[Another Die]

Hello! I’ve decided to shamelessly steal from ‘another’ user of the forum; Kamen Rider Die. I’ve asked them about it, and got permission to borrow their style. I’ve stolen their name, and now I’m slowly distorting it into something not quite as good or cool as the original (much like the Another Riders from Zi-O). Please no Spoilers for anything other than W, OOOs, Ghost, Ex-Aid and Build!

Background

(TL;DR for background: only been into Sentai and Kamen Rider for something like a year and a half, and I want to watch and retrospect/review the Heisei Era in order, before moving to Zero-One and beyond. Skip down below to my pre-show knowledge and predictions)

Quick background for me; I grew up on Power Rangers, and have been watching it pretty much as long as I can remember (apart from Overdrive-SuperMegaforce. Dropped off after the first episode of Overdrive and tried again during Megaforce and wasn’t impressed. It wasn’t until the movie and Dino Charge that brought me back). After rediscovering PR, I decided “Hey, lets try this Super Sentai thing!” I attempted a couple different seasons but didn’t find one that clicked until I tried the currently airing season (at the time) Lupin VS Patrol. I was hooked. While this was happening, I saw that a lot of people subbing the sentai were dubbing Kamen Rider. I remembered Masked Rider as a kid (I’d watched all of the Saban Toku as a kid, and I’m still waiting for my Masked Rider and Mystic Knights DVD sets D and wanted to find something fun to watch while waiting on new sentai episodes. Just like Sentai, I tried a couple early Heisei shows until I saw a picture of Ex-Aid and was like “Weird video game characters? I gotta try this one!”

And I was immediately hooked. I binged through it, and immediately started on Build (which was airing at the time). I’ve watched Ex-Aid, Build, W, OOOs, and Ghost in that order. And now that the new era of Kamen Rider has begun, I want go back to the beginning of Heisei and start my journey through the whole series as it was made, before I jump into the Rewai Era or Zero-One and Beyond.

Knowledge and Predictions

So I know a few things about Kuuga. Or at least, I think I do? I try not to do too much research before watching a series so I can go in fresh and spoiler free, but that doesn’t always happen.
I know it was the first of a new attempt at revitalizing Kamen Rider, and the first series to air in 12-13 years, after Black RX, and it started a ‘Renaissance’ of Rider.
Apparently the lead actor hated/hates Toku, and only did it because it was going to be different than usual. He has yet to come back in any form for later shows/movies. That’s either because he still hates Toku, or he has a feud with someone from Toei.
The last fact I (think) I know is that Kuuga is the only Heisei series with one Rider. Not sure if that’s true, but I’m interested in that dynamic; all the shows I’ve watched have had multiple heroes.

Predictions: Its an early show, so I feel like it’s going to have a much darker feel to it than some of the later shows. An ancient evil? If I read a synopsis or teaser of the show, I don’t remember it, so I going in almost completely blind.

I haven’t decided if I’m going to write about each episode individually, or in small batches. I’m definitely going to comment on the first episode by itself, but we’ll see where we go from there. Hopefully you’ll enjoy going on this journey with me! I’ll either update this post or add a new one with at least the first episode today.