Just finished Episode 4 of Faiz, man I have fell in love with this show and I love Takumi and the Motorcycle that's just awesome and it keeps throwing me for a loop. By Episode 4 I've loved every Kamen Rider I've watched.

I have a question, how many of the Showa Era show have been fully subbed?

Unless you count the poor HK subs of X (and there are probably some of other shows out there too), I think it's just Amazon and Black. Stronger is pretty close to being completed though.

Oh, and V3 is completely subbed. But that's an official DVD release.

The con-artist story has been my Wizard low point so far, it has been the only part of the show which neither furthered the central characters or pencilled in any of their backstories, so it's the first true filler story minus of course being another chapter in Haruto's battle against the Phantoms.

Plus, although there is some great staging and direction, it also featured some of the worst action in the series so far because the CGI rendering was both horrible and gratuitous.

You really couldn't get prop glass? Or a smoke machine? Or just make some props from some lighter material? You really had to do it all with CGI? It looks rubbish, man.

Ah okay, I was wondering which ones were. I liked Kamen Rider and Black so far. So I don't mind the older stuff.

Super-1 and Black RX have full HKs, too. There's also th ZX, Shin, ZO, and J movies that have been fansubbed, too.

I just love how heroic and cool Black is. He doesn't just fight monsters, he saves people. That's one of the reasons W is my favourite series, because he actually saved and helped people instead of just being there to fight the monsters, and Black's quickly moving into second. Granted fighting monsters is saving people indirectly, but I'm talking about swooping in and saving someone from falling rumbble, or saving someone held hostage, or freeing captured people. As much as I love the show, I don't recal Den-O doing any daring heroics. Agito never saved anyone. In fact, at least one person had to die before he even knew the monster existed, but he didn't seem to care.

I want to chime in on the discussion of the Henshins for a moment. I'm watching Fourze a second time thru with my wife, and while love the show, and I love the henshin music, sometimes the switch swapping is really clunky. I'm waiting to finish Decade or Faiz before I resume Wizard, but his ring swapping didn't seem quite as clunky as Fourze's switches, but close. OOO switching Medals was also sorta clunky.
I would like to see the next Rider have a more smooth, streamlined gimmick, that doesn't break the flow of fights as much.

I think Episode 4 was where I finally started to like Takumi. I don't remember which one I watched last, 10 or so? But Faiz is pretty darn good. Of all the Rider shows I've seen so far, I'm least attached to the characters in Faiz, but I really like the Faiz Gear, and the story is pretty engaging. I just wish I liked Mari and Keitaro more, so far I don't really like Mari at all.

I really like Yuji and Yuka, I'm curious to see where they go. And I think I like Kaido, I like that in contrast to Yuki and Yuka, he's pretty happy about being a monster now.


Last couple of days I watched 4 or 5 more episodes of Kuuga. I still find some of the moments that are supposed to be emotional to actually be a little dragging. I really like how they're teasing and foreshadowing the Golden Power upgrades though, particularly in the last frames of the episode, the ones with the solid color backgrounds.

like this one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Se3_U5zAMIk

I like the mystery surrounding the Gurongi, and that it's slowly being revealed as they speak Japanese more and more, and the last episode the Gurongi even told the cops it was all a game.

To be fair I don't have a whole lot to compare it too. I've only seen W and Dragon Knight as well as Wizard.

Dragon Knight and W both had great gimmicks and their henshins and powers flowed really nicely, honestly Wizard's gimmick and henshin wouldn't be nearly as bad if they sped up the animations.

Not only is he constantly swapping rings, swiping and flipping his belt, they also add that magic ring animation which really slowly crawls over his body meaning both the general movement and the time it all takes are quadrupled unnecessarily.

Yeah, his switches were clunky. BUT I did kinda like how it made it more like he was dealing with sensitive, intricate technology. But thematically yeah, outside the henshin the Fourze driver is not my favourite. (though I like that it looks like a control panel... facing the wrong way, but still)

OOO was less clunky as they eventually stopped showing him putting in all three medals, and he usually kept moving later on when switching. I do think it boils down to just one too many things to do. W had two memories, and could swap them with one arm and replace/activate them almost in one quick move. It rarely looked slow or awkward because it was simple and easy. OOO I feel could've been streamliend if he didn't have the scanner. For dramatic henshins the scanenr looks aweosme, but in battle, well iot just goes to show how awkward it was when he never even puts it back on the belt, it just reappears there.

Wizard, man, there's no excuse for him. His is not intricate technology, or has three medals and a scanner to fumble, he just manages to botch what should be the simplest motion ever... and it's still over-complicated by the rings and stuff. Plus the fact that his driver doesn't change when he transforms always put me off. Not that they all have to I guess, but I really like drivers that have on/off positions, since it reinforces that something has happened, and that the driver has something to do with the transformation instead of just being a belt. Retro rider belts just don't do it for me, but hey, they're old. Least Wizard could do is have it change colour like Den-O.

So after the crappy con artist arc I was worried Wizard was going to suck but it really does feel like that con artist arc was just time wasting because the last three episodes have all been incredible.

The Flame Dragon Form is cool as hell, I love the whole Hollow Ichigo thing going on with Haruto talking to his inner and Phantom, Phoenix is cool as hell and all the characters have really interesting stories. Even ones you didn't know you cared about.

