Other than Zero One, I'm finally sitting down to watch Fourze! I wasn't super into it whenever it first aired, but I'm having a blast right now! Preordering the SIC figure was definitely an incentive to watch it too. lol

On the final stretch of OOO now, and I gotta say, in regards to the Date reveal, too little too late. At nearly 40 episodes of having to deal with how obnoxious he comes across to me, they dragged his motivation out way too long for me to care.

I didn't like how that point in the story was handled either, because given his past behavior, him turning over to the Greeed in exchange for money made total sense, so them going back on it at the last second was dumb. And not to mention now I can't even cite his training Goto as a good point since it was revealed he only ever associated with the guy because he was paid to.

So overall, no, I don't like Date. And infact he's probably my most disliked character in the whole show.

Love almost all of the other characters in the show though, so it's got that going for it.

Halfway through Decade. Yeah, this is kinda awful, but there are some amusing bits and Tsukasa is at least a pretty fun protag. The Den-O portion is easily the best of the alternate story arcs thus far, despite (or because?) the fact I haven't seen the original show. Lowlights included child Kiva, the Rider battle in Ryuki as court trial system (???), Blade's world as some sort of half-baked commentary on corporate world, glasses guy who acts like a Scooby Doo villain, discount Kuuga, etc.

Also 4 episodes into Faiz, and I like this. I like this a lot. There's just a sense of real desperation and terror in the Heisei's first phase shows that I miss, and like Kuuga and Ryuki, Faiz totally has that in spades. That text convo between Keitaro and Yuka, and the gym massacre scene.... damn. It's not like the show's completely devoid of light-hearted moments too, and the Takumi-Mari banter works more effectively for me than the typical in-your-face humor with obnoxious sound effects from newer Rider shows.

On the downside, the fight/action scenes are completely uninspiring so far (well tbf I watched this straight after the latest episode of Zero One), but overall I dig this whole depressing/tragic vibe the show has. Hope it wouldn't pull its punches down the road.

Currently watching Kuuga.So far seen the first eight episodes.
I am finding it quite interesting certainly different from the more modern KR I’ve seen so far.


Also seen today :
Kamen Rider W Forever: A to Z/The Gaia Memories of Fate- Massively enjoyed this.
Kamen Rider Build Final Stage- Nice bit of fun.

At the moment my favourite Kamen Rider(s) I’ve watched would be Kamen Rider W and Build joint in first place,followed by Fourze(the last one I watched.) then OOOs.

Generally like all the series I’ve watched so far .Just found the plot and characters in W and Build the most engaging and interesting. With Fourze just liked the energy of the show and characters .OOOs liked it but just did not find it quite as interesting for some reason.

I'm 2 episodes into Faiz, and... well, obviously it's only two episodes so I don't want to judge too quickly; but I can't remember the last time a Rider show left me this extraordinarily bored. I'm having such a hard time being interested in anything or liking any of the characters.

I do want to finish off the Heisei era, though; so I'll attempt to open my eyez for the next faiz. I just hope something happens soon.

Alright, I think I have some kind of problem at this point, because I've started rewatching Double and Faiz together. Why those two shows, you ask? Well, there's no particular gimmick this time. No secret connection to Zero-One or something arbitrary like that. Look, not even I'm crazy enough to watch the most fun and the least fun Rider shows together on purpose. But both are shows I watched extremely early on after getting into Rider, and I went through both of them so fast I can barely remember huge stretches of each.

In Double's case I also wanted to see how much better it is than I remember (and no, that's not an "if"), because it's probably the only series out there that stands a legitimate chance of making me question my assertion that OOO is simply head and shoulders above everything else.

For Faiz... look, I just really like Faiz, okay? I'm sorry, but it's always been my favorite Inoue show (sorry!), and now that it's been like 8 years and I'm no longer totally at the mercy of TV-Nihon's decrepit subtitles, it's been one I've always wanted to get back around to. This show left a huge impression on me, and while I'm totally prepared to eat my words if it turns out it's really as horrible as we all believe (and that one IS an "if"!), I have a good feeling about this.

So basically, just like the last time this happened, I had more than one thing I wanted to watch, and ultimately decided not to decide at all. Which in this case means absurd tonal whiplash. Seriously, do not try this at home, kids! I'm still doing the two episodes at a time shtick, but if I try to go all out and write huge posts for every set of episodes, I'm convinced I actually will go crazy this time. So I'm taking this more casually. I'll still be popping in here to say stuff, but I'm not even going to attempt to be comprehensive. If I can't remember half the stuff that happens, it's going to be super hard to talk about all the episodes in the grander context of the series, so I don't think I'm in a position to be very insightful. Maybe one day I'll do some proper sequel to the Kobayashi-thon by like, comparing all three of Inoue's shows or something (which sounds both fun, and horrifying), but right now this is more like some low-budget spin-off. Who knows, I might even skip talking about some episodes completely if I feel like it.

