That is fair enough, but it seems to pay - in my mind at least - to at least have one or two duplicates of the parts of the suit which take the most amount of contact like the chest armour or whatever.

Someday I would love to get more insight on how exactly the whole Suit business works :lol

DK 32.

Wow Eubulon may well be the single most terribly written character in the history of my adult TV watching life. He systematically undermined the entire TV show simply by being alive. He can literally break, change and alter every core rule of the show to however he sees fit, it's disgusting. It feels like the writers were put into the corner by the suits and they had to invent a magic wand to bend the show to however they wanted it to play out.

When Eubulon wasn't being a cancer, the rest of the episode played out like insulting fan fiction as written by a 12 year old that had only seen a handful of episodes. It was awful.

DK 33.

I watched this show what, 2010? First year of Uni? I honestly don't remember much about this show's second half and it's been an amazing disappointment honestly. I've had more fun than I haven't on this wild ride, but the show in my past was one I remembered being a whole lot better than this.

This new development, Master Eubulon, is a character I totally forgot even existed who has take this show in a very different direction, very late in the game and a part of me wishes I could just headcanon him from existence. Maybe that is why I forgot he existed in the first place. Saying that though, there are parts of this new development I really like.

Giving actors the chance to play new characters, their mirror doubles, gave the actors a chance to do some new, exciting daring things and also allowed the writers to play off of the characters we know in fun and inventive ways. The episode mostly focused around Hunt - Danny was a character I never much cared for until his brother got Vented but then just as his story got interesting he also got Vented - so it's nice his Ventara counterpart is this badass lone wo...Tiger (;)) who can perfectly stand on his own two feet. Guess I need to get myself a Tiger SHF to go with my Zolda and Strike Figma.

So we never actually got to see Earth Axe use his Final Vent, so I was kinda excited to see it, but WOW that sucked. Especially when used alongside the ridiculous overkill of the Survive Final Vents, Survive Adam is pretty boss.

Just started watching Decade myself, and wow, it's certainly going places...I like the action at least, even if I wanna roll my eyes at the whole amnesiac, but still remembers how to fight right off the bat. (I don't think amnesia works like that, but hey, it's probably special plot amnesia)

As for the characters, they weren't kidding about nick-naming the show Dickeido. Tsukasa's a jerk, Yusuke is a jerk, and I agree with Locke about almost missing old Yusuke, who I hated. Natsumi's a jerk too, though that may be my own bias against female characters that use physical violence as threats, god that kind of stuff made me hate things like the sterotypical Tsundere.

Currently watching Kamen Rider Gaim and Fourze.

Funny how the space themed series is far less serious in tone than the fruit themed one. Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Also, planning on watching Ryuki sometime in the future, because where else can I find a Serial Killer Kamen Rider?

Super-1 Episode 22: This was an amazing episode learning about General Megirl's background. Him being connected to the program that Kazuya was from and that being transformed is why he has his hatred and sadness makes him a very sympathetic and awesome villain. I felt bad for his lover searching for him for 5 years and then gets attacked because of Terror Macro. I love Kazuya in this episode saying that Dogma deserves to die for all the trouble they cause and I can't wait for him to fight Terror Macro.

Super-1 Episode 23:Well that was the first arc of Super-1 which this and the last episode were fantastic. Terror Macro got off his ass and fought even though he had an impenetrable body except for his Right Shoulder. It was great to see his Sensei and the others from his school help fight against Dogma. It's sad about everyone who died but it was great to see a motivated Kazuya kick their ass. Interesting to see that Terror Macro wasn't the big bad of Dogma and we have 4 new Generals. So for the first part of Super-1 I've learned that Dogma's technology was no where even close to as good as Super-1's.

DK 34.

I like how the show totally knows that Eubolon takes away all the stakes and tension, so now they have to keep artificially inserting bullshit to make the show actually worth watching.

Honestly, from a narrative perspective, this episode was pretty awful. The introduction to the Onyx powers were terrible and it's just such a weird narrative device in general. Dragon Knight has been our protagonist for thirty episodes and then he dies. The user of those powers, Kit, comes back but suddenly he comes back using an entirely new set of powers. The show does its best to make sense of them but the explanations actually further confuse rather than clarify. Plus suddenly Dragon Knight belongs to another character who is an enemy. I mean why do that?

