Episode 4 of Amazon.

I thought Shocker Sounds (TM) were bad, but that's got nothing on Gedon Sounds (c). So terrible. Especially the Akajuusha. They're like these awful tone deaf banshees. This thing 70's rider had going on where every villain had to have some obnoxious sound is just. Utterly reprehensible.

Other than that the show is pretty good though. Good protagonist, decent supporting cast, ok bad guys I guess. The Jungler is an awesome bike.

I think Amazon is learning japanese a bit too quick, but I guess it's necessary for the plot to move along properly.

I really like the ending theme. Lot of charm to it.

God damn, things are really getting intense in OOO currently up to episode 37 with just a handful of episodes left to go.

The fact that Gotou finally transforms into Birth...a moment that they've been building up since first time we see him and with how far his character's come since then I think it's definietly well earned....I might've cheered a little.

It was great seeing Uva's plan backfire on him, karma's a bitch eh?

Stronger Episode 14: Wow a villain dies and the show suddenly changes here. I love General Shadow right now, he reminds me of Heart from Drive right now, a bit more of an honorable villain. I like that he doesn't like what Black Satan's doing and just here to fight Stronger. Even him back talking the leader of Black Satan is great, General Shadow is something else and that's awesome. This is much better than Kamen Rider Black when I was a huge Birugenia fan which made me not care about Shadow Moon; I am a huge Titan fan and General Shadow is just very different and they both have different motivations on why they are fighting Stronger so it makes a huge difference between the two of them. Oh yeah there are other characters besides General Shadow in this show lol. Well this is probably the biggest highlight was Tackle actually saving Shigeru for once which was pretty cool. Shigeru is his typical badass, heroic self with defeating the Black Satan soldiers not transformed and just his overall battles with both General Shadow and MechaGorilla were both amazing. I loved the exchange between General Shadow and Shigeru with General Shadow just letting him go after he picked the Joker card; I like that he has his own code and stick by it. This should be a fun showdown between Stronger and General Shadow. Also I love General Shadow's cards he uses and his rapier, his face is a bit weird but overall I love this villain a lot right now. Need to see more but he definitely has the potential to be up there with Birugenia, The Crisis Crew and Apollo Geist for Showa villains. Overall I continue to love Shigeru's intelligence, skill, heroism, crazyness, and caring nature. He is a fantastic character and this show is awesome right now. I can't wait for more.

Kuuga 23.
Something about aches. Mhmm.
Anyway, the mantis Grongi enters a rail and marks everyone with a specific scent. She then proceeds to go about killing everyone marked by decapitation. That's rough. Pretty interested in how this will go, because Sawatori was there, too.

Kuuga doesn't seem to have any issues while fighting her, but the aches may be getting to him.

Kamen Rider 18 - 21

A wonderful set of episodes. The cast is really growing into a nice unit and even Michi, Yuri and Mari are getting more likeable each episode. Even though they are no replacement for Ruriko. I also liked how they further developed Ichimonjis character and how he differs from Hongo. Hes not just a more cheery person all around but especially the way he handles his fate as a Kamen Rider is completely different. While Hongo was afraid of his new abilities and tried to exile himself so he wouldnt someday hurt those he loved, Hayato is doing the exact opposite. Hes trying to embrace what little humanity is left in him and living his life with his friends who give him the strength to go on and fight Shocker.

Episodes 20 and 21 where hands down the best episodes of the show so far. They had a great plot, the action was outstanding for that time and it was full of suspense.

Amazon, episode 8

The longer this show goes the more evident it becomes that the design of the Ten Faced Demon's costume is actually incredibly shitty. Which is bizarre, because, although a bit unimaginative, the suits in Amazon have actually been pretty high quality. Yet the most important monster just looks like crap. It is what it is.

Anyway, show's still good. The sister has full on stopped being annoying, Amazon's interactions with others are growing. Good stuff, all around. Gedon sounds still suck though.

I really like the Mole Beastman. Good character. Figuarts when.

I love the Ten Faced Demon. It's such a weird and utterly unique design.

Same. It's just a shame he doesn't do more.

