[Tokumonkey]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Am I coming off too bitter?

"Bitter," yes, but "too" is subjective. I read through your Gaim mega-post, and I understand where you're coming from. I don't feel that Gaim was a perfect show, but it's the best Kamen Rider series I've seen.

A component of what I felt worked in Gaim was structural: they put together a many-Riders series and executed it much better than Ryuki did. There was less need for filler than in a two-Rider series like Wizard. Obviously, you don't need many Riders for a quality series, but it's a promising sign. Rider series sell toys, and Ex-Aid may not need to spend as much time on swappable tires or hoodies when it's busy introducing a zillion Riders and their inevitable misunderstandings.

Gaim was also ambitious. You and I disagree to some extent on how successful it was in fulfilling those ambitions, but given the show's initial, clearly deliberate attempts to ape elements of Gaim's structure, I gather folks are feeling optimistic that it might try to copy some elements of that show's ambition. This, I think, is unknowable: Ex-Aid appears to have a fruity exterior, but we don't really know what lies beneath the peel.

(By similarities, I'm talking about the on-its-face goofy theme, the collectible gimmick, the so-far-individual weapons for the Riders, the multiple-Rider-at-the-outset structure. The only thing it's missing is directly swappable armor. I expect the similarities are deliberate, but they could be just trying to replicate the success of Gaim's toy lines, rather than its atypical tone.)

Anyway, I don't think you're wrong for feeling the way you do about Gaim, even though we disagree on its overall quality, so I can understand how Ex-Aid's surface similarities might make you a little nervous.

Also, IIRC, didn't you kinda love Gaim before certain specifics of its execution radically altered your opinion? Your concern, then, would be less about overall quality of individual episodes, and more about whether the season successfully lived up its potential as a coherent narrative, wouldn't it? If so, I don't think there's any way to guess whether you'll be similarly disappointed with Ex-Aid. (For my part, I think Kamen Rider series very rarely live up to their full potential, but I tend to enjoy the ride anyway. Like, I thought Drive ended surprisingly strongly, but I also feel it mostly wasted the story potential in its moral ambiguity. I would've been way happier if Drive had ultimately rescued/redeemed the Roidmude rather than killing them.)