So far - and my opinion on the show has been improving - I’ve found Saber to be pretty bad. It’s really interestingly bad, though.

You can pretty much guess how I feel about Saber. Given my signature...


But really, this encapsulates how I actually feel about it.

I can't remember if I said this but I'm sorry to say I've decided to give up Saber, at least for the time being. It may be a bit harsh considering the other Kamen Rider shows I gave up in the past I think I had more obvious issues with and I did sit through all of Wizard which was also a bit boring but I just struggle to care about a lot of the actual main men in the show and I'm currently watching a lot more TV shows in general than I have for a while, plus I'm going through a bit of a Sentai phase so I thought it might be best for a change to just have a break for a bit!

EDIT:Oh, apparently this is my 200th post, cool! :lolol

I'm not enjoying Saber too much, but it's still the best Kamen Rider has been since like May and it's only getting better so I'm willing to see where it goes.

Looking back, I think I got sliiiightly too excited about finishing Zero-One yesterday. I hadn’t watched a modern Rider in a while, okay? :lolol

I also wouldn't have minded if Super-1 ended there. Because the second half is... not very good IMO.

This comment hurts me physically.

I will be honest with you I'm enjoying Saber more then I have ever enjoyed Zero-One. To me alot of Zero-One has been soured. I admit Zero-One was more well structred and better executed but It just Zero-One was the most dissapointing Kamen Rider show in the last 5 years to me. Nothing about the show makes me mad or anything and I'm not sure sure if that better or worst because if I'm mad at least I can say I was passionate about it.

I think the thing is Takahashi just always forgets what his show is about by the end so it's replaced by kinda generic (if enjoyable) drama, but Fukuda always has a consistent vision and follows through on it.

Yeah, have to agree here as well. Zero-One is for me the best example that a good structure does not make a show automatically enjoyable. Saber has problems, a good amount of them even, but, I'm having a blast. I enjoy the characters and really look forward to watching the episode's life.

Right now, I'm more invested in the future of the Saber Riders than I felt for the ones in Zero-One at any point.

I'm having fun, something I never felt as strongly in Zero-One compared to Saber. And honestly, that's kinda what matters in the end. No matter how well-executed your show is, if it can't make me enjoy it, it will ultimately be a worse series for me.

I'm actually enjoying Saber, I wasn't sure after the first episode or two but I'm getting into it now.

I do like the world they're trying to build but I agree with others who have said that they've already introduced way too many characters way too quickly without letting you really get to know them before moving on.

I'm a huge reader so the theme really strikes a chord with me. I do find myself having to look up the stories that a couple of the Books are based on, though, especially the non-western ones.

Zero-One became boring for me during the whole work saga thing, although it did pick up again once Ark-Zero entered the fray.

Personally, they should've had a few more episodes with Aruto as Ark-One to shake up the traditional formula more. Oh, and Thouser's 180 personality flip was not convincing for me. No, I don't care that a cute robot dog was involved, it just felt so forced. At least hint it in the previous episodes as to why he hates machines so much instead of just the "humans are superior to robots" thing.

Vulcan, however, is a treat to watch anytime he's on screen.

I'm kind of the opposite (aside from thoughts on Fuwa and Gai which, yeah, 1000% agree with) -- I warmed up to the workplace arc a lot over time and personally find it to be incredibly strong, even if there are some flaws such as Yaiba just becoming a non-character; and Ark-Zero was... just devoid of any substance. It went from a show asking complex interesting questions and portraying them in ways that are groundbreaking for a show like this, to just "Ark bad we need to defeat him but he's so powerful oh noes D:"

And like, I love power-of-friendship-overcoming-extreme-malice shit that's simple on the surface -- OOO is my favourite season, my favourite Sentai seasons tend to follow these themes, one of the whole reasons I'm giving Ghost another try right now is because I vibe with a lot of what it's saying, etc. But it's just completely not what Zero-One was about and it didn't do anything interesting at all with it. It's a running trend I'm starting to notice with this writer -- he starts out with an interesting theme and well-penned storylines, but doesn't know how to end it so he just throws out a powerful evil rider for the good guys to beat up.

