So probably a silly question:
Ultraman Ginga S is on the official Youtube channel. Can I watch this without having seen Ultraman Ginga?
Ultraman Ginga S is on the official Youtube channel. Can I watch this without having seen Ultraman Ginga?
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TokuERA 2020/2021 |OT| Masks Required
- Thread starter DioMuller
- Start date
- Entertainment OT
You should watch Ginga first, S is a direct continuation. You can stream Ginga on Shoutfactory TV https://www.shoutfactorytv.com/series/ultraman-ginga-series
I never watched any of the post series stuff, I loved the ending and was worried revisiting Gaim would screw a perfect ending up.
No, first off I'd be using the Magna Defender's sword as that's my fave morpher. Second off I sadly don't have much Toku merch, mainly mecha stuff. That reminds me, I found you an avatar for when you cycle again, Ken Ishikawa's(Getter Robo) one shot version of megaman
also if I had any Kamen Rider merch it'd be the original belt or helmet
Saber 45
New writer should get a prize for salvaging the series in such a way. The villain has a good (if a bit cliché) motivation, there's a clear menace, things actually fit well together and make sense...
Not a fan of the Messiah complex there, but hey, gotta work with what the previous writter kinda did, and at least it feels less out of nowhere here.
Fights were also pretty good? This is shaping up to be a very good ending, if the writer commits to it!
Zenkai 22
The explanation for not using the super form was incredible, hahaha. Zenkaiger is pretty much a parody season, and it does justice to that.
And then they make an episode that also addresses Gaon't racism, AND has touching moments. There's a lot here, and Zenkaiger does it all well.
New writer should get a prize for salvaging the series in such a way. The villain has a good (if a bit cliché) motivation, there's a clear menace, things actually fit well together and make sense...
Not a fan of the Messiah complex there, but hey, gotta work with what the previous writter kinda did, and at least it feels less out of nowhere here.
Fights were also pretty good? This is shaping up to be a very good ending, if the writer commits to it!
Zenkai 22
The explanation for not using the super form was incredible, hahaha. Zenkaiger is pretty much a parody season, and it does justice to that.
And then they make an episode that also addresses Gaon't racism, AND has touching moments. There's a lot here, and Zenkaiger does it all well.
I like when they used the reflection of Espada's sword as a transition to Blades and Saber.
I'm on about 24 hours of no sleep so if this post is incoherent I apologize but:
I finished Star Twinkle PreCure today, and pretty much everything I said in my original post holds true. I'm reasonably certain this is my favorite season so far with HeartCatch as a close second. Just great stuff all around.
I also finished Kamen Rider Ryuki, including Episode Final, while flying cross country today. Overall I definitely really enjoyed the series, the drama, the angst, the character focus, it's all right up my alley. I think I would say I had two sizable complaints though; one was that towards the end it was starting to become more obvious that the show was repeating itself over and over, certain characters were becoming repetitive (Asakura comes to mind) as the plot, such at it is, exists largely to facilitate Rider fighting and little else. This is fine in theory, but I think this show could have existed with maybe 10-15 episodes less and the same major story and character beats would be reached.
Sort of related to this point, I couldn't help but be somewhat disappointed regarding the ending... (spoilers for both the TV show and the Episode Final film):
It's funny, because in some ways this is the polar opposite of my complaints with Gaim's ending. (GAIM AND RYUKI ENDING SPOILERS) Whereas I feel Ryuki's narrative was building towards an obvious final showdown between Shinji and Ren that never came to be, Gaim's final story arc is about a confrontation between Kouta and Kaito that feels unearned, as Kaito received significant character development to the point that I never bought his last minute relapse or that the story was building towards him as the final opponent, so Kouta killing Kaito never felt like this big emotional scene, whereas if something like that happened in Ryuki's narrative it would be incredibly emotional and devastating.
Despite these complaints, it's obvious why Ryuki is so revered and I definitely had a great time watching it. It gets surprisingly dark, in ways I don't think a modern Rider show would get away with. Definitely worth checking out if you can stomach early 2000s toku special effects and soap opera FPS, lol.
