That would make a lot of sense.

Had a binge watching session of Blade. Just finished Episode 46 so I'm nearly at the end.

Really interesting twist at the end when it turns out that they've been working for the main villain the entire time and how his own version of justice is simply destroying the world. Kind of reminds me of Gaim in how Takatora wanted to save humanity but used methods whereby only a proportion of humanity would be saved. Not to mention that everything is coming to a climax in a way that all options don't seem favourable. Either all life on Earth is destroyed or Earth becomes a planet of Stag Beetles. And yet they have to fight. This is going to be some conclusion...

Might be able to finish it this evening.

Just when I thought Amazons could get any more gorier or surprise me with it,..it does.

Started Season 2 last night and they topped Season 1 within just a couple episodes.

One had a bridal party all turn into monsters and while fighting them one of them gets pushed against a tree, ...then with a flying kick one of the "heros" lands with one foot on her chest and with the other foot uppercuts her chin so hard her head just explodes all over the place.

But there's more, later we see a guy kill his family and eat them. Wife and daughter are laying on the kitchen floor with their guts hanging out,..while he's dragging another daughter down the hallway singing a little song. Blood is everywhere.

There's a closeup of the daughters face and you see she's in shock mumbling, "Daddy,...why?" and her eye is fcked up.

Then we see Dad still singing his little song, pop an eyeball into his mouth and happily start chewing.

:eek:

HOLY CRAP!!

Man this show is dark!!

I had to chuckle a bit thinking about a friend who called the show 'Power Rangers' just because the hero(s) have a colorful costume. Pretty sure Power Rangers doesn't have people murdering and eating their family while singing a song. :eek:

Couldn't believe they went that far. Part of me is watching the show like it's The Walking Dead or something,..curious how far they're going to take things in the brutality dept.

I mean Season 2 just started, and we've already got a guy chewing on his daughters eyeball.

Amazons sounds way too gory for my liking, I'm probably going to give it a miss.

Finished Blade the other night. I understand why the ending is so well thought of, and I like the way they built it up even if they did come so close to a really bad outcome.

Also watched Episodes 8 and 9 of Kamen Rider Decade which I'm dipping into after watching the original shows based off of that season (as I did with Den-O). Enjoyed those too even if it was an augmented reality it was still a cool concept. Although the rate of which employees could drop in rank or rise was a bit extreme sometimes.

Finally I got round to watching Kamen Sentai Gorider which I'd put off because it spoilt Blade before. Was pretty cool to see the older riders in there even if it was very obvious to me during the first episode that Emu was inside of a game, kind of the obvious thing to think of when it comes to Ex-Aid side material although given the film that was supposed to introduce the KSG powers got botched up it's never really explained where Emu got the cards from in the first place.

Will get around to more of the side material in the future, specifically Kamen Rider Snipe. As for full series I'm thinking of watching W or Drive next.

1: Episode 3 and 4 of Snipe have yet to be released as far as I know.
2: Regardless of what you pick, you need to watch movies as they get alluded to which makes you think "Wait what's that?". The movies are Movie War 2010, W A to Z Forever and Surprise Future. When the opening uses movie footage then you know when to watch the movie

Through episode 26 of Stronger. I want to know what the people that made this show were on.

I’m not sure, but it was definitely a lot of it.

32 episodes into V3 now.

The show is still great, but frankly I miss when it was all two-parters. There's a few still sprinkled in, but it's mostly singles now. It's a bit sad.

Also, not that I was counting or anything, but I'm almost confident they didn't reveal all 26 of V3's secrets before they stopped talking about them. Seems kinda pointless now. Not to mention his other three weaknesses, which yeah. They haven't mentioned.

Also bringing back the Shocker generals for two episodes to do nothing was...well, it was a thing that happened.

That covers about the extent of my gripes.

Yeah only 15 were ever shown in the series. The ones not shown that later popped up in supplemental material are Electro-Eye (detects foot prints) Matrix-Eye(X-ray) Gliding Muffler (Allows limited flight) Propeller chop(Arms rotate full 360) Oxygen Cylinders, which kinda shows up but they never mention it. Energy Converter (That's what the box on the right of the belt is) Scramble Hopper, which is like a sound based shield attachment for the regular Hopper. Flame Pillar Kick, V3 Thunder(electrical attack from the antennae) Freeze Shot, which is like the former but ice, and finally Red Bone Ring, which is where the red part of his torso pops off and turns into a tire which runs things over. Because 70s.

