That was the standard of mid-season power ups (and this was before first quarter power-ups were a thing). Tajador debuted in episode 20 too, and FangJoker came in I think episode 16.

Fourze 21-22

This arc is pretty memorable for a couple of reasons. The first of these is that it introduces the first new Horoscope, something which will stop being a huge detail when the show's pacing issues makes most of them ordinary monsters of the week near the end of the series. This one is a proper threat, though, and will be around for a good while to come. I remember not liking the guy very much, though, so I'm not exactly thrilled that I'm up to his arc.

The other memorable thing is the main guest star, Nao Nagasawa.Nao is, of course, one of the most prolific tokusatsu actresses of the 2000s and 2010s, having appeared in all of the major toku franchises - Sentai, Rider, Ultraman, and Garo - plus several other shows and movies. She's a talented martial artist in her own right and one of director Koichi Sakamoto's major muses. She joins the cast of Fourze as Gentaro's new homeroom teacher, his new martial arts trainer, and the first non-evil teacher to learn his secret identity. This is an important role, which is why she won't appear again until a cameo near the very end of the series and/or the summer movie, I forget. Still, she's predictably great here as the reluctant face-kicking teacher; I would have happily traded getting more of her instead of the obnoxious Cancer guy.

I did like how this episode tried to misdirect the viewer into thinking Nao was the monster. It didn't work as well on a rewatch, but there was some stuff with Virgo that makes way more sense if you know what her deal really is. This was a fun arc, overall, and probably one of the ones from this part of the show that I remembered most clearly.

Has Yuki gone crazy yet? We're definitely getting there. She showed up for her career counseling appointment with her shuttle hat and some plush satellites on her wrists. That is not normal. Still, that was only one scene and nothing else really pushed deep into crazy town. If anything, I thought it was pretty funny when she and Tomoko tried to spar with each other.

Just finished the episode of Kuuga with -that- scene. The one where he goes absolutely goddamn feral on a single Grongi.

And... damn.

I mean the setup isn't exactly uncommon. The hero sees the cost of their enemies' destruction in a way that hits closer to home than before and that causes them to be a lot more violent in their next battle. It's a pretty common trope, and in the things I've seen it in it's usually done well.

But something about this felt even more... holy heck. It was so violent and brutal. Maybe it's because of how Godai is of course usually portrayed as the loveliest kindest person; maybe it's because he didn't need to do half the shit he did to that Grongi, maybe it's the screams, maybe it's the contrast with the Kuuga mark written in blood; or just how this 2-parter in particular was extremely effective at creating a horror environment (yeah, aside this scene? God what a good 2-parter; that scene of the Grongi utilising psychological warfare on a family within their own home in particular is just terrifying). But something about this scene was... wow. Don't think I'll be forgetting this one any time soon.

Also in hindsight because I have a general idea of what Ultimate is and when it's used? Seeing a glimpse of it this early just made this scene even more scary.

I really loved how Kuuga (and many of the early Heisei shows up till Hibiki?) conveyed how genuinely terrifying monsters-of-the-week would be in real life. The Grongi are quite literally a race of serial killers, and having them have such a high body count really made them horrifying antagonists. I thought Faiz also did that whole atmosphere of terror really well whenever the Orphenochs showed up and that creepy Psycho-type music started playing.

Aside from Agito, the pre-Hibiki shows are the only Heisei Riders I haven't actually watched yet; funnily enough. But you've nailed something I do like about Kuuga's feel, yeah -- that terror of actual monsters running about in the city. My preference is for the insanity and silliness of seasons like OOO and Ex-Aid but I super appreciate how real Kuuga feels, despite being about an ancient karate bugman beating up rubber-suited monsters.

Agito definitely got that too, and I'm finding it interesting see how there are vague parallels between the two. Similar monsters; similar structure; similar police involvement - Ichijou would be a shoe-in for a G3 operator - similar worldviews and dispositions of the main heroes... though they do each handle it differently enough so as to not feel too repetitive.

I've got 10 episodes left of this series and I'm looking forward to them. With only just over a week until the official end of Heisei Rider, I'm glad to see it out with the one who started it off -- especially when it's this bloody good.

