Rewatching Kuuga: What Kamen Rider has lost

[NeonZ]

I wonder why there has never been a single attempt to bring back a straight cyborg style Rider. Even in cases where one of the Riders isn't completely human, like Faiz, Kiva and Double, their partial non humanity isn't directly connected to their Rider status, they still need a separate belt to transform and only Double actually had a case where the character was actually a normal human at some point but was changed somehow.

Really, the only story limitation that comes with cyborg Riders is that the belt can't just fly away from them after they lose. Even in Kuuga's case, although the belt seemingly was transforming his body... it just fell in the end, and, of course, Agito got his "powers" removed at one point and was basically a normal human during that time. So, neither case was really the same.

I don't see how merchandising would be affected negatively by it either... It's not like the belt appearing whenever the Rider wanted to transform would limit toy gimmicks. The writers often also usually don't even bother showing characters carrying around their own belts, just making them get them from nowhere, so it's not like it'd be even a big change in that sense.

It just seems like the writers and producers have no interest at all on the concept. If the next Rider isn't a cyborg though, considering how this is the anniversary year of the franchise, and it seems pretty much the perfect year to pull that concept, if they have any interest on it, it's pretty clear it just won't happen again (At least, not with a main Rider).

 

[Kuu Guy]

The theme of violence is wrong in the end was too under played with the final fight, which should have been ratcheted up in terms of brutality to meet it, and it just FELT like the final few episodes were kinda rushed with the time skips and jumps.

Personally I loved it. It wasn't your typical over the top DBZ-like final battle. Instead of making violence cool, they gave it to us straight. They showed us what real violence is all about. It was bloody, it was ugly, it was totally sad.

One of the best endings IMO.

 

[Guardian07]

Currently watching Kuuga, and liking it.

I really liked the subplots with the supporting cast, especially the one with the scientist. I liked how it is spread throughout the series and moves in a nice pace. Was pleasantly surprised that Jean had a role in it. He's probably the best treated foreign character in any Japanese show I watched.

While I am all over Takaiwa, Eitoku and Okamoto, Tominaga Kenji certainly did a great job with the suit scenes. He did not do much 'acting' but when I see Kuuga fights, I see a person who fights with everything he got to the point of desperation. You could really feel the emotion and the pain, especially when he's getting his butt kicked but keeps going.

 

[Smilodon]

Love Tominaga. I was overjoyed seeing his cameo in Double.

I wouldn't mind a cyborg rider. In fact, in this day and age, a cyborg would be great. Kinda like Birth. Or G3-X. It made sense for Kuuga, because it was trying to be new, but yeah, I'm up for a cyborg once again. I remember the original Kuuga, was techinically a Kaizo-Ningen, as the Amadam was placed within him and mutating his body in Kuuga.

 

[ClimaxHeroDen-O]

- Forms nowadays seem to be taken for granted. There's often no rhyme or reason to their use (like in Den-O), but are just there to showcase Bandai's new product. No one seems to really be concerned whenever a certain form fails to do the job. Contrast that to Kuuga: the forms don't seem tacked on for the sake of it, not even the Rising Forms. It's a gradual evolution, and ties into the plot. And Godai doesn't just use them on whims. He's always strategizing with Ichijou and the rest on how to win battles.

From there we come to OOO, where Medals just keep being swapped and lost (And while I have been on the record for liking OOO for the most part, this pales in comparison to Kuuga's style.), and whatever Eiji has he uses. Actually, Den-O is probably a better example, as there is at least some method to the OOO forms' use.

Now, I can honestly say that this isn't quite true. now I haven't seen Kuuga or Agito, but I have seen Den-O, Kiva, Double, and OOO up to the current point, and I do see some tactics to each

For Den-O, I can see where you're coming from. Often, the Imagin kick each other out of Den-O's body when switching forms, however, this seems like it might be based on instinct, as their was a pattern of sorts on who did well against what kind of Imagin. Sword Form faced the standard, land-based Imagin with no particular outstanding traits, Rod Form was used against aquatic Imagin, Ax Form for the strong or heavily-armored Imagin, and Gun Form for fast or flying Imagin. The forms he got after the first forms were certainly not tacked-on. Wing Form was incidental because Sieg was trying to protect his "mother", and later to assist Kotaro(Kid Ryotaro), Climax Form was created from Ryotaro's wish for the others to come back and strengthen their bond, and Liner Form came out of the situation wherein Ryotaro needed a form to allow him to fight by himself in the past after his synch with the Imagin started to fade. the only one that was really "tacked-on" was Super Climax Form, which was given no explanation and just a kind odf "I hope this works" tpye of idea. While I'll also admit that Den-O did create a pattern of using two episodes to introduce a form/rider, and two more to showcase it, the Imagin they faced were usually ones they worked well against

Kiva was similar to that, though fot this one, I can mostly make only assumptions. Kiva Form was for basics, Garulu Form for enemies with melee weapons, Basshaa Form for fast enemies, and Dogga Form for well-armored foes. Unfortunately, form management was one of my major problems with Kiva, as his other basic forms were under-used, DoGaBaKi only got one appearance in the entire show, and Emperor Form soon became his default.