Also whereas Hunt and Adam both feel like complete characters, firmly seperated from their Earth counterparts, Chance and Pryce just feel like watered down versions of the Earth Riders which is a disappointment. Especially as they were two of my favourite Riders and the ones I was most interested to see what they'd do with.

The saving grace though, ironically perhaps, was the character interaction. Although they didn't do as much with characters as I would have liked the show still found really fun ways to play with the concept. "Not this again!"

Other fun stuff included Maya Siren. I personally don't like this development for her character, but I can't deny that she is really badass. Similarly although I don't like Chance that much, I do LOVE the Torque powers and was glad to see the suit again.

DK 35. God fucking dammit, whether Danny or Hunt, Kamen Rider Axe is apparently always destined to get shut down just as I'm getting invested in him.

It's nice seeing Kase and Kit speaking on equal terms after she talked down to him so much at the beginning. I really much prefer this side of Kase, I mean what a babe. I'm still disappointed by how utterly she wasted she was, and Master Eubolon may be a frustrating magic wand but I'm glad they found a way to give her more scenes.

Speaking of the Advent Master, the suit looks a lot better in motion than it does when he's just stood about in it but it still looks weirdly cheap and unfinished, which clashes with its role in the story. The action was pretty decent though, even if the editing is still baffling and shitty.

The Advent Master suit was actually Kamen Rider Alternative. In Ryuki, it was a man-made copy of the Rider powers, so everything about it was sort of rough and off from normal riders. The ports on the suit are triangles instead of circles, the deck is reversed, the cards "burn" away instead of going into a device, even the voice of the deck was a synthesized female voice.

Weird that they used a design that was intended to be "off" from the normal suits as the Advent Master.

Everything about the Advent Master screams "last minute copout" which would perhaps explain why they matched him up to such an odd choice of suit.

Since I've neglected it the last two weeks I've decided I'll finish up Kabuto once and for all this weekend. Started up this morning with 37-39. Ten more to go!

The school 2-parter was alright I guess, except I can see Tendou's still pulling powers out of thin air - blah to that. Did I miss him giving the zecters back as well? I swear that never happened but the way I dip in and out of interest with some of these episodes I could have easily missed it. Was nice to see Kagami step up in the coach as well - I don't think his growth into a Rider has been particularly well handled over the entirety of the show (so far) but when it does it right it works really well.

And 39 is a Drake episode, yay! And its proving just as good as the previous Drake episodes, double yay! I've been overlooking Reina as a dull general character, but this 2-parter is proving interesting. And hey, Dark Kabuto's shown up with that sweet sweet colour scheme.

Yeah Drake's episodes are fantastic I hear his actor had a movie going on or something why he wasn't in it. I loved that 2 parter for Kagami. I now remember that was during the time I didn't really like Tendou but I liked him towards the end.

Enter the most pointless and worthless character in all of Kabuto(and maybe all of Kamen Rider) yay!

No, that's still Mihara from Faiz.

Oh wow. Given the competition he has here that's pretty impressive :lol

And seriously, can someone just give the Hopper Bros a hug? Seems like that's all it would take for them to just go away.

I will.

DK 36.

I just realised a bit of unintentional foreshadowing in this show. Remember when Drew reveals that if Xaviax wins he has the pick of the ladies and that is one of his main driving forces for fighting? "Do I pick the White House or Buckingham Palace?" Well it turns out Adam sold out Ventera...for a date... literally. "That is just sad." as Len said.

If Pryce's line, "be well, my friend." was supposed to show the difference between him and JTC, it didn't really work that well. Sure JTC was pathetic and ultimately entirely selfish but it was also made as a point that he wasn't entirely a monster either. This was almost impossible to realise as they matched him up with someone, who from what I've read, is a monster in every regard but nonetheless the narrative seed was planted. Pryce just feels like the character JTC was supposed to be, if he was better executed which actually makes me more disappointed by him than necessarily into him.

I'm just glad JTC left a mark, as it feels like - bar a few gags - no one remembers who Danny and Drew were. And those were two of my favourite Riders.

Wait, so Xaviax can literally turn into anyone? Including their voices AND their powers? What the fuck? I know they hinted at that with Kit's Dad but this was fucking ridiculous. It really undermines Xaviax's plans - and raises a lot of questions - if he could always do this.

