PTSD from the first few episodes of Drive huh?

I am not saying no to this.

Though honestly, if this show ditched the near-constant barrage of screaming and shrill voices, and gave Takeru some personality besides a stock catchphrase like "I believe in myself!" then this show could be something.

Onari definitely needs to be toned down soon.

You did watch episode 2 though, right?

Don't really know where you're coming from with the screaming-part, I mean the monk does it but I didn’t really notice much more screaming. The professor did it, but that was him being crazy and it really didn’t bother me as much.

And Takeru had his moments in this episode, especially the part where he sees the other teens and says "I was just like them, a week ago...", I thought that was pretty cool. I didn’t expect this; I just thought he goes to badass Rider like everyone else after episode 1.

Okay, he’ll go it from next episode onwards, but still a nice touch.

I liked it
Can't wait to see how they'll do Robin Hood next week though. I mean.....he might not even have necessarily existed! He's disappeared into legend and might have just been a story! Quick research shows you he may have even been just an alias used by multiple different outlaws to mask their own identities.

Come on toei, let's see what you got

I have to agree, honestly.
I still enjoyed it for what it was, but I think I enjoy the Rider and the show separately from each other. I've become kind of immune to the gags and comic relief for some reason.

The thing with Akari and Onari is so contrived as comic relief. I'd respect Akari a lot more if she tried to learn the science of the supernatural instead of sticking her fingers in her ears and insisting that it has to be some trickery; meanwhile Onari is just way too generically enthusiastic and excitable. He's like Kyu from Drive all over again. Or Yuki from Fourze, Akiko from Double, Rinko and Shunpei from Wizard...
Always shouting about their favorite thing and getting into silly arguments.

More specific to this episode, it also felt rushed and pretty much completely uninteresting. The mad scientist guy was totally hammy and cheesy, and the way they handled the story really felt like two episodes squeezed into one with the way the scientist essentially starts screaming his regrets as soon as the Ganma Hole thing opens, and then there's some scene at the end tossed in with him saying he's sorry and he didn't know what he was doing/getting into blah blah blah.

But in that way it also feels the same as the early episodes of most other series, especially Fourze and Drive. Not that that excuses a, well, boring, uncreative plot, but still.

That'd be a great idea, and would actually feel like a legitimate reason for Onari and them to squabble, since her instance that it's somehow scientific would be understandably frustrating. (especially since she'd have some credibility what with the Ghost Driver being technology harnessing so-called mystic powers)

Everyone and everything is so immediately surface-level. If you've seen a half second of thee characters you've seen all they have to offer in these first two episodes.

And I hated it back then, too. :lol (funny how Gaim didn't really have that archtype... neither did OOO really)

"I didn't notice much screaming aside from those two prominent characters that scream almost non-stop whenever they're on screen." :lol Seriously, dude?

They scream, the girl screams, and while the seriously-is-this-for-babies-or-something?-puppet and MOW didn't scream, their voices are so shrill and high-pitched they're just as annoying.

Meh this episode was nothing special.

I don't like the opening one bit, nor the shot of where he transformed in that lab. I like it more when the rider is actually there and the armor comes from around at that moment.

The characters have little to like for them, the monk is annoying, the girl needs to just shut up and Takeru is just kind of there.

The action was okay, but I don't really like the ghosts dancing to Ghost. Plus it felt like it was trying to mix to many styles of action at once.

Overall, a pretty forgettable episode.

The characters need time to grow before we judge them and the show in my opinion, hell even Beast in Wizard eventually had some development, though the massive amount of filler in the series made it a bit to late in the end.

Either way the first arc with the characters getting used to the situation and changing their perspectives and methods to assist the main character will give us a better picture on the overall future of the show.

The comic relief characters now will potentially change drastically as the show moves on, and it seems Akari at least is in denial about the situation because she cares for the main character, and that shows in ep 2 at least.

Overall they need their own spotlight episodes before they will change, just like characters in previous shows, we just have to wait and judge later.

Just look at the drastic changes in Gaim and some of Drives characters as the shows moved on, Mach in Drive was a great example of a character who faked his overall attitude in order to do everything on his own due to very personal reasons we later hear about.

With the mugging, obnoxious side characters, puppet, silly old man and dancing cartoony ghost... hoodies, this really feels like it's aimed at a younger audience. Kamen Rider's always intended for children in a sizable respect, but this is approaching toddler-level entertainment. Odd that the main character dies five minutes in, but then again Japan does treat death as a more natural regard, rather than something that must never be a reality to children like American cartoons. Plus, he's not really dead, he just has wacky ghost powers.

Also I'm pretty dissapointed, as prepared as I was for this eventuality, that it's a MOW gimmick item fetch-quest. Hopefully that's short-lived or spaced out, since there's only 14 eyecons left.

How much time is the problem.

Also, my issue with the characters isn't the developement, but the fact that the characters are awful people. Unless they completely change into different personalities (which would make these ones pointless) "developement" isn't going to help if I can't stand who they are as people.