Ooh, that is a tempting offer. I know which episodes I'd want to do, too, but I'm afraid that they'd probably get too much into spoiler territory since they aren't part of the Heisei tributes (so actually not Hibiki). Will have to think about how to approach that.

I'm glad you'll give it some consideration!

I've heard from a few different fans that they came into Rider or Sentai through anniversary seasons, and that's really fascinating to me. I don't want to press too much on it (maybe we'll get a chance to talk about it for the Decade thread!), but it's so opposite from how I'd approach a franchise that it makes me curious. It sounds like it worked out for you!

Oh! Right! I heard there're some Showa ones, too. (There was a bunch of Showa stuff in the Decade/W movie I saw way back when.) If someone wants to put Showa on their list as a fourth choice, feel free!

I think this is lovely, and I would absolutely use this occasion to talk about the HK English dub if given half a chance, and I want to put myself forward... but I can't think of three Heisei shows including Decade that I am genuinely passionate about. Like all good people, I obviously like Hibiki, and ah, that's maybe it.

However, I acknowledge that there are a lot of shows after Hibiki that I did not watch, partly out of childish protest at the manner in which Toei dealt with that show—I know, I know, executives at Toei were no doubt screaming in panic at the sudden loss of their foreign cat lady demographic—so I would be happy to cover shows that no one else likes whilst going in totally blind if that helps? Please don't worry if this is not convenient though!

I'm looking forward to reading what you guys come up with regardless!

I am happy to make it work! It honestly doesn't need to be a list of three shows if you don't feel like you've got three that you're thrilled about. (And, to clarify something else, it does not have to be three shows you like, just shows you're passionate about. You can totally pick, like, Blade if you really didn't like Blade.) I will try to accommodate anyone who's interested in participating. Maybe it'll be Hibiki? Maybe it'll be the Showa stuff, where I also won't know anything about it? Maybe it can be a different set of episodes entirely. I don't know. If anyone reading this has even the slightest interest in pitching in, I want to make that happen.

Like... this is just a slightly codified version of what we're all doing right now! And all the time! Anyone who's like Oh I Don't Think I Could Talk About Kamen Rider Shows... I assure you that you can.

I don't... I don't want people to think I'm twisting their arms or anything. I just think you'd all be really good at this, and I think you'd help make something really fun and special. I'd hate for anyone to deprive themselves of that chance due to nerves or self-doubt. If you really aren't into the idea, that's fine. But if you're into the idea and you're talking yourself out of it? Please don't!

More clarifications!

Ideally, the roster of folks that'd be pitching in on this project would be 10. One for each Heisei Phase 1 show, including Decade. (I'd really, really love to kick things off with a Decade fan.) With the Showa stuff, maybe we could have someone double up for that part, I don't know. I don't know how often the Showa stuff comes up, if it's worth having an 11th Showa person.

So, when I say A List Of Three Shows, that's not me asking people to contribute for three different stories in Decade. That's just to give me some options for assignments and scheduling. Ideally, people are only responsible for one show; for only the Agito episodes of Decade, for example.

I hope this feels a little less daunting now!

This is such a charming paragraph in and of itself. <3

I will PM you in a tiny bit with no doubt unnecessary rambles!

Well, that would be king of awkward, considering Decade is the phase 1 show I’m the third most passionate about. If I had to pick a second, it would be Kabuto. Plus I already decided what my regular feature is for the next thread, so if I was helping write the main posts, I’m worried about it being redundant or unnecessary.

Not saying I wouldn’t like to take part in some form.

Very minor spoilers(I guess?) but it's for the sake of the project: Blade is the only Phase 1 show that gets two tributes instead of just one during Decade, and there's also a tribute to Shinkenger as well.. Won't say the context as to why, but yeah. So ya know, incase people who want in on this are really passionate about Blade or love Sentai more than others, there ya go.

I've read about the Decade talk, it's likely will be a different experience when it unfolds...

This refers to something I talked about before that (iirc) hasn't been responded yet; as a womanizer Otoya is only concerned about certain people, which is women in general, that he wants to entertain and protect any kind of them (but even more so for those he had meaningful relationship like Yuri), which is his primary reason to fight as a Kamen Rider. But as a womanizer he can be detrimental to non-women ones like for example males, which he'll likely be neglecting or potentially dangerous to them; a form of toxically masculine (yours was about how 'women didn't need to suffer' part though) to be hostile to other men and see them as oppositions.

