I thought season 1 was okay-ish but just absolutely could not get into season 2. Ended up dropping it about halfway through and honestly have not regretted it for a second.

I feel like Amazons and Black Sun both made the same mistake when it came to trying to do Kamen Rider for adults: make it really bleak, add more gore, call it a day.

Personally, I perceive these shows as Kamen Rider for teenagers. They are extremely dark and bloody, the world is unfair and terrible, and the heroes are brutal, often immoral, but at the same time still cool and special. Ironically, mocking the stupidity and naivety of children's originals, these shows create an even more primitive and stupid plot. Another significant difference is that "Black Sun" is designed for an audience that sits on political forums or at least watches the news, while Amazons splash out their angst purely in the form of personal and family relationships.

How could the dark green filter over the footage possibly get any worse!?

I agree with this notion. I don't know where this idea that dark = mature came from, but it's really annoying more often than not.

All throughout all I kept thinking was "I could just be watching GARO right now."

Preach!

Haruka is a pretty good guy though, albeit one who is constantly brooding due to his righteousness, or even basic humanity, being challenged as an outlier in the terrible "eat or be eaten" world he lives in.

I haven't seen any Black content yet, but this sounds weird. I imagine the venn diagram of Rider fans and news/politics fans doesn't have enough overlap for Toei to capitalize on.

I think the gore can be justified as special effects, considering the original Amazon was similar. But the bleakness of the plot and characters makes it feel too pretentiously edgy when it didn't need to go that far. Shin Kamen Rider is a recent example of something that is bloody, but carries a hopeful message about the value of humanity.

Yes, Haruka is an example of a typical modern main rider in a cruel evil world. But at the same time, he fails to turn the situation around for the better and is even called Omega aka loser. And both the show and its fans love Jin more.

I think this is a case where the idea seemed so attractive that no one considered pragmatic calculations. Sometimes Toyoi makes decisions with non-obvious logic. Overall, I would say that Black Sun (and Amazons) is an example of a poorly implemented idea with good potential.

I'll take a risk and even say that it's more often the other way around. That is, all comedies have sad moments, but in those intended for an adult audience it's most often a quarrel between characters, and in children's movies - the death of parents. Seriously, at one time in children's films the mothers died so often that we had a family joke, that Americans probably consider parent`s death us something funny.
If we try to find the right approach, then A.P. Chekhov said: "There is no need to write books specifically for children. Children need to be given those works of adults that they can understand." In my opinion, this is too radical and not entirely correct, but he noted something correctly. Children's means simpler and more understandable, because they have less life experience. But dark/light, happy/sad, scary/fearless are already of secondary importance and depend on the story itself and its purpose.

So basically Kamen Rider for edgelords. Yeah, I can see that.

As of now, I am up to episode 26 of Kamen Rider Ex-Aid and episode 28 of the original Kamen Rider series.

How are you liking Ichimonji compared to Hongo?

I watched Kamen Rider X. Like most Showa Rider, it is very standard stuff, but there were certainly intriguing bits that would have made for a more interesting show if they had been explored more!

The early parts of the plot are honestly quite interesting. Keisuke is just a normal guy who ends up becoming a Kamen Rider, and he ended up feeling less emotionally distant because of that, often having nice moments interacting with characters. This is also combined with some very dark early episodes, including an absolutely unbelievable one about a monster that drives elementary and middle schoolers to kill themselves. There is also a nice sense of mystery with KyokoThe tone of these early episodes seems to have largely been driven by writer Shukei Nagasaka, who is probably best known for being the madlad behind the vast majority of Kaiketsu Zubat's episodes. He dropped off the show early on however, and after that the show ended up just losing everything unique as it settled into the same old Showa Rider mold with only a few standout aspects from then on. Like yeah Apollo Geist's suave behavior and rivalry with X were neat and I definitely laughed at some of the historical figure monsters like the iconic Starfish Hitler, but it just wasn't the same. There was even an episode that was just literally the plot of Kikaider 01 (two boys who get the blueprint for a dangerous invention inscribed on their backs), which is an awfully questionable show to rip off.

So I guess like many Showa Rider shows it was fine, even a bit fun, but didn't break much new ground and wasn't the kind of Showa tokusatsu I get excited for. Super-1 is the only Showa Rider I haven't seen now, and I know that is one that has a notable contingent of fans...

As of now, I am currently revisiting Kamen Rider Dragon Knight.

That's a combination of words you don't see together often.

Sheesh, Showa rider is dark

Yep.

