Wow, they are still only at 43? I think they released 43 back in like Feb.

More Kuuga. 3 and 4.
Stuff is going on, but I still don't know why. Part of the mystery, fine. Fine.
We're introduced to a group of 4 monsters that gathered because of a 5th, rose based monster's petals. I don't know why.
One of them, cheetah themed, perhaps, goes on a rampage...Because. She bites the dust and Kuuga gives a thumbs up.

I don't want to sound overly negative or cynical, but by having the villains be completely unintelligible, I learn of the story at the same rate as our heroes. That's all well and good, right?
Wrong. Because by giving the villains scenes where they talk with one another in a made up language with no subtitles or context, it's a waste of time. It's only about 2 minutes worth of an episode, so it's not a big chunk, but I feel like it's pointless. Why am I watching scenes that intentionally made for the audience to not understand? It's not advancing the story.

"Kuuga is a mystery-thriller most. Emphasis on the mystery"
I am not enjoying the parts with the Grongi. I seriously hate any scene where they speak.

Anyway, I'm glad Kuuga straight tells the detective who he is, so there isn't a forced mystery aspect there. I also enjoy their relationship, with the detective trying to do his job to the best of his ability, but eventually relents and lets Kuuga fight.
It was nice to see the bike get some love, too. Current series only show them off in chases, but it was pretty interesting to see a legit fight involving the bike. Wasn't anything to write home about, but still enjoyable.

it was the late 60s.
it was the best Toei could do for a weekly series.
suspend your disbelief.

January, actually. And the last thing they put out was a Skyrider back in May...

I mean, I'm in no hurry to watch the rest, so I guess I'm not complaining...but they've done literally just three episodes of the original since 2013 ended. Doesn't seem like they're in much of a hurry at all at this point.

Things like having most of the monsters have obnoxious sounds don't have anything to do with budget or even the time period, just with...poor choices. Especially because not everything is like that. If they can have Armadillong feature simple but non-grating grunts as its signature sound, there's no reason Arikimedes has to sound like a high cackling madwoman. And my hatred of the Combatmen yells is neverending. It's simply obnoxious.

Also, I know it's old, and I know it was on a shoestring budget. Those are explanations for potential flaws, but they are not excuses. Even making as many allowances as I can to account for when and how it was made, it's just such not a good series.

my bad, I thought you were talking about the suit designs.

Nah, I don't mind the suits at all honestly. Pretty much all of them are super goofy, but I usually just find them amusing if not outright charming in their weirdness.

The sounds I take issue with. And...the rest of the series at times. As far as my grievances go, the suit designs aren't even an issue.

Just finished watching GP taisen unsubbed, everything was great till the second half where everything seemed rushed. Kamen Rider Sangou is a badass all throughout the movie and makes me wonder if he'll ever make an appearance ever again.
Also I try to watch Kuuga here and there but just can't get in it because of the grongi scenes and solo rider. I think its better with these scenes tbh adds mystery and more heroism to Kuuga but I'm just spoiled by the abundance of riders in Kabuto xD. Only reason I keep going back to it is because Godai(mainly) is such a great character with a positive attitude that you can't help but get attached to the guy. The rest of the cast is great as well especially the officer(whose name escapes me) definitely compliments Godai's powers.

Thinking I need to rewatch all the Showa Era Kamen Rider from beginning to end with my two youngest sons.

Kuuga 5 and 6.
So a grasshopper Grongi tears the place up by lifting people and then throwing them from great heights. Cool.
So a couple major developments occur, mainly in the woman translating more of the language, and us getting our first taste of a new form, Kuuga's Dragon form. I think it's neat, trading away power for speed and ability.

Anyway, like the other 4 episodes, there isn't much to talk about since the plot hasn't started yet, and if it has, I wouldn't know because I can't understand the villains when they do discuss it.

I think Kuuga's one of the shows with the best handle on form changes. Each one has a clear power set and clear advantages and disadvantages. Compare that to Drive, where I honestly don't really know what the main point of Types Wild and Technic are since they tend to be used arbitrarily and don't really change how Shinnosuke fights.

I was about to say the same thing, but with one additional reason: Godai always needs to learn what his new forms actually do before he's able to properly utilize them.

With Dragon Form he knew it was faster than Mighty, but he couldn’t beat the Gorongi until Sakurako told him that this form specializes on rod weapons. This will continue with every form aside from the super ones and I love it.

Because we as an audience usually accept it if a Kamen Rider can properly handle a new form the very first time he tries it, but it doesn’t really make sense, that's why I love Kuuga's form changes the most.

