that crazy-fast pacing of the first episode lessons up considerably. It might even just be the first episode alone that was like that. I remember thinking the same when I watched it like, "whoa that was a lot of information very fast!"

The show really does have an interesting story with good characters.

i also keeps feeding us clues to the overall mystery or new questions we have several new ones this week and i have a feeling its going to be they hit us with several questions then and answer to one then a lot more questions

Tired of waiting for scrubs, I started OOO earlier today. First episode was good and interesting. I like Eiji.

Also, I try my damnedest to not hear the opening theme for any season (or learn/see much of anything else about it) before I watch it, and man, I don't know what I was expecting Anything Goes to be like, but it wasn't that. I like it, but I still found it unexpected, even if again, I can't say exactly why.

TBF, I can't really say what could've been cut, since every scene is working to establish this very detailed scenario. It's less of a criticism and more of an observation.

I'm looking forward to the rest. Again, self-taught, self-made superheroes are a commodity with Kamen Rider I find. Typically they're gifted or stumble upon their powers (usually from the enemy power) so to see Build literally have built his own Driver and Bottles, is pretty refreshing. It instantly establishes not only the powers and their functionality, but his intelligence and creativity in one fell swoop. Again, my only criticism is the bottle shake just doesn't look cool and I don't even know why it's necessary? Do the toys do something if you shake them? Do they only work when fizzy? :lol

I also like how you've got the classic superhero subplot of Build as a fugitive because he got tangled up in the law. Assuming Ryuuga is in fact innocent, it'll be interesting seeing them prove that considering they're both, y'know, amnesiac.

I love Anything Goes. It's so energetic and upbeat. It perfectly encompasses Eiji's character, which I find a lot of KR theme songs don't do and instead go for just being a good song. It just makes you feel like this little Kamen Rider is going on big adventures.

Build is a great show, I'm looking forward to what you think once you caught up. There's some really awesome stuff ahead for you to see :)

The DX toy bottles have a translucent plastic piece in them which mimics a liquid fluid, its on a slider which is connected to the cap, so when you put the bottles in the belt and turn the lever little pins punch into the bottle cap and push the plastic liquid up and down, so it looks like it moves.

As a side effect, shaking the bottles makes some sweet, satisfying clickety-click noises as the plastic fluid jumps up and down.

I'm not sure what came first though - the toys making that noise and the producers thus deciding Sentou should do it in the show or if they had the concept planned out first and executed the toys to follow suit.

In-universe it appears like shaking the bottles activates their powers. I guess it's similar to how you need to push the button on a Gaia Memory before you use it.

Mmmm, Gaia Memories at least said their name and it was kinda dramatic. The bottles clicking just... eh.

But that's such a minor thing. I actually somewhat like the Driver though I always prefer belts with a clear on/off position like the W Driver being closed/open, the closed/open Lock Seeds, etc. Maybe if the crank made the bottles pop up or something, or the Driver was smaller and the crank made it expand. The fact that it looks the same before and after transformation is just not super exciting. I feel like it does the whole "belt with a giant protruding handle" thing better than Fourze or Ghost. I also like how, much the same as W, the two bottle "sides" represent a different element so to speak. One side is an animal, one is a tool/weapon/vehicle.

I thought it was cool that the toy bottles make the same clicky noise as the show when you shake them.

That they don't go, "PSSH!" when you spin the top was crushing and disappointing. :lolol

Super-1, Episode 26.

The Junior Rider Squad is in every single episode now. Every. Single. One. And they have more screentime than Oki Kazuya himself.

One of those insufferable brats peed his pants on-screen. Why.

This show was so awesome before the half-way point. Now it's garbage. It used to be Super-1 against evil. Now it's annoying children fighting evil who call Super-1 to help them.