Ah, one of the best parts of Kuuga. I love that bit. I'm rather indifferent on Kuuga, not being grabbed by the hype since i found it to be rather uninteresting to watch. But watching him go ballistic on the porcupine grongi was genuinely good. Until then, I felt they always portrayed the grongi's kills as simply a statistic. Someone on the news will say "A mysterious creature has recently killed a hundred people" and that's that. But by showing the grongi taunting and haunting his next victims one by one, pushing Godai over the edge as he (And the audience) get to really see just how great the impact the Grongi has had, it was really quite the shining moment.

Well given that Zi-O’s finale has come and gone, I’m watching another finale tonight. Specifically, that of Black RX. It’s not bad, but personally, I think the penultimate episode of this show is a lot stronger (and I’m not just saying that because it had Hidekatsu Shibata in it).

I’m also about to move onto Kabuto’s finale. Will post about that if I can remember to do it.

Just finished Ryuki.

And... hoo boy I do not know what to feel. That sure was a ride. (And an actual ride, since the Survive forms actually give these guys bikes)

One major thing I want to note is that I loved the pacing and episode structure. Rider tends to stick strictly to a 2-part episode structure which, not gonna lie, after so much of it I'm starting to get a little sick of it; so it's nice to see that Ryuki while you could kiiind of argue some of the earlier episodes have a 2-part thing going for them, in reality the whole thing is a lot more fluid and serialised. Reminiscent of one of the good points Gaim had for me really, and it kept me very, very invested. It's one of the reasons I ended up finishing this in only a week; it's been a while since I finished a series that fast.

But as for what story that structure was serving? I... man, I have absolutely zero idea what to feel about it. For the most part it was what I liked about Kobayashi's writing -- extremely high stakes and lethal scenarios that despite which, hope is still present and will emerge. It's not like Rider doesn't do that outside of her - hell, I just finished Kuuga; and that's a phenomenal example - but something about the way she does it hits closer to home and feels more genuine.
But something felt off about this, and especially in the way the last 6 episodes resolved it all? It didn't... feel quite right.

Much like how I feel Toshiki Inoue wrote great stuff like Agito but then at some point just went off the rails and became absolutely goddamn weird to say the least - and, actually, having watched Ryuki? I feel I can pinpoint the exact moment that point was - this feels like the opposite for Kobayashi. That she hadn't yet gotten to the type of writing and moral & philosophical core to her work that I've come to associate with stuff like OOO, Den-O and Go-Busters. I get an almost similar feeling - god help me - to Movie War Core, where it feels like a rough draft of a masterwork.

I have just finished the final episode though and these are just my initial thoughts, so it's bound to change with time -- which I find is a common thread with Kobayashi's work as well; everything gets better with time and retrospect. But right now this is how I feel, and it's just odd to me.




Oh and I just realised that I completely forgot to say here that I finished Kuuga, right before Zi-O's last episode. In a nutshell it was f***ing incredible and easily makes my Top 5 Riders right now; Ex-Aid be damned. Everything I said before applies; they nail a unique vibe, they took great pride in "Kamen Rider's back! Hell yeah!", and the moral core to it is similar to exactly what I loved about stuff like OOO. Kuuga good. Kuuga really good. Godai thumbs up dot gif.

I feel the same way, I really like Kobayashi's work but Ryuki doesn't feel quite as polished as her later stuff with Den-O and OOO. I think there are a couple reasons, one is that Inoue actually wrote around 14 or so episodes of the show, so he actually wrote almost 30% of it. Kobayashi still wrote the majority, but his contribution is significant.

Beyond that, I also think the main thing that differentiates Ryuki from her later work is the personalities of the cast. Den-O and OOO both have casts of genuinely good people who are friends. Sure some of them are jerks but they ultimately mean well and care about each other (Even Ankh comes around in the end). Ryuki, in contrast, has a cast made up almost entirely of unlikable assholes or outright villains, most of whom do not get redeemed or have any real positive qualities. Ryuki has a much darker overall tone than her later works. A lot of her standard themes are still there, but like you said, Ryuki seems kind of "off" in comparison to her later stuff and I think it's a combination of the bleaker tone of the show and that she just hadn't hit her full potential quite yet. Personally I really enjoyed it and would like to see her return to something like that, but I think it does make it feel a bit odd compared to her later material.

