First of all, I cheated, because I can. Second, this takes into account everything about the Rider (design, personality, fighting style, etc.):
1. Rider 1 / Rider 2 (Tie): Ha! You saw this coming. I can't pick between these guys. With everybody else I can BS it and make .5's and 1/2's, but not here. Ichimonji is arguably "my" Kamen Rider, because I really got into things with him, but I saw some Hongô first and he's undeniably the man. But I won't pick one over the other. The first series is really a team effort- even if Rider 1's in slightly more episodes, the big changes the show saw went out under Rider 2, and a lot of those are the things everybody knows now- like the Henshin pose.
What I love about them is that for all their similarities, they're also very different, as people and as Riders. They are definitely able to stand on their own, and yet they're also the ultimate team. There have been a lot of Double Riders over the years, but these guys are still
The Double Riders.
2. Skyrider: Skyrider rules. How to count the ways? I love the fact that he flies (well, 'Sailing Jumps', but it's flying.) It's such a simple thing, a pretty common superpower when you think about it, but it's unique among the Riders. There are other fliers, but no one does it quite like Skyrider, where the character is basically built around it. He is the Master Of The Sky.
What also makes it special is how it's tied into Tsukuba's character, who can be as gentle or as forceful as the wind itself. The end of the first episode is one of my favorite Kamen Rider moments ever- It's tragic and uplifting at the same time, while also being the mission statement for the series. Sure, over time Skyrider spent more time just driving there, but hey- it is Kamen
Rider, after all. All the same, it's good to see Spirits and the recent movies playing up the flying again. As it should be.
Putting that aside, I love his other powers. 99 secret techniques, and we've barely seen half. There's a lot of untapped potential still there. I love what we do see- Skyrider does piledrivers! Skyrider propeller-chops people! Skyrider breaks spines like it was all that really matters! He drives his motorcycle through everything. Considering the show began as a pseudo-remake and Skyrider as a kinda-sorta Rider 1, it's incredible how it managed to deviate into a way that makes it feel like a very different beast, yet also pushes all the right buttons for an original series fan like me.
Also, that he has one of the best designs
ever doesn't hurt.
3. X-Rider: X-Rider has always been a favorite- even waaaay back when I was a kid, and hadn't seen the series and didn't know Apollo Geist from Apollo 13, I knew X-Rider was bad-ass. Why? Because he's the underwater dude. I've always love the sea and undersea stuff, giant squid and wittily-named subs. I remember a Hobby Japan feature, from back in the days long before S.I.C., with some imaginative re-envisioned Rider characters and scenes made with models by assorted artists. Rider 1's origin, a weirdo bondage-sidekick-toting Sasori-Otoko (I have no clue what was going on there) and a nifty version of X-Rider where he's been designed as this primitive almost 19th-century-style diving suit. It's wild, but it stuck with me all these years.
Of course, in the series X-Rider is underwater for like 2 episodes, but that doesn't matter. The potential is there. Like Skyrider, others have made more out of it (again, Spirits.) I love those kinds of high-concept ideas, which Kamen Rider has always been chock full of.
I love the suit, Ridol, and I don't care what anybody says- Cruiser is one of the best Rider motorcycles yet.
To sum him up: Decade #26 was loaded with great stuff, but for me the top moment of the episode is that one little snippet of X-Rider. Because to me, that shows Toei will still go the extra mile, with some prodding. They might not do fan-pleasing as good as the competition some times, but they'll throw the bones. They reference and show a character who really doesn't have much bearing on what's going on in Decade, other than that he used to fight Apollo Geist, but it builds up the mythos. As much as I would have liked to see X-Rider world, I also kinda like that we've just got that one glimpse. I'm sure there's at least one kid out there who saw that, thought "who is that guy?" and there's now another X fan out there. And that? Is pretty awesome.
4. Amazon: My Amazon is the original, but I'm one of the like 3 people who liked the Decade version too, so you can lump him in. My childhood favorite, because back in those days I had seen and knew a lot less, and I don't think I really got Kamen Rider the way I do now, not until a few years later. But along with X-Rider, I always loved Amazon. He's just such an imaginative design. And detailed too, with the red lines all over him. I was quite happy that when they brought him back in Decade, that for all the changes they made, they really didn't touch the suit other than sprucing up GaGa and using a newer costume made of more contemporary materials (which is the proper way to bring back the old Riders, IMHO.)
As a character, I actually find a lot to relate to, if you put aside the whole "raised in the jungle thing". He's definitely out of his element. Loneliness is a reoccurring thread throughout all the series, and Amazon cranks it up to 11. In a similar vein, I found a lot to relate to with Tsukasa/Decade as well, so again, I was quite pleased to have an story contrasting the two. While I wouldn't say I was ever a loner, I often did (and still do) feel just a bit out of synch with the rest of the world some times. Maybe it's just me, but I think everyone feels this way at some point in their lives. That to me is part of the intrinsic appeal of Kamen Rider, that great hypocrisy. They are surrounded by friends, and yet they'll always be alone. In Amazon's case, he literally is coming from a different 'world', and yet the world he comes into should be his own when you think about it.
Of course, put aside all the philosophical stuff, and you have a guy who kills big rubbery monsters by jumping on them and clawing their eyes out of them until they spew gallons of foam in slow-mo. And maybe that's too lowbrow for some people, but not me.
4.5 Riderman: I have to include him here because I like Riderman just a leeeeeetle bit more than V3, yet V3 is unquestionably my #5. So dilemma averted.
I was thinking the other day about how Riderman changed everything. A radical statement, perhaps, but there's still truth to it. The first 3 Riders are basically the heroes you want to be. The next 3 (Riderman, X-Rider, and Amazon) are like the heroes you would be. They're a bit more flawed, a bit less shining, but they get by in the end. Jin takes a few episodes to really figure out what he's doing. Amazon I talked about, and then there's Yuuki. The first 3 Riders had crises and depth, but they always felt a bit more 'grown up' to me, so they dealt with problems one way. These other guys weren't that much younger in real life, but at least in terms of the way the characters were written, they somehow feel 'younger'.
The point I'm getting to is that Riderman was the first time where you had a Rider who really didn't quite seem to know the score from day 1. I mean, he's all over the map in V3- enemy, reluctant enemy, reluctant ally, friend, embattled friend, hero, etc. It's fun to watch Yuuki's post-V3 progression, through Stronger (where he's still being written as a bit unpredictable, getting into fights with Shigeru), New Kamen Rider (where he's his own man, out of the V3 shadow) and finally ZX, where he's sort of truly now one of the old gang, so much so that you can stick him between V3 and Supes and nobody bats an eye.
On to the rest: Yamaguchi's incredible. The Gackt version is fun, but Riderman's always going to be Yamaguchi to me. I love Riderman's costume, always have, always will. The Arms are a great, strange, crazy idea, and I love 'em too. As powerful and compelling as his "death" was, I'm so glad they brought him back. He deserves it.
5. V3: The only reasons V3 doesn't rank higher is because the other guys exist, and because I'm never going to shut up about the Junko thing, but I'll try to for the rest of this post.
I'll also try to keep this short: V3 could have just been a weird mishmash of Rider 1 & 2, but they found a way to make him a very different sort of character whilst also being a logical progression from them. He's got a huge supply of attacks, crazy-ass 26 Secrets powers, an incredibly cool motorcycle, a great design and one of the best voices out there. Miyauchi's cool as Kazami, but I think he also shines just as V3, coupled with some great suit acting. V3 has some real personality. He's always been a popular Rider, and it's not hard to see why.
Also, even though it was done before and done since, "punching the camera" is always going to be something I associate with V3.
