[DreamSword]

Total sidenote, I was listening to this as I read those last couple posts, and felt it was extraordinarily fitting.

Anyway Fish, I gotta say, your passion really shined through this entire thread. Even with my god awful attention span, I found myself easily being to read through all of your posts no problem. And they even helped reinforce and remind me as to why I love Kuuga as a show so much.

For me personally, Kuuga is a show that I owe alot to. If not for it, I actually would've never even gotten into Kamen Rider or a larger selection of Japanese Toku as a whole. Before it, all I ever watched were the American side of things, and in terms of Kamen Rider the only ones I'd seen were Saban's Masked Rider and Kamen Rider Dragon Knight, neither of which I liked very much.

As such, my view on Kamen Rider had been pretty soured. But, a friend who'd been a fan of KR long before I convinced me to give the series one final chance; And by sheer random chance I just kinda chose Kuuga as the show to watch. And holy HELL was it a lucky payoff. Never before had I seen a Toku show like this--hell-a show like this period. Kuuga destroyed my expectations in literally every way.

The story, the style, the music, the direction, the gore, the effects, the characters, and most importantly, the atmosphere, were all things I never expected out of a show like this. And every episode had me totally drawn in. And in alot of ways it reminded me of another of my all time favorite shows: Android Kikaider: The Animation. Perhaps if I somehow am ever able to find my own voice I'll make a thread on that someday. Regardless, no other Rider show has ever managed to match up, and it's definitely one of my all time favorites.

As for the episodes themselves, you said just about everything I could've said and more. But one thing I definitely want to touch on is that final battle. I've heard alot of mixed opinions on it over the years, but, and I hate saying this, I really do, but the people who complain about it not being some bombastic clash of titans are totally missing the entire point of it. There's many reasons both Daguva and Yusuke are reduced down to their human states here. And one of those is showing and calling into question the state of each characters morals and humanity. Even as he's being beaten to death, all Daguva can do is laugh, enjoying every second of it.

And Yusuke? Well, I dunno if anyone will agree with me, but that look on his face wasn't just because he hated having to resort to such an ugly way of ending all of this, but because he outright pitied and felt sorry for Daguva and the type of person he had become. Hell, Yusuke was literally ending someone else's' smile during that entire confrontation, something I imagine he never thought he'd have to do. It's not the most flashy battle in anything by any means, but it's the most emotionally powerful one in Kuuga, and one of the most emotionally driven moments in any show I've seen to date. If the show had ended right there, I still would've said it was a great finale, but then the next episode came and made everything even better. Hell, damn near perfect.

So, that's about all I have to say, I think. Reliving the show and discussing it all with you was alot of great fun!

Now someone please do an OOO thread so I can gush there too, lol.