I think you should go for Decade.

To be fair I did quite enjoy that episode I watched.

I say fuck quality and go for Hibiki since it's suppose to be vastly different then many of the other shows.

If Hibiki is an option then I will always advocate trying Hibiki.

Hibiki is a show I have wanted to watch forever but the poor video quality and knowing there are lots of things still out there with good rips to watch put me off. But about a year later, I've pretty much watched or at least tried every Rider series I've wanted to watch. So that basically leaves either Hibiki or Decade left now. I could attempt to get into Blade for like the tenbillionth time but meh.

Dude screw video quality. If you want to watch it just watch it.

DK 29. Holy clipshow Batman.

DK 30. Kamen Rider Siren, AKA Kamen Rider Wasted Potential number ten billion and one.

In early episodes Len's lack of place, gave him a distinct lack of purpose. He was fighting a war entirely alone, for a dimension that wasn't his own against a monster who had killed his entire world and most of its protectors before they could even defend themselves. To add insult to injury, he wasn't fighting mindless monsters, he was fighting "innocent" people who shared the faces of his closest friends, and family.

Part of what made his friendship with Kit so enjoyable, gay subtext jokes aside, is it showed this vulnerability to Len. He was damaged, he was hurting and he was lost, there was so much pain and sorrow just beneath the surface but Len had been forced to learn to compress it down, pick up his sword and fight.

In the scenes Kit laughs off as corny, you visibly see Len's shoulders loosen, realising just how tight they are in every other scene. He obviously longed so much for a friend, for someone to talk to, anyone, through his friendship with Kit and later Chris he finds his place again and Len shows himself to be a character that grows in really a big way, he - much like Kit - is a very enjoyable character to look back over the series to see how they grow and progress. Both characters go through a lot more than most toku characters.

But then, it all turns out that he WASN'T alone, one other Rider from Ventara survived and of all of those Riders, it was his girlfriend, the woman he is madly in love with. It makes sense for Len to never bring her up before this, it fits with his character, but Len finding out he isn't alone - that his love has survived - should have been a HUGE moment for his character, but the show never captures any sense of that. Instead Siren is just yet another utterly pointless character, who does nothing and swiftly dies. Somehow, she's worse than all the other wasted Riders, because yeah characters like Torque were wasted potential but she didn't have the potential to be important she WAS important, easily one of the most important characters in the show, so she deserved so much more than the whole pile of nothing that she got.

Also weird was that although Advent Beasts have always been a thing, it was never really a concept properly explored. It just seemed like a bit of visual flare to give the finishers more punch, so to suddenly have an episode focused on Strike taking control of Vented Rider's Beasts for more power was really weird. I mean it was awesome and all, but it just felt like I was suddenly in another show.

What you're describing is elements of the Genocider arc from Ryuki where Ouja finally has his 3 contract monsters combine into one scary yet useless monster. They explore the contract monster stuff a lot during the first half of Ryuki though.

Strike has been fun, but it's been clear that they've never really known what to do with him. Despite him being important to the shows universe, as soon as his identity was revealed (and even that wasn't handled well) he just sorta fell apart a bit showing a drastically broken personality where he'd go from ridiculously brutal to unnecessarily violent to ADHD levels of random to sympathetic and understanding, to cowardly and pathetic.

Like I say, minus Kit and Len the Riders in this show have either been wasted or utterly forgettable with no inbetween. I wish they had got to adapt a show like Blade, as although I think Blade's action was shit, having four Riders to focus on rather than 9000 would have benefited this show in so many ways.

Kabuto Episode 4
Did Tendou just buy the restaurant mackerel? :lol

Awwww she does the grandma said this too. Except she's missing the epic pointing to the sky, or in this case ceiling.

:lolol How can anybody hate this guy? He's a friggen a riot. "Please say that I am better then a pro." Gold, absolute gold.

Right you are Hiyori. Kagami is indeed an idiot. A big one.

Wait, so the scenes of something burning wasn't Kagami's house? It was just his brother making a fire to burn his baseball with? You got me there show, you got me there. I was sure it was their house that was on fire but I was wrong. So good job show, you got me good with that one.

He should be fired. You should also be fired as well Hiyori considering that attitude you have.

