Kamen Rider Agito Review Part 1

The Overview

Kamen Rider Agito The 30th series of the Kamen Rider franchise is a fan favorite series that a tone of people gravitate to worse too. And it's hard to find anyone who doesn’t like this show... well. I'm getting this out of the way right now I'M NOT a big fan of Agito, I'm not saying I hate it or anything like that BUT... this show will be nowhere near my top 5 (maybe even Top 10). Now Agito is a Sequel series to my favorite Kamen Rider Series of all time Kamen Rider Kuuga BUT really all that it has in common with Kuuga is that there is a police force, the riders looks a tad bit like Kuuga and the main monsters for the series the Unidentified Life Forms are now back, only they're called Unknowns.

SO really it's not really a sequel series but rather a spinoff of Kuuga is more like it and before I finally start the review I'm getting the Elephant in the room out of the room right now this was the first rider series that was written by Toshiki Inoue WHICH... Which I will be a bigger man and say I do not hate him as much as I used to if only because of people like Shinichirô Shirakura who keep giving us shitty Taisen movies. I Bring up Toshiki Inoue because this was regarded as his last true good thing he wrote before basically Making Faiz over and over again. So with all of that said how was the 30th anniversary of Kamen Rider, how does this compare to Kuuga and also, And why do I think this series is just OK? Well time to awaken the soul with Kamen Rider Agito.

Episode 1: The Warrior's Awakening

Before the show begins text comes up and saying celebrating 30 years of Kamen Rider which is a really nice way to begin a show. The show properly begins with this ancient puzzle box arriving on a beach which is then taken by some scientist to get open it to know what's inside. You know you would think there would be a reason why an ancient civilization sealed something off with a bunch of locks in the first place you assume they do not want what's ever sealed to be release, I'm not just talking about Agito either I'm talking about fiction in general. Despite that debacle we are introduce to our 2nd Rider of the show (but should have had been the main rider for the show) Makoto Hikawa as Kamen Rider G3. The design of Kamen Rider G3 is based off of Kuuga which is a Stage Beetle combined here with heavenly armed police armor which looks very functional and also practical, with also his finishers are guns (Bullets the Unknowns only weakness... WHO KNEW?)

Now the thing about the G3 suit is that it needs a pit crew to help the maintaining the armor and the people to help with the suit are Sumiko Ozawa, Takahiro Omuro, and finally we also have Toru Hojo. OH WHERE DO I BEGIN WITH THIS BASTARD, he is horrid, wrenched, unfathomable, unpleasant, a jerk, a douche bag, and a complete Wanker. Like this guy was the main reason why I did not like Agito, I mean he is up there with like the worst of the worst like Banno and Micchy like that bad. The reason why I hate him is he is under handed and does everything and anything to get his way and hardly care for others in the possess. GAH I hate him so much.

Well besides him and his support team we are then taken to a college quote on quote "Main Rider for this show" for the show Shouichi Tsugami (but not really you'll find out why). He lives with the Kazaya family because he is their house keeper and has amnesia (amnesia a writer's best friend and the audience most hated part of the show). The Kazaya family is comprise of Pr. Nobuyuki Kazaya the uncle of both Mana Kazaya the one who can't act and is a chore to listen to her, and finally the most annoying one of them Taichi, if I didn't already have enough of a reason to not have kids i found the answer because I hate this kid! This kid is assigning and he completely stops the progression of the shows plot and hinders the story, like this kid annoy me a lot and should have been left out if the show completely and as such I'm not going to be talking about him at all for the rest of the review.

Back with Pr. Nobuyuki he research people with X abilities or psychic powers, but having these powers is a curse to have because of the unknowns. The Unknowns are monsters that attack people with Psychic powers and who are related by blood because they don't want humans to Evolve. Pretty solid back story and purpose for the monster of the week in this show, but it gets screw over latter on in the show, you'll know soon enough. When G3 goes to fight an Unknown he is quickly defeated by one and then to appear is Kamen Rider Agito.

