I have finished Black Rx. The last batch of episodes were decent, pretty good, but awkward. There really seemed to be no reason for the other Kamen Riders to be there other than for the sake of having them there. Kotaro still pretty much did everything on his own, and there were times that they did not want Kotaro to just go running out on his own to defeat a monster because he may die doing so. That was weird, but not as weird as none of them noticing there were two Ichigo's except for the idiot cook dude. However, the final battle was nice, and I have to say that I was surprised that they actually killed off the parents in the second last episode. I expected it to just be they were alive, but the kids thought they were dead. That was nice to see a surprise from the series and it is a shame the series did not have more of those earlier on. The final battle was meh though, as seriously, why can't the Japanese just have a normal creature for the true ruler of an emprie? Gorgom had a heart, Crisis had a giant head. I understand he likes to be ahead of everyone else, but come on.
Overall, the series was pretty lackluster. The villians barely did anything until the last bit of the show, Kotaro really felt out of character at times, and the show was just way too goofy. I can see why Saban decided to adapt it into Masked Rider, as it is the most kid friendly of the Kamen Rider series I have seen. The comedy really felt out of place in this show, and for being a follow up to Black and starring the same character, it was an insult. I hated the return of Shadow Moon, even if Nobuhiko was indeed dead, as it still diminished his character (although I do love his grasshopper spurs, when they worked). One of the things I loved the most about Black were the Monster of the Week designs. They looked so realistic and really felt like animals, whereas here, some of the designs were cool, but they felt lazy or boring compared to what Black gave us. In fact, I would have preferred someone from Gorgom appeared instead of Shadow Moon, trying to recreate the fallen empire, and then having to deal with Crisis as well. That would have been far more interesting. Plus, there seemed to be no reason for Shadow Moon's return, since he was only in 2 episodes and then died again. The rider forms were all right, but their reasons for existing did not make sense. I understand the story behind it, but I mean, they were pretty much just there to use as gimmicks over anything else. If there is one thing the show did well at though, it was having a strong female cast that does not get captured every few episodes. I loved Black, but I was really getting sick of Zelda and Peach after a while. On the other hand, it is insulting that they never brought those two back, even for a cameo role, Kotaro never even thinks of them. In the end, the show should not have been a Kamen Rider show, or at the very least, not starred Kotaro. For the most part, now that I have seen the show, I'm going to ignore its existence as much as possible and move on.
BTW, I am wondering, how did Saban's adaptation of this show handle the other riders? Or did the show not even make it that far? I only watched the first 3 or 4 episodes to it and never went back to it, so I barely remember anything from it.