His other weaknesses do show up they just never outright state them as being such.

Also yeah, the Shocker Generals were completely pointless, I really don't see why they were there. >_>

Oh man, you're into the Baron Fang era. That's probably my favorite part of V3. The Baron seems to be a character that's been largely forgotten, but he's one of my favorite early Showa era generals, probably second only to Apollo Geist.

I'm really looking forward to seeing v3. I started pretty much by watching The First and The Next movies which I really liked a lot. Then I jumped around in Heisei era until settling on W to start. Which I also really liked.

Now I'm watching 1971 v1 Rider and 2016 Amazons. (jumping back and forth really.) But I'm looking forward to v3. He seems like a neat character.

in The Next when I saw the Driver v3 wears and it had two red fans on it instead of one like Hongo and Hayato I was like, "oh sht it's on now!"

Lately I've been watching lots of clips on Youtube too, trying to decide what to watch after I finish Amazons. I guess I'm settling on watching one Showa era and one Heisei era at the same time. So if I'm in the mood for old school or new school I just watch that one that night.

Though I think I'm just going to jump to Kuuga and move through both eras in chronological order. Since I'm still on the first Showa show I guess I'll also do the first Heisei show.

...er...with the exception of Build I guess, which I'm also watching.

It's weird how being a Godzilla fan has turned into being a Godzilla/Ultraman fan which has spread out to being a Godzilla/Ultraman/Kamen Rider fan. ...and lately I've been eyeballing the Sentai series and actually have Dairanger and Shuriken Sentai saved for a rainy day.

Godzilla is a gateway drug to Tokusatsu. Hahahaha

https://i.imgur.com/kXJhVRc.jpg

It always starts with just one, be it Kamen Rider, Power Rangers, Sentai, Ultraman, Godzilla, or any of the other options out there. Before you know it, you're trying to watch every single tokusatsu in existence.

yeah I forgot to mention I have Garo season 1 in reserve as well. hahaha. And the past couple days I've been trying to find The Next Generation Patlabor with subs but so far only found 2 episodes.

My backlog has become really huge.

Just watched episode 35 of V3 and...huh? That's it? Baron Tusk only lasted five episodes? That's...that's pretty damn low. What organization does he think this is, the Delza Army?

Shame too. The whole witch doctor angle with the truly supernatural monsters and cultish vibes was pretty unusual. Was enjoying it, and expecting it to last at least until Riderman showed up, but oh well.

Even putting aside the the brevity of his stint as general though, this was a weird couple of episodes. When they said this episode was Tusk's last I thought that's why they had Hongo and Ichimonji return. And hell, that's the reason they give for returning to Japan, to deal with the Baron. But they just vanish between episodes 34 and 35 so...what gives?

And this Ken guy that they can't seem to make up their minds about whether they're keeping him or not just popped up after some 3 episodes of absence. I would have preferred the Double Riders but whatever floats their boat I guess.

A witch doctor? I already like the sound of the guy. I love Showa era magic users. Granted, I haven't seen that many given that Showa era tokusatsu were all about technology but if Baron Tusk is anything like Gilza and Gilmarza from Juspion I'll love the guy. I'm not going to lie though, I would have loved to see how the showa era handled a Magiranger/Kamen Rider Wizard-like hero.

Stronger 30:
I feel like I should have been more invested in Tackle’s death than the fact that Bandora was voicing Doctor Kate.

Started watching Kamen Rider Drive. I've heard this has quite a slow start, if that's the case then I'm very much enjoying what I've seen so far. Currently four episodes in and after the first fight against Machine Chaser. I like Tomari as a protagonist and I like the Roidmudes as enemies even if the fact that they turn into numbers before exploding takes some getting used to. I also like the comedy the series has going so far.

Especially the part where he gets the Vegas car and it's built up to be a big event, only for the slots to stop on three coins and then fire out a single coin at the enemy, that had me laughing a lot.

About to watch Episode 5.

SkyRider Episode 38: After they stopped saying his special call in the second half of the series, I love when Stronger says it here. It just brings back all the awesome memories of Stronger. Also, damn Hiroshi had a hell of a disguise; that was something out of the blue lol. I loved the two riders kicking the crap out of NeoShocker and the AntCommando base. Also, the combat was fantastic, and SkyRider dropping the Frog monster on his head was great. Love these Rider team-ups and can't wait for more.

finished Amazons last night. Wow what a crazy show. I really liked it and I liked how the combat and fighting just seemed to get crazier, faster, and more intense as the show went on. Like the characters really were learning to fight better as time went by.

