[Switchblade]

Black is one of my all-time favorite Rider shows. I usually put it second behind Hibiki, in fact. It really is an amazing show and a great distillation of everything that makes Showa Rider good. Black RX, meanwhile, is definitely an underrated gem. It gets a lot of undue hate for not being Black, but in a lot of ways it's just as good (and in some ways even better).

I totally agree about RX and its more serialized story. Black really only stopped being episodic near the very end; RX had a lot more compelling story arcs. I'll admit that I didn't feel the show a lot at first, but the episodes where Kotaro goes into the Demon World and gets his new forms really won me over. I almost want to say I liked RX's villains more, too. The Gorgom priests are iconic, but the Crisis generals felt a lot more developed as individual characters.

In terms of the monsters, both shows have the same designer: Keita Amemiya. Yeah, the Garo guy. If you really liked the monster suits, especially the ones from Black RX, I recommend checking out Metalder, which is another show he did the designs for that had the same multiple enemy group concept as RX.