I do enjoy that Yusuke didn't immediately know how to properly use the form, having a hard time fighting when he was forcefully transformed into them.

Hey I'm thinking about watching Blade, but the only available sub is TV-Nihon. I heard things about them mistranslating the story. Regardless, should watch it anyway or wait for better subs to come out.

That's actually not the problem. The problem is more that the video quality sucks.

You should definitely watch Blade. The translation is fine.
The video quality, though...Wow. It's a little rough, but it's not gonna be resubbed anytime soon and the story is still super solid.

Don't wait for better subs. Blade resub attempts die almost as fast as Metal Heroes subbing attempts.

Just finished watching episode 43 of Kamen Rider.

You know, I just. Will never understand how in the hell, in forty three episodes of Shocker's schemes, guns only factored in like twice that I can remember. That one time they gave a bunch of rifles and shit to the brainwashed kids in Shocker Junior, and now in this one where the brainwashed Emi and Taki got to use some.

It just. Seems really impractical for an evil organization to only give firearms to mind controlled slaves. Seriously, the combatmen would probably be way more effective if they weren't only ever armed with swords, if that. It's the twentieth century Shocker, get with the times.

Anyway, that is that, since it doesn't really look like we're getting any more subs for the original for a while. Just as well. Finally I can move on to other, and almost decidedly better, things.

My plan is to watch Amazon next, but I may as well watch the handful of X episodes with subs now. Can't hurt.

I really need to finish Amazon. I only got halfway through (Of a 30 something episode series >>) and never continued for some reason...

It's only 24 episodes, actually. Shortest Rider series there is, which honestly I find pretty appealing right now.

God, that makes my strange decision to stop even worse. :lol

X is great. It's arguably my favorite of the pre-Black Showa era series. I actually liked it so much I watched it via HK subs. Apollo Geist is one of the best villains generals Kamen Rider ever produced.

Kuuga episode 7.
There is not much to talk about in these opening episodes to Kuuga, eh? When things are established, it's not expanded upon...
Now we have a girl who has a stone that may be of vital importance to identifying #0 and the Grongi as a whole. And she's being a bitch and ran off with it because she seems to not realize there's at least 7 publicly known Grongi running around.

Anyway, we're introduced to the bee, who uses drops stingers on people for a pretty terrifying kill.
So, as he gets kills, he marks them on a bracelet. I'm curious to know what the significance of it is (As after his bracelet was shot off, the bat dashed to steal it. He was stopped, but I'm still curious about why it was so important).

Also, Kuuga gains his green form (Pegasus, right?) and goes into sensory overload because of it.
Something I'm enjoying is that his forms are the most useful for his given situation, but the change at inopportune times, such as when he finally gets a good punch in against the bee when he realizes he's turned into Dragon, so it's weak as hell, and now he changes into Pegasus to properly hear where the bee is, but it's while he's hanging off a rafter and gets overloaded.

Also, props. This episode was the first to get a chuckle out of me.

The next episode gives a reason as to why the girl is not being easy in letting go of the stone. And yes, green is Pegasus.

Well, she's angry that no one is treating the situation about 0 as vitally as the others, which is why she ran off.
I'm sure they'll expand upon it next episode, I just can't marathon through the series as much as I intended on doing so.

I just like it that Kuuga has challenges with his forms.
like, he might be able to bring it out, but that doesnt mean he can do it when he wants to, nor completely control it. I wish more series had this kind of thing.

Agitro is different because plot reasons.

Professor Jin:

"Don't worry Keisuke, I uploaded my consciousness to a computer, so I'll always be here with you to help you."

Literally the first time Keisuke goes to ask for advice:

"I don't want you crying to me every time something happens. This was a mistake. Obviously the only rational choice now is to kill myself"

Then Keisuke thanks his father for exploding himself.

...

what the fuuuuuuuuck, kamen rider x

I love that scene. I can only imagine what must have been going on in production during all that:

"Okay, so this is Kamen Rider X's secret underwater base, which is run by a computer with his dead father's memories. You know what, that's a bad idea, let's not do it after all."

"We already built the set and filmed the introductory scene."

"That's fine. Just write it out of the show. Immediately. Ideally in the silliest way possible."

Kuuga 8. Girl apologizes. Kuuga learns to hone his sense and manages to take out the bee in one shot. Cool~

There was an interesting scene involving the Grongi having a mild argument.
...Is what I would say if they didn't speak in gibberish, so I didn't give a fuck.

