A_Fine_Egg

Ikou ze!

Kamen Rider Fourze is decent, harmless, and at times fun. In many, many Kamen Rider shows, the main character is influenced by those around them, wishing to protect others and cherish the bonds they've made and such - but it's funny to finally watch a character literally state they use the Power of Friendship to win. Gentarou's charisma leads to a fun main character and a fun Kamen Rider. It's a series that has its charming moments - there's some funny lines here and there and overall the series has a nice and light tone.

Unfortunately, I feel like the writing sort of stumbles. Many of the characters in this series don't really feel like they grow or change other than maybe one. While I praised the occasional comedic quip, a the comedic styling in Fourze is the part of Tokusatsu humor I dislike - characters making a big dumb stupid face and loud noises and looking at the camera. Two of the main characters in this series cannot go a scene without doing this. To be 100% honest there's many scenes in this series that are just straight up annoying. And if you've ever wanted to see villains explain literally nothing about their plans until the final like 4 episodes of the series and just sit on their throne going "hmmm yes everything is going according to plan" while in the meantime every one of their subordinates gets their ass handed to them by a high schooler, this will be the villain for you.

One thing I do have to praise, however, is the suit design. I think the suits in this series rule. Fourze's design combining a rocket ship and an astronaut is genius and really stylish, and Gentarou's personality shining through a Kamen Rider suit by the suit actor is very fun. The concept of switches is fun and leads to some unique uses of powers and abilities. Kamen Rider Meteor is a fun design - I'm tickled at the fact that they took the most joyless dude in the cast and gave him a form that's inspired by Disco. And the suit designs of the Zodiarts and the Horoscopes are really great, too, leading to some fun villain design.

Overall I feel like the series is fun and has some moments I'll recall fondly but is marred with some rather annoying recurring gags and has an ending that feels rushed.

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Not Hard-Boiled, Not Half-Boiled. Is Three-Quarters-Boiled a Thing?

Kamen Rider W is a series I had heard frequently was the single best Kamen Rider story in the franchise. It was the kind of series I avoided watching as one of my first due to its reputation - I didn't want to watch the best stuff too early on, after all. So I waited and waited until the time came for me to finally pop the proverbial cork of this Kamen Rider Champagne. And what did I find?

Not my favorite, but a good entry.

W has some solid story beats in its run. It handles its use of the monster-of-the-week format decently as well for the most part. Unfortunately it's also not great at the mystery portion of the series. "Investigating a mystery" tends to usually getting the case, going to like two different sets, then Philip says the exact words needed to know the entire story. It's not great mystery, it's moreso just a way to get to the fights, which was a bit of a shame. Additionally, while it has some solid writing storywise, some things are handled pretty poorly, and the ending can feel kind of clunky as a lot of things feel like they have to happen in the last, like, 2 episodes. So overall, the story is alright. Above average when compared to some other KRs I've watched, but not stellar. It touches on some good ideas but handles them poorly.

For things I do like: The suit design is neat - don't expect any *exciting* changes over the course of the series, but it makes up for that in a pretty consistent variety of abilities used over the course of the series, which leads to fights not feeling stale for the most part. The monster suit design is also pretty fun! A good series visually overall. The character writing is, for the most part, good. I feel like some of the characters like Akiko can be really annoying, but for the most part they're solidly written. I think Shotaro is a good character - someone who puts on the veneer of being a hard-boiled masculine man's man but in all actuality being soft, and that being a good thing that positively effects the other character we meet, Terui Ryu, who goes from being someone literally willing to kill another person before any confirmation that they were the one at fault to being a person willing to hear out someone who caused him harm. The villains are pretty good too, though some of the twists and things that they get feel like they come out of nowhere, unfortunately.

So overall, a good series! A solid entry into the Kamen Rider franchise, to be sure.

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Rider, you are the Fighter!

Black RX is a notable change of pace from Kamen Rider Black. Black RX is overall more child-friendly and episodic than Black, which can make it a bit less captivating. It does have its moments, including several twists that happen during the last two episodes, but again, these are saved until the very last two episodes. Kotaro continues to be a strong protagonist, but the explanation of Black becoming RX as well as the eventual changes to Bio and Robo Rider feel sudden and strange. One of the interesting aspects of Black RX are its villains - they're not incredibly compelling seeing as how most of the time they just end up twirling their mustaches talking about how "we're definitely gonna get him this time" meanwhile sending a giant friggin RC car to kill Kamen Rider. But their interactions, bickering, and interpersonal relationships can be fun to watch. The suit designs are pretty solid for the most part, I think Robo Rider is probably my favorite. I do like RX's more buglike silhouette compared to Black, I will give it that. But I'm getting off track. Overall, the less focused and personal story of Kamen Rider Black RX compared to Black leaves me a little disappointed.