Double also was a fairly tactical system, with Shotaro and Philip conferring with each other when changing memories, and their decisions were usually based on what would work against the Dopants they fought. This also helped explain the fairly non-linear introduction and use of his base 9 forms. each form combined a special ability with a fighting style to tactically face their opponents, and that usually worked out for them

- Belts where you don't have to insert a ton of items into before transforming. Not that that is necessarily bad, but the more gimmicky the belts get, the more toyish they become. With Kuuga and Agito, all you need is a cool pose.

Well, it's true that the Belt's have been getting more and more gimmicky, some were fairly subdued. Ryuki and Blade's series belts left plenty of room for posing because of how simple the mechanisms worked, while Den-O Belt and those like it stood out for having an internalized system that only needed an activator, which also left room for psoing that was taken advantage of

Yeah, things have definitely changed since the days of shows like Kuuga and Agito, but they're not all for the bad, and sometimes you need to look a bit beneath the surface to see what's really going on. Certianly none of them are perfect, but it's likely that neither was Kuuga, and things changing with the time is a way of life

 

[Black Fang]

For Den-O, I can see where you're coming from. Often, the Imagin kick each other out of Den-O's body when switching forms, however, this seems like it might be based on instinct, as their was a pattern of sorts on who did well against what kind of Imagin. Sword Form faced the standard, land-based Imagin with no particular outstanding traits, Rod Form was used against aquatic Imagin, Ax Form for the strong or heavily-armored Imagin, and Gun Form for fast or flying Imagin.

That is all just in theory. None of that was ever emphasized on the show itself. Ryotaro hardly if ever planned which forms he would use like Godai did. He just haplessly went along with whatever the Taros wanted to do.

The forms he got after the first forms were certainly not tacked-on. Wing Form was incidental because Sieg was trying to protect his "mother", and later to assist Kotaro(Kid Ryotaro), Climax Form was created from Ryotaro's wish for the others to come back and strengthen their bond, and Liner Form came out of the situation wherein Ryotaro needed a form to allow him to fight by himself in the past after his synch with the Imagin started to fade.

Those are plot points explaining why they came about. They all were merely used whenever Kobayashi or Toei/Bandai felt like showcasing them. Perhaps that was the case in Kuuga too, but at least there the plot was worked around it in a way that it wasn't noticeable.

Kiva was similar to that, though fot this one, I can mostly make only assumptions. Kiva Form was for basics, Garulu Form for enemies with melee weapons, Basshaa Form for fast enemies, and Dogga Form for well-armored foes. Unfortunately, form management was one of my major problems with Kiva, as his other basic forms were under-used, DoGaBaKi only got one appearance in the entire show, and Emperor Form soon became his default.

Doggabaki was a stupid imitation of Climax Form. As for the rest, the same problem persists. It's not enough to just release material in magazines featuring stats. That seems to be what Rider is doing more and more of now, sometimes even including plot points. If the show itself does not demonstrate it, it's useless.

 

[ClimaxHeroDen-O]

Well, I've made my statements, and I'm sticking by them. Like I said before, I'm not gonna go into any more drawn-out arguments with you anymore, and I meant it. Say what you want, but those patterns I noticed were there, maybe not emphasized, but still there and certainly not coincidental. And like I said, most of this was by instinct in appearance, as that's what most Imagin seem to run on, rather than planning.

Whatever it was, it worked in Den-O's favor, and I'll stick with that idea, no matter what you have to say about it

edit: as far as DoGaBaKi goes, I more see it as an homage to Agito Trinity Form, since Kiva's basic form change system was essentially a combination of Kuuga's(red fist fighter, blue melee weapon, green ranged, purple heavy-hitter) and Agito's(asymmetrical form-changes, has a combination of all his base forms, where he can use two weapons at once. another trait shared between the three is that the base form-changes only change the head's eye color without changing the head design)