[SPLIT LIP]

Of this era I've only seen W, OOO and a chunk 'o' Wheezort. Sadly I haven't seen much of Fourze, due to me just not being able to get behind the setting. Highschool is just not something I think works as a setting for me, weird because I liked Highschool A LOT, but then again I didn't have the typical high school. I'd say I was the one kid who didn't fit an archtype, but really nobody at my school fit the typical highschool archtypes, so I find the typical HS experience as depicted by any media... incredibly lame. I'm sure Fourze is fine and filled with Kevin Spacey, I hear good things about it, but it's not for me. (Plus I will never get high school uniforms. We didn't have them, just a loosely enforced dress code to force the guys to wear belts and girls to keep their chests to themselves. Uniforms are SO alien to me. That's totally harshing on my free spirit, man. I won't be part of the machine, bro!) So I'm not gonna judge it in certain areas based on my limited knowledge of the series's standard.

Series: W. It did the most "right" for me. It felt like a more focused story, it's setup worked the best (the detective thing made a logical gateway to the two-ep arcs Kamen Rider does, verses it just kind of being that way in other series) it had an over-arching story I felt invested in and felt like there was progress and a coming endgame. We knew museum had a plan and they would enact them, verses in OOO where the Greed don't have a goal in mind besides gathering medals which is a lot more wishy-washy as to the when and how of it happening. OOO had other great parts to it's story, but there was never a deadline. It felt like it could have gone on forever.

Main Rider: Shotaro/W. Little competition here, but Eiji was good... until he kinda lost his lovable aloofness as time went on and just sort of became a stoic hero. It's not bad, but Shotaro managed to change and evolve without becoming a total brick wall. He had a way about him that Eiji lacked as time went on. Shotaro grew up, but he never lost his psuedo-suave demeanor. Eiji, sadly, lost his expressiveness in his body and became very... generic. The character was still plenty good of course. I'm literally just mentioning it because it's very close, but Shotaro was just awesome.

Secondary Rider: Birth. Either Date or Gotou. Nothing wrong with Accel, but Birth just had more going for it. But props to fifty-kicks-per-second Accel Trial for being the best secondary rider upgrade ever.

Belt Gimmick: Gaia memories, because they're a lot you can do with them. Plus, the W driver is one of the more streamlined while still being intricate and I feel it works better. The OOO driver is cool, but just a bit too complicated. The scanner is what's weird for me. I mean it's cool, but it's less instant. Fourze's driver is cool in concept, but WAY too bulky. Points for looking like a teched-out control panel, though.

Rider Design: Skull. This is really a no brain-er. Runner up would be Joker, though. Nothing beast simple, all-black, unless you put a skull face, tatered scarf, and sweet hat on it.

Final Rider Form: Tajador. CJX is... okay, but I never liked it as much as W's regular form. Now if it looked like the SIC does, that'd be different. It's nothing really wrong with the idea of the design of CJX, but the face is very flat and the shoulder pads and prism bicker seem undersized for a final form, something the SIC fixes. Tajador is sweet because he's basically two colours and a streamlined look.

Villain Group: Museum, this is mostly due to them not just being a group of monsters bent on mindless destruction. Plus they were more interesting as individuals, and ALL of them had something going for them. The Greed in OOO bored me, and the Phantoms in Wizard are awful. It may seem like I'm describing a battle of the bottom of the board, but the Sonozaki's were way more three dimensional and interesting due to being a family that, ultimately, did care about eachother, and had more complex motives than "Grrr let's destroy the world!"

Sadly I know nothing of the Zodiac guys so I can't comment on their motives.

Villain Design: Utopia. I mean, come on, is this really a contest? That thing was incredible. Even the villain himself was pretty cool, like a final boss. But that design just so perfectly evokes the name. Rather than being something predictable like an all-white or clean form representing purity, the body and armour resembles what may have once been a very shining and kightly person who has been corrupt. even the torso and head look like ancient ancient ruins of some kind of lost city Atlantis-style. Like his IS the Utopia himself, but is a dark remnant rather than a true Utopia, fitting the character's twisted outlook on the world. I'm so glad it looks like it may be getting a Figuarts release.

Opening Song: A tough one, but WBX just makes it. Wizard and Fourze are in one ear and out the other, and I find Anything Goes okay, but I don't ever feel like listening to it. But WBX? Pretty catchy. Starts off smooth jazz, then get's punchy and groovy. Anything Goes is an earwig for sure, but WBX is amn actually good song. (too bad the music video isn't nearly as awesome as Anythign Goes)

Both Wizard and Fourze's themes do nothing for me. They sound completely generic and not well done. Hardly awful, just totally unmemorable. I only remember "MAGICA-MAGICA-MAGICA-SHO-OO-TIIIME" as far as the lyrics even go.

Series' Score: toss up between W and OOO, but going with W again. The only ones I didn't find painfully generic, but while OOO had better themes for forms, W had a better incidental track. The smooth jazz, fight music and a few stand out rock bits (Accel's music and Xtreme's debut background music) edge out over the few combo songs from OOO I'd call good.