i think there are gay people in kamen rider

Besides Mr Taiga Nobori (gotta put respect on his name) are their any other alien like riders (story wise, aesthetic, or anything close)

I was having a hard time thinking of what would very specifically qualify as 'alien' riders but then you led off with Saga and now I have no idea where the boundaries lie here...

There have been quite a few alien riders, in any case! Even putting aside "parallel world with human/human-like race" cases like Necrom and Kamuro there's been explicit aliens like Nadeshiko and Ginga; and everyone's favourite cunt Evolt. Also noting it's funny that both american adaptions have featured alien riders in Masked Rider and Advent Master! Thinking about it it's something I'd like them to toy with more; an alien rider would be a fun take on distancing from humanity to really dig into those themes. Ultraman Geed is a pretty good story about that, actually! Watch Geed!

Aesthetically? Especially when we're leading with Saga here? Uhhh... man, I don't know! I'm not sure what to really count as that. I guess Dragon Knight making Alternative an alien was a decent choice because the suit does look a bit like that. Eden? Extremer? Woz?? I'm honestly not sure I'm really throwing stuff out here

As a final note: the original concept for Kamen Rider ZO did in fact dig into those alien themes I was talking about earlier -- he was initially conceptualised as a warrior from space who came to Earth to defend it from alien invasion! I guess they realised that specific concept was literally just Ultraman, though. There's concept art too, complete with a spaceship!

I mean George could run around as Evil to throw everyone off like Evolt did (y'know for shits and giggles). Then again, I actually see him create a suit for himself that looks similar to OOO's Love combo (in pink and yellow).

if a guy named kamen rider evil was george's blood stark-inspired self insert villain for the sole purpose of making his dear creation revice stronger.... it does seem a little early for him to go that route but i can't deny. it would be funny as hell

yellow and pink would also be very fitting for him <3

Now I give you: Jackie's Top Five Riders She'd Want To Be

Judging Criteria: This is solely based on the abilities of the rider and how comfortable the suit looks to be in, as well as personal ideas of what the UI must be like.

5. Zero One: It's made for the president of a company, so you know that shit must be luxurious. Satellite Zea is also a really nice ai system so the UI must be clean and precise. Abilities are pretty cool too. Low on list because it's for the President of a company.

4. Ghost: Oh lord the fashion styles. Plus, you get firsthand lessons from historical figures on how to do their techniques. Ghost powers are always a plus. Downsides: Edison and you kind of have to die for a little bit.

3. Drive: Infamous Drive disliker, but honestly I think it's a good rider powered. Speed, car stuff, and I like the tire changes. Downsides: Steinbelt. Honestly maybe this should be lower....

2. Build: We've actually seen this one's UI and it seems like the standard Sci fi armor affair. It's probably got cushioning inside since forms literally slam into it all the time, but the power set is varied. Downsides: Potentially bringing back Evolt in one form or another.

1. Fourze: A suit designed for exploration through space, and is one of the softest looking suits to boot. Switches change what adds on to your power set, and the UI system is simple enough for Gentaro to understand. Downsides: Doesn't really have any? Friendship powers it, and I love my friends, so really it's a great system.

Favourite main and secondary rider final forms?

For the secondary Rider final form, my favorite is Cross-Z Magma, by a large margin. I’d seen some of the others in HeiGen Final, like Hyper Muteki Ex-Aid and Fourze Cosmic States, but I only watched those series later. Magma was the first form I saw a Rider actually getting and it had such a strong impression, with the fantastically shippy prologue (really, Ryuuga, it ain’t subtle comparing Sento to your fiancee!) and the spanking Burning My Soul in the background as Ryuuga beats the tar out of Evolt.

I have a harder time picking out favorite final forms for main Riders, but if you twisted my arm... Type Tridoron. I tend to favor final form suits that are a logical progression from the base from a design standpoint, and Type Tridoron is exactly that. Plus, its debut storyline was really good too. It also helped that it was what Shinnosuke used in one of my favorite fight scenes in Drive- him, Gou and Chase fighting together while their shared theme, Spinning Wheel (which is also lit, and sung by the actors to boot!) plays as the BGM.

thoughts on utsumi mad rogue?

i think the mad rogue suit is cool even if its just a blatant recolour. i also like how utsumi was just pretending to be insane so evolt would trust him. but tbh i didnt think about him that much i saw him as mostly just there to replace hell bros as the muscle so there can be someone to have interesting fights with besides evolt. him being a cyborg came out of fucking nowhere though what was with that

I'd like to talk a little about the concept of inter-rider compatibility of the items used by the riders in a series. For this, unless I state otherwise, it is assumed most more powerful items/main forms are only usable by the riders who use them due to personal compatibility.

While my discussion on this topic is motivated by recent events in Zero-One, I won't be talking about that here.

First up Ryuki. We actually know exactly what happens with trying to use Advent Cards beside your own. The effect is triggered, but for the person whose card it is. Cards like Copy Vent and Freeze Vent might be an exception. Each Rider is compatible with at least one Survive Card. Odin is the exception to this, but he doesn't need a Survive Form, and he can use all three together to be invincible anyway. The Alternative cards wouldn't be compatible with the other Visors, and vice versa.

Faiz, I don't know if we have confirmation either way of if the other Mission Memories can be used on another Rider weapon.

Blade we got a pretty good answer for. While for the 3 BOARD Riders they would only be able to use their particular Ace with their Belt, and their particular Royals with the Rouze Absorber, we know from a period when Leangle had most of Chalice's cards that they can use cards out of their suit, even if the Rouzer doesn't announce the name of the attack. And King Form has an attack using all 4 Category 6. As for Chalice, at least for transformation, he should be able to use every single Undead. Attacks probably the same.

Kiva is where I want to talk about a slight deviation to my theme, the concept of using other Rider's gears (mostly weapons) as a mechanism of their powers in at least one form. Despite the obvious fact that toy wise all Fuestles are compatible with all belts, in theory, in the canon there is no evidence for this. The Arms Monsters, the Garulu Saber, Bassha Magnum and Dogga Hammer are usable by Kiva, Ixa and Dark Kiva. The three are directly tied to Kiva's powers due to their loyalty to Wataru/promise to Otoya, able to grant him various forms. Ixa has Fuestles that enable him to steal the Arms Monsters from Kiva after he summons them, though only did so once, with Garulu. Finally, the 1986 Dark Kiva is responsible for them being Arms Monsters in the first place, having used his Fuestles to transform them.

Decade has two things to consider in this regard. The first is that all of Decade's personal cards are exclusive to him, and all of Diend's are the same. The exception to this is the occasion where Decade Complete used the Diend Kamen Ride Card to trigger a double Dimension Shoot. As for cards of other Riders, Decade is able to transform into any of the 9 Heisei Riders and use their initial forms and abilities via cards, as well as Final Form Ride them. A few cards can effect other Riders (seen with Amazon) but that's limited. Diend on the other hand can summon any rider using their Kamen Ride card, but only in their main form. He also has Final Form Ride cards for all 10 Heisei Riders.

In Zi-O, where their repertoires have been altered somewhat, things are different. While no Final Form Rides are used I wouldn't rule them still having them out. Decade now only has cards to transform into the 19 other Heisei Riders, lacking Form Ride and Attack Ride cards, however, he has now demonstrated the ability to use those forms weapons of abilities in the Rider's main form. Diend's cards have been more significantly altered, as he now only has Rider Cards for the 19 secondary Riders.

