I'm David, welcome to my brain. Here I write to not only show that I can but to share my opinions on various topics. Mostly Video Games, Anime, Movies and Tokusatsu. Though I am open to suggestions and never afraid to admit when I'm wrong. Have a good time in here and be sure not to mess with my memory, it's bad enough as it is.
When you're done read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
In Memory of Adam West the Original Tv Batman Sep 19 1928-Jun 9 2017 Sleep well, old chum.
This year has been a rather turbulent one for many reasons. But those discussions will be saved for remissions at the end of the year as per tradition. Though the most recent reason as of this article is of course the passing of Adam West. Now I first knew of him as the first Tv Batman and the mayor of Quahog on Family Guy but his impact on nerd and just culture in general cannot be stated by me. So I will direct you to Moviebob's tribute to the man right here so that you can at least get a more experienced perspective of Adam's contribution to Batman and pop culture.
If I may be so bold I would like to channel what little I know of his take on the character and give a bit of a soliloquy as Adam West's Batman. "I know our time together was far too short my friends, but do not despair, though I may be gone the world keeps on turning. Times may be dark but there will be your fellow man to show you the light and help to pull you out of the pit. If not your friends, then your family, if not them then perhaps a kind hearted stranger on the street it does not matter. For you see; hope, love and justice shall always find a way if one never stops looking. Be of good cheer and keep your spirits and heads high chums."
But speaking of tradition and on to less depressing material it's time once again for the debut of the final form for this years Kamen Rider. This time it's Ex-Aids Muteki Gamer Lv 100.
Well aside from it looking very pointy there's another detail that's unavoidable about this form.
But as of writing this article I have absolutely no idea what this form is supposed to do. We already know Maximum Gamer Lv 99 can reprogram Bugsters so for all I know this form can let Emu turn Bugsters into rice pudding or something. Aside from that Ex-Aid itself has been proving to be an exceptional Rider series with lots of good character focus and development (for the most part, Kagami is a dumbass btw) and doing so with very few, recurring monsters. Though if you think I may be a bit biased because Ex-Aid is video game themed, well you may be right but but it dosen't matter how good, bad or ugly the themes of a series is if the writing can't carry it through. Case in point what's left of the trash of 2016 White Lantern Takeru Sato aka Kamen Rider Ghost Mugen Damashi.
Once again this form looks like the Metallic Armor from MMPR Season 3 mixed with the White Lantern outfit.
Ghost was a very sad and troubled production; it started off interestingly enough with the first quarter but as it went on the writing just kept on getting worse and worse with Takeru constantly dying and being revived more times then the cast of Dragon Ball to gain new forms. On top of that the show had the reset button slammed on his 99 days to get the Eyecons thing. Then Mugen was supposed to debut and everything went completely down the tubes. All of which can be attributed to the Japanese Dan Didio himself Shinichiro Shirakura, on top of cutting Ghost's funding in half for Kamen Rider Amazons he apparently pulled the head writer away, leaving only the two secondary writers to write nothing but filler episodes after Mugen premiered until he came back for the final arc since he didn't leave them any notes of how the story should progress and the stalling was painfully obvious.
On top of that the powers of Mugen are barely explained or addressed. From what we see in the show it's apparently supposed to channel the power of raw emotion but in practice it just switches on Ghost's god mode. Every single fight with Mugen is a curb stomp, either Ghost is delivering the curb stomps or it's getting spanked like nobody's business. Not to mention these powers facilitate the episodes having to reestablish Takeru's connections to the Luminary Eyecons to get a different flavor of unimpressive finisher and life lesson that he should have learned 5000 times before this. In my opinion a Rider's Final form encapsulates the overall condition of the show if the form is badly designed, has defined and poorly explained powers and has a rushed and shoddy introduction then that seems like a sign that the creators and therefore the show just doesn't care.
I hate Mugen Damashi for not only just the reasons listed above but for the potential that was clearly squandered and misused. Ghost could have been a great series and the first quarter showed potential but as it went on it just got worse and worse and that is a true shame. So I'm putting Mugen right between Hibiki Armed (the other notable Kamen Rider Production Shirakura fucked with, not a coincidence I assure you) and Ryuki Survive.
#18 Hibiki Armed
#17 Ghost Mugen Damashi
#16 Ryuki Survive
#15 Agito Shining
#14 Decade Complete
#13 Stronger Charge Up
#12 Fourze Cosmic States
#11 Faiz Blaster
#10 Drive Type Tridoron
#9 Wizard Infinity Style #8 Kabuto Hyper Form #7 Blade King Form #6 Ultimate Kuuga #5 W/Double Cyclone Joker Xtreme #4 OOO Putotyra Combo #3 Den-O Liner Form
#2 Gaim Kiwami Arms
Special thanks to my Patreon backer Jesse for his support.
Batman (1960) is owned by DC Comics, Greenway Productions, 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros Television Distribution. Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Austin Powers: Goldmember is owned by Gratitude International, Team Todd, Moving Pictures, and New Line Cinema.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Now it's been a while since the first part of this list. Coincidentally I started this list on the one year anniversary of this very blog! So yeah, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY!
Yep I somehow managed to keep this thing going for more then a year now so yay me! Now on to the list; but first to recap the Final Forms that just didn't work for me then to the ones that start to get decent.
16 Hibiki Armed
15 Ryuki Survive
14 Agito Shining
13 Decade Complete
12 Stronger Charge Up
11 Fourze Cosmic States
10 Faiz Blaster
9 Wizard Infinity Style
Caught up? Good moving on.
