[SPLIT LIP]

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Originally Posted by Gatack

I'm still watching it but I really don't get any serious vibe from it

Every advanced Invess Gaim kills, he kills a person. He's killed at least a innocent sewer worker, and likely his team leader, if not just another unfortunate soul.

That's pitch God damn black, man. But it works, because the show is very real and doesn't needlessly place gravitas on events, so when this revelation comes to light, it will be all the more impactful.

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Simply pondering the return of a 'dark', 'gritty' 'serious' series.

You say that as if those words shouldn't be taboo.

Allow me to share a minor revelation I have come to about 'dark' rider shows and the seemingly unwarranted hype behind them. Based on Agito, Kabuto and parts of Ryuki, I find fans generally don't get that "darkness" and "sensibility" aren't automatically synonymous. I find that actual storytelling, characters, plot and logic are backseat to dramatic imagery and pretty words. Agito is praised as a masterpiece, yet it is entirely hollow. It's paper-thin, yet bizzarely vague and convoluted plot revolves around God. This is not because the concept of God is worth exploring, or his teachings worth telling. You know, all the reasons any sane person would introduce God into somethign as trivial as rubber-suited bugmen. Instead, it's simply because the imagery of a devine figure in white and the idea of God in something like Kamen Rider is "cool" because more sophisticated works include these aspects. But verses including those aspects secondary to the point of the show, they are instead what I can only reasonably conclude to be an attempt at hollow symbolism. Nothing in the show has anything to do with God, in fact (and I'm tryign to avoid discussing religion outright) the entire show and meaning behind Agito seems counter to the entire point of God.

Likewise, Kabuto. What does his real name translate to? "Walking the path to heaven." Does this have anything actually to do with heaven, or symbolism or morals around it? Nope, it just sounds cool.

Oh, and let's not forget characters standing ramrod-still dramatically for long periods of time, rather than in any greta meaningful way. Because it's cool to see people standing still, looking important, but of course not actually DOING anything.

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Originally Posted by Gatack

That's absurd. And avoiding death or any kind of actual danger is better?
The dead children and suicide aspects of the porcupine grongi arc you're referring to never felt forced to be mature and edgy. They were there to progress the story. The always optimistic and happy hero was affected by those horrible events and he raged with power when he finally was able to get his hands on the killer. The rage and power gave us a foreshadowing of Ultimate form, presenting the plot point of wether Kuuga's power was good or evil.

Something easily acheivable without dead kids and suicide.