I think there may be some dismay for a set of Kamen Rider fandom who look at Rider as "cool, serious business, certainly not cheesy and kiddie shit like Super Sentai (or Power Rangers)". Gaim was apparently met with the same kind of dismay early on ("What a betrayal! Fruit samurai? I'm selling all of my Rider merch! UH DOIIIiiii"). Unless Ex-Aid amps up the seriousness of it's business to compensate for it's lack of hard-ass, masculine design, I expect more of this type of reaction.

I can't even remember what Ex-Aid's was, but it was pretty generic and embarrassing. 'Mighty" something.

Problem with video games is that they're product. So it's product based off of fictional product that's still a product in it's universe. It's stupid, but not stupid enough to be endearing. It's just groan-enducing. Video games usually try and make you forget they're games. So many games today have intricate stories, themes and styles. Better than Ex-Aid, actually.

Is it, though? Like, the Gaim sutis are personal preference, I can see how some may not like them, but they have well-balanced colours and clear motifs that work with their designs. The Ex-Aid suits are like the scientific opposite of appealing, choosing colours that look terrible together, and having designs with muddled or confusing motifs and styles.

Mighty Action X. And there's literally games called "Mighty Number 9" and of course "Mega Man X". I fail to see how the one from the show is more "embarrassing" than those.

Fruits are products too ;)

"Game usually try and make you forget they're games".

Yeah Mario goes to a great length to make sure saving a princess from a giant turtle in a mushroom kingdom is believable.

Don't try to over think it man, games are fun, games are crazy. Ex-Aid takes games as a genre and adopts it as a theme, and it works for me as someone who plays videogames.

Yes.

I think he's alright too. It usually takes a bit for Rider leads to get into the swing of things, and also for the show to give them interesting stuff to say. He hits the notes he's given fine so far.

Well pink and green are literal "complementary colors", used specifically to contrast with one another and make the whole thing "pop" more, which is very appropriate for the kind of colorful games Ex-Aid is inspired by. The other guys are pretty straightforward so far too. Like, you can instantly tell Brave is a knight, can't you?

The only groan worthy Gashat name in Ex-aid is Taddle Quest. Taddle doesn't work all that well in the name.

On the other hand the box-art and title are perfect references to Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest.

I dig it :)

Ex-Aid is clearly taking influence from more old school and arcade-y style games. It's based on Megaman, Dragon Quest, Mario, etc. and not Call of Duty. Keep in mind that it's a Japanese show, so we're talking about Japanese games - which are almost always way goofier than American games.

As for the suits, I really like the design. I love the bright colors, and the goofy faces and hair have really grown on me. I've been considering doing a cosplay of one of them.

Do you think Riders of Ex-Aid will make a very QUESTIONABLE Choice they are forced to do?

It's established that Ex-Aid would be darker than Ghost but I think in later episodes will have our heroes do a very QUESTIONABLE choice at some point

Especially Emu who is a kind doctor who make a difficult choice in later episodes because I thought given him or others a very difficult and questionable choice would give him a character development!

You don't want him to be a same old Emu from first episodes. It just doesn't work like that!

Would you like to see Emu or others make a very questionable choice in later episodes?

It's all very pre-Playstation, to-the-eXtreeeme, SNES / Genesis; a twelve year old with a cut off jean jacket, gelled spikes and sunglasses, really. Ex-Aid is like 90's nerd culture on a cocktail of steroids, exstacy and a case of Jolt! cola.

The Taddle in Taddle Quest is a pun on "tadoru" which means to pursue.
I guess that was their best attempt at romanization of the word.

Well, that being the case, they could have called it "Quest Quest"!

Here's a great interview with Kazuo Funaki, the designer of the Kamen Rider Ex-Aid's Game Driver.

There's some illuminating info here, one interesting tidbit being that an adult audience was being considered, which I found a little surprising.

What do people like about OOO? I remember not liking it when I first saw it, but I forgot almost everything other than liking the Greeed, TaJaDor and being INCREDIBLY jealous of one of Mezool's 'victims'. I tried watching it again in January but I couldn't be arsed to watch more than 14 episodes because I found it so boring. I know I'm in the minority with this opinion, so I want to hear things from a fan's perspective

:confused:

I'm not a huge OOO fan myself, but it was my first Rider show (kind of) and my opinion has only gone up in retrospect:

- I actually felt Eiji was a little bland at first (ironically missing the point the way people do about my beloved Haruto) but it isn't the case. He does a great job being the seeming fool who's secretly really smart (he's using Ankh as much as Ankh is using him) and totally bada** (some of stunts, early on especially, are legendary).

-The integration of the merch is THE smoothest of any Rider show, hands down. The whole "gain a medal, lose a medal" progression kept OOO from getting too powerful for his own good, and the Ridevendors and Candroids made more sense than they had any right to.

- The ~desire~ stuff is really well done throughout, so it's really strong thematically.