The design is good enough on paper, but the dude on top (i think his name is Gorgos or something?) just looks terrible. The costume isn't anywhere near as polished and good looking as the Beastmen or Amazon. That head really looks like it belongs more in the original series than in Amazon.

Anyway, it seems I spoke too soon about Ritsuko. She's back to being annoying in episode 9. I'd like to think after this one she'll be more reasonable, but it might be expecting too much.

On the other hand, I'm really liking the Mole Beastman more and more with every episode.

Oh no, part of the appeal is just how ridiculous it looks. It's a bunch of dudes crammed inside of a giant papier-mache head with another guy in a goofy mask poking out of the top. It is so stupid that it circles around again and becomes amazing. :lol

I'm finally done with Kamen Rider OOO and man what hell of a ride.


OVer all, OOO is actually a lot better than I gave it credit for. It's a little slow moving to start off with, but I think that has more to do with the two episode story format they were following which definietly messes with the pacing a tad bit. But once they get into the main meat of the story, man do things escalate quickly.

The ending was definietly a tear jerker, and I'm glad they decided not to copout like they did with W's epilogue episode. Still I can't help but think that OOO is a bit of an ironic show.

The whole lesson the show's trying to teach is to not be consumed by your desire, and yet isn't the whole point of Kamen Rider to sell toys and collectables? So if you buy into the meaning of the show, it's going against the desires of the people that want you to funnel cash through it.

So I've just been introduced to Asakura Takeshi in Ryuki Episode 18.

However, when Eiji lost his desire, so too did he begin to lose his humanity. Desire is something all humans have and can't live without, it's not being poisoned and driven to evil by desire that is it's message.

It was only just now that I realized one potential reason for why I dislike Gorgos' design so much. The Ten Faced Demon basically reminds me of a california raisin. A remarkably handsome one, of course, but a fucking raisin nevertheless. Not appealing at all.

Anyway, the huge leap Amazon's language abilities went through between episodes 12 and 13 rather bothers me. Even if it's justified by Masahiko actively teaching him, it's such a large difference that it's just jarring considering he had been progressing at a more natural feeling pace. It's especially annoying because it's inconsistent, sometimes he'll still speak in somewhat fragmented Japanese, while at others he will spout off somewhat long or complicated phrases without any issues. I certainly don't buy that he learned to swear out loud like that. I at least wish they'd saved this for after the Gedon arc was over. Not a fan.

That aside, the show is great and only gets better. Mole Beastman is still a great character, and Amazon, my quibbles with his language aside, is still a great protagonist. This is certainly the best experience I've had with a Showa show yet, and Amazon himself is shaping up to be one of my favorite main Riders.

Yeah you are know venturing into the rework territory of Amazon. They had to heavily rework the show after parents protested against the show for being too violent for children.

Kuuga 24.
Rising Titan appears. Mhmm, that's about it.

I did like that we got to see Ichijou actively putting his detective skills to work, figuring out how the mantis Grongi targeted specific people. It was cool to see the police figure something out on their own.

Getting Figuarts Gaim is making me rewatch the show, over a year later. Good memories. It's actually cool seeing how much forshadowing there is, even if all the mystery is gone, I remember how hooked I was on every new development, and how fast-paced (i.e., well paced) it is compared to most Rider shows.

Amazon episode 15.

Man they changed the ending theme up on me. Well, still pretty much the same song, but I liked the other verse better. Onore Garanda Empire.

This episode was really boring though, otherwise. It's the first truly just generic Showa Rider episode. I like, have watched this exact episode some fifty times already in other shows. Amazon is now pretty much a standard hero and the antagonists are back to being this big shadowy organization scheming and kidnapping and...eh. I guess Gedon had traces of this too, but since their entire goal was a more focused "get the Gigi Armlet" it felt...I dunno. More personal I guess? It meant the show was About Amazon, the plot was him and he was the plot. Now it's back to "let's rule the world" and Amazon is merely a hero standing in the way. I can't really say I like it.

For what it is worth, though, episode 14 was pretty rad. A fitting enough end to Gorgos, and, though I still think he looks dumb, he will be missed.

