The Blade guys look really generic to me, though. I know that's a dumb thing to say, but just don't think it'd be my thing.

Also did I miss or forget what happened to that big lock thing in Agito? I remember it unlocked or whatever but not what happened to it.

It let out the Overlord. After that it served no real purpose and was conveniently forgotten about.

Oh right.

Agito 22: Well, I've seen worse excuses to have the riders fight eachother. But yay, Aki's gone! I don't usually like seeing characters die, even if I hate them, but I'm glad I don't have to suffer through her smug overacting anymore. The future is bright. Kind of random that Gills would attack Agito, a clearly non-monster gently mourning his dead not-girlfriend, but since he just came out of rider form and was likely still raging from it (dude's fucking nuts BTW. Gills as a person may not be all that but as a rider he's so cool and unique. Can anyone tell me if his SIC is in-scale with the Double/OOOs ones? :D) and only saw her dead body and some random dude touching her. But I don't get why he thinks Agito killed her when he knows she was being attacked by cat people (that's racist) and Agito is quite clearly a hero fighting said cat people. I do like that G3 came to Agito's rescue. Shame all he does is get his ass kicked. Though really the biggest shocker was that Agito is apparently capable of speech. I mean, the guy's never really said a word as Agito and I kind of thought he went into a battle trance when he transformed and only regained his normal personality afterwards. Also it was cool to see G3's helmet break and come off in battle. Anytime you actually see the regular actor in the suit is cool. (Like Skull in Decade's Movie War)

Also, the bug unknowns were creepy but interesting. They seemed more sadistic than the others, the first one actually seeming to admire his work. Also holy shit the G3 lady mowed down those beers faster than I mow down on KitKat bars. Maybe she's got superhuman powers, too. It was neat seeing those two talk.

You should try Hibiki sometime. They do that all the time.

God that was so boss when Skull did it though.

I get why double himself never did it, being two minds in one body would make Shotaro speaking in Philip's voice weird, but OOOs never did it either. And I never saw it when I watched Kabuto.

Weird.

It's pretty rare. The only times I can think of off-hand where that happens are Skull in the Decade movie, the G3 armor several times, the Hibiki Oni taking their masks off, and that one moment in Blade when Garren's helmet is shattered. I think I'm forgetting one (Birth maybe? Or Fourze?), but there aren't many more occasions of it.

There really aren't many examples of it. In sentai it's more common place, some times the heroes take their helmets off to introduce themselves or to have a breather in between fight scenes, in the middle of a rollcall before the helmet henshins into place and what have you. As for riders though the costume tends to form around the body all at once as opposed to the more segmented henshin of a sentai hero.

Agito 24: Man, G3-X rocks. It actually destroyed the bugwoman with, like, barely any trouble and had Agito on the ropes. (Or at least had Agito going for his finisher, something he wouldn't do unless he had no other option) I wish G3-X had finished Homo off and punched his frigging face in. And it only took, well, half the God-damned show, but Agito's finally remembering something. Kind of. Sort of. Point is, the show has remembered he's the main character at least.

Speaking of, I have a question about Agito: why is he only alerted to Unknown attacks sometimes? They always manage to bump off at least one person before his spidey-sense decides it gives a shit. Seeing him in the G3-X was... surreal, but neat.

Finally getting back into watching Ryuki again, on episode 14 presently. I really like Zolda, the way lawyer dude tricks Kido into thinking that Gorou was really Zolda and that he actually ended up killing him with his strike vent was pretty sneaky, plus his design is awesome, and his character is so unlikeable that...I kinda like him.

Also glad to see how Riders aren't being introduced really in a monster of the week fashion, they have some relevance and are sticking around.

Otoya fights as Ixa without his helmet in the Kiva movie.

Watching Kamen Rider Eternal being awesome... considering I'll never afford his Figuart :cry

You're not alone :cry

Zolda is such a great character and that design is so good. Outside of Ouja he was easily my favorite character.
When was Eternal ever awesome and not just a plot device? :lol

Always :lol

Finding it a little difficult to get into Kiva. Think I might watch OOO afterall.

Pah, he's an awesome plot device :lol

Ah. Never saw that one.

