OISB Kamen Rider Franchise (pt 1 of ?)
I have been into Kamen Rider about since I found myself in college stumbling onto Den-O and Gekiranger at the same time and stuck very close to it ... uuuup until I tried to review it weekly on youtube.... Had tried to catch back up but, basically have been out of the loop since Reiwa era started... anyways, spoiler warnings for Ryuki, Ghost, and Zero One
I accept Precure Black as an honorary Kamen Rider, and anyone who has a problem with Precure anyone being included, or a woman can't be a Kamen Rider, you can talk to mister Black RX about that
I really... do not like Ryuki. I know it's a lotta people's fave, and it helped lead to Madoka and there are real good bits to it but I just... The first time the antagonist comes in to reset character development because characters were getting to friendly, to the ending that just, put a serial killer and arsonist back on the street I just did not like it.
Oh... I HATE Ghost. I don't think I'll ever hate a Kamen Rider series as much as I HATE Ghost. The writing bad enough that I can feel when different writers come on, or the lead disappears to work on the movie coming back only to introduce character details never a part of the story UNTIL they needed tie-in references to the movie. The editing even for a weekly low budget live action kid's show, glaringly obvious use of footed scrapped and redubbed over to give it the current story's context. The grating way that every time our hero died he came back stronger. How the first 'history fact' they introduce is literally wrong and it's documented Japanese history! How those two last points clash with the theme about 'the importance of inspiring people who light the future' as well as 'you only have one life to live'. The suits, due to having so much inner lighting going on just look bulky and the hoodies don't hide that. God and how they wrote the side characters- I need to move on, I literally spent over 40 minutes straight discussing my issues with Ghost before.
My favorite Kamen Riders, are not what I would recommend to people as their first, since Gaim, Faiz, and Fourze, are not structured written or directed like standard Kamen Riders and will not really help to familiarize people with the franchise
I am REALLY uncomfortable with the setting to 01. The 'happy to serve' slave android race, the main character being just an underdog president of a multi-billion dollar company going up against the evil rival who is evil because they are a multi-billion dollar company that is ALSO multi-national. The mangaka episodes x.x
Rider chip version of Kakusei is better than the base version, but the base version of Flashback is better than Rider Chip's
Full Force better than Lords of Speed
I'll never forgive parents groups for what Hibiki turned into at the halfway point
Folks keep swinging, and it's far from perfect, but Decade is still the best Kamen Rider anniversary series.
Toei are cowards for only putting up the first two episodes of near every Kamen Rider series on their global channel along with some rather low res versions of some movies and crossovers
Shout Factory, for the love of God, Buddha, and the Rider Kick, please work on expanding your Kamen Rider selection for streaming?!