Well, I went ahead and finished up the rest of Build. Including the specials and movies.

One of the few things I knew about Build via osmosis about going in was that many people agreed that the third act of the show was where quality declined.

And yeah, sure, there's definitely alot of stuff in the last leg of the show that I could definitely complain about, such as Gentoku becoming one of the most obnoxious characters I've ever had to deal with in Kamen Rider.

But the thing is... I actually thought it was overall a step up from the rest of the show? I mean, it didn't salvage the show for me or anything, but it at the very least gave me a character that I liked watching in Evolto, and it's also when the show embraced putting more spectacle into its fight scenes.

Shallow? Sure, but it was more than anything that I had gotten out of the show prior. Heck, I actually ended up being okay with the New World movies because they gave me more of the few things out of Build that I actually liked. If nothing else, I think that Cross-Z Evol and Grease Perfect Kingdom are great looking suits, and take advantage of character traits way better than other suits do.

Look, I didn't go into Build wanting to hate it, alright? And if it all sounds like I'm trying to dunk on anyone who got something out of the show, I'm really not trying to. If you love it, that's awesome. I wish I could! It's just that, Build in general really does not align with my tastes, with the biggest factor most certainly being that, by the end of it, I pretty much liked almost no one in the cast. And what little stuff I got that I did like was too little too late.

As such, I hate to do it, but my final rating for Kamen Rider Build is a 1/6. It's easily the weakest entry in Phase 2 Heisei for me so far, and is really only a step above Decade for me in terms of Rider shows in general. Heck, I can't even think of a song to associate with the show right now like I usually do: The show straight up creatively drained me. Next in line for whenever I decide to watch some Rider again is Ex-Aid, and I'm hoping I have more fun with that then I did with either Build or Black Sun.

Update

Series 1 (Episode 02)
V3 (Episode 03)
X (Episode 03)
Amazon (Episode 02)
Stronger (Episode 02)
Sky Rider (Episode 02)
Super 1 (Episode 02)
Black (Episode 02)
Black RX (Episode 02)
Kuga (Episode 02)
Agito (Episode 02)
Ryuki (Episode 02)
555 (Episode 02)
Blade (Episode 02)
Hibiki (Episode 02)
Den O (Episode 02)
Kiva (Episode 01)
Decade (Episode 01)
W (Episode 01)
OOO (Episode 01)
Fourze (Episode 01)
Wizard (Episode 01)
Gaim (Episode 01)
Drive (Episode 01)
Ghost (Episode 01)
Ex Aid (Episode 01)
Build (Episode 01)
Zi O (Episode 01)
Zero One (Episode 01)
Saber (Episode 01)
Revice (Episode 02)

Been doing some catch up on various specials/watching ones that recently released and I won't post too in depth stuff but...

Sabela & Durendal: An honestly average and plain special, but one that really manages to portray the Shindai Siblings as actual normal siblings. I'd say it's up there with their best appearance (Their Zenkaiger Crossover Episode). We also got to see Kaiji in its sword mode potentially more than we ever did in the show and we got a new Megid as well even if it was a retool. I'd consider that a win.

Birth of Chimera: Basically a prologue to Battle Familia and I think it does a nice job at bringing you what amounts to 95% new characters with only Hiromi and George making brief appearances. A very tragic prologue that sets up the movie and helps introduce the guest cast. Also Chimera as a suit is pretty nice, I prefer it over Daimon though Juuga is the superior suit of that system entirely tbh.

Battle Familia: Just a fun time getting to see the cast together again. The returning cast from the show that isn't our main three characters put in some real good work here. Also Geats' cameo was unintentionally the most hilarious part of the movie. Also for those of you who aren't too hot on Vice, dude very much takes a backseat in the movie (He does a lot of English One-Liners) for Ikki who gets some good stuff with Daimon, who I consider a better Akaishi even if I was entertained by Apollogeistman in the show.

Revice Final Stage: Given the time Battle Familia came out, despite the continuity and where it takes place... it was missing a few things. Luckily final stage rectifies the movie lacking those things. By that I mean Evilyty Live and Invincible Jeanne. It also has the most hilarious usage of "Clap your hands to give us strength!" in that it's mostly just for Hiromi who needs the extra power in order to fight as Demons because, he's an old man, though would rather be called Uncle if he's being honest.

