Best Heisei Kamen Rider Ever Poll: W to Zi-O
 

This thread will cover W to Zi-O. I have left out Amazons because I would like to limit to just the ones on TV Asahi.

Having only seen W and OOO so far, I feel like it wouldn't really be fair for me to vote. Between the two though I'd say OOO is better, atleast so far. Haven't finished it yet.

Gaim are the Best Neo-Heisei Era Kamen Rider series in my opinion. :D

Ex-Aid is a very, very close second, but I have to go with W.

Ex-Aid and Gaim's designs drew me into Kamen Rider in the first place.

I remember browsing Tamashii Web for new products (I was and still am a huge Gundam fan) and I stumbled upon Gaim's designs, which were a breath of fresh air for me. Then Ex-Aid's designs came out in Figuarts format and that really solidified it for me (I thought they were some kind of space invaders thing at first, hilariously enough)

Imagine my surprise when Gaim had great plot and pacing. Ex-Aid, not as good but still amazing. So yeah, Gaim and Ex-Aid are my two favorites; if not for the plot, gimmicks, characterisation (<insert Shin Dan Kuroto laughs here>) or graphics then they're my favorite for sheer nostalgia.

I love Ex-Aid. I love Gaim. I love W.
But OOO just captured everything perfectly. From how the characters acted and worked with/clashed against each other, to the designs, to the wonderful story that did the villain turned good right, I just can't get enough of OOO.

I gotta go with W on this one. It was a semi-fresh start that we all needed.

I have seen all of those except Fourze, and while Gaim is my favorite Build is overall the best one. The story and characters are too good; they easily top everything that came before in Heisei Phase II. And after 'cause Zi-O sucks.

OOO is... everything. I can't imagine there ever being a better Rider show and I would find it difficult to come up with a tv show I liked better period. I loved Build, I loved Fourze, I loved Ex-Aid, but nothing compares here.

I can't choose between: W, Fourze, Gaim, and Build.


With a gun to my head though I'd choose W,..... or maybe Build..... no wait, W,.... but Build was so good!


....I can't choose.

This..... This is hard. Gaim and Build to ne are the best, but Double is the gold standard of Kamen Rider and what each series should try to be as good as, while shows like Gaim and Build are the platinum standard.

I haven't watched Zi-O yet, so all of this is with only 90% certainty, which is actually up from my usual low 70s.

So, is the poll for the Best Rider, or the the Best Rider Show? I voted for OOO, assuming it's the a poll for Best Rider Show, since OOO never screws anything up. It's not the best at anything, but it's good at everything.

But Best Rider? Like, just the main Rider? It's got to be W. Got to be. 110% certain. Like, Shotaro alone is maybe the best Rider, and you add in Phillip? Unstoppable. Peerless.

Just in general, show and rider altogether. My bad, I should have been more specific. :lolol

Don't sweat it! I'm glad I at least got a chance to talk about Shotaro in passing, especially since I was so let down by the movie, having seen it tonight.

Like, no spoilers, but 1) it's all dubbed, 2) there's so little action, 3) it's SUPER not for kids, 3) there's, like, one henshin in the entire movie and it takes 10 minutes to get from one form to the other, 4) they never mention anything from the TV show, 5) the new movie suit is way too garish, and 6) Joaquin Phoenix barely even looks like Shotaro. Why even do a Kamen Rider Joker movie if you're just going to change everything?

Sorry to post that all here, but I weirdly didn't see a thread for it on the boards?

This made me laugh way harder than it should've. Good job.

"I used to think my life was a tragedy. But now I've realised... it's a comedy."
- Shotaro Hidari, right after another Dopant with a wacky power attacks.

Fang/Joker is one of the most badass looking Rider costumes of all time. Fact!













...in my opinion. Lol

It's definitely my favourite W form, aside from maybe Cyclone/Joker itself. Eternal and Skull do manage to beat it out for me as favourite W suit, though...

CycloneJoker, it's so good. They're all great, W had a really unbeatable suit aesthetic, they could do anything with it, but, man. That base suit is a beauty.

FangJoker aside, I think all the variations of the main W suit are hideous. It's one of the things that kept me away from the series for a long time along with a general distaste for Neo-Heisei.

Oof! Sorry to hear that. So, you did end up watching it? What did you think?

I'd hate to derail this into becoming the "Best Heisei Kamen Rider Costume" thread, but CycloneJoker really is the bomb. There's an elegance to how much it communicates while being extremely light on detail compared to a lot of other shows before and after that I don't think has ever quite been matched:

- The green and black color scheme was a powerful mission statement at the time that I don't think can be understated. Around half of the Heisei Riders up to that point were primarily red, and none of them had ever done such a heavy homage to the OG show like that before. Double even had a scarf! So on top of being stylish, it's telling you in the clearest possible way that this is the back-to-basics Rider show.

- Splitting the suit clean down the middle. Beautiful. The way to show that this is two guys put together, and just plain striking to boot. There's no confusing him for any other Rider, and considering Build exists now, that's really saying something.

- The relatively scarce amount of detail that is on the suit consists entirely of lines that all form the letter W. Talk about staying on-brand!

- Lastly, and I think this one is important: it'd be extremely easy for a child to draw and have be recognizable. This is a fairly abstract way to say the design is good, but for the hero of a children's show, I swear, getting this right matters.

I swear I recall this being a mission statement behind all main rider designs. I specifically remember it about Fourze, for some reason...

I enjoy that it is a thing they keep in mind, because even when the aesthetic gets pretty wild like Drive or even Ex-Aid it's kept simple in some form.

I mean, Ex-Aid is pretty simple for a kid to draw.

STEP 1: Dump out all of your crayons, point down, onto a sheet of paper.
STEP 2: It's Kamen Rider Ex-Aid!

I mean, big spiky hair and anime eyes, on a pink body. Sure, there's some detailing to it, especially on the silver chest bit, but the main body is pretty simple.

Didn't know which thread to post this under.

Yukihiro Takiguchi, Akira Hayase in Kamen Rider Drive, has passed away at 34 due to heart failure.

His passing was announced almost concurrently with the passing of Jin Nakayama of Ultraman 80 fame (see the "Ultraman Discussion Thread" for more on that)!

http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2019/11/...es-away-at-34/

http://ukiyaseed.weebly.com/ukiyasee...hi-passed-away