Kamen Rider: General Thread

Faiz is generally still considered the favorite amongst the Japanese fanbase. Heck, many recent KR shows have elements that are inspired by it due to its popularity.

As for Gaim, I think that, like with that show Digimon Tamers, while the adult fans loved the much darker and more mature take, it didn't too to well with the kids that make up the majority of the viewers. Also, the Neo-Heisei series hadn't exactly contained much grit up to that point, so it was kind of a jarring transition.

Still though, I'm surprised it isn't ranked higher, given that it shares a lot of similarities in terms of themes, story, and tone with Faiz. Heck, that's one of the reason's it's my second favorite KR show.

As I said, it must've traumatized kids into hating orange juice. No wonder it didn't fare so well.

So TV-N actually beat Over-Time this week. Huh.

Zi-O 13

Them living together still doesn't make sense

So Geiz stole the watches from Oma Zi-O. Which means they still have to get created the normal way

Another Ghost is kind of giving off horror villain vibes

And now Woz is teaming up with the Time Jackers. I get that they're not organised enough to have a base but the fact that they meet up in random places and seem to spend most of this episode just hanging out in a bar is kind of funny to me.

Another Ghost intitially refusing and being kept alive by his powers is an interesting twist

13.5 actually gives the IRL explanation of why Geiz started with the Ghost watch; Nishime Shun was busy, so they shunted it back a bit. Alas no news on all of Japan's boyfriend

Edited by FerrousMaelstom on Dec 4th 2018 at 8:15:20 PM

Zi-O 13.5: Tsukuyomi... Drive's married, yo.

Zi-O 13: Didn't know how much I missed the Decadriver's sound effects until now. DCD was my (brief) return to the Kamen Rider franchise after, well... Black RX.

And it's good that we're gonna have more than just an upgrade passing through next episode. Welcome back, Specter!

I actually really liked this episode, it felt like a relief after the muddled nonsense that was the last episode.

Hanging around in the restaurant as an evil lair and only doing evil stuff when they freeze time is actually kind of genius, I love it

Also actual engagement in the villain motivation and their connection to the people around them wow it only took them 12 episodes to do so!

I've kinda picked up on Decade being a very big deal™ in the franchise as a whole but also feeling pretty meh on him. I suppose I just had to be there at the time.

Takeru apparently still has powers even with this time fuckery what with managing to interfere with Another Ghost's soul sucking which I suppose either means I should get around to finish watching the last stretch of Ghost or shouldn't think too hard about this

Wow Tsukasa's still a beast. He flattened both Geiz and Zi-O pretty easily. It's obvious he's playing a game (he's always been one of the more unscrupulous riders, even if still heroic), but I'm wondering what exactly it is.

So... Subs for Zi-O 14 aren't out yet, but I got too curious and watched some stuff from the raw anyway.

... To whoever is adding examples to the Awesome page for this series: be ready.

Decade is looking much more badass in two episodes than in his entire show. And any Ridewatch combined with Decade Ridewatch unlocks a Rider's Mid-Season Upgrade instead of his base form. I want this toy so bad right now...

There were some neat fights in this episode. I particularly liked 3-way Ghost battle. The Heisaber's cgi attacks are pretty neat too

Tsukasa going "you use time machines to get around, aww that's so cute" and casually opening a portal to the past is incredibly effective at establishing hype. Him taking the piss out of Woz's herald thing was also great.

The Decade armor looks hella stupid

Sougo's uncle is rapidly becoming the most sympathetic character because he has to put up with this nonsense and is just going with the flow at this point. Though was it really that hard for Tsukuyomi or Geiz to say Sougo was sick?

Time travel fuckery wasn't as terrible as it could've been and Sougo being confined to a spirit again makes some modicum of sense though Akari still developing her tech even though Takeru isn't dead in the divergent timeline is just whaaaaaaa

Woz: all according to keikaku

Next episode, finally some actual detail on what exactly is going on in 2068.

Edited by Nouct on Dec 14th 2018 at 3:52:43 AM

Weird though.

It was noted on the Fridge Brilliance page for Decade that he tended to de-rail the worlds he travelled too, even if he helped the riders defeat their foes, so Woz bringing him in to put time back on track is odd. There's also the fact that he seems to be the only active Rider around, then again, Tsukasa's kinda outside of things due to his Just passing through nature. They did say he has no story, so perhaps his powers can't be directly taken.

Besides the whole "not having a story of his own" theme, we could also consider that Decade, as a dimension traveler, might've come from a different timeline, so at least this Zi-O's actions may not affect him.

Zi-O 14.5:

Tsukasa seems to work so much better as an Anti-Villain. Why the hell didn't they go down this route in the series proper? ONORE DIKEIDO!!!

Damn, it's been so long...

My theory is that Woz is kind of abandoning keeping time on-track and is now willing to change things quite significantly if he likes the end result. I could certainly see him becoming more antagonistic.

One thing I still don't understand is why Tsukasa's Decadriver has become pink magenta instead of the usual white. Is that the same Decade from 2009? Is that just an upgrade, judging by how he seemingly has all Neo-Heisei cards?