Well, one thing I can say about Kuuga is that the cast is pretty likable. Yusuke's kind of dumb, but he has a nice heart. Ichijou being the hard boiled detective Shotaro wishes he could become, and the girl who's name contains too many syllables for me to remember is nice, too.

Concerning Kuuga's forms, while I like that Yusuke has to learn to use them, I do dislike the manner in which he learns it. Pegasus's description was basically akin to "The warrior that shoots shots in order to shoot at targets." It's way too straight forward.
Anyway, I also like that he creates his weapons from his environment, rather than just pulling them out his ass. While I don't doubt that he'll just be able to snap his fingers and create his weapons later on, it is pretty interesting right now.

If I remember correctly, they will continue showing how he gets his weapons until the end, never will the weapons appear out of nowhere. With Pegasus, he will always ask Ichijou or another policemen for a gun. Same with the other forms, you'll always see where he gets from and how it transforms.

And the Gorongi's story is progressing slowly, I was annoyed at the earlier half of the show too, but you're on the right track: Observe what they do more than trying to understand what they talk about, the bracelet that the wasp was wearing has a meaning that won't be forgotten but expanded later on.

I'm watching Kuuga myself at the moment (up to something like episode 26) and I'm absolutely loving it so far. I can see that all the great stuff about the form changes has already been discussed, so I'll just skip over that and say how much I love the characters. It's one of the few Rider shows I've seen where it really feels like everyone has a purpose.

Yeah thats the funny thing about the Grongi. What they are actually saying isnt as important as most (myself included) think when they are watching the show for the first time. Their actions are much more important and tell you alot in those early episodes.

The language is less a way to withhold information and just a stylistic choice to make them seem weird and otherworldly. Even when they learn japanese later on what they are saying wont make much sense.

some of my favorite Kuuga episodes actually involve Titan form, which I will argue is the best and best looking of Kuuga's three forms.

Stronger Episode 11: Ah good to be back to Stronger. I love that the plot is continuing with Titan and the leader of Black Satan realize that the Cyborgs aren't working because they keep losing to Stronger by the end of this episode. Shigeru was awesome again, I loved how he was sick of the monster's shit when the monster was trying to avenge its allies even though they caused so many issues. His denim jacket must be hard because these Black Satan soldiers just get beat down by it so easily it's hilarious. I love the stand off with Stronger and Titan again, the slow build up for it's awesome I can't wait till the final showdown with them. I was worried for Stronger when the Chameleon blinded him but glad it was temporary, and then Stronger proceeded in kicking his butt. I really love the action in this and that there is about 3 fight scenes per episode each with a lot of good action in them. I love Shigeru a lot it looks like a lot of fun next episode. I can't wait for more.

I'm trying to observe what they're doing, but a big problem is that a lot of the Grongi scenes during these early episodes feature them just looking at each other and talking, then one gets intimidated by something and leaves.
There have been more noticeable gestures these past two episodes, but there is a lot of just standing and talking, too. Sometimes the rose one will look at her ring or something, but that's about it.

Got to Kuuga's Titan form. I'm glad he didn't stumble around, confused how to use it. Then again, he already knew it was a sword fighter, so it was a little more straight forward.

Anyway, squid was neat, shooting explosive ink. I also like how that was his weakness, since he needed to superheat it inside his own body before firing.

Beyond that, we learn the location of the main Grongi's base, but they flee.
I'm rather curious about their bracelet and death count thing. I still don't get the point.
Aside, I also enjoy how proactive Ichijou is. He's a really well done protagonist.

Ichijou is great. He lives for his job and to serve the people of his country. He is the kind of character who will never back down even if he doesnt have a power armor that helps him fight the Grongi.

The Grongi are having a contest to see who can rack up the most kills. Whoever wins the game gets to challenger for leadership of the Grongi.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, Kuuga has the best police portrayal in all of Kamen Rider. From Ichijou down everybody is proactively trying to get to the bottom of the mystery and help out in anyway possible. This last part becomes especially true near the mid 20s and 30s.

Yeah. Ichijou is probably one of my favorite protagonists in a rider series. Kind of disappointing that he never gets to transform.

As for the spoiler, since I'm currently watching it, I'm afraid of looking at what you said :lol

Which is the spoiler tags appeared. I don't think it would ruin too much of the plot (it is rather obvious even in the Grongi language. Though if you want to figure it out on your own I do suggest avoiding it.

It would be cool but hey. Its cool to have an awesome character whos putting his life on the line without having to be a rider :lol