[Daikaijuman54]

Zi-O is the first Rider show I followed from the beginning (although, I haven't seen much of the later stuff), it was my first experience watching a Rider show from the beginning on a weekly basis all the way through (again, barring stuff like Geiz Majesty). As far as Rider shows go, this is by no means perfect, but as far as Rider Anniversaries go, I'd say this one might be the best from Rider (unless Revice takes that spot, but I don't feel like it really counts?).

Why say that, when I've not even seen some of those past seasons? Well, exactly because I didn't. This show manages to keep the legacy appearances to minimum knowledge, a bit like Decade, in how the most it'll tell you is the premise and maybe some abridged details from the show, making it pretty easy for a noob like me who has yet to see Kabuto, Faiz, Kuuga, Drive, or Den-O.

It brought in as many returning cast as it could, it tried to tell its own story, and might not have struck a perfect landing, but it wasn't bad at all. I enjoyed what this show had to offer, it's not Decade Season II (if people were wondering why I spelled II like that, look no further than one of Zi-O's forms), though sometimes it did feel like that, the cast and themes are completely different from Decade, Sougo being almost like your typical Rider protagonist, whilst Tsukasa wasn't a For-The-Good-of-Mankind kind of hero, I feel like both pulled off what their heroes faced in a way that worked. Tsukasa in finding a place to belong, even when the world was against his existence, and Sougo got to achieve his dream of being a King (if only temporary), but also found something more in the Time Orphans and the people he met along the way. Both embraced their dark destinies, and both went their own way afterwards.

I don't regret anything in Zi-O, even if the villain was kind of stupid, the story went convoluted, or lost its themes along the way, it's a show that holds together so many ideas and legacies, but not manage to lose its own identity, even if it couldn't balance it at times, it wasn't a bad show at all. I may not have seen every Kamen Rider show leading up to this season and this show might not have been the best I've seen, for what it was, it was a journey I felt glad to be a part of.