There's a lot to like, it's just that Inoue is extremely sloppy; he's really bad about introducing subplots and then dropping them dead. His favorite things are the super lazy coincidences and the infamous communication breakdown because he's not a talented enough writer to make the plots move without them. Great ideas - poor follow through, often leading to frustrating arcs and flat out weird shit: see Yuki showing her panties to a pre-teen.

So I finally got around to watching GoRiders and thought it was really strong even though the titular gimmick came out of absolute left field, where it stayed. I'm guessing we need to watch the summer xover to get the How Thuh Fuh on that.

When's that Dr. Pac Man movie getting subbed? I wanna see that mess bad!

Finally wrapped up my rewatch of season 1 of Amazons.

I mentioned this in the list thread, but I really didn't enjoy it as much the second time around. Just the tone of it all really started getting to me. It's just so edgy, and it takes itself much too seriously, to the point where it feels almost immature. Just wasn't a fun time.

There's also the fact that I thought the ending was pretty unsatisfying and that made the road getting there also not as compelling. Imagine my surprise when: plot twist, I actually didn't mind the ending too much when I got to it. Guess my brain just wants to be a contrarian to 2016 me.

With every passing day I also become less and less happy with the use of Amazon as an inspiration for this cynical edgefest, but I guess I just gotta deal with it.

Not to say that it isn't a good show. It's definitely not bad, but it can be frustrating at parts. Pretty much all the stuff with Mamoru is pretty great though.

I just wish the series as a whole was a little less
https://themidnightalliance.files.wo...m-an-adult.gif

I have my doubts that the second season will remedy this in any way. From what little I've seen talked about it it seems they've only gone harder on the edge.

As I said earlier: Amazonz might be gory but, at the end of the day, it's still a kid's show, just like horror movies are made with teens - technically too young to watch - in mind.

If Amazonz continues to do well, maybe they'll get more daring but, right now, it's still a toy commercial.

I'm new to Kamen Rider and Toku in general (save for many Toho kaiju flicks) so I'm diving in head first into everything at once. Watching Ex-Aid (on the 25th episode and I love it), Faize and I'm about to watch the first episode of Gaim.

Wow... That is quite the combination I must say. All of those shows are very intense to say the least. :lol

I need to watch this. What should I watch beforehand? I'm only on like...episode 20 ish of Ex Aid


It JUST came out on DVD in Japan today, so maybe within the month.

The Taisen movie that came out 2 months, Agito, Blade and Gaim

Welp....I guess I won't be watching it for a while then lol

Definitely watch those soon, though - those are three of the best. Ex-Aid has touched on those and Ryuki which pretty much telegraphs where the creative team's heads are at.

Yeah, Ghost, too but that was forced via tradition!

I'll watch them at some point, but not yet. I kind of want to watch more of the newer stuff before I start the early Heisei, and I'm just trying to save Gaim for later. I'm thinking either W, Fourze, or Den-O is next...

Kamen Rider Hyper Battle Videos are truly the gift that keeps on giving.

Literally everything about the Faiz HBV was just...exquisite.

I wish Faiz was a musical.

My only regret is Kusaka didn't participate.

Yeah, the Faiz HBV is truly a gift from the gods. Words don't do it justice.

Finally got around to watching the Drive Blu-Ray specials. They were alright. It's a very competently put together mystery (and coming from the guy who writes Ex-Aid you'd expect no less), and there's even a remarkably clever twist where it turns out the freakin' titles of all the Drive spinoffs were a hint to solving the mystery, but it's not particularly exciting or full of deep, meaningful revelations about the backstory of the show. They set up a big question at the start and then basically mock the audience for thinking it ever mattered at the end.

I'm cool with that though. I'd rather have bonus stuff actually feel like a bonus instead of the feeling so much of the Ghost stuff gave me of "Why wasn't this just an episode of the show?" I got to see the Drive cast doing Drive stuff for 40 more minutes and, especially given how much I love Drive, I'm not really asking for anything else.

Faiz 40

Mihara is by far the worst part of the show at the moment.

I feel like literally every second this series has spent on anything relating to Delta has been a massive fucking waste of time.

Also king kid is a dick.

Typical Inoue writing style, so expect to sit through more unnecessary and annoying misunderstanding cliffhanger. You either love it or hate it.

"I JUST WANNA GO HOME!"

"Sorry - you might be the biggest wimp in Rider history but, despite the fact that Mari and that other woman are infinitely more qualified and you simply don't want to do it - you have a penis and that's what's more important than ANYTHING ELSE!"

"Sniff... ok... Henshin"

Don't worry, you'll forget Mihara ever existed almost as soon as the show ends. He's like the Kamen Rider version of The Silence.

Just watched Ex-Aid 23. This show is nuts, and definitely went in a direction I wasn't expecting.

Faiz 41.

I was really hoping MarsHottentot was joking about Yuka flashing this kid.

Just what the fuck?

That's just one of those "It's Japan" moments.

Ex Aid 25. Holy crap. This show is insane. At this point I think it's safe to say Ex Aid is easily the best toku show I've seen so far. I wonder if anything can top it...?

