Fourze Episode 39-40: The Taurus Horoscope definitely got me riled up this arc. I am totally against stopping individuality but anyways this was a lot of fun, more answers, and really moved the plot forward. Learning the identity of the Virgo Horoscope made a lot of sense and I didn't even think about for a while that we didn't know who Virgo was. The ending of 40 was holy shit, I can't wait to see what that leads to. I think the highlights were definitely seeing Gentarou in the school uniform with his hair down that was fun and Ryuusei's epic Golf match for freedom even though he never played golf before. Also that Gentarou knowing able to beat an opponent without his fists and striking his heart. Gentarou is just an amazing character with his individuality, his friendship, and just how much he is willing to go through for people he barely knows to help people. Ryuusei, I love for similar reasons at least with the same thing with the last part because he practiced golf for so many hours just to save people. Yeah JK and Gentarou's breakdancing and double-dutch matches were fun but it was great that Taurus got beat by the time type of cheating that he pulled. I felt bad for Tomoko though with what happened. It was a good arc and a good beginning to the end. I can't wait for more.

Agito episode 12

Houjou gets punched in the face.

I'm willing to bet it doesn't get better than this.

Oh it does. If I remember correctly Houjo will get his ass handled in a few more brutal ways down the road.

Not that he’ll stop being a dick because of it, because he’s Houjo and that’s his deal. But I guess you figured that one out already ;)

After recovering from the bad camera filter abuse of Agito, I've continued onwards. I'm on the 33 episode, and things have gotten a bit more interesting again at least.

Continued:
I finished it. I have no words other than to say THAT WAS BAD. It was pretty much everything Inoue I dislike. It was very unsatisfying to me, and had a pretty boring cast. The first half was boring and the second tried to cram too much into a limited time frame. Definitely not one of my favorite seasons. I'm gonna finish off the bonus stuff then move onto Gaim.

I'm up to episode 17 of Agito.

Can I say I wish Hikawa had let Ryou gouge Houjou a little? Cause yes, I can. And yes. Man. I do.

Agito episode 21.

I truly, truly hated this Aki woman. Truly truly. Thank god for the Nipple Tassel Unknown. Speaking of, what the shit, Agito design team? What. The. Shit.

But truly, thank god.

Anyway, shrugs aplenty. I dunno. Agito. This show. It's alright. I think several of the actors could be doing better, and very little has really happened so far. Ryou's story in particular has been going absolutely nowhere for 20 episodes and if the thing that finally pushes him into being involved in the "plot" is MISUNDERSTANDINGS based on a garbage character like Aki "Suckassshit" Sakaki... eh. Bleh.

The past couple of episodes have soured me on the show for some odd reason. That odd reason is called Aki. She was obnoxious. Anyway. I'm sure it's temporary. Or maybe not.

Just, Ryou, I don't know. He's taken so long to do anything that I'm just past caring. Like, who cares. What has he even done besides sleep, get weird arms, and be mopey about women. Who gives a shit. Not me, is who.

G3-X next episode finally, at least.

Gills comes into his own more in the second half of the show once his powers stabilize and he stops dying every 2-3 episodes.

I watched the first 4 episodes of Fourze today and thought it was pretty cool. Having a high school club about it gave me a Persona vibe that I enjoyed. I've watched a bunch of Super Sentai the past 6 or 7 months, but Kamen Rider is basically brand new to me. I heard Double/W was really good, so I downloaded the first half of it and will probably start it later this week.

What other shows do you recommend other than Fourze and Double? I've seen tiny bits of Decade, Gaim, and Ghost from their Super Sentai crossover episodes, and thought they seemed... okay? I didn't see enough to have a real impression of them. So... which one should I check out next?

OOO leaps most readily to mind since it's between W and Fourze. Besides that I'd recommend my usual go-to: Black. It's kinda old at this point, but it's awesome.

I finished Gaim! I have to say, that was a wonderful change of pace from the disaster that was Agito. I definitely understand why this season is a favorite for so many people now. The plot was highly intriguing, especially in the later parts, and the fights was completely awesome, no question. It got insanely apocalyptic later on which lent the show a unique vibe too. However, I found the characterization very weak, most of the characters were just fine, but very few really stood out and their motivations got rather ridiculous. In the end though, that was a really fun experience, and it ended up as my 5th favorite season. I am going to do the Gaim Gaiden stuff next!

Definitely OOO.

