Maybe I'll find them someday, but for now, I'll just deal

Kamen Rider Black 2. The backstory was...I dunno. It was there. It just kind of felt like an expanded rehash of the first episode, which I wasn't too excited to see. Once the episode got into the swing of things though, and he fought that cheetah monster, I really dug it. I enjoy the Showa-style Kamen Rider fights, so I'm actually excited to see this series go into filler territory, where a monster shows up, causes some problems, and then gets its butt kicked by Black.

Does Black have two-parters, or is it just single episodes?

There are a couple points near the middle and especially the end where it gets a little more serialized, but Black is almost entirely done-in-ones.

I mean, I figured it was pretty MOTW, I was just wondering if there were more single-episode MOTWs or two-part MOTWs. Even the original series had two-parters, so I didn't think it was out of the question.

No, it's a fair question. V3 was mostly two-parters, too. I don't remember Black having many, though, outside of Shadow Moon's arrival and the final 4-5 episode arc.

Decided to check out episode 1 of Kamen Rider W. It was pretty good, I like the two main characters, the noir theme was pretty cool, and the eviction girl was fun to watch and pretty cute too. Also, with W already being an established rider at the start of the series, there's plenty of room for good backstory.

It seems like a solid series. However, I'm just not that excited to watch it right now. I think I'm going to save W for another time, and either just focus on Black and Ex-Aid, or start Kiva instead*. I'm just not sure if I'll have time to finish an entire series while preparing for my study abroad program that starts in 3 weeks...

*I know Kiva isn't very popular, but that Vampire motif and goth aesthetic speaks to me...

Well, I can't stop you but, just go in knowing that you're entering THE INOUE ZONE, where logic and sense dare not tread and you might not turn into a seething mass of ""WTFFFFFFFFFF???". It is a beautifully shot / directed show, despite all that. Also, Wataru is not goth at all, so don't expect brooding teens!

Potentially ignoring Black and W to watch Kiva instead.

What is this I don't even.

I'm going to alternate between Black and Kiva. Black is awesome but it's hard to watch a lot of in one sitting. Double seems good, but it's just not what I'm in the mood for, from a stylistic standpoint. Or maybe I just have bad taste, who knows. After all, I liked Ghost and Ninninger.

By goth I mean like...gothic horror. Vampires, castles, bats, etc. Not edgy teenagers

Yeeeaaahhhh, even that stuff is only kinda there... Inoue...

Okay so, Kiva 1. I feel like there was a lot going on in this episode. The dual timelines thing was cool, and they could probably do a lot of interesting things with it, but I worry that it'll be confusing or end up like Arrow, where it just seems too convenient how well everything lines up. I really liked the soundtrack. A lot. Kiva's suit is great, the Fangire suits seemed pretty similar to each other though. The only thing I'm not sure about is Wataru. Trying to recreate the color of his violin? The "world" allergy thing? I'm sure it will be explained, but right now it seems strange. Still, I really dug that episode. I'm not trying to get my hopes up for an awesome series though, seeing how everybody bashes it so much.

Aouwwgh... Myuuuugh... Fffttt ...

Neeeeyyuu....

Good luck to you.

So what exactly do you not like about it? The main two complaints I hear are 1. the story gets kind of ADHD towards the end and jumps around a lot, which...I guess we'll see, and 2. His final form is used too much, which actually sounds good to me - whenever a Kamen Rider uses their weaker forms instead of the strongest form I'm always like "why not just save yourself the trouble?"

Are there any other issues?

Anyways, Kiva 2 - God I love that OP. The two timelines thing was really enjoyable here, I'm excited to see this become a thing throughout the series. I'm just confused as to why they already seem to have dropped the mask and goggles thing, and why he decided to test his fish paint on a completed violin, as opposed to a piece of scrap wood... Those are minor things I can easily overlook though.

My main problem with Kiva is that the entire show feels like one gigantic mess. While this isn't very clear in the beginning, it becomes more and more apparent as the show goes on that none of the writers seem to care all that much about the details of the show and are only interested in the big picture. This results a number of plot holes and a lot of interesting backstory and lore bits not really getting much focus and ultimately going nowhere. This is especially bad compared to some other shows because, as you can tell in the first episode, history and lore seems to be a big part of Kiva as a whole.

