Decade was supposed to be short. The TV ending was the true intended ending from the start too. Everything after was retreading and trying to write out of that ending when it was supposed to do something else with that ending.

Kivara was planned right though and everything from there was about right. It's mainly the change of the tv ending to the beginning of the after specials that was sidestepping the original plan. Everything else is about what it was supposed to be though.

Not the first time this has happened though. Hibiki diverged in the middle away from the full theme closure it was supposed to have with last minute changes, but then went right back to the ending it was supposed to have focusing on Asumu's choice like how the show started. There were some other things that should have been explored. But the beginning and ending still lined up to as intended. It's the middle that got messed by the writer shifts and corporate interference. Hibiki would have rebounded if they stuck with the build it was getting instead of the confusing turn it took. Though some elements did need to be added for the better poignancy of Asumu's growth. Though more should have been done with Ibuki's apprentice. That was one of the sub builds that was going on that Zanki foreshadowed. So Hibiki's intended full ending does kind of feel like it's missing a piece because of that.

Sometimes that's the main issue with corporate series. You have one vision in mind and build to that, where turns can cause merchandise upswings, but then the corporate heads get nervous and start forcing changes too fast, which ruins the planned story beats and upswings built in, which then causes a bigger mess, and you end up with only the beginning and endings making sense while the middle is all over the place from interference.

Something they've seemingly learned to be careful of since roughly OOOs. Everything after that one has been more cohesive visions of letting the stories play out as planned. OOOs was the last one that got interfered with. Kiva and Decade ran okay too from how they were intended. Decade wasn't interfered with until post-series where they tried to rewrite the intended ending. Which is why the shift from new TV end to him leading Shocker made no sense.

Den-O had other issues due to actors/actresses, but it mostly still played out as intended including spin-offs/side stories.

You don't have to like the comment. My opinion is my opinion and I stand by it. ;)

Yet you did comment, lol :D I wasn't being sarcastic or trolling. In my humble opinion Kamen Rider Decade is the best rider series ever!


And it all hinges on the fact that he can transform into any other rider. And with that being said, Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger is the best Super Sentai Series in the history of that franchise. There is not one other show which comes close to it's brilliance.

When you have a Kamen Rider and a Super Sentai Team who both can change into other heroes within their respective series. What's topping that???

I think Den-O is one of the worst Riders. Good series. But super plagued by both cast issues, and the wishy washiest main Rider of all. He's weak. He's feeble. He's riding trains! Don't get me wrong. The Imagins are over the top ball smashingly awesome. And the Rider forms and suits were some of my favorite as well. And one of the BEST secondary riders that got super punked by the end.

BUT by the time we hit the movies, I had a really hard time keeping attention.

Also, I'm not proud to admit that I fall asleep when attempting to watch the really old Rider shows. My attention span starts right around Agito and then moves on from there.

I've fallen asleep watching A Nightmare on Elm Street and Godzilla lol. Sometimes you're just tired.

lol I meant I have no comment on the quality of Decade


That certainly is a controversial opinion. I actually got annoyed by the constant suit changes in Gokaiger. The Gokaiger suits are some of my favorite suits in all of Sentai, and I just wanted to watch them in action. Plus, most of the time when they changed suits, it was just for the hell of it.

I really like the idea of Decade, but I've heard that the actual story is pretty poorly written. I guess I'll have to find out for myself.

Most if not all shows pre Agito are 10 45 filler episodes 5 episodes plot

I don't think anybody will disagree with this lmao

Which version of Mach are you talking about? Because there is a vast difference between Mach in the first half of Drive versus how he is in the second half of Drive which is where I say he becomes a bit of an irritating douche.

So you prefer Eiji x Ankh then?

I'm gonna bring up Drive again. I don't see how people can say Drive starts off boring if they enjoy showa Rider or even Sentai.

My problem with early Drive was that it felt like a big step backwards after Gaim. We'd spent so many years with two-part MotW episodes before Gaim shook things up and Drive started by going right back to the old status quo. The overabundance of slapstick comic relief didn't help, either.

I never get why they choose to go backwards after Gaim. I know Gaim didn't get good TV ratings, but at least it did well with toys sales. I would imagine kids must have like the show if it did well in merchandise sales. Drive is made me to start to lose interest with the series. Ghost broke me from Kamen Rider and now Build is slowly bringing me back to the franchise.

