2016 Kamen Rider Annual Review
 

Hellllloooooooo Zawame Cit... err, Tokunatioooooooooonnnnnnnn!!!!!!!
Like I stated on the Super Sentai forum, 2016 is ending and so I thought I would like to hear what 2016 for Kamen Rider was like for you.
So likewise, let's share what was the best and worst was about Kamen Rider in 2016.
Here are the categories below:

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: It is a heated medical battle against the bugsters and Emu + doctors who call themselves Kamen Riders. Share with us one good thing about the show and one bad thing about the show! You MUST STATE ONE GOOD AND ONE BAD.


Kamen Rider Ghost: Takeru must save people from the spoooooooookkkkkyyyyy and evil ganmas and maybe even his own life utilizing the powers of historic icons from the past. How has Ghost and his pals fared? Share with us one good thing about the show and one bad thing about the show! You MUST STATE ONE GOOD AND ONE BAD.


Kamen Rider Amazons: 2016 was SUPER HERO YEAR and out of it came one of the most unexpected dark gritty hero shows in a while since GARO. Giving us not one but TWO Amazons and dare I say, this was THE STRANGER THINGS OF TOKUSATSU FOR 2016.

Re-watch: Super Sentai celebrated 40, but being the older sibling Kamen Rider celebrates 45 YEARS. And we had a slew of masked riders that protected us from evil-doers every Sunday morning Japanese Standard Time. Which season still stands the test of time and which does not?

The Fake Leather: While Super Sentai donned spiffy colorful spandex riders kept it heavy with synthetic leather and extra body armor. Share with us which rider's suit is the best and which sucks and should be incinerated(I will accept sub-riders and movie only riders, and bad ones as well i.e. Gold Drive. Those such as Tackle and Shadow Moon where they are not designated riders officially do not qualify).

Henshin Belt: The cream of the crop, the icing on top, or simply put the core of what makes a rider a Kamen Rider. Which belt is the best and which should be chucked into a volcano?

Weapon: Share with us the ginsu knife of Kamen Rider armory and which does not even qualify to be used as a cooking utensil.

The Vroom-vroom-vrooms: Which bike is indeed a work of art and which is not? Accel's bike mode and Lazer's level 2 gamer form is acceptable as well.

Villains: From screeching skeleton costumed-grunts to horror-inducing gargantuan monstrosities, which villain organization is still the best and which is not the best?

Merch: Which merchandise that came out this year from Kamen Rider was the best and which one was the worst.
Likewise, merch that was announced but not sold this year does not count and previous years also do not count unless it was Kamen Rider Ghost.

Movie Taisen: Who said Super Sentai has all the fun? Which movie taisen was the best and which was the worst?

Epilogues: We recently have been blessed with further adventures of sub-riders on straight-to-dvd and blu-ray films. Which was the best and which was the worst?

The Battlecry: Which Opening Theme and Ending theme are the best and which just make you bleed from your ears?



RULES
1. Please only select one good and one bad for each category. Don't just say I got nothing.
2. No "EVERYTHING IS AWESOME" answers. just one good and one bad.
3. select only one team or one person depending on the question. NO LISTS.
That would be much appreciated AND HAPPY NEW YEARS. ;)

Ex-Aid Good: The lovely 90's effects
Ex-Aid Bad: Poppi's Christmas jingle
Ghost Good: Suit designs!
Ghost Bad: Characters
Amazonz Good: Unique in mature tone!
Amazonz Bad:Can't remember the names of the characters
Rewatch Good: W was absolutely amazing to watch
Rewatch Bad: Oh god W has shit CGI
Fake Leather Good: ZOMBIE GENM
Fake Leather Bad: Kamen Rider Heart
Henshin Belt Good: Amazonz
Henshin Belt Bad: Ghost
Weapon Good: Gashacon Bugvisor
Weapon Bad: Gashacon Breaker
The VROOMVROOM Good: Lazer LV2
The VROOMVROOM Bad: Houdini bike
Villain Good: G.E.N.M
Villain Bad: Sigma
Abstain with the merch
Abstain with Movie Taisen
Epilogue Good: Kabuto
Epilogue Bad: W. It ruined the bittersweet ending of the previous episode
Songs Good: I've been listening to Action Zero a lot
Songs Bad: Treasure Sniper

Amazons is not up there but I should add that . :)

Hard for me to pick one best or worst of anything, but I'll try.