Now... having finally gotten home, I spent the night binging a whopping 12 episodes of Kamen Rider Build. Holy shit, how did I sleep on this show before? I really appreciate everybody in this thread who told me to watch this show, because it is simply immaculate. The setting, sci-fi/dystopia elements, Rider suit and powers, characterization, everything works extremely well. The story is so serialized that you barely notice the two parter structure and every episode ends with a twist that makes you go "just one more..." I seriously thought about pushing past 12 episodes but my eyes started to get heavy. I can't remember the last time I started a show that got me this excited out the gate. I can't wait to see what else is in store.
I finished Star Twinkle PreCure today, and pretty much everything I said in my original post holds true. I'm reasonably certain this is my favorite season so far with HeartCatch as a close second. Just great stuff all around.
I also finished Kamen Rider Ryuki, including Episode Final, while flying cross country today. Overall I definitely really enjoyed the series, the drama, the angst, the character focus, it's all right up my alley. I think I would say I had two sizable complaints though; one was that towards the end it was starting to become more obvious that the show was repeating itself over and over, certain characters were becoming repetitive (Asakura comes to mind) as the plot, such at it is, exists largely to facilitate Rider fighting and little else. This is fine in theory, but I think this show could have existed with maybe 10-15 episodes less and the same major story and character beats would be reached.
Sort of related to this point, I couldn't help but be somewhat disappointed regarding the ending... (spoilers for both the TV show and the Episode Final film):
I knew going into the show that Shinji died, but I couldn't help but feel like the majority of the show was building towards a final confrontation between Shinji and Ren, as the whole theme of the show is characters being forced to fight. They tease it several times throughout, especially as we get to the end, but eventually either Shinji or Ren backs down. I understand that they wanted a narrative where Shinji's death motivated Ren, but I feel you could have had a final showdown where they still don't kill each other and reach the same point. Same with Episode Final, which seemed to sort of give us this fight with mirror Shinji, but I couldn't help but feel like someone at Toei refused to allow the main two Riders a proper fight to the death. Ah well.
I didn't mind that Shinji died in the penultimate episode as I definitely felt Ren had the stronger pathos throughout Ryuki, so giving him the final battle made sense, but it was very anticlimactic overall. Ren is unable to deal any damage to Oden until Shiro gives up and Oden gives up with him. After so much buildup I expected more. So I gotta take points off for that in what is otherwise a great show. And I know time reset endings are controversial but this one worked for me; "our" Shinji, Ren, etc. are all dead. These aren't the characters we know, but nonetheless they indicate that Shiro accepted his inability to save Yui.
I guess there is a third, more minor complaint, that so much about the mirror world, the exact nature of how Shiro got his powers, the nature of granting wishes... almost none of it is explained. That's fine for the most part, this is definitely not a show about the plot, but I think a little more clarity wouldn't have hurt. It feels like the writers didn't really know what the mirror world was gonna be until the last third or so of the show and then dumped as much exposition as they could at once.
I didn't mind that Shinji died in the penultimate episode as I definitely felt Ren had the stronger pathos throughout Ryuki, so giving him the final battle made sense, but it was very anticlimactic overall. Ren is unable to deal any damage to Oden until Shiro gives up and Oden gives up with him. After so much buildup I expected more. So I gotta take points off for that in what is otherwise a great show. And I know time reset endings are controversial but this one worked for me; "our" Shinji, Ren, etc. are all dead. These aren't the characters we know, but nonetheless they indicate that Shiro accepted his inability to save Yui.
I guess there is a third, more minor complaint, that so much about the mirror world, the exact nature of how Shiro got his powers, the nature of granting wishes... almost none of it is explained. That's fine for the most part, this is definitely not a show about the plot, but I think a little more clarity wouldn't have hurt. It feels like the writers didn't really know what the mirror world was gonna be until the last third or so of the show and then dumped as much exposition as they could at once.
It's funny, because in some ways this is the polar opposite of my complaints with Gaim's ending. (GAIM AND RYUKI ENDING SPOILERS) Whereas I feel Ryuki's narrative was building towards an obvious final showdown between Shinji and Ren that never came to be, Gaim's final story arc is about a confrontation between Kouta and Kaito that feels unearned, as Kaito received significant character development to the point that I never bought his last minute relapse or that the story was building towards him as the final opponent, so Kouta killing Kaito never felt like this big emotional scene, whereas if something like that happened in Ryuki's narrative it would be incredibly emotional and devastating.
