I'm not a fan of OOO and I haven't seen the OOO10YA thing, but I have been seen a summary of the new V-Cinema and many, many reactions to it. I'm pretty surprised they were gutsy enough to kill of Eiji, but part of me feels like it would have been better to let both Eiji and Ankh die so that they could finally both be at peace and be together in death. I'm sorry I want to make things worse everyone!

Just finished watching OOO10th myself! It was... Hmm.

So like, just in a vacuum, all the ideas and the plot on paper, I don't inherently have a problem with. There's a bunch of cool set-ups, intriguing scenarios, and I especially think the ways the final battle references the last fight from the OOO series is actually really neat and clever.

Feels like the execution leaves quite a bit to be desired though. I feel like this movie desperately wishes it had more runtime, since there's so many different things that would have benefited greatly from just an extra minute or two.

You could name a whole lot of ways this movie is rushed, but for me, the part that's by far the hurt by that most is the very end. There needed to be just at least even one little epilogue scene showing the characters taking the first step to moving on with their lives. Unfortunately, the hard shift to the credits will inevitably leave people feeling unsatisfied no matter how they may feel about the events leading up to the end.

There's also the larger meta issue of the fact that, well... This was hyped up as the big, 10th anniversary reunion special, right? I don't this plot is a bad idea for a story at all, but it might have been a bad idea for this particular occasion? I normally worry about judging these toku shows based on what I want, as opposed to what they choose to do, but I can't really blame anyone for thinking this movie betrayed expectations as opposed to just subverting them.

I think despite all that, I liked it more than I didn't. If it had that extra little hypothetical epilogue I mentioned, I might even had been completely positive on it. As is, it's just an alright little piece. I would call OOO10th 'daring' but after 01Others and Trio Of Deep Sin, it actually might be a little too dull and ordinary in comparison!

Up to episode 21 of Black. Thanks to looking up most of the information about the series beforehand, I have a much easier time getting through the series this time and even start enjoying it despite how extremely episodic Black really is. Then again, last time it might be my own fault for watching Metalder at the same time as it and finding myself really invested in that series and its own main protagonist more.

Just got done watching OOO 10th with Da Boiz. Or as I like to call it "Paradise Lost but OOO." While I can see the ending being contentious, I really liked both it and the movie overall. I give it a 5/6.

I'm currently watching episode 35 of Black and that means Shadow Moon finally makes his first appearance in the series.

I didn't comment last night when I finished it since it was late, but Skyrider is complete! I still have to watch the 2 movies for it I have, but I just had to talk about the show. I didn't expect much from Skyrider at first, but as the show progressed it just get getting weirder and weirder and it ended up being super entertaining! Gan Gan G's existence alone was enough to fry by brain, but the show also had like... this random stretch of episodes near the end that were themed after campy horror. In the last 3 episodes the show decided Tsukuba needed a backstory about his dead parents. They tried to launch Skyrider into space at one point! It was so incredibly campy, but in the best way where episodes were just a blast to watch. I also think it was helped by having an unusual protagonist for the Showa era, Tsukuba was refreshingly angst-free for the most part, and he comes across like a little bit of an idiot everyman compared to most Showa leads, who tend to be super smart or great at motorcycles or whatever. This ended up as my second favorite Showa Rider, and I'd probably give it a C+ grade. Great fun!

Kamen Rider Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail

Part 1

So Genta in the past, a.k.a Junpei, or a.k.a Subject 071, did the Demon hunting on his own instead of Vail. Vail has less significance by only a partner to talk with. And Junpei's anti-hero kind of a Rider, as he didn't do anything bad (but NOAH is just bad) by killing devils, but he only fought the devils for revenge of the death of his parents to a red devil, and him losing his soul as he fought more and more unrelated devil shows that he didn't really care about protecting others.