Wow Eubulon's true face SURE was derpy. I also love how his backstory actually explained absolutely nothing and if anything raised more questions. God he sucks. He was more impressive when Xaviax was imitating him even though I have no fucking clue how that works.

Wizard 43

Damn, Nitou, you are just being a badass today. This was a feel good two parter but damn, when the author started cracking, Wizard's story flaws and cliches reared thier ugly head again. And Kizaki's still alive?

And we finish up Koyomi's backstory with finding out who her dad is. Was that supposed to be a twist?

At least Mihara had an arc and could fight. Granted, it was a really quick and basic arc and his fighting capacity didn't match what the show built the Delta powers up to be, but everyone makes him out to be a worthless piece of shit for no reason.

Kabuto 40-42. Man Dark Kabuto is pathetic. I mean the suit is still pretty cool but the character himself is incredibly bad.

Even though the plot has just spiralled into a mess of mostly unexplained nonsense, things actually feel like they're finally coming together a bit. Tendou's really mellowed out over the last few episodes, even if his speech to Hiyori about only fighting bad worms was utter crap. There's been nothing to suggest that throughout the show, but Hiyori worm is special blah blah blah.

Of course the goodness is a little too late, but at least these last 5 eps shouldn't be a total wash.

Mihara was just a little bland for me. I would have preferred having Saya as Delta since she fit the cast pretty well.

And was, you know, a female......

Decade 03.

This is the Kuuga I could have only dreamt of, really enjoying him so far. He's had more growth in three episodes than Godai did over the whole series.

God the general action sequences and production values in this show are amazing. It really has been great fun so far. I mean this episode was just off the charts. Zombie Apocalypse, as told with Grongi? A villain in the third episode who kicks more ass than most final villains do. This is great.

So that dude in the 90s hat can not only drag Riders from hell, but provide humans with the power to turn into Riders? I smell a Eubulon...and while we're at it, why change everything about the Kuuga character but keep everything the same in the Kuuga world? Not complaining, but it just seems a bizarre creative decision. Celebrating Kuuga with an entirely new Rider.

Yes, Like I said before the fight scenes and Yuusuke are easily 2 of the shoes strongest points. I'm glad you're enjoying Decade so far.

And that's Kabuto finished. Apart from God Speed Love and the HBV which I'll check out tomorrow.

First things first - episode 46 was probably the best done episode in the entire show. Despite knowing the big twist about Tsurugi since he was introduced and him then spending the entire show as a dim-witted, unfunny rich boy caricature, I really felt for him through the entire episode.

Then the finale itself was a mixed bag. I don't think it was overly bad, but despite the build up it still felt somewhat abrupt and anticlimactic. The final fight left me going "wait that was it?" and I was pretty disappointed they kept Drake absent for the entire thing then had him randomly pop up for the epilogue. Surely they could have done SOMETHING there?

All in all Kabuto is a show with gorgeous suit designs and a fascinating base plot. However this all gets muddled in poor story telling, ass pull explanations/powers and awful characters (I've mentioned many times how much I love Drake, and Kagami did grow on me but I still don't think he was amazing). This is the first Rider series I've come out really disappointed, to be honest it was pretty much crap all the way through.

Oh well.

Hat guy didn't give the powers so much as appear when Yusuke found the belt and tell him about how Decade is the devil and Yusuke should totally kick his ass if he shows up.

As for why they have the AR versions instead of originals, I heard it is mostly because most of the old riders couldn't / wouldn't reprise their roles (Kuuga's actor in particular is known for not being very fond of his time as a Rider). So they decided to go with AR versions a cross the board for some consistency, instead of hodge podge mix of returning actors and suit only cameos. And from a writing standpoint, it's a lot easier to come up with a good conflict if the Guest Rider can't just go final form and curb stomp everybody.

Or maybe they changed their new Kuuga's personality because they also thought Godai's character was crap.

Oh that flashback was really not very clear. I'm kinda glad to find out that he didn't give Yusuke the belt, but now I have about a thousand new questions.

I remember being told about the creative decisions before, but it's still odd to see them in action. But it may have also just been because Godai is crap, because he really was one of the worst Riders of all time - if not THE worst.

Godai was one of the reasons I didn't like Kuuga as much as others do. I mean, I felt like he got almost no character development. But what I really dislike about him, was that he was so passive.

