[SPLIT LIP]

Agito follows much the way of Kuuga, with most of the show having Agito himself (Souichi) nearly oblivious to the rider stuff and never mentioning it/being to bothered by it.

[Locke]

After you advised against watching Agito I took that as gospel, aside from W we seem to agree on basically everything.

[SPLIT LIP]

The thing with Agito is, my personal feelings aside, I know just from reading your opinion of Kuuga that you wouldn't like it because Agito really is just more of that.

Agito, however, has the crutch of the two secondary riders, but only one is any good. No joke, Gills spends most of his time screaming and glaring. He's supposed to have this deep story but spends most of his time just kind of hanging around. It's like he's got this good story, but they cut it up and space it out so thin you don't get to appreciate it, and G3, while better, is largely ineffectual and not fun to watch because of how.... sucky he is until his upgrade. And to top it off, the cop drama is basically episode after episode of some smug asshole twisting events to make it seem like the G3 team sucks in the eyes of the police chief, with them sometime sgetting a few wins. But really it comes across as two children begging for a parent's attention.

Also Agito had one song for the fight scenes for about 40 episodes of it's 49 episode run. It REALLY made the fights feel generic and samey, which considering for, again, about 40 episodes he only had three forms plus a seldom seen combined form, made the fights barely worth the time to watch.

Even though I'm only three eps in, I much prefer Ryuki. It's the series following Agito, but could not be more different. The main rider is a pretty active dude, he's courageous, takes the rider stuff seriously, (in and out of the suit) and fights even when the odds are against him. The secondary characters are intriguing and the plot is really unique so far. All that from three episodes.

[Locke]

In many senses Kuuga had a secondary Rider, just not one who could henshin. As Ichigo got an arrangement of new weapons and plot bullets that allowed him to score points against the enemy even without superpowers. I love how even the police, something most Rider shows like to paint as incompetent imbeciles, one up the only true Rider of Kuuga. I guess that kind of says everything.

But yeah, Fourze and OOOs are just so refreshing after Kuuga's idea of flashy finishers was 'do the same move three times and flip first', even with all the bad CGI in both shows.

Also I've seen the American adaptation of the Ryuki footage and it was my first Rider series. Most people like to rag on it, I guess because of residual hatred for Masked Rider, but I still think Dragon Knight is a great series that I've watched through three or four times.

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by SPLIT LIP

Also Agito had one song for the fight scenes for about 40 episodes of it's 49 episode run. It REALLY made the fights feel generic and samey, which considering for, again, about 40 episodes he only had three forms plus a seldom seen combined form, made the fights barely worth the time to watch.

In fairness, it's a really great song.

[SPLIT LIP]

I watched a teeny bit of Dragon Knight, just to see what was up (I don't want to actually watch it if I'm watching Ryuki though, how fucking weird would that be) and it was okay. It was an alrigth adaptation from what little I saw. Like how Batfeet is still an early twenty-something snob with a voice that in no way fits the suit. However I thought the actual transformations were way improved over Ryuki's, abmirably unique as it may be, kinda lame reflections spin onto the dude and he's a rider. Then again Dragon Knight, I think, came out quite some time after Ryuki, so it would've had more effects budget and shit.

BTW, I actually have a few questions and comments before I continue Ryuki. Who is this Olja snake guy? He hasn't shown up yet just he seems to be everywhere and he looks awesome. Is he the villain? All the riders in this show looks awesome and important, like Tiger or Zolda (who I may get after Ryuki since his contract monster seems to be made of BIG FUCKING GUNS that he can then use) so maybe he's just a really awesome looking bit character.

Also, do the production values ever improve? It's hardly destroying my experience or making the show look awful, but it's just noticably odd how the framerate and shit is not like any other rider series.

Also also, I think I might wait until my Figuarts Ryuki ships before I continue because it'd be nice to watch a Rider show for the first time with some representation of the rider themself. Plus I actually quite enjoy the theme song, but the actual intro visuals are cheapsville. I hope they improve it as time goes on. (or ditch that lame shot of the lamesmobile at least) Especially knowing this comes after Agito, where even though the show wasn't good to me, I think it has the best intro of any series ever. (the first version is, though)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

In fairness, it's a really great song.

Eh, it's alright. It'd be better if it wasn't haunting me in my sleep because they drilled it into my head. It also made every fight feel identical. It was certainly no "Count Zero" which I could listen to on a loop. (at least until the asstacular techno-bubble remix crap in the later stretch)

Then again one of my main complaints with Agito was how offensive to the ears it was. Bad vocal performances, same three scores repeated ad nauseum, generic sound effects.

[Matrixbeast]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

Also I've seen the American adaptation of the Ryuki footage and it was my first Rider series. Most people like to rag on it, I guess because of residual hatred for Masked Rider, but I still think Dragon Knight is a great series that I've watched through three or four times.

I rag on it because I honestly preferred Ryuki.
I know you'll call me a Sentai (Well...KR) snob for doing so, but I just enjoyed Ryuki over Dragon Knight.
While Dragon Knight was admittedly leagues better than most every other American Toku series, I just had more interest in Ryuki.

[SPLIT LIP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrixbeast

I rag on it because I honestly preferred Ryuki.
I know you'll call me a Sentai (Well...KR) snob for doing so, but I just enjoyed Ryuki over Dragon Knight.
While Dragon Knight was admittedly leagues better than most every other American Toku series, I just had more interest in Ryuki.

That doesn't make you a snob.

Saying you enjoyed the original more than the adaptation is fine. It's the insufferable milksops that claim the original is automatically better because America changed it are the problem.

[Locke]

If you prefer the original that doesn't make you a snob, that is just your tastes. If you prefer the original...because it is the original and refuse to recognise that the adaptation is thus and not just a remake...then you're a snob.

As far as I can tell, Ryuki and Dragon Knight are only similar in that they use the same fight footage.

Oops Split Lip beat me to it.

Anyway, Fourze.

Fourze just got his first upgrade form change, never been a big fan of gold on Toku suits, for trims and what have you it looks fine but when the body colour is gold I just think it looks really tacky. That said electricity has always been a favourite element of mine as it always seems to be wielded by badasses but even then the Limit Break was pretty uninspiring, since Base States has already done stuff like taking the fight to space and what have you. Meh.

Still, I really like the Base Form and I still really like Gen as a character. At first the whole 'friends with everyone at the school' thing seemed kinda dumb, but then it reminded me of what Roggenbuck said, 'if someone hates on you, be nice to them back, because then they have to deal with that and whatever issue brought them to hate on you in the first place' or something like that. Gen just has a lot of heart, and a lot of conviction, different to Godai though is he actually acts and shows aspects of these convictions. It makes his interactions with Kengo especially really fun to watch.

[ShockerCon]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoRangerV

This thread has been going since the site started, it isn't going to die any time soon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Matrixbeast

The American Edition one certainly does, though

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZeoRangerV

The few of us that do post there try to keep it alive
But yes, even the Sentai edition one doesn't get anywhere as much attention as the Rider one does.

Still more active than Other Toku Serires.