Ex-Aid
Honestly, I don't hate or even very much dislike anything about Ex-Aid. And I'm definitely bad at picking a favorite aspect since I like every aspect for very different reasons. I guess I'll go with the gimmicks/gadgets/designs for good and Poppy shenanigans for bad.

Ghost
And somewhat parallel to Ex-Aid I can't think of much I can get excited about in Ghost. When its designs and trinkets were new I thought they were awesome, but I guess it was just the hype effect since even the designs seem pretty average to me now. They all seem to have at least one awkward design choice that screw with them - or are hampered heavily by material quality, something which I rarely seem to see mentioned when criticizing suits.
Anyway, I suppose I'll go with the designs/gimmicks/gadgets for best again despite what I just said, and... Onari for worst?

Amazons
Frankly my favorite part is probably the suits, but the whole thing is pretty good in general. Ending is the worst part for me, hopefully season 2 can make up for it.

Rewatch
Judging by just how much I personally would want to rewatch something, probably Kabuto for best and Agito for worst, just by process of elimination, and not counting ones I haven't seen. Just from what I've heard Kiva sounds like one of the worst to rewatch though.

Suits
Out of all of them? I hate picking things from Ex-Aid because I worry that I'm just saying it out of hype, but Zombie Gamer Genm might just be my favorite suit of all time if I have to pick one. As for worst, dunno really. I think I'll say Zero Drive on principle of how insultingly boring and pointless it and its circumstances are. It's easier for me to choose on those principles than simple dislike.

Henshin belts
Gonna say Gamer Driver for best. I don't even care if I'm only saying it because it's new and cool. It's so fun.
Worst is another hard choice because of all the criteria. How boring it is, lazy design, ugly design, bad sounds, etc.
When I really think about it, the Mega Ulorder might be the closest to objectively bad since the toy's severe lack of sounds is the crux of a lot of frustrating questions in the show and in tertiary media like Ganbarizing.

Weapon
Weapons don't really wow me in Rider, unless they're new in which case I get permanently bored of them quickly. There also aren't any I can think of that I find particularly bad, just boring. On a whim I'll say the best is the Gan Gun Saber and the worst is the punchfists Knuckle Jimber Marron uses.

Bikes
Bikes don't really wow me either, but at least I'm better at judging their designs - probably the Machine Ghostriker for worst and BeatGouram for best.

Villains
I actually kind of hate the cheesy Shocker mooks and the actual MOTWs aren't great either, so my worst villain group is Shocker.
Best is probably the Undead. They're probably the most diverse and interesting in my eyes, what with the Tarantula Undead being good, the Spider possessing Leangle, and the Joker in general. Greeeds are a close second though.

Merchandise
Out of all kinds? I'll go with Gashats for the best and Sofubis for the worst.

Movie Taisen
Dunno, really, none of them stood out to me. They're all just kind of haphazardly crummy. I guess Ultimatum for best because lots of people like it, and Core for the worst since Kamen Rider Core was a pretty awful villain.
EDIT: Nevermind, I remembered Ghost x Drive. That whole thing was a horrible mess that did nothing but fuck with the canon of both shows and make sudden, stupid, contrived, boring plot conveniences to keep the story moving. Worst, for sure.

Epilogues
If it counts, Kamen Rider Eternal Returns for best. If not, then Chase Saga. As for worst, I guess Duke/Knuckle (specifically Duke). Or if we're sticking to this year, Heart/Mach (specifically Heart).

Openings
Another hard choice. I can't really differentiate my favorites (Anything Goes, Life is Showtime, EXCITE) into one over the other, but I'll go with EXCITE.
As for worst, Hibiki's. I was gonna say Ghost's on principle of being kind of boring and the visuals being pretty cheesy, but man. Hibiki's has no lyrics and the visuals are 70's-tier cheesy.

If you got a word or two about Amazons feel free to update your post. :)

Just did. :)

Kamen rider Ex-aid
Good - no new episode this week
Bad - everything else about it

Yo dip, next time you get butthurt for no reason, read the rules in the thread which pretty much say you can't do that.