Before I said too about how a womanizer has either 2 outcome, being fiercely protective to any women and likely detrimental to non-women (like Otoya), or being detrimental to the women itself for the objectification and tactless approach (like Spider Fangire). While Otoya doesn't have exactly zero decency traits, like a few of his amicable interactions with certain male which is Oomura before and Nago in this episode (and he still wants to gloat and gain glory for his deeds saving him), I'd (and likely those people who discuss about Otoya before that has watched entire Kiva) think it's a big stretch to label him as "generally decent" or "champion of justice" for being mainly caring and protective of only certain part of humans, like women only (applies likely either to "only loved ones" bias or sexism double standard as in Daisuke in Kabuto).

But yeah it'll be interesting to see how it unfolds as being framed for something isn't something that can be solved by brute force, if anything using brute force may just making it worse. Just thinking about how Megumi didn't fight back, but Nago did. Or that Wataru is still unbelievably weak in his human physique, that usually Riders are able to fend off monsters after fighting as them for a while, with Ryotaro as a notable exception as the one's doing the fighting the most are the Taros Imagins. But for Nago being made as a protagonist here, I'll talk about it below.

O̶b̶v̶i̶o̶u̶s̶l̶y̶,̶ ̶s̶o̶m̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶s̶ ̶j̶u̶s̶t̶ ̶p̶e̶a̶k̶e̶d̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶8̶0̶s̶,̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶t̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶r̶y̶t̶h̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶u̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶b̶e̶t̶t̶e̶r̶,̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶n̶o̶s̶t̶a̶l̶g̶i̶a̶ ̶g̶o̶g̶g̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶a̶r̶e̶ ̶r̶i̶g̶h̶t̶.̶ For IXA Rising, I guess this is an unusual type of form debut, to have it not be used as an absolute destroying of the opponent that fights them, albeit IXA Rising still shoots the opponent to the water nearby like Inoue's standard. But still while the form design may be worse (for form designs to every Rider I already got to know them with games like Climax Heroes), the important thing is the power it holds!

I think, Tanahashi is a reflection of Nago himself, he's done to likely represent what Nago was in the past. Like how Nago is hell-bent to destroy Kiva, same goes for Tanahashi to destroy IXA, and for Tanahashi, he's doing it because an incident in the past that he almost got killed due to IXA's attack, and likely same goes for Nago as he thinks Kiva is an evil incarnate. Nago is purposely made as the protagonist in the episode to deal with practically his own previous self, the one even more vicious as in never admitting mistakes or weakness (Nago did for weakness just at last episode). And Tanahashi looking at the organization that he despise and subverting it is a type of villainy that is similar to Kusaka (and Nago had Kusaka traits too before), gaining full prejudice (with pettiness) to everyone involved with the organization, without ifs, ands, and buts, which is to end every single people got involved with Aozora.

Though yeah, although it's not entirely known about Castle Doran, the solution here can seem like a cop out, to suddenly have something that allows people to time travel to the past. I'd say Otoya possessing Wataru in the present is similarly unexplained... yet. What I want to happen within Nago strolling in the past is to get to know about how both people are the parents of people he closely works with; Wataru for Otoya and Megumi for Yuri respectively. There's an ongoing conflict of Nago with Otoya for finding out that he's an IXA user too. Though probably it's not introduced the best way, Taiga is another major character for this series to be introduced this late, like Mio before. I don't know how and when Wataru and Shizuka met, but it seems that they met after him and Taiga are separated, and Wataru is always made fun or chastised by his timid nature like not having friends.

I don't think it would have to be! We can definitely chat more about plots and characters and stuff, so you could still do something more data-oriented separately. We can definitely figure out a way for you to do both, if you want.

All you Blade super-fans, here's your moment!

I don't think we've really got a big enough data-set to say that, like, Otoya won't protect men, or that he only protects people he cares about. Maybe previously some of that was true, but, again: character arc! He is a little better of a man than he was before! He's never going to be, like, Ryotaro from Den-O, but he's clearly growing as a person.

I'm sure that sounds like a challenge to Nago.

Interesting take! I'll have to keep an eye open for all of this in the next part. Really great analysis!