Faiz 1-2:

To set the tone, I'm barely even going to touch on the actual episodes for this one. Especially when the preamble went that long. So real quick:

- The atmosphere is great
- I forgot there was an attempted suicide in only the second episode. Geez.
- Takumi and Mari have great chemistry
- Man, do I love Justifaiz!

What I'm more concerned about at the moment is how completely terrible TV-N's subs for Faiz are. Please tell me someone else has done this show by now. It really deserves so much better than this. Inoue's dialogue is actually fairly sharp and punchy, but you'd never know it from the stiff, frequently mistranslated lines I somehow used to put up with. I think the highlight so far is Mari asking Takumi if she can ask him a question, and Takumi's response being "It'll need an answer, right?". You see, what he actually said was "that depends on the question". It's a curt, avoidant little line that informs the viewer a fair bit about the kind of person Takumi is, but if you make the mistake of trusting TV-Nihon, you're left with an exchange that I'm not even sure makes sense. If anything, I think what they have him say means pretty much the exact opposite of what it's supposed to.

W 1-2:

This is a really strong set of episodes that tells you pretty much everything the series is going to be about in a succinct manner, from the tone that can effortlessly switch between silly and serious, and other important things to get across right away, like the partner dynamic between Shoutarou and Philip. It's let down a fair bit in my opinion by a climax that probably looked a lot better as a script, with some special effects that aren't quite up to the job, and what might be my least favorite Rider monster ever? The T-Rex Dopant is just way too stupid looking for one of your debut monsters, and turning into a bad CG robot (?) doesn't help anything. I think this even legitimately got in the way of me enjoying the episode a bit back when I first tackled this show. Less so now, but it still seems like an odd choice. I think they're just going for deliberate, camp fun, but suffice it to say, when I think shows written by Riku Sanjou with dinosaurs, Double isn't what comes to mind.

Also, since this is something I definitely would've never noticed back in the day, I have to appreciate that Ren Kiriyama and Masaki Suda are specifically credited together. Like they both get top billing, because it's Double? Kiriyama's is even on the left while Suda's is on the right! That's attention to detail, right there.

A group called Agony released Faiz at some point last year. I'm not 100% sure on whether it's just a scrub or a full resub, so I don't know how it compares to TVN, but it's an option.

It's kinda wild that I started Faiz at basically the same time as two other people here; and I feel pretty bad that I seem to be the only one with not much positive to say!

Though... since my negative feelings haven't changed (I still find it very dull and find it pretty difficult to like any of the characters; Takumi and Mari's dynamic especially being very grating), I might as well go into what I do like? Because now I'm 8 episodes in, there's been a lot more positives since Episode 2.

- Justifaiz is pretty nice. I had heard it a lot before, but it still stands

- I really like that even beyond the much more computerised belt voice that sounds more like an onboard computer, how the belt is treated in general feels a lot more realistic. Neither it nor any of the gear is summoned out of thin-air, and there's multiple scenes where Takumi has to just fight barefisted until Mari or Keitarou can retrieve and chuck him the belt. I still LIKE Riders summoning their shit out of thin air, but this is still a nice change of pace especially when three preceding Riders all magic'd their belts on.

- Talking of Keitarou, he's nice and I like him, but I'm definitely getting Kagami (Kabuto)/Onodera (Decade) vibes from him. As in, he's very much set up as the stereotype of the Nice Boy rider and shown as very naive compared to our unconventional bitter arsehole rider. And despite me liking Decade, that's never a thing I like a lot. I never like one of the things I love most about the franchise being framed cynically. That said, yeah, Keitarou is nice and I like him.

- And while I'm on this train of characters I like, man; they really tried to please me since Episode 2. Our little Orphenoch trio has proven far more interesting to me with extremely different points of view and very sympathetic backstories for each. I can never quite tell what direction they're gonna take next despite sticking their feet in the mud, and I honestly found myself pretty surprised that Horseman just went and killed... uh... Gas Mask dude? It's honestly hard to tell which animals each Orphenoch is based on outside of the aforementioned Horseman. Still, it's nice that I've found characters to be invested in!

- Man, I was on such a huge Transformers kick before I got into Toku full-time like 2 years ago; I forgot just how much I missed having a robot that turns into a vehicle. Auto Vajin is great and I'm trying not to get too excited for an explanation on its pseudo-sentience and acting on its own because this is Inoue, and, uh. Inoue. But he's a bike that turns into a robot dude! He's basically the secondary rider! Screw Kaixa, we've got Groove/Arcee/Lugnutz/Prowl/Other Transformers Bike Name!


