Kamen Rider/toku is awesome

[Gomess]

HAHA WE GOT ONE *crowds around*

uhh

Depends what kinda stuff you like in a story. Some are more slow-paced and complex, some are simpler, more Yu-Gi-Oh "fun".

And of course it's been going since '71, soooo.... lotsa choice. =|

[BWprowl]

I dunno Six. You've watched a bit of Power Rangers/Super Sentai in your time, right? What were some of your favorites, what did you like about them? Might as well compare Toku to Toku, if you need something to start off with.

Alternatively, I'll just say W, Gomess'll just say Kabuto, and annhell'll just say Ichigo, and we can bicker about which would be better for you for eighteen pages.

[annhell]

Welcome, O6, you have been infected.

Actually, I'd support Gomess and Prowl's advocacy of Kabuto and W respectively. Both are good series.

In fact, any of the "Heisei" era Rider shows which started in 2000 are probably a good starting point. Most of them are standalone series which you can pick up without confusion over continuity. The only exception is Decade, which was a tribute/fanwank series that made references to ALL the past Riders in some form or other.

Also, the recency of Heisei Riders might make for easier viewing than the old 1970s/1980s fare. Of course, the fact that these are, first and foremost, elaborate commercials for kids' toys - more blatantly so than the original batch of Rider shows - means that you shouldn't be surprised to find some facepalm moments and major plotholes. Even the best of the Heisei Rider shows have such flaws.

You can find a good number of them streamed from dramacrazy.net. Just look under "K".
Alternatively, TvNihon has subbed most (if not all, by now) of the Heisei Rider series and have them all up for Torrent on their website.

If you're gonna go old school, then I -would- recommend starting with the first Rider, Ichigo. Not only because that one started the whole franchise, but because most, if not all, of the older "Shouwa" era series are chronologically linked. These series are harder to find though, and Gomess' torrent links are the only leads I have.

Ohy and before I forget, there was a kind of remake of Ichigo as a feature movie a few years back called "Kamen Rider - The First". That one might be easier to find, and, despite being a fairly recent production, it captured a lot of the spirit, drama and tragedy that made the original so awesome.


Just to avoid multiple posting:

Currently going through Ryuuki, enjoying it more than I thought I would. Never knew it had a whole Highlander thing goin' on, and I like the stupidly large cast of Riders (shame it became the norm around that time).

Ryuki had some good things going for it. As unexpected as it was, the writers did succeed in using the ludicrous "hunt monsters in another world" premise to pump up the drama quotient. I did mention in my first post here that Ryuki was a good contender for being one of my favourite Heisei series. It's just that I generally didn't like the underlying monster card gimmick, and most of the characters were just too one-dimensional.

It was nice at the time to see a whole bunch of riders in one show, but on the other hand, I blame that as the main obstacle against having enough room to develop any one character decently.

Incidentally, that was one of my gripes with Kabuto as well. I think it's a good show overall, but characters like Drake, Kickhopper and Punchhopper were pretty much just there to inject more toys into the line.

[Gomess]

characters like Drake, Kickhopper and Punchhopper were pretty much just there to inject more toys into the line.

Much as I love the show, you're absolutely right. Even I space out a little when Tendou summons that giant plasticky sword with all the henshin devices attached to it to perform some ridiculous super attack... Kinda removes the gravitas of any given dramatic moment. =| And much as I love Drake's actor, the character didn't nearly contribute as much to the plot as he could've, being a truly "renegade" Rider.

Yeah, I honestly think O6 would enjoy Kabuto, but one problem with it is that if you've never seen a KR show before(?), the opening surprise might fall a bit flat. Maybe I'm overthinking here, but I'm damn sure the audience was meant to assume that Kagami would be the one to become the primary Rider... After all, it's usually the loser protagonist who has to live up to the cool senpai secondary character (Ryuuki, Blade, yadda yadda), but Kabuto switched that up.

