[MarsHottentot]

Doin' Decade and, really, I'm not seeing how this is worse than most "bad" Rider shows. I get that people don't like the radical and quite often ridiculous AU versions of the Heisei and that the plot is paper thin as to allow for all of the attendant hijinx but, really? This is just fun.

Conceptually, I love it - it's Kamen Rider as a Dr. Who / Quantum Leap hybrid. While Tsukasa feels almost exactly like Tendou from Kabuto (not as handsome but, who is?), his travel mates in "I'm Kuuga, okay?" Yusuke and "Mars gets weak for a girl in knee high socks" Natsumi fill in all of his missed notes.

Not every revision works - Kiva still sucks, Ryuki is just completely insane, Kabuto's doesn't bother to make sense - but, when they do, it's pretty great. I really liked Blade's absurd corporate structure, Hibiki's world was pretty funny*, Agito's arc was great, the Shinkenger crossover was better than I expected and DiEnd's appropriation of the Blade movie Riders was awesome.

Sure, two-parters never allow anything too deep but it also never allows bad ideas to drag on too long. I really like Decade and DiEnd as Riders and their gimmicks are suitably wild (especially DiEnd's Final Ride).

I haven't quite finished it yet, maybe it bombs in the final ten episode stretch but, after Kiva, which is almost indefensibly bad and Faiz, which is sloppy as hell, this kind of easy fun is just what I needed.

*Interesting that, despite the perception that many of the Hibiki cast were disgusted with how it turned out, most of the cast reprise their roles here - unlike most of the other series actors.