I've tried to get into Blade several times, but as I'm a big action junky the terrible effects always ruined the fun for me. It's a shame because it has some good ideas, and some good designs but my God those effects.

The only special effect that made me laugh at the poor quality was Chalice's Spinning Attack :lol

It was just weird stuff, like Blade would set up this huge attack and it would be awesome but then the enemy would just topple over and explode. Like couldn't he fly backwards even a few feet? I have no feeling of impact at all.

Or like when Garren gets that Rider kick where he pointlessly splits in half...and then kicks them in the shoulder and then they go shooting off to the side like a cartoon. Like it just looks terrible.

Like it was odd too because the actual fighting, like fists and swords was GREAT. The amount of sparks used in that show was overkill and Rider's like Chalice were awesomely savage and versatile, but those special moves man...

I can list quite easily the things that bug the shit out of me about Blade:

-Amane's creeptacular reverse pedo love for hajime

-Tachibana literally having no real convictions or drive at all, being evil half the time, and inconsistant or useless the rest. His 180 degree shifts in personality over the first 3 arcs kill him for me. I love his character by the end but he's unbearable early on.

-Mutsuki's flip flop nature with the Spider Undead. 1 minute he's fine and it's under control, the next episode he's wild again. The resolution of that stuff was great in the end, but it took FAR too long to resolve.

-The general lack of explanation for the Battle Fight by the end. We're given insights, we see the Stone of Sealing. That's cool. But the point of the original Battle Fight isn't ever clearly explained.

-Honestly the character motivations all around aren't entirely convincing to me. Out of all the characters involved only Hajime holds my interest. And even then half the time he's infuriatingly vague and agitative. To the point of killing crucial plots from time to time.

Overall I just can't care for that show. When there's something going on it's quick and will pass you right by. When there's nothing happening it drags on into forever.

I'm glad there are fans of the show, every show should have fans. But man Blade is not the show for me. The one saving grace is the awesome rider designs.

All this Blade talk is making me want to go watch the last episode of Decade where Kenzaki shows up.

Quick question: What's the best Rider movie to show someone without any context from the series. I've heard All riders vs Daishocker is a good stand alone movie but I don't know.

I thought the battle fight was to see who would become the top species on Earth. And then because everything was unsealed it started up again.

Blade's writer change was a lot less noticeable than Hibiki or Decade's. This is likely because the writer had actually seen the show before and didn't want to completely reinvent it in his own image. The only real change noticeable is that the action ratchets up and Mutsuki stagnates for about 15 episodes.

Yes.

Maybe show them ZO or J since they're one off riders that wouldn't really need prior knowledge to see.

I mean good ones. LOL.

But I would like something more recent from the Heisei era.

I'd say just use the go to series of W then.

I just finished episodes 3 and 4 of Kamen Rider X. The fights in this show can get pretty brutal when he starts smacking people around with that Ridol Stick. It just looks painful. The enemies are pretty vicious, too. Killing, trying to kill, shoving a lady and her kid into a car compactor... It's not ridiculous like the public casualties in Kuuga, it fits.

Also, as cheesy as they are, I really like the monster outfits in this series. They're crude in their execution compared to what has been turned out in recent years, and there is a fundamental difference in the design aesthetics in these older shows and the monsters of today. It really makes for an interesting change, visually.

They use miniatures quite cleverly, too. The music is also entertaining and, I'm guessing, representative of its time in Japanese television production: lots of horns and dramatic male voices.

Though, I do have to admit, in reference to these specific episodes, Medusa went out like a chump. :lol

Sort of. But then that begs the questions about the Stone? Like where did it come from/who created it? I just feel like there are far more questions left unanswered by the end than those answered.

Yeah, I agree with you here. But then, the dude is thousands of years old, so no matter who likes him is a reverse pedo. :lol

They explained this in the middle of the series. The Battle Fight was to determine which species would become the dominate one on Earth.

I have no idea what to start next Kabuto or Hibiki..?? I really love the design of both suits, but I've heard a equal amount of good and bad from these riders.