Why?! :cry

Episode 2 of Build was likewise fast paced but to more of a benefit. Normally introducing a character only to kill them off would seem incidental but the show makes it pretty convincing. I really like Ryuuga's actor and Build himself is nicely complex. Him sort of breaking down when Ryuuga's did showed a crack in the carefree and in control side of him. It's only two eps but he feels nicely developed which a lot of main Riders can lack. I also like how he's totally efficient and in control with his Rider gear. He doesn't just wait until the last second before transforming, he shows up in suit a lot, which I like.

Sad to say I really don't like Build's alternate forms. Rabbitank works because it's fairly subdued and simple. Very W like in that the two halves play nice with the overall design. The two eyes are pretty similar in shape, etc. But everything else is too unique to match well or even look good. Especially since some forms add stuff to the silhouette. That said, I like how he just has them. We saw Hedgehog and Gorilla be created but Vacuum just showed up. Which makes sense, we've seen how bottles are made, no need to have an origin for each one.

I love Build, the characters and story is great so far,..but the suits....so many suits,...so many stupid looking suits. Hahahhaa. Get ready for pretty much a new suit each episode,..it's kind of ridiculous.

Some are really cool though, and I agree that Rabbit-Tank is very aesthetically pleasing looking and is probably the best looking one. (that doesn't get enough screen time.)

But again, the story and characters are interesting enough you sort of just (in my case/opinion), put up with all the goofy suits.

Watched episode three, good plot, good characters, yadda-yadda...

Was that Ouja's snake monster?

I'm happy to report that Super-1 is somewhat back on track again. I watched episode 30 yesterday and after 4-5 episodes which were completely focused on the Junior Rider Squad the last 3 episodes actually featured Oki Kazuya and his Tani Motorshop gang prominently again. It's now the Junior Rider squad that has a somewhat smaller and less annoying role, which I'm fine with.

But still... the really good stuff died with the Dogma Kingdom and Emperor Terror Macrow I'm afraid. This show completely lost its spark IMO. Now it's really just a typical Showa show without anything special to it. It's still entertaining, but not in the way it was before.

That's really sad for me, I loved Super-1's earlier half. Oh well, I'll finish it and then move on.

I'm not sure, but this might be around the time when it's time slot was changed and the ratings nosedived. That was one of the main reasons why Kamen Rider went on hiatus for the next several years and was replaced by Metal Heroes.

Sounds logical to me, they changed the dynamic of the show completely after Dogma was finished, introduced lots of new characters alongside the new Jin Dogma enemies and heavily shifted the focus towards children.

Which was quite alienating to me, but maybe they had to do that to get new viewers in and survive in the new timeslot.

It's still a big waste. Now I'm quite certain that Super-1 will never travel into space... (I know he did it in the mangas and stuff, I mean the show). Ideally, Super-1's second half would've been focused on space. Give him a rocket of sorts (new toy to sell!) and have Jin Dogma located in space which beams monsters down to Earth or other planets to wreak havoc with Super-1 going after them. You can do all that with cheap effects and a few sets, Star Trek did it too. Or like Kyuranger does it, film in the same locations but paint the extra's faces blue :lol

But I guess they didn't have the budget or the show was just never intended to be more than it needed to be.

I'm 16 episodes into OOO. Gamel is a good boy.

Gamel is the silver Greed, yeah? Not gonna lie, his perma-whine voice can seriously fucking grate the longer he's on screen.

So I think once my Black Figuart arrives I might actually go and finish that series considering, y'know, I never did. I didn't dislike it, it was just too episodic and I wasn't into that kind of storytelling at the time. I got pretty far in, too. I still love Black as a character. Could anyone give me a ballpark of where to re-enter where the plot is actually... extant? :lol

I want to keep watching Build and get caught up, but much like Black I almost want to wait for the Figuart to come out. :P I probably won't, though.

There actually used to be a list of Kamen Rider Black's important episodes somewhere on this board but that was a couple of years ago so...

That being said... I have a question. Why would you want to skip episodes? I hope I'm not coming across as a jerk by asking like this but if you aren't interested in watching all the episodes of the show, filler and all, why bother watching it at all? It just seems like a waste of time.

