Am I the only one who wants to see ghost redone in a way darker tone? Like, with an actual plot and everything? Hes a goddamn zombie ghost demon thing, why the hell did we get such a piece of crap when we had all the right stuff for a terrifying and awesome rider! I personally would have liked to see him stay entirely silent in combat and move like genm zombie gamer, with the fighting style of black hazard. Teleport behind mooks, snap necks,repeat.

I can't wait to see the Amazons movie. I've been really excited about that since I first heard it was being made.

(also agree on HalloweeN!)

Close to Episode 30 on Kiva now, still enjoying it. Don’t get me wrong, it has its flaws which become more and more obvious when you think about it, but I don’t mind really.

Unlike Faiz where the entire cast, save for like two people, continuously rubbed me the wrong way it's the exact opposite with Kiva, I like all of these guys.

It was especially weird seeing the actress of Mari from Faiz returning, I did not recognize her at first. But hey, look who can be a likable character if the actress isn’t forced to play an annoying brat.

I've been trying to get through Phase 1 of Heisei and whew lad.

I started back in June? With Kuuga and fuck me I loved it, I couldn't stop watching it and I just absolutely loved the direction of the show. It was great seeing what was the start of the show most of us watch on a weekly basis.

I then started Agito and while it didn't grip me AS much as Kuuga, I was able to see the beginnings of what would become Heisei Kamen Rider. It took me a good two months to finally finish Agito and only the 2nd Half made me go "Oh shit this is really good".

I'm currently sitting on Ryuki and untill two days ago I was stuck on Episode 18 for like 2 months. I for some reason can't get myself to watch more of Ryuki, It's not like I dislike the show but it's just, weird. I dunno, currently on episode 25 and I hope it gets better.

I stopped watching Kabuto in episode 25 or so and went to Kiva which seems to be more interesting.

Still binging Kiva. I like this dual timeline story. And I love Megumi. She's hot.

Started watching Kamen Rider Amazon and I'm already up to episode 5. I'm also trying to remember where I left off from watching Kamen Rider Black a couple of years ago since I'm considering getting back to it at some point.

I've been slammed with work lately and am still trying to finish Den-O. I'm down to just a few episodes left but I'm having a hard time getting around to it.

I really like Momotaros as a character, but for the most part the show never really grabbed me. I liked Hana a lot and was hoping they'd do something cool with her, and then she left the show.

Finished Kiva. I went into it with critically low expectations, as I knew Inoue was the head writer and I think Inoue is by far the worst writer to ever work on this franchise. Maybe it’s partially because my expectations were so low, but I was quite surprised at how much I actually ended up enjoying Kiva. It still had a multitude of problems common with Inoue’s work, but in this case I think the positives outweighed the negatives enough that I was able to enjoy it much more than I expected to.

The most important factor that drove my enjoyment of the show was how likable most of the cast was. This was a pretty big shock to me because Inoue’s character writing usually results in a large portion of the cast being mean, petty, and generally awful people. For the most part that wasn’t the case at all here, the characters in Kiva are genuinely good people and have positive, healthy relationships and aren’t constantly at each other’s throats or trying to stab each other in the back (Mostly). The only one I really didn’t like for much of the show was Nago, who I found insufferably annoying for the first half or two thirds of the show. It was really frustrating to me that Shima put so much confidence in him to be Ixa when Nago demonstrated repeatedly that he was completely unfit for it. He was an unhinged, self-absorbed, violent nut job who was the last kind of person who should ever be given that kind of power and responsibility. I was so glad to see though that this was actually addressed and he was eventually called out for his increasingly erratic and dangerous behavior and this led to his realization of how wrong he’d been and furthers his growth as a character. It was kind of weird how he basically became a sort of joke comic relief character after that but it was definitely better than what he was before.

As for Wataru himself, I didn’t like him at all at first because in the beginning he was just kind of an inept, hapless idiot who had as much personality as cardboard. Once the show started really moving the story along though and gave him real development, my opinion changed pretty quickly. While it takes a while to get there, once his half-human/half-Fangire nature is revealed I think that’s when his material gets really good. I really like how he ends up rejecting both the human and Fangire philosophies of trying to wipe the other out and insists on their ability to co-exist, as he grows increasingly confident in himself and his abilities thanks to the influences of his friends and, towards the end, his father after he travels to the past and meets Otoya. I loved how his big fight with Taiga culminates not with him beating Taiga into submission, but running up to him and hugging him to the point it takes away Taiga’s will to fight. It was so perfectly in character for who Wataru was by that point in the story and was an excellent example of how much he genuinely cares about just wanting both sides to stop fighting and live together peacefully. I thought Wataru’s characterization across the show as a whole was really great and he ultimately ranks among my favorite lead Riders in the franchise.