Wataru himself certainly doesn't help matters. No matter what's going on around him, he never really asks important questions and doesn't really do all that much to try and figure out the mystery that is his life outside of a few things here and there. He gives me the impression that he really wants nothing to do with anything going on in this show but the story and everyone else around him keep forcing him to keep going.

All and All, Kiva reminds me of Wizard. Its alright on its on but its obvious that the show could have been so much more if the writers cared enough to work out the fine details.

Which is especially troubling because "the writers" is actually like, just one guy.

But yeah, pretty much what macblo says. It's not too apparent at the beginning, but the writing can get really inconsistent.

I also really disliked all the relationship drama and several characters were extremely unlikable or pointless.

Not to say this to try to influence your opinion, of course. You should form your own opinion on the show. Personally I was enjoying it until the early 20's when I felt its problems really started piling up.

Macblo nailed it. I'd add that repetition (marked by a single violin piece and a weak sauce "punk" song - get used to them, you'll be hearing them a LOT) gets tiresome and the sad fact that the 80's timeline, though more interesting, is paradoxically almost superfluous to the 00's plot, other than introducing the MotW Otoya somehow failed to stop.

Inoue Zone - plotting while shitfaced and angry at the ladies.

Oh I'm just asking so I can prepare myself properly. I'm usually willing to give things the benefit of the doubt, though. I can recognize their faults, but despite that, I still enjoyed Ninninger and Ghost, because I focused more on the stuff that I enjoyed about them than the stuff I didn't enjoy.

That right... with Ryuki, Faiz, Kabuto,...
But ìf you watched Kuuga, Blade, ooo,... they can't just use power up like ordinary.

One could argue Wizard wants to see if he doesn't need to spend as much mana and W can't directly transform into Extreme. Other than that, eh

Costumes ain't cheap, yo!!

And this is why I like it when ultimate forms have some kind of built-in drawback. It raises the stakes of using all that power while also highlighting how big the threats have gotten.

Yeah, with Drive's Dead Heat and I believe Type Formula? They couldn't use them for long, and it made sense why they wouldn't use them constantly. But with Ghost and Ex Aid, I'm just like...why don't you use your strongest forms right away? In Ex Aid, at the start of Kamen Rider Chronicle, if he just changed into MMX right at the beginning and kicked Parad's ass, he could have saved all of those people from dying and had a much easier time with this game. But instead, he uses a lower form and lets them die. Like...using a weaker form shouldn't be a plot device. There are plenty of fights that should have been won, had they simply started off with their strongest form.

Type [ spoiler ]
then put the spoiler after that and finish it with [ /spoiler ]
Remove the spaces. That's how you spoiler tag

I dunno if I would REALLY count Dead Heat and Formula as having drawbacks since the issues with them were overcome relatively fast.

Wow I totally forgot that that was a thing lol. Thanks

Well, I've only seen Drive, Ghost, Ex-Aid, and part of Kiva. That's the biggest drawback I've encountered :lol

http://i.imgur.com/CgiNGip.jpg

OMGhesaidthethinghesaidthethingtoTakeruandEmuImeanheforgotthe最後のpartbutwhateverhetotallysaidthethingthisisthebestmovieever!!!!!!! *passes out from sheer joy*

Guys, Heisei Generations is like, REALLY good. Stop reading this and go watch it.

Yuuya Takahashi might actually be as much of a genius as the Ex-Aid hype-train says he is. The plot genuinely matters to the series without running into the opposite problem of feeling like mandatory viewing, and all the Riders are super in-character and get to be awesome. Just about the only major improvement would be if Gaku Sano was here, and considering that's almost definitely him doing Gaim's voice (even though the credits didn't mention him?), it's not even that big a deal.

Apparently they just reused voice clips for Gaim, since he wasn't available.

If they managed to do that so well that it fools people into thinking Gaku Sano was actually involved though, that's pretty impressive.

Man, I need to finish Drive and all it's movies so I can watch all the Ghost movies so I can watch Heisei Generations.

