I honestly wish they'd just pick a personality for him, and stick to it...he switches from honorable hero, to total jerk at the drop of a hat, and it's the one thing that really bothers me about him both as a main hero and a character, because the concept of his character is pretty interesting.

Like most things in Decade, Tsukasa is an interesting premise rather than anything fleshed out and realised.

So I gave in and watched the 1st ep. of Dragon Knight. Ignoring the abysmal resolution and whisper quiet audio, it was surprisingly good for a US adaptation.

Well I watched Hibiki 11-14 and they were a pretty nice bunch of episodes. Now Danki has a cool suit but from what I read he's only in two more episodes,,like most of these Oni's right? So the Hibiki suit is just gorgeous and the disc animals are pretty fun. So now Asumu got surgery and that's it he lived.

Oh and seeing the basement of the building was sorta cool, seeing the trumpet/trombone hybrid, more weapons and seeing some more Oni! Now they mentioned HQ, do we get to see HQ? Are there more Oni there or just a lot of scientists?

Ah cool, I want to watch Stronger but the last episodes aren't finished from KitSubs and the HK Subs won't finish downloading.

Kamen Rider the First

Could this this movie be re-titled as "Toshiki Inoue and Heisei rider tropes with an original Kamen Rider skin: the movie"?

This movie was okay. The plot was filled with lots of Inoue tropes and the story itself wasn't that interesting. Character communication issues? Check. A nice guy character who connects with an equal scarred girl but turns evil at the end for no reason? Check. Boring villains? Check. Shitloads of angst? Check. Throw in some shit about dreams and protecting people's similes and hey! We have a Heiseification of Rider 1!

No Inoue, that's not how it works. Modernizing a story does not mean using new cliches to update the story. This movie felt like the lovechild of Faiz and Blade except not as masterfully done. Granted, I like those series, and I appreciate them for thier time, but this movie feels like the epitome of what the term "Early Heisei" Rider meant in a lot of its mediocre and bad ways. The reason why the tropes that make up those earlier series work is that the writers put passion into making it unique to their style and the show they're crafting. This is extremely ironic considering how one of my examples above was a reference to Faiz, an Inoue show, who also wrote this movie. Honestly, if you wanted to go watch Faiz, go watch Faiz. This movie wastes less of your time, but its a lot of same the bullshit without any of the unique charm that Faiz had.

I thought the hospitalized kids were pointless. I like their designs as the cobra dudes but they felt forced in there. They're like Yuji Kiba and Yuka, both scarred people that found each other. Except imagine that if they never interacted with the Faiz Riders until the very end but only in monster form.

Now that I'm done with the negatives, let's talk positives

I like the fact it touched on how Hongo once he became a Hopper, that he initially hurt everyone around him and lost his purpose. Ichimonji had a reason to fight, but I like his change a lot more then Hongo's. One of this movie's strengths was the character relationships, from the love triangle between the two riders and Asuno and the two sick kids.

The rider and monster suits are some the best Rider suits ever put on screen. The combination of leather with technological and bug detailing is just so beautiful. The monsters look like they are wearing held together metal armor. Cobra and Snake look like cyborg Oujas excepted pumped up to 11. If you liked some of the detailing of the Trial Undead from Blade, this will appeal to you. Spider,and the Shocker grunts were great as well. The only one I think falls flat was bat.

Fight scenes were great as well. Not only was the fist fighting interesting and great but the motorcycles felt like they had a purpose. The movie had the riders use the motorcycles to their advantage, unlike Riders of the era which this movie came out which felt limited by them. Also, I will never get tired of seeing the First's Rider kicks.

Visually, this movie looks beautiful. Not just the suits, but also the way they film. The film is filled with tons of blues and grays during the darker sections. If you loved Blade's darker visuals, this movie defintley will have you fall in love with its cinematography.

Yup!

Dragon Knight and Decade are very similar structuring wise. They are both series made up entirely of concepts rather than realised devices, and although the concepts are always interesting and exciting both series focus more on chucking everything they've got at the wall, rather than focusing on any part and building on it. It creates an entertaining ride, which is addictive in the moment, but then you look back you realise how meaningless and nonsensical it all was.

Decade 25. Kaijin Rider is such an awesome concept.

Minus two very pretty girls, this episode really did no favours for the Shinkenger. I mean Takeru came across as badass sure, but the team as a unit really came across as quite pathetic. I didn't really watch this and immediately want to watch Shinkenger.

