Series Review: Kamen Rider Build

Kamen Rider Build [2017-2018]

"Rabbit. Tank. Are you ready? Hagane no moonsault! RABBIT TANK!"

This was the second Kamen Rider show that I watched, and it's... it's kind of interesting because of how utterly different Kamen Rider Build is. Alongside Gaim and Ex-Aid, I had considered for the longest time of doing an episode-by-episode review of this show on this blog, but I just never quite had the energy to do so... hence why their series reviews were so late compared to every other Heisei-era Kamen Rider series. 

Build is perhaps a bit of an anomaly among the Kamen Rider shows at how strikingly serialized it feels. Throughout the Heisei era, every single one of the shows has a long-running plot of some kind, although some shows like Fourze, Wizard and especially Den-O didn't focus too heavily on their major plots. With Build, it seems like things ratcheted up to the opposite, where we don't quite have the standard two-parter formula that was so common in that period of time.

I was admittedly very taken in with Build's first episode, and since this was my second Kamen Rider show, it didn't take until quite some time to appreciate just how different it was. Unlike other Kamen Rider shows, Build doesn't take place in 'regular Japan, but with monsters and maybe a bit of magic'. No, the world of Build is established to have a completely different backstory. Ten years prior to the events of Build, an expedition to the planet Mars ended up returning with an enigmatic cube-like artifact called the Pandora's Box. The accidental activation of the relic ended up creating a gigantic wall called the 'Skywall', splitting Japan into three sub-nations -- Seito, Hokuto and Touto. And that's where we get to our present-day hero, the self-proclaimed genius physicist Kiryu Sento from Touto (the main 'nation' we're focusing at) who gets tapped by the government to unlock the secrets of the box. 

Kiryu Sento himself is an interesting protagonist. He's not our first amnesiac protagonist -- in Heisei alone that honour goes to Kamen Rider Agito, and that's not counting various other secondary characters over the years. But the way the show would handle the amnesia is an interesting one. Kiryu Sento has vague memories of his past -- he was experimented upon by a mysterious organization called Faust; and that ended up giving him the ability to transform into Kamen Rider Build. Oh, and he's also working as a vigilante in his Kamen Rider identity, giving us a rare Batman-esque Kamen Rider that's hunted down by both the villains and the authorities. 

I admit that the whole idea of a set of 'full bottles' that the hero has to shake is a bit bizarre as far as gimmicks go, but I absolutely love how this gets incorporated into Build's transformations and fighting scenes. I think Build still has my favourite slew of alternate forms shown to the audience in the first act of the show, with so many bizarre and odd combinations of two 'halves' of the Build suit. With each transformation involving an organic and an inorganic fullbottle, Kamen Rider Build's basic red-and-blue form of 'Rabbit Tank' is bizarre enough the first time I saw it... let alone when he does his finishing kick, where he summons and traces a giant physics graph of motion. Later on we get even more ridiculous forms as our heroes collect more and more of the gimmicks. Among my favourites include 'Rocket Panda', 'Ninja Comic', 'Tiger UFO', 'Lion Vacuum' and 'Wolf Smartphone'. Additionally, Build's belt has some of the most glorious sounds. 

The series basically starts off with Kiryu Sento encountering fugitive and ex-boxer Banjou Ryuuga, the first lead that Sento has to uncovering his past and unraveling the many conspiracies that the three nations of Japan has brewing under the surface. Rounding up the cast is the perpetually-tired and irritated Isurugi Misora, daughter of the cafe owner Soichi where Kiryu Sento works in. 

While its predecessor show Ex-Aid almost immediately starts off by introducing many other Kamen Riders, Build is a bit more content to take it a bit slower. Yes, by the time the show has concluded the amount of Kamen Riders does rival Ex-Aid, but unlike the former they really did keep it to mostly just Sento and Banjou in the beginning. The focus of the show's early stages is mostly on the growing relationship between Sento, Banjou and Misora, as well as the running themes of trying to figure out what the government and Faust are hiding. The fact that this is an 'alternate history' world means that the slow drip of exposition of the politics between Touto, Hokuto and Seito (and later on when we meet characters from there) ends up feeling earned. 

The side cast that slowly grows into main cast status is also quite great. Early on the cast is rounded out by Kiryu Sento's boss, the military-minded Himuro Gentoku; Misora's kooky dad Isurugi Soichi and intrepid reporter Takigawa Sawa. There are also two mysterious Kamen-Rider-esque figures called Blood Stalk and Night Rogue serving as the 'face' of Faust, and the first arc of Kamen Rider Build ends up revolving around the true identity of Night Rogue and Blood Stalk, the true identity of Kiryu Sento (and whether he's actually a villain in his previous persona) and the truth of what happened ten years ago in Mars.

And this show does feel like a truly arc-driven show that sets it apart from every other Kamen Rider show in Heisei. Without spoiling too much, the revelations in the first act end up with the stage for the second act leading to what's essentially an all-out war across the three Japanese nations, with the three top politicians of the nations having their own agendas for Pandora's Box and the collection of all the fullbottles. This leads us to the introduction of Sawatari Kazumi, or Kamen Rider Grease, and his three sidekicks, the 'Three Crows' of Hokuto. While it all devolves into a fight between Kamen Riders Build, Grease and Rogue, the fact that there are definitely parts of this show that involves a straight-up war and a fair amount of espionage and subterfuge does give Build a unique vibe that sets it apart from a lot of the other Rider shows. 

One of the running themes that I felt was done the most well is the idea of Kiryu Sento being an inventor who constantly improves on his combat capabilities... but when said weaponry is turned upon fellow humans, it's pretty damning for our poor protagonist. While earlier in the show Sento's inventions just mostly focus on wacky things like making a comic-book sword for his Ninja Comic form, things take a darker turn when Sento's prior title of "Devil Scientist" leads to him creating his Build Hazard form. A 'berserk' form is a bit of a tired trope in Kamen Rider, but perhaps I was so tired of it because my very first berserking Kamen Rider was Build's Hazard form... who straight-up kills one of the secondary cast members in his rage. This leads to a fair amount of angst not only revolving around Kiryu's status as a weapons inventor, but also the whole fact that, for a couple of episodes, the war escalated even more when the friends of the man Kiryu kills understandably seeks vengeance. 

Again, explaining every single character's motivations and character development would take a bit too much time, but while there are other side-characters that show up here like the (very flat and unmemorable) Hell Bros, the rather hilarious Utsumi "Kamen Rider Mad Rogue" Nariaki and one of my favourite recurring antagonists Juzaburou Namba, all the revelations and the eventual elevation of Gentoku, Sawa and Kazumi into main cast status end up with a whole slew of memorable characters. And it's the handling of these secondary characters that I feel deserves praise -- they start off as recurring aspects of the show that slowly get more and more screentime, and when they end up finally joining the main cast, they end up feel utterly right at home. None of them feel wasted, and while neither one of the girls ended up as riders, I do really feel like both of them added something significant to the show that many other Rider supporting cast members don't quite do. 

The final arc of Build does admittedly end up being mostly just tying up all the plot threads it had introduced, and as such I did feel like it's perhaps the least interesting part of the show... but don't let that statement fool you into thinking that Build didn't stick the landing. A lot of Kamen Rider shows really do have trouble sticking the landing, but Build isn't one of them -- after the true nature of Mars and Pandora's Box is revealed, our main villain Kamen Rider Evol (or just "Evolt") serves as a great and consistent threat throughout the final parts of the show. The in-fighting between the three nations also works in this favour as Evolt merrily manipulates the politicians around. Evolt himself is quite fun as an utterly charismatic villain that strides the line between likable and deplorable very, very well -- and in a rather refreshing twist, despite being such a major character, there was no moment in the show's run that Evolt was actually talked into becoming redeemable and an ally. (The New World spinoff is technically a different Evolt)

There are some revelations (which I am deliberately keeping vague) near the end that did make me raise my eyebrows, but it's honestly par the course for a Kamen Rider show. What I felt was important was that the show itself didn't feel like it forced any of these huge revelations. Hell, all this talking about Build really does get me somewhat interested to do an episodic review at some point. Oh well, maybe in the future. 

One thing that I do have to emphasize is that despite its seriousness and how dark it can get at times, Kamen Rider Build is still a Kamen Rider show, and for the most part it's still happy to have some moments of levity to not make the entire show a serious sci-fi show. The show's tongue-in-cheek and fourth-wall-breaking openings are one of the best features in a show I already really like, but Kiryu, Banjou and Misora all have their character quirks that make them lovable. Kiryu is arrogantly cocky, Banjou is a lovable dumb meathead, and while she does admittedly get a bit shafted in favour of the Kiryu/Banjou pair, the moments when Misora gets to say one of her funny lines are always memorable. When they join the main cast, both Kazumi and Gentoku also show that despite their super-serious first impression, they also do have a fair amount of hilarity to them. Admittedly somewhat forced in Gentoku's case, but by the time the show ends you don't really question it too much. 