Also, I thought I hated the red followers, but the black ones are somehow even worse? At least the red ones were fashionable, the black followers look like...Shocker minions with awful wigs or something. Eh. Speaking of followers, that one episode with the lady that betrayed Amazon. That was weird. She just revealed she had been a follower all along...and banished? Like. That sure went somewhere. Huh.

Mole Beastman remains the highlight of this show. I want a figuarts bad, man. I can only dream.

OOO 39 and 40

Woah! Ankh! You alright? That was a freaky nightmare you had there. I should have seen the twist of the dude's wife being the Yummy host coming, Gotou had good moments, and screw you Lost Ankh, getting all cocky now that you've become self aware. It was a good arc, overall, even though not much happened until the end. Also, those chess pieces. I want them explained.

Made a little more progress on Den-O today, finished Episode 5 and meet our second Taros, Urataros, the dirty lying turtle-man. I'm not gonna lie when I say that I like that he always lies and that there's no purpose behind it like Ryotaro wants to believe.

His quarrels with Momotaros are really entertaining, and Rod Form looks cool. More Kamen Rider-ish because of the compound eyes, but I still like Sword Form more.

And yes, Hana is probably the best Kamen Rider girl. I like her a lot. It's sad that the actress won't play her the whole show, I know that, but I'm still thankful for her great performance and it is for the better that she dropped out, health always comes first.

It kinda bugs me the way OOOs leaves out little details like that.

I still wanna know where Hina's freakish strength comes from and what happened to those people that got caught in the black mist...

Kuuga 25.
This episode was pretty nice, setting up the boy that seems to fall under depression after losing his grandmother a few years prior.
The problem is that it's basically all the episode does until the end.

Anyway, bird Grongi is flying about, seemingly able to blow a dart that causes instant shock and kills the victim of a heart attack. Wow. While the police and Kuuga are able to get a beat on it, it's too hard to pin down, able to outshoot Rising Pegasus and beat him to the draw.

Ugh, I forgot what a total bitch Kouta's sister is. It's not even enough that she's just an idiot, but she has to be so nasty about it.

Amazon episode 20.

Ouch. Right in the Mole Beastman.

Kuuga 26.
The episodes with this teacher tend to be pretty nice. Emotional and touching while not too heavy with the melodrama.

Anyway, both Kuuga and the owl Grongi survived from last episode with minimal damage, Kuuga going white and healing while the grongi rips off his own wing so the energy from Rising Pegasus's shot doesn't spread to his belt and kills him.
In the meanwhile, Godai continues his search for the kid, soon enough finding him and has a touching heart to heart, notably not scolding him for running away by telling him that, basically, we all do it. It was a rather nice scene. We also get a scene with the teacher, Sawatori, and Godai's sister, about the pressure on children's shoulders and how cynical they become.

However, that all comes to a sudden stop when the Grongi reappears. Kuuga doesn't waste much time and engages. Using Rising Pegasus, he fires, using a barrage of shots to take the owl down.
With that out the way, Godai and the child return to the train station, where their teacher is waiting for a nice reunion.

It was a rather nice episode. Providing a look at running away and loss, and how kids are raised to be more serious to the detriment of those children.

Just finished the first Kamen Rider 4 webisode. Kento Handa is still my favorite returning Rider alumnus. It sucks that there's no clue when the rest will have available raws, but this was still fun. It's a really good watch if, like me, you still kinda hate Mach.

Finished Amazon.

This show was really good for about 14 episodes, then it got a lot less good, then the best character died, and then it ended. Hrm. Shame. It could have been a really unique show had it stayed on track, but sadly I guess executive meddling and parental complaints fucked it up for everyone. Oh well. Still a decent enough show.

I mean, I was mostly joking. Those things don't NEED explanation, but yeah...the black mist. I just assumed they came back, since typically when Yummies are defeated things go back to normal.

Hina's strength always bugged me, because it was inconsistent and inconsequencial. :x

I believe the only explanation that was ever given was buried somewhere in one of the magazines that mentioned she was so strong because she was into doing wrestling or some shit like that :lol

So yeah there is no real valid explanation to it. Its a shame.

because it was a gag.

like Beast's love of mayo.

Imagine how much of a plot twist it would've been if Hina's strength was because she was really a dormant Greed or something.