Yeah, it's preeetty awesome! You'll like Gaim, Blade and Ryuki a lot if you dig Ex-Aid.

Black 20: I can't believe the villains actually nearly killed Kotaro, only to ACCIDENTALLY ATTACK AND FLING THEIR OWN KAIJIN into the cage they had trapped Battle Hopper in. Good job villains.

Just finished Faiz.

On the whole, I'd have to say that I'm a fan. Faiz is, without a doubt, riddled with flaws and frustrating characters and character interactions, but I nevertheless enjoyed it a lot. I think if circumstances were different, it could easily have been a legitimately great show. It had an interesting plot and characters, but Inoue's unique brand of melodrama didn't do the series many favors. Still, I liked it. And the HBV is still amazing.

Still got the movie to watch...will probably give Kamen Riser Tasen and GP a rewatch soon too. And I can finally watch Yongou so I'll do that too.

I worry for the next Kamen Rider show being able to top what Ex-Aid is doing.

It'll be tough, but not impossible. They just need a creative team that understands and respects the property as much as the Ex-Aid crew does. With that in place, it should be okay.


Provided Inoue isn't back in the saddle.

HAHA! I love you, Inoue, you cynicall old coot!

I just got done watching Kamen Rider Black episode 12 and I can't get over how much Black is, ya know, actually riding a motorcycle. Not only that, but he actually gots another one and the show is actually treating it, much like Battle Hopper, with importance. There are a lot of differences between Black and modern day Kamen Rider, so much so that its a bit hard to believe its the same show, but the motorcycle thing has to be the weirdest difference.

I have not been following Ex-Aid. Is it that good? Ghost was so bad that I didn't feel like watching another Rider show again. I only saw episodes 1 and 2 of Ex-Aid, they are not bad.

Ex-Aid is fantastic, every episode matters. 31 episodes in so far and none of it can be considered filler. It's stacked with plot and storyline.

It's awesome. Each episode has a ton of plot with a lot of twists and turns. The status quo is altered every couple of episodes and you're never really sure what's going to happen next. There's only like 6 MOTW monsters as well, meaning absolutely no filler. I liked Ghost and will continue to defend it, but it just can't compare to Ex Aid. Highly recommended.

Anyways, just started Black. Episode one was alright. I think I'd enjoy it a lot more if the picture quality was improved - darker shots are really hard to see in. I love how 80s everything is though, and the suit has always been one of my favorite designs. Hopefully the filler episodes are at least enjoyable as individual episodes.

It was a Showa era series, they all used the bikes a lot more. Black, as far as I know, is the only one where the bikes got their own theme song, though:

https://soundcloud.com/kyojuuyamashi...rider-black-im

Ex-Aid is goddamn fantastic. For my money it's the best Rider series since W.

Black still has my favorite first episode of any Rider series. I love how it just starts in media res with Kotaro running through the streets of Tokyo at night, pursued by the Gorgom priests.

Technically the Machine Tornader got it's own theme song

Would put this in the thread, but I don't want to be spoiled on episodes I haven't watched yet, and I've seen people discussing Ex-Aid in here, so I think it's probably ok.

Finally started season 2 of Amazons! To be honest, I'm not quite sold, but episode 2 put to rest most of the concerns episode 1 put in my head. Mainly that I think it was a little too far removed from the first season- yeah, a couple members of the extermination team showed up, and the dickbag from the last season seems to have taken Haruka's mom's job somehow, which will be interesting to see how that happened, but it mostly just seemed to focus on new characters who were mostly kinda eh.

The new head of the extermination team was particularly unlikable. Team X I get, since they were supposed to be unlikable and the end of episode 2 gave them some potential, but I can't figure that guy out at all. Is he like, in a permanent state of just waking up? Why is he so low energy? I'll have to see where they go with him.

And while I do like Chihiro, it worries me slightly that my excitement to see the old cast again is kind of carrying my interest. If they can't stand on their own without the old cast, why have a new cast, why not just continue Haruka's story? I assume they'll get better but yeah.

Also, I hope they don't blow their load on the monster budget too soon, there were like 7 new suits in the first 2 episodes alone, that's crazy. Overall though, not a bad start. I particularly liked the flashback to Iyu's origin- that might just beat out Mamoru eating the one guy's arm as the most disturbing scene in Amazons so far.

It was a neat idea, but I couldn't see half of what was going on, and that kind of ruined it for me :\ I'm sure it would be awesome in HD though.

The guy who subbed Black RX did take the Century King scripts and put them on better raws a year or two back. I'm not sure how easy they are to find now that nyaa is down, though.

If only he did that for original Black :lol these are kind of rough.

I don't think the video quality for Black is too bad personally. Then again, maybe that's just because I am comparing it to Hibiki, where I literally could not tell what was going on 60% of the time (not that I really wanted to know during the second half... :lol).

He did, that's what I was trying to say. Sorry if that wasn't clear.

They're significantly better. Before my desktop explodedI was DLing the Blacks and A-Bing them with old ones - night and day. I mean, it's still on film, so it doesn't have that crisp pop of Neo Heisei era shows but, much less murky.