With all the praise I'm heaping on Build, I'd be remiss not to mention Build's weaknesses as a show. As much as I did enjoy it, and as much as it did contribute to developing Kiryu and Banjou as characters, the first batch of episodes did feel particularly heavy in trying to aggressively market the many, many forms that Build's base belt can access. For every well-done side character, there are ones like the Hell Bros or Vernage that feel under-baked and when their story are done all they elicited from me is a 'huh'. And not all the revelations are to everyone's taste, particularly approaching the end. And I definitely felt like the post-show "NEW WORLD" spinoffs end up diminishing the impact of the show instead of enhancing it like Gaim, Ex-Aid or Zero-One's respective spinoffs did. 

Still, that's not enough to make me say that Build is anything but one of the better shows in the Kamen Rider franchise. I would wholeheartedly recommend this show to anyone checking out the franchise. If nothing else, it's a very solidly-paced show that's extremely entertaining from start to finish, and I really did feel like the story was told the way the storytellers wanted it to.

Series Review: Kamen Rider Gaim

Kamen Rider Gaim [2013-2014]

I finished writing the reviews for Ex-Aid and Build recently, and this is the final show in the Heisei Kamen Rider series that I have yet to review. It's also the first Kamen Rider show I've watched. Which is why I know this review will be a bit shorter than the rest. 

Back when I first did full series reviews for the various Kamen Rider shows, it's also because I was thinking of picking one of the shows I really liked and doing episode-by-episode reviews. It was around the time that I was doing Kiva and Zero-One simultaneously, and I thought that once I was done with Kiva and the handful of other shows that I haven't watched at the time (Hibiki, Kuuga, Agito and I believe half of Blade) I could sit down and pick one of my favourite shows and really dig into it. On top of the contenders were Gaim, Ex-Aid, Build and Double, all of which being my favourites and having enough variety on an episode-to-episode basis that I felt would allow me to avoid the burnout that plagued me when I reviewed Kiva.

Kamen Rider Gaim is such a weird Kamen Rider show, though, when I sit down and think of all the other shows in the Heisei era. It was my first Kamen Rider show, so I just sat back and accepted everything that was tossed at me. I mean, I've seen other animes with concepts similar or weirder than this, so yeah. The main characters of the show are groups of street dancers. Zawame City has a gigantic tower called Yggdrasil Corporation that oversaw almost everything. People tune in on web videos to look at street gangs fight with monsters called Pokemon "Inves". There's this bizarre foray into godhood, and vague flashbacks to either an alternate universe, a possible future or the past. 

Basically, it didn't take me until my third or fourth Rider show to realize that for the most part, Kamen Rider tended to operate on a more 'Japan, but with monsters' quasi-urban-fantasy setting. All I'm saying is that when the show was pitched to me by my friends, it was basically "hey, look at this, it's like Power Rangers, but they transform into fruit samurai, while the belts scream English words". I thought it was the stupidest thing ever. And then I proceeded to finish the entire show in under a week. 

Written by famous anime writer Gen Urobuchi, even after giving Gaim several years of breathing time, I did feel like it's still ultimately a very solid show. As mentioned before, the setting is initially something rather simple -- youthful street gangs that call themselves 'Beat Riders' that roam the streets of Zawame City. Our hero Kazuraba Kouta is a former member of the group Team Gaim, and initially he tries his best to divorce himself from the dance group and find a proper job. But when the team's captain goes missing, Kouta helps out only to find himself face-to-face with bizarre monsters, and ends up in possession of a Sengoku Driver, allowing himself to transform into a fruit samurai. By, naturally, creating a giant zipper portal in the sky and summoning a giant CGI fruit to unfold into armour. And his finisher skill is called 'Orange Squash'. As you do. 

Thanks to a mysterious guy with a fancy hat called Lock Dealer Sid, the Sengoku Drivers quickly find themselves spread across the Beat Riders, who view them as basically the next big thing to compete with each other after the (still bizarre) quasi-Pokemon Inves game. It is violent, yes, but it's treated as basically just gang fighting with some extra steps. Kumon Kaito of Team Bravo becomes Armoured Rider Baron (he's a banana!), essentially becoming the abrasive rival to Kouta. One of the main members of Team Gaim, Kureshima "Micchy" Mitsuzane, who has a bit of a hero worship on Kouta, becomes Armoured Rider Ryugen (he's a grape!). There's also the enigmatic Armoured Rider Zangetsu (he's a melon!). And two minor characters become Armoured Riders Kurokage and Gridon (they're nuts!). Rounding up the initial cast is Oren Pierre Alfonso, an over-the-top flamboyant mercenary patisserie who becomes Armoured Rider Bravo (he's a durian!).

While the show initially seems to revolve around wacky dance teams and a mysterious organization Yggdrasil that's trying to get back their stolen devices (hence Oren the mercenary), the show quickly delves into a bit of a mystery in regards to the mysterious dimension later revealed to be called Helheim, an otherworldly forest where the Inves and Lockseeds come from. All of this is compounded to Kouta receiving enigmatic visions from a mysterious white-robed girl who looks like his good friend Mai. As the conflict escalates, so does Yggdrasil's role, where it's revealed that they're collecting data on the youth recklessly using the drivers. The middle part of the show revolves around well-meaning extremist Takatora (Zangetsu the melon), hammy mad scientist Sengoku Ryouma (Duke the lemon), badass lady bodyguard Minato Yoko (Marika the peach) and shifty hat-toting Sid (Sigurd the cherry) as a set of antagonists in the show. Every single one of these characters end up being developed to some degree, and while there's a lot of backstabbing and team-ups going on among the various organizations, all of them felt natural. 

Again, I'm trying to be as vague as possible, especially what happens in the second half of the show where we get fun characters like Demushu and Redyue tossed into the mix. Trying to condense the show into several short paragraphs would be an exercise in confusion, but suffice to say that in-between the colourful characters and the fruit-themed action scenes, the writers have crafted a great world with a rich backstory that didn't feel force-fed to the audience. And all the betrayals done by the characters -- both antagonists that decide to join up with the good guys for their own vague reasons, or good guys that take a turn for the sinister because of their personal circumstances... a lot of these felt organic and not blatantly telegraphed. 

And, yes, despite its large cast, the strength of the writing means that every single Rider (not counting the many, many epilogue and movie exclusive ones) does end up feeling like they are all characters. Each of these Riders end up feeling like they are important to the narrative, even more minor ones like Armoured Riders Knuckle (who debuted relatively late into the show). The show itself does focus primarily on Kouta/Gaim, Kaito/Baron and Micchy/Ryugen, but everybody else does have their own share in the spotlight. It's really a bit hard to talk about this show without being super-vague or spoiling about the admittedly somewhat convoluted backstory involving the characters, but I really did feel that by the end of the 47-episode run, all the main characters have had their share of character growth and side-plot. (There's also that rather random Kikaider-crossover episode in the middle of the show, and a bunch of interesting but ultimately unnecessary side-material.)

And, yes. The ending with the whole god thing is... a bit of a contentious one. But honestly, with the themes that Gaim explores, do you really expect anything less? 

Ultimately I feel like Gaim is a show that's special to me, but has something interesting for everyone. It breaks the mould of what a Kamen Rider show can do (I don't think the term 'Kamen Rider' even gets used anywhere in the show) and gives us a show with complex characters and a rather interestingly anime-esque plot. While some might describe Gaim as being a bit too cosmic or overwrought by the end, I did feel like I still enjoyed the show for what it is, and while it's different, it's at least very solid all the way to its conclusion. 

...and that does it for all my coverage of the Heisei Kamen Rider shows! Maybe next year I'll actually finally sit down and pick one of the older shows to do episodic reviews of? We'll see!

Series Review: Kamen Rider Ex-Aid

Kamen Rider Ex-Aid [2016-2017] 

"Mighty Jump! Mighty Kick! Mighty Mighty ACTION! X!"

A bit of a shorter review this time around, but this is a review that I've done several times before but it kept getting eaten by the blog. In any case, due to the subject matter, Ex-Aid has always held a special place in my heart. It's about a doctor gamer!

