Angel's Rider Series Rankings

Pretty confident this is Urobuchi's best TV series (and I'm not a devout fan of his). Intricate, organic plotting makes for an addictive watch, large cast of well-realized and complex characters, a medley of Urobutchi's usual themes refined to their most potent, it's just remarkable. Only complaints are that the themes are still maybe too familiar and not ambitious beyond the Butcher's comfort zone and the last 2 episodes are a bit weird, but still pulls off the ending with stronger internal logic than Madoka.

Watching this after Faiz, Inoue certifies his skill at weaving in the slice of life elements into a way that feels genuine and not as a cheap emotional stake, they have as much importance as the actual conflict instead of slight breather moments and stuff with some expository relation to the conflict, like the heroes just killing time until something arises, the people feel like actual people with livelihoods. Then there's the layered character dynamics and mysteries which perfectly grow off each other, creating a solid relationship of how the characters' pasts (and ignorance to them) situate them in the plot and things going from there so gracefully. Lots of stuff on grief, communal healing, atonement, causality, self-worth and more. The cast is also great, with an excellent lead in Shouichi who is a lovable dork with a nice dose of angst; hardly any weak links to be found, even Hojo, the perpetual thorn in everyone's sides is rooted in palpable frustration and paranoia to motivate him while remaining good at heart. It's also just largely pretty well paced with some great action, an intriguing story and a satisfying ending. Only complaints are that episodes 27/28-41 feel a bit slack compared to the more tightly wound parts surrounding it and maybe being a bit safer/cleaner in themes and such than some bolder ones like Faiz, but even at the most basic level, this is one of the most fun Rider series and one of the easiest to recommend. Awesome. 

Inoue makes miscommunication a true art form here - a natural extension of the characters that occupy the story and the prejudices, burdens and values they carry that make everything more complicated. An admirable attempt to give the characters normal lives outside of the conflicts and to find their purposes in life, treating it with a good deal of importance, then complicated dealings on sin and redemption and much more. It gets too twisted in knots at times and sidelines some of the other plot threads like the police involvement and some of the characters' career challenges, but eventually circles back on them, though it would've been nice if they were there consistently to really certify the series' greatness as this ambitious, multifaceted saga; truly commendable though.

Grossly underrated, has its wonky spots for sure, but very emotionally honest, deals with some shonen-esque and kind of vague ideas about "the value of life" in a communal sense that feels fresh and meaningful, how Takeru doubts himself but is reaffirmed by the kindness and support from others he had previously shown to them in order to help their problems in a beautiful cycle. A great contrast to the villains trying to suppress free will for the subsequent pain it brings, but we are constantly reborn with new strength.

P.S. Akari is also one of the best female characters in all of Kamen Rider.

Souji Tendou is probably one of the greatest characters ever, truly inspirational. The show builds around his values and challenges us not to see it as arrogance, but true self-actualization that we can't fall into the shadow of, gotta forge and reforge our own paths to greatness. The obstacle isn't Tendou, it's ourselves. Interesting ISIS/religious extremist allegory it builds as well with a context reminiscent of 9/11 oddly enough. Backhalf is a bit wonky, but still has some great stuff in it, and all wraps up pretty well, yet another ambitious diamond in the rough.

Very solid, one of the easiest Rider series to recommend. Energetic spirit carries throughout and supported by a strong cast and a decently paced overarching plot with some twists and turns. Shortchanges the core family stuff at the end, but its heart is in the right place, not terribly ambitious, but comfortable, dependable and not as empty feeling as OOOs. 

My first Rider series. Pretty decent character writing, but gets into some ruts every now and then, still mostly fun. Masamune is terribly flat as a final villain though given how long he's around and barely gets fleshed out, plus forgiving Kuroto (as memeable and great as he is) is a bit dicey, and especially since Hiro's whole character arc is undermined by how this show has like 0 permadeath EXCEPT for Hiro's girlfriend, Masamune, etc. It's a bit troubling, but the show still rounds out in the end.

Story is kind of nonsense at a surface level, sometimes becoming convoluted enough to the point where I'd tune out a bit, but occasionally I'd notice among the waves of weird plot elements that something would feel thematically appropriate, though it's hard to parse and doesn't seem like it might significantly impact the not TOO complicated ending. Nonetheless, it's mostly a entertaining story about not being weighed down by the past, mutual support and acceptance of vulnerability, and self-actualizing  for the future. Ryo has some pretty strong character development as kind of the center of the story, and the rest of the cast is solid too, though sometimes simpler, particularly the Taros who are enjoyable but kind of stagnant and 2-dimensional at times. The finale I think could've been clearer about closure with Airi and all, since I think it really started to hone in on how Ryo, Airi, Yuto and Hana's fates were all kind of influenced deeply by Ryo and the story at large, would've liked more clear payoff than the bittersweet vagueness of the climax but Ryo going off on his bike is a nice final image. Messy but usually pretty fun. 

