Yep.
And Black takes it up a notch further.
They should seriously consider ova-ing Ishinomori titles again.
Kikaider was perfect in capturing that classic aesthetic.

To be fair, he warms up more and more throughout the show, especially with Kagami

Adding to what you said he had his vulnerable moments.

It still really isn't that much in the grand scheme of things.

True, but it's there. I also get really defensive about Tendou when people say he has no flaws and is a Mary Sue

Bumping into the discussion but I want to ask something. Can someone give any list of main Riders who ACTUALLY still used their lower and weaker forms from the 1st quarter during the time on the 3rd quarter or when the Final Form? Seeing main Riders nowadays, I'm thinking about any Riders who still didn't forget he had some useful forms.

Kabuto did, he even used Masked Form after his final form to trick an opponent.

Blade pretty much never stopped using Ace Form until the very end, IIRC.

Pretty much all the Riders before Den-O primarily used their main forms for most of the series.

That's actually something I was thinking about the other day: I miss the days when Riders had to actually train in order to fight more powerful monsters. I really fondly remember all the episodes where V3, Black, or Kuuga went through extra training in order to become better fighters. Nowadays any time a Rider meets an overwhelming foe it's just an excuse to roll out the newest form change gimmick.

That's a big reason King Form will always be so special to me. Kenzaki has to earn it in a climactic fight that proves he doesn't need it, rather than getting it and then using it in a climactic fight.

The fight against the king of spades simply can't beat most fights. One of the most memorable fights in KR

Kabuto getting his final form is one that will always stick with me. Hyper Zector destroyed, Kagami dies, and what does Tendou do?
Pulls the Hyper Zector through time. It could be seen as an asspull, but damn if it's not the most badass way to prove that, even when he's basically lost, he still wins :lol

I also like it when its done well the other way like in OOO. Eiji got some of the Dinosaur cores because of who he is rather than earning them. I remember them literally showing up in 1 episode and they just go into him that same episode. I like how it played into the story and the theme of desire throughout the show. And the idea that Putotyra was the raging unstoppable monster.

I also like to remind people that even with stronger forms, the Riders a lot of the time still have to grow their power to face their enemies. I couldn't remember any recent examples off of the top of my head, but despite being in Survive forms, Ryuki and Knight got their asses handed to them on a few occasions by Odin in the later half of the show.

It's Tendou, the laws of the universe bend around him; that's just the way Kabuto works.

How about making Kiva Amazons style?

I'd like an original "adult" Rider show over a remodel, to be honest.

And the show suffers horribly for it.

I'd watch it.

How about just making Kiva good?

Kiva had the horror motif, but there were no vibes of a horror movie.

But I hope that someday Kiva can go Amazons style and at least the Fangires would feel like real vampires feeding on blood.

"The 13 races"? They need work. How about more?

- Fangire & Kivats (vampires & bats)
- Wolfen (lycans/werewolves)
- Mermen (merfolk/gillmen)
- Franken (frankenstein's creature)
- Mummies
- Undead (zombies, ghouls, jiangshi)
- Yokai (tsukumogami, etc.)
- Cryptids (sasquatch, loch ness, etc.)
- Legendorga (make them various creatures from all kinds of mythologies)
- Dorans (dragons)
- Angels
- Demons (succubi & incubi, etc.)
- Cats (catwomen, catmen)

Fangires killed people by vampiric thirst nearly every episode. Or do you just want to see blood wounds in the throats?

Also, the 13 Races are:
Fangire, Kivat, Doran, Mermen, Franken, Wolfen, Sagarc, Legendorga, and from what I've read, while not shown outright: Mermaid (yes seperate race from Mermen), Gigant, Hobbit, Ghost, Goblin.

I just thought about rebooting the 13 races.

And blood wounds are what I'm looking for.

The Checkmate Four? If it was remade, the four would be formerly five, because they used to have a "Knight" in their group once. Imagine a fangire teaming up with Kiva named Knight. IXA is a "knight" but is out to kill Fangires. Their foot soldiers should be called "Pawns" just to complete the army. Pawns are bat fangires except they're based on fruit bats. They'd be in reality victims turned slaves.

Following bits of the novel, the hero's rider form would be his half-breed form.

First of all, there is nothing wrong with the 13 as they are. If anything, expand on the 5 we never saw and explain why Legendorga are so varied. You don't need to toss on the Khajiit, Judeo-Christian Theology and Yokai Watch.

The fact the Checkmate Four are 4 is intrinsic to Japanese culture with the words for 4 and Death being the same, you aren't adding the other 2 peice types and expecting to keep that.

We already have a Kamen Rider Knight in Ryuki, we don't need another. Besides, just flush out Saga as being more of a turncoat. You have a Rider, who is a Fangire (and royalty at that), who fights Fangire. Rework that so Taiga breaks the chain and commits high treason against his bloodline and people by siding with humans for their sake.

What about Arc?

Legendorga and as such, oneshot movie villain.

Do you prefer to call Asuna or Poppy?

Do you like of calling her real name Poppy or her human name Asuna?

Asuna. Because I can't spell Poppy Papipoyapapi.