I actually first discovered Ex-Aid around the time I watched Zi-O. Back then I was just watching whatever my friend recommended me, so I went from Gaim to Build to Faiz to Amazons (and I watched Wizard around this time too), and around that time the currently-running series was Zi-O. So when I saw the Ex-Aid tie-in episode and saw the utterly bizarre giant chibi Kamen Rider that did not look at all like any of the other Kamen Riders before. 

And at which point I decided that this weird-looking motherfucker whose entire concept is a homage to Mario going from a short, chibi version of himself into a stronger one with a power-up is probably the most creative Kamen Rider concept ever. 

And, granted, I do have a slightly inflated opinion of Ex-Aid in general because I really do like the concept. It's a bit of a 'make it or break it' bit on whether you like the aesthetics of the show, but I really do feel that however unapologetically loud everything is does add to a huge charm. The other part of the show that's going to make it or break it is Dan "God" Kuroto, a godsend (heh) to the show, which we'll cover in a bit more detail later on. Ultimately, I find both of these aspects to be really fun, so the show ends up appealing a lot to me. 

Ex-Aid is one of the shows that slowly lead to the closing of the Heisei era, and I feel like it's easily one of the more solid ones. It gets compared a lot with Build, the series that succeeded this and tends to be hailed as one of the most solidly-structured Heisei shows ever plot-wise, and I don't think I can argue against that. One thing that I did like about Ex-Aid, though, is how it really does manage to juggle a large cast and a hilariously wacky concept and still play most of it well -- something that several other Kamen Rider shows didn't really manage to do. 

The show's concept isn't all too different with a lot of the Heisei shows. Our hero, doctor Hojo Emu, is a fledgling intern in Seito University Hospital, but he's also a huge gamer geek who alternates between being the genius video gamer "M" (pronounced identically to 'Emu'). Rather coincidentally, at around the time of his internship, a 'game illness' starts infecting humans and spawns monstrous creatures called Bugsters from the patients' negative emotions -- a very Super Sentai-esque concept to monsters. Emu finds himself drawn into the CR, a secret facility under the hospital, where it's revealed that the hospital employs doctors that use Gashat cartridges to transform into Kamen Riders. 

Yeah, it's ridiculous. It's honestly kind of stupid when I put it into words. Doctors transform into superheroes in jumpsuits with video game cartridges to fight a virus that manifests as giant CGI video game enemies. The fight involves getting power-ups that spawn randomly in the battlefield, and there's really no semblance of any actual science to this. The video game cartridges are even inspired by specific game genres, with Emu's Mighty Action X being a Super Mario platformer pastiche. 

And yet... and yet it's still surprisingly earnest. The first chunk of the show basically introduces us to the relatively large cast. We've got Kagami Hiiro, or Kamen Rider Brave, the arrogant but extremely skilled surgeon who can 'cut anything'. We've got the unlicensed doctor and Doctor Black Jack homage Hanaya Taiga, or Kamen Rider Snipe. We've got the happy-go-lucky and all-around goober of a medical examiner Kujo Kiriya, or Kamen Rider Lazer. All of them start off as one-note quasi-antagonists, but as the show goes on we peel back the layers and backstory behind Hiiro, Taiga and Kiriya and all of them get such good stories behind them that I won't be spoiling here. All of them carry their emotional baggage, and they end up working through their issues thanks to their exposure to Emu. 

Oh, and there's the gloriously-named Poppy Pipopapo, a nurse that turns out to be a colourful bubblegum-coloured friendly video-game Bugster being that helps our CR. These form the core of the cast earlier on, with Brave, Snipe and Lazer taking turns at being the guest star of the week. There is admittedly a bit of a frustration with some of the audiences at the time about how much of an uncommunicative jackass everyone is, but since I came into this show fresh from Gaim and Build, I didn't find it particularly jarring. 

Ultimately, as our heroes end up fighting stronger Bugsters and fight over the mysterious Gashats that allow them power-ups, a lot of these early episodes do a great job at being relatively standalone solid episodic stories, while also building up each individual members of the cast. While all of this is going on we've got two enigmatic sentient Bugsters who walk around in humanoid forms -- Graphite and Parad (sometimes translated as Pallad or Parado). Later on, the good guy cast would be joined by the peppy gamer girl Nico, who ended up basically being unlikely buddies with Snipe. 

(Also, last spoiler warning for huge points in the show, I guess:)

But then things quickly delve around Dan "God" Kuruto, and I believe the enjoyment of this show really revolves around how much you tolerate Kuroto. Initially presented to us as the ultimate shady-yet-very-charismatic man, it's rather surprising to remember just how amazingly subtle Kuroto was early on in the show. While the show makes no secret that his company, Genm Corporation, is the creator of the Gamer Driver and the Gashats -- and the Heisei shows are no stranger to huge companies being behind the Kamen Rider technology of the year -- I do like the slow buildup that Dan Kuroto is secretly pulling the strings behind what's going on. It first begins with rather memetic shots of Dan looking utterly creepy and smiling, but Dan Kuroto would be remembered forevermore by the fandom as one of the biggest scenery-chewing lunatic that other successors would try to ape but not do so quite as well. Kuroto's insane god complex (renaming himself with various Japanese readings of 'god' over the show) is pretty fun, and even though the show does eventually give us a sob backstory for Kuroto,  the show also never really stops in preserving what made him memorable in the first place. There is no way to really describe Dan Kuroto without experiencing him in the show, but his status as the face of Kamen Rider memes is most assuredly well-deserved. 

What really makes Ex-Aid feel rather refreshing is how often the show itself evolves. Just at it seems like it has settled into a rather tame formula, it then shakes things up with the rather early killing of one of its supportive characters, Kujo Kiriya, in what's memorable by the fandom as the biggest WTF moments. Which I adored, since the episode where Kiriya figures out the true villain before getting brutally murdered by Dan Kuroto happens on the back end of a Christmas special that features Emu, Hiiro and Poppy singing a Christmas song. Later episodes of the show do end up exploring a lot about mortality and morality, and while it's still ultimately a show with a happy ending, there are several times in the show where I really did appreciate just how deep they are willing to explore the core themes. 

The show itself went through a bunch of reinvention as well as the main villains change. With Dan Kuroto as the hammy Kamen Rider Genm (particularly when he gets his amazing 'Dangerous Zombie' suit and powers) the show is a bit more straightforward in trying to get our heroes to figure out who the identity of Kamen Rider Genm is, and later on, how to kill him. We get a sequence of episodes which I think is probably my least favourite arc of the show where we discover Emu and Parad's backstory. And later on we get the revelation of the true true aim of what's going on, with a real-life MMORPG called Kamen Rider Chronicle... and then the revelation of the final villain, Kamen Rider Chronos. Throughout all this, we get some really great moments surrounding our main characters. Every single major character -- Poppy, Hiiro, Kiriya and Parad's stand out-- get at least a story arc that will make you quite sad. Without spoiling or detailing too much of the plotline in the best parts of Ex-Aid, there are a lot of points in the show where they really question whether Bugsters even count as people, which is easily the highlight of the show for me. 

And yes, I will go and note that the final couple of arcs are a bit... hit-and-miss. And while Dan Kuroto and Kujo Kiriya's first death and rebirth are handled relatively well, later on and especially near the end of the show, I felt like the show played a bit too deep into the whole 'death is cheap in video games' thing. Add that to the fact that while Dan Masamune/Kamen Rider Chronos is a fun villain in his own right, I felt like the show's huge, huge investment and focus to Dan Kuroto and Parad really meant that Masamune's role as the final antagonist does feel kind of flat in favour of having those two more popular antagonists fight on the side of the angels. 

Another very valid criticism about Ex-Aid is how much of its full story is told via spin-offs and movies, something that Hiiro and Emu's actors even made fun of in an interview. We've got a couple of rather fun but ultimately inconsequential spin-offs (though "Dr. Pac-Man" is still my favourite Kamen Rider movie ever); but after the ending of the Ex-Aid show, we've got the "True Ending" movie, and the trilogy of "Another Ending" mini-movies (Brave/Snipe; Para-DX/Poppy; Genm/Lazer) to truly get the final conclusion of the story. And that's not to mention that there are some technically-canon-to-the-show miniseries like the "Snipe: Episode ZERO" prequel series, the amazing yet bizarre "Gorider" crossover series or the tongue-in-cheek "Tricks" three-parter.