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: I'm really enjoying the story in Ex-Aid so far. it Feels like the writers have a clear plan that they're working towards and I'm enjoying how the characters interact with each other. On the other hand, the suits are uniformly garbage. Dangerous Zombie is reasonably all right, but the rest are just terrible.


Kamen Rider Ghost: Ghost was a fucking disaster. It generally felt like it wasn't going anywhere, the characters were all terrible, and the action is some of the laziest in franchise history. At this point I can easily say it's beaten Kiva as the worst Rider series of all time. For something good... um... the Necrom Driver had a cool voice?

Kamen Rider Amazons: Amazons was a really fun show with some good, more adult storylines and themes. It felt like it really took awhile for it to get going, though, and the early episodes didn't impress me much.

Re-watch: n/a

The Fake Leather: One of Amazons' best features were the suits; both Alpha and Omega were really cool costumes. They're made even better by the fact that both Ghost and Ex-Aid have really bad costumes. I mean, most of Ghost's base forms are okay, but they're generally hampered by all of the terribly clashing hoodies.

Henshin Belt: Again, Amazons is the only show that wins out here with its 40-year-old belt design. The Gamer Driver at least makes cool sounds, but it's garishly ugly and the Ghost Driver is really clunky and has way too much noise coming out of it.

Weapon: Again, Amazons did this well with Omega's Violent Break while the mainstream Rider shows fell flat. With Ex-Aid it at least makes some sense that the weapons look silly, but the weapons in Ghost are pathetic, especially that stupid hand staff that Spectre and Necrom used. They may as well have shot foam darts, they were so obviously just plastic toys.

The Vroom-vroom-vrooms: Amazon had a nice update to the Jungler, I struggle to remember Ghost having a bike.

Villains: I'm liking Dan as the villain of Ex-Aid right now, even if I find his method of video game development highly questionable. Adel from Ghost was terrible, especially the bullshit redemption arc they tried to pull off with him in the last episode (which lasted for all of two minutes before Takeru killed him anyway).

Merch: The only merchandise I got this year were Shodo vs. figures. I like all of them, but am a little bummed that Stronger is so hard to get a hold of.

Movie Taisen: Haven't watched it yet.

Epilogues: The only one I watched was the Chase movie, which I enjoyed. Still need to see the Drive/Crap Movie War.

The Battlecry: Armour Zone is the best Rider theme in years with Excite not far behind. I always fastforwarded through Ghost's opening theme.

Bonus Point: Just as a reminder, Onari is the single worst thing to happen to Kamen Rider since Toei let Toshiki Inoue write the OOO section of Movie War Core. If you disagree then that's your right, but you are objectively wrong.

You know, Switchblade, you're hard to like, but you're even harder to hate. :lol

Anyway, that other list took a lot out of me so I'll just do the diet version here.

Kamen Rider Ghost: Since the rules forbid me from general gushing, I'll just reiterate how much I love Mugen Damashii for the good. It's awesome. For the bad, as much as I miss Heisei Rider cold opens, Ghost's inexplicable decision to do them for the last quarter or so was pretty ill-advised. The inconsistency bugs me and the awkward fade-in means it doesn't even have the punch it's supposed to (see Kuuga for reference).

Obviously there are bigger problems/qualities I could've chosen, but they'd take longer to get into, and I'm keeping this light.

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid:
There's a lot I could pick for the good but I guess I'll go with that opening. Between a super catchy tune and some delightfully pretentious visuals, the only way I could like it more is if the show had cold opens. As for the bad... I guess its hyperactive pacing has me a bit worried about the show losing cohesion down the line, but lately it's shown it can manage itself fine, inexplicably quick villain deaths not withstanding.

It took me a bit to remember which shows I had watched during 2016, haha!

Ex-Aid: The show has been bery entertaning and always has me excited for the next episode, the building of intrigue has been excellent. I do think the plot might be a little bit too fast so far.

Ghost: Haven't watched.

Amazons: Haven't watched.

