Aye. Even something like Fourze, which was incredibly lighthearted and fun, managed to have some dark and emotional moments. And then you get seasons like Ryuki which don't even remotely seem like they'd be marketed for kids. Then we have W, which is still far and away the best example of a balance between the darker, more serious tone of older seasons and the lighthearted fun of Fourze or Den-O.

Ryuki is still my favorite series, but W definitely gets my vote for best KR ever. I'd go more in depth, but everything has probably already been said about it. The series is so good and I am happy...no glad I saw it.

Kamen Rider Ep 02

Hongo and the Zombie Bat Slave Apartment Building. This show is better than I thought it'd be, then I didn't really know what I thought it'd be. Enjoying it though. The BatMan (I snickered) was beautifully old school. And the idea of a sentient virus, and how his virus turned people into Shocker Troops.
The fight scenes were good to. Alot of seventies action jump cuts, but I loved it. And now Ruriko knows the truth about Hongo.

Onward to Scoprion Man!

Kamen Rider Kabuto- Finale

Wow. I still don't know what to say about this. In terms of writing, this show just sucked. They didn't stick with their own logic, changed things midway to stuff that made even less sense, the cast was somewhere between loveable over the top and downright annoying, depending on the episode, and whenever they tried to insert actual comedy, it felt like they were doing net movies. But at least the whole thing was so ridiculous that it made me laugh from time to time because I couldn't take it seriously.
Love the HBV though.

Faiz 5-16

Its nice to see the Crane Orphnoch be less tense about everything after the stuff with Snake Orpnoch going all rogue. And HOLY JESUS DID SHE JUST KILL A BUNCH OF RANDOM THUGS? Wow, she's a terrible person. But I guess that she has to get one off every once in a while. (Hint that was a masturbation joke)

Before she went on a date with Keitaro, I was making the joke in my head that's she needs to get laid in order to get less stressed.

Faiz's sword comes out of AutoVajin's handle, that's..... odd.

And Mari is the best character in the show, although she's become more shy as of recent episodes. She tells people what to do and doesn't take shit from nobody and now she's kinda the standard background girl.

So the president of Smart Brain goes from trust random street thugs in order to get back the Faiz belt, to his circle of friends/ mercenaries. Although seeing a black guy in Kamen Rider is really cool. Is the black guy a Dinosaur Orphnoch? Because he sorta looks like a dinosaur in his monster form.

Yay Kaixa! I actually liked the idea of a group of people using the Kaixa belt to protect themselves and each dying off one by one as they used it. Granted, that was a one episode thing but hey, I liked it. Oh hey and this Masato guy is now Kaixa, he's not as bad as people say he is...

2 episodes later.....

Holy fuck this guy is evil.

Episode 15 is having the communication problem people make fun of Faiz about. And people are not kidding about how bad it is.

Overall, I like this show so far, I wouldn't say its anywhere near my top 3 KR series yet but it does have a lot of good points about it. Every scene feels relevant to the story and every episode is perfectly paced. I like the villain focus and the blurry lines about what it means to be human and when killing is okay. The mystery is grabbing me, as its getting not only deeper but more interesting. I'm not all that into Takumi yet and my likability for Mari is going down as she 's sort of having her personality being worn down by the "generic female character" role that the show is trying to fit her into.

I like the suit designs and the interesting tools that Faiz uses for his final attacks. The fight scenes aren't the best though, and I think this is the first time I've said that about a Rider show. I think the problem is that each Rider has sort of a generic approach to combat combined with he fact that there's no mannerisms when they do make moves. Asides from Faiz's wrist flick in between a succession of punches and kicks, Masato and Takumi feel kinda generic when they fight.

Fun bit of trivia: this episode is one of four from the original series that were later remade in V3.

Kabuto's head writer really has trouble maintaining any kind of long form narrative. That's why I always dread it when I hear he's doing another All Rider or Superhero Taisen movie.

That's why W is my favourite.

When I started actively posting I considered changing my Avatar to the W logo instead of the PR one. But I figured PR looked better.

Ryuki 31-33: These were a pretty good set of episodes, seeing Eri dying and affecting Ren was good development for the character, since you know kill every other rider thing. Megumi, seeing Sinji come out of the glass was neat, and seeing the magic trick was good as well, as well as Reiko thinking the trick was how people disappeared, but not knowing about the monsters. Overall, to me Ryuki is starting to pick up to me again, I guess it's because I've been watching these episodes more frequently now so, onward with Ryuki.

But as well as after Ryuki which rider show should I watch?

Faiz or Blade. They also have similar feels and are very enjoyable. Plus, watching these two will help you to understand the masterpiece of Gaim better.

I say give Hibiki a watch. I liked a lot of it for reasons similar to Ryuki. Namely the characters. It has a really old school feel and, especially early on, some amazing cinematography and useof sound.