Still, unlike some other shows with a lot of supplementary material, I felt like Ex-Aid's cast and general aesthetic (and the sounds that the belts make!) are so much fun that I never felt like it was a chore to hunt down and consume more Ex-Aid material. I felt like Ex-Aid struck a great balance at having the perfect size of a cast, and having every single main character feel fleshed out... especially seeing how the recent Saber didn't do quite as good of a job at doing so. One thing that I also did like is that Emu's role didn't feel like he was just the everyman. In some shows where the cast is so large, sometimes the main character ends up falling into just being a boring, predictable generic hero guy. Which is, again, what happens to Saber but also arguably to the main heroes in Agito, Ryuki or Gaim to varying degrees. I feel like between his interactions with Poppy and Parad in particular, Emu did end up carving a niche for himself in the show and he ends up being a pretty memorable character by the end of the show. 

Ultimately, even with the slightly messy final batch of episodes, I did feel like Ex-Aid is still one of my favourite Kamen Rider shows overall. If nothing else, it has that consistent quality of wackiness and fun that I do appreciate in a Kamen Rider show.

(I've watched Revice's first two episodes. They're neat! I'm not going to do episodic reviews because I was extremely burned out with Saber. But maybe we'll do the same thing I did for One Piece and do like, five to ten episodes at a time or so?)

Series Review: Kamen Rider Double

Kamen Rider W / Double [2009-2010]

"CYCLONE! JOKER! Now... count up your sins!"

As I slowly round down my review of every single Kamen Rider show, it's these four that I've always placed above all else in my heart, the four that I feel are the most solid ones as a superhero show -- Double, Build, Ex-Aid and Gaim. The latter two certainly have flaws of their own, but these are the four that I feel are the most solid. A good baromenter of how good a show is how quickly they grip you and get you to binge-watch the whole thing, and these four shows simply latch on and never let go. 

Kamen Rider Double (stylized as "W") is everyone's favourite. I don't think I've ever seen anyone who spoke badly of the series, and even Double's detractors acknowledge that it's a solid series with a very solid cast. Double kick-starts what many people refer to as the 'Neo Heisei' or 'Heisei Part 2' series, coming off of ten Heisei series and kickstarting the second half of the Heisei era with ten more shows that have a somewhat different feel and vibe compared to those that have came before. It's hard to quantify what the real differences are since it's a gradual change, but going from Kuuga to Zi-O, you can see just how far and different the series' tones are. 

Coming off the rather poorly-received and cut-short Decade, 2009's Kamen Rider W ran for 49 episodes, had a movie that slotted perfectly into the series canon, the two obligatory crossover movies (with Decade and OOO, the heroes before and after this), two post-episode specials (Accel and Eternal, focusing on side-characters), and W tried -- although admittedly not too hard -- to set up a huge overarching antagonist for the Neo-Heisei period. OOO and Fourze tried to follow up on Foundation X, Neo-Heisei's attempt to create a new big bad, but the creators quickly realized that making each Rider series an unique standalone entity.

Kamen Rider W builds an amazing world and tone for itself, however. Each Rider show does that, having locales and sets that appear in every episode, but drawing off of old-school hardboiled detective novels and becoming essentially an affectionate parody of them, we follow our protagonist, Hidari Shotaro, a cool and smartly-dressed detective with a hat... who is everything but the competent badass he styles himself as. Shotaro is bumbling, too soft and prioritizes saving people, and the show itself continually calls him as a 'half-boiled' detective. He tries his best to be a force of justice in the windy city of Fuuto, where the underground distribution of the USB-like Gaia-Memories is essentially a PG-13 stand-in for drugs. It's actually pretty cool, with the addictive and destructive capabilities of the Gaia Memories leaving a mark on the person's body, and they become addicted and warped by the Gaia Memories into monsters called Dopants. 

The setup is pretty simple, and very much a superhero and anime version of a typical detective show or franchise. After brief glimpses to a mysterious incident in the past that led to the death of the Shotaro's actual hard-boiled mentor Narumi Shokichi, Shotaro ends up trying his best to emulate his mentor alongside the enigmatic Phillip, a mysterious amnesiac young man who has the uncanny ability to access the 'Gaia Library', a strange alternate dimension where Phillip can basically access an entire archive of information in a disembodied dimension of light, allowing him to be the source of information as long as Shotaro can find out the 'keywords' required for his lookup. Rounding up the cast is Narumi Akiko, the daughter of the deceased Shokichi, newcomer to the city and the show's loud-mouthed comedic character who's also there to essentially be the straight man to Shotaro's antics while also having some antics of her own. 

And the trio (and Terui Ryu, who we'll talk about later) essentially form the core and the heart of the show. All three of them have their own eccentricities, have their own self-doubts, but are all still energetic and possessed enough of a sense of justice to want to help the people of Fuuto deal with their problems as well as root out the mysterious organization supplying people with these Gaia Memories. The dichotomy between Shotaro and Phillip is painfully obvious -- Shotaro is extremely kind-hearted and runs around with his heart on his sleeve, but isn't too smart. Phillip, while not quite robotic, is a lot more cold and calculating, but his introvert-ness and refusal to step into the outside world is highlighted as a weakness. Akiko is the bridge between the two, and the three of them are each played seriously but have a neat balance that makes it very natural when they pull off a gag or two. 

And, of course, the most famous gimmick of the show -- Shotaro and Phillip combine into a single entity, Kamen Rider Double. Shotaro tends to be the 'face' of this gestalt form most of the time, but there's just something pretty cool about Phillip and Shotaro both pulling out their respective Cyclone and Joker Gaia Memories, slotting it into the belt, having both USB's teleport into Shotaro's belt, Phillip passing out and them turning into the very, very slick suit that is Kamen Rider Double's default form. "Count up your sins" indeed. 

Soon, a newcomer rounds up the main cast of good guys. Sure, there's a recurring duo of policemen, but Commissioner Gordon or Inspector Lestrade they aren't. And a transfer police, the utterly angry and broody Terui Ryu, ends up with the ability to transform into Kamen Rider Accel. Rightfully angry at having his family brutally and ruthlessly killed by a Dopant with ice powers, Terui is far, far more bloodthirsty than Double, and very nearly executes a young man with similar powers that's not actually the killer of his family -- something that I felt is one of the better-written character arcs in the show. Accel's rage and angst is extremely justified, as is his behaviour... but not what he decides to do with it.

The show follows a pretty simple and even more explicit two-parter episode. If you haven't noticed, 'two' and 'pairs' are the main theme of the show! And a good chunk of what makes Double so successful is, again, the strength of its core cast. Akiko is perhaps the weakest part of the first chunk of episodes, but once she balances out and gets to play off Shotaro, Phillip and eventually the super-serious Ryu, the core quartet of the show is easily one of the most well-done ensembles that I've seen in a tokusatsu show ever.

The main villains of the show turn out to be an organization called Museum, a mysterious organization developing Gaia Memories to sell as weapons to another organization, Foundation X, and they plan to use Fuuto as essentially a testing ground. Shotaro's dead mentor Shokichi (a.k.a. Kamen Rider Skull, his story told in full in movies and tie-in material) and Accel's enigmatic mentor Shroud are all fighting against Museum in their own way. 

Museum's various members, the Sonozaki family, are also surprisingly well-developed even as they vie for prominence and rulership over the organization. The Sonozaki patriarch Ryubee (a.k.a. "Terror") is kind of a generic anime villain, just enigmatic and sticking in the shadows, but he is done well and the rest of the family is so much more interesting. The first Sonozaki that's fought, Ryubee's son-in-law Sudo Kirihiko (a.k.a. "Nasca") is actually an anti-villain of sorts, bonding with Shotaro in their civilian forms over their desire to se) e Fuuto City flourish, and ultimately dies a heroic death. Ryubee's two daughters, Saeko (a.k.a. "Taboo") and Wakana (a.k.a. "Clay Doll") are two of the franchise's most well-developed antagonists for sure. Throw in the enigmatic Smilodon Dopant (he's Mick, a cat!) and the psychotic body-modification scientist dr. Isaka Shinkuro (a.k.a. "Weather"), who is a pretty fun secondary villain. Later in the show, Jun Kazu (Kamen Rider Eternal II) ends up becoming the unquestioningly evil final villain, but he's pretty cool and he's a lot better than a lot of his counterparts.

Without spoiling too much, Saeko ends up originally just set up as the sadistic psychopath but we learn that there's a lot more about her, while Wakana gets torn between her loyalty to her family, her own foul desires, her career as a popular radio host and her odd friendship with Phillip. Wakana's story is actually one of my favourite storylines in this show, and this show has a lot of great developments for its characters. Again, none of the twists are particularly novel, but like every and all good detective story, it's the way we reach the ending and the development of these characters that end up being what we're here for. The Sonozaki's utterly different ideas about their mission, the meaning of life, the meaning of memories and their involvement with Phillip all end up crafting a very, very interesting storyline. Again, all these antagonists and villains feel like actual characters and people way before they've touched a transformation device. 