#8 Kabuto Hyper Form
When I was watching this series I had heard that many people consider this to be one of the best Rider series in the Heisei era, but I just thought it was at least B+ instead of A+. Mostly because I found the main Rider Souji Tendou to be even more of a pretentious jackass then Tsukasa and even more of a Gary Stu. I mean for at least the first half of the series the guy was always right, was a master chief, a Kamen Rider and always has a quote from his "grandma" that always fit the situation. For me at least I'm thankful the other Riders and the occasional guest characters showed up to put Tendou in his place from time to time.
However I have to give all the praise to his Hyper Form. Normally any of the ZECT Riders have the ability to go into super sonic speeds to match the Worms who can also access the same speeds, not faster then a bullet fired from a handgun but still faster then normal humans can perceive. However Hyper Form lets Kabuto go twice as fast; even allowing him to travel through time! So move over Superman, Flash and Sonic there's a new speedster in town. Not only can Kabuto kill about 50 Worms in the time it takes me to fart but he also gets an awesome weapon, the Perfect Zecter.
Not only is it a badass sword,
but it can also turn into a giant gun!
Though there is a catch, to use this little toy Kabuto needs to not only utilize his Zecter but also the Drake, TheBee and Sasword Zecters to make it work, so in theory in a large group battle three Riders need to get one super powered Rider. Also how this form comes around is more then a little convoluted. So apparently ZECT designed the thing but didn't want Souji to get his hands on it since he didn't work for them even though the guy has been kicking the asses of the Worms far better then their chosen Riders who in turn have basically gone nuts due to their personalities not accepting failures. So yeah they destroy the Hyper Zecter but apparently another one shows up from an alternate time line; something that surprised ZECT even though they built the damn thing and should know it's capabilities which was apparently brought into the past by a future Tendou even if it shouldn't exist in the future since it was just destroyed and, and.
Oh surprise surprise the episodes where Hyper From was introduced was written by Toshiki Inoue, that's why it doesn't make any sense. Moving on; I really do like the designs of the Riders in Kabuto, with a return to the insect motif with the appropriate mix of the high tech design which makes sense since they were created with advanced technology. The Masked and Rider forms were also a nice touch, the preliminary Masked form acting as a technological cocoon and as extra armor until the Rider decides to use Cast off to molt into their Rider Forms. Hyper form seems to be the best mix with more armor to protect Kabuto but at the cost of running speed with all of the extra armor on him. Speaking of there are more patches of Red in Hyper form's extra armor to give more contrast to the black under suit which does make this form more distinct. So yeah Hyper Form is a clear finish to a faster then light Rider.
#7 Blade King Form
I think that Blade is a pretty good series, though not because of the main character Kenzaki. I honestly thought the guy was one of the most generic, boring main Riders I've seen. He pretty much filled the checklist for the stereotypical stock standard Japanese protagonist. Dead Parents, check, willing to fight to save others, check, having no other defining personality traits then saving people, check. The guy just came off as bland and the show itself is only propelled by the other Riders.
That being said I do love me some King Form, aesthetically this form does live up to its name as it does resemble a suit of armor that a warrior King might wear into battle, also.
Yeah I really do love the contrast of blue, black and gold, each of these colors and their placement helps make the individual parts of the suit look distinct. King From also frees Blade of having to consciously pull Rouze cards out of a deck to utilize them as King Form allows Blade to access any of the Spade suit cards which are merged into his armor, giving Blade more time to concentrate on his opponent. His weapon; the King Rouzer is an awesome broadsword which just like King Form itself gives Blade more power at the cost of speed. Though in the case of the King Form armor it gives Blade much higher defenses at the cost of speed and maneuverability.
King Form also has a much more serious drawback aside from combat and performance. See in order for the Riders in Blade to become Riders they have to merge with the DNA of the Category Ace Undead card to transform. Normally transforming into their standard Ace form presents very little problems aside from the safety of utilizing the Form being dependent on ones mental state. However the DNA fusion between Rider and Undead increases with every form that's accessed.
In Jack form the fusion is between not only the Category Ace but also that of the Jack and Queen since the Queen is the Rouze card that triggers the fusion. Then we have King Form which requires the merging of all 13 cards of that suit to utilize and if one stays in King Form for too long the user is transformed into a Joker.
No not that Joker.
Nor this Joker ( though I will cover him later).
Thankfully not this Joker either.
But this Joker.
Now I won't go into much detail as to why becoming the evil green bug monster is a bad thing I'll save that for when I talk about the true protagonist of Blade when I decide to talk about favorite Secondary Rider Final Forms. So for now King Form may give some King sized problems but I still love it.
#6 Ultimate Kuuga
Kuuga is unfortunately one of those series that I haven't seen yet. I really do want to see it however but I just want to wait until TV Nihon finishes doing the Subs. I know that Midnight Crew has finished their subs but I want to see it with the TV Nihon quality without having the spoilers that come with the Grongi (the monsters of Kuuga) translations. Now I have seen reviewsofthisshow
and from what I've seen I can definitely tell why this show was the one that revived the franchise after years of dormancy and in fact six years before Dr Who came back on the small screen. Huh, odd coincidence. I might have to get on that topic sometime in the future.
Sadly since Ultimate Form only shows up in the very last fight in the series I don't have a lot to talk about in terms of powers and skills, just that apparently Ultimate Form is the most physically powerful form in the franchise at the time of this review. Also since I actually want people to take a look at Kuuga I'm not going to talk about the storyline relevance of this form either because yeah it's a big one. That just leaves the design and it's beauty lies in its simplicity. No overly detailed armor, no ridiculous flourishes or anything like that, just a black suit with spiked shoulder pads and gold lining around the suit that sort of resemble blood veins. Ultimate Form is a form worthy of the greatest warrior.
