Kamen Rider THE FIRST & THE NEXT - Worth watching?
 

Alright so recently I found out that the dude who played Kamen Rider Raia plays as Kamen Rider V2 in Kamen Rider The First & The Next. Tezuka was cool. I read that The Next is the most violent Rider media tie in ever made. I was like whoa...wait a minute...yes..

Anyways, are these movies worth watching? I have seen a listing on Amazon for The First but none for The Next.

I've watched both of them. If you have the time, go check them out. If you don't, set aside some time.

I'd say they are, yeah. They're not especially good (especially The Next), but they're interesting modernizations of the first three Riders and, on the rare occasions when they pull themselves away from boring subplots and remember to be about superheroes, they're actually pretty cool.

You're not going to find The Next on Amazon, though. It wasn't licensed and subbed for US release like The First was. Probably because it was an enormous bomb in Japanese theaters, essentially killing any and all prospects for a third film. I blame Toshiki Inoue.

Geez why did The Next bomb? The premise sounded interesting.

I don't know exactly, but I do know it's the only Rider movie of the last several years to earn less than 1 million yen. I suspect it's mostly because it's just a really, really bad movie. The Rider stuff is actually really good, but it's unfortunately relegated to a subplot. Plus V3's origin is drastically rewritten so Inoue can cram in more Rider vs. Rider fights.

Somehow, I knew this thread would come down to Switchblade blaming Inoue.

Anyhow, I enjoyed them as far as I remember. I'm not the best to ask about Rider movies though, because I generally enjoy all of them. Except Movie War Core. I'm still trying to get through that one.

I've actually only seen The First and found it to be rather boring. The good parts were really good it's just that bad parts were, well, boring. I'd still like to The Next at some point even after all the bad I've heard about it.

The fight scenes are pretty amazing, specifically the bike fight scene between Nigo and the six Shocker riders. I'd say they're worth watching for these parts.

I'd hate to disappoint. ;)

honestly, for what they are, i love them, the fight scenes are frickin goregeous and the suit design is fantastic. the story is not strong, but its worth a watch at least

The First seemed quite refreshing in that I enjoyed seeing a "modern" Rider just using his fists to fight, but I'm yet to watch The Next.

Yeah, I'd say it's something to at least check out once you've gotten yourself acquainted with Rider. THE NEXT's problem stems from it trying to be J-Horror and Rider at the same time. It's strange.

Wait JUST his fists? No special powers or weapons?

Hmm. That DOES sound strange but I still want to watch it. Which groups did fansubs for The Next?

I can't remember if it was literally just fist fighting, but the fight sequences are a lot heavier on straight hand-to-hand combat than the flashy weapons and gimmicks from modern Kamen Rider shows.

TVN. They also did a "special edit" where their main translator edited out stuff he didn't like, which has to be one of the worst things I've ever seen a fansub group do.

They did that to the Eternal movie as well.

Which makes no damn sense, because that movie was awesome.

Links to their original sub?

I loved this series and I urge everyone to give this 2 movies a try.

It's a very realistic approach on riders with close to zero magic or sci-fi elements in it. Personally I love the fight scenes in the film alot and how the transformation sequence is not magical.

For the most part, yes it's mainly fists and kicks. No special effects or weapons. Just plain straight up fights. Fresh approach and it suits really well.

It's on this page: http://krdl.info/display/show/misc/

Grab the extended cut, not the takenoko one.