SkyRider Episode 44: Finally had time to get back to SkyRider. It's still in the Ghost Story series, which is down pretty great. These monsters and plans are something you see out of a horror movie or scary story. Hiroshi took care of the crazy cat before it could steal the blood of children to revive all the fallen monsters. Man, I love Toku for just allowing me to write that previous sentence lol. Hiroshi continues to be brutal in combat, jumping into the air and slamming the cat monster's head into the ground twice wasn't enough; he needed to Rider kick it afterwards. You know, if NeoShocker weren't horrifically bad people, I'd almost feel sorry for them. Well, I am on the last 10 episodes of this series. I can't wait for more.

SkyRider Episode 45: Loved this episode a lot. NeoShocker playing on Hiroshi's kindness was great. Also, introducing a villain that he fought before and will fight again was great too. Great to see how Tani and Hiroshi handled this threat that was going on, and how Hiroshi was being targeted because people thought Kamen Rider killed this person. Very well done storytelling, and kept with the horror theme that the Ghost Story series has kept these last few episodes. The fight scenes were great, SkyRider was pulling off different wrestling maneuvers which were amazing to see. Well, last episode of the Ghost Story series and onto the final 9 episodes, can't wait for them.

Kamen Rider SD

So... that was a thing. A quirky, anime showa thing, which I'm guessing doesn't exactly represent the riders all that well, but still a fun, entertaining half hour. All the riders (up to Shin!) get to show up, even if they don't do anything, and it contains a good amount of laughs. Would recommend.

I'm about halfway through Ryuki. Not hating it,..not crazy about it either. Unlike other series of Kamen Rider I've seen I don't have the, "Can't wait to get off work and see more episodes OMG what's going to happen next?!?!" feeling.

It doesn't suck or anything,...the 'mirror world' thing is a little hokey. I'm constantly wondering why one of them doesn't just shoot another one in the head instead of Henshining into mirror world and fighting.

..maybe there's just too many Kamen Riders. I don't feel like I really identify with any of them,..or something. I don't know, I can't articulate it really.

I think I'm just not rooting for any of them. Some of the costumes and fights and everything are cool, I'm just not really crazy about any of the characters I guess.

Kamen Rider v1, W, Amazons, Agito and Kuuga, ZO, J, Shin, First and Next, Black, Build..they kind of pulled me in right away and I was compelled to see where the story was going. With Ryuki I'm close to 30 episodes in and it really doesn't seem like the story is going anywhere. They just fight each other all the time and no one really dies and nothing really happens. Batman is angsty, Cobra is crazy, Ryuki wishes everyone would just get along, the lawyer kind of acts like a douche..over and over.

the lawyer actually might be the most interesting character.

It's the first Kamen Rider series I didn't just tear through as fast as possible. I've been watching v1 again actually instead of finishing Ryuki. But I'm almost done with that again too.

...Hongo is just a cool mofo.

Waiting for Build and currently trying to motivate myself to start Ryuki

GL w/ Ryuki

I watched about 10 minutes last night and then put on Godzilla VS King Ghidorah

SkyRider Episode 46: Well, I see Kamen Rider can do Garo plots as well as Garo can lol. This episode felt like Garo with the Mirror Lizard capturing people. Also, felt like The Flash with Mirror Master. Still, a great episode of Hiroshi ready to put in himself in any amount of danger to save people. GanGanG is a lot of fun, reminds me of Mole Beastman from Amazon, and I love that about him. Great fights, and different effects too. Loved to see that he flew for the Rider Kick this time. Abunger returning is awesome to see a General take his time to study his opponent is awesome. I like this rival of SkyRider. I can't wait for more. =)

I feel like Heisei era Rider series can have great big story arcs and good cliffhanger endings that keeps you wanting to watch, but Showa era can really have some excellent stand alone episodes.

SkyRider Episode 47: The conclusion of Abunger. This was a brilliant episode, I loved seeing the enemies studying SkyRider and came up with a good plan to try and defeat him. Also, it was great to see a bit of Hiroshi's past and why he wanted to become this good person that helps others. I enjoyed seeing that a lot and the wearing out of SkyRider plan was awesome. Abunger made for a great rival for SkyRider and I wish he was in it a little more; but it was still a good run nonetheless. I enjoy the cast and how they have fun together. One of my other favorite moments was Hiroshi saving the kid the same way he was saved as a child from a bridge. NeoShocker is a tough enemy and SkyRider is just as tough as a hero to battle them. I can't wait for more of this battle.

I'm about to wrap up Blade, I have about 10 episodes left, it took me a while to get back to it but I'm glad to be back.