Gaia Memories in W have a bit of an unclear status with their use between Riders. It's clear that any T1 Memory or T2 Memory can be used in any Maximum Slot to trigger a Maximum Drive, and most of these memories would seem to be usable in a Lost Driver. Accel's seem to be specifically designed for his equipment, and while CycloneAccel Xtreme theoretically exists, I don't think Accel could be used with the W Driver.

OOO we know exactly how it works. OOO can use any Core Medal to transform as long as it's in the correct slot, with the exception of the Black Medals, which still have a variant in different colours which are compatible. He only uses Cell Medals for the Ride Vendors and Medjalibur, which are add-ons to his power, and the Taja Spinner and Medagaburyu. The Birth system meanwhile only uses Cell Medals. Poseidon uses Core Medals, but is probably designed only for those specific ones.

With Fourze's Astro Switches, only Circle switches are usable by anyone other than Fourze. Nadeshiko has only been seen using the Rocket Switch. Meteor is able to use the Elek, Fire and N Magnet Switches to trigger finishers, and Fourze in Cosmic States is able to use the Meteor and Meteor Storm Switches in the Barizium Sword, but can only use the Meteor Switch in the Fourze Driver thanks to Fusion.

Wizard we know how it works, the Beast Driver can only use Beast's Rings, while the Wizardriver can use Beast's Mantle rings to trigger a spell affect of their own.

Gaim, we know that any Rider using a Sengoku Driver can use any standard Lockseed, and via a Genesis Core any Energy Lockseed for a Jimber form, not withstanding the individuals ability to withstand the effects of some of the stronger Lockseeds. The few weapons that do use Lockseeds seem able to use any of them. The Genesis Driver can only use Energy Lockseeds, but the Sonic Arrow can use the normal kind.

For Drive, Drive itself is unable to use anything not designed for it to use without some reworking of the systems. It can read Roidmude Viral Cores, but the Tridoron and Heartron Cars both had to be altered to allow for a transformation. The Chaser system can use any non-transformation Shift Cars to channel their abilities, except the Pit Crew, as well as read data from the Shift Speed Prototype. The Mach Driver system is demonstrated to be able to use the same range of Shift Cars to channel abilities, and Chaser can use Shift Speed Prototype the same way. It's also able to read the Tridoron Key or Shift Viral Core to allow the transformation into Chou DeadHeat, which isn't designed to be used. On my occasional weapon use topic, Type Special is able to use Mach and Chaser's weapons.

Ghost, any Eyecon for a historical figure is usable by any rider, as long as either the spirit is willing or the rider is able to control the spirit. The Necrom Eyecons don't seem to have any restrictions who uses them, and Necrom is in fact compatible with with the Ghost Driver. Almost every other Rider's main Eyecon is either connected to their own soul (Takeru, Daigo, Ryu) or the soul of someone related to them (Makoto, Ayumu), what soul is responsible for Dark Ghost I don't know, but for these reasons they're only usable by those specific people. Toucon Boost is only usable by Takeru for the same reason, and the same with Mugen, Sin Spectre and Yujou Burst. Deep Spectre might be usable by Takeru, at least originally.

Gashat rules actually seem to be fairly clear cut. In fact, given the examples we see with Dangerous Zombie, Girigiri Chambara and Kamen Rider Chronicle, it seems that either Driver can be used to transform into Rider form, as long as you're physically capable of using the Driver, or resisting the effects of the Gashat. It might be that the Bugle Driver variants are only capable of transforming into Level X Riders or Cronus, but we only see one example of a trying to Henshin using a Gashat that doesn't fit those criteria, not including Girigiri Chambara, which was especially modified to give it a Level X form. Higher level Gashats are only usable by the characters who use them in canon, either due to their unique circumstances (Ex-aid and God Maximum Mighty X) or an acquired resistance to the specific strain of the Buster Virus those Gashats inflict on the wearer (Snipe and Brave), with Para-dx's ability to use Level 50 and later Level 99 effortlessly being down to the fact he's a Bugster. Whether the Level X Gashats could be used for a Level X form by anyone besides the ones who use them is hard to say. The Level 3 and 4 Gashats should be usable by anybody who has a Gamer Driver. As for the Level 2 Gashats, each regardless of who is actually using it, would only transform you into the Rider who normally uses it, since the suit data is part of the Gashat, not the Driver. The last things to note are that every Gashat can be used in any Kimewaza it as long as it's large enough, but Proto Gashats do not have Critical Finishes, just Critical Strikes. We also have 3 Gashats designed just for Finishes, specifically Doctor Mighty XX, Bang Bang Tank and Mighty Novel X, though the last was reprogrammed for a transformation.

Fullbottles are the basis around which all Henshin devices in Build are based around, and even if a system doesn't use any of the 60 Fullbottles for transformation, they can still use them for attacks. The TranSteam Gun relies on Lost Bottles (probably only the specific two) for transformation, and the Nebula Steam Gun has its transformation initiated via Gears, but both have other attacks using Full Bottles, and in the case of the latter, Lost Bottles. The Sclash Driver works much the same way in attacks, but can only have transformations using either Sclashjelly or the specially created Crocodile Crack Bottle. The Evol Driver can use Evolbottles for Evolt to transform, or based on the existence of Mad Rogue, any Best Match pair to transform. Any Fullbottle with an associated weapon, used with the Rider Evolbottle, will summon that weapon. The Build Driver is most versatile of the systems, but can only use proper Fullbottles in Biotic Abiotic pairs (RabbitDragon is a unique situation stemming from both bottles' evolution), all other forms require a special device to be created, in some cases channeling a single bottle.

Ridewatches would have a simple answer if not for one thing. But before I get to that, it's pretty clear that only Ridewatches can be used with the Ziku Driver, and only Miridewatches with the Beyondriver. Also, all transformation Ridewatches and upgrades can only be used by the specific Rider. That leaves us with the Legend Watches. It's known that producing a single Ridewatch cuts you off from all powers associated with that Rider, and that it is possible to produce Ridewatches representing super forms of another blank watch is used. It would be easy to assume that every Ridewatch is usable for a weapon finisher, powering up Time Mazine, or, for those with enough power, using their abilities just by activating them, and only the Heisei Riders would produce a Ride Armour. Unfortunately, GenmArmour confirms other Riders can have armours, although I would still argue watches for other forms do nothing

I wasn't originally planning to cover Zero-One when I started this post, back when His debuted, but now I think I will. The months have given me more to talk about.

