[DreamSword]

Well, I went ahead and finished up the rest of Build. Including the specials and movies.

One of the few things I knew about Build via osmosis about going in was that many people agreed that the third act of the show was where quality declined.

And yeah, sure, there's definitely alot of stuff in the last leg of the show that I could definitely complain about, such as Gentoku becoming one of the most obnoxious characters I've ever had to deal with in Kamen Rider.

But the thing is... I actually thought it was overall a step up from the rest of the show? I mean, it didn't salvage the show for me or anything, but it at the very least gave me a character that I liked watching in Evolto, and it's also when the show embraced putting more spectacle into its fight scenes.

Shallow? Sure, but it was more than anything that I had gotten out of the show prior. Heck, I actually ended up being okay with the New World movies because they gave me more of the few things out of Build that I actually liked. If nothing else, I think that Cross-Z Evol and Grease Perfect Kingdom are great looking suits, and take advantage of character traits way better than other suits do.

Look, I didn't go into Build wanting to hate it, alright? And if it all sounds like I'm trying to dunk on anyone who got something out of the show, I'm really not trying to. If you love it, that's awesome. I wish I could! It's just that, Build in general really does not align with my tastes, with the biggest factor most certainly being that, by the end of it, I pretty much liked almost no one in the cast. And what little stuff I got that I did like was too little too late.

As such, I hate to do it, but my final rating for Kamen Rider Build is a 1/6. It's easily the weakest entry in Phase 2 Heisei for me so far, and is really only a step above Decade for me in terms of Rider shows in general. Heck, I can't even think of a song to associate with the show right now like I usually do: The show straight up creatively drained me. Next in line for whenever I decide to watch some Rider again is Ex-Aid, and I'm hoping I have more fun with that then I did with either Build or Black Sun.