Rewatch: I haven't rewatched all of it, but I enjoyed rewatching the first several episodes of Kabuto just as much the second time. I was a bit disappointed rewatching the first several Fourze episodes though, it isn't as enchanting the second time.

Suit: TheBee is so beautiful, but Zombie Genm might be my new favorite. You'll have to get back to me on that. Kiwami is the woooorst though. (No not the user Kiwami, they're cool by me!)

Belt: I love the Wizard Driver. The over the top voice, the fact that it looks vaguely suggestive. It's the best. Least favorite is probably the Agito belt by merit of being boring.

Weapon: The Prisim Bicker from W is really cool to me. The Gatack Double Caliburs in scissor form are really hard for me to take seriously.

Bike: Lazer level 2, people who can turn into motorcycles are hilariously amazing to me. The Ridevendors from OOO are really uninteresting to me.

Villain: The Sonozaki's from W remain my favorite. They're like one of those families from a Spanish soap opera, but somehow really threatening and compelling. The bizarre God-ish dude from Agito is my least favorite, since so little effort goes into explaining anything about him.

Merch: Not super up on this either, I am shameful.

Taisen: Haven't seen any of these actually.

Epilogue: I really like the Duke gaiden from Gaim, although it is more like a prologue in a lot of ways. The Eternal gaiden from W just never did it for me, it felt very tonally dissonant with the rest of W.

Opening: Anything Goes is my favorite, Brave Blade is my least.

EDIT: Oh dang, was this supposed to be 2016 shows only? I'm too lazy to change it now.

Thank you, it's harder than it looks.

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: There's so much to love about Ex-Aid. I guess my favorite part of it would be the story. As for worst, it's not necessarily something the show is doing now, but rather a potential direction it MIGHT take in that because they've already done so much with the story early on, I fear that we may see heavy amounts of filler during the middle portion.


Kamen Rider Ghost: I'm not going to totally bash Ghost. It had some things going for it. My favorite part of it is Alain, at least for the moments where he wasn't just another Takeru cheerleader. I know I'm only limited to one, but I'd like to give an honorable mention to Akari for also being a not-useless female lead. The worst part is by far Onari, who might go down as one of the most hated characters in Rider history for me, personally.


Kamen Rider Amazons: I love this show with a passion. Best part of it is definitely the characters for me. Worst part is how woefully underutilized Sigma was. I was hoping he'd be the big bad from his first appearance onwards, like Shadow Moon.

Re-watch: The only Rider show I can remember rewatching this year was Kabuto, which has been a fun watch.

The Fake Leather: Zombie Genm is definitely taking the cake for me at the moment. That suit design is amazing. Worst? Probably Mach Deadheat. A really lazy form that doesn't seem to have any cohesion between the Drive and Mach portions. Drive slightly gets the edge since his helmet doesn't have a Leno chin on it.

Henshin Belt: Faiz will forever be the king in this area just for how practical the driver looks and how orgasmic the voice is. I love you Kuuga, but your belt is just all sorts of boring.

Weapon: The Gashacon Bugvisor gets credit for being both a henshin device AND a weapon with some awesome sounds. Worst is that lame ass Gan Gun whatever you call it that they gave Necrom. Alain deserved better than that for being the best character in Ghost.

The Vroom-vroom-vrooms: Best bike is Lazer because he's freakin' Lazer. Worst is the Machine Ghoststriker for having a boring color scheme and only showing up in like 3 episodes.

Villains: It's tough deciding between the Roidmudes and the Sonozakis, but I'm going to go with the Roidmudes because of Heart alone. Worst is Ganma because half of them would randomly disappear for several episodes, only to come back and do absolutely nothing until the plot remembered that they existed. Even worse, they lazily and half-assedly tried to redeem all of the high-ranking Ganma in the end, even though they were unapologetic assholes up until the last 5 episodes of the show.

Merch: I only collect SHFiguarts. By far my favorite Rider figuart was Amazon Alpha. Not only is Alpha an awesome design, but he's also an awesome character. Really though, I could have chosen a bunch of Figuarts for this category. Worst? IDK, maybe Necrom, even though I still really like the figure. He just has a really low accessory count.

Movie Taisen: Honestly, I can't remember any of them too well to have strong opinions on them.

