Well yes practically everything Kamen Rider except for the ending of Gaim.

Don't know if that's a miracle or the first sign of Ragnarök. Someone actually enjoyed that shitstain of a movie, holy shit. I mean, Sano is still scarred for life because of what this movie did to him.

That's the problem with these movies though: There's barely anything truly Kamen Rider in there. They tried to emulate the classic formula for an adult audience and laughably failed.

I don’t blame anyone for getting excitement out of these movies, but damn they are so horrible.

Honestly, Kiriya was my smallest problem with the last bit of Hibiki. He was an annoying Inoue character, but hey, at least the actor is loveable enough.

Shuki was a problem. And what Inoue did to the rest of the old cast. Especially Akira and Hibiki.

I mean... it is worth watching in the sense that it will make you cherish the first half more and makes you more knowledgeable about Kamen Rider, but it is pretty frustrating as an experience. The last few episodes put all the things great and unique about Hibiki, threw it in the trashcan and replaced it with stuff that felt like recycled Faiz mixed with prototype Kiva.

What sounds pretty cool in written form doesn't necessarily stay cool when it is played out.

Hey, at least they got that beautiful scene with the explosion behind the corner and the Shocker combatmen flying everywhere. That was hilarious, it took me ages to get my act together again. Admitted, it was the only entertaining thing about both movies.
The problem was... Most of the time they were just boring, but they turned almost insulting with the after credits scene in The Next. I had to get a cup of tea to calm down after that. And so far, only Decade has made me so mad that I needed to stop what I was doing and get some tea.

Shuki pisses me off to no end; the only reason the character exists is to prove that women don't make good Kamen Riders.

Well, it's not that she was much better or worse than any other female rider up to that point, but considering she was used in a show like Hibiki, that had very good portrayal of both genders so far does make it annoying. Not to mention how horribly she made Zanki's plot end.
These episodes were the ones that made me truly feel Hibiki was going downhill and it still makes me sad :/

Stronger episode 21

Man, Mister Titan is such a stupid, incompetent jerk. And General Shadow continues to be a beautiful bastard. Loving it.

For once a monster design in this series was actually legit good. That shark is awesome.

Stronger episode 23

God damn I love General Shadow

Otherwise, this episode was kinda dumb. "Titan must have some sort of weak point!...like uh, these weird buttons he has on his shoulders I guess yeah. Nailed it." Like, whatever happened to his water weakness.

Oh well, I'd grown irritated by Mister Titan's total incompetence, so him being dead is ok with me.

edit: 25 now. Armadillong may legitimately be the worst kaijin design of the Showa era, which is really saying a lot.

Also General Shadow rocks, etc. etc.

Lol it might be the first sign of Ragnarok I dunno.

See I guess I kind of felt that it was a weird merger of GARO and Kamen Rider so I ended up enjoying it for the most part. I really love that version of Hongo. Though I won't say they are my favorite Kamen Rider movies. Half of me wants to fan edit them and get rid of unneeded parts of both.

I'm up to episode 6 of Ghost, which is by far the most a Kamen Rider has been able to hold my attention. I've never really gotten past a first episode before. Something about the Rider series has always just put me off.

I watched the premiere of Ghost as soon as the sub was available and I still felt pretty meh, but I just randomly had the urge to watch another episode of it a few days ago and now I'm enjoying it so far. I think the ghost theme helps.

I'm glad you're at least able to get into a KR series.

Anyway, starting off my new year with Hibiki, episode, I mean volume 1.
If I said I knew what was going on, I'd be lying. The intro with the montage of Asumu's morning routine was fine, but then the singing just appears right the hell out of nowhere and is gone.
What can I say, I liked it.

The rest of the episode was just didn't give much. Asumu and his...Sister(?) go to an island where he chances upon the titular Hibiki, they stumble into a trap set up by spider demons, and Hibiki manages to save them.

I'm rather confused :lol

15 episodes into Agito and not really sure what the fuss is about yet. I mean its good I guess but it certainly isn't worth the praise the show gets so far.

My biggest problem is that so far it has been mystery upon mystery without any sort of clues or hints toward to the bigger picture. At least with Kuuga there were vague things here and there which let me at least try to draw my own conclusions, but so far Agito has given me nothing which is really frustrating because I am trying to like it.

The three Rider format is really working either. I'm a bit more forgiving about this because the show is still in early days and I suppose it was the first time Toei tried a proper multi-Rider show, but right now I'm at a point where the writers don't seem to know how to use them properly. Gills is criminally underused despite being the most interesting Rider by far and G3 has been nothing but underwhelming. It's just been Hikawa and Touhou at odds at each other over it and then sometimes one of them will go out and be completely ineffective.

