Black Episode 43: Offering a place too good to be true, must be Golgom. Lol needs to make better secret plans. Great to see Kyouko and Katsumi help save the day by destroying the energy machine. Kotaro kicked like normal, though Shadow Moon made it difficult for him. Can't wait to see more.

Black Episode 44: Well interesting things happened in this episode. First of all, we learn that pretty much Kyoko and Katsumi are kind of geeky knowing about Warp and Sci-Fi movies so that's awesome. Next it was interesting to see an episode without a monster of the week. The plan was so deadly it didn't need a Mutant besides Baraom. Also great miracle save from Road Sector. Black vs Baraom was totally awesome he seems like a more manageable foe unlike like the one with Telekinesis, luckily Road Sector kicks ass.

A-MA-ZON! episode 6

Pretty good episode overall. I enjoyed seeing a bit of carryover from the previous episode re: the mole beastman, and seeing Amazon help him out despite him being, at least formally, a member of gedon.

The porcupine beastman was pretty cool too, and the final fight with him was great, lots of blood in that water, and he had a fairly bloody death, spewing out all that blue foamy blood.

Amazon also now knows the entirety of what gedon is up to, raising the stakes and pushing things forward.

We are now a quarter of the way through, looking forward to how things proceed.

Black Episode 45: I was totally shocked this episode. I didn't think it would be the end of Bishium so soon, I mean I thought she would go down in a few episodes later. This was great though, it shows that there is still part of Nobuhiko still in Shadow Moon because he could have killed Black right there if he wanted to kill his sister. I liked that the other Priests/Great Mutants felt sad about losing her. Wow these have been the least blinding episodes with no Rider Punches and Rider Kicks. Well no more mutants, and a great mutant down, I am intrigued to see where this goes. Also I definitely want to say that Kyoko likes Kotaro from how she was willing to sacrifice herself.

Den O Episode 10: Pretty good, especially as Kintaros has shown up.

Well, I've finished Fourze, and I have to say that was an incredibly enjoyable series. Now I'm stumped if I should go all-in on W or OOO. Suggestions?

Great! I always loved Fourze, one of my favourite Toku series of all time. The ending episode packed a punch for me.

I can only recommend W, since I haven't watched OOO, but W is a pretty good series that's quite popular here.

Well, imo either is an improvemnt over Fourze.

That said W is more consistently enjoyable than OOO, which does have a slow middle part.

Black Episode 46: So Black decides to jump up from pretty good to fucking outstanding. This episode was brilliant I love the Whale Mutant and I am surprised he lived but still this is why you obliterate your foe not just impale him so he fucks you over later. Baraom had a great plan he just got cocky in thinking he killed the Whale Mutant. I love the Creation King and Sunspot stuff happening, and Shadow Moon now preparing to fight Kotaro is awesome too. The end looks great with Shadow Moon blocking out the sun, the end game is looking great. I don't know why there are five episodes left but I will find out.

W's overrated but still good more often than it isn't.

Lots of people said OOO had a slow middle but I found the opening really boring and didn't think the series picked up until the middle when Date joins the fray from there it's the best Rider has to offer, except maybe other than Wizard.

Ugh. I tried getting into Wizard, but I couldn't make it through the first five episodes without falling asleep. I loved the fights, but everything else was so... glacial.

I enjoyed teh beginning of OOO, but the show takes a turn for the worst for a little while after they drag Dr Makai and his pointless puppet out. The biggest issue is that Uva just became pointless and did nothing for the rest of the series.

Wizard is the most cliched Rider ever for a reason.

I was debating giving OOO another shot after I finish Amazon (and from there I'll do either Agito or Blade), I just had so much trouble getting into it. What do you think bro?

For me, as much as I complain about OOO, it is a solid show, so I definitely say give it another go. As I said, I had issues with Dr Maki, but the ending of the show is very satisfying and it is well worth the bad times. Not to mention it is my favorite gimmick of the five Neo series.

Black Episode 47: Holy shit! Shadow Moon actually defeated Black... and seemingly killed him. Judging by this isn't the end of the series I figure he comes back. I love the turmoil that Kotaro goes through to finally decide to fight Shadow Moon, and that both Battle Hopper and Road Sector believed in him. That was one hell of a fight! I absolutely loved it. I need to know what happens next!

The last five or six episodes of Black are fantastic. The show abandons the MotW format and starts telling this great serialized story.

I got so far ahead of the LWW, I finished Den-O, and now I've opened my eyes for the next Faiz. Up to Episode 25 now. I've never seen a character lose his belt so many times in one series. Also, Kaixa is a d!@#.

I watched W after Fourze, and I enjoyed it so much I binge watched almost all of it in one week. One of my favorite KR series currently. Then I watched OOO after that, and had the same enjoyment.

Hibiki 36-37 - Shuki's costume is AWFUL

Also, it makes me laugh that every time she summons her harp the Wizard episode title card jingle plays :lol

Don't worry; he becomes a pretty cool guy in the end.


