[zenstrive]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

We might've been? I was actually one of the people going nuts for it at first, but for whatever reason I lost interest in posting regularly around here toward the middle of Gaim, and aside from the occasional anecdote I didn't really come back until during Ghost. During that period I went from loving Gaim to hating it by the time it ended as the flaws became more and more apparent to me, and while I've mellowed back out since, my feelings toward it are still very mixed.

Drive was like falling in love with Kamen Rider all over again for me. I loved it from episode 1 and it only got better as it went along. The back-to-basics "hero fights monsters" style was just what I needed, and it didn't get stale thanks to the strong characterization and chemistry of the central cast and the more complex plotting in the back half. Obviously I can't claim to know your tastes, but I'd absolutely recommend diving deeper into it.

Drive supposes to be the start of KR series evolution toward more rigid and cohesive series, but it still has the taste of silliness previous series before it has. Also I think this is the time the powers that be in TOEI realizes the potential of adult viewers of the series.

Gaim was succesful story wise, but I don't think it was succesful merchandise wise?

Then we have Ghost, and TOEI being seduced by Amazon. So they pretty much abandon Ghost and focus on Amazons making Ghost utterly soulless right from the get go.

But Ex-Aid shows that TOEI can focus again and pretty much at this point their guidelines are at follows: the story can be more mature and serious, but the toys stay silly. So pretty much at this point, the drivers and weapons are human made like the one we have on GAIM, made by silly people so that the drivers and weapons can be toylike. The story can be serious as long as no one is shown brutally murdered and the funny can balance the seriousness. With Ex-Aid, they finally know the formula of "funny serious." that people love. And they implement that again in Build. But in build, it is amped up by some more serious cinematography and screenwriting.

But I have a feeling taht Build now is in danger of falling into slippery slop of catering too much to the toy sellings. The fast wrap up of the mistery of Katsuragi's death, the inexplicably sweep out of the prime minister, and the sudden start of war, only to introduce the schlush driver users is a bad sign.