Junpei learns to use the ViStamp and Vail Driver quickly, while he at first goes to fight the devil in his human form, after Masumi tells him to use both devices he did it without struggling, or making use of Vail's tools afterwards. And while NOAH treats him as a captive, his fighting style is also really brutal, as if he's mindless. It even got him to destroy the bridge at his final fight and buried him under rubble, so he's a really destructive folk which have NOAH quite justified in their cruel methods of restraining him.

As Vail in the main series is shown to be able to destroy a Giftarian without a finisher, I wonder if the devil in the past was all the stronger one compared to the ones present in the main series, the general MOTW ones (not Phase 3 or above).

Unrelated but there's this oversight that can happen for shows that is meant to be set in the past as Revice prequel. As ep. 30 of Revice claims, the photo of NOAH executives (with Akaishi) are set decades ago... but one of the cars shown, the one he looked at the window as others call him devil, was 4th generation Honda Fit, which was a 2020 release. Sure the tech in KR world is far more advanced like NOAH, but this is still lacking an effort to make the past is really the past.

Episode 30 reveals that NOAH stands for Nest Of Anti-Human. Misanthropist much? It's like they're advertising the whole evil organization thing, instead of trying to hide it. Vail's (the devil, not the Rider) depiction here is a lot different to how he was in his show debut. He's presenting himself as a friend to Genta, presumably to build trust between them so he can use him later.

Why doesn't Genta just stay henshined after defeating the devil though? Undoing his henshin only makes him vulnerable to NOAH tasing him everytime. It seemed contrived that he never learned from repeating the same experience and NOAH are relying on him not thinking to do that so they can subdue him easily.

Nice observation! I guess the sponsors will do anything to show off their products, even if it doesn't make sense. Like M and Nico competing in the Tekken 7 tournament in 2010.

Watched the Revice HBV and I really adore Kangeroo Genome. The classic boxing style never gets old for me and the Remix is just wonderful!

Everything else was, uh, not great. I guess they can't all be like Saber's amazing retelling of the ugly duckling...

True it's obvious sign that NOAH is up to no good, but would get into that more in the Episode 2 talk. Though without that I never thought of NOAH as good before when it was revealed at first. Regarding Vail I just think it's about how he's still dormant in the belt, in his current rampage he still refered to Genta as his partner, the only partner, but it's used to show how he's a yandere hellbent on keeping Genta for himself. I don't think this one's like Vice in the flashback to child Ikki that seems genuinely helpful to him and family which was different to his portrayal at earlier episode to be entirely selfish and wanting to eat the family, Vail's difference was about what he can or can't do.

I'm a car guy so that's where it comes here. But I guess good other info of Tekken 7 appearing in 2010 for Ex-Aid.

I watched the Revice HBV just now, and I kind of feel like the whole thing crossed the line about 4 times before settling on "stupidly funny". Definitely one of the weirder HBVs out there, and that says something.

I recently watched/listened to the audio drama "Kamen Rider Blade: The Joker's Path" and as incredibly simplistic as it was, I did feel as though it served as a pretty good epilogue to Blade and its main cast. That ending was a total tease though and it so did not need to be that way.

I'm also not a fan of the hint that Kenzaki and Hajime are in love, as them having an intimate friendship is alot more powerful in my eyes.

The Joker's Path in one image:

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

My overall enjoyment on Revice really hinges on Reiwa Supaidaman, huh. I watch most of the Revice episodes with a straight face, but Dear Gaga got me smiling and feeling sad in its 15-minute runtime.

I love this bit of exploration on Hiromi's childhood home, the people that cheered him on and supported him from the sidelines as he became captain and later Kamen Rider. Those childhood pictures of Hiromi were actually Junya Komatsu's own child photos, which is a neat detail! I'm going off without subs, so anything I know is just basing on context and what few japanese words I recognize :lol

Hiromi faked his memory loss to get the two Igarashis to leave, and told his Gaga what really happened. The shame of it broke Hiromi. But we get to see how much his sincerity and words affected everyone. There was Yuki, a kid who went to Hiromi and asked how to become a Kamen Rider, and there was Yasu, a strawberry farmer who is physically struggling with his work but Hiromi's words of "giving it your all as a hero" is what encourages him every day to continue. Seeing the town celebrate around the television when Hiromi came to screen on the first episode was nice.

