Figuarts:

フィギュアーツ

I'm on episode 43 or so of Ryuki so I'm near the end. I've loved every bit of this series so far. Like I mentioned before, Episode 29 and 30 were really weird (i.e. comedy heavy) but the overall series has definitely become one my favorites. I don't know if I'd rank it above W yet but it's pretty close. I love the dark story line and the fact that each rider has a unique personality and fighting style. You can't help but love Shinji even if he is a bit of a naive clutz. I've heard people say the ending isn't very good (which I've heard about quite a few Hesei era series, actually) so I'm not super pumped for the conclusion but I hope I will be pleasantly surprised. After that I may move on sequentially and watch Faiz but I've heard a lot of mixed things about that series.

If you're liking Ryuki's darker and more mature tone I'd actually recommend going back instead of forwards and checking out Kuuga and Agito. Faiz is... it's a show that's hard to recommend. A lot of it is that it tries to be even darker than Ryuki, but does so in a way that makes it more of an over-the-top melodrama in a lot of places. The writing also falls into certain patterns that get repeated over and over again to the point where it gets really annoying.

I took your suggestion and started Agito. However, it seems to be a pseudo sequel to Kuuga so I decided to resume watching Kuuga (on Episode 5). I'm also watching Faiz (on Episode 7) and tried to watch Blade but the TV Nihon subs for episodes 5 and on are really distorted/squished and I just can't watch it like that. I like what I've seen so far though and wish I could continue watching Blade. Anyone know of another sub group who's completed Blade?

I don't think anyone's tackled Blade yet, which is weird considering it has really poor video quality and the translation is usually regarded as one of TVN's weakest.

Also, yay Kuuga!

What's wrong with Blade in terms of techical issues? It's on my to watch list.


For those that have seen more Agito than me, is "Special: A New Transformation" important? After the trouble I had finding Project G4, I like to know if it's worth the trouble to find it too or if it's just a one off special (like God, Speed, Love or Kuuga's New Year special).

The aspect ratio on some of the episodes is really messed up; they're much wider than they are tall, even beyond normal "widescreen" dimensions. They're also pretty lo def, maybe 480p at the most. In fairness, it's not like high definition episodes were available back then and the encodes at least look less fuzzy than the Hibiki or original Faiz ones.

Well Blade has only had tv rips thus far, no DVD rips (same goes for Hibiki and Kabuto), so the video quality is utter ****. Not to mention it looks incosistent since some episodes seemed to be recorded on a poorer reception than others. Secondly, because they were tv rips, they were encoded back in 2004, and as such, do not work on modern devices, so watching them on anything but a computer is impossible.

What trouble? :D

http://www.krdl.info/display/show/agitocap/

It's kind of important. On the one hand, it shows how Shouichi learned to master Burning Form and achieve Shining, but at the same time it doesn't fit perfectly in step with the show (most notably Hojou learns Shouichi is Agito in the special but not until awhile later on the show). It's not bad, though, and the main guest star would later go on to play Kaoru's therapist on Garo. Anything with a Garo connection is automatically awesome.