Amazon 17: That was the best evil plan EVER! Turning Mt. Fuji into a volcano against all geological logic and then pumping the lava under Tokyo. Which makes sinks shoot fire somehow. Why are those two things part of the same plan? Heck if anyone knows.

Gaim rewatch 4-7: The humor with Team Gaim and Bravo is hilarious and the story is about to reach the turning point! Also, please people check out an episode of OZC-Live's sub of Gaim, it looks really pretty with the Blu-ray rip!

No, the best evil plan is still turning humans into exploding flying squirrels.

Which season? I need to know.

V3

Nice, I was planning on giving it a go soonish.

Wait, I was under the impression that Mt. Fugi IS a volcano, just a dormant one. How is trying to reactivate that illogical?

The other part is still glorious, but I'm just checking my facts here.

To be specific, they were trying to dig a path from an active volcano to Mt. Fuji, which would somehow make it blow up. And then make a path from there to Tokyo. It makes about as much sense in context as it sounds.

Ah, that makes way more...less... uh...

Showa logic.

Kabuto 1-4: Thank God for Kagami or else Kabuto would be a bore.

Just wait till you meet Tsurugi :p

Amazon is all finished! While I certainly can't judge it by the same standards as Heisei shows, I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun watching that. It got more fun as it went along too, since the Garanda Empire was much more interesting than Geddon. Gotta love those super terrible Beastman costumes too. RIP Mole Beastman though, you lasted a lot longer than I thought you would.

Probably gonna do my second Sentai next!

Amazon Episodes 17 and 18: Both very solid episodes of Amazon kicking the crap out of Garanda's beastmen. Though I will say that the schemes were both very good and very serious. Honestly if they used the Frying Pan scheme combined with the Earthquakes they might have actually succeeded in something. Amazon continues to be his inspiring, intellectual, badass self. Also Mole is just so much fun. Continuing to love the series. I'm hoping to finish it this week.

Kabuto:
Liking it but, starting to see the problems, though I'm not wholly bothered. My biggest beef is that it's Agito with most of that show's mystery replaced by smug looks. The "Cast-off" system is brilliant, the "clock-up" effect was really well executed early on, the designs are fantastic and the action is top notch. The subs on the Malay set are pretty bad (as are the rips they used), might download a fansub if the show gets good enough to warrant it.

Amazon Episode 19: More great Amazon action, loved him knocking the Owl's head off that was something else lol. Great plot by the Owl Beastman these are some pretty big disasters they are causing Garanda I think they are bigger plans than Gedon's were. Mole is so helpful and I am seriously worried about him next episode. Well I can't wait for more.

Amazon Episode 20: SCREW YOU GARANDA!!!!!!!! Not Mole! Mole was a too pure for this world. I love Mole he was brilliant and so great. His sacrifice was brilliant. This episode was very sad and even gave up taking the antidote so Amazon could have it. Amazon was great taking down the Mushroom beastman and stopping his plot. Well I hope to see more of Amazon's rage take down the stupid Garanda army. I'll miss you Mole.

Kabuto Episode 29+30
Alright, this show just went off the rails into absolute WTF Showa styled bat-shittery. I mean, episode 28 was a normal, action and drama packed Kabuto. Episodes 29 and 30 decide that goofing on Iron Chef would be way more cool than the story they had going. The Kamen Rider bits are literally an afterthought. The tone shift was so great my face got smashed by my keyboard airbag!

That was a thing you sometimes got in the early Heisei era. Ryuki and Blade had similarly weird episodes around the 30-mark.

Yeah, Blade had those episodes of the dude who looks exactly like Hajime around that point.

Ah, yeah - that's right! Reused that plot in the Kamen Rider Baron Gaiden.

Baron Gaiden was okay, cool to get a little bit of Kaito backstory and an explanation for his thirst for the golden fruit, but everything else was kinda eh.

Okay, so I'm entering into Ghost. On episode four and my early assessment remains - this is a straight up kid's show that telegraphs everything, leaves nothing to the imagination and tries it's level best to be a live action anime. This being the case, I can tell already that it's going to run the risk of boring me to tears, even watching it within that context. We'll see, I'll post my honest thoughts occasionally.

