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Should be no surprise to those who know me and my opinions on tokusatsu, but I'm not fond of this series so far. There are bits to it that I do enjoy, however overall this is taking everything I've really disliked in recent Kamen Rider and Super Sentai shows and magnifying it one billion times. I don't mind if a show is silly, but I hate the "random silly moment with cartoony noise." As I said in another topic here or in T.A.G., I don't enjoy filler like Goku and Piccolo get a drivers license. That is what that sort of attempts at silly come off as to me, anime filler. While some Kamen Riders have peppered it here and there, this one rips the top off the pepper grinder and just pours it on whenever it can. As such, it is hard for me to get into this series.

The positives to me so far: Fourze's system and how some of it works (namely modules, not the printer ink cartridges that summon them though). The characters are interesting when they aren't falling over to a whoopee cushion noise or something equally "silly" and it has some potential. As much as I hate the constant use of their attempts to be humorous, I can at least credit the show to staying constant in some manor. I'll stick with the show, but I've got no hold of interest in it so far (other than seeing the direction it takes for my own rider based on the concept).

As for the poll, I don't care what it translates to, I'm just a bit tired of every henshin causing him to scream "UCHUU KITAAAAA". It isn't as amusing as what other catchphrases have been and I don't think other riders spammed them as often. Hoping that they tone down him saying it all the time as the series goes onwards.

I can stand some comic relief. It is up to how often/forced it can be really. I actually enjoyed Kamen Rider's humorous side up until Decade's stuff where it just felt too random and uninteresting.
As for being upset at those channels, I will admit to being an avid Cartoon Network watcher who dislikes the change to real shows and Canadian cartoons lol.
Laugh tracks would be pretty terrible. The move to more and more use of comic relief makes me think this could be around the corner though...

That is the main reason I can stand some of the silliness of this show. It is at least built into Gentaro and it is standable to a degree, like Momotaros from Den-O. It isn't too much of an interruption to what is going on at times. Still though, moments get to be grating or unnecessary. For instance, did they really need his first punch on the first monster to hurt his hand with a cartoony noise to emphasize it? The punch is just poorly shoved in, while the instance of him hitting his arm while going for his pose in a small space that you mentioned has comedy merit and nearly got a chuckle out of me.

The show has a heavy anime feeling. The opening is the most anime-like theme for a Kamen Rider to me and the head writer did work on Gurren Lagann (which also explains the drill themes).

One thing to add on the humor: It is at least refreshing to not be overly annoyed by the lead female character. Decade's with the thumb laughing pressure point really got annoying, as did W's with the shoe hitting and all around uselessness beyond being really damn annoying. OOO's with the super strength was also very annoying. This year so far the most annoying qualities of the female(s) are the one's over-enthusiasm (which isn't too annoying really) and the poorly over-acted stare-down the two give each other.

I enjoyed the first half of decade, but then it became too much of a mess. Akiko was a big reason why I disliked Double, be it her attitude or the "humorous side" where she would smack people with a slipper, or the ounce of character development being tossed out the window. Hina from OOOs was annoying for what you said, she was weak beyond her super strength which was just there for an attempt at comic relief. Comic relief which just ended up failing anytime they had her use it. What I meant by it all though was that each of them had some sort of trait or thing they did that they could have dropped from the series. The laughing pressure point, the slipper hitting, the super strength, it was all annoying aspects that made typically ignorable characters that much worse to put up with. I've never found myself really enjoying any female roles in the shows, but from Decade onwards they've become more annoying to put up with.

I don't expect award winning performances, but when it is very hammed up and not in an interesting way it can get a bit jarring. Like the way the cheerleader and the female lead in this show have to glare at each other and it seems just so fake and forced.

As for this being very similar to Kamen Rider W, I don't see it too much myself. Could you elaborate on what you mean by that?

The silly head bothered me a bit too, but the whole design of Fourze sunk in better once I saw his upgraded forms a while back. Both his electric and other form just seem so much more silly looking by comparison that I could accept his base state that much more. It still comes off as weird though and more like another style of Tokusatsu than Kamen Rider.

Den-O is a favorite of mine because it made it's humorous tones work well. Parts that didn't work for me I could easier ignore, and the parts I enjoyed were there and used a lot better (such as momotaros and his interactions with the others). The comedy becomes shoved in though when it becomes jarring and I suppose how you put it, anime or cartoon style instead of suiting the live action more. I don't want to see something fall on the heroes head and have little stars above their head, not unless they are in at least a partial cartoon setting.
As for goofy sounds or moments, I've noticed them quite a bit since the first episode. Hopefully it will tone down as the series goes on, but I'll probably notice them whenever they pop up just because it grates on me so much.

