[ryan]

Man, I love this show.

It's been about a year since I watched it with my wife, and while I've highly enjoyed the other Rider shows I've seen since, this was my first and holds a special place in my heart. I decided last week to try to watch it again to participate in these threads, and so far, it's been great.

I love Double's design, and most of the key Dopant designs, like Nasca, he's awesome looking, and of course, Kirikho is a great character. I enjoy the way he's been disgraced and is trying to make up for that, the excited way he tells Saeko about the developments with the Virus Memory, but I also like how dismissive of it she is.

Now, granted I'm way, way behind on Fourze, only about episode 15-ish, but since that and Kabuto are the shows I've watched the most recently, I'll do some comparing/contrasting to those. In Fourze I never got the feeling that there was really any negative effects to using a switch, but here, in these episodes in particular, I think, we see the danger of using the Gaia Memory.
I like that whenever she manifests herself to anyone, Sachi looks like a zombie, she's becoming a monster, even in her own mind, as she pursues vengeance against those that wronged her.

Also, we see some of the qualities that really make me respect Shotaro. Because I totally agreed with Philip, that Cross is trash and not worth saving, but Shotaro is going to save him anyway, because he loves the Fuuto, and even trash like Cross and the fiance need to be saved. He's a real hero, in a way I don't think I could be.

And then he ends the episode by punching the jerk fiance, saying it's from Sachi. He is my favorite of all the Rider characters.