Still, I wish it'd tone down the pretentiousness and grandstanding about dreams juuuust a little. Episodes 7 and 8 in particular went on for way too long about that.

Faiz 3-4:

I really love the initial road trip section of Faiz. It's neat to get Rider away from the same big city environments for a bit, and it actually serves something of a narrative purpose by keeping the two main groups of protagonists very clearly separated before the show is ready to have them start interacting. I don't know, it's cool. I joked that this is the least fun Rider show before, but there's a certain charm to it when it clicks with you that actually does make it really enjoyable, despite being so aggressively macabre. I get the feeling from Faiz that after Ryuki kicked the door open with regards to how much Kamen Rider could change things up, this is the show that just went for broke. If nothing else, it's hard to accuse Faiz of playing it safe. Not only is the main protagonist introduced in a ~misunderstanding~ that makes it look like he's the bad guy for a second (and yes, the ~misunderstandings~ start in the very first episode), it takes him what would've been a month in real-time to even remotely commit to being involved in the plot, and that's only after we already had a second Faiz. In the fourth episode! We'll see how much this holds water later on, but it's that sense of wild creativity that draws me to this show.

Speaking of which, episode 3 has one of the more inexplicably memorable moments of the series to me. It's the first time Faiz uses his gun. Obviously it's gotta be some epic moment, right? Probably a really dramatic shot where we see him looking down the barrel, all determined and cool.

https://i.imgur.com/p2NFXea.jpg

Oooooorrrr he could just be chilling on the ground taking a little break after the monster knocks him down. See? Inoue's "whatever" approach to writing Faiz has its upsides!

W 3-4:

Holy crap this show knows what it's doing. This two-parter is solid gold. Even a decade later, this show still feels like a breath of fresh air in a way little else can compete with. Double has this insanely strong idea of what it wants to be, and it gets right to it. There's no waste to be found here. The central plot is a perfectly genre-appropriate shady casino mystery that does its job of further developing the main characters, effortlessly getting Philip directly in on the action during the climax, just so you know he won't only be sitting in one of two rooms the entire series, and everything around it is no less amazing. Something I wouldn't have appreciated when I first watched it is the gradual build to Nazca's reveal. It's this neat progression of the ongoing bad guy subplot where we see a few brief glimpses of him, generating some intrigue until we finally see the full suit at a particularly dramatic moment that amazingly doesn't involve a fight scene. I guess Double is just too clever for that.

Also, the Money Dopant is awesome. I don't know if monster commentary is going to become a recurring thing, but considering I dissed T-Rex last time, I feel like I should at least give some props to a villain that's more my speed. The design is a perfect blend of weird and cool, being neither as silly as T-Rex or as generic as the Magma Dopant, and as a character he's got a fun personality and a suitably scummy scheme to get you wanting to see him taken down a peg. 10/10 stuff right here:

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

Thanks for the heads up! For what I've skimmed through, they have noticeably cleaned up some of the more wooden lines, but it pretty clearly is just a scrub, because all the mistranslations, including the exact one I was complaining about, are still there. And also the episode previews aren't translated at all?

Honestly, I'm appreciating all over again how amazing it is that Excite! went and did such a nice job with Blade out of nowhere. I hope Faiz (and Den-O!) can get the same treatment some day.

Actually, in my case it's not that wild, because the knowledge that you and Kamen Rider Die were both liable to get around it soon was one of the things that gave me the push to give myself this refresher. I want to be able to actually talk about Faiz, and that's hard to do when so much of it is a blur to me.

Definitely don't feel bad about not liking Faiz, either! I'm pretty sure that's the "normal" reaction to being exposed to this level of Inoue. :lol

Now, you're actually farther ahead than me right now, and I just said I barely remember this show, but I believe Auto-Vajin's entire shtick is that it's specifically programmed to protect Mari. Hence why Takkun's always getting caught in the crossfire and all that. It just doesn't care about anything else.

I don't think this is something ever explicitly addressed in the show, but they do specifically show him activating for the first time in episode 4 by reacting to something Mari says, so there's a fairly clear implication.

For me? Damn, I'm gaining a name round here!

The best aspect of Faiz was the writer very obviously wanted a gay relationship in the show and Toei not letting him(Yuuji and Takumi).

I wrote a post yesterday, but then it got tagged for "a review by moderator" and never actually appeared (the third time it happened since I joined the forum :o). Too lengthy/spoiler-y I suppose? I'll just keep it shorter and simpler then...

Decade 16-17: Kabuto’s world. Not bad, not exactly that great or memorable either. I found that I can enjoy Decade better when I take each story arc as your typical ‘KR Mystery/Drama of the week’, and just forget about the overarching plotline and whether the world-building in each parallel world makes sense or not (they never do).

