And now I have completed OOO SPOLIERS

[Dr Kain]

Well, we just finished the final episode of OOO (or I guess episodes since we watched the Director's Cut version (what's missing from the non-DC?)) last night and overall, it was a pretty good series. It had some great fight scenes, some really good ideas, but compared to W, it was a let down. Most of the characters really did not seem to change throughout the series except Ankh and Gotou, and they really kept Hino's relationship with Hina to a bare minimum. After the advancements we saw between Accel and Akiko, I was really hoping they would start developing these things to their fullest extents, but, they decided to just play it safe again.

I also felt that Maki becoming the main villian of the show really took away from Uva, who went out on a whimper. He was the one villian that kept growing as a character and felt like the main villian of the show, only to have the spotlight taken from him on a very lackluster playing field. I just feel the writers did not really know what they wanted to do with his character after the first half of the series, but needed him to stay in existence until the end. Instead of a grand battle like we got with Mezuru and Kazari, he just gets transformed into a Final Fantasy boss and that is it, nothing more, nothing less. ON the other hand, the ending itself was satisfying and a good ending to the series. I am glad Ankh did not get resurrected through some random means just to be a crowd pleaser (despite him being there as a spirit) like they did with the ending of W. Lastly, Satonaka is freaking awesome as hell. The first time she appears in battle to help Gotou was kinda cool (loved her outfit there), but then when she just comes out of nowhere on the escalator was down right badass. Overall, I definitely enjoyed the series, but I felt they played things safe because of all of the different risks W took throughout its run, making it a weaker series than W.

With that said, tomorrow we watch the movies and then start Fourze.

 

[FieryRed]

I think overall, OOO was a good series. It had some growing pains early on, and for some time it seems like the series lost its direction. But after Date Akira's introduction as Birth, the appearance of Dr. Maki and his secretive ambition, and the strengthening of Ankh as more than a simply Greeed but much more to his personality, I think the show started to hit strides, and while I like W more I think in terms of the finale OOO had W beat. I'm glad I decided to finish watching the series instead of giving it up early, because in the end it was well worth it.

 

[lazycoconut]

Most of the characters really did not seem to change throughout the series except Ankh and Gotou, and they really kept Hino's relationship with Hina to a bare minimum. After the advancements we saw between Accel and Akiko, I was really hoping they would start developing these things to their fullest extents, but, they decided to just play it safe again.

Er ... what? Akiko was Terui's actual girlfriend/wife. Hina was not Eiji's girlfriend/wife. And I'd say that Eiji was the character with whom she had the most developed connection - other than Shingo, of course, and we saw very little of that because Shingo wasn't around for most of the series.

I think Eiji did change, too, but I'd agree with you that some of the characters didn't feel like they'd grown a lot.

I also felt that Maki becoming the main villian of the show really took away from Uva, who went out on a whimper. He was the one villian that kept growing as a character and felt like the main villian of the show, only to have the spotlight taken from him on a very lackluster playing field. I just feel the writers did not really know what they wanted to do with his character after the first half of the series, but needed him to stay in existence until the end.

I haven't got a source for this (if anyone does, it would be appreciated) but a while ago the OOO staff revealed some major changes that had been made to the story throughout the show. One of them was, IIRC, that Maki was supposed to have died at the end of the second arc and Ankh was to have been the last villain standing. I don't know when that was changed, but it would explain a lot of the inconsistencies with the character.

I am glad Ankh did not get resurrected through some random means just to be a crowd pleaser (despite him being there as a spirit) like they did with the ending of W.

To paraphrase myself on another thread: I think Philip being resurrected was pretty much a necessity for W, since the whole theme of the show was him and Shotaro being inseparable, the ultimate partners, etc. Equally Ankh's outcome worked perfectly for OOO. Despite the show's problems with plot and pacing, the impact of that ending really hit hard. I absolutely loved it.

 

[Dr Kain]

First off, I forgot to mention that I was really disappointed with Maki's doll. The fact that it was nothing more than an actual doll really ruined his character for me and there was so much potential they could have done with it that they let go.

Anyway, we watched Wonderful and OOO vs W today. Wow, what the hell happened? Wonderful did not live up to its name at all, and outside of the movie form and all of the clones at the end, it was a boring movie. However, forget about that, what the hell were the writers smoking when they did the OOO vs W movie? It was down right dreadful. Like Paradise Lost dreadful, but worse. Ankh was barely in the thing, the plot was stupid, Gotou is NOT supposed to don Birth at all until Date gives him it, and Hino seemed very out of character. Hell, everyone seemed out of character and what was the point of resurrecting Nobunaga? The only thing I enjoyed was the portion with Kamen Rider Skull, so they should have just given him his own movie like they did with Accel and Eternal.

 

[Dessa]

OOO portion of the Skull movie? What OOO portion of the Skull movie. It doesn't exist...

 

[Kiryurules]

Overall, I would rank OOO as one of my favourite Toku series.

I might be remembering it wrong, but to me, OOO had a bit of a problem with how the show's story was distributed. It had a pretty strong opening set of episodes, then seemed to stumble and fall into the "boring, uneventful and repetitive middle portion" around the 10s and 20s, Birth's introduction notwithstanding.

However (in my opinion anyway), OOO then proceeded to have one of the best later thirds/quarters of any Rider series I've seen so far. The purple Cores, Lost Ankh's introduction, Maki's insurrection and Ankh joining the rest of the Greeed made for some great drama and action, and a pretty satisfying (if bittersweet) conclusion.

When coupled with how it continued on into Megamax, OOO's later portion was phenomenal to me, and I shed a couple of tears when I had to say goodbye to a cast I had fallen in love with.

 

[Dr Kain]

I definitely agree it had a great later portion, but it still does not trump those of Black, W, and Blade.

 

[FieryRed]

I do agree that most of the OOO movies haven't been great, but I thought that it was done extremely well in Megamax. And I'm glad Ankh didn't turn out to be the final bad guy in the series, as he is easily my favorite character in OOO (Date Akira is second).

 

[BLASTMATIC]

I think overall, OOO was a good series. It had some growing pains early on, and for some time it seems like the series lost its direction. But after Date Akira's introduction as Birth, the appearance of Dr. Maki and his secretive ambition, and the strengthening of Ankh as more than a simply Greeed but much more to his personality, I think the show started to hit strides, and while I like W more I think in terms of the finale OOO had W beat. I'm glad I decided to finish watching the series instead of giving it up early, because in the end it was well worth it.

I feel the same way OOO was a ride you had to take all the way thru and the charecters had they're own niches and things you clung too and i'm happy how that show ended it was the first kamen rider show that made me tear up at the end of it's run and during finale. i think episodes 47 and 48 work better as one episode or lumped with episodes 46,47 and 48 because it tells a better story similar to Fourze in the last 4 episodes could be one long finale.

 

[Dr Kain]

So yeah, the Fourze/OOO movie was down right incredible.

Speaking of FOurze, I am up to episode 37 of it and I like it better than OOO, but still not better than W. The biggest problem is, as amazing as the Horoscopes look, they do not have anywhere near the complexity or development as the Sonozaki Family.