I've Seen More Heisei Kamen Rider Than Showa Kamen Rider

With Kamen Rider EX-AID coming out next month, I want to recall how much of the Heisei era of Kamen Rider I've seen (which feels like a J-Drama). I still remember how hesitant I was to watch the newer Kamen Rider because I was "stuck on Showa" and I didn't really see much of Showa. Talk about personal biases there before actually seeing the shows huh? 

The Heisei era of Kamen Rider deviated from traditional writing since Kamen Rider Kuuga. If you've seen some Showa era Kamen Riders (I've only seen Black, Black RX, Kamen Rider Amazon and some episodes of the first Kamen Rider) you may notice that they have different writing styles. Showa Riders operated like Super Sentai villains: they always prepared deadly but absurdly stupid plans to achieve world domination. All that went down the drain with Kamen Rider starting from Kuuga up to present.

I remembered how I had a hard time adjusting to the fact that monsters weren't always beaten at the end of the day. Sometimes, there wasn't a monster but there was some intense plot progressing in its place. The pacing was now different from Super Sentai or the Space Sheriff series. The feel just got more mature than most of the Super Sentai series of that year. Kamen Rider Kuuga hardly had any room for comedy... maybe Timeranger isn't as serious as I thought. Kamen Rider Agito is way more serious than Gaoranger. From Kamen Rider Kuuga up to Kamen Rider Kabuto, there's a lot of nightmare fuel but for some reason Toei decided to drop it. I guess lighter and softer is what sells better these days. 

When I think of it, how much of Showa era have I seen anyway? I can say that I barely saw the whole era. I don't think I've seen half of the 1,000 episodes Kamen Rider had. Kamen Rider Black was my first Kamen Rider followed by Kamen Rider Black RX. Years later, I started watching some tiny pieces of the first Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider V3, Kamen Rider Stronger but never saw them from start to end. I tried watching Kamen Rider Amazon from start to end which only lasted for 24 episodes. I feel a bit of bias towards the Showa era since most of those shows were "too old" for me.

As said, I should still keep an open mind to assess the situation even if something is "super old school" or "super new school". I wanted to drop Super Sentai after Gokaiger (and backtrack towards Shinkenger, a series I have extreme favoritism towards) but I do like Go-Busters. Sure it's not as good as Timeranger just as Kamen Rider Faiz isn't as good as Kamen Rider Agito. I didn't have much enthusiasm with anything post-Gobusters for some time but I still found myself watching Kamen Rider and enjoying it. I can't really say Kamen Rider is always "more mature" because there are more kiddie seasons after Kamen Rider Decade. Kamen Rider Gaim didn't have the gore and blood Kamen Rider Ryuki had but it was the superior battle royale for me. 

So am I really still willing to watch more of the non J-Drama-like Showa Riders? Only time will tell.