Incidentally, I still haven't gotten over the fact that Inoue wrote the recent Ryuki miniseries and not Kobayashi. I would have loved to see her come back to Ryuki all these years later after solidifying her style and skill, and getting Inoue of all people instead hurts me deep in my soul. There were things about it I enjoyed, but it felt like so much missed potential. I still sometimes think about what it could have been had she returned to write it.

Just finished Ryuki's movie. ... The hell was that about?

... yeah, yeah basically. Agree with all of that

Zi-O ending made put me in a weirdly nostalgic mood so I felt compelled to start watching most of the big summer/fall movie from the last twenty years of Rider. I also felt like sharing some thoughts here as I did so but since a lot of these movies are fairly straightforward popcorn flicks, I don't see myself going too in-depth about any of them. I'd say posting here is more for the sake of myself trying to note down how I feel about them, as a minor writing exercise, and for fun. I won't even necessarily commit myself to watching or writing about all of them.

In fact, Project G4 feels like the quintessential example of what to expect from these movies. Introduce one new big threat at the beginning (that usually goes hand in hand with a new Rider), bring in some original side characters that are key to the conflict, then top it all off with a big action climax in the end.

Unsurprisingly, this movie was about G4 himself first and foremost, and by extension Hikawa and the rest of the G3 crew. The showdown between them kinda just happens because G4 decides to arbitrarily test his edgelord views again Hikawa's idealism, and the ensuing fight isn't even that great. I'd say Agito only got in on it due to Mana being abducted by the corrupt G4 crew but Shouchi's Unknown-sensing powers probably would have brought him into the action anyway.

Gills definitely felt the most tacked on. He was barely in it, it was only through coincidentally meeting the little psychic boy that he found his way to where the climax was happening, and he doesn't even exchange a single word with any of the other riders. I know he had to be in it since he's a main character, but they could have given him a little more to do outside of fighting.

Since I'm offering very summarised thoughts, I figure I might as well comment on Episode Final since Kurona also just saw it. I don't know how well this movie works as a standalone story about six riders fighting to the death, but it's entertaining enough? It's rather amusing Zolda was even in it at all considering he literally just chooses to stop being in the movie about halfway through.

Quite a bit of time is spent on Miho/Femme, which I get is kinda necessary since she's original to this movie, and she's alright as a character, but she's not that much more important in the long run than either Kitaoka or Asakura.

The story about Yui, mirror selves and the wish aren't too bad if you neither think too hard about it here or how it relates to the series, but I don't know if Yui taking her life in order to stop the battle would have more punch even if it wasn't wrapped up in this world's wonky rules. I bet if I had seen this around the time I first watched Ryuki, Yui taking her own life would have been the most shocking thing in the world to me.

Obviously what most people will remember is Ryuga. He's evil, really strong, and intimidating. That's probably all I ever have to say about nearly every single movie-exclusive Rider and/or villain. They don't even really play up anything about him being Shinji's mirror self or where he came from, but in a show about Riders fighting a mirror world, I guess it was an inevitable concept.

Ryuki and Ryuga's fistfight at the end of the movie is one of the most memorable climaxes to me though, and I'm willing to admit it's entirely due to nostalgia.

Still on my movie kick, though I probably will only bother posting about the ones I feel like I have a lot to say about. I mean, Paradise Lost has a cool premise, though the actual story is a bit weak. There were so many questions that kept popping into my head like... How did Takumi ended up living with a shoemaker's daughter, why did Kiba switched sides on a dime near the end, and why did Psyga only speak English? I'd be lying if I said I cared that much about those details though.

I sadly couldn't quite get into the final showdown between Takumi and Kiba because it didn't feel terrifically set-up, but I very much like associating the Orga suit as Kiba's one true Rider form, as opposed to him just using Kaixa like in the show.

Missing Ace should be another straightforward and fun popcorn flick, and I didn't even care about how it ignored the series' canon, but honestly I found myself kind of resenting the story's treatment of Amane.