Epilogues: Same as above

The Battlecry: Armor Zone is AWESOME. I cannot stop listening to it. Sorry Ghost but you gotta take another L here. Your theme is just unfathomably cheesy.

Keep in mind I'm keeping the list to mostly stuff that debuted in 2016. I know that isn't a requirement, its just my own self imposed rule.
Ex-Aid:

• Good: Action is pretty darn cool and unique due to the video game theme

• Bad: Kiriya's death. I've already explained why I didn't like this so I won't go any further.

Ghost:

• Good: I guess you could say I'm one of those odd people that actually really liked Ghost in spite of its major faults. The one thing I'll say on it and probably the best description of why I liked the show was because it was flawed but interesting. It had a lot of neat ideas and concepts for a Rider show and while not many of them were executed as well as they could be, I appreciated what it tried to do rather than rely on old formulas and concepts.

• Bad:The pacing specifically past the Mugen debut. Up to this point, I found Ghost pacing to be pretty good. Past this point however was when the plot kinda meandered around for way too long with some plot points stretched out far longer than they need to be.

The Fake Leather:

• Good: Kinda hard to pinpoint my favorite since I thought most of them were fine. I guess I could say Ghost Ore Damashii for its simple and unique design as well as for how instantly appealing it was.

• Bad: Shakariki Genm. No if's or but's about it, I hate this form. From its cumbersome design, unmatching colours, terrible helmet, a character that's supposed to have a sense of fear and dread to him instead looks like a complete clown. The thing is, I'm normally fine with most Rider design no matter how off the wall they get. This one though; The moment I saw the first magazine scan of him, I laughed over how stupid it looked.

Weapon:

• Good: The Gashacon Sparrow due to how its bow and scythe design are weapons types that we don't really see often in Kamen Rider,

• Bad: By process of elimination, the GanGan Hand. Nothing wrong with it, it's just less interesting than the other weapons. Would put the Axcalibur here if I wanted to but then again I would put that in any worst weapon list.

Villains:

• Good: The Ganma were pretty interesting in terms of their story and I liked their design, for both the regular Ganmas and the Ganmeizers. If nothing else, we got Alain out of it who's probably one of the best "evil turn good" characters I've seen.

• Bad: The Bugsters, again by process of elimination. There's nothing bad about them right now, it's just we haven't seen how they developed since we're so early in the show.

That's all I got. The ones I have left off were mostly because I don't have much to say on them

Well, this is my lists:

Ex-Aid: I love how Ex-Aid has become until now. Emu proved to be a good lead this year and his actor also showed a compromising act too. The action was top notch too. The only thing that bothered me was particularly Poppy and Hiiro's father. Man, I can't believe I say this but some occasions made me felt that they were even worse than Onari. Even he and Shunpei wasnt as annoying as those two. They got better later but still, seeing the lead female and a crucial mentor character to be so over the top like that really annoyed me. However, I might particularly blame at how lame the comedy is.

Ghost: Best thing? One word: ALAIN. Hands down. Single worst thing? Is it Onari? Of course not! It's Mugen Damashii. We got another problem like Kachidoki>Kiwami here. One also needs to think that Ghost started faltered after Mugen debuts. While I agree with Fish that Ghost has some great messages through Mugen, but the execution was poor.

Amazons: Man, there's too much good thing about this show, but I particularly like a deep emotional scenes with Mamoru. Worst thing? Maybe, by the lack of contribution from side characters like that Haruka's friend, I forgot her name XP. Or the fact that the show particularly slow in the beginning.

Suit: Best: Ghost Grateful Damashii. See why I dislike Mugen? Worst: Kiwami Arms, of course not the user XP.

Taisen: For the best, Megamax and Full Throttle is tie and I can't decide it just yet. For the worse, maybe Ultimatum. I don't like the premise for bringing back Ishinomori heroes back then. The whole movie also gave a huge head scratch.

Weapon love Gashacon Sparrow so much XD. For the single worst weapon: GanGun Catcher. Poor, Alain. As a central character, he deserved more than that weapon or even a new forms.

Villain: For the worse, maybe that golden rip-off of Extremer, guys? For the best villain right now? Two words: Da'm'n Kuroto.

