The characters are all well-drawn. I know you disagree, Black Fang, but I like Kouga being this ice box who has trouble opening up no matter how much he's grown emotionally. It works really well if you consider him to be the eccentric Kaoru's straight man. And I really do adore Kaoru.
It's not that Kouga has trouble expressing his emotions. It's that Hiroki Konishi does a mediocre to poor job of doing it. Whenever he goes from casual to a look of anger, for instance, it looks so fake. In terms of acting, he can't emote well. So in that regard, it's more performance than character bio. I'm not calling him a terrible character. It's this "he's badass!" sillyness when he didn't really do any "badass" (God what a stupid word) things that is irritating.
But there really isn't anything extraordinary about Kouga. I like him more than, say, Minami Kotaro, who is probably one of the dullest toku heroes ever, but compared to Godai Yuusuke, Kido Shinji, many Ultra heroes, etc. he's not really that inspiring. Most of Kouga's admirable moments where I did like his actions involved Kaoru and him protecting her.
Actually, that is one thing I liked about Kouga: his constant sarcasm and put downs toward Karou, whom he is in truth fond of. Those kind of relationships are usually fun, better than predictable and cliched "lovey dovey" scenarios. (Like Jetman's Ryuu/Rie. Those two were mushy-mushy to the point of absurdity.) Kouga would never give an "I love you" type speech to Kaoru like you may see in typical romantic setups in media. He's above that nonsense. But through his actions toward her you know how he feels. And actions mean more than a bunch of silly words strung together.
GARO also has and keeps a consistent atmosphere throughout the whole series, unlike, say, Kamen Rider Kabuto's ADD rollercoaster. The show wasn't without comic relief but it was comic relief that worked well within the already-established atmosphere without turning the tone of the show on its head for a laugh. That's commendable.
That we can agree on.
Okay and people, who overhype on agito, call it a masterpiece too. When Agito wasn't even the best Hesei Rider Series.
1) Agito is a masterpiece.
2) It's one of the best. But what is the best Heisei show, then? I'd love to know.
3) Agito truly deserves all the hype it gets. (At least from those who actually have seen the show rather than just going with the crowd saying "Yeah, it rocks!"). The closest Toei came to mimicking Agito's excellence was Ryuki, and even that show fell short thanks to its last 10 episodes.
