Sometimes I think about how my favourite female Rider and the one I felt got the most development and the most complete story arc was... Mayu using Mage in Wizard, and that kinda makes me contemplate a lot about female riders in this franchise.

Miho's great! I'm a sucker for con-artists who reform, I love those stories, so she's got a huge lead on everyone else.

I haven't watched enough shows to see other female Riders, so I can't speak to Valkyrie, and I didn't fully understand the context of Kiva-la in the Decade/Double movie.

Marika... I just really didn't like how so much of her character became about assisting the rise of powerful men. Her and Mai, their stories got real tricky for me in the end because of stuff like that.

I think my favorite female Rider's got to be Genius Gamer N herself, Ride-Player Nico. She's fantastic, as long as you can discount her brief dalliance with Denim Harry Potter. It's her few flaws that make her so heroic.

That's a neat theory! I'd have a hard time putting the movie as anything other the final round, though, since Shiro seems to pretty definitively die in the movie. He's a narrator for 13 Riders, and he opts out of the story in the TV show.

I mean, I don't have a need in my brain to get them to line up, I'm okay looking at them as three separate stories starring the same actors, but it's cool if other people need to chart it out. Fandoms are awesome!

Aw, thanks! I still got a series overview I want to do (this show definitely feels like it needs one) and a self-indulgent (what's the difference?) post-script. Then a few days off, then Faiz.

There have been times I've wanted to recommend Kamen Rider to friends, but they've got hard rules about stories needing to feature women in narratively useful ways (good rules!), and it's like... Amazons? Maybe? Fourze, to a decent if still non-major degree? (Like, Nadeshiko debuting to cutie-pie poses and butt bumps, what the hell Fourze.) It's a huge flaw in this franchise, the seeming reluctance to center stories on women's journeys. Like, if/when they announce a year-long Kamen Rider series with a woman as the primary Rider, I am going to lose my shit.

You really are just goin, like my god man, I wish I had this level of focus/dedication.



Oh man I can't agree with this more, at least we'll always have Nico (and Poppy?). I will never fully understand why kamen rider seems so afraid of women riders.

It's helpful to not have an OFF button in your brain for this stuff! It's also a huge problem!

Poppy's great, I love that actor, but even her story focuses on stereotypically maternal aspects (she's Kuroto's mom, after all) and her Rider combat is similar to Nadeshiko's. She's definitely the female character who worries about the boys.

Like, I don't want to harp on it, but even bad-ass trickster Miho had to have a scene where she's a good cook, a way of saying to the audience Don't Worry She'll Make A Good Wife. Just, gender roles! Gender expectations! Total blindspots for this franchise!

I actually got to watch Episode Final as a child too, because I saw a big DVD for it while going out once, and was like 'Huh?? Final Episode? But this has characters on the cover I've never seen before??'. I watched it and I'm certain I was more confused than anything else. I probably liked it!

Anyhow, the movie itself is a big point of nostalgia for me because of that, and Ryuki and Ryuga's fistfight at the end is a really memorable action sequence for me. I couldn't really speak on whether it is 'good' or not (probably isn't!), but it's a fun little higher-budget spectacle of the show, which I know describes all the Rider movies, but hey.

Gaim absolutely did dirty by Yoko, but I chose to remember the good times. I also just think that Minami Tsukui is awesome and that shades some of my views on the character.

I'll admit, I totally forgot about Nico. She's one of my favorite supporting characters on Ex-Aid, but I tend to think of her as a civilian first and foremost. Kamen Riding really isn't her main thing and even when she does it she's more of a... well, you'll know what Riotroopers are in about 4-5 weeks.

Ah, don't rush it. And yes, a overview is worth the time. This was a game-changer for the franchise by expanding on what little rider vs rider conflict we had in Agito and focusing on that. It was basically what if a baker baked a loaf of bread called Kamen Rider but mixed Highlander, Pokemon, Yugioh, and Battle Royale in the batter before putting it inside an oven.

That's awesome! I can't imagine what it would be like to find something like that in the wild, zero context for how it fits into the overall story. (As it is, this seems like an insane movie to release four months before the series ended.)

And it's worth noting that the fights are way cooler than the TV series. There's more movement to the camera, a lot more dimensionality. Most fights have way more combatants. And, yeah, this is similar to a lot of Rider movies, but this was probably one of the first A Whole Bunch Of Riders movies, so it's pretty special!

Like, she's still a boss for 90% of that show. I can see why she'd rank highly for you!

Yeah, boy, a lot of ingredients in this one. Just... not mixed super great? Also, there's one key ingredient to this show that I'm not sure I've seen people mention, and it's maybe a controversial one. (Like, I don't know if folks'll agree with me on it.) We'll see!

Also, me starting Faiz isn't feeling rushed, it's excitement. I need a few days to clear out the Ryuki, make room for the Faiz, but otherwise I just always want to be watching Kamen Rider.