Just wait until you find out his actual story. He's just... he's something.

But yeah, I always wondered why there isn't some show where the Rider just kind of wants to use his powers because he's a superhero. I know lots of riders are responisble, but no-one thought "damn I'm late for poetry slam, I'll just use my rider powers to fly there!" Or how about when confronted with a non-monster problem? I mean, remember when Eiji had to dissarm those bombs and ran there out of the suit despite having, ya know, cheetah legs?

Plus, I think I've seen a lot of rider series where a non-monster threat shows up and, instead of using their amazing powers to stop it, they let the problem grow and become worse. Den-O was once held hostage by a guy he thought had a bomb, and once more at gunpoint. Both instances could've been solved instantly as a rider, but to an even lesser extent he can be posessed by powerful spirits that could have quelled the situation instantly. Momotaros even once tried to stop it, but they stopped him. He once even left the hostage situation posessed by Momo to fight a monster! Then again that was played for laughs and the hostage taker was quite clearly not a serious threat.

It's just weird that these people with great power, while understandably focused on the larger threat, never use them for anything except a monster fight.

It reminds me of that flat-out frog-retarded episode of Power Rangers Ninja Storm where the yellow ranger got in shit for using his powers to stop a robbery. You know, helping people.

I don't mind unmorphed action sequences, since they at least convince you that the person is in the suit but yeah, stuff like the OOO bomb thing was just stupid and I just like...yeah.

I want to see the powers explored, I want to see the heroes having fun with them and have them saying like 'this is cool, this is awesome!' and just doing stupid shit like leaping off buildings and stuff because now they can.

They subdue the actual fun factor of the powers so much most of the time it actually pulls me out of the show because quite often, even in a series with hugely flashy attacks, the actual transformation feels arbitrary like they've just put on their costume rather than accessed a new form with ungodly powers.

I think it's more of a cultural thing. Generally, the Japanese take what they get and don't really strive for more. While there are exceptions to the rule, it would make sense that in a Japanese children's TV show, the show-runners would try to influence Japanese children to follow this mindset, just like how in American children's TV shows, they try to encourage children to strive for more.

That doesn't explain not using superpowers to save lives.

Watched Kamen Rider: The First this weekend. I...was unimpressed. The pacing was weird and things happened with little to no explanation. For those of you who have seen it, does the movie basically work off of the assumption that you've seen the original series? Because I was hella confused by the end of the movie.

Pros: suit designs were cool, some action scenes were really well done, overall acting was pretty good
Cons: slightly confusing story, how the main rider turns back to being a good guy, the CONSTANT water crystal shots, the pointless hospital side story

Ankh is a GREEED-y dastard.

Yeah, the water crystal shots were cute at first, but they got annoying a little afterwards. I didn't find the story to be that confusing, and I thought the hospital side-story was sweet, although it was a bit pointless. I'm attributing Hongo's heel-turn to a psychological shock caused by snow, which reminded him of the water crystals that he worked with quite often.

But Eiji had the Cheetah medal.

Anyway, Ryuki 14: Ah, so that's what they mean by contract. It's a literal deal with the monster. They get to play "the game" while the rider defeats the other monsters so that their's can feed. If they die or give up, the monster gets to eat the rider. Like collateral. Interesting.

Cool! I'm glad to see that you're enjoying Fourze.

Huh. The contract thing wasn't explained until episode 14? Didn't remember that (Haven't seen Ryuki in 3 years). I thought it was expanded upon when Scissors bit the dust...

But yeah. I actually like how Ryuki does it. It's a deal with the devil sort of thing, where instead of the devil making you sign your name in blood, he turns into your personal attack dog and gives you a bitchin' sword.

I'm also a fan of "Unlikely hero" stories, where the main character isn't designated by god to be Superman, but a guy who is just thrust into this huge set of circumstances, which makes Shinji's deal with Dragredder more interesting.

Oh my god... IT'S KAMEN RIDER MADOKA... or Ryuki Magica or or... contract?