Right, about to return to the world of the Bugmen, but I can't quite decide on which one. I'm thinking about watching OOO but I want to wait until TV-nihon puts all the episodes in batches. I'm also interested in Blade's aesthetic but I've heard that It has a very weak first dozen of episodes. And I'd be interested in Hibiki because I like the idea of musically based heroes & I have an interest in Japanese history & culture (which I'm guessing Hibiki has something to do with), but from what I understand it's not really a Kamen Rider show.

Anyway, what do you recommend?

Blade is amazing start to finish, but I would suggest holding off until someone actually does DVD rips. Nihon's subs are taken from tv, and their encoding not only sucks, but they cannot be watched on anything but a computer. I like to put my files onto my external harddrive, hook it up to my BD player, and watch them that way. It is the same for their Hibiki and Kabuto files. All three series need upgrades.

Well that's fine since I was planning on watching them on my laptop anyway.

First of all, if you don't want to wait on torrents KRDL has all of OOO - both the TVN and O-T versions - on direct download.

Blade does have kind of a slow start, but it is totally worth sitting through because once the show really gets going it gets very, very epic. I still think it has one of the best endings out of any show in the Heisei era.

Hibiki (anyone who's been paying attention knows what I'm going to say) is, hands down, my favorite Heisei Rider show. It has some incredibly original and distinctive elements to the cinematography that really make it stand out from the other Rider shows. The cast is full of deep, engaging, and likable characters and they all have really strong chemistry with each other. It's a very different show compared to all of the others, but if you can get past the initial differences it's well worth watching... for the first 29 episodes. After that it takes a massive nosedive in quality and, while not actually terrible, it becomes much more average, feeling a lot like some of the weaker parts of Faiz or Kiva (mostly because they all have the same writer). I usually tell people not to watch those episodes, but the first part of the series is an absolute must-see.

Dr Kain is right, though, that the TVN subs are not the highest quality video. KITSubs was working on a new version of Hibiki but that got put off when the raws were lost in the great filesharing apocalypse of 2012. As far as I know, no one has shown any interest in scrubbing Blade (which is a pity, as its the show that needs it the most - there are some weird aspect ratio issues at times and the translation is usually considered one of TVN's sloppiest). Don't get me wrong, they are totally still watchable, but it is worth mentioning.

Kabuto.
Watch it.

Already did.
It was pretty good.

I'm approaching the end of OOOs and was wondering which version (only one) I should watch: regular 47 and 48 or the Director's Cut of 47 and 48?

Thanks. Keep forgetting about KRDL.

*download J, watches it*

OH MY GOD IT TALKS!

Also: Dat Jumbo Rider Kick.

Okay, gonna try to finish Shin now. Let's see how far I get this time.

I'd go with the DC just because it's presented as one, near hour long episode :P

Finally made it all the way through Shin.

Well, hmmmm....

So this supposed to be a deconstruction, right? On that level, I feel like it fails pretty hard, as the only thing I would say is truly more realistic is the fact that the organization that makes the Rider has thew cover of being a legit corporation. Everything else just feels the stereotypical 90's idea of what "dark" and "adult" meant. And for what it is, it's kind of a neat alternate take on Kamen Rider.

Personally, I think the way to do a Kamen Rider deconstruction is to keep the corrupt corporation angle (but have it be called "Shocker") and have all his modifications be internal. The costume would be just that. A costume. A suit of armor the guy builds to protect his identity and match similar armors that the Shocker cyborgs would wear. And the setup is that he has to clear his name and expose Shocker for what they really are. That's probably just my love of G.I. Joe Renegades talking, though.