Because filler is just there to take up time before getting back to the meat of things.
Skipping episodes to get to the plot (Typically the reason why someone would continue watching a show) makes perfect sense.

When I rewatch shows, I skip the episodes that are basically the cast acting silly and goofy and has no bearing on the plot.

Fair point. I'm the kind of guy who loves episodes like that so I guess it just depends on who you are and what your trying to get out of a show.

Exactly that. Sounds pretty damn presumptuous to say that because I don't want to watch a pointless episode about Black fighting a pear monster that wants to steal everyone's shoes that I also don't care about his struggle against Golgom and search for his brother. Do you see why I might class those two plots in seperate levels of interest? I feel like avoiding the actual time wasting episodes is about as far away from a waste of time as you can get.

Especially since I feel like the older shows were especially filler-y in their episodic nature. Just because that's how it was back then. They didn't usually space out the main plot among it, you'd have several eps of just nothing consequential, then the show turns hard serialized for the main plot.

Again, fair point. I apologize if what I said was rude. It was purely one of curiosity. I'm the kind of person who doesn't usually consider a show 'complete' if I haven't seen all the episodes, filler or otherwise, so I was pretty curious to know why you guys were OK with, in the case of Kamen Rider Black, skipping almost dozens of episodes at a time to get to one or two plot important ones.

Watched a couple of more Build eps. The heavily serialized natured continues to be the show's strong suit. Episode finished with Ryuuga basically betraying Sento, but it's hard to hold it against him. Nobody's helping to clear his name and he can't return to a normal life until he or someone else does. Also Sento's old band mate was fuckin' weird bro. Love the reason his hair flicks up. :lol

almost done with Faiz. Only about 4 episodes left. I've enjoyed it a lot actually. Some people told me it sucked and was "soap opera",..but idk...maybe I like soap operas?

It reminded me in a way of Agito or 'W' in that it had sort of a smaller focused cast and there was a lot to do with the relationship the cast members have with each other. Not so much "relationships"..but their interactions. I've enjoyed it so far.

Actually I'd say Agito, Faiz, and 'W' have been my favorites so far of the Heisei and Neo-Heisei era. Even though I really liked Kuuga and am enjoying Build.

I'm really looking forward to Kabuto and Gaim, too. And am still working my way through V3 which I'm also enjoying a lot.

So far the only Kamen Rider show I've felt like I had to power through has been Ryuki. And I actually liked Ryuki but I feel like 2/3'rds of the episodes were sort of just filler and crap. It was a whole lot of 'nothing really happening' for like 2 dozen episodes. And I think it suffered by having too many Riders when reallly only like 3, maybe 4 of the Riders were the least bit interesting.

...Actually more like 2 Riders were interesting. Bat and Snake.

Anyway, Faiz is pretty decent, surprisingly so. I've liked the growth and interactions the characters have all had with each other. At episode 45 it feels like I've come a long way since episode 1.

Ryuki is too long. The plot it has is good, but too thinly stretched. I loved Ryuki and Zolda, personally, and had no love for Knight or Ouja. I thought the final episode was fantastic up until that... scene. Literally every plotline and character arch is resolved masterfully in a way Kamen Rider has never done, and honestly I was sucked into every moment regardless of if I liked the character... and then nope! Fucking' Odin.

My favourite series are W, OOO, Gaim and Den-O. I definitely like the goofier series. Ones that don't take the concept so rigidly seriously. I really didn't like Agito because it was too up its own ass for me to see its face, and I think it's what has stopped me from checking out Kuuga. I really liked what I've seen of Black and Hibiki but I never did finish them. I'm also really liking Build so far.

Finished OOO. It was pretty good. Hina was pretty much an entirely useless character though, so that was a shame.

I hope the Den-O scrubs drop soon.

Unfortunately a lot of female leads in KR end up totally useless. Even though she has super strength for... no reason at all.

Also I'll ask again, but does anyone have a filler guide for Black?

