Cegarth
This review may contain spoilers
Mild spoilers ahead:
Everything the show did well:
-Really entertaining cast all around.
-One of the most interesting main antagonists in the franchise.
-The main trio of riders all feel like they're the main protagonists respectively. Shifting perspectives between the three helps keep the show interesting from beginning to end + explore different philosophies as to what would happen if humanity was given superpowers.
-Each Rider has a really distinct fighting style + looks very visually distinct of each other while feeling that they are from the same show.
-One of the most unique stories in the franchise
-Lots of cool stunts.
-The majority of the non-transformable characters feel really useful, especially the main girl Mana and Ozawa.
-The show's mysteries are legitimately intriguing.
-The concept behind the Akatsuki passangers are legimetely interesting.
-This show's villains 'The Lords' feel really menacing.
Everything the show did bad:
-It feels like the only purpose of Taichi (the kid that lives with the main cast) is to stall the answers to the mysteries by being a brat, which feels like cheap writing.
-The mini-arc focused on Aki Sakaki (15-21, 25). She might be the biggest harlot/slut in the franchise. She just comes off as generally unlikeable, the show expects to believe she's in love with Ryo which is almost impossible to believe considering her actions. Her arc introduces the only seemingly dropped plot-point in the show, as it seemed like it was setting up an explanation as to why Taichi doesn't have a mom which is never explained by the end. It just feels like to whole reason she existed was to be a cheap way to create conflict between Shoichi and Ryo.
-The 5-parter finale of the show is kind of bad. It introduces a new side character for each of the main trio, introducing 3 new characters in the last 5 episodes of the show makes it almost impossible to care for them. During these 5 episodes the Agito side is the only good perspective, as it's the only that actually closes a remaining plot-point/mystery and manages to make you care for Kana Okamura. The Gills side is just more suffering for him which felt unnecessary by this point. The G3 side was the worst of the 3, the new character from that perspective, Naozumi Shirakawa sucks even if he's played by the fantastic actor Yutaka Hirose, this 5-parter also ruins Hojo's and Omuro's characters. On top of that, the main antagonist final plan is unnecessarily conveluted and feels out of character when compared to his past actions.
-The titular rider Agito has one of the most boring powersets that a protagonist has had in this franchise.
-If you've watched Kuuga, do NOT expect the cops in this show to be anything similar.
Reasons for the show's strengths:
Producer Shirakura knows how to make the most use of Toshiki Inoue's writing style, they compliment each other extremely well. Shirakura wanted to allow Inoue creative freedom for the most part, so he allowed Inoue to not properly make a sequel to Kuuga. While this might be disappointing to some, this allowed the show to be an original story that allows Kuuga's great ending go untouched and ultimately allowed future entries in the franchise to be completely standalone like Super Sentai which allowed for the franchise to be really experimental and create some of the most unique and best Tokusatsu.
Reasons for the show's problems:
The show got extended for 5 more episodes, however Toshiki Inoue had already written the finale, this resulted in the script of episode 46 to be slightly reworked to not close all the plot-points but ultimately being the best fight in the show and feeling more like a final fight than the actual final one. Inoue had to impromptuly write theseast 5 episodes which resulted in them not having the same polish that the rest of the show did.
Inoue is also a really weird writer and likes telenovela-like plotlines which resulted in the Aki Sakaki plotline.
Overall:
The show is definitely weirder than most Rider shows which might not make it for everybody. But this season has the best mystery that I've seen in this franchise, plus the protagonist trio is really great and the shift between their perspectives help make the show feel fresh. This is also among the franchise's most unique. The biggest issue is the 5-part finale, and even then the actual ending of the show is good so it's not that big of a deal outside the character assassinations of Hojo and Omuro. Also don't go into the show excepting it to be like Kuuga because of the designs as it's very different. Overall I would definitely recommend this show if you're into mystery or want to see a really weird tokusatsu but not recommend it if you're really into continuity between other seasons.