Faiz 5-6: Love the char development here, and how Takumi gradually opens up to both Mari and Keitaro. I can tell that I’m likely going to enjoy the camaraderie between these three for the rest of the show. The Orpnoch trio has also been shaping up nicely, and I like how the show dedicate just as much screen time to them as the protags. The action scene is still nothing to write home about, but the Robobike scene at least is totally awesome and unexpected for me.

I agree about what Fish Sandwich said about the atmosphere and chemistry. Too bad about the subs, tho. Faiz really did a lot in the early episodes, more than most other KR shows, if we’re talking character set-up and meaningful plot advancement. It’s very noticeably character-driven to a fault though, and lacks the flash + fun factor of modern Rider series, so I can totally see why it’s not going to be a lot of fans’ cup of tea.

Re-watching Hibiki as of the moment. I'm at episode 28, one episode away from the infamous staff change. When I first watched Hibiki I wasn't aware of the change so I thought that the second half was how it was supposed to be. So I never had a problem with the latter part of Hibiki unlike most people in this forum. Though I did hate Kiriya. Now I wonder if I'll feel differently about it knowing of the change that took place behind the scenes.

And speaking of Hibiki, I got to give credit to the actor and actress playing the douji and hime. They make sure to make each douji/hime pair as unique as possible. From acting a little goofy to being dead serious they played their parts well.

You don't have to watch the back 19 again. No one will think less of you.

Just finished Episode 13; surprised at just how long the Kaixa introduction took.

The main takeaway I have is that Takumi, in the middle of a fairly normal conversation, just out of nowhere said "Well, take care you don't get kicked by a horse and die". It was just-- so extremely raw for no reason and I kinda love it.

... nothing else of note. My favourite Riders so far are Auto Vajin and Horse Orphenoch.

Faiz 5-6:

I don't think I have a whole lot to mention about these ones, even though I quite enjoyed them. My main takeaway was that I'm impressed to find out Keitarou is a way better character than I remember. Watching the show again, it's blowing my mind a little how much it actually isn't treating him like a joke the way I always remembered it. There have been several notable instances just in the four episodes he's been in so far where he genuinely gets through to Takumi, and managing that even once would be no small feat.

Speaking of good ol' Takkun, I'm still really, really in love with the dynamic he and Mari have. They're both huge jerks, and somewhat distressingly unscrupulous, and you couldn't ask for a better display of both than the scene in 6 where Takumi lays out his plan to mug Yuuji for an ID badge to get into Smart Brain, singling him out as a target because he "looks weak", followed by Mari eagerly agreeing with Takumi's assessment, much to his surprise. They're trying to break into his car in their next scene, of course.

I mean... wow. Look, I don't know how clearly I can describe this, because it's sort of a complex feeling, but, uh, how do I put it? I like Takkun and Mari, and I like that they're jerks, but I don't like them because they're jerks? Does that get it across at all? If this was how they behaved 24/7 this show would be unbearable, but they've both got layers beyond that, and the show keeps them sympathetic by being sure to also constantly demonstrate, in ways both subtle and obvious, that they're actually pretty good-natured people in spite of all this. Again, it's complex.

Besides, they needed that ID card! It's right in the theme song! The end justifaid the means, people!

Also, these subs are just miserable. I try not to bang on about this stuff too much, but the name Agony is turning out to be appropriate considering how heartbreaking it is to still see so many mistakes left in, and then this gem, where a series-critical scene of Takumi opening up about his biggest fear has him contradicting himself a couple lines apart in a way so obvious simply from context you shouldn't need to know Japanese to figure out what's wrong:

https://i.imgur.com/cRrP0vg.jpg

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

What's important to note is that TV-Nihon actually didn't mess that first line up, so I'm baffled how this could've even happened. I feel like I'm going insane. I'm trying to keep track of all these errors, which are piling up at an alarming rate, going back and forth between two different sub groups, and there's just no hope in sight. I'm not even sure what I'm trying to prove here. I don't want to oversell it and say Faiz is secretly some superbly written work of genius underneath all this, but I swear, it's not this dumb.

W 5-6:

Thankfully, a little Double is more than enough to brighten my mood back up. I don't have a lot to say about this set of episodes, either, though. It's good, but after the last arc was firing on all cylinders the way it was, this one can't help but feel slightly less entertaining. Of course, this is Double, so "less entertaining" still means "hugely entertaining".

One general observation I have is that I like the way Shoutarou gets to use the Memory Gadgets to do cool detective stuff. Giving him those opportunities to earn some action hero street cred without transforming helps sell the genre tone the show is going for. Any fictional private investigator worth their salt needs to be able to get out of some tight spots, and Shoutarou proves he can do that without reaching for his belt right away.