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid: I like the story it's building up to, but I don't like how bland Emu is, he looks to be getting interesting next episode, but that's this year!


Kamen Rider Ghost: I love Necrom's development, the suits and what they were trying to go for in the story. I don't like the execution of said story save Necrom, for having annoying, forgettable side characters and sometimes getting serious and focusing o the main story and most of the time doing same old side stories helping people.


Kamen Rider Amazons: I didn't watch it (but I plan to, don't worry!) but I like the suits, but I feel the filter over the show is a tad bit unnesessary, we get it, the show is dark and edgy.

Re-watch: W stands the test of time in the story department, but not the visuals department.

The Fake Leather: The best Rider suit is obviously Blade's King form, who could disagree? The worst is Fifteen from Gaim though.

Henshin Belt: I can't say which is the best since it's a fundamental part of Kamen Rider and there's a lot of different viewpoints on what a Rider's belt should be doing, making a noise and transforming or singing and providing a dramatic entrance? I guess I'll just say that the Gamer Driver has the worst color scheme.

Weapon: The best is a Rider's feet... I'm serious. The worst though, is Hibiki's sword.

The Vroom-vroom-vrooms: The best bike belongs to Faiz, but the worst is Drive's, it doesn't even reassemble a bike! ;)

Villains: I like the Undead, design wise, but the worst belongs to Dai Shocker just because they're so overused.

Merch: I like what the Renewal line did last year, but the worst is the Ghost figuart.

Movie Taisen: None of them are that good, so I'm not singling out any.

Epilogues: W is the worst epilogue since it undos everything without anything you can defend like Ryuki. The best is Drive, since it doesn't revive Chase or undo any of the show's messages like every other Rider epilogue.

The Battlecry: The best opening is Surprise Drive and I don't have a favorite ending theme because they're forgettable to me (even though I never skip them). The worst opening is Fourze's Switch On.

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid:
Good: First time for the main show since Gaim that I can't wait for the next episode to air.
Bad: Emu doesn't really grab me as a character yet. I think it's mainly the over use of pratfalls.

Kamen Rider Ghost:
Good: The show was just engaging enough to continue watching.
Bad: The show was just engaging enough to continue watching.

I'm kidding...sort of. Ghost was mostly bland with moments of interest. If I must say more...

Good: I did like how the show handled the old lady dying in the middle. That was nice.
Bad: There's a lot, but the one that stuck with me through the entire show was that the fight choreography. It was awful. Most of the fights had no flow to them with jarring cuts and bad transitions to different locations and the moment a ranged weapon was used it became Ghost stands still shooting.

Kamen Rider Amazons:
Good: So much, oh so much. Picking just one...Jin's ability to steal every scene he's in. Especially that intro and transformation in the first episode.
Bad: I'm going to have to reach for this one. Omega never once used the Battler Grip in dagger form. The dagger that every toy uses. I do consider that more Bandai's fault, but it's all I've got.

Re-watch: I don't re-watch toku that often and didn't re-watch any Rider in 2016. So I'm using this for something I feel is missing from the list...

New To Me:
Kamen Rider Black. It's been on my list forever. I only got about half way through, but I've been enjoying it. It's very 80's.

The Fake Leather:
Best: Amazon Alpha. It hits that balance of sleek and savage that really works.
Worst: Kamen Rider Heart. I hate Drive and it bugs me that I'm saying so much negative about Ghost. Since I didn't watch any of the Drive stuff in 2016, I can only hate on the designs. This is two ugly designs smashed together.

Henshin Belt:
Best: I would say Bugvisor, but that goes elsewhere for me. Here, I'll go with Jin's Amazons Driver. I like the simple designs and the weathering is a nice touch.
Worst: Game Driver. It's a mess of a design.

Weapon:
Best: Finally, an easy one! Bugvisor. It's a Game Boy Advance chainsaw blaster. I can't be the only one that wants a role play toy that's also a working GBA.
Worst: That gun grabber hand thing Specter and Necrom used. It just looks dumb most of the time when it's clearly a rifle and use it as a stick.