Ah now that meme finally makes sense. I dunno whether I find it amusing or annoying that Narutaki literally just wanders from dimension to dimension spreading shit for unclear motivations running on an even more muddled logic system. Especially considering now we have enough evidence to clearly say that everything Narutaki says is pure shit, Decade has saved every world he's been too, he hasn't destroyed a single one and none of them have rejected him either. Like what is Narutaki still on? It's like he never left puberty and thinks this is still normal.

Honestly this trip to Shinkenger's world has been one of the better arcs for a while now, as it's one of the first times Decade has felt genuinely character driven while still keeping all the spectacle of Decade's high production values. Even Kuuga got to join in.

Pretty much, yeah.

Yeah, when the movie remembers it's about Kamen Rider it can be really, really cool. The suits are awesome and the action scenes are really good. The problem is that the writer obviously cared more about making a love story than he did about making an action movie and all of the Rider stuff got shunted over to the side. And if you think it's bad here, the Rider:Other Shit ration is even worse in The Next.

Decade 26.

Tsukasa must be gay, if a hot chick like Natsumi was pawning after me I'd
go wherever her long legs led me. Whatever he is, I know he's a total moron, why would you even listen to Narutaki? He doesn't even make sense any more. STAY AWAY FROM YOURSELF, DECADE, OR YOU'LL DESTROY YOURSELF...YEAH. At least thanks to Kaitou Tsukasa isn't the biggest arsehole in the show any more.

Although a lot of the Showa Stuff hasn't aged all that well, in many ways they had much more imaginative ideas than what we have these days to make up for their smaller budgets. Now we have the technology to realise all the compensatory craziness it's actually kinda glorious.

It's just a shame that if you fall in love with any of the powers in this episode, you're gonna be disappointed when you try and go back to see them in their original context. Still can't deny that I wish X was at least subbed past like three episodes so I could still try it. Oh well, there is always Black to try again.

X is available via mostly acceptable HK subs, if you really want to see it. It's a rough ride, but I think it's worth it. X is one of the strongest of the original five series, in my opinion.

Kamen Rider the Next

The fuck did I just watch?

This movie was terrible. The focus on the horror aspects ruin the movie more then the dumb kids in the First. The Chicharu stuff was some of the worst Kamen Rider bullshit I've ever seen. Why the hell was she killing those random people? I get the whole nanobot stuff but her plot made no sense. The Riders don't even show up until 20 minutes into the movie.

I wish Hongo and his student's relationship was better developed. i like the idea, it just was tangled up in a bad horror movie. Granted, I like the first 5 minutes, the atmosphere, the creepiness, the suspense but it get used so repeatedly throughout the rest of the movie and so much worse each time after. I can't say anymore because I can't pinpoint as much of my anger with this movie as the First, just because so many bad elements are blended together.

This movie was also hard to watch, from a cinematographic standpoint. Where as the First used Blade's gray and blue color scheme only during the night and it added a cool visual to the night fights, this movie took Kabuto's grey filter and turned it up to max level. It was really hard to watch, both during the day and at night. Especally considering the Shocker Riders look very similar to Rider 2 and with the grey filter, it was easy to confuse them. A lot of the coolness of the costumes are ruined by the amount of grey that's over the movie.

What I liked:

Once again, the Next brought great designs and fights. Granted, a lot less great suits and fights due to trying to be a shitty J-Horror, but still great.

I like V3's redemption, you could see through the horror of learning about his sister getting mutated by the nanobots that he doesn't want anything similar to happen to the rest of humanity.

The world building was also great. Shocker has not only advanced its technology but also is trying more quick and effective methods. Granted, the world building meant jack shit considering there never was a third movie but kudos to them.

Hongo, Ichimonji and Kazami were all great in this movie. Getting old Riders to portray these guys is just great, especially during their interactions. Inchimonji has become a drunk and it's interesting to see him try to overcome his pain.

I understand completely, I felt similar when I watched the film. Granted, I would have still liked a sequel, if only so as to see what Riderman, X, Amazon, and Stronger would have been like (though I think Gackt and S.I.C. have already shown us what at least Riderman would have been like). Though Ichimonji's death still pisses me off.

I'm still wondering where the hell those images of that legendary Gackt Riderman suit is. You'd think Toei would have released images by now or put the new suit in a Taisen movie. There's an action figure of the supposed suit in the Kamen Rider wiki but it links back to a bunch of pictures of customs from a Thai guy.

Where can I attain those?

The torrent is kicking around on nyaa.

