Kamen Rider Agito Review

Finally the Agito review before I get pretty busy to write another extensive review.  Here's Toshiki Inoue's top masterpiece- good start, good ending compared to Jetman's bittersweet ending.  I'll say aesthetics, story and everything it's better than Kamen Rider Kiva.  It prettymuch follows a unique formula that works PRETTY WELL especially compared to most Kamen Riders- the main hero Shouichi Tsugami (actually his real name is Tetsuya Sawaki) is already revealed to have his Agito powers but he DOES NOT remember why he had the Agito powers, neither do we know how he got the Agito powers.  So pretty much different, we're kept sitting down and we just left guessing to how it really works or where he got his powers.  And there's another mysterious rider known as Ryo Ashihara who became Kamen Rider Gills, who is a feral version of Kamen Rider Amazon.  He too is a great mystery.  And of course this is Fantasy Leader's favorite Kamen Rider. =)

Shouichi/Tetsuya (take your pick) but while he's still having his amnesia, I'll call him Shouichi.  So he lives together with Professor Misugi and his son Taichi and his niece Mana Kazaya (or better yet step-niece since Mana is the daughter of his stepbrother).  Despite his amnesia, he does a LOT of very things well.  One day, he suddenly gets startled to why he could transform into Kamen Rider Agito to fight the mysterious organization known as the Lords.  Speaking of the Lords, they are called as the Unknown by the police force to which they have the G3 project (Sumiko Ozawa, Takahiro Omuro and Makoto Hikawa).  Professor Misugi is very caring to both Taichi and his step-niece Mana Kazaya so there's such a thing as a step-uncle!

I'll talk about the police department a little more- Makoto Hikawa becomes a Kamen Rider codenamed G3 who becomes Agito's partner though not aware of Agito and Shouichi are the same person.  Sakiko Mikuno is in charge of cracking the ancient secrets that eventually are linked with the Lords/Unknown.  Hojo Toro and Ryuji Tsukasa add to the drama.  Hojo's pretty much a arrogant jock (sort of) yes but however, he does have a great side so I can tolerate him but he can get annoying because of how he looks at the G3 project.  But then again, Hojo is pretty much a natural person with biases and flaws.  For the G3 Project, I just love the G3 suit but not its henshin sequence.  What I didn't like about the G3 suit is that it had to be boarded at the trailer and two, like the JAKQ transformation I find it pretty inconvenient compared to being able to transform on the spot.  Then again, I can't blame them for not having the rider belt technology!  Ryuji did turn himself over for a murder he committed in an act of revenge for his late sister.  For me, Makoto does look like Taiwanese actor Blue Lan (even thought he was Blue Lan!) and I feel sorry for him for being SO CLUMSY.  What was the writer thinking?  Was Inoue attempting to lighten things up?  Maybe, but he did a good job here with humor in the sense, it doesn't ruin the overall serious mood of the story.  Later on G3 gets an upgrade as G3-X with that AWESOME Gatling gun!  Woohoo!

Now I'd like to talk about the Lords.  These are all pretty mysterious, animal headed persons who are somewhat ruled by the Overlord of Darkness who while he looks like he's a child, be warned he is NOT to be messed up with.  The Lords in here for some reason make an atonement sign to kill a human, since according to the story, they were guardians of Linto back in the previous series of Kuuga.  Why they killed certain humans was not immediately known which was a pretty CREEPY feature.  For aesthetics, they DO look like Egyptian gods and goddesses man I wonder if the ancient Egyptians worshiped these guys?  What we do discover however is this- they are killing humans with superpowers to which was later revealed, they feel like that the power of Agito is not for humanity.  Now that's just very stupid for them to do that, but hey we need a good plot and the Unknown have that!  So the Overlord of Darkness also had a backstory of having a twin brother called the Overlord of Light whose stor will be revealed later.

I was also thinking about the role of Mana.  This is the first role of Rina Akiyama and she was but 16 this time, oh how time flies fast.  What we know of Mana is that she is NOT a normal human, she somehow has Agito seed but she DOES NOT become Agito.  She has her supernatural powers to which play a role to the keys of discovering the secrets of the Lords.  Now moving on, I should now talk about the forms.

For Agito, compared to Kuuga's learning his new forms, I think there's that "too fast" to learn it for some reason but again, hey that's typical Tokusatsu to where poof you've got basic knowledge to control your powers.  So why did this amnesiac learn to use all these powers?  Again, it's a mystery.  Now let's move on- Agito has learned these powers.  He has the Storm Form with that really cool double bladed staff called the Storm Halberd, the Flame Form with the Flame Sabers (they're pretty badass) and later what becomes SO AWESOME is when he finally regains part of his memory (not all of it) to gain the Trinity Form that makes him a three in one rider.  Using the Storm Halberd and Flame Saber at ONCE is so awesome.  Wow, you can't get more awesome than that.  Oh wait, now there's the Burning Form which gets things really hot and for infinite possibilities, the Shining Form both which use the Shining Calibur.  In every way, we don't know how in the world at first does he learn these moves and why.  So he does discover his real name is Tetsuya Sawaki and that Shouchi Tsugami is just an assumed name, that of his later sister's boyfriend.

