Catch The Wave!

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.

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Don't Say No, Just Watch More!

Getting past the silly concept of "Fruit Samurai", and despite the awkward, way-too-long dance scenes that happen early in the show, Gaim is a stellar entry into the Kamen Rider franchise. The characters here are written with great depth and are very interesting. The fight choreography is good and the suit designs are great. Oren Pierre Alphonso is one of my favorite characters in any Kamen Rider series. I do have to say it has its issues though. It frequently has to find time to insert crossovers to other things such as upcoming movies - between important plot points they will arbitrarily add in weird moments for the sake of making these things episodes. On top of that, watching the group dance is strange. It's like they wanted to do something like Sega's Jet Set Radio franchise, but they couldn't show their protagonists doing something illegal like spray painting, but they still wanted that "street" feeling, so they put in these silly dance scenes. However, you're gonna want to stick around to see the great way the characters develop through the series, the cool suit designs, and the interesting twists and turns of the plot. Amazing stuff!

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DRAW! RIDER CARD!

Kamen Rider Ryuki is a fun watch. I wouldn't necessarily call it perfect - the moments of levity feel a lot like Agito before it, which is a series I do not particularly like. I found, especially early on, the moments of the characters interacting with each other were kind of making me feel secondhand embarrassment rather than humor over the situation. I'm also not big on the suit designs in this series, especially the main character's. However, Ryuki is still a very good story when analyzed as a whole. Interesting concepts and characters, a solid character-driven story, a neat gimmick in the belts and transformations of the series. It's a series I have a lot of respect towards and one that I can look back on fondly, but can also recall the many times throughout the series that I found myself sort of let down by the ways characters interacted being a bit annoying. It's not perfect, but it is definitely a huge step up compared to the story before it in the early Heisei catalogue.

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Has Its Demons, But Lives With It

Kamen Rider Revice is a lot of fun. Despite being an anniversary series, it can be easily watched without prior knowledge of the other Kamen Riders that proceeded it, with it at most showing homage to these past Riders in their suit designs. The story itself is mixed - it kinda drags, and some of the arcs that happen can be less engaging than others. But the interpersonal drama is very well written and the concepts of inner demons are approached in unique and interesting ways for everyone involved, keeping the show feeling fresh each time it touches on its themes. The midpoint made me start to worry about one of the important reasons I was interested in the series, but it came back around to being fun and enjoyable, with a great way to wrap up the end. The supporting cast is all very interesting and fun, with George and Ikki's father in particular being a highlight for me. The opening is SO MUCH FUN, with the music overall being good. Suit designs are really good, with base Revi being a standout for me. Fight choreography was great, and it has one of the most impactful fights in the entire franchise in a later episode. Overall, while it has some issues with the larger plot, the interpersonal moments are very good, I love how it went about studying its themes, and the combat is very fun to watch with it focusing on two Riders with very different personalities. Great stuff!

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Kamen Rider 1971 - An Aged Titan

The original Kamen Rider 1971 cannot be understated as an incredibly important pillar of pop culture in Japan and beyond. The series that truly started it all. With its iconic design of the original Kamen Rider (referred to as Ichigo) and the subsequent second Rider (referred to as Nigo), it paved the way for a founding father in the tokusatsu genre. However, it's a difficult beast to talk about, because while charming, it is incredibly flawed. The series starts very strongly, with a lean towards horror. It was always monster-of-the-week, but what made it interesting early on was how it leaned into the fear of everyone involved. Even the main character, Ichigo, has internal fears that are set up early on. However, as the series progresses, in order to stay on the air it had to be changed to be more lighthearted. Unfortunately this drops a lot of the overt story of Kamen Rider 1971 and ends up making it an incredibly repetitive watch, as plot only truly progresses about once every thirty episodes or so, and with it being the longest Kamen Rider series on its own (not including sequel shows like Black & Black RX or Kuuga & Agito) it can sometimes be a gauntlet. Make no mistake, this show is NOT made to be binged AT ALL. And while it feels unfair of me to review a show made 52 years ago as if it was made in the modern era, we have to concede that our perception of these things, including the very way in which it is viewed, has fundamentally changed since its creation. We have to acknowledge the way that these things change, and that includes the franchise itself as it progresses. At this point, while this is the originator of all Kamen Riders, I would in no way say it is a good first show to watch for inquisitive minds interested in the franchise due to its inability to be enjoyably be watched in succession like some others. It is an entertaining watch in short bursts, but mind-numbing when watched too quickly. If you do watch it, try not to binge it to get through it. Take sips, don't chug. Enjoy the fun and crunchy practical effects and the inventive ways they get around having zero budget. The camp can be fun, the designs can be silly, and it can be a series that gets a good laugh or two, even if unintentionally. But if you are tempted to watch it quickly to get to some of the other stuff in the franchise, it will become a difficult watch as the formulaic nature of the series turns your brain into putty.

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LONG, LONG AGO, SHOWA ERA

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

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̶S̶o̶ ZO Good

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

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Ultra Exciting

This movie is so much fun. To be honest, I have never been much for Ultraman - when I got into Tokusatsu I was mainly into Godzilla, and when I was considering tackling full-on Tokusatsu shows with substantial length, I decided to dive into Kamen Rider, not wanting to explore many other franchises mainly because of just how much overall time would be spent watching everything of all of these franchises. So, as a franchise outsider, I just have to say this is still quite enjoyable. The story does feel a bit cobbled together, like it's 3 episodes of the show in a movie instead of one standalone thing, but even with that issue the fights that are there are fun and interesting, the CGI is impressive, and I had a smile on my face the entire time.

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A Tragic Tale

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

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Please Watch!

Kamen Rider Kuuga is a masterpiece. Godai is one of the greatest Riders I have watched up to this point. His chemistry with Ichijo is superb. The mystery around the belt and the appearances of the villains is interesting and actively studied by the cast. The personal interactions and drama are fantastic and heartwarming, and while they may be a mix of connected and disconnected from the overall interactions with the villains, they still are representative of Godai as a Rider and are emblematic to the story itself, meaning they don't feel shallow or fully irrelevant to the plot. Kuuga's design is simple but effective. The interactions of the villains with their own cypher language are fun and tense and interesting. Action scenes, while perhaps not always flashy and can be somewhat short, are good all the same. The ending is handled with an interesting, almost artsy grace that gives the story even more gravitas. The OP is absolutely stellar and the ED is comforting. Overall, a fantastically told story, one of the greatest Kamen Riders to date.

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Imperfect Allegory Against An Imperfect World

Kamen Rider Black Sun is a work I highly admire, despite the issues it has. The story is intense and gritty, and it's very admirable of them to go so hard into the ideas of prejudice, classism, racism, and social justice. It feels like an important story to tell. However, at times it can get a bit lost in the weeds when it comes to its storytelling, with frequent timeskips and issues with pacing in its 10 episode run. There's some reveals later on that can lead to the story feeling confused, but still holding the spirit of wanting to fight against social injustice, which is good. The suit designs tend towards the positive - most of them look very cool, with some looking kind of goofy and pulling me out of the general dark feeling the series tended towards. The action, while sparse, is very impressive, and the gore and blood throughout is shocking and a fresh change from the mainline series only showing blood via makeup for the most part. The main theme can get a bit tiring to hear repeatedly, but it's a cool song and it still does feel satisfying to hear during certain moments. This is one of the series that feels least like it's trying to sell me a toy, that's for sure. It feels mature, but a bit uncoordinated.

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Frustrating Series With Amazing Designs

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

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A Kamen Rider Carrying Anno's Spirit

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

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