I'd say it is. They upload about half a week later than Overtime, don't translate lots of things and Overtime actually localizes stuff like the Ghost jingles.

Unbelievable.

So yeah, sorry Fish, I'm waiting until someone else subs the Specter V-Cinema, but once it's out that way I'll make sure to post my thoughts on it :)

(TV-Nihon's Ex-Aid translator here)

Well I get it that everyone has their own preferences and stuff, here's just to clear some things up.

We just have a more flexible QC system for our QCers, where we give them a few days to QC whenever they like. Just because Over-Time does things faster doesn't mean we're lazy (would you say they rush their stuff out?). Everyone works at their own pace, whichever suits them best. I don't see anyone saying EXCITE is lazy because RTA gets their subs out within a few hours (I mean, I could release rushed translations, no typesetting, even earlier than RTA if I wanted to, does that make RTA lazy?).

And Lunagel was just being honest there? If she didn't like it, she didn't like it. Just like how I wrote in our forums that I felt that Takeru's cardiac arrest in the Pac-Man movie was a complete waste of time, just to add 3 minutes to the movie. It doesn't mean I translated that part haphazardly without care.

I mean. When out of all the sub groups, you're the last one to upload in the week, tend to have literal translations in comparison to the other groups, don't actually translate stuff and keep Japanese words in, then it's just fucking lazy by comparison. RTA, Excite and Overtime don't get praise for just being quick, but for making it enjoyable. I haven't seen anything from TVN Ex-Aid, so I can't say if you're subs are actually good or bad, but rather, in comparison to other TVN subs I've seen, I just tend to be baffled how TVN's one of the biggest toku fansub group. I STILL can't bring myself to watch Dekaranger because only TVN had the full series and I kept getting pissed off by inconsistent translator notes. Note though, again, this isn't against you

I wasn't criticizing this Lunagel for not liking the movie, it's Ghost, which has proven time and time again to be controversial in the fandom.

Personally, I would say that I'm one of the more liberal translators in TV-Nihon. I try not to change the meanings, while also making sure that the viewers can understand them. Eg. I kept the "boku/ore" thing in, with translation note for the first time, while EXCITE and RTA change it to "polite/rough" or something like that. Remember when Emu started using "ore", then he eventually returned to normal, saying "boku" at the end? Asuna said "You said boku"? while RTA's translation was "You returned to normal?" RTA's translation, while easier to understand, lost some meaning in there, in how Asuna realized Emu returned to normal. So yeah, that's one benefit of literal translation. I translated all the jingles for Ex-Aid (except some which can't really be translated accurately, like Maximum's Dariragan Dagozuban which doesn't really mean anything).

I also had lots of issues with our old DekaRanger subs myself (eg. DekaMaster's Jigoku no Banken, DekaBreak's Yoake no Keiji), but to be fair, those were one of takenoko's first projects. He was too literal at first, but I can see that he strikes a finer balance between literalism and localization now. Which is one of the reasons I'm working on the DekaRanger blu-ray translation checks.

Of course not, but I think the scale is a little different here. "Laziness" was a poor choice of words on my part. What I meant was more, if you don't have any enthusiasm for what you're working on, the quality of that work is naturally going to suffer at least a bit.

Thinking a scene in a movie is tacked on is one thing, but if your response to an entire film is, and I quote, "FUCK THIS MOVIE", the subs you're making for it probably aren't going to have that extra layer of tender love and care, you know?

It's why I maintain Aesir's subs for Gaim, even with all the grief you can give them for umlauts and Ornacs, are the gold standard for what a fansub can be. Everyone working on that show loved it to bits and you can see it in every line of dialogue. There was a ton of thought put into stuff like how the characters "sounded" and what seemingly innocuous lines meant in the grander scheme of the overall narrative, all because they were so engaged by it.

To use an example from a different show, that kind of passion for what you're translating can be the difference between a climactic, heartwarming speech ending like this:

http://i.imgur.com/eg5YoYp.jpg

and like this:

http://i.imgur.com/ZDAAUvZ.png

The one that sounds totally limp is the officially licensed release, by the way. I'm not a translator or anything, so obviously I can't speak with too much authority on the subject, but hopefully you can see what I'm saying here. Both of those lines are correctly translated, but only one of them actually accounts for the fact that the viewer is supposed to be feeling something.

Yeah, I really don't want to insult the effort TVN puts into what they do, much less any of the individuals who work on it! As much as I like to bash on earlier work by them, I really can't help but admire how far they have come at the same time. I still stand by my opinion that they are not the best subbers for me though.

