Heisei Kamen Rider Poll, Discussion, and All-Around Good Time.

[BreadToku]

Just for fun, I felt there ought to be a poll where people could vote for their favourite series. I made it so each person could vote three(3!) options, and set it so it will run for twenty days because it'll get messy if I leave it around forever.

More than just the poll, you can feel free to say any feelings you might have about all these shows that have aired across the years, about TV-Nihon's work on them, and all the ways you've enjoyed the franchise, whether it's from the series themselves, any specials or movies, or even the merchandise. You could also talk about the parts that you've disliked, but I do recommend at least trying to look back on this franchise more positively than negatively!

I excluded Amazons because it is it's own unique beast, but you can feel free to talk about it in this thread or mention that it's your favourite too.

I'd also like to write some abridged thoughts about every single one of the shows I've watched, including my favourites or least favourites, but I don't want to clog up the very first post so I'll save it for later when other people have put in their own votes and thoughts.

Instead for now, I'll just say that OOO is my number 1. I came across Kamen Rider OOO by chance around 2012 or so, and watched TV-Nihon's subbed version of it as soon as I got hooked by the first episode. It being my re-entry into tokusatsu obviously gives it some nostalgic bias, but I do genuinely see it as my favourite overall, a good mix of characters, themes, action, story and really interesting use of it's merchandising gimmick.

[Lunagel]

Number 1 for me has to be W. Great aesthetic, amazing characters, plot took a bit of a nosedive at the end there, but overall I think it comes out strong and cohesive.

Number 2 is Gaim. It's definitely the best of all the Heisei Riders in terms of characters, plot (holy shit the plot!) and overall awesomeness. There wasn't a single Gaim episode that wasn't absolutely amazing and I think that really says a lot about what a strong writer can do for the series. I only give it number 2 cause W is a personal favorite.

Number 3 is Fourze. Yeah, it can be kiddish sometimes but man the Zodiarts were so sick and the cast had fantastic chemistry together.

If I could pick a 4 it'd be either Kiva or Drive. Drive is arguably better but I love the design of Kiva and baby Seto Koji is adorable

[takenoko]

Number 1 for me is Agito. Amazing story. Inoue before he went crazy and a woman-hater. The characters are so fun and unforgettable. The mystery. The sci-fi. The brutal deaths and the great music. Heisei number one for sure.

Number 2 would be Blade. Love the theming and armor design. The card mechanic is awesome. Love the power-ups. So many good songs. Miss the days when Riders had good songs.

Number 3 has to be Kabuto. Tendou is such an ore personality. It's very different from what's expected from Japanese society. Yeah, the story falls apart halfway through, but the first half is so kick ass that it's hard to not be won over by the egos on display.

[Dengar]

You're not making this easy. My top two are definitely Gaim and Fourze, but the runners up are like, W, Drive and Ex-Aid....

Maybe even Den-O.

I ended up choosing Drive as my #3 though. The main character and mister Belt had an amazing chemistry, the other Riders were amazingly interesting. And the supporting girl actually felt useful because they actually bothered to give her something she's good at.

Writing a decent female character isn't hard. Even if you don't want them to fight, just give them some kind of skill that's useful.

There have been some really good series in both halves of the Heisei era. Honorable mention goes to Agito as well. Although I dock points for the way it treated Gills. And the other potential Agitos.

[takenoko]

Hmmm, needed more Kiriko kick boots

[relax23456]

For me, I got into Ryuki first as a series and I discovered all the rest after that. That will be one of my favourites especially with the relationship between the main characters.

My next 2 has to be W and Gaim. Both were amazing in terms of costumes and plot.

My honorable mentions would be Blade, Den-O and Drive.

[Dante ShadowRoadz]

Kabuto, Gaim, then Kiva. Kabuto got me into Kamen Rider in the first place, and it was a masterful showing of how you could have an exciting premise but also realistic, genuine characters even if you made your protagonist over the top, and still managed to make it more mature and developed on top of it.

Gaim was much the same, but did so with an even more over the top premise and colorful tone to the series, even if it wasn't quite as serious as Kabuto managed. And as for Kiva, I just ended up adoring how they managed to balance the themes and characters without falling into the black hole of all the tired vampire tropes and managed to make something unique and interesting, even when juggling two different timelines for the story.

I'll throw in honorable mentions for Faiz and Blade though, they both managed to set a stronger, more independent tone for the series as a whole with some of the stuff they achieved in their seasons.

[CheetahLynx]

I haven't watched them all but...

1) W. That was my first Rider plus I loved the characters and the half and half dynamic.
2) Fourze. There's something about Japanese schools... Can't quite put my finger on it though... *shrugs* (I'm not a pervert, I swear!!)
3) Gaim. For being a fruit-themed series with a surprisingly dark story. And padlocks... I like padlocks...

Haven't watched OOO or Drive and I have a feeling I'll like those, so this is subject to change.

[kangchan]

1/ Den-O: one of best work of Kobayashi in Toku, how weak Ryotaro develop and can fight by himself, Taros group is fun and story telling about time travel is much better than Zi-O

2/ OOO: the story Danmei (BL) between Eiji and Ankh is too good, but the villain is boring at all. However, it is first Rider I watched, so still impress in the first time until now.

