Zolda is by far my favorite rider out of every single season I've watched. Amazing character. But I've gushed about him more than enough on here.

And the figuart is amazing, probably my favorite of the ones I own. Part of that is my love of the character, part of that is how good the base Ryuki body is, and the other part is I love all the weapons he comes with and he just looks so badass in just about any pose I put him in.

Agito: Project G4: Well this was one of the best movies I've seen from Kamen Rider so far. Glad it wasn't a parallel universe story like Faiz and Blade. Interesting storyline and that Risa girl in this was a total crazy bitch that I'm glad she got what was coming to her. Just really showed me more of what I like from Shouichi, Hikawa and Ryou. Loved the Fight scenes with the theme song playing in the background with Shining Agito and Exceed Gills. Also great to see the cameo by Hiroshi Fujioka (Kamen Rider Ichigou) and his small scene with Ozawa, Shouichi, and Hikawa was great. This movie helped enhance what Agito is about really. Well I have the two specials left and then I'll be off to figure out my next series.

Black Episode 2
Awww look at the little grasshopper. So cute.

So all of those famous people showed up for Kotaro and Nobuhko's birthday party? Why? Is the family famous? Are they spies of Golgom? Seriously why would all of these celebrities just show up at their party?

I bet I know what Kotaro is thinking. "Man I am never washing this hand again!"

Yup, they work for Golgom.

Coming soon from Alfred Hitchcock: The Grasshoppers!

Huh, Kyoko looks kinda familiar. She reminds me of Ako from Jetman facially and with how her hair looks. I did a quick Google/Wiki search but it turns out it isn't her. The resemblance though is a bit uncanny. Of course it could just be me noticing how much they look a like and I'm a crazy person for thinking so.

Wait, he can just do that? He can just up and leave and put a teenage girl in charge of his pawn shop? I don't know anything about Japan's child labor laws, but isn't this the sort of thing that could get you in trouble in other places in the world such as here in America? Besides she has no experience in business, sales, or just running a shop period. I guess he included it as part of the agreement of Kyoko living there but forgot to tell Kotaro. Gotta read the fine print man.

Oh I guess it's a cafe. Kinda does look like a pawn shop though.

Why would you want to be turned into mutants. They just said some humans will stay around, so it's slightly safe to assume they'd keep you. If the only reason they want to become a mutant is so that they can live for fifty thousand years, that's a pretty lame reason. Yeah you get to live for nearly forever, but these aliens seem like they know magic. Why not just ask for them to grant you the ability to live that long, but do it in a spell that lets them keep their human bodies?

Damn those bugs work fast.

Another bad ass looking monster. It looks like it's from a demonic version of Cats. Man if this is going to be the continuing quality of monsters in Black, I think it may be my favorite series just for how awesome the monsters look. These things but some of the Heisei monsters to shame design wise.

That fight was pretty good, both in the apartment and in the warehouse/bay side portions. Not as much back and forth as the one from episode 1 though, as the cat monster basically kicked Black's ass until the end of the episode. But overall it was nice. Really dug the part in the staircase where the two were jumping around like maniacs. That looked bloody cool.

Well episode 2 was another great episode. It wasn't as good as episode 1, in fact this episode was half of episode 1. So it didn't really offer anything that new story wise outside of showing more of the events leading up to Kotaro and Nobuhiko's surgery.

The acting was good, the fight scenes as I stated earlier were great, the monster design was epic, the music was good, just all around great. I'm really digging Black so far, obvious considering I've done nothing but praise it so far. I think I've only made one or two big complaints in these first two episodes, where as with Faiz I had more then that in just one episode.

So yeah, Black is awesome.

Yes. Yes, it is.

I'm just starting Ryuki 17. The series has been pretty good and they seem to be hitting all the right notes as far as character archetypes go. Some things (the kidnapping plotline in particular) don't seem to make a tremendous amount of sense and drag on a bit. There is certainly no shortage of scummy characters in this show, that's for sure. I'd like to see more done with the Ride Shooters, it's a shame they only seem to serve as transport for the brief jaunts between the regular world/mirror world. It's a solid show and I'm enjoying it thus far.

Black is awesome, but you'll start to wonder by episode 15 if the show is ever going to go anywhere.

I just watched Ryuki 17 too. And yeah, sometimes things don't make a lot of sense (that kidnapping was bonkers -- but still kind of worked...?), but if you just roll with it without asking too many questions, this show is great.

Episode 18 throws a major new curve ball into the game.

Ryuki 23:

Short and sweet:

Knight Survive is pretty cool but, crap, I liked Tezuka. It sucks to see him go.

Just starting off into the Kamen Rider franchise with Kamen Rider W, 8 eps into it so far, not used to the dynamic of it since I'm so used to Super Sentai, but I love it thus far. The whole detective stuff is old school but it works, looking forward to seeing what more the series can bring. If anyone has any suggestions on which series to watch after please share them! Thanks! :)

The simplest answer to this would be Kamen Rider OOO :)

Its the Show that aired directly after Kamen Rider W.

