Kamen Rider Agito (2001)

Here We Go First Review For Kamen Rider Agito! :)

What I liked about Kamen Rider Agito was that it was not one were it was fast, rushed and one that didn't drag into one or more episodes that did not need to if it was not important or relavent to the story or characters. The pacing was rather enjoyable as it held my attention the whole time with the story, the riders, the evil villains and the leveled up battle fighting & sequences! I rather enjoyed those battles I tell! Which, by the way, are a improvement from Kamen Riider Kuuga; BUT Kuuga remains number 1 in my list and favorite :) There was plenty more fighting, battles with the Baddies, loved Agito's Battle Forms and Tranformations! :) I was very much pleased with the ending, made me glad that it was worth our hero's time! (And Mine :p) Once again the music made me Love it all the more as it made me sing along at the Intro and after I finished my viewing session! The Music Selections fit the Drama and with Shouichi aka Agito & Co :)

I must buy the OST for This season! :)

What I did not like was Mana she was rather annoying at times & Hooju he was donkeys behind but that's what added to this seasons appeal and made it a lot more enjoyable.

Kamen Rider Agito is kid Friendly, It's not graphic and not a whole lot of curse words but that can be overlooked. This was not dark at all like the previous season, it had a lot more laugh out loud moments and more comedic scenes.

Basically: I LOVED IT!

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Kamen Rider Agito, IMO is the most underrated Kamen Rider series of the Heisei era. The story is well written, the acting is pretty awesome, the music is just a perfect fit for the plot and character of this series. Everything that happens in each episode isn't without reason and by the time you get to know what is really going on, every little details given will become clear. The story is really well made and can even be linked to the series before this one: Kamen Rider Kuuga.

The actions are awesome. Each Kamen Riders has their own style of fighting and even the monster gradually starts showing fighting abilities that weren't shown in any of the series before. I really like that unlike the series now like Kamen Rider Ghost, the cgi and over computerized details are not presents and we see more hand to hand actions, weapon skills, etc.

The music as said above just fits everything is perfectly. Once you hear the music playing while a scene is taking place, I'm sure most, if not all of you would agree with me on this.

The acting here is well done. However, I had a problem with one of the actress who acting seems to plain especially her facial reactions to certain things that happens early on. Other than that, everyone else in the series does the job flawlessly imo. The main characters are very like able and the supporting cast are awesome in their own ways as well.

The ending was perfect. The final fight was awesome and the way the story concludes nicely and each of the main protagonists gets a happy ending.

Definitely my favorite Kamen Rider. Though, I wouldn't recommend this series to those who doesn't like the long and slow pace of a mystery genre.

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Mild spoilers ahead:

Everything the show did well:
-Really entertaining cast all around.
-One of the most interesting main antagonists in the franchise.
-The main trio of riders all feel like they're the main protagonists respectively. Shifting perspectives between the three helps keep the show interesting from beginning to end + explore different philosophies as to what would happen if humanity was given superpowers.
-Each Rider has a really distinct fighting style + looks very visually distinct of each other while feeling that they are from the same show.
-One of the most unique stories in the franchise
-Lots of cool stunts.
-The majority of the non-transformable characters feel really useful, especially the main girl Mana and Ozawa.
-The show's mysteries are legitimately intriguing.
-The concept behind the Akatsuki passangers are legimetely interesting.
-This show's villains 'The Lords' feel really menacing.