The Vroom-vroom-vrooms:
I don't really care about the bikes.
Best: I want to say Lazer, but I don't really like his bike form that much (to yellow). Since I've been saying a lot of negative about Ghost, I've decided to give this one to Specter's bike. What was it called? *Googles* "Machine Hoodie"...yeah, this is the winner here. It's a bike in chains and that's cool and I learned today it has a fun name.
Worst: Whatever Ghost's bike/lizard/pirate thing was called.

Villains:
Best: Reika Mizusawa. While I wouldn't call anyone in Amazon a flat out villain, Reika's an antagonist with depth to her actions. Everything she does is with good intentions for her children and her job, which happens to be at odds with each other.
Worst: Any and all of the generals in Ghost were characters that never amounted to much. If you want just one, Igor, I guess. Just because I remember his name.

Merch:
Best: Figuarts Amazon Alpha.
Worst: If I must, I guess that one ShodoVS Stronger that broke due to fused paint. Really, I don't have a bad here.

Movie Taisen:There was more than one this year? Either way, didn't watch them. I have to care enough about at least one show in it to watch those movies.

Epilogues: See Movie Taisen.

The Battlecry:
Best: Toss up between Armor Zone and Excite. I'm giving it to Armor Zone because we only have the TV size version of Excite. Plus, I like yelling "BELIEVE IN AMAZON!"
Worst: Ghost. I know it was technically 2015, but that is one of the worst Rider intros I'm ever heard. It's so bland...huh, guess it fits the show it belongs to.

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid:
Good: Multiples riders with different motives (until now).
Bad: There's almost a freaking new form for someone each week, and I just don't like most of the artistic design for them (but the video games theme is ok).

Kamen Rider Ghost:
Good: The first third of the story, with the search for the eyecons and the fact each character had a different interest in the matter.
Bad: The story seriously drag after that.

Kamen Rider Amazons:
Good: More mature KR, not on a short leash to Bandai toy's catalog ? Yes please, more of that !
Bad: The mercenary team is suddenly ineffective once the protagonist join them. Just shoot those amazons in the face, you're 6 on 1 ! The amazons then lack the sense of dangerosity they had at first.

Re-watch: I had pass on Fourze, that is now corrected. A fun and light KR series.

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid:
-Good: There's a lot here, from the suits to the hints of Gaim-scale plot, but I'll say the dedication to the video game theme. Little things like calling the Christmas power up an "event item", or the Mario block-bump in the most recent episode (I know, I know, not 2016, just an example) really are great little bits for gaming fans.

-Bad: Still not entirely convinced killing off Kiriya so soon was a good idea. If they go somewhere with it, like it continues to drive the story or they make a point about how he never achieved his goals and that's how life is sometimes, it could work, but we'll have to see.

Kamen Rider Ghost:
-Good: I struggle to say anything good about Ghost besides the suits, but I'll say his debut in Drive's movie...had the tone and visuals of the show actually been anything like that, the show might have been watchable. I also enjoyed the historical figures' characterization, had they been a bigger focus (maybe a Den-O situation where their personality overrides Takeru's when using their eyecons), that could also have saved the show.

-Bad: Takeru is a glowing example of how not to do a protagonist. Especially when it became clear that neither the actor nor the writers were capable of giving him any semblance of personality, so instead they made the other, better characters sit on the sidelines and do nothing but spew about how great he is twenty times an episode.

Kamen Rider Amazons:
-Good: The last two episodes before the season 1 finale. Seeing the team finally get it together to kill Sigma, only to lose it immediately in the wake of Tlaloc and Mamoru's instincts awakening was delightfully tragic.

-Bad: The actual finale. It was clearly written before they knew a second season was a sure thing, which I get. Even so, what was the point of naming the episode after Mamoru right after he goes rogue if they weren't going to kill him? We'll have to see what they have planned for him in season 2, but he was barely even in that episode. He's like the anti-Kiriya, they should have killed him sooner.

Re-watch:
-Good: The only old show I watched this year was Gaim, for the first time. I watched it when Ghost was reaching it's zenith of badness, and it was just a breath of fresh air. Deep and intriguing story, characters who change and grow...I really wish I'd been in the fandom when it was actually airing.

