Finished up Kabuto Recently and boy was that an adventure, it was so much fun to watch. I cried so hard when Tsurugi passed

Just started Fiaz. On episode 9 or 10 I think.

I'm liking it quite a bit so far, kind of curious why I never really hear anyone mention or talk about it.

...then again,...a lot can go wrong in 40 more episodes. hahaha

Kamen Rider OOO episode 34. Good lord is this show significantly better than I gave credit for

Super-1, Episode 14.

The episode where General Megaal is talking with a Nazi scientist's pumpkin-looking brain through a freakin' rotary dial telephone. Now I've seen everything :lol

And Dogma is teaming up with said Nazi scientist because he created lethal laughing gas. Yes, the Joker gas from Batman.

Amazing episode. Just the right kind of stupid shit. Also, the MOTW betraying Dogma was kinda fun. Plus, we learn that General Megaal is actually M. Bison from Street Fighter in the sense that he apparently has countless of replacement bodies. For some reason.

I guess Terror Macrow gets fed up with his incompetent ass every now and then and has to murder him to relieve stress. But because no one else can do the job they bring him back regardless.

Yeah, after I was done with Faiz I contacted the government to make sure that "Watching Kamen Rider Faiz" is classified as torture, and that it should be forbidden by law.

Haven't made any progress in that regard but it really is a terrible show, my least favorite so far. And that really says something because I also watched Wizard and Ghost.

it's in my top 5 KR shows.
My top "pre-decade" Heisei show with Blade.

Faiz is a very divisive show. You either super love it (like me) or you super hate it (like Kiwami).

I like Faiz for the darker story that it had with the themes of mankind actually coexist with a species that looks like us and was even born like us, but was no longer strictly us.

Faiz's biggest problem is that it wants to be a melodramatic soap opera way more than it wants to be a Kamen Rider series.

Super-1, Episode 15:

There's a very interesting dynamic between Kazuya and the monster in this one. I really liked the setup, and Lion Thunder is a surprisingly kickass monster. I love the silly number-system for its mind control-beam attacks and ripping your own fangs out to transform them into swords is quite badass too.

But I feel like there wasn't much of a "battle of witts" as the episode promised. Kazuya literally just swapped out Lion Thunder's target with a decoy. You don't need to figure out where the attack is coming from to make that work. Since he figured out how it works it would've been better if it was countered directly instead.

That ending scene though... poor Kazuya.

Also, I'm sorry that I glossed over the two-parter episode 12 & 13, it was quite good. More martial arts-awesomeness and quite the struggle for our hero. A cool monster concept too. Although if "seeing" all your enemies moves is enough to defeat them then maybe get some camcorders Dogma. You don't need a matryoshka doll concept for your monster to do that.

https://i.imgur.com/w34J23U.gif

https://i.imgur.com/rAHkW6Y.jpg

Oh s***, do you like OOO now? I'm actually really happy to hear that on account of OOO being so awesome. It's still kind of shocking to me you had to come around to it at all.

I certainly like some of the Rider shows more than others and would be more inclined to watch some again over others, but so far I have to say I've liked all of them

Yeah, must have been the quality of the subs or something. idk

I understand that pov really.
While I like 555, the thing I hate most about it is the 2 groups of 3 protags interacting in an annoying way.

Everytime one character has a problem, and a second one ask if something is wrong, the first one answers "no it's nothing".
There is even a time in the show where you get that multiple times per episode and I was like : "Are you going to talk dammit ! share your f*ckin problem and it will be resolved !!"

But protags never open their heart and every time something goes wrong it's because of it.

as someone who doesn't like opening up and sharing my feelings though, I can kind of relate.

and from what I understand of Japan, their entire society is sort of like that.

..so it sort of makes sense in a way that they'd act like that.

but I'm only like 13-14 episodes into it so far. It's interesting and I'm enjoying it but who knows how I'll feel after 30+ more episodes.

A lot of the Kamen Rider shows seem "soap opera'ish" though. Not that I have a problem with that. I figured it's just like...Superhero-Drama,..or something.

