Episode 2 of Build was pretty good. I did like the drama in the story, but I'm not too crazy about the gimmick. Sometimes the show being too toy driven can be annoying to me. I like how the gimmicks are handle in W, OOO and Gaim.

Have some more :p

https://i.imgur.com/COEn2xQ.gif

I mean it's entertaining enough to keep going, and I do want to continue watching another one right after I finish Super-1. At the same time I'm glad it changed over the years to the more story- and character-driven experience it is now.

But that's not their fault, the Showa series is a product of its time.

Kind of makes you wonder what will become of Tokusatsu in the future. What elements do we consider standard in Toku today that will become outdated products of their time by the time Kamen Rider reaches, say, its 55th anniversary?

Yup.

Although I honestly just hope it stays around long enough. If they cancel Rider completely at some point I'd be very sad.

But looking at it's past and how strong the toy-sales still are... I'd say it's guaranteed to stick around one way or another, it will never end completely.

And even if it does, I can't imagine that Tokusatsu hero shows as a whole would just die out either.

Sorry for the double post, but I watched Episode 41 of Super-1 yesterday. It was an okay episode with an okay setting (they visit a zoo this time), but you guys better believe that I was a bit... "confused" when I saw this:

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

There's a lion named Lucky. A lion. Named. Lucky.

Stupid Kyuranger is now infiltrating a 38-year old show just to annoy me even further. Crap.

Wow, that Lucky surely looks enthusiastic over there.

Little do you know, the very next moment he opened his mouth only to roar "Yossha Lucky!" ;)

@Topic: Super-1, Episode 42. I give credit where credit's due, this episode was great. Oki Kazuya stops an asshole driver only to find out he is a courier of Jin Dogma, who was delivering an invitation for Marshal Devil's masquerade party.

Oki Kazuya plans to attend and what follows is really entertaining. See, he isn't attending in disguise - he flat out rolls in on his Rider machine in full Super-1 gear. But he isn't storming the place, he just gives them the invitation so they assume it's one of their invited supporters who had the controversial idea to masquerade as Super-1. And they are all envious that they didn't think about dressing up as the Kamen Rider themselves :lol

It takes a few more turns I won't spoil, but the party is definitely the highlight of this episode and thankfully takes the majority of the episode's runtime. It has some weird Star Wars-cantina vibe to it that I enjoyed a lot. There's also this cheesy Basketball-monster that really has no relation to what's going on but it's quite a weird and fun monster so eh.

So yeah, one of the few episodes of the latter half which are really worth watching, great stuff.

Huh. Talk about lucky.

Watching Kamen Rider Drive Saga: Kamen Rider Chaser.

Like Chase, this whole thing seems rather melodramatic and it's become somewhat difficult to invest in, however I thought the fact that Accel showing up in it was pretty cool and I like how they put sunglasses and had Krim drinking was rather amusing.

Still yet to finish but I've got a bit of the way through. Angel has just wiped out Heart, Brain and Chase and they're in this seemingly other dimension right now. Not entirely sure about that yet though...

Watched Build episode 9. I'm trying to get caught up but I find I have less and less time to watch stuff. Once again I really like how serialised it is, and my oh my, did not expect that development at the end. Though it's kinda obvious in hindsight.

I also like how the characters are pretty fleshed out. Misora spends a lot of her time tired and grumpy but it's nice to see she can be "normal." And Banjou likewise has other interests besides just clearing his name though I wonder when that'll finally happen.

I'm not sure how I feel about the novelty of Sento building the Build Driver being taken away though. I mean clearly he's smart enough to have built it, and he did modify it so he knows how it works, but it existing before him kinda takes away that "ah ain't that cool" feeling I had.

Also, GEE I WONDER WHO BLOOD STALK IS??? HMMMM... :lol

yeah you have quite a few 'reveals' yet to go.

I finish Episode 4 of Build. I did like the mystery of the connection between Faust's experiments and the Pandora Box. The drama is one of my favorite things about this show so far.

I finished Super-1 today. As much as I didn't like the second half, well...

They freakin' did it. Spoilers of course, but the last episode actually features the finished "Jupiter Super-1" rocket. It's not really involved in the final battle mind you, but Oki Kazuya does board it in the end and leaves into space to fulfill his purpose as a Cyborg made for space exploration. And I love it!

