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I'd love that actually, hearing other people's takes is fun !! (most of the time anyway)

Yeee okay so again I haven't watched the last 2 3 eps yet so who knows if any of these points would change but I'll expand on my last answer below

For some more context, here's which KR shows I've watched to compare to: Kuuga, Blade, Hibiki*, W, OOO, Fourze, Gaim, Ghost*, Ex-aid, Build,. Zero-One, Revice, Geats*, Amazons*, Black Sun*

* means I'm still in the middle of them. Everything else I've at least watched the first two episodes for. I've not seen any of Showa yet.

Spoiler warnings ahead for: Geats up to ep 46, some of Kuuga, Fourze, Ex-Aid, and Gaim

Warning this is a LONG answer

It's done some things that I wasn't expecting from KR, at least from a Reiwa/Heisei 2 style. Heisei 1 had its serious/scary moments since those leaned more into the J-Drama side but those were yearsss ago so seeing it in Geats was an interesting whiplash (SPOILER: referring to some scenes/revelations that surrounded child death and existentialism)

Neon Neon Neon Neon the girl ever

She was unknowingly wished into the world to replace a murdered daughter. Her dream to have real genuine love because of her unkind parents suddenly feels further out of her reach. She was created at the suffering of others, clearly it's almost selfish to want something for herself, right?

We are originally introduced with version of her backstory where she was in a hostage situation. A saved 8yr old Neon is returned to her family.

And then the scene gets re-contextualized with Beroba revealing that it was all fabricated, and the flashback replays anew, where Akari in a body bag is brought out instead. This is the most explicit visual an focus of a child death they've had in a main series lately. The scene of her running to her mom's arms is replaced with the dead silence of a mother in grief. Everything up to this point with Neon and her parent's actions are in a new horrifically understandable light. This leads into so so so much for Neon as she struggles w the meaning of her own existence, desires, and relation to the child she replaced.

(again I say lately because some v-cinemas can get violent, Amazons and Black Sun are violent, and Kuuga is a main series that had a horrific serial killer type situation and suicides but that was 20+ years ago. Closest thing for Heisei 2/Reiwa of a human death was Gentarou dying in Fourze because you watch as his heart stops beating. Other human deaths have like. a character fading into sparkles, going off screen, or turning into the monster and then exploding)

Her relationship with her parents? Complicated. Fascinating. Riveting. Really compelling. A suffocating mother that wants her daughter to stay at home, follow the rules, never stray from her, later revealed to be fuelled from nearly losing her daughter in that hostage situation. When she gets her memory back, realizing her memory of Akari was rewritten with this stranger, that's not her daughter because her daughter died 11 years ago. She yells at her, pushes her away, only to struggle again because isn't she just losing a daughter again? but that's not her daughter except she is but.,, and it's hard! She's not a good person, she's controlling, her grief doesn't justify that, but she's so complex. Her father? losing the ability to love the day he lost his daughter. He fabricates a new one, one for him and his wife to raise but for him, as a successor to the business, not as a daughter. To secure his position. But he was still mourning, really. He focuses on Neon as a means to an end because he's still mourning Akari.

And it's not simply that the Kurama family reunites after realizing their wrongs! It took time! It took discussion and breathing room. When Neon left, it's not that she fully cuts ties, because that's not that easy. Eleven years is still eleven years. She sees her mother one last time, her father in prison, laments how he is unable to love.They're all deeply traumatized and going through revelation after revelation. Neon doesn't hate them, she understands the situation. It's alien. It's not fair. The parents don't hate her. They sit and talk to each other about this! She's still a kid they brought into this world. A child that grew up with them for eleven years. That's eleven years they couldn't truly love her because of the loss of Akari, whether intentional or subconsciously. They explicitly discuss with each other that they owe love to Neon. They acknowledge Neon's desire for true love is because they've been depriving her of that. They could do better and they want to do better.

The Kurama family had a premise that was grave and emotional and the resolution was handled with a maturity that could've easily been done hand-waved in a lighter, shallower beat. It's not new for characters that'd done awful things to be forgiven rather easily in these kinda shows which like, I get it, but,, But no, the Kurama parents still remain complicated people that did wrong and know they did wrong and it's not an easy fix, especially for the mother's controlling behaviour because that's trauma, but they're given the chance to start that I like a whole lot

[deletes my even further paragraphs about why Neon is my favourite rider girl]

I do have nitpicks but not enough to really ruin the experience for me. To be vague, it's about an arc's relevance/writing,

The Among Us Dezastar arc feels the weakest by far. It just felt so strange to me. I know it was important to introduce new cast (Daichi) and I think challenge how much characters are willing to do to win (Neon) but it could've been less awkward?

There's whiplash from the reveal that everything was in fact, a show, that their actions are broadcast as entertainment, not to really save anyone to whatever this arc was They were just kinda, hanging around? Compared to how other revelations were treated in the future, this just felt so jarring to follow up with. I thought they were gonna lean into the reality show aspect more to get into even more characterization but...