I finished Kamen Rider Double with my brother yesterday. I absolutely loved it a lot. Shotaro, Philip, and Ryu are all amazing riders. The villains were pretty solid and dangerous. The Sonozaki family all were intriguing. Akiko got a bit better later and was a fun character too. The storytelling was just fantastic and so were the battles too.

I fully agree. 'W' was great I can't wait to watch it again.

...and finally someone else who appreciates Akiko. She's great too. She had heart and a lot of courage and was was an important part of the ensemble.

Well. To each is own. I'm one of the few KR fan who don't like W.
Or at least it's one of my least favorite. It's like... It crystalizes all the things I don't like in a KR show.
2-fillerish episodes arc formula : check
non-active main female with a gimmick : check
"No place for mystery or twists" kind of writing (for a detective show ? that takes the cake...) : check
Boring upgrades (but I know that was done on purpose) : check

If I had to sum up the things I like in W (because it would be faster) :

- Shotaro (personality and mimicking kinda reminds me of Kiva's Otoya sometimes)
- Fang Joker. Only form I really liked

and... that's all...

W was good. I have a lot of nostalgia for it and it's by no means amazing, but when it's good it's damn good. I think OOO is a stronger story, but I prefer W's personality.

W had the best "expanded universe" too with Skull and all that. Still can't believe Skull has not appeared anywhere since War Core.

Have kinda the opposite opinion. Absolutley adored Ryuki all the way through, but I've found Double really hard to get in to. About half way through, and I still haven't found it clicking with me the way it seems it's supposed to. I think my biggest issue is pacing. I really can't stand the thing of every single story being two parts. A lot of the cases don't have enough plot for 44 minutes, and half the episodes seem to be spent in fights where you know the dopant is gonna get away since it's still to early to catch them. Maybe things get less formulaic later on, but at the point I'm at, it's kind of boring. If I didn't really enjoy Shotaro and Phillip as protagonists, I'd have dropped it by now.

W's another show that would benefit from a filler guide. It does get a lot less formulaic near the end but it's certainly not the halfway point.

Ryuki literally only ever clicked with me near the end. I especially hated any plot involving Asakura and how ludicrous his various escapes were and how actual random bullshit would just happen to free him. My favourite character, Zolda, hardly ever even appeared as a Rider. And so many of the minor Riders were worthless.

I've also watched more Build and I really enjoy it. Not much to say besides it's just plain old good. I like the characters and I want to see how this whole conspiracy unravels.

I'll admit, I thought Asakura was massively overrated. His voice was kind of hot, but his ability to always manage to escape everything, even being stuck inside that exploding car trap Tiger set, with little to no explanation, and him being the only one to kill anyone besides the Alternatives got extremely tiring by the end

I think with W/Double the two parters I liked because it fit the them of 'two as one' all through the show. Plus I really liked the whole 'hard-boiled detective' angle, and I really like Phillip and Shotaro and Akiko (and Accel/Rider 2) as characters so I was invested in their stories.

And I thought the Sonozaki family as antagonists were great. Claydoll was cool and Taboo (without doubt my favorite villain) was fantastic and really bizarre looking.

It's different enough to really be different, but familiar enough to still be Kamen Rider. Then there's that battle truck that the motorcycle can jump into and switch out the back half of the bike to something else, (again, the two into one theme)...there was just a lot of little details and stuff I really liked about the show.

Then the characters really did grow up and develop. Phillip and Akiko grow up a lot through the show (I love the episode where Akiko goes undercover as a maid). Shotaro tries to grow up and harden up but he can't, he just has too big a heart. He's 'not' hard-boiled, he's a softie who tries to be a badass. Ryu as Accel grows up and develops quite a bit.

Idk,...maybe it's like anything else you either like it or you don't, it grabs you or it doesn't.