There's a bit of weirdness going around too though. Like, in the second-to-last episode Super-1 is "revealed" to be Oki Kazuya to his friends and I was just sitting there like "Wut? You didn't know this already?". Maybe if his secret identity was ever featured as a plot device it would've worked, but they really didn't. He transformed in public multiple times and Kazuya rides the same goddam bike as Super-1... which even has "Oki Kazuya" written on it for christ's sake!

And... Jin Dogma are all aliens. Yup. They reveal this in the last episode and you're just asking yourself why they didn't use that to make them more interesting. It's such a waste. Also, Marshal Devil's monster form, "Satan Snake" is straight up King Hiss from He-Man. Which apparently came later, so King Hiss is actually Satan Snake! The designs are so similar, I wouldn't be surprised if they actually are related in a way. Then again, a bundle of snakes on humanoid legs isn't the most original idea either.

But anyways, the last couple of episodes were good, they used the Junior Rider Squad sparely which I appreciate and there's some actually good drama around again. Good to see the show ending on such a high note!

Also, I now finally know where the sword comes from that is included with the SHF Super-1. It's used to great effect in the last episode, to say the least ;)

Well, Super-1, you were a good show I think. The last half could've been done way better as the Junior Rider Squad is just annoying as all hell but the finale ties it all together quite nicely. it's a nice Showa series to check out, but don't expect anything special. But you may fall in love with it as I did.

Goodbye Super-1. Next up I'm taking a look at Stronger, I've heard some good things about this one!

I still have 10 episodes of Dragon Knight left to watch, but I decided to start Shushutto's release of Hibiki since they finally released the third quarter of the show. Watched the first three episodes.

So, right off the bat, it's really nice to see Hibiki with subtitles by people who actually give a shit. Had fun rewatching these. Unfortunately, where one problem ends another one starts. I only really have time to watch Rider on my phone during my commute and breaks these days. Problem is, my phone is a real piece of shit, and it's having trouble with the HD version of Hibiki. It'll play normally most of the time, but once or twice an episode VLC will just have a tiny aneurysm and freeze/lag for a little bit. Or a large bit. It depends. It hasn't bothered me too much since I had already seen these episodes before, but I don't want that interfering with my watching of the other episodes. So I guess I'm gonna have to re-download the Bunny Hat raws. Which is fine. I've tried and compared it already, it's not a huge difference. Still, it is a difference. Sucks that I can't just enjoy the series with the best video possible. Need to get a better phone.

(also the seeding for the BHR is infernally slow)

Anyway, that's just my very uninteresting adventures with technical problems.

While I'm at it, may as well comment on these last 27 episodes of Dragon Knight.

It's decent? It's fine. It's alright. It's like....just shy of being a pretty good show, I feel. If only the acting was a little better. If only the script was a little tighter. If only it used a lot less cliches (I don't think a single character exists in this show that isn't a walking superficial archetype). The show is well structured and has solid ideas, but the execution is just schlocky enough to hurt it. Like, not a lot, but enough. In particular I feel like some of the actors have trouble selling their lines--Maya in particular comes to mind.

There's also enough problems with consistency (why is everyone (especially the government people) able to see/record Mirror shit in the second half of the show when the beginning established only people involved with Ventara or who had gone through a mirror could see them?) and anticlimactic resolution to mysteries to be distracting.

Also, man, Venting is dumb. It's that perfect "we can't kill people so we accidentally came up with a fate worse than death as an alternative!" kind of thing. The show of course still just treats it as dying. But what bothers me about it is how confused the show's treatment of it is, specifically in relation to Kit Venting Spear. I have no idea what my takeaway from that incident was supposed to be. If you were going to have the protagonist (essentially) kill someone off in a show like this, there's only two real routes I can see it being pulled off. Either you dehumanize the enemy as a villain enough for it to feel justified, or you make it trigger a moral dilemma in the hero (cough cough). I don't think the show really does either of those things, let alone well.