Wakabayashi is here, I don't know what he is though. Either he's a ghost, a figment of Hiromi's imagination, or his inner (demon?) thoughts manifested in the form of Wakabayashi encourages him that running away is a valid option in life but denies that he really did lose his memories. He's still pushing him, but more so to do what really wants in life. That there's more he wants to do besides staying with his mom.

But his Gaga is suffering from some kind of condition. At Wakabayashi's last push to get Hiromi back up, Hiromi strengthens his resolve but finds his Gaga in critical condition.

Edit: Also his father is dead. Looks to be some sort of police office.

Edit again: Yuki is also a strawberry thief that Hiromi finds.

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

For the stuff out there that has multiple subs what would you all say is the best for each season? Faiz, Ryuki, 01, Saber etc

For anything from the ‘00s, if you have an option that isn’t TV-Nihon, take it.

This is something I definitely agree with and not just for Kamen Rider either.

Rider-time/Izusubs for Zero-One and Saber.
EXCITE!subs for Blade (because I said so)
Gomen Rider for Agito


There's Earthly for Faiz, but some decisions on it aren't for me, so I stuck with TV-Nihon, same for Ryuki.

Interesting... TV-N I understand easily, but this is the sort of response I was hoping for because there didn't seem to be any particular bad outliers. What makes you choose these over the others because I am genuinely curious!

I mainly just prefer subs that play it straight, honestly. Although, in Blade's case, I started and stayed with EXCITE!subs and will not move an inch away from it :lol

Gomen Rider and Rider-Time/Izusubs do that for me.
Earthly does a few localizations (which I'm no fan, really), and a good number of typo/grammatical errors, so I just stuck with TV-Nihon. Translating stuff using "modern slang" words don't really do it for me since they age poorly in a couple of months, are there just for the sake of "memesubs", just odd to read, or doesn't really convey the actual meaning behind the original audio.



https://i.imgur.com/TIeN3iM.png

Kamen Rider Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail

Part 2

As this centers outside of Noah, more of Junpei's personality is shown here in the daily talk against someone, as someone only driven by revenge and has lost his meaning of life by that, he's a lone wolf type and would show some coldness and aloofness. It's explainable with how NOAH treats him, but his vengeful side seems to be purely his own, as that time he was eager to fight the devils, instead of obeying NOAH. Other than that, he seems to be enhanced as Vail with his wounds healing quickly. Not that it applies to his scent too however. He doesn't seem to be much superior to the NOAH soldiers that fought him, so he's probably at best slightly superhuman in physical stats at that point.

It now centers around the buildup of his relationship with Yukimi as she helped him out from the debris and took him to the similar-as-ever-in-the-past Happy Spa. True to how "the apple doesn't fall far from the tree", Yukimi showed traits that is seen in her future children, seen in her cooking being about spicy curries like Sakura's, as well as her being a #1 busybody like Ikki's, none for Daiji's yet. I guess it makes sense now on how she was fiercely overprotective against Sakura becoming a Rider, she resembles Ikki the most at the first place. That'd make her kind and helpful...
b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶ ̶p̶e̶r̶s̶o̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶n̶ ̶J̶u̶n̶p̶e̶i̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶w̶i̶t̶h̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶R̶i̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶s̶u̶i̶t̶, albeit with some wild and savage traits too, she's saving the day with traditionally feminine role to Genta, but Ikki's busybodiness is seen as a wrong trait in the main series, so if Yukimi's like him too she should've been given a lesson too, but I don't think it'd happen for 5-part only unless it's mentioned offscreen if Yukimi can be a main guide to her children.