First of all, in the world of Zero-One we have two types of key, ZetsumeRise Keys and ProgRise Keys. Both now have an associated type of monster that can be created using an appropriate device on a singularity achieving Humagear or ZAIA Spec using human respectively. I had initially presumed that the ZetsumeRise keys were derivative technology, now it seems likely they were developed in tandem, although it's hard to say why. There is, at present, only two known ways for the keys to produce Keys. The Ark satellite is able to produce both types, but for the past 12 years, between Daybreak and it's restoration via Ikazuchi, it has been unable to produce Progrise Keys. I am uncertain about ZetsumeRise Keys. The other method is Satellite Zea via the 3D printer in the President's office at Hiden Intelligence. As far as has been shown, it can only produce Progrise Keys. While the origins of a number of Progrise Keys are known or deductable, the origins of those keys initially seen in the possession of AIMS or ZAIA are unclear. Of the 4 driver types so far, in theory all should be able to use any Progrise Key to initiate a transformation. This is confirmed for the Zero-One Driver, which requires a link to satellite Zea to produce the animal data, as official images of Zero-One using every current Progrise Key except Assault Wolf have been revealed. The Shotriser doesn't produce a Data Animal, and all the confirmed forms have a sort of incomplete look to them, and despite a number of the Progrise Keys so far used only for attack being with AIMS, no official images exist of them being used in the Shotriser. The ForceRiser, when used with Progrise Keys, forcibly opens the key and extracts the data animal, and then converts that into the armour. One ZetsumeRise Key has been used successfully in the ForceRiser to transform into a Rider, but it should be noted that said Key, Dodo, had already been shown to evolve throughout its use by a Magia, this also involved no Data Animal. A variant of the ForceRiser, the CycloneRiser, when used with the Rocking Hopper ZetsumeRise Key, also allowed transformation into Kamen Rider Ichigata. The newest driver, the ThousanDriver, is intended to work using both the Awaking Arsino ZetsumeRise Key and Amazing Caucasus Progrise Key for a PerfectRise. While this is the only depiction we have seen as of yet, the toy, when Awaking Arsino isn't used, or a different Progrise Key, or both, will only initiate a ProgRise.

i hadn't actually put it into words but yeah the Number One shit thing about Zero One's writing is how often people just fucking let the villains walk away after a fight, or worse the villains detransform and then everyone fighting them does as well for no reason except that we can't kill them yet cause it's too early in the show

its DUMB that we’re just literally coexisting with extremely evil people in this show like usually theres an excuse or reason like “we cannot possibly contain or defeat evolt” or “we dont know their identities” or what the fuck ever. i guess we kinda did this in ex aid too but i was willing to suspend that because it was so cartoonish and also cronos was fucking untouchable but thouser? man just shoot the cunt when he takes the suit off fuck this

Thoughts on Zero One and Kiramager so far + extra (Spoilers)

Man it has been a while since I’ve done this. I was a bit uncertain to really come back and speak my mind on these since I feel what I say doesn’t really matter, I tend to fear what I say could be an unpopular opinion and get flack for it. I’m still hesitant on writing but I felt like wanting to write again after so long. I don’t know if I’ll bring this back but we’ll see. A lot has happened with Toku that’s surprising, I’m surprised how much Toku has been slowly getting itself up to be official over here thanks to various services like discotek and Shout Factory, in an age where you can officially watch the original Kamen Rider series and Kuuga online, If you told me that 5 years ago, I wouldn’t know what to believe.

Recap:

Been three years since I’ve done this iirc, but here’s My thoughts on the seasons I never wrote my full thoughts on.

Kyuranger: This was an up and down series for me. When I first started, I was hating it, due to awful pacing and was doing an awful job of establishing characters, especially Lucky who was hitting the marks of why I disliked Right and Takaharu, thankfully the series picked itself up around the second quarter with Scorpio’s arc and introducing Tsurugi. Would later go down and up with each arc but In my opinion, ended on a decent note. It does suck it never had a crossover with Zyuohger but I did enjoy the Space Squad crossover, which utilized the strengths of the characters really well and was ultimately satisfying.

Ex-Aid: Ex-Aid was a series I was a bit skeptical by but was one over by the end. I enjoyed Emu and his adventures and I give props for the show having two female Riders (Nico counts, fight me!). If there’s an issue, it’d be that I wish they’d just end with the crossover movie cause I feel the V-cinema’s felt like tacked on alternate endings, I do give them credit for trying to connect it to other films.

Lupinranger vs Patranger: A series I’ve seen that’s either enjoyed or disliked. I’m in the former and do like that they experimented with the concept of two different teams. I dig the idea that the Lupins are influenced by more modern Sentai that get the gimmick of the episode while the Pat’s are more akin to classic seasons where they just focus on the Monster, also doesn’t help that Japan has very low views on their justice system so the Lupins are more favorable. Plus I loved the way it ended on an open note, much like how Sanjo tends to do in his writing.

Amazons: Another divisive series and I’m leaning towards those that dislike it.On its own, it’s alright but as a series that uses elements from a classic series, it mostly is superficial in how it uses it cause the original series was remembered for how violent it could be, but there was more to it than just mindless violence. Also doesn’t help the producer’s comment on how “Recent Rider’s aren’t interesting, this series will give it it’s fangs back” saying the shows before it were not good when they were enjoyed by a lot fans. I do give the series credit for trying to write a gray moral type of setting but its flimsily written that it can come off as irritating,, especially around Season 2. Though I’ll give the movie credit for ending the series on a decent note.

Dino Force Brave: A miniseries that caught a lot of fans by surprise, since Korea commissioned a miniseries/continuation for Kyoryuger given how popular it was. It seemed promising, then I saw who was producing and writing it, instead of Sanjo returning. we got Ninninger’s writer. it retcons things like Torin’s not dead and Devius isn’t mentioned (the latter I don’t mind). The series is short which is both its strenght and weakness because for a miniseries, it isn’t given much time to flesh out the new characters, since they only have 12 minutes for each story, shows like the Ultra Fight series work since its serialized and can work as a movie, this not so much but unlike Amazons, I consider this harmless, its nothing too bad and there’s some merit to it (even if they tried saying it was canon in the last Taisen film)

Build: Now this was a series I was actually surprised by, this series is probably my third favorite post Decade Rider series. The series blends the right amount of silly and mature moments. It has a lot of memorable characters and one of my new favorite villlains in the franchise, Evolt was a great villain that really brought the stakes and made you think how this series was gonna deal with him. I remember the ending being divisive but I was ok with it since it does give an explanation for how Build could interact with the other Riders in future crossovers with how the previous seasons (minus Amazons) could connect. plus the V-cinema’s were well handled from an ok one like Cross-Z to a surprisingly Amazing one that is Grease’s V-cinema, now this is how you do a continuation.

Strongest Battle: Now this was a miniseries that caught me by surprise as well since they brought back returning actors to lead up to the next season. Seeing Arakawa still got it and made me hope to see him return writing someday (hint hint).The cast they got surprised me, some I was glad to see return and some I wasn’t too happy with like Takaharu and to an extent Kagura (but too be fair, she wasn’t as bad as Right), but I was intrigued to see what Arakawa would do with them and I was ok with how they were written here though still dislike Takaharu as a character.

Ryusoulger: Ryusoulger is a series that I’ve seen that is pretty loved from what I’ve seen but sadly I’m on the opposite side, I don’t think it was that terrible but more or less disappointing and somehow boring. Strongest Battle setup a lot of things for Ryusoul to follow up on that it felt like a downgrade, like Gaisorg being underutilized that you can tell they didn’t know what to do with him. The writing was all over the place that it was hard to be invested with the characters, who did their best with what they were given but their wasn’t much stakes. If there’s one thing I enjoyed, I really loved the ending arc for giving us not only a Female big bad but also blowing my expectations and breaking status quo, with Red not being the one to finish off the main villain. The ending arc was great yet at the same time was upsetting that the rest of the series wasn’t up to par with it. But now its gonna be the next adaptation after Beast Morphers. With Hasbro in charge, I’m intrigued to see what they do with it.

Zi-o: From the same minds behind Dino Force Brave and Amazons comes what is meant to be a big celebrate/closure of the Heisei era, but threw logic out the window for what is ultimately a fun kind of mess. I don’t mind continuity but I was iffy on how Zi-o retconned the previous seasons as not connected since that’s what they were trying to do until this series went (rip paper) whoops it broke. The series does have some merit with the idea of the Another Rider’s and showing the development of our protagonist and his attempt to defy fate. I also enjoyed when the series stopped time travelling but instead met the characters in the present day cause then the arcs were written better like in Blade and Agito’s tribute episodes. I haven’t watched Geiz’s V-cinema yet but also heard from the producer’s twitter that Woz’s V-cinema isn’t happening, which sucks cause there’s potential in it.