Depends on what you're enjoying, if you like Fourze and W you might want to watch some more post-Decade stuff before you dive into old Heisei and Showa.

OOO is awesome, Gaim is the best IMO, and Drive could be something for you too.

I'd say go with either OOO or Gaim, whatever you think is more interesting, both shows are great.

Well all right. Looks like I'll be downloading OOO and Gaim soon and switching between four shows until I either finish or lose interest. Thanks, everyone!

Just finished 24 and 25 of Ghost. Thankfully, the Ghost episode of the crossover was MUCH better. I'm also liking the development of Alain. Now that he has a body he seems to be able to understand why the main crew are the way they are and relate more. However I'm not sure whether the whole "can we trust him? He seems to have an ulterior motive" plotline will play out with him ultimately screwing the main crew over or if it's just to show his adversity to change.

This show is getting back to being interesting again, which I love. The episodes between the first wish and the first trip to the Ganma world were a bit lackluster but the rest of this show has been great.

Did the Gaim Gaiden stuff now too. I really wish they had implemented some of the stuff like ACTUAL motivations for Kaito and backstories for the villains in the show proper instead of some spinoff thing. It definitely helped flesh out the show more, although two episodes at and hour long each is still nowhere near enough time devoted to fleshing out the cast.

Thinking I will take a break from Kamen Rider and try my first Sentai next!

Thanks for those recent recommendations, everyone. After a few days I'm 10 episodes into Fourze and I've watched the first 3-6 episodes of Double, OOO, and Gaim. I liked all of them, but the early favorite is OOO. I'm checking prices on O-Medals on eBay, which is dangerous. I think I might just try and watch all of the Heisei Part 2 shows now.

I don't like the female Unknown designs in Agito. They suffer from that thing where the males can look as monstrous as the want but for the females it's just "hey here's a girl."

Prompted by that bee lady from 22/23.

Agito 27.

Gosh darn it. I was expecting it, not gonna lie, but Shouichi getting his amnesia back is bullshit. And I thought things were finally getting interesting...

I'm all caught up on Ghost now. Seriously though, this show is giving DBZ a run for its money in the how many times you can kill a character and bring it back department

Fourze Episodes 41 and 42: Very good episodes. That was some revelation there with Tachibana's identity I didn't see them pulling that twice but it makes a lot of sense for Emoto to be the one who gave them their powers. Especially after feeling all that guilt from before and explains a lot why he wanted Meteor to hide his identity and all. Gentarou shines so much in these episodes with not going into heartlessness and believing in his friends and that erasing his doubt helped him evolve more. I also love Ryuusei's fieryness with both wondering why Virgo gave him his powers and to try and get back Tomoko. Love Kengo especially when he said he'd follow Gentarou to hell and back. Just the loyalty between the Kamen Rider Club is so awesome and I love how they all came back to help as well. Damn Gamou is freaking powerful, not that I doubted it but they did shit against him. Also I am intrigued with the Principal and where he'll go with doubting Gamou and if he might change his mind or not. I can't wait to see where this goes for the final 6 episodes. This end arc is feeling pretty good.

Well lately I've been really scratching my tokusatsu itch and have been watching some Kamen Rider. After months of feeling like I've been burnt out on tokusatsu due to watching a lot of it and life watching again has been refreshing.

So the one I've been watching for the past several weeks has been Amazons. Now the show is pretty good. It started slow, but has really reached my interest in the past few episodes. This show has helped me reverse the burned out feeling.

The other show that I have been checking out is Ghost. Now I gave up on Ghost after Necroms debut because life got in the way and there have been many aspects that annoyed me. After taking a break away from the show and returning to it, its not as annoying as I remembered it being. Now are there moments that make me cringe, well yes there are. But I can still sit through the show and enjoy what I am watching. Now it's not the best Kamen Rider show to me personally but I still enjoy it.

The third show is Hibiki. Now this is my third time with the show and I never really know why I stopped the first two times. Anyway this time I am not stopping the train and I will make it to the end of the show.

So overall after being burnt out on toku returning to it and actually enjoying it has been really refreshing.

Actually, that is a train that you really do want to stop after episode 29.

On the plane back from E3 I watched a BUNCH of Kamen Rider OOO and Fourze. Now I'm at 20 with Fourze and 28 with OOO. Just finished watching the 1000-episode anniversary stuff.

Seriously. Head our warnings, do not watch past 29. Watch 1-29 and the movie and call it a day.

