User:StrangerAtaru

Intro
I'm a bit more a Super Sentai fan than a Rider fan, I admit, and didn't really get into the franchise as easily. I do remember watching that "mess" of the Saban "Masked Rider" series back when Power Rangers was big, but really I more came around to KR in more recent times. The first series I started was Amazon mostly to not cloud myself with all the Heisei focus/love people give, but only became more interested in the franchise due to W, which I admit wasn't perfect but was still fun enough to let me stick around. Its been up and down since then as I try to balance Showa and Heisei so I don't just get too much of one, but I think I'm handling it rather well.

Classic Showa Era

 * Kamen Rider: N/A
 * V3: N/A
 * X: N/A
 * Amazon: A very strange series both for its era and now; starts off with an offbeat concept of “a Wildman coming to civilization to fight an enemy trying to control it and gain its power” with him learning to live and cope with his strange surroundings, with really brutal but great fights.  Halfway, though, it changes to a generic battle against an organization, making it lose whatever made it interesting in the process as the hero becomes instantly-adapting to the Japanese society.  A couple episodes aren’t bad during this phase but it really just doesn’t feel as good as it had.  This is a bizarre season that loses its uniqueness halfway through, overall.
 * Stronger: N/A

Later Showa Era

 * Kamen Rider (Skyrider): I'm very torn about this series, which is a return to the basics of "abducted human modified and turns against evil masters" in a slight reboot of the franchise that goes in many different directions. The good include a really dark early arc that's likewise a lot of fun, as well as revisits of many of the classic Riders teaming up with the new guy. On the other hand, the retool just leads to the main hero barely using his main power and a ton of child-based one-shots that really do get extremely grating (even if the main villain for this phase is as awesome as the first), while the show just tries way too hard to find comic relief when really it isn't that needed. (even if one idea has its charms in some ways and an underrated funny guy). Its a conflicting season but it is worthwhile for the great things that it does do.
 * Super-1: N/A
 * Birth of the 10th (ZX): N/A
 * Black: Watching; review to come June, 2015
 * Black RX: On Watch List (2015)

Early Heisei Movies

 * Shin Kamen Rider Prologue: A strange one-shot movie with some interesting ideas, particularly in bringing the “monster” back into the concept of modified humans.  The “ultra-violence” the movie has doesn’t bother me due to its nature (and being hilarious when you think about it)…on the other hand, some of the other stuff does get rather icky and disturbing like…what/where the second “Rider” comes from by the end.  The maturity likewise is a tad gratuitous, though I get it’s supposed to be for “adults”…well if they want adult, they get adult!
 * ZO: Somehow this movie feels like an excuse to try again and make a movie similar to Shin but made for a more kid-friendly audience. It isn't that good with its plot and story, though, with a bizarre storyline about the Rider pretty much forced to reunite a father and son, even though the father was the one who created him and all the monstrosities of the movie in the first place.  If you do see this movie, I do recommend some of the stop-motion animation used for the monsters and some really neat cameos, particularly Naomi Morinaga and Kenji Ohba!
 * J: N/A

Heisei Era

 * Kuuga: While the series that single-handedly restarted the franchise, the season gets a lot of slack due to being “low-tech”, “slow” or “dull”. Admittedly I really do like this series myself: the season is treated as a slowly-evolving mystery involving lost civilizations, a deadly game and a normal good-natured man who gets caught in trying to end an ancient battle in modern times.  The series is just as much about the Rider’s battle against the Gurongi as it is about the evolution of people in a society who suddenly must deal with horrible monsters rampaging through and who can kill them at any moment due to their playfully deadly nature, as well as the monsters themselves adapting and evolving with the society to take better advantage of it.  The series is so different in its approach that I don’t know if it would have ever been made as it is either during the Showa era or with what Heisei became; the fact it was the first series in a revival of the franchise adds to how it could be so unique and different.  While it takes a while to really get into due to its realism and slow nature, it really is a good series in the end and worth every moment.
 * Agito: Coming January, 2015
 * Ryuki: This season is ambitious with its concept: a battle between 13 Riders, fighting in a mirror universe for the chance to grant their greatest wish. Unfortunately even with a high concept like this, it ends up falling flat due to its means, including a wishy-washy main Rider who can’t even decide what he’s fighting for and wastes the entire series trying to figure out what to do and fails miserably, a squadron of Riders who seem to be the worst of the worst chosen by the jerk behind it all who essentially screwed up reality all so he could save his little sister, and just outlandishness all around where it gets to the point where the only one I was rooting for was essentially a bad guy trying to end this madness. (but who isn’t a regular Rider and basically exists as a mentor to one of the idiots chosen to take part in this mess)  By the time you get to the killer dragonflies, you just wonder what the heck you just saw and try to piece together if any of it was even worth it.
 * Faiz: This is an interesting series that really should have been better than it was with its concepts. The main idea of the series is great, focusing in particular on the "monsters" of the season and bringing up questions on can two different civilizations live together in peace, with a major emphasis of one's mentality and morality and if it can withstand distortions, manipulations and their own past. Unfortunately its still a slog to get through: its pretty good until a major plot element and the Secondary Rider appear, which leads to a rapid speed-up of the distortions, manipulations and the convenient "why do they keep hiding this" mess while putting up with quite a few grating characters otherwise and an enemy which, outside a few notables in a special squadron, just gets rather faceless and disposable due to being less their nature and more being corporate stooges. It is interesting but you just have to bare with a lot of stupid plot points and egos to get what's actually worthwhile in it.
 * Blade: Coming March, 2015
 * Hibiki: Coming May, 2015
 * Kabuto: Coming July, 2015
 * Den-O: Coming September, 2015
 * Kiva: Coming November, 2015
 * Decade: N/A

Neo-Heisei Era

 * W: On paper, it really is a very neat concept: a mystery series with two guys fusing together into a Rider trying to save a town they love and face essentially a drug trade run by the family controlling it. And amazingly, it does hold up as a really fun series…for the most part.  The one-shots really played well in introducing the characters of the town and giving us all sorts of mysteries.  Unfortunately, when you talk about the main plot, the stupidity kicks in: the main villain of the first third isn’t too bad but you get some sympathies for him when he finally leaves, then we get another villain who just acts annoying and brings out the worst of this season’s second Rider, and the third…um, I think he’s only there for the endgame; and the family itself is just a ridiculous family squabble anyway where you really don’t feel any sympathy for anyone except for the one who was able to get away through death in the first place.  The season ultimately is the KR version of Boukenger: amazing one-shots and world, stupid main plots.
 * OOO: Probably my favorite of the recent Riders, it builds an amazing world with a story based on the concept of desire, greed and what it takes to get what you really want out of the world.  This world is fantastic but really believable in its methods, with alliances that keep changing by the episode and a power source that is closer to the concept of money, thus allowing for the idea of desire to play with the interchangeability of the Rider powers.  All of the characters are memorable in their own ways from both the heroes to the villains, with my only real complaints being some early whining of a future secondary Rider (he gets better) and a bizarre explanation by the main villain as to why he has the philosophy that he does.  And the music is probably one of the most memorable soundtracks I’ve heard in tokusatsu.  What other word can be used to describe this season except the obvious: SUBARASHII!!!
 * Fourze: On Watch List (2015)
 * Wizard: N/A
 * Gaim: N/A
 * Drive: May/May Not Watch, Can't Decide