let alone the third best Kamen Rider entry only after Drive and Skyrider
And what makes OOO so good? Me and other people here made points against OOO. You can adress them or make points in show's defence. I understand why people would like ambitious trainwrecks like Drive and Skyrider way more than them liking what is basically amounts to inferior Den-O.
I thought it was a pretty good thought process in terms of OOO being some kind of almighty ruler over all life forms in a sense, so it kind of makes sense that he's able to mix and match them as he pleases like that.
There wasn't enough variaty in medals for what. Most of OOO Medals abilities are quite boring and don't mash together well. Not to mention every Greeed has three of the same medals, so instead of exciting new abilities acquiring new medals often feel like padding.
I understand that type of character isn't considered "good, layered, nuanced style of writing", but it's got simplistic enough morals behind it that making that practice of being that way kind of hard in real life, which is why I liked Eiji the way he was.
Threre is nothing wrong with Godai
in concept, but parts of Kuuga as a show often feels weirdly disconnected from each other. Characters like Godai need a sense of vulenrability, something to test their belifs. Othwerwise it may seem like they don't take gravity of the sutuation seriously (and Kuuga had plenty of gravity and heavy stuff), so it takes me out of experience. Not to mention character dynamic is important and Godai doesn't really have anything notable with Grongi. I understand that a lot of it was intentional and I think Kuuga mostly works at what it aims to do, but it's not the approach I would have chosen with the Main Character. Arakawa seems to feel similarly by the time he wrote Abaranger, and that's why Ryouga retains everything that was good from Godai and still feels like a strong and believable character.
Since OOO isn't even a fraction of the show Kuuga was and it doesn't feel anywhere near as sincere, Eiji doesn't come off believable. He's a gimmick character like Main Trio from Go-Busters. Shu Watanabe doesn't sell any (of the very few) scenes of Eiji being angry, confused or conflicted and he mostly stuck with his "sort of selfish nice guy" routine, which feels incredibly forced and one-note. His backstory felt headscratching more than anything and purple medals subplot ended with a whimper as well. I'm struggling to remember any of his "big moments" which landed.
people like to cite Gentarou's actor as being able to sell just about any dumb **** in Fourze, that's why he's a good actor, so I guess that's a thing, but I'm more of the opinion that it's easier to play dumb and stupid, but with a heart of gold like Gentarou than it is to tackle the kind of character that Eiji was supposedly meant to be.
The thing with Fourze is that Gentaro is consciously not part of the main plot. He's an outside influence that happened to be involved in Kengo storyline with his dad, Zodiarts and other things, but has such a strong presence that he ultimately makes an impact on characters and changes them for the better. I can't say I like Gentaro or this approach much (or rather not in the way Fourze did it), but at least I know where show stands with him and what it wants Gentaro to be. Eiji doesn't have a strong personality like Gentaro, so similar approach of an outsider in Ankh's story just makes him forgettable. Not to mention Gentaro still had more interesting relationships with villains than Eiji (even if they were still far from perfect).
Did I mention PuToTyra is kinda ugly?
It's not just ugly. It's one of the blandest Final Forms in the franchise (even though I appreciate that it's not a clusterfuck like some following ones). I wish show used Black Medals for the Final Form instead. With the right approach it could have been Build Hazard-level of cool.
However, Wizard, Drive, Build, Ghost, Ex-Aid, and Zi-O exist with Zi-O, Ghost, and Wizard being some of the worst Kamen Rider series out there.
None of these are even nearly as bad as OOO. Ghost is a trainwreck with obvious production issues, but it has actually interesting concepts (unlike "Den-O rehashing" of OOO), unique and distinctively creative suit designs, one of the more memorable soundtracks in the franchice, likeable (if mistreated) supporting cast. Unlike OOO it has an actual story (albet with a pretty bad finale) and at least a couple of proper character arcs.
Wizard was mangled by many people in the past (myself included), but it's not really as bad as people make it out to be either. It's basically a Phase 1 series that was made in the wrong time and became yet another victim of post-Den-O state of the franchise.
Neither is a particularly good series on the whole, but there is still more effort put into tham compared to OOO and they are nowhere near as bad as it or Kabuto.
Can't say anything about Zi-O for now.
Rest of the series you mentioned aren't really bad either (except for maybe Drive, but at least Drive proved to me with Gaidens that it was more of a misguided series rather something born out of pure laziness).
Kabuto and Den-O approach OOO-level of flawed, but since OOO takes the worst elements from both it also takes the "weakest series" cake.