-Bad: Except I still can't make heads or tails of the summer movie. It was like they were trying to redo the whole show in two hours, but also add in more new forms and riders than they had time for...it just flowed so weird. I also can't believe they made a suit for Kamuro, had it onscreen for three seconds, then turned him into a cgi soccer ball. Seems like a waste.

The Fake Leather:
-Good: I want to say Kamen Rider Heart, just because I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who likes that suit. But I'll say the parka ghosts in Ghost- the little references hidden in each of them to the historical figure, the way they usually fit well with the base suits. Seriously, why wasn't that kind of effort put into the rest of the show?

-Bad: I fully believe anyone who doesn't like the Ex-Aid suits is allergic to fun, but Sports Genmu is just a color theory nightmare beyond what even 90's aesthetics can make acceptable. It looks a little better on Ex-Aid, but the asymmetrical wheel placement still bugs me.

Henshin Belt:
-Good: Couldn't tell you why, but I really like the Mach Driver. It's bulky, but sleek. I like the way the bikes/cars fit into it. It's just...yeah, I really don't know why, I just like it.

-Bad: The Megauloader. The idea is cool, but the amount of button pressing and rotating required to operate it is ridiculous, even for Kamen Rider! The lack of sounds for 90% of the eyecons doesn't help either.

Weapon:
-Good: I really love the Gangun Hand. It's another one where I can't quite explain why. I think the hand aspect reminds me of the macabre tone Ghost could have had. Also, rifles are cool, and there should be more of them in KR.

-Bad: The Gashacon Keyslasher is super blah. Maybe I'm just disappointed that it's based on a keypad rather than a key like I initially thought from the scan leaks, but the fact that it doesn't physically change for the different modes is disappointing compared to the other Gashacon weapons. The axe mode is especially lame, it's just a bladed hand-guard. The least they could have done was made it possible to hold upside down for that mode.

The Vroom-vroom-vrooms:
-Good: I love the idea of the bike being another rider, but Lazer isn't my favorite aesthetically. I think that goes to the Tridoron. I know it's not a bike, but it just has so much more in what it can do than most rider machines. I also really, really liked the Iguana Ghostriker, but the base bike for it was really boring.

-Bad: The flower bikes in Gaim were really boring, especially in comparison to the two other lock vehicles.

Villains:
-Good: Most times in a show like this, when a villain kills a character as popular as Lazer, that villain tends to get some dislike. I haven't seen any of that towards Genmu, and he's probably my favorite character in Ex-Aid now that Kiriya's gone. He's scheming and overpowered in a way that's actually well written, and you can just tell there's something about him we don't know. Also, he's basically an evil version of Shigeru Miyamoto, how can you not like that?

-Bad: In some ways Adel was the perfect villain for Ghost, because he was just as bland and cliched of a villain as Taker was of a hero. His redemption was particularly half-hearted and dumb. Also, the scene where he sat on stone chair with no clothes on in front of his sister for a really long time. That was weird.

Movie Taisen:
-Good: I've only seen two of them since I haven't gotten around to watching Drive yet, but of the two, Movie War 2010 was a ton of fun, and a decent ending to a story as baffling as Decade. I'm surprised it seems to be so disliked, the way the stories meshed was well done and the full out war at the end was really cool.

-Bad: Again, only seen two, so I'll have to say The Great Sengoku Movie War. It wasn't bad, just kind of meh, partially because I haven't watched Wizard and don't intend to, and partially because I think Bujin Gaim could have been a more interesting character. Who is he? Why is he so different from the other Bujin Riders? How did he know Future!Mai? Given the placement in Gaim's timeline and the blood orange lockseed, I wonder if he's related to Saver at all? He's a character I really wish they'd come back to.

Epilogues:
-Good: Really more of a mid-logue, but I enjoyed the Zangetsu and Duke Gaidens. It's kind of a shame the Duke one was clearly setting up for a third set of Gaim Gaidens that didn't happen and got shunted off into a novel instead, but the Zangetsu one is a nice, self contained story.

-Bad: What the heck was going on with Baron Gaiden? The retroactive foreshadowing to Lord Baron was nice I guess, but the whole decision to frame that story as a twin-swap comedy featuring a random fictional country's power struggle was just...what? What in Gaim's story led them to that idea?