But the thing is I remember liking the Shuki arc.:confused:

Faiz 7-8:

These episodes form what I'd consider the ending to the first "arc" of the show, more or less, and are some of my favorites from the whole series. Going back to it, it's nice to find out how well they hold up. This is an extremely strong story with boatloads of development for several of the main characters, a ton of examination of the show's central themes, and that artsy climax where Faiz and Yuuji are fighting their respective opponents to the soft sound of classical guitar music. You just can't go wrong here.

I can't stress enough just how strong the characterization is, though. There's a ton of little plotlines all perfectly intertwining with one another to maximum dramatic effect. It's mostly centered on Kaidou, since he's the new guy, and the arc he has here, where he gradually starts to get over his trauma after bonding with a student at the university he used to go, culminating in him throwing away his guitar at the end, freed of his "curse", is just aces. A+ material from Inoue and a shining example of why melodrama isn't inherently a bad thing. The other half of the story is about Mari trying to work towards her dream of becoming a beautician, and while it's not remarkable the way Kaidou's plot is, it's still pretty good and serves to further humanize her quite a bit.

The part that elevates these episodes even more is that both of these threads are also used to further develop Takumi and Yuuji. Both of them cement the kind of characters they're going to be here, with Yuuji doing some meditation on what it really means to be a monster, and Takumi starting to find some purpose in life. I'm all over this kind of parallel storytelling, and I especially love the way the central message about dreams is handled. The rather cynical Takkun learns to be a little more idealistic after hearing Mari talk about what it's like to have that kind of passion, and the generally quite idealistic Yuuji, after Kaidou frames pretty much the same thought in a much more negative light, has some of his optimism crushed by the end.

Great stuff all around. Unlike the subs for this show. Yeah, on second thought, I'm going to keep complaining about this, because every pair of episodes gives me like at least seven glaring mistakes to choose from. I want people to get an idea of how bad this situation truly is. I'll compromise a bit and try to only mention one per post. Hopefully you can all stand to indulge me.

ということで~、ファイズ翻訳ミスコーナーです～！今日の翻訳ミスはこれだ！

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

「今ではあのベルトを狙うことは禁止されているんですよ。」

This mistake, originally made by TV-Nihon and imported into Agony's scrub almost entirely unchanged, is a fabulous example of a surprisingly standard translation error. The "accidentally backwards statement". Just like the line I complained about last time, the translator either misheard some words, or made some mistaken assumptions about what was being said. It was established right at the start of episode 5 when the gang got to Tokyo that Smart Brain isn't currently going after the Faiz Gear, and Smart Lady is reminding an Orphenoch targeting Mari of this fact. I assume the confusion was a result of the Orphenoch in question completely ignoring this reminder, but regardless of the reason, botching this makes it sound like the bad guys are up to something they currently aren't.

W 7-8:

Nothing like an utterly inconsequential, kind of dumb arc of Double to wind down with. Well, I say inconsequential, but this is the point where we find out the Sonozaki family is so scummy, even their pet cat is on drugs. Beyond that though, it's a deliberately rather goofy story courtesy of Naruhisa Arakawa, our first guest writer for this show, and to be honest, I actually really dig this arc's style. It's having so much fun with itself that I can't even care if none of the main characters learn anything or grow at all. Er, well, I guess Philip learned how to breakdance. That's something, right? Not as well as Ryoutarou in Den-O, but still.

^Just got to those episodes myself. So good; I eat this kind of character drama right up. The contrast between Mari finally breaking through and Kaido letting go (man that guitar drop scene damn near made me tear up) is absolutely beautiful, emphasized further by the common thread that their respective friends are sticking up for them.

Also, in-between all the melodrama, there's some transforming and monster-fighting going, I suppose.

By the way, I appreciate the sub explanation and definitely wouldn't mind some kind of bullet points for the biggest translation mistakes and what they're actually supposed to mean.

I will say, one little detail I like about Faiz is that the Orphenoch trio aren't really distinct from any of the other Orphenoch. Like, usually when there's some sort of larger group and the characters you're focusing on in that group are some sort of break away from the others; there's some sort of visual cue -- as a good example; Ryuki, Knight and Zolda are supposed to be the main Ryuki riders, so they have coloured undersuits compared to the usual black.

But the Orphenoch trio here could very easily be normal monsters of the week, and I super appreciate that. It makes me way more able to buy into them as not really being special or unique from the others in any way but their personalities.

I don't know whether to be shocked or not that the Side Basshar got even less of an explanation and origin than Ixa's dragon mech thing. I bet it's going to turn up about as much as that too.

Can I just say also I like Kaixa's design? Shoulderpads make just about any Rider design better by default, but I love how intimidating the whole thing looks; capped off by the "angry eyebrows". Works pretty well for this character being a completely awful person.

The Kaixa suit is legit one of my favorite Rider designs. It’s a pity that it’s wasted on such a terrible character.