For me I'd seen The First and The Next movies and really liked them. I'd seen maybe 20 episodes of the original 71 Kamen Rider and I liked it. And I'd seen bits and clips on Youtube of Kuuga and Agito, Decade and OOO's,...all fighting clips for the most part, but I liked them. Then for some reason I just picked 'W' one night and sat down to watch a more 'modern' Rider than the 1971 one that I'd been watching, and I just got really pulled into the story and the characters and ended up binge watching the whole show in less than a week. So it was my first Rider series that I watched start to finish so maybe I'm just partial to it.


Split Lip I agree that Ryuki clicked with me towards the end, finally. But I really felt like I had to power through like 25 episodes in the middle where it just seemed like nothing was really happening. It started off really strong, and it ended strong,...but the middle just ...bought time? Spun its wheels? I thought them introducing the Psychotic Snake Rider in the middle was probably the best part of the middle section. To me he was what made it interesting.

To date I haven't disliked any of the Rider shows really, I've liked them all. Some I just liked quite a bit more than others.

I started Ex-Aid last night and am on (I think) episode 5-6 now. I'm liking it. Some of the fight scenes are pretty over the top with the screen just full of smoke and explosions then slow-motion hits and kicks then all kinds of colorful text all happening at once,...it's a lot going on at once sometimes. But so far the story and characters are interesting,..and I'm not sure why but I'm completely fascinated with Poppy Pipopapo. I sort of wish they'd made a figuarts of her but I couldn't really find anything interesting related to her character to add to the collection.

..I did drop the SHF Ex-Aid level 2 figure into my 'buy it now' bookmarks though. (these shows just kill my wallet. I always end up wanting at least one SHF Rider from a series. And some shows like 'W' I've got maybe close to 10 'W' SHF's? Ouch. hahaha)

Personally I'd argue it's the filler that made W, it made it feel more like a pulpy one and done series with every two eps, but I can understand people not like that... now on to my actual reason for this post


I am really glad that you're enjoying build, after not being able to get into the series post gaim, it's good to see you enjoying rider again.

I watch episode 1 of Build and I really enjoy it. It made me want to see what happens next. I really dig the story and I enjoy the tone too. It had a serious tone to it while having some gags in it.

Super-1, Episode 40.

...

Sometimes, you just have to ask yourself: What the fuck am I watching?

Jin Dogma's soap monster, "Sloappery", makes evil soap which dissolves humans in a rather gruesome manner, turns them into jello, said jello get's flushed down the drain, then they collect it and turn them back. To make them soldiers and slaves and whatnot. And this is somehow more effective than just straight-up kidnapping people.

But that's not the best part, the best part is this:

https://i.imgur.com/IJEJ3hU.gif

The monster needs to be showered with water and brushed to activate its soap-powers. And I specifically made the gif above because this shit really does need to be seen in order to be believed.

It's so... surreal.

Also, I would comment on how I really appreciate that they finally remembered that Oki Kazuya is a martial artist. See, he can't hit Sloappery because his punches and kicks just slide off of its slippery soap body. He then goes into training to find the secret technique that ancient master used to cut through the water. Why he did that I have no idea because in the end he just kicks the monsters head clean off. Twice.

So yes, I admit this episode was entertaining just because of how amazingly dumb it is. But it plays on themes that were so good in the first half, completely misses their point, and you realize how none of it matters anymore. The Junior Rider Squad is still the star of the show, the villains are still a joke (more than usual at least) and none of it really means anything anymore.

Super-1, I really liked you, it makes me sad to continuously witness what you have become. But the soap monster was fun...right?

the irony,..it's a soap monster yet it makes me feel dirty to watch that gif.

hahahahaha

I goddamn love the Showa era so much.

Started Den-O. I hope OZC releases the episodes semi-frequently, I enjoyed the first one. Momotaros is pretty fun.

Also started Dragon Knight, three episodes in. Maybe it's because I made the mistake of watching the clip in this here thread recently and my standards for acting in American adaptations of toku are at an incredible all-time low, but I think it's fairly decent so far. Nothing horribly groundbreaking or interesting, but it's inoffensive.