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The show that stumbles during its walk to surpass god

Kamen Rider Kabuto has a lot of potential when it starts. It has an exciting, suspenseful premise, fun and strong characters, *stellar* suit and monster designs, and a great gimmick in the Cast Off and Clock Up mechanics that lend to some impressive and awesome fights. Unfortunately, at a certain point the director of the series changes and with this change comes a change in tone, direction, plot, and characterization. This leads to the series dropping a large majority of the interesting original concepts of the show for a large majority of its runtime to focus more on sillier concepts until the end of the series when the plot picks up. It actually kind of reminds me of Kamen Rider Black, but for some reason Kabuto's execution of the concept makes me a little more disappointed. I suppose it's because it comes up with a lot of concepts that they end up resolving or executing with far less potency than they could have.

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̶S̶o̶ ZO Good

With its beautifully designed suits, fun to watch practical effects including moments of stop-motion, and foreboding atmosphere, this really feels like it hearkens back to the feeling the Original 13 episodes of classic Kamen Rider Ichigo. I love the tone of this one - the unsettling atmosphere and the insurmountable feeling of the main villain of this special gives it a action-horror feeling all to reminiscent of 70's anime OVAs. There's a single-take action shot in this movie that's done beautifully. The soundtrack is energetic when it needs to be and really exciting. I really wish that this movie had a longer run time, just because I'd like to have had some more opportunities to see the main character's struggle. However, what's here is a good and classic Kamen Rider feeling movie with an added grittiness in a short burst.

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A Kamen Rider Carrying Anno's Spirit

Shin Kamen Rider is a flawed but incredibly fun movie. The info dumps that come with the story structure can hurt the pacing - Hideaki Anno seems to love scenes of characters explaining powers and lore in long-winded explanations, detailing all the little bits of science that go into his concepts. The structure is also very much akin to Shin Ultraman, feeling like an homage to several episodes in one movie rather than being a movie with a single plot line throughout. However, the music is stellar - either one-to-one pulls or fantastic remixes of songs from the original 1971 Rider series. The fight choreography is fun and exciting, the designs of the villains and the redesigns of Ichigo and Nigo are brilliant. The characters have fun chemistry and all work well together. It is an exciting homage to the franchise.

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WATCH ME! WATCH ME!

Kamen Rider Gavv is an inherently silly concept. A guy with a stomach on his mouth eats candy to gain superpowers. It has funny little mascots that make silly noises and emote and bounce around the screen - like the Kivat from Kiva, except there's at times like literally 100 of them on the screen. Characters are based on gummy candy, cakes, ice cream, chocolate, and pudding. And yet, through these characters, through these concepts, Gavv tells a great story of familial trauma, overcoming pain, self-improvement, and human connection.

Kamen Rider Gavv is, at time of me writing this review, my favorite Kamen Rider, full stop. Within, it contains some of the best character writing I have seen from the franchise. Characters are written intelligently, interestingly, with fun gimmicks and dynamics that make the story fun to watch unfold. Shouma is a really great protagonist - he's a bit naive to start, but his growth through that into a more knowledgeable person throughout the story is really fun to watch. His trust in others, his desire to make other people smile, is quite charming. The secondary characters are where Gavv goes from writing a fun protagonist to writing an incredibly solid and fantastic cast. Sachika, Lakia, Hanto, they interact with each other in incredibly fun ways. The ways they grow throughout, learn to trust one another, learn to care about one another, speak candidly to each other and support one another, is, like, sickeningly sweet. The way Lakia transitions from a lone-wolf type who wants nothing to do with others to an out-and-out supporter is so fun to watch unfold. The way Sachika, the resident support character, never feels out of place or unnecessary, unlike so many in other Rider shows I've seen. Hanto's just constant growth through his desire for vengeance, his understanding of how it clouds him, his desire to change and see change in others, even those that could have harmed him, is phenomenal. Gavv's deuteragonists are incredibly well-written and very fun. The comedy in the show is also really great and varied! There's some great banter between characters, some fun meta humor from time to time, it never feels predictable and that makes these moments all the more charming.