Its flaws aren't as easily apparent as other Rider series - it's serious, entertaining and sturdy enough in broad strokes, but the problem is it generally lacks focus. New menacing villains sprout up constantly, always suggesting they could become the big bad before they are offed shortly after while the hanging mysteries and goals get sort of lost for long stretches of time. Allegories about humanity, power and corruption also get convoluted and/or rehashed a lot and the characters' more intimate, personal motivations fall out of place after a while - in general, the series had trouble shaping its long term goals, always just dealing in the moment and hoping to just come across an ending for most of it, so it drags for some chunks of it. Characters are solid at their centers, but lack a consistent throughline to organically build on them to the end. Still a safer recommendation for a KR series, will probably appeal to many with its greater consistency though I feel it may have worked better with at least 1/4 less episodes.

I think the staff changes actually improved the series, though it's  too rough in the long run to make it great. The first half is too reliant on basic aesthetic differences from other Rider series than making something meaningful of it. The more natural setting (still has a lot of scenes in the city though) is just a different backdrop, barely real value, Asumu & Hibiki hardly interact meaningfully/for long, Asumu's development is sluggish and slight, and the series' fixation on Oni quotidian rituals to paint it like a job/lifestyle adds little, wastes too much time and drags the urgency the overarching plot would (and should) have. It's "different" but that doesn't mean anything, and it's not very interesting slice of life.

The backhalf hones in properly on the life lesson/spiritual vibes the series claimed to have earlier, but now feels tangible, if more blunt. Characters all grapple with romance, personal ambition, mutual support/friendship, etc in portions - sometimes it feels a bit like issues tacked on to their characters or just giving everyone the same relevant problem within a batch of episodes, but later sections do tie to the characters' cores and begin to affect one another greatly. Some character/arc resolutions are a bit weird despite starting strong, ala Ryuki, but its highs are greater while the lows aren't as bad. Kyosuke sums this up well: great character (way too maligned) who directs his angst and need for a father figure onto others while looking to find an inner resolve and not try to compete with his father, but while most things point that way, his arc is cut short with the finale and jumped ahead to him as an Oni without reconciling his poor grounding for getting there and obsession with being Hibiki's apprentice. Finale in general is way too rushed and unsatisfying for finer developments which holds it back from even sitting with the solid "good" entries.

Still a bit too slow at times, and the ending is maybe a bit TOO cynical, almost dismissive of Chihiro, who is an actually interesting, empathetic protagonist, a huge improvement from Haruka, but that fatalist ending is nonetheless very ballsy, and the existential bent to the story gives a deeply felt pathos to the lead characters and strong emotional hook into the story, an interesting tragedy. Baffling to me how people like S1 way more than S2 here. 

Just enough charm to keep it afloat, but really could've complicated the plot some more, had something on its mind and enriched its cast; the other club members mostly become interchangeable cheerleaders as things go on, maybe get 1 or 2 extra episodes not even entirely devoted to them with a bit more characterization, but barely any character moments/additions to their arcs for the rest of the series after their introductory two-parters. It's basically The Gentaro Show and mostly lives or dies on that.

A big rollercoaster of quality, sometimes offering some fresh observations about technology and humanity, othering, corporate exploitation, etc, but far too often Yuya Takahashi clings too faithfully to his worst habits of Ex-Aid with almost 1:1 recycled character archetypes and arcs, lack of permadeath at its worst leading to a very inert ending, and a lot of plot developments that compromise certain characters pretty badly (Fuwa's false memories). The Buyout Competition arc gets a bit too much heat for putting the plot at a standstill, but still offered some nice commentary and structured challenges, it just needed more of a B-plot alongside it to keep things rolling. Its highs are better than Ex-Aids, but the lows are a lot worse, and the mistakes repeated from Ex-Aid (the stuff aforementioned + a bit of dragging pacing at times) don't help its case. Pretty good, but frustratingly uneven. 

A very overtly political and well-meaning Rider series that is a bit too blatant in its thematics. Never really gracefully interweaves its actual Rider lore with the politics, could otherwise almost work without the former. Even still, the latter episodes feel a bit emotionally disconnected and clunky in navigating how the characters in flashbacks wind up where they are in the present, too roundabout and unfelt, more about the how than the why. Final episode is kind of emblematic in this with how the political thing of more importance in the final conflict is de-emphasized while the Rider stuff is heightened, but the fallout is more reliant on the former than the latter and not understanding what was at stake & motivated before getting to that point. Some respectable stuff early on with the extended metaphor of exploitation, its mechanics and such, and the last third at least kinda ramps up the drama in a more urgent, enticing way, but at times it feels too much like a vague sketch of a story bloated out without reason. 

