I wanted to get out a few thoughts about Kamen Rider, now that I’ve few a couple of complete series (first Decade and then W).
I want to get out of the way that I enjoy both Kamen Rider and Super sentai. I am also a big fan of Power Rangers and would like to watch Kamen Rider Dragon Knight sometime when I get the chance. I like both equally, and I think both have their strong points, and provide good and interesting plot lines and drama and comedy and all that. In short: entertaining all around.
I also understand that my experience is limited, and that these two series may vary a bit from the usual KR fare.
In short, based on these two series, I have a couple of problems. The first is that KR seems to win way too easily most of the time. I understand that in sentai they usually handily win in 30 minutes, but the general formula has them getting beat for a while, then regrouping and finally winning. While most of the time in Sentai they get a new power to keep things interesting, KR tends to focus on the characters and stories, instead of getting drama from fights. I understand that point, but it still makes many of the fight scenes seem a bit too easy. Especially in Decade, where he basically curb stomps everything no matter what, and is very rarely on the ropes. Even when facing other Riders.
I think that BOTH Super Sentai and Kamen Rider could be improved with just a bit more drama. A bit more will they actually win this time, over the course of the series. That being said, I think W mitigated this a bit with the mystery part of the show, that the characters not only had to figure out how to beat the kaijin of the week but ALSO just what was going on and who was responsible. It added a bit more to the series and I appreciated that.
W was about 90% characters. The main plot didn’t get much developed until the last arc or so, but that’s alright. Philip and Shotaro really made the show, their characters being complex with good motivations. Shotaro was played as the butt monkey maybe a little too much for my tastes, but they still showed he was very competent as a detective and a Kamen Rider. His power was heart, and what a power it was.
In addition, the ENTIRE supporting cast was pretty amazing, all of their characters were interesting, and I really got excited when Watcherman or Santa-chan would show up. Also, Ryu came in and pretty much stayed a bad ass for the entirety of the show.
As for Decade, either the plot expected a lot from its viewers, I missed something, or something was missing. The characters, as well, were all really to themselves and reserved, and while Tsukasa and Natsumi and Kaito got a fair amount of development, all we really got out of it was that they all weren’t really as big of dicks as we thought. Of course, that’s far too simplistic, but still, it is basically correct.
What Decade really had going for it was maybe nostolgia factor, because the Samurai Sentai Shinkenger episode really blew me away, being a big fan of that sentai, but the other two-parters, while good, didn’t really blow me away as much as that one and the one concerning Kaito. Still, in a way, Decade sort of worked like Cowboy Beebop. It was basically these characters that were kind of jerks, going around and proving that they had a heart of gold all along. I didn’t really know what to expect with decade, but I think it was a poor place to start. Don’t get me wrong, I liked the series, but I think it was certainly weaker than W.
I loved the concept and the characters of W instantly, from Begins Night, and then on in the first episode. There was a point during the series when I wish he would have gotten more forms and powers, but that happened only a few episodes before the plot really got going, and I stopped caring.
W had quite a few tear jerker moments, and balanced serious and silly pretty well, as did Decade. They both succeed on that front.
My second small problem is the fact the vilians motivations seems sort of weak. The main villain of either series (though Decade doesn’t REALLY have one) were perplexing. While the Sonozaki family for the most part got great development, Ryubee was perplexing and he just sort of seemed Evil for the sake of Evil and was confusing. He seemed happen when (SPOILERS)
Philip died as a child, and I don’t know why? Maybe it was the actor’s fault, but I don’t want to say that. I don’t know. Sentai fluctuates all over the place with quality of villains, so I’m going to blame this just on the series and not say it’s a problem with the KR franchise over all.
It probably doesn’t help that you don’t really know anything about Ryubee until maybe the last 5 episodes, and while that does make his eventual downfall sort of sad, it would have been better if they had paced it out a bit more, maybe showed a little more about him, and hinted at his eventual Instrumentality-ish plot earlier. Then, in the last 3 episodes you get this Foundation X which has been mentioned but remains mysterious, and kind of a lot about the bad-guys was thrown in all over the place.
One small thing is that, maybe because I am American, I feel like someone from the main cast should get a love interest and hook up with someone at the end, which hasn’t happened in any KR or Sentai that I’ve watched so far. I think, though, based on anime and what have you, that this annoying ship-tease thing that I dislike so much, may in fact just be part of japanese story telling, and maybe I should get used to it more. I don’t know about that for sure either, and if anyone has any thoughts at all feel free to let me know.
Well, if you have any thoughts on anything. These are just a few opinions from my limited experience and if I missed something or you want to give me more info, there is a decent chance you could change my mind!
(Also, I’m a big KR fan, and I love the series in-so-far as what I’ve seen. If anyone reads this maybe make some recommendations for the next series I should check out? I plan on following Fourze when it starts!)