Agito's design is a very parallel to that of Kuuga for fact it's going for an Ichigo and Nigo vibe. Agito's design here is more based off an Dragon then Kuug's stag beetle design and also gives off this majestic flow as well with the Gold everywhere on its design. Now Agito also has a Storm form and a Flame form which comes straight right out of nowhere and is more frustrating latter on in the show. so that's 2 out of 3 Riders done so far and Yes 2/3 Riders, this was the first Riders show to have more than 2 Riders in a series, so let talk about our 3rd Rider shale we.

Our 3rd Rider for the show is Ryo Ashihara after one day in his swimming team he starts freaking out and goes into the hospitable, but his body starts to change and lets him become Kamen Rider Gills. I really love Gills design the design of him makes Gills looks organic and natural and is a nice contrast to G3 with the mechanic and Agito compare to the normal rider design we are used to. There is another reason why I love Gills design and that is because Kamen Rider Gills is a homage to my favorite Anime of all time Bio Booster Armor the Guyver! If you know me you would know that I am a HUGE Guyver fan boy and seeing an actual Guyver Kamen Rider suit makes me so, so, so, happy I just wish that there were a Guyver Super Sentai or Power Ranger suit (OH YEAH! THAT'S RIGHT >~<)

So that is how the first couple of episodes are for this show from introducing the large roster of charters in this show, to giving us new riders and just the quick pasting of the show in general. But it is manageable, in the begging that is... because after the begging... WELL.

Episode 6: Sorrowful Monstrous Fist

Now come episodes 6 of the show and this is where I star to have my main problem with the show the pacing. Like the shows pacing is truly is bad at times, to the point of being horrible as well. Giving you an example of what I mean is this show would introduce plot points and plot threads early on... and quickly don't touch them until much later on in the show.

An example I will give is when Agito killed gill's girlfriend (even though it did not look like it what so ever because it was from an Unknown) which is then not brought back up again until almost 20 episodes latter. AND ALL OF THAT would have had been easily would have had been done away with if Agito talked to Gills (personal nitpick here Shuichi says only about like 10 lines in the whole show as Agito in the suit that is). And is insistently resolved as well. Or how about in the beginning when Shuichi finds out he is Agito he starts to act emo in case he could hurts someone which is what a normal personal would do. Excepted for not even 1 episode he was emo for about 15 minutes and then stops like... THE HELL!

But perhaps the biggest offender out of all of this would defiantly be the OverLord! You see he was the being sealed way many... many... many... a year ago and comes back and is basically a pompous jackass that does dick all until like the last 20-10 episodes in the show. I'll get to more why this guy sucks in a bit but believe me he is a crap villain. And that sort of describes the first half of the show with rushed elements, jackass charters, and it at felt times slow to watch this show. But you know what was awesome? The G3-X Arc.

Episode 22: Fateful Showdown 

After both G3 fights Gills for the first time Gills the G3 armor is damage beyond repairs, therefore Ozawa decides to build a new Rider armor called the G3-X. The look of G3-X is basically the same but just with added armor parts which makes it more ready for combat. Hojou being a douche nozzle as always wants to build his own advance armor with black jack and hookers called the V1 suite (Made up of a bunch of remaining metal hero costumes). that was created by Ozwa's teacher (who also played flash red in flash man) So Ozwa built's the G3-X armor But it put too much stress on Hikawa making him not able to use it making him go ballistic and destroying Hojou armor (and sadly not him). The reason for this is that the AI is too advance For Hikawa only because anyone else can do it even Shuichi can use it (even though he is Agito after all) therefore Kathiawar is depressed but he is given 1 last shot to use the G3-X armor and doing so he wins the fight with the Unknown and is now the proper user of the G3-X armor.

This arc was very great I think. It mainly focuses on the police charters and them trying to go ahead and make sure the G3-X armor is able to work. Seeing Hikawa struggle in order to be the proper wielder was such an excellent charter growth for him that it made me smile when he did concern the G3-X armor. Same could be said for Ozawa proving her professor he is wrong and she made the right call for making Hikawa the user. This was a great arc of episodes and yet sadly it’s a shame this is where the shows peak. As for the rest of the show well come back next week people.

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