Now that those are done, here we go.

Kamen Rider Zero One:

Now with the start of the Reiwa era, I was hyped since we had Ex-Aid’s writer returning and we got not only a cool awesome secondary but a surprising Female Rider early on and is our third Rider. The first arc starts off strong with Aruto wanting to save the Humagears from Metsubojinrai. Things were looking good until things went downhill thanks to a certain Gold turd known as Thouser, before I get to my issues, I love his suit and how his finishers have a trademark, but that loses its charm when you see him everytime as he’s a very arrogant and obnoxious about his views on how “Humagears aren’t necessary” almost every time. There’s character’s that are meant to be hated, but then there’s characters that you just want to see go away. Once the arc ends the series thankfully pics up with Fuwa getting Rampage, Yua quitting and the return of Izakuchi and Naki. I’m interested to see where things go from here.

Mashin Sentai Kiramager:

Now this was a series I was cautiously optimistic by, since Arakawa returns to write a new series and after my disappointment with Ryusoul, I was nervous but thankfully this series is off to a good start, was surprised we started with episode 0, which does a good job setting up the main 4 before the red shows up. I was a bit skeptical on Juru since he screamed a lot of traits that they could’ve easily screwed up. Thankfully they’ve been doing a good job with Juru, he’s cheerful and imaginative but not a total idiot (what Right should’ve been) and the series has been doing a good job giving everyone their own center episode while not being afraid to take a few risks. I also enjoy the villains like Garza and his rivalry towards Juru due to having a similar ability to his brother that he despised, especially the fight in episode 4 being a highlight. I like that Juru wasn’t sure if he was qualified into being the leader but saw that his passion could help the team in his own unique way. Another thing I love is the Monsters with them going for a Showa aesthetic on mask based Kaijin but with an added twist of a Kaiju counterpart for them to fight, it’s a nice change of pace from just having them grow. The series has done a great job at bringing back an old style and breathing fresh life to it. Was scared hearing what happened to Juru’s actor but thankfully heard he’s doing ok and I’m excited to see what the series brings next.

Just finished watching Kamen Rider Bulid with my friend (without movies specials etc just pure 49 episodes) And it was very good series yes, still I have some buts I mostly didn't see when people are talking about this series so here is my rant: Actors were great. Thats the most solid thing in this series. They did great with crying or being awkward and some with being happy. Main chara? Perf. Grease? PErf. But the roles were not always leveled right. For me for example the story was bit too heavy for Sento. I mean he had too much dramatic events so didn’t have time to smile properly to breath, to think more about some events to work with them. At first it was great! the twists and they give him time for emotions deeper than teary eyes. But later there was too much going on to do such a thing. There was more great potential with the charas I saw the  potential in those actors but later there were too many twists. And too many forms. And i understand to sell the toys but because this is main reason for those series but they tried to make story for each mode which took time for developing charas or give them time to work trough problems. With that many Riders and that many special forms much time was ‘wasted’ on it. Because of that I had problems with co-feel with charas even if i really wanted too. but on the other hand i really like how the costumes look. Really nice designs and colours. Next thing is how people changes sides here. In some moments I didn’t knew who is who who is where... This is a kids show but it was so hard to understand that they had to make recap at least twice. Really too much. I understand war theme etc but really... Some things were not needed. triple or quadruple agents... Also Banjo. I really like this chara and how he was played mostly. BUT. I really don't understand his genetic. He had evolved genes but then not but then he had those and didn’t. Maybe subs were messed up but really. they could explain this better for the given world. Evolt guy.... we don't know who is he why is he just some Galactus. He got human emotions so what? no struggle no second thoughts... ehh... but his 1st lvl suit looks great. Misora... It is really shame that girls and women are treated so badly. She could have bigger role than being  host for a Mars queen who didn’t do much too. I really liked Misora chara. Her idol side and how sassy she was at the beginning. But no time to develop her more no another unneeded twist and betrayal. Too many betrayals... Also some jokes were borderline weird and  cringy... and some were wonderful! I really liked how Atsuhiro Inukai portrait Sento and I’m bit mad how the scenario wasted it at some points. Also Sento and Ryuuga relationship. It was great at the beginning. But then again too much was going on and they stopped with it to pull some nice stuff in the end. In conclusion if not the clustered second half with too many forms which had to have own story and too many twists for such series that mostly is based on charas and not the plot I would give it higher score. Still! It is 3rd series in my top riders  behind OOO and W.

Perfect Sento MV

Ah Snap, I didn’t know you loved KR MVs! Here’s one I am sure you’ll love, so please give your complete thoughts one the scenes and lyrics of the whole video: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=T1NU3jo7hrE

Wow, the lyrics are incredibly fitting! Probably even more so than some canon songs. This post has got very, very, veeery long, so sorry in advance.

Let’s take a look:

“I’m trapped by my own past, losing my way” the first verses (not just this one) are very interesting and suit Sento perfectly. In the first arc, Sento struggles because he doesn’t know who he used to be, which made him feel uneasy and insecure. The video shows Sento having flashbacks of the time he was Nebula gassed by Faust.

“Please, tell me it isn’t true!”, as the video shows Satou Tarou’s death. Sento is, once again, trapped by his own past: now he knows who he used to be, and that’s arguably even worse than not knowing anything at all. BUT that’s not all! “I’m not really sure if I can control it all at will”, while it shows scenes between “Isurugi” and him when Sento already knows he’s actually Blood Stalk.  This was a huge blow to him; the very person who rescued him, gave him a home, a NAME and a driver was also an evil guy who worked with Faust. 

“The love I grasped amidst this rewind… I’ll never let it go!” LOVE AND PEACE! It shows the scene where Banjou reminds him who he really is (Kiryuu Sento! A hero who saves people and fights for a better world!). Banjou’s faith in him at the time meant so much to him that, many episodes later, Sento himself would admit that Banjou’s words were life-changing to him. That line is actually more interesting applied to Banjou, as love is actually his driving force, while Sento’s is… a bit more complex than that, even if at the core love and peace are what inspire him to keep going.

“I’ll find the futures I’d always desired and tie them together!”. Sento longs for a brighter future and I believe there are relatively similar lines in some canon songs (Everlasting Sky and probably Be The One too, if I’m not mistaken). Which is pretty normal considering what Build is about. And the New World is, in a way, two worlds (two futures) being tied together.

The part about Vernage is very cool. Kudos for that.

“Losing my mind as the situation goes beyond imagination”, aaaand we’re in Hokuto arc! The video shows Stalk showing the Hazard Trigger to Sento. The situation has got so complicated for Sento that he’ll have to use the Hazard Trigger as his last resort if he wants to protect Banjou. We see Sento finding out how terrible the Hazard Trigger is via Katsuragi’s videos and, well, losing his mind about it. He’s terrified. Then we’re shown Stalk measuring Team Hokuto and Team Touto’s Hazard Levels, just to show that Sento is the weakest rider. He needs that trigger to become stronger.

“I think of the mistakes I’ve made in this life, over and over again”. AND IT SHOWS AOBA’S DEATH. Which we know had a huge impact on Sento, who would even refuse to fight because he was scared of killing someone again.