I'm on episode 5 of Double myself and am loving it. It really depends on what like. If you like a bit more light then I'd say Fourze. If you like stuff a bit more serious or Dark, Ryuki and the current Gaim is great. While most people hate it I also recommend Wizard.

My favorites are Agito, OOO, Faiz, Kuuga, Blade, Kabuto, Kiva, X, Decade and Gaim so any of those I'd give a watch.

Agito 35.5 Special: I should watched this sooner but I save the specials till the end. Good extended episode and kind of connected with the movie. Great to see G3 Mild and Shining Form's first appearance both were really cool. Great to see more back story of Shouichi too. Also Ryou got one of my favorite moments of Punching out Hojo.

Alright time to watch the Hyper battle video.

UPDATE: Watched the Hyper Battle Video and that was so freaking hilarious and funny. Showed a quick update of the series like all of them do. I always love leaving them for the end.

Agito you are a wonderful series, now it is time to pick my next series.

Up to Ryuki 33. I just don't get the inclusion of Megumi. She doesn't fit the tone of the show at all, at least to me. It's like she was completely dropped in from another series. I'm enjoying the series, but the main story points seem to be developing at a glacial pace.

I skipped ahead in Kiva, figuring I'd give it one last shot before dropping it outright. Skipped to Emporer's first appearance.

Yup, I'm done with this show. I always hated Kivat, he has no likable personality, and is just annoying. So now there's another horrid CGI critter, "Tetsulot" I think, and he heralds the final form.

God damn is he annoying. Kiva is this dark, threatening, vicious warrior, and the little dragon guy has a high pitched voice that just screams on like a demented person. Japan has a bad habit of having it's henshin gimmickery have horrible voices, but Kamen Rider has typically remained safe. Not Kiva.

Emporer form itself is just... ugly. I'm really sorry, but this thing was dead on arrival. It's just so overdone. If this was, like, a seperate character who didn't fight often, that'd be one thing. But it's just such an eyesore with the all gold and red compared to regular Kiva who is awesome. It's like, well, it's like they took an amazing regal design and ruined it by trying to make it "epic." It's such a shame. If this was, like, Kiva's father or something, or a Kiva from way farther in the past, I'd dig it. But it is just the worst aspects of "final forms."

I've noticed with myself - if I hate a form when first introduced I'll grow to love it and if I love a form when first introduced I grow to hate it. I'm a bugger, I can't help it.

I think Kiva Emperor would look better with a different shade of gold. The one they used just looks way too much like yellow plastic.

Yeah, I actually usually stick to my first impressions, especially since the Emporer suit isn't as bulky or intimidating. Also the henshin stock footage is lame.

The shade doesn't really factor. It the fact that it's all gold. It's like if the Tower of Pimps was a vampire lord.

Yeah, if you hate seeing Emporer Kiva on screen you probably should stop watching, IIRC they basically stop using Kiva's base form after Emporer is introduced because it was so much easier for the suit actor to move around in.

Dark Kiva is infinitely more badass anyways.

So, finally gonna start watching a bit more Faiz tonight. I'll catch up, I swear it!

Also, pointing out the obvious, but I love the use of the greek letter "phi" in the show. Especially because, as a Magic player, I mostly associate it with the phyrexians, who are one of my all time favorite villains.

Faiz 13.

Faiz may be the slowest, most filler rammed show I have ever watched. Pretty much every episode ends with a fight, and then concludes it at the beginning of the next one. And that would be fine if they used all that time not fighting for...anything but the majority of this episode focused on Takumi getting lost on the campus and Juuzo taking hell bitch on a date.

I learnt pretty much fucking nothing from this episode, other than Takumi is terrible at sports. We had basically eighteen minutes of introduction to a single reveal, and one that had no context anyway. What a pointless pile of shit.

It's frustrating as well, because as with EVERY episode of Faiz, in the last four or some minutes it got really interesting. Introducing Masato out of suit and giving him an easily identifiable style of fighting, and way of moving, really added believability to his transformation. He's a real badass.

But how long can I keep watching because of four good minutes at the end?

In my six 6 episodes watched it does appear to be a very hit or miss series. But it is entertaining all around so I'd say it's worth sticking out to see what happens.

I enjoy the action very much, and the humour hits more often than it misses, but I shouldn't be able to skip fifteen minutes of every episode without impact.

So I don't know what to watch next. I have Hibiki, Black, Super-1 (From HK Subs so they are probably bad.), or watch a Sentai, or other Toku show (Garo, Zubat, or Kikiader.)

GARO! My favourite toku show :D - My favourite show in general honestly.

Garo fo'sure.

When I say it's my favourite, you know it must be fucking GOOD.

