Rider Kicking With Heisei Era Riders

The Heisei era is truly coming to an end and Kamen Rider Zi-O (like Kamen Rider Black RX) will soon be the first Heisei Rider that will have to fit into the Reiwa era -- all before a pure born Reiwa Kamen Rider will be born. The Heisei era of Kamen Rider started in 2000 and will end in 2019. So 2019 may be the birth of the first true Reiwa era Kamen Rider, right?

So how is the whole Heisei era? I admit I did take a break from Kamen Rider then I did a marathon from one series after the other. I only saw bits and pieces of some Kamen Rider series aired on GMA-7, TV-5 and ABS-CBN which I could remember such as Kamen Rider Ryuki, Kamen Rider Blade, Kamen Rider Hibiki, Kamen Rider Kabuto and Kamen Rider W -- I didn't care too much about new school Kamen Rider or Super Sentai back then because I was more interested in old school shows (which I tend to be while embracing other new shows) than new school shows when it came to Toku. I was more fixated at first with seeing Super Sentai shows not aired in the Philippines (that is starting with Zyuranger and other pre-Zyuranger shows) than the recent shows. At the same time, I was more into Chinese drama at that time because of the Meteor Garden craze.

Then I started watching some of last decade such as well Kamen Rider Decade (which I despise except for its crossover with Shinkenger), Kamen Rider Den-O and I wondered why did we have to have less monsters and more episodes? I even remembered the page which is currently called "Classic Henshin Hall of Fame" which even wanted to pretend Kamen Rider had died. I just bought other people's opinions without checking the shows. Tsk tsk seriously one man's bad opinion may be good for me. It's like how I'm a fan of Meganan 7 and Megaman X6 even if other Megaman players tend to think otherwise. Heck, I didn't even want to check Kuuga out (at first) because of the whole idea that most monsters lasted two episodes -- huh didn't Dairanger have that in many of its episodes?

Then I started watching Kamen Rider again after I felt like I had "too much Super Sentai" and I was getting overfed with Chinese and Korean drama. I started watching more of it and if I could enjoy Kamen Rider Den-O then I should reallly try watching more. Then I watched several shows in different orders until I ended up watching everything from Kamen Rider Kuuga up to Kamen Rider Build. Currently, I'm on a slow pace with Kamen Rider Zi-O by just catching up with it later on. What I didn't want to admit was that what appealed to me the most was that Kamen Rider's Heisei format was indeed more appealing to me -- it feels more mature and grown-up even if it's a show that's primarily aimed at children. After all, you've got parents watching Tokusatsu with their children, right? Parents too get entertained as well!

The era always has its ups and downs. Just think that Kamen Rider Kuuga and Kamen Rider Agito are hard acts to follow. Kamen Rider Ryuki was overly ambitious but ended up getting derailed by executives -- Toshiki Inoue felt very derailed that he had to write in Megumi or how Yasuko Kobayashi may have felt derailed too with the WTF ending. Kamen Rider Faiz and Kamen Rider Kiva are series where Inoue was just slipping down -- Kiva was no different than what happened with Hirohisa Soda and Fiveman. Then we've had other experimented series such as Shoji Yonemura's one shot wonder Kame Rider Kabuto. Kamen Rider Hibiki is one controversial season due to midseason changes that happened for better and for worse. Kamen Rider Blade may be considered as Sho Aikawa's best work for me. Kamen Rider Den-O is well a weird show but enjoyable. Then Kamen Rider Decade happened and that meltdown happened -- the show was left in a cliffhanger and you had to wait for the W/Decade crossover to see how it ended. The show was probably cancelled due to bad ratings.

The post-Decade era Heisei Riders happened. I thought Kamen Rider W was a good start with Riku Sanjo -- I even think he did good with Kamen Rider Drive. The shows started to shift once again to mostly lighter and softer. They proved you don't need darker and edgier to have a good show. I'm a fan of Kamen Rider Fourze, Kamen Rider OOO though I'm still not a fan of Kamen Rider Wizard. Wizard just feels meh and it's only "watchable" because Medusa's actress Erina Nakayama is a hotter version of Reiko Chiba. Then there's Kamen Rider Gaim which I think did Ryuki right with the Battle Royale theme. Gaim provided me the entertainment I wanted when I felt Super Sentai was at a downhill (or maybe, I just needed a break) -- I really wish Gen Urobuchi will do more Kamen Rider if you ask me. Kamen Rider EX-AID well sadly had to write things fast at 44 episodes (similar to Gavan) presumably due to the shift of schedules. Kamen Rider Build was indeed intense and wrapped itself weirdly. But as far as concerned I've actually disliked only very few Heisei era Riders namely Decade and Wizard.

Now it's just me and Zi-O -- a Kamen Rider that will have to try and fit itself with the Reiwa era. Hmmm I'm wondering right now should I still check out more Showa era Kamen Riders when I don't really care too much about super old school Kamen Rider?