“I’ll probably end up struggling against fate”, and we’re shown scenes of Gentoku and Sento’s proxy battle. Gentoku represents in a way his past as Katsuragi, his mistakes, his crimes. Gentoku wouldn’t even call him by his name at this point (just “Katsuragi”). We can interpret it as Sento struggling against fate if we assume he’s scared of “becoming” Katsuragi again and losing his own identity. Kinda...

“…cause I haven’t given up yet!” he’s struggling, actually, because he hasn’t given up! He’s not Katsuragi. He won’t lose his mind ever again with the Hazard form because he still believes in his ideals and his friends. RabbitRabbit and TankTank -shown in the video at this point- show the victory of Kiryuu Sento over Katsuragi (and remember Gentoku does tell him “you’ll never surpass Katsuragi Takumi”).

(I found it amusing when it shows that pic of a brain at 2:35, and right after Sento getting a hair b*ner lol)

“Our conjoined purpose becomes a strength greater than when we were alone” And we get scenes from Sento using the Hazard Form. Mmm. It would have made a lot of sense to use scenes of Sento fighting with his allies, but I guess this works too because he’s shown fighting alone. He wanted to do everything on his own, which *points vaguely at Build 21* wasn’t a good idea.

“The new eyes we discovered will change our ideals into reality”. Again, the battle against Rogue.  Gentoku and Sento had a debate about ideals, right? And Sento claimed that, while he was aware of how frail concepts such as “love” and “peace” were in the real word, he’d still believe in them because they were worth fighting for. Those “new eyes” are probably just the characters’ new perspective (think of how Banjou and Kazumin ended up embracing Sento’s idealism, even though both of them were at first a bit put off by it). Sento and his friends are fighting for a better future for everyone.

“Even if you were to forget me, I can never forget again”. And it shows scenes about Banjou when Evolt had possessed Sento! Banjou was hurt because he thought Sento would never be back, and he’d never remember again the times they spent together (which is extra painful if we remember what happens in the Final Stage AND the finale). No matter what happens, Banjou will remember Sento and keep fighting for those ideals they shared together.

“This time exists to rescue that fading past” as we’re shown scenes of Katsuragi with Sento’s (or Satou Tarou’s) body. While Katsuragi has been fairly present in one way or another throughout the show, it was always as a sign of the past, a ghost. Someone we didn’t really know. This is the first time we actually see him in the present timeline. Right after, we get Sento and Katsuragi “becoming one”, which is, in a way, Sento fully accepting himself.

We get again that line about tying new futures together, and this time around we’re in The New World! That new future is here, and Banjou, who has been looking for Sento everywhere (at least that’s what he promised he’d do in the Final Stage), finally finds him. This is their promised future filled with love and peace. And just like the other Build MV you sent me, it ends with the Rabbit and Dragon bottles shaking, which I find incredibly cute and endearing.

Again, this is a very well-made MV and I can’t even imagine how long it must take in order to create a video like this. A lot of thought has been put into it: from choosing a fitting song, to choosing the most suitable scenes that accompany each verse AND making them fit the rhythm. Amazing!

My good pal @2014federalbudget made a Heisei Rider Suit Sorter thingy and so i made a list of my favorite Heisei suits!

10. Amazon Neo Alpha

I have not seen Amazons yet but it has some BEAUTIFUL suit designs, especially for the riders. Neo Alpha is one im particularly fond of because of his cool green look. The different shades and yellow lines give him a weirdly militant vibe, and his weapon is DOPE. Not to mention, being a bio-rider (at least i assume) he has cool claw hands, a dope helmet, and a cool antenna!

9. Joker

Ive always sorta flip-flopped between whether i preferred W or JOKAH, but i guess i know now. I dunno, as much as i want more green riders, i love the uniformity of the Joker suit. I dunno, it’s everything i love about the W suit but with a cool all-black look. Cant wait to see more of it when i eventually watch W!

8. OOO

OOO very well may have my favorite overall suit designs in Kamen Rider. All the forms are so colorful and cool, and TaToBa is no exception. Cute eyes, a good combination of colors on a black body, and really cool claws on the arms, i can’t get enough of it!

7. Geiz

If there’s one way to help me like a suit it’s primary color combinations. Baron suit did an okay job with red/yellow, Geiz suit did an AWESOME job, so im not surprised to see him in my top 10. Combined with the pointy butterfly/hiragana thing he has going with his helmet, im suuuuuuuper into it.

6. Rogue

Rogue is COOL, i honestly expected it to be kinda higher on this list. Everyone loves purple, and the greenish blue lining and cuffs are also great. The BEST part is the white “cracks” on the helmet and chest that make the eyes and crocodile face, respectively.

5. Amazon Alpha

Amazon is cute. Amazon Alpha is SEXY. The familiar Amazon head, the bright red, the like green scratches and scars all over, it’s amazing. Plus gotta love all the biological stuff like the fins and claws. Not much else to say other than this is what i look forward to most when watchig Amazons.

4. Meteor

METEOH! Meteor’s sparkly black suit would be cool enough without his cool shade of blue, but it adds up to an awesome suit. It contrasts with Fourze in being less bulky on the arms and legs, fitting for my boy Ryusei and his martial arts! Also love the purply eyes, it all adds up to a great color palette.

3. Dark Drive

SO many of these are from shows i havent seen before, i must say i know next to nothing about Dark Drive. But, that is a pretty sick suit. As you have no doubt noticed, i love the combo of black and bright colors for contrast, it always looks cool to me. And Dark Drive pulls that off in spades with a cool, almost futuristic look! The neon blue and yellow colors are also a great combo.

2. Evol

Evol’s got a sexy as hell suit. It’s a bit bulky, but not so bulky as to inhibit movement during fights. The HELMET is just *mwah* fantastic. And it has that oh-so-great primary color combo, same as Build’s. Best of all, it accentuates Evolt’s sinister and horny energy, even without the awesome suit acting.

1. Amazon Neo

APPARENTLY, Amazon Neo is my number one fave from Neo Heisei. And yknow? I can see it. It has all the bio-rider characteristics i love from the other Amazons riders with some cool cybernetics thrown in (done better than poor New Omega imo). A VERY bright primary color-scheme that makes him look like a juicy fruitsnack, And cool yellow compound eyes on a sick ad helmet. If i were a Kamen Rider id wanna look half as cool and colorful as this.

Best of Toku 2018

zali tagged me in this so here are my 100% correct toku opinions of 2018

Best New Show of 2018 - ultraman r/b!!!!!!! i wanna wait until it’s finished to really decide but it’s probably my favorite ultra Best New-to-You Show of 2018 - i was gonna say timeranger but i watched like half of it in 2017 so i’ll go with kamen rider hibiki, or at least the first half i’ve seen so far. it’s incredibly refreshing compared to other rider/toei shows, the slice of life stuff is so well done. it’s just a very cozy show  Best Rewatch of 2018 - rewatching abaranger and faiz back to back with skillz was one of the smartest ideas i’ve ever had, it’s the ideal way to watch both shows Best Movie of 2018 - kyuranger vs space squad!!!! yall know im mega weak for anything kyuranger related, and this movie finally gave hammy her time to shine. the returning villains were fun and it managed to get me super invested in mele despite not even watching her show, and the sentai actor cameos were nice too (tsuruhime!!). probably my favorite sentai movie overall, and not just because they announced winspector’s return in the post-credits scene Best Male Lead Character - the love of my life sento builds Best Female Lead Character - her <3

Best Male Supporting Character - ushio minato, most datable dad of 2k18 Best Female Supporting Character - tie between sawa builds and asahi from r/b