Its battle royale, wish-granting premise has been done better for the most part later, but I'll give credit to it that there's still some good moral dilemmas RAISED and values bouncing off the characters which still feel fresh and fascinating, but the problem is that it's sometimes pretty indirect and lax about solving said issues, and even some of the resolutions aren't the best, especially with the rather poor ending, though there are still some decent ones. With its indirect focus for dealing with big hanging issues at times (Asakura never firmly being dealt with until the end and such), the pacing also all around feels slower than it should be - introductory stuff takes longer than it should, generally kind of drags, and sometimes resorts to filler and melodrama cliches to pad things out. Still, the cast was still very solid, and the heavier plot focus makes it structurally more entertaining and less formulaic, never quite as airy and tedious as Blade. The series while not amazing on the whole, did build up a lot of respectable good will, but the ending does a lot of damage, bit of a hard sell. 

Frustratingly lowkey, just fun enough. Heroes are mostly whatever, villains aren't really any better. Eiji gets subsumed by the plot mostly, barely has a character, Ankh gives some life to the show but has some irksome moments, Shintaro is one of the most likeable of the bunch but hardly gets much to do until near the very end, and still not that much, Date has a kind of sad backstory but he's annoyingly holier-than-thou and self-absorbed most of the time, Kousei is a good meme, Dr. Maki is a kind of quirky villain but still eh, the Greeed are pretty forgettable and the women are nice supporting characters but don't get involved too much. Other than that it is purely functional monster of the week two-parters, just totally safe.

Snoozefest first half, but the back half is a lot more fun, but doesn't fully redeem it. Shinnosuke is the most forgettable lead, rest of the cast is also pretty eh save for Chase who is pretty wholesome once redeemed. Another weird conflict about pseudo-humans trying to become humans which doesn't really function as a proper allegory with how it's handled, doesn't deconstruct the idea of what makes a human, human or anything really, so it's all kind of shallow. Not terrible but hard to recommend.

Retains Fukuda's inspirational ideas and earnest optimism, but despite his initial claims about how it would be tighter and more organized than Ghost, it proved to be much more messy. First arc piles on too many characters too fast, and they barely get much time for proper interiority or proper arcs mostly, just certain basic archetypes and dynamics bouncing off each other and Touma hogging a lot of spotlight. Too many weird little story threads and gimmicks and an overstuffed cast in that early arc, but with the following arc(s) overcompensating too much by making the pacing too glacial while still not fully investing in its cast. Some of the threads about friendship conflicts, legacies and lasting consequence are interesting, but not completely pointed. A few episodes of some incredibly layered character drama, but doesn't fully follow through on it consistently, and the Shindai siblings and Akamichi have some particularly lousy threads. While Storious ultimately has some narrative justification to become the final villain, Isaac and Bacht were much more interesting than the Megid boys. Well meaning and has some highlights, but a strange, sloppy oddity. Was at least a more unique story for Fukuda as a returning writer than Zero One was for Takahashi as boneless Ex-Aid 2.0.

A very conceptually weird series, its arc by arc reset structure while trying to retain continuity even still is a very shaky approach - constantly has to get the recurring players where they need to be again and the labours involved with that with little surprise for who the mainstays, winners and losers will be. The constant cycling out of new Riders with sparse characterization (or arbitrarily making new Riders for dramatic moments later) grows tiresome under this format, and the negative traits of the DGP from the onset and Takahashi's most hamfisted anti-capitalist messages render it immediately obvious and redundant quite often. There's some fun to be had in some of the early arcs in spite of the undercooked stakes and little narrative momentum, and some of the characters' arcs are sufficient if uneven or a bit familiar to make it enjoyable in spite of everything. Ace as a main is kind of a lesser Tendou with some cheeky charm at first, but turns into a brooding mama's boy towards the end. Last arc is especially flimsy with the overstuffed cast of villain obstacles who outstayed their welcome and a bunch of unquantifiable wish-granting mumbo-jumbo that makes the stakes feel even more abstract and lacking direction while retreading a lot of Gaim but worse. Bearable fun, but I've had enough of Takahashi Rider for at least a LONG while.

A step up from Decade, but still a lot of room for improvement. A lot of the early tribute arcs are very formulaic and don't utilize the returning cast members well,  takes at least 1/4 of it to find some real life and still lacks a tight focus on its original characters' arcs in the long run - Sougo is sort of stagnant/passive until the end mostly, Geiz kinda falls to the background after starting to properly trust Sougo, and Tsukuyomi gets almost nothing to do, but Woz's development in becoming an active participant was nice.  Kind of falls back into just going through the motions of 2 parter ordeals after a while, just with a bit more thoughtful relevance to Zi-O's own story. Maybe should've ended with Sougo defeating his future self with Geiz & Woz, the fallout and final battle with Swartz felt less significant & thematically important, and Swartz's own plan is just kind of a retread of Decade's plot. Time travel logic is a bit silly, but the Time Jackers' ability really undermines the content a lot moreso. Reset ending feels kind of boring considering some interesting developments (Blade's tribute) and not ballsy enough to show Sougo's future, just sort of safe. Has its ups and downs but kinda plain and unmemorable. 

