[Kiwami]

I’ve watched the first 13 episodes of Kabuto and I enjoy it. Tendou is not easily likable, but I enjoy the character just because of what a huge dick he is most of the time, even when he does something nice.

The setup is interesting although the Worm isn’t really identifiable or interesting as an enemy since they just act like monsters. Monsters which could work very well in horror movie to be fair, and that’s what I like about them. Their designs aren’t too corny and they are a considerable threat to anyone without a Zecter, even the larva ones.

But then there’s Zect, and even if they battle the Worm they seem to be the real enemies here, as they don’t hesitate to eliminate people who are in their way, sacrifice innocents for their benefit or manipulate the media. So yeah, I’m definitely interested to see what’s going on with this.

And having the destroyed city of Shibuya as a tie between the characters is kinda nice, especially now Hiyori remembers someone wearing a Rider belt during the commotion.

Kagami is a likable little goofball, and I’m surprised how much development he already got. There’s the thing with his brother, his struggles with Zect and his short-lived identity as TheBee. He’s definitely the character people can easily identify and struggle with and I like that. And yes, I know he gets his own Zecter later on and I do look forward to that.

What I probably like most about Kabuto so far are the suits and the action scenes. The suits are downright gorgeous; I love how techy they are yet feature distinctive insect characteristics. I love how they start in a pupated form and hatch out of it to combat advanced worms. The suits hit all the buttons for me; I love all of them so far.

With the action scenes, they are well done even though the CG is really horrible most of the time. But the show is rather old now, so it can’t be helped. And it’s not like CG got any better in Rider anyways, it’s always horrible. But the way they use the Clock Up in beautiful environments is really cool. Making the rain stop in mid air or have cherry blossoms stop their fall from the trees. Very nice to look at, even with the terrible CG.

So I definitely keep watching.