Despite these complaints, it's obvious why Ryuki is so revered and I definitely had a great time watching it. It gets surprisingly dark, in ways I don't think a modern Rider show would get away with. Definitely worth checking out if you can stomach early 2000s toku special effects and soap opera FPS, lol.
Now... having finally gotten home, I spent the night binging a whopping 12 episodes of Kamen Rider Build. Holy shit, how did I sleep on this show before? I really appreciate everybody in this thread who told me to watch this show, because it is simply immaculate. The setting, sci-fi/dystopia elements, Rider suit and powers, characterization, everything works extremely well. The story is so serialized that you barely notice the two parter structure and every episode ends with a twist that makes you go "just one more..." I seriously thought about pushing past 12 episodes but my eyes started to get heavy. I can't remember the last time I started a show that got me this excited out the gate. I can't wait to see what else is in store.
I remember some comments disliking how there wasn't much going on with Hikaru and wishing there were more space travel episodes. Although overall it was one of my favorite Cure series among the last few. I think the main problem is that it came right after Hugtto, which was generally well regarded too and dealt with themes that Cure usually doesn't touch, making Star Twinkle's own themes appear not very unique in comparison even though they'd stand out in any other context.
I think Ryuki's main issue is that there was a core cast of Riders (Ryuki, Knight, Zolda, Ouja) and everyone else was limited to their own arcs, so after a while it becomes obvious the show wouldn't touch any of the core four before the final arc, and extra Riders were just around to die. It doesn't help when the show goes through many episodes without extra Riders too, it's obvious nothing will come out of the Rider battles in those.
yeah, that was the impression I got. It's a very common occurence in these franchises that after you have a season that's darker, more dramatic, experimental, etc. that the one that follows will often get unfair treatment if it's perceived as more straightforward. Personally I thought the balance of Earth/space storytelling was solid and although Hikaru didn't have as pronounced of a character arc as say, Yuni or Lala, she was a likeable and endearing character all the same. I'll be doing Hugtto next for PreCure as I said so I'm very curious about it.
Yeah, that's a good point that I didn't really touch on. Like a third of the episodes are characters going "okay, we'll fight for real this time, let's go," then they trade blows for a few minutes, then they get tired and stop. I really liked the weird frenemies dynamic of the cast overall, how in theory all these characters were supposed to kill each other, but sometimes they'd be cordial to each other or even hang out, but I think you touch upon how the storytelling got repetitive after a while. Still a great season overall but I think if you go in expecting this really complex plot with tons of twists and turns you'll end up disappointed.
...thankfully I'm watching Build right now and it does have that!
Really interested to hear your thoughts on Build's endgame when you get there. Week-to-week, Build had that feeling from the start that it was something special and would beat Gaim and OOO as my top show.... but my god, the last few weeks were so badly handled that I went from agonizing waits between weeks to forgetting that the show was even on. Like I still have the show in my top 5, but just astounding how they went from constantly increasing quality and stakes to just shitting the bed at the last minute.
Weeeeeeell, Gaim is my favorite Rider season despite thinking the last arc was the weakest part of the story, largely for the reasons I outlined in the spoiler above me, so hey, maybe it'll still work out! It's definitely competitive with Gaim for my favorite season so far. It's a perfect binge watching show; it really gives me that "just one more episode..." feeling. I'm about halfway through now, so, we'll see!
Re: your Ryuki and Gaim ending thoughts, I find that analysis delightfully ironic in the context that I predicted Gaim's endgame fairly early on under the reasoning of "(given what's documented of his favorites,) Urobuchi's already done Ryuki via Madoka Magica, so his obvious path here is Black" lol.
I mean, your thoughts are also on-point given that Kouta and Kaito were much more linked by their worldviews rather than a personal bond.
Whenever I think of that episode I imagine a dad at Christmas, confident that he nailed it this year. He may not watch the show, but he heard his kid's favorite rider is Lazer. He's bought him the toy, the gasshat -- everything's set.
