My Recent Thoughts On A Random Kamen Rider Survey From Eigaland

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Preparing for the entrance of Kamen Rider Zi-O into the Reiwa era is no small task. Now it's time to consider the Heisei era Riders (not counting the 90s movies or Black RX which started in the Showa era but ended in the Heisei era). UkiyaSeed also shows the latest results from Eigaland which has the following ten Kamen Rider seasons of the Heisei era -- according to a survey of 8,048 participants ranging from ages 10 to 60 (I guess parents and grandparents of Kamen Rider children fans decided to participate). That's pretty random if you ask me considering that age does affect preference!

Top ten are as follows:
  1. Kamen Rider Den-O
  2. Kamen Rider Kuuga
  3. Kamen Rider Agito
  4. Kamen Rider Ryuki
  5. Kamen Rider Kabuto
  6. Kamen Rider 555
  7. Kamen Rider Fourze
  8. Kamen Rider W
  9. Kamen Rider Drive
  10. Kamen Rider Ex-Aid

Den-O is number one? I really feel that's just either surprising or was it that popular? Granted, Takeru Sato has had a huge career not only as a Kamen Rider but also as Rurouni Kenshin. Heck, a fourth movie will be released this year too! Den-O itself for me can be hard to follow -- maybe you can view it as an improved and yearlong Changerion which only lasted for 39 episodes due to a lack of popularity. I don't find myself particularly fond of that season compared to some of the shows that follows.

Kuuga and Agito for me are well true masterpieces. Though why Kuuga is above Agito still baffles me. I guess Agito is getting some unfair hate because "DUH! It's Toshiki Inoue!" which for me isn't fair. But at least some people who dislike Agito finished watching it before they gave their remarks. Kuuga does have more likable characters though than Agito so maybe that explaisn why it's above Kuuga in this survey. Kuuga was the ambitious remodeling of Kamen Rider that broke it away from the Showa era mold. Agito itself is an ambitious, sprawling tapestry and perahps Inoue's best work. So I guess Inoue's rather infamous burnouts caused Agitoto get mired. Naruhisa Arakawa is probably still well-respected. Heck, Inoue does get caught in the rumor that he and Yasuko Kobayashi got stuck in a Rider War!

Ryuki well it had potential but it was destroyed by executive meddling. I can't help but think Ryuki's alternate ending was a knee-jerk response to what happened due to its rather questionable ending. There was so much plot development and they are all thrown out of the window. It was nice to see Shinji and Renn become friends only for them to forget the events in the finale. Damn it executives but I guess if Kobayashi got her way -- the ending would have probably sparked way more outrage or not. But I still wish Kobayashi got her intended ending of murdering everyone to teach how war is not a joke to children viewers. Damn it!

Kabuto is probably Shoji Yonemura's one shot wonder. I guess people know how much I LOVE to compare Yonemura to Bruce Kalish of the Disney era of Power Rangers, Jonathan Tzachor AND I dub him as "Patrick Star" of Tokusatsu. I still can't forget how I freaking hate the first Super Hero Taisen movie. Kabuto though is a decent series with the Independence Day reference of the Worms as the Harvesters. Okay, I was wishing for Chestbursters here and there or Xenomorphs as well. Too bad Yonemura went downhill.

So why is Kabuto above 555 or should I say Faiz? Faiz is the series where Inoue wrote it all throughout. Heck, he was proud enough to even appear at the ending! I really still feel like Faiz itself had some real problems like the Rider Belt passing game. I thought Kamen Rider Kiva (which had a really burnt out Inoue) to be more entertaining. Kabuto really also tried to make a more active version of Captain Ryuya in Timeranger in the person of Masato Kusaka. Now only if Masato were secretly the final villain. The Orphnoch King just feels rather random. Still, I don't blame fans for actually liking it due to the potential it contained. 

Fourze, W, Drive and EX-AID are all post-Decade Riders and they are the last four in the top ten? I just thought about how I do enjoy Fourze, W and Drive a lot and EX-AID well maybe not so much due to sudden changes like making Kuroto Dan an idiot in the second half. Fourze was an interesting spin of a high school Kamen Rider (take that Saban's Mashed Rider) and Drive itself is the first policeman Kamen Rider while W was a detective. I thought how Riku Sanjo may not do that good with Super Sentai (not really fond of Kyoryuger) BUT I like him how he does Kamen Rider as a writer. 

What are your thoughts on this rather random survey I found? 

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