As of today, I am now officially halfway through Hibiki. Just finished a pair of episodes that featured the first appearance of Hibiki's Crimson form. Also, I think Todoroki just might be my favorite among the Oni so far.

Personally, my favorite Oni is Ibuki. He's a good and wise mentor as well.

Myself, Eiki comes to mind right now. Eiki's color scheme and helmet design works for me. Plus, he's got Kazuya Nakai's voice.

I watched Gotchard Hyper Battle. Surprisingly, while the main show has entered the disappointing 30s, the additional content continues to delight. This is my new favorite hyper-battle, although I doubted anyone could top Faiz's musical. Also, I think I won?t be wrong when I say that this is the most serious hyper-battle in the entire history of the franchise. This plot could well become a full-fledged episode in the show, but at the same time it remains a ?ridiculous joke? and here Minato and the X-Wizard play get-together, so it also looks great as an HBV. Also, Gotchard and Majade's overall finisher is incredibly beautiful. So I can?t be disappointed in the current Kamen Rider even in his darkest times, and I?ll watch this cute little story more than once.
https://tokuzilla.net/wp-content/upl...tle-dvd-01.jpg

After a lot of meandering, I am finally halfway through my copy of Kamen Rider Ryuki Blu-Ray series set.

Watched the Mighty Form debut scene at least a dozen times to remind myself the lengths Takadera possibly went through to film that scene and imagining Toei's bigwigs shaking their fists in silent anguish and fury on the fateful Sunday morning when it aired circa 2000. :lolol

The first episode of Drive is basically the first episode of Ghost except executed alot better.

Also, Dream Vegas in the rain is hilarious.

He was upset that his partner was severely injured.

Yes, the Hot Wheel's smile was gone. Good on Shinnosuke for providing an umbrella.

My reaction to the entirety of Paradise Regained:

https://i.imgur.com/AZU7mYW.png

+1

I gave Geats a rewatch with the official subs. Once again I really have to hand it to Shout, excellent Rider subs as usual!

Listen though, it's no secret that Geats didn't really do it for me back when I was watching it live and I think unfortunately I liked it even less this time. I'd even go as far as to say this is my least favorite of the Reiwa era shows. It has some good points! Some of the fights are cool and I genuinely enjoy some of the earlier episodes with the wide variety of games that the Riders had to play. But for me, this is a show that just loses me more the longer it went on. I think I pretty much universally dislike the character arcs in this show, which tend to vary between feeling stagnant or suddenly lurching into completely different characterization. Like I'm sorry, I can't buy Michinaga's nice guy all along deal, Keiwa's inorganic villain arc, or... whatever the heck they were doing with Daichi. I also find the show to be "meta" in a way that is really offputting. It often tries to position itself as critiquing television, and Rider shows by extension, but doesn't really elevate itself above what it is trying to commentate on? A lot of moments that try and criticize the production or audience of the DGP as wanting sensationalist drama while the show Kamen Rider Geats just relishes in the exact same thing. I dunno, I certainly see why it works for some people, but it is just a total miss for me. It's too bad, I usually like things more the second time around!

I've made it up through episode 19 of Drive, including Episode 0, "Hunter & Monster" and the Gaim crossover movie.

The short version is that I'm really not seeing where all the hate comes from.

Don't get me wrong, it's not like I'm popping in to say that these episodes are some of the best I've ever seen or anything. I just think that overall, they have been, at worst, very average for Kamen Rider.

My main issue alot of the time is actually the atmosphere. I can't really tell if it's ever being intentionally awkward or not, and it mainly stems from how the Main Roidmude(Heart, Brain, etc) scenes are framed as super villainous, yet alot of their dialogue really isn't? Antagonistic, sure, but like, not super evil bad guy tier.

But that aside, even if I hadn't already known that this show had the same head writer as W, I feel like I might've figured that out given how both shows have very similar vibes and alot of what made W fun is also present in Drive. Mainly in the style of comedy it has and how much the scenes at the office share alot of beats with Team W at their Agency.

I don't have any real favorites yet, but none of the characters have really annoyed me either. But I did rather like some of the more recent MOTW plots such as the one about Gen and Judge, as well as the two-parter about the actress and the fortune teller. Sure, Drive's' overarching plot is taking a bot to get going, but hey, if I keep getting one-off plots that I legit enjoy, then I feel like I won't have too much to complain about, you know?

And that's about all I've got for the first act of Drive. Overall, it's just been simple fun. And I can't ever see myself getting mad about that.

With Drive you need to go in immediately after watching Gaim and with the perspective that Gaim is the best series that Kamen Rider has ever produced. That will help you understand why Drive had a poor rep.