It really doesn't and you should realize that very soon since a certain legendary shithead has just entered the show, that guy would never be able to play people the way he does if they weren't written to act like lobotomized hamsters.

I mean if you still enjoy it after all then more power to you, I personally am glad that I closed that chapter of my Rider-watching history forever.

Yes, but with Faiz, it's especially noticeable in a negative way. They really write up some dumb shit to fill the time between fights.

There are some sub-plots I enjoyed, don't get me wrong, but the bad ones were far more common.

I feel like something about Faiz that isn't pointed out nearly enough is that it's a show about emotionally damaged people. Nearly every single main character has some kind of traumatic backstory that directly explains their usual decision making process.

I can absolutely sympathize with people who find the melodrama too much (or too cheap), but I've never viewed Faiz's characterization as being particularly arbitrary. The guy who transforms using a cell phone has communication issues. That kind of irony can't be accidental.

that's an interesting observation

https://i.imgur.com/GjE42yO.jpg

Finally watched Kamen Rider Snipe Episode Zero. I deliberately waited until all four parts were out to watch any of it and I'm glad I did, because it works way better as a single narrative. It's also extremely good. Taiga's backstory was naturally ripe for drama and the bits of this story you didn't get in the show really add a lot. It's shocking to me to be watching anything where I found our old pal Dan to be an extremely effective and menacing villain instead of a clown, for one. The closest thing I have to a complaint is that the edit of Excite they used for the opening has an extremely awkward cut at one point.

There's a strangely ambiguous ending that I could see rubbing some people the wrong way, but other than that, it's solid gold. They even remembered to keep up the Ex-Aid spin-off trend of pouring ketchup on stuff, as you can in the screencap above. Although strangely enough, despite being the gritty origin story for Taiga, there's significantly less blood than most of the other ones. It's got nothing on the Brave special, that's for sure.

Just discovered Kamen Rider with Build and really like it so now I’m alternating between Ex-Aid and OOO

ok a few more episodes and I'm starting to see why people get annoyed with Fiaz. It's one thing to be stoic, it's another thing to be sort of dumb and uncommunicative. He needs to tell them that 'purple rider #2' is a bad guy who's scheming. But he's not saying anything to anyone.

I really don't understand why so many of the Heisei Riders are honestly just dumb.

Rider #1 Hongo had like a 600 level IQ and was still "cool", "brooding", "stoic", "tough",..etc.

Riders v1,v2,v3, Black, ZO, J, Shin,..none of them were dumbasses.

Then I watch Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki, Faiz, W, OOO's,...and I just don't understand why all the Main Heisei Riders are so goofy and stupid. I mean I like the shows and I like the costumes and the higher visual quality (compared to Showa era), but with the exception of Build (Sento is smart), I don't understand why so many Heisei Riders are just goofy and simple-minded.

https://i.imgur.com/3t23GKK.jpg

I love the look and quality of the Heisei shows, but I seem to like the actual Riders (when they're not in costume) a lot more in the Showa era because they just act like 'Guys',..not 'Simpletons.' Though I admit Kuuga, Agito, Ryuki,W,..they weren't unlikable characters,..but they were definitely simpleminded compared to someone like Hongo.

Hopefully Gaim, Ex-Aid, Blade, Drive,..some of the other Heisei shows I haven't seen yet don't all continue this trend of goofy simpletons as Riders.

I think it was episode 15 or 16 last night watching Faiz I was like, "Why would you not just TELL THEM HE'S LYING!?"

....sometimes I get too caught up in these shows. :p

Yeah, that's what I meant. Communication issues are way too obvious in Faiz, intentional or not.

As to why heroes have changed... I suppose it's due to how we changed as a society and how we view heroes differently today. Back then heroes needed to be perfect, nowadays they make them more relatable by giving them simple flaws that we can identify with.

Being a bit lazy, simple-minded or naive is okay as long as you do the right thing and don't hurt anyone basically.

yeah I suppose.

It's not "cool" like Hongo though. Hahahha

Hongo was just a baddddd man. (shutcho mouf!) Wha- I'm just talkin' 'bout Hongo?!

