Not sure how well regarded the Fourze suits are but I think they are the best when it comes to suit consistency. The suits as a whole are the perfect balance of being different from each other while still being similar enough that you can tell they are offshoots of one another. A number of series I find fall too much into either direction, Wizard and Drive being my prime examples.

On an unrelated note, I think the Axcalibur from Wizard is the worst looking rider weapon ever created.

Eh... as a sword I'll grant you it's a little weake, but it's a pretty slick axe IMNtBHO.

I think generally the Fourze suits are in the category of "love em or hate em" for the most part. At the very least, you don't see a lot of people go "meh" about them.

Too bad he barely uses it in the axe mode aside from the finisher. Instead we get the dinky sword mode with the oversized hilt that looks more like a blade than the actual blade.

True, but we're talking about looks here, not how the show used it, right?

The way the show used it adds to my dislike since the only thing about it that's cool is one that we barely saw.

Hmm.....it really interesting when Kuroto actor is pharmacist and Ex-Aid series has medical theme.

Sometime, I really want doctor video game Gashat exist in Ex-Aid.

Ryoma showed his jealousy when he knows about Gaim's Kachidoki Lockseed in episode 23. Ryoma really surprised. And he always really want to know and collect more data like his observation to Gaim Kiwami Arms in episode 39.

Hmm...thank you. :) I must learn more about English Grammar.

Anyway, Kuroto's personality is really remind me to Banno from Kamen Rider Drive especially about how they speak in the show.

Ex-Aid has some of the best suits in the series for me, at least as far as base forms go.

I just love the Ex-Aid aesthetic. It really reminds of playing some highly-stylized Japanese fighting game with how colorful the characters are and how you can just tell what their personalities are based on the suit design alone.

To he honest I'm pretty sure that's intentional :p

Of course!

But not a lot of Rider shows have suits like that, and that's what I like about Ex-Aid.


I mean, we talk all the time about how we like a certain Rider suit, but hate the character inside, but with Ex-Aid, it's like the suit for Snipe is LITERALLY a video game version of Taiga. It's pretty awesome.

Yeah, if you dislike the Ex-Aid suits, you do so because of WHAT they are meant to be, not how well they achieve it.

Well, neo-heisei riders and sentai's designs can be very retro and the colors pops right in front of you. It's flashy and purposely showing off its flashiness. The collectible gimmicks can get out if control sometimes.

I don't like Omega's lack of mouth, when he 'acts' like he's biting his enemies.

I think adding mech/cyborg parts to Neo and Omega defeats the organic style the show is trying to go for. And the sword weapon of Neo is unappealing to me.

I guess they want their new designs to be more modern/high-tech in order to differ themselves from the biological/mystical 1970's Amazon. This reminds me it has been a long time since they use the mask rider systems concept for the main kamen rider series like Faiz, Blade, and Kabuto.

I liked Ryuki's ending...*runs away

I like it too. Although I do admit I had to do some mental gymnastics/interpretation in order to see it that way.

Ghost is a great way to introduce people to Rider

Sarcasm? Let's be real: It got to be W or Gaim these days for the suits, story, and action. The cgi is still fresh and can definitely captivate new toku fans.

You do realize what the point of this topic is, right?

Everybody that's not a Kamen Rider fan that I've shown Ghost to loved it and wanted to watch more Kamen Rider, yet everybody who's seen Rider stuff before seems to hate it. It has a lot of cool elements that don't show through as well if you compare it to other series, so I think it's easiest to appreciate if it's your first. As for W and Gaim...well, Gaim was initially very popular because it was a breath of fresh air compared to the standard KR format, so why would you start people off with the series that changed things up? W, well I feel the same way about the two main riders aspect - don't start people off with something that changes things up a lot.

Okay, guys, this might be surprising coming from me.



Ghost isn't THAT bad of a show. Okay, yeah, I listed it at the bottom of my Kamen Rider list, but I love Kamen Rider so much that it only comes out as mediocre. My biggest beef with the show is that literally every element of it that I loved was either downplayed or sidelined. Alain? Best character in the show by far, but the show leaves him so underleveled compared to the other two Riders that he becomes ineffectual as a Rider. The collectible gimmick being the ghost of deceased historical figures? Awesome idea and awesome opportunity for Imagin-level hijinks, but instead they get these half-assed one-off stories and then are completely forgotten about. The ghost theme itself? Awesome! Except, ironically, this is one Rider show where death means practically nothing. Takeru's status as ghost is ignored even by the characters themselves and Takeru and Makoto must have set a record for the most resurrection within a single series amongst all Kamen Riders, plus the show is missing the spooky vibe that even Kiva managed to have at certain points. The idea that Takeru has to collect the Heroic Eyecons to wish himself back to life, but there's also another Rider that needs it to resurrect his loved one? Great idea, but they should have let it marinate a little bit more, maybe have Necrom seek out the eyecons in order to restore the Ganma World or something using humanity as a sacrifice. I like that the Sage turned into Dark Ghost, but it was done mainly as comic relief. What if he functioned as an actual mentor to Takeru while retaining his quirky qualities (which he sort of did, but most of the time he was just being super cryptic about shit), teaching him how to use his powers because he WAS a Kamen Rider. Or something.



That being said, there were things that I really enjoyed that WERE executed well. The old grandma that Alain grew fondness for and the episode in which she died? Beautiful episode. Those earlier episodes where Makoto was still a rival to Takeru? Those were pretty good too. I can't say I love Ghost, and some of the dislike the series gets is a bit justified, but it's not as bad as I used to think it was.

I've started with Gaim and it was a great experience that encouraged me to seek out the other shows. Frankly, the newcomers care about seeing a good show rather than the one that is most typical for the franchise.

