[DreamSword]

I've started watching Kamen Rider Build. Currently watched up through episode 14 as well as the Heisei Generations Final movie.

And I'm just gonna be upfront about it, I feel like this ain't the show for me.

The main issue I have is that not once has the show given me a real reason to care about anything going on. Like, it has this big dramatic plot going on, but never once has it given me a chance to get to know the setting, the characters, none of that. It just threw me into this world I know very little about with people whom I barely know and so far don't have any big traits for me to connect with.

It's not like, say, Blade, where I was dropped into a world so crazy it made me excited to know more and figure things out. Instead, this first arc for Build is more akin to the first quarter of Ghost, wherein the pacing is so off-putting and the characterization is so thin that I just can't work up a reason to root for much of anyone, let alone look forward to seeing them on screen. Things like the death of Ryuga's' girlfriend and the twist about the Owner would've probably made for great stuff... if I had at all known anything or cared about the people involved at the time in which these things happen.

Ontop of that, many a plot element doesn't make sense to me, especially given the show's' penchant for telling and not showing. We're told that the Sky Wall is this big deal, but outside of just being a gigantic literal metaphor, it really doesn't serve too much of a purpose outside of providing the Nebula Gas, especially given that the wall and the gas itself are easily avoiding or circumvented. We're told that Sento is this selfless hero, but whenever he's on screen he mainly just acts like a condescending jerk and alot of his more heroic traits/moments are simply delivered secondhand by other characters. We're told that Ryuga is a selfish douche who doesn't qualify as a hero(especially in HeiGen Final) despite him probably being the most sympathetic and kind character in the show so far.

Add on that none of the action is really doing anything for me and that I find that most of the comedy really falls flat, and this show really isn't giving me much to work with. It has its moments, sure, but nothing to really help carry me through. Heck, Decade atleast had Diend. It overall feels like a show that cares alot more about its plot than its characters, and that just ain't me.

Like, I'll still finish it, because if I can make it through Decade then I can make it through anything that Kamen Rider has to throw at me, but I'm sorry to say that so far I'm really not seeing where alot of the love this show gets comes from.