With most of the Heisei era shows the main Rider tends to be the more hot-blooded and passionate guy who tends to rush into things or make mistakes. They usually aren't as dumb as they seem, but they tend to act without thinking a lot of the time. The secondary Rider is usually the guy that's more serious, primarily to serve as a contrast. There are exceptions (Wizard is the big one that comes immediately to mind), but it seems this is just what Japan wants in their heroes right now.

Of course, if you think characters like Shouichi or Shinji are bad, try watching a modern Sentai sometime and see what the Reds are usually like.

I have some Sentais (Showa and Heisei), saved on a drive but I haven't watched them yet. I've seen Captain Marvelous in the Sentai VS Rider movie but that's about it.

Still trying to make my way to Sentai and Garo but there's so much Kamen Rider and Ultraman to watch first.

..and Godzilla of course. (though I've seen all those movies a few times at this point.)

Marvelous is an exception to the trend. You want to see Ban, Geki, or Lucky to get a real sense of what Sentai Reds tend to be like these days.

In unrelated news, I just watched the Brave and Snipe specials from Ex-Aid. I liked the Snipe one, for the most part; it was a good fleshing out of his backstory from the show and a great reminder of just how evil Kuroto really was before he became a living meme factory. I felt that the ending was a bit of a letdown, though, being mostly made up of clips from Ex-Aid (and I have no idea where the Snipe vs. Genm fight is supposed to fit in chronology).

The Brave special was... certainly a thing that happened. Seeing Asakura again was great and it was surprising to see so much focus on Hiiro's nurses (even though I think this came out after they'd already disappeared from the show). But the whole thing just felt really weird, likely because it apparently was a tie-in to last year's SHT (an acronym I am just now realizing could be easily/justifiably pronounced "shit"). Also, Night of Safari is easily the worst looking thing Ex-Aid ever shoved onto a suit actor and that show set a high bar for terrible costumes. God damn, was Asakura great, though.

Super-1, Episode 17:

Another great example of why I love this show: Episodes like these really are like short martial arts movies with the bonus of a few Rider-fights in between. Generally cool stuff. This time we also get traditional Japanese swordsmanship in the mix which is great.

I really dig the martial arts-theme of this show, it really meshes well with the Rider-formula. At the same time, I'm quite sad that the astronaut-theme has been completely dropped after the debut episode. Super-1 is built for space exploration, but so far nothing really revolved around that. I'm afraid it will never be a thing again, although if they do shoot him up into space to destroy Dogma's moonbase in the finale or something then I will cherish this show forever.

I'm also quite surprised how fleshed out the monsters in this show are, so far we have quite a few baddies who flat-out betray or simply fail Dogma so badly that their life is on the line.

Also, honorable mention to Kazuya remembering that his Radar Hands are a thing for two episodes in a row now. He kinda forgot he had him for quite a while.

so much Toku so little time.

These are the Sentais I've found and saved so far...I do have Geki...

https://i.imgur.com/9nUdDbV.png

and today I found out/discovered Shougeki Gouraigan and Big Robot Miksauki,..so there's 2 more to add to my backlog.

plus I've been trying to find a subbed version of The Next Generation Patlabor for...months, with no luck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jqbMMtcMqw

(looks so cool)


..so much Toku, so little time

Oh man, Shougeki Gouraigan. That show is definitely an experience.

that's the impression I got. I'm looking forward to it. Glad you confirmed it.

Problem is whenever I carve out time to watch I almost always watch Godzilla or Kamen Rider. Even Ultraman I still have a bunch I need to see, (like Orb.)

*sigh*

..It's like this whole 'Work' thing keeps taking up time. Hahahaha

Super-1, Episode 22.

A nice episode which focuses on the final battle of Super-1 and General Megaal. They actually gave Megaal a surprisingly good backstory, too bad they only told us now. It would've been way better to tease stuff like this throughout the show, but Rider shows weren't supposed to be this clever back then so I get it.

Anyways, I enjoyed this episode a lot, the monster graveyard was a cool idea as well (one that could've been even better if they brought some monsters back though) and now it looks like Terror Macrow himself is next.

