I'd say the only major flaw with Wizard is that it was abiding by the two episode story arc format. If it were a more ongoing story like Ryuki, Blade, or Gaim it would have done better IMO.

Yeah, it spent more time on the stories of the individual Gate's than its actual own story.

Episode 26 of Kiva :

Spider Fangire finally meets his end , a sad moment in KR history.
All in all , it was a pretty eventful episode , we get to see homewrecker Maya exploiting Otoya's amnesia to get between him and Yuri , all in the name of understanding the meaning of love of course.

Yuri is obviously gonna lose in this love triangle , she should have accepted Jiro's proposal to have his wolf babies when she had the chance , truly the chance of a lifetime blown away thanks to Otoya the womanizer.

Not sure how i feel about Mio , to put it bluntly , she's kinda stupid. I'm not surprised since most of Inoue's characters tend to be bad at communication and overall selfish people. but i'm used to it by now , this stuff doesn't even FAIZ me anymore ... heh.

Finally , we get to see Megumi seducing spider fangire , soliciting him for a kiss and brutally kicking him right in his spider berries (so is he a spider with human physiology ?) Truly , a heart breaking scene to watch.

I think we can all agree Nago is a narcissistic sociopath . he manages to squeezes a single tear while giving Shima (his boss) a heartfelt speech on how he can't be trusted with IXA anymore , Shima thinking he learned some humility allows him to continue being IXA. How can a single person be this awesome ? I have no idea.

See that stuck didn't bother me, I mean I don't think Kuuga was ineffective, it's not like he is Agito where he could sense when a monster is attacking, I mean sure he probably could have been more proactive against the Grongi but he barely knew what he got himself into. I'm not really going to go counter point everything you mentioned but I understand where you are coming from. Everyone has there own tastes I just like to stick up for the shows and characters that I love.

Faiz Episode 17
Well now that's a way to start out an episode, get straight to the action! Though mostly one sided it was a pretty good fight. Quite a bit of back and forth in the beginning, it then turning into Takumi playing defense once they went up onto the scaffolding. Nice fight show and nice opening!

I see we have a new Orphenoch. He looks alright. Not really that great looking to me though. He's a bit to bulky and beefy looking for my tastes.

Well that was quite the nice little moment there between Yuki and Takumi. Very emotional and showed off their personal struggles rather well in my opinion. Faiz continuing to show how, well emotional it can be. Bravo!

The new Orphenoch is pretty emotional too. It's obvious that he loved his sister very much and like any good brother gets upset when someone bad mouths her. However considering she is dead it's probably going to sting a little more. The anger mixed with his Orphenoch instincts and well, that happened. Can't say I blame the man for why he acted out.

Ahhh yeah Takumi's back!

Well that fight was plain all kinds of bad ass. It did a good job of showcasing that Takumi isn't holding back anymore and will fight against the Orphenochs in a new light. Very action packed and it got me cheering for Takumi a little bit.

Episode 17 was once again good and also very emotional. The emotions in the episode were broadcasted perfectly within the overall story, the character development, and in the action scenes with great character interactions being the icing on the cake. The focus was mainly Takumi with Yuji taking the passanger seat.The episode progressed and capped off Takumi's not wanting to fight, and in doing so gave him quite a good sum of development. Even knowing that some Orphenochs aren't the monsters they can all be he's still ready to fight now, he willing to do so whenever the Orphenochs are hurting people.

I pretty much said it all in the paragraph above, so yeah. Episode 17 was great.

Wizard has picked up again and well I can't really stop now, even though it seems that after this it's just gonna slow down again.

Faiz Episode 18
Wait they're talking about the third belt this early?

I swear Keitaro could write a book on the philosophy of laundry. You know like how they have books explaining the philosophy behind stuff like Final Fantasy, Twilight, Halo, and a lot of other games, shows, and movies?

That building...is that the Tokyo Dome!?!

Only Takumi was cold Keitaro. Mari had a legitimate reason for not being able to assist you in your quest. It was only Takumi who showed coldness and didn't give a damn.

Oh my God a clown is an Orphenoch! Run! Hide your wife and lock up your kids!

Okay time for a thing I noted. I apologize in advance if this comes off as racist somehow. Is it just me, or does it seem like every toku program has at least one African American guy who speaks in both Japanese and English? I kid you not out of all of the toku I've watched there's always at least one, whether the role be major or minor. I don't have a problem with it, just find it odd that it seems to happen in nearly every show.