Watched Kamen Rider Saber Spin-off: Kamen Rider Sabela & Kamen Rider Durendal. I think this story would have worked much better as a side story in the original show or a movie about various swordsmen. And so it feels empty, even compared to the Hyper Battle DVD. Not even new forms, just a cool exchange of books. Nevertheless, there is character development, there are no cringe moments, the battle, albeit short, but cool, the siblings' acrobatics were especially pleased. Well, Angella Mei looks beautiful in a wedding dress.
https://i.ibb.co/hf6YqkN/Angela-Mei-Wedding-2.jpg
So in general, I have no complaints about the story itself, rather its format. Simply put: good, but too short.

I also watched Sabela & Durandal.

The wedding was a bust, what a shocker. :p Nevertheless, I think this was an improvement over Twokaizer VS Gokaiger (even though I like the Goldtwoikars a lot more than the Shindais), as it presented a more complex moral about getting married for the right reasons. Like, don't get married to appease your family, you should only get married to someone you truly love and respect. That's what the romantic spirit of marriage is all about! Don't be a Canalo, be a Bamba instead!

I may have admitted before that I was apprehensive about this special due to, uh, you know, Reika. But Kaneko had never let me down before and that still hasn't changed. I was impressed with how she gave some much needed constructive development to this dysfunctional character and even made her sympathetic and likable. And yeah, I'm still Sh Ranger, I haven't been replaced by some kind of doppelganger. I give praise where due.

Ryouga's development is good as well. He pushed the idea of marriage to encourage Reika to find someone with whom she can stand equal, rather than continuing to worship him like a god. And while she does initially go along it to appease him, she learned to want it for herself after seeing how Rui could actually be a good fit for her. Of course, he totally wasn't, but even though we didn't get a wedding, I still feel like we got a touching story about the social benefit of marriage and the importance of maintaining a healthy and honest sibling relationship.

Looked Battle Familia. Not the best of these films, but full of events and references to classic action movies. At the end, it's just impossible not to smile. Pleased Hiromi with his bow. Also, for once, a pregnant woman gave birth throughout the film, and not in a couple of minutes, as is usually shown in the movies. And here is the fact that Nozomu is the rider's excuse to sell another toy.
Geats' cameo wasn't the best. The fight scene was good, but the ending was clearly not worked out. Is he and Dimon just waved goodbye and parted ways? It would have been better if "Mission Complete" had sounded and Geats had simply vanished into thin air.

I just finsihed reading the new prequel manga to the upcoming Shin Kamen Rider movie and it's siper intreasting the direction they've taken with the concept with the original series and it makes me excited for the movie.

https://mangadex.org/title/c2f91f0c-...r-shocker-side

I've started watching Ex-Aid. Currently up through episode 13, including the Pac-Man movie, the Gemn specials, and Episode Zero.

And so far it's... okay.

The first quarter certainly flows way better than what the first quarter of Build did, and most of the characters sans Brave are likable enough. Though I will give the show credit in that Brave does have a good point every now and then.

Maybe seeing Zero-One first spoiled me in terms of Yuya Takahashi's' writing, because comparatively, there aren't nearly as many strong character moments in Ex-Aid as there were during Zero-One's' first quarter. Even the infamous Christmas episode really didn't do much for me.

Don't get me wrong, I liked Kujo fine and all, but his arc being nothing super engrossing for me ontop of the weird way the episode itself is structured more so made the entire experience feel as if the episode was written just for shock value rather than anything character based. The biggest point of contention being that it felt like two separate episodes fused into one.

I think watching Episode Zero after the third episode might've put a bit of a different expectation in me, because I actually rather liked that set of extra episodes for the most part, and is the biggest reason why Taiga is my favorite character so far. Also helps that I think he has the best suits out of the whole cast so far. Although I will say that the introduction of Nico has me worried given that she didn't exactly make a good first impression.

But yeah, so far the show is overall just fine. Nothing terrible, but nothing spectacular either.

I'm now up through episode 23, and have also seen the Beast Rider and GoRider specials.

My fears of Nico and Taiga were not unfounded. The best way I think of to sum it up is that Nico is written very much like a modern MCU character; An obnoxious character who constantly undermines and ruins any sort of tone that the show goes for when she's around. I'll actually be getting into the story of Ex-Aid for once but then here comes Nico to make a derogatory comment or calls the scenario stupid and just immediately take me out of everything. And Taiga becoming a simp for her really does not help anything.

Meanwhile, it's been so interesting seeing just how different Kuroto is here compared to how he is literally every other piece of Rider media that I've seen him in. And really it's actually refreshing in a way, given that I'm pretty 50/50 on whether his antics work for me in a given bit of Rider media.

