Which neo-heisei KR series had the best story?
 

Which had the best story?

OOO was great! Wizard... mixed feelings but it was good.

Should Gaim be in the running?

Sorry. Should I start over?

Ignoring Gaim since it's way too early to tell how well it will stick the landing, I'm going to go with Wizard.

Now I will not argue for a minute that Wizard's story wasn't very poorly paced and drawn out, but the basic core story was really solid and tied together beautifully.

Fueki's daughter dies and he can't cope with it so he turns to magic to try and revive her, succeeding only in creating a bunch of soulless Phantoms. One of the victims is strong enough to overcome the Phantom, though, and is able to use its mana to wield magic. So Fueki decides to use the Phantoms to awaken other wizards that he can use as batteries for reviving his daughter. He then spends the entire series playing the Phantoms and Haruto off each other until he can get the four Wizards he needs to revive Koyomi. When all of this comes out in the open, Haruto has to decide how much he's personally willing to sacrifice to save Koyomi. At least until he finds out just how big the price is going to be to power the spell.

It's good stuff and I think that it would be a modern classic if it had been executed even half as well as conceived. But the show was locked into the Den-O episode structure, there was way too much forced comedy, and the actress who played the central character was too busy with her idol work to film more than a minute or two of footage per episode. The story itself was still really, really sound, though.

I'm going with Wizard - wait, don't bite my head off let me finish!

Firstly, Gaim way too early, secondly W is still on my list of Rider shows I need to give another chance. With those out of the way.

Both Fourze and OOO had incredible characters, but their respective mythologies were a garbled mess and their plots near non-existent.

Wizard on the other hand, had lots of plot and lots of mythology. Sure the pacing was so bad it basically crippled every single good idea it had but it was still there.

It was an Urban Fantasy story of a mad scientist with no morals are ethics trying to bring his Daughter back to life, falling into a world of magic and monsters. It's a pretty classic - almost clichéd story - but there was something operatic and almost Shakespearean in the way the show came together that sheds a whole fresh light on everything that came before it. I really do kinda wanna watch Wizard again, with the ending in mind the whole time.

I want to watch W, Fourze and Wizard before I vote, but OOO is one of my favorite series and Gaim has been amazing so far.

Judging by the poll results up there, any hope for actual discussion is already lost. This isn't a popularity contest, it's which show has the best story, so I have no idea why Gaim is up there as it hasn't finished yet.

W so far.

That show taught us that nobody's perfect, that real men aren't heartless machines that never falter or make mistakes, that to be a real man means rising to the challenge, and being decisive.

I think those who voted for Gaim meant: What happened so far was good. I think Gaim should be a choice, because it hasn't been many episodes, but we do have an idea what's going on.

Personally, OOO is still my favorite out of those. I liked the overall fantasy-feel of the whole thing and I loved the concepts of the Greeed. Also, Ankh's backstory was amazingly deep and touching. Same goes for Eiji.

I also think that of what we have so far, Gaim did a good job. It has done much better than Wizard or Fourze at that point and I really hope Urobuchi can keep up with the pace this year.

The poll as a whole automatically turns it into a popularity contest in my opinion.

If I was to judge all of the shows, at the point where Gaim is, I'd say Fourze is the best out of the lot. I think Fourze's pre-Meteor stuff is some of the best Kamen Rider stuff I've ever seen. It just made such wonderful use of its setting, creating of the week stories that had both an immediate and wider level of importance. I would have been happy if the whole show carried on with easily relateble tales of High School problems, mixed in logically with tokusatsu violence, style of the storytelling of the opening chunk.

Both Wizard, and especially OOO, had very weak beginnings.

Gaim's beginning is solid, but I feel like once all the new energy Riders have been introduced, I'm gonna take a day out to watch it all in one go. In such a serialised show, where so much is revealed week by week, it can make it hard to truly process and appreciate to its full extent. Especially as of right now we're waiting a week between episodes.

Voted Double, but I also think OOO told it's story particularly well.

Going to have to say W for me.

Though I think Gaim will have the best story by the end of it's run, I'm gonna have to go with W for right now.

I love Fourze.

But in 14 episodes, Gaim has blown Fourze out of the water in terms of story.

Going to say W. You've got the parallels of Shotaro and Ryubei dealing with tragic deaths of important people in their lives and how they continue on and let that death shape them. Gaim's in the running for sure but it's not anywhere near finished yet.

So far from what I have watched,I enjoyed OOO the most.♥ I just finished Fourze and I thought it was also really good.

As much as I love W, I'm going to have to go with Gaim on this one. So far, Gaim has done more in twenty episode then W did in forty. Sorry, but W only became something special to me in it's final ten episodes (not to mention they wrecked the ending in the epilogue episode) where as Gaim went full throttle right out of the gate and shows no sign of slowing down.

Sorry W, you'll always be special to me but Gaim has you beat thus far. :(

Don't worry. You're allowed to think another series is better while simultaneously having another series be more special/your favorite. Ryuki is especially special to me, but I think Blade outperforms it, for example.

in this order IMO;

1. Gaim
2. W
3. OOO
4. Fourze
5. Wizard (it was that bad. filler galore!)

Gaim, of course. :D

I'm waiting until it ends to make a call on that.

Makes sense. I picked Gaim because it has depth. There are consequences, and there are morals other than black bad and white good. They have characters who aren't just one direction, but instead have multiple parts to their personality. Also, the suckish fight scenes make sense in hindsight, at least in the beginning. They're inexperienced teens who aren't masters in martial arts like Takatora (I assume) or Yoko.

Oh, I understand why. I like it a lot too, but the story could flop near the end. It probably won't, but there is always a chance.

I don't know, but I have faith in the Urobutcher.

I do too, but like I said there's always a chance. I've seen shows start off good, then get bad near the end.

While I would of picked Gaim, W for me is just better.