Father absolutely cannot comprehend why his child immediately bursts into tears when he opens his gift.
I feel the same about Build - the final arc is so underwhelming it retroactively soured me on the whole series, despite it containing some of my favourite moments in the entire franchise.
Man as someone who hasn't gotten around to Build yet (it's at/near the top of my list, only like 20 Sentai watches/rewatches to go lol), I definitely look forward to its Game of Thrones ending by the sounds of it.
I thought Build's actual ending was really strong, it was the small arc before the ending that was weak and just odd, feeling like it brought the show's pacing/story progression to a sudden halt. Watching the show as it aired, there were also two breaks during that arc, making it seem even longer than it actually was.
This is literally the first time I've seen people suggesting Build's ending was this terrible thing. The only lull I remember in the show as the Dadbuild arc. Maybe I'm just remembering the highlights but I came away from the ending pretty happy with it.
I'm never not going to associate the episode with this thought now....WHY'D YOU DO THIS TO ME?
Y'all are killing me with this discussion of Build's ending. I hope I like it, I just hit the halfway point, it's been a long time since a show gave me this really intense "can't stop watching" feeling. Toku or otherwise.
I think there's a version of the story where the culmination of Kouta and Kaito's arcs works, but the way they wrote Kaito's character development in Gaim, it felt like it was only at the last minute they started that setup for the final arc. It doesn't ruin the show for me by any means, but it is my biggest complaint overall.
Yeah, watching Ryuki, it's very obvious that Madoka is just Ryuki with magical girls, lol. Which isn't a bad thing!
I think there's a version of the story where the culmination of Kouta and Kaito's arcs works, but the way they wrote Kaito's character development in Gaim, it felt like it was only at the last minute they started that setup for the final arc. It doesn't ruin the show for me by any means, but it is my biggest complaint overall.
Build and Ex-Aid had the same problem, where they take a knee and do a mini-arc before the end, even though they really should've just finished the Big Bad the first time.
That said, the final arc is tops. Build heading in to get his boy back? How can you hate that?
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Build is my fav even more than Gaim glad you like it
And nice you saw Ryuki it was my first
Build's ending was neat, it was just very weird and non-standard for Rider.
Really my biggest problem with the ending isn't even a fault of the ending, it's the first series movie desperately giving Banjo a new girlfriend, which feels like they were trying to correct how ridiculously queer coded Sento and Banjo's relationship is
I think that's the thing - the actual ending, as in where the status quo is at the very end of the show in its final minute, is pretty good. I definitely like where we got to, I just wish the final few episodes starting with -that- arc either didn't exist or were significantly different. I usually don't agree with the critique that Toei's toku shows should get episode cuts, as I tend to like filler for giving us more time with characters and in their unique environments, but I would agree with it here. Cut this down to like 30-35 episodes and it's a perfect show. But that being said/with what came before it, it was hard for that arc and the pacing of the ending to not take the wind out of my sails for the show and make it feel like the show had more cracks than I was giving it credit for otherwise - and so once I got into that mindset, yeah, the show held up slightly less compared to others in my top.
tl;dr - when the rest of the show was -that- good, yea sadly to me, that arc was just -that- bad and soured the overall experience.
I feel like everything is there, but it's just all done contextually via how circumstances have affected each of their motivations, worldviews, etc, with the revelation of the golden fruit being the twist that sends Kaito down his path to the finale. The problem is, for that kind of ending to really hit, there needed to be that strong personal connection that the series never fostered between them.
But at the end of the day, Urobuchi must have been satisfied enough to leave it at subtext. Indications are he had pretty unparalleled freedom compared to most writers; anyone else and Zangetsu would have been locked into being another Ouja and Baron would have probably been stuck as sidekick etc.
I am just struggling identifying what was so bad in the last five eps/ Because after that lesser arc you get things like the raid on Evolt's tower and Grease's last stand , unless I am getting my episodes mixed up. Even had a delightful (if ultimately pointless) WTF moment in Utsumi being a cyborg. Again, I may just be remembering the highlights but I remember ranking it in the upper echelon of KR endings.