I like Keiko. She's got spunk. She's like a little Kusaka, except she's pleasant with her manipulativeness.

I don't care, both of your ways are creepy.

:lol Faiz continues to make me hurt from laughing so much. I legit thought she was going to say "I don't like this flavor" and make Keitaro keep making it over and over. Oh and the idol request is a freaking riot, especially the concert part.

It does indeed seem like Yuji and Takumi are connected by fate. Something in the back of my head is making me think that they're related somehow, but who knows. Either way it's a nice relationship they have.

...I can't :lolol

And speaking of things that show all the time, it's that theater that actually does appear in almost every single Kamen Rider and Super Sentai.

Oh hey! Hikaru is the detective's daughter! I liked her when I saw her in whatever episode it was. And before realizing this I liked her in the scene at the salon. Combine the two and now I like her even more!

Huh wonder if Mari will speak up about knowing a girl named Keiko who told her that her parents are long gone...

The clown may be creepy but his Orphenoch form looks pretty cool. It does look pretty familiar though. It kinda reminds me of the one monster from Lost Galaxy that had an octopus for his head and put people to sleep.

Well that was 18. And unfortunately the streak of each episode being good to great consecutively has ended, as this is a pretty meh episode. Sad though it may be, it was bound to happen eventually.

There wasn't much of a story to the episode. You could say there was one with Keiko, but I'd say no. Though Keiko did prove useful for something in the episode, that being character development. Keiko has shown Keitaro that even though it's nice to help people, they can sometimes take advantage of this, pushing a person to his/her limits. I think snapping at her over the clothes was a pretty crappy scene, and honestly it didn't add anything. It's only purpose was to send Keiko off in the Orphenoch's direction with Keitaro following her to activate the Faiz signal. But outside of that part of it, I thought their scenes together were nice and did provide some fairly nice development for Keitaro.

This is the first episode however where I noticed something Locke brought up. Takumi sure did get to Keiko and Keitaro pretty fast. I don't know how he found them or how long it took him to get there (if that was indeed the Tokyo Dome and thus Tokyo Dome City, time spent getting there probably varies on Takumi's base location), but he appeared to get there pretty fast. However while weird it isn't something to get all worked about. Honestly I don't care and I'll just consider it a coincidence and probably will do so whenever something like it happens again. No use in over thinking it.

There wasn't much action either outside of the brief fight Takumi had, and it was your prototypical Faiz fight.

With all that I've said it probably gives off the impression that not only is the episode meh, but that it's pretty boring. In actuallity I found it entertaining. The parts with Keiko are great for how comedic they are, and the scene in the salon with Mari and Hikaru was a riot too (who gets that orgasmy over being called senpai?). So the episode is far from boring. It's just another meh episode.

The return to the good then alright format has returned, and 18 isn't the best episode, especially after watching a great one such as 17. But it could have been far worse. Nothing too spectacular with this one, just another average episode.

Faiz has some really good bits with humor. I remember laughing a lot during Faiz, Blade, and Agito. I think Kuuga too.

I know right? Faiz has just been killing me with all of the humor. I still don't get why people call it a dark season. It's just (in tone) average old season from that time period.

What made it dark for me, was how the tone WASN'T dark.

Osada, Juuzo and Yuuji are basically a sitcom cast and as they're giggling, laughing and getting up to crazy antics....did we forget that Yuuji murdered his ex girlfriend and her new boyfriend? Did we forget Osada has a kill count of almost fifty people? The fact that the show doesn't paint these characters as the monsters that they are, and never really addresses how evil the things they have done are, is what makes the show so God Damn dark.

Faiz Episode 19
Obvious green screen is obvious. Seriously Faiz is so bold around the edges that it doesn't take a genius to figure out that it's being green screen. I think this may be the worst effect I've seen so far.

Naoya...what the hell? No seriously what the hell man? I have never seen somebody get a facial and have that much food on their face. Though it did lead to that hilarious drawing, which lead to another hilarious reaction by Naoya.

You know I just thought of something, exactly how big is this apartment. It houses three people and it appears to only have one bed. So are there rooms we haven't seen? Or do Yuka and Naoya sleep on the couch and floor?

Also why do we need subtitle when J is talking? He's obviously talking in English here and it's pretty understandable. I know in Japan they'd just usually pop subtitles up in Japanese so that viewers could understand him better, but this is an English sub. Why sub when he's clearly talking in English?

I think he's so sad because he's been wearing those ridiculous outfits.