-Really entertaining cast all around.
-One of the most interesting main antagonists in the franchise.
-The main trio of riders all feel like they're the main protagonists respectively. Shifting perspectives between the three helps keep the show interesting from beginning to end + explore different philosophies as to what would happen if humanity was given superpowers.
-Each Rider has a really distinct fighting style + looks very visually distinct of each other while feeling that they are from the same show.
-One of the most unique stories in the franchise
-Lots of cool stunts.
-The majority of the non-transformable characters feel really useful, especially the main girl Mana and Ozawa.
-The show's mysteries are legitimately intriguing.
-The concept behind the Akatsuki passangers are legimetely interesting.
-This show's villains 'The Lords' feel really menacing.
Everything the show did bad:
-It feels like the only purpose of Taichi (the kid that lives with the main cast) is to stall the answers to the mysteries by being a brat, which feels like cheap writing.
-The mini-arc focused on Aki Sakaki (15-21, 25). She might be the biggest harlot/slut in the franchise. She just comes off as generally unlikeable, the show expects to believe she's in love with Ryo which is almost impossible to believe considering her actions. Her arc introduces the only seemingly dropped plot-point in the show, as it seemed like it was setting up an explanation as to why Taichi doesn't have a mom which is never explained by the end. It just feels like to whole reason she existed was to be a cheap way to create conflict between Shoichi and Ryo.
-The 5-parter finale of the show is kind of bad. It introduces a new side character for each of the main trio, introducing 3 new characters in the last 5 episodes of the show makes it almost impossible to care for them. During these 5 episodes the Agito side is the only good perspective, as it's the only that actually closes a remaining plot-point/mystery and manages to make you care for Kana Okamura. The Gills side is just more suffering for him which felt unnecessary by this point. The G3 side was the worst of the 3, the new character from that perspective, Naozumi Shirakawa sucks even if he's played by the fantastic actor Yutaka Hirose, this 5-parter also ruins Hojo's and Omuro's characters. On top of that, the main antagonist final plan is unnecessarily conveluted and feels out of character when compared to his past actions.
-The titular rider Agito has one of the most boring powersets that a protagonist has had in this franchise.
-If you've watched Kuuga, do NOT expect the cops in this show to be anything similar.
Reasons for the show's strengths:
Producer Shirakura knows how to make the most use of Toshiki Inoue's writing style, they compliment each other extremely well. Shirakura wanted to allow Inoue creative freedom for the most part, so he allowed Inoue to not properly make a sequel to Kuuga. While this might be disappointing to some, this allowed the show to be an original story that allows Kuuga's great ending go untouched and ultimately allowed future entries in the franchise to be completely standalone like Super Sentai which allowed for the franchise to be really experimental and create some of the most unique and best Tokusatsu.
Reasons for the show's problems:
The show got extended for 5 more episodes, however Toshiki Inoue had already written the finale, this resulted in the script of episode 46 to be slightly reworked to not close all the plot-points but ultimately being the best fight in the show and feeling more like a final fight than the actual final one. Inoue had to impromptuly write theseast 5 episodes which resulted in them not having the same polish that the rest of the show did.
Inoue is also a really weird writer and likes telenovela-like plotlines which resulted in the Aki Sakaki plotline.
Overall:
The show is definitely weirder than most Rider shows which might not make it for everybody. But this season has the best mystery that I've seen in this franchise, plus the protagonist trio is really great and the shift between their perspectives help make the show feel fresh. This is also among the franchise's most unique. The biggest issue is the 5-part finale, and even then the actual ending of the show is good so it's not that big of a deal outside the character assassinations of Hojo and Omuro. Also don't go into the show excepting it to be like Kuuga because of the designs as it's very different. Overall I would definitely recommend this show if you're into mystery or want to see a really weird tokusatsu but not recommend it if you're really into continuity between other seasons.
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