After finally mustering up the willpower, I watched the Ryuki: Episode Final movie. It was actually pretty good, and I prefered it in some ways to the actual ending of Ryuki. I tend to enjoy the AU Rider movies in general though, regardless of the actual quality. Femme has a GREAT design I have to say, it just looked so elegant. Probably the most surprising moment for me had to be when Hikawa and co. from Agito had a cameo, I just can't escape the Agito curse I guess.

I finished Kamen Rider OOO last week and loved it! Now I'm in the late 20s / early 30s episode ranges for Fourze and Gaim, but maybe don't love them as much as I liked OOO. I'm also early on in Kamen Rider W, but I'm watching with a friend and have to wait for her to be available, so that one's going slowly.

I haven't even downloaded any episodes from a show earlier than W. What are considered to be the best Kamen Rider shows of the 2000s pre-Decade? I've heard that Den-O is popular, but sort of weird and silly? I basically only have YouTube top 10 lists to work with, here.

I really like Ryuki, and I think it's still pretty well-received. It was co-head written by Toshiki Inoue, the head writer of Jetman (which I believe you've seen) and the anime version of Death Note, and Yasuko Kobayashi, the head writer of ToQger, Shinkenger, Go-Buster, Timeranger, Gingaman, KR OOO, KR Den-O, and KR Amazons (a few of which I believe you've also seen). So if those names inspire any confidence, I think you'll be happy with that series.

And I'd never recommend it outright because it's an extremely divisive series, but I fucking love Kiva (also head written by Toshiki Inoue).

For 2000's series, I always recommend Blade. Bit of a slow burn during the first quarter, but it picks up and gets really good in the mid teens~

Also, glad to hear you enjoyed OOO!

With Den-O it all boils down to if you like the Imagin or not. And it's enough to watch the first 5-ish episodes to realize that. You love the Imagin? You'll usually be entertained enough to ignore most flaws the show has. You hate them? You will stop watching the show.

So if you like the look of Den-O, try it.

Aside from that, I personally enjoyed most of the pre-Decade shows. Kuuga is good, Agito is good, Ryuki’s good, Kabuto is good. I hate Faiz and I occasionally argue with myself if I have the strength to watch that terrible show just to be able to say that I watched it, but I can't recommend this show, it sucks.

Blade I want to watch next and Hibiki sounds cool too, but the second half is trash because of issues with the producers.

Kiva I'm not sure what to think about, but I haven’t watched it so I can't say watch it or stay away from it, I don’t know myself yet.

So as far as my opinion goes:

Kuuga: Yup.
Agito: Sure (but maybe wait and watch it after Kuuga)
Ryuki: Absolutely, fantastic show.
Faiz: Nope. Don't.
Kabuto: Yeah it's cool
Den-O: Try it

So I would say try out Ryuki, I think it's the best pre-Decade show. At least the best I've watched so far.

Yeah, I've seen 10 Sentai shows to completion, including Jetman, ToQger, and Shinkenger. I think I'll give Ryuki and Blade a try.

Thanks for the recommendations, everyone!

Hibiki is worth watching even if you do the smart thing and stop after episode 29.

I've been watching Hibiki actually, and I rather like its style so far. Of course I know that it will probably be ruined once I reach the point where the staff got shafted, but I have so much morbid curiosity I'm going to watch that part too.

You bet!

The one thing you need to watch out for is the video quality of the pre-HD KR series. Unlike the SD Sentai shows, which were shot on 16mm film and are thus pretty decent to look at, the early-2000s Kamen Rider series were shot on suuuuper low quality video. It can take some effort to get past the home movie-ish images -- it's worth doing, but it can be alienating for some people.

Also second checking out Ryuki. It's a pretty awesome show, with good themes, ideas and action. Shinji and Ren make for an awesome duo.

So, got through about 20 episodes of Kuuga. Holy shit, I'm impressed. For the revival of Kamen Rider, they really hit it through the park.

Now I want to do that.

Started Kabuto a few days back as exams forced me to drop everything. 11 episodes in and damn, action scenes are cool and Kabuto has one of the best designs out there

He really does.

Kabuto is a really solid season, just very well rounded.

I finished Kuuga yesterday.

That was an amazing show, wow. The psychological impact, the use of mythology and science, the action scenes, the characters, it all blended so well and it nailed it.

In actually getting around to watching things me and one of my finished, for me, a rewatch of Ryuki and for my friend his first time, we both throughly enjoyed it and I have newfound appreciation for my favourite rider show.

Now I know there was another rider series I needed to get to, had thumbs up, motorbike armour and best non rider character, what could it have been?

Amazon Episode 1: That was a very gruesome and brutal first episode of a series. That was a lot of death from the village, to the chief, to Kousaka and his partner that was just sad because I really liked Kousaka. Daisuke is intriguing and it's going to be fun to see how he learns to interact with others. Though he is definitely a brutal fighter and man he was ripping that Spider Beast apart. Kousaka's niece and nephew seem solid right now, not annoying like some other Showa Era kids so that's good. I really enjoyed it and can't wait to see more action.