3/ Hibiki: unique style in Rider, never have something like it later

[KRDangerousZombie]

There are some seasons i haven't gotten around to watching yet that i think i'd probably really like but with that caveat,

1. W - I don't even need to explain why I put one of the best seasons of any show I've ever watched as number 1, pretty much everyone here has watched it and knows why it's so great. If you are reading this and somehow haven't seen it yet go watch it, because everyone owes it to themselves to watch this show at least once.

2. Kuuga - Coming from all of these shows where the belt "just works" and the hero is given a belt with little/no explanation of where it came from or how it works and just inherently knowing how to do everything somehow, having the belt essentially be a silent character with it's own backstory and mystery which is being investigated by the civilian cast is a breath of fresh air. We get scenes where our main rider has check-ups with a doctor who explains it's symbiotic nature and every single power up is explained how it works and where it comes from. The old powers that were originally in the suit are RESEARCHED from ancient tablets in a deprecated language that they need to decipher and the new ones are given a reason for existing and given a restriction that is later overcome. There's a form that uses a particular type of weapon that takes several episodes for the cast to find out and it looks like a weak form until this point... and then it's true power is shown. The main rider himself grows in power throughout the show with his fighting style improving, his synergy with the belt becoming stronger and actually training his rider kick to be better instead of just "here's a pez dispenser of new powers". The non-rider police actually kill some of the monsters of the week. Seeing non super powered regular people do their best and fight back against the overwhelming enemy threat was really enjoyable to watch. The victory at the end doesn't feel like "Main rider uses power up form and wins." it feels like although the final battle technically is this, the entire cast of the show were invaluable in that victory. they did it as a team. Nobody is a useless character just there for the sake of selling toys or because there was a mandate saying "well i guess we have to have a female character". All of the main cast is important to the plot and nobody feels like an afterthought. We even see the work/home life dilemma of the character creating all the tech/weaponry for the police. I can't even explain all of the little attentions to detail i loved about this show.

3. Agito - Basically a lot of what i liked about Kuuga, with some of that expanded on. I absolutely adored the dynamic between the three riders' fighting styles: with Agito being a silent martial arts master where all of his movements are with balance and purpose, G3-X being a ridiculously 80's american action movie hero with his Minigun and his BFG and his police/military style comms where he has a team telling him stuff in combat and Gills who is just an animal screaming constantly while tearing into enemies with jagged edges and ripping parts off with his teeth. I grew to like basically all the characters apart from one, and that one i very much enjoyed seeing get his shit rocked all the time and being kicked in the dick. I liked seeing the police create their own kamen rider instead of just relying on some 12 year old doctor or high school student to take care of all their problems for them. I have more gifs and little clips of awesome stuff that happens in this show than basically any other rider show. Also

Agito finale

Agito fucking rider kicks god to death. Then god says "okay, fine, i'm done" and stops messing with people. That's ballsy as all get-out and i love it.

There's quite a few honourable mentions for me here with Fourze, Ryuki, Kabuto, Den-O & Decade all being shows i would rate as worthy of being in the top 10. (once again with the caveat of not having watched every show yet, because Gaim, OOO's & Build all look like shows i'd really enjoy).

[Lunagel]

I think we need a separate poll for worst series cause I have 3 votes I need to give to Ghost

[BreadToku]

My other two votes went to Build (#2) and Ex-Aid (#3). Ex-Aid for me was a very consistently engaging series from start to finish, and it was the most serialised show in a while so I was always very curious about the next episode. The stakes and the conflicts are entertainingly loud and over-the-top thanks to three really good villains in a row (Kuroto, Parado, and Masamune), and I like all of the characters enough. While it wouldn't be unfair to say Emu is a bit of a generic kids show hero, I really grew to like both his passion and his moments of underhandedness. Poppy totally should have had more things to do though, especially as a Rider!

And I liked Build for very similar reasons as Ex-Aid, though Build's core cast was even better and might even be my favourite ensemble of characters in any of these shows, and the highs of the story were much higher than Ex-Aid (though it also had some big lows, admittedly). I especially have to mention Sento and Ryuga as probably my favourite 'duo' in the franchise, even beating out Shoutarou and Phillip.

I think we need a separate poll for worst series cause I have 3 votes I need to give to Ghost

I have a feeling that'd be a lot of people on this forum's pick for worse. Though for me, Ghost is fairly middle-of-the-road among all the shows. Definitely not top ten but not bottom five either.

My least favourite is probably Kiva. Kiva is probably the only show I could come close to saying I 'dislike', though I still like a lot in it. Starting from sometime around halfway point of the show or earlier, I just grew really tired or irritated with the direction of the story and characters, and it never really recovered to a point where I came around to being happy about them again. The show's very distinct visual and musical style were definitely unique and memorable though.

[takenoko]

Wow, no love for Decade, Faiz, Ghost, or Zi-O yet. With even Kiva, Hibiki, and Ex-Aid getting some votes, that's surprising.

[relax23456]

I'm surprised that Fourze got so many votes.

[HowlingSnail]

My absolute favourite is Fourze. I love it way more than I should, and it's one of those shows I'd love to wipe from my memory so I can watch it for the first time again.

Double was great too. I went into it knowing it was popular, and I only wished I'd seen it earlier, rather than having it be the very last Heisei Rider I saw (Well, at the time. This was while Drive was still current).

I recently re-watched Ryuki and ended up with a new love for the show. Maybe it's just because I love shows with lots of Riders.