You peeps realise it's possible to enjoy Saber and Zero-One, right? It's not a zero-Sum game. I really enjoyed the action and themes in Zero-One dealing with overcoming malice and prejudice to do better in future (something that, especially looking at Fuwa, was definitely there from episode 1), and I'm also really enjoying Saber's off the wall energy and bond between its protagonists. I'm just here for a good time from a Japanese children's show.

Yeah...? I don't see what that has to do with anything; no-one's choosing to dislike Zero-One just for the sake of it

It's funny because this is exactly how I feel about Evol and I've still never totally forgiven Build for turning into a generic shounen anime after 30 episodes of being a gripping political thriller turned war drama. The "powerful evil Rider everyone needs to beat up" thing is almost certainly less to do with Takahashi as a writer, and more to do with Oomori as a producer, since he worked on Drive, Ex-Aid, Build, and Zero-One, which all pulled that same stunt to some extent. This probably sounds like I'm trying to start an argument, but I think I mostly just wanted an excuse to vent about Build a little.

I see where you're coming from with your opinions on Zero-One and I don't really wanna disrespect that, but what I will say is that if you've managed to mellow out on the contest arc over time, I only hope the same will prove true for some of the later parts of the series, because I do still think there's a lot of great material in there that ties into things established at the start very strongly.

I'm not overly fond of Build's final stretch either - good god buildad - but at least there Evolt was a character that had been manipulating the characters the full course of the show -- as such you had a lot of interpersonal arcs being fulfilled, and Evolt's tower at least feels like the final phase in his plan. Build being about a war in particular means a big whole final battle doesn't exactly feel out of place compared to how much quieter and entangled the earlier parts of the show were -- that was just a precursor to the inevitable disaster the Pandora's Box would wreak. While perhaps not executed in the best way it could have, there's a clear path being followed here and so many personal connections between our final boss and our heroes that it's hard not to find great positives in here. To turn this around, I see where you're coming from with your opinions on Build's last third and I don't want to disrespect that; but I hope you'll be able to find something to like in there some day.

Ark and Chronus on the other hand are complete voids of personality that are completely out of place in their own shows and beyond having nothing to do with any character (I mean, Ark sure did turn MBJR to terrorism and Masamune sure is Kuroto's dad, but that sure doesn't seem to matter to anything), they don't exactly feel bothered with engaging with anything the show has done up until that point. My problem isn't evil kamen riders as the final boss - I mean, I have issues with that as I've gone over before; but it's hardly ruinous - it's that they substitute literally anything interesting happening. Zero-One's writers have gone on record saying that the humagears were not meant to be a big part of Zero-One beyond the halfway point, and to me that really gets to the core of the issue for me: the entire point of the show, the entire premise and key component to the questions the show was asking and what really set this show apart from any other Kamen Rider... is little more than window dressing in the eyes of the main writer, something to be set aside for "Evil Kamen Rider Beats Everyone Up, And We'll Figure Out The End Later".

I came around to liking the tournament arc because I had issues with the structure at the time that made it hard to watch, but I came around to it because of good points that were always there in how successfully the arc portrays how different industries have advanced robotics and AI integrated into them and what different questions those raised, while still also acting well as a kid's show in portraying all these different industries; I liked pretty much everything going on with Fuwa and Naki; Gai was an unbelievably threatening and unbelievably real villain who capitalised on the best aspects of Zero-One's corporate themings, and how he turns it around into "the corporate world favours those who don't let feelings and morals get in the way". That is far beyond the scope of what I ever expected the show to handle, and to then turn it around even further by having Aruto create his own company from scratch; starting his journey into defining his own path and ideals and becoming dedicated to the humagears rather than just following and using the tools of his predecessors by starting Hiden Manufacturing? Brilliant! Everything I just described is so close to perfect in my mind that I can almost forgive them not integrating the actual Kamen Riding in any sensible way, and their just completely forgetting to give half their cast personalities! Ark-Zero, on the other hand? ... no wonder most people thought that the only episodes we missed from the Covid restrictions were 5 episodes of Zero-Two fighting Ark-One, because that's all this ever is.