Kabuto is probably the worst Toku show I've seen. You could try watching their pilots, I guess, though I hear Hibiki starts out reeeeeeeaaally weird.

Hibiki's not really weird, just very very different.

See my post directly above yours. My main concern is that yes it's to determine the dominant species, but why? The Stone is never explained.

If you don't know which to start, why not just get to both of them in order and roll with Hibiki first?

I like that sense of mystery, actually. Why should the stone be explained? How would knowing what the stone is and where it comes from improve the story or alter your opinion?

Kabuto is a pretty solid show if you can get past the kinda douchey protagonist. Hibiki is, like said, a very different show, but if it clicks for you you'll probably love it (at least until episode 30).

For some reason it doesn't seem to have its own thread, but we watched the ToQGer vs Gaim special today and did Toei not have anyone who actually works on Gaim even write this thing? Kouta was completely out of character. Mai was even more useless than ever. And the villains were crap. THe ToQGers were just, ARGH!!! Annoying is the best way to describe it. I haven't watched ToQ since episode 4, but this made me not want to watch 5 and 6. However, like I said, the whole Gaim thing felt forced and no one seemed to be the way they are on the show. Then there is the whole appearance of Ichigo, NIgo, and V3. They were cool for the whole 30 seconds they appeared, but then the whole, "We don't help Heisei Riders" thing was also completely out of character. Yes, I know this special was meant to be hype up the VS movie, but it made them look like jackasses.

The only thing I can really give praise to was the awesome scene with Zangetsu on the phone as the mech battle was going on outside. That was hilarious but damn, the Yggdrasil building has some of the best sound and shock proofing ever. Everyone in the world should be using those materials.

As a cross over, it was bad. As a ToQGer episode, it was bad. As a Gaim episode, it was terrible, the worst Gaim episode ever. The fights were subpar. The characters felt off, especially from the Kamen Rider side, and the fights were not even that good. I hope Toei never does something like this again.

As of now I'm watching Den-O cause I gave up on TokQger!

Still waiting for the day Hibiki gets higher quality releases as apparent terrible video quality is one of the only bad things I've heard about that show. And I can wait. Possibly forever :lol

In terms of Rider shows, its looking to be going that way for me too.

Kabuto turns into a total train-wreck of a show. Its great.

I absolutely love Kabuto (Okay sense I love all Kamen Riders I tend to say this a lot lol.) Anyways the characters and the character arcs are really amazing in Kabuto. Either you'll hate Tendou or you'll love him. I actually love the guy, his actor is amazing, and he does have lots of human parts to him. Also I love how he portrays how confident he is. Also Gatack, The Hoppers, Drake, and Sasword are all really awesome. =)

The discussion thread is in the news and rumors forum. Not really sure why.

I forget the writer's name off-hand, but he isn't part of Gaim's staff, no. He's someone who's been working as an assistant writer on Kobayashi's last couple projects - OOO and Go-Busters. I'm not sure if this is his first work with the ToQGers or not, but he did seem to have a better handle on them (except Kagura, who he wrote more like the "airhead Pink" stereotype). But yeah, all of the Gaim characters were really, really off.

Loved that bit, too.

Totally agreed. Personally, I plan to just forget this thing ever happened.

So that there wouldn't end up being two discussion threads in each section.

I actually stand corrected. It's Nobuhiro Mouri and he co-wrote episodes 11, 18, and 19 of Gaim. Which makes it all the more puzzling how he has no idea how most of the characters work.

It is one thing to not truly grasp the characters, but it's another all together to make all of the characters look HORRIBLE. Honestly if I'd never seen Gaim, I can't really imagine something more off putting than that crossover.

I can.

Mitchy's sweater in that crossover.

Ye gods.

Should I even watch the Crossover episode? How bad are we talking here? Worse than Super Hero Taisen?

:lol

DK 08. Three Riders all introduced in one episode? ARGH! RIDER OVERLOAD!