Well that was quite the lovely scene there with Ryou and Kagami. I'm becoming a real sucker for these more tender/heartwarming/dramatic moments, and I blame 555 for it :lol But serious, very lovely scene here. The way they interacted does seem like the way brothers would talk after not seeing each other for a long period of time. Unfortunately though, something tells me that Ryou is going to end up being a worm. Though if he does, perhaps it can lead to Kagami getting a nice dose of development.

The scene is trying to be happy, but the music is telling me that shit is up.

Pretty ballsy for Tendou to just mosey on up to one of the head workers of an organization that is trying to bring him in for questioning. I guess, wait, know Tendou is that friggen awesome.

Why are they taking you off the case? I don't know, maybe it's because there is a Worm running around that has taken on the appearance of your little brother. Which makes you way too involved with the case as there is emotional baggage to it that may and probably will prevent you from doing your job correctly. That good enough of answer Kagami?

Tendou Souji no selling that punch like a BAWS!

Well who knows. The Worm from the last episode took on the appearance of a woman, and it didn't kill her. So for all you know Ryou could actually be alive out there somewhere. Though to be fair, I think it is probably safe to assume that Ryou is in fact dead.

Well of course you were followed. You have an emotional connection to this case. Of course Zect would follow you because they know that in all likelihood, you will end up going to Ryou, and thus lead them to him. Are you really that surprised Kagami?

Two things.

1) Awesome speech by Tendou as always.
2) Where the fuck did that thunderstorm come from?

Oh and look, this Worm looks different as well! I guess they only look the same before they molt. I guess that makes a little sense.

Awww what a beautiful ending scene *sniffle*. It was a nice ending to the the story of the episode, and brought some good emotion to it. Good job Kabuto, good job.

Well that was another good episode. What makes it so good, well for one thing, it was a well rounded episode.

For once we have an actual story present which is great to see. Now to be fair, it's actually a fairly predictable story. It's easy to see what the main conflict of the episode is and just where it will end up. However regardless of it's predictability, it was still nice. It didn't really add anything to the main story arch though, however it did develop a character in a way that could affect the main story in the long run. All in all, it was a nice episode that tied directly into a character and their development.

So speaking of characters and development, Kagami sure did get a good little amount in my opinion. The story tied directly into him and because of that, brought upon the development. He had to learn that sometimes love can make somebody weak, but that it can also be used to strengthen one up. It also seems that the whole situation has lit a fire under his ass to try and rise above Tendou. I'm quite curious to see if that happens, or at least to see Tendou say that while Kagami isn't stronger than him, that he is on the same level. But that was about it for the characters in terms of development. Everybody was pretty much the same as they were an episode ago.

As always with Kabuto, the action was quite impressive. We only got one fight this time, but sometimes you only need one fight. And considering this episode was more story driven, it's acceptable and quite honestly good to not pound in a lot of action, and make the one scene as good as it can be. The fight scene was done very well in both the regular and Clock Up portions. I really like how it was a rain filled fight, especially when it was time to Clock Up and you got to see all the little raindrops. Very cool stuff, just like the action as a whole.

Another good episode in the books here, and so far one of the best since it finally had a story to help drive it home. Hopefully this keeps up as at the moment, there really isn't that much to drive the series for it's run. But I digress.

There is one part in the middle of the series that I don't like Tendou but that passes I absolutely love the guy. I love the other characters a bit more that's all.

Kagami gets lots of character development and is one of the characters that grows the most.

Hibiki 01.

This was so fucking weird, I literally have no idea what I just watched. It was like loads of random scenes, played out of order, and held together with selotape.

Each random sequence had so much style and energy though, that I found I couldn't look away, and I was somewhat rewarded for not looking away as the closing couple of minutes of the episode were great. The Hibiki suit is gorgeous, and there was a nice blend of the stuff that came before it but also what comes after it all mixed in here.

The first episode is pretty trippy the first time through. It becomes easier to follow after this, though.

Oh is it Hibiki time, just like the time everyone was watching Faiz like a month back? Cool, if so. Though...I guess I'll say SPOILER WARNING or whatever though I only watched the first two episodes.

I'm just re-watching it so I guess I won't explain my thoughts too much...but the first two episodes were pretty great at establishing what this show'll be like. I think....Hibiki might be my favorite Rider just going by how chill he usually is. He's not a rookie, but a almost a veteran at this point. He knows nearly everything there is to know about hunting Makamou and like he says, he just sorta fell into being a hero.

