My plan for tonight is to marathon Black up to episode 33 (just watched 26). This is going to be a complete slog but at this point I want to just get to the Shadow Moon stuff.

I still need to finish Black at some point as well, but I just found it so boring to watch more than a couple of episodes at a time, and Shadow Moon doesn't come in til episode 33? Jesus.

Yup, that was pretty much my reaction when I found out too.

I feel like writing off Black as a 'I tried' and giving Faiz a go, as I've been itching to watch beyond the first episode of that.

Yeah, the highly episodic Showa stuff can be hard to marathon, I will grant you all that. Black is worth sticking through, though. Even if you only watch it an episode at a time.

I love Kotaro himself, but Black is such a boring Rider to watch fight, and pretty much every fight he has plays out in exactly the same way because he has three attacks like he's trapped in a Pokémon game or something, better leave that fourth slot open for Surf!

And then there is the story, I see sentai as popcorn toku and Kamen Rider as more of a serious drama toku but my God, this show is just a rinse and repeat of Golgom hatching ludicrously elaborate plans that are elaborate simply for the sake of distracting you that they have no actual goals at all balanced with characters who should have an emotional investment in all that is going on, that don't react to anything.

I would say the threat level of the monsters was good, and the fact that unlike in Wizard, the police still tried to do something despite their inability to fight, to the point they eventually developed weapons that WOULD work. Ichijo himself though is pretty awesome. I like Wizard still, but when I saw how the police was handled in Kuuga I fully understand peoples' problems with its police force and Rinko.

So I've watched more Agito, and saw that I'd missed a TV special which introduces his final form (and G3 Mild), that was fun. In the show, Another Agito continues to be far more involved than I expected, and the mystery comes closer and closer to being solved. But for now, a pause to watch the movie. It's always weird to me when a Rider show has a movie that is specifically intended to be canon.

Speaking of movies, I was reminded... the subs I had for Kuuga included something labeled as an extra episode (51 out of 50, I think) and it ended up being this sort of meta short with Godai and Ichijo, and at the end they make a joke like "The show is over, but we still have the movie! We'd better do our best." - Was there actually a movie planned that never got finished, or did they just figure that a movie was inevitable?

Some more rambling running commentary on

Ryuki 7

So, I assumed this new bull rider would have heroic qualities when I saw him fighting the zebra monster, but that theory was pretty much disproved the moment he powered down and revealed himself to dress like an eighties coke dealer.

Shinji's has a bad dream about the entire office being set on fire and he has a bizarre slapstick reaction to it all. It seems the big news story today involves crayfish. Interesting...?!

Speaking of which, apparently Shinji was known as Crayfish Catcher Shin-Chan as a child, which I'm sure is going to be an amazing flashback story at some point. Meanwhile, bull dude devours soup menacingly while watching the news report on some lawyer. I'm glad he's getting more development than Scissors so far.

Yui seems to take the focus of the episode as she and Ron go to see her adoptive mother, who immediately seems to dislike Ron, ahahaha. Ron, unable to take the verbal abuse of an old lady, rides off to be aloof.

Okay, so the flashback of how the old man found the giant crayfish is the weirdest, most out of place thing I've seen in Kamen Rider, period.There was a scene featuring that lawyer from the news report, so he might be more important than I realized. Or maybe he's just some prick, I dunno.

So Yui's mom pretty much approves of everything Shinji does. And yet again his trusting nature leads him into allying with the wrong people. Well sorta.

Ah, interesting. Bull seems to know the lawyer! Woah,wait....the LAWYER is the Bull guy?! Huh...Well, it seems Bull is sort of good guy after all. It seems.

I call OBJECTION AND BULLSHIT!!!! LOL

I just want you to know that you've convinced me to make awful puns every for every new rider introduced in Ryuki 8P

Hibiki 16

We open with Zanki and his apprentice, Todoyama continuing to fight the bull-porcupine and the smaller porcupine makamou. Todoama just isn't ready for combatting the big ones yet it seems.

Bizarre filming style as Asumu, his mother, and Hibiki chat. Todoyama basically has no faith in himself taking Zanki's place. And Zanki thinks Todoyama relies on him too much. He doesn't appear to be wrong.

Hibiki's out dispensing some mentory advice to Asumu, glad that Asumu's been inspired by him to succeed. Asumu, meanwhile wants to be Hibiki's apprentice, but isn't really sure...

And continuing with the mentor student theme, we have Ibuki telling Akira that training as an Oni as a youngster killed his social life and he doesn't want the same to happen to her.

And apparently Oni have an "End of the year party", which sounds amazing. I'll always like how monster hunting's just an occupation in Hibiki. A secret one, but still.

Todoyama's going at it against the Makamou again. This time alone, and he's pretty badass at it! His rocking out managed to destroy the makamou and he finally graduates as an apprentice.

So the Oni names aren't their real names. Makes sense. I guess the Rider's real names aren't generally important. Their rider names must be based around their real names though, considering how Todoyama's now...Todoroki!

Hibiki 17

Ah, the opening changed a bit to show Ibuki and Todoroki more. Pretty cool.

Akira finally shows up in school and Asumu decides to help her get settled in. Looks like it made Hitomi a bit jealous though.

Makamou are generally really creepy. But the man one wearing that cheesy fake mustache was hilarious. but they're still pulling some dangerous stuff now that they're finally moving from the countryside to the big city.

Apparently Oni's weapons run on things called Oni particles. huh...well at least with their weaponry, there's some tech involved. Sort of? I'm not gonna put much thought into it. At any rate, Hibiki's drumsticks can make fire swords now! which is cool.

Ibuki goes out shopping for new clothes with Kasumi's assistance. He seems pretty indecisive.

So the man and woman makamou are out in the city, feeding people to the big monsters, while their mysterious leader looks on...

And now Todoroki is inheriting Zanki's gear, not wanting to besmirch his master's legacy. Tea Master then grills him on liking his daughter, to which Todoroki has the standard nervous, but still funny, reaction.

Hitomi and Akira seem to have worked out their differences and become friends, while Asumu, who doesn't have much to do in this episode, gets hit in the head by a basketball.

Ibuki's out flirting with Kasumi when he notices the man and woman makamou (Douji and Hibime, I've got their names down now!) generally acting creepy. Them being in a big city is a first, I'm exited to see where this goes. The disc animals are already on the case.

Akira ditches school to help out Ibuki, so looks like Asumu might have to cover for her.

Man, this fight scene between Ibuki and the Makamou is awesome, they're really getting better and better with each episode.

The new giant Makamou has a really unique design too. It's like some kind of giant carnivorous spiky eggplant.