It works symbolically yeah. Like, you do get a sense that this was where Urobuchi wanted to end up. It just felt like for most of the show, Kaito received character development to the point where I never bought where he went in the end. Which is why I was very curious about where I thought Ryuki would end up, but not getting that final showdown between Shinji and Ren after they spent the whole show building up an uneasy friendship definitely was a bit of a let down.
Other than that I thought Gaim was damn near perfect. I know some Rider fans have hang ups with the show, some of that I think is just people disliking Urobuchi as a writer (for valid reasons!), but it definitely emphasized a lot of the elements that make Rider such a great franchise at its peak, especially the themes of tragedy and loss of humanity.
Just finished Kamen Rider Build. Wow. Wow. I'll have a more detailed writeup later, but holy hell, what a fantastic fucking show. I absolutely loved it, start to finish, top to bottom. It's been a very, very long since a show ensnared me like that; the fact that I binged it in four days is a testament to that. I started out thinking "I'll watch an ep or two a day and see how it goes," but then I got through 12 episodes on the first night, and from there...
I used to think Gaim could never be topped for my favorite Rider season, but this is far and away the best season of karate bugman I've ever watched, and it's not particularly close. I think next on my list is Ex-Aid, but I'll be doing PreCure Hugtto first... first though I gotta decompress a bit. Phew.
I used to think Gaim could never be topped for my favorite Rider season, but this is far and away the best season of karate bugman I've ever watched, and it's not particularly close. I think next on my list is Ex-Aid, but I'll be doing PreCure Hugtto first... first though I gotta decompress a bit. Phew.
Build is such a damn near perfect season of Superhero show. I've kind of outgrown Gaim's grittiness over the years, but I don't think I'll ever outgrow Build's mix of worldbuilding, tone, and characters.
Are the Build movies worth a watch? I've watched the series twice but I've never seen any of the movies.
I love Build as well, but Gaim might just edge it out for me. I feel like I like the forms and supporting cast in Gaim way more.
Yeah, I adore the costumes in Gaim, and definitely a lot of the supporting cast. Very, very good insert songs in Gaim as well. I think with Build, everything just feels so cohesive, there's almost no fat or down parts. It's just this whirlwind of constant action, drama, and plot twists. It's the ultimate all killer no filler Rider season.
I'll go ahead and just talk about the season in full under a spoiler tag to be comprehensive:
As I mentioned in this thread I'm a lapsed Rider fan. Drive was the last season I watched and I fell off it since. That was clearly a mistake because I've missed out on some incredible television in the form of Build (and Ryuki to a lesser extent, a show I meant to watch for years and never did... but this isn't about Ryuki!).
I think the first thing I love is how Sento is handled as a protagonist. Having a more coolheaded, thinking man's Rider protag is pretty damn refreshing, and Banjo is a perfect foil to him. I was pleasantly surprised to see more Riders join the fray as well; I figured when Banjo got his suit around roughly episode 10, there had to be more than just the two.
Like I said, the plotting in this season is immaculate. Barely a minute feels wasted, just about 2/3 of the episodes end with a crazy twist, and they are not married to any kind of status quo. The first dozen or so episodes are about Build doing cute Rider things and saving the day, then before long he's thrust into a war, and from there it just keeps escalating. It perfectly encapsulates that feeling of "just one more episode..." Given that I finished the show in four days, you can imagine I would be staying up late into the night, watching far more episodes that day than I had planned.
Blood Stalk/Evolt is a great villain. I was worried they'd do one of those lame switches towards the endgame where they put in some generic big cosmic evil in place of him, but they kept him as the main threat throughout, while also constantly escalating his threat level. He has that vibe the best battle shonen villains have, where he manages to just keep getting more and more power and it seems hopeless for the heroes to stop him. I love that he's genuinely smart and cunning in addition to being powerful, playing pretty much everyone in the cast. The last 20ish stretch of episodes might seem repetitive at times as a lot of it boils down to "Evolt is about to reach the next step of his plan, the Riders try to stop him and fail, Evolt succeeds," but he's such a fun and charismatic villain I honestly welcomed it.