They set up the rather understandable drama of her being upset over Hajime's 'disappearance', which I thought would lead to an emotional reunion. But when Chalice comes back, she's unconscious for the whole duration and wasn't even aware of it, and by the end of the movie, the rest of the cast just continue to hold back the truth about what happened to Hajime from her. It was incredibly unsatisfying and frustrating.

Side-note, the climax had an unintentionally funny moment to me. We have the three remaining riders all transforming side by side in a cool and dramatic shot, and the three of them fly up to face the big CGI monster. All of them are knocked back to the ground within a matter of seconds, so Blade just goes into King Form and handles the situation himself. It's like... were they trying to make Garren and Leangle look bad? It got a chuckle out of me.

I actually know this one: Psyga's actor is American. I'm not sure how fluent he is or isn't in Japanese, but the decision was apparently made that he should just use his native language.

Good to see you guys. Taking care of you is also part of my job.

What an odd decision, though it definitely gave an otherwise generic villain a very memorable quirk.

Hibiki and the Seven Senki or however you choose to translate the title is a great little samurai-inspired movie. I say 'little' because it really does feel like a simple folk-tale in tokusatsu form. There's a fairly straightforward story featuring a much of fairly simple but goodhearted characters. And for anyone who doesn't like the second half of Hibiki (which is most people) and chooses to ignore it, this movie is a much better origin for Armed Hibiki. Honestly not much to say because it's just a cute little film with that awesome Hibiki aesthetic.

I then watched the polar opposite movie in terms of tone, scale and aesthetics with God Speed Love. I had remembered not being too impressed with it, but I don't know why because I really liked it this time. It's very much everything I remember and enjoy about Kabuto distilled into an hour.

Everything is wrapped up in a larger-than-life sci-fi plot and every single character in it is over-the-top and melodramatic in one way or another. It's stupid and I love it. Even Caucasus in his limited screen time makes sure not to lose to anyone else in terms of overselling themselves with the big white outfit, exaggerated posing, and scattering rose petals everywhere.

Also while the twist at the end about how it correlates to the TV series didn't necessarily do anything for me, I thought it was a cute move of the writers that I'm sure would have blown my mind had I watched it as a child.

I feel the best way to watch Hibiki, really, is to watch the first 29 episodes and then end with the movie. Unlike the last 20 episodes, that movie is one of three good things Inoue has written and it makes for a great bookend to the series.

It's been years since I watched any Kamen Rider show, but I still buy SHFs from time to time, I lurk here still quite a lot, and this is one of the main threads I keep up on. Reading people enjoying and or analyzing the shows they're watching has had me missing watching something, so I finally decided it was time to rewatch a series.

My oldest daughter and I had been watching Fourze and she was liking it a lot, but life got in the way and we took a break and like 3-4 years later now I asked her if she wanted to pick it up again. It's been long enough that we both thought we'd have to start over to remember what was going on (we were about halfway through), but I convinced her we should start with Double (and then we'll watch OOO, and Fourze, and then maybe Den-O), as that was my intro to the franchise, and still remains one of my favorite shows, Shotaro in particular being one of my favorite characters in all fiction. And wow, that was a good choice, because she loves this show, I think as much as I do.

She loves Philip. She finds him funny, and neat that he kinda knows everything, and cute. She's really into the show and tried to steal some of my Double figures (but since I sold all the old SHFs, all I have now are SS Skull, Accel, Joker, and Fang Joker, so I can keep track of them easily enough).

She likes the camp of the show, I'm hoping she enjoys the heart it has too, that's what drew me in. It's been fun to rewatch and to share it with her.

I personally regard W, OOO, Fourze as the 'golden period' of Rider. It's a fantastic compromise between the early Heiseis and current shows in terms of both vibe and how much toys are being promoted -- and, well, they're just bloody good shows. OOO will always be my favourite and Fourze easily slips into my top 5, and they all feel connected in a nice vague way that becomes especially rewarding with the OOO/Fourze movie.