Next Kamen Rider I'd watch would probably be Kabuto https://files.catbox.moe/q30kjh.jpg

I still need to watch Dragon Knight. I have all the episodes downloaded already.

Whenever you start the series, I hope you enjoy it. I am 14 episodes into my Dragon Knight rewatch myself.

Definitely a better attempt at a KR adaptation than not. The plot is very simple compared to the Japanese original, but the show still feels like Kamen Rider. And the action scenes are even better than Ryuki.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1g0I3EzEDao

These videos are more elaborate promotional material than they are true spinoffs, so I guess it's not that much more surprising to see this get subbed than the trailers, but still, really cool to see an odds-ands-ends thing like this also made available officially.

(I do have to say, though, the actual transformation lesson part of these has become a total formality over the years? You're telling me this guy has at least four distinct poses, and you're just gonna gloss over that part?!:p)

I finished the second season of Amazonz just a little bit ago.

And I gotta say, after how much I loathed watching the first season, I went into season 2 expecting more of the same miserable nonsense as before.

Which is why I gotta make known just how much better this season was over season 1; In practically every regard, too! I actually had a pretty solid time watching this one!

The score is way better for starters; what with it having music that not only sets the mood almost perfectly every time, but is nice to listen to all on its own. By extension, the atmosphere is handled way better too, with this big feeling of unease dominating every episode without ever feeling overbearing.

Heck, even ignoring that, the show was more enjoyable to watch just on account of them lightening up on the filters, so that way I can actually, you know, make out what's going on half the time, and see actual colors! And it in turn makes a specific scene on the beach wherein color briefly returns to the world feel all the more poignant as a result.

But most importantly of all, this show finally gave me some characters I actually gave half a crap about! Hiroki, Chihiro, and especially Iyu were all characters who I grew to rather like as the show went on, with all of their arcs not only being handled rather well, but the way they intertwine with the season's' overarcing theme of what exactly being a person and living life means was done rather well for the most part.

Shoot, the season even managed to get to like some of the returning characters better. I was not expecting to ever get anything out of any of the old squad, but I genuinely felt for Fukuda and what he has to go through. Sure, I still hate Jin, and this season made me dislike Haruka even more, but as an overall the character work was a major step up here. Almost nothing here felt like it was just misery for the sake of it. Like, yeah, aspects of the plot are certainly still dumb, but even then, still way better than how season 1 went about things.

While I'm not about to claim that the entire show is saved or that season 2 of Amazonz is anything spectacular, I felt way better about watching it than I did the first season, and that's really all I can ask for.

Wow, that is like the exact opposite of my reaction. :lol

I liked season one of Amazons but couldn't stand season 2 and a large part of that was because of the focus on what I called "Chihiro and the Real Girl."

Something tells me you'd appreciate how the last few episodes of the season go then.

I remember the second season of Amazon as a boring and useless power-up of Haruka.

Not useless, no.

Awful looking? Yes.

Personally, I prefer Armour Zone to Die Set Down.

I guess the premise involving totally different focus characters would work favorably for you as you weren't even invested in the originals. For me, it did take a while to get over that premise, especially when the first season already had to work hard to gain my emotional investment. There was potential in the development of Chihiro and Iyu, but by the end, the plot is like, "it's wrong for these two people to live" and even by Amazons standards, I thought that was too cynical.

I'm curious since you didn't explain before, what's your problem with Haruka? Anyway, I was honestly expecting Kazuya to become Riderman after losing his arm. :lol

Are you going to watch Final Judgment as well?

Yeah, I liked the heroic green and yellow suit of Amazon Omega until it got smothered in gunmetal and even traded the Condoler-like Driver for a generic Heisei one. Good thing it was only temporary.

As do I.

Personally, I read the entire sequence alot differently. To me it was clear that Chihiro and Iyu's' ultimate fate was portrayed moreso as tragic rather than anything just, especially given how Hiroki carries on with them in his heart. Double so given the two who ultimately decide how the two lovebirds end up.

Pretty much the same reason I dislike Jin: He's a major hypocrite, which season 2 only made even worse. Both have different finer details to their philosophies, sure, but the end result is the same: "We kill whoever we feel like." The only difference being that Haruka tries to doll his reasoning up while Jin most certainly does not.

I plan to later today.

In Haruka's defense though, Chihiro doesn't dispute being a danger to others. In fact, he admits it. And without Iyu as his conscience, there's nothing holding him back from his evil instincts. Of course, Jin wouldn't have cared about his answer regardless.

