IMO Izu is more consistently okay, at worst she just blends into the background, but she doesn't have many moments where she really shines. Mei on the other hand has plenty of moments where she's actively annoying, but also has more scenes where it feels like she actually adds something to the cast besides exposition.

It's a perfect demonstration of machines vs humans: a machine can consistently meet a set standard of quality, but will rarely excel beyond its baseline, while a human is a variable, with the risk of falling below what's desired but also the potential to exceed expectations.

Well I can add another controversial opinion: for some reason I actually didn't find Mei annoying in the episodes of Saber I watched, tbh Tassel is a hard act to follow on that front, I struggled to care about most of the characters and the only issue I do have with Mei if anything is her tolerance of this protagonist I do find boring, sorry! :p

Why ? he is a pathetic annoying manchild,

He's funny, he's a constant source of positivity, he's an absolute fashion icon, he's always there for people in need, his chemistry with the rest of the cast is absolutely on point, and the three story arcs the show had that had him as a major focus were among my favorites in Wizard.

Rampage Vulcan while not a terrible suit, it's definitely on the ugly side of things for me. A bit too much blue and the teal on one half of the body as well as the color accents on the side of the head look really gaudy. All of Vulcan's other forms look way better in my opinion.

My favorite character in Build was Kazumin.

Genius form is not awful it just not good and Evol is a generic but enjoyable villain.

Evolto's character since episode 40 are really boring in my opinion....

I think he more interesting as political manipulator than as generic planet destroyer.....

I... don't understand all the love for Jaou Dragon.

- Visually is where I see the most love for it, but it's... okay at best, in my opinion? It just isn't very interesting and I feel it is a massive downgrade from the much more beautiful base form. I love a cape as much as the next girl and his helmet's not bad, and I certainly wouldn't call it ugly, but I seriously don't get the love here. It's mostly just a lot of purple.

- Story-wise it's probably the most pointless upgrade in Rider history (which is saying a lot!) when Calibur was ALREADY a super-powerful earlygame bad guy that the heroes were having trouble standing up to, and his powerset made him beating down their more powerful Wonder Combos believable. It honestly made him a lot less badass too as suddenly he needed to rely on a power-up before Saber even got Dragonic Knight, compared to say Horobi or Blood Stalk.

Too me it's the henshin sound that makes the form for me. Otherwise it just alright a little bit top heavy.

Honestly, I feel like none of the upgrades in Saber really had any narrative or emotional weight until Primitive Dragon. The three-book combos, Jaou, Dragonic Knight, King Lion, X Swordman, some of them looked good visually but they brought so little to the story that they might as well not exist except to sell toys. Rekka glowing and being able to separate humans from Megid was a more meaningful power-up than most of Touma's books!