I don't watch TV-N subs because I'M COOL!
Nah, it's more due to the torrents over DDL thing. As I've said, I like all of the wacky graphics and shit. And y'all did my beloved Ryukendo, so, thanks for that!

Catching up on Ex-Aid, and I just watched the Lazer DVD. It was...alright.

I get that Hyper Battle DVDs are supposed to be goofy, but when it's something like this where it seems to be canon given it's connection to important future events, it makes it feel very out of place and odd. Emu seemed particularly out of character, with his English "oh my god"'s and....whatever the hell he was doing in the scene where he disguises as a bugster. I have no earthly idea why he was moving like that.

I also don't really get the significance of Bike Action Gamer being Level 0. He didn't use the Level 0 powers and it wasn't even mentioned. Kinda odd.

So yeah, all in all it was fun, but if it were up to me, I'd probably have given the Hyper Battle Video to Poppy and let Lazer get a proper spin off.

I'm pretty sure it's just because Proto Gashat forms are Level 0 by default. With exceptions of course, like PMAX, and I guess PBBS, but in general. It's just 0 because it used Proto Bakusou Bike.

Well, seems like I have missed so many posts war here, haha. Anyway, as much as everyone complains about TV-Nihon's laziness, I just think that as a charm to the fansub. You may hate that they don't translate some of the phrases, but I actually like it since it gives more variety compared to other subs. That's why as much as I want to like Over-Time or any other fansubs, I found them a bit dull in the long term. Also, I don't care if they add those pictures to forms' transformation phrases. I don't care about the translation of the transformation phrases. Because, I don't find it necessary to sub those phrases. TV-Nihon also one of the group that types the romanji for the songs, so I might sing a song while the OPs play :P.

Despite defending TV-Nihon, I still don't justify their harsh acts and words toward their works. This time, I agree that they might not give enough passion and spirit toward their works and it obviously will affect their works too. I'm shocked to see they bad mouthes several Rider series or movies in the thread and 85% of the thread is filled with complains, curses, and so much more. Still, I love TV-Nihon more because their subs' charms. Well, you could call me crazy but it's the way of my preferences. The fact that they notes and explains Emu's "Boku" to "Ore" is also the reason for this. Over-Time is good but when it cames for a too thorough and deep Japanese phrases, it's better if they don't translate several aspects to it.

Nah, in Ganbarizing they're the same levels as the normal forms, it's only special proto ones that seem to be level 0.

In fact, come to think of it, it would've made a lot more sense if Kiriya used the special Proto Bakusou Bike he stole here to become Lazer Turbo. That would explain why the form looks like Ex-Aid, and avoid the weirdness of having a second Bakusou Bike gashat that inexplicably works different than the first.

But then, I'm speculating off a Hyper Battle Video here, so yeah...

Breaking news!

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

I laughed :lol

So I’m nearly at the 20 mark for Blade and as far as I’m concerned this show if the gift that keeps on giving, it’s really good.

We’ve had some pretty interesting turns in the story, the small arc with Hajime and the lone musician get wrapped up and – it wasn’t pretty. I kinda hate the guy for reacting like this, he liked Hajime and didn’t care when he turned out a Rider but now that he bleeds like the Predator he’s evil? Come on. I mean I guess he was really worked up about his boat burning too but geez.

At least Kenzaki tries to understand Hajime - who isn't making things all too easy admittedly.

Then Tachibana – oh my, I did not expect them to kill the girl. That was some heavy stuff. But it made for some good drama, and Tachibana got even more badass after. The Peacock Undead is down too; his card looked a bit weird. Future power-up I assume?

And then the thing the show is currently working on: Leangle. First off, I learned I pronounced his name in my head wrong all the time. I thought it sounds "Le-Angle" but it’s just "Leng-le". Also, after googling the name I learned it’s a war club the Aborigines used. Clever.

Anyways I like his design and powers, the Remote-card is OP. And I like that they brought the kid back Kenzaki saved. I mean the hints that he would get the new belt were obvious as the Spider Undead straight up called him Leangle, but still. Now I’m interested to see what or who is controlling him – is it the Ace Undead itself or is there something else at work here?

