To fully grasp what they did in the early episodes, you might wanna watch the show multiple times. The show does a lot of stuff then and when you watch the first time, as you don't really know what's going on, you miss a lot of stuff. While, for example, there is a little more focus on Tachibana at the beginning, Hajime and Kenzaki do have quite a lot of moments to shine too, it's just that you might not notice them at first, because the show practically tells you to focus on Tachibana more.
I think for Blade it's best if you watch the show multiple times and focus on a different character for each run. The first time watching, I cared most for Tachibana (which also comes from the bonus of having seen the actor in Fourze and Sailor Moon before), the second time I focused more on Kenzaki and the third time, I learned a lot more about Hajime and Mutsuki.
And even now, I still notice new stuff when re-watching the show.

I think the focus on Tachibana in the beginning was the best.
I know the show is called Blade and it would make more sense to focus on the titular character, but by giving us a great story for Tachibana at the start, it makes him feel all the more human. Not just a gun to aid in fight scenes and nothing more.

Tachibana was also the best character to start the plot and character development from. As much as I love Kenzaki, starting the plot with him would have been pretty boring, because we would have had no real conflict here. As for Hajime, it would have made the show way too short if we learned about him that early, so he stays a mystery.
Tachibana was a Kamen Rider for the longest time and a friend to Kenzaki, so he would let Kenzaki take action with whatever he did. He had no direct connection to the Undead which makes it easier to keep their plot form unfolding for quite a while, but he did have some suspicions about Board so he was the most logical choice to set the plot in motion with- Kenzaki would've been way too naive at this point to suspect anyone of anything anyway (not to mention it wouldn't fit the characters to switch roles. Being semi-villain-ish is not something that Kenzaki could pull off).

I liked Tachibana and all, don't get me wrong (and I do think the beginning did well by focusing on him, they pulled some pretty bold stuff there that I liked). My issue was more with the first handful of episodes of the show, which I felt were too fast and overstuffed to handle themselves properly. Too much happened in too little time. That didn't last long, though, so it's fine.

What bothered me about Tachibana is his apparent death in episode 47, in which it was this cool memorable moment for him and everything, it's treated like this important sacrifice and all. He's still gone in episode 48, because, well, he died? Then in the last episode he just pops up like "hey so i'm still alive" and when asked how all we get is some non-answer about Karasuma saving him, despite him not being in any position to help him at the time. And other than Kenzaki asking how, nobody else has any reaction to his return. It's just. Such a weird thing. Did people complain about his death so they just chucked him into the last episode in the last minute? Or what? It just blindsided me and I still really do not get it.

Oh no, don't get me wrong, I thought it was fine, and doing such makes him one of the most memorable characters in that show. I was just trying to say that if there was a criticism I could pull out, it'd be that, as I could see someone saying "It's called Blade, why are we focusing on Garren so much?"

The entire month of July has seen my blog cover the Kamen Rider franchise. But with the end near I kick off a trio of reviews of the movie trilogy. Starting of course with the most controversial Rider ever: Shin.

Shin Kamen Rider: Prologue Review

I think I'm finally gonna watch Shin Kamen Rider just because of your review. :lol

Shin is worth experiencing once. Lord knows, it's not very good, but it does have some interesting ideas.

No, I disagree. Shin really doesn't need to be watched. What does it do that's interesting enough to warrant a viewing? It seems very "By the books" when it comes to gritty reboots/remakes.

Five eps to go in Den-O, but I don't think I can finish cuz it's so damn good. I almost hate myself for marathoning hard with toku, the stories are so incredibly good. It's gonna end too soon... =(

it's closer to what Ishinomori actually wanted to do.
that's more than enough for me.

If you insist.
That film was just a poorly made slog to get through. I feel you can just read up on it for 15 minutes to get what you need to know without sitting through it.

So in your opinion my review is all that is needed?

That brings some slight joy :lol

And it's the last piece of Rider media that Ishinomori was really heavily involved in before his death; ZO and J were Keira Amemiya's work.

Like, which would I rather watch, Shin or the Next?
If you say the Next, you are insane

Shin wasn't really all that bad to me. Sure, it was pretty much EVERY 90s movie/gritty remake ever created, but it was a cool little detour from the rest of the franchise, I can appreciate it for what it was.