Kamen Rider Episode 13. Shocker creates a super-strong new cyborg, Lizardron, and resurrects 10 other cyborgs to create an unstoppable monster army. Except that Kamen Rider, Taki, and Ruriko stop them.

Pretty much a filler action episode. Lizardron looks like a Zyu2 monster -- specifically Lizanator, who was also super strong, oddly enough -- but he has a good character. He starts out as an extremely skilled but extremely arrogant soccer player, and is kidnapped and converted by Shocker. Unfortunately he does not get a whole lot of time to emote, but the scenes he does get to shine in are good. There's a nice scene where he rips his "human disguise off of his face to reveal his monsterous form.

Taki gets to shine once again, and we learn of his true affiliation, which is nice. He's a good character -- I wonder why they went in this direction instead of making him Kamen Rider 2?

Anyway, Kamen Rider 2 shows up in the next episode, which I will not be watching today.

Do it. OOOs is awesome.

Stick Kiva out, it's good stuff. But so is OOO.

I love Kiva too but OOO is probably better.

Well, I like Kiva better, but it certainly seems that OOO has a wider appeal.

You're making the right call.

One of us, One of Us...

Agito 25: I dunno, does anybody find Agito (like, the guy. I wish I could remember his real name. Souichi?) kind of... off? Like he's normally a nice humble guy, but seems kind of demeaning. He called the G3 guy a monkey, basically. That's, uh, kind of really mean considering he rampaged against his will and fell unconcious. I mean, jeez you'd think the guy's been through enough you gotta shit on him, too? AND after he wanted you to replace him and let you play in his suit? But seeing both those guys enamoured by his easily explained trick was funny.

And hey, he remembers everything! That... was really random and sudden. That can't be it. There must be a catch next episode. *watches*

I guess since I'm well and truely past the halfway mark, I should mention my total thoughts on the series: it's good, just slow. Not incredible, but far from horrible. The riders themselves are easily the stand out characters, but aside from G3 aren't super developed. Gills has and interesting story, but he spends most of his time frowning and grunting and not really using his brain. Agito as a rider is completely void of any personality and, like I said, I wasn't aware he retained his personality as a rider until just now. Out of the suit he also feels critically underdeveloped. G3 however feels much more like a main character, and his trials and adversities make him seem stronger and more determined than either Agito or Gills. He's probably my favourite of the show.

I'll give Kiva one more episode, then I'll decide.

Well, sorry OOO fans but it looks Kiva is here to stay. Also, can someone explain why people call Wataru a wimp?

Because he's a whiny emo bitch who runs off to sulk in his bathtub every time something happens.

We've had this talk before and he literally stops doing that halfway into the series.

To be fair, halfway is still 25 episodes, so it's still quite often.

I understand that but it doesn't entirely define the character. He actually is deeper than the description of "whiny emo bitch".

I don't really find Wataru wimpy anyway, he's just... awkward? Yeah, not wimpy just awkward.

Agreed, so far he's probably the top of my list for the series. He's just...an interesting dude, and his design doesn't really strike me as the norm for Kamen Rider, and seeing all those gears and stuff move, love it.


Hahaha, well his design is kinda cool I suppose.

Because...hm...

He's not that emo.

This.

That's actually a good way of putting it.

'Cept for the Sonic the Hedgehog eyes. And his gigantic headcrest. And his random blue flames. And the cape. (or make it white so it doesn't look so weird)

He's a good design if you just strip away everything that looks tacked onto an otherwise good design.

Aside from the gaia memory straps/bandoleer/vest/thing, there's really not much to Eternal that I'd call "Good."
The white body is bland, with no other designs meshed in, the flames are tacked on and ugly, and while having a cape is nice, it doesn't fit in with his...aesthetic? I don't really know.

I guess the absolute nothing that is his color scheme is what prevents me from liking him.

His complete lack of personality is what prevents me from liking him. And that design is just bland as hell.

Oh, if we could take into account character and not just design, then yeah.
He was a character that seriously did not need a movie just to explain his back story.
They could've done that with a pamphlet handed out during A-to-Z/Gaia Memory of Fate or something :I