TVNihon is where I view most my Kamen Rider stuff. They can be a bit slow with new content, but there is a large library of series and episodes. If your unable to torrent or dislike them, there is a section on the forums with direct download links which is what I use. If you don't like that either, the megaupload download links should have a megavideo option which gives you limited-per-day viewings of things (I think 72 hours) which is another alternative for watching them.

Typically, I've watched KR series uploaded onto veoh and youtube. Believe it or not dramacrazy has links for some KR series too. Henshin Fever is pretty decent too and it tended to be on-time with the OOO episodes. If you're interested in watching them raw as they are being aired in Japan you can use KeyHoleTV, but the sound is crappy at best and the picture is meh. I typically only watch the new episodes raw or old catalogued series lately so that's about all I got on suggestions.



I don't think Akiko had a humorous side. I feel like her tendency to try to overpower everybody was supposed to be cute or something weird. I can remember actually laughing at her ONE time and it had nothing to do with her overpowering personality and her tendency to have ONE line "atashi kiitenai!". I had to use that a few weeks ago because of some issues in a performance I was doing and it kind of made me sick. That's how much I hate her. I felt sick for having to say "atashi kiitenai." Despite Akiko, I loved W so much. Because she was the female "lead" she had no role BUT "bad comic relief" so I could go long periods where I could forget she existed until she popped back up and pissed me off by either being annoying, yelling "atashi kiitenai," or hitting someone with a slipper. I let myself get excited about Hina's strength and they kind of turned her into another useless character with ONE line...which is "Eiji-kun!" I admit, at times when I totally forgot about her strength it was easy to be humored by the random little reminders they gave in the comic relief. The part I don't like is that she was reduced to comic relief/awkward romance girl at some point despite serious potential. She's by no means a normal human, why does she weakly fall back and disappear during fights and yell "Eiji-kun"? I feel like she could very well have held her own in some fights and she could have evolved into something awesome over time.



That actually doesn't phase me in the slightest xp It's not funny, but it's not something that annoys me. It's just a really played out thing I've been seeing on Japanese TV since I was like...7



When I say it reminds me of W, I mean the way the rider/villain transformation works reminds me of W. Excluding all of the bullcrap "mechanics," backstory, and rules for use they give, visually speaking they work similarly, except for in W they have USB thingies. Both suits work my jamming various things into the slots and have a weird connection to planets (W's was Earth, 40's is space as a whole). The individual monsters that have to be beaten each episode transform similarly. They take a thing vaguely similar to what the rider is cramming into his belt and use it to transform themselves in a vaguely similar way to the rider. W crams stuff into his belt, the people crammed USBs into their skin. 40 pushes a button on top, 40 villains push a button on top. Both riders also have annoying "boss" characters to deal with, Akiko and Kengo. It might just only be in my head, but they're pretty similar. It's kind of like 40 is W if W didn't need 2 people and the suit was worn by an excitable kid who likes to put a lot of energy into his poses as opposed to Shotaro who merely opens his arms like he's too cool to do a real pose.



I only see the forms as they're shown on TV so I can only imagine where things will go from here. I'm warming up to everything BUT his outfit. I can even take the ridiculously lightweight rockets and saws and crap he has, but something about that head just goes against my very soul.



I guess I've gotten used to it, I don't even think twice if they add in stars or something. I think that's less comedy than it is just being cute sometimes too. Little sounds and objects don't even really register to me unless they've made them too loud or over done it. I love to sit and discuss KR like it's super important and deep and awesome, but when stuff like that happens I just stand back and remind myself its "for" 8 year old boys and comes on Japanese TV, which can be far more overpowering with the "cute" that's not cute and the "funny" that's not really funny.

Ah, I used "cute" in a completely slangy way and didn't remember that it also literally means cute with connotations of adorability and girliness. My bad. Japan is definitely a country that loves the crap out of adorable things, but the cute I was using was less the "ADORABLE, girly" kind of cute and more "does small things to amuse you" kind of cute. The riders look the way they do because they're purposely seeking out ikemen actors so people like me will drool each episode. I have to say, their plan is working xd The intent isn't for them to seem girly in appearance, but to be ikemen...which as far as most of the West is concerned is the same thing sometimes neutral

Off topic slightly, but I keep finding adorable Kamen Rider dolls everywhere I go. It's the kind of stuff that wouldn't sell back home because it'd be too "gay" for your little boy to walk around with a doll that adorable even if it IS a KR doll.