Hibiki is pretty awesome.

You could join me in my watching of Black.

Black gets boring really fast. I've heard the way the show ends is incredible, but the plot starts very very late and its a slog to get there.

Don't ask me to choose between Black, Hibiki, and Garo.

Faiz 14.

I thought we may have finally had a focused episode - not a particularly good one but it was a start - until Kaidou decided that date gag from last week couldn't stay there. Kinda makes me wanna watch Shinkenger because at least there was none of this shit from him there.

There were some much better bits of writing this week though. I like how Takumi is a lot more perceptive than his bravado may suggest. He has this weird maturity that seems to stem from how insular and naturally defensive he is a person. It's an interesting inversion on the usual hero archetype even if at times they play it to such extremes I find him insufferable.

Similarly as soon as Masato said he didn't know his way around the belt, and kept reminding us this, despite what happened last week. This guy is fucking DODGY. What is he playing at, 'eh?

It's really distracting that Mr J's suit actor is WAY skinnier than he is. I've never seen someone get smaller, and weaker looking, when turning into a monster. Then again the glasses Lucky Clover guy has a really lame suit design as well, which is a shame because seeing him use his powers in human form was fucking awesome, especially when he was blocking attacks with a poetry book.

At least now Mr J has died twice he seems to finally be living up to the hype, and it's even better that Mr Glasses lived up to the hype immediately. I think he's the first genuinely awesome villain yet.

A bit off topic, but I had been contemplating getting into Garo, and seeing as you're a big fan of it Locke I think it may be a good fit for me. What do you think? Where should I start?

You guys are making this choice very difficult lol.

GARO is a show that gets gradually worse with each season. The first season is flawed as all hell, but does so many things right and so many things refreshingly that I just adore it. Each season that follows seems to try and attempt to 'fix' GARO but it's a classic example of what happens when you try and fix something that ain't broken. There are a fuck ton of films as well, which like Rider films attempt to expand on the main universe, but unpopular opinion I don't really like any of them.

So yeah, just start with the first season!

Garo's first season is amazing. One of the best Tokus ever. THe second season is really good while the third season is utter garbage.

I actually thought the third season was pretty good and hated the second season .

I watched the first 2 episodes of the third season of Garo, and didn't like the 3D suits but I enjoyed everything else.

After far too many delays I finally got around to watching Episode 5 of Faiz (oh how tempting it was to say Episode 555 haha).

I need to stop watching these so late at night/early in the morning, it makes it a bit harder to do any kinda real in-depth recap like I'd rather do, and putting off writing it just makes me need to rewatch the episode.

That said, I think this was a pretty solid episode. We had some decent characterization, and got to learn a bit more about the orphenocs, how they work, what their goal seems to be.

There was some nice humor early on in the episode, with Keitaro texting with Yuka and Takumi giving him a hard time about it. Really just that opening scene was just well written humor. Props.

Not really sure why the need to have Takumi work part time with Keitaro though, he already seemed intent on taking on the role of Faiz so did they have to come up with some sort of excuse to make him stick around? This coming after Ryuki it just sorta feels like a cheap attempt at the same thing with Shinji owing Ren money for smashing the window, but that actually made for a genuinely funny running joke and in a way sorta symbolized their growing friendship, at least to me. Here it feels unnecessary.

Todo was pretty badass, but didn't care for the overall design of his orphenoc form. And I really am disappointed that he bit it so fast. Was hoping he'd last at least a bit longer since he seemed billed as someone at sorta important and would have a sort of mentorship for the new orphenocs.

Takumi having to call Keitaro for the driver was a nice touch. With Ryuki's riders just needing to keep their advent decks on hand to henshin. Wizard being able to, literally, pull his driver out of thin air, and other riders just always seeming to have what look like pretty damn bulky, cumbersome devices on hand it's nice to see a rider caught with his metaphorical pants down.

Oh and I liked seeing the police show up at the gym. Just something about seeing police competence in toku makes me kinda happy, it adds in a nice dynamic and makes the world feel a bit more realistic. Sure they're in over their head, but in the real world just because a super powered bug man is beating up the monsters doesn't mean that the police wouldn't be investigating incidents or not trying to..well, do their jobs.

Faiz 15.

I love the contrast between characters in this show. It's impossible to place who really are the real villains, just like real life. It's just a shame that any depth this show strives for, is lost, by being so god damn slow and unfocused.

For a show that has aged so well, there are moments of real shittiness. I will never understand why toku always seems to edit in CGI whips, even though a real prop exists, it always looks terrible. Then again a LOT of the Orphenoch powers look terrible, which is surprising considering how cool the exceed charges look but then to some degree lessso once you see Kaixa's bike abomination.

Worst of all though are the henshins, the actual subtle effect is neat, less so is the fact they never seem to be able to match the actors up properly.

Locke, you ever watch Message from Skull and Accel Returns? Can't remember...