But... it wasn't funny.

Hmmm... then again neither was Beast's love of mayo.


Yeah, and she became the Dino Greed instead?

Then at least she would've amounted to something besides a hug machine.

Kuuga 27.
I really wish there was much to say about this episode, but there really wasn't...A gothic chick grongi goes around killing people at pools...But is also interested in music. Okay.
On Kuuga's way to the pool she's at, he's intercepted by what I assume to be the grasshopper Grongi. They have a cool bike fight, but he ultimately gets the advantage, leading to a gas can spilling and a large explosion.

Man, when stuff happens, it doesn't even happen.

that's probably a lost in translation thing.
like, Japanese stand-up comedy runs completely different than american.
it can be said for all Japanese comedy really.
like, they find perverted stuff funny, like looking up a girl's skirt accidentally, or characters like Golden Boy.

Or whatever the fuck this is:
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GEPBs81v0yk

Kuuga can be really slow. I seem to recall it being especially slow right around where you are. But despite that, I super love Kuuga. The like the way the powers slowly grow and develop, and the unknownness of the Grongi.

Stick with it through these slow parts, in my opinion, it gets better, and it should be doing so pretty soon.

The problem with Kuuga isn't that it has "Slow parts" but that it's slow as a whole. For every increase in tension and excitement, it immediately comes to a stop and starts meandering for another chunk of episodes. Events that are supposed to be handled with gravitas aren't. Rising forms? He's just able to do it. Kuuga almost dies? Next episode reveals he's fine and already healing rapidly as soon as the intro ends (Aside from the first time, which was handled well). An interesting plot about Ichijou's family and his mother's collapsing? It's resolved by a fucking 2 sentence phone call.

From the 27 episodes I've seen, it just hasn't been very good. The story is nonexistant because the Grongi only speak Linto once every 3 episodes, so we can only follow the police's reactionary methods, rather than any form of advancement, only one plot line has been consistent without immediate resolution (Bat Grongi's escape), but it hasn't actually been picked up, only briefly mentioned now and then, the "Games" are confusing and make no sense (I will admit that it leads to interesting killing methods, but an interesting kill doesn't make an interesting villain), and any character beyond Ichijou and Godai are rather dull (Yes, I like a lot of the cast. But the staff at Pole Pole are comedic relief at best and filler at worst, the doctor's life outside the hospital has barely been explored, and the staff at the police department 90% of the time just inform Ichijou of the current situation so he can, in turn, tell Godai. The only members of the side cast that feels like characters are Satowanakawo, the scientist who neglects her son, and Godai's sister).

I'm wanting to like Kuuga, and I've been told that it is slow, so I'm assuming that it does pick up.
But the problems is that there are no "Slow parts" since that would imply there's a moment where the pacing increases...

Well, I can't exactly argue with you on any of your points. I agree that all the family & friends characters are booooooooring, and I don't care about them at all.
But those that are involved in the Grongi problem I more or less like, though none as much as Godai and Ichijo, and maybe those other two cops whose names I never remember - they start getting a little more involved with Godai directly, in the near future, if they haven't yet.

But for all your valid points, I still like it, and I would say stick with it, there's good stuff (I think, anyway) still to come.

Well, I'll keep at it...I hear good things about Kuuga, but the first half is dissuading, to say the least.

Anyway, Kuuga 28.
Was she a jellyfish? The whips and stinging gave a jellyfish vibe...
Well, it was nice to see the secondary cast realize just how serious things were and how close they were to death, leaving the pool moments before the Grongi arrived.
Also, pregnant lady is still there. Dunno if she's ever gonna matter.

It was also good to see the police figure out the pattern to the killings. I do enjoy some good detective work.
Anyway, Kuuga becomes Rising Pegasus and takes her out.
However, we see the abacus wielding grongi meet up with some fedora wearing grongi. Interested to see where this leads to.

Aside, the Rising forms are a blessing and a curse. It's nice to see Kuuga power up, but the problem is that in showing just how strong they are, there is little action involved with them. We see how much more powerful Kuuga is with the Rising forms as he one shots the enemies quickly upon transformation. That's kind of an issue in that, upon transformation, the fight ends with the literal next blow...