The Inconvenient Truth: Kamen Rider Build is the worst toku in history

[Captain Shark]

This is hard to admit, especially after decades of tokusatsu watching. Movies, television, specials, the works. Kamen Rider has always had a distinction from Ultraman, Super Sentai, Godzilla, and Gamera in which there was a range of quality. You could never predict what the score would end up being because every series had things going for and against it, usually limited to one or two entries. I've been vocal about the entries I've disliked as I have the ones I enjoyed.

And now we have Build. I didn't start watching this until June because Ex-Aid left a very bad taste in my mouth. It wasn't quite as bad as some other entries I could name, but Build? Build is a game changer and I dare say to a transcendent extent. It took me a while to accept it, but not only is Kamen Rider Build the worst entry in the franchise, it's also the worst tokusatsu I have ever witnessed in its entirety. Worse than Kabuto or The Next or that awful Kamen Rider Specter epilogue movie. Worse than Half Human. Worse than Dogora. Worse than Daimajin Kanon. Worse than Bio Planet WoO. Worse than Reigo or Raiga. Worse than Shougeki Gouraigan. Worse than Megaranger or Gokaiger. Worse than Godzilla Resurgance or the Kiryu movies. Worse than Gamera vs. Viras or Jiger. Worse than Gappa. Worse than Kujira Gami.

I'm stunned at this and it took me a while to piece together why it was so atrocious, but after a lot of thought it became apparent that Build had the vast majority of problems other heisei rider entries had.

-An ultra super serious tone clashing with cartoony humor (W and Gaim)
-Lacking monsters of the week (Gaim)
-Tertiary riders that do very little after they become good (Ghost)
-Constant distractions from the plot (Ryuki, Faiz, Blade, and Kabuto)
-Doppleganger of the main hero becomes a red herring (Kabuto)
-Constant drastic costume changes to the point where base form is never used (Ex-Aid)
-Unnecessary duo riders that do nothing (Kabuto)
-Trying to shove in unnecessary politics (Faiz and Gaim)
-Questionable camera work trying to hard to be artsy (Kuuga and Agito)
-Random tonal shifts (Hibiki and Den-O)
-Drastic focus on the main villain where everything else takes a back seat (Ex-Aid)
-Little build up to anything (Faiz, Hibiki, and Den-O)
-Base form somehow has a chance against the main villain when it should never (W and Ex-Aid)
-Useless female side character only there for humor (many entries, but W did this the worst)
-Lackluster final battle (Hibiki and Decade)
-Forced drama that served nothing (Ryuki and Blade)
-Putting in multiverse theory without much exploration into the idea (Decade)
-Atrocious music (Kabuto and Ghost)
-Slow pacing (half the heisei series)

What makes this worse than the movies is that movies rarely exceed two hours. By the end I had nothing positive to say about this, it somehow accomplished doing literally everything wrong much like Fate/Stay Night and Fate/Zero. I'm almost impressed. From the moment I pressed play for the first episode all the way to the final moments of the last episode there was only noise. Awful, atrocious, abominable, a genuine disaster for an entire genre.

Here's to Kamen Rider Zi-O, please redeem the franchise like how Gundam Build Divers saved Gundam from Iron Blooded Orphans.

 

[mbozzo]

It's a pity that you didn't like the Kamen Rider series. If you're right, it might explain why Kamen Rider never caught on in America.

 

[Black Fang]

It seems to be a running theme for you to hate things that are generally liked by the fandom.

W, Gaim and Build are the high points in what has otherwise been a lackluster decade of Phase 2 Heisei, which can be summed up by "good ideas that are poorly executed". I don't know why you'd consider Build the worst of the lot when Ghost and Wizard exist.

 

[Captain Shark]

Strange how you mentioned three of the four low points (the last one being Ex-Aid) as "high" points because they were the lackluster ones in an otherwise solid decade. As for Wizard and Ghost, the former is one of the best entries in the franchise and the latter was kind of solid all around. As I said before Build is pretty much just the cons of entries from this century. Nobody else is willing to call it out so I will.

 

[raden238]

For me Hibiki and Ghost are the worst in Rider history. Hibiki had a god awful tonal shift, half way into the series, that completely change everything for the worse. The villains and characters were never interesting. Ghost was very bad, as they literally only had 10 monster suits being reused over and over again. One of the worst protagonists in Takkeru, who's fate went against everything the lore was about. (How can you be a Ghost Rider, if you're not dead and why would he chose to come back to life instead of helping others?). The story for Ghost sucks too.