#5 W/Double Cyclone Joker Xtreme
W is the first Rider of the Neo-Heisei era. I honestly have to admit this show is really good and the chemistry of Shotaro and Philip not only sell it but is the direct basis and stability of W and Cyclone Joker Xtreme form definitely helps to drive the character development that these two sleuths go through. This form taps into the power of the true Gaia Memory which as the name implies is essentially the brain of the planet itself; all the events and concepts that have been witnessed and conceived by those who live on Earth are stored inside of the true Gaia Memory; thus the greatest strength of Xtreme isn't in power but knowledge.
Since these two are tapping directly into the True Gaia Memory and Philip (who in this form has perfectly fused with Shotaro) was essentially reborn by the True Gaia Memory W can perfectly analyze the composition of any Dopant and destroy their Gaia Memory with their Prism Break Maximum Drive. As for this form design I love the symmetrical color balance with the colors of Cyclone and Joker with a nice addition of Silver right down the middle and the X's on both of the ankles, the helmet and half X's split between the shoulder to act as shoulder pads. As for the story line significance I feel that's something that needs to be seen rather then told. What else can be said about this form rather then
yeah that works.
#4 OOO Putotyra Combo
OOO is a fun series, with the right amount of comedy to help draw viewers in, great action scenes to keep butts glued to their seats waiting to see what combo OOO's will use and darkness to keep the stakes poignant. That underlying darkness is exemplified in OOO's unwilling Final Form, the Putotyra combo which draws power from the antithesis of desire and seek the destruction of everything, oblivion. Like the rest of the Core Metals the purple cores draws power from animals and just like how the purple metals seek oblivion the animals that the purple core medals are based on are extinct. Which were mostly dinosaurs and mythological animals since one time Dr Maki, the main bad who also had half of the purple cores in him created a Unicorn monster; but really they only did the mythological monster thing only once so I personally think they should have just stuck to Dinosaurs for the purple cores and made mythological animals another set but that's just me.
Anyway these cores forcefully entering Eiji finally allowed us to get more into his back story about how he was helping a village in Africa when the village got destroyed by a local militia; everyone in the village was slaughtered, he got held hostage by the enemy militia and the only reason his family paid the ransom was to use Eiji's tragedy to gain support for his father's political platform. Now if I were in Eiji's position I would have beat my parents until they were a pile of raw hamburger meat for using me like that but in Eiji's case it caused him to lose any trace of selfish desire, which while it allowed him to use the power of OOO without going nuts it's also what caused the Purple Medals to go into him in the first place. Aside from forcefully tuning into this form whenever they feel like it the purple medals can also cause Eiji to go completely berserk causing him to attack friend and foe alike. When these demonic Plinko chips aren't doing that they're also slowly turning Eiji into a Greeed that is essentially a demonic version of Barney.
Pants to be darkened!
Aside from turning Eiji into a demonic purple Apocalymon let's discus what good things he gets with this form. As formed by a lack of desire the Purple Medals are anathema to the normal core medals and can thus destroy them and thus can kill the other Greeed. The three pieces of the combo itself gives Eiji powers in each of the three pieces of his armor. The Pteranodon head not only lets him fly but also allows him to generate freezing winds like Superman's ice breath, his Triceratops torso shoulder tusks can also extend and contract according to Eiji's will allowing him to impale enemies at a great distance.
Finally the Tyrannosaurus legs not only give Eiji incredible kicking power but he can also form a giant tail to smack around enemies. He also gets the Metagabryu a bazooka/axe modeled after a T-Rex head that eats Cell Medals to blow enemies to pieces either by chopping it in half or by blasting it until it's a pile of medals or chunky salsa depending on who he's fighting. Just remember kids, mess with Putotyra combo and you'll be the one ending up extinct.
#3 Den-O Liner Form
There's an old saying; you never forget your first. You never forget your first kiss, whovians never forget their first doctor and Rider Fans never forget their first Rider, and Den-O is the very first Rider whose series I watched from start to finish. Yeah yeah yeah people either love this series the way it is or despise it due to Toei taking its success and stretching it out even longer then the Clone Saga. But I still have a soft spot for this series, Ryotaro and the arc of his character development culminated in this form.
See up until the point this was introduced Ryotaro was a wimp who constantly needed help from his friends the four Imagins ( the monsters of the series) known as the Taros to possess him to become the various forms of Den-O to help fight the evil Imagins. However due to the plot point known as the Junction point (which is the person who's existence determines whether the current future or the future that was lost thus creating the Imagins is the true future) begins to manifest he loses the ability to be in sync with the Taros while in the past thus the four create for Ryotaro the DenKamen sword which allows him to fight on his own in Liner Form. Before he would need the help of the Imagins to save the day and now he has to train even harder to make up for his own timid nature to insure the safety of his friends, family and his time line. This form is the culmination of Ryotaro's development from a wimp to a true noble warrior who can stand on equal ground alongside the Taros to protect those dear to him.
Enough mushy stuff time to discuss Liner Forms powers, while he is the fastest of Den-O's forms it is unfortunately the weakest due to Ryotaro's timid nature and without the direct support of the Taros. However the DenKamen more then makes up for it as it allows him to access the fighting styles of the other Taros such as Kintaro's power backed attacks, Ryutaro's projectiles and Urataro's long range capabilities. When he uses the power of one of the four forms he's covered in a Aura shaped like the respective Taro's personal Train called the Aura Liner to further protect him and enhance his attacks. He finally then rushes his opponent with his signature finisher the Train slash which combines the Aura Liners of all four Taro's to create the Den Liner Aura Liner and finish off his opponent with one fast and powerful slash.