There's an interesting, fun sense of 'back to basics, but with a twist'. The idea of the main plot of the villains being shadowy organizations trying to make powerful super-soldiers is very much the original intent of the Showa Kamen Riders. I really do like the very sleek but original vibe of the half-and-half rider, with its scarf and the transformation involving the winds of the city coming together. When we get to see Kamen Rider Joker, he, too, looks amazing in his sleekness and simplicity. Even in his alternate forms, the simplicity of Double's design isn't compromised, which isn't something I can say about the... iffy Saber designs more recently. There are gimmicks and weird powers, of course, especially the 'Joker Maximum Drive' or anything involving Luna, or Accel's own ability to turn into a bike, but by and by, the suits, even the somewhat-glittery super form Double X-treme and the goofy fact that they put a hat on Skull, are all handled amazingly well. 

Also, I love whoever they got to voice all of the English words in the Gaia Memories. "JOKER! Maximum do-rive!"

Double is also the show that, I feel, manages its side-projects amazingly well. The Gaia Memories of Fate A-Z and the W/Decade movies aren't necessary viewing for the show, yet it adds so much context to Shokichi (a.k.a. Kamen Rider Skull) and makes the world feel bigger while still being a standalone movie in its own right. The side-material like the crossovers, the Accel and Eternal special, all add to the side-characters, but for the most part all the major plot threads in the story like Phillip's identity, the fall of Museum, and Kamen Rider Double fighting against the Foundation X agents are all self-contained. Seeing just how utterly messy Ex-Aid is with half of its spinoffs being essentially required viewing, it's very refreshing! 

Again, I don't really want to make these stories into a summary of the show's plot and a dissection of the characters. But Kamen Rider W, in terms of action, vibe, mood and characterization, remains to this day one, if not the, most solid Kamen Rider shows I've ever watched. Even all the way to the end! There's perhaps a lot of merit to say that maybe the show would have a more powerful ending without that final scene and that it should've ended better halfway through episode 49... but I like the show very well as it is. 

Series Review: Kamen Rider Drive

Kamen Rider Drive [2014-2015]

"OKAY! Start your engine!"

Insert your own "Kamen Driver" joke here. Haha, this Kamen Rider rides a car instead of a motorbike, how is he a Kamen Rider, haha. I mean, after we've gotten an oni Kamen Rider, one whose sidecar turns into a giant robot, Kone that rides a bike attached to a time-travelling train, one whose bike transforms into a vending machine, and Kamen Rider Accel, who just straight-up turns into a bike... is a car that much different? Drive isn't even the first Kamen Rider to use a car, that honour goes to Black RX. Post-Double very few of these Kamen Riders really use their motorbikes anyway.

Kamen Rider Drive is released in 2014, right after Gaim, and... and it's a show that I actually ignored for the longest time. Not that I dislike it or anything, but I just wasn't motivated to watch it. I saw the Drive cast both in the crossover movies for Gaim and Ghost when I went through those two series, and... I just wasn't particularly enthused with it. The show itself, though, was pretty fun when I eventually got to it. Drive was the final 'Neo-Heisi' show that I watched, I believe, either this or OOO. And... and for the most part, I don't have much of an impression either way for Drive. I certainly like it, but not enough to sing praises about it like I do some of my favourites. For the most part, what made Drive work for me are the strength of its secondary characters -- Shijima Go/Mach, Chase, and especially near the end of the show, the three primary Roidmudes Heart, Brain and Medic. Not that the main cast are terrible or unlikable! They're fun, they just... don't really leave much of an impression on me, sorry. 

Kamen Rider Drive's vibe is a fair bit more sci-fi inspired compared to the two series directely preceding it (Gaim and Wizard) as well as the one immediately after it (Ghost), and I do like the amount of world-building in this cop show. Because, yes, Drive's whole gimmick is that it is also supposed to be like a Japanese cop show... something those subtleties and parodies fly over most non-Japanese audience's head. Like me. And I acknowledge that it's a me problem and not the show's problem, but it does make a lot of the police-department scenes feel a lot more bland. 

The show's premise is pretty fun, since it involves one of those "there was a huge event prior to the beginning of the show", something that other series like Agito, Zero-One, Wizard, Kabuto and Build all manage to utilize to a great degree. In Drive's case, it's an incident called the 'Global Freeze', an incident where all time seemed to slow down while mysterious artificial robotic lifeforms called Roidmudes wreaked havoc in the city, only to be stopped by a mysterious figure called a Kamen Rider. And a bunch of sentient toy cars called Shift Cars. Our hero, police officer Tomari Shinnosuke, was investigating a case and the Global Freeze caused him to injure his partner during the whole time-freezing thing. 

And a good chunk of the show's early episodes focuses a bit on this. Shinnosuke's whole deal is that he's lost his motivation and is spending so much of his time just not doing anything. Or, to put it simply, he's "lost his drive" to do anything. As part of the Special Crimes Unit, Shinnosuke and his partner, the more no-nonsense lady Shijima Kiriko, end up being thrust into the return of the monstrous Roidmudes. With no way to fight the 'heavy acceleration' phenomenon caused by the presence of the Roidmudes, Shinnosuke ends up encountering a sentient, talking belt, who contains the digitized brain of the scientist Krim Steinbelt (what an ironic comic book superhero name), or, as we learn to call him, Belt-san. As an atoner who was one of the co-creators of the Roidmudes, Belt-san allows Shinnosuke access to him as a transformation belt, but also to the Shift Cars, as well as the powerful car whose parts can turn into Kamen Rider Drive's weapons, the Tridoron 3000. And thus was born Kamen Rider Drive. It's just a bit of a shame that after the initial "I got my drive back" storyline, he's essentially relegated to the relatable generic hero role. That does make him play off Kiriko, Go, Chase and Heart very well, but it also means that I am really struggling to think of what Shinnosuke is like a person. 

There are a bunch of other supporting characters, but they are mostly one-note and the show focuses primarily on Shinnosuke and Kiriko as they investigate the creation of the Roidmudes, the Global Freeze, and take on the 108 Roidmudes, all of which seek to achieve some 'promised number' to be the dominant species on Earth. The early episodes also have the idea that every single Shift Car is alive and sentient as they fly around the screen on edited-out strings, and you even have two-parters involving little Hot Wheels cars having an angsty police drama while the actors hold and talk to these tiny cars. It's an interesting gimmick, but they dropped it entirely around halfway through, something that I felt was a bit odd. At least in Ghost, they stuck with the idea that each collectible toy is also a character in its own right. The heavy acceleration gimmick, at least, they stuck with for a good chunk of the series, and gives the Drive enemy monsters a neat vibe. 

The series doesn't actually really kickstart until we meet the two secondary riders of the show, though. Shijima Go, Kiriko's loud-mouthed brother and the hilariously over-the-top Kamen Rider Mach (or MAH-ha! as he announces it), and the somber, enigmatic emo "reaper of the roidmudes" called Mashin Chaser or Chase. Both characters progress a lot through the story and I would say that they are the heart and soul of the show moreso than Shinnosuke himself, who feels more like the catalyst behind Chase and Go's development more than the actual main character. Go gets to learn to be mature, but it took a while for him to realize that the Roidmudes are more than just mindless xenophobic killing machines -- something that Shinnosuke and Kiriko learned pretty quickly. Meanwhile, Chase has the exact opposite reaction. Essentially a robot with no emotions, he finds strange human emotions welling up inside him as he begins to befriend Kiriko and later Shinnosuke, eventually leading to easily the best 'evil rider becomes good' story that I don't think any other Rider show before or after has ever done quite as smoothly. 

The villains of the show are also pretty fun, although they admittedly do take some time before they become truly characters of their own. The three main long-running Roidmudes Brain, Heart and Medic show up pretty early on, but for the most part they settle into pretty basic toku-villain tropes. Heart is the handsome one with spiky hair and a clear 'main villain' vibe. Brain is the smart one, but also kind of immature. Medic is the girl, all ufufufu. Oh, and Medic and Brain continually fight over Drive's affections as his main right-hand Roidmude, and this does provide with some entertainment mostly due to how hammy Brain's actor Matsushima Shota can be, particularly regarding that handkerchief. While they were pretty disappointing early on and (spoiler alert) their role gets jacked by an even bigger threat in the final ten episodes or so, they end up growing so likable and fun that when these three bickering assholes start actually working with the good guys and jumping in the way of bullets to save their friends, you really feel for Brain and Medic's respective major dramatic scenes near the end of the show. For a trio that I initially felt were a weaker ripoff of villain ensembles done better in other shows (they give me strong Greeed vibes initially) they really do come to their own and become pretty likable characters. 