So yeah - I'm still curious and hopeful but not getting the hype at all yet.

Yeah, Hibiki's first episode just throws you into stuff without much explanation. It gets a lot clearer and easy to follow from here.

Gills generally gets less focus than Shouichi and Hikawa, but he does get more folded into the plot as the show progresses. G3 itself is never especially impressive, which is kind of its point. G3-X is when you start seeing Hikawa really making a difference in battle.

Oh I get that its the point, but if I'm reading correctly G3-X doesn't appear until like episode 23.
That's a long time to stretch a point that was made after 5 episodes.

I found The First to be entertaining. It wasn't great, but the suits were neat (almost like prototypes for the look Sangou and Yongou have) and I can appreciate what they were trying to do.

The Next, however, was just bad, and I don't often use that word to describe Kamen Rider. It felt like Toei had a monster movie script and then handed it to some people to shoehorn some Kamen Rider into. It's great that you liked it, but personally I thought it had a pretty weak story.

Hibiki's first episode is confusing (so much so that it put me off from watching the series for at least a year), but once you get into it the series is really enjoyable. Enjoy the singing and music while it lasts; as the show approaches the (in)famous 29/30 mark all the stylistic effects (e.g. the kanji on the screen) slowly disappear.

Prepare to be underwhelmed. In my opinion, the only truly good parts of the show are around episodes 30-45 and maybe the first ten or so. The show is okay, but not really anything great. (Then again, I loved Kuuga, so I dunno.)

My biggest problem with Agito is the complete lack of focus plot-wise. They do a good job of setting up a mystery at the beginning, but they don't do anything with it for what, 20 or 25 episodes? Kuuga had a story; Agito has filler.

Gills was criminally underused (and his luck is the worst). Hikawa is a good character, and I think the show could have been better with him as the protagonist. His story in the Project G4 movie is by far the only good part of the film. It's a shame that he wasn't used more seriously.

Stronger episode 28.

Only 2 eps into it but I'm liking this Delza Army arc. They've done a nice job establishing the new organization as a credible threat right off the bat and the shenanigans between the factions are already pretty fun. The only thing I'm not liking so much is Shadow. He's for the most part the same conniving bastard I've grown to love, but him abandoning his previously singular goal of defeating Stronger himself honorably, and shifting his interests towards the whole conquering the Earth deal is...eh. It's not really why I like Shadow in the first place. Oh well.

I'm continuing my Heisei-fest with Blade, but I've decided that seeing as this will end when I get to Decade, it would be a good idea to fit in a rewatch of Black and Black RX. I've also recently gone back to an old job, work-wise, evening shifts, meaning I have to fit it in around that. So before I go to work, I plan to watch some episodes of Blade, then after work, an episode or two of Black. Last night I rewatched episode 1 of Black. Still perhaps my favourite episode 1 of any toku show. It also helps I'm using the Blu-ray encodes for Black, so it looks lovely.

The Delza Army arc is my favorite part of Stronger. All of the generals are really memorable and their infighting is a lot of fun.

I'm still not feeling Blade. I'm going to stick with it, because I promised I would finish the Heisei era, but 9 episodes in, nothing's sticking out, really and characters almost blend into each other.

Enjoying the hell out of Black in HD though.

Actually right now I'm not watching ghost at all. Actually I've been binge-watching blade , and the Kabuto and Faiz films as well. Once Necrom is introduced into ghost I think I will start watching again.

Blade is infamous for the first 12 episodes being pretty bad, then getting better afterwards, then getting really good around 30.

Yeah, Blade's beginning is a bit too slow for it's own good. I wouldn't call them outright bad, but I can't really deny that the early episodes are a bit stale. Stick with it, though.

Anyway, Hibiki volume 2.
So this episode is actually coherent, thankfully. Good god, it's so good to actually be able to follow the events.
So the demon spiders are axed off and I get my first taste of Hibiki's famous finisher of taiko drumming monsters to death. Pretty fun, pretty fun. The action is nice, being rather reserved. I do enjoy the fire breath (And the suit's neat little ability to temporarily grow a mouth to do it), and I like that the disc animals are seeing a lot of use in comparison to other seasons with similar trinkets (However, being 2 episodes in, we'll see how true that statement is).

So the woman was Asumu's mom, not his sister. Makes a lot more sense.