Design wise Liner Form is modeled after the King Liner and is one of the more symmetrical Final Forms in the franchise and I love it. I love the head lights on the chest plate that resemble large yellow eyes and the nice balance of red, black and white on the suit. The helmet may have the default red eyes of Sword Form but is flourished with the blue, yellow and purple spikes along the side of the helmet to allude to Den-Os other forms. Although the thing on top of the helmet looks kind of silly but it still adds to the train theme of Den-O so it works. So while Den-O is my first Final form ever it is unfortunately a few minutes late so I can't make it #1 since there are two better forms from far better Riders.
#2 Gaim Kiwami Arms
Yes despite Gaim being my current favorite Kamen Rider Series; Kiwami Arms only gets the #2 spot. Now don't worry I'll explain why. This form might not have won hearts at first because it came after the far better looking Kachidoki arms form, yet this is apparently the true form of that awesomeness so it's cool. Unlike other forms which gain their own weapons this form's true strength lies in its versatility as it can not only use the weapons of all of the other Armored Riders, the Sonic Arrow of the New Genesis Riders, and the absolute beauty that is the DJ gun from Kachidoki arms but also use more then one while using the Kiwami Lockseed. So if he needed to block attacks while attacking from long range, just two flips of the Kiwami seed and boom Melon Defender in one hand and the Budou Ryuhou in the other. Or he can summon the Mango Punisher and the Donkachi for two different types of blunt force on his enemies heads when he uses their heads like a drum set.
However like Blade's King form using this Form for too long and too often transforms the user into an Overlord leaving behind someone who only looks human. However Kouta doesn't care what becomes of him so long as he gains the power to save his town, the world and stop the cycle of the Helheim Forrest. But unlike King Form which turns the user into a monster being an Overlord comes with great benefits, you gain control over the plants of Helheim, regeneration and can summon cracks in reality creating access points to the real world and Helheim. So aside from only being able to gain sustenance from helheim fruit which would normally turn people into Inves and losing your humanity that sounds like a sweet deal.
As for the design I still love it I'm a big sucker for capes and the addition of one on Kiwami arms helps build this form into one of the coolest looking Final forms. Unlike previous Final Forms which had a mixture of other colors Kiwami has a primarily white color scheme with various black spots to prevent the suit from just looking like a big white blob, this especially helps the shoulder pads; which with the black stripes make it look like half's of a sunflower seed. The Shogun design really looks good especially with the Gaim Logo emblazoned on his helmet, the bits of armor held over from Kachidoki arms recolored white and that the visor is a rainbow combined with the breastplate decorated with several of the fruits the lockseeds are based on really help to highlight the versatility that Kiwami arms is capable of. So instead of having only one weapon Kiwami arms has many different ways it can make its enemies into a bloody fruit salad.
#1 Kiva Emperor Form
My flat out favorite final form. Yet ironically from a series helmed by Inoue, maybe by this point Inoue finally figured out that his BS was getting people angry and finally stopped, or maybe I should give this series a second look to make sure my love for Kiva still holds up. But for right now I love Emperor Form! See this, among all the other Final Forms on this list is the one I want to turn into the most, this form made vampires cool again after several years of living in the glitter filed horror unleashed by Stephenie Meyer and her horrible Twilight franchise.
This for me is the perfect culmination of what a final form should be. This design looks absolutely badass. Like I said with Gaim, I love capes on these forms, but what make Emperor Forms cape better then Kiwami Arms is that this cape is long enough to give Kiva a royal, regal look but short enough so that it's not impractical in combat. The colors work perfectly; as a form called Emperor the mixture of Red and Gold could not have been better. In various cultures around the world Red and Gold are considered if not royal then noble and important colors, from Christianity attributing Red to the blood of Christ and a color often worn by Cardinals and Popes wearing Red shoes, Egypt where their Pharaohs were buried in a golden sarcophagus, to China where one of the creatures associated with the four directions Zhu Que is the Vermilion Bird but I could go on.
Anyway; story wise this form shows when Wataru becomes consumed with rage after his girlfriend Mio was nearly killed by a Fangire (the monsters in Kiva's series) this awakened Tatsulot a small dragon like creature sealed in Castle Doran who was drawn to Wataru's Fangire blood thus awakening Wataru's full power as Emperor Form. After that point as Wataru begins fighting his half brother Tiaga the current leader of the Fangires; he starts to use Emperor Form more as his default form as the two and their ideologies conflict, as for the rest I don't want to spoil so check out Kiva to see the final arc of Wataru's character development and how he starts as a shut in to a warrior worthy of being called a true king.
As for the capabilities of the form itself Kiva's strength in this form is insane, his final attack the Full Moon break can kick with the force of 150 tons! He also gets the sword that was once wielded by the first King of the Fangires, the Zanvat sword a golden broadsword that while powerful is unfortunately too powerful as the sword has the potential to fully awaken Wataru's Fangire blood causing him to go completely nuts just like the Putotyra Combo. That (without too much spoilers) is Kiva Emperor, currently my #1 Favorite Final Form, hail to the King Baby!