Still there's something that all the children has nothing in common to their parents... seems that none of the Igarashi childrens inherit Junpei's personality, while Yukimi was never strong physically unlike all her children... of which is shown in ep. 1, the difference between her and Sakura dealing with the Giff Juniors. Though she did rescue Genta by using steel rod to lift the debris. No info yet on how the name Genta came, hope it'd be something more meaningful. Yukimi felt that her fate is to protect him and obviously they'd eventually marry... but I'd hope the next ones aren't only about their love, based on the current previews.

Actually Masumi's conscience kicked in earlier than I thought, I thought he felt regret as he grew older and a bit wiser, but actually he already objected as a young man here against Agariyama, who's shown to be completely ruthless in reaching his goals, experimenting on various people without blinking an eye despite that all of them except Junpei are killed. That'd mean he might've obtained more victims than Olteca with Junpei being numbered 71. He'd also capture someone innocent just because she interacts with Subject 071 and would soon consider him a failure as well, Junpei's second chance is given without freedom. While Masumi has done the experiments too, thus he's amoral too, he had limits to stop when he feels it has gone too far. This also makes him a better person compared to certain another hat + sunglasses + mask covered person, W's Shroud, that he's more well-meaning and is genuinely remorseful for the damage and chaos his research caused unlike Shroud who's completely consumed by her vengeance to manipulate others as a tool constantly including monsters like Isaka, though she eventually felt remorse but in much later time.

Kamen Rider Genm The Presidents 1000% Smart Brain Special

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S04E22/411...?b64lines=IA==

So these TTFC specials, I know the plots are wild, but they at least feel like they watched the show, understand the characters somewhat. Here... the plot is bizarre. The characters are vaguely here, I guess, but outside of Kuroto's OTTness, it's nothing distinctive. The Ark is back, and working with Dan, because logic doesn't matter, this is just a silly short to sell new merch for a 2+6 year old toyline (seriously, are 01 and Ex-Aid that worth it?) Smart Brain is here, to set up shop for the next web special, so I look forwards to Faiz vs OOO - Kougami's Smart Brain 1000% real

The designs are nice, I suppose? Muteki Genm is actually really nice, even though it makes me wish the rest of the Ex-Aid cast were here to put him in his place - the problem with isolating Kuroto the meme man is that you lose all the context of what made him so funny! Thouser... looks cool, I guess? Black and white colour scheme on that body is nice, but we also already had evil dark Thouser in Zaia.

Look, I like Kuroto. Ex-Aid is great. I even have some fondness for Thouser, in his absolute loser version of a hero. This just didn't work for me, in a way that even the other web-specials didn't. Oren/Jonouchi special? Chaarcters we hadn't seen in years (plus Takatora I will always simp for Takatora). Decade vs Zi-O? Applaudable for sheer madness alone. But this? I just don't get it. Anyone feel different and want to let me know what I'm missing?

Yeah, about how I feel. It feels very phoned in? Just kinda like... I dunno, I didn't care for it. Ark being back in particular feels pretty bad in the same way as Evolt in New World. But it's just a TTFC special and I got a cool Genm Musuo transformation out of it so net win, I suppose?

Kuuga: The official one

Agito: I told Die to go with TV-Nihon over Gomen-Rider, and I don't really regret it when the latter was the one trying to translate idioms directly. (Although admittedly, it's not like I've gone over the entire show to compare here, so examples that bad might be rarer than I'm making it sound.)

Ryuki: The official one seriously Shout is doing good work people

Faiz: Abandon all hope (but I guess go with one of the not TV-N ones if you have to.)

Blade: Excite and it's not even a contest

OOO: Over-Time messed up Eiji's whole iconic 楽して助かる命がないのはどこも一緒だな bit in the premiere, which will bug me forever, all the more so now that OOO 10th made such a major callback to it, so that's at least one more translation TV-N can claim is genuinely more accurate from them. ...Not that this is any comment on the overall quality of either group's take on OOO; I mostly just wanted to vent about this. (Really, in pretty much any case where it's a choice between Over-Time and TV-N, I'm going to say the former.)