I witnessed the arrival of Blade's King form, the Joker-arc and the "Trials" with Hirose's dad.

Quite awesome to be honest. Some things I didn't like as much, the whole "the hero becomes a second Joker"-thing feels kinda forced, especially since it's more of an arc for Hajime then Kenzaki, and Garren being bamboozled into switching sides yet again was a bit dumb.

Aside from that though? It was great. I really like Wild Chalice and can now completely understand why so many people crave to have him in Figuarts-form, and Blade King form is no slouch either, really awesome looking suit.

The short arc with Hirose and her dad was pretty great too.

The big stinker though is still Mutsuki/Leangle. I don't get this character at all. Wasn't he completely possessed by the Category Ace when he became this wannabee pimp? Now he seems normal again but still acts like a dick because...?

I swear he was interesting at first with the whole "Being trapped in a locker as a baby"-kinda thing but after they resolved it they just completely ruined the character. Switchblade told me it's because of the change in writers, but man it's still so annoying that this character sticks out like a sore thumb all the time.

Anyways, I'll finish Blade soon and then it's another dive into the Showa-territory for me. I wanted to watch V3 next but have a slight hunch to go for something different, there's a Showa Rider I knew next to nothing about but after trying the first episode I kinda want to keep going. The Rider I'm talking about has a great taste in gloves and I love it.

I have returned! Well… not really. Just thought I’d pop my head in since there is a new Rider about. I gave it a REALLY good go with Drive and Ex-Aid but none of the Superhero Time stuff really does it for me anymore and I am far too isolated from the community to really keep up with the non Superhero Time stuff.

I’ve watched two episodes of Build so far. In a general sense I like Build’s design but honestly I’ve felt like all of the primary Rider’s after Gaim, except maybe Ex-Aid, have had awesome core designs that have been ruined by ugly forms down the line. I can live with the low production quality of tokusatsu but for me the Giant Robot style of suit construction where you just stick a cluster of flimsy crap with no design coherence onto a morph suit and let it flap in the wind does nothing for me and we have got a LOT of that shit over the last few years for Rider forms.

Build as a character/set of powers I’m still out on. I couldn’t even tell you Build’s name at this point and it is too early to decide whether Build changing form a hundred times an episode is going to be fun or draining. I’m already concerned it is leaning towards the more negative side of things when he started to flap around his hoover arm.

So far the story has done nothing for me either, Rider still doesn’t seem to understand the difference between melodrama and genuine pathos but I will say that I am happy that this seems like a far more serious Rider than what we’ve gotten for the last few years and in some ways seems to be going back to basic in terms of overarching themes and ideas. Oh and Night Rogue so far has been so cool, like a Toku version of the Dread Doctors.

I also rewatched the first episode of Blade for the Nth time. It remains one of the only older shows I enjoyed but never finished and now someone other than TVN has finished Blade, I have no excuse.

Thoughts on episode one, all these years later? I like being dropped in media res, it helps that these clearer encodes allow me to actually differentiate the actors in the way the potato quality TVN encodes never could. The actual set up is extremely bland as far as Japanese stories go but the contrast to the pretty much non existent pace in the first two episodes of Build to something like Blade which moves at a blink and you’ll miss it pace to a fault.

I love the Rider suit designs in this show, Chalice is one of the coolest looking Rider’s ever in my mind. The actual implementation of the whole magic cards shit is actually great too, even if the concept of it is super dumb. Really sweet transformations to boot although “Turn Up”, what the fuck haha. Just a shame about the nauseating direction and unnecessary and dated CG effects.

Ah sweet, hey Locke!

SkyRider Episode 48: It was a powerful episode of Hiroshi fighting against the fake SkyRider, which his outfit looks horrible when you add yellow instead of black with the whole Shocker Rider concept here. I just loved Hiroshi giving his blood to save the kid that was attacked by the Fake Rider. It was a good plan that fell flat by hubris of the Neoshocker monster. GanGanG is fun and I loved him staying loyal to SkyRider and trying to fight against Neoshocker slandering his name. Hiroshi and the team at Blanka was fun when Hiroshi went against them, but I love them and how they reacted at 2 second evil Hiroshi. The combat was so amazing and I love SkyRider fighting his fighting style was awesome against both the AntCommando and the shape-shifting monster. I can't wait for more, I am loving this series.

Did my obligatory Christmastime rewatch of Wizard episode 16 and I just...

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

I mean, HOW do people not like this show again?

Wizard had some good ideas but problematic execution. It was also the show where a lot of people were starting to get sick of how formulaic Rider was becoming.