It seems not everyone enjoyed the subplot with Sento's dad, and while it maybe could have been implemented a bit more gracefully, and it was very obvious he wasn't going to be loyal to Evolt, it didn't really detract from the story at all. His death, cliche as it was, gave Sento one last push of pathos to take on Evolt and made the final showdown that much more personal (I totally unironically love that the final arc was a boss rush in Evolt's giant video game fortress, by the way, just such a silly, fun trope, along with having a god damn tournament arc).
Reset endings are tricky to pull off, (Ryuki spoilers) figures after I watch Ryuki I get this one too, though ironically enough this season's ending reminds me a lot of Madoka's, despite it NOT being the Rider season penned by Urobuchi, but I definitely think this one landed. For all intents and purposes, the characters we spent 49 episodes with died heroically battling Evolt, and the tragedy remains of Sento being isolated in a world where he doesn't even really exist anymore... oh, and Banjo's there too, lol. Once they mentioned parallel universes and Evolt was murdering innocent people by the thousands with his black holes, I kinda saw it coming, but it worked all the same.
As far as criticisms go... I don't have anything super major, but I will say, I thought the suits this season were fine overall, but there weren't a lot I really loved. Base Build is fine, I loved Hazard, most of the other super suits are fine if nothing special, but damn Genius is really tacky looking. On the flip side I found most of Banjo's suits unremarkable but Magma was truly something special. Grease's was fairly unremarkable, but I adored Crocodile Rogue. I think Blood Stalk was definitely Evolt's best costume; his final form, the Martian-looking one, is pretty good, but Kamen Rider Evol's forms just looked really mishmashed and unfocused, and I found Black Hole actively ugly looking. Too bad since I otherwise love the character. Gaim still has my favorite suits in Rider so far, especially Kachidoki.
I know this is Kamen Rider and my expectations on this subject are always in check, but god damn, by the end of the season we had 4, bordering on 5 heroic Riders, and none of them were girls? Really? It's just really damn lame that Rider is 50 years old and it's still primarily a Dudes Rock show. I know this is because of how Japanese children's television views things strictly as "for boys" and "for girls" but it's still disappointing and frustrating all the same that in this exciting, high stakes superhero show that the female characters are all on the sidelines.
Overall I feel like after Kamen Rider Grease joined the good guys, the writers didn't really know what to do with him besides obsess over Misora. He mostly just angsted over his dead friends. Even Rogue I feel got more to do after joining the heroic Riders. I will grant that Grease had one of the most badass moments in Rider history in his last stand. Still, I definitely feel like more could have been done since Grease joins Sento and Banjo pretty much at the halfway point but after that receives almost zero character development.
Last point, it was really weird that before the universe reset, Soichi was still in his coma. It just seemed like we never got to have a scene with the "real" Soichi and that's a bummer, especially because I feel like by the end of the season Misora didn't have a lot to do. Especially when you know you're doing a reset, you might as well go for broke and have Evolt kill him for maximum tragedy, but maybe that would be over the top, heh.
I think the first thing I love is how Sento is handled as a protagonist. Having a more coolheaded, thinking man's Rider protag is pretty damn refreshing, and Banjo is a perfect foil to him. I was pleasantly surprised to see more Riders join the fray as well; I figured when Banjo got his suit around roughly episode 10, there had to be more than just the two.
Like I said, the plotting in this season is immaculate. Barely a minute feels wasted, just about 2/3 of the episodes end with a crazy twist, and they are not married to any kind of status quo. The first dozen or so episodes are about Build doing cute Rider things and saving the day, then before long he's thrust into a war, and from there it just keeps escalating. It perfectly encapsulates that feeling of "just one more episode..." Given that I finished the show in four days, you can imagine I would be staying up late into the night, watching far more episodes that day than I had planned.
Blood Stalk/Evolt is a great villain. I was worried they'd do one of those lame switches towards the endgame where they put in some generic big cosmic evil in place of him, but they kept him as the main threat throughout, while also constantly escalating his threat level. He has that vibe the best battle shonen villains have, where he manages to just keep getting more and more power and it seems hopeless for the heroes to stop him. I love that he's genuinely smart and cunning in addition to being powerful, playing pretty much everyone in the cast. The last 20ish stretch of episodes might seem repetitive at times as a lot of it boils down to "Evolt is about to reach the next step of his plan, the Riders try to stop him and fail, Evolt succeeds," but he's such a fun and charismatic villain I honestly welcomed it.