Amazon Episode 21: You don't realize how helpful Mole was until he's gone. Though great use of Amazon's knowledge and skills like normal. Also, shows how much he's improved with his speech from the early episodes. Continued to enjoy the series and this one was definitely a bit more emotional with using the kid of the possessed father as part of the story. Garanda is heartless right now and I can't wait to see Amazon defeat them.

I personally loved Ghost and thought it was a great show. There are a lot of things that you don't see coming. That being said it is a bit slow in the beginning.

You are not wrong in your assessment.

Amazon Episode 22: Damn Tobei almost fucked up and got Tokyo destroyed, He's glad that didn't happen though. That was a fun episode especially with the Beastman being a Momonga. That was not one I was expecting, the this one and the last one being the weird ones have been the most serious ones so far. Momonga Beastman dropping bombs was crazy. I loved Amazon tracking Momonga and being able to counter him well; also the fighting is amazing and the Amazon Kick is awesome too. I can't wait for the final two episodes here. Such a great series.

I'm not going to denigrate anyone's enjoyment of it and find it unlikely that I'll outright hate the show, I might just never finish it. I don't find it slow, I find it simple, it actually runs like a traditional American kid's show in that respect; absolutely lacking in nuance. That's not necessarily a bad thing as young children have trouble with processing abstract concepts. However, for an adult, it takes some real dedication to roll with a show that, by design, "shows it's cards". I do watch this stuff contextually so, there's fair amount of that I can deal with. I have heard the writing gets pretty sloppy - that's going to be the hard part for me to get through.

Yeah, I love Ghost's first arc, but the show rapidly starts growing out of its more explicitly "kiddy" elements after it abandons the Dragonball plot, and even just once Specter shows up. Or maybe it'd be more accurate to say it supplements them? The point is, if your complaint is that it's too simple, the stories get more complex. I personally found Ghost to be a kids' show that totally avoided the usual pitfall of being patronizing. It's explicitly a rather lighthearted series, but it gets heavy when it needs to and was FULL of nuance in my mind.

http://66.media.tumblr.com/a68e1e65a...drb2o1_500.gif

Open your eyes for the next Faiz!

…

Yeah I’d rather not, but I did it anyways. First 10 episodes down. And after the first 4 it became less of a task, it actually feels like I’m watching something worthwhile now.

The first couple of episodes, to be precise until the gang arrives in Tokyo, are really bad IMO. I mean there’s some good stuff, like all Orphenoch things are okay in my book, even though they are kinda super edgy tragedy, but the protagonists are super annoying. Mostly because Takumi and Mari do nothing but argue all the freaking time, it’s so bad. And then there’s Keitaro who feels like a one-off character, and is also annoying. I was really skeptical when it became clear he would stay.

The action scenes feel weird too. Like I’m glad they’re there, but it feels out of place. Kinda like a bad horror movie where the two monsters needlessly battle each other to the death at the end.

That being said, once they go to Tokyo, once they open the cleaning shop the setup for a more traditional Rider story is there and the show finally achieves a place where I can watch and be like "This… this is something". It’s not great or anything but it’s there. The characters finally come out of their shells, there are some great scenes like Takumi finally admitting what’s the deal with him when he thinks he’s about to die, and the Orphenoch characters are really interesting. Kaido is my favorite, he’s great. Maybe because he immediately got a focus episode which was awesome, but I think he brings a dynamic to the Orphenoch side of characters which shakes things up a bit. And Keitaro settles down and becomes more of a character himself than a talking doll, especially since he now comes in contact with Yuka.

This is what I feel is good about Faiz: The fights take a backseat, the characters are allowed to experience unique events and you have enough runtime to show two groups of people and develop them. Our cleaning maids and the newborn Orphenoch. I feel like that’s a good way to handle things since the enemy immediately has a face. With Rider it’s often kinda "Battle MOTW’s until episode 30 then we introduce the bad guy who was just standing around the entire time but we knew nothing about him", with Faiz the Orphenoch are immediately in the focus and develop and grow alongside the human characters. Okay, there’s still Smart Brain and the president, they will suffer the same fate in that they do vague shadowy stuff now and only directly impact the show latter, but at least we have some bad guys to watch.