In my opinion, Kamen Rider had never been that consistently good before, and it never would be again -- which is fine, because it's a VERY high standard to live up to. Hope you enjoy :)

Oh, I do enjoy. All the shows I mentioned I have seen before. But they'll be new for my daughter, and it will be fun to watch them with her. she has similar tastes in movies and tv shows to me.

So I know the next of the movies in this line-up I've set up for myself would be I'm Born, but to be honest I didn't really feel like it. There are so many movies featuring the Den-O cast and I figured since I'm watching these for my own nostalgia's sake, I'd pick one that has a little more resonance with me, so I instead decided to watch Farewell Kamen Rider Den-O: The Final Countdown! The last appearance of Ryotaro (as I know him) and the first appearance of New Den-O, Kotaro.

Now, I can't really claim Final Countdown is this super special movie compared to I'm Born. They're both fairly standard Rider movies featuring a never-before-seen threat showing up that are then promptly dealt with by the end. Shiro does have a more interesting backstory and motivation compared to the likes of Gaoh, though not by much.

The big draw of the movie is naturally just seeing the Denliner crew be themselves, alongside following the shiny new, um, New Den-O. Kotaro's arc in this movie is a very standard thing, but I found it perfectly satisfying for his character growth in just a few scenes. We don't learn anything about Teddy but I guess that's because they knew he was going to be in more movies ahead of time.

The big action pieces are maybe a little less bombastic than these movies usually offer, but they're still plenty of fun. Seeing absolutely everyone transform like some big sentai reunion was great and I didn't care at all whether it made sense or not. The whole film might not necessarily feel like the big Den-O finale it claims to be, but the satisfying story alongside the themes of moving on and trusting in the future make it a fine send-off nonetheless. ...Not that this actually was the end of Den-O but whatever.

Much like Kabuto's movie, King of Hell's Castle distills a lot of what I remember about Kiva into a one-hour package. It's just that I have a lot less affection towards these characters, and also a lot of what I remember includes 'shockingly easy-access time travel', 'Megumi and Yuri getting sidelined', and 'melodrama that is not nearly as effective as it thinks it is'.

But! It also included plenty of showing off Kiva's unique and awesome style in terms of visuals, sound and action. That Mummy Legendora is wonderfully creepy, and our two(!) movie exclusive Riders are each novel in their own way.

Speaking of Rey though, his whole subplot (if you can call it that) with Nago isn't just under-developed, it's barely there. Normally I just let that thing slide because these movies are all about introducing one-off ideas that are dealt with before the movie ends, but this one felt particularly egregious in how it's talked about in one short scene and then never touched on again even up until the end where they fight.

The climax is CGI nonsense of the highest caliber. Kiva turns into a bird made of PS2 graphics, flies through the city to play Starfox with Arc, and then combines with Castle Doran to turn into a gigantic flaming Kiva to do a rider kick. I don't even know if I'd describe any of it as objectively good, but I don't think I'm going to forget it anytime soon.

There's something about New Den-O that I just... love so much. Looking beyond even his design - which to me, beats out even Sword Form to get into my top 5 Rider designs - there's things about his character and the way he's the Den-Liner crew's legacy that really endear me to him. I love too that it's intentionally vague what time period he's from, and the way he learns his lessons isn't in a "future kids are too arrogant, they need to go back to the old way" rubbish. There's not a massive amount of character to him, but I guess like Zi-O's future riders; there's so much about him that makes me want to see MORE of him. It helps that after this he became a staple of the Den-Liner crew in their movies, even including Den-O X OOO; and he feels right at home.




King of Hell's Castle gets points with me for having the one cool Kiva Rider. Kamen Rider Arc has a sleek, effective design; is inexplicity a giant; and his belt's henshin sound is "go to hell" accompanied by the face of it flying off. Part of me wants to beg for a Seihou of him but I know that I'd be inevitably disappointed by his size. I think he also almost killed Otoya, because damn, as if I didn't like Arc enough.

Also why on earth is Rey based on a polar bear of all things, that's always confused the hell out of me

Movie riders don't have a lot of screen-time to make an impression, but it's no surprise Arc stands out. Also his belt's voice is really goofy instead of the kind of deep evil voice you'd expect, which is an extra reason to love him.