Also the chief flew off to Nepal I believe, guess who will come back with a power-up for the Riders later ;)

Kamen Rider Ghost: 100 Eyecons and Ghost's Fateful Moment: This was a pretty awesome movie. I enjoyed it as much as I did the entire Ghost series. It was intriguing to learn more about Argos and Daigo. Also, that Sennin tried to stop the Ganma world from invading before was interesting that this has been a long standing fight. It seems like they could go way more into some of these concepts. I loved Zero Spectre, even though he wasn't in it much he kicked ass to save his Daughter. Argos was insane and a good bad guy for it and his belief in his ideals. It was good to see Takeru, Makoto, and Alain again and awesome they all are. Especially Takeru willing to sacrifice his own life to save everyone. The CGI has gotten a lot better and I actually enjoyed it in this movie to showcase an awesome fight scene. This was a very enjoyable movie and I can't wait to watch all the other Ghost movies I haven't seen!

Holy shit, why can't I remember this? That's hilarious

It's just Kenzaki imagining what would happen if the shop owner would call the police, out of context it's even funnier :lol

Shame on you! It's part of one of the most iconic parts about Blade! :p
Though redol used the shoplifting scene in their Rhythm Heaven video lol

Finished watching Fourze for a second time. I have to admit, it wasn't quite as fun for me on the second go, although certain aspects of it I did like better this time, like the ending. I kind of feel like it is just one of those shows that isn't particularly rewatchable though. Still good and solid fun though! I think I might bump it down a place on my rankings now which means now... Faiz is in my #2 spot. Oh dear...

Don't worry, folks. I'll ready the torches and pitchforks...

I just finished watching the Kamen Rider Specter movie....what the hell....



I mean, it was actually good IMO. But I feel like this movie should have been the Act 3 plot to the series considering how it contains crucial information for both Alain and Makoto (who got totally sidelined for Takeru). Not to mention Danton is infinitely more interesting as a villain than Adel.

Finished up Ryuki last night for my Heisei marathon, though in this case it was a re-watch as Ryuki was the first KR series I ever watched in full. I noticed a lot more flaws this time around, but even so it still remains one of my favorite seasons I’ve watched so far.

Most of my issues with it are in regard to the plot, much of which really makes no sense at all. There’s honestly a whole lot of lazy writing. Mirror World is never satisfyingly explained and while the show does get into the monsters being drawings by Yui and Shiro, the actual origin of the Mirror World or how the monsters came into being is never clarified. Same goes for Mirror Yui, it explains that the Yui we knew throughout the whole show was the Mirror World version, but never discusses how or why any of this exists. Also the whole Rider battle doesn’t make sense. If Shiro organized the whole thing, why can’t he just take the wish himself without the fight in the first place? Why does he need people to fight for it? And since he does have to win it himself, and created Odin specifically as an extremely OP Rider to ensure he does win, why not be more proactive? He’s constantly telling the other Riders to hurry up and kill each other so they can face Odin, but why not just have Odin be very aggressive and go after them and end it basically immediately? Why hold him back? It doesn’t even matter if Odin “dies” since he can just create a new one, so it’s not like he’s concerned about losing his trump card too early. I don’t have a problem with these questions in and of themselves, it’s very possible to come up with reasonable explanations for it all. My problem is that at no point does the show attempt to do so, it just expects you to accept everything at face value.

Other than that, my only other major complaint is how so many of the fights conclude with the combatants seemingly just randomly stopping for no discernible reason. A good number of fights build up to a major showdown involving multiple final vents, but then it ends with them just leaving Mirror World with no explanation. The most glaring examples are a few instances where a scene ends in the middle of a battle, it cuts to some other characters doing something else, and then when it returns to the Riders, they’re all in completely different places doing different things with no hint at all of how or why the battle ended. Sometimes they use the Mirror World time limit as an excuse, but the time limit seems completely arbitrary and is most often used just for narrative convenience. Basically, it felt like a lot of the battles concluded in ways that didn’t make any sense within the story just because they needed certain Riders to survive throughout their scheduled number of episodes. I can forgive questionable plot elements if I find the characters enjoyable enough (Which I do in Ryuki), but it was hard at times here because, as I mentioned earlier, the show just has a lot of lazy writing.