Kabuto and W are both excellent examples of Heisei shows, but also.... kooky. They can be very kooky. If that's ok, then good, but if O6 wants a bit more SRS BZNS then Kuuga, Agito or even Black might be a better starting point

Incidentally annhell, thanks for the link to dramacrazy, many of the KR links seem broken in some way or other, BUT it has K.O. 3anguo and a bunch of other Asian dramas I've wanted to see, so ta!

[Gomess]

Yes I'm double posting because I'm DESPERATE FOR V3 AARRRGHHH I can't find it *anywhere* O___O

Just the first episode. English subs. I'd be happy. Sniff.

[Sparky Prime]

New to KR entirely. Never seen an episode. Not even Masked Rider. Not even the pilot for Masked Rider that was an MMPR episode.

I was a huge fan of the Power Rangers at the time, so I remember seeing the Masked Rider episode they did. I couldn't get into the actual Masked Rider series though. Even as young as I was at the time I thought it just felt too... watered down. And I was disappointed the series ended up cutting it's ties to the Power Rangers episode that debuted it. That's pretty much my only exposure to anything related to Kamen Rider.

[Gomess]

I thought it just felt too... watered down.

Hah, no kidding. If Power Rangers was an oversimplified version of Zyuranger, then Masked Rider made Kamen Rider Black look like Tolstoy.

alien prince my arse mumblegrumble

[Onslaught Six]

I dunno Six. You've watched a bit of Power Rangers/Super Sentai in your time, right? What were some of your favorites, what did you like about them? Might as well compare Toku to Toku, if you need something to start off with.

Well, I obviously like the original MMPR but that's more nostalgia than anything else talking. I really liked RPM (as did AU; we would actually queue up episodes on YouTube and watch them together after they aired) although I'm led to believe that it's waaaay different from Go-onger. Mostly the fact that it took itself seriously and had some actual character development, which I would assume/hope all the good KR shows have.

Basically whatever KR show is all "This is what it is, this is why it's good, and this is why you should care," is probably the one I'd like to start with. Like how you give The Dark Knight Returns to someone who is interested in getting into Batman, I guess.

[Gomess]

Kabuto then. I mean, what else would I say? I genuinely think it's the best example of everything that makes Kamen Rider great. Distinct characters with their own individual arcs, a complex and mysterious storyline with lots of (maybe even too many) twists, some astounding action sequences for a TV show (Clock Up is used way more originally than Bullet Time ever was), 100% positive values, melodrama, scary (and original) bad guys, sympathetic heroes, and a.... somewhat satisfying ending. When you like something that much, no ending can be good enough.

[BWprowl]

Gomess makes Kabuto sound awesome, but I'll continue the predictability steamroller and say W wouldn't be too bad a choice, either. It's the first one I watched, and I wound up a huge fan of the franchise, after all. It's a clean start after the big Decade celebration, and a lot of the base elements get you into what KR is 'about' more or less, but it's definitely got its own identity, with a lot of nicely consistent themes undercutting the whole thing, and the defining gimmicks are different enough not so much that you get stuck on only them, but in that they make you want to watch other KR series just to see how some of the other guys *work* after seeing W's gimmicks in action. It's also got exactly the type of atmosphere/tone I think a show like this should have, which makes it a good choice as far as just wanting a fun toku show. That said, that's my opinion of what's 'exact' in terms of tone, and W is definitely a good bit sillier than I hear Kabuto is, so that may be a decision-maker in your eyes.

Well, I obviously like the original MMPR but that's more nostalgia than anything else talking. I really liked RPM (as did AU; we would actually queue up episodes on YouTube and watch them together after they aired) although I'm led to believe that it's waaaay different from Go-onger. Mostly the fact that it took itself seriously and had some actual character development, which I would assume/hope all the good KR shows have.

Heh, I've had RPM downloaded for a while now because I heard it was Really Good, but I haven't gotten around to watching it.