I currently feel like I enjoy Faiz for all the wrong reasons: I enjoy it once it feels like Kamen Rider, once I break it down to a basic formula and forget most of the curveballs this show throws at you. Because there are a lot. There’s the whole tragedy thing for example, which is like I get it it’s a drama, but damn. Shit’s real. Or unreal rather.

So what do I like about the show? First off, suit designs are top-notch. Faiz himself looks great, love the look of the suit, love the gimmicks, and I love how they keep the glowing effects on. The Orphenoch aren’t bad either, I like the animal human hybrid suits. Yeah color-wise they are lame, but it’s intentional and I can get behind it from a story perspective.

I like the characters, currently. It can go down the drain very soon and I kinda feel it will, but currently the characters are likeable and do something worth watching. They develop and they face obstacles. That goes for both the humans and the "rogue" Orphenoch.

I like where the setup is going. Or rather what I think it’ll be going, it probably won’t. But Smart Brains seems interesting, there’s some witchcraft going on (class room underground and stuff) and there are more Riders on the way.

What do I dislike? Mostly the random scenes with police and stuff, because it feels like lazy build-up, but also some gags that don’t work, and the complete lack of anything funny. I know I seem like I hate the comedy characters but this show also lacks funny interaction between the cast. And it’s not like they aren’t trying, Keitaro attempts to do comedy, but it’s just not working. Most times when there’s nothing important to talk about the cast kinda seems like they read their lines from the paper, it’s a bit weird.

That plays into my next concern: The tragedy aspect. We all know what this show does, I heard about it before watching it, and after experiencing some of it I agree: It’s too grimdark. You might think Gaim does some hardcore stuff, and people who watched Agito know what the Angels do to their victims, but with Faiz they bring it down to a human level which is even more depressing. Like, the episodes with Yuka before she turned? Damn. Same with what happened to Kiba and Kaido. It’s on the brink of being too much drama for me.

And the action – this is weird because I talked about how I like it when they take time with the characters instead of fighting and how I love the suits, but the action is really not good. It’s short and boring. Punch and kick a dude, finisher, that’s it. There’s no finesse to it, no style. The Faiz gear itself can impress since it’s so well done, but the fights themselves are not good. Like this is one of the rare times where the fights are the "Let’s get this over with"-part for me. I hope it gets better; maybe the other Riders can do something about this.

Anyways, there you have it, I’m watching this now. I will finish it. Currently it’s enjoyable to some degree, but man I hope it stays that way. And just to push Fish Sandwich’s buttons a bit, I think it’s better than Ghost so far :p

Oh man Kiwami's taking on Faiz. Faiz has so, so many objective problems, but it managed to hit a lot of good notes for me, making it one of my favorites. Stylistically, I think it has a lot in common with Blade ironically.

Hell I'll be the first to admit that Faiz is one flawed showed. But it is so entertaining I can't help but love it. Heck it's my second favorite show, contains my favorite main rider, and contains my favorite rider PERIOD.

Honestly Faiz probably has more going for it than Ghost does. It's ~artsy~ and stuff like that. It's also super consistent in its writing since Inoue did every single episode.

I like Faiz. The level of grimdark always felt appropriate for the story they were telling (and I get turned off by grimdark really easily), the cast is great (Inoue at his worst still does great with character dynamics), and the action is fine. Takumi has an almost thuggish quality to his fighting style with how he just sort of wails on dudes with his fists. It's not fancy to look at but it fits his character great. I also feel like there was plenty of effective comic relief. Even in just those first four episodes you hated, I love how the show plays Mari and Takkun's awkward interactions for laughs.

Also, it has flaws or whatever. Who cares? Everything does. Faiz's problems are part of its charm half the time for me, even. The stuff it does do right, it does really right, too.

Faiz does have some redeeming qualities. I do generally like Takumi and I think the show has some great Rider designs. There are some good memorable villains, too. The biggest issue is that it gets so incredibly bogged down in melodrama and communication problems- I generally got the sense that Inoue wanted to do a teen soap opera but Toei wouldn't let him so he did this instead.

I've been marathoning Kamen Rider Amazons and up to Episode 9.



This show is beyond messed up lol but it's been an excellent watch so far

To be fair, I sort of "get" it in Faiz given Takumi's loner attitude towards basically everything. He doesn't want to get too attached to people, therefore he doesn't really make an effort to solve those communication problems.