Also I'm fairly certain that since all of Kiva and his forms are based on various monsters, then Rey in turn has to be based on the Abominable Snowman/a Yeti. That's conjecture on my part but I'd honestly be shocked if that wasn't the intention.

It reminds me of an Igor sort of relationship. The dignified evil mastermind and his snivelling assistant. Probably appropriate with the Horror theme

Decided out of the blue to rewatch the Drive movie today. It's a little better than I remember, though it might help that it's now been a while since I watched Drive - I believe it was my 5th or 6th Rider I finished, damn - so it's naturally got a bit of 'nostalgia' attached to it that it didn't on my first run. A bit like the series, it doesn't reach my top tier; but it's still very solid and has a great emotional core.

So the thing about Kamen Rider Decade is that I treat it and all it's related media as something akin to high-budget fan-fiction featuring any and all cool scenes the writers can come up that all revolve around a bunch of OCs visiting past characters. I absolutely do not consider that an insult by the way, but I also do not consider it at all inaccurate. All Riders Vs Dai-Shocker is pretty much more of that.

The story is very weak, and Tsukasa's character arc where he does bad things and then gets wrecked for it feels simultaneously like too much but also not delved-into enough. Somebody just thought that scenes like Tsukasa sitting on Shocker's throne, or him crying in the rain would be really cool, and you know what? I agree. I should have questions regarding his backstory, or why Shadow Moon is his butler, but it's Decade and I just rolled with it. That's not me excusing the weak plot though, I'm just personally saying that I was already conditioned not to mind going in. I was here for fun and dumb action scenes, and that's what I got.

There have since then been a lot of movies where they just bring all the Rider suits they have lying around for fanservice and then include them all for one giant mindless climax. As the first of these type of movies, I thought it was alright. I hardly felt the 'Riders never die!' message was warranted here, but it didn't feel utterly soulless like some later taisen movies would.

This movie is also the first time we have the Rider from the next series making an appearance! Though to be honest, no matter how much I might enjoy the cameos themselves, there's no denying that these scenes started out very intrusive and became slightly less so as time went on. Still, W getting to beat on Shadow Moon is cute when I remember that Shotaro's actor being a fan of Black as a kid.

I don't want to make it sound like I think the story and character stuff was a complete write-off in this film though. I do like Tsukasa's evil ploy and following moment of crisis, and the stuff with his little sister was sweet. It's just nothing that blew me away or made me see the character in a new light.

Anyhow, it's finally Neo-Heisei time with W Forever: A to Z / The Gaia Memories of Fate. I had it in my mind that it was just a 'standard' Rider movie, but I clearly forgot a lot more than I realised because wow did I love this one!

There is such a big upgrade from the show budget effects to the big screen, it's incredible. I have to imagine the only reason it's more obvious with this movie than other recent ones is simultaneously because the show budgets are higher than ten years ago, and because the recent movies are more prone to using CGI. Either way, all the action in this movie is top-notch. That bike chase early on might be my favourite Rider Riding action ever?

The story was plenty decent too. I remember I used to think how Philip believing Maria might be his mother was an odd plot point, like... why not just ask if you're not sure? But when they play it more as him seeing his mother in her since he's never had a family, I came around to it much easier. And his big moment in the end where he declares the difference between NEVER and him is great.

Speaking of NEVER, Eternal is an edgelord and admittedly isn't that much deeper than your typical movie villain, but I'm not surprise he became a favourite of many. He and his T2-using Dopant henchman are just very strikingly cool, on top of him being very quotable.

I consider Kamen Rider Joker to be the first big movie Rider form among the 'regular' Summer/Fall movies (no, I'm not counting Xtreme with gold down the middle)... Well, unless we're counting Rising Kuuga Ultimate, but I'm not gonna. Anyway, it's funny how when you have a Rider that's all about being two different halves, that just having one component makes it feel very novel. Plus, while Philip is having big emotional scenes, Shotaro gets to be a hero on his own to save his partner. Good stuff.

I loved the little cameos from the various side-characters and also one-off victim-of-the-weeks too. I didn't recognise all of them, but the fact that I recognised any of them probably goes to show just how much still that this show left an impression on me.

