Kamen Rider: General Thread

Can I just say that Micchy is basically Capt. Martin Walker as a Kamen Rider?

.....

No.

You bring that guy up a lot. You'll need to find another person to compare everyone to, or we inflict the ultimate punishment on you:

We will point and laugh at you. Mwa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

Don't worry. We won't really do that.

At least I won't. Everyone else here is pretty evil.

I finally got round to watching the subbed Kamen Rider Taisen. It was reasonable but I think a lot was lost on me as, while I vaguely know all of the riders, I've only actually seen Gaim. The bit with the flower was colossally stupid though.

Gaim 42.....

God Dammit Micchi!!! Oh well, he'll probably die. And Kaito goes full overlord.

On the less serious side of things, I now keep hearing the "yom, yom, yom" from Micchy's transformation, despite it translating to hell as "yum, yum, yum".

A lot of information about Kamen Rider Drive has been released. If you don't mind pre-release spoilers this tumblr contains a lot of info.

To me it looks like it will be along the lines of Kamen Rider Knight Rider.

Some of those snapshots look like Drive's monster invasion is going to be no less impressive than Gaim's.

Episode 43 subs...well.

Mai has become the mysterious woman finally but can't fully control herself. Kouta is dead, although it looks like he's gonna revive. Ryoma is also dead. Lord Baron is looking pretty cool. Everything is so intense!

On the slight less intense side, Yoko's own driver was destroyed but she picked up Ryoma's and his lemon, so something might come of that.

So....

Looks like we have a loose confirmation that Hase switching back and forth was due to the belt. This means maybe it was possible to save him.

Got through another ep of Wizard. Legion seems like a fun villain. Not as cool a character as Phoenix, nor do I see him being around for as long, but still.

Well then, I guess you know what the next ep is.

I liked the Dragon forms, but this one never quite jibed with me, and you'll probably see why after a bit.

That being said, you're a few episodes away from the next important revelation. It won't happen for a bit though, around 35 or 36 if I recall.

<checks folder> Yeah, ep 30 is the last one I saw.

So. Haruto's Underworld got massively f*cked up, apparently enough to depower him, and Legion is badass enough to take on Beast, and both Riders' inner Phantoms and not get wrecked.

It'd be pretty neat if Haruto were permanently Brought Down to Normal and Beast got to become the main character, but unfortunately last I checked the series title is still Kamen Rider Wizard.

Also, apparently it is becoming less and less viable to maintain Koyomi's existence. I would actually support it if she were die and stay dead, mostly because she doesn't really contribute anything except being a drain on Haruto's mana.

You....really don't like Haruto do you?

I admit, Nitou's cool, but I didn't find anything wrong with Haruto. Though maybe, it's less I like the character, and more that I like most of his forms (which I've stated quite a few times).

Way back when I first started Wizard, I thought Haruto was pretty cool.

Nowadays, however, I don't. I'm not sure what's changed. Perhaps, over time, I've noticed general things about the show I don't like, and end up taking it out on Haruto instead of the writing staff. Things like, how most of the supporting cast seem kind of... irrelevant, minor exception for Shunpei, whom I find annoying, and the guy who fashions magical stones into rings, for that very reason.

It's probably more accurate to say that rather than outright dislike him, Haruto doesn't really do anything for me, and there are precious few characters in Wizard that do really catch my eye (Phoenix, Beast, and to an increasing extent Gremlin... and possibly Medusa, by virtue of her dynamic with Gremlin)... so it probably makes me end up being harsher on Haruto, since he's the lead character.

Got through another few eps tonight.

Wizard 31: ....so basically, Haruto got his magic AND a massive powerup just through force of Heroic Willpower? That was... kind of out of nowhere. And it really doesn't make sense. I mean, Haruto was a Wizard, which in this verse denotes a Gate who can use magic by subjugating the power of their inner Phantom. If said inner Phantom is dead - which Dragon very definitely was - then that should be it. Kaputsuki. End of story.

