What seasons do you think are most universally liked?
 

I was thinking, people tend to have very varied opinions on Kamen Rider, but at least a few seasons are generally liked and considered a cut above the rest by the majority of people. I know that W is one of them and I THINK Den-O is too (although I'm not a huge fan myself). What other seasons do you think are generally highly praised by fans?

W and OOO seem to be pretty well liked from what I've gathered, though I haven't seen either. I don't think I've really ever seen anyone talk poorly about them in general.

Gaim and Ryuki are definitely up there. With those two I think seeing people who dislike them is a rare occurrence, at least around here.

Same goes for OOO and W, I rarely read that people dislike Blade as well.

I wouldn't call Ryuki as universally liked. It's not hated, but there are a lot of clashing opinions on Ryuki.
I'd call Black, Den-O, W, OOO, and Gaim as series nearly universally loved.
I see a lot of praise for Ryuki, Blade, and, much to my disappointment, Kuuga here, too, but I do see more dissenting opinions towards them than other praised series.

I always got the impression that OOO was pretty divisive. I've seen few people who are pretty bitter about it, but I'm not sure that really qualifies.

Really? The only negative opinion I tend to see about OOO is Hina's lack of involvement in the plot. Unlike Wizard, it never really struck me as divisive.

I'd say you could throw Fourze in with OOO and W, too. Seems like most people universally consider it the "feel good" series if anything else, and I think that's worth something. I like to bunch those three together as a group anyway for obvious consecutive reasons.

Well I wouldn't say OOO is outright hated much, but I have heard a lot of complaints about it being underwhelming or not liking the direction of the plot. Fourze definitely has something going for it being so "feel good" for sure though.

The original because original.

V3 was a nice follow-up to the original.

Black was a back-to-basics of the source and well-made.

Kuuga for breathing new life into the franchise and setting new standards.

Ryuki for challenging the status quo.

Den-O for making the franchise fun again while trying new things.

W for being just fun.

Gaim for being Gaim.

honorable mentions: the first half of Hibiki.

Double, OOO and Fourze I generally see more positives opinions than negatives ones so I would say those ones.

Also Ryuki when you wear Ryuki tinted glasses like I do.

Kuuga seems to be a pretty divisive series. I'm not sure if it's even close to universally liked.

Actually, I don't agree with those 3. There aren't a lot of good words going around about the original Kamen Rider. I hear it's rather dull and the characters aren't the most interesting.
Basically, it's getting respect because it's the first, not because of anything actually in the series itself.

Kuuga can go fuck itself. Black set new standards. Kuuga was more of an experimental series.
"What if we had a show where nothing happened for 49 episodes?"

As for Ryuki, that one is a little divisive. Some people love it with all their hearts, others are staunchly against it due to Shinji being a doormat for half the series, and a bitch for the other half.

Being completely honest despite people here liking OOO I found it to be underwhelming. Not bad but definitely my least favorite of the Neo-Heisei seasons.

Back on topic W is usually the season people seem to universally like. What's funny is that it's never anyone's #1 favorite despite being so good. It always seems to be people's #2 or #3.

The only other one I feel safe saying is universally liked is Gaim. For despite the aesthetics of the outfits, it had what is arguably the best told story in all of Kamen Rider. Plus not a single driver phrase is anything less than amazing.

For a toku from 1971, it's surprisingly interesting. Hongo is an instantly likable character, and the supporting cast are at least fun. Unfortunately, Fujioka hurt himself and they replaced Hongo with Ichimonji, who, while still decent, isn't nearly as interesting as a character. There's not a whole lot to the plot, but just seeing him fight off the MOTW was enjoyable enough.

My biggest beefs with the original Kamen Rider are that a ton of the plots of the week are driven by nothing but convenience (for instance, the kid/victim of the week will just happen to be hanging around the racing club when the plot involves him, Shocker never does anything remotely competent as easy as it would be for them to do, that one episode where killing the monster magically turned him back into a human simply because we had been introduced to him beforehand) and that supporting characters appear and disappear from the show with no warning or acknowledgement (taki got married once, but you wouldn't be able to tell outside the one episode with the wedding). It's fun enough at first, but I got super tired of it over time.

There's also all that fun 70's chauvinism, which I mean, I can't really judge by modern standards because it was the 70's. But that still doesn't make it any more fun to watch. There's one episode where Hayato sends the girls in the club some flowers with a letter that basically says "you guys have been doing good, but maybe you should go off and become good wives now?" Usually when the racing club gets shitty gifts it's part of a Shocker plot, but nah, it was just Hayato being kind of a dick.

Egh...but yeah. The original Kamen Rider is probably my least favorite of all the Rider shows I've watched (even though I've only seen 44/98 of the episodes. who knows, maybe it turns amazing in the second half. doubt it tho).

Fourze is really unpopular in Japan. A lot of the older fans hated how kid-focused it was.

From what I know about the Japanese audiences, I'd say the most consistently beloved are probably:

The original - it's constantly brought up, referenced, and Shocker is all over every crossover event.

V3 - very popular in Japan and Hawaii, Riderman has a surprisingly large fanbase.