Iyu was an amazing and tragic character, and it was so cool seeing a Female Rider capable of laying down a butt-whooping so severe it was jaw dropping. Especially because initially she wasn't a very good fighter at all. But by the time you get to the final few episodes she's an incredible fighter.

I liked how the story tied everything together and connected so many of the characters together by the end.

Also I found it interesting how the show starts and feel like one character is the main character (Haruka the green Omega Amazon), but by the end of the show it feels like it's more about Jin the red Alpha Amazon as well as Iyu and Chihiro, so more about all 4 of the main Amazons really.

Jin really grew on me. At first I just thought he was this crazy guy (which he is) but by the end of the show I understood his motivations and insanity a little better. Plus I think the stress of his life and the crushing guilt he was living under, as well as just the Amazon gene itself somewhat destroying his brain...his character made a bit more sense. His story I thought had the biggest and most interesting arc to it for me. Though I liked the development of all the characters really. I wish we'd gotten to see and understand a bit more of The Director, but I guess what we got served the purpose her character was supposed to serve.

Ok, so I don't think the 30's were V3's strongest string of episodes. Still good, but a bit of a dip compared to earlier V3. I'm up to episode 44 though and, although it's only been two episodes, I'm liking this stuff with Riderman a ton. I think I'll be able to get through the remaining eight episodes sooner rather than later. Should be fun!

I really love the Baron Fang episodes with all the creepy voodoo stuff, but the Archbishop Wing episodes are definitely pretty dire (and about half of them are just remakes of episodes from the original series).

Yeah, I'm not saying I didn't enjoy the Tusk episodes, they were cool, but it was all over before I knew it. There was some cool stuff like the Double Riders' return, but it was weighed down by weird stuff like their disappearing again with no explanation. Not to mention Ken randomly flashing in and out of existence during this period. In retrospect, it's like those ten episodes were just a series of stopgap measures taken while they got ready to do the Riderman storyline, which actually appears to have some planning and direction.

And man does it. Just got done watching the Christmas two-parter. Simply excellent. The dynamic Yuki brings to the show is fantastic. He's a compelling character himself, and as a foil really allows Kazami to shine. V3 already was a good show, but whoever thought to introduce Yuki really struck gold.

You know, I think once I'm done watching V3 I'm gonna go back (or, I guess, forward) and watch all the episodes of other shows in which Kazami or Yuki show up. They're some of the most recurring Riders of the Showa era, but because I hadn't seen V3 I'd never been able to appreciate the episodes in which they return properly. I really want to appreciate them now, though.

Finished Stronger! Just... what? What was that? I really never expected to see something that could be weirder than Amazon at moments. Ultimately, I didn't like it all that much though, it just felt like a hot mess. The way the show was shot was... really weird and bad feeling to me, but I'm not sure how to explain it. Not a terrible show, but also not all that great either. I have to admit though, the show's extremely tenuous grasp on how electricity works was laugh out loud hilarious.

I got up to 50 on...Friday? But then I was too busy to get back to V3 for a few days which kinda messed my rhythm but eh.

Yeah, finished V3 just a bit ago. Overall I think it's a very strong series, definitely one of my top three Showa Riders. I can't quite settle on what spot--probably below RX, but it's been a while since I saw Stronger so I can't compare it too well. My love for General Shadow remains unparalleled, and unlike the other two series I wouldn't say V3 had particularly memorable villains . However, unlike Stronger, which I think only really picks up after Shadow is introduced and only gets really good when the Delza Army picks up, V3 is pretty excellent from the very beginning. Has a few oddities and missteps here and there, and as I mentioned the 30's basically felt like filler, but yeah. Pretty much great. The Riderman story is definitely one of the best of the Showa era. I do find it kind of sad that he didn't get to defeat Yoroi or the Leader himself, but his heroic finish was great in its own right.

The finale itself I don't think is particularly memorable, unfortunately. Pretty by the numbers, and the revelation for the Great Leader feels like something of a non sequitur, though I suppose these reveals are always pretty weird. I guess it's no giant dragon from space.

Still, not a bad ending to a very strong series.

My problem now being that I was expecting by the time I was done with V3 that the Den-O scrub would be out. This is not the case, so once again I'm left without anything to watch. Or barely anything, I suppose. Now I can watch the First and the Next (which should be great, watching a bad reimagining of series I really liked right after it), and, as I mentioned a bit up, the other episodes of stuff where V3 shows up. About 10 worth, I guess? But if Den-O isn't out by then I guess I'll have to resort to watching Dragon Knight.

