I haven't seen shin, but from what I've seen...If there's one thing Toku fans universally agree upon, it's that Shin is complete and utter shit.

If Shin is supposed to be the truest form of Kamen Rider, I'm happy to keep living a lie.

So, what does Shin ride?

Nothing. He transforms only a handful of times, one of which to have the same fight twice, the other to kill a defenceless, unarmed, man. I think we only see him Ride in human form once as well. Why is his codename 'Masked Rider' then? I have no fucking idea.

Ryuki episodes 9-16 and Dragon Knight 3-5

Nice to see both Kiwama and Ren get some character development along with hinting at what created the Advent decks. And hey Shinji, every one else found out who Zolda was 2 episodes ago so please keep with the times. I love when Kiwama gets exposed for the corrupt lying bastard he is, the reporter messing up his gift he sent to her, and the complate and utter EXPOSAL at the end of one of the episodes.

Finally, the Rider war gets into gear with the introduction of Raia and Gai. Kamen rider Raia seems pretty cool, although I don't understand why Ren doesn't want to be associated with him. 3 riders vs the remaining 8 I think is a pretty good deal. Also, Kamen Rider Gai is a dick. I was wondering where the hell Zolda was, 4 riders fighting and he doesn't get a piece of the action?

One thing I have to say is that Dragon Knight is a hell of a lot more action oriented then ryuki. In ryuki, the beginning and end of the episodes have the fights and the majority of the time is character development/plot where as Dragon Knight seems to take its inspiration from Power Rangers and have 2D characters and a lot of action. I don't think I can pin down the personalities of Len and Kitt come to think of it. Len is just all muscles and Kitt is just, "I don't want to fight, I just want to find my dad".

I have gotten used to the Visior voice in Dragon knight by now. I like how they took the elements of the ORE journal investigation subplots and put it in Maya with her own paranormal spin rather then being led into it, although all of her friends annoy me. Incisor's defeat was super lame, just like Ryuki. I liked the idea of Xaviax using a person's desires and manipulating them to be Riders but from Incisior, that's gonna lead to hella annoying lines.

"Hey you look like a million bucks!!"

"See that on your suit, that's a dollar sign."

WE GET IT, YOU NEED MONEY YOU HOMELESS BASTARD

Dragon Knight does have a plot, more epic and much darker than you'd expect from a kids show but yeah really it is much more character focused than anything else, as we deal with the horrors of violence and death and what motivates us to fight and kill others, and let's just say that not everyone is motivated by doing the right thing or justice or whatever.

I've watched EZ rider's review on Dragon Knight but I'm still watching it to compare to Ryuki, but the big Retcon near the end pretty much negates most of what you said. I can't say because I can't find the stupid black bar button on my post editing options

I never really had a problem with Venting. It works in exactly the way death works in many religions, and the show wouldn't have been able to kill off the characters in the ways they did if they didn't have a reset button. I think it works more than it doesn't, even if you may have to make excuses for yourself.

IXAcise!

Okay, that was terrible.