[DreamSword]

I have finished Kamen Rider Stronger.

I'll be real, the ending left me pretty disappointed. I get that the show got cut short and all, but I feel that's not much of an excuse.

Rather than continuing alot of the character stuff that this second part of the show did a decent job at setting up, it instead just focuses on the inherent coolness of getting all of the past Showa Riders back together.

Ya know, granted, that IS cool and all, especially since they're all out-of-suit appearances unlike in Skyrider, it really didn't make for the best pacing or character work in regards to, well, everything. Like, Delza was actually Great Leader the whole time? But he was also the leader of Black Satan? How?

And I would've forgiven alot of it too if I had gotten the final scene that I wanted. I was really hoping that the last scene of the show would've been Shigeru out on a vacation, some place nice and warm, as a way to honor Yuriko. But alas, it's just a montage with the focus on how the Kamen Riders will always be around to be our heroes, as per the bog standard.

But, regardless of that, as well as some other decisions that I either didn't agree with or were confused by, I still had an overall decent time with Stronger. Like with most the rest of Showa, it's overall just sort of meant to be simplistic fun, and I'm almost always down for that. It's not Peak Showa for me -- that award still goes to Super-1, but for what the show is, I did enjoy its action and most of its characters. So it's a net positive overall.

The next Rider show I plan to watch is actually Revice, as I plan to follow along with Die's' thread on it when that happens in a few weeks. Should be fun. If nothing else I dig the aesthetic of it atleast.