[Spiteface]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

I was actually surprised by how much it was still the same but it really does lose a lot of the flavor. The upside is that the last episode before the switch in writers (among other things), 29, is a great done-in-one episode all about Asumu. It really felt like the show's way of saying farewell before everything goes to crap.

I actually held out for about 6 or 7 episodes afterwards before in the middle of the one I was watching the thought just sort of hit me that "wow, this show is kind of terrible now". Considering how positive I am about Kamen Rider, that's kind of a big deal. I think there are redeeming qualities to the retool but it has the fatal flaw of not being Hibiki.

This. I didn't think the Hibiki retool was a huge nosedive and I stuck through it till the end, but yeah, if you liked what Hibiki was for 29 episodes it's disappointing to see the things that made it special either go away or be downplayed so much.

And the final battle is an even bigger cop out than not getting to see Ultimate Kuuga use his Rider Kick. For the record, I actually kinda appreciate Kuuga's final two episodes more in hindsight and plan a Kuuga rewatch.

Also, if you're familiar at all with Heisei Kamen Rider, you can totally tell Toshiki Inoue took over the writing at the exact moment Kiriya becomes a character in the show.

Started a Black RX rewatch this week. I remember after seeing Black and Black RX the first time round, I somehow ended up liking Black RX more. Earlier this year I rewatched Black on account of getting hold of it in HD from the Bluray releases, and I adored everything about it. So I thought I'd see the sequel again... I'm not liking it as much. On one level it's nice to see things get better for Kotaro after everything he went through, but also jarring.