As for the specials, as infamous as the Beast Rider special is... I don't think it was that bad? Like, sure, it's not anything great, but I've seen far worse in terms of like, everything in terms of Rider. Even the graphic content really is nothing compared to early Phase 1 Heisei or Showa. It was overall just kinda there for me. Really don't get the disdain towards this one.

On the opposite end is GoRider, which from what I understand alot of people really love, and I just don't see it. It's not that it's horrible or anything, and I infact think the overall atmosphere of it is rather good, but outside of that, it just really didn't do anything for me. The logistics of how the final part play out are especially confusing to me. Because like, taking the casual spoiling of Blade's' ending aside, if Kuroto taking on Kenzaki's' form really did cause Battle Fight rules to take effect, wouldn't the game world have crumbled like, immediately, rather than waiting for Kenzaki to show up? And where the heck did Emu even get those GoRider cards?

That's about all the specific thoughts I have. Outside of those, Ex-Aid continues to just be thoroughly okay in my eyes.

People like Gorider for it atmosphere, the character interactions and the Blade stuff was cool cause I remember people hand waving why Kenzaki despite not being dead as just oh crossover logic only for that to be turned upside down cauaing a bit of a stir it was a fun time to be had. And it offered an alternative to the Taisen movies which people where sick off at the time.

Also the Gorider cards where from Chou Super Hero Taisen which this was made to promote/piggy back off

Final verdict on episode 16? :lolol

It was an episode focused almost entirely on Nico, and as such it most certainly wasn't an episode I cared all that much for.

Now that the holidays are over, I am now back to watching some more Kamen Rider Den-O on which I might be able to finish very soon. 36 episodes down, 13 to go with Fourze being my next KR series to watch.

Started watching Kamen Rider Zi-O: Supplementary Plan, a series of three-minute videos that ran after the first 16 episodes of the show. So far, this only makes me love Zi-O even more. Supplementary Plan does a good job of making fun of the shortcomings of the show while being very candid about the reasons for certain decisions (like OOC characters due to different writers and directors, or the appearance of Dan Kuroto in the OOO arc). They also blew up Toei's office. For me, Zi-O has always been a show full of problems, but impossible to get mad at because of his genuine love for the previous riders. And the Supplementary Plan shows that if the show wasn't meant to be, at least the people behind it knew it.
https://tokuzilla.net/wp-content/upl...plan-thumb.png

Since we are talking about ex-aid, or we were talking about ex-aid, I want to just praise my favorite scene and my favorite character from that show.

In episode 10 something happened that hurt Kamen Rider Brave. Our boy Brave had to get tucked in to a hospital bed by those two nurses that were always following him around in those early episodes. While he was being tucked in and cared for by the nurses, he yelled at em for daring to tell him to get a good night’s rest, and he told em to get the heck out of the room.

Before the nurses could leave, his cellphone on the other side of the room starts ringing and without even ordering them to do it, one of the nurses picks up the phone and brings it over to Brave and holds it up to his ear. Brave’s arms are still tucked into the sheets, he is literally doing nothing. The nurse puts the phone to Brave’s ear and Brave just sits there scowling and looking mad, but saying nothing! A long time goes by, our boy never even greeted the person who called him. Then, finally, the other caller, the sweet boy Emu, breaks the silence and tries to greet Brave “It’s Emu!” Our boy brave is still mad and grumbles “What do you want?”

Can you imagine being Emu? You are calling your colleague and you can tell the phone was picked up but nobody is saying anything? Haha. Maybe this scene was just written for me, but it’s hilarious (to me). I know I would be the Emu in that situation. I could never be cool enough to be Brave.

Ah. A perfect scene. I laughed so much when I first saw this.

Emu is a good boy. Brave is a jerk.

What about episode 12 aka the Christmas episode? I meant to ask about that and had a brain fart and asked about 16 instead. My bad. :lolol

Basically aside from feeling like two different episodes stitched together, I felt like the big reason that Lazer was killed off was both for shock value and because Takahashi realized that if Lazer didn't die right there, the whole plot would've been over because he was the only character who was actually being proactive.

And well, the shock value part kinda falls flat nowadays when the episode in question is one of those things that became so infamous with the fandom that it's almost impossible to not get spoiled as to what happens.

Looks like I'll be finishing up on Den-O earlier than I thought since I'm currently down to its final five episodes and up to its own Christmas two-parter no less. Should be finished with the series over the weekend.