Best Villain - another tie between evolt and aizen. evolt is now my number one example of the villain you love to hate, he’s SUCH a fucking bastard. and aizen is just the perfect goofy, over the top antagonist. it would be so easy for him to come off as obnoxious but he makes every scene he’s in hysterical. i think it helps that he’s played a villain on a kid’s show before (in miracle tunes) so by the time he got cast for r/b he knew exactly what to do  Best Returning Past Character - takeru ghosts. i still can’t believe ghost got the best tribute episode in zi-o so far, but maybe im biased Best Actor - atsuhiro inukai. the scene where sento visits the place where aoba died......... Best Actress - kaho takada. the scene where she reacts to kazumi dying (dumb gag stuff aside) broke me because she made it feel so real :’( Toku Crushes of 2018 - sawa, keiichiro, tsukasa, r/b dad, and... ugh, woz Best Writer - shogo muto owns my ass, my computer, my phone, my dog, my Soul, now and forever Best Director - kazuya kamihoriuchi, obviously Best Suit Design - RABBIT! TANK! BEST MATCH! Best Weapon - the ruebe kourin, or the halo with knives in r/b. it’s a halo............... with knives

Best Mecha - patkaiser babey!!!!!! Best Fight Scene - when ryuga’s magma gets fucked for the first time against evolt. alternatively, any time the lupinrangers and patrangers teamed up to fight a gangler Best Dramatic Scene - all of build 21, the one where sento has to deal with the aftermath of killing aoba Best Comedic Scene - all of lupat 27, where sakuya and touma take a dance class together. literally the funniest toku episode we’ve had in years Biggest “WTF did I just watch?” Moment - everything i’ve seen on my dashboard about the jinga show Best Song - lupin/patren x’s theme, “M A X Power” Best Piece of Merchandise - sentai plushies Biggest Surprise of 2018 - takahashi and ohmori having nothing to do with ryusoulger lol

Award for Single Worst Thing in 2018 Tokusatsu - literally everything about how the narrative and taiga himself treated nico in brave and snipe. also what the fuck that came out this year??

i won’t tag anyone else but if you wanna do this go wild

best of toku 2018

Best New Show of 2018: guess i gotta go with ultra ruebe bc even though i have yet to see the end i can sense it’s gonna hurt me good Best New-to-You Show of 2018: skyrider skyridered its way into my heart somehow? Best Rewatch of 2018: kabuto...... Best Movie of 2018: THE GEED MOVIE!! Best Male Lead Character: does. does sento still count. if not then my man keiichiro Best Female Lead Character: tsukasa patren #3 Best Male Supporting Character: woz has already given us so much Best Female Supporting Character: not sure if asahi would be main or supporting but i gotta give her some kind of award here. happy! Best Villain: it’s still evolt. Best Returning Past Character: MA~ZEN~TA~ Best Actor: masahiro gave it his all in the jinga show even though almost nobody else did. also props to fukami motoki for being enjoyably weird as cereza Best Actress: gotta give it to takada kaho for really goin in on those emotions at the end of build. even when they didn’t give her the best material she was killin it Toku Crush of 2018: it’s still soichi. but i’ve also expanded my dad interests to shirt dad too <3 Best Writer: nobody in particular really stood out to me this year tbh... Best Director: mr kamihoriuchi obvs! Best Suit Design: the base rosso & blu suits. they are hansom Best Weapon/Vehicle/Mecha: THE HEISABER Best Fight Scene: juggler dance-fighting with reito........ Best Dramatic Scene: sento reuniting with ryuga in the new world ;v; Best Comedic Scene: cereza luring the lads to the middle of nowhere to give them their failed ultra report cards Biggest “WTF did I just watch?” Moment: like half of zi-o’s attempted tribute episodes thus far Best Song: might fuck around and go “over quartzer” Best Piece of Merchandise: that ridiculous incredible coat...? not sure what to call it? with all the heisei riders on it Biggest Surprise of 2018: SATO TAKERU THE WORLD’S MOST VALID MOVIE STAR MAKING DREAMS COME TRUE

Single Worst Thing in 2018 Tokusatsu: TWO JINGAS

tagged by @2014federalbudget 💕 i’m not gonna tag anyone but if you want to do this you can absolutely just say i did

[Review] Kamen Rider Build - Episodes 47-49

This is it, folks - the final chapter. Or rather, the final three episodes of the show. We've got a lot to dissect, so let's get to it.

Episode 47: "A Zero Degree Flame" (ゼロ度の炎)

After the most painful week of waiting, we're back to Grease in his new Grease Blizzard form, which we know now is such a powerful form that it could kill him. As he's tearing down the Lost Smash doppelgangers, Sento, Ryuga and Gentoku make their way to another floor where  doppelgangers of Remocon Bro and Engine Bro are waiting - Gentoku decides to stay behind and fight them himself, allowing Sento and Ryuga to progress through Pandora Tower.

Misora and Sawa show up with their Pandora's Box, realizing that Grease is using a new form with Shinobu's missing Build Driver. The two of them know exactly what this means for Grease, so Misora tells Sawa to keep going without her. 

Rogue has difficulty taking on the gear bros, which is fair since he's now dealing with Evolt-level copies. MadRogue steps in, and while Rogue wants to be cocky against him, we learn what's really going on with MadRogue. He suddenly turns on the gear bros, revealing that he joined Evolt specifically to gain an edge since the Rider System didn't seem like it would be enough to beat him - not only that, but he wanted to avenge President Namba. As far as Rogue is concerned, they can both achieve their dreams together, so the Rogue boys team up!

Even together, they don't do a great job of taking on the combined form, so it's a good thing Sawa showed up with Pandora's Box! As it turns out, the call from "Namba" earlier was Utsumi arranging for the girls to show up with the bottles, and I love how this one line fixes any weakness in Utsumi's character: He's loyal to Namba. He never went crazy seeing the president's death, he stayed loyal. That's super interesting, especially since it means he's now an ally instead of an enemy. And the connection to Sawa makes it even better.

The plan was for MadRogue to exploit a weakness in the Kaiser System. The Same and Bike Fullbottles are specially designed to neutralize the system's attacks, which is a nice callback to the YouTube spinoff. They use finishers to deal with the gear bros, defeating them. Then Evolt's DNA leaves them, reforming as Soichi and demanding the Lost Fullbottle they got from that pair of mimics.

Meanwhile, Grease Blizzard is continuing his assault on the Lost Smash trio, practically losing control. However, he pauses once he starts letting off an aura that occurs with any Hazard Level carrier who's on the brink of death. Misora begs for him to stop but he figures this can only end one way for him. Sento and Ryuga catch this fight on a TV in the tower, and Ryuga questions why he'd invent such a dangerous weapon for Kazumi to use, because they both know where this is going - nothing left to do but continue traversing the tower.

Back with the others, MadRogue takes on Evol and reveals that he stayed with him this long so that he could input data from HIS belt. Then MadRogue starts charging up, apparently achieving the various Phases of power Evol had, then unleashes a quick barrage of attacks that legitimately shock him.

Speaking of legitimate shock, before MadRogue can deal the final blow to avenge Namba, he... starts to short circuit. His suit dematerializing, Utsumi falls to the ground with sparks coming from his chest. This is when Evol nonchalantly remarks "Oh right, you're a cyborg." EXCUSE YOU?