I've told you all what I think of the Final Forms, now I want to know what yours are. Let me know in the comments if you agree with this list or if you think that your favorite form got gibed. Let me know, share the links and I'll see you next time. Trust me, I'll be back.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Face to Face is Owned by Weird Al Yankovic and Nerdist. Wayne's World is owned by NBC films, Paramount Studios, Lorine Michaels and Penelope Spheeris. Austin Powers: Goldmember is owned
by Gratitude International, Team Todd, Moving Pictures, and New
Line Cinema. Mass Effect 2 is owned by Bioware and Electronic Arts. Persona 2 Innocent Sin is owned by Atlus and Sega. Joker is owned by Jerry Robinson, Bob Kane, Bill Finger and DC Comics. Nostalgia Critic is owned by Doug Walker, Channel Awesome, Blip.tv, and The Walt Disney Company.
Welcome back kids, time for the proper list. These are in my opinion the least liked to my personal favorite Kamen Rider Final Forms. We start with #16 and what I consider my least liked Final Form.
#16 Armed Hibiki
Now I'll just keep this short since I haven't seen Hibiki and from what I was able to see from reviews it could have been good. But of course no matter where you are in the world, almost anything that's aimed at kids and tries to push the envelope will eventually be ruined by Soccer Moms. I personally see this form as the culmination of bad management by Toei in the face of complaints about Hibiki the show and its lack of toy sales. The two original writers of Hibiki were given the boot and replaced with the Japanese Frank Miller himself Toshiki Inoue; and his asshole protege Shōji Yonemura, who you would have recognized having wrote the piece of crap called Kamen Rider Taisen.
So yeah Hibiki looks like a mess, and this form and its introduction highlight that mess, one of Inoue's tropes is that he hates writing episodes to just introduce more toys, so he barely puts any effort into establishing them and just basically says "here's some new hunk of plastic for you to buy see ya I'm off for lunch". Apparently this form was obtained from some dangerous training from a quack scientist that would either increase an Oni's (Hibiki's term for Riders) powers dramatically or cause them to lose their powers. Now admittedly that kind of does fit into the modus operandi and themes of Hibiki that everyday you are constantly improving yourself in someway and that even once you master something you never stop training. But that's definitely an all or nothing scenario and to me it smells like a way to drum up some quick drama.
Oh but that's not just me saying that, apparently most of the staff working on the show including Hibiki's actor flat out hated the changes enforced by Toei, and if that doesn't say how bad a show's gone down hill I don't know what does. Hibiki Armed From, the culmination of bad show handling and skewed priorities. Also we're not done with Inoue just yet kids, the next three entries on this list were series that Inoue was involved with (some more then others) and let me tell you; the way some of these forms were handled; it shows.
#15 Ryuki Survive
Now, let me make this perfectly clear, just because Ryuki Survive Form is so low on this list; it doesn't reflect my opinion on the show. I say that because some people consider Ryuki to be one of the absolute worst Rider series. And I honestly don't see why. Because it went in a different direction from the rest of the series? Because there were too many Riders in it? Because the title character is an idiot?
Well let me give my opinions on each of the guesses. First, just because it's a formulaic kids show it doesn't mean it can't go outside the box and try something new? Second, the multiple Riders can give us different characters, motivations and can help show that not everyone who gets the power of a Rider is a good person; though on the other hand, too many characters can easily make a show feel crowded if there isn't enough time, focus, and character development to go around properly. As for Shinji, yeah the guy is a dolt, no denying that. If anybody knows why Ryuki gets all the hate please let me know.
Now for me to talk about Ryuki Survive Form, it's not very good in my books. Ryuki gets pauldrons that look like Dragreder's head (his contract monster and the source of his power), gold highlights on his armor, his helmet gets gold antenna meant to look like a dragon's whiskers and his Drag Visor becomes a gun that can turn into a sword. The pauldrons unfortunately don't look all that good in my opinion, it's the upturned shoulder pads that kill it for me; it just looks clunky. How Shinji even gets this form is underdeveloped too.
I mean we already knew that Ren got his survive card from Tezuka when he died and that he was planing on using it. But Shiro had to have known that Shinji would use that card against him and try to stop the Rider War when he gave it to him so what the hell?
Also we knew that there at least two other Survive cards out there since according to the design of the card Tezuka got from Shiro the cards we based off a bird and its two wings so we knew there were other Survive cards out there and that Shiro had them. So this form did have some foreshadowing and didn't just come out of nowhere unlike some other entries on this list.
But the question still remains, Shinji had no intention of participating in the war, in fact the only reason why he participated is to save people from the Mirror Monsters and stop the fighting between the Riders so why would Shiro willingly give a power boost to someone who he knows will not play by his rules? So a flimsy reason, somewhat average upgrades and a bad appearance, yeah #15 looks like a decent spot for Ryuki, sorry Shinji.
# 14 Agito Shinning
I have not seen this show, Ihoweverhaveseenreviewsofthisshow. I do not think I will like this show very much given the evidence I have seen. Everyone in the show is in someway an asshole, the main bad guy is a hypocritical idiot and it is filled to the gills with Inoue's tropes. But that's a topic for another day when I finally talk about Jetman. As for Agito, aside from the writing, characters and repetition of plot points I do like the designs of the Riders. Agito's Shining Form however is not one of them.
Now this form is supposed to be the true power of the Overlord of Light, the pinnacle of human evolution. Yet we've seen Riders before and after Agito that are far stronger then him. It's essentially Burning From with weaker defenses, faster and with his weapon becoming two swords instead of one long double bladed one. Though there are somethings about the design that I do like; the black under-suit does do its job of making the color on his arms, feet and chest; mainly silver and red pop.