- Solid character arcs with a likable cast. Birth is awesome~

- The middle is a bit weak pacing-wise, but the first and last thirds are really strong.

- Some other stuff? OOO is just a generally solid series. I don't think there's a whole lot really explicitly wrong with it.

One of the 'victims' made a woman STUNNING. If the Greeed could make me lose my lack of self-esteem about my looks and overall femininity by doing that, sign me the fuck up, this planet is dumb anyway, problably would taste like shit for them

Ahh, got you.

Also I forgot to mention f***ing Ankh! How did I do that?! If you told me he was the best supporting character in Kamen Rider period I don't think I could argue.

One of things I liked about the show was just sort of the instability of the situation. A lot of people complain modern rider shows have no tension to them, that the main character just walks through everything and getting handed powerups along the way. In OOO, it almost feels like luck that things ended up the way they did. Core medals were constantly changing hands, at least early on, which made for a lot of interesting scenarios and kept you engaged. The debuts of new forms, while showing off the shiny new toys, did in the story function as sort of act of desperation or last resort in order to defeat the monster or to stop Eiji from getting killed.

I also think some of the characters play off of each other well. Eiji and Ankh make up the heart of the show and by the time they have to come into conflict with each other, it defintley pulls at you a bit.

Hey, I'd love a smoking hot girlfriend / wife, but if we have no shared interests there's no way that crap's gonna work. Besides, for most of us, age pretty much evens the playing field in the overall "hawt" dept (i.e. everyone starts getting increasingly "flawed"). Consequently, personality becomes WAY more important. Y'know, unless you're a sociopath. I know you probably know this and it doesn't really change your feelings but, eventually, it probably will.

Anyway, on topic - I haven't started on OOO's yet but was under the impression it was on the upper tier of the "good" shows. One thing I'm noticing from watching Kamen Rider over all is that the mid-season usually slumps, regardless of whether a show is great, good or bad. I'd imagine it's probably down to how many episodes need filling and because they simply can. Any of us could write a V/MotW plot with our eyes closed - these guys do it for a living. Most of us are tuning in as much for the spectacle anyway so, provided the rest of the show isn't mushy ramen, it's no big hurdle. Well, for me, at least.

On that note, PuToTyra is really well executed final form I'd compare favorably to King Form (which is still the gold standard every show should aspire to, so even getting close is impressive).

Man, maybe I should've just said "everything", there really is a ton to like about OOO. I think I'm in one of my moods where I feel bad for not appreciating it more than I do again now. :p

It's a very, VERY personal thing

I personally believe Drive actually did a good job with it's mid-season

http://i.imgur.com/a7lQtfi.jpg
Best moment ever in OOO when Kiyo-chan dives into a vat of oden. :lolol

I'd agree that every Kamen Rider show slumps at least a bit somewhere, but I think where varies greatly. With Drive it's the second quarter (I still maintain the first is perfect), with OOO it's the middle, and then there's shows like Blade that essentially start in their slump.

I didn't feel that OOO had a slump, personally. It did slow down, yes, but the pacing was well, the Medals were still shifting, so fights were always kept relatively fresh, and most of the actions the villains took were relevant to the plot. While there were certainly filler episodes, OOO never felt dull or boring to me.

Blade is a different case. It's not a slump, it's just that the first arc of the series is about Tachibana/Garren, rather than the titular Blade or the popular Chalice. So it feels like Blade is more of a set piece to Garren's story while sewing the seeds to Chalice's story at the start, which is why it feels slower or less interesting.
I personally liked it, since Garren's relevance drops off once Chalice and Leangle hit the scene, you still know who Garren is and what all he's been through during these events as the series starts the real ride.

Of course!

And, yeah, Drive kinda slumped early and then course corrected.

I like Blade's early episodes too, but I think they have problems beyond not being "about" Kenzaki. The way I'd put it is he's the audience surrogate, trying to piece the mystery of Board's downfall together, and there is plenty of character building with him early on, so he's not the issue. I haven't seen the show in long enough that it's hard to put my finger on, but the execution of that first arc just felt generally rough in a way the rest of the show wasn't. It's maybe not as drastic as it's sometimes made out to be, though. Just sort of like the show was struggling a bit to find its "voice".

I love both Drive and Blade. For Blade, I know the first quarter could be quite dull since the pacing was quite slow and it shows how hammy Tachibana was. But, oh boy, you are so dead wrong if he became a slump later since he totally ROCKED and BADASS later. You can't say uncool to how Tachibana was very cool when he met Isaka and asking if the Undead killed his girlfriend calmly before badassery insued. I would say Blade's weakest point was around 20s since it only focus the Rider mainly as, well, Rider fighting MOTW. But after, episode 30, everything got so hooked up later, especially due to the awesome King Form! Even Blade has the most awesome and tear-jerker ending in the entire franchise. Basically, Blade is really solid despite a really dull start.