Also, Tsukuyomi's Ridewatch, unsurprisingly, seems to use kanji, considering the few stuff that already came out from today's episode...

EDIT: Sorry about the last one. It's Romaji. And it was shown during an Imagine Spot, which brings the question of whether Toei put Tsukuyomi's info in the belt just to throw us off...

Edited by KusaMigeru on Dec 16th 2018 at 1:35:04 PM

We don't know the how at all and with this show's writing we may never. It does seem to be the same Decade but we don't really know any more; could be a replacement or maybe a Time Jacker upgraded it somehow? Officially it seems to be called 'Neo Decadriver'. The Doylist answer is that they can sell it. He's clearly an exception to the returning Rider rules, as he gave away his Ridewatch and stayed a Rider. He's in todays episode too, though we don't know just how long he's sticking around.

Tsukuyomi Ridewatch was in a .5, probably just a gag. Maybe she'll get a suit in an HBV or something. The sounds being in the Driver kind of suggest they might sell it though, even if this is (disappointingly) its only appearance

Edited by FerrousMaelstom on Dec 16th 2018 at 4:29:11 PM

Zi-O 15,.5

Geiz is still kind of zig-zagging, though at least the breakfast scene is a much more concrete attempt to stop him becoming Oma Zi-O without actually hurting him.

And I thought the 'original' Time Mazine was ugly

'A weird dream-man told me to do it' isn't great motivation but at least it's something

Decade finally uses base form after three episodes, it's exactly the same. The Build v Build fight was fun though

The Zi-O fight is a pretty good demonstration of how more powerful Oma Zi-O is. This is some nice plot, with Sougo finally getting it into his head how serious the situation is, but he's obviously not going to give up his belt less than half way through the show.

The .5s are now being meta about the .5s. Also that Kamen Rider Tsuku imagine spot was just cruel.

man I hope Geiz flip flopping every five minutes ends soon, this is getting tiring

The spooky dream man is like the closest the show actually comes to engaging with actual motivation and what it means to be a monarch and wow is "i decided to make this my ambition because it stopped the spooky dream man and world ending dream" incredibly weak and doesn't really seem to support the enthusiasm Sougo throws into it

Kassian was good for the tiny tiny bit of expansion on the Oma Zi-o side but everything else about the future remains frustratingly nebulous as a motivation for the others

4 billion dying is terrible but surely 3 billion people remaining isn't that terrible of a population statistic for this post apocalyptic world

Sougo's fashion sense is still terrible 50 years later but hey he's a king now so who am I to judge

Watched it.

Why do I get the feeling that becoming Oma Zi-O (or becoming Zi-O period) is just something that has to happen.

Like, he did it to prevent a worse disaster, but became something awful in the process.

We have our first look at both Kamen Rider Woz and Kamen Rider Shinobi!

Merry Christmas everybody. In order to get in to the spirit, I decided to post...well...the absolutely brutal asswhooping that everyone's favourite man who fights for everyone's smiles unleashed on the Porcupine Grongi:

Good grief this was a total slaughter. Not only is it one of the most visceral beatings that one being can inflict upon another, but the fact that it's Yusuke Godai of all people dishing it out makes it grade a Nightmare Fuel that's only barely remedied by the fact that the other dude really had it coming.

Is there a moment in Heisei that's as brutal as this is (barring the final fight of this same series that is)? I mean, I'd assume that if we're looking for something this ugly in Showa, we can just watch an episode of Amazon, but for Heisei, this moment takes the cake.

Edited by HandsomeRob on Dec 24th 2018 at 10:07:41 AM

Zi-O 16

This plot was a significant improvement in the overall arc with the Dark Reprise of Sougo unable to fight back against an inescapable future with everyone egging him towards it in some way (though throwing "lawl there are other futures now" seems to defeat what they were building up), also good acting.

CGI time machine fight felt super gratuitous and time travel causality just became so much dumber with only Kassian and Oma Zi-O erased and all the other non-Decade time travellers being unaffected by time travel ripple effect

I am super ready for whatever dumb thing Alternate Woz (the techno book and the visor is the piece de resistance of his look) unleashes on the world next year.

Edited by Nouct on Dec 25th 2018 at 6:35:07 AM

Caught episode 16.

Man, I don't know what's going on now. But I'll say this much. When Zi-O goes evil, Geiz better own that shit.

Oh yeah, nice acting indeed.

So, in the end, Toei seemingly didn't have the guts to outright put actual future Riders and is going for alternate timelines instead. Well, at least that doesn't mean they can't use their concepts in the future anyway: we've already had ninja Riders before, for example.

And, also in the end, Kamen Rider Woz is Woz, but not our Woz. Maybe he hails from a timeline where Oma Zi-O didn't come to be or did become a good overlord?

Maybe. Only time will tell.

So, any thoughts on the Kuuga video? Really curious if anyone remembers anything quite as bad.

I remember Ixa beating Kiva real good in an early encounter (including lots of sword attacks against a fallen protagonist), but can't really find the video now...

Oh yeah. I know that one. He went totally batshit, stole the Garulu Saber and just went to town on Wataru.

What's weird is at the end of that arc, whatever caused him to go so nuts was just totally forgotten later on.