Yes, the effect of the previous show is very important in the perception of the next one. That is, I?m sure that if Ghost had come out after Decade, he would have been loved much more.

Ghost could have come out after Ghost and it would still be disappointing.

I felt this in my soul. Lmao. Ngl the ghost suit designs are still fire and I?d love a legend rider drive tamashii hoodie but that?s neither here nor there.

Also just to add to your point here, me being a huge drive fan, the issue lies in the first 17 episodes. It?s too ?brand new toy? until then when the story finally picks up speed and has heart.






Yes I did those puns on purpose and I?m not ashamed.

You must have been using your brain to make those wild puns. I hope nobody takes offense to them, or else you may need a medic.

That was pretty funky
https://www.tokunation.com/forums/at...1&d=1718488041

Ah, I see. The classic mindset of "It's not my favorite, therefor it's bad."

Man, I'm so glad that I'll never be able to understand that sort of thinking. Like, I can only imagine how miserable I'd be if I were this deep into the franchise, and every single time all I could think is "Man, why isn't this Kuuga?"

I am sorta speaking about one person who came to mind when I read that but they are more known in tfw and not here. I think.

Imagine hating on the live action transformers movies cuz it?s not the 1984 cartoon.

I like Drive but I don't think it really takes off until the second half when the story gets more serialized. The first part of the show is too episodic and you can feel the thin plots being stretched out to fill two full episodes. The writers went back to the "Shinnosuke is on his way to finish the case but then Machine Chaser shows up to get in his way" well a lot.

I mostly agree. There are definitely a good handful of episodes that could've easily been one-offs. But alot of them, atleast we got some fun extra interactions out of the second parts. Chase included sometimes.

One thing I'll give Chase too is that he remains a solid threat despite how often he shows up. None of his losses ever feel cheap or like he's jobbing.

I wanna talk about episode 20 of Drive real quick.

So far it's probably my favorite episode, but it's also a weird one due to everything that came before it.

Personally, not only do I feel like this is the very rare case where I felt a one off episode should've been a two parter, but I also wish that it had been places even like, five episodes earlier.

Because really, "not all Roidmudes are inherently bad" is something that needed to be established before nearly halfway in, I think. Granted, they do try to make up for it by also having the consequences of the episode tie in with Chase, but I just personally feel like it would've been stronger if the events of this episode are part of what lead both Kiriko and Shinnosuke to form their peaceful views on Roidmudes and, by extension, Chase.

Just my two cents though. Maybe future episodes will do more to make it better.

I think that's what Zero-One was trying to fix, but he was taken to the other extreme.

So that episode was kind of the point. The roidmudes are supposed to be all bad thanks to their creator (not spoiling anything). Them seeing one that can be good throws everything off. It wasn?t supposed to be established because it wasn?t supposed to happen. As you continue, you?ll see how that creates a domino effect for not only chase but certain other roidmudes as well.

I now ship Shinnosuke and Takaharu

As of last night, I have watched another pair of episodes of Ryuki. I am seriously hoping to finish my rewatch of the series along with its Episode Final movie before the end of this year since I unfortunately, for some reason, can't seem to make as much progress on it like I should compared with almost everything else, Toku series-wise.

Kamen Rider 4 is a much better epilogue to Faiz than what Paradise Regained is.

I will die on this hill.

I still haven't seen Paradise Regained BECAUSE I was so satisfied with Kamen Rider 4 as an epilogue!

Yeah! And on the topic of Drive's' mountain of side content...

Ya know it's funny, this is where Kamen Rider started to really go kinda overboard with all the specials and bonus material, and yet at the same time, Drive has probably had my favorite side-stuff so far?

Like, I'm not saying it's all perfect or anything, but every one I've seen so far(Episode 0, the Secret Missions, Full Throttle, the Ninninger crossover, SHT GP, and now KR4), I've rather enjoyed. Like, I can see why the idea for bonus content caught on if audiences at the time were liking this stuff as much as I am.

The main downside being that, if you're watching everything in chronological order like I am, well, yeah, it gets a bit overwhelming.

Still, fun stuff so far. Haven't regretted any of it yet.

I can say that after KR4 there is definitely a desire to get acquainted with Faiz. I can?t say the same about Paradise Regained.

I am now slowly but surely getting through more episodes of my Kamen Rider Ryuki rewatch. The good news is that I am now down to the show's final quarter so I should be able to finish this series pretty soon.

It has been a while but I am now officially back on watching Hibiki and I managed to finish watching the show's first 29 episodes as of today and this also means I am now up to Inoue's portion of the series. This is gonna suck. :(

You don't have to watch it. There's no achievement trophy for sitting through the back 19.