I love The First and The Next,..even more so the second time I watched. (some things made more sense the second time.) hahaha

the costumes look amazing, also.

Have you seen anything from the Metal Hero series yet? If not, I'd recommend Kyojuu Tokusou Juspion. The main character's kind of bland and it drags a bit in the middle but I liked the villains and the fight scenes were pretty good, not to mention it had an awesome endgame. Probably the most unique thing about Juspion though was how much it feels like a fairy tale, right down to using storybook like pictures to communicate important information.

SkyRider Episodes 39 and 40: Another two-parter with Nigou! In all the appearances I've seen of him, Hayato is just a fun, awesome rider, who feels good as both a partner and as a main Rider. So, I can't wait to see him in the original series. This was both Rider fun, and Riders getting out of difficult situations, like poison and being crushed as Grasshopper sushi. Nigou and SkyRider's resolve and spirit were highlights and I just love them kicking Neoshocker butt. I actually enjoyed them taking care of the Neoshocker monsters separately too, showing they both can handle themselves just fine. Well, I can't wait for more.

the personality differences between Hongo and Hayato are pretty cool.

Hayato is happier and a little silly sometimes.
Hongo broods and is 'cool' in a way that's hard to define.

They make a good team.

Taki is the unsung hero of the v1/v2 series though in my opinion. Because he's not a cyborg but he's still always right there dishing it out and taking it in with the Riders. Not to mention there's quite a few episodes where Taki just straight up saves the Riders and they'd have died without his intervention.

the real MVP
https://i.imgur.com/tKNGsCA.jpg

SkyRider 41 and 42: Onto the Ghost Story series. Both were pretty spooky episodes one with Ghosts and the other with Zombies. It was nice to see Hiroshi handle the situations by himself and getting back to just SkyRider himself. I enjoyed the team ups with the other Riders, but it is also nice to have SkyRider alone too. Intriguing plans by Neoshocker, and great action by SkyRider. Great to see more of the 99 Techniques. I can't wait for more.

Kuuga, in the 20's.

Still wondering what's up with the mirror that seems to be in the background so often shining sunlight into the camera. I guess it's a stylistic thing but it's annoying.

...either that or someone is constantly trying to signal a rescue plane.


But Kuuga is a badass mofo so I keep watching. Sometimes the 'sunlight in my eyes' effect is really blinding and obnoxious though.

Hey, I'm still watching wizard. Took a bit of a break due to IRL stuff, but I have to say it's pretty good! I'm really enjoying Gremlin as an antagonist, I was lukewarm to him at first because he replaced Phoenix who was my favourite. The reveal about Gremlin in episode 35?ish was great. The way he hams it up and mugs so incredibly hard makes his character that much more unnerving.

I also really like Nitou, but when he puts mayonnaise on stuff like ramen I need to skip past it because its so gross looking. lol.

Been watching Kamen Rider Drive, it's really good so far! I'm up to episode 24 at this point, really digging Heart and Brain as villains, though I really don't like Medic. She's just straight up unlikable, and I know she's a villain and that's how she's supposed to be, but she's not even fun to hate like Professor Ryoma from Gaim, or Cancer from Fourze.

Medic gets more interesting in the back half of the series. There’s a lot of tragedy at the heart of that character (no pun intended).

I watched that "Kamen Rider x Super Sentai - Ultra Super Hero Wars"-thingy yesterday and it was godawful. Just complete garbage.

The story makes no sense and it is obvious that no writer involved gave even a single fuck about it. Not even Momotaros made me enjoy this crap. Now, the GoRider-idea is funny, and I heard the web series that follows this up is interesting, but man, this movie is just not good at all.

It's so surreal too, none of it is even remotely interesting or compelling, no matter how many old suits or cameos they throw at your face.

halfway through Agito.

It's really good so far, and it seems to have a better budget than Kuuga.

I watched The First.

It wasn't a good movie. It was kind of a bad movie. It was a weird movie. I spent half of it with a mild grimace on my face and my eyes towards the ceiling. It wasn't a good movie.

So right off the bat, it's absolutely, just, baffling and bizarre to me just how much time this movie spends on the "plot thread" (and i use this term loosely) with Haruhiko and Miyoko, which is just beyond extraneous to the actual plot. That shit was just beyond useless and irritating. Definitely some of my least favorite scenes in the entire thing. That scene in the forest or whatever with the red thread? Literally made me want to die. Holy hell was that awful.