I'd say Jin is worse though, as he once prevented Haruka from killing an irredeemably evil human in the first season, but has no problem killing all the Amazons for the only reason that he sees them as his mess to clean up. In addition, he's a terrible father.

Cool. I hope you enjoy it. You might not, but hey, maybe you will.

It's still majorly hypocritical on the part of Haruka though, who out and out decided to embrace everything being an Amazon meant, including eating humans, during the last bits of season 1. And for the guy with the stance of "being an Amazon isn't bad" he sure does seem to have a big problem with more of them being born, even if it's inadvertently, with the case of the very few people Chihiro directly infected.

Plus too, the added irony of Haruka himself having to struggle with keeping from eating and harming humans, yet won't grant the same grace to Chihiro, who's been actively holding back his urges all season.

Well, the Lysogenic Amazons aren't being born, they're being turned. Chihiro is a walking biohazard while Haruka is, like, a panda, basically. The definition of an Amazon was simple until Lysogenics made it complicated and forced Haruka to become their Jin. And yeah, there's some hypocrisy to that for sure, but it came from a dilemma where I can see how he reached that conclusion out of desperation to protect people, rather than Jin's hopeless obsession with ending the human blood on his hands by staining them further with Amazon blood.

It's tragic that Iyu's death was an unnecessary outcome, as she could've lived peacefully if only she wasn't denied access to the fuel needed to sustain her. Chihiro probably could've become close to being a hero like Haruka, until that option was taken away from him, not by Haruka or even Jin, but by the apathy of evil humans who destroyed his hope. So even though there was a way to save them both, that sadly wasn't something in Haruka's control.

If by that you mean that humans are being turned into Amazonz, then from what I understand that held true for the original Amazonz of season 1 as well. With the only known exception being Haruka.


And I've just finished watching Last Judgment!

So, here's the thing. If you're someone who was super in love with season 1, then sure, I can see why you might not care for this film.

But for someone like me? The movie overall was just very "whatever." Like, I got the overall idea and message of it, but as a viewing experience, I didn't hate it, but I didn't really super like it either.

Kind of an anti-climactic way to end my time with Amazonz, but it is what it is. Hopefully Kamen Rider X will be alot more fun, since I have the Discotek blu-ray for that now.

True, but they were turned in a lab experiment and cannot turn others.

I thought it was ridiculous how Jin calls out Haruka for killing Amazon Neo Alpha, a "human", as well as eating an Amazon with consent, like it's somehow the worst thing ever that proves Amazons are evil. Nice to see the closure of their rivalry though, with Haruka fighting for his right to live and stopping Jin from crossing that last line, which reminds me of Ryuki Survive's debut.

It doesn't stand out much, but X is a good classic Showa Rider show with some likable characters and the theme song is catchy.

The reverse actually. Haruka calls out Jin for killing Neo Alpha.

Still stupid though, that I for sure agree.

Oh right, I forgot it was Jin who killed that guy. They're both reaching then with their accusations.

I liked how this film turned the original premise on its head. While the mini-franchise began with the Amazons eating humans, here humans have turned the Amazons into food. Also, a chainsaw is a very appropriate tool for such a bloody spectacle, and it's even surprising that it didn't appear earlier.
And so the movie is disappointing because it's a necessary, but not a welcome, ending. It was made to keep fans from demanding a sequel and to avoid having to dwell on that part of Kamen Rider's story.

Howdy, I'm a bit new and this was the first forum post I could find that suited what I was looking for. Sorry, if this breaks any rules. I'm fairly new to this whole thing.

Just wanted to chime in to say I'm currently watching Blade. Y'anno, people tend to gawk at the series for its meme status, or talking about the ending, but I figure nobody I've seen on more popular forums discusses how good the show itself is.

It certainly ramps you up with a banger pilot and tosses you straight into a mystery. Plus, my god, the scenery is so beautiful - especially the nighttime shots.

Blade is a good show. I think it was unfortunate to come on after the super-popular Faiz, and that tarnished its reputation. Plus, Blade is the first Kamen Rider Heisei show that doesn't do anything new. But I would say that fans have definitely grown to appreciate it over time.

Never gave it much thought at the time when it was airing, but years later it felt like Kamen Rider Blade as a show is more about the three riders around Blade resolving their personal challenges/issues.

That's why Kenzaki is the real Joker.

Yeah, which is why I think the show was hard to follow for me at first because it felt like the narrative spotlight was more on Tachibana while Kenzaki was just moving forward doing his job.

Blade is the better Faiz.

Yeah, I said it.