I went on for far longer than I wanted to because I seriously didn't want to go into this again, Zero-One is a show so incredibly frustrating I would much rather just forget it and move on; but it is one that made such a great effort earlier on that it's hard not to get passionate about how much it fell. I don't like ragging on it so much, but everything it does after Raiden came back and helped laser-eye the Ark driver into existence is either so boring or unlikeable that it kinda hurts. I'm just glad to get back to a writer who actually seems to care about the characters he sets up.

... man, I wanted to get to a Ghost episode today...

Ufff... That was a putdown Kurona, but one I generally agree with, minus a few things.

Especially this one I agree with:

Especially since it was apparently always endgame that Aruto vs Horobi would be the final, which kinda confuses me. Aruto and Horobi don't have much interaction and the last time they interact before the ending is when he defends him from Thouser and they depart on better terms. It doesn't help that Horobi's hatred of humanity has no ground to stand on. It's hollow.

It clearly shows that they had no idea how they would get the fight to happen and just crowbarred the story long enough till they forced it, which just didn't feel satisfying in the slightest to me, not even going into stuff like ghost dad and so on.

From what I heard, they wanted to do that because of the Reiwa suit actor being set up against the Heisei (minus kuuga and hibiki) suit actor. And if that's true... ah, boy. What do I even say?

Oh... Oh boy... I mean, I appreciate a good metaplot, but... Yeah, that ain't one of them... Yikes.

Am I being too dramatic if I say I'm sorry for kicking up all these lingering frustrations with Zero-One? Because I spent like two entire years very gradually getting over a similar kind of disappointment with Gaim, and I feel like I should know better than to attempt to push you on this at all right now because of that.

No, frankly I'm sorry for getting too into it myself. Despite what some angry internet people might say, being very bitter about something you don't like is not something that's very fun to do! I really am just this way because... man, Zero-One was absolutely perfect for me at some point (well. Not perfect. There's big flaws all round) and then it completely scuppered it for me at the end... still. Don't wanna get into this as much as I do!

Yeah, that's it right there. That exact feeling that led to me being so bitter about how Gaim turned out. Believe me when I say I have massive amounts of sympathy for exactly how not fun being bitter about these things is. If it's any consolation, I'm sure the wounds will close up eventually.

Also, just to switch gears to a more positive note: for the record, Buildad is actually one of the bits of the last third of that show I ended up liking pretty quickly. :lol

That "nobitenai yo..." from Sento was legitimately a great punch to the gut. I mean, don't get me wrong. I have issues with Build, but I don't really have Issues with Build, you know? Darn good show, that was.

It is honestly pretty wild seeing the strong opinions Zero-One invokes among fans. I was pretty busy for most of the time it was airing, so I didn’t really see much of the discourse about it. I think watching it in chunks probably made it a lot more palatable than watching it live, which frankly sounds agonizing even though I enjoyed the show. Like, honestly, it might have the worst pacing of any Rider show I have seen, and that kind of drags down some other aspects of the show too.

I'm not even that good at such deep analysis that some of you can do, I'm not really that good at explaining why I like something or don't! :lolol

It's not like Zero-One was one of my all-time favourites or anything, Aruto really annoyed me early on and I could only really put up with him when he was being serious but out of Zero-One(OK) and Saber(OK) I think Zero-One just edges it for me by having a few more other characters I like and being a bit more serious and interesting(sorry).

All I can say is, Zero-One was pretty hype. Watching first episode, return of the grasshopper motif, trumpets, simple-ish belt, Izu, Jin's handgun, I thought to myself: "Oh yeah, this is the new era!"

Show goes on and there were plenty of problems, the job arc, Thouser (whom I ended up loving unconditionally.), Covid, and other things, but I still think the show ended on a good note. It was fun show and I had fun and that's just what mattered to me, I'm gonna miss the cast, and definitely looking forward to the movie.

Considering the page before this was "Zero-One bad, Saber good" and "Saber bad, Zero-One good", I'd disagree, but tbf, you're right, no-one has to like or dislike. It's just a little tiring when people can't say they like something without dunking on something else simultaneously. I was just trying to lighten the mood because it was 2am, and I thought things were getting too dour.

Thanks to this dream I had, I finally started watching W. I can see why it's a fan favorite, it's really good!

My only complaint is the catchy theme song; I can't get it out of my head!