Despite my issues with the plot, I still really like Ryuki. Part of it is probably bias since it was the first KR series I watched in full, but besides that, I really like a lot of the characters and the suits are among my favorite in the franchise. I like Shinji as a protagonist, his goal to stop the fighting is admirable and he’s just a fun guy to watch. I really like how his presence slowly influences those around him, especially Ren, Kitaoka, Tezuka, and towards the end, Shiro. It’s most notable in Ren and Kitaoka, both of whom you see slowly changing over the course of the show as a result of Shinji’s consistent and stubborn insistence that the Rider War is wrong and his determination to stop it. I like that it never really directly addresses this through exposition, but rather you see it expressed more subtly through their actions and behavior and how it changes over time due to their exposure to Shinji’s ideals. That’s one of my favorite things about Shinji as a main Rider compared to others in the franchise, his influence and impact is very unique and more understated than usual. As a Rider he’s really not that notable, he has a lot of power due to his Survive card but is clearly not much of a fighter and his heart just isn’t in it. He doesn’t have much effect with his direct actions, it’s his beliefs and ideals that are the driving force behind his influence on the other Riders. That, to me, is one of the ultimate examples of what a hero really is. Not someone who solves everyone’s problems by himself, but someone who’s influence inspires others to follow his example. Yes, Ren and Kitaoka and others never truly follow his example and become real heroes, and I’m probably giving it all more credit than it deserves…but it’s still a good demonstration of how that kind of person can have such an impact on those around him.

I had a lot more to say about the other characters too, but this is already getting long so I’m going to keep it shorter. Kitaoka is actually my favorite Rider in the show, I felt that he’s ultimately the character that showed the most change and development throughout the story. He starts off as an enormously selfish jerk (Though an incredibly charming and fun one) and while this never really changes on the surface, you do see his attitudes towards some of the other Riders (Especially Shinji) softening over time. Ultimately, I like how towards the last episodes he’s come to accept his inevitable death to his disease, and realizes that he never really cared about the Rider War in the end. Despite his statements about wanting immortality, he comes to see that he did have a good life, even if it’s destined to be short. His development is a good bit more subtle than the others, but I found he had more overall depth than anyone else and really liked him.

Asakura is another of my favorites. He’s not really interesting as a character, he’s pretty much a one-note villain whose entire personality is just that he’s an insanely violent psychopath obsessed with fighting. But he leaned so heavily into this role that it works. He was incredibly entertaining to watch as most of his fight scenes involve him beating the absolute shit out of whoever he’s fighting, and his frequent, enormous fits of rage that involved screaming his lungs out and attacking inanimate objects were more funny than anything else. I don’t know if it was intended to be humorous or not, but the guy is just so incredibly hammy and over the top compared to the rest of the cast that I found him kind of hilarious.

Ren was the only main character I didn’t really like at all. For the most part I found him obnoxious and annoying, basically a wannabe tough guy who’s actually just kind of an idiot. Fortunately, the show seems to agree with that at points, as it goes out of its way to challenge his views and demonstrate why he’s wrong. Despite that though I still found him more annoying than anything else, because he never really learns from any of it and keeps going back to his default forced-cool-guy personality. the only scene where I truly liked him was near the end when he’s breaking down at Shinji’s side as the latter is dying, finally openly acknowledging how much Shinji had come to mean to him as a friend.

So that’s some words about Ryuki, and still doesn’t cover all of my thoughts on it. I have more to say on characters like Kitaoka and Ren, as well as other characters I didn’t get to (The other Riders, supporting cast such as Reiko), but this has gone too long already. Now I’m on to Faiz…we’ll see how that goes.

You summed up how I too feel about Ryuki waaay more eloquently than I ever could!

I'm halfway through Blade now. And I still like this show as much as I did early on, so I assume I'm one of the rare cases who likes Blade from start to finish :D

But this time around, instead of mainly talking about the things I liked I wanted to touch on something I don't like: Mutsuki. This character is so annoying. He starts out strong, you care about why he is the way he is (the backstory of him being imprisoned in a locker as a baby is great!) but as soon as you think the character starts evolving he just falls back.

Firstly the thing how he treats the Rider battle as a TCG, even going so far as to only wanting to imprison Undead so he can use their powers. Okay, the idea isn't bad, but why is this guy who knows first-hand how these cards can ruin somebody so childish about it all of a sudden? And then, all development we had so far is flying straight out of the nearest window as he starts being possessed by the Category Ace. Again.

To be fair, they seemed to want to have this integrated into the Category King being around (who is cool by the way) but I don't like it. They could've easily made this a bit different by it being about Mutsuki learning to respect his powers instead of being possessed yet again.

On the flipside, Hajima aka Chalice is fantastic. I'm a bit bummed that I was spoiled and thus knew who he was from the start, because as soon as that one Undead shows up and tells us he isn't the real Chalice it gets really interesting. But I still don't know what exactly his role as the Joker is so I'm eager to find out.

Also:

I was right :lol

Okay, it's not the Peacock card but Blade uses his fusion card with the gadget Shima brought over from Nepal to reach his Jack form.

