555 is good, don't trust a gray like that other reviewer on here for it.

The show is absolutely the best of the early rider shows that aren't Kuuga, and it slaps so hard only peons could hate it. The best Inoue work outside of Hibiki's second half. And maybe Changerion. Or Jetman. He really wrote more good than bad.

Anyways, Takumi is genuinely the best protagonist and its great how Kiba is an alternate protagonist as well. People who hate Kaido, Mari, Keitaro? Weak. All better characters than most Kamen Rider shows, which usually suck, lets be honest.

Also, Kusaka did nothing wrong.

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Ultraman Hikari is a physical representation of depression.

He has been dragged through mud and back.
His girlfriend was a literal planet that got taken over.

All he does now is make toys for Bandai. The pay is good, but the work is souless just like him. Ironically he infuses toys with souls.
Please watch Ultraman Mebius and watch his Uncle's Depression Quest afterwards.

I'm serious, he's really depressed and I'm very worried. He hasn't called me in 6 weeks...
Please support him, he may become an alcoholic if his cat (Ultraman Mebius) doesn't interfere...

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I don't know, it was a decent one. Zero really the same as always, good character, painful stuff, the works. Somehow I felt he didn't get a ton of focus though. Like, he did. But Alice is the main character, I feel.

And Alice was well written. I think that's where things fall flat for me. Like, she's good. I wasn't with her performance at first, but by the end I *understood* why, so that was cleared up. But I didn't really like... feel for her. I'd equate her to Akane from SSSS. GRIDMAN but done well?

Rekka was definitely my favorite character. I really liked Kagome as well. Always love priests. The lore with the dragons is a huge highlight. Non-intrusive additive to the lore that really felt natural and well done. I enjoyed Edel enough, and the politics of dragon coexistence.

The action was also fantastic. Sometimes I thought the CGI scenes were *practical* which is amazing, and shows how far they came just from GOLDSTORM alone. It makes me extremely excited for new Raiga content, with the more artistic stylings that Kami no Kiba JINGA sort of lacked in.

It also really kinda feels like Kami no Kiba JINGA with the twists, but there's more emotional depth since most characters have been in prior entries. So I think it was much better. I was definitely in shock for those as well as Kagome during pivotal moments of the show. But I can't really say I cried or felt too overly emotional over anything.

It was a fine show but I can't really say it topped any other franchise entry for me, besides Kami no Kiba JINGA.

Sorry to say, but I just didn't really connect with this one.

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The beginning is pretty rough. Seemingly strong start, however it doesn't really go anywhere for a few episodes. The show only picks up 10 onward. I think the only episode I liked from the first 9 episodes were 1 and the Max episode. Everything else was pretty boring since there was no reason to like any character besides at that point.
The teens really pick up with some nice episodic plots. The 24 Hours at XIO was a really unique and cool episode with some cool camera work. Some really cute episodes like the Pigmon or the Mu ones. The Nexus episode is probably my favorite because it perfectly captured all of what made Nexus great and furthered a character as well. I think if all of the boring filler in the beginning was moved to the teens, and the nice developmental episodes of the teens were moved to the front, this would've been a much better show. But the show still has it's faults: the major one being theming. The final episode is great. It really feels like a culmination of all of the experiences we've been through to get to this poi- wait, has it? The final two episodes focus on two themes that the show loosely followed: Daichi and X's bond, and the coexistence of monsters and humans.
These are themes in the show, that can be handled well. However, they are not nearly as prevalent or impactful as other shows, making the show saying how deep they were feel very off. Daichi and X, sure they are buddies, but we rarely get many scenes of them just talking. It would've been nice to get some deep conversations in there or some comic relief to SHOW this more often, which builds up more of a bond between them and the audience. As I've seen Gaia, which focused heavily on the ethics of hurting monsters and coexistence, I can say this was a very loose theme in the show. Really kind of a catch phrase if anything. Basically, I felt these two themes had too much pay off for very little build up, making them fall a little flat.

A lot of the characters are throwaways, unfortunately.
Asuna is the one they really try to push. I understand her character and what they were going for, but I just don't think her backstory was great and I didn't find her likable enough either. Her connection with daichi and revelation at the end were really great though.
The two commanders are great. Showing their interactions with their kids and how it affects their job was handled well. They got a few more episodes than the others, but unfortunately the show just didn't dedicate much time to all of them, which really sucks.
Rui and the lab stuff was good comic relief, but not enough of it. Again.
I liked the bromance guys. But just not enough of it.
Hot-take: Daichi isn't that bad. But just like the other characters, he just doesn't get enough time to develop. There's a few moments where he really shines! But most of the time he just isn't that compelling. He just feels a little stiff sometimes. Like I said before he really needed more interaction with X.
Speaking of, X is pretty weird. Daichi just kind of accepts him and... We have to as well? Ok? There was a huge potential for him to just talk with Daichi about being an Ultra, other Ultras, etc. Lore could've been built. Hes a nice guy I suppose, but he's really not very deep for a Ultraman turned into data.

All of this is really unfortunate.
Because most of