I have a lot to say about so many other characters, but I can’t fit it all and keep this at least a somewhat reasonable length. But I do want to highlight briefly that Otoya was another character I particularly enjoyed and I think a large part of that is due to Takeda Kouhei’s performance. Otoya was the kind of character who, while charming, could also end up really grating and awful. Takeda played him just right to that specific point where Otoya often is annoying, but in the kind of way that you can’t help but like him because you can sense that he’s a really genuinely good person underneath his outwardly-obnoxious personality. Takeda really deserves a lot of credit for pulling that off so well.

As much as the great cast enhanced my enjoyment of the show, it was certainly not without its flaws. In fact I’d actually say that it’s one of the more flawed series I’ve seen, and it’s a testament to the strength of the cast that they managed to still make the show work. The biggest problem I have is one of Inoue’s most glaring problems in his writing, blatant sexism. I know Kamen Rider is typically seen as a “boy’s show” and that the male characters will get more focus and development, I get that. But Inoue’s writing often goes far beyond that and he treats his female characters quite poorly. They rarely get any agency of their own and are little more than tools to assist in the development of the male characters (Best example of this in Kiva is Mio, who dies just to facilitate growth in Taiga. It feels cheap and unnecessary.) There was also no legitimate in-story reason for either Megumi or Yuri not getting to be Ixa more than they did. In fact of all the candidates for Ixa in both 2008 and 1986 they were actually the best and most qualified, and seeing them relegated to support roles when they were better candidates than the guys who actually got Ixa was really frustrating. The other problem with the show is that so many things are left unexplained. How did Kivat-bat the 3rd and Wataru connect? What even are the Kivat-bats? Where the hell did Tatsulot come from in the middle of the show and why was he not around earlier? What exactly is Kiva, because it explains Dark Kiva is the power of the Fangire King but regular Kiva is never explained. The Fangire clearly recognize Kiva early on and fear its power, but there’s never even an attempt to explain what this second Kiva power possessed by Wataru is.

Despite the problems, I still enjoyed Kiva much more than I anticipated I would. It has a great set of characters, awesome suit designs, good music, a great lead Rider, and splitting the show into two time periods was a unique and interesting concept I liked a lot. The show’s problems are all common issues with Inoue’s writing (Poor treatment of women even compared to KR’s usual standards, messy plot that doesn’t explain things, has no sense of physical space as characters seemingly teleport to wherever they need to be at any given time). It makes me wonder how much better it actually could have been with a better writer, because I feel like Kiva had even more potential than it fully lived up to. While it was still a fun and really enjoyable show, I just think with some tweaks and writing changes it could have been truly great. As it is it will definitely end up as one of the better Rider shows I’ve seen, but falls short of standing at the top of my favorites among the ones like Build, Gaim, and Blade.

Yes. Great thoughts, and I think they largely explain why I love the show so much, despite its many flaws.
thank you.

I think Kiva is more well received in Japan than those in english speaking countries and Gaim is the opposite.

Finished Den-O and the first two Den-O movies.

Guess I'll move onto Kiva next, and Decade. Then I'm done with the Kuuga -> Decade era.

Kiva has a pretty interesting looking costume so hopefully it's pretty cool.

Sort of tempted to maybe take a Rider break and watch some Sentai though.

Decisions, decisions.

I too finished Kiva, today in fact, and my sentiments are rather similar to ShyGuys: I am actually baffled by how much I enjoyed this show.

In fact, the only negative thing I can say about it is that it wasn't better. Because it could've been, easily. They had all of this lore available with those different monster races, eons of unexplored legends, so many mysteries to tell us about - and they didn't do anything with that setup.

I still have no idea what a Kivat is, where Castle Doran comes form, why it sometimes eats Fangire souls and sometimes not, how monsters have actually managed to stay hidden among humans - and that's just the basics.

Don’t get me wrong, this post isn't meant to criticize Kiva. I love this show. The characters are great, the story is worthwhile, and the constant juggle of two different time periods with a great cast of characters and stories for each is so unique and fun.