The villains are also really great! I think the way they are fleshed out is incredibly solid and fun to watch grow and change. So many of these Kamen Rider shows have characters who are more than willing to just sit back and watch all their little goons and goobers die while they twist their Snively mustaches and state all is going according to plan, and that's all we get from them until the last like 3 episodes of the show. And while Gavv does have one or two resident Doctor Claw-esque villains who rarely do things of their own accord - and once they do they get merc'd - but the character writing between villain interactions is really smartly done in my opinion. The dynamic of them being Shoma's family brings about some fun, interesting interactions as well. I will say I wish Jeebh had eventually heelturned into a protagonist character, just because I'm biased and love seeing my boy. I honestly cut out a whole like section of this review that was just about Jeebh, I really like Jeebh.

I also have to say I adore the suits in this show. I think a majority of them look really great - the protagonist suit designs are all incredibly solid to me (save one or two of Shouma's tertiary forms), and the monsters with their mouth-body aesthetic was super cool and unique and led to some cool and at times kinda spooky designs. And while we're on the subject of the suits and the actors, the stunts and fight choreography in this show are at an incredibly high level. I think that this series has some of the most satisfying choreo I've seen in any Kamen Rider.

Overall, Kamen Rider Gavv is ridiculously good, in my opinion. I think pretty much every character is written fantastically, I think the story progresses in interesting ways that never truly feel like they're stalling like some of these other shows do. The fights are all incredibly fun to watch, with some incredible moments - I haven't even mentioned how much I love the soundtrack to this series. Probably the first Kamen Rider since OOO where I'm considering buying the CDs with the soundtrack and character songs on it. Also the fashion in this show, I forgot to mention that, holy. The fashion in this show goes crazy. Every time Sachika is on screen she's got that shit on. Every time I'm about to end this review I feel like I have another thing I wanna compliment about Gavv. So, I'll just say, it's fantastic. Easily my current favorite Kamen Rider.

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3 2 1 Nap Time!

If you are a fan of Kamen Rider, you will inevitably be recommended Kamen Rider Wizard, and it is overwhelmingly going to have to do with the fight choreography. The use of weaponry and kick-based fighting to work within the gimmick of the series brings unique fighting styles to the protagonists and leads to some interesting and fun fight scenes. And that's totally true! Wizard has fun action scenes, a neat gimmick, and I'll admit the belt sounds are fun to me with the statements of "PLEASE" or "NOW". It's a neat show aesthetically.

Unfortunately, I think everywhere else is where the show begins to falter. Funnily enough, I feel this series has a lot of the same issues that Fourze does. The plot of Wizard involves a lot of characters sort of idly twiddling their thumbs saying everything is going according to plan while the monsters get washed into next week (because episodes are typically two-parters). What plot we do get that could be seen as intriguing happens all at once near the end of the series. It makes the show kind of a slog at times, especially in the episodes around 30 to 40 as there's some really really rough ones in there. To top it all off, the ending of the series itself doesn't even get to be what sends off the show, as the true sendoff is a two-part advertisement for Superhero Taisen and Kamen Rider Gaim.

The characters we get are, for the most part, not great. I think the Secondary Rider is more fun than the main one, and the donut sellers are icons of course. But the comedic relief of this show tends to be some of the things I hate in these sorts of shows - big stupid funny faces made at the camera while yelling and being stupid. It barely if ever works for me, and Wizard's combination of this style of writing along with the slow, plodding pace, makes the whole series feel difficult to engage with. Fun suit designs and good combat interspersed with boring writing, uninteresting characters, and unfunny comedy. I think the fight choreography makes it a little bit more entertaining to me than Fourze, but not by much in all honesty.

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An Unfortunate Diagnosis

It is with a heavy heart that I must say I was a little disappointed by Ex-Aid. I had heard it lauded as one of the greats of the franchise alongside favorites such as Build and OOO. Unfortunately, I could not find myself to become as attached to this one. Ex-Aid has some truly terrible costume designs. A large majority, save maybe 1 or 2 suits, look pretty bad. The general gimmick of this season is one that takes a *lot* of watching before you finally get over the hurdle of how dumb the idea of a "Doctor who saves with the power of Gaming" is. The series can feel a tad repetitive at times, especially due to how often suits tend to be reused. The belts themselves have a really odd, clunky, ugly design. Overall, it's just a series that isn't pretty.