I mean, sure, Albert was a shitter, but the way he went out was pretty rough. Killing an enemy while he's down is kind of a weaselly, dishonorable way to go about it, and that's exactly the way Kit went about it. Albert was just groggily and weakly staggering back up when Kit Vented him. It wasn't a very heroic moment. And then his final moments he's just sprawled out on the floor, trying to reach out to his brother? With said brother also panicking and pained, trying to reach him from the other side? Worse still, the show spends the next few episodes not letting you forget that ultimately Albert was also just a person who had people that cared about him. Even if that person was his brother Danny, who is also a shitter.

And I mean, if that sort of tragic turn of events was what they were going for, well done. But I'm unconvinced they were actually aiming for this at all, because the show doesn't appear to care at all about the Cho brothers. I'm not saying the show glorifies Venting or Kit doing it--Len regrets it, it takes time and Chris getting Vented (with help of the Cho's, admittedly) for Kit to be ready to do it, and after he does it he's sad for a little bit. But he gets over it quick, Danny gets banished to the shadow realm soon afterwards and they are never spoken of again. So again, the whole thing feels confused and confusing. What is the big takeaway here? Am I supposed to feel bad for the Cho's? Feel good for the revenge they got for their part in Chris's Venting? Am I supposed to think Kit is cool, or what? It's especially troubling because around the same time Danny gets done in Kit learns that whole lesson about how "the ends never justify the means," which I thought maybe they'd tie into it and maybe have some more regret come his way, but nope. I'd think the big takeaway was nothing and just take the whole sort of morally gray situation at face value, as if it was intentional, but I don't really feel like giving the show the benefit of the doubt on this one. At the end of the day, Kit is still treated as the hero, and he doesn't really learn anything from it.

...and I guess it turns out I had more to say on that subject than I thought!

I'm sure at the end of the show everyone who was Vented is going to be brought back, thus absolving everyone from any repercussions for their actions, anyway.

Don't take those complaints and blocks of text too seriously though. It may just be me overthinking or nitpicking. The show is still decent, and I think it's a shame it was so unsuccessful. It would have been interesting to see the crew behind it take a swing at another Rider.

And for what it's worth, the action is very good. There is a lot of original action footage, and it's pretty damn good. That Emmy was well deserved.

I watched the first two episodes of Stronger and I like it. It's a huge step back in presentation from Super-1, but it is like 5 years older so there's that, and so far it still needs to find it's rhythm as we just about learned the basics on characters and their world.

Still, Stronger as a Rider is pretty great, I really like Shigeru's attitude and I love his whistling before he enters the scene. It reminds me of Protoman from the MegaMan franchise, and I wouldn't be surprised if Stronger had an influence on that. The electric and magnetic powers as a fighting effect are pretty cool too.

Tackle's an interesting character as well, I like the idea of a female partner for a Rider. Although it is a bit uncomfortable at times since Tackle usually only beats a few grunts before the main monster kicks her butt and before she get's captured, only to be saved by Stronger. And then there's lots of "Well, you're a woman, so..." kinda comments which aren't very nice.

But it is what it is, I'm aware that the show is a product of its time, I take it as a chance to remind myself that this kind of crap isn't okay anymore. At least not on television for kids.

Aside from that, it's a fun show so far with a lot of cool ideas. Shigeru going into the bad guy's hideout himself, demanding to be remodeled as a cyborg only to use that power against them is badass. That's a really nice way to put a new twist on the old "Hero get's captured and rebuild against his will"-origin story that many Showa Riders seem to share.

I'll happily keep going in hopes that the second half won't put the spotlight on a Junior Rider Squad :lol

Also, this made me laugh, the editor had his fun with the famous noises of the bad guys:

https://i.imgur.com/wBzq8KE.jpg

Ya, I've heard that Showa era Tackle was pretty bad in battle but I've also heard that she's an interesting character despite that so I'm interested in hearing hearing your feelings about her as the show goes on. Also, if you think the treatment of women in a show with a single male hero as the focus is bad, just wait until you get to the mess that is Maskman's treatment of women.

At the end of the day, Tackle is just a slightly fancier version of Rurioko, Yuri, and all the other Showa Rider Girls. She gets a few more action scenes, but ultimately her primary role is to be the show's damsel in distress (usually alongside Tobei, who I think gets crucified more in Stronger than in all the other Showa series he's in combined). She does have some pretty great moments, but don't go into Stronger expecting progressive gender roles.

