Right, about to return to the world of the Bugmen, but I can't quite decide on which one. I'm thinking about watching OOO but I want to wait until TV-nihon puts all the episodes in batches. I'm also interested in Blade's aesthetic but I've heard that It has a very weak first dozen of episodes. And I'd be interested in Hibiki because I like the idea of musically based heroes & I have an interest in Japanese history & culture (which I'm guessing Hibiki has something to do with), but from what I understand it's not really a Kamen Rider show.

Anyway, what do you recommend?

Blade is amazing start to finish, but I would suggest holding off until someone actually does DVD rips. Nihon's subs are taken from tv, and their encoding not only sucks, but they cannot be watched on anything but a computer. I like to put my files onto my external harddrive, hook it up to my BD player, and watch them that way. It is the same for their Hibiki and Kabuto files. All three series need upgrades.

Well that's fine since I was planning on watching them on my laptop anyway.

First of all, if you don't want to wait on torrents KRDL has all of OOO - both the TVN and O-T versions - on direct download.

Blade does have kind of a slow start, but it is totally worth sitting through because once the show really gets going it gets very, very epic. I still think it has one of the best endings out of any show in the Heisei era.

Hibiki (anyone who's been paying attention knows what I'm going to say) is, hands down, my favorite Heisei Rider show. It has some incredibly original and distinctive elements to the cinematography that really make it stand out from the other Rider shows. The cast is full of deep, engaging, and likable characters and they all have really strong chemistry with each other. It's a very different show compared to all of the others, but if you can get past the initial differences it's well worth watching... for the first 29 episodes. After that it takes a massive nosedive in quality and, while not actually terrible, it becomes much more average, feeling a lot like some of the weaker parts of Faiz or Kiva (mostly because they all have the same writer). I usually tell people not to watch those episodes, but the first part of the series is an absolute must-see.

Dr Kain is right, though, that the TVN subs are not the highest quality video. KITSubs was working on a new version of Hibiki but that got put off when the raws were lost in the great filesharing apocalypse of 2012. As far as I know, no one has shown any interest in scrubbing Blade (which is a pity, as its the show that needs it the most - there are some weird aspect ratio issues at times and the translation is usually considered one of TVN's sloppiest). Don't get me wrong, they are totally still watchable, but it is worth mentioning.

Kabuto.
Watch it.

Already did.
It was pretty good.

I'm approaching the end of OOOs and was wondering which version (only one) I should watch: regular 47 and 48 or the Director's Cut of 47 and 48?

Thanks. Keep forgetting about KRDL.

*download J, watches it*

OH MY GOD IT TALKS!

Also: Dat Jumbo Rider Kick.

Okay, gonna try to finish Shin now. Let's see how far I get this time.

I'd go with the DC just because it's presented as one, near hour long episode :P

Finally made it all the way through Shin.

Well, hmmmm....

So this supposed to be a deconstruction, right? On that level, I feel like it fails pretty hard, as the only thing I would say is truly more realistic is the fact that the organization that makes the Rider has thew cover of being a legit corporation. Everything else just feels the stereotypical 90's idea of what "dark" and "adult" meant. And for what it is, it's kind of a neat alternate take on Kamen Rider.

Personally, I think the way to do a Kamen Rider deconstruction is to keep the corrupt corporation angle (but have it be called "Shocker") and have all his modifications be internal. The costume would be just that. A costume. A suit of armor the guy builds to protect his identity and match similar armors that the Shocker cyborgs would wear. And the setup is that he has to clear his name and expose Shocker for what they really are. That's probably just my love of G.I. Joe Renegades talking, though.

I was gonna sit down and rewatch Paradise Lost, sinc eI enjoy that film, but then I saw the unbelievably arrogant post on the TV-N main page and thought "Meh forget that"

Are you talking about the one on Orga, err..."Oga"?

I find Paradise Lost to be dreadfully boring. Nothing happens until the last 20 minutes of the movie, which is its only saving grace.

The whole "the official spelling is Orga, but we don't hear an R so we're calling it Oga" thing? That is incredibly stupid, yeah. Can't wait to see them redo Blade with Kamen Riders Karis and Renger. :rolleyes

yep, but for anyone who's been around long enough that pretty common response to ANY comment about how they subbed something. Plus if you comment about it in thier forum thats pretty easy ban right there. They make comments about " people's ignorant notions " And continue to act as though they are infallable.