Haruto's basic cool guy persona and repressed suffering and all is nice but sadly underdeveloped while the show spends most of its time just deifying him. Some of the best two-parters of the franchise when they dig into intimate one-off character issues and tie them to Haruto's ideals, but still quite rare, and other good ones are usually compromised and cut short to change the spotlight to Haruto's new powerups. Takes too long to finally get to its main plot and grows old after a while, but still not one of the worst Rider series.

Respectable, timely attempts at themes on Japan's militarization and media corruption and the like, but mired in all the cheapest, lowest common denominator dramatic beats and writing that compromises the integrity of its ideas and makes the criticisms and satire sometimes fail. Sento has some wholesome moments but also a terrible ego, Banjo gets better by the end but is kind of an irritating hothead, Gentoku is forgiven a bit easily despite being pretty likable later and Evolt wears out his welcome after a while. Kazumi is a solid Rider though, Otoya redeemed himself. Don't mind the ending contrary to what people say about Sento "losing" so to speak which I don't agree with, and the final episode is a nice sendoff and everything. Gets WAAAAY too DBZ instead of Kamen Rider though which is not what I signed up for.

Glacial, shallow "who is the real monster" kinda series, feels very familiar and does little with its time. Cast is kind of uninteresting, with Haruka being very limp and passive. Visual filter gets kind of annoying after a while, and it just all seems very trite despite how self-serious it tries to be. 

More like a 5.5 without the Great Shocker--and more importantly--W crossover movies, but the latter at least gave value to the series' conceit, otherwise it's a mostly boring and barebones entry that pays tribute to alternate versions of Phase 1 Heisei worlds which sort of contradicts the tribute angle itself. The cast is also not too great, Tsukasa the lead is just rude and standoffish mostly, condescends and antagonizes just for the hell of it without the inspiring qualities and more emotional depth of Tendo and doesn't really develop, Yusuke Onodera is not bad, good-spirited and helpful once he gets over his sister complex but is mostly simple, Natsumi is nice but doesn't get much to do until the W movie and Daiki just flipflops on being supportive or not but is generally vague and inconsistent with his motivations. Barely has an overarching plot, the individual conflicts for each world feel really insignificant, has a weird habit of the leads literalizing the other world characters' convictions and "growth", putting words in their mouths and still pretty minor, and it's all just not terribly interesting or meaningful. At least it's shorter, but *shrug*.

Yeah, it's "grittier" and "more serious" by grounding things a bunch and heavily focusing on the stuff with the cops like a police procedural, but that doesn't inherently make it better really, especially since it feels so superficial. Plot is still very formulaic and doesn't evolve, supporting cast is kinda just there and is never really in danger, the investigating itself seems questionable since the villains walk around conspicuously in broad daylight, and it's all just INSANELY boring, I really don't understand why people love this one. Hard to be clear and objective about my disliking of it because the tiresome viewing experience took me right out of it, but at least, it's just not for me, I can respect people that like it though.

A real mess of a series. An overstuffed cast with fairly shallow and inconsistent characterization,  morals it doesn't know how to settle on (anyone can be redeemed, but actually not EVERYONE, blind faith in shady organizations and contracts bad, but also fine if it's the right one, etc), terribly structured (all the Deadmans stuff drags on way too long, while the technical final boss is dealt with too easily and early, leading to an awkward coda arc that tries to ratchet up drama which doesn't work), and struggled to find something it could properly focus on and give weight to between episodic or overarching stuff. Not enough lived-in slice of life stuff to sell all the family drama (Igarashi, Vice or otherwise) and Ikki as a main fails to carve out a presence between the baggy cast and unending emphasis on pure plot crap, leading to a somewhat scattered and emotionally awkward ending. Vice mellows out and has a few redeemable moments but mostly ends up being a very unfunny mascot for the series. Feels like a bunch of children making up a bunch of random "cool" crap as they go while constantly butting heads yet still being boring. Premise is also a bit of a weird Ultraman R/B knockoff which you're much better off watching.

Currently the worst Kamen Rider I've seen by a good margin, easy. Lame characters, lame suit, lame theme song, lame story, terrible framing device that ruins any tension and barely makes sense, legitimately bad Inoue misunderstandings compared to Faiz's fantastic use of it, some of the dumbest time travel usage I've ever seen, vague central conflict/goals by the end, starts making stuff up in the backhalf, bad ending, just all around crappy. Somehow it's still strangely watchable by some miracle and all of its cumulative bad points aren't significantly damaging on the whole, but it's just such a lousy experience; do not recommend.