When Gentoku had Utsumi pose as Night Rogue... that shot in his shoulder, which caused him to fall off a bridge, was actually fatal enough that he was turned into a cyborg. That-- Wow. Okay, that's a pretty damn good twist, which once again fixes a slight nitpick of "He sure recovered well from that presumed death". And those motherfuckers made a cold opening where they joked about him being a robot! Did they make a joke then turn it into a plot point, or is this some Steven Universe foreshadow-trolling? Anyway, cool stuff.

With Utsumi seemingly dead now, Rogue tries his best to avenge him, but Evol sends him flying. With Gentoku lying before Sawa, Evol comes towards them with an attack, when Utsumi gets in the way and takes the hit for them, claiming he isn't doing this for them - he's doing it for the bottles. Gentoku and Sawa make a quick escape using the Nebula Steam Gun, leaving Evol mighty miffed.

I should take a moment and put what I said all into one paragraph: Utsumi was an interesting character to see develop. I thought it was nice seeing him come back, was totally hoping he'd become Kamen Rider Rogue due to the irony of it all, and was delighted to see him become MadRogue. Even so, his turn as a villain felt weird and kinda forced in retrospect, as did the presumed death and subsequent return - it's fascinating how this episode cleanly deals with both things and at the same time turns him into more of a heroic character, even if one that's been raised by a cult. And the cyborg thing is a nice return to Kamen Rider's origins, even if it's such a brief reveal. May he be missed.

... On a related note, back to Grease Blizzard. He finishes off the Lost Smash trio, claiming he's ready to hang out with his bros... on the other side. With all of them gone, his suit dematerializes, and that death aura ain't lifting anytime soon. He gives Misora the Lost Fullbottle he had, and it's here they have their final words. Misora still calls him Grease, and she reveals that she never wanted to call him by his real name, presumably so she didn't get to attached - it's... kind of fair since he always calls her Mii-tan.

Misora begs for him to live, and now even Kazumi is starting to tear up, because hey, his waifu is rooting for him, how lucky can a guy get? He decides he'd better brag to his boys on the other side, so... he disappears, leaving Misora to utter "Kazumin..." Wow. </3

So, Kazumi was great. I loved the actor in Kiva so I had an immediate attachment, and I feel he played a pretty superior character here - one with more depth and an interesting change in personality as the world around him changed. 

But a pretty unfortunate flaw of this episode is that his death was basically spelled out from the beginning, and we had to wait a week to see it happen, so by this point the impact was not as strong as it could’ve been. It might’ve been better if Sento introduced him to his new weapon by saying it’s powerful “as is”, and having Kazumi remark to himself how it looks like the Magma Knuckle. Then when he steals the Build Driver, it’s more of an epic cliffhanger. The preview showing his death could have been framed in such a way that maybe his new form wasn’t strong enough, with the twist being that the form was what killed him. 

I dunno, maybe I’m over-analyzing at this point. I just feel that the week long break hurt the impact of what they had written. Plus Utsumi’s whole twist and death kinda overshadows it since I did not see any of that coming. 

Moving on... now we're in the area Evolt was in, which I guess is meant to be part of Pandora Tower even though there's no walls to be seen. The gang is all together and pretty somber after presumably learning what happened with Utsumi. It gets worse when Misora silently approaches, handing Sento the Lost Fullbottle and telling them the news...

... and it's at this point I found the scene sad and beautiful. All you hear is the wind - everyone is muted for dramatic effect, and each of them is reacting to what you assume is "Kazumi is dead." It sinks in, and they all break down. Misora falls to her knees, Sawa comforts her as she cries, Ryuga punches stone with a look of disbelief and anger, Gentoku straight up screams in despair... and Sento silently broods.

Then Soichi breaks the silence with "Yo!" and Sento turns, screaming Evolt's name. END OF EPISODE. Fucking stunning.

Episode 48: "For a World of Love & Peace" (ラブ＆ピースの世界へ)

Time for an entire episode of fighting! Everyone does their best to take Evol on, and we also get to learn what Sento wanted to tell Ryuga before at their cookout: Only Ryuga can save their world because he has the Evolt DNA to make stuff happen with the white panel. He starts using the Hazard Trigger with his Cross-Z Magma form, gets in some good hits, but in the end, Evol is still too strong.

Eventually, Evol manages to get back the two bottles and return to his final monster form, which is BAD. Evolt opens up a black hole which absorbs their goddamn moon, which... actually probably won't affect them in the long run according to Dragon Ball. But he also starts tearing at the Earth, which is definitely going to be a problem.

When Misora is begging for Vernage's help, Evolt tries to destroy her, only for Rogue to take the hit for her. He's already getting that death aura, but he takes Evolt head on.

We also once again come back to that cookout where Kazumi talked to Gentoku about being a political figure once this was all over, and... at this point I understood Gentoku - even after all he's doing to save the world, he feels like he's yet to really make up for who he was, and that's pretty damn interesting since he was under some nebula gas influence until becoming a hero. Even more interesting is the fact that Kazumi says he's forgiven Gentoku for everything, and that's pretty big of him to do. No wonder Gentoku reacted to his death so intensely... 

Rogue, unfortunately, bites off more than he can chew as he tries to fight a god mode Evolt. His helmet gets broken, which only makes things look even more grim - as he seems to be falling, however, the people of the city are screaming and cheering for the Kamen Riders, which I must say, is goddamn powerful. Rogue is living by his father's words: It's not about the person in power, is about the people who put them in power. MANLY TEARS MOMENT. 

While his attacks seem to be amounting to little, Rogue seems to be onto something with attacking Evolt's Evol Trigger. However... he can't fight his fate, and ultimately his transformation disengages, leaving a weakened Gentoku to question... did he measure up to his father at all after this? With a beautiful shot where Rogue's shadow can be seen on the wall next to him, Gentoku fades away...

I'll be honest, this character started out as a bit of a nothing character to me. I've said it before: After episode 1, there were at least 1-2 people telling me every week, if not every other day, that Gentoku is gonna turn out to be Night Rogue. It was obvious, and I found Blood Stalk more interesting. To me Night Rogue seemed like one of THOSE Rider villains: The one who's gonna stick around until the hero gets their first power-up form, then gets killed off. Phoenix, Javert, Graphite, just characters made to be a really strong obstacle that makes the power-up more impressive. I didn’t invest in him for that reason. 

But Gentoku stuck around. He disappeared for a bit, then came back as the grim Kamen Rider Rogue. And while he was very cool visually, I described that period as "Comically edgy Gentoku" because he was just leaning too far into grim territory. But once we got the implication that he was starting to lose that nebula gas edge, and was starting to show some heroism, then he got interesting. I mean, maybe they could have used at least one line to explain his turn to comedy, but besides that, I really like him now that he's become one of the heroes. He will truly, truly be missed.

Build and Cross-Z Magma transform, powered by the screams for justice still cheering them on, and suddenly... Evolt has trouble moving. It seems that Gentoku's death wasn't in vain, as the Evol Trigger has some lasting damage. The two Rider Kick the bottles out of him again, and this time, Cross-Z Magma runs at him with the white panel to fuse them together, causing the black panel to disappear.

With the white panel attached to the Pandora's Box they brought, a beam shoots out into the black hole... and out of it comes another Earth, one without a Skywall. Evolt is given some heroic monologuing to explain that their plan was to use his energy with this beam to fuse these two Earths, forming a world without the Skywall and without Evolt's presence. Shockingly, the Genius Fullbottle's power gets absorbed, leaving Build with one less power-up.

As Build prepares to send Evolt flying, Cross-Z Magma shoves him aside, causing his suit to dematerialize. He tells Sento that he's got Evolt's DNA in him, so obviously... he should be the one to finish the job. Cross-Z Magma propels himself into space, leaving Sento screaming his name! 