I started Amazon earlier. Of course, being a 70s show, it was pretty slow paced and had bad effects. However, the premise seemed pretty interesting. The Amazon warrior angle puts a nice spin on the typical heroes.

Also, with the series being as short as it is, I'm hoping that the plot moves a bit faster. I'm okay with MOTW style shows, but they can only keep my interest for so long - usually not 52 episodes. 24 episodes should be good.

On a Black binge, started at the beginning and at 31 now.

Alright so I've dug myself deeper into watching Hibiki. The first twenty episodes were pretty easy for myself to watch considering that I had already gone through them twice before.

I had reached episode 29 and I could feel that the staff knew this was the last episode that they would write.

Episode 30 I did not mind all too much. Yeah it did feel a bit off not seeing the mountains and such but I did not mind it. Now the villains seemed more weird. Like the man and girl people that look over their makamou were not there, so the fight scene and everything relating to the makamou didn't feel like what came before.

Now again I didn't mind the change, but it is unfortunate how it seems that Hibiki lost a little bit of its feel with the mountains and forests. That's probably going to be the most hurtful thing.

Also the new character that's perfect at everything. When they shot up to his face playing trumpet I felt offended. Being a trumpet player myself I felt like slapping the character.

I didn't have it in me to continue watching Hibiki after that point.

You missed nothing of value.

You are a smart man.

Alright so I have gone a little bit deeper into Hibiki. I'm honestly surprised that this production change hasn't affected the show for me that much. Now the change is there but it doesn't bother me that much.

The things that really bother me are some changes to the oni, the perfect character, and the whole forest feel that the show had. It's pretty obvious that the budget was cut though.

Just watched Project G4.

For a Kamen Rider movie, it wasn't bad. Though the two antagonistic humans were just...obnoxious. The G4 guy just spent his last moments in the stupidest way possible. Bleh.

Weird that Houjou wasn't in this movie considering he tends to pop up in G3-related things but eh.

Kinda felt like Ryou was just there because he had to be. Kinda disappeared after his fights too. Pretty unnecessary.

Ok enough.

Re-watching Ryuki, I'm currently at episode 31. It's much more fun than before this time and Shinji is a precious cinnamon roll. But holy shit, the comedy in ep. 29 and 30 was so insane, it kinda caught me off-guard.

I've actually just begun Ryuki too. I've been looking forward to this season for a while as I've heard generally good things about it. In fact I've probably heard a few too many things about it, as I know a giant spoiler. I know that Knight dies, THANKS YOUTUBE SUGGESTED VIDEOS. Still, only 3 episodes in and it already has my attention. The Mirror Monsters are quite interesting and the protagonist is fun.

So I started Fourze after seeing This. The high school setting and the characters introduced both seem interesting, but I'm not so sure about the CGI though, and it's not one of my preferred suit designs. Still, I'm hoping I enjoy it.

Fourze was a fun show. Not great, but still pretty good in my opinion. The show was more lighthearted compare to the shows before it like OOO. The 2011 Earthquake did had a major impact on the tone of the show from what I can remember. Makes me wonder what Toei's original plans for the 40th anniversary show for Kamen Rider would have been like.

I'm totally okay with it being light-hearted. As long as the plot is good. I've heard it's pretty episodic and adheres strictly to the two-parter formula.

I might go back and watch Drive first instead. I've heard it's pretty similar to Ghost in terms of pacing, and I really like the suits and what I saw of the series in the Ninninger/Drive crossover. I was originally planning on watching Drive next, but on impulse I started Fourze.

I like Fourze quite a lot. The plot can get pretty interesting at times and the characters are just so darn endearing.

Fourze's suit design is something that grows on you while you grow to like the character. I used to dislike it and now I adore it.

Though Drive is also good. The start felt somewhat Drive-ish, but Drive is better by far. It takes some time to, excuse me, "start its engine", but from then on, it's very good.
Actually, the writers who worked on Drive were also involved with Fourze (and W), so if you enjoy one of them, you might enjoy the others too.

Fourze is my favorite Rider show -- it had me weeping like a baby by the end. It edges out Gaim for me, but just barely (and only because it had a stronger emotional impact). I'd keep plugging along with it cause it's totally worth it. And if you don't like Fourze's costume, you'll be satisfied when Meteor comes along. His suit is my favorite in the whole franchise.

I'm not a huge fan of Drive, but it's an alright show. It has some good episodes toward the late-middle of the series. And while people really like how it ended, the last dozen or so episodes left me cold.