So usually the main development comes from Asumu whose the...deutragonist? The actual protagonist? I dunno, this'll be a fun a rewatch. I admit the first time I watched Hibiki was during a busy time, so I didn't pay as much attention this time I hope to rectify that.

Hibiki...isn't really good at driving things is he? Also I forgot he used it as a Rider Kick as soon as the second episode. It's with out the usual fanfare, but that's mainly because it's no his finishing move. The drum thing is. Also without fanfare is his transformation, though it was drawn out more than usual in the second episode. It was pretty badass when it happened too.

Everyone seems to be watching the same Riders at times and I'm just here in my own corner watching Super-1 lol.

And I'm just sitting here watching a shit ton of shows (Kabuto, Kuuga, and Black). :lol

Well it was that, or Decade :lol

Yeah it wasn't bad so much, but even "mundane" sequences were shot like the camera man was falling over in a discotech and I just found it really alienating. It didn't help that TVNs aspect ratio is so utterly fucked it was like I was watching the whole thing play out in front of my house, while I watch through my letter box.

Decade 02.

What the fuck, why does Decade know everything about the Grongi to the point where he can speak their language fluently? They ask him multiple times to confirm how he knows so much and he just ignores them, is Decade really this frustrating so early on?

It's disappointing, because other than Decade himself, I actually really liked this episode. Sure this new Yusuke is such a dick he almost makes me miss Godai - ALMOST - but it turns out Kuuga might have been pretty awesome if it had a budget. I may not openly admit it, but Kuuga's first wave of forms were really enjoyable, I actually liked the first twenty or so episodes of that show.

The designs were simple, but detailed, and Kuuga's power set were some of the most fantastically realised in the whole franchise. Each form had a clearly defined purpose, and a specific context. Dragon increased his speed, agility, range and jump height but it reduced his raw strength and power capabilities so it functioned as the perfect balance with Titan, which massively increased his defence and raw power but greatly reduced his speed. Likewise Pegasus was so powerful it was a one shot and that is it kind of deal, so having something like Mighty which was utterly balanced, not too taxing on the user but packed with a weapon that could topple pretty much anyone - the Rider kick - Mighty was the best kind of form to fall back onto. They all had their place.

They ruin this from the Rising Business onwards, but that first wave is something that has clearly inspired every Rider show onwards and I don't think they've ever been able to capture it ever again, in the precise way Kuuga did. If I was to get a power set, I'd much rather his, than all the Riders where each form makes the previous one redundant or each form comes with poorly defined powers and purposes.

Plus the action was just nuts in this episode. The best kind of nuts. From the flashback - forward? - to the Rider War to where Yusuke drains the power - life? - from the other Riders to reach his final form and him and Decade punch each other and it's like a nuke went off, to seeing Yusuke leap from form to form as he battles Decade, and then the Hoppers appear because why the fuck not?! JUST HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS AWESOME.

Kabuto Episode 5
"I would you like you to help me." The fuck happened? The person in charge of subbing get lazy or something?

Looks like Zect brought their A game today. Though to be perfectly honest, if they wanted to defeat Worms before they can clock up they would give the troopers more powerful weapons instead of the ones they got. Or even better, mass produce the belt and make their own Zectors for them. That way they have an army of riders they can just make whenever one falls. It would be a smart strategical move in my opinion.

Oh, and when Misaki came in and pretty much put a stop to the fight against the Worm, am I the only one who thought it went a little like this?

http://southparkstudios.mtvnimages.c...-case-16x9.jpg

Let me take a wild guess, the favor is to make mackerel miso for his sister?

So first we get an episode about Kagami's brother, and now we get one about his father? What's next, an episode about his mother, then his grandparents, and then anybody else in his family?

Tendou really is obsessive when it comes to cooking :lol

Hiyori sure is a Debbie Downer isn't she?

This boss is funny. I love how she's trying to play matchmaker and is doing it in such a creepily gleeful manner. I demand to see more of her! I hereby dub her (for now) Kabuto's Naoya, and we all know how much I love Naoya.

Kagami had to change into his suit just to have that brief meeting with Tadokoro? Why? Why did he have to do that? He's gone to meetings with him and Misaki before dressed in his street clothes.

