Yeah, the change to the opening and closing really bugged me, too. I cannot stand the second opening song, even though it's sung by the same guy that did Shonen Yo. Kagayaki is just so great and it was really stupid to replace it with something else, especially when combined with the second opening's incredibly generic visuals. And yes, the ending theme is gone (although it comes back on the last episode); I'd forgotten about that.

You can really tell that Toei had absolutely no respect for the show's original incarnation.

Episode 7 of W. Philip's got some moves.

I just watched these Ryuki episodes for the first time too!

Jesus Christ, this show is badass.

What I love most is how complex the morality of the series is. Every character except Shinji occupies this morally gray space where no one is purely good or purely bad. And even as one character takes a step further into the darkness, he also grows and realizes that he's not above making human/familial connections.

And yet, even though tragedy constantly befalls everyone and they're all fueled by a sense of crushing duty, the characters don't become maudlin or get bogged down with despair. I think Shinji's single-minded positiveness lightens the rest of the characters by association -- without him, or a character like him, the show would become overwrought.

This is my 4th Rider series (after OOOs, Fourze, and Kiva), and I'm stunned by how sophisticated it is.

Eri is Ren's girlfriend, not his sister.

Just finished watching Episode 5 of Gaim and I am enjoying it alot! I'm surprised that so many riders have already appeared that I'm starting lose track of who is who. haha. Makes me tempted to start getting into the toys now. >.<

God where do I start? I've watched Gaim up to date (11), all of Kiva, Fourze, Den-O, OOO, Wizard though episode 4, decade through 2, W 2, Kabuto 2, and Ichigo (AKA 1971) through 3. I'm watching them all side by side and I just started to get into Kamen Rider about 2 months ago X.X My life is gone right now lol.

Just finished episode 35 of Hibiki.

Honestly, I really liked this arc. Maybe I'm just a bit of a sucker for love/romance related arcs like this, but I just really enjoyed this storyline. There were some incredibly human moments, as I mentioned in the episode prior with Hinaka's phone call to Todoroki being a fantastic example of this. I felt this episode did a great job of humanizing the characters and showing more of their relationships.

Still not fond of the new opening and them cutting Shonen Yo from the ending, but I'll get over it I guess.

I didn't care for Ibuki's very brief bit of relationship drama. It mirrored Asumu's too much, which I felt was handled rather maturely despite being a case of misunderstanding it felt real, and was just kinda there to stop the oni from finishing the fight too early.

Speaking of finishing, I LOVED Armed Hibiki's taiko finisher, that was just awesome. I have always enjoyed watching taiko drummers, and seeing the actual drumming along with him actual using it on the makamou was pretty awesome.

Edit:

Watching episode 36 now.

Off to a..creepy start. Seriously Kiriya, wtf?

I, in a way, actually like this whole "let's have a contest" thing he has going on with everyone. Not trying to make him seem like the epitome of depth or anything, but it does at least give something to his character. We still don't know all that much about him, but he definitely seems to be trying to cover up or compensate for something (I recall his mother mentioning something about his stomach and rocking or whatever, as well as him being a sore loser), and this is his way of dealing with it, showing how much better he is than everyone else at even the most meaningless of things. It's not much, but it's something.

Oni armor eh? Design is kinda cool..though I can't say I care for the eyes on it.

Nice to see a bit more interaction between Akira and Asumu, been a while since they really had much time together like this from what I can remember. Showing more of her struggling between balancing her school life and her apprenticeship, working towards her future, and Asumu continuing to be at that crossroads of uncertainty..that he started the series in.

And here comes Kiriya to be a dick again.

Poor Sabaki just can't catch a break..

Zanki-san hiding something, hmmm.

Getting a nice little bit of incite into what the oni think of their position, what it means to them (as Asumu phrased it). Hibiki put it well enough, "To be an oni..means having to be an oni". Simple enough to be quite a complicated answer, but I think I get what he is saying. It's a bit like, "with great power comes great responsibility". At least in a way.

Notsugo, looked a bit like a scorpion, I can totally dig it hahaha.

And a bit of backstory for Zanki, love it.

His former mentor seems pretty cool.

And Zanki can no longer transform into an oni? Bummer :[

Again touching on what it means to be an oni, seeing the different interpretations they all have. Getting a bit of a look inside of them.

Zanki does make a good point as to why Akira may be best rethinking her decision to become an oni.

Did..Zanki just destroy that ancient armor?

Shuki regains her oni form, which I assume we'll soon find out why she was stripped of it (I think they said she was forced to give it up, mayhaps this ties into what Akira was talking about in regards to using anger/hate) next episode.

Also, Shuki is an in-show female rider....so why were people acting like Mage in Wizard was such a big deal? People acted like it never happened before.

You and I are on the same episode. :lol

(He's no Ryuutaros though.)

Ahh so after taking a break from Ryuki I decided to check one of the Showa shows and the one I choose was Kamen Rider Black.

Well Black was okay, when I saw this I was like oh ya they used to put all this stuff on a human face and that was the monster not just a rubber costume.

The first henshin didn't make much sense since he went through a wall but hey what are you going to do. The ghost figures to me just didn't seem to big to me. The spider costumes though did look neat I'm not gonna lie. Since I'm in the train to not lie I'm gonna be honest and just say that Blacks suit doesn't impress me all to much.

The characters are okay I guess for the time this was made. Black himself being like a king is okay? I don't know it just seems like a but too much. The girls look to be fairly annoying. The dad thing doesn't really surprise me too much and the fact he died didn't add to much in my opinion.

Overall this looks like to be a diaranger season in terms of story and villian designs and I really liked diaranger so that's a plus, but tech spam in ep reason I watched black was because of the figuarts. Hehe.

Blade 32-35. King form has shown up, and now that I've seen the suit up close I have much more of an appreciation for it. That detailing is gorgeous.

Things seem to be heating up now too with Hajime's true form showing up (man Joker REALLY needs a Figuart) so I'm looking forward to the final stretch. I've had quite an odd relationship with Blade so far - I think its had one of most compelling stories of the Rider shows I've watched but it doesn't really wow me visually. The grungy designs are a bit hit and miss for me and I find the action a bit lacking. So far its been one I'm mostly in for the characters, setting and mythos.