Build I felt was essentially a repeat of Ex-Aid. They had the buddy Rider format since the beginning, a villain Rider that turned goofy by the end of the series, and wayyyy too much Build-up for a Final Boss Kamen Rider. If you don't like Ex-Aid, you wouldn't like Build. I thought the show was average, I hope Kamen Rider can change the format again. Zi-O seems to be going for yet another buddy-Rider format with Geiz. I wish they can go back to a solo Rider show (Kuuga) or the two parter arc format (Wizard). We haven't gotten either in a while.

 

[Black Fang]

I might agree with one or two of Shark's points (though most of them range from petty to trivial to nonsensical). But call me paranoid, this thread feels a trolling attempt to spark conversation in an otherwise dead/dying fanboard.

Are toku fans just not familiar with what Kamen Rider is supposed to be about? All of Ishinomori's heroes and stories revolve around politics to some degree. Kamen Rider, in varying degrees, has always dealt with shadow governments/New World Order, the paranormal and other "things that go unseen", with a dash of Coast To Coast AM radio fodder. Complaining about politics in Rider just screams ignorance, to be quite frank. You can argue whether or not it's been done well (sometimes it is, sometimes not), but don't tell us it doesn't belong at all.

 

[Dr Kain]

Build's last 8 episodes may have fumbled the ball in story telling, but I can not disagree with your post more. Build was 40 episodes of no filler whatsoever. It was all story, something that hadn't been done since Blade. Hell, technically episodes 41-49 were not filler either, but rather the final battle dragged out to be 9 episodes long with breaks between each round.

The tones were just fine as it balanced comedy and drama together. One never felt like it over powered the other.

The camera work was stellar, just like Blade. As was the music, also like Blade, W, and Gaim.

I will agree with the female characters, which is a shame as Misora started out really strong with the Vernage plot that went nowhere and they never did anything with the traitor girl.

Now is Build as good as W and Gaim? No, however, it's on equal footing with both OOO and Fourze.

If I were to rank the Heisei series overall, it would go as follows (only going to count the ones I watched in full):

1. Blade
2. W
3. Gaim
4. Agito
5. Ryuki
6. OOO
7. Fourze
8. Kuuga
9. Kiva
10. Build
11. Hibiki
12. Wizard
13. Den-O
14. Kabuto
15. 555
16. Decade

If you really think Build is the worst Toku in history, then you need to watch Ultra Seven X, Kamen Rider Black Rx, Lion Maru G, Shogeki Gouraigan, Garo The One Who Shines in Darkness, Goseiger, Kyuuranger, Ninninger, and Turboranger.

 

[NeonZ]

Considering your post, it's clear you dislike running story and prefer episodic shows, but some of the complaints make no sense even considering that, like claiming that Build had a slow pacing or constant distractions from the plot. Build never had Gaim's weird tie in episodes that brought the story to a halt. It was always going ahead. Even the scene inserted to explain Build's early cameo for example was incorporated straight into the main plot (Sabotaged belt to explain why Build didn't have Gorilla in the beginning of the show).

The story was always moving ahead full throttle. The only oddity was the Lost Bottles arc, but that was more due to it feeling like a de-escalation coming from Evol fighting directly to mostly hanging around in what was basically Neo Faust, before actually continuing the battle against him.

The tertiary Riders also got their own battles and moments even after joining, both episodes where they shone by themselves and episodes where they were part of successful group efforts. You really can't compare it to Ghost where they weren't even allowed to beat monsters of the week and got immediately removed from play once attempting to fight the real villains. Compare Gentoku damaging the Evol Trigger to Specter and Necrom getting instantly beaten by the Great Eyezer and just standing in the sidelines while Takeru fought against it (and then next episode they just appeared to get crushed by Genm without accomplishing anything either).

As for the base form, you seem to have forgotten Hazard levels, Evolt's form is also shown to be falling apart and regressing through the battle and Banjo also was getting in his way - and don't forget the damaged Evol Trigger. Same thing happens in Ex-Aid - they only beat Cronus once his driver is damaged. It's really only W out of those examples that had Utopia randomly being very weak overall once his "trick" was discovered even though previously he was beating Accel even before touching him.

Also, complaining about the camera work is just odd. Yes, it tried to be artsy... but how is that a problem? The action and such were still there. At least that gives Build some unique memorable visuals.