My biggest beef with Faiz is the ending and by that, I mean it doesn't have one.

Yeah, I feel like if you're going to watch an Inoue show, Faiz is the one to do since it's probably the best representative of what he's good and bad at. Even though I was not super interested at that start I got SUPER into it as I went along, since the characters were so interesting. I actually found myself screaming at my laptop at some points (Kusaka does that to me).

On a different note, I always thought it was hilarious that a character as thuggish as Takumi got stuck with the cutesy nickname Takkun for the whole show.

I agree with you a lot. Though we may be the few who love Ghost and actually saw it for what it truly is.

Amazon Episode 23: Damn this escalated quickly. Amazon's been defeating us too much let's just use a freaking Nuclear Weapon and destroy freaking Japan. The hell! This has to be the craziest plan in all of Kamen Rider history that I've heard. The Salamander Beastman was definitely crafty with his shapeshifting technique. Though I liked that he'd rather be executed by Great Emperor Zero than get defeated by Amazon that was something else. Enjoying that this continues into the final episode this should be one hell of a finale.

Amazon Episode 24 (FINAL): That was one hell of a finale. The intensity of Amazon being captured and the Helium Bomb being set off were definitely great finale events. Great Emperor Zero didn't seem as Immortal as he thought he was. Though he was dumb bringing out the Gaga Armlet for Amazon who basically became a super asskicker more than he was before. I enjoyed Tachibana who helped out a lot more here with disguising himself and Masahiko and Ritsuko helping out too. The final fight scene was great and when do you get to see the hero decapitate the final boss? That was just brilliant. The ending felt sad seeing Amazon leave for the Amazon again and leaving them all behind. Overall this was a great ending to another great series. My Kamen Rider series I need to watch becomes even smaller.

Oh trust me, I saw Ghost for exactly what it really was.

Regarding Faiz, it's a really awkward show all around. I feel like the story is kind of messy and a lot of the things don't really get revolved until the very end and Inoue's insane endings come back with Faiz and spirals way out of control.

But other than that, it's an awesome show. There's a fire lit under it and it retains the shock feel that Kuuga, Agito and Ryuki maintained, you didn't really know what was gonna happen or who was gonna die in the next episode, the basic story is rather interesting and how it approaches morality and looking more at the "tough" side of life was rather well done honestly. The ensemble was also pretty cool honestly, the rogue trio are some of my favorite characters in all of Kamen Rider and everyone else was very enjoyable too(even Kaixa, he was the asshole that you wanted to punch in the face but love him at the same time), inserts were catchy and upbeat, suit acting was awesome(I think I'd maintain Faiz as my all time favorite Seiji Takaiwa role) and yeah, it had a lot of little things and a huge heart that made up for it.

On other things, in the past few weeks(months? How long have I not been here for) I caught up on Blade and Hibiki. In short, I didn't like Blade, I appreciate the ideas but I felt the execution was poor and the pacing was too glacial for me, making a show that I felt very bored sitting through(the King Form debutand Ending were great though) and Hibiki.............was quite delightful in it's own right, I really appreciated the show as a whole regarding the cultural elements and social commentary going through, plus the amazing Sahashi soundtrack and visuals. The second half wasn't exactly ideal with carrying Takatera's original vision and how Toei treated the show, but I even enjoyed that part(hell, I think the second half did somethings better such as focus more on Akira and Ibuki, and the wonderful conclusion of Todoroki and Zanki's storyline). Hibiki was the man and one of the best protagonists I've ever seen.

Continued on with a true, coherent Kabuto watch(saw chunks of it years back) and from a show that I really loved watching back when it was under five years old, it's been rough so far.

Kabuto 31-33
Okay I feel like I'm on a motorcycle going really friggin' fast and I'm hitting oil / ice patches and almost wrecking every time. It feels like they're just killin' time and doing it in a manner that just doesn't jibe at all with the tone of the first half of the series. Some episodes are brutal, the next is goofy, how the characters do what they do (substitute teachers - or Tsurugi as an adult student! - for instance) isn't qualified in the least - and then something amazing happens and we pull out of the tailspin. It's a very weird show!