After everything Ace, Keiwa, and Neon went through, especially the last episode's scene defeating Girori, into the introduction to the new DPG where they not just ignore Keiwa as a funnee, have the weird Girls vs Boys thing, or Girls vs Boys vs Keiwa because we bully Keiwa now, that was all just kinda weird

I know Neon kinda had to throw someone under the bus because she was the culprit but there were so many scenes that just shoved Keiwa around just cuz. The revelation he had about the Jyamato acting like dead participants was serious but they're like noooo sorry you're sus loser :/ At least Ace was neutral on the matter cuz he been-knew, but man...

a specific character's writing,

Keiwa again :( I love Keiwa! But out of our main 3 (Ace, Neon, Keiwa) he has the strangest writing by the last half

He has such a strong start but then gets pushed down when the other characters are the story focus. You can have the other characters in the spotlight without needing to belittle and make fun of another. From Dezastar Arc onwards, he got fairly side-lined until the my next few points

Him getting mad at Ace for his mother being the Goddess was just, so unprecedented? Again he's been with Ace for a long while now but the 180 to 'HOW COULD YOU?' when even Ace just learned this. Ace just learned his mother was suffering as the Goddess and Keiwa, notably empathetic and world peace Keiwa, immediately went to blame rather than any sort of consolation or attempt to understand the situation.

I won't say Keiwa is not allowed to be angry or complex but they had set him up for like 70% of the series as the good hearted one, to the point that his devil in the crossover movie was still him wanting peace for others

on a related note, he did it again with Michinaga! Michinaga blaming himself for killing Keiwa's sister despite not knowing is interesting, but Keiwa once again goes over the fact the other guy is feeling just as terrible. I'm not saying Keiwa would be okay with his sister dying but he immediately treats Michinaga as if he actively, knowingly, killed his sister If this wasn't after having the exact same level of reaction to Ace's mother, it probably wouldn't feel as bad, but it did, so it felt like a 'here we go again'

Which leads to his Bad Guy arc which is not inherently bad as a concept. It's might as well after the stress they've already added to him. A character that's full of fairly naive hope losing the last family he has, learning that the system he's in has taken away his loved ones again, getting devastated and desperate when he has to listen to them die again just when he thought he had his life back I love the idea that "i want everyone to be happy but that means me too, what's the point if it's not mine and my family's too'. It's a neat take on that type of desire! But the execution was not a descent or even escalation, it was just another flip like the last two - Clothing change. Not the worst. It happened to Mitsuzane, who went from good kid to delusional fratricide. It happened to Jin, it happened to Hiiro w/ Masamune, it's just cheesy wardrobe change. (I'm going to personally believe Kekera had a part in this because he was shaping Keiwa into the rider he wanted him to be) I do wish Keiwa kept the new hair actually, it was cute lol - New edgy af henshin. Stop cracking ya knuckles. Goofy. Not the worst again, but in combination w the clothes kinda takes me out of it -overall edgy af mannerisms and movements -treatment of Tsumuri Everything escalated, he became desperate, was being manipulated, so capturing Tsumuri and making her use her new creation powers is understandable. The idea of him actively taking advantage of her empathy to his pleas and tears (which were probably real tbh) to get a new item? That's sick of him but in both a cool and awful way. What I cannot handle as an active choice from Keiwa? The god. The freakign. The classic creepy face caress when Tsumuri was imprisoned. Why did he do that!? Literally no reason!! It was just weird!! He's depressed and angry, not automatically a creep???!?! It can't really be justified as him like, mentally breaking, because it doesn't add up w literally anything else he's done. Especially when he looks normal again. We're just gonna ignore that happened? He went so close to her face so much. It felt unnecessary. Who told him to do that. Whaddahell.

I firmly believe are other ways to portray a character being threatening and aside from the overdone touchy creep(tm) style.

So just all of that in combination and in such a short amount of time was over the top. If we had to do the bad guy arc, I think we could've had more of the crocodile tears thing he had. Sad, pathetic but manipulating/guilt-tripping. We don't have much bad guys like that.

and a more inconsequential thing like lack of some specific character designs.

where are Kamen Rider Lancer and Kamen Rider Garun's designs!!! where are they!!

It has a consistent belt/power-up gimmick and is surprisingly versatile despite people only using the same one or two belt type

Realized how often I use the word 'consistent' lol. It's just one of my pet peeves if rider/power systems are just, thrown away, and people start getting belts and forms up the wazoo w no decent explanation. [deletes a bunch of typing here] That's another few paragraphs worth of explanation so I'll shorten it to this: it makes it less tv show and more toy commercial, if that makes sense.

After discussing this further w a friend I realized these points ^ only exist because I was watching this fresh outta Revice and unfortunately Revice had frustrated me quite a lot so that's something I'll spare you of for now

So those are the ups and criticisms I can recall for now. I still would probably have Geats up there on my personal favourites though. Despite how much I love Fuwa and Aruto, I like the overall story for Geats over Zero-One out of the Takahashi stuffs. Ex-aid is still higher overall. I'll need to finish those last few episodes and movie before deciding where I'll place Geats in my overall KR list.

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