I didn’t hate anything about Kiva, maybe it was my low expectations after having witnessed Faiz (bleh) but Kiva just kept going and going and I couldn’t stop watching. They didn’t introduce a single character I didn't like, not one story was boring and let's not even get started on the suits. Because they are simply drop-dead gorgeous, among the best in the entire franchise. And the action can support them too, that's probably the best part.

It's just - you have all of that, but you could’ve had more. It may be simply because at the end of the day this was a show for Japanese children to advertise toys, they couldn’t go any further, but if there ever was the need for a spin-off to flesh out the world of a Rider even more, Kiva definitely needs it. A tale of a past King or something, maybe the "Dracula" of the Kiva universe, just to make use of the lore.

That's just me complaining though, at the end of the day Kiva really is an all-around fun show which I happened to enjoy quite a lot. I could find more problems if I wanted to dig deeper, but my entertainment of it was so overwhelming that I don’t feel like doing that. I didn’t expect to say this like ever, but Kiva is probably among the most entertaining Rider-shows I’ve seen. Not the best per se, but very enjoyable to watch. I’d definitely recommend it to people who don’t know if they should give it a try or not.

Man, I don't think I've ever seen this much love for Kiva all at once. It's actually really refreshing.

I have to give special props to Kiwami, though. I was almost certain Kiva would drive you insane by the end, so I'm sincerely happy you had a good time with it.

This is also one of the best summations of Kiva I've ever heard. For as much as I make fun of it, I have to admit Kiva was honestly some of the most fun I've ever had watching a Rider series. Despite all the holes you can poke in it (and there are a LOT of holes you can poke in it), I do think in a lot of ways it's more than the sum of its parts.

I'm almost finished Decade and it's turned out far, far more enjoyable than I thought it'd be. Only negatives really are Kuuga being pointless and Diend's summons being confusing in what they actually are. Otherwise I'm having a great time and I've even greatly enjoyed arcs other people have said they don't like, like the Faiz arc being a high school AU.
Den-O was probably the weakest arc so far, but I watched its movie right after that and was surprised how much I loved it so that's made up for it. And Momotaros' appearance in the Hibiki arc was... just wonderful.

I dropped in to say the exact same thing. As someone who has had to incessantly defend my love for Kiva over the years, I feel somewhat vindicated. :lol

After 3rd in to faiz high school notice could easily well be what original president of smart brain wanted to do due to old grade school female lead attended

I finally finished Den-O. To give you an idea of when I started, remember the Let's Watch Wednesdays? Yeah, then. I've been stuck on episode 40ish for the last two years, but tonight I bombed through the last 8 or so. And you know what? They were good. Very good. I'm annoyed I didn't get around to it sooner, because the pay-off of the plot is really well done. It's not entirely clear what goes down, but the show sells it as dramatic, and considering the strong point of Den-O always was the emotional core, that's good enough for me. I don't think it's my favourite series ever, but it knew how to do emotional slice-of-life stuff balanced with an overarching plot pretty well, and I'll love it for that. I can now see why it's a fan favourite.

Now, to put off Climax Deka for years.

Climax Deka is absolutely worth putting off for years.

Oof, I'd heard it was bad, but you make it sound dire. Which almost makes me want to see it... more...

But I'd also like to see something Showa, considering I haven't yet watched anything pre-ZX at all. Or Black/Black-RX, unless you count the MMPR episodes with Masked Rider in them. Kinda wanna check out Super-1, or maybe X. Are either of those considered 'good', or should I try and power through from Ichigou?

Heck, Climax Deka is so worth putting off for years that even having watched it, I remember so little that I still feel like I never watched it. :lol

It's so utterly inconsequential (to the point where it can't even fit in-continuity) that you're better off just skipping straight to putting off Final Countdown for years. Or just watching it. That one's actually pretty solid, is my point.

I been watching faiz my god why have not watched I have loved it also faiz been my fave suit design maybe due to the shark theme motifs it went with.

It's not awful, it's just very much what Fish Sandwich said: inconsequential. The best thing I can say for it is that it has an amusing guest appearance by Wataru that was clearly written by someone who only watched the first couple episodes of Kiva.

If you want to try Showa, I'd absolutely recommend Black. It's an incredibly good show and the suits and special effects hold up far better than anything earlier. If you want to dip your toe into the Showa era, Black is very accessible. Just don't watch it in a dark room if you have any kind of photosensitivity issues.

X is also really good, but the last 7 episodes or so aren't subbed yet. As for Super-1... I'm just not a big fan of the Skyrider/Super-1 era.