Where the hell did that explosion come from?

And that's why she's been dirtying up laundry. Seeing it brings back memories of time spent with her mom. That leads to her remembering how her mother doesn't know her anymore, thus making the memory painful. In her sadness she latches out by ruining laundry. Makes quite a lot of since from a psychological standpoint.

Okay I know that the president was doing research on children who nearly died, and that Keiko was one of the children who popped up. But why is he sending an Orphenoch after her? If his goal is to attempt to turn her into one, then this just makes him even more a bad guy and makes him pretty much a jerk. As we've established even if you are part of something that nearly killed you, you can't just instantly become an Orphenoch. You may just turn into dust. This means that to test to see if Keiko and all of the other children in his research will turn into Orphenochs he is going to kill them all. The fucking hell? That's just detestable. And besides why would you want kids as Orphenochs? If the Orphenochs are your soldiers, why would you want kids as soldiers (and yes I'm aware in history children have acted as soldiers but still, different times)?

Well that was a quick fight.

Andddddddd J VS Takumi was short as well. Though I'm not going to lie I loved the finish of the match. The whole rider kick and punch combo was pretty cool, especially in the way it was executed. Definitely the action highlight of the episode.

But poor Chaco. He lost his pal. Oh well, he has a new friend now.

That was a very nice ending for Keiko's story. Chock full of the feelies it is. Not quite sure why Mari would think Takumi is worried though.

Well this was quite the lovely episode, much better then 18.

The story from 18 continued over to here and was much better presented. Whereas in 18 there was barely one and was just one large act of developing Keitaro, this one worked more as a story. Sure it was the second half of Keiko's story to get back her mother, but sometimes the second half can be better, this being an instance. The interactions between her and the others, and the ending with her reuniting finally with her mom were done very well and were pretty touching.

But it appears as if episode 19 is quite the flip from 18. While 19 had the story 18 didn't, 19 lacks any character development, something that episode 18 was pretty much built on. Also 19 had more action then 18 did. It was still fairly short, but it delivered. 18 only had one fight while this one had 3 (Faiz VS Clown and Yuji, Faiz VS Clown, and Faiz VS J). All three fights were handled well, the weakest of the bunch being the fight against the clown before J showed up.

So yeah episode 19 was much better then 18. I find it really funny how it's the utter opposite of what 18 was. 18 lacked any story and action but had great character development, whereas 19 had a story lacked any character development and had good action. Screwy ain't it?

I thought the same too , especially since i watched Agito way before and to me that was the darkest series of Kamen rider.But the last 10 episodes of Faiz and also Paradise Lost made me change my opinion. It's pretty damn dark :lol

To be honest I think Kuuga was actually darker than Agito or Faiz to me. Okay well I mean I can see why Faiz can be considered dark because of some of the deaths but I still think somethings in Kuuga were darker.

Okay the Unknowns/Lords in Agito were pretty damn dark so I could see that too.

Super-1 Episode 2: I watched the first episode a while ago and decided to continue with this series with the HK Subs, since I'm watching Garo too I don't mind watching a Good subbed series with a sub-par one. Still I'm on the KITSubs episodes and they are good. I love the Martial Arts theme in this, I wish they would do something like this in the newer series. Interesting to see the human turn into the monster in this series I thought that was a Heisei thing. Very enjoyable right now and I am in a Showa mood.

I've seen a bit of Super-1 via the KITSubs, but it never really gripped me. I've been thinking of downloading the HK subs and giving it a second chance once I finish with Black RX.

Ah how is Black RX so far? I want to watch it after I finish Black which is after Super-1. I loved Super-1 from the first episode and sad it wasn't finished till I found the HK Subs, so I'm willing to give it a chance, I love the costume and have his figuart so I figure might as well.

I'm enjoying it a lot more than I expected. It still doesn't really mesh well with Black, but Tetsuo Kurata is always awesome and the show has fantastic monster designs and action scenes - I'm looking forward to the imminent arrival of Robo and Bio Riders fairly soon, which should add even more flash to the fight scenes. If you don't keep trying to think of it as a sequel to Black it really is a great show.

Ah okay, well I'll give it a shot soon, where did you get the episodes from?

So it'll be better off watching RX if you HAVEN'T finished Black?

Some guy called Stone is subbing the series. He's up to episode 18 and they're being posted on nyaa.

Not really, just don't go into RX expecting it to be anything like Black aside from the main actor.

Don't even expect Kotaro to have the same personality he had in Black.