Whether intentionally or not, Drive as a show does take things pretty slowly in its first half, focusing mostly on standalone two-parters and slowly building up the huge Chase redemption moment. But in a surprising twist on how most Kamen Rider shows go, it actually hits on the accelerator and gets a huge boost in tightening up its storytelling, stakes and character work in the second half of the show. A lot of the revelations about the true main villain, Gold Drive/Banno Tenjuro (Belt-san's old comrade and the father of Go and Kiriko) are delivered and paced surprisingly well -- some other Rider shows do admittedly have the weakness of making exposition about their plot uninteresting or rushed. 

Unfortunately, it's just that... Gold Drive is a supremely hateable dick of a villain, but he's just not that interesting. His plan makes some sense, and I do like his rivalry with his son Go, and I adore his final moments, but... Gold Drive (and his creation Sigma) feels more like a way to get the three good Kamen Riders and the three Roidmudes the audience is attached to to fight against a common enemy. The ending of the show is pretty solid from a narrative standpoint, and there's no part of it that felt rushed or cheated (unnecessary Kamen Rider Ghost cameo notwithstanding), but the fact that I spent the final episode going "man I wish Heart had more time to shine as the main villain". Characters die left and right near the final stretch of the episodes, and just like its predecessor Gaim, the show manages to make each loss and death feel impactful and make you realize just how much they've imprinted themselves in your hearts. 

And let's talk about more weaknesses of the show, because I have been praising it a lot. Shinnosuke being slightly flat is a bit of a problem, but I feel like his interactions with other main leads Go, Chase and Heart does work well with Shinnosuke being relatively mature and level-headed. It's just that his primary character arc -- finding his 'drive' in the world -- gets resolved very quickly in the show, and up until the final couple of episodes he ends up being pretty much stable as the more mature protagonist in contrast to the other main riders and antagonists... which also has the unfortunate side effect of him feeling somewhat more static in the middle portion of the show. He's still likable, but I do wish that he'd gotten a bit more. (On the other hand, one would argue that this is the reason why Mach and Drive are so strongly realized, so it's kind of a balancing act)

A bigger problem, however, is Kiriko. She doesn't quite fall into the "utterly incompetent damsel in distress female cop" that plagues poor Rinko from Wizard, and Kiriko gets to be a badass a lot, but after the first ten or twenty episodes her role is significantly diminished. There's no real reason why she doesn't get a rider form despite the show teasing us many times, and ultimately there's not even any huge drama between her and her father, the main villain of the show. A lot of Go and Chase's character development revolves around protecting her, but Kiriko herself regrettably remains utterly flat throughout the show. She's still likable, for sure, but I really do wish that they did more with her. After his backstory parts are over, Krim Steinbelt also basically gets reduced to getting an obligatory line or two every episode, which I felt could've been done better. 

I've also talked a bit about the comedy, but... a lot of it just doesn't work. It's not a huge part of the show, and later on we go into more traditional stuff like Brain and Medic's antics or Chase's lack of understanding of human emotions and society, but the police comedy stuff... yeah, it's not for me. 

The suits in this show is a bit of a mixed bag for me. I really, really like some of them. Drive base form, Drive Tridoron form, Mach, Mashin Chaser, Brain and Medic are all very good, but a lot of the tire power-ups and the middle alternate forms just feel awkward and clunky (I particularly don't care for Type Technic and Type Formula), and as much as I adore the character, I can't help but feel that Kamen Rider Chaser is a huge step-down from the badassery of Mashin Chaser. Also, as fun as the tire power-ups are, Drive is going to be the start of one-off minor-change alternate forms that are heavily advertised early on in the show, and almost never used later on -- the same problem that I argue also plagues Ghost, Ex-Aid, Build, Zi-O and Zero-One. 

I'm actually surprised at the amount of spin-offs that Drive has (one of them even offers a conclusion to Kamen Rider Faiz of all things), but a lot of them are neat little explorations of the original Global Freeze, the backstories of some characters, and the sequel trilogy movies (the Chaser/Heart/Mach trilogy special) is an interesting way to cap off a lot of the dangling side characters.

Ultimately, Kamen Rider Drive is very solid. There's nothing for me to really complain about ultimately that ruins my enjoyment of the show. It's just that Drive doesn't really do anything particularly spectacularly. Great characterization, great action, great drama. Still, a solid, fun Rider show that I will definitely recommend. 

Series Review: Kamen Rider Ryuki

Kamen Rider Ryuki [2002-2003] 

"Advent."

Here is another show that everyone seems to love! I feel like whenever I see someone recommending a solid, good Kamen Rider show, Double,  Kuuga and Ryuki are always pretty high on everyone's lists. Ryuki is the archetypal 'riders fight riders' show, something that everyone will note that shows like Blade, Gaim, Kabuto and pretty much every single show in the past five yeras have danced around with. As the third show in the Heisei era, Ryuki was done apparently with the principle that 'your justice might not be the world's justice', showing that in this Rider Battle, there are some people who call themselves Kamen Riders and fight for a cause that might not actually be a right cause to fight for. 

From a Doylist point of view, Ryuki is when Toei finally gave in and allowed the title "Kamen Rider" to be slapped onto villains and not make it quite as exclusive. It is, after all, far more marketable to sell "Kamen Rider Ouja" and "Kamen Rider Gai" merchandise than "Shadow Moon", "Heart Roidmude" or "Horse Oprhnoch" as much as anyone who has watched those shows would tell you that they are far more important than some other riders in their respective shows. 

Marketing aside, though, Ryuki is a pretty fun show to go through. It's the first to break through the admittedly pretty short duo of Kuuga and Agito of having a relatively similar looking feel of being a quasi-supernatural show with ancient artifacts. The concept of Ryuki is pretty interesting, and one that, while feeling somewhat repetitive nowadays, is definitely fresh for the franchise at the time. In the setting of Ryuki, there has been a lot of missing people that the audience see get abducted by monstrous beings from mirrors, and our main character, ORE Journal reporter Kido Shinji, gets sucked into one of these mirror worlds during an investigation. He quickly finds himself discovering a bizarre 'Advent Deck', and with the reluctant help of Akiyama "Kamen Rider Knight" Ren, Shinji ends up finding himself involved in this mirror world as he accidentally makes a 'pact' with a giant CGI robot dragon and becomes Kamen Rider Ryuki when he tries to protect innocent lives from all the monsters. 

Poor Shinji finds himself way over his head when he realizes what this 'Rider Battle' is all about, though. In a very anime-esque way, some higher power have given out these advent decks out to thirteen Kamen Riders (only around ten appear in the show, with the others only showing up in specials and movies), and these Kamen Riders have to fight to the death in a Battle Royale style Rider Battle, and the winner will have their wish granted. Again, something that feels pretty fantasy anime-esque and some of the concepts here have been repeated in other subsequent Rider shows (Blade and Decade borrows the card aspect; Wizard borrows the contract beast aspect) but, again, Ryuki itself does a pretty great job at keeping everything pretty fresh. Though I will say that it's kind of a shame that the creepiness of the mirrors and a mirror world tends to be downplayed after the first dozen episodes or so -- the mirror world ends up just being a convenient place for our heroes to run wild and blow shit up without causing a large amount of casualties. 

The main set of characters are pretty solid, and I would daresay that the pair of Shinji and Ren actually ends up defining the archetypal primary rider/secondary rider for much of the Heisei era. Shinji is kind of dumb, sort of clueless about everything that's going on, but is so positive and earnest about his desire to stop the 'tatakae' (fight!) and is basically a naive, positive influence thrust into a cast of characters that are cynical at best and outright murderous at worst. As the secondary rider, Akiyama Ren, meanwhile, is aloof, a bit of a jerk, contemptuous of our main character and knows more than our main hero, but ultimately gets infected by Shinji's positive attitude and warms up a lot. Plus, Ren's reason as to why he feels it's justifiable to kill the other Riders in the Rider Battle is to revive his comatose girlfriend, something that he feels absolutely guilty due to the events that led up to it. And Kanzaki Yui, the main female character... she's kind of there? She's heavily involved in the backstory of the Rider Battle, and she interacts a fair bit with Shinji, but I can't help but feel like she's one of those characters whose inclusion to the story is more of an afterthought. 

