[Fish Sandwich]

Yeah, I still remember finding it absolutely mystifying when I started noticing a crop of people during Zi-O asking why it couldn't be as good as Decade. You know, Decade? The one with the weirdly truncated length, embarrassing turnover of main writers, no ending, pointless fanservice, an obnoxious piece of s*** for a lead character, and an affront to the greatness that was Kuuga for a sidekick?

Apparently that was actually a really fun show with one of the coolest, most fun protagonists out there, and a great selection of individual story arcs with interesting takes on older Rider shows, that are so cool in the moment, the lack of overall cohesion is no real issue. Heck, even Onodera is pretty alright when you get to know him! Who knew?

I mean, I kinda did, because I like Decade, but my point here is that I remember the "general" consensus being that it was kind of a pariah of a series, and that simply doesn't seem to be the case years down the line, and for all I know, it never was? Even shows as hated as Kiva and Ghost have die-hard fans (I would know!), and I've seen people say shows I assume are sacred cows like Kuuga and Double aren't all they're cracked up to be.

It sounds trite, but "art is subjective" really is more than just a cheap way to dismiss criticism, and there's a reason my advice whenever people ask what shows they should watch is "whatever sounds good to you probably will be."