So in other words, her being able to go into battle as Tackle is more or less just a gimmick to make her stand out among the other showa era female leads? A series long version of, say, Abare Pink from Abaranger and the like?

Not quite that bad. She's still intended to be taken seriously, but she rarely comes off as very impressive in action.

I finished Dragon Knight yesterdayish. Very strange last act. Not bad, I'd even say it was one of the strongest parts of the show (dropping the bookstore helped). But very strange. I know comparing it to the Japanese shows doesn't make much sense, but, the way they handle the eponymous character in those last 9 episodes is something I just could not have expected.

A lot of my criticisms still stand, and I have some other new ones, but I don't really feel like going into it too much.

But I'll whine about the ending a little.

The fact that they had the actors for all the Riders at the end and didn't do anything with it bothers me. Also, the whole ploy about needing to get a mirror into the base is dumb. They drove there. We've seen countless times that the Riders are fully capable of traveling through cars. Cars is how most of them got to the mirror they brought in. Literally the dumbest thing.

I already didn't really like Maya, but turning the last episode into a clip show from her perspective didn't help things. And just, Jesus, what a marathon of off-hand cheap feeling happy endings (And Ebulon brought back the Earth Riders and he wiped their memories and he cured Kit's dad and Adam got to quit and his girlfriend din't care about all the shit he did I guess and surprise Kit is DK again and I plagiarized their adventures to get famous and now I'm boning Pryce and HE CURED CHRIS'S ASTHMA )

The asthma thing really got to me. It's just...stupid.

And maybe if they hadn't wasted most of the episode on recapping shit that had literally just happened they could have fleshed out some of these developments.

But, eh, it was still good. Goodish. My nitpicking and whining makes me sound a lot more displeased with it than I actually am. I'll continue to commend their use of original footage and their vision for the show, even if wasn't executed as best as it could have been.

And now I can focus all my attention to Hibiki.

It's good, but the special effects definitely leave something to be desired. I mean, it is from 2005, and Kamen Rider doesn't have the best CG in any case, but still. I applaud them for being more ambitious with their monsters, but...like, the scene with the crab in episode 6 was...well, lacking.

Everything else about the show is good. Pretty unique take on doing Kamen Rider, but it's a welcome reprieve from the usual. It's only been a few episodes, but I feel like the central characters they've introduced have been established decently, and I enjoy them.

The opening and ending are still great. I love love love the little changes and different takes they seem to do with them. Really great stuff.

Oh man,you are in for 29 delightful episodes. Enjoy.

Finished Kamen Rider Drive the other week. Certainly the second half of the show was very strong, it did a bit of a 180 on the whole Roidmude conflict so that Professor Banno could become the main antagonist, which is fine I guess and in hindsight it makes sense why relations between Heart and Shin would mellow, to the point that the "final fight" between the two was really just a heroic sacrifice for Heart. That was pretty powerful in itself.

Chase dying and Gou becoming Mach Chaser would have had more of an impact would have had more of an impact if I didn't already know it was going to happen. Still the final part was pretty awesome, my only real complaint is that Shin's role in the actual finale didn't seem to be that big. He made quick work of Sigma alongside Heart and the final confrontation feeling more game from Gou vs. Banno. Though i guess mixing it up a bit has it's merits.

I watched the Kamen Rider Gaim summer film. It was weird in a way, but I actually like football (I'm from the UK) so I thought I might like this film. It ended off coming as bizarre, with it being an alternate reality where the teams play football against each other. Strangely at times the first part reminded me of the Quidditch match in the first Harry Potter film...

...suffice to say though I think the main series is better than this standalone film which you can tell was written by a different writer (it's been a bit of a while since I last saw Gaim mind).

Not sure what I'll watch next. Given I'm trying to avoid sites like KissAsian and JaToku and don't have a good torrent client I may be limited on what I can actually watch, but I'll see what's around that I might pick up. Maybe OOO.

Kamen Rider Stronger, Episode 7.

Damn, I didn't know that Kamen Rider Rogue was in Stronger!

https://i.imgur.com/4zW6sIo.jpg

Just kidding, this is Wanida, Black Satan's very own Crocodile Cyborg Monster. He makes weird noises, likes to lie on roads until people drive over him, and also runs a restaurant in which he brainwashes people by feeding them gross, slimy insects.