Still we should be glad we have choice, go back 7 or 8 years ago, any group tryed subbing a Toku they took it as a personal attack on them and harrassed the subbers out of the game, there were even accusations of them launching DOS attacks, but that was far in the past.

posting thier forums is so hard too that there is no point in responding before they delete the post/ Ban you, but I'd love to say: " Thancs gius four teeching mee that spelling haz moore two doo with how a wurd is foneticlee soundead than how itz aktually speeled."

I wonder if Daburu and Osu are going to undergo similar changes with them.

I finally caught up on Fourze. I gotta say...the show didn't start off very strong for me (I had tried watching it several months ago and after the first episode decided it wasn't for me). Once I bought the driver and all (and I mean all the switches) I decided to give the show another shot. I'm glad I did. The show picked up when they started introducing the KRC members.The show did hit a bit of a lull shortly after the last KRC member was introduced but then Meteor showed up and the show picked up quite a bit. The last couple of episodes have been really great and I have high hopes that the show will end on a high note.

Other than that, I finished W about a month ago and loved it dearly. The second to last episode made my eyes well up (but I didn't cry because I'm a man and men don't cry!...*sob*), which is saying a lot as I don't typically get emotionally invested in a show.

I'm also currently watching OOO. I'm on episode 11. Like OOO a lot, but not as much as W or Fourze. I think it'll grow on me...although I don't know how I feel about the creepy/weird Dr. Maki lol.

Right, I've watched the first 3 episodes of OOO. OOO feels very colourful.

I reckon I might start Blade or Hibiki after I finish watching Shinkenger.

Well, I finally finished a Kamen Rider TV series. It was W. I really don't think there's anything I can add to the discussion on W at this point. I loved it.

Now I need more. Which is why I'm DLing the V-Cinema movies and Movie War Core now.

SPOILERS INCLUDED:

Anyway, so yes, I spent Wed-Friday watching Ryuki and I still love the show. However, the fact that there are only 10 riders in the show really drives me crazy since Shiro just randomly has the ability to break his own rules of the Rider Battle. The fact that he can claim that Knight and Odin were the last two and ignore Zolda and Ouja is annoying as hell. I personally think it would have made sense for Ryuga to be the final rider since Shinji had just kicked the bucket and they could have had Ren start stalling on fighting Ryuga, reflecting on his relationship with Shinji throughout the entire series. That would have been far better instead of just Ren getting his butt kicked and then Shiro gets mad and destroys everything, and Odin just stops and tells Knight he won. However, the worst offender is the reset button. Back when I first saw the show in 2003 I thought it was a pretty good ending, but then I realzed years later that is the Japanese way of copping out an ending. There are way too many series that did it, like Wolf's Rain, Big O, My-Hime, Rahxephon, Evangelion, etc. I hate that. You go through this entire series, see characters change, characters die, you feel for those characters, you cheer for some of those character deaths, and then they just reset the freaking world on you, making everything you watch invalid.

Like I said, I still love the show despite its faults, but I'd say it is probably a little higher in regard for my favorite series than it used to be.

Oddly coincidental how i made it to episode 20 of Den-O The debut of Zeronos on the same day we find out about his S.H.Figuart. I am having a lot of fun with this series.

I dream of the day a sub group finishes Kakuranger...That and Abaranger are the only two Sentai series I want to watch right now ;_;
(And TV-Nihon was always a bunch of dicks. I only ever knew them from my brief membership on their boards, and I got bitched out when I asked why they took a week to sub something when other groups could do it in 2 days. Their Oga thing recently just reminded me how far their heads are up their asses)

Anyway, I must agree that the reset button is an annoying plot element, especially in series that has done so much. Ryuki's ending was probably the only sore point with me (It had some hiccups here and there, but they're easily forgiven).

Over the past week or so I've tried several different shows (i.e. watched the first couple of episodes). I tried Ryuki based on all the love people here showed for it but I just couldn't get into it. The story is fine, but the filming style and effects just didn't do it for me. I know I shouldn't judge a show based on it's effects and film style but it's difficult for me to stay absorbed into the show when I constantly notice them. Kind of ruins the immersion for me.

I tried Kuuga and it's actually pretty good so far. It has a similar filming style as Ryuki (I'm guessing that it was a common film style for those early Hesei shows) but I like the darker story and the main rider. I also really like the costume. Definitely one of my favorites. I'll probably continue watching it.

I tried Hibiki for basically the same reasons as Ryuki. I really really like the main character but the rest of the show is just so...odd. I only watched the first episode and I don't know if I like it yet or not but I will give it a couple more episodes.

Finally, the last show I tried was one that seems a lot of people praise: Den-O. Gotta say...I love it so far. I've only watched 3 episodes at the moment but I was hooked from the first episode. I love the contrast between the main character being such a wimp (I mean he has probably the wimpiest call for "henshin" I have ever heard! lol) and Momotaros being a hot-headed, super aggressive badass. I definitely like it thus far and will continue watching it.

