Kamen Rider Den-O is very silly. This can be interpreted in many ways. It contains an absolutely hilarious protagonist in Ryoutarou, with the energy I can only describe as "sad wet dog". The allies Ryoutarou gains along the way are all fun in their own way and they have a great, silly chemistry to them. Deneb is an adorable character. Den-O is very much carried by its characterization and its strong, well-written humor.

That being said, it has very many flaws in its writing of the plot. Spoilers Ahead.




There really isn't much of a plot. The series is, a large majority of the time, 2-parters where the group deals with a monster that goes into the past. There is a mystery that is introduced near the beginning of the series and does not truly elaborate on the mystery until the last few episodes. I was hoping even a little crumb of lore would be given, but the characters themselves even have issue talking about the plot. The villain introduced is very... Odd. I think the character has potential, and there are things about him that work, but at the end of the day he is introduced so soon it feels very sudden to finally have a single, solid villain. Overall, the series pushes too much of its plot into the very very back end and doesn't really give enough solid, story-changing lore throughout the series proper to say it has a gripping story.

Overall, I do think Den-O is very fun, but if you're getting into a Kamen Rider series for a strong/interesting plot like you'd find in Geats, Ryuki, or Build, you'll be thinking something is sorely missing from this entry.