Lots of miniature footage, which does add to the scale of the series.
Cactus dude is a nice design, especially when he's shooting up out of the ground with his cactus sword. I also like how he's a Mexican villain, showing the broader global operations of Shocker, and that he brings with him Lucha Libre masked henchmen. That said, his cactus bombs are so inconsistent in how they're used.
I'm fine with shifting our home base from the snack shack to a racing club run by Tobei, with Shiro and Hiromi still around, as that makes a lot more sense for a place for all our characters to hang out together. But why was Ruriko written out of the show? She was a compelling character well played by Chieko Morikawa, and they'd just tested the waters of expanding her role. Instead, we now have a harem of bubbly hot women added, who are students of the riding club but also get caught up in adventures for some reason? It's not that they're unentertaining, but that a big broadening of the ensemble for people who ultimately don't have any actual tie to the story.
We have our first official new rider! And I don't like him. Hayato just shows up out of nowhere with no real explanation behind how he also obtained Kamen Rider abilities. He's also kind of a jerk and Takeshi Sasaki just doesn't have much exciting charisma. It also boggles my mind that Jiro Chiba didn't get the role because he's still on the show, still driving a lot of the story, and absolutely excels at everything Takeshi is struggling with. Again, they're overstuffing their cast in odd ways instead of consolidating to their strengths.
Review by noelctBlockedParentSpoilers2024-04-15T02:08:23Z
So much retooling going on in this episode!
Lots of miniature footage, which does add to the scale of the series.
Cactus dude is a nice design, especially when he's shooting up out of the ground with his cactus sword. I also like how he's a Mexican villain, showing the broader global operations of Shocker, and that he brings with him Lucha Libre masked henchmen. That said, his cactus bombs are so inconsistent in how they're used.
I'm fine with shifting our home base from the snack shack to a racing club run by Tobei, with Shiro and Hiromi still around, as that makes a lot more sense for a place for all our characters to hang out together. But why was Ruriko written out of the show? She was a compelling character well played by Chieko Morikawa, and they'd just tested the waters of expanding her role. Instead, we now have a harem of bubbly hot women added, who are students of the riding club but also get caught up in adventures for some reason? It's not that they're unentertaining, but that a big broadening of the ensemble for people who ultimately don't have any actual tie to the story.
We have our first official new rider! And I don't like him. Hayato just shows up out of nowhere with no real explanation behind how he also obtained Kamen Rider abilities. He's also kind of a jerk and Takeshi Sasaki just doesn't have much exciting charisma. It also boggles my mind that Jiro Chiba didn't get the role because he's still on the show, still driving a lot of the story, and absolutely excels at everything Takeshi is struggling with. Again, they're overstuffing their cast in odd ways instead of consolidating to their strengths.