[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

Makes sense, honestly -- everything about Kuuga was perfect, so why not take a few leaves from its book?

The "why not" is because they made it too hard for me to pick a favorite of the bunch again.

But really, I think it ended up being great timing to reuse that concept, since Kiva was the last just kinda "ordinary" Heisei show before the big anniversary celebration Decade came along and then Double went on to create a new normal shortly thereafter. They essentially had the perfect amount of distance from Kuuga for it to not be redundant, and frankly, with a design aesthetic THAT radically different, you're not exactly going to mistake one Rider for the other. Seeing them all together like that in the image Sunred posted really gave me pause to think about how crazy the franchise had already gotten from that relatively humble rebirth in 2000.

I do really love the idea that Kiva's motif is just monsters, by the way? It's such a direct example of a Kamen Rider being a hero created from something evil, and then you throw in stuff like edgy rival Ixa as the light to Kiva's dark, ironically heroic in a way that's more creepy than Wataru could ever hope to be, and it's just so—

The theming in this show is amazing, is the point. This isn't even the first time I've gone on a tangent praising the aesthetics. Probably won't be the last, either.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

One of the things it does, and it's a tiny detail that I love in Rider weapons, is that it changes form via physical manipulation. Like, IXA transforms it by hand between the two modes. It gives it such a playful, DX feel that I find it very charming and engrossing. I like the reality of it, I guess.

Oh, and hey, speaking of!

I specifically remember being rather enamored by the Ixa Calibur when I was first getting into Rider. Weapons in toku that transform from guns to swords are a dime a dozen – and for good reason – but something about the elegance of the way this particular one changes shape entirely by jamming the magazine up into the rest of it really caught my eye. I feel like it's a perfect one weapon crash course on how fun, smart, and creative the toy designs in Rider can get.