Early Heisei Riders...

[Kai Yamato]

Wait you're defining what's a Kamen Rider show by focusing on the monsters? ...Very well then.

 

[Black Fang]

How is it not? Once Rook Fangire shows up the series shuts the hell up, realizes nobody wants jabber fests that have been milked since Kuuga, and concentrates on the friggin monsters for once instead of having them only in the last quarter of the episode to remind the audience this is a toku series.

Wait you're defining what's a Kamen Rider show by focusing on the monsters? ...Very well then.

I don't think this guy has any real notion of what makes a good superhero show. Either that or he's one massive troll. Or works for Saban. Anything's possible.

 

[kuroihikari]

Or, god forbid, he has a different opinion?

 

[Fox-Chan]

Or, god forbid, he has a different opinion?

In all fairness, that someone could type that without any hint of irony does raise a few eyebrows.

 

[Captain Shark]

Wait you're defining what's a Kamen Rider show by focusing on the monsters? ...Very well then.

I was going for "human fights an army of monsters for the sake of others while riding a modern steed and masking his face". And the army of monsters is subtracted from that equation.... I mean the heisei shows reduced the whole "lone hero/loses part of his humanity" shtick, but they kept the rest. Then Gaim waltzes in starts doing it until it chucks it away. Seeing the episode plots, they really could have kept monsters of the week in.

Plus the last two episodes of Wizard did emphasis that every Kamen Rider in some way, shape, or form had their origins tied to the monsters they fight. Kind of significant when your origin revolves around that.

 

[HurricaneDragon]

... Did you just drop spoilers for the Gaim that only just aired, or am I misunderstanding you? If you did, not cool at all.

 

[Captain Shark]

I wrote no Gaim spoilers.

 

[Lockon]

Plus the last two episodes of Wizard did emphasis that every Kamen Rider in some way, shape, or form had their origins tied to the monsters they fight. Kind of significant when your origin revolves around that.

Lip service. Two episode out of over fifty to explain something that EVERYONE already knows, does NOT mean you

Frankly, Wizard is a disappointment because it wears the trappings of Kamen Rider, but just simply does not make good on the promise. Haruto's characterization is all over the place with a backstory SCREAMING of Mary Sue.(Seriously, I've seen god-awful fanfics do better.) Dragon ends up being Ankh-lite, without even the development Ankh got, just one day he's all "I've resurrected to be your hope Haruto, because I've learned how to not be an asshole without any real buildup whatsoever."

What a waste of beautiful suits. I mean, I WANTED to like Wizard, I love the suits,(I'm a sucker for dusters/long coats/whatever you call em. Might be my Trigun love talking.) I like the music, with a few notable exceptions(Although the theme song's MV makes me laugh.) and just the general aesthetic I enjoyed. But, no, it's not Wizard that draws me into the franchise as a whole, but W, a series that annoyed me the first time I saw it.(I HATE asymmetry. That, and... W himself is just dull at best and ugly at worst. Fortunately, suit wise, Accel saves the day.) With characters I loved almost instantly(Even Akiko. I found the slippers funny, and I have a bit of an OTT sense of humor anyway. Dowsing slippers, priceless.) story lines that kept me hooked and interested(Virus Dopant was awesome. I don't know what anyone else thinks, but that is easily one of my favorite stories from W.) although the ending dragged, but that's kind of an endemic problem of Rider period.

 

[HurricaneDragon]

@Shark
In that case, I'm not sure how Gaim chucked anything away, at least in regards to this subject.

Also, a lot of early Heisei shows did "loses parts of his humanity" to varying degrees.

@Lockon
I don't think Haruto's backstory is so much a problem as how it was handled.

Likewise, I can't in good conscience agree with the Dragon-Ankh comparison since Dragon only had like three lines in the whole show outside of that one episode where he turned into Haruto inside his mind.

I do agree that it had the potential to be an amazing series and totally blew it though.

 

[Lockon]

@Lockon
I don't think Haruto's backstory is so much a problem as how it was handled.

Likewise, I can't in good conscience agree with the Dragon-Ankh comparison since Dragon only had like three lines in the whole show outside of that one episode where he turned into Haruto inside his mind.

I do agree that it had the potential to be an amazing series and totally blew it though.

But of course it could of been handled better, there are worse backstories that have worked, but... yeah, Wizard just was batting zero.

As for Dragon-Ankh, as I said, Ankh-lite. Basically, generally having the same general place and purpose in the series, being the jerk who's responsible for the hero's powers, but not handling it nearly as well. The fact that he's got all the characterization of a dull rock is one of the things LEADING to this problem. Seriously, Dragon should of always been a major presence in the show, a proper antagonist/deuteragonist, Haruto's dark side, the monster he has to fight at the end of the day when the mask comes off. At the very least, there should of been some proper buildup to Infinity, with Dragon getting SOME hints of a Heel-Face turn. But no, of course not, it's Wizard and that would be logical.

TL;DR version, we agree for the most part.