Which does not mean that Ghost is a bad show. I haven't seen it, I may end up liking it when I get around to watching it.

I think that was everyone's problem with Ghost, honestly. When you ask someone what specifically they hated about Ghost, you'll usually hear things about Specter and Necrom being pushed to the sidelines, the more interesting plots being done away with quickly (like early Makoto), and the lack of seriousness in what should be a serious theme.

And I've always maintained that having the parka ghosts work like Imagin and possess the rider using them would have made the show so much better. I loved the little characterization they did get, and really anything that results in less Takeru is a good thing. I truly, honestly, don't think I'd be exaggerating if I said Takeru is the worst, least interesting in protagonist I've ever seen in anything, ever. Seriously. Number one. Bottom of the barrel. He's awful.

Also, you can't set up an awesome, really creepy tone in the summer movie cameo, and then do a complete 180 on that in the actual show. You just can't do that and not expect people to be disappointed.

Of course people just want to see a good show, but i'd rather recommend somebody something that's more indicative of what the series is about than something completely out of left field. I wouldn't recommend somebody to start with Gaim just like I wouldn't recommend somebody starts with Go-Busters, and if somebody was interested in the Halloween films I wouldn't tell them to start with Halloween 3. Personally, when I got into Sentai I started with Zyuranger, but I wasn't sure what was a Sentai trope and what was unique to Zyuranger. When I started Dairanger afterwards, I was thrown off by the fact that a lot of what made me love Zyuranger wasn't present in Dairanger. If I showed somebody Gaim to start, they might go on to another series and be disappointed that it doesn't focus on Rider vs Rider action, and is mostly a MotW-styled show, something like that. I'd hate to ruin their experience with the series by giving them the wrong expectations going in

Unlike Asian fans that grew up watching dubbed Japanese Toku, I think most western fans are familiar with the common motw style toku from watching power rangers, so Gaim would be a unique breath of fresh air to them. Most of them probably found out about the existence of sentai and riders through zyuranger clips.

All I'm trying to say is that I know I tend to get fixated on elements of a series (or game or whatever else) that are unique to that individual entry. It's probably a problem that's more unique to me, but as a result I wouldn't start somebody with Gaim, simply because I don't think it gives a good indication of what Kamen Rider is all about. Somebody could watch it and love it, but they just might be a Gaim fan instead of a Kamen Rider fan.

I think Ghost is a good place to start because it's exciting, has a lot of action, doesn't do a whole lot out of the ordinary, and its flaws aren't as apparent if you're not familiar with Kamen Rider on a whole.

Don't forget, this is the controversial opinions topic :P

Well, that is definitely a Controversial Opinion!

The only reason to tell someone to start with Ghost is so that you can assure them that it doesn't matter what show they watch next, it's going to be better (assuming that someone watches Ghost as their first Kamen Rider series and somehow isn't turned off of the franchise forever).

Takeru was a complete Mary Sue and that's my biggest problem with him as a character. The show started to lose its edge early on, and from then on, it basically became the "Takeru and friends" show where pretty much every other character's story arc had to revolve exclusively around how great Takeru is and how much he changed their life and Takeru himself never struggles with his idealistic, upbeat nature which just makes him yet another typical boring Toku/Shonen protagonist without any of the edge that somebody like Godai Yuusuke has. And I get that the show IS called "Kamen Rider GHOST" after all, but Rider is typically good about making it seem like the secondary characters have a life outside of being second fiddle to the main character.

Hey, that's not a controversial opinion at all! Off-topic! :p

You know what I just posted it in the HiET thread but I'll post it here too, ghost had an admirable theme, "that everyone has the potential in them to do good and that no matter who we are we leave an impact on others be it small or large" and good ideas to it (alan and makato, the eyecon possession, science vs belief, redemption arcs for characters) I think it really just needed to get more focused and give more screen time to certain ideas.

I honestly don't think Amazons is a very good season when you look past the "mature" tone and violence.

Amazons doesn't really have the same tone as early Heisei which is honestly not as "dark and mature" as some people say it is. Amazons feels closer to The First and The Next in terms of tone.

*thinks about all of my opinions*

Yeah, I've got nothing. I've always had popular opinions. Is liking Faiz and hating Kabuto unpopular? I really liked Agito too. I think Drive and W are on the same level of really good. I HATE Fourze and not a fan of Den-O.

Tsukasa/Decade is Toshiki Inoue and his haters who like Kamen Rider are Narutaki.

Not liking Den-O does seem against the flow, so that could count.

HA!

A strong hate of Fourze seems off. Most don't have very strong opinions on it one way or another. Maybe not "controvetsial" as much as "really?".

I didn't enjoy it until the last 10 episodes where the show went from boring wacky antics to I kinda care, a little bit, until the cop out ending.
The only KR related thing I ever fell asleep to was Fourze's movie. I also hate any show that takes place in a school of any kind since I'm currently in school and it doesn't bring me happiness to see one. The side characters are a bit too stereotypical for my tastes and Gen isn't that good of a protagonist.

Started watching Ghost and it doesnt seem to be as bad as a lot of people are making it up to be. Granted I'm only up to episode 11 though.

Honestly, Ghost was pretty tolerable at that point.

Despite really liking the show, I can see what people's problems are. After around where you're at, it starts to slow down a lot. Then there's a really good arc after that, but everything beyond that point is kind of sloppy in the writing department, and characters get questionable amounts of focus. It's a shame, because I thought it had a lot going for it. Still, Alain is one of my favorite Toku characters and Ghost is still one of my favorite suits.

Okay here's a good one, an unpopular opinion for an unpopular show! I really like Keitaro from Faiz. I actually might like him more than Kiba.