The idea of Haruto was sound, but the actor's bland delivery (wether it was because as an actor he lacked, or poor direction, the latter is not unthinkable given the direction for everyone else was quite clearly over-the-top obnoxious) and the awful writing of the show overall meant he just came across as boring.

But if he was in a different show, with better writers, I could see him becoming a strong character. But he wasn't, sadly, and he didn't. But hey, he WAS the best part of Wizard. I deffinitely warmed up to him when I saw how everything BUT Haruto broke down into mind-numbing annoyance.

In your opinion, maybe.

In a land of screaming children I loved Haruto's delivery, you either got the wave length of what he was trying to say or you didn't, the show would never try and spell out what emotion you were supposed to correctly respond with.

I still think overall Wizard isn't as bad as they say, do I wish my favourite Rider was on a show that wasn't just utterly average? Of course, but it could have been worse, he could have been like Ichijou forever trapped in a shit pile like Kuuga.

Weirdly enough I picked Blade over Kabuto the first time I was watching through them lol. Though it was because it was at first arc with The Bee and he annoyed me at the time, though I love Yaguruma by the end of it.

I still just like to mention that Kuuga isn't a shit pile. I really like the characters and never wanted an enemy to die as much as the Grongi. Also I love him working with the police too.

At least I'm not in the minority with Kuuga any more, there are those like yourself who genuinely like the show - which is fine - but it does seem to be finally getting some much needed revisionism.

It seems people are much more critical of the shows failings now, than a year ago when the only people who had seen it on these boards had seen it a long time ago, and thought fondly of it in their nest of hazy nostalgia.

But as you can see from people who have finished it more recently, they are less inclined to brush things under the carpet simply on the principle of the fact there was a long gap of no shows. Every year Kuuga has more to contend with, and every year it seems to be gaining one more naysayer and yay to the naysayers!

I feel like comparing Kuuga to Gaim is a bit unfair. 1999 was a different time. (Yet, I say this having never seen Kuuga. :lol)

Which is fine but I bet every year it gains one more yaysayer (Is this even a word? if not I am using it more.) to the cause of Kuuga. Sure it has it's flaws but all the shows do. I accept Kuuga's flaws because I think Yuusuke is one of the best main characters there is.

Also power to the Yaysayers!

Why though? Jetman is one of the most highly regarded series of sentai, and that is over twenty years old. It isn't JUST about technical prowess, it's about the quality of the show itself.

And although Heisei and subsequently neo-heisei became too bogged down in the two episode structure, crippling some of its potential perhaps, you can't honestly say Kuuga compares with those shows even outside of technical business. Because it well...doesn't.

Maybe. But not here.

If you look back over the thread - not that you're going too - it seems you're the only person who's watched it recently and come out glowing with praise. And rightly so, every show has flaws, few have as many crippling ones as Kuuga does.

And I will never understand how people can hate Haruto and love Godai, Godai is everything the haters claim Haruto to be.

Which is weird because I can't get into Jetman. Though I will say I love Kamen Rider X and Battle Fever J which are older than Jetman and I think are very well done shows.

Anyways it is difficult to compare the new stuff to the older stuff sometimes, but I will say I enjoy the Storytelling structure of the older Heisei Era stuff to the Neo-Heisei era. Gaim feels more like the older Heisei era honestly.

Kuuga, is a very good show, and to be honest I watched the first 4 episodes and it put me to sleep. I watched episode 5 months later, and absolutely got hooked with Yuusuke, well I also got hooked with Faiz the same time and watched them both together. I thought both of them were amazing shows that did a lot of things well. Yuusuke working with the Police was something very different and Ichijou is just awesome. I liked how everyone was working together to try and help Yuusuke and stop the Grongi. I like how the threat of the Grongi actually affected the real world and that there was so much fear around. I liked how Yuusuke trained himself to defeat enemies and get better. I love that he used his Gentleness, his kindness to reach his final form not anger and that he didn't have to succumb to that to beat the Grongi. Personally the show has had an affect myself too because I thumbs up all the time because of it.

Gaim on the other hand is taking everything that Kamen Rider has ever done well and crammed it into one show so far, Gaim is very hard to compare to any show before it.

Also about Haruto, I have only seen him in movies and the first episode of Wizard, I found him to be amazing too, especially being about Hope. Probably good and bad Yuusuke and Haruto are a lot a like.


So I've defended Kiva, and now Kuuga lol. Anyone want to debate about Agito, Blade Kabuto, Faiz or Decade next? lol

Jetman is overrated to be fair, but those sorts of things always are. You can't really herald a kids show about toy sales as some kind of second coming. I suppose I'm the bigger fool for actually buying into the hype in the first place.

Once again - unlike the others - it was the start of Kuuga I liked the most, mainly because it seemed to blow all of its budget in the first three episodes. I also appreciated Ichijou, but absolutely hated everything else.

The poor story telling, the fucked up tones, the ineffective Rider, the disconnected action, the extremely low budget. I've gone into detail so many times, I wont bore you by saying the same thing again - although literally read Spirals post on this page, they said pretty much everything I feel but were easier on the show in the process.

It was gratuitous in all the places it shouldn't have been.