^ Wizard is still my favourite Rider this side of OOO and W.

Just watched Blade 3. The perfect Christmas Rider with all this fighting in the snow.

I love the designs in this series, I like that the Rider powers feel like they are designed out of function, not out of toy sales, and I like how they’ve made monsters of the week not just feel like monsters of the week (if that makes any sense) but it is just a shame that the special effects are so dated and the action scenes are so clunky. The transformations are nice in their simplicity though and I like how the props don’t just look like the same toys they are going to be selling.

Hajime is such a dick, Amane literally just got attacked by a monster, now is not the time for your rubbish jokes. If someone just got mugged, would you wave a knife in their face for jokes?

Locke! Where have you been, buddy?

I've been around! Just really fell out of love with toku and the last few Rider/Sentai have not done enough for me to get back into the loop again. Actually been keeping up with Build though so here I am.

It's good to see you back Locke!

SkyRider Episodes 49-50: Episode 49: Another great show of perseverance and determination of SkyRider to break out of NeoShocker's machinations. His durability is outstanding with surviving the rocket crash explosion. Great combat scenes too.

Episode 50: NeoShocker using kid soldiers was a good plan, but was conquered by SkyRider. I enjoyed how he saved the girls and how GanGanG helped them and was very useful this episode. I enjoyed Hiroshi teaching the kids they can use this training to help others now, and that they can become great people. This show brings out my love of heroes, and that there are many ways to be a hero. 4 more episodes left I can't wait for more.

I've started to watch Kamen Rider Super-1 on a whim since it's one of the Showa Riders I knew next to nothing about, I'm now 5 episodes in and happy to report that I love it.

It's just so simple and fun. It will never win any award for great story-telling or character development (although I'd like to be proven wrong) but it just feels right to me. I pop one episode every other day and am entertained enough to keep going.

I like how the setup is different yet similar to most Showa Riders, our hero is transformed into a cyborg but this time out of his own free will and with no relation to an evil organization, he's rebuilt as a cyborg to be a better astronaut, a new-age human who can survive in space.

The evil Dogma Kingdom only comes in after the work is done and tries to kidnap him. What follows is rather interesting though: Our hero, Kazuya Oki, can't transform right away. The science institute that rebuilds him and helped him to do that is gone thanks to Dogma, so in order to find his way to transforming into Super-1 again he trains with Shaolin Monks.

This is something I really liked, it not only explains to us why our Rider is so badass at fighting (he learned from the best) but also gives him as a character a journey towards becoming a hero that is worth watching.

In fact, there is a lot of un-transformed fighting scenes and also a lot of different fighting styles which makes this more interesting to watch than the usual battles against grunts and monsters.

I also love the Five Hands. It's the perfect compromise between form changes of later Riders while also keeping the base suit relevant. And the variety of powers Super-1 has at his disposal thanks to the different hands is really cool. I also quite like how Super-1 has a base where he needs to go to check-up on the mechanics inside his body. It not only makes sense but grounds our hero a bit as he sometimes does have malfunctions that then need to be taken care of.

The characters are rather bland and we have a complete idiot who brings the "comedy" to the table but I don't mind really. It's all just a frame to get the plot of the week moving and have Kazuya and his gang help resolve it.

Speaking of plots, the Dogma Kingdom is rather ambiguous, even for Rider-villains. So far they wanted to build a city made out of gold, open a museum with the best art around and, wait for it, kidnapped beautiful people and paired them up so they can produce the perfect offspring to live in their kingdom. Summing it up like that sounds halfway interesting, but what they effectively do is have their spider-monster sack random couples and then let them do the silliest tests in order to see who fits which partner best. Said tests include hanging from the ceiling long enough, being blasted with loud sounds and (my favorite) being locked in cages and hit with a giant fan and a hose. To simulate a storm. Those Dogma guys are so fucked up.

I'm incredibly tempted to open a Dogma-style dating site. Although I'd probably go to jail for the rest of my life because of it :lol

So, all in all, it's just mindless fun so far and I don't hate it. I might get tired of it sooner than later but I try to regulate my consumption of it so I only watch more when I really want to.

I would recommend giving it a try. The only thing that I was quite sad about was to learn that Kazuya Oki's actor is a giant asshole who used his Kamen Rider fame to rip-off fans... geez.

Slight correction. He's currently missing after he messed with the Yakuza, police are trying to find him too, dunno what this rip off thing is about

Yeah I have heard negative things about Kazuya's actor too. It is weird to learn about the Yakuza news too. He was one of the ones I'd love to see return because Super-1 is such a great series and great rider. Though, if he is not the greatest person and you know him being on the run too, then I can see why they wouldn't.