He's quite the character, I can tell you that.

One of his victims manages to escape and alerts Shigeru and Yuriko.

Fun episode, nothing extraordinary except for a good portion of Tackle being badass (but she still gets captured regardless) and a crazy monster that really stands out for being extra weird and cheesy.

I like this show so far, but I really wish they would have a more regular supporting cast. So far it's only Tachibana driving around in his car and randomly bumping into our heroes. I really want them to set up a base somewhere so we can interact with more characters that appear frequently. It might not happen though, but that's okay.

Black Satan is also a rather boring evil organization, Mister Titan ist cool but he's literally the only member that returns between episodes. I hope that changes too.

Also, big shoutout to the subbing group (Midnight Crew Subs) for putting in a bit of flavor to repetitive phrases like "See you later!". It was especially perfect in this episode:

https://i.imgur.com/jE0saHI.jpg

Oh boy, Stronger is quite the experience. If I had to choose one toku I have seen as the most likely candidate to have been made on drugs, it would be Stronger.

Well, I've now finished Hibiki. It was a good 29 episodes. A very different but welcome take on Rider. Good characters, very deliberate pacing and development. Just all around a good package. Probably the only Heisei Rider besides Kuuga that really felt like its priorities were undividedly on being a good show, toys be damned.

It's only unfortunate that it was cut short so abruptly. It really felt like it was building up to something, but we'll never really know what.

And well.

I was going to venture into the dark timeline and start watching The Show Formerly Known as Hibiki, but it turns out the Bunny Hat raws have this...preview scene thing after the opening? Not sure what it is but. I guess the webrips don't have it because the timing of the Shushutto scripts doesn't account for it. So I guess I'll have to wait until I get home to fix that.

I will say, the preview and minute-odd of the cold open sure made this Kiriya fellow look like a pleasant person.

Just watched the Ex-Aid True Ending movie, and was super underwhelmed by it. Honestly I can’t remember the last time I was so disappointed with a summer movie. Gaim’s wasn’t great but at least it was dumb enough to have some fun with.

eeyeaahh, it was entertaining enough but ... no big deal.

Maybe I was just glad to see a little bit more of Poppy. But it was pretty forgettable.

..the Ninja henchmen were sort of cool.

I'm at Episode 24 of Stronger now.

Mister Titan, who has been defeated and resurrected as the Thousand-Eyed Titan (I can't be the only one who thinks of Yu-Gi-Oh here, right?) is now dead again. So that's a bummer, one cool villain down.

But I must say, so far this show is kinda good. Not really good or anything, just decent. I like the characters and General Shadow is an awesome bad guy who really mixes things up, but the show itself is rather... generic. Even the batshit crazy monsters don't really surprise me anymore at this point.

Super-1's first half was more fun IMO. But unlike Super-1, Stronger is at least consistent... so far. I swear if they introduce another dumb Junior Rider Squad I'll quit Showa forever.

So I was rewatching episode 14 of Build when I noticed during the Best Match testing scene they used the Twin Breaker prop as seen here:http://i1152.photobucket.com/albums/...0prototype.png

It's pretty interesting see old(or in this case new) weapon and other item props used in different way like what we see with the Lupin Collection, and guessing what it originally was.

You’re about at the point where Stronger starts getting really good. The Delza Army arc is fantastic.

Finished Blade after struggling to get through the first episode on three separate occasions. The first half was a challenge. Lots of interesting stuff going on, but it needed to take more time to establish the characters. It wasn't until Garren was introduced I started to remember who the characters were, and they'd all had a character arc before then!

Second half was more engaging though also dragged a bit. Pretty much everything related to Garren was gold, and the ending was brilliant. But overall... could take or leave.

Also watched the first two episodes of Kamen Rider Black. Cool visual effects, and the setup was engaging, but think I prefer the semi-serialized, more lighthearted approach of the Neo-Heisei stuff overall (if only they had less CGI!).

You did not lie. I just finished episode 33 so I have a few Delza-episodes under my belt now, and I really enjoyed them.

I love how the best part of Black Satan (in my opinion at least), General Shadow, was re-introduced as part of the Delza Army who now leads the hunt on Stronger.