I don't have much more to say than that it's just a really solid, really decent, and really good-looking movie. I have a feeling that's probably going to be the gist of what I have to say about most if not all the moves going forward though.

https://scontent-lhr3-1.xx.fbcdn.net...c8&oe=5DFCCB80
Blade episode something or other - the lov story between a kid and his magic teleporting spider belt continues, much to my amusement. Also, a knock off Stronger has arrived for Tachibana to have a plot with.

Been watching some Final Stages. Ex-Aid's was fun, though not much else. First one I watched so it was definitely some sort of experience. Not bad though, missed the characters so that was also good. They definitely put Kuroto to good use

Then I watched Gaim, it definitely existed.

Just got done watching Build's though, and man, that was great. There's a lot of redundancy and sillyness to it, which was about expected, but it also felt like it tried to be a proper, serious compliment to the final story. I actually think it helps bridge the transition to the new world extremely well. The V-cinema already messed with all of that already, to be fair, but if it hadn't then this FS would definitely have helped assuage a few qualms I had with it. I don't even know if it was actually written by Muto or anything, it's definitely not watertight canon-compatible, but it really felt true to the characters and was a pretty nice farewell.

Also, it's funny as hell. I don't know if it's just because I haven't really watched the Build cast in so long, but they just work so well together and the gags just land. Every character gets the chance to just be fun and funny and good, it's great.

Do you know where I can watch them?

The ones for Gaim, Ex-Aid and Build can be found on Nyaa and probably other torrenting sites. There’s some other Final Stages that seem to be up there but nine of them have subs and don’t appear to have anyone seeding them either...

The Drive one should also be available somewhere, subbed I think, but I don’t know the source.

Been going through the whole series alongside a friend of mine for the past year or so now. We're currently on OOO and so far, I've been having fun with it. Right now we just finished episode 15. So far my favorite entry in the series has been Kuuga.

Does gaim get better as the series goes on? I have watched 2 episodes so far and whilst I like it I don’t think it’s amazing like most people say it is

Yeah, just stick with it. Things consistently and rapidly build up in that show. In my personal experience, the first couple of eps was kinda unconvincing, then it got enjoyable once Kouta grows into his role a Rider, then I really got into it after the first game-changing turn comes (*you'd know it when you see it; I'd say it's about ep 10-ish or so).

It's not a flawless show, mind, so tamper the expectation a bit. But I can say that when it's good, it's really good.

I think that gaim is ok. I don't worship it like the weebs do. Westerners like gaim a lot and the japan audience puts at the middle of the pack for favorite KR series.

Finished Kamen Rider W a few days ago and I am really impressed by it.Loved the characters,and the plot.Very fun to watch too.This is my first entry into watching Kamen Rider.
I had it on hold for a while as I was currently running through Kyuranger then Lupat.
So I thought after so much Sentai to go and continue with KR ,so glad I went back and continued watching it.

Currently watching Kamen Rider Build (up to episode 28) which I’m totally eating up(So good!)with Kamen Rider Zero One on the side.

Currently KR Zero-One

and I'm trying to finish up Showa Amazon and then I want to watch Black and Black RX

Okay so I'm now about 30 episodes into OOOs and I gotta ask; Why is Date popular? From what I can tell the show is trying to portray him as this smooth, cool, older dude. But to me he just more comes across as an uncaring douchebag, and the advice he gives is often times terrible(atleast if the subs are to be believed). I really can't stand this guy whenever he's on screen.

Maybe it’s his attitude towards earning his paycheck at all costs that's putting you off? If that’s the case wait until you find out what he wants all that cash for.

Other than that - he's not a douche at all. He's just a nice guy and I really like how he cares for Goto.

He's laid back and affable. There's no real rivalry with Eiji and when you expect some sort of rivalry with Gotou instead Date mentors and nurtures him. He's got an admirable background and he's cool under pressure like when the rubble fell on his old friend and he needed to keep her stable. And it's always nice to see a grownass man rather than the usual teen boys as a Rider.

Also, he's Guts. So that's fun.

Just got done watching the OOOs summer movie, and boy, it sure is a good thing it's not canon otherwise I'd have SO many questions.

Ah-haha, ah...