Cool, thanks for the recommendations! I'm gonna check out some of X, and watch it slowly to try and let the subs catch up, and maybe check out Black if I do go too fast.

I just finished watching Agito and the last 15 episodes or so were really great. Too bad they moved too slowly for over half a season. Mana chan looks so much better grown up as Naomi chan on den-o.

I have to start Kiva soon,...(been tempted to watch a Sentai though.)

What, are you on some toku-watching deadline? Though with Kiva's split-timeline stuff, you could start as early or as late as you wish, and it'd probably be fitting.

Finished Decade last night. It was interesting going into this one because it seems to have a very divisive reputation, seems like people either love it or hate it. Having now watched it myself, unfortunately I have to say I’m definitely not one of the people who loved it. There was almost nothing I liked about this show. Between the messy, nonsensical plot and overall poor character development, the best thing I can say about Decade is that I was really glad I only had to sit through 31 episodes of this one instead of the 45-48 of most other Rider shows.

My problems with Decade begin with the story, which at no point makes any kind of real sense or explains even the most basic facets of itself. Decade’s status as the Destroyer of Worlds is obviously a major plot point, but why is he considered that, where does that status even come from? There’s no indication whatsoever of why he’s this supposed world destroyer, and why do all these worlds even know who he is? Where is all of this coming from? Somehow Tsukasa also knows everything about many of the worlds they visit, but how does he know this stuff? And most of all, who the hell is Narutaki? He is one of the most perplexing and inexplicable characters I have ever seen, nothing about his existence makes any sense at all and goes absolutely nowhere. I figured surely it was building up to some big thing with him, but it just didn’t. You could actually remove him from the show entirely and almost nothing at all would change. These are just a few of the enormous amount of questions I have about the show. I’m perfectly fine with a show not answering everything and leaving stuff to interpretation, but that’s not what’s happening with Decade. It completely neglects crucial information to the story for no reason other than disastrously bad writing. And then of course there’s the “ending” if you want to call it that. It makes the Faiz ending look good in comparison, and that’s saying a lot. Decade doesn’t even have a real ending, it just abruptly stops right in the middle of a storyline and that’s it. From my understanding it eventually gets some semblance of a real ending in the movie with W later, but it really shouldn’t come to that. The lack of a cohesive conclusion is an extremely glaring and significant flaw.

The characters don’t really fare any better than the plot. Most of the cast is flat, get virtually no development, and are almost entirely superfluous to the story. Natsumi is fine, and gets some decent material towards the end, which is more than almost anyone else gets. Yusuke is relevant for his story arc and becomes almost completely pointless after that for the remainder of the show. Once Kaito shows up (Completely out of nowhere) his whole treasure shtick gets old fast since it comprises his entire personality until he finally gets some much-needed development in his little arc, so he ends up definitely as the best of the supporting cast. Although I did find it absolutely hilarious how the thematic conclusion of his character development literally ends with “the real treasure was the friends we made along the way.”

Overall the only character I found interesting was Tsukasa himself. At first he seems like another incarnation of Tendou, overly perfect and arrogant. And while he definitely has those traits, I found him much more likable than Tendou because he managed to pull this off in an endearing way and it was amusing the way the other characters would react with such exasperation towards his clear arrogance. He even gets some pretty good development near the end with the stuff about his flamboyant personality and attitude being a mask to cover his loneliness at not having his own world, and how Natsumi tries to help him learn that his friends can be his world to return to. I liked that stuff a lot but it comes way too late in the story and isn’t fully fleshed out, it’s like they had the right idea but couldn’t fully execute it.

I feel like a lot of the problems with the show are because the story doesn’t exist to function on its own, it’s there just as a basic framework to facilitate what is intended to be the real draw of Decade, the fact that it’s a tribute to the previous shows that came before it. The big problem here is that it doesn’t even do that very well. The AR worlds are a bizarre concept that completely fell flat for me. If the past Riders are just going to be alternate versions of the ones we knew before and the worlds themselves don’t even always strongly resemble the ones each respective Rider is from, what’s the point? It just feels like empty fan service where the show is saying “hey look all the suits and sound effects from the previous shows are back isn’t this cool” but without the characters and settings that made those memorable in the first place, it loses all of its impact and feels like some weird knockoff. I understand that it can be very difficult to get previous actors back, and I certainly wouldn’t hold the show to such a high standard and expect that. But Zi-O so far has managed to pull off using the “real” Riders and their worlds while not getting every actor back, and while Zi-O isn’t perfect or anything, it’s already a vastly superior tribute than Decade.

