Yeah, you pretty much listed the upsides that I found within the episode.

To give the people who participated in Die's' Kabuto thread some credit, all of them seemed to like Kabuto -- loved it, even. They just didn't particularly like episode 46.

Not all of them. I was in that thread and I definitely liked Episode 46 and defended it. While Tsurugi's death was tragic, especially since he was finally making progress with Misa-KI-nu, it was also a heroic death for sure. He died getting the revenge he sought for both his sister and himself and taking out a whole bunch of other Worms in the process.

I agree that it's a little weird how Die, to whom I mean no disrespect, seems to focus more on his own perspective at the expense of other equally valid takes. Your body language example reminds me of a similar disagreement in the Faiz thread, where Die interprets Yuka's cheerful expression in an unexpected way.

I disagree that Agito is a better Kabuto, as I much prefer Kabuto, but I'll admit that Hikawa is a better Kagami.

The exact move came(killing most of the Warms) came at a rather fun(ny) time for me too, as around this point of the show, with how so many mooks were getting slaughtered en-masse for the entire episode, I began to wonder just how in the heck there were any left.

Cue Tsurugi's' master plan and welp.

I'll admit that I don't remember that specific episode of Faiz all that clearly, but based on what I do remember of the characters? Yeah, your take on Yuka there seems alot more in line with how I remember her being.

Oh man, Hikawa is miles better. Love that guy.

I'll join in the praise for Hikawa. Considering Agito's invincibility and Gilles' indestructibility, he was the rider I was most worried about in this show.

I enjoy Kabuto for the clock-up battles and the two Fist of the North Star rejects who transform into crickets and love instant noodles. :lolol
And the Gatack suit is one of the best designs around. :rock:

I have finally started watching Kamen Rider Ghost.

Good luck. Don't let the negative reputation scare you off. The show is definitely not the most dynamic and not without its flaws, but it has its pluses.

You know you don't have to, right?

Someone might write the same thing about Hibiki.

And they would be correct.

I don’t know. The show can’t be any worse than Kiva or the first few episodes of Hibiki’s second half. Although, I am rather surprised that Ghost is already introducing its secondary Rider pretty quickly since most of the time, they usually don’t make their first appearance until at least a third of the way through the series.

I'll say this much about Ghost: it had moments that were genuinely compelling. But issues are present from the beginning and the quality falls off a cliff after a certain point. Personally I think this makes it one of the more "interesting" bad tokusatsu.

Ghost is a thoroughly okay show.

Ghost is my 4th favorite Heisei Rider show. Totally worth watching!

Ghost had interesting ideas and a lot of potential, even if the final show was kind of a mess

I've been watching Kiva, although at a very relaxed pace. Not sure what the general opinion of the show is among fans, but I've been enjoying it. Only up to episode 12, so pretty early on.

Kiva is a beautiful show. The special effects look decent even now.

The show where all the ending themes are bangers. :rock:

I am currently up to episode 15 of Kamen Rider Ghost.

What did you think of the plot twist where Ryu gambled his afterlife to renew Takeru's 99 day limit?

To be perfectly honest, I'm not really sure.

Fair enough.

Watching W rn

This is a great show.

I'm biased cuz it was the first I ever watched, but yeah W is great

I actually rewatched W earlier this year myself and it remains as one of my top favorite seasons of Kamen Rider. Anyway, as of today, I am now officially a little more than halfway through Ghost.

I am currently six episodes into Kamen Rider Amazonz.

My takeaway so far is that it's boring misery porn and I feel absolutely nothing whenever I'm watching it.

At least the Amazon suit has been modernized nicely.

What did you think of the plot twist that Ganma are artificial bodies for human souls?

I think the slow-paced direction is a major flaw that kills the momentum. Each episode is longer than average Rider, but the time is padded with many scenes of "atmospheric void", especially in the first 2 episodes. It does get slightly less miserable for a while once Haruka joins the exterminators. It also ticks me off whenever a Rider says "amazon" instead of "A-MA-ZON!" like they're supposed to.

Normally I'm a fan of atmospheric shots and whatnot, but I'm not exaggerating when I say you could shave like 10 minutes off the average Amazonz episode and miss absolutely nothing. The show is really padded with alot of nothing happening. Combine that with the cast barely even qualifying as characters and I just can't get into this.

It's such a disappointment to learn that Kobayashi was the head writer for this thing, because I'm normally a big fan of her work.

Pretty good. I have to say, Ghost is surprisingly not that bad of a show so far especially after its first quarter and I can definitely see why Alain is a considerable fan-favorite even among those that don't care for Ghost all that much.

Personally, I do like the exterminators, for how they distinguish good from evil Amazons and the fact that they have Miyahara.

Kobayashi shows just haven't been the same since Gobusters ended. Sucks to see talented writers exhaust their stamina and suffer burnout.

For sure, I think the Ghost hate is seriously blown out of proportion. But yeah, even the critics understand that Alain's redemption arc is a legendary one. As well as Necrom's awesome design and soundtrack.

I absolutely despise Jin. Easily my most hated character in Amazonz, and now one of my most hated in the franchise period. How did they manage to make an even worse version of Akira Date?

Well, at least Haruka is a pretty typical naive protagonist with good intentions. Even if the world of the show doesn't allow them to be realized. Jin is made for those who like other types аnd he has his fans.

Alain is great, easily one of my favorite characters in all Kamen Rider (and the reason I tried takoyaki, so yummy!). It's been a while so I don't remember exactly, but I vaguely recall one of my issues with Ghost being that he was basically a punching bag after his redemption. I'd be happy to be proven !wrong about that though!

I feel like for a while there was a trend of antihero riders being really cool and powerful when they were first introduced as villains but getting reduced to comic relief or chew toys after their redemption, which I found deeply frustrating

I do like Alain a ton, but he definitely gets reduced to just being "funny takoyaki man" once his whole redemption story is over. Really I think Ghost is good until then, but then totally falls off in quality. I think Saber is a big improvement over Ghost partially because the story actually has decent momentum across the whole show.

I am now down to the final two episodes of Kamen Rider Ghost and it looks like I will be watching Kamen Rider Ex-Aid next after finishing up the former series, at least on that franchise's side of things. I am also planning to rewatch Fourze and Dragon Knight as well somewhere down the line, hopefully in the not too distant future. I have also been watching the original Kamen Rider series in between as of late and I am already up to its twelfth episode.

I am now two episodes away from reaching Kamen Rider Ex-Aid's halfway point.

I finished season 1 of Amazonz.

And, look, I'm sure the show has its fans, and you know, more power to you if you are one, but I just couldn't get into this at all.

I'm not kidding when I say there was not a single thing that I liked in it. All I saw was boring, drab, misery porn. And as someone who rather likes the original Amazon, it just hurt me all the more.

Maybe I'll watch season 2 sometime in the future, but I don't imagine it'll be anytime soon. This show just drained me.

Good idea to take a break. Season 2 gets darker and weirder.