The biggest reason to watch DK is to see just how much it can get away with each week. Take that little fist fight which introduces the cheating bastard Camo. I mean sure Power Rangers has unmorphed fight scenes but they're big and cartoony. And although carefully edited to make you think you've seen more than you have, that doesn't change that this is a full contact fight between two characters, neither of which are in suits or using rubber weapons or lasers. The loser walks away limping, after we see the fist connect to the thigh, it may not seem a big deal but it continues to prove that people in this show get hurt. They can't get away with life threatening injuries, but nonetheless.

Well that is at least true of everyone but Len, apparently. I know he's a main character, and I know this is a toku show but after all the naff Final Vents have been killing monsters and people left right and centre, it seems so pathetic the actual cool one is one that the other Rider stands up and dusts himself down and carries on from. Incisor only existed to introduce the concept of Venting, and raise the stakes, but now his death feels pretty damn undermined.

Honestly though I still like Len more than Kit. Kit may get a more impressive power set with a much less interesting design, but his passive naivety is getting to infuriating levels. At least Len is a badass, and seems weirdly vulnerable when he lowers his fists, which I find sort of charming.

You have to wonder how Xaviax's Riders master their powers so quickly even though Xaviax is always vague and never tells the whole truth. It's even more confusing in context as Kit has been shown as a real noob to the whole Rider business despite becoming a Rider earlier than Lansing or Camo or whoever else.

Kabuto 23-25. Awww yeaaah Drake is back.

Halfway through and things are finally getting good. Kagami has finally started feeling like a protagonist (now I see what you all mean when you say this should have been his show) and the mysteries are really beginning to deepen. There's hope for this show yet.

I just wish so much of this didn't so obviously revolve around Hiyori. That girl is Koyomi levels of dull.

DK 09. Nice traffic sounds, that road sure sounds busy for a world completely empty of people.

I get that serialised shows aren't all that common in kids TV as they want kids to jump in anywhere so they always catch an advert for the toys but the fact that we had an almost three minute long recap before the cold open even started, was a little ridiculous, especially as that cold open was shorter than the actual credits. Five minutes in to a twenty minute episode and they'd barely started.

Luckily, for the most part, the episode used what little time it left itself well. Although the fight between Len and Thrust was very boring, and very drawn out, featuring solid fight choreography but none of the super powered flash from Len's previous fights with Lansing, there were lots of great little character moments woven into the action. It was full of the kind of blink and you'll miss them moments that carry so much meaning. It's very mature way to develop characters, and makes a nice change from toku's usual screaming at the audience.

Torque sorta...abandoned his plan, huh? He redeems himself by taking down Camo so brutally and surviving Len's Final Vent like Len did his, but it sure feels like a lot of build up just turned out to be filler and time wasting.

It's funny, Incisor may not last long, but he's actually pretty important to the plot overall. So although Camo is the second to die, he is actually by far the most pointless character so far too. He achieved, and added, nothing - I mean how could he when he has that little screen time? He was just tacked on and purposeless. He SUCKED.

You can thank Verde from Ryuki for that. He only existed in the 13 Riders special and was equally as important as Camo sounds. Actually, Verde did managed to do one thing by killing Raia so he did accomplish something :lol.

Oh my.

Wait Verde killed someone in the original? But Camo died before he vented anyone. *looks up the Raia suit* AH that is Sting, so wait, his death in DK was entirely original footage? And that death was so epic as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y895Z1lUVSI

I thought TV-Nihon subbed it. They usually have good video quality.

TV-N works with what they got, vid quality is an afterthought over making sure the subs are completed.
Look at Blade for an example :lol

Aaaand more Kabuto. This time episodes 26-28.

I don't care if his powers are pretty lame in the grand scheme of the show, Daisuke is hands down my favourite Rider in Kabuto. His relationship with Gon is superb and the least grating use of a child actor I've seen in toku. These two episodes with his worm double were fantastic.

Except for when that weird Hyper Kabuto bit happened at the end. Don't expect I'll be getting answers for that any time soon since next seems to be those dumb chef episodes I've heard so much about. Because if there's one thing Kabuto needs more of, its dumb cooking side plots :rolleyes