Seems like they're pulling the old "Killing off the old evil organization just to have a new one arise immediately after"-trick.

Watched up to Episode 38 of Drive.

The series is taking some interesting twists by diving into the morality of the Roidmudes. To the point where Drive stops Mach from wiping out Mac against Krim's wishes.

Given the guy that appears at the end, I guess this is where I'm supposed to watch the film Surprise Future?

Super-1, Episode 24.

...

I hate it. I absolutely despise this episode. From the very beginning, Super-1 was a run-of-the-mill but also a very decent show that impressed me because of the great martial arts-themes and a surprisingly decent cast of characters. I also really liked Dogma as an adversary, they really worked for me.

So after they tied up the Dogma plot with 2 really strong episodes back to back... it feels like the show has gone to shit.

First, they introduce a completely new evil organization (which as far as I know, happens quite often in Showa Rider shows) that seemingly has no connection to Dogma, even though it's called "Jin Dogma" and has a very similar emblem. Like, they couldn't connect the two somehow? Have this Marshal Devil guy be Terror Macrow's son or something? I mean I get that they want to introduce new characters and that's cool, but by breaking up the formula so sudden it really feels like I stumbled into a completely different show and that's more alienating than refreshing to me.

And then the big, big offender: The Junior Rider Squad. I absolutely loathe this garbage in old Rider shows, I hate the annoying kids taking up screentime just to sell these stupid hats and whatnot. The supporting cast was fine so far and had enough kids in them, but I don't need the entire squad all the freakin' time.

They even replaced the fantastic ending with their stupid, garbage Junior Rider Squad theme song. I can't fucking believe it.

So yeah, this episode felt like "Junior Rider Squad vs. Jin Dogma featuring Kamen Rider Super-1 in a minor supporting role" and I'm afraid this is what the show will be now. If it stays that way for too long I'll drop this show like a hot potato and pretend it ended with episode 23.

Also, "Oki Kazuya is now so good at transforming it takes less time" is such a bullshit excuse for cutting down the Henshin sequence :rolleyes

wait wait wait, hold on...

...you're saying I can buy a Junior Rider Squad hat?

brb have to go google.


hahahahaha. J/K. I haven't watched Super-1 yet but I know what you mean about the Rider Squad is becoming more of a thing in the Showa shows.

it wasn't bad in v1,..though it started becoming "more" towards the end. But v3 treats it like it's the boy scouts and it's totally normal that's there's this network of spy-kids across Japan all working for Kamen Rider.

..I start to roll my eyes but then I'm like, "Whoa a Machine-Gun-Snake!!"..and am apparently easily distracted.

My least favorite part of V3 is the original ending theme, the one that has kids singing it.

unless I like the theme/ending songs I usually just skip right over them.

I love the original KR v1 theme and watched it every time.

Ultraman Geeds theme song I watched every time.

...trying to remember what others I really liked. 'W'? ...Ryuki wasn't bad..the V3 opening song isn't bad, but I usually watch it just because the footage of the motorcycle jumps is pretty cool.

Kamen Rider:The First movie kind of reprises the original V1 theme which was pretty cool.

...I almost have the original theme memorized I think.......sort of. ..ok maybe half of it.

Judging by all of your comments, I'm guessing that none of the various 'child helper' groups that appeared throughout the showa era are nearly as interesting as the Gorgom Shounen-tai from Kamen Rider Black?

No. They also show up more than twice. V3's basically show up for at least the first half of the series as the random child(ren) of the week. They eventually fade out and we go back to menacing the children of notable scientists.

hahahahaha, nicely put. I know what you mean though.

Started watching Build. I figured I liked the suit so much I might as well give it a shot, and I liked it. Build himself is a decent character with personality, and the story is immediately interesting if a somewhat breakneck pace. Only thing I don't like is the Henshin. Too much and I'm sorry, but the shaking of the bottles just looks... Weird. I do like that the two colours slam together over him though, and that this is the first Kamen Rider in what feels like ages to have built his own driver and gadgets. I don't mind Riders stumbling upon their power, or having it given/entrusted to them, but it's a nice change of pace. Makes me really want the Figuarts.