[Matrixbeast]

Finished Zi-O, including the films and Geiz Majesty. Still haven't watched all of Shinobi, but I'll get around to it.

Wow, that certainly was...A show. I really, really had a hard time getting into it because it just didn't click properly. Sougo finally seems to be growing up some, but then "Nawh I wanna be king again" the next episode. Geiz seems to have his sense of resolve, then suddenly "Oh yeah I'm supposed to be mean to Sougo." Tsukuyomi is consistent if only because she had so little to do in the first half that they couldn't really teeter back and forth on her. Woz is just a whole can of worms.

I can see where the criticism of Geiz being inconsistent comes from. Even marathoning the series, there are moments where Geiz just folds to one side or the other far too easily. Seriously, "I'm the one who will defeat him" can only be used as an excuse to stay on X's side so many times, bro...

Anyway, Sougo...Tendou says the world revolves around him, but for Sougo, it truly does. I am glad they did point out that it was Swartz's plan all along for Sougo to basically win, so I guess I can't complain too much, but some things happened far too conveniently, most notably in Another Zi-O's defeats basically hinging on Sougo getting more powers. Hell, what if Sougo couldn't defeat Another Ryuga? What was Swartz gonna do then?
Puppet masters with contingency plans on top of contingency plans tend to lead to the question of "How could you even lose?" then...

I'm particularly glad they dropped the amnesia/history wiping thing from the first half. Since it made for such confusing story telling that it honestly hurt my head. It was just such an awful idea requiring so many loops in logic that it muddled the story.

Anyway, one thing I did enjoy was the returning characters. Returning riders is always nice, but something that brought a much larger smile was the returning supporting cast. I never would've expected characters like Mana, Omuro, Amane, or Hina to come back. And even if we couldn't get the main rider, they still chose some great returning members like Todoroki, Kagami, and Jiro to help keep the show really feel like a big anniversary. It helped really enforce that it's more than just the suits that makes this franchise so great.

That said, some tributes were far better than others. Kuuga had no returning characters to my knowledge, which was disappointing. Ichijou would've been an awesome character to return. Hibiki only had Todoroki and Kiriya, which I wouldn't have minded except that Kiriya became Hibiki. That's not really how that works, and I still hate him. Double didn't even get a tribute aside from Accel showing up in the Geiz movie, and Drive's tribute was kind of shit, with only the Paradox Roidmude showing up (Though Mach does appear in the film, at least). I know it was cool that Jiro showed up, but the Kiva tribute was also lacking, with him having basically nothing to do with the plot beyond spouting some melodramatic love nonsense then giving him the Kiva ridewatch.

So much of Zi-O I felt was wasted potential. There were parts I liked, don't get me wrong, but ultimately, I felt myself watching it with only marginal interest.

A ridewatch gimmick for every main rider and some additional characters?
Only about 6 Armor Times are ever used (Maybe 10 including the Decade forms)
The idea of undocumented Riders from the future coming to the past?
Most of them have borderline no characterization (Shinobi does get his own 3 part miniseries, at least), and only exist for Woz power ups.
The endgame featuring worlds merging and timelines being erased?
Basically just bad guys being dicks before it's all undone, instead of anything substantial.
A time travel plot?
Den-O has no screen time and Decade is a main character.
Fuck you, Decade.

Honestly, that about sums up my thoughts on Zi-O.
Fuck you, Decade.