Drive itself is a much better version of Blade in my opinion. It has a very good pacing in the start and toys weren't getting in the way to the plot. Even, they handled Handle-Ken and Door-Ju's debut so properly. It's quite rare for a Rider series to exclusively make a debut episode for weapons. Though, it was quite a bit stall since Gou's debut since he merely appeared to be Shin's sidekick for whatsoever. But, it's indeed Chase is the best character in Drive due to his development from a monster machine to try to be a human. I must say after Gou's involvement with Banno and Nira got in the scene, the series had been escalated so much better. They even fleshed out Shinnosuke's character much better here too.

The villain was interesting too, especially Heart. Boy, you couldn't say no to Heart-sama. He could be one of the most interesting and developed villain from all franchise. Indeed, he's a villain but he is so noble and not cheapskate unlike his comrades. For Brain and Medic, nothing to say except they got more developed later in the 3rd quarter. I'm just disappointed due to how well the villain was written but they were executed in so poor manner, especially Medic. Due to all built up to her, I think she should desrve a much better death than that.

Who here tried a food that was featured in Kamen Rider?
I for one tried saba miso from Kabuto numerous times in the past.

I tried a Durian once,




It was fucking disgusting

I heard there are ways to get rid of the smell before cracking it open.

Do you considered Ganma a waste of potential?

When the show start out, I thought they are a demon or Yokai like Kakuranger, Shinkenger and even Ninninger but turn out, Ganma is nothing but a bunch of humans that tried to be monsters like W and Fourze!

Gamnas are humans from 17th century or whatever decades they are!

I felt Writers didn't bother to watch Kakuranger, Shinkenger or even Ninninger since our heroes are bunch of monks!

Everything about Ghost is a waste of potential.

Except Onari; there was never any potential there.

I found them to be pretty unique. The whole them having physical bodies that they leave behind to inhabit ethereal bodies aspect is quite different from other shows and in my opinion justifies why some of the suits keep coming back. If they were just demons or yokai, I think that would make them a little generic.

Completely rehashing a concept used in Super Sentai three times would be a "waste of potential".

I think the problem is more that the early episodes are throwing so much information and hints on plot details at you that the more subtle character bits kinda get lost as they mostly happen in calmer, dialogue-heavy moments.

I actually wrote a little essay-thingy about it some time ago, so if you have the time to read it...
http://suzustarlight.tumblr.com/post...ly-episodes-of

In Ex-Aid when they level up it takes long just to get to level 2 which is so annoying. Who's your favorite character so far? Mine is Taiga, he's like Kaito.

That all sounds about right. I don't know, I never really had a problem with Blade's first episodes to begin with, so I've always found it strange how frequently they get treated like they're a completely different show. But me being in the minority in liking stuff people hate is hardly a new thing, I guess.

I super appreciate you noting that Kenzaki gets fleshed out decently right out of the gate, by the way. I remember joking as I was watching Blade that "did you guys know about my dead parents?" is his idea of an icebreaker (I can't really remember now but I felt he brought it up a lot early on, like the show was scared you'd forget), but I think a lot of those early scenes, especially his conversations with Kotarou, did a great job of establishing him as a lovable, kind of dorky and awkward dude who was very serious about saving people, even if he himself didn't really know it yet.

My mindset from back when I first watched Blade did play a part in not liking the first few episodes all that much, I even thought Kenzaki was kinda boring back then. (And now I like him just a little too much, lol) I was in a kind of difficult mental state in my early toku-days, lol
But every time after that, I actually enjoyed those episodes and discovered more and more each time, which is why I wrote that.

Actually, Kenzaki doesn't mention his parents all too much to other people, but there are a hell lot of flashbacks (or rather always the same one) in the first few episodes and he struggles with the loss a lot, so a lot of time is dedicated to him reflecting on that. He's actually rather awkward, socially, which he admits himself when he gets closer to Koutarou (episode 4, for reference), so he doesn't have many friends. Despite being a precious cinnamon roll and all xD His ice breaker in episode 4 is actually: "Hey, maybe I'm gonna die from using the rider system. Isn't it cool to die as a hero?!" :lol

I'm starting to wonder if I watched the same Blade as everyone else. I don't remember half of this stuff. I either totally missed it or TVN subs were just that bad.

It's impossible to like Kenzaki too much. :p

Well, they are some of TV-N's absolute worst work ever. I'd imagine a lot of the nuance of these casual, character-building conversations gets lost in the clunky wording. But then I watched Blade with those subs before I knew a lick of Japanese and I still followed everything fine, so...

My precious Sword-Husbando :lol


I mean, I hardly remember them since I basically banned them from my hard drive after I got the raws 2 years ago, but considering how prone TV-Nihon is to mishearing stuff (which is really a problem many subbers have), I imagine they missed out on some important stuff. Also, since they tend to not get certain idioms as well, that might have affected the casual dialogue a lot in connotation of certain things. It was the "Don't fuck with me!"-era of TVN-Subs, after all.

I already watched it three or four times already. I can remember for everyone :lol