When did this became Kamen Rider James Bond?

So pushy this lady is. Then again, she is pushing Hiyori. And Hiyori definitely needs to be pushed a bit. She's like a turtle, except really stubborn and bitchy.

Holy shit that laugh is creepy O-O

Thank you Kagami. Seriously what's with these people? I know they're trying to bait Tendou out, but all they are doing is letting somebody (or in this case something) get away with murder. So as I said, thank you Kagami for coming in and saving that young lady.

That was a kick ass henshin!

Well to be fair Hiyori, he had to save Kagami form getting killed. Plus he did end up getting detained/arrested. So while he didn't show up for your guys' meet together, he does at least have some good reasons for not doing so.

By the way, I love these segments with Tendou and his sister watching Boukenger.

Anyways another one bites the dust with episode five. Five in, 44 to go. How did this episode fair?

Unfortunately while episode four had a story to it, I found episode five lacking in one. I guess you could say there was one with Hiyori and Tendou making plans to go see the tulips, but it didn't come off as a story to me. Along with this, nothing really was added to the main plot of the show.

In terms of character, it does seem like Kagami got a bit of development. What with him seeming to grow a set and break away from Zect to help out the woman that as getting attacked. It seems Hiyori had some development with her seeming to come out her shell, and in the end losing faith in Tendou. How well this is carried on in the next episode I have no idea. But hopefully it is something they work on because she needs some development badly. Other than that, same old same old.

Surprisingly I thought the action was lacking as well. The fight didn't impress me as much as the others did. It was still entertaining, but it didn't have that wow factor that the other ones have had. It came off rather short and a bit rushed. So for once (so far), the action wasn't that good.

In total, I'd have to say that episode five came off as a bit of a let down. There wasn't a story to it, the action was lacking in the grandeur it has had, and while characters got some development to a small degree, it still wasn't anything worthwhile. Episode five is the first episode of Kabuto so far that I simply did not find that good.

If there's one thing Decade was really good at, it was the action scenes. Especially when you realize that, back in 2009, we hadn't been seeing all these old suits again in every damn Rider movie.

I'm trying to say this without spoiling anything, but essentially every Rider world that Tsukasa goes to, he gains the abilities that help him complete his mission.


That's why he's constantly changing outfits and pulling out random knowledge from his ass.


He's basically like Superman where he gains abilities as the plot demands it, except that there's actually an in-story explanation for it.

And yeah, get used to Tsukasa just doing things and not explaining what he's doing to absolutely anyone. He's basically Tendou Souji 2.0.

Tsukasa can't answer about how he got his skills. He's got that unique kind of Fictional character amnesia where he retains all his former skills and knowlege, but doesn't remember the events related to them. So he remembers how to speak grongi and knows enough about them to figure out their plan, but he has no idea how he learned any of it.

But with far worse hair.

And no culinary skills.

And without the god complex.

1-4 of Kabuto were good, and I am liking Tendou and it's nice seeing these older shows and how everything was handled, just really cool, and gonna move forward.

Kabuto Episode 6
No means no mother fucker!

Listen to Kagami people. Tendou would have you all on the ground crying like a bitch within five minutes. Best to just leave him be and let him come to you, willingly.

"I'm keeping the bike though."

:lolol

"He got detained/arrested." As simple as that Kagami.

Where the heck do all of these Worms come from anyways? By now we usually have an explanation as to what the enemy force is and where they come from. But all we know so far is what they are. Do we get told where they come from?

Oh Tendou, you could write a book on philosophy. So far everything he has said is just filled with emotion and philosophical meaning (to me at least). I'd seriously buy "Philosophy by Tendou Souji" book if it existed.

:lol He seems quite surprised that Hiyori hung up on him.

He's not suffering at all Kagami. In fact I'd be happy to be imprisoned if I got the treatment Tendou is getting.

Those are some fluffy looking pancakes...now I want pancakes. Dammit Kabuto!

:lolol

Oh shit. More Body Snatchers stuff, this time with the big bad organization. This should be slightly interesting.

Kinda saw that one coming.

You know without the helmets and gun on, the Zectroppers aren't really that bad looking. They'd be better looking with a regular sized helmet and a big ass gun they have to equip to their arm. With those modifications, the suit would look really kick ass.