Anyway, speaking of X Rider, I just watched episode 32 of Skyrider, which is finally subbed. It's really fun to see Keisuke back in action both in and out of suit. Hiroshi kind of comes off as a dick, though, waiting to save a group of kids until after they drag a bunch of suspiciously light rocks up a mountain while being flogged.

Sweet, just found it.

Decade 27. Who the fuck is Joe the Haze?

"Why are they two Kotaro's?"
"Well they may look the same but they are two different people."
THAT IS NOT AN EXPLANATION. This had the potential to be really interesting, but oh well I guess not.

Honestly it was all a bit of a mess I mean Natsumi fucking died...like holy shit, why is the tone of this still so light and fluffy? I know she came back but Tsukasa I dunno...drew some of his life force out to do it? That is pretty dark too, even though I don't know why he isn't now dead instead but...WHY THE FUCK NOT.

Although FUCK YEAH to orchestral choirs as RX fought Giest, the fight really isn't that epic and Black is just sorta there but THAT MUSIC MAN oh my God it is so epic.

I wondered the same thing, but apparently he's someone from Black or Black RX. I think he was a secondary character.

I found it so weird that the two parter never shut up about him, yet they never told us who he was or showed him on screen.

That's what we get for never watching Black/RX. :lol

I've actually seen like half of Black and it didn't help me. All I was, was disappointed that such a great Rider sucked so hard and felt so useless. Black got the Kuuga treatment in Decade, it seems.

Oh...I didn't know. Maybe He's from RX? *shrugs*

But yeah, I agree, and on Kuuga...it sucks that they didn't utilize him as a Rider more. This particularly bothered me in the Agito arc.

Even when he does transform...he still does nothing.

I can't wait for that episode. I love seeing X in action.

Seriously. What the heck were you doing in 1990? :p

Joe the Haze is a supporting character from Black RX. He shows up at around the 1/3rd mark as part of the really awesome storyline that introduces Robo and BioRiders. He kind of fills the classic Taki role as another dude who can handle some of the fight scenes, although Joe is also kind of a comic relief character. The guy who played is apparently also a pretty big name voice actor.

I still need to finish Black, but the episodic nature of the series kinda made it a slog for me.

Why are Decade episodes 30 and 31 done by TVN twice? One version is titled "special" but it doesn't really clarify what that means.

Those Episodes were aired during reruns. They are edited different after parents protested against the original airing of these episodes.

Oh right, so I should avoid the Specials and get the originals?

If you want the originally intended Ending then yes watch the originals.

Woah, they protested? What for?

Is it the better ending though?

Because

thanks to the shitty cliffhanger ending that was followed directly by a trailer for the movie Parents protested against the show just advertising the "real ending"

I dont quite remember if it was parents or a parental advisory group. So somebody who has abetter memory than me should help you out with that :lol

Both end pretty much the same way. The second one just tries to give a better lead in into the Decade/Double crossover that is supposed to be the real ending of the show.

Super-1 Episode 30: After the long break of watching Madoka, I now return to Super-1. This was a good episode with a Roller Skating monster from Commander Onibi, who actually gave Super-1 a good fight. Though I don't know how taking over the world by putting Roller Skates on everyone was going to work but whatever lol. Commander Onibi fighting Super-1 was cool. The villains really like to mock each other it seems, each one thinking they are better than the other. I really enjoyed the chase scene because I love motorcycles. The fight scene with him fighting the Jin Dogma soldiers with Skates was hilarious and awesome.

Decade 28. Holy shit Kuuga did some stuff.

Amazon, another Rider I know nothing of. The idea of an actual Monster Rider seems pretty cool, it's something often teased at in Rider but rarely achieved. His brutal fighting style was awesome, but the soft spoken actor they gave him really didn't fit well.

Once again the show tries to draw connections between Tsukasa and past Rider characters but it would be better realised if it was well...realised at all. Tsukasa isn't alone, and he isn't rejected either. His choice to save worlds, rather than destroy them, always leaves him embraced by the world right before he leaves. The only rejection comes from Tsukasa himself as he pushes everyone else away.

Oh man that Porcupine Grongi, that episode of Kuuga was actually pretty great. Probably Godai's only character moment in the whole series. Meanwhile Jyumenki is looking all kinds of badass.

It doesn't matter which episode you watch or which movie you watch, there is no ending to Decade. EVER!

The great thing about Decade is the fandom has blown the problems out of the water, and downplayed the positives to near non existence that if you actually watch Decade you're forced into the series with such low expectations that it actually becomes really enjoyable.

KRDL still doesn't have it up... So does anyone here have a safe download link for Wizard In Magic Land or a link to a stream?