Gaim: Aesir

Ex-Aid: Excite

Zero-One: The official one, but I mean, if you can't support that anyway, Over-Time is just as good

Saber-Revice: Do we even have a choice besides IzuSubs right now?

Honestly, Genms And The Overly Long Subtitle was a really nice treat in my book, and convinced me I'm totally down for one or two of these on occasion. There's a very particular vibe to this series that I like -- and I'm not sure how well I can really describe it -- but it's something about the idea of the roles it slots Gai and Kuroto into. Those are both characters I found could become a bit grating within their own shows, and yet, for some reason, I love them in these. More than any particular joke, there's just this humor inherent in having a hero who was a complete scumbag until he got a robot dog, and a villain who's been given way too many layers to ever function as a straight antagonist ever again. Neither of them makes that much sense in the role they're given, and that's *hilarious* to me.

Genms is like this borderline avant-garde experiment in the way it plays with the idea of how the audience is meant to root for characters in a typical story (it knows people like Kuroto more, names itself after him, and still makes Gai the "protagonist" anyway, which says a lot), and this one in particular played up that actual Genm VS Thouser angle that got sidetracked for the Cronus stuff last time.

So yeah, I don't know. I guess if I'm saying it's good, that might be a warning sign more than anything, but I feel like Yuuya Takahashi is doing something pretty interesting with these things despite them not being deep in any way, and this time we did indeed get a cool new suit or two out of the deal, so I'm pretty satisfied.

Did Excite finish Ex-Aid? I'm only able to find up to episode 28 with them... either way, thank you! I trust you pretty well when it comes to subs at this point so this is very helpful

If I recall, at least for Saber there is FlameSubs. I know there was a recent batch released of the whole series + movie + specials from em. I've only been slowly partially working through Saber again (purely for Fanfic purposes) so I haven't been able to see too much of their work but I end up liking what I glimpse at pretty well.

Oh right; I remember this now you bring it up! It was a collaboration between Flame and another subgroup as said group's final project; and a series that meant a lot to them so it was something they worked hard on. I haven't tried it myself but the way their foreword was written told me it was definitely the one I'd want to have if I ever watched Saber again

Excite definitely finished Ex-Aid, I watched it with their subs back when it was airing live. I'm sure it is out there somewhere, you can DM me if you want any help tracking it down!

Note for you anyone who can't see the SHOUT subs normally: You might also want to check out "Dodgy" on the cat-site. ;)

Anyway, of the shows I've seen/sampled so far, here are my tidbits.

Skyrider through Black RX: Bereke Scrubs

Kuuga: SHOUT if you don't mind the Grongi being subbed

Agito: Honestly it's a toss-up. I do slightly prefer GomenRider though.

Ryuki: SHOUT

Faiz: Agony. Although not optimal I personally find it to be the best of what choices we have right now.

Blade: Everyone vouches for EXCITE, so go with them I guess. I used Turn Up Scrubs to watch it and they're fine(lots of typos in specific episodes though).

Hibiki: OZC

Decade: I used RiderTime, and even though their subs are full of typos, I personally preferred their writing style over Earthly. However, NonActionableFansubs is apparently doing a scrub that serves as a sort of cross between the two, so try them maybe?

W through Wizard: OZC

Ghost: OZC

Zi-O: OZC

Zero-One: SHOUT

Being the Unequivocal Gai apologist I am :lol, I really just enjoyed seeing Gai again, putting full circle to his character by giving an Ark-based form. No matter how many times Takahashi seems to beat down Gai, it really just increases my love for his character hahaha.

Sorely disappointing that the sounds are just cut-up pieces of Thouser and Ark-Driver's sounds though.