Thankfully, partway through the series, the story has ways of exploring themes that could only really be seen in a story like this, with such an odd and honestly dumb concept. It leads to a story that has a majority of its runtime being bogged down by a plot that's difficult to connect to with characters you don't really want to see in action, but has some shining moments of interesting writing and characterization. Overall it's an odd beast to say the least.

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LONG, LONG AGO, SHOWA ERA

Kamen Rider Black is, overall, fantastic. It may be a great introduction to the series as a whole. The suit designs are great, the stunts are exciting, Kotaro's transformations into Black might be one of my favorite Henshins in the series. It also has a great end credits sequence - the single, isolated Kamen Rider Black marching ever forward. It's a great way to summarize the show in general. It carries itself with a distinct tone - it is dark, and at times perilous, but at the same time it still has moments and episodes of more wild, silly concepts for episodes. While it can sort of effect the tone of the overall series, it also stands to show the humanity that Kotaro wants to keep dear. It isn't perfect, because some of these episodes can really mess with the overall tone of the series, but it's not to a grueling extent like the OG 71 series could be at times. It's not my absolute favorite but it is definitely high up on the list.

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Real Clever, No Time to Deliver

This one has a fun concept - a movie with a looming threat that is literally counting down in real time with the movie's duration. I really like that concept! Unfortunately, it means that we don't really get much of a chance to get to know about the villain in any way that isn't uninteresting or rushed. This is also the movie where Zero Two makes its appearance, which I think is a really neat suit. Action is fine, story is a bit rushed but that's to keep it in time with its original concept so I kinda forgive it? Overall with an interesting concept it didn't really have the time to grip me or keep me thinking about it after I was done with it.

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A Tragic Tale

Kamen Rider Saber surprised me. I had heard that this series in particular wasn't one of the well-loved, and for some reason that made me want to watch it more, see if maybe people were overreacting about its quality. At first, if I'm to be totally honest, I was in the same boat. The first dozen or dozen-and-a-half episodes are rough, slowly paced, and feel aimless. The main gimmick of books feels sort of oddly put into the setting, and the Belt Sounds are just... So annoying. But after that point, the story hits a high point, being interesting and compelling and heartfelt. And then it goes back to being just okay with a very meh ending in my opinion. It feels like a roller coaster, easing you into and out of the interesting parts of the story. The suit designs start off as being a bit clunky but turn really good! The fight choreography is overall good as well! I also like the OP, and absolutely ADORE the Ending Song. Also, Touma's got fantastic outfits all throughout the series.

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Frustrating Series With Amazing Designs

Kamen Rider Agito is a very hard watch. It sets itself up well enough, with mystery and intrigue surrounding it, a STELLAR opening song, and overall several very well-designed suits for the main Riders. However, what ends up happening is that the series meanders for a majority of its run time. It feels like very few of the characters in the series have actual agency - they are moreso waiting for any big events to happen and then reacting to them. In the case of the main character he feels so detached that he barely seems to do anything related to the main mystery for a large portion of the story and is essentially just pulled towards every fight. Its predecessor Kuuga also has a mystery, but what makes it compelling in Kuuga is the main characters actively researching the mystery at hand and actively going to defeat the monsters of their own accord. Agito makes these characters do so seemingly out of instinct instead, being far more passive characters, whose interpersonal drama is overall pretty bland and uninteresting for a large majority of the run time. Not to mention only one of the three main characters really seem to do any research into the main mystery and their progress is quite slow and brooding. The show drags its feet quite often. It's a very mixed bag.

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A Good Entry, Despite Flaws

Geats is a clumsy story, but a fun one. With a great OP and an interesting concept, relating to winning a sort of Death Game to get a wish, it ends up being a very interesting form of Kamen Rider as they combat each other for the sake of winning. However, it doesn't stick with this concept the whole way through the story and ends up changing to focus less on the aspect of a battle royale and more like a standard Kamen Rider story. This ended up disappointing me somewhat. Characters have decent chemistry, though at times it can be somewhat flat and businesslike for a large majority of the series. Suit designs have great potential to be interesting as it begins with the concept of item pickups akin to a video game, but again it ends up being tossed aside for the sake of consistent, merchandise-worthy forms. Not bad forms, but considering what the series started out as, it ended up disappointing me a bit. Fight choreography goes really hard sometimes, especially when they use the show's gimmicks to set up specific opportunities that would not have been available in other stories. Overall, a story with a lot of potential that does unfortunately fumble the bag.

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