[Kiwami]

I like Kamen Rider as a franchise more but I enjoy watching Ultraman better.

Why? It's a more refined, simpler experience. These shows are 20-ish episodes long, they don’t have multiple story arcs, not too many characters, it's just a core cast dealing with monsters and aliens until the bad guys decides the show is over soon so they'll need to do stuff themselves.

With Ultraman, you're always getting what you want: A familiar setting, fun characters that interact in a great way, and then the superb, amazingly done fight scenes with beautiful effects and miniatures.

Kamen Rider? Well, if you don't like an arc or a character, tough luck, sit it out for a year. That doesn't happen too often thankfully, but Zi-O was my most recent experience with the feeling. I just really didn’t give a damn about it anymore less than one third into the show.

By that point Ultraman is over. It cannot possibly overstay its welcome. You always get excellence in a small, tight package. But as I said I like Kamen Rider more overall, because when stuff is good, it’s real good. An entire years worth of a journey that makes you miss the characters like they were a real part of your life. Doesn’t really happen with Ultraman for me.

So it’s not that complicated: Ultraman is an activity I can perform once a year for a few weeks in the summer, enjoy it, then look forward to next year. Kamen Rider is a trip to a different place where I meet new people and see all kinds of new things. That doesn’t always work out but when it does it’s a memory that you know will not be replicated easily, and thus you miss it more.

Kind of strange, but basically: Ultraman short and sweet, Kamen Rider more ambitious and thus more affected by fatigue.