And I do think we will have to make a distinction between the two later on. Like Asuna was a real human at one point but she had an accident and her image and/or memories where used to create Poppy.

Or the real Asuna is still out there but we haven’t met her yet.

Asuna. Poppy is too hard to say. Plus, I think her digital form is just hard to look at anyways. She looks uncomfortable all dressed up, and I feel like the writers are trying to hard with the whole cute eccentric girl thing.

Poppy Takoyaki? :D

But seriously, her name's Asuna. The costume is clearly the "disguise", at least on a meta level.

Given episode 3 has a moment where a little kid totally shuts her down when she tries to do something wacky, that might be completely intentional.

Do you think we will see the origin about Asuna/Poppy?

She is only one who is actually Video Game that somehow got out of her game! No romance because how can you fall in love with a fictional character like Poppy?

Maybe Dan could somehow got her out of her game because Poppy was there during Zero Day which took the live of many people

I call her Asuna. That's her more likable form and I honestly can never remember her full name properly - I keep calling her Poppy Pippypoopypo, which I'm pretty sure is wrong.

Yeah, I picked up on that immediately with her first appearance. It's either terrible acting (unlikely, as she's fine as Asuna) or it's an intentional move. We'll find out eventually, if the writing holds up!

Ex-Aid is kind of boring to me. The kid who is acting as Emu is just bad. There isn't a character I enjoy so far, Hiiro looked like a character I might enjoy but his personality isn't that great. I hate that level up thing. It's just too much Gaim alike already I wanted something new not this. There is also too much characters already. Anyone else agree or disagree?

The digital girl is named Poppy Pipopapo.

I don't really see how there's too many characters. There's really only like...5 or 6 that we're really seeing much of right now. Then Parad and Graphite, who so far are still just mysterious villains being mysterious. That's not really too many. It's about standard I'd think.

I'm digging Ex-Aid so far but I'm actually right there with you on not finding the characters too interesting. I like Emu and the other guys are fine, but they're not very engaging yet.

Which is the key word here: yet. Ex-Aid has been doing a whole lot of setup compared to most shows, I expect once Lazer debuts next episode the show will actually "start" with episode 5. Until then I'm not going to hold anything against it too much.

Yeah, Ex-Aid is boring. It is Gaim-ish but lacking the charm and creativity. The video game theme is just... eyeroll inducing. Thing is, games don't work as a theme because games are a medium. They are something that is themed, not a very good theme themselves. So that's why you end up with really cringey fake video game titles that are generic and half-assed. Plus, video games becoming real is a pretty old concept and nothing is really done with it that's very original, and having your rider theme based around something ficticious and harmless as games, where everything is fake by their nature, kinda sucks any sense of conflict out of it. At least Gaim had them based on actual warriors of different eras and not just the fruit thing. Plus the costumes themselves are so awful.

And yeah, the main guy is a total flatline acting-wise. It's pretty hard to watch.

As someone who's a big fan of videogames, I find the aesthetic to be fine. While games are a medium, they are certain elements to lots of games that do certainly unify different aesthetics, genres and tones that the Riders do have. Such as the chest plate health bar, the Gashats, the weapons.

The fake videogame titles are cheesy, but really, is it anymore cheesy then something from a Rider show that's aired on TV since Kuuga? Ryuki's powerup weapon had to eat his Survive card. OOO had a singing belt that mashed together parts of animal names to make Combo names. Gaim had fruit fall on their heads.

While the videogames becoming real concept is old, Rider hasn't tackled it before though, just to give the show a little trust/merit.

Regarding the videogame theme even ruining the whole tension of the show, I disagree. If Ex-aid can ramp up throughout the series, I think the idea can work. In fact, I feel like the opposite could happen to create tension. That because the Bugsters and Riders being based on fictitious and fake things, that bringing that same sort of exercise of capabilities of a game into the real world, a place with consequences and impact, could create tension. I mean, look at Snipe in episode 3, taking away Emu's Gashat. Already we see how gaming mentality that causes no one harm in game or online can profoundly impact people's lives in the real world.

I disagree.

I don't think the actor is bad but to be fair I have a terrible track record of recognizing bad acting in Toku.

I enjoy all the characters so far and I'm glad we're getting them early. Especially since all of them are protagonists or deuteragonists to a degree, which means we don’t have a bunch of people doing nothing and wasting everybody’s time like all these useless characters from Ghost. You know who I mean.

And it's not only like Gaim, it's more like every Rider war - esque show ever. It reminds me a lot of Ryuki too and I like that. Although the pace is a lot faster, like it was in Gaim.

For me it's a fun show, not more, not less. It remains to be seen if it’s really good or not.

Actually, it is cheesier than all that, since those concepts were all made-up by rider. But the attempt and subsequent failure to make up convincing video game names and aesthetics is stupid, as it undercuts the entire theme of the rider stuff.

Plus, again, hideous, hideous outfits don't help sell the idea.

Such as?

"Bang Bang Shooting" is the only one which I think is a bit too silly, but the rest are ordinary video game names which could exist. Don’t know what's so "cringey" about them.

Personal preference. I didn’t like them at first either, but I think they work.