I hope Freddy got you in your dreams while falling asleep when watching his movie :p

Well you have to remember that there were two different writers between those shows and they were both doing what they were comfortable with, not to mention the toys and stuff get finalized before the writing begins, Baron Lemon Energy Arms being an exception. Urubuchi knew he had a larger cast than average to work with and could work with that, Riku Sanjou only had 4 total to work with

Is it merely a context thing? Gaim raised the bar and Drive just did more of the same?

Yeah, I remember quite a few people giving Drive flak back in the day because it wasn't Gaim. When you just finish a show as it's airing it'll still be in your mind. It's why I'm personally considering giving Kamen Rider a shirt break after Build wraps up so I can have a more fair opinion on Zi-O

I can understand that. Zyuranger was my first full toku series* and when I finished, I started Dairanger immediately after. I hated Dairanger, simply because I loved Zyuranger and it wasn't Zyuranger. Once I got over the "every Sentai needs to be Zyuranger" thing I started enjoying them all a lot more.

It can also have the reverse effect where if you just come off of a shit show the next one seem a lot better. See Dino Charge and Ex-Aid for example as they both came after some pretty bad shows.

I still like OOO after W. To me, Drive was meh and I didn't bother to finish it. It should not take over 30-40 something episodes to get good. Otherwise your viewer is just going to stop watching it and move on to something else. I see people say the same thing for anime like Bleach and One Piece that it gets good at episode 100 something when you should not wait that long for good story telling.

I could not get into the story and characters in Drive because they felt flat to me. Even Mach didn't save it for me.

I really dislike Kuroto and Kiriya are revived in Ex-Aid series. Kiriya's revival in Ex-Aid series is just ruined sad feels in episode 12. I more prefer if we has new Lazer user (maybe Kiriya's friend?). For Kuroto, I really dislike he is become funny antihero character after he is revived. Kuroto before episode 30 is so much better than after his revival. I felt Kuroto is revived because he is most popular character in Ex-Aid (even the human verion of S.H.Figuarts are planned to be released).

Could it been written better? Most certainly and only having 31 episodes didn't help it much either. But I was only invested in the action so I was pretty much satisfied with that. :)

I didn't finish Drive either. :o

Also Tsukasa is just fun to watch,

In hindsight, Decade is still bad.

I do like Let's Go Kamen Riders a lot as a movie, but I hate the impact that it created. It seems like most of the crossover movies during the Spring time will rehash that movie.

The first 2/3 of Let's Go Kamen Riders was pretty good but damn did the last third sucked.

Not purely, no. The early part of Drive had some objectively weak elements.

In hindsight, Amazons wasn't all that great IMO. I read a similar comment a few pages ago and I have to agree. I was into it with Season 1 since it was kinda good, but Season 2 I had to force myself to sit through, it was awful.

And then I realized that I don’t really care that much for Season 1 either. Like, I can only remember about 3 moments from the whole thing and I can’t think of a single character that left an impression. They were all just there for the ride.

As a result of this I get a little irritated when people praise Amazons for its storytelling or characters because it’s all so "adult". Meanwhile I'm sitting there thinking: "Shows like Build tackle as much adult themes and handle most of them better".

Like, seriously, it's good that Amazons is a thing and created that bridge to online streaming services which can exist without the need of advertising toys, but I just don’t think it was all that good, or rather, it is a bit overrated just because it’s made "for adults". Even though it’s less adult in some of its forms than the Rider shows for kids.

Amazon is the coolest Showa Rider.

Is that controversial? I always thought that he is a fan favorite.

Maybe not the most popular ever but I don’t think anyone would hate your guts for thinking Amazon's the coolest.

Come to think of it, I couldn't really argue with any Showa pick, they are all pretty dope. Maybe if you said Shin was your favorite I would be a bit surprised but other than that? I don’t think you can go wrong with picking a favorite Showa Rider. Heisei is where it gets ugly :lol

I was unsure, I just don't hear as much praise for Amazon compared to other Showa riders :lol

Anyway, I feel that a series is best with no more than two riders.
And I feel that evil riders are dumb. The entire point of Kamen Rider is that the forces of evil create their own undoing, so having an evil rider just feels kinda dumb.

In Kiwami's defense regarding Amazons, I agree most of his opinions, especially about the overrated part. Don't forget, Amazons S1 aired when Ghost was at it's lowest. Try to lie but you just can't shrugg off the feelings that Amazons was a catharsis when Ghost couldn't execute on so well. So you can feel the big difference on both of them. That's why maybe some people felt like Amazons S2 didn't have the same impact not because just the characters and story but also it aired when Ex-Aid was on their strongest. I might sound a little harsh but you can't easily remove this mindset in our head.