 

[Captain Shark]

But call me paranoid, this thread feels a trolling attempt to spark conversation in an otherwise dead/dying fanboard.

There is no trolling, that came directly from my own thoughts. If there is a worse toku out there I have not seen it.

All of Ishinomori's heroes and stories revolve around politics to some degree.

I don't read manga so you're likely right and they just don't translate into toku.

The tones were just fine as it balanced comedy and drama together.

I disagree with this but okay.

The camera work was stellar, just like Blade.

Of all the entries to pick why Blade? There was very little going for that, it seems like something out of left field.

Ultra Seven X, Kamen Rider Black Rx, Lion Maru G, Shogeki Gouraigan, Garo The One Who Shines in Darkness, Goseiger, Kyuuranger, Ninninger, and Turboranger.

With the exceptions of Lion Maru and Kyuranger I have seen these and only Shougeki Gouraigan was bad (I even mentioned that in the opening post).

Considering your post, it's clear you dislike running story and prefer episodic shows

Not true, Nexus is my third favorite Ultra series and Drive is my favorite Kamen Rider and I hardly call them episodic.

like claiming that Build had a slow pacing or constant distractions from the plot.

Until the tournament arc it didn't really have a "plot" as much as it was a series of random events lossely tied to a "I was framed for murder" subplot which was somehow forgotten about.

Build never had Gaim's weird tie in episodes that brought the story to a halt.

And strangely those were Gaim's best, they weren't trying to be the uber dark and serial-ness with pretenciousness sprinkled on it.

The tertiary Riders also got their own battles and moments even after joining

A lot of which could have fit in a web series.

Compare Gentoku damaging the Evol Trigger to Specter and Necrom getting instantly beaten by the Great Eyezer and just standing in the sidelines while Takeru fought against it (and then next episode they just appeared to get crushed by Genm without accomplishing anything either).

I'll take the sidelining, they're not in the title and main riders are supposed to be the best. Adding too many feels like baggage after a while.

they only beat Cronus once his driver is damaged.

And Cronus was the only good thing in the last three quarters of Ex-Aid and had proven, in fact you just proved Raden's point it just liked to copy off of Ex-Aid.

Yes, it tried to be artsy... but how is that a problem?

It's bad and displays nobody on staff can edit or angle correctly.

At least that gives Build some unique memorable visuals.

The kind of memorable that turns the worst of fiction into legends.


Might as well rank every entry from my perspective:

Drive > Skyrider > OOO > Black RX > Original > Wizard > Decade > Stronger > Fourze > Black > Amazon > Kiva > Super-1 > Agito > J > ZO > Ghost > ZX > V3 > Kuuga > 555 > Hibiki > X > Gaim > Den-O > W > Ex-Aid > Shin > Ryuki > Blade > G > SD > The First > Kabuto > The Next > Build

 

[Dr Kain]

Of all the entries to pick why Blade? There was very little going for that, it seems like something out of left field.

Because Blade is by far the greatest Kamen Rider series of all time. It has the best riders, amazing cinematography, excellent characters, some of the best designs in the franchise, a phenomenal soundtrack with two incredible opening songs, intriguing plots, and one of the most well thought out endings.

Not true, Nexus is my third favorite Ultra series and Drive is my favorite Kamen Rider and I hardly call them episodic.

Uh what? First off, Drive is the very definition of episodic. It's the same two parter over every time, just with a different monster. Something goes awry, Drive investigates, Drive finds the problem, Drive fights the monster, Chaser shows up, fights Drive, the monster gets away, Chaser leaves because his job is done, Drive has to refind the monster, Chaser shows up and gets beaten, Drive uncovers the monster's true identity and defeats it.

There's a reason I dropped Drive after like episode 23.

Nexus is also not even remotely story driven. It's all episodic because until Orb, that is what Ultraman was.

And strangely those were Gaim's best, they weren't trying to be the uber dark and serial-ness with pretenciousness sprinkled on it.

Now you're clearly trolling as those abominations were easily Gaim's worst episodes.

Drive > Skyrider > OOO > Black RX > Original > Wizard > Decade > Stronger > Fourze > Black > Amazon > Kiva > Super-1 > Agito > J > ZO > Ghost > ZX > V3 > Kuuga > 555 > Hibiki > X > Gaim > Den-O > W > Ex-Aid > Shin > Ryuki > Blade > G > SD > The First > Kabuto > The Next > Build

Your taste in rider shows suck ass. Rx is by far one of the worst Kamen Rider shows out there.