Like one scene was Godai playing drums with like a trashcan, and the next scene is a Grongi murdering the hell out everyone. He never once went out and looked for the Grongi, it was like he didn't even care about them unless they were out killing someone. I just couldn't stand that.

Almost none? He legitimately got none. Despite having one of the highest amount of collateral damages for a Rider none of the Rider action or the copious amounts of death impacted him in any way. His passive nature clashed with his show and came across as utterly disgusting. I hate him.

Riders like Haruto prove you don't have to sit on your hands and wait for people to die, so why wasn't a Rider directly linked to his enemy like Godai was out fighting? Instead he made curry and showed off his hideous teeth while literally thousands of people died. Grr he makes my blood boil.

DK 37.

Wow the scenes between Maya and Pryce are legitimately fantastic. It kind of makes me wish JTC was a better realised character so I could appreciate this all more. Either way, when was Maya's actress so good?! I wasn't expecting such a naturalistic feeling reaction from her at all. She's been a bit all over the place lately, but for a show where it has plot literally from the first episode to the last it is nice to have a side character who has always been relevant in one way or another.

Although I kind of like the idea of a motorcycle that is also a dragon, Survive Mode SUCKS. There is no noticeable sense of any kind of real power leap, despite being introduced like it was some huge deal. I wanted to really be into the clash between Adam and Len as the voice acting and dialogue was fantastic but the actual action really left a lot to be desired.

Plus, I have to ask, why is Dragon Knight still Adam? I know Adam is important to the story, I know that the Dragon Knight title of the show is probably more in reference to him than it is Kit and honestly Adam's story is a fantastic one. But even with all this in mind, Kit is the guy we've been following from the very start and for the show to suddenly change who it is following around in the closing moments of the series is just really jarring. Whenever Kit comes back it feels shoehorned and forced, which is a damn shame as I was enjoying his character arc a lot. I guess the reason he and Kase stick like glue now is they both know how it feels to once be important, and have all of their potential utterly wasted.

DK 38. The Advent Shield defies all geographical logic.

So that is it then, we're just gonna forgive Adam? Well these episodes running up to this have been a massive waste of time, but is that really a surprise at this point? Dragon Knight is worse than Dino Thunder for setting up something interesting and then taking it nowhere. Oh well, at least we got that sweet homosexual tension between Hunt and Chance.

The Kabuto HBV makes me wish Hyper Gattack was an actual in-show thing. Then again, it makes me wish the Zecters had eyes and could talk too so take that as you will :lol

Finally we have God Speed Love, which was bizarre. But once I got accustomed to what was actually going on, I REALLY enjoyed it. A hell of a lot more than the show. It wasn't perfect - the worm were barely part of it, the space battles were a bit dumb and the ending was all a bit idealised (I did like he happy ending, but I kinda wish it had set up the show's timeline too), but everything just fit really well. Tendou's attitude worked better, the Kagami/Hiyori relationship...it came at the expense of a lot of the show's cast going to the background but was ultimately worth it. Plus Drake was there! In a role that could have easily been filled by anyone else :lol

Shura should have been a rider though. And it was kinda weird to have Sasword at the beginning but not in the film itself.

Thought I'd watch another episode of Decade before finishing off the last episode and a half of Dragon Knight and give my series wrap up thoughts. So onwards to Kiva's world! I just can't believe we've travelled to two worlds in four episodes. No wonder this show was cut short.

I actually - much to my surprise - enjoyed Kuuga's world a lot, and Kiva is another Rider show I don't particularly like so I'm hoping this world carries the same magic from the first arc. It certainly has some great ideas, like the uneasy peace between monsters and humans and the child Rider. The Kiva suit is gorgeous and his form changing makes me want to try the show again.

How does a celebration of Kamen Rider get the powers wrong? Kuuga's Dragon and Titan forms don't work like that, Decade. You seemed to understand him fine when he was Yuusuke but apparently Decade can even break power sets.

Honestly though, more often than not, the 'why the fuck not?' style of storytelling in this show is actually very entertaining. As personified by Decade getting randomly teleported to a stadium where Kaixa was waiting to attack him in the closing minutes of the episode. WHY THE FUCK NOT.

I think they really just wanted to have the similar Kuuga and Kiva forms fight each other. If it'll make you fell better, there's a great Pegasus form moment in the Kabuto arc.

Decade is best viewed when approached with that kind of mindset people usually advocate for big budget summer action flicks: grab some popcorn and check your brain at the door.