Going into it I really wanted to like Decade because I really like the general idea and theme, but it was just such a mess of a show I couldn’t really enjoy it at all. Tsukasa is a fun protagonist but he alone can’t support what is a mostly-bland cast. The plot had potential in theory with the concept of Decade traveling through previous Riders’ worlds, but since they’re not even the real Riders we came to know over so many past episodes, it ends up as just a shallow imitation of the real thing. In the end I think Decade is almost tied with Faiz for my least favorite Rider show I’ve seen, but I’ll give it the edge over Faiz because it had at least one character I liked and I only had to sit through 31 episodes. While I still have several Heisei shows left, I feel quite confident already stating that Decade is likely to end up in my bottom 3.

Climax Deka: ... Wow. I've seen bad Kamen Rider films before, but this was a bad I haven't experienced outside of the SHT films. So many unanswered questions. So little plot. Such useless villains. It hurts me. And why are they policemen all of a sudden?

Hey, we tried to warn you. :lol

I'm still asking myself that question.

I only have to watch Kiva and Decade to be finished with the Kuuga->Decade time period.

Out of the big 3 (showa, heisei, neo-heisei) periods of Kamen Rider this is the one that's close to being finished.

So much Toku, so little time. hahahaha

Oh man, I forgot about the cop angle. That movie was so weird.

Finished W, which was a rewatch as W was actually the first Rider show I watched in full. Gaim was what got me into KR in the first place but as it was ongoing at the time, I decided to try another one with it that I could watch in full, and chose W. I thought it was great at the time, and it really solidified my interest in Kamen Rider. I was excited to rewatch it to see if I still felt the same years later, and I’m happy to say I did. In fact I think I actually liked it even more a second time.

One of the things that stands out most about W when starting it is that it’s a very structured show, going with the common two-episode arc setup. A show like this lives or dies on the strength of its characters, because an episode structure like that can get very old very fast if it doesn’t have the characters to carry it. Thankfully, W’s cast is the biggest highlight of the show.
The leads all have great chemistry, and really sell the relationship between Shotaro and Phillip. Having a Rider who’s two people could have easily led to a lack of development for each because of trying to cram in so much for two characters, but that didn’t happen here. Both Shotaro and Phillip each get great development and depth. I think Phillip gets quite a bit more overall, considering how much of the story ends up revolving around him, while Shotaro doesn’t actually get that much in comparison. We never actually learn much about him despite his status as a lead, such as where he came from, why he wanted to be a detective, or any of that. His personal history, background, and deeper motives are never really explored. Despite that, he’s a fantastic character and his ridiculous personality, genuine heart and concern for his clients, and dedication to protecting Fuuto as W make him an excellent lead. A huge part of that is Kiriyama Renn’s performance, I can’t say enough good things about it. Easily one of the best lead performances in a Rider series and I think my personal favorite.

Most of the other characters are great too, I like Ryu a lot as a secondary Rider and his very serious attitude is a fun contrast to the complete absurdity of the personalities that make up Narumi Detective Agency. I remember in my first watch of W Akiko annoyed me quite a bit, but I found her much less bothersome this time and enjoyed her for the most part. Not sure why I felt differently this time, but maybe it’s just because of my greater appreciation of the show as a whole now.

One of the other great things about W is the tightness and cohesiveness of the writing. It’s easy to take something like that for granted, but I really appreciate it after so many of the earlier Heisei shows noticeably lacked it (Especially anything written by Inoue). The characters remain consistently characterized throughout, the overall story never really stumbles or falls into awkward plot holes, and it feels like there’s a real sense of space and location. That last point is kind of a small thing, but one that bothers me regularly in a lot of other Rider shows. For example characters will be interacting in a city, transform and jump off screen, and suddenly they’re fighting in the middle of a forest. Or they’ll be in the middle of a fight, suddenly stop for no reason, and go right back to talking about how to beat the villain they were fighting literal seconds ago. This kind of thing was fairly common in earlier Heisei, but W does away with it almost entirely. The transitions into and out of fights flow much more naturally and the locations have a sense of believable continuity, it doesn’t feel as much like they’re constantly teleporting to random set pieces. Maybe I’m just super nitpicky about that kind of thing but I really appreciated how W did such a good job of that overall.

