[Kamen Rider Die]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Which is fair enough. I mean, just the fact that your example of a way Ghost could've done something better is also from Ghost is good enough for me. As someone who loves Ghost with the same kind of fervor as people who hate it, I'm still insanely appreciative of your ability to be critical of what you felt didn't work in it without denying the parts you felt did.

Aw, thanks. I'm not sure how anyone can look at a year's worth of content and declare it all bad. I feel like there's always some fun elements, some hidden gems, and it's worth calling those out even when you feel like the rest is making some dumb/bad/Shunpei choices.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

Nothing wrong to me too for more collectibles like Shift Cars (as a car enthusiast, Gaia Memory, Gashat, etc. What I dislike is doing them badly like underutilizing the diverse powersets provided by the collectibles (well, all the Rider powers are provided by the collectibles, so more collectibles = more power) which means just bring up that collectible to use once, then never use it again, especially for more advanced forms that has cool combinations like Fourze Cosmic States.

Yeah, you're right, it's a problem with those shows that have dozens of collectibles. Like, I don't think Ex-Aid had a problem since (if I remember right) there were a smaller number of Gashats, and they tended to be grouped with specific characters. Ghost, yeah, it didn't feel to me like they brought back enough Eyecons in big, important ways, and Drive definitely had a similar problem with underutilizing Shift Cars. It seems like if a show can keep the number of in-show collectibles to under a dozen, it's a lot easier for them to all feel vital, instead of, like, pieces of gum that immediately lose their flavor.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DreadBringer

More like that for KR formula, the primary Rider should be the goody-two-shoes, the secondary one is more free and commonly filled with darker, grim, more anti-heroic character, even if the secondary is more interesting and fleshed out. Well, there are series that doesn't follow this like Kabuto or Faiz (Tendou and Takumi are jerks), but most do.

I don't know, I'm okay with there being differences between the primary and secondary Riders (it's a necessity!), but I think it's cool when the shows play around with it. I think Fourze and W had fun with a serious, intense secondary Rider and a goofier primary Rider, and got some fun stuff out of the dichotomy.

The Makoto thing, it's just that, to me, his goal seemed more immediate and personal, while Takeru's seemed less so. I realize I'm suggesting that Takeru not wanting to disappear seemed impersonal and inconsequential, and a lot of that was down to how the show portrayed Takeru in those early episodes. With Makoto, I got what he was fighting for and I could see the lengths he'd go to. It wasn't that him being darker and tortured was inherently more interesting (not generally my type, when it comes to Riders), it was that there was a clarity to his actions and an energy to the performance that really popped in those early days.

Honestly, I think my favorite secondary Riders are the total weirdos and goofballs. Beast and Birth are two of my favorite Kamen Riders and they are thoroughly weird and incredibly genial. Like, Ex-Aid's awesome for having a group of secondary Riders whose wiki subcategory could just be A Group Of Assholes. They're variously guilt-ridden and vengeful, but it's mostly that they're pricks? I don't know. I find it hard to take Dark, Serious Riders seriously, so any show that wants to play around with that type gets me excited. It's maybe a testament to either how terrific the Makoto story was or how little I enjoyed the start of the Takeru story that Specter was my favorite thing about those episodes.