Good to know, so it's pretty much same name and same actor only then?

Ah cool, I saw the HK Subs of that were really horrible so I hope those are better.

Super-1 Episode 3: This was a good episode for more Martial Arts styled action. The special effects look cheesy but pretty good for 1980. I love his multiple hands they are awesome. Dogma is a pretty despicable group so far using people as slaves for their plans. Interesting to see the secret identity being kept from some people so far too. Also Kazuya made one of the most awesome puns ever. Overall I'm enjoying it, I'm waiting to see how good the HK Subs are to see how far I go.

Super-1 Episode 4: Really enjoyed this episode, great seeing Kazuya use his martial arts skills to take down a lot of the Dogma Minions. Also cool to see his friend from College and that he looks like he was in America for a while. I enjoyed him breaking free from the guillotine using his cyborg parts in his body, X had a bit of a problem breaking free when he wasn't transformed (to be fair he wasn't a total cyborg). Loved the Power Hands finish before his Rider kick. Also he must have the absolute longest henshin pose ever.

Super-1 Episode 5: This one is feeling almost like Inspector Gadget/The 1960's Batman show, with a deathtrap in each episode and being escaped from. Did like the plot about the ChameleoKing with the more humanized villains though. Great action for the time too. I hope we see more hands than just the Electro Hands which have had a lot of use so far.

Super-1 Episode 6: Definitely has that Deathtrap thing going for this series so far. The villains are like no way he can get out of this, Kazuya breaks out of trap and kicks said villain's ass. Still he has been captured in pretty good ways though. These are the HK Subs now which are exactly like X's with bad grammar, structure but are still manageable. I hope like Battle Fever J this show evolves and changes even with standalone episodes.

Gaim 11 and 12:

They were really good. Lots of intrigue. Things are getting really serious, and apparently Oren is gay for Takatora, and Ygrasdill's flamethrower guys drive in UPS trucks. :lol

I'm up through episode 15 of Black RX. This is the middle of a pretty major storyline involving the introduction of both Robo Rider and Joe the Haze. It's been pretty fun so far and the monster design for this and episode 14, a robotic mantis guy, is just gorgeous. If I had any complaint it's how much of an ass-pull Robo Rider was. It was a moment where the narrator literally tells us that it's just a hidden power Kotaro has had this entire time but never discovered. His first fight is cool and I love the design, but man is that some lazy damn plotting.

Gaim 13:

Holy Toledo! Hase just became an Inves! Anyway, Banana Arms Gaim was really cool looking. Banana Arms works so well for that suit, and Bravo got his butt kicked, so I thought it was a good episode.

EDIT: Gaim 14:

Well...the pinecone is dead. I really wish that they had done more beforehand to make us care more about him, like give him more character development earlier on. Also, how was Sentai Tamashii right when he said that Yuuya was the first Inves Kouta fought? Speaking of which, Solid Micchy was cool to see. Who knew he was so good at stealth? I also really want to punch Sid in his smug little face now... :I

I'm starting to wonder what Toku funerals are like. Look at all the people killed in Blade or the horrifying revalation abou the Invess. How did Tachibana explain Sayoko's death? "An immortal peacock monster killed her?" Or the pinecone's family? Hase just disappeared and no body can ever be found so what are they supposed to make of that?

Or Yuuya.

I just finished episode 15 of Gaim, and why did Micchy keep that a secret? Kouta has a right to know that he killed his friend without knowing it. Also, Takatora knows that Micchy is Ryugen now, so...yeah.

Super-1 Episode 7: Loved this episode a lot because Kazuya was rescuing people rather than having to escape. I love how he uses a lot of different special attacks, science, and skill to beat his opponents. Also liked him sneaking into Dogma's base too. Also it was cool to see Dogma just recruit someone and turn them into a monster because the guy just wanted power. A Martial Artist Rider who wanted to become a cyborg, I love Super-1 for lots of reasons.

Gaim 16:

With great power comes great responsibility. Anyway, what did Takatora show Micchy? Well, we've got Helheim, Yggrasdil, so maybe the NÃ*ðhöggr? or the Hræsvelgr? Kouta is becoming one of my favorite main Riders, he's one of the most heroic main Riders we've ever gotten. Jinba Lemon looks...eh. The mango Inves looked pretty cool, though.