It seems not everyone enjoyed the subplot with Sento's dad, and while it maybe could have been implemented a bit more gracefully, and it was very obvious he wasn't going to be loyal to Evolt, it didn't really detract from the story at all. His death, cliche as it was, gave Sento one last push of pathos to take on Evolt and made the final showdown that much more personal (I totally unironically love that the final arc was a boss rush in Evolt's giant video game fortress, by the way, just such a silly, fun trope, along with having a god damn tournament arc).
Reset endings are tricky to pull off, (Ryuki spoilers) figures after I watch Ryuki I get this one too, though ironically enough this season's ending reminds me a lot of Madoka's, despite it NOT being the Rider season penned by Urobuchi, but I definitely think this one landed. For all intents and purposes, the characters we spent 49 episodes with died heroically battling Evolt, and the tragedy remains of Sento being isolated in a world where he doesn't even really exist anymore... oh, and Banjo's there too, lol. Once they mentioned parallel universes and Evolt was murdering innocent people by the thousands with his black holes, I kinda saw it coming, but it worked all the same.
As far as criticisms go... I don't have anything super major, but I will say, I thought the suits this season were fine overall, but there weren't a lot I really loved. Base Build is fine, I loved Hazard, most of the other super suits are fine if nothing special, but damn Genius is really tacky looking. On the flip side I found most of Banjo's suits unremarkable but Magma was truly something special. Grease's was fairly unremarkable, but I adored Crocodile Rogue. I think Blood Stalk was definitely Evolt's best costume; his final form, the Martian-looking one, is pretty good, but Kamen Rider Evol's forms just looked really mishmashed and unfocused, and I found Black Hole actively ugly looking. Too bad since I otherwise love the character. Gaim still has my favorite suits in Rider so far, especially Kachidoki.
I know this is Kamen Rider and my expectations on this subject are always in check, but god damn, by the end of the season we had 4, bordering on 5 heroic Riders, and none of them were girls? Really? It's just really damn lame that Rider is 50 years old and it's still primarily a Dudes Rock show. I know this is because of how Japanese children's television views things strictly as "for boys" and "for girls" but it's still disappointing and frustrating all the same that in this exciting, high stakes superhero show that the female characters are all on the sidelines.
Overall I feel like after Kamen Rider Grease joined the good guys, the writers didn't really know what to do with him besides obsess over Misora. He mostly just angsted over his dead friends. Even Rogue I feel got more to do after joining the heroic Riders. I will grant that Grease had one of the most badass moments in Rider history in his last stand. Still, I definitely feel like more could have been done since Grease joins Sento and Banjo pretty much at the halfway point but after that receives almost zero character development.
Last point, it was really weird that before the universe reset, Soichi was still in his coma. It just seemed like we never got to have a scene with the "real" Soichi and that's a bummer, especially because I feel like by the end of the season Misora didn't have a lot to do. Especially when you know you're doing a reset, you might as well go for broke and have Evolt kill him for maximum tragedy, but maybe that would be over the top, heh.
I think that's about it. Not much else to say. When everyone in this forum was practically screaming "go watch Build," I had a feeling it would be something special, but I couldn't imagine it would be to this extent. Not only is it easily my favorite Rider season now, it's just damn good television. Action/adventure fiction doesn't get a whole lot better than this, in my mind.
I've seen similar high praise for Ex-Aid, so that will definitely be my next Rider season... but for now it's hugging time in PreCure!
Good write up, and you're gonna enjoy Ex-Aid. Finished it not too long ago and I would talk about it right alongside Gaim and Build.
Another minor criticism I had with Build, now that I think about it: a lot of the mechanisms involving the box/bottles/other macguffins are kind of confusing and unclear. This isn't a dealbreaker for me by any means, but around like episode 40 I sorta gave up trying to understand it. That might be a consequence of binging a show with a very dense plot in four episodes, lol.