I'm going to resume my Heisei journey, i.e. Kuuga to Decade, later today by starting Kabuto, but last night, out of curiosity, I decided to watch episode 1 of Decade. I know a lot of people don't like Decade, but that opening episode is pretty cool, even if the whole thing does seem a bit like Toei wanted to make a DC crisis thing in Kamen Rider form.

I did plan on rewatching Black RX and giving the original Amazon a spin before hand, but seeing as the Decade riders aren't the actual Riders from the original shows, so to speak, I don't know if it's that vital.

Like I say, Kabuto is next for me.

Amazon Episode 2: Alright getting a better feel for this show. One of the things I'm enjoying is learning about Daisuke through his actions because he doesn't know language right now. I find it wonderful seeing how this character is full of compassion and rage without words. I enjoyed Masahiko helping him and actually believing in him as well as Masako too. The 10 Faced Demon is intriguing and has no patience for failure, I am intrigued with the evil organization here and can't wait to see where this goes. The fighting is pretty brutal with all the biting and more though I was expecting a little more based on newer Amazon appearances I've seen him in but maybe that will change. Showa Era shows always shift and find themselves at different points. Well I can't wait for more.

I've finished all the non-Inoue episodes of Hibiki now. I figured now would be a good time to comment on how I feel about Hibiki before whatever the heck happens next happens.

I found myself really enjoying the cast of this show. All the Riders have their own quirks, with Todoroki being my favorite. I like how it also shows the plot from a civilian angle, with Asumu and co, and from the perspective of the people working for Takeshi. It was also really visually distinct and has some really nice scoring. Definitely more of an episodic show though which is too bad and it took a long time for the plot to get going and thus less of the more interesting episodes. We'll see how it goes from here...

Basically everything you loved gets put through a shit strainer.

Yaaaaaay... (Actually I'm kind of excited in a twisted way.)

UPDATE: I've watched one episode and he's already ruined the entire show. That was incredible.

I imagined Inoue's reply is your signature :p

Currently starting the final episode of Kabuto. This EASILY trumps every other KR show out there when it comes to CGI and action scenes. After I'm done, I'll watch God Speed Love, Surprise Future and Amazonz
EDIT: Also, should I watch Stronger, Super-1 and the Black shows? Especially curious about Black, I don't want to get seizures from super moves

Black is definitely worth watching; it's a fantastic series. If you do have light sensitivity I can see how you may want to skip it, though; the strobe effects get pretty aggressive during his finishing moves. Maybe fast forward through those?

I'd recommend Stronger, too. It starts a little slow, but the ending is fantastic.

I can't fairly speak for Super-1, but the handful of episodes I've seen have been okay, but it didn't really grip me.

Kamen Rider Ghost & Drive Super Movie War Genesis.

This movie was a load of stupid bullshit, which is saying a lot for a Kamen Rider movie and especially a crossover one. It's just...really, really bad. At paying any attention to the continuity and rules of either show, among other things. It made no sense and it was just...ugh. It's bad. Didn't even pay lip service to the two other times these shows crossed over so what was even the point of that...

The Ghost parts were almost there (though I really really really really really really hope that isn't the canon way Ryu died, because it is some serious horse manure and I had kinda been looking forward to eventually finding out what it was in the actual show) but the Drive parts were at best superfluous and at worst nonsensical horseshit. Mostly the latter.

I think most Kamen Rider movies I've seen are crap, but this is still one of the smelliest turds on the pile.

At least A to Z was good, right?

Also very confused, as Super-1 apparently only has bad quality subs

Haven't seen that one, as I've yet to see W.

And yes, the only available subs of Super-1 are bootleg HK subs, unfortunately.

Try it out, W's amazing as a whole imo. Chaser spinoff is alright too

*screams internally*
At least I've always been interested in Stronger

I plan to eventually watch everything Kamen Rider, so I'll get to it, but of the 11 shows I've yet to check out W's like, 9th on the to-watch list. That's entirely because I'm roughly going in chronological order, though, not because I don't want to watch it or anything.

And imo Kamen Rider Chaser was more bizarre than anything else.

555 Paradise Lost and Hibiki's movie are really good Rider movies, heck I'd call Paradise Lost possibly the best alternate ending Rider movie.

Just watched Surprise Future, that shit was great

Paradise Lost is probably my favorite Rider movie, I was really surprised that I actually enjoyed it as much as I did.

Been catching up on all things Drive I never got around to. Over the past two days I've watched Type High Speed, Type Televi-kun, Type Tokujo (well, what I could find of it... were episodes 3 and 4 ever subbed?), and Surprise Future. About to watch Taisen GP now and hope to get to Rider 4, the Chase gaiden, and Super Movie War Genesis over the weekend.

Today I introduced my friends to Kamen Rider Blade. We watched the first six episodes and then they had to go. :-( It was nothing but pure awesomesauce and getting to see it subtitled for the first time in 10 years is awesome.

Is there a Rider movie that one can watch without having seen the series it spins off from?

Movie War 2010 because fuck Decade. Other than that, nothing really, as you won't know who most of the characters are and could EASILY get confused

Paradise Lost might be fine.

Paradise Lost.

Ryuki's 13 Riders special.