EDIT: Gaim 17:

Holy taking the third option Batman! First Oren, now Micchy? I felt that sequence kind of killed the tension. We were having a serious, dramatic scene, then all of the sudden we get the Oren Lock Seed...ok? I don't get why They never showed Kouta whatever Takatora showed Micchy back when they were captured. If Micchy joined Yggdrasil because of that, then I'm sure Kouta would would have as well...if not Kaito as well.

Black RX 16.

Okay, so I was wrong: this isn't a trilogy. There's at least one more part of this story next time, along with the introduction of Bio Rider. We also did get slightly more of an explanation of where the alternate forms come from, but it's still a total ass-pull. This storyline is great, though. Crisis's princess is accidentally killed in a lab accident, so Maribaron kidnaps a bunch of little girls in order to brainwash a replacement. Kotaro ends up having to chase them into the Demon World and we get a lot of great fight scenes, some very good drama, some great monster designs, and relatively little annoying Sahara family. This arc is definitely the highlight of the show so far and I'm really loving it.

Must... not... say... anything!

What? That Takatora is going to do what I wanted him to do and show Kouta Helheim's secret? You know Takatora...you could've done that BEFORE beating him so badly that he un-henshined!

Maybe he was using power to back up his argument? :o

He didn't do it with Micchy.

#nepotism

Anyway, about to start episode 20 now.

But, first! Episode 19:

When I saw Duke, I said to myself: "It's Sengoku isn't it?" and it was :lol Anyway, it was really good. What is this whole thing of "Who will Helheim choose"? and something I forgot to mention earlier...I find it interesting how the Sengoku Driver like the Double Driver, in that it acts as a filter to whatever is put in it.

Black Episode 4
Is it just me, or does the Black theme sound like it could be used by Batman?

Man we ain't messing around with this episode! Getting straight to the action, and right on the road to! And good lord was that a cool way to hit the Rider Chop.

So how exactly did he come up with the name Kamen Rider? Series name aside, how exactly did Kotaro come up with the Kamen Rider part? In fact how do must riders come up with that part of their name? Is it just one of those toku contrived coincidences?

Flea mutants? Good God those things are going to be a bitch to defeat. Fleas are like cockroaches, except a bit weaker and more annoying.

Yes! Run away from the...old guy? Oh never mind it's one of the Gorgom members.

Yes because a known side effect of steroids is causing rapid hair growth.

Kotaro knows this guy? And he can just walk right into the pit? Man security must not be that tight in Japan for motorcycle races.

Look I know he's the bad guy, but you don't. Why would you be getting antsy because he's equipping on a hand and eye device to help him do his work? That just seems something fairly weird and slightly dumb to get worked up over.

Now you can get worked up and be scared shitless.

Oh so Kotaro was taught by him. Okay so that explains the chumminess. But I still wanna know how Kotaro was just able to waltz right into the pit.

Because winning a lot of races as of late is obviously a work of Gorgom. Okay it is but once again, why would Kotaro be uneasy about this? He couldn't think that perhaps Hayami just simply trained and got better?

Now you can be concerned Kotaro.

How exactly do you know that it'll be effective on Kotaro. You only tested it on Hayami, whose just a regular Joe. Kotaro is a super human. Yes Hayami was enhanced some to be faster, but outside of increased speed he's still pretty normal. Just because it worked on him does not mean it'll necessarily work on Kotaro. You know, the super powered human.

OH MY GOD! He's turned into a hairier Wolverine!

Now he's a werewolf! The makeup is actually pretty nice looking. Nothing to great but better then some other werewolf makeup I've seen.

By the way, Flea Mutant is really ugly looking. Ugly in a good way though. The design isn't bad at all, by ugly I mean that for a mutant flea it comes of as ugly, which it should being a mutant bug and all.

Huh turns out it is effective on Kotaro. Of course! Oh...never mind. Kotaro looks to be okay.

Well episode 4 was pretty nice. My only gripe with the episode is that some of the characters acted a little too stupid at times. Outside of that it was a nice episode.

Well, considering that Micchy is his little brother there was an established relationship between the two of them so all Takatora needed to do was give Micchy an explanation as to why he does what he does. He then allowed Micchy to make his own choice of what to do.

Kouta on the other hand needed a bit more convincing what with Zangetsu being a rather huge threat and nearly traumatizing Kouta for life after the two met in Helheim. If Takatora merely explained the threat to Kouta with no demonstration of how outmatched he was Kouta would've simply shrugged the whole thing off as complete BS and not even give what Takatora said a second though... That's how I took it anyway. :lol

He doesn't want to, though.

The less people that know, the better.