Everything the show did bad:
-It feels like the only purpose of Taichi (the kid that lives with the main cast) is to stall the answers to the mysteries by being a brat, which feels like cheap writing.
-The mini-arc focused on Aki Sakaki (15-21, 25). She might be the biggest harlot/slut in the franchise. She just comes off as generally unlikeable, the show expects to believe she's in love with Ryo which is almost impossible to believe considering her actions. Her arc introduces the only seemingly dropped plot-point in the show, as it seemed like it was setting up an explanation as to why Taichi doesn't have a mom which is never explained by the end. It just feels like to whole reason she existed was to be a cheap way to create conflict between Shoichi and Ryo.
-The 5-parter finale of the show is kind of bad. It introduces a new side character for each of the main trio, introducing 3 new characters in the last 5 episodes of the show makes it almost impossible to care for them. During these 5 episodes the Agito side is the only good perspective, as it's the only that actually closes a remaining plot-point/mystery and manages to make you care for Kana Okamura. The Gills side is just more suffering for him which felt unnecessary by this point. The G3 side was the worst of the 3, the new character from that perspective, Naozumi Shirakawa sucks even if he's played by the fantastic actor Yutaka Hirose, this 5-parter also ruins Hojo's and Omuro's characters. On top of that, the main antagonist final plan is unnecessarily conveluted and feels out of character when compared to his past actions.
-The titular rider Agito has one of the most boring powersets that a protagonist has had in this franchise.
-If you've watched Kuuga, do NOT expect the cops in this show to be anything similar.

Reasons for the show's strengths:
Producer Shirakura knows how to make the most use of Toshiki Inoue's writing style, they compliment each other extremely well. Shirakura wanted to allow Inoue creative freedom for the most part, so he allowed Inoue to not properly make a sequel to Kuuga. While this might be disappointing to some, this allowed the show to be an original story that allows Kuuga's great ending go untouched and ultimately allowed future entries in the franchise to be completely standalone like Super Sentai which allowed for the franchise to be really experimental and create some of the most unique and best Tokusatsu.

Reasons for the show's problems:
The show got extended for 5 more episodes, however Toshiki Inoue had already written the finale, this resulted in the script of episode 46 to be slightly reworked to not close all the plot-points but ultimately being the best fight in the show and feeling more like a final fight than the actual final one. Inoue had to impromptuly write theseast 5 episodes which resulted in them not having the same polish that the rest of the show did.
Inoue is also a really weird writer and likes telenovela-like plotlines which resulted in the Aki Sakaki plotline.

Overall:
The show is definitely weirder than most Rider shows which might not make it for everybody. But this season has the best mystery that I've seen in this franchise, plus the protagonist trio is really great and the shift between their perspectives help make the show feel fresh. This is also among the franchise's most unique. The biggest issue is the 5-part finale, and even then the actual ending of the show is good so it's not that big of a deal outside the character assassinations of Hojo and Omuro. Also don't go into the show excepting it to be like Kuuga because of the designs as it's very different. Overall I would definitely recommend this show if you're into mystery or want to see a really weird tokusatsu but not recommend it if you're really into continuity between other seasons.

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Frustrating Series With Amazing Designs

Kamen Rider Agito is a very hard watch. It sets itself up well enough, with mystery and intrigue surrounding it, a STELLAR opening song, and overall several very well-designed suits for the main Riders. However, what ends up happening is that the series meanders for a majority of its run time. It feels like very few of the characters in the series have actual agency - they are moreso waiting for any big events to happen and then reacting to them. In the case of the main character he feels so detached that he barely seems to do anything related to the main mystery for a large portion of the story and is essentially just pulled towards every fight. Its predecessor Kuuga also has a mystery, but what makes it compelling in Kuuga is the main characters actively researching the mystery at hand and actively going to defeat the monsters of their own accord. Agito makes these characters do so seemingly out of instinct instead, being far more passive characters, whose interpersonal drama is overall pretty bland and uninteresting for a large majority of the run time. Not to mention only one of the three main characters really seem to do any research into the main mystery and their progress is quite slow and brooding. The show drags its feet quite often. It's a very mixed bag.

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Agito is amazing.

It is simply the best series I have seen at the Heisei Era so far, the series gets everything right: a story involved with mysteries that fit the plot very well, super charismatic characters and a practically perfect pacing to develop everything while providing answers to the questions that the series itself creates.

It is not a perfect series, in my conception there is no such thing, but Agito does an excellent job in what it needs. There are some problems here and there that for me were so small that to mention them is practically nitpicking, I really have nothing to complain about. It's my new favorite KR series.

In fact, I don't see many people commenting on it, maybe it is a somewhat underrated series and I hope that someday people will be able to see how fantastic it really is.

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