One more thing I like about Faiz: I mock how often Inoue does it, but I like the belt-juggling in this a lot -- mostly because, generally, it happens exclusively with the monsters. There's this real unstated sense of fear that, if Takumi gets defeated; any of the Orphenoch could grab his belt and become basically unstoppable.

... a sense of fear kind of offset by how easily Takumi beat one of the Lucky Clover. Like... man, maybe Kuuga spoiled me with just how terrifyingly powerful some of the Grongi could be; but I really feel like J shouldn't have been defeated so easily? They're literally built up as the strongest Orphenoch by a long shot, and yet he came off as little more than a slightly stronger Monster of the Week. It really doesn't help that he has multiple lives when they're dealt with so easily, everyone's literally just "oh, you again?"

Maybe the point is that the Riders are supposed to be an unstoppable force among the Orphenoch, but then what's the point in the Lucky Clover in the first place? Where are the stakes here if Takumi can just Rider Kick them into oblivion right after defeating another one??

So. At Episode 23; here's a few more thoughts I wanna throw out there:--

- Man, the Side Basshar was not alone in the Classic Inoue Move™ of just not explaining new toys, huh? Not only do we have any clue where Kaixa got the Axel Timer, no-one questions it. Awesome.

- I'm so glad the pizza guy got to live

- Kusaka just keeps becoming worse and worse of a character. I just watched him degenerate completely into a possessive stalker bordering on incel who kills any guy his crush even looks at, which is before he even says he wants her as his mother. This series... this series really goes places, huh?

- Kaidou is like a less extreme version of Kusaka so I don't exactly enjoy him either anymore. Kinda wish he'd stop.

- Takumi and Kiba should just kiss already. Their chemistry is amazing; their in-suit fights are tragic, and that smile at each other when they team up against all odds before Takumi got the Axel Timer was just perfect. If there's ANYTHING I like in this series right now, it's these two and I'm super interested in where their dynamic goes.

- Auto Vajin is still the best Rider, but the best character by a long shot is Chaco

Faiz 9-10:

You know, I think episode 9 is the first time Faiz rides his bike, and it's not even Takumi in the suit. I tell you, this show could not care less about viewer expectations. Naturally these episodes are largely setup for the next series of plot threads, but even on their own there are still interesting things happening. We're up to our third Faiz already, obviously, but this time is more significant for a few reasons. Smart Brain is using him as a hitman to take out Orphenochs they don't like, which is a fascinating way to reframe what should still be "normal" behavior for a Rider, the guy with the belt is a major supporting character, and since this comes right after Takumi was starting to appreciate the good he could do as Faiz, the loss of the belt hits him pretty hard, making for good character development. Also, assuming the one playing Faiz is always Takaiwa, it never ceases to amaze me how much he can completely change his body language to fit different characters. He's very good at his job.

でも、そんなに上手じゃない人もいるから、ファイズ翻訳ミスコーナーです～！今日の翻訳ミスはこれだ！

https://i.imgur.com/b9Rb8tA.jpg

「お待ちしておりました。どうぞこちらへ。」

This isn't a mistake that's going to ruin the narrative or anything, but it's another great example of a sloppy translation resulting in a backwards line. After getting a call from Smart Brain, Mari heads there with Takumi for a meeting with the president, and is greeted by this woman. She says they've been waiting for her. "We've been expecting you" would probably be the most natural way to translate it. What seems to have happened here is that the translator, doing this all by ear, heard something about waiting, and jumped to conclusions without thinking about it too hard, despite the sentence in Japanese being fairly clear-cut. Because Mari and Takumi haven't been waiting at all. They got here about half a minute of screentime ago and were just walking down a hallway when this lady approached them. I don't want to nitpick "fluff" dialogue like this too hard, and maybe I should just be grateful these episodes didn't give me something big to pick apart, but minor or not, it's representative of a larger problem with Faiz's fansubs.

W 9-10:

You know, I probably should've mentioned this earlier, but it's surprising to me how much the actors for the main characters slipped into their roles right away. Usually in those first couple episodes of any show, you can tell at least a little that everyone is still getting a feel for things, but here it seems like everyone had a super strong grasp on who they were playing right from the first episode.

What makes me bring this up now is that this arc focuses heavily on Akiko, a character I remember be more obnoxious than this. Which is weird because she's been one of my favorite things about the show going back to it. Her interactions with Shoutarou really liven things up, and without her around, he wouldn't get to do the whole "comically angry" bit he's so good at.

On a side-note, I also can't help but love that Double was confident enough in itself to make an important scene of Kirihiko further establishing himself as Shoutarou's mirror image, upper class rival by talking about how much he loves Fuuto into a jokey exchange where he mistakes Shoutarou for a stalker, holds his lips shut, and ends up giving him his entire life story, rambling for so long that even after cutting away for almost a full minute, he's still banging on about it when it cuts back to them. Given how Kirihiko's arc develops, I guess there's a logic to showing a goofier side to him here, but it's still a bold choice all the same.

