[Kurona]

I do have to add that, yeah, for me the horn -makes- Kabuto. Admittedly for me american-styled superheroes have never been a massive part of my childhood, and in my life in general I only ever had a brief fixation on the MCU... and instead my aesthetics I think were mostly informed by things like Transformers. I think I've just always liked that robotic look to some degree, so Kabuto and Riders in general are just awesome to me when they have this kind of thing. Funny thing is, that whole preference for "when it looks more like a head and there's a small thing stuck on"? I'm realising that kinda sums up my top favourite main rider designs! Den-O, Kuuga, Build; and my absolute favourite Ghost all fit that description.

Best part though? ... I find Kabuto's body design to be a lot weaker and is why I go back and forth so much on how much I like Kabuto's design in general. The head is perfection in my eyes, but the body I'm always hovering between "nice and sleek; fantastic simplicity" and "this is kinda meh". I think it's probably those lines on the black parts of the legs? It's hard to argue against them because at this point I've just internalised them as a core part of the Kabuto Riders' aesthetic, but I do wonder if I'd like the Kabuto design more if those lines just weren't there and hence there were less strange details in the way of his nigh-perfect simplicity. I've got a lot of thoughts on the topic of lines on riders' legs!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Honestly, the big horn and the wings are the only things I'm particularly fond of when it comes to Hyper Kabuto? I appreciate how straightforward it is as an upgrade, but when it's not all opened up, the horn is the only part that leaves any real impression on me. It's kind of in this weird zone where I think it fits the series perfectly and wouldn't want it any other way, and yet I've never really fallen in love with it.

Though I guess now I'm gonna look like a hypocrite, because while I agree about not being too impressed by 'masked' Hyper Kabuto aside from the head and wings... dude, that's all you need! It's like saying the Gokaigers only really stick out as designs because of their fantastic helmet design, but at some point, yeah; that does just make the design and you need little more than that! Hyper Kabuto's recently grown on me a LOT just through the strength of its most prominent elements.