SkyRider Episode 51: This was pretty similar to the last episode; however, it was done much better. I did enjoy seeing Ringbear use his manipulation headbands on Admiral Demon and see him attack the minions, just a fun moment. Hiroshi beating the programming and not attacking the kids, I loved so much. It shows that his heart and beliefs are more powerful than evil’s control. Also, it was great to see the kids thank him as well. The fight scenes were great and showed how durable and tough SkyRider is, as well as, showing how crafty and confident he is too. 3 episodes left and the other Riders show up too. I am going to miss this series, but just want to watch more of it.

He apparently bilked around 50 million yen from fans over 10 years with ridiculous claims like "My henshin belt was stolen and I need money to get it back".

He never gave the money back and refused to appear in court, but there's a screenshot of a television show floating around where he is seen performing Dogeza.

Him being missing is probably a sign that he fucked around with the wrong people.

I don’t know what it is about Super-1, but I’ve never been able to get more than a couple episodes into it.

The only comparison I can make (having watched very few Showa shows), it's very much like Kamen Rider Black after the first couple of episodes.

You know how Black is a really wild ride at first, with a cinematic feel to it, almost scary plots and monsters and how it cools down to "Strange thing happens, it must be Golgom, Kohtaro goes to investigate"? That's Super-1 so far, exactly that actually.

A strange thing happens, it must be Dogma, Kazuya goes to investigate.

I feel like for someone who has seen more Showa this may be a very cookie cutout show, but for someone like me who has only finished one Showa Rider series so far, this is quite entertaining.

Yeah, that's pretty much Showa Rider in general, especially the 80s stuff. Something about Super-1 just fails to click with me, though. Skyrider does the same to me, to a lesser extent.

Huh. Oh well, that happens I guess. Maybe the more I write about it the more I can convince you to get back into it :^)

...

Probably not :lol

I do intend to watch it someday, it's just that there's always something else I'd rather do instead.

19 episodes into Drive now. It's good I guess, there's a few ongoing plot threads like Chase's story (probably the best part of the whole show) and... well I can't think of much else. Otherwise it's more of an episode to episode basis with some cases running across multiple episodes.

I do like the humour in this though. Especially when Drive's first three forms get seen by one of his colleagues from different angles (the arms, the legs and then the head which leads to the inaccurate drawing later on). I also like how when Gou sent the signal bikes out to do a job one of them just kept turning left all the time and not going anywhere.

Overall though Drive has good characters but everyone in this show manages to overshadow the main character. I have heard that the show gets really good in the second half of the season though.

SkyRider Episode 52: God damn! There was just so much in this episode that I was not prepared for all of this. Hiroshi had so much emotion here and was driven to the point of a rage I haven’t seen in a while from the Showa Era. His parents being killed by NeoShocker, but might still be alive brought out such a reaction from him; it was a great performance to see. Seeing the Great Leader of NeoShocker manhandle Admiral Demon was something else too, dear God was I not expecting him to be seemingly the same size as King Dark. I do love the loyalty of the NeoShocker members and how they are pissed off at SkyRider for killing their brethren; I mean sure they are evil and have done horrible misdeeds, but the loyalty is admirable. Great to see Shigeru Jo return again; Stronger is just an awesome rider and he works really well with Hiroshi. Also, besides SkyRider wrecking havoc upon so many different NeoShocker minions and bases; it was great to see him do the Rider Break again. It was one of my favorite moves of his from early in the series. 2 more episodes and I can’t wait to see how this goes with his father and Admiral Demon too.

almost finished with Ryuki, only a few more episodes to go.

Started v3 last night and am really enjoying it so far. I'm glad to see more of Takeshi v1 and Hayato v2. I don't know how active they'll be in the series since the focus is obviously on v3, but it's cool to see them nonetheless.

You’ll get a good sense of how much Riders 1 and 2 will be around by the end of the second episode.

I finished the second episode, I hope that's not it?

I guess I understand if that is it though. The show's called 'V3', not "V1 and V2 get a playmate."

They show up one more time, at the start of the Baron Fang episodes.

well I admit I was hoping for a little more v1/v2 screen time. But I guess after 98 episodes and 2 movies in v1 I can't really complain.

my v3 Bandai vinyl showed up yesterday so it was a perfect time to start watching the original v3 series. (I'd only previously seen v3 in movies and in The Next.)

Episode 09 of Super-1... damn, what a ride!

So the setup promises us a look inside Dogma's monster production facility. That's kinda cool, seeing how a monster is made. It starts with a Dogma Fighter stealing a truck full of crabs, and apparently, that happened all over the place. Unlike Kamen Rider Black's "fish-stealing" episode where a monster was just really hungry, they need all those crabs to make one monster.