Also, am I the only one here who doesn't like W or Double? For me, Drive is like an upgrade of W in some ways. It's not I dislike Akiko because I still found her entertaining in some places. However, Drive's characters are more all around. I really can't feel the dynamic between Shotaro and Philip, except in some episodes and the finales. It's a bit unfair because I have watched Gaim and Drive first before I watched W so I can't shrugg of the feelings that W would have been better on seralized.

Really, the reason I don't really like W was because the two parter really hindraced the story for going linear. I mean when Drive was about 10-ish episodes, there was so much going on. For W? We were focusing too much on the case that the really plot moved so sluggish. When W was around 40-ish episodes, we must still focus on that police for a whole two episodes, dealing with the Old Dopant, dealing with Mick? Even for Drive, they knew when to move the final forward. From 40-ish episodes, you can't say it's fillers anymore but I can't say the same with W.

That's why I like Wizard despite all of the hates. It has a rough journey but it has a rather satisfying journey on the finales and the two parter really felt like moving the plot onward. I just want the series to focus on the finales when it must. Also, W's other problems are the villains, except for Wakana and Saeko. Really, we don't get so much fleshed out from Kirihiko and Isaka. They only got a good deal of fights near the end of their time and I felt it should have been pushed earlier (Ehem, for once, we don't need that two parter crazy creepy doll case). I felt like Ryubee was on the loose ends too because he died so abrupt without a proper send out.

Sorry if it's become a ramble but I really wonder how people can say W is good and amazing while I still see some loops and holes here and there. I know series like Wizard, Ex-Aid, Drive and Gaim also has their ups and downs but it's surprising that people o errated W so much.

I have like two episodes of Amazons season 1 left, and I think it's pretty good. I like how it's nice and short, so it doesn't feel drawn out. The themes are good, and there's a lot of really great episodes (the fight in the apartment building and the episodes involving the scrapyard are some of my favorite Rider episodes). The adult elements...well, the episodes in the scrapyard were definitely a lot more mature than normal Rider fare, but some of it seemed like "look how mature we are" edginess.

As does just about any Rider series. I just feel like the beginning of Drive is, at worse, "standard." The "it came after Gaim" argument makes sense though.

I have to agree with EpsilonX. I watched Amazons this year and I really enjoy Build so I had no bias going in. The best part of Amazons is easily the pacing, as it doesn't suffer from the pitfalls many series like Drive (which I still love) falls in, a slow start, stretching out filler to fit a full episode or a 2 parter, and having to advertise toys. Yeah, the joke that every episode ended on a cliffhanger is true but I was hooked the whole way, so it worked. The theme of tamed vs. untamed was also interesting, I can't think of a rider series off the top of my head that also has that theme. It was also well-integrated into the story, with Haruka becoming more wild, Extermination Team becoming less wild (they started caring for the Amazons close to them), Jin and Nanaha being wild constants, and the company employees (save the CEO), Misuki (S1), and normal citizens being unwild constants. Balanced ended up being the best option (Haruka post-Extermination Team was the most well off). This is also the only show I've watched that makes a good justification for canabalism (I swear I'm not a cannibal), with the argument that humans should not be exempt from the food chain when other animals are just as compassionate, or even moreso (seen with the constrast with the murderer and the hungry, yet anti-fighting Amazon), which poses an interesting question to the viewers. The characters also have a great deal of memorable moments, the best example being the scene with Mamoru paying extermination team and looking at them through the yen coin or Haruka telling Misuki to not worry about his bruises. Season 1 is also better at handling its edge than Season 2, the excessive blood is only in fight scenes, there aren't any incredibly gruesome scenes of murder (the restaurant one I found was minimal and did a good job at not overdoing it), and there isn't constant attempts at religious symbolism. Also, can we appreciate the plethora of different environments in this show, they're not just in the same quarry, under the same bridge, in the same forest, or outside the same stadium. The fight in the apartment complex was super memorable and cool to watch because of that. Is this show perfect? No, it does have its fair share of extreme edge (CGI blood during fights, dark green filter), but it was enjoyable to watch and has plenty to like.

