[Kamen Rider Die]

Hi.

My name is Kamen Rider Die, and I'm going to be watching Masked Rider Kuuga and writing about the experience. Maybe that's something you'd be interested in?

Some background, first. I'm relatively new to the Kamen Rider franchise, having started with Ex-Aid back in March of 2018. Since then, I've made my way through the following series:

EX-AID (my first Rider show, love the designs, love how all of the main Riders at best tolerate each other)
AMAZONS (great first season, weird second season, terrible movie)
W (maybe the best main Rider, terrific theme song, sort-of falls apart in the last stretch)
OOO (favorite series, not the best at anything but good at everything)
FOURZE (best ensemble, maybe the best first 12 episodes, don't love the suits)
WIZARD (favorite suit, show just had a ton of problems for me)
GAIM (propulsive storyline, fun character development, great cast, don't love the suits)
DRIVE (best theme song, fun mysteries, all-around excellent, except maybe the middle doesn't work super great)
GHOST (better than you've heard, not as good as you'd hope, I talk a ton about it here)
BUILD (great first third, killer middle third, up-and-down final third, I talk a ton about it here)

...aaaaaand that brings me to the present. I should technically watch Zi-O next, but I really wanted to do the rest of the Heisei Riders before I close the era off with Zi-O. So, Kuuga.

I don't know really anything about Kuuga! This will all be totally fresh to me. As such, please please please don't post spoilers. I'd love to experience this as fresh as possible, which means please don't even hint at upcoming stuff. Also, please don't mention stuff from Agito through Decade or Zi-O, since I'm planning on watching those in the future and I'd really like to not expect things! That said, anything from W through Build I'm going to consider fair game, so if you haven't watched those shows, uh, maybe you might want to do that first? This thread will be here when you're done!

Speaking of this thread, if you've not seen me talk about Kamen Riders before, maybe a little warning. I will be taking Kuuga both very seriously (I like examining themes, looking for emotional throughlines, and treating these shows as art) and completely not seriously (these are shows designed to sell toys to Japanese children, and as a Transformers fan I understand that often any narrative success is a happy accident). I will make up dumb names for characters. I will maybe forget to talk about new suits to dwell on a small moment of character growth. I am going to vent, I am going to criticize, I am going to cheer, I am going to praise. I have a lot of thoughts about Kamen Riders, it's why I'm here, and I need to get them out of my head. This is hopefully going to be a fun ride for everyone, but that means you'll need to make sure you're strapped in.

I love when folks participate, so please chime in if you've got thoughts on these episodes or responses to what I'm saying about them. Just, yeah, no spoilers, thanks!

That's all of the warnings out of the way, I think. Let's watch MASKED RIDER KUUGA! SOME FEAR! PROBABLY SOME PAIN!