I've been watching a different tokusatsu episode of the 2010s each day seeing as the decade's almost over. I didn't bother with either Power Rangers Megaforce or Super Megaforce because safe to say I'm not a fan! Garo I haven't seen anything from Goldstorm Sho onwards so that'll be interesting.

EDIT:I've now noticed my post was mostly off-topic, sorry. :o

I've gotta say, I really dislike the Orphenoch designs in general. They're just big masses of grey that are difficult to tell apart or derive anything from -- I can hardly tell what animals most of them are based on! The only exceptions to this so far are Horse and Armadillo; but on the whole these are probably my least favourite monster designs in all of Toku.

Faiz 11-12:

This is a set of episodes that's pretty tough to talk about in isolation since they spend most of their time further introducing new wrinkles into the story rather than being a story on their own. I do enjoy the slow burn of the Kaixa Gear a fair bit. Again, one of Faiz's big strengths is its willingness to do things in really out-there, unique ways, and "Kaixa", despite being around for 2 episodes plus a cameo in 10, isn't even a character yet. It's just a belt that kills people who wear it. That's heavy, man. The show still made sure to give us some cool Kaixa action, so you'll still want the toys, obviously, but as an introduction for a new Rider, it's still pretty unusual even all these years later.

けど翻訳ミスは全然珍しくないから、ファイズ翻訳ミスコーナーです～！今日の翻訳ミスはこれだ！

https://i.imgur.com/SQx1kNl.jpg

「どこか思い切り楽しい場所に。」

Here we have a rather sullen Yuka hoping to cheer herself up a bit by asking Keitarou to take her someplace really fun. Unfortunately, the translator once again got caught up on a single word in the sentence, so the line has been twisted into a much different, more pretentious sounding request. I mean, maybe that amusement park they go to later had sentimental value to Keitarou, I don't know, but Yuka wasn't asking about that!

W 11-12:

I don't know if I'm going to note every time someone besides Riku Sanjou wrote an arc, since, unlike Den-O or something, it's not a particularly special occasion, but I do want to mention this is Keiichi Hasegawa's first crack at Double (out of like 10), specifically because I think it came together extremely well. The gimmick for the monster is creative, the way the initial discussion of idiots catching colds carries through all the way to the end is inspired, and Hasegawa holds the distinction of being the first person to put a dramatic twist on Double telling someone to count their sins, with it being said to someone you definitely wouldn't expect at first. Plus Akiko is sick the whole time and still does her job like a trooper, so now I'm even further convinced that she's actually one of the best characters in the show.

You know, back when I first watched Faiz, I would've been right there with you on this, but I've become extremely fond of the Orphenochs over time. I even came around to the uniform grey thing at some point.

Well, I ended up finishing Faiz.

... I don't have many positive thoughts. Think I'll leave it at "not a big fan" and move on, because a lot of that was just dull and uninteresting. I hope Fish's analyses will help me understand what people see in this series, because I'm having a hard time getting it.

Hoping Paradise Lost will be better; heard a lot of people say that that's essentially the good version.

Paradise Lost was... I'm not going to say fantastic, but it was certainly a lot better. Gets points for killing off Kusaka early.

It still has that same pessimistic and dour tone I disliked about Faiz in general, but there were a lot more uplifting moments and a stronger narrative as a whole. It also helps that due to only being 1 hour 30, there's not time for plot threads to linger on for a millenia and there's less room for ~misunderstandings~ and bad communication. Though the role of that last bit gets filled by really frustrating military rebel characters.

Still, uh, probably better than Ex-Aid True Ending? At least this one had Psyga

Have you watched the Hyper Battle Video for Faiz yet?

After suffering through the entire show you deserve to watch the single best Faiz-related media entry.

It helped me to regain some form of joy in my life after finishing Faiz.

If only I knew where to watch them. I still want to watch Ryuki vs. Agito!

Well, that was.

Phenomenal.

I really liked Faiz during its first and second acts, but the third act was really bad IMO. The biggest selling point being Yuuji; he's one of my favorite characters from the series period, although the way his character arc goes during the third act really made no sense to me.

That seems to be common for me with Inuoe's' works. With Agito I didn't like the first act, but the second and third I found rather enjoyable. And with Kiva, the start and end were good, but the middle act didn't do the series any favors IMO. Kinda funny how those all tuned out.

But, there's alot Faiz did for the series in general. Smart Brain being the basis for many Evil Orgs to come throughout the series(like the Kogami Foundation), the Belts outright talking during various actions(even though technically Ryuki did it first), but also, correct me if I'm wrong here, a straight up downer ending.