Black - very popular in Japan, huge in Southeast Asia and parts of South America.

Kuuga - Matrixbeast may hate it, but the show is really popular in Japan.

Agito - highest rated Rider series of the Heisei era.

Den-O - didn't get eight movies for no reason.

W - big hit with Japanese and Western audiences.

Gaim - went over okay in Japan, huge in the West, drew in a lot of anime fans due to the Urobuchi factor.

And Hasselhoff is big in Germany. What one country likes doesn't mean it's the universal consensus!
*Runs off in a huff*

Maybe, but Hasselhoff isn't German. I think Switchblade's point is that Japan probably has the biggest number of Rider fans, it being a Japanese show and everything, so if we're objectively judging a general consensus opinion over there is more relevant than whatever is found scattered among western websites or whatevs.

Well, it is the home country and one of the only places where the show is officially released.

And I'm not value judging here (even though I love Kuuga). The show is just pretty dang popular at home in Japan.

Actually, I didn't hear much about this outside of the internet. The opinions on Fourze and also Wizard that I heard from people here were either neutral or positive.

Isn’t Fourze really kid-friendly for a reason, though? Because it was made in 2011 when they wanted to do something for the kids who were afraid and sad at the time? I heard something like that, and if that’s the case I can’t blame Fourze.

I never even really found Fourze to be particularly kid-friendly as in, not more than W or OOO. It's very light-hearted, but that's about it. And yeah, Fourze was made after the disaster of the Tohoku earthquake and the accidents in the nuclear power plant at Fukushima.

I think Den O is pretty well liked by most toku/KR watchers.

This is just what I remember hearing from some of the ratings gurus at the time: Fourze was a big hit with kids, but the older fans - the guys who spend a lot of money on Figuarts, SIC, and collector's belts - really didn't like it.

Personally, I like the show a lot. It's one that I actually find myself liking even more in hindsight then I did when it was airing (probably because my brain is blocking out most memories of Yuuki).

I think Fourze's lightheartedness really did it favors. It was fun, pure and simple. It did have it's deeper plots, but it didn't dive into the melodrama like Den-O did, only just kind of dipping it's toe into that pool.
While there are fans that didn't like it's gimmick, I think opinions on the show lean closer towards the positive.

Fourze seems like it would be popular in Japan to me. I get the backlash against it's lightheartedness but still, it seems popular enough among the English fans.

If we're objectively trying to determine universal appeal, though, we have to consider every opinion. If you start weighing opinions on a curve, objectivity tends to go out the window.

I disagree.
Black was meant to be a back-to-basics since the planning phase and folks that like Black seem to like it for that reason.
As for Kuuga I do agree it was experimental but out of those experimental bits came some new standards from what I see, such as the cinematography and mise-en-scene.
And all this talk about Black makes me want to watch it again.

*shrugs* Eh, He was an excellent doormat.
The Rider Battle was such a fresh concept for the franchise circa 2002 and I remember people loving the show for it at the time.
And while we are on the topic of doormat, this was hilarious:lolol
http://i.imgur.com/RZZO5re.jpg

No, that's not what I mean. I'm not saying that opinions in Japan weigh more than others (ok, maybe I did say that my phrasing was poor) I'm saying if we're considering every opinion, most of those opinions are probably gonna come from Japan because that's where most fans are gonna be.

Still, that's not really what universal means. I think if something has very different receptions in different parts of the world, that means it's not universally liked.

Yeah, but nothing is actually universally liked in the first place. Opinions vary greatly from person to person, so of course reception in different places will vary. I guess the point I was trying to make (speculating about the point Switchblade was trying to make) is that a consensus is formed by the opinions held by the greatest number of people, and in this case that greatest number of people is elsewhere.

Of course that's only relevant if we're talking about opinions to KR series on a global scale, which may not be all that relevant for this discussion, I dunno. It's probably simpler to just gauge opinion among the western fanbase. Just talking for the sake of it here I guess.

I'm not even sure about what I meant anymore anyways. It's all pretty interesting regardless

I'd say Den-O and ( I may be stretching this one ) Double.

As a completely non-biased person who hasn't watched Kamen Rider W 3 times in 9 months, I think we should all agree that everyone at least likes W.

Well, W is pretty loved all over the world I guess.

From what I observed cosplayer-wise and from the people I know, the most popular seasons in the German fandom are W, Gaim, Kiva and Den-O.

I think Kiva is really the one that sticks out here as it was by far not that much of a hit in Japan or the US fandom.

I'm gonna disagree with den-o. I couldn't get into it I honestly don't like den-o but that's me

Again, this thread isn't about what any of us individually love. It's what the masses love. And Den-O is beyond popular in Japan.

I don't like Den-O much either, but no denying it's one of the more popular ones. The endless deluge of movies is a testament to that.

Not to mention all the merchandise, especially for the Imagin. I'm not too much into Den-O either, but I see why people like it so much. Heck, I'm constantly making Imagin references myself. And Yuuto/ Zeronos is one of my favorite riders.

Two words: DOUBLE ACTION