33 episodes in on Super-1 now, and my current thoughts on the second half are be summed up thusly:

https://i.imgur.com/jeWAA1y.png

I mean... wow man. If you though Hibiki was the only KR show that took a total 180 at the halfway point, Super-1 has it beat.

It really did turn into a totally different show. Now instead of the show being about, you know, the title character, it's all about a group of kids who, frankly, contribute nothing to the overall plot. And poor Kazuya is reduced to nothing more than a tool for the kids to summon in order to beat up the bad guys.

Speaking of the bad guys... I kinda have mixed feelings on them. Doctor Ghost always gives me a good giggle(seriously, that's an amazing name), but Jin Dogma, like the show itself, is now alot sillier than the original Dogma were. Sure, the original villains were ineffective too, but the show atleast attempted to have a menacing air about them. Jin Dogma meanwhile are, well, total jokes.

And here's the thing actually, and this is kinda weird to say, but I was actually totally on board with most of this. Atleast for the first few episodes of the second half. Because you see, well... how to best put this...

Okay, the very first monster Super-1 fights in part 2? Straight up a Knife Monster, who is legit a much more dangerous threat than what's ever been faced before, to the point that he actually stabs someone to death on screen. The fight sequences with it are intense, Kazuya remains an active force throughout the entire episode, and while yes, the kids are present, and the Junior Kamen Rider Squad are established, they are by no means the lead characters nor the focus of the episode itself.

And this something that actually remains for the next few episodes afterwards... and then someone on staff decided that it should be all about the kids, and any further backstory or action on Super-1's' part is mainly incidental.

The one thing that I will give the second half though, which Super-1 has actually been great about all throughout its run so far, is that the action scenes remain not only incredibly intense, but creative and fun to watch. Seriously, at this point they're what's keeping me watching.

I wouldn't go so far as to say the second half is out and out horrible(I've seen way worse, even in terms of sheer betrayals), but man, quite the step down in terms of narrative. Like yeah, part 1 wasn't "deep" by any stretch, but there was atleast an attempt at an overall story. Here? Not even remotely an attempt. Just kids who call in a superhero who now has barely any agency in the plot. It's a real shame.

Have you heard about the controversy surrounding the lead actor of Super-1??

You mean the one where, from 2003-2012, he used his role as Kazuya Oki/ Super-1 to defraud his fans of 50 million yen ( around $450,000). To top it all off, when he was caught, he was unwilling to return the money, and when he was called for his court hearing, he never showed. To this day, he is still a wanted fugitive. What a hero of justice.

Ironically, when these allegations came to light, Toei not only cut buisness ties with him, but went as far as to act like they didn't even know who he was in the interviews that followed. lol.

Unfortunately I must admit based on initial impressions without having seen an actual episode Super-1 doesn't look as great as some Showa ones to me and I may actually prefer the Indonesian theme song to the Japanese this time, I just like to not pick a side when it comes to Showa vs Heisei and just judge individual shows but I admit I don't know much about it and maybe when I do finally get round to it I might be surprised!

I?'ll point out that this was happening all over the place in Tokusatsu at the time. Parents were asking the producers to tone down the violence in response to Kamen Rider Amazon, Ultraman Leo, Supaida Man and JAKQ Dengekitai having high levels of violence. (Which seems stupid I know, they were years ago at the time) and "not enough uplifting messages for the kids"

Just watched the Zero-One stage show. It was cool. Nice to see Ansatsu-chan get his kind of closure with MBJR.net. Also it was pretty funny to see how stubby Naki looked.

I'll definitely stick up for the first half of Super-1; I had alot of fun watching it. Way more than I did Black or Black RX. When it comes to the second half, while I am still having enough fun to keep going, I can definitely see why others wouldn't like it much.

Ignorant parents strike again. Ignoring the stint on violence, since that's a very subjective thing overall, the "has no uplifting messages" thing couldn't be more wrong. Heck, the overarcing message of Super-1 in general is "Work hard and keep your mind open to new ideas, and you'll be able to overcome almost anything." But nah, not uplifting at all /s

It's also a shame to hear that bit about Kazuya's' actor. He did a good job playing the titular hero. But in terms of that I can atleast take the same mentality I do any other time this sort of thing happens; Separating character from actor. I know that's tough to do for alot of people, especially in terms of live-action stuff, but it's something I recommend everyone attempt to do to keep enjoying the shows and characters you love.