I'm only like a quarter of the way through so far but I'm really enjoying this show.

Regarding Black episode 7: Why does the Rhino monster sound more like a bird than the bird monster from before?

EDIT: Also, I didn't even know Battle Hopper was sentient, let alone actually alive and able to regenerate. (that was a pretty cool effect) Also he took the hit for Black. What a good bike.

Just finished Den-O ep 27 and wow...you weren't kidding!

You should watch it, it's a good movie. Wing form and Gaoh, cool stuff.

Man, I need to really get on watching Black...

Yeah I'm liking Takumi more with each episode. I love the story in Faiz and the armor. It's one of my favorites.

ok so OOO 19, this is gettin good, anyone tell me what episode TaJaDor somes in? im lookin forward to seein it :lol

Black is honestly more impressive outside of his suit. He's always pulling people from burning cars, catching falling people or carrying someone to safety. It's quite cool to watch such a hands-on hero.

Again, some certain other riders could learn a thing or two about what it means to be a hero instead of just some badly dressed dude chasing down monsters only when it suits him it seems and have no compassion for those injured or killed by monsters.

After Sagozo, that's all I remember.

Battle Hopper is one of the biggest bros in the history of Kamen Rider.

That's actually why I'm curious to watch Black. It sounds interesting to have a hero who does more than hit things really hard.

That was cool when he came rolling up without even being called, even after he'd been run down by the Rhino.

Black is a really solid series, but there's some weird choices made. I cna forgive the effects, obviously, but why give a rhino a high-pitched whine? That completely undermines the monster and makes what could have been a cool fight feel utterly daffy. Black is a pretty serious show, so this contrast REALLY sticks out. But overall it's really solid. I can see why Shotaro likes it. :D

Honestly he only ever seems to get in a fight near the end. And he only transforms to fight the monsters or if he's literally about to die, (like getting tossed out a window from twenty stories up) even if he's getting swarmed by brainwashed townsfolk with pitchforks and torches. Plus he's always jumping in to save people, almost without a second thought. Honestly I don't get why more rider series don't do this. It's not like the new riders react differently so much as they're never written into situations like this. When has Ryoutaro ever had to save someone from jumping off a roof? I sure he would, but he's never had to if you get what I'm saying.

Also he never wastes time. He always runs instead of walks, he never does super-dramatic pauses. In that example above he didn't stand and gawk at the girl who was about to jump, he immediately ran full-sprint up, like, thirty flights of stairs and grabbed her in ten seconds.

Dang Ankh is an a-hole :lol

Yeah, it is kind of odd that current day Riders aren't written in scenarios where they're truly heroic.
Though, I guess it's the change in interests, wanting to see expensive and elaborate fights rather than heroes being heroic...

holy crap, TaJaDor is awesome! :lol

That it is.
That it is.

Man I need to watch more OOO's. Randomly I want Oreo's everytime I says OOO lol. OreOOO's.


Also more intrigued to watch Black too.

How good is the quality? because I want to watch Super-1.

Oh also I watched episode 1 of Hibiki and that was fun and different and I definitely want to watch more of it.

Can't tell you, unfortunately, I haven't watched the Super-1 ones.

I'll have to look into them then.

On another note just watched OOO Episode 5 and still loving this show. Love Eiji and the Greeed. Eiji definitely learns more and adapts each episode so far. Can't wait to watch more.

Minus some pretty spotty production values, I'm still loving Wizard.

Watched Episode 6 of OOO and saw his first Combo the Green Bug one which I'm forgetting the name of at the moment. Really awesome, Eiji is so awesome each episode and I love the cast of this show.

I think the idea is merely that defeating the badguys is heroic in itself, since they're preventing future casualties and beating up crooks who deserve it. Like I said, I very much don't believe the riders themselves for the most part are less heroic, just that the writers are like "Hey let's have OOO save a baby from a falling tree?" And the other guy's like "Well, let's not do that since he should be fighting the monster which is more important for him, so don't have the tree fall on the baby." OOO would save that baby, though. He'd save every baby. He'd be like Ben Stiller from Tropic Thunder with like five babies all strapped to him, fighting evil.

Gatakiriba. I remember when I first saw that I thought someone hit the speed button. Suddenly there's a whole bunch of screaming, running OOO that all scanning charge and rider kick at the same time.

How many babies could Gatakiriba save?

Yea GataKiriBa, not my favorite of the combos ive seen so far :lol but, seein this series makes me wanna buy the ranger keys and i dont even have a monirates or regular ranger keys :lol

Seriously Wizard, get a codpiece please.

The series makes me want to buy the Figuarts, then I remember the OOO Figuarts are smell.

I'm actually kind of bummed there's no accurate, affordable OOO figures. Like W OOO got kind of screwed for Figuarts, but wheras W had accuracy issues, OOO just had accuracy issues on top of design and production flaws.

From what ive seen of reviews later releases o at least TAToBa got better, if i find one im gettin it if its cheap enough :lol

Yeah...no.

i have a feeling that around the end of may and/or the beginning of june that "movie war ultimatum" will be subbed and released, but by whom, TV-Nihon or Over-Time?

Definitely OT. TVN puts alot of time into their graphics so sadly there's takes quite a bit longer. OT should have it done pretty quickly. The raw just hit the net last week so that means subs should be popping up in roughly the next 2 weeks.