I guess it mostly comes down to not giving him anything too specific to say. It's not like he shows up and is instantly like "Greetings, Emu Houjou and Takeru Tenkuuji! Let's work together to fight the Bugster Virus and save humanity from Dr. Pac-Man's evil ambitions!"

Seriously though, I would've never noticed. This way is infinitely preferable to the generic deep "hero" voices they're always giving old Riders in these things. Good on Toei for doing it how they did.

Just finished Kiva episode 12. So far, I like it. The plot isn't as dense as some of the newer shows, but that's understandable. I still really like the alt timeline aspect, but it's done a lot differently than I expected when I first heard about the series. My main issue is the fact that Ixa is always trying to kill Kiva, but the two of them are actually somewhat friends outside of their rider suits. Like...just freaking talk. Wataru is clearly not trying to kill humanity. I get that the reasoning is most likely that Wataru is actually just afraid to say anything, but jeez. If it bothers me in Kiva, a series where nobody mentions it happens, I can't even imagine what Faiz is like :X

What?! Has nobody told you that happens in Kiva too? Oh, you poor thing. This is our fault. We should've prepared you better. :lol

I don't think Faiz is really any better or worse in the "just freakin' talk!" department, but it's a been a while so maybe I just don't remember.

Communication Breakdown is an Integral Feature of INOUE ZONE style tokusatsu.

If he wrote it after his divorce/ boozing / WoW addiction took hold - it's locked in there, broh.

I've heard that Faiz is the most notorious example, but a few of the other early Heisei series have instances of it as well. It's not THAT bad in Kiva, since I can at least blame it on the fact that Wataru is just super awkward and probably scared to say something (and he even tried once, but it was brushed off).

Faiz is definitely the worst offender, but Kiva is far from innocent.

If you're doing mental acrobatics to "make it work", you probably won't be too aggravated with Kiva. Faiz may cause a cerebral hemorrhage, though - CAVEAT EMPTOR.

Normally I'm pretty forgiving of nonsense in toku shows (which is why the flaws of Ghost don't bother me) but I'm legitimately scared to ever watch Faiz.

Aww c'mon, if I survived I'm sure you can! I'm honestly significantly more afraid to watch Kiva than I ever was of Faiz.

Ahhh, double post!

Black 26: You need to have courage to fight the Buffalo Kaijin's possession! And also the ability to survive high-voltage electricity! Good moral.

Watched Paradise Lost yesterday. It was pretty cool. Very flawed, of course, but full of interesting ideas. Plus Kusaka dies like half an hour in, nobody gives a shit and he's not as much as mentioned in the rest of the movie which already gives it a bit of an edge on the show (also, no Delta).

It's been a long time since I looked at the timetable, but I believe Paradise Lost came out before Delta was a fully established part of the show. The suit may have appeared around the same time, but the movie definitely came out well before it had its permanent loser... er, user.

Just gave Kamen Rider Taisen a rewatch.

Well, what's stupid is stupid, and this movie is exactly that, especially the end. That being said...I kinda enjoyed it this time around? Which is really the last thing I ever expected to say about this movie, considering how much I disliked it the first time around.

But I guess having more familiar faces just helps. When I first watched it almost two years ago (time, where did you go???) I was still pretty new to this whole Rider thing. Gaim aside, I'd only watched Ryuki, Blade, Drive up to that point and like 43 episodes of the original show and 6 of X. Not really anything that would help give KRT much substance (even though the main Riders of the latter two were in it). Since then, though, I've finished like...eleven of the shows that came before it? So there were a lot more suits I recognized/had any sort of attachment to in the mix, and it was just a lot more fun.

Specifically, the stuff with Takumi was very enjoyable, which is a good thing, because that's the only reason I watched it. Dubious canonicity aside, it was fun. Though man, his voice got deep.

(and jesus i had forgotten how awful the sound mixing was in this movie).

Probably would have enjoyed it even more if I'd watched Decade or W, but eh. In time.

It was still not a good movie or anything, and the Sentai stuff and the entire last fight were unnecessary, but eh. I don't feel like I wasted the time I spent watching it, so that's good.

But man, I haven't absolutely hated any of the last like three or five Rider movies I've seen, I think I may just be developing stockholm syndrome or something because that's just unnatural.