I never got the "look how mature we are" edginess vibe when watching Amazons. It didn't felt like they did it just to feel cool or badass like movies or anime like the August Underground movies or Future Diary and Tokyo Ghoul (At least from what I've seen of the anime. Not sure about the manga).

I like Amazons story, themes and characters. I do like that we can have a series for adults and a series for kids & the general audience. Just like how the MCU has the Netflix shows for the adults while the kids and the general audience has the main MCU movies in theaters. I don't mind watching something for a young audience time to time, but I do like having something with more substance too.

For me, I think it's mostly how Haruka will kill enemy amazons by tearing through their stomach or completely obliterating their head, resulting in an explosion of blood.

SO many shows do it that I don't even notice anymore lol. But when a show doesn't, it seems kind of boring :lol

I didn't have any issues with that scene for how over the top it was. It felt like something from a Mortal Kombat game or 80's Italian horror film. The violence in Amazons is pretty over the top. I never felt like it was trying to be hardcore just for the sake of it. The violence and gore in Amazons is not much different than what you see in most R rated horror and action movies if you ask me (The ones that good).

My problem with Amazons season 2 was that I just got bored of it. The show really overestimated how much interest I had in Chihiro and how he wanted to bone the zombie girl. I honestly thought most of the new characters sucked (especially the new hunter captain, who seemed to be doped up on depressants most of the time) and the original cast suffered from having to share screentime with them.

Count me in that minority that loved both seasons for Amazons. Not because of the gore or edginess or mature feel, but because of the kind of story they were trying to tell.


Season 2 was interesting to me in that it's basically a deconstruction of the whole concept of Kamen Rider. Most series, we may get a character who isn't entirely human who's trying desperately to hold onto their humanity, and ultimately, they succeed. Look at any of the Showa Riders, or Faiz, or Chalice. But Chihiro, on the other hand, is totally fucked. He's only just barely holding onto that side of him, but the plot lets it be known that he's basically a ticking time bomb that's ready to go off at any given moment. And he finally does. And even when he tries to come back from it, he's already caused so much death that everyone else deems him too dangerous to be left alive. And that's beautifully tragic.

I think where it lost people was simple: the love story bogged down the rest of the season. It's a love story where the literal basis of it is that it's entirely one-sided and that the characters involved have no chemistry together (due to one of them being, you know, dead.). On top of that, Chihiro is given a very flimsy reason for falling in love with her, so the entire thing just feels forced. And that being the main thing that causes him to go berserk just brings down the rest of the story.

I kind of feel that way about most R rated horror and action movies too lol. However, it does make Omega's fighting style pretty unique and "raw" (for lack of a better word) so I guess it serves a purpose and gives it a bit more taste than a lot of things.

It's the lack of hope that kills Amazons for me. I don't dislike it, I just don't think it's better than the real Kamen Rider shows, either. Kamen Rider has always been a show where a man is given evil powers and uses them to do good and inspire hope...but Amazons is so mired in despair and blood and darkness and edginess that 'hope' becomes a laughable concept.

Even Rider shows that are almost more flaw than shows...have that hope. Kamen Rider Amazons is an amazing show...but it's not Kamen Rider to me. It's more like Garo - which is also a great show. It tried to be 'Kamen Rider for adults'...but I think it lost the 'Kamen Rider' elements somewhere along the way. Like, it tries - and in some ways it succeeds - like, for instance, with how Jin and Haruka staunchly believe in their own ideals. It's very Knight/Ryuki, Gaim/Baron etc...but with Amazon's tone, you can tell from day one how it will end.

Jin and Haruka kill each other. I will legitimately be shocked if the movie doesn't end that way. And yes, Gaim and Blade set up similar endings...but in Blade they both live, and in Gaim only one dies.

I'd take Takeru or Haruto over Haruka or Jin any day. Even if Haruka in particular tries to fight for hope, it feels pointless. Amazons feels like 'Hope' is a childish notion in its universe and that's...not Kamen Rider to me. Even Gaim, which is a lot like Amazons in many ways, really feels like there us hope - especially in the last leg.

Again, I like Amazons as a stand-alone show...but as a Kamen Rider show, its...a bit of a disappointment.

...I mean, I'm also in the camp that finds Amazon's gore over-the-top and IMTOTALLYADULTANDEDGY...but I find it charming in its hilarity. Like, it's something of a cheesy link to mainstream Kamen Rider. Amazon Omega might not have a five-minute long transformation sound, but he does rip a guys head off, which no less ridiculous XD