I can agree with this. It's very much Madoka Magica episode 3 vibes - I was like "oh holy crap" when it actually happened because it was cutesy Christmas songs until then and had no idea what they'd try. But now that everybody hypes it up, it kind of loses that impact, meaning you see it as what it is.

By the way, about Madoka. This show has been praised and reviled for infusing magical girl anime with cruelty and misery. But I started rewatching Sailor Moon at a more mature age and I will say that there are also enough very heavy episodes. And yes, Princess Tutu was full of agnst before Madoka, not to mention such things as Utena and Pretty Honey. So the "Madoka effect" is most likely caused not by the fact that she shows cruelty, because this was done before her, but by the fact that this show deliberately sticks out and relishes such moments.

Watched Decade's musical live show. In fact, this is the story of Kuuga / Yusuke and Tsukasa is not even really needed there, and Natsumi is not needed at all. But I liked how absurd and cool it is at the same time. And here is an excerpt that I am completely ready to re-evaluate endlessly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQo-UYuE4G0

Watching all Rider shows on You Tube not on the main
Toku Feed as only 2 episodes are subbed each series.

Kuuga, Ryuki, Zero-One as well as the original series are available to watch on Shout Factory TV's streaming app and website as well as Tubi with Zero-One and Kuuga are already released by Shout Factory on Blu-Ray with Ryuki making its US release via Blu-Ray next month through that same company as well as Kamen Rider Black also being released next month on Blu-Ray albeit through Discotek Media. Also, you should consider watching some seasons through various streaming sites if necessary like Tokuzilla as a minor example.

Anyway, I'm now up to Den-O's own endgame arc via its final three episodes.

I read through the original Kamen Rider manga, and I must say I definitely consider it a must read for any Rider fan. At the same time though, it was... different than I expected?


It definitely has a lot that sets it apart from its tokusatsu version and it is an overall darker story, but at the same time it had way more goofy 70s toku energy than I thought it would, so I actually think the show was surprisingly faithful! For a manga that predates so much of the henshin hero genre this was a bit mind blowing to me. I also didn't know about the thing with Hongo and Hayato's stint with a shared body, which I guess W was a callback to?


Good stuff overall, the art was often quite stunning and I liked both its early parts which were dark with some goofy elements and the later parts that were goofy with some dark elements.

The second part of the Shin Kamen Rider Prequel Manga has been scanlated

https://trafalgarlog.wordpress.com/2...art-2-shocker/

I have now finished the core show of Ex-Aid, including the Lazer HBV and True Ending.

The Lazer HBV was just some goofy fun, and True Ending, while not great, I did enjoy for what it was. Especially its atmosphere.

As for the core show itself, well... it's fine. That's it. Just overall, fine. Not horrible, but not particularly great either. The biggest issue I had though was in its final act, which really wasn't a good time for me.

Because see, during the middle part of the show, where it basically became the Poppy and Parado Show, I actually got rather invested in a show that up until that point I was just kinda neutral on. But then, as the show has a good thing going, it gets completely overtaken by the arrival of Masamune Dan.

And I'll be honest, I find Masamune to be the worst written antagonist I've experienced in the franchise so far. Not only does he come in almost out of nowhere, but he gets a ton of freebies to keep him relevant to the plot and beat the cast repeatedly to the point that it got really frustrating. Masamune can't even program anything, yet he somehow makes Taddle Legacy?

He can delete anyone he wants with the press of a button(which is never followed up on), he can hoarde power-ups for himself(but doesn't do it for the longest time), he can teleport even when not transformed, he can reset the game, he can reprogram Gamedeus(even though he's not a programmer), the list just went on and on and made the entire arc really drag. And it's especially not helped in just how boring his character and personality are.

But it wasn't all bad though. While Parado ended up being my favorite character overall, the most surprising takeaway for me was actually Kuroto Dan. As someone watching Ex-Aid after having seen a bunch of Kuroto's' later series cameos, ontop of what little I knew of him from the fanbase, I was so surprised to see a character that was apparently just hammy acting and memes was actually a rather three dimensional character all throughout the show's' runtime. And I really dug that! It's a such a shame that there's so much of his character that just isn't followed up on.

In the end, unless the rest of the post show content ends up being really good for me, my final rating for Ex-Aid is a 2/6. That final act really does do alot to hurt it, but outside of that the show just never got past being thoroughly "okay" for me, with no real big emotional response from me to speak of.