Just kidding, no he doesn't :lol

Well both shows were written by the same dude I believe.

The assistant writer on Hibiki was the main writer for Wizard. He, and the rest of the original production staff, had already been sacked before the terrible, terrible Shuki arc.

Yeah, Black's last several episodes are incredible. This is definitely one of those shows, while amazing, were harmed by the year long requirement. This show should have been no more than 26 episodes.

Did you ever post yoru thoughts on the love music episodes?

The ones where they couldn't play their instruments? Those were just plain odd. It was a decent enough idea, but the whole premise they built it on required the characters to be unrealistically stupid.

That was one of my issues with it. They turned the characters stupid. Not to mention that awful awful singing moment.

SWIRLING RIDER KICK!!

kamen rider G: not overly exciting but if they had made this into a full show it would have made a good pilot episode

also digging the wine theme

Kamen Rider G was awesome. I wish they did more with him, or at least gave him a cameo in the multi-Rider teamups. ...I should do something with him one of these days.

So does anyone know where I can find some Hibiki subs? I tried watching on Youtube but they were TV-Nihon so they were pretty much awful. I couldn't even understand what the hell was going on between the baffling translations, the fact that it literally skips entire scenes and questionable grammar usage.

http://pmlg-fansubs.blogspot.com/

Up to 06 at the moment, 07 will be up tomorrow.

:D

I'm releasing Hibiki every Friday from now on, and I'm thinking about maybe doing Drive. I'll wait until more info about it comes up though.

Much appreciated! Thank you!

Watched episodes 5 and 6 of Hibiki today. They were really good. Pika, your subtitles have gotten so much better since the first two episodes that it is fantastic.

Thanks. :o

07 will be up 8/01/14 (tomorrow) at 3:00 PM Central Time, if you want specifics.

Black Episode 48: Also known as the Recap Episode which makes sense this close to the end. Especially when it originally aired was probably great. Though the best part was Whale Mutant saving Black. Well you know Recap episode and Kyoko and Katsumi leaving Japan, and Black coming back to life. Not much to say.

Hibiki 40: Hmm, I think Akira becoming an Oni would have been a lot cooler if they hadn't started phasing her out/ruining her.

I'm not downright hating these episodes like a lot of people do, more I just have absolutely zero interest in them. Like, getting distracted 6 or 7 times an episode lack of interest. Nothing is grabbing me anymore. They've tried to make things more like a normal Rider show, and they've just succeeded in making it a bad Rider show.

(I don't know how much of a spoiler the above is, but I thought I'd tag it anyway since its a pretty big moment)

Finished up Hibiki. Well, the series anyway - I still have the movie, HBV and New Year Special to watch.

First off - that last episode was the biggest cop out I've ever seen from a television show. It's an absolute joke, which isn't surprising they decided to change it on the damn day of filming. Its a pity we'll probably never find out what that original ending was.

So all in all Hibiki has been a VERY mixed bag for me. I started out not quite getting it but being oddly drawn to it nonetheless, then I couldn't put it down, and then finally hated pretty much everything about it. I don't think I've ever felt so conflicted about a series as a whole.

So let's talk about the good half to start. While it doesn't have that much in the way of an ongoing plot, what it does have is both simple enough to grasp/follow and has enough mysteries to keep it interesting. The characters are superb, with even the bit players feeling integral to things. Asumu never struck out as anything more than an obsessive fanboy to me, but I liked how his personal growth worked alongside the main story. Most of all I loved how the show portrayed all of the Oni - Hibiki was the title character, but there'd be whole episodes where he didn't transform. There were proper focus episodes on Ibuki and Todoroki and both shined just as much as Hibiki did.

Then the change happened, and all of that went down the drain. Character development was forgotten, as Ibuki and Todoroki just became incompetent so the show could start going "DURR HIBIKI IS THE BEST BUY HIS TOYS". Asumu only became likeable by adding an even more annoying fanboy stalker, and it pains me that nobody ever properly called Kiriya out for his bullshit and just told him to get lost. The villains became stale and uninteresting, and all that beautiful location filming was lost. And don't me started on Akira slowly getting written out, because it was blatantly obvious the real reason for it was the writers didn't like the idea of main female character becoming an Oni/Rider :rolleyes The ONLY episodes I enjoyed out of the whole latter run were the Zanki ones, and that was because Zanki is an utter badass.

So yeah, Hibiki is simultaneously a fantastic series and a terrible one. Be prepared to be won over by wonderful characters, an simple-yet-engaging plot seeped in mythology and beautiful filming. And then be prepared to have it all taken away from you.

Ahem.

That said, I cannot wait for that Hibiki Figuart now. And then they seriously need to make Ibuki, Todoroki and Zanki. I needs them.

That is why you might as well just stop watching with episode 29. It has as much of an ending as the final episode.

Im up to kabuto ep 18... I really hate everyone whos transformed into theBee except kagami!

Hiyori is vary mopy, the sister is hilarious and kabutos a bad-ass, drake is... Unique

I'm currently on episode 29 of Den-o, enjoying it so far.