I know it shouldn't, but hearing about Super-1 crashing and burning partway through makes me want to watch it. Every time I watch something because I think it sounds amusing-bad though, it normally just turns out to be painful-bad. Except Ohranger, that was hysterical.

If I remember correctly, Super-1's time slot changed about halfway through its run. If I read a reason why, I don't remember what it was. I know the ratings tanked, but I don't know if that was because of the time shift or the reason why it shifted. I know that the show did poorly enough that there wasn't a follow-up for years. I'm sure there's a YouTube video or podcast episode that covers the full story of Super-1.

Personally, I could never get into the show. Even though I love the main suit, it's the one Showa series that just never gripped me past the first couple episodes.I'm with tomos on the theme song, though; that thing sucks.

Did Skyrider do much better?

Kamen Rider Ghost Episode 5

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


I watched this episode a couple days ago and had nothing to say!

I kinda dragged my feet on this one because there's just not a lot I can offer, I think -- not because there was no meat on the bone, but because it's an episode that kind of speaks for itself. It's raising the stakes; it's truly introducing a new threat; it's showing more friction and dynamics between the villains; it even takes the opportunity of an episode not focused around a new Eyecon for once to show what else is going on with the Ganma's plans! Great stuff all around, very well-done plot episode. ... but it's a PLOT episode, and I just don't have an awful lot to say about those? It's all about the structure of the medium through which a story and emotions are communicated, and I don't have a lot to offer there. Except that maybe Specter having Tutankhaman should have been treated with a bit more weight than it was; like "holy shit he has two of the eyecons I need?!"

So I ended up rewatching this episode today just to see if I could get a bit more of a post out of it -- and I suppose third time's the charm, because I like a lot of what's going on here! First of all, god, I didn't realise how much I missed Kamen Riding. It's weird that it's the paranormal show that has a lot more spotlight for motorbikes than say, a story playing tribute to 20 years of Kamen Rider or a story specifically about advancing technology that's meant to be the start of a new era of Rider; but I ain't complaining because it rocks what they do with it. It's not just a generic drive down a road, there's a ton of dynamic action and a lot of wonderful symbolic shots which is more than I ever expect. Use bikes more! Please! While I'm at it? AL CAPONE GANMA. Crazy goddamn concept for a monster of the week and everything he does is a joy to watch.

How many times have I let action talk get away from me now? Regardless, I like what's going on here with Takeru being forced and pushed into being more decisive. It follows on from last episode bringing up what he values and whether he's pursuing saving lives or his own -- and I think it's very smart that in both this episode and the last, it still treats him as indecisive but absolutely has him ultimately make the choice to prioritise saving the lives of others over grabbing another eyecon. It's something very Kamen Rider; to have this much conflict but still know in your heart what's most important.

From what I can tell, the first half wasn't that well regarded at the time, so they made some changes for the second half. I've seen people on a YouTube video say they think the second half was weaker. I personally was unable to download past the first 4 episodes of the second half, so it's difficult to say. On one hand, they've actually got past Riders back instead of simply having a young Bin Shimada dub over a rubber suit. On the downside, Skyrider's flying has been dropped in favour of 'the powers of the 7 Legendary Riders' (which is never really defined) and I'm not as fond of the new OP/ED as I was for the old ones. (Though the second ED is still pretty good).

He's not an ant this time around, but I have to say, I've always loved the Ganma for unabashedly Showa they are. The monsters of the week are goofy and out-there, the foot soldiers are featureless and utterly non-threatening, they've all got belts... it's great stuff! Machine Gun Ganma here even has smoke coming out of bullet holes represented by cheap tissue paper glued to his body, which is the kind of insanely unconvincing way to accomplish that effect I'd expect out of 70's tokusatsu. Like, it's so unconvincing I never even knew that's what it was supposed to be until reading about it years later. It probably doesn't sound like I'm praising the show anymore, but I seriously wouldn't have that any other way. This isn't a gritty, realistic murder mystery show like Kuuga or Agito, you know? The silliness of a lot of the early Ghost monster suits fits the overall vibe of the show perfectly.