Concerning Hibiki, he's likable. He has his silly moments, he has his cool moments. He feels similar to Shotaro from W based solely on these 2 episodes, which I like. He's a nice balance of traits. For Asumu, he's just alright. Not annoying, but not someone I enjoy a lot, either. I do believe he improves both in acting and in personality (Since, right now, he's basically a wet blanket by having the action spontaneously cut to him just standing around), and since he's the main character, he'd better...

Anyway, there isn't much to talk about since the plot hasn't really started yet.
Really, the best thing to say is to watch Hibiki 1 and 2 back to back, since that first episode is terrible. :lol

I still haven't picked Blade back up after dropping it around the 20 episode mark, no matter how many times I say I want to..

But I am catching up on Ghost right now after falling after the first few episodes. That won't take nearly as long lol.

A Kamen Rider episode with minimal action shoved in at the very end? I'm having flashbacks to Kuuga...

Well, not really, because, unlike Kuuga, things kinda happen.
Hibiki volume 3. It's basically all set up to a larger threat (That looks kind of giant, based on the shot at the very end).
So...This show is really quirky. Like, head tiltingly so. There are moments where this show feels Fourze level of quirk, like the SINGING. Seriously, what the hell? Why are they singing again? I don't know. There's also the fast pace gags that rear their head up as if Hibiki was predicting how KR would be acting a decade later. Oh well, they're not bad, mainly because they know how to space them so that it's not gag after gag.
So, not much really happened. There was nice set up with Asumu feeling weak and distracted while a large test reared it's head, all because he can't get Hibiki out of his head. It's an interesting concept. Hibiki himself is his easy going self, and...Yeah. This episode didn't really provide much and it was just build up towards the next.

Hibiki, Volume 4.
Poor payoff to the giant Makamou or whatever. The demons in the past two episodes really didn't make much of an impact or matter, and really took a backseat. Hibiki spent most of the episode tracking it (Despite it being so damn huge), and just...Killed it. It was neat to see him topple it over just through sheer strength alone, but eh.

So Asumu finds an old man who knows Hibiki and after chasing him down, eventually, reunites with Hibiki himself.
Yep mhmm yeah.

Not much really happens early on in Hibiki, I'm finding out :lol

Don't go into Hibiki expecting a ton of action scenes. The focus is on character interaction and development first and foremost.

I'm not, honest.
It's just that the seeds of a story line haven't really been planted yet. Asumu being bummed out is probably going to go somewhere, but it seems like it's going to be resolved soon.

Concerning action itself, I was just a little disappointed. The fight scenes against the spiders in the 2nd episode was a lot better than against the Makamou in these two.
I don't need my KR to be filled to the brim with fights, these two episodes just gave me minor Kuuga flashbacks in stapling fights at the end just to hit a quota :lol

I watched Den-O those last two weeks, it was pretty good !

For once, I will make an exception and say the story in itself should be handwaved, it's not the main interest. As soon as time travel is invoked, it's very hard to write something solid (and previous season was Kabuto where IMHO writers also failed at this). In universe rules are not really convincing, not to mention plot holes and barely resolved stuff...

No, Den-O really shines with characters, comedy and visual jokes, they are gold there.

Now en route with Kiva. From the first episodes it looks like it tries to get darker and edgier. My fear is as it's been mainly written by Toshiki Inoue, his usual (and annoying) favorite story gimmicks will come in full force...

That is an entirely justified fear and yes, yes they will.

Hibiki Volume 5.
We get a large chunk of establishment, name dropping Zanki and Ibuki. Asumu's mother encounters a handsome young man with a trumpet ringtone, while Hibiki and his father(?) discuss that the demons they're fighting are more vulnerable to string based instruments rather than drum.
In addition, we also see a new type of disc animal, a crab (Though they weren't really necessary since the crab demon literally reveals himself after the animals are deployed).

Speaking of, this demon was kind of terrible. The suit was noticeably low quality, and he was taken out by the disc animals distracting him for a moment then getting punched by Hibiki. However, the giant crab was a much larger threat, able to spew acid from multiple points on it's body (The smaller crabs could do it too, but they were bitchmade). It covers Hibiki's arm in acid, it melts his belt buckle/drum disc thing, and Hibiki is forced to dive into the water when it's back just starts to rain acid everywhere.