Episode 49: "The Tomorrow Created by Build" (ビルドが創る明日)

While the Katsuragi in Sento's head seems content with letting Ryuga sacrifice himself, Sento won't have it - from the point on, there'll be no sacrifices. Using RabbitRabbit, Build leaps into the space where Evolt and Cross-Z Magma flew into, which takes him to a wasteland. Here, we finds what he thinks is Ryuga, but surprise, Evolt absorbed Ryuga and intends to finish off Sento so that he can become powerful again.

To Evolt’s dismay, though, Ryuga fights back inside his body, giving Sento the chance to regain his composure, and gives him the silver Dragon Fullbottle. He also tells Sento something very important: Since they met, Ryuga has now become the definition of Sento's heroism, a person who can't help but smile when he's managed to save someone. Ryuga, and all the others, have built up Sento into the hero he wants to be, so he can't let them down now.

Build charges into battle, back at it again with RabbitRabbit, then moving into TankTank, all while he and Evolt trade some powerful blows that cause them to get just a hint of death aura. As they keep fighting, Evolt loses some of his bulk, and Build switches to RabbitTank Sparkling. As Evolt loses even more of his power, Build is reduced to just RabbitTank, which Evolt takes amusement in... until Build turns the tides.

With this Hazard Level, Build's Rabbit Fullbottle turns gold, and he uses it with the silver Dragon Fullbottle to unleash a powerful finisher in the Fullbottle Buster. Finally, with Ryuga holding Evolt back, Build uses these gold and silver bottles to transform into a special Trial Form that the bent decides is a Best Match, because that’s what Sento and Ryuga are! With a Rider Kick that Evolt attempts to counter, Build sends him flying to the ground, causing him to explode.

And that's it. Vernage leaves Misora's body, now that she can confirm that the evil is defeated, then that gold bracelet finally falls off of Misora's hand. The two Earths begin to merge, with strings of math breaking down the Skywall... because I guess we needed to homage the opening? 

And then... silence.

...

Sento wakes up in a grassy field with an odd product placement in the form of the Cross-Z RideWatch, then looks around and realizes that the Skywall is indeed... gone. As he walks into the city and sees Prime Minister Himuro on a large TV screen, he and Katsuragi reflect on the fact that they were successful, and that this was the world their father wanted: The last 10 years have been completely different for this new world, more peaceful. Of course, this means the people Sento remembers aren't gonna remember him.

We then get a wonderful montage of things. Gentoku is his father’s aide, Sawa is a political journalist that’s having a nice professional exchange with Gentoku, Utsumi is working for Namba which is now a workshop, Kazumi and his bros hang out at our favorite coffee shop to meet the cute barista Misora, and... damn is it nice to see them all happy. 

But it’s also sad, because even though Sento practically created his world, it’s a world that doesn’t know who Sento Kiryu is. Katsuragi bids Sento farewell, letting him know that it's been fun tagging along and watching him do his hero thing. By this point, he seems to have come to terms with everything, so he will cease to be a voice in Sento’s head. 

Sento then encounters Ryuga, who’s hanging out with his not-dead girlfriend, and confirms that not even Ryuga remembers him. He tries to play it off then goes to the coffee shop, where it seems like Misora recognizes him... but her dad points out that he’s Taro Sato, the rock star on the poster in their shop! As Sento drinks his coffee, he makes the shocking revelation that Misora's dad actually knows what coffee is after all, and can't help but finally crack a smile as the two act like goobers over his resemblance to this rock star. 

Outside, Sento reflects once more on the world he's created, and finds it pretty ironic that the man who once had amnesia is now the one person no one remembers... except the guy who calls out his name~?!

Ryuga shows up, asking what the deal is with this world. He found out there was a version of him here who's dating his girlfriend, which Sento realizes is because... Our Ryuga wouldn’t technically exist in a world without Evolt since he has Evolt’s DNA, so the Ryuga here is one who grew up normally! And is maybe 8 months younger! The two decide to ride off together, with a wonderful callback to episode 1. 

The show ends with Sento revealing to Ryuga that he's written a 49 episode script about his adventures, which is frankly NOT the weirdest comedic ending a Rider show has gotten. Neo Fangire.

So... that was Kamen Rider Build. It was-- actually, it's better if I let the review end here. This is long as is, so I'll be giving my overall thoughts of the show in a separate post. Mostly positive, some small nitpicks, and perhaps it’s worth talking more about the ending. Til then! 

Answering this here @passingthroughstranger !

Hmmm... that is a challenging question...

First off, I don’t think Hongou would apologize, not straightforwardly at least. Rider or not, he’s still part of that generation that grew up with a very macho, manly-man who refuses to acknowledge emotions kind of mindset. Imo, this is part of the reason why he doesn’t understand the Heisei Riders’ motivations to begin with. 

I think that his sentiments would reach them though, when he offered Gaim that olive branch in the end- and when the rest of the Showa Riders followed suit. While he may not understand why they fight, and why they feel the way they do, him acknowledging that their ideals is just as valuable and right as his goes a long way in smoothing ruffled feathers.

On the other hand... some of the Heisei Riders will definitely hold some bitterness against the Showa Riders.

Tsukasa... well, he definitely sees where Hongou and co were coming from, but that doesn’t mean he’s not a bit pissed that they’d let a poor child get caught up in the whole mess. They’re supposed to be the heroes, not him, right? 

I had a whole post explaining why I thought Shoutaro should’ve reacted strongly to the Showa Rider’s critcisms, if you remove the fanficcy part where he accidentally blurts out his undying love for his aibou at least. If anything, he’d be pretty pissed just because of the implications toward Philip.

As for Philip... Well, I imagine he’d be pretty hurt by what the Showa Riders said. After all, he should have been dead too. He knows that rationally, they’re wrong... but he wouldn’t be able to help wondering if he was proof of what they were saying. Because the first time he came back... that lead to the downfall of his family (or so he thinks).

Eiji... Ankh’s death is still a sore spot for him, to say the least, and the encounter would sometimes make him wonder if he was doing the right thing trying to bring him back.

For Gentaro, I think he won’t quite understand why the Showa Riders did what they did, just that they were hurting people he considered his friends, like Shoutaro and Haruto.

As for Haruto... I think that of all people, he understood best what the Showa Riders were saying, ie how his attachment to Koyomi brought her back in all the wrong ways. However, he’s also very aware of how even the best intentions can be twisted into evil ones by manipulative people, which is something the Showa Riders failed to consider.

Kouta, who was caught up in all this just because he wanted to help a poor kid, would definitely wonder what made the Showa Riders so... cynical, I suppose? He understands a bit more by the end of his season, but even then, he would never think they were right. 

For the Riders that came after them... the reaction would generally be one of surprise and horror, but I think Takeru and Sento would have the strongest reactions. 

The former would initially refuse to believe that Hongou would attack a fellow Rider like that. Takeru would have had a bit of hero worship in the older Rider after seeing him in action, what with his proclamation of “Hongou Takeshi would always be my hero.” But eventually, he would understand that while Hongou is a good man, a hero, he still had his faults.

For the latter... it’s a really sore spot to Sento, just because of how many casualties there were on his Earth. So many innocent people died needlessly, and two of those were his friends, while one is his father. And he was only able to keep going and win against Evolt, because his love for his friends was so great that he was willing to create a whole new world for their sake, even if he wasn’t going to be part of their new lives.