I think Mutsuki suffered the most from the writer change halfway through the series. It feels like the new writers didn't really know what to do with the character so they just kept doing the mind-controlled thing for a lot longer than they probably needed to.

There was a writer change? Well that explains that :lol

Since you seem to know this stuff, was the actor of Chief Karasuma ill or just busy filming other stuff or something? He barely shows up in the series for long periods of time.

Yeah, the original writer left midway through the show. The new writers - who were also the original writers on Decade - came on board around episode 30. Once the new theme song kicked in, that was your sign that the show was under new management. It's honestly not that noticeable if you aren't aware it happened, unlike some other Kamen Rider series (*coughHibikicough*). The only major difference is that Mutsuki really started regressing as a character.

No idea. I assume he was just a recurring character and never meant to be a regular.

Well, blade 2nd themesong was amazing and I think the second half was pretty good except for the ending. It's not 555 bad. I don't like endings that hints for something more in the future, but we all know early Heisei doesn't do v-cinema returns or movie wars yet.

Whaaa? Blade's ending was a conclusion that whlle a bit open, told us enough

Yeah there's a pretty huge difference between an open ending that just wants a sequel (*cough*Faiz*cough*) and one that's open because it's a logical place to end the story. Blade stops exactly where it needs to.

Blade has the best ending of any Kamen Rider series. It's perfect the way it is.

Just started Wizard.. does shinpei ever get less annoying?

No.

My watching of it has been rather spread out, but I've watched the first4 episodes of Black RX. Honestly, I'm really enjoying it, despite (or perhaps because) its more lighthearted tone. If I could just gush for a moment though, I absolutely love the Black RX suit. The thicker armored neck and prominent mouthpiece give it a real insect-esque quality that I think looks really unique and awesome. I hope the show doesn't drop the ball, I can really see myself having a blast with this one!

Black RX actually improves as it goes along. The first several episodes are a little goofy, what with the bumbling cop and wacky domestic abuse shenanigans, but it eventually finds its footing and has some really great moments. The plot arc with the Crisis princess, for example, or the final arc at the end of the series. It's a show that has gotten a bad rap for a long time but I really feel that it doesn't deserve the reputation it has.

I got my brother to binge up to the current point in Ex-Aid with me. He really enjoyed it, especially Shin Dan Kuroto! On my own end, I've come to admire a lot of ways that the show teased a lot of things very early on, like Saki playing a larger role and the fact that Emu really knows how to put on a show if he needs to. Great fun all around!

I've also watched a bit more Black RX. It continues to be weirdly entertaining.

Finished Faiz, and what an experience that was. I’m well aware of Inoue’s divisive reputation, and while I did have my issues with Agito towards the end, I enjoyed it overall. Faiz, though, is a mess from start to finish. It has a lot of cool ideas, but the execution is so bad it drives all of the potential this show had right into the ground.

There are a lot of problems with this show, but most egregious of them all is that the majority of the characters are either incredibly unlikeable and/or wildly inconsistent in their characterization. The fact that the main protagonist is one of the primary offenders of this just exacerbates the problem. After three seasons of cheerful nice guy protagonists, Takumi is a very notable break in that pattern. In theory it could make for a nice change of pace to have someone more grounded and with a darker backstory to explore, but like most things in Faiz, it’s squandered potential. In actuality, Takumi is just an ass. His childish temperament and refusal to communicate basic information that would solve so many pointless misunderstandings is incredibly frustrating, because there’s never a real reason for it given. Yes, there’s the stuff later on with the reveal that he’s the Wolf Orphnoch and that’s why he’s hesitant to get close to people, and to be fair he does become more tolerable after this and less abrasive. But again, for the most part he just comes across as an ass, and even with the explanation they give, there are so many instances where his behavior just comes across as nonsensical or, at worst, completely idiotic.

Most of the other characters aren’t handled much better. Mari and Keitaro were fine. Kiba was the one character I actively liked for the most part, up until the end when they absolutely butchered all of his character development up to that point. For most of the show he’s so set in his beliefs and ideals of living as a human and protecting them, it goes completely against his established character the way he becomes a villain. It’s so sudden and basically out of nowhere, and the whole thing about him losing faith in all of humans because of one incident is completely absurd because of how much it contradicts all of his personality up to then. In the span of hardly any time at all he goes from a peaceful guy trying to just live his life, to straight up executing Kusaka in an incredibly brutal manner, and deciding to wipe out all of humanity. But of course, all of this conveniently shifts again back to where he was, just in time for his heroic sacrifice. The way Kiba’s storyline falls apart so hard by the end is honestly one of the worst examples of character writing I’ve seen so far in Kamen Rider. And that’s so unfortunate, because up to that point I thought he was one of the better characters, and his actor was great. It just sucked to see it go down that way.