Rounding up the main cast of primary riders would be the show's most entertaining and violent villain, the snake-skin jacketed serial killer Asakura Takeshi, Kamen Rider Ouja, easily one of the most reprehensible people to walk around with the title 'Kamen Rider'. On the other side of the spectrum, the sometimes-antagonist, sometimes-ally is the older lawyer gentleman, Kitaoka Shuichi, Kamen Rider Zolda, who is the epitome of a lovable jackass. A bit of a flirt, a bit of an opportunist, clearly loving money and influence more, Kitaoka (and his butler/servant Yura Goro) nevertheless ends up being roped into Shinji and Ren's more kind-hearted plots, although it's a bit of a coin toss what Kitaoka will do because he, like Ren, has a reason that he's fighting for because he wants to win the Rider Battle. 

Having watched the very multiple-Rider-heavy Gaim and Build before this one, it's actually very refreshing to see just how much the series focuses on the four primary dudes -- Ryuki, Knight, Zolda and Ouja. Sure, the six other riders that show up in the show do hang around for a bit, and there are moments where characters like Gai, Raia and Imperer sort of hang out and muck around for a huge battle royale, but for the most part the cast is limited to the four main characters and maybe one other secondary member of the cast. 

And for the most part, a good chunk of the show revolves around the phrase 'fight' (tatakae, as it's often rendered in memes). As is, what's the reason for fighting? Ryuki himself notes that he doesn't care about what the magic wish or the reason behind the Rider Battle existing is. Knight has a fervent goal that he fights for and he doesn't care if he damns himself for it. Zolda is more flippant and self-absorbed, but he, too, is fighting for a goal... and there's Ouja, who just uses the Rider Battle for an excuse to murder the shit out of people. The other seondary Riders have their own reasons. Plus, there is Yui's brother, the enigmatic Kanzaki Shiro and his other cohorts that act as minor arc villains, too, all have their own reasons. 

And that, I feel, is the best part of the show. Shinji, Ren, Asakura and Kitaoka are all very well-rounded characters, and while there's always a significant distance that Asakura keeps from the rest of the cast (being a reprehensible psychopath and all) the other three interact very, very well with each other and I'm an absolute huge fan of them. It's even better when some of the more well-realized secondary riders get tossed into the rider battle. Some are sort of one-off antagonists (Kamen Rider Scissors is basically a starter antagonist that gets killed off early just to show the horrors of the Rider Battle; and Kamen Rider Odin is an enigma wrapped in a mystery), but for the most part the show gets a lot of mileage playing the characters off against our main cast. 

Take, for instance, Kamen Rider Raia, Tezuka Miyuki (Ultraman Azul!), an oddball of a fortune teller that ends up helping Shinji out a fair bit before reinforcing just how brutal the Rider Battle is while being obsessed with changing the 'fate' that only he understands. Or Kamen Rider Gai, Shibaura Jun, a sociopath who delights in seeing all this as a game, but is very much willing to play the good guy ally to fool Shinji. Or the whole Tojo Satoru/Kamen Rider Tiger arc, which revolves around the poor dude and his desire to be accepted by his mentor, one of the people indirectly responsible for the Rider Battle. Or Sano Mitsuru, Kamen Rider Imperer, a person with such a warped upbringing that he believes that friendship and alliances are commodities to be bought and sold. They aren't counted as Kamen Riders, but the Alternatives are pretty fun arc villains for the short time they show up in the show. Again, all of these characters have their own reasons of fighting, they have their own reasons for Shinji to befriend and distrust, and it's very, very fun to see Shinji interact with them and basically mature throughout the course of the story.

One of the more interesting parts of the show is just how interesting Shinji Kido himself is... in that he's actually not a very good fighter, especially compared to how effortlessly powerful compared to other riders other main riders like Agito, Gaim, Kabuto, Blade and Build end up becoming over the course of their shows. He's not shown to be weak and has his share of monster-destroying kicks, but while it's not particularly on-the-nose, the show pretty distinctively shows off that Knight, Ouja and Zolda are far more experienced and far more willing to use more bloodthirsty methods to take out their prey compared to our good sweet nice protagonist Shinji. And yet Shinji still manages to be easily one of the most interesting members of the cast specifically because of this vulnerability and his staunch and naively positive outlook on life. A lot of observations has been done about Ryuki's story as a whole, with some noting that Shinji's role ends up becoming more of a 'voice of conscience' for Ren and Kitaoka, with the two of them being the characters with a reason to fight... and I honestly could totally see this story being framed as being Ren's story, and it just bills Shinji and Ren equally. 

There are some facets of the show that doesn't work quite as well, for sure. The Mirror Monsters end up basically being distractions while Shinji and the audience slowly learns about the rules of the Rider Battle. While they were not completely dropped, the Contract Monsters also feel somewhat underused; other than the brief subplot with Ouja's Genocider and both Shinji and Ren unlocking their Survive super forms, they are kind of handwaved aside. 

Especially early on, there's a lot of stuff with the ORE Journal side characters (which are wholly unmemorable) but it is another facet that gets dropped pretty quickly. I am especially not a fan of the handling of Kamen Rider Odin and primary antagonist Kanzaki Shiro... that Odin episode was absolutely badass and cool, but I feel like a lot of the revelations about the vague reality-breaking powers of Odin and the origins of the Rider Battle and Mirror world is sort of handwave-y. I think a bunch of details about the nature of Odin and the Rider Battle isn't even explained adequately in the show, and it's through word of the producers and spinoffs that they were made clearer. Thankfully, a lot of these are sort of relegated near the end of the series, and while I wouldn't say that Ryuki has the best conclusion... it's actually one of the better ones compared to a lot of other Rider shows. And, well, if you don't like the ending, Ryuki actually has several. 

Without spoiling that Huge Thing (tm) that happens in the penultimate episode, Ryuki has a bit of a alternate-splinter-timeline thing going on with the Rider Battle. In addition to the final episode of the TV series, we've got "Ryuki: Episode Final", a movie that serves as an alternate ending for the series; "Special: 13 Riders", a weird alternate retelling retelling of the Rider Fight with a completely different beginning and ending; and as recently as 2019, "Rider Time: Kamen Rider Ryuki", a three-part special tie-in to Zi-O that tosses the entire cast of Ryuki, even the dead ones, gets resurrected to continue playing this Rider Battle game, featuring nearly the entire main cast reprising their roles. It's a bit of a cop-out considering what a surprising (and very divisive) ending the actual TV series has, but ultimately I did feel like the actual series' ending might be one of the more poignant endings of others. Oh, and these side-movies feature the other 'missing' Kamen Riders from the lineup, with Kamen Riders Femme, Verde and Ryuga showing up in the former two specials.

Again, Ryuki is one of those shows that is a bit hard to talk about without spoiling specific moments in the series, but I feel like it strikes the perfect balance between a grimmer storytelling without losing sight of the optimism that the franchise is meant to be championing. I feel like I didn't quite get the hype of Ryuki when I first watched through it, but looking back at it, I feel like it's actually easily one of my favourite Rider series out there; it just stumbles quite a bit near the end. It's not perfect, but Ryuki is remarkably consistent in the themes and the stories it wants to tell from start to finish, which is certainly not something the next four entries in the Heisei era can claim. Slightly overhyped, but definitely a series that deserves the crown the fandom has placed upon it.

Series Review: Kamen Rider Den-O

Kamen Rider Den-O [2007-2008]

"I... have arrived!"

Ah, Den-O, Den-O, Den-O. How do I even begin to talk about this series? It's the Kamen Rider series that feels the most... the most like a gag anime, and I am saying that with all the love and respect for all the gag anime in the world. I watched Den-O pretty early on, and it's probably the... sixth or seventh show that I completed. And... and it sure is something!

Den-O is easily the biggest success that the Kamen Rider franchise has had in any singular series, considering by the titanic amount of spin-off movies and OVA's that the colourful cast of Den-O has had (to wit, it's got eight movies that stars or co-stars Den-O, a handful of OVA's, and a whole ton of cameos in other crossover movies). Even when the older riders show up in an Ex-Aid or OOO or Gaim or Zi-O special or something, it's always the Den-O cast that gets more dialogue compared to the other riders. Part of it is, admittedly, due to how easy it is to get the Den-O cast going since you technically just need the suit actors and voice actors. It really cannot be stated just how much you can't watch any huge crossover specials without bumping into the pointy-headed loud-mouthed oni that is Momotaros and the rest of the Den-O cast. 

And Den-O is a show that is a lot more light-hearted, but also one with its own unique vibe. It's one that some (like Fourze) argue doesn't "fit" the Kamen Rider aesthetic, but the Kamen Rider franchise is a children's show and a toy advertisement first and foremost... and I certainly had a huge time and a blast watching Den-O. 