I guess the scene is contrived enough as it is...

But speaking more generally, I have found it odd as to how our little fandom here rarely speaks about the action and special effects other than in passing. Characters, and story, are obviously important but these are still special effects driven superhero shows and yet those aspects, which are a huge part of whether I will enjoy a series or not, seem rarely taken into account by others.

If I had known Decade would have these huge high concept battles from the offset, I probably woulda watched it a long time ago. If I want mature, high brow drama you really think I'd be watching Kamen Rider? :lol What I want is people dropping helicopter pads on one another as we teleport through dimensions fighting armoured warriors with world shattering superpowers! Decade offers all of that, and more and I fail to see why that isn't enough.

DK 39.

Now the Advent Key is fixed, there is little reason to still watch this. We've already found out that through Eubulon's bullshit powers and suspended animation alien tech whatever the fuck reason that the Riders are immortal so now it's just like a live action videogame. They may as well not dodge, as they can just respawn.

So it turns out both Xaviax and Eubulon are aliens from the same planet. A planet of warriors, whose lust for battle destroyed their planet. That is all well and good, but if Xaviax is a warrior whose very instincts are to fight why has he spent the whole series manipulating people and getting them to fight for him? Aside from a few threats here and there, he's never once raised a hand, which seems to really clash with the character he is meant to be. Just like everyone else, Xaviax started as a good character and died before his potential was realised.

Also why does the show keep using the term 'vent'? Eubulon plainly explains that venting is a Rider failsafe so they don't end up dying in battle. Sarah isn't a Rider, so you couldn't vent her. Couldn't you just say destroy like Power Rangers does?

Yes the final episode of Dragon Knight was a clipshow, but did you see Maya's cleavage?

Wow so not only did Kit kinda drop out of the show, he also didn't get the girl either? I feel really sorry for the guy, sure I hated him at the start but he grew a lot and ended up getting no rewards to show for it. I mean yes he got his Dad, but we know that would happen didn't we?

Overall it's pretty much impossible to separate Dragon Knight from the sheer quantity of wasted potential, I'd say it was full of holes, but that would require the show to actually make sense in the first place. There is a sense that Dragon Knight is chucking absolutely everything at the wall and they don't actually care what the hell sticks. Most of the time those ideas are actually good, which makes it all the more frustrating that it's all so poorly realised and clearly never actually planned or thought out.

That said though, the one thing Dragon Knight never is, is boring. Which should maybe be obvious, but it's surprising how dull so much toku can be, even with people in spandex flying around the screen on wires shooting lasers. An average episode of Dragon Knight will be 80% dialogue while it kills about three Riders and introduces two more in the other twenty percent. With so many characters, so many concepts, so many powers Dragon Knight is the only toku show where I can say something genuinely memorable happens in absolutely every episode - well bar the clipshows, but who actually watched those?

So no, it's never telling a good story, and it never really has good characters either but there is something oddly endearing about a show so committed to not making any sense at all. Dragon Knight is like junk food, the benefits of a salad are something you have to think about long term but in the right now a pepperoni pizza is just so much tastier, even if long term it's gonna be nothing good.

Well, you were the one who convinced me to watch Dragon Knight in the first place before you rewatched it Locke, so now I'm gonna drop it. Thanks.

The first thirty or so episodes are mostly pretty solid but the ending does sorta fall to pieces like pretty much everything in that show. My nostalgia for the series clearly smoothed over some of the rougher edges of the series but the show still doesn't deserve the shit it gets. Although it kinda makes me scared to ever watch RPM again. :lol

Dragon Knight tried so hard to replicate what Power Rangers did, but they left out all the little things.

No real fight dialogue. No real soundtrack. No sense of "heroism" or anything of the sort. It literally became a badly acted soap opera. And it sucks, because the show had so much potential.

And for a Rider show, its pretty barren too. The show copies many of the Riders' mannerisms yet forgot to put in character nuances that make them feel real. For a Rider show, character details and depth is everything. "But this isn't a Rider show!" The show is called Kamen Rider, they take a lot of Ryuki 's outline for plots and characters, they cared to keep in mannerisms. Guys, it's a fucking Rider show.

Dragon Knight: So close... And yet so, so far...

If the choice is between "no real fight dialogue" and what we're getting in Super Megaforce, I'll take gladly the former.

Ditto.