[Locke]

So I've began to Final Directors Cut episode of OOO. And w-wait...was that...a satisfying conclusion to a Kamen Rider series?!

The show fucking did it, the show made me care about Ankh. Not only did Ankh have character development, but it finally made sense of why Ankh meant so much to Eiji, it was never about some kind of bromance, it was about what Ankh gave Eiji the power to do.

Plus his complete form is cool and seeing him fight side by side with Eiji was pretty satisfying after he had to grapple with his own fragility throughout the series. And although the homosexual overtones are slightly distracting, them becoming one was extremely satisfying as well.

Uva had a great episode as well, his complete form was subtle, but not as bland as Mezul's or just down right shit like Cazali's, plus at least he did some damage unlike Mezul or Gamel. And although the fight was brief, his clash with the Super Cell Eiji was fucking awesome. I also liked that although he knew he would go out of control on Core medals, he was never satisfied, constantly shouting he could take more even when he knew he couldn't. Gluttony would have been a better name for these things.

I was also really impressed by the climactic action sequence, Fourze and Kuuga felt like they ended more on an anti-climax than any kind of climax, so the fact that not only was this a climax in the first place, it was as big and epic as any movie climax and that is awesome.

Overall OOO wasn't bad but my main criticism with OOO is that none of it really seemed to have been...thought out.

The mythology in the first fifteen or so episodes is so garbled and eventually contradicted to such an extent that you may as well skip those episodes entirely, and if you think 'wait, what about the Combos introduced there?' well don't worry about that, the combos are crucial to the show for the first half granted but as soon as MMPR Eiji happens they're basically reduced to useless cameos, some forms are barely used and the ones that are used the most still only get about three proper fights. Hell some of the individual medals are barely used let alone the combos. And people complain about all of Kuuga's forms!

Then of course are the Greed themselves, you would assume that a larger number of enemies will mean you can bring them into the fray earlier and still have something left for the finale but NOPE, they all do nothing for about forty five episodes and then spend five episodes dying. I think they may well be some of the worst Toku villains ever.

However, it's also...kinda hard to hate this series. Whereas Ichijou kept me going through Kuuga and made it bearable, having so many awesome characters in this - pretty much everyone was enjoyable in this minus the Greed - with some brilliant character focus and pacing, being a huge fan of great characters and the fact that they were so near flawlessly realised was a huge plus for me, especially as most Kamen Rider I have experienced so far has had much bigger casts than they can handle, reducing a majority of the characters as so flat and uninteresting there isn't even enough to them to even dislike them, so the fact this show handles characters so fucking well is especially impressive. I just wish they hadn't bothered with the Full Medal Alchemist bollocks and just made it a character drama, it would have suited the writers so much better.

Plus, Kuuga really taught me to not take Toku action for granted, and so it was pleasant just how good our main Riders were and how well made the action sequences were.

So overall, yeah if you're a big character fan, who actually wants a Rider series with a satisfying ending then this is pretty much the perfect show for you.

Is that Shogun movie any good?