Other than that I'm still watching OOO's and Fourze and loving both.

lol Ryuki is borderline grimdark :lol
If you're looking for a dark story, just stick with Ryuki.

Yeah...I do like the "battle to the death" and the fact they aren't afraid to kill people in the show but I just can't get over the camera work and CG at the moment. I think I will continue giving it a shot as I do like the story premise.

I understand, I understand.
It's just, when people mention wanting a darker Rider story, I immediately point them to Ryuki :lol

Kamen Rider Black is pretty dark as well.

While the CGI in Ryuki is pretty meh, you have to remember it is CGI to a 50 episode low budget Japanese tv series, and it was done in 2002. CGI from that era tends to look like crap in any tv series and movie unless it was high budget like Lord of the Rings.

Wait until you get to the character Ouja, then you will see how adult this show can get. I won't give you spoilers, but there are things he does in his first episode that I never saw done before like that.

Ouja is definitely one of those characters you love to hate.

Hate him? I love the guy and do not hate him one bit. He was insane and fun. He was probably the best Kamen Rider villian until the Sonazaki family in W. Not to mention the music really fit the mood to the point that you could feel his pain at times (like when he starts telling Reiko to hit him and that he had to eat mud), and then you had the scenes when he was like a kid, offering Kanzaki food whether it was from the rations he had or the lizard he had just cooked. The guy was just misplaced in the modern world, and he went bat **** insane from it.

Definitely. Ouja is just an animal in human form. Everything about him is self serving and self gratifying, other people are (brief) tools, his power is meant only for him. I love that guy and pretty much anything he does. And trying to get the viewer to feel sorry for him with the whole "I saved my brother form the fire" thing then turning it completely around on us was brilliant! I can't get enough of Asakura.

I couldn't stand Ouja. He was a horrible person and I was begging Shinji to kill him off the one chance he got.
As a character, he was amazing though. Out of the KR I've seen between Ryuki and W, yeah, he's easily one of the best until the Sonozaki family.

Alright so I decided to give Ryuki a third shot and I'm glad I did! I was actually able to overcome the things that were previously bothering me. The weird thing is, I feel that the camera work improved with episode 3 on. It felt much more professional than the first two episodes. I dunno...maybe I'm just perceiving it that way. But I'm definitely hooked now and I'm on to episode 5 where they seem to be introducing the first rider that Ryuki is going to go up against (I know techinically he's already fought with Knight but that doesn't count :lol). I'm excited!

Awesome! Glad you gave it another shot. One of these days I'm going to give Hibiki another go to see if I can get past the first few episode. To this day it's still the only Heisei show I have not watched fully.

Yeah, I'm going to give Hibiki another shot if someone ever just buys the damn DVDs and subs them.

I tried Hibiki as well but just couldn't get into it. I'll try it again later as I like the concept and the suit design. I also started watching Decade again. I find it a little odd they've changed the worlds (Kuuga is understandable since the guy who originally played Kuuga did not like his role so they likely wouldn't be able to get him to reprise his role so they went with a new character entirely) but I just finished Kiva's story and I'm a little confused about why they made Wataru a little kid? Is it the same Wataru or a different one? I only watched about 10 or so episodes of Kiva so I'm not sure if the fact they call Kivat in Decade Kivat the 3rd is supposed to be a clue or not. Overall I like Decade but I wonder: are these supposed to be alternate universes or the same universes as the previous shows? It's been a while since I watched the first episode so maybe they mentioned it then...

Anyhoo, I still like Decade so far and will be sticking with it :thumb:

So that makes the 6th show I'm watching at the moment:

OOO (episode 15ish)
Fourze (keeping current)
Ryuki (episode 5)
Decade (episode 5)
Den-O (episode 6 or 7)
Kuuga (episode 3)

Just a quick heads up for Decade: All the Riders, except for Den-O, are alternate universe versions. The Wataru from episode one, however, IS the original Wataru.

And Kivat the 3rd is his name in Kiva too lol.

Ah, gotcha. Thanks for the heads up! Now I won't be so confused lol.

Hope you are safe from the fires up there in Colorado Springs!

No problem! ^^

And thanks!

Twelve episodes into Kabuto. Matrixbeast... I like that they took all of the elements necessary to create an annoying main rider out of Tendou, and gave them to Kagami. That way, I can centralize my distaste for whiny riders to one character.

You're welcome! :D
And don't worry. Kagami becomes a lot better as a character.