The reason I joined the board was because my friends were sick of me constantly talking about how good Riders were, especially Blade. I think i might want to make another wall of text, but I'll give you time to breathe. ;)

This. Although I feel a lot of Rider themes do this too. I remember reading one person saying that Rider themes are more J-Pop and fit in as normal songs while Sentai themes are just for Sentai. I think the meanings behind the lyrics are what connects the song to the show and they have to work harder to remind you that it's related to the show since Sentai always announces the team name and the Rider themes don't most of the time.

The guy doing Kuuga's theme song sure liked saying Kuuga, haha!

I feel we've been getting especially good themes these past couple years. I already mentioned how good Just Live More and Surprise Drive are, but listening to the short version of Ghost's theme before it premiered is actually what put me on the same wavelength as the show. I found it really interesting the Kamen Rider who's dead has a theme song all about how cool being alive is and sure enough, that's what the show is all about too.

It just goes to show how Kuuga is part of a sort of transition between two styles of Kamen Rider. You know, Kuuga has a proper "bragging" theme song. Agito just has a normal song but the name is still tokenly in there, and then Ryuki completes the evolution by just being a song.

Kuuga's OP is still very much Showa in nature IMO. This faded away as Heisei progressed; I think after Agito they even stopped mentioning the titular hero’s name in the song for a while. But I love it, Kuuga's opening music is one of my favorites.

And did you know they made a "Masked Rider" version of Kuuga’s opening song in English? It’s hilariously terrible.

I gotta hear this~

I warned you! :lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WYSV...170DF&index=11

Mas-ked Rider KUUUUGA!

Metamorphing Mas-ked Rider Kuuga.
Well, it's about the same as the Japanese version :p

Also, I need a lyric sheet to this. His accent is too strong, I have no idea what he's saying half the time :lol

That's why I said most of the time. :p Kuuga, Agito and Drive are the only Heisei exceptions I can think of. Also English Kuuga, I can't understand what he's saying so it isn't terrible besides METAMORPHING MAST RIDER KUUGA! I heard one for Time ranger. They like English in Japan, most of Drive's belt calls reflect this.

Drive doesn't even really count because it uses the word drive in the obvious sense of driving a car and also in the sense of having the drive to do something, as well as the dude the show's about. That triple layered wordplay is my favorite thing about it.

I'm also pretty sure the "got it move~" in Just Live More is supposed to sound like "Ga i mu~" too, which is kinda neat.