So, for Asumu's portion of the plot, it has him on a bit of an emotional roller coaster, relieved that he finally got to meet Hibiki once again, then on a bit of a downward drop when he finds out all his friends are excelling, then up again when he wants to hold off on meeting Hibiki until after exams to exclaim that he passed, then just shooting down when the head teacher basically tells Asumu that he has one shot, and he's probably not going to pass the exam for the specific school he wants to get in. Poor kid.

Hibiki Volume 6.
So it was Ibuki. Neat. He's a rather nice dude, so I can dig it. I hope he transforms soon, since he did hint to Asumu that he wanted him to watch he and Hibiki to take out a Makamou.

On towards the episode itself, Asamu is hesitant to see Hibiki, but goes to the restaurant anyway...Only to find that Hibiki is out to work. However, Ibuki's timing to deliver another taiko drum to Hibiki is perfect and he invites Asumu to come along, mistakenly believing he's Hibiki's student. In the meantime, Hibiki is currently recovering from his injuries as he sends another patrol of crab disk animals to search for the makamou.
While not much of a heart to heart, Hibiki and Asumu's interactions are always quite well, Hibiki helping inspire Asumu, both of them telling each other that they'll work hard, helping Asumu focus.

The fight of the episode was alright. I enjoyed watching Hibiki actively take damage to show how strong the demon was, as well as his previous injuries causing him to lose one of his drumsticks mid battle, and that he had to take a different route in fighting (Placing the taiko on the weakest point of the crab's shell, be very proactive in dodging and rarely landing hits). My only qualm was that the previous episode established that string based instruments dealt more damage, so they could've shown that he had to put more into drumming to kill it (Not to mention he only had one drumstick). That and the fight itself was rather fast.

Something I also enjoyed was Asumu admitting to the old man that he didn't pick the high school he's trying to attend for any personal reasons, but simply because it's higher rated. Kind of a mini-social commentary for Japan, as he wanted to go to a different school because they had a better music and brass band, but isn't as 'prestigious' (For lack of a better term) as Jounan. The old man commenting on how it sucks to make large life goals at that age also helped cement it.

Next episode or the one after that.

Yeah, there's a lot of interesting insights into the Japanese high school system in Hibiki. As someone with minimal knowledge of it, I found it pretty interesting.

I've just got into the late "teens" and yes, the show has indeed picked up considerably.

Awesome~

And yeah, I guess I just wasn't anticipating school playing such a large role, but then again, I'm not used to my main character in Kamen Rider being a middle school aged kid.

Hibiki Volume 7.
Ibuki's transforms into his oni form. His suit looks rather nice, granted, I always knew what it looked like, but still, doesn't change that it's a nice looking suit.

So Asumu passes the exam and gets accepted into the high school of his choice! Wonderful! I am glad he did, giving a nice follow up to the past few episodes of he and Hibiki promising each other that they'll both train hard. In his excitement, Asumu rushes to the restaurant only to find that Hibiki is off training. While there, he expresses some interest in the possibility that anyone could become an oni if they work at it, though he quickly shifts topics afterwards.
After getting secret instructions to his secret training grounds, he does his best to get there, but inadvertently falls asleep on the bus and misses it, now in a different area with little he can do.
As a quick note, a pregnant woman boards the bus, and Asumu is show uneasy as he is unsure whether or not he wants to offer his seat, but a young lady beats him to the punch. Looks like he still has some growing to do~

The demons here are two monsters who attack their victims by stretching their legs out and squeezing them.
...Huh.
Well, it's uneasy, I'll give them that. While terrorizing a young lady (The same one Asumu was on the bus with), Ibuki arrives and saves the day, taking out one of them.

Now that Asumu's current school stress is over with, I'm curious about where he's going to progress from here. Meanwhile, they're mentioning an apprentice under Ibuki named Akira, who I assumed was the lady on the bus, but her actions and interactions with Ibuki didn't seem to indicate that (However, Ibuki showed no restraint transforming in front of her, something Hibiki was derided for). I dunno...

Yeah, that's Akira. You'll also see her in the opening and closing credits.

Stronger episode 30.

Oh damn, this episode was actually really good. Especially that ending. Pretty freaking great.

