one match I was happy to follow every round. Was totally not expecting Mick to kill her. Even if it's kinda crap that the power scale has caught up to Trial after only one episode.

Okay with that out of the way, time for the real plot of the episode. So much happened in last five minutes. Holy shit Phillip is Ryubei's son? It's the Mortal Instruments all over again, ah! Was really awesome to have Clay Doll transform right in public like she did though, even if I'm not happy after everything she just turned evil out of nowhere.

Really glad to see Fang get another Ride, I dunno, this feels like a truer upgrade for W than Xtreme is. I'd be happy if they never had Xtreme and just bumped up the power of Fang, maybe having the Maximum Drive having them go berserk for ten seconds like a sort of power version of Trial's Maximum Drive.

They aren't upscaled, as they aren't HD releases. They are just DVD releases, but especially on older shows, the quality jump between TV rips and DVD rips is exponential.

She's an assassin from Foundation X/Museum. She was sent to kill that scientist guy running about the whole episode.

That's good to know. Maybe 555 will be my next stop after Ryuki.

But I guess I should have been clearer. I was referring to the Japanese Blu-Ray release. I can't imagine 555 was shot in HD (it was Japan in 2003 after all), so I can't imagine there's much of a difference in pix quality between the Blu-Ray and DVD.

I gathered as much, but it was just such a bizarrely pointless arc. The scientist only existed for a single reveal, so I dunno why he lasted two episodes. And the assassin came from nowhere and was dead by the next one.

I was thinking something similar. Going back and watching some of the Heisei shows, it often seems like they had higher quality monster costumes than the Neo-Heisei stuff. A lot of them had (limited, granted) functional features like eyes and mouths and they seem to have had fewer details that were simply painted on. It's almost as if as the Riders got more complex, the monsters of the week got less so. To be fair, I'm basing this on my the few series I've completed so far.

As for my watching, I just finished Agito 39 and I still think it's a pretty entertaining series. It does tend to drag things out a bit from time to time, but it's well worth a watch. Also, Ozawa continues to grow in my affections. She's crazy awesome.

Edit: I forgot to add that Hojo is still a total tool.

Ozama, to me, seems VERY "tryhard." She does a lot of irrelevant stuff that I guess would be endearing if she had any personality besides crusty support-role. Like, drinking a lot of beer doesn't seem cool to me, even though I bet the show thought it was hysterical, because I don't get what it means. She's not an alcoholic, nothing comes from it. She just, apparently, can drink a lot like it's nothing. Yay? It's a throwaway gag that forgot to be a gag.

But dear sweet lord, she is the picture of humanity next to Mana, quite possibly the worst "leading lady" in all of Kamen Rider. She was utterly terrible, and the way she said Souichi's name may actually be the most annoying noise in the world.

Plus, I find more and more with later series, that the suits really look like suits. Maybe this is just what happens when HD reveals all your warts.

I think it is, because when you see the old monster suits come back in modern movies, they look much more cheaply done.

Also, another factor may be that they could put more matrials and convincing aspects into older suits because they didn't do as much, action-wise. But as the action improves and becomes more complex, the suits need to hold up more, and be made of tougher material. All the little jewelry on the Unknowns may look nice, but in a serious fight it's the first thing to go. Plus, they need to be safer, and easier to wear.

Reading around, Ozawa's not much of a beloved character, but between her pounding beers and kicking Hojo in the junk, she won me over. Plus I know a couple of really smart people that act very similar and I think that's part of the reason I like her so much.

Shouichi-kun. Shouichi-kun. Shouichi-kun. Shouichi-kun. It's insane how Mana's inflection never changes. Never. And she says it over and over again. That's one of my picky problems about the show. That and how superfluous to the story Ryo appears sometimes.

Excellent point. I hadn't even thought about the SD/HD thing.

I don't get why Ryo is in Agito. I really, really don't. G3, I get. I totally do. Gills? Nope.

I personally like to think Ryubei loves the Godfather movies and tries to run Museum that way :lol.

:lol He's so cuuuuute~

Faiz 02.

Man this show has some really fucked up imagery, but as it's actually creative and not just DUUUR DEAD KIDS DUUUUR like Kuuga I actually kinda appreciate it. Plus, it balances it with really beautiful imagery as well, it's a really stylish show. Also the cast are so pretty. It's just a shame they're doing that blacked out visor thing as well.

Also, it usually annoys me when Riders don't make transforming a big deal, so I like the inversion of that with Faiz, making it a big deal that Inui doesn't make it a big deal.

The fact that Rider CGI hasn't really moved on really works in Faiz's favour. Considering it's six years older than W, and ten years older than Wizard, it actually doesn't look it when the CGI monsters start running around. The action is pretty great, especially when you consider Blade comes after this and that looks hell of a lot more dated.

Really my only criticism right now, is the pace. The show seems to find time to be meandering.

How does a show have pacing issues two episodes in?

Also, could anybody tell me what episode Dark Kiva shows up? I kinda want to give it anotehr chance, but I need something different. I can't stand the monotonous nature of the show, and IXA was a major letdown.

It's hard to give away, without spoiling everything but let's just say there are some very long scenes which work, but seem unnecessary in their length with the abruptness of how the second episode wraps stuff up.

W 39.

They aren't even trying. The Dopant looked like shit. The comedy totally missed and after the overstuffed nature of the last episode I thought we were taking it up to eleven. But I guess as this is toku we need AT LEAST one more shitty filler arc.

It's frustrating as well, because everything around the stupid Gene business was really interesting. We've got that thing from eXistenZ, evil Wakana is so sexy, even if she came out of nowhere, and the beautiful irony of Saeko not only having to use the Nazca memory, but inject it straight into herself. She both made it more badass, and more sexy.

Faiz 03.

Although this episode was a little too miserable for my tastes, it wasn't without its good moments like the scenes where they find that school underground, that was really cool. What happened in 1995? I hope we find out, and it doesn't do the old rider thing of explaining nothing!

Also, despite their brief length and their age, the fights are good. Although how the hell does Takumi know his way around the Driver so well all of sudden?

I was gonna watch Faiz back when I started Kabuto. With Locke watching it I may have to do so as well. Then again no way I can keep with his pace haha.

The opening three episodes were great!

Also it is only because I'm in the process of losing my job that I'm consuming so much. They've cut my hours right down and I'm in the process of finding a new job, as such, I'm trying to leave the house as little as possible to avoid spending money. Therefore I'm racing through toku. I'm hoping by the end of this month it'll go down a lot as I'll be working forty hours a week again.

I may join Locke as well. We can have dual reviews!

I'll start spoiler tagging my thoughts on Faiz now if there's gonna be three of us!

You shouldn't have to. I honestly have only been reading your W ones since I just finished it.

Locke watching Faiz? Ooh, I'm going to want some popcorn for this. :D

And yeah, Yuka's intro arc is stupidly dark, even by Faiz's usual melodrama standards. Don't worry about explanations - in spite of having the same writer, Faiz isn't as bad as Kiva. It is still a show full of good ideas and increasingly disappointing execution, though.

I don't remember the exact episode, but Dark Kiva doesn't show up until the show's near the end. In the meantime there's still Saga, I guess.

Alright, I'm gonna jump in on this one. Loading up episode 1 of Faiz right now.

Ouch, sorry to hear man. I know how that is, back towards the end of my time working at Target that's how it was for me. It was a good 40 min to an hour round trip for me working there and there were weeks when I was only working 4-8 hours (and keep in mind, I was technically a full time employee). It cost me more driving to and from work than I was earning. So glad I got out of that place, getting fired was the best thing they ever did for me. Much happier where I work now.