Amazon is not one of my fav's out of the Showa Riders. But I respect his place in history and you can't have em there without him.
Out of the attempts at a monsterous/organic type Rider Gills is the one I liked the most visually plus I dug the character. I think what I liked is that the design is so well-balanced between the Rider elements and the monsterous ones which works for me moreso than Shin who to me is just a monster. I mean I realize maybe that's the point but still.
To me the insect motif is not only just something I happen to like but I just think it's a necessary part of Rider's visual identity. A sort of iconic characteristic that distinguishes a Kamen Rider from just being another one 3 billion other henshin hero guys running around.
I will say in a lot of ways I see your point on this one and I've certainally talked at length about my own disdain for very gaudy and bulky Bandai quota Rider designs. At the same time though to me Kuuga is sleek. Agito before his last two forms is sleek. G3 is bulky but in a way that works and works for that concept and character while still being Rider. Gills is sleek before they stuck him with a alt. form that made him look like a demonic Christmas tree. Faiz is sleek. I guess the point I'm making is that the Heisei Rider shows can do sleek when they give a damn about something other than making another shinny thing for Bandai. Or when they're *allowed* to do something more than just another shinny thing for Bandai.
I'm open to some variation but I more or less agree.
It's a combination of that and the overuse of the Rider vs. Rider thing. It becoming so much more about who can beat up who, who's "badass". I mean I really don't give a **** if these guys can beat each other up. Not to say that I can't enjoy *some* of that Rider vs. Rider conflict or the dramatic potential of it. To a point. But it's like with hero vs. hero in American comics. It's become an endless "my dad can beat up your dad". Oh ,can Batman beat up Superman. **** THAT! They're both heroes. They're both cool! Let the action come from their character interaction, their heroics and the battle against the real threat. I don't need my favorite superhero to be able to beat up your favorite superhero to feel good about the fact I like that superhero.
See, I understand why people get frustrated at negativity and it's a fair enough point. "Don't like it don't watch it" well, duh. Fair enough and when I've decided nothing about a show works for me I don't.
But at the same time I don't think there should be some sort of moratorium on being able to express that you don't enjoy the current direction of or certain aspect of a current direction of something that you used to really enjoy. Or even to be able to say that you've noticed this thing or that thing has been a trend in these shows lately and it's kinda dumb and annoying.
I don't think it should be you either happily except whatever shinny thing Bandai is feeding you as the epitome of "badass" or you are forbidden to comment. You basically stated what you didn't like about them and that was topic of the thread. It's not like ran into a "Den-O is the most beautiful thing of sweetness ever!" thread and declared anybody who likes the show is a moron.
:laugh: Can't hurt to pour out my heart and soul once more.
The things I didn't like about
Kuuga and
Agito was that most of the episodes were very slow-paced, and had a more soap-opera feel, and I rather zoned out. I did understand that this was when Toei started gearing the shows partly for adults (especially the more grown-up Rider fans). But then, you start to have more focus on those hot boys (for girls to drool over), their pompous gestures, and those freakin' Pokemon/Yu-Gi-Oh cards that set in!!! Ugh. I got sick after two episodes of
Ryuuki (which I also thought was derivative of
Mirrorman), and I could not get into the other shows beyond seeing pics and several clips. This was not the Masked Rider I grew up with.
Godzilla will always be Godzilla, no matter how his design varies (except for the American Zilla), the newer Ultramen are still like the Ultramen of yesteryear, and as convoluted as it is now, even Super Sentai is Super Sentai (except for the fetal teen idols underneath, who wear multicolored pajamas to look "cute"). But Masked Rider? Masked Rider died, and the Metal Heroes took his place (and wear ill-fitting bug-eyes and antennae to drive the point home). I thought the Riders from Black to J were everything I pictured how Masked Rider would look in modern times (the only design I wasn't exactly too fond of was Black RX, IMHO). Slim, sleek, flexible. He's Japan's answer to Spider-Man! (And the really funny thing is that the Heisei Rider shows are a lot like the "Ultimate" Spider-Man, only imagine Spidey wearing heavy-duty armor. And I thought giving him a race car and giant transforming robot was wrong!)
But on the designs, I thought Kuuga had an okay design. He reminded me somewhat of Masked Rider Stronger, only glossy. I did think that the color-changing ability was derivative of the Heisei Ultramen, but it looks better now. Agito was basically a beefier version of Kuuga (sort of like Black RX; I always preferred Black over the big blocky Black RX), but again, it's just okay (even though his other color forms were waaaay too over-the-top for me!). But what I did like about
Agito was the diversity: Agito himself was the standard Rider, G3 was the Riderman-type, and Gils was the "creature" Rider, like Amazon and Shin! I especially loved Another Agito, who was the closest of the bunch to the classic Riders, IMHO.
The only other Riders that had interesting designs were Hibiki, Kabuto, and Kiva. I'm not even going to go into the other multiple Riders on the show (too many for me, and I just can't keep up with them!), but the others are pretty dull, ugly, sometimes even incredibly laughable. Especially Den-O and his chicken leg/bra mask! I nicknamed him either "Masked Rider Chickenlegs" or "Masked Rider Hooters." And then you have Decade, who I nickname "Masked Rider Liberace," because he's pink, and has piano keys on his mask! The design was so wrong on many levels. (Damon Foster once joked about the Saban version of
Black RX, as he should've been called "Masked Rider Pink RX," because of his squeaky voice!)
Oh, and me-oh-my, I forgot to mention the "First" Masked Riders! I actually like their designs a lot, even though I
really didn't like their
movies. They should've been a lot better. (Toei has gotten increasingly cynical, and I sensed it when I heard about the production fiasco over the 2004
Devilman film, where the producer fired a lot of the initial crew, including master suitmaker/makeup artist Shin'ichi Wakasa!)
Also, like I said before, it would be great if the Masked Rider Series took a break, like Godzilla and Ultraman have done from time to time. It'll give Toei/Bandai a little more time to come up with something fresh for the character, rather than eternally milk it out like Super Sentai and do the umpteenth rehash of
Ryuuki. Sadly, that's what they're doing now, and anything that Toei/Bandai has
total control of has all but become an out-of-control freight train that just wouldn't stop. I jumped safely off that train years ago, and have moved on.
But this post
did ask for "Things I hate About Heisei Riders," and I got it off my chest, I hope.
Peace,