Does Hiyori still not understand what that means? It means that he's close by you in spirit, like when people say that loved ones that died are still with you. It doesn't mean that he is literally by you in person. Jeez Louise.

I wonder how much that set Tendou back.

Oh my God...here comes The Bee!

Well that was episode six and I must say, I found it to be a bit better then episode five. However, it isn't all smokes and road beers.

Once again there really wasn't a well defined story here. It was pretty much the same as episode five, except with a bit more emphasis on Tendou. However I will say that it does follow up episode five quite well, and the two do make a nice story when paired together. However there really isn't an end to it though in my opinion, as there is no closure between Tendou and Hiyori. However it did add to the main story in my opinion, mostly for the ending where they showed off The Bee.

Once again, character development went (to a degree) to Hiyori. Now while the story of the two episodes between them didn't really end, I did feel that Hiyori came full circle some in regards to her feelings/attitude towards Tendou, but not by a whole lot. As for the rest of the lot, I guess Misaki learned that sometimes she has to disobey those higher ups for the good of people. Outside of that however, nothing new.

Once again though, the action didn't really impress me. It did sort of though, mostly with the scene of Tendou just raping everybody while in Masked Form. But after that it wasn't all that great. Hopefully with a new rider ready to enter the fray, the quality of the action can pick up to the kick ass standards the first four episodes set.

So just like five, I'd say this is a fairly average episode. However unlike five, this one kept me thoroughly entertained. I liked it, but I wish it was better.

Lol do you see what I'm watching in my sig?

I am mainly in the Showa Era of Kamen Rider because there isn't much left lol.

I plan to watch more Showa at some point, though it's fairly hard when not all of the series are subbed. I'll probably do V3 after I finish the Blacks.

I'm thinking I'm gonna really hate Decade, the character, but I might actually like Decade, the show, if it provides more thrills like the last episode did.

Don't worry Yuusuke gets much better later on.

and I agree. The fight scenes are one of Decade's strongest points.

Well some of them are subbed by HK Subs, which are decent. Especially X.

DK 31. It's weird, the Rider suits in the Japanese footage look cheaper than those used in the American footage.

This was like the worst of Dragon Knight's flaws smashed into a single episode. The editing of the footage was so poor, the episode became genuinely hard to follow in places and we got THREE major character deaths IN THE SAME EPISODE. Wrath was painfully tacked on and pointless, our protagonist deserved better than dying in a muddled poorly edited mess that doesn't even really make sense of why either he or Wrath died and someone who has been so consistently entertaining as Strike deserved better than going down in the first ten minutes of an episode with much more important deaths later on.

Wrath may well be the worst Rider in the show bar Siren, like Siren he was introduced as deathly important and deathly powerful and died doing fucking nothing, he killed the protagonist but in a scene so poorly realised I couldn't really tell you how.

The action honestly sucked in a lot of ways. Survive Mode is introduced as a sort of last resort, wild card that shouldn't just be used willy nilly if you value your life and Len, fuelled by revenge, goes Survive Mode against Strike and sends Strike running - and not strategically running, I mean he backs him into the corner cowering and pleading for his life.

But then it turns out the actual powers are just sorta lame honestly. Sorta like this episode.

Probably because the American suits are new/repaired.

The Ryuki suits were falling apart by the end of the show. There were tears, scuffs, bends, wrinkles, they looked like shit. For such great designs the build quality was utter shit on those costumes.

Yeah man, I'm always surprised by how obviously rubber the suits are in the Japanese footage, they seem to make no attempt to hide all the stress marks, and bends and general damage.

Because they really can't.

With most shows there's only maybe two or three suits. One stunt, one hero, and maybe a backup/special suit for spark effects. (and some extra parts) But Ryuki had over 13 different suits. I wouldn't be surprised if there was only one each.

Its pretty much thanks to budgetary reasons. They can only afford to do a handful of suits for the show so they use those things until they completely fall apart :lol

Its really noticable on the early Heisei Shows since the budget was alot smaller back then.

It's weird especially as they put so much effort into each suit, even the suits for minor Riders have all those great little sculpted, moulded details they never settle for just plain rubber like what Kuuga had or whatever. And yet they don't spend the money on looking after the suits or duplicates.

This mostly results from the finite budget they are given for these shows. So to be able to produce a whole year worth of content they dont have the money to spend on repairing the suits every other week :)