[Locke]

I am watching through Agito for the first time as well. I am about 10 episodes in. I am shocked by how much I am enjoying it, as I remember not liking Kuuga much at all, but I think I am a very different person compared to the me who was watching these shows 10+ years ago.

I am also watching Amazons as well, and wanted to wait until I finished the first season to drag my thoughts together, but Amazons feels like the antidote to modern Rider, and Agito is a reminder of how things used to be, and don't get me wrong I don't universally hate modern Rider, I was just in here being positive about Gavv and Zeztz latest arc, but it does feel like there was a real shift in the last decade or so in turning Rider into a set of loud jangling keys, as CG bullshit is ADHD'd into the audiences face, with the barest of plots bolted around them, and it makes me weirdly nostalgic for early 00s Rider, and shows that riff on those vibes, even though I actually didn't really live through it to have that traditional nostalgia.

I will say I do feel with a lot of these early shows, you watch 15+ minutes of drama which exists almost regardless of the Riders in the show, and then in the couple of minutes episode wrap up the Rider will run in and destroy the monster. I vaguely remember all those years ago having a real issue with that in Faiz especially, but my vague memory also suggests to me I didn’t particularly like what was going on outside of the Rider stuff, so I effectively sat through a bunch of drama I didn’t care about to get a cool fight at the end, and it just didn’t balance for me.

I say allathat, cause while Agito does have that same sort of episode balance, at least so far, when Agito isn’t slowly spinning on the spot before the monster randomly explodes and when Agito isn’t dealing with its own contrived character drama, a lot of Agito so far just sorta feels like some sort of obscure J-Horror you would have been tape traded in the 90s, and I mean that in the best possible of ways.

It also faces head on the consequences of the conflict, the weight on the shoulders of the characters and the human cost of the regular people caught in the middle, in a way later Rider series don’t seem to be allowed to do, at least not as directly.

I will say a big part of the unsettling vibe might actually be unintentional, and that is around the acting. Takes often feel like they run a little too long, performances are often stiff, with odd, unnaturally paced, conversations where it feels much more like actors reading lines than a real interaction. I think for the most part it adds to the overall strangeness of the package in a positive way, but I am also less sensitive to weaker acting when there is a language barrier between us, and I think I’d have had a harder time finding a positive if this was an English drama, being honest. Plus, even if this is intended, like I dunno if that is a good thing? Act bad so we can increase how odd this feels? Like why not just have good acting and achieve this feel through the filmmaking?

I also want to say that while it is quite dated in terms of the special effects and clunkiness of the action, I do really like the monster designs. They do look a bit like Halloween costumes when they zoom in, but when they aren’t in close up, I think they look actually a lot better than many modern monster designs where look like massive foam mascot suits the actors can seemingly barely move in. I like how they also either animate or move the eyes and mouths too, making it more convincing as a biological creature rather than a big rubber sock.

And what the fight scenes may lack in polished choreography or flashy special effects, they make up for in other ways, like how full of atmosphere and vibes all the fights are. A lot of modern Rider action is obviously a lot more polished than what they do here, but is also constructed in a way that is far more functional than intentional. It is why I have been really impressed with the action in Zeztz, even during the weaker portions of the show for me, because it feels like they tell and advance the story though the action, it isn't just the toy advert they are mandated to include, and I don't feel like I have really felt that about a modern Rider show in a while.

The way the creative team light the Agito action scenes, frame them, even down to the locations they pick, it just feels like poetry in motion, which would probably feel crazy to say to anyone on the outside given its just a guy rolling about on the floor with a dude in an octopus mask.

I also think the scrappiness of the action actually sorta works in the context too, with there being this physicality and violence and immediacy to the fights, which I just think fits better for this story than if everyone was flying around shooting laser beams at one another.