Is Faiz one of the best Kamen Rider series? Nah. But for the time it came out, it kept the trend of what many Phase 1 Heisei Era shows were trying to do; Something different. And even if someone ends up not liking it, I think it can be appreciated on that level at the very least.

Faiz 13-14:

You know, I think Takkun actually really likes Keitarou. I mean, seeing him mopey about not being able to help people back at the end of episode 4 was the spark that got him to become Faiz on a regular basis, first of all. But then he's going and saying his dream of cleaning the world sounds nice, and all this other stuff. Heck, he's even apologized to Keitarou before. An apology! From Takumi! And now when trying to one-up Kusaka with his ironing skills, he's paraphrasing Keitarou's line about people who don't know how to iron being no good, almost like he took it to heart. Something to think about.

...

Oh, right, how could I forget the big first appearance in these episodes?! That's right, episode 14 is the very first time in Faiz that Inoue used his patented "toss em' in a river" trope for letting bad guys "win" against the hero without having to explain why they didn't go for the kill. Also, that Kusaka guy I mentioned showed up? I don't totally know what his deal is yet, but he seems like a great guy. I'll admit it's suspicious that Keitarou seemed to summon menacing thunder just by saying his name, and Takumi hates his guts, but come on, Kusaka's very first line in the whole series was an apology to him! He's just jealous because Kusaka's got it all. The opposite of Takumi in every way. He's polite, athletic, cleanly, and most of all, trustworthy. He even carries around a picture of Mari from when they were in elementary school in his wallet at all times, so you know he values his friends, too!

今のは茶番でしたけど、ここからはいつもの本気でファイズ翻訳ミスコーナーです～！今日の翻訳ミスはこれだ！

https://i.imgur.com/F46HcDk.jpg

「人間のままでもある程度その力が使えるようになるんですよ。」

I think most people would assume this anyway, but just to be clear, Takuma specifically says that super awesome, high level Orphenochs like him are able to use a portion of their power in human form. It's not like being transformed makes no difference to them whatsoever. Again, you can probably still figure that out, but there's no reason to leave that part of the line out entirely like this.

W 13-14:

This arc has a rather bland mystery angle to it, with the only real twist being that both the obvious suspects are responsible instead of just one of them. Like, you'd probably assume one was a red herring, so I guess that's something? There's really not a lot to it, though. Fortunately, the excellent character work with Wakana and Philip that's at the center of the story is handled more than well enough to compensate for that.

The big dumb CG climax this time is also trying so hard, bless its heart, and I don't ever want to knock a Rider who uses their bike regularly, but it's still clear Double was fighting an uphill battle anytime they decided to do one of these.

Man, I'll try my best, but between defending Ghost, Wizard, and Faiz, I'm getting stretched real thin here. :p

So as my last extra Faiz and Shinkenger thing before moving onto my next series, I ended up rewatching Heisei vs. Showa tonight.

To focus purely on the Faiz stuff: it's good. It's actually really good. I'm actually not too sure why people get annoyed so much at the flashback; obviously it doesn't depict what actually happened... but in a thematic sense it does. Kusaka dies to Kiba, Takumi is busy with the Orphenoch King, Takumi feels deeply responsible for Kusaka's death and the responsibilities of that linger on. These obviously all didn't take place in the same place nor the same order as the flashback implies, but it still effectively gets across what you need to know and leads to a lot of interpretations of Takumi's mental state and his perspective on the whole thing. I find it super interesting if I've gotta be honest.

Kusaka when he re-appears is just as awful and terrible as always; and I've thought this since I first watched the movie way back when, but the Faiz and X "teamup" is the strongest part of this film and I would have loved so, so much if it was just a Faiz and X movie. Bit random, sure; but there's so much uniquely grounded and genuine stuff here that gets me every time. As someone who hasn't watched X and who really didn't like Faiz, I seriously want more of this!

Yeah, but Ghost and Wizard are actually decent :p

In all seriousness I just feel you're really really good at explaining how you feel about things and I find it interesting to read, even - or especially - when I don't agree, so I'm interested how you'll make sense of this for me

Ah, if you haven't already seen it, or you saw it a long time ago, I'd recommend watching Kamen Rider 4 (Kamen Rider Yongou), which is the video-special sequel to Super Hero Taisen GP (the one where Drive enters a race with Sangou and a bunch of others). Faiz plays a big part and that special was my favourite thing I've seen him in.

I intend to rewatch Kamen Rider 4, but first I wanna rewatch SHT4; and before that I wanna watch Blade. Because hey

Decade 18-19: Hibiki's world, which actually makes me really interested in watching the actual Hibiki show. Plotwise it's just another generic two-parter drama, but the setting, suit design, and the climatic scene where they basically beat the monster to oblivion through the power of ensemble musical performance intrigued me a great deal.