Ryuki-Decade: Dork Age?

[Igadevil]

I think it might seem like that now, but but popular opinion* always seems to be changing. Before 2000, BLACK RX had a pretty poor reputation compared to now, where its more controversial qualities don't stand out so sorely in contrast to what's come since. In 2002, saying you liked/hated Ryuki was a good way to get into a screaming match. Now? I find that most have a cooler head towards it, and when people talk about Ryuki, it's about the strengths and weaknesses in the show itself, as opposed to back-and-forth nattering of "this is Toei destroying my franchise! We must send them a protest letter in English. To the internets!" or "This show has mechs, it's a thousand-billion times better than all those dumb shows before it. They have ugly bugmen who are scary and I hate them. Urgh banana!"

I recall that Faiz, Kabuto and Kiva were all really hyped up when they came out because they had to be better than the preceding series.... now, they're regularly thrown under the bus. Kuuga and Agito both had a period where they were kind of overlooked, and when it was first on, Kuuga took some serious heat for being an overlong toy commercial. Then a couple years later people were saying they'd just fast-forward through the drama scenes to get to the action. Then a couple of years later, it's the best Rider series ever and everything before or since has paled! Sometimes you gotta love fandom.

I don't think it's impossible to believe that Double might be evaluated differently in a few year's time. It's by no means a bad show, but I don't think it's going to be seen as bulletproof either. Like Faiz, Kabuto & Kiva, it's following off of a show that proved to be very controversial, so it's got that "well anything's better than that!" quality to it. The freshness of the writing helps elevate it, and I think it'll probably be regarded better than a lot of shows on the strength of that alone. But I have to wonder how it's going to be seen when it's not the brand new thing anymore and is just one more series in a line. I'm not saying I expect to see a "Who hates Double?" thread anytime soon, but you just never know.

*Of course, if you don't care about popular opinion like me, who puts two of the most undervalued Rider series his top 3, you can ignore everything I just said as insane gibberish and move on.

 

[Forever Knight]

Ever since Double became huge with toku fans, and as Double has progressed, I've noticed more and more people looking down on all the seasons that aired between Agito and Double. What are your thoughts about this recently happening?

The only series I've looked down on in Kamen Rider is Super 1's 2nd half, Hibiki, and the overkill of comedy in Den-O.

 

[Tokuboy]

A few years from now we'll be remembering how silly people use USB sticks to transform and that the main Rider was just yaoi-bait.

That is, of course, assuming Double ages badly.

 

[kibapower]

You'll need more than Double to consider "growing the beard". has to have same writing quality. That and KR, along with SS, has always been mixed, with rarely a string of shows that are universally appealing. I liked what was done with Magiranger-Gekiranger but they'll be many to disagree. All a toy commercial in the end.

 

[NeonZ]

We'll see. I don't remember a general negative opinion about Kabuto until after its ending. There were complaints, but the series' impressions seemed to be mostly positive.

Even the ending itself seemed to be well received initially, but some time later people really started complaining about the lack of involvement of the secondary Riders in the finale, and the complaints just increased from there. I won't be surprised if the same thing happens again.

 

[Black Fang]

well, Double may be really good, but for me personally, it still doesn't beat Den-O. It comes close, but close is close

That's a strange statement, considering W is essentially the Den-O style redone by a competent writing team.

 

[Tokuboy]

Even the filler is tightly written.

 

[Wing Saber]

well, Double may be really good, but for me personally, it still doesn't beat Den-O. It comes close, but close is close

Especially since the Japanese fans will never get tired of Den-O's comedy, which is why it has up to seven movies. While W is a mixture of being funny & serious. I don't know that it can go beyond the series.

 

[Chronotia Archzenom]

The reason why Kamen Riders Ryuki-Decade (minus Blade and Hibiki as a whole) became this because of how Toshiki Inoue and Yasuhiko Kobayashi made a Face Heel Turn on their story writing and how they executed these shows.

Let's start with this...
Ryuki started the overall "Dork-ness" of Kamen Rider for introducing a foreign concept (Highlander) in a very, very wrong time. The time when Kamen Rider fans were looking forward for a show that is as cool and awesome as Agito to follow it up but then... Ryuki became a stray dog to Kamen Rider in terms of how each and every Kamen Rider should live. Almost all of Kamen Rider Ryuki, if not for their charm were all selfish and weren't standing the name of "KAMEN RIDER" as opposed to that of the Showa to Agito (Even G4 from Agito who had a valid and understandable reason as to why he acted that way but still fought for justice). Good thing, Addness stepped up to the stage to adapt Ryuki into Dragon Knight and glorified the name of "KAMEN RIDER" by correcting Ryuki's straying by making sure that the "Highlanderness" of Ryuki is out of the way and with that... They gave it Showa feel, something that made the show novel. In other words, Dragon Knight made all of the Kamen Riders of Ryuki fight for justice instead of just dishing out the most punishment in order to gain a selfish personal wish.

(I will go directly to Decade for I don't like to post an extremely long post here.)

Decade so far is the worst of all the worst in story. It really made me say "What? How did this and this came to be without any proper reason? What's the relationship between scenes A and D with G?, How did Daiki know this and that? What is the biggest goal of the show other than merchandising?" and so on and so forth. Look here, Decade completely made the biggest plothole in Kamen Rider history ever and I myself demand it to be corrected in the same fashion with Ryuki through an adaptation with Adness and the Wang Team doing the show.

(I personally maybe quite against this "I want this one burned down and must be adapted" but this has gone too far for the T. Inoue Kamen Rider shows)

You know, I so hate the way how T. Inoue and his team made the biggest Face Heel Turn on the fans. Look here, I love T. Inoue back in his Kuuga and Agito days but when he started Ryuki, I was like "What the heck happened to you Mr. Writer?". Then Hibiki came up with a fresh feel but then he was hired and made me say "That's it! They changed it now, it sucks!", especially when Kyousuke Kiriya aka Kamen Rider Kyouki came up with that annoying stiff character of his that stole the precious "oni-ship" of Asumu. Then Kabuto came with the most annoying but awfully cool lead Kamen Rider ever, Souji Tendou that made Kagami Arata the real hero. Sometimes I was wondering who is the REAL HERO here? The show had made plotholes as well because of the way the writers write the show. Then Den-O and Kiva came with their tandem which made the fans go nuts theorizing as to how did that happen. Decade was a head exploder of all Kamen Rider shows for how did the show ended up in the way of plotholes after plotholes and made the fans generate a billion gazillion theories only to end up failing because of how the writers spear headed by T. Inoue, poorly executed almost, if not every single opportunity in delibirating the show's story. And the rest is arbitrary.

 

[MetalSymphony]

It's all subjective.
I like series for different reasons, that to some people might be reasons they don't like it.
And vice versa.