By the end of the show, I actually think Kusaka ended up as my favorite character, as crazy as that sounds. I absolutely hated the guy, but in contrast to many of the other characters, his characterization was at least consistent throughout the story. It’s common to have secondary Riders who have conflict with the main Rider or are otherwise kind of nasty and antagonistic, but Kusaka takes that to a whole other level. He’s 100% a villain, he’s only on the “good side” in the most technical way possible, and just because he hates the Orphnoch even more than he hates the others. His actor clearly had a great time playing him, all of his crazy-eyed evil smiles and enraged rants were great. He was like a little Dan Kuroto Jr. The worst thing about Kusaka wasn’t so much him, but how the characters around him were so insanely oblivious of what an enormous piece of shit he is. It’s so incredibly obvious, especially by the end when he isn’t even pretending otherwise, but they’re all still talking about him as if he’s some great guy or hero. It’s complete ridiculous.

Yuka and Kaido started out interesting, but quickly developed their own problems. Yuka is completely superfluous to the plot for the vast majority of the show, her story just suddenly stops dead near the beginning and she doesn’t do anything again until the end. And even then, the only point it serves is to further Kiba’s story and cause the travesty of his final story arc. With Kaido, it’s like they had no idea what his personality was supposed to be. At various times early on it almost makes him out to be a villain and treats him kind of seriously, or it plays him as comic relief. It goes back and forth on this for a while before eventually settling on comic relief, and it’s pretty jarring.

For the villains, I thought for the most party they were pretty boring. Their motivations weren’t interesting and Lucky Clover barely ever felt genuinely threatening. Kusaka was a far better villain than any of the characters who were actually supposed to be the main villains.

For the plot itself, I don’t have much to say, other than that it was a story that should have ended far earlier than it did if its characters weren’t all either assholes, stupid, or both. So much of it feels so contrived, but the ending is by far the worst part, the Orphnoch King plot is so rushed and sudden. It doesn’t quite come out of nowhere because there are references to him dropped throughout the show, but his debut up through the ending all feels very poorly paced. He’s also not explained at all, what is his connection to the kid? It seems as if he’s an entirely separate entity possessing the body of the kid, but there’s no effort at all to even provide a bare minimum explanation. And then the final battle with him literally just stops mid-battle, he somehow survived, but everyone else is acting as if it’s over. What the hell happened? It just blatantly skips hugely important context for this, and then the show is over literal minutes later. It wasn’t just the worst ending to a Rider show I’ve ever seen, it was one of the worst endings I’ve ever seen to anything, period.

I wish I had more positive things to say about Faiz, but honestly I thought this show was mostly a total disaster. I do think it had a lot of potential, I loved the suit designs and thought it was really cool how they weren’t necessarily tied to one user, they got passed around pretty often. That’s a concept I liked a lot that hasn’t really been explored much in any series since, but I would like to see again. I also liked the designs of the Orphnoch. But really, those are the only good things I can say about Faiz. I think it had a lot of potential buried somewhere in there, but it was buried very, very deep. At the moment, I can safely say Faiz is the worst KR series I’ve watched so far. Very glad to be moving on to Blade.

Yeah, you're pretty much right in step with my thoughts on the show. I really got into Faiz at first, but you eventually hit the point where you realize that it's nothing but simple issues getting blown up into major conflicts because nobody fucking talks to each other. There are some cool suit designs and some nice fight scenes, but that's about all it has going for it. It's a shame, because the potential really was there for a great show.

Also, I love how your recap totally leaves out Mihara. That is exactly the right amount of commentary that dude deserves.

Enjoy Blade, it is a much, much better show.

I'm through Black RX 14 now. The episode with the Demon that tried to control Reiko was interesting, and...

http://i.imgur.com/0TUkvQB.jpg

BAHAHAHAHAHA!

That monster has clearly seen some shit.

Haha yeah I actually completely forgot about Mihara as I was writing it...I can't say I have much of an opinion on him other than "he was a character that existed." Completely forgettable and basically felt just thrown in because they needed a consistent user for the Delta gear towards the end. It says a lot about him that I still associate the Delta gear more with Kitazaki than Mihara.

As for Blade, a few episodes in and I'm already liking it so much more. I've heard really good things about it overall, and so far it's living up to it!