Gave us the last Heisei Rider. :lolol

I am now up through episode 32 of Drive and... I dunno.

I'm having alot of conflicting feelings right now, and the short of it is that if the show keeps on the path it's been on, I might be the one guy who prefers the first half of Drive to the latter half.

It's become clear that there wasn't exactly a set in road map in terms of, well, anything when it comes to Drive's'.

Because yes, it is rather oddly paced and not alot of aspects do the best at interconnecting. Certain characters become totally different(Brain), when they aren't just served out of character moments in service to said plot(Heart), and while the atmosphere has become less awkward, I also don't like the direction.

The biggest symbol of this, I feel, is Chase. I actually don't like the way his arc is going because it fully gets rid of one of the aspects of the first half that I really enjoyed: The ideology of Roidmudes being given second chances at better themselves is totally gone with Chase now killing Roidmudes without much of a care, and Shinnosuke and co, for all of the posturing of "finding peace" with the Roidmudes, are now no longer caring about any of them outside of Chase.

This isn't like Ex-Aid where the Juju Burger episode asked the question of "What if there was a good monster?" This is outright raising an angle; That there are good and bad Roidmudes alike, and just tossing it aside so there's a consistent bad guy to blow up. If this were the route they were headed for, it almost makes me wish that episode 20 just wasn't done at all, given how badly is stands against this.

To give the show some benefit of the doubt, there is the chance that I entered into this whole season with the wrong mindset. Afterall, one of the few things I knew about Drive beforehand was posts people had made during the airing of Zero-One, inwhich people called that season "Drive 2." That sort of builds a certain expectation about what exactly the show's' story is going to be like, and I'll say the same thing here that I did when I first heard OOO referred to as "Kuuga 2:" I don't see it. The similarities are superfluous at best.

But I don't feel like my feelings are totally unfounded either given how much Heart, Brain, and Chase in the early episodes were talking about things like Roidmudes being liberated from humans and becoming just people and so on. There was really not alot to suggest that entire conflict was anything other than a group of robots getting back at the humans who they felt wronged them first. But ever since the introduction of 001 as the new big bad, there's pretty much nothing other than the evil robot cliche, to the point that Chase now just kills them all without any sort of care in the world. Much less interesting of an angle.

I'd also argue that the biggest flaw of the first half only got worse in this stretch. Did said first half rely a bit too much on Chase delaying progress? Sure, but at the very least Chase was an interesting character. Here in the second act, we get the "Go is mind controlled plot" and it's very forcibly drawn out by Chase not telling Kiriko what's going on. Very blatantly too. It's not even like the mind control has lead to any interesting character stuff either. Now it's just Go delaying things the same way that Chase used to, and when combined with nothing compelling to back it it just made some episodes feel like they dragged. And with how 32 ended, I unfortunately don't feel like that's going to change anytime soon.

I dunno, I'm not out and out hating Drive or anything, I still feel like the show is overall decent, but man, what a downturn in terms of my own personal tastes.

Episode 38 was the final nail in the coffin when it came to me and Drive.

I'm barely exaggerating when I say that every second of that episode annoyed me to no end, and it signaled clear as day that the final third of Drive was not for me.

Look, I'm not here to crap on anyone's' parade, so I'm not gonna bother going into some hyper detailed tyraid, but just know that I felt like every character arc was extremely bungled to the point that I now doubt that the show had any sort of real road map.

And it sucks too, because on paper Drive has alot of aspects that are normally my jam when it comes to story concepts. But execution is everything, and Drive unfortunately just didn't deliver.

I think that, ultimately, what it comes down to in terms of plot is Drive's' love of twists. And the double-edged sword of that storytelling philosophy is that said twists need to REALLY jive with you in order to stick and justify alot of Drive's' aspects in hindsight. And needless to say, I was less than impressed. Had Drive played alot of its aspects more straight, I probably would've liked it better.

If anyone actually wants the more detailed version, I'll give it, but otherwise, at the end of the day I give Drive a 2/6. I liked the first third well enough, but after that things got really shakey for me and then only proceeded to decline afterward. It's the rare instance where I liked alot of the side content more than the show itself, and even then I wouldn't say any of the bonus material was super amazing(Surprise Future is overrated).

Whenever I've cooled down and am in the mood for more Rider, I'll be tackling Geats since SHOUT ended up subbing it. I hear it's the greatest Rider show ever of all time and that the only show that even comes close to beating it is Gaim, so that should be interesting.

I didn't care for it, personally. Only modern Rider show I DNF'ed (not counting Amazons and Black Sun).