What about Kai from Den-O? For me, he is by far the worst antagonist. As for Masamune, everything is quite simple: he is not a programmer, he is a businessman. We can assume that he bought himself an awesome cheating character and therefore, even without knowing how to play, he still poses a serious threat to the rest.
As for Ex-Aid, I liked the show while I watched it, but afterward it turned out to be surprisingly...unmemorable. That is, now I can?t even remember what Gamedeus looked like, and for the final boss of the game, this is unforgivable.

And ironically Ex-Aid had quite short amount of total episodes for KR, only ending at 45. Masamune being bad, boring, or overstaying his welcome would be your personal opinion, but I'd think iirc none suggests that Masamune can't program, he can albeit not as talented as his son, though what's important is that he doesn't care about creativity in his programs, viewing the games only as a tool to achieve his goals, like how real life sociopaths who don't have a particular interest in an creative pursuit to struggle with it, quickly become bored with things that don't interest them and lose focus, like only giving his version of Gamedeus generic final boss lines, in comparison of Kuroto giving Bugsters more colorful personality.

He's three dimensional yeah, though he's straight-up evil throughout the show (the one with little sympathetic traits), including when he joined CR honestly too; as it's only an evil fighting other evil that has mutual goal with the heroes (like Kusaka in Faiz).

Die is a Kai fan, and perhaps he got something to say regarding it. :p Otherwise, Masamune not knowing how to play is clearly shown in how he's a shitty fighter when he can't overwhelm his opponent like Hyper Muteki, or perhaps even Taddle Fantasy holding his own outside of pause. This trend continues in Takahashi's show later in Gai using Thouser. Perhaps... Taira/Ginpen in Geats is an example of what'd happen if a businessman isn't given super powerful tools as central antagonist role.

I think Ginpen is definitely a more positive character. But I would venture to guess that we will see someone like Masamune in Geats. Most likely from among the sponsors or the top management of the DGP.

Clearly the worst antagonist is Gif.

I haven't seen Den-O yet. So hey, maybe I will find him more boring or poorly written. Only time will tell. For now tough that award goes to Masamune.

He doesn't though. He literally just walks into the building and pulls the Cronus Gashat and Buggle Driver out of an unlocked drawer and proceeds from there.

That they never actually show him doing it is proof enough, but there's also how he only ever focuses on business as well as how he sat in prison doing nothing for 10 years. Even when he did use to run the company, every single flashback shows Kuroto doing all of the programming work, never Masamune.

The most interesting thing is that while Gif was a silent piece of stone, he quite suited most viewers as the main villain. In fact, he was disappointed only after he voiced his motives.

I've honestly never considering who I think the worst villain is. Giff is certainly fresh in my mind, but when someone mentioned Kai from Den-O I went "Den-O had an antagonist?!" before slowly remembering that he existed. Making that little of an impact on me definitely gets my vote for the worst.

I'm not sure who I'd consider my least favourite. Usually the villains are either good for me in some way or don't do anything to directly bother me. I guess Horobi or Giff.

I'd probably vote Masamune as my least favorite. He's just generic corpo man who's a master planner but with none of the charm that Evolt had.

For funsies, I watched Kamen Rider Ryuki's Hyper Battle Video which is a very fun and harmless little video and it honestly makes me wish it is one of the special features for Ryuki's upcoming Blu-Ray release.

Sitting in prison is also part of his plan :p (Patient Zero). But yeah, focusing on business part is also seen in his game designs like giving Gamedeus generic boss one-liners. Kuroto is certainly more talented and passionate in programming just that doesn't mean Masamune can't.

Shows that Revice doesn't quite to know what to do in later half juggling all the buildups, I too think Giff is more better suited as unseen antagonist that fuels the agendas of each side, or if they want to make him an active antagonist, use him in Akaishi's place.

KR seems to have loads of boring and uninteresting main antagonists (though they had lots of secondary or below antagonists that are interesting and memorable). The main ones are the likes of Tennoji, Mishima, Kai, King (Kiva), etc.

I feel that one shouldn't complain about villain lacking charms as they're meant to be hateable. Humans' dark impulses do often make villains feel entertaining though.

Gonna have to be careful in this thread, because I just watched episode 2 of Geats. This seems like it's going to be a fun ride. I also really like how (so far) the main character isn't the title Rider - is this the first series to do that?

There is also Hibiki and Kabuto. Yes, and in Agito, attention to the three main riders was plus / minus equally.