I kinda want to see Kamen Rider going back to a solo rider show. Having it be a "Me vs. The Whole World" type of story.

I assume it was meant to be a sort of like Admin privileges used exclusively by Kuroto.

As stated in your post, normal RidePlayers could only use the Game Driver to become Cronus, which doesn't let them use the Pause ability, an ability that isn't even effective on Gamedeus.

However Pause does work on everyone else in KR Chronicle; Rideplayers and Bugsters. Meaning the ability would still be useful for someone who wants to control the events of the game like preventing players from beating all the bugsters too quickly by stopping time and moving the Bugster to another location, or permanently eliminate players who try to break the rules.

And since Kuroto's original Buggle Driver (the black and purple one) still has the functioning A and B buttons, it's likely he could turn into Cronus and access Pause with just his original Buggle Driver.

As such, I believe that Kuroto's original plan was to release KR Chronicle into the market. And while everyone else would play around and fight Bugsters as RidePlayers or even a limited Cronus, Kuroto himself would be able to use the full powers of Cronus as a "god" who could influence the events of the game to match his will.

Ex-Aid in the US!?

https://pwrrngr.com/2020/05/11/the-r...-5-8-2020-4742

Yeah, I mean the chances are bleak given that the profit formula for Kamen Rider has been solidified since W in my opinion, but if they do another show in the vein of Amazons I can see them try what you are proposing. Not another gore fest per se, but something that focuses on the Rider vs The World stuff. Personally a direct adaptation of the Kamen Rider BLACK manga would be great.

That turned out to be mistaken. It was something to do with a channel in Japan streaming all the Heisei Rider series in order, and they were just on Ex-Aid at the time. Not sure how these glitches happen, but they do.

Still, I mean... it might be a while yet, but Ex-Aid in the US is hardly impossible anymore with Shout having 71 and Kuuga.

Dang! Thanks for that, all the same.

Another day, Ex-Aid! Another day...

Something I've been thinking about recently - what do people feel about the final villain in Kamen Rider shows being a Kamen Rider themself? Do people like that, or do they prefer a monster villain, or even a mix of both?

I dont mind as long as it is not reused constantly in a similar fashion.

It really depends on the series for me.

Build had a whole thing about evil coming from within, and arguably a much bigger thing about power being derived and reclaimed from evil. Obviously this is diminished a fair bit by Evolt turning out to be an alien, but his being a Kamen Rider does still introduce a lot of moral grays. In a series where Kamen Riders have consistently been either a force for good or something that eventually becomes a force for good after being freed from blackmail, Kamen Rider Evol being the final boss is a very good way to have it not just be a given that our heroes are good because they're Riders. They're good because of what they choose to do and what they use their power for. Build also being a series about the role of science in ethics and how it can be used to create weapons for war, it's extremely apt for the last fight of the series to be Sento beating down a Kamen Rider while he himself is a Kamen Rider.


Contrast this with Wizard, where Fueki being a Kamen Rider carries with it the philosophical and thematic relevance of... well, I'm not gonna say there's not any because I know there's a pretty fishy Wizard stan on this very site who's about to write paragraphs about everything that makes Wiseman important, but it's difficult for me to come up with a good reason for it. Sure, there is the whole thing of Wiseman being where Wizard's power came from and you could argue their both being Riders kind of makes a bigger statement out of that, but I think it would have been just fine if he wasn't a Rider. A big thing in Wizard as well was about Wizard being Haruto's own power that he was forging ahead with and he was making stronger with his allies. I don't think Wiseman having the same power as him really helps that much.

Joke's on you! The only thing I have to say about that is the White Wizard isn't a Kamen Rider, and nobody, including Toei, can ever convince me otherwise. He's in the same boat as Shadow Moon. He's just a guy with the same powers as Wizard, and that's not the same thing in my eyes.

Why, you might ask? Well, because quite frankly, I kind of hate the notion of evil Kamen Riders in a broad sense? It was perfect in Ryuki, which was making a deliberate attempt to defile tradition, and also had a clear and specific definition for what a Rider actually was, but in general, I feel flooding the franchise with so many movie villains and Genms and Evols dilutes the entire notion Kamen Rider started out with, which is one of the things I love so much about it.

You can't have an evil Kamen Rider, because all Kamen Rider is to begin with is a good monster.

On a case-to-case basis, I don't really have any issues with guys like Genm, for example, or your Thousers and Kaixas who still oppose the show's main villains, but in general, I really wish the franchise would put more thought into what that name gets attached to. If all Kamen Rider means is "person who transforms with a fun toy", I think that's more than a little sad.