Alright, recently I was interested in watching the long standing Kamen Rider series and only recently have I done so, somewhat… Watching 2 episodes of Kamen Rider Den-O and 4 episodes of it’s predecessor. Kamen Rider Kabuto back to back, one huge conclusion can be reached straight away. Kabuto kicks Den-O’s sorry little ass, no contest. But that’s in terms of the actual rider. A little more indepth look at the both of them now…

Kamen Rider Kabuto

Alright, first, the actual rider. What can I say about Tendou? Well, all that’s coming to mind is that he’s is surely one real arrogant prick, but also, he is a mighty cool character. Now initially for me, I actually didn’t consider him to be the rider at first, as he wasn’t introduced until after a very thrilling and well done introduction with the worms and the Zect troops, and the whole incident with the two belts as well and the other guy being the first to shout out a transformation phrase threw me off as well. But I enjoyed how that was done as it then became a good surprise to see who the real rider is, and man was he badass when he just snatched the CG bug from the air and transformed.

Alright, to the Kamen Rider aspect. Is it just me, or does anyone else think his first form is majorly ‘fugly’ or what? Its large and it;s chunky and the axe gun thing is kinda lame but it was fine to deal with really. By episode 2 however, my level of respect for Kabuto really rose as he ‘casts off’ his normal form for the all the more sleek ‘Change Beetle’ form, which kicked ass from the moment it first appeared. Now, how could it have gotten any better, you ask? Clock Up… Clock Up was absolutely one of the more brilliant features of this series and just made Kabuto’s badass level sky rocket. Alright, what I thought was kinda weird though was his final attack: the Rider Kick. Even though it was quite cool in its execution, I thought it was kinda random compared to the rest of Kabuto.

Alright, storywise… well, let’s start with a quick synopsis taken from wikipedia first…

Kamen Rider Kabuto revolves around the story of a man named Tendou Souji. He has trained his entire life while waiting for the Kabuto Zecter so that he may properly take up the name of Kamen Rider Kabuto. Making many enemies while at the same time meeting other Riders with mysterious origins, Tendou attempts to accomplish his goal at all costs; Protecting Hiyori by destroying all other Worms that would make life difficult for her. Making a friend in Kagami Arata, who later becomes Kamen Rider Gatack, the two work together and protect Hiyori along with humanity from the alien Worms that arrived from a meteorite seven years ago.

 — From Wikipedia

Alright, from the few episodes I’ve seen so far, it’s almost definite that what Kamen Rider Kabuto is banking on is it’s story, trying to really reach for the epic right from the start with the whole meteorite 7 years ago bit. At the moment, Zect (everything from the troops to the higher ups) are very very mysterious at the moment, as much as the worms at the moment as well. Well, I’m hoping for something real good to come from this as the set up is there, it just depends how they pull it off.

Well, what’s left over will probably be music. What can I say, I quite like the OP actually, but then again I have a sweet tooth for most J-pop. ‘Next Level’ is quite good and fits quite well with the show and the sequence was very well done as well…

In my opinion, straight from only a few episodes each, I’m actually liking Kabuto a lot better than Den-O, which is great for me as I can keep on downloading more episodes of Kabuto with no need to wait for new episodes to be released. Speaking fo which, let’s have a look at Den-O now as well.

Kamen Rider Den-O

Ryoutarou: 0 to Faint in 3 seconds…

Ryoutarou… Wimp is the first word that comes to mind. Whiney, flightly and obnoxious are other words that come to mind also but wimp is the foremost thought… And sadly for Ryoutarou, unlike his predecessor Tendou, he just doesn’t have the cool to make up for his shortcomings. However, looking at the whole picture, it is quite a breath of fresh air not to have the main character being the determined, quicker to become stronger character. However, having a main character who acts and even sounds like Yamada Hanatarou from Bleach was really kinda pushing it in my opinion. Love his one line though, “I’m so tired, I can’t even faint…”

Nyoro~n!?

Alright, the Kamen Rider himself. It is kinda disheartening to see the first thing he does after henshin is to run for his life. Again, his normal form looked fugly. And that coupled with Hero running for his poor life made for a hillarious scene, if not a pretty poor start for Kamen Rider Den-O. So what was the saving grace? The red Imagin, who at times turns Ryoutarou from a whiney little brat into a crazy psycho. Already winning some points already. Bbut coupled that with him comes the sword form really helped to make it all pick up.

Besides from the rediculously long time it takes for Sword form to actually construct his sword, the Sword form is just uber cool and its final attack, the Hissatsu attack part two is cool as well. And now to the story. Again, first a synopsis from Wikipedia:

Using the power of the mysterious Rider Pass system, Ryotaro Nogami is able to travel to different times. Transforming into Kamen Rider Den-O, he fights monsters of all sizes, preventing them from altering the past to affect the present and future.

 — From Wikipedia

Alright, from watching the first two episodes, I actually thought the plot was a little gimmicky. I liked the Imagin but the Denliner and a lot of the rest of it seemed pretty randomly placed for me, but at least it was still enjoyable. The second episode I loved as it was just some heartwarming at the end XD

Now the OP, although the song is quite good, I was actually a bit bored with it while I was watching it… although the very end with the Imagin dancing made me laugh…

Final Thoughts

So, overall, this can all be pretty well summarised to a point I made above: Kabuto kicks Den-O’s ass… however at only seeing a few episodes of each and Den-O still airing, we’ll see if that will still hold true at a later date XD

*goes to watch some more Kamen Rider Kabuto*