[Androzani84]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Layton13

100% agree with this. Rider is deconstructing and reconstructing its core mythos yearly and it's doing a damn fine job at it.
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I really hate people insisting that Kamen Rider ISN’T formulaic, when even at its best, it’s MORE formulaic than Sentai ever is.

Don’t believe me? Let’s compare.

Ryuki, Kabuto: Massive number of Riders, some of them confined to movies. The main two have a red and blue colouration and a Jerkass and nice guy relationship. The third rider has a gun as his weapon of choice, the dark rider is purple-coloured and wields a sword and the direct evil counterpart to the hero is an evil twin in a black version of his suit. There’s an unstoppable golden rider who has the source of his power stolen to give the hero his super mode, the monsters of the week become less and less relevant as time goes on, instead focusing on conflict between humans

Kuuga, Kiva: Both focus on monsters attacking and killing people en mass, with a group fighting to stop them. Our main hero has a stronger red base form, a faster blue form, a gun wielding green form and a bulkier purple form, with all of his form changes activated by weapons. His super mode gives him the ability to use enhanced versions of all these weapons, and his final form is so unstoppable that the ultimate villain is an evil counterpart with the same unstoppability.

W, OOO, Fourze, Wizard: We are introduced to an established universe where people are aware of the villains through the eyes of a newcomer, our hero goes through the first few episodes getting a crapload of new transformations, the Secondary Rider shows up at the beginning of the second quarter, around the time that he hero unlocks his Super mode and defeats the villain that has been mainly opposing him. Said secondary gets an arc that lasts a few episodes and is resolved with them getting an upgrade, at which point they revert to doing nothing for the rest of the series. The hero gets his final upgrade at the beginning of the thirties, at which point he bad guy decides to accelerate his plans for world domination. And finally, at the end of these series, the hero’s main ally dies in such a way that they can be revived, with all 4 of them not staying dead.

And most obvious of all.

Drive, Ex-Aid, Build, Zero-One: Our hero starts off being dropped into a setting that is already established to the characters in universe, the first few episodes focus on monster of the week action until one of the regular villains faces him down, a feat that takes two episodes and the acquire net of a new power to defeat. Eventually, the monster of the week format is phased out in favour of a recurring our opponent who beats the hero at every turn for several episodes on end. And when they do get put down, it’s not long before another recurring villain makes his appearance, or the defeat doesn’t last. All have secondaries who are turned against our heroes at some point. And most damningly of all, any themes the show might’ve had are tossed out near the end in favour of an “Ultimate Evil Rider” who wants to destroy the world or humanity for no apparent reason, with the emergence of the villain leading to the other villains getting redemption, no matter how unrepentant they were before. And the latter three end on a happy note, with everyone who died being brought back in some form. And all 4 then have post show content which spends as much time saying “our generic omnicidal maniac had SOME redeeming qualities”, no matter how out of place they seem considering their personalities.