The main reason why this is so low however is because this form, like the rest of his forms just comes right the hell out of nowhere; he just steps into the sun and BAM Final Form. Also Agito can only transform into this form in the sunlight, so if he ever needs to fight at night he's hosed. Agito Shining Form, the form of Ultimate Evolution or the form of the Ultimate Hippie? YOU MAKE THE CALL!
#13 Decade Complete
This suit is just plain old fashioned bad. Decade in my opinion was a very messy show with a very poor execution. Now I get the concept of Decade, a celebration of the Heisei era with a hero that can harness the powers of those who came before, however the writing was sloppy, the portrayals of the previous Riders ranged from boring to insulting and Tsukasa himself was an egotistical schmuck whose Photographer's eye really needed a monocle, contacts or glasses take your pick. This form like the rest of the forms that Inoue wrote just comes out of nowhere, the K-Touch needed to become Complete Form just happened to be held by the Dark Riders. How did it get there, who made it, why did the Dark Riders know to hide it, why didn't they try using it themselves, how did Tsukasa know how to use the damn thing? Say it with me kids, it's never explained!
As I said the design does not look good, just using the Final Ride Cards as Pauldrons that change to a specific Rider when one is summoned alongside Decade, also Decades' Card is just placed on his forehead with two glaring Magenta lines going between both of the eyes on the helmet no doubt obscuring Tsukasa's vision that's smart design work right there! Also not a big fan of the mostly silver color scheme with nothing aside from black and small traces of magenta to try and balance it out, it just doesn't work for me. Decade Complete From is a complete washout.
#12 Stronger Charge Up Form
The trope had to get its start somewhere, so why not in the Shōwa era? Yes the Final Form didn't start with Kuuga but with the seventh Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider Stronger! While it was the first it isn't necessarily the best; but it did help to set up the tropes of what I believe a good Final Form should be. Power needed to defeat stronger enemies, check. Before Charge Up Stronger would have been reduced to scrap before the power of the Delza Army, hell if he had this power sooner he might have been able to save Tackle. But that's just a "what if" kind of thing and we really shouldn't dwell on these types of things right?
RIGHT? Though admittedly Stronger barely showed up in this thing so, good.
Power that comes at a great cost, check. See Charge Up may give Stronger greater power but if he doesn't power down from this form in less then a minute then he'll overload and kablam! Bye bye bug man. It fits all the criteria except for the "story-line significance" part of the Final From, he just got the upgrade from a random scientist that he apparently saved from Black Satan (the organization that Stronger fought against in the first half of his series and the ones who turned him into a Cyborg), real gripping story telling there kids. However while this Form is essential to the history of the franchise, I am just not a fan of the design, and that directly ties in with the design of Stronger, now I know that this was the 70's and the show was trying to innovate with the designs of the Riders but I just plain old don't like the design of Stronger. The size of the helmet, the eyes and football armor just doesn't work for me and adding big blobs of white and silver on it really doesn't make things better. Stronger Charge Up; strong enough to be #12 but not much else.
#11 Fourze Cosmic States
Ugh this form and Rider, honestly I have a hard time deciding what's the worst Heisei Kamen Rider series from the ones I've seen so far, Decade or Fourze. Because just like Decade the biggest problem I had with Fourze was the ending which I won't spoil here, but just check out Fourze and prepare to have your barf bags on stand by. Now back to Cosmic States, this form allows Fourze to use the powers of all Forty of his Astroswitches (his collectible trinket/ power totems) which he can channel and combine through his chest plate for extra powers. Though he mostly just stuck to using the elemental switches as far as I can remember. This form also allows Fourze to generate wormholes which he uses to take out the Horoscope of the week in the void of space where it can be turned back to a normal human with no excessive area damage. Yeah just knocking out a normal human in Earth's Mesosphere should present no life threatening consequences what so ever. Look doofus if entering that high in a planet's atmosphere didn't work for Iron Man or Shepard what makes you think a normal human teenager would fare better?
Also this form is apparently only maintained by the stability of Gentaro's (Fourze's user) friendship with the members of the Kamen Rider Club. Yes, this form literally runs on friendship.
Yeah yeah call me cynical and what not but a form that runs on friendship and with a dude as stupid and annoyingly perky as Gentaro; yeah not gonna work for me. Design wise, like Stronger I am not a huge fan of Fourze's design. Now the rocket design I get because Fourze was designed around the 50th anniversary of Yuri Gagarin's Vostok 1 flight in 1961 and the main themes of Fourze revolves around space. But were the eyebrows on the helmet really necessary? Some people have taken to saying that he looks like a retarded storm trooper, I wouldn't go that far, to me he looks more like a little kid mixed a NASA mascot with a PlayStation controller. Fourze Cosmic States, not even the most hardcore of bronies would accept this form at base value.
#10 Faiz Blaster Form
Now we're getting to the good ones; ironically with another Rider whose adventures I don't want to see. Faiz is another of those series that I have no intention of seeing, not just because of Inoue but for two more reasons, from what I have seen it just seems too mean spirited and spiteful for me to get any entertainment out of it. Also this particular series has the most despised character in the history of the entire franchise who almost always gets away with his crap. As I mentioned in the third part of my review of Kamen Rider Taisen; Masasto Kusaka is a human shaped turd and I refuse to withstand the sight or mention of him for more then is necessary. In fact, now is the time to introduce the Bastometer (TM) a meter that shows how much of a bastard someone is in my eyes and how they stand, from those who are likable because of how much of a bastard they are starting with Rusty Venture; to scum of the earth ending with Chris Brown.
And as you can see Kusaka is right in the sweet spot between George Swell from Silent Hill Downpour and Right from Toqger.