The only real point of weakness in the show to me is the villains, for the most part. The Sonozaki family were just never that compelling to me as characters, especially Ryubee. He’s just kind of a generic, standard villain without much real depth. I know they start giving him some background and motives near the end, but it came too late and too little to salvage my lack of interest in him. Wakana and Saeko are better, but Wakana is inconsistently characterized throughout and it gets kind of jarring. The only villain I ever really significantly enjoyed was Isaka, mostly because Dan Tomoyuki was so good at playing him as an unnerving and weird creep.

Some minor disappointment in the villains though is really the only complaint I have about W, I really enjoyed pretty much everything about this show. The cast is a lot of fun, with one of my favorite main Riders in the series. The story is constructed well and manages to maintain both the regular 2-episode arcs and a more overarching, greater overall story without compromising either. And the overall look and feel of the show is great as well, the W suit is one of my favorites and the noir-themed style and soundtrack worked really well and give it a unique tone among Rider shows. I don’t think W quite reaches some of the emotional depth and thematic heights that some of the other shows do, such as Build or Gaim, but something about it just really clicked with me and I think it will always have a place among my favorites.

Just got done doing a full rewatch of Wizard a bit ago, finally making good on something I said I was going to do like a couple years ago at this point. I still absolutely love this show to bits no matter what anyone says. It's just so much dang fun.

I won't try and summarize my entire feelings on the series, but one thing that constantly jumped out at me going back to one of the post-W, pre-Gaim "strictly formula" type shows was how nice it was to see the heroes directly protecting people. Sure, if a guy like Build doesn't stop whatever doomsday plot the villains have in motion, everyone is screwed, but part of the fun of superheroes to me is seeing them rescue civilians from danger, and Wizard and Beast are ALL ABOUT rescuing civilians. Haruto is constantly, and I mean, f***ing constantly making dramatic entrances just in the nick of time to help someone being attacked by Phantoms, and my boy Kousuke (who I've realized might secretly be the coolest secondary Rider ever) is no slouch on that front either. I mean, look at how much these crazy guys came into a scene kicking a monster in the face before they even transform!

https://i.imgur.com/tIF0qPY.png

I'm not even sure that's every single time, either! It sounds sort of stupid to say, but simple stuff like this really resonates with me on a level that more grandiose plot developments often don't, and I think that might be the secret to how Wizard became my favorite Rider show (until Ghost showed up). It just kind of makes me happy, you know? Sometimes that's all I need.

I started DLing W, to rewatch it, hopefully with my 10 or 12 year old daughter, whichever I can interest in it. Haven't watched anything Kamen Rider in years now.

X Episode 2 - In which Keisuke's dad is a dick. Also, G.O.D communicates by chicken-mail. Plot was pretty good, some nice despair from Keisuke, but his dad blowing himself up because he thinks it'll make Keisuke tougher? Dick move.

I love that his dad spent probably a ton of time and money building that underwater base to help Keisuke, only to immediately make it self-destruct when Keisuke asked it for help.

It's certainly a power move, I'm glad he had so much faith in his son to never ask him for help after everything that happened to him.

I'm starting from the beginning of the Heisei era riders and watching them all. Kuuga was first and....oh boy was it different than any modern day Rider.

Very simple Henshin. No driver noises to really say. The rampant amount of pure murder in the show is incredible. Not even children are safe. Quiet dark compared to Giam and Up that I've seen.

I kinda liked it. But the main problem was the fights. The format was too predictable. One episode the UIL start killing. Kuuga gets a fight in and loses. The next episode he gets the knowledge or power to beat it. Does so. Rinse and repeat.

That and the changing forms was too simplified. Just...oh...now he's green. Oh...purple. It was almost like the belt was useless. Overall I just didn't care for kuuga. It was still interesting but really now that exciting. And don't get me started on the Grongi language. That really didn't help with the story and I still can't figure out why they had to kill thousands of people. Other than to start ultimate darkness. Even the final bad guy fight was incredibly disappointing. It ended with a fist fight. It's almost like they ran out of money half way through. No wonder Godais actor hates tokusatsu. I would too if that was my experience.

I guess the last thing is from a technical standpoint. I felt the camera didn't have the right filter. It was too handheld quality. It didn't have that professional movie/TV show esque look. And for whatever reason their sound equipment and running water sounds like terrible digital feedback. Almost like a matrix like screen numbers kind of noise if that makes sense.

Currently in the middle of Agito and I already like it better. Fights seem better worked out and the picture filter is already better. I do like that it's a connected universe to Kuuga.