With the subs and Zein being its own entity and villain (essentially being the Killbus of Zero-One), sad to say that Zein isn't a new form for Gai. I'm still holding out hope though!

https://i.imgur.com/Kqn4RJM.jpg

I think Genta's quest for revenge could be meaningless, since Episode 31 revealed that the red devil is Vail himself, due to Akaishi calling him by name. Of course, that means Genta's only memory of the red devil murdering his parents is impossible, since Vail didn't exist until after Genta's operation. Vail might be screwing with his memories the same way Vice did to Ikki, but this time to further his yandere agenda of presenting himself as the only one Genta needs.

If the negative side of Yukimi's busybody trait isn't addressed in the spin-off, then we can probably assume she experienced her own development for that sometime in the 25 year interval. The only development she got so far was in Episode 17, where she learned to stop being so overprotective of her grown-up children and start believing in them. That's not necessarily a bad thing though, since it shows that Yukimi is already a very emotionally mature and sensible person, to only need that one episode of development. Someone needs to hold that crazy family together. I think this is what makes it such a sweet love story, about a kind girl like Yukimi trying to tame a vengeful devil human like Genta to become the family-loving man we know in the present.

Yeah, there could be up to 70 of those identical rust-colored devils that NOAH are forcing Genta to destroy, all of them his unlucky predecessors in the experiment to create a perfect devil human. Not sure about Olteca but it's interesting you bring him up, since Vail did sense the power of the devil inside him. Just speculating, but maybe his mother was also a partially successful experiment and escaped or something.

Anyway, it'd be still showing that revenge is a wrongful trait, even if indirectly. And that personal revenge is also different to stopping threats from causing further harm even if the outcome might be similar.

I was putting a reminder about how despite that Yukimi is a kind girl, Genta at this point would contribute far more to others, despite that he's a vengeful devil human, because Genta is still a strong Rider that can fight off devils, while Yukimi would be more limited in what she can do. And regarding how taming a vengeful devil human would be kinda like many primary and secondary Rider dynamics. As older self Yukimi is the only one approving of Genta's 'pathetic' traits though, compared to how the 'sensible' childs Daiji and Sakura think about him... So you do have a point about her needing short time to develop, though outside of 25 year interval (so it'd be at 1997? damn modernism in this show setting...) I'd still want to see the maturity and sensibility on the young one, not only old ones because the stigma of the old being viewed as always wiser and more right.

Was bringing him up regarding the Giftarian murders, both Olteca and NOAH/Agariyama had killed humans and turned them into devils. Unlike Deadman contracts that didn't do the same.

Well, yeah, Genta as Kamen Rider Vail is an antihero, cleaning up NOAH's dangerous failed experiments (NOAH are so stupid if they let them escape 70 times without thinking about how to stop that) for the sake of his revenge. So he's able to do more short-term good than Yukimi, but for the wrong reasons. Yukimi still has a strong impact though, since she gives Genta the means to move on from his trauma and live happily and that impact continues in to the future, raising her children to become better people and holding the Igarashi family together as the voice of reason.

Daiji and Sakura looking down on Genta's goofy behavior seems like a typical snobbish reaction from teens/young adults who feel embarrassed by their "lame" parents, especially considering how Sakura is an edgy "invincible girl" who looks down on any weakness in general. I think it's okay that Yukimi finds Genta's behavior endearing. While wisdom can come with age, it does depend on how that experience is used. Older people can also become too stubborn and reject any new ideas due to believing their advanced age makes them always right. I don't think that's the case with Yukimi though, she's great. Daiji seems to have inherited some of that wisdom as well, being the least dysfunctional and most motivated of his siblings.

After around two months of meandering, I'm finally back to where I left off on Kamen Rider Black.