And the Delza Army itself is really fun; I dig the classic horror-theme of the generals as descendents of famous monsters like the Wolfman or the Frankenstein creature, upgraded with modern mechanics. They all have their own goons and they all would like to rule so they constantly screw each other over resulting in really entertaining situations.

So yeah, this is much better than the first half so far. They only sad thing is, and everyone who heard of Stronger probably knows this (I knew it beforehand too), Tackle is no longer with us. Shame, I really liked her. But she went out in a glorious way and knowing that the team behind Stronger planned to bring her back but couldn't because they didn't have the time is at least a tiny bit comforting.

The only thing I didn't like was how weak Black Satan ended. The "Great Leader" was a complete joke, his suit was terrible, and the episode where he and Stronger fought felt like there were chunks missing as they just jumped over certain stuff and left it unfinished.

Oh well, it was nice to watch regardless. So now I'm continuing on the path of Stronger, I have a few more episodes to watch but I'm looking forward to them.

Also, I spotted this really neat little thing: General Shadow plays and fights with cards all the time, that’s his gimmick. Guess which now worldwide famous video game company started out by selling those cards?

https://i.imgur.com/4lOlC5d.jpg

General Shadow for Super Smash Bros. on Switch! :lol

Yeah, there's no more Tackle at this point, but Stronger isn't going to be fighting on his own for long.

I've only watched a few early Stronger episodes, and I am tempted to get back in based on the remarks here, but the episodes I saw just felt a tad slow! It's possible it needed some time to pick-up, and the Delza Arc might have been that pick-up!

Why did the series end so quickly? Stronger aired along the same time as Goranger, and they lasted far longer than Stronger, which took Kamen Rider off the air until (New) Kamen Rider (a.k.a. Skyrider)!

Nintendo playing cards also make an appearance in JAKQ, by the way!

The early episodes of Stronger definitely drag a bit. I think the show gets good once General Shadow hits the scene as he mixes up both our heroes and the villains and is easily the best character of the show IMO.

And when Black Satan is defeated and the Delza Army shows up it gets really fun.

From what I could gather the mainstream appeal just wasn't there.

It's a shame that they couldn’t realize all their ideas as some which were scrapped sound really cool. Tackle's powered up form for example.

That's so cool. It's like stepping into a time machine - today Nintendo is a giant in video games and consoles but back then they still made most of their money with playing cards and toys.

Although when Stronger aired they had already made their first steps into the video game market. Still, I find this very fascinating, it so interesting to think about how the times have changed.

Finishing up Blade, only a couple more episodes (plus the movie) are left.

Mutsuki never grew on me. First Rider of any show I pretty much haven't been able to stand for basically the entire show. I don't even like his 'look' in rider form. He's kind of a chitty character all the way around. Not likable and doesn't look cool in rider form.

Blade looks pretty cool, I prefer his gold and black Jack/King forms to his base form. Chalice looks pretty cool too.

The show reminds me a lot of Ryuki, and Agito. It's not bad but I can't say I'm in any hurry to rewatch it ever again once it's over soon.

Where as stuff like the original '71 Kamen Rider, Agito, 'W', Build, Amazons, Faiz....maybe Ex-Aid ( I loved Poppy, wish she had an SHF figure), I'm already looking forward to watching them again.

Blade isn't terrible but it reminds me so much of Ryuki or Agito I'd kind of just rather watch Agito. I'm not sure what I dislike about it,..it's just kind of there....it's watchable but nothing jumps out as being a fantastic design, or great story, or great characters,..it's just kind of...there.

I thought you were making a joke about how suddenly Tachibana is quite good at fighting the goons but I wasn't ready for this... awesome.

That's one hell of a way to end a show! I won’t spoil it here because I didn’t know about it either and the reveal was really cool, so if anyone else doesn’t know don’t look it up, just wait and see!

Tobei Tachibana is such The Real MVP

..he deserves an SHF. On so many Rider shows, and without even being a Rider, yet he raised hands and would knuckle-dust with the best of them.

Kazuya Taki should've gotten some SHF love too. he threw down alongside the Rider for like 100 episodes,....no special powers either but he never ran from a fight.

Started rewatching Hibiki again this week. I really do love everything about this show.