Now I'd like to talk about a more about Ryo.  Poor Ryo, why does he have to be so tragic?  Aside from the fact he could not control his Gills form, he also mistakes Agito to have killed Aki Sakaki who was part of the Akatsuki survivors.  Because of that, there's a series of heated battles until he discovers the truth.  In the series, he's pretty much another interesting character that later joins up with G3 and Agito in the fight against the Unknown.  Later he gains that super cool form as Exceed Gills too!

There's also the Akatsuki survivors.  One thing is certain- where in the world did they get their superpowers?  That of course will be explained.  So Aki Sakaki was one of them... too bad she had to die.  Now there were others namely Tomoko Miura who was strangled to death by the Overlord of Darkness himself, Saeko Shinohara who kept diving for false relics provided by her older brother an archaeologist who drowns because her leg got stuck by seaweeds (seriously it sounds preposterous but it COULD happen to anyone!), Katsuhiro Sagara who tricked Mana that she could not control her powers only to be murdered by the Unknown called Crustata Palleo, Koji Majima who idolized Kino Kaoru who I'll talk about also who becomes the sole survivor, the REAL Shouichi who was revived by the Overlord of Darkness and is constantly tormented later was able to redeem himself by saving Kana and Yukina, who was the older sister of the hero Tetsuya.  For Yukina she would have been the very first Kamen Rider Agito but the task was left to her younger brother.  What a twist really.  And the Akatsuki are pretty mysterious to why they got their powers until it was revealed that the Overlord of Light gave them that power to battle the Overlord of Darkness, who wanted them dead.

Mana discovers that her late father's death was accidental, so it really is that freaky that her father was killed (not on purpose, phew!) by the late Yukina who is Tetsuya's sister who killed herself because she could not control her powers.  And also along the way, there's super doctor Kaoru Kino (who's pretty too old to be a new Kamen Rider!) who becomes Another Agito.  The Another Agito starts off as an anti-hero who insists he should become the only Agito and later he joins the others only to DIE later.  Kaoru Kino is a great doctor but has a burden of his late brother he was unable to save but he has his late brother's arm to replace his lost arm.  For everything else, the bonding of G3 and Gills to Agito finally begins in their fights against the Lords.  Also, the Agitos are now suddenly viewed as a threat to humanity.  We are also introduced to the sub-plot of Kana who would have nearly become the second Kamen Rider Agito.  So she befriends Tetsuya, oh that's good but she turns out to have those powers.  So she nearly commits suicide, I was pretty scared of that scene and hoping she will NOT DROP.  Fortunately for her, Tetsuya nad the real Shouichi managed to save her, but later her part was so cut.  I was sort of hoping she and Tetsuya would be an item but oh well... moving on.  So I'm pretty confused to how Mana and Kana (note the rhyming names!) as Seed of Agito differentiated from the Akatsuki survivors.

Now there's MORE of Tetsuya than meets the eye.  So we discover we was on that boat where he first met Kaoru Kino.  Typical... quite typical.  And then one day a huge storm happened, the Overlord of Light came and granted the passengers the power of Agito to defend humanity?!  I don't know.  Regardless, so maybe just maybe it was to ensure humanity's survival.  Then the Akatsuki ship was attacked by El of the Water, which was real nightmare fuel.  Fortunately, this time Tetsuya becomes Agito and defeats El of the Water in the present.  But what's pretty bad and I mean VERY BAD is when the police thinks that the Unknown are protecting humanity and the Agito are threats.  Oh boy Hojo really made another mistake... then again the Agito can be easily feared and misjudgment DOES HAPPEN.  At the same time, Hikawa has some eye problems but fortunately he didn't become blind.

I do find the concluding episodes very scary.  Why is that?  So what this Overlord of Darkness does is REARRANGE THE STARS and causes the Scorpios to see their doppelgangers and KILL THEMSELVES?  What does this guy have against Scorpios?  Then he continues doing his evil attacks, wishing to wipe out ALL HUMANITY before any more Agitos come, isn't that an overkill?  Regardless of police policy, Hikawa eventually takes over the G3 again which was previously taken over by Hojo (bad move).  In the end, Hojo realizes he's wrong and hands over G3 back to Hikawa.  Also the Overlord of Darkness summons El of the Wind to be his bodyguard and El of the Ground to kill those who are researching on the paranormal- that's pretty creepy!  So El of the Ground gets killed by Gills' Exceed Gills Heel Claw after being wounded by Kamen Rider G3 as G3-X.  Meanwhile Agito in his Shining Form destroys the El of the Wind who looks like Horus in Egyptian mythology!

The finale is pretty vague somewhat but not awful.  So here as the Overlord of Darkness goes to try and escape or whatever, Agito in Shining Form tries to destroy him with a HUGE JUMP and then a Shining Rider Kick.  Boom!  So is it the end of our hero?  No, we do get a pretty good ending.  So Sumiko becomes a teacher, she rans into Hojo (again) and apparently they're falling for each other.  With the Agito mission finished like every Kamen Rider, moves on with their lives waiting for the next Kamen Rider or Super Sentai to thwart whatever threats hits Japan and the rest of the world.  And yes, Tetsuya does open the Agito restaurant, fulfills his dream and it's Inoue's best finale.  Now only if Inoue could keep his finales this good but not that I hate Kiva's lmao finale.

My rating?  9/10.  It's a very good series.  Got Toku and drama elements mixed so well!!!!  Thumbs up to Fantasy Leader!