[Kamen Rider Lucha]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

Well, I suppose it's fair to preface it by saying:-
A) With the exception of Shinkenger, most of Abaranger and about ten episodes of Goranger; I've only actually seen Gokaiger onwards as far as Sentai is concerned
B) It's mostly Quval. Kuvar? Cubald? Quball? This guy's name is translated a million different ways

But, yeah, Quval's characterisation late-game is what got me the most. I adored how much it paralleled the Zyuohger's own would-be situation in the event of Ginis winning: he's a guy whose entire planet got destroyed and it drove him completely mad, wanting to kill Ginis by any means possible. There's just... I admit it was a while ago so it's hard for me to really go into, and I was a different person back in 2017; but something about the way Quval's story and actions late-game were presented was so tragic and compelling to me and was so strong that I wanted him at every point to join the Zyuohgers. There's a lot to be said, I think, for a villain who turns out to have the exact same goals and enemies as the protagonists but without any of the same temperament or morals that make our heroes heroes.
Also? His design fucking rocks. It's still outstanding to me among most Tokusatsu suits; it looks so much more real and the robotics in that helmet really sold me. Extremely memorable.

Aside from that? It was a great set-up and ensemble. I really liked how foreboding and grim and inevitable Ginis felt -- he wasn't active, he wasn't taking the field, but that's because he didn't care for conquering at all; everything was simply a game where if things didn't interest him he'd just incinerate the board and move on elsewhere. At the time especially it felt really fresh to me as a great explanation for the formula of "one monster at a time that only grows bigger later" - a formula that I'm a bit more fine and accepting of these days, but one whose justification here still made things more interesting. Beyond that I love Quval and Azald's constant bickering and competition with each other; and while Quval's late-game reveal was my favourite, I think both Ginis and Azald's have so much meaning behind them and kept things super interesting. Beyond that what they did with Zyuoh The World was more Kamen Rider than most modern Kamen Riders, and Bangray decided to show up halfway through the season to be a bunch of fun if you weren't into "the villains don't directly engage the heroes". I felt every decision made with them was very intentional and very fitting for who they were and what the series was. Just super memorable to me!

That’s all very fair! I think the elements you noted about Quval didn’t hit quite as hard for me because I’ve seen Sentai do the sympathetic villain much better in earlier seasons. But since you don’t have that background, I can totally see why Quval resonated more with you than it did with me.

That said, I thought Ginis was frustratingly inactive and detached from beginning to end. I thought that detachment was intriguing at first but it became apparent as the show went on that detachment was all he had to offer.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

The rest I agree with as well as the overall thrust of your post, but... 'beloved' is quite a thing to say about Amazons and Changerion!

Lol... has fandom turned on Amazons while I wasn’t looking?

I think Changerion is pretty well regarded by most who’ve watched it, no?