I'd definitely rather have something totally different for the franchise once in a while than something completely by-the-books and safe.

OOO 11 and 12

This was a pretty nice arc. I like how this time we got a victim who was from Eiji's past as opposed to just some random dude. It made the conflict a bit more personal which was nice. Gotou got a lot of good moments as well, and some character growth as well, which is nice, and I'm curious to see when Birth becomes a thing. Also, hey! it's my least favorite OOO form! Neat. I'm really enjoying OOO so far, and I wonder if any of the Greeed will become fully restored at some point.

I'm like on episode 27 of the original Kamen Rider. I think I liked Hongou more than I do Hayato. That, or I don't particularly feel strongly either way, it's just that Hongou was there for the part of the show before I got tired of the formulaic plots and stuff? I guess. It's. An ok show for its time. Not even good for it's time really, but I guess it manages to be ok. Some stuff is definitely just straight up bad independent of time period though. (the constantly unexplained appearing and disappearing characters are probably the most egregious example. i hate that stuff)

Also, I've been so over Shocker Sounds (TM) for like a dozen episodes now. I feel if I hear any more combatment YEEEEs I will go insane. The motws' sounds are more hit or miss, though most of them land squarely on unremarkable, if a bit annoying. The starfish and centipede were incredibly obnoxious though. Just terrible.

Anyway, this is a negative post, I guess because I just finished some episodes that really bring this crap to light (one where characters disappear with no explanation, another with the stupid centipede...) but I don't actually dislike the show so far or anything. It's alright. This stuff really grinds my gears though.

Rider Month rides on (ba dum tsssktt). This time we take a look at one of Keita Amemiya's greatest works in the form of Kamen Rider ZO!

Kamen Rider ZO Review

OOO 14 and 15.

This was a good arc. I like how they're showing more of how opposing the forces of Maki and Kougami are. Also they showed how the Greeed came to be. I'm glad they got that out of the way pretty early, also I really don't like Kazari. Date is Birth as well...I did not expect that. I thought Gotou was the first Birth and that Date came later, but looks like I was wrong.

Heh, yeah. That reversal was cool~ :p

OOO 17, 18, and 19

17 and 18

Another good arc, as per usual. I like that the person who the Yummy was born from actually went to try and stop it, thanks to Date's advice. Speaking of Date...I really like this guy! I like his whole attitude, and he's just a cool, wise dude. Of course Toei...you and your horn and stag beetle duos, even when they're not the heroes, you still need them somehow. The concept of a Yummy splitting in two is a really interesting one in how the second one manifests if your desire has a deeper meaning to it, that's a very real thing, and it's nice to see them play around with that idea. I think that's this show's biggest strength; how it handles it's theme, desire. I've seen Rider shows not take full advantage of their themes to their fullest potential (Wizard) but OOO handles it so well with this Yummy, and how sometimes desire isn't necessarily a bad thing to have, as Kougami has stated on multiple occasions, especially concerning Gotou.

19

We get to see more of Maki and Kazari. On the subject of Maki, this episode had a lot of good humor, especially the part when his doll goes into Date's food, and his tiny car. Oh my goodness...I thought Maki was gonna murder Date right then and there for interfereing with his dolly Also, Gotou now works at Cor's Conessiour (spelling?) and I now understand where that fan art of him in a Maître D' outfit comes from. :lol Also that lederhosen. :lol Also, we got to see more of what happened in Shingo's past, which was cool, and Kazari got most of his core medals back. Date was awesome here as well.

Episode 20

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeBzcqYisSQ

Episode 31 of the original was actually pretty damn good. Seeing Hayato in doubt was nice.

It's Cous Coussier :lol

Well, I know now thanks to Doctor Maki. :lol

OOO episode 25:

Hey, a left arm...cool.

OOO 26:

More left arm, and hey! We got some backstory on Maki, which was nice. There was also some development with Eiji and Ankh's relationship, which was cool. Other than that...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EJaamHrGgvs

Kamen Rider Birth's Birthday Form showed up.

Episode 1 of Kuuga.
It was...A thing. As for pilots, it was okay. It gave me a nice look at our cast and none of them really annoy me. However, they all seemed a little bland.
From the get go, I got a nice first impression of Yusuke. He's a nice dude that'll keep others happy and fight for smiles and etc. He's pretty cool, and I like that he willingly stepped up to the plate, not like some riders who only became a rider by circumstance.
The mystery of the Grongi begins, but because they speak in a made up language, there really isn't much to comment on them. It's just "opkjhklasd/fhsd f Kuuga oijkhajfd" every time one of them talks, so...Eh.

