VR7 wrote:There's something odd about the first episode I thought should mention. IIRC, when Shotaro and Philip transformed for the first time in the prologue to the first episode, the two merged--however, in the most recent episode, it looks like you only need Shotaro to transform, and Philip transfers his consciousness over or something and then promptly tosses his body into his car. Wonder why they can't just merge on the spot like they did last time.
I didn't like how Kabuto turned out. It was off to a decent start and had some strong points here and there, but around the time Hyper Kabuto introduced himself was where the story slowly began spiraling into complete madness. With better story pacing and editing, I'm sure it could've turned out to have been a great series.
I liked God Speed Love though.
IMO, Agito, Blade and Ryuki had some of the best writing in a Heisei rider series. Ryuki did turn itself inside-out right at the very end of the series, but some of the alternate retellings (i.e. Episode Final, 13 Riders) made up for that. Somewhat.
Apart from a couple of terrible episodes, Blade was consistently great from start to finish, and probably had the best ending to a Heisei rider series.
I liked Agito the most. The ending isn't on par with Blade, (decent enough though) but I liked the amount of thought they put into the storyline as a whole, compared to other Riders. The only thing I can think of that came pretty close is Ryuki.
I liked Agito because of the variety of Riders it had. A mystic one, an organic one, and a technological one.
Ryuki was cool because it had a really strange plot compared to a lot of the other series. Kinda like Highlander meets Kamen Rider, but with more
time travel hijinks
. Semi-related note: the American Dragon Knight toys stink. The belt and the Dragvisor are lame compared to the Japanese ones.
And, I've only seen a bit of Blade, so I don't have much of an opinion...
I liked God Speed Love too! My only beef was
that damn-near everyone died, I realize it was all undone, but still. That and Tsurugi didn't make a proper appearance.
The thing I loved most about Kabuto was the characters. All the Riders were such tools (well, except KaGAmi and Daisuke), and I loved it. It's the same reason I loved Den-O and Kiva, the characters were just cool.
Well, back to being on topic: The Kaijins for this series are crazy. And judging from some of the other Gaia Memory names, they're only gonna get wackier...