Instead, turns out you can just GAR your Phantom back to life, and you become exponentially more powerful in the process! So, what about all those Gates from earlier in the show, who fell to the verge of despair and needed Haruto to destroy their internal Phantom? Haruto gave them hope and a reason for living, which now seems like a Bad Idea. I mean, what if they get passionate enough about something that THEIR inner Phantoms come back to life? That'd make them viable targets for Wiseman and his goons again!

Honestly, the best things I can find in this development are completely meta and irrelevant to the narrative, in the form of 1) at least the FABULOUS new form sparkles like hell, and 2) the new Finishing Move is the love-child of Goldion Hammer and Dynamic Chop.

AND OF FCKING COURSE KOYOMI COMES BACK. Even though she really doesn't bring much to the table aside from "passably cute lady friend for Haruto to stress and worry over". Urgh. <Face Palm>

I was totally expecting a Gwen Stacy scenario. Never in my wildest expectations did I ever think I'd be disappointed when it didn't happen.

<double take> Holy crap, Gremlin actually pulled it off. He totally leapfrogged over Medusa on the hierarchy of evil!

Wizard 32: Gremlin continues to be one of the better things about this part of the show. Not as better as Phoenix or Beast, but still better than most of the cast. Another thing. Is there some reason why Haruto keeps using his base forms? I mean, he has the Dragon-level forms, All Dragon Forms At Once, and Gattai Form, and now Infinity Form. Is there some undisclosed drawback to pulling out his Super Modes? I mean, he can go straight from the LV 1 forms to Infinity, for crying out loud, and he just wrecked Hobgoblin in a bit less than a minute and a half! With as many upgrades as Haruto's got right now, using the base forms at all makes it feel like he's pissing time away for the sake of padding. At least start the battles in a Dragon form and then switch to either Infinity or All Dragons At Once depending on the situation!

And that's another thing, Gattai Form has been used only once, for the aerial battle with Pheonix. I really would've expected it to have gotten use for at least another ten episodes or so before Infinity Form happened. Partly because Infinity is so flipping powerful, it's like the Gold Experience Requiem of tokusatsu in terms of just how much sheer lolnope it seems to be packing.

edited 1st Sep '14 10:19:51 PM by EvaUnit01

Haruto could very cool, but the writing pissed that potential away. And "pissing time away for the sake of padding" is exactly what's happening. The writers really couldn't pull off enough content for two episodes per phantom. The previous stated drawback was "pulling more power makes Dragon closer to breaking out" but now it's nil.

And yes, Gattai form only got used once in the show and once in the movie (except it was a different Gattai form).

edited 1st Sep '14 11:06:42 PM by Marcach

There was never any stated reason why he didn't keep using All Dragon. And there was never any given reason for why he didn't use Infinity more often (and I liked Infinity).

Considering how overpowered the Writers made it, it didn't make much sense truthfully.

Gremlin's gonna get real interesting soon, Shunpei will do something that got me really pissed off at him, but later as things wind to a close, he'll do one thing that made me really respect him, and the some questions are going to start getting answers soon enough.

Keep at it.

Yeah, actually I remember that Superpowered Evil Side stuff now. But they seem to have totally forgotten about it, to the point that now Dragon basically volunteered out of nowhere to give Haruto more power, without even so much as trolling him about it!

Ugh, in that case they shouldn't have ever put Gattai form in the OP. I think that counts as false advertising.

>"But they seem to have totally forgotten about it, "

Yeep. Wizard has a lot of writing problems.

I've noticed.

If only Toei got Urobuchi a year earlier.

Damn straight.

Nah. Wizard is still pretty good if you can get over the problems with the writing. A different writer wouldn't have made it that much better.

I like some things about it (as I've said before) but it has a lot of flaws that I must have forgotten once it ended (but I'm remembering them all now).

Still love those Dragon Forms I do(even if the so-called risk in using them crapped out) though I think there is a reason for that, but I can't give my theory until Eva is far enough in the show, so mark this post down until that time comes, cause I want to come back to it.

There's only like one bit of writing in Wizard I like, but it's in the last episode, so I'm not sure it's a spoiler or not, as the last two episodes have almost nothing to do with the plot.

A different writer would have been able to turn Wizard much, much better. Especially Urobuchi - I think he would work Wizard's themes even better than he worked out Gaim's.