Yeah, if only. Seriously, the battles in this series are just stupid. I mean, Eiji almost always gets his ass kicked in TaToBa form! And he keeps using it! In one episode, he fights a yummy with TaToBa, gets his ass kicked, then swtiches medals, and proceeds to do some ass-kicking. Well, the yummy gets away, only to appear later in the episode. What does Eiji do? HE SWITCHES BACK TO TATOBA! Seriously Eiji, you KNOW what combo will work against him! Why did you use TaToBa again!? And he doesn't even bother switching combos again, he just gets saved by Birth. Again.
Another thing that annoys me is when he forgets about his claws and his sword. It's amazing how many times he forgets he has any weapons at all, just to suddenly remember them after about ten minutes of fighting.
Merchandise driven franchise, buddy. They want kids thinking that the other forms are cool so that parents buy them. I mean, you have a website online that's effectively build-a-bear, but with OOO's parts.
Yeah, I do realize this is a show made to sell stuff to kids. But Kamen Rider W was never as bad as OOO. I'm new to Kamen Rider, so maybe W is the exception. But W does everything right, in this respect.
First, W's CycloneJoker form is useful. It's not that default form that is the logo for the series that just gets its ass kicked all the time, like TaToBa.
Secondly, W knows what works on which enemy, and he will remember it, not just forget it within 15 minutes, as Eiji does.
Thirdly, W didn't keep getting saved by Accel. Yeah, they would work together, but Accel wasn't a machine designed to kill 99% of the monsters in the series, just to get his ass kicked by that other 1% and need to get saved by W. This happens all the freaking time with OOO and Birth. I mean, seriously. So far, there are five enemies in the series that OOO has to fight for Birth. And hell, maybe not even that many, considering how Shintaro fucking tore through three Greeed all on his own.
As I write this, I can't help but think about what you said about the merchandise-driven nature of the show. Now that I think about it, it does seem as though OOO has much more stuff to sell than W ever did. Am I just imagining this? And if not, what will Fourze be like at this rate?
Again, I know these are just shows made to sell toys to kids, but that doesn't mean it needs to be bad.
Well, first of all, you got to remember that Shotaro and Phillip are completely different characters from Eiji. A detective and a repository for all the world's knowledge versus your average guy. And Eiji is, for all purposes, new to this. No combat training, no knowledge of things of what he's up against, etc. It takes time to make logical conclusions like 'water beats fire' in combat, trust me. Phillip and Shotaro were not new to the whole Kamen Rider thing when W started, so it's logical that Eiji would need help more than those two.
Really, considering the logical length of the series, it's only logical TaToBa gets shafted. It's either everyone complaining about what you're talking about, ie 'Why is the main form so useless?', or complaining about 'If TaToBa is so useful, why does he even have the other abilities?'.
OOOs is also subject to a lot less familiarity with what he can do, since the forms he has access to are always at the mercy of the directors. Shotaro/Phillip probably had plenty of training with every single one of their forms by the time W started; Eiji had no such luxury.
Just take it easy. OOOs inherently has a lot more to show off than W, so of course the main form wouldn't get much love.
W was actually pretty unique amongst the series for having the main Rider already experienced and combat effective at the start. AFAIK, only Kiva started with the main character already established as a Kamen Rider.
At least it wasn't as bad as Kiva. Once Emperor form showed up, everyone got shafted. And Kiva had like 6 forms, only.
Yeah, you really have a point there. I mean, it would naturally be much harder to juggle over 125 forms rather than 11. I think I'm just exploding over this because I recently watched Den-O. Actually, I haven't even finished it yet, I just moved onto Kiva. I just thought the "twist" of having the entire altered history of the show being the result of What's-his-face forgetting his sis was pregnant. I mean, how bad does "All this shit happened because the hero forgot his sister is pregnant." sound? Really, what did you think about that series? I think it'll take a while for me to look at another KR series without this feeling of revulsion and disgust kicking in. I hope it goes away by the time Fourze comes around. (No, I don't care that his head is shaped like a rocket, or that he has the PS symbols on him. I think it looks promising.)
But, don't you think that by now, near the end of the series, that Eiji would get even a little better at being a Rider? Hell, even What's-his-face was able to man up (slightly) near the end. I mean, really, how hard is it to remember something from 15 minutes ago?
Thinking about what you said, this does explain why Birth is such an über-badass compared to Eiji, since both Births were trained in combat, and the second Birth had extensive training with the first Birth. (Yes, I suck at remembering japanese names, sue me.)
Also, was W some kind of shining example among the KR franchise? You sound as though you know more about this than I, and I'd really like to know if I've inadvertently set myself up to be dissapointed by the rest of the KR series.
It's not so much Double being a better series, but more that it was unconventional. Double and Kiva were just strange in that the series started with the main characters not being new at the Kamen Rider business. AFAIK, all the other series effectively started with the protagonists getting their belts.
And it's not exactly like the villains are sitting around twiddling their thumbs. Eiji is getting used to being a Kamen Rider, but the villains are getting more powerful as well. Hell, Eiji even remembered to use RaTaTora's light powers against an enemy that was previously shown weak to it.
Not that Mezuul gave a fuck, since she had ALL HER MEDALS.
It takes a while for people to get better at things. Eiji isn't fighting Yummies and Greed 24/7. He doesn't have a mentor or a handy dandy manual explaining how to use his abilities. He doesn't have a massive megacorp backing him, like Date and Gotou do. Hell, his mentor figure is a total ass to him.
You just have to take into account that Eiji, out of all of the Riders so far, is pretty stuck in terms of base ability. He knows absolutely nothing about the whole Kamen Rider business. The only person who knows anything about OOOs is using Eiji for evil reasons.
He's turning into a Greed, and changing species rapidly within the course of several days is definitely -not- good for you.
It takes a while to suddenly get used to being able to survive shit that breaks concrete. It takes a while to get used to being able to break said concrete yourself. It's a little hard to realize since Riders only ever fight stuff that are as physically capable as them, but Riders have several -tons- of force behind every single attack.
If you really want to watch a series where the protagonist isn't 'totally useless' and is actually competent, try Decade or Kabuto. Faiz too. Double is also pretty nice like that.
Eiji isn't being useless, imo. He's just doing his best after being thrown into something he has no clue about; all Eiji wants is to make sure the people around him aren't hurt. He could really care less about the whole Greed thing if it weren't for that.
It's a kids show. Stupid stuff happens. More stupid stuff happens. The sooner you learn to not take it so seriously, the more you'll enjoy it.
And I liked Den-O as soon as I realized it was a comedy series rather than an action series.
Amraphenson said: At least it wasn't as bad as Kiva. Once Emperor form showed up, everyone got shafted. And Kiva had like 6 forms, only.
If I recall correctly, the reason all of Kiva's other forms were shafted after Emperor form came onto the scene was becuase the other forms were too heavy for the suit actor. That's just an explanation, though, not an excuse.