I want to say the movie would have been better off without all that, and it definitely would have, but it wouldn't really have like, tangibly improved it. Fundamentally, I think predicating so much of the plot of a retelling of the original show on M I S U N D E R S T A N D I N G S and a stupid fucking love triangle is a really dumb idea and basically just cements my opinion of Inoue as a massive hack (does the man even know how to write anything that isn't misunderstandings and love triangles? seriously. fuckin' Inoue.)

It's just. Dumb. That dumb purple prosy nonsense shit Inoue loves to do, this time about "muh beauty" was dumb. The attempts at realism were dumb (like the mask thing. making the Riders wear actual masks is such an ill conceived idea. making them materialize a whole helmet out of their asses every time they transformed is definitely not any more realistic than having them fully transformed to begin with). The heavy-handed overt references to the original show (especially the Tachibana Racing Club scene, which bordered on being offensive in how blatant it was about being nothing but pandery garbage, especially in light of how utterly disconnected it is from anything else in the rest of the film. and stuff like the Shocker grunts turning to foam near the end was sublimely groan-inducing. it's the sort of thing that in a different movie probably could have been a fun and cool nod to the Showa series, but it just did not work at all. contrasted to the rest of everything this movie does, it's just so out of place. I have no comment on Shinigami being there though. I can't imagine why they thought it was a good idea, but honestly the other two Shocker people don't fit in any more) were dumb. It was a dumb movie. A dumb, trite, overly long, often irritating, vacuous movie. I definitely didn't like it.

But, though I'm being harsh on it, I think deservedly, I didn't really hate it. It's a bad movie. But a lot of Rider movies are bad. Really, a lot of them. It's honestly not even a remarkably putrid crap on the pile. Even as Inoue's works go, it's not bad enough to be worth talking about. At least it's only 90 minutes, as opposed to wasting some 48 episodes worth of your time. And I said I spent "half of it" rolling my eyes, because I felt it got worse as it went on. The beginning portions were...largely unoffensive.

And at least the action is generally pretty cool. I don't have any complaints about that. The action was pretty cool.

But yeah, The First. Not good. But honestly, I'm not sure where the dark and edgy reputation came from, shit was tame as shit, especially for Rider around that time. Maybe I'm conflating it with what people say about the Next. I'll see what's up with that when I watch it, I guess.

Just started wizard and when that’s finished, I might do a drive rewatch.

I have also been watching Kamen Rider Drive. Got up to Episode 12 and Mach's debut episode. That is one of the craziest episodes I've ever seen.

This. Fuck everything about those characters. You could cut at least a third of the movie's running time by axing them and you would lose nothing.

I like the First and the Next but I had no preconceived ideas about it going in, actually I they were the very first Kamen Rider things I ever watched.

I did like it more on the second viewing because I didn't spend half the movie wondering wtf was going on. I picked up that Ichimonji/V2 was actually the same guy/fiance where I'd missed that the first time, he'd just been "killed" and then turned by Shocker. I didn't spend a chunk of the movie wondering what the hell the hospital stuff was all about. I picked up that all of that was a flashback.

The love triangle I didn't find annoying as much as in the sequel it's like none of that ever happened and the woman is disappeared. Kind of odd.

And I really loved the Rider costumes, I think the helmets are beautiful looking and really capture the look of the original Showa helmets while being more sleek and refined. The dark blue helmet with pink eyes is (imo) really cool looking. There's something cool and creepy about it.

...pretty much the same thing happened with The Next,...I picked up a lot more the second time I watched it. Especially regarding Chiharus character.

The fighting and action scenes in both movies are really good and at times just downright brutal. (like when the Rider stomps on and snaps that guys back in the big ending fight of The Next.)

They got me into Kamen Rider so maybe I just overlook their flaws. But at this point I've watched v1, Kuuga, Agito, Amazons, W, and am up to date with Build and 1/4th through Ryuki,...so I'm glad that I watched them and they pulled me into the Rider'verse.

..and I actually really want a The First blue replica helmet w/ pink eyes for my collection shelf.

been going through a lot of old sentai now that i caught up on drive ghost and ex-aid -i didn't for those because i couldn't get into them but finally did after enjoying build-i don't regret not watching them when i stopped because its not great but i am rewatching wizard -really enjoying it