Hibiki Volume 8.
So Asumu decides, rather than wait for a bus to go home, to just venture out into the woods with a map and his compass to find Hibiki like that. Kind of a dumbass decision there, kid...Well, late at night, he stumbles upon Ibuki and Akira's camp, thankfully letting him rest there. Akira is being a bitch and cold for no reason, while Ibuki is just trying to help the kid survive the night. The next morning, Akira chose to be a bitch instead, needlessly confronting Asumu because she's a bitch like that. Ibuki tries to stop her from being such an unlikable being, but is interrupted by Hibiki returning.
Though Ibuki knows that they have to get going to fight the Makamou soon because he'll eventually be able to fly without spending most time underwater, so he and Akira run off. Them gone, Hibiki and Asumu speak once again, Asumu learning of the little organization made for the oni and anyone who supports them. He helps reassure Asumu and things are well and fine.
In the meantime, Ibuki engages the Makamou, the one with the stretchy leg and the flying stingray. With a little help from the snake disk animals, he's able to take out the stretchy one and, after landing a few shots, able to trumpet the stingray to death.
With the monsters gone, they return to camp and Akira proves she isn't 100% bitch and apologizes, dropping down to about 85%.

This episode was alright. I enjoyed the snake disk animals actually being able to attack and prod the Makamou out the water, as well as being able to help Ibuki break free after being bound by the other monster. I think these are the most useful animal trinkets I've seen this side of OOO.
The character moments were all over the place. Asumu being so desperate to tell Hibiki he passed a test that he'd trek through a forest alone, at night, just to hope to find the mountain Hibiki is on? Kind of dumbass decision. Ibuki is a nice character, charming and likable, but Akira is a bitch (Yes, I know that was the point and the purpose of her apology is to prove that she's not cold hearted and blah). Hibiki is his normal laid back self, and I'm really hoping to see another side of him soon.

It's more that at this point, things start clicking, as in you start to understand what happened in the first few episodes. At first you're only given some hints and in around the 15 episode mark or so, they start connecting those hints properly.

Hibiki Volume 9.
So, things happened.
Starting with Hibiki, we see that his training has led to a new ability. He's able to light his ongekibou on fire and throw multiple fireballs. Personally, I'm more of a fan of breathing fire, but I guess this gives him longer range and more control over the flames. He's kind of just fighting monsters the whole episode, killing the human ones and then taking out the giant bug, using his new style. It was a nice fight. Next, we have Ibuki trying to track down a Makamou, but having a little issue because the clues they give matches the natures of 2 different Makamou. Since they can't really plan for one or the other, they investigate, soon coming to a car crushed flat. This leads Ibuki to see that it's not a flying monster, but they continue on anyway as they're already there.

Finally, Asumu, who is having a crappy day, par for the course with him. Accidentally oversleeping, he misses out on a movie with his friends despite getting multiple messages to prepare for. He tries his hardest to get everything done with no time, but soon reaches the final message that his friends chose to watch the movie without him.
http://i.imgur.com/BVYTfwj.png
I know that feeling.
He wanders about instead, soon stumbling into a bookstore. There, he finds a set of ne'er do wells shoplifting. Making eye contact, he's torn over what to do until the owner steps in and stops them. They make a break for it and accidentally trips over Asumu, causing one of them to get caught while the other escapes. Left with a large bruise and a bloody nose, he's soon let out of the bookstore where, unfortunately, he finds the other shoplifter, pissed off and ready to fight.
Poor kid.

This episode was alright, if a little too spread out. I do enjoy seeing Hibiki's training from the previous 2 episodes leading to a new ability, but that's all he was this episode. Just action. He had one scene of rest, but that's it. I think he could've been cut and just have Ibuki do the fighting.
The main focus was Asumu this episode. Once again, he's torn on being passive or stepping up to do what's right. Though this time, he does stop one criminal, it's only due to being in the same aisle when they run, and accidentally tripping one up. He's also left worse for wear for accidentally being a hero. Poor guy, never catches a break.
Ibuki learns that the Makamou he's tracking probably isn't flying type, so he's not gonna have an advantage, but he continues onward, so I'm interested to see where it leads him next episode, but here he feels a tad underused. He didn't really do much and took up screen time that could've gone to Hibiki or Asumu, really.

This last week I watched Kiva first half ep. 1~24

Aside a couple of events that make non sense, story is less terrible than I would expect at first.
For example, the part where Otoya spirit use Wataru body is fun as hell, but is not explained at all, it's just there because it's cool (and it allows Wataru's actor tu pull a hell of an Otoya's character impression).
And remember when Wataru took a beat from Rook and was taken by Jirou in castle Doran ? And then he just magically awake at home, not explained either.
There's also Nago-IXA vanishing conveniently at the end of some fights just to not witness Wataru de-henshin.

Then the frequent switching of events between 1986 and 2008 often offers smart little things that relate to each others, that's the most interesting aspect of the show IMHO, with good comedy and characters.