But enough about that, time to discuss Blaster Form which is definitely one of the cooler Final Forms. As the name implies this thing has a giant gun that can also become a sword, but it also has shoulder mounted Gatling guns and a jet-pack that allows Faiz to fly. Also his design is really good too; a nice balance of just four colors and I really do like the designs of the Faiz Riders with an smooth armored look that kind of reminds me of the first Tron movie. But the biggest problem with this form is just like with the rest of Inoue's writing when it comes to new forms, say it with me kids it comes right the hell out of nowhere! Yeah apparently the former head of Smart Brain (the Orphnoch's organization and the company that designed the Faiz Rider Gears/belts (whichever you want to call them I don't care)) was working on this and just decided to mail this to Mari (the one who got the Faiz belt in the first place) which relied on a Smart Brain satellite to unlock the transformation by beaming down to the belt, but if that's the case why didn't Smart Brain just destroy the satellite since they knew they didn't have the belt and.
Yeah if you stop to think about this, the writing really doesn't hold up, but I have a bit of a soft spot for this form and this is my list after all. Faiz Blaster, just managing to blast it's way to the top 10 despite Inoue's lazy ass writing.
#9 Wizard Infinity Style
OOOhhhh boy Wizard; I already know I'm going to have
some people after my blood after this, but such is the path I've chosen,
well showtime. Now for context as to my feelings about Wizard; at this
point in my life I was pretty much on my way to becoming a full fan of
Kamen Rider and was starting looking back on the earlier parts of the
Heisei era. However this was also the point in my life that I was in my
senior year at college so I didn't exactly have a whole lot of time to
watch the then running series at the time; Wizard. It also didn't help
that, well I just found Wizard to be rather boring and by the books in
terms of show format, I was really getting tired of the 2 parts episode plot
formula of the show and the fact that I found Haruto to be a rather meh
protagonist didn't help much either. I mean when the most memorable thing about the guy is the type of doughnut he eats there's something wrong here.
That said I do get the significance of this form. Haruto just had his inner Phantom; Dragon destroyed by Legion.
NO, Not that Legion.
So yeah his source of magic is destroyed and a uber-powerful Phantom is on the loose.
But he manages to restore Dragon with his resolve to never give up and
was reborn with this new form. Now in terms of fitting in the show's
themes of dealing with despair it fits in rather well. You've lost
everything, those that you cherish are on the verge of being lost to you
forever, do you just give up and become consumed by your inner demons,
or do you pick yourself back up and face the despair head on and;
through your own perseverance and the help of those around you find that ray of hope
that helps things turn out alright? Infinity style is the
personification of that notion.
I also like the symbolism behind this form. For starters, the crystal design. Since all of Wizard's other forms revolve around precious stones and those stones have ties to various magics since they come from the earth, some speculate that crystals help to draw in power from the earth to fuel arcane powers of wizards, warlocks, witches and other magic users. While the other four forms are based around precious stones, specific elements and areas of magic; crystals and thus Infinity Style draws their power from the most primal parts of the earth, for Haruto, his most primal instinct, hope. It's just that the crystal color is a tad bit overwhelming for my taste, and the dragon design for the other forms of Wizard is very diluted.
But his Axcalibur weapon is really cool, it's an axe that turns into a gun and can grow to giant size to chop enemies in half. He can even move the damn thing without having to hold it so he can chop enemies in the air like if Paul Bunyan became a psychic hibachi chef. Wizard Infinity Style, a great shining hope and a pretty decent Final Form. Next time I start to talk about my Personal Favorite Rider Forms.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Venture Brothers is owned by Adult Swim, Williams
Street, AstroBase GO!, World Leaders Entertainment, Noodlesoup
Productions and Titmouse inc. Grand Theft Auto IV is owned by Rockstar Games and Take-Two interactive. South Park is owned by Matt Stone, Trey Parker and Comedy Central. Sleeping Beauty (1959) is owned by Walt Disney, Walt Disney Productions and Buena Vista Distribution. Puella Magi Madoka Magica is owned by Gen Urobutchi, Studio Shaft, and Studio Aniplex. Silent Hill Downpour is owned by Vatra games and Konami Computer Entertainment. Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Family Guy is owned by Seth Mcfarline, 20th century fox television, Fuzzy door Productions and Fox Television animation. Austin Powers: Goldmember is owned
by Gratitude International, Team Todd, Moving Pictures, and New
Line Cinema. Mass Effect 2 is owned by Bioware and Electronic Arts.
In case anyone forgot our group has to find the Expel Mirror, but where is it? Well if anyone did some exploration in the beginning of the game they'd know it was on display at the historical society. Once they reached the Historical Society the group used the Old Bronze Key that they found near the statue of Jenifer Carrol to open the door. Inside they see a painting of the creature that was stalking them in the apartment building.
While they looked at this painting they wondered, why was it so determined to find them, what did it want? Why did looking at it give them such feelings of hatred, horror and revulsion?
