[Kurona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

Literally the worst part about getting geared up for a new Kamen Rider series is downloading all of this stuff, and then having to go to the Wiki to figure out, hopefully without spoiling anything, where each bit of media fits in. Drive nearly killed me, because Sangou and Yongou and the Sentai crossover all happen between two goddamn episodes. A lot of my prep for a new Kamen Rider series feels like putting together a jigsaw puzzle from the reverse side.

This is definitely painful, though I will tell you right now to make your life that much easier, at least with the few post-Decade series you have left? Do not bother in the slightest with every single HBV and big crossover stuff in terms of where they fit in. During your watching of a series, only concern yourself with where the crossover movie goes and where the big summer movie goes. Only those will have any real relevance to following and understanding the series - hell, many of them don't even have that - and the rest you can just leave until after. Also, since you're going to be caught up relatively soon considering the rate you're watching this stuff? Fun fact: we in the west don't get the movies when they come out. We have to wait for months until the DVD is released and then probably an extra week for subbers to complete it and put it out. So if Zero-One's movies end up being really plot-relevant well, um, what can I say but fuck. I can only imagine the hell people who were watching Den-O when it was airing went through...

I'll also be glad to tell you that for the most part, Kuuga through Decade you can leave all their stuff until the end. The only exceptions are Agito, Den-O and Decade -- Agito has a special that introduces his final form between episodes 35 and 36; Den-O is the series that by far hinges on the movie being part of its continuity and said movie (I'm Born) takes place between episodes 27 and 28; and Decade... also has its movie be kinda relevant, sort of, maybe? I mean it'd be weird to watch it after the end of the series in this case for reasons. Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker takes place before the final 2-parter of the series; between episodes 29 and 30.

The rest of the pre-W series movies are either very staunchly AU stuff, a side thing like Agito's, or in Den-O's case they got like 7 post-series movies because they became a cultural phenomenon. A fair few of them also had HBV stuff, but once again: please, please, please do not bother with trying to fit every little bit of those into the continuity of your watchthrough and just leave them as fun things to watch at the end. Honestly to this day I still haven't watched the HBVs of Agito, Kabuto, Den-O and Kiva, and I only watched Decade's the other day.





... so! With all the continuity rubbish out the way, my problem with Akari is the problem I have with a lot of scientist side-characters in shows like this that deal with supernatural elements -- when faced with undeniable truth that supernatural things do exist, they instantly say "that's unscientific", and rather than that be a dumb flaw they have to get over, they just keep saying it. That just really gets to me because it's treating science like some sort of religious scripture; this unchanging truth which must be adhered to and doesn't ever alter. But science is very much a reactionary thing; if new proof is offered that disproves what we previously knew, then we have to change that and have to come up with new hypotheses and such for why these things exist. Ghosts exist now, Akari; it's your goddamn job to explain how they exist and why; not keep droning on about how it's "unscientific" until the end of the series. The only reason ghosts and ghouls are unscientific is because there is of course no conclusive proof in the real world that they exist; but you're staring at ghosts every day! You saw a giant portal explode in the sky! YOU'RE TALKING TO YOUR DEAD FRIEND!

Admittedly that's kind of a nitpick, but... it's one of those little things that gets to me. Otherwise I actually like her enough.