The biggest problem I have right now is the fight scene against the spider, and it's from 2 vital areas. The first is the music. It's a very weak track that played over the fight. I know not all fights need some special theme playing with rock and pop as the hero whoops ass, but here is didn't energize me at all. The second was the editing. There were very jarring cuts that made some parts of the fight hard to follow and messed with the pacing.

Anyway, there isn't much to talk about otherwise as things have just begun.

keep in mind that this was the first Kamen Rider show since the 90s, so somethings are probably "they were learning"

80s not 90s. RX finished in 89.

I know there was a long gap between series, but wow, I was surprised the one area that Toei and KR would know how to handle best, the fighting, was where the ball was dropped. It was surprisingly dull.
Hopefully once he gets more forms the choreography and editing will be improved.

The way I understood it from the research I did on the show over the years was that the team wasnt really interested in doing action scenes for Kuuga. The fights get better over time but are never as highly choreographed as they are in the showa or later heisei series.

Kuuga was meant to be a drama series and a horror series first. The action aspect was really low on the teams list of priorities.

That sort of carries over to Agito as well, though not as much since there is a bit more action in Agito.

And the budget for Kuuga was pretty low for that time period. The Suit actor who played Kuuga, Kenji Tominaga was a pretty unknown guy who didnt have much experience when he was hired to do Kuuga. Something that reflects the small budget they had to work with.

Personally I like the slower fights. Don't get me wrong I love the insanity we see later on, but I love how Godai fights more methodical and cerebral. Plus because he's always gaining new powers and learning about Kuuga in general it makes it fun to watch the fights get quicker the more he learns about the powers.

I'm not expecting flips and break dancing while fighting. I'm just expecting a little more than mild grappling with a few punches, is all. I am glad they improve some, though.

I can understand them wanting the series to be more focused on the story. I just wish they cared that the story was a part of an action series.

It wouldn't surprise me that the budget was low, hence why I didn't comment on some of the special effects, but now it's making me wonder how low it was.

A big part of the way they structured Kuuga is that they tried to make it as realistic as they could make a show about a karate bugman fighting monsters. Hence why they relatively untrained Godai becomes a more competent fighter as the show progresses. A really cool part about Kuuga is that the characters travel in "real time". When Godai is in central tokyo and an attack happens outside the city the travel time is presented in a realistic way so if the drive to the crime scene would take him 3 hours in reality it takes him 3 hours in the show as well.

The budget was really low yeah. The whole show was a big gamble for Toei if audiences would still care about a Rider show. A heavily serialized Rider show compared to the more episodic formula the franchise presented in the past. Only through the giant success the show had they increased the budget for the following seasons.

I think the realism is a blessing and a curse. Yes, it does ground the fights and makes the scenes that are supposed to be jaw dropping have greater impact, but in doing so, it also slows the fighting to a crawl otherwise. Having never been a fan of wresting (Both real and WWE), watching fighters grab each others' shoulders then struggle for a bit just doesn't interest me. When punches and kicks are thrown, they have such little impact that it seems pointless.

The realism does work better for telling a story, making tense scenes actually feel like things are at stake, though.

Once I advance further, we'll see, though.

Alright, episode 2 is down.
The fighting did improve, but not by much. While there was a lot more punches and kicks thrown, they still didn't make them feel like there was much impact behind them, and the editing is still terrible (The fight went from middle of the night to mid day out of nowhere. Come on...)

As for the story at hand. I have no idea what is going on.

Anyway, detective is a jerk, but I don't have a problem with it. He's doing his job to the best of his ability, and some idiot civilian is interfering. He's not mean because he wants to be, but because he's in a high stress job that's gotten even harder. Yusuke has gained his resolve to fight properly, becoming his Mighty form in the process, to protect the smiles of everyone in the world.
The bat escaped, but the spider bites the dust.

Episode 35 of the original Kamen Rider.

The worst crime Shocker ever committed was making all their monsters sound like fricking idiots.

Thank god Kitsubs' only gotten to episode 43 of this thing. I really don't think I could take another 50 episodes of this.