The first dozen episodes are a bit more introductory as we're introduced to the cast. Nogami Ryotaro is a very kind-hearted but extremely unlikely man, with his very first appearance involving him getting his bike stuck on top of a tree. Oh yeah, this is that kind of gag anime show. However, a mysterious humanoid oni monster seemingly made out of sand possesses him after talking about granting him a wish, and the appearance of a mysterious girl Hana ends up dragging Ryotaro in a world with time-traveling dream-sand monsters called Imagin, and an enigmatic train with equally enigmatic staff. Ryotaro finds himself to be a 'Singularity Point', a person whose memories exist independently of time and is unaffected to changes in the timeline. Momotaros, meanwhile, is a rogue Imagin, wish-granting monsters that can time-travel. By possessing Ryotaro, Momotaros is able to transform into Den-O (lit. train king/electric king), a Kamen Rider that beats up enemies with loud, energetic boasts and catchphrases and a hovering sword blade. One of the Den-O's, anyway. 

Because, as you can quickly realize by the 'possession' dynamic, Momotaros isn't the only Imagin that gets recruited to the party. Quickly, one after the other, three more Imagin get roped into sharing Ryotaro's body as a Singularity Point and making contracts with him. Three other Imagin get roped into the main cast -- the silver-tongued womanizer Urataros; the traditional scrappy samurai-esque Kintaros; and the sociopathic trigger-happy loon Ryutaros. With his mentor Hana (later recasted and transformed into a younger form, Kohana, due to real-life problems), the enigmatic fried-rice eating Owner, and the chipper coffee-making Naomi (played by the main girl from Agito!), that's the primary crew of the Denliner, the train of time. 

There's also the civilian cast in 2007, which initially seems like they're just there for typical civilian hostage situations or gags, but turns out that Ryotaro's amnesiac sister Airi has something to do with the events that caused all of the Singularity Points and time traveling shenanigans to happen. Around one-third of the way through the series, the prickly time-traveler Sakurai Yuuto and his delightful companion Deneb shows up, and basically fills up the missing part of the main cast. Yuuto, in addition to being a delightful character whose development and defrosting is one of the better parts of the series, also helps to bring in the show's mysteries and plot to a bit of a head. 

(Oh yeah, Ryotaro has a fifth Imagin, the prince-bird Sieg, but he really only shows up for like, four or five episodes.)

And when you talk about how much the Heisei Kamen Riders love their catchphrases... Den-O loves it to a fault. "I have arrived!" "This is the climax!" "This is my secret killer technique!" "Mind if I reel you in?" "My strength has made you cry!" "Mind if I beat you? Can't hear your answer!" "Let me warn you for a start, I am really strong!" It gets annoying initially, then it gets charming, then the show gets some amazing moments where some of these goofy-ass catchphrases become great moments of writing. 

And that's the whole show, really. There is a plot and a mystery behind Yuuto, Airi, the strange double-hatted man, and there's supposed to be a main villain called Kai or some shit, but let's just say that no one really talks about the mystery when they talk about Den-O. It's more of an excuse plot to put the primary six or seven characters through some emotional stories.

The main selling point of the series, more than any other show? Its characters. The sheer strength of the characters and their interactions with each other. And sure, bringing very talented suit actors and voice actors to voice half the cast does mean that a lot of the performances for the five primary Imagin as utterly genuine, particularly in the second half of the series where they've nailed the chemistry of the four bickering Denliner Imagin and the happy Deneb. They feel like a family, they feel like a bunch of friends, and the show's themes of memories sticking with you fits well with the show itself favouring the antics and character interactions of its cast. 

And not to knock the performances of any of the actors -- Nakamura Yuichi's portrayal as Sakurai Yuuto was amazing, and both Shiratori Yuriko and Matsumoto Tamaki's different Hanas make you truly believe that they're the same person. But the lynchpin of a show like this has to be its leading man, Takeru Sato, who not only regularly plays the nebbish, skittish Ryotaro Nogami, but also him as he is possessed by the four Imagin. Sure, it mostly just involves hair gel, hair dye and contact lenses, but all four primary 'possessions' of Ryotaro are utterly distinct, and it sells the fact that the oni man or the turtle man is taking possession of the body. And it might seem gimmicky to you, and it kind of is... but it's also done exceedingly well that I was actually surprise to see how utterly seamless it is. 

The format of Den-O itself as a show also lends itself to its success, I feel. I watched these shows out of order from their broadcast date, but someone pointed it out to me online, and I ended up realizing that Den-O was the first show to properly popularize the "two-parter" system. Monsters being stretched for two episodes is already done in Hibiki and Kabuto, but this is probably the one that ensures that each two-parter has it's own story separate from the 'bigger picture'. Each major story is told with a single monster type across two episodes, each of them being a self-contained story. It allows solid character arcs for all of our characters, making it have a more episodic-anime feel. To wit, nearly every single Heisei show after Den-O other than the explosively popular Gaim copied the format. The two-parter format acts as a detriment to some of Den-O's successors (its most immediate one, Kiva, suffered terribly for trying to shoehorn Den-O's formula in a show where it doesn't really work) but it works amazingly for Den-O in making sure that the focus of the show, and the audience, is its characters. 

And while the episodes might be standalone and doofy, just like Fourze, the characters themselves grow closer to each other. Momotaros, Urataros and Yuuto all defrost and drop a lot of their jackass facade over the series; Ryutaros matures; and most importantly Ryotaro Nogami himself grows from a little spineless chew-toy of the universe into someone that is ready to stand up as something more than just a vessel for the four badasses in the train, leading to a great focus on the super form they call the 'Liner Form'. I absolutely love it when a 'power-up' doesn't just turn into a toy advert on how this is so much more powerful than the previous form, but actually represents a huge turn in the character's own personal growth. 

And... yes, there's a plot. There's a plot that I honestly don't feel guilty for saying that it's kind of shit. The Yuuto/Airi/Mystery Man mystery is dragged out for so long and at one point it just becomes obvious. So is Hana's identity, and the reveal is at least handled decently well. Kai as an antagonist doesn't feel threatening at all, and the master plan doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You just shrug and accept all the monologues about Junction Points and Singularity Points and the train tracks of time and deleted futures and whatnot, because what you really here for is to see if Ryotaro, Hana, Yuuto and the Imagin get out of it okay. And... and it's a very kiddy show, and of course they do, but the earnest acting, the great scripting and the great music all do an amazing job at making this a great time.

Speaking of which... the music! I seldom mention the music in Kamen Rider beyond 'hey it's good' or 'hey this one is a banger', but Den-O has an amazing way of having different genres of music correspond to the four main Imagin, all of which fit very well with their personalities. It's simple as hell, but at the same time it's also done so well and builds up the mood for these main characters well. And, of course, the fact that you actually start caring for these characters ends up being central to the show's theme of "memories is time" and all that jazz. It's very cheesy, but, again, the show's earnestness makes it work. 

The action scenes are pretty fun. It's over-the-top with loud catchphrases and Momotaros yelling "hissatsu" and "KURAIMAKKUSU" every other moment, but it's lovable, and the Den-O suit and its transforming armour parts that facilitates the four basic forms is actually very fun to look at while being pretty simple. Unfortunately, and especially early on, the show does try to have a bizarre CGI battle to have the Denliner's bizarre carriages pull out weird weapons against a giant monster. This sort of gets dropped but not really, and I've never been a fan of it because of how awkward it looks. Although... it's par the course, and the utter ridiculousness of how they play "the cockpit of the train has a motorbike attached to it as a steering wheel" bit just so that they can call this a Kamen Rider show is delightful.

And... that's Den-O. It's a fun show. It's a silly show. The time travel is more of an excuse plot to pit the good guys against the bad guys, and the anime logic sometimes do get silly (like what bad luck does to Ryotaro; Airi's devil-witch cooking; Deneb's candies; Ryutaros's ability to summon break-dancers out of thin air) but the show is so, so lovable on its entirety that it really isn't hard to see why it's so popular, and why the marketing team and future writers for subsequent Rider series try to capitalize on any excuse to show the fun adventures of the Den-O cast. 

A great show, despite the fact that all of the spinoffs are a bit more questionable. It's not a show that's going to explain everything about its plot (and its attempts to suck) but it's one with a pretty suit, a lot of great developments for the characters, and such a great mood. I recommend Den-O and Fourze to anyone who's just feeling down, or need some sort of a palate cleanser after the more depressing or the more terribly-edited Rider shows. No wonder the franchise itself jumps on every opportunity to give the Denliner cast a bit of a role any time they can. They just bring joy and energy to the screen! It's easy to pinpoint what makes Den-O great -- the journey and the time-tripping ride itself.