Wait, oops sorry wrong Historical Society, this one is far less terrifying, no they just go inside and find the mirror straight away. The mirror shows a hologram of the girl in white who tells them not to take the mirror. But since they have no other way to beat the subway guardian they have no choice but to take it. So they make their way through the tunnel and use the mirror to defeat the guardian Yog Sothoth Jr. Be warned if you go into this fight under leveled, under equipped and with weak Personas you might have more then a few problems with this guy. Luckily there's a Save point and Trish's spring near by before the boss room, all you have to do is hit him with Nuclear, Blast and Gravity spells, 1 handed weapon attacks and you should be fine. Just keep in mind that he likes to lower your teams attack and hit rate, inflict sleep and that his other spells have an area range and may inflict status effects and you should be okay. Once the thing that should not be is no more Aki will show up again for another taunting session and warn that she has another game set up for them. Once the group hits top side the only way to get to the rest of the east side of town is through a building called the black market. This place is evil, evil, evil, evil, evil! Once people step inside this place they become trapped by a spell cast by the boss of this place; the "Harem Queen" which means that nobody can leave unless she says so. But of course she isn't the type to let her playthings go that easily and nobody can ever leave so you have to find this queen at the bottom of her lair, the Karma Palace and kick her ass. Now this isn't too bad since all the stores and shops are still open inside the black market, including a hospital, a Satomi Tadashi, the Rosa Candida shop and an entrance to the Velvet Room so if you need some new equipment, now's the time to stock up and upgrade. Now the gang needs to gets some info on their new enemy so their first stop is the Peace Dinner, there they learn that this whole building is under the iron fisted rule of the Harem Queen who has apparently taken over the building in the last month where she forces her subjects to continuously praise her art work and serve her every whim. Once they get the info from the Diner's Master the gang heads off to the palace next to the casino. Be warned, this place is a maze and there are several powerful demons in this place so if you haven't powered up, you're going to be in a world of pain. But just because you're in a maze doesn't mean you shouldn't explore everything, in several rooms there are totems for fusing Personas so definitely get them. Once the gang reaches the 8th floor art gallery Maki notices that the displayed painting belongs to Chisato, Yosuke's girlfriend. They believe that the Queen has taken Chisato prisoner since everyone says that her painting is the Queens. But when the gang reaches the Queen's room they find out that Chisato is the Queen!
Yeah it turns out that Aki decided to give Chisato a magic mirror that grants any wish she makes on it. However she forgot to mention that whenever Chisato makes a wish on the mirror she gets; well a certain something on her face.
Which coupled with her anger towards Maki and her own low self-esteem drove her to go crazy and down the route of a narcissistic megalomaniac. Maki tries to reason with Chisato but she's not having it, even going so far as to say that the only reason why she even dated Yosuke in the first place was because she knew Maki liked him. And she just keeps going on and on about how everybody liked Maki more, they all loved her art more then hers even though she was prettier then her and.
EVERYTHING WAS BETTER ON MYEARTH!
Yeah pretty much. Mark of course calls her out; figuring out why he didn't like her art, Chisato is ugly through and through and it's reflected in her art work. Nanjo pours more salt on the wounds saying that the only reason people praise her artwork is because they're scared to death of her. Mark then adds the cherry on top by summing up her artwork.
Close enough. With that statement Chisato wishes with the mirror to
teleport the bungholes out of her castle. So the true evil comes into
the light, they have to go through the whole palace all over again just to
get back to her.
Needless to say this place can go to hell on a golden chariot shaped like a toilet. So the gang then restock their supplies, equipment and get new Personas then they make their way back to the palace to confront Supergirl-Prime. Once they made it back to Chisato they find that she has even more moles then last time and is even more crazed. She asks Naoya to decide which is better, Maki's paintings or hers. To sway his opinion she then uses the mirror to turn Nanjo, Mark and Reiji to stone, she says that she'll change them back once Naoya says her paintings are better, but of course he says that Maki's are better because he won't be intimidated by someone like her. (Besides if you did say that her's was better the next fight will be more difficult. You may have your full party but the boss will have far more HP and stats then if you said no.) Aki then shows up to make things worse by saying that if she kills Naoya and the rest of the group she'll fix her face with no strings attached. So Chisato makes another wish on the mirror to give her the strength to kill Naoya and Maki. The Harem Queen shouldn't be too much of a problem, even with only Naoya and Maki, the only problem to worry about is her Petra Eye ability, which has a chance of turning a party member to stone, so bring some Dis-Stone items before you head down to the Karma Palace, she also has Dia, which she can use to heal herself a little bit, just stick to ice and Wind attacks and you should be fine. Once the Queen is knocked off her throne Aki pours salt in her wounds saying that she wouldn't fix Chisato's face even if she did kill them and all that Kandori thought of her as a guinea pig and a useless pawn and that "Even if Chisato loses she's not worth our trouble." They were just going to let Chisato live the rest of her life with a mole ridden face with the knowledge that she killed her best friend and her friends because of her jealousy and selfishness. Wow, that's just plain old fashioned cruel. Aki then teleports out laughing her ass off all the while. Maki, despite everything Chisato said and did is still going to try and help her; because she still considers Chisato a friend. Chisato then breaks down and says that everyone will hate her now. Maki says that isn't true and Yosuke teleports in (seriously) and confesses his love for her. And with that confession the mirror shatters, everyone is returned to normal and Chisato loses all the moles covering her face. Happy Endings for everyone!
Chisato tells the group that she knows that Aki lives in a castle. So next time it's time to raid Kandori's castle!
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Shin Megami Tensai Persona is owned by Atlus and Sega. Silent Hill 2 is owned by Konami Computer Entertainment and Team Silent. Austin Powers: Goldmember is owned
by Gratitude International, Team Todd, Moving Pictures, and New
Line Cinema. Superboy-Prime is owned by DC Comics, Elliot S! Maggin ad Curt Swan (based off the original character created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Beavis and Butthead is owned by MTV Networks and Mike Judge. Deadfall is owned by Tristar Pictures and Christopher Coppola. The Simpsons are owned by Matt Groening, Gracie Films, and 20th Century Fox Television.