So they sort out all the bad parts until they have perfect pincers, perfect shells etc. (which made me a bit hungry, to be honest) and then they enlargen the parts chosen and flick them together with machinery and weapons. So that's how it works? Well, not exclusively I guess since we had humans volunteer to become Dogma monsters before.

Anyways, the crab-monster Ganigani is born and the proud evil doctor wants to show his monster off, so they have some tests going on. The doctor lets us know that at the end of the tests the monster will get its "obedience capsule" installed so it can receive commands. At the end, huh? Whatever could possibly go wrong here? :lol

And that's exactly what happens, one of Terror Macrow's Imperial guards (yes, they are called that) flips a switch by accident and some bonding stuff happens which finishes the monster but it has no obedience capsule yet so it escapes.

So now you expect the monster to run berserk and use those scary pincers of his to tear people apart like it did in the demonstration tests? That's where you'd be wrong and that's why this episode is awesome:

https://i.imgur.com/bjiqctg.gifhttps://i.imgur.com/KXWnhV0.gifhttps://i.imgur.com/7ICcLuD.gif

OMG :lolol

That hit me by surprise, I wasn't ready for that shit :lol

So yeah, the monster just goes to town and spooks a few people while it's at it, leading to Kazuya and the gang to find it. Dogma is also after it to get that capsule installed which eventually happens, after that Ganigani gets his assignment to steal some sort of crystal Dogma needs for a weapon.

Super-1 beats Ganigani, the end. Very fun episode I must say, solely for the moments where the monster dicks around.

I also like the rising tension between General Magaal and the Imperial guards, it's fun seeing them bickering at each other.

The only missed opportunity is not having any conflict on Kazuya's side if he should destroy the monster or save it. But I guess since it doesn't seem to have any sentience beyond that of a regular crab it wouldn't work out like it did with the Mole Beastman or the Whale Mutant.

Also, this is probably my favorite caption from the entire episode, you should all save that one, it seems the uses to describe certain moments in Toku are endless :lol

https://i.imgur.com/aKFag5z.jpg

Finished Episode 25 of Drive, the one where the whole "secret identity" thing goes out the window.

Now they go and reveal that Jun knew Shinnosuke was Kamen Rider Drive all along and was a former colleague of Krim Steinbelt? I don't think I could have seen that one coming and it does make me wonder why there was a need for him to keep his identity a secret when the very division he was working in was set up FOR Kamen Rider Drive to work from.

Also as someone who watches F1 on a regular basis, I love the concept of Type Formula, even if the form itself does look a little silly with where the front and rear wings are sticking out of. The explanation as to why it's a dangerous upgrade makes sense, the fact that it exerts so much G-Force on you and that F1 drivers are specially trained to deal with such forces (well, it's something that they themselves do) was an interesting way to create an upgrade that provides drama, at least until he gains three more shift cars to help maintain him (which take the form of a pit stop which is pretty neat).

Chase focused episode next and his arc seems to be taking an interesting twist...

EDIT: Finished Episode 32 and started Episode 33, Shinnosuke is dead? What the?

SkyRider Episode 53: Still not prepared for this emotional roller coaster of an episode. It was great to see Ichimonji return, I just love seeing Nigou. Alright, so Admiral Demon is one of the biggest assholes and just pulled off a great plan against SkyRider that I am putting him pretty high on the evil villains of Kamen Rider list. So, no one mentions that the Great Leader of NeoShocker is basically an UltraMan villain here and pretty much the size of King Dark too. Dear God, Nigou and Stronger fighting him was just ridiculous with him fighting against his foot and Rider Kick’s not working. I am happy they found Hiroshi’s mother and trying to save her. I cannot wait for this finale; this has a ton of intensity and a great villain, so this should be exciting. =)

SkyRider Episode 54 (FINAL): Wow, just wow. First of all, fuck you NeoShocker; of all the emotional torment that Hiroshi had to deal with and then they go and do that after finally getting him some more happiness. Fuck you, NeoShocker, just fuck you. Though, Hiroshi taking the crossbow the Skull Assassins used and used it against the Great Leader was brilliant. It was a great finale and to see all eight riders again that was great. Also, one last Sailing Jump with all the Riders flying together was an amazing sight to see. This was just a great ending to a brilliant series. This definitely fights, and I think takes the top spot as my favorite Showa Era series. The combat and the music in this episode was amazing and just so many great moments. I am going to miss this series a lot. Fly on SkyRider, fly on!