Kamen Rider Revice Legacy: Kamen Rider Vail

Part 3

I was worried before regarding about how the next one was probably going to sideline the deeper development of learning to live or something for just lovey-dovey romance, even though it's obviously going to happen eventually, but actually that's handled fine and better than I expect. There's some relatable traits between Genta and Yukimi to each other that probably is the one to spark the relationship. About how both lost their parents, and both feel a sense of emptiness in their life with Genta losing the meaning of his life by only taking revenge, and Yukimi seemingly accepting of her potential death as NOAH prisoner. And then Genta, with him also being far more honest than I expect, admitting that spending time with Yukimi was enjoyable and likely something that can fill the void in his life, probably Yukimi as well before of wanting to eat together with him.

Now it's clearer why the NOAH captain seem to have more restrain and standards compared to the other NOAH members, because he's actually a spy from a resistance to prevent victims like Genta. This one's not a case of 'not all members from a shady organization (in this case NOAH) is fully bad'. He's also likely the younger Buu-san (the most different look between the cast), which explains his excellence of gathering information, his 'special' occupation was being a former soldier. Before he helped Genta and Yukimi escape he tried to convince Masumi, so that shows he disapproved of Agariyama. Though dunno when did he become a spy of NOAH and if he's already there when the previous 70 victims aren't saved, as it can seem as if the turnaround of the captain was forced in the middle if he's already there for quite a time, and that he did tase Genta. Masumi is also a better person compared to Agariyama, but he's still not a good person overall, then and now, with him refusing to change his ways here that he has sunk too deep despite having limits in what he did.

Actually turns out how Genta is seen as a failure was about his body rejecting Giff cells thus he can also potentially turn into devil. So it's nothing different from previous 70 subjects, but just delayed failure for Agariyama. Obviously planning to kill Yukimi is monstrous too. For the fight here, the stock "your loved ones fuel your determination" trope is used as a reason why Genta can escape (and likely keeps his human self this way)... Other than that, Revice continues to provide bodycount here, and not from Giff-related stuff in the captain firing at his squad members. Which next leads into a rare scene of Kamen Rider directly hitting humans. The soldiers aren't actually reduced into mush for obvious reason (excessive gore even if that makes sense), but likely they died too from a direct blow from Kamen Rider.

Yukimi talking about her backstory was pretty sad, with how easily she was willing to resign to death so she could stop feeling lonely from the loss of her family. Which means he was probably putting on a front to make Genta feel better, another similarity to Ikki in how they both neglect their own feelings in service of others. Totally different from the cheerful middle-aged Yukimi we know in the present, so there's more development for her. Yukimi was clearly a good influence on Genta, but I guess the reverse could also be true, with both of them giving the other something they need to feel whole. I think the reason why this love story doesn't fall in to the trap of cliches could be due to Mouri's writing style, since he likes to put his unique spin on these tropes.

Maybe it has something to do with Genta's mental state that caused his physical symptoms, like how Daiji's envy of Ikki strengthened Kagerou. He seemed to get better when he remembered Yukimi, so his desire to protect her might allow him to attune with his devil side. I'm suspicious of Vail though, since Agariyama reveals that he set him loose on Genta's parents to give Genta a motivation of revenge against devils. So that memory actually happened. But like, when? And how? NOAH don't have a good record of controlling devils, so I'm not sure how they were able to separate Vail from his host and convince him to do their bidding, all of this before Genta had even woke up from his operation. It seems like all of NOAH's plans rely on dumb luck.

I recently saw a translation of the NOAH document Masumi was holding, which mentions the setting of Yukimi's and Genta's escape in June 1996. This would give their romantic relationship more time to escalate before the birth of Ikki.

I'm now up to episode 46 of Kamen Rider Black and I should be able to finish this series around this weekend.

It's a good ending. I really like how the show gets more serialized near the end.

Well, this is it. I'm finally down to the final two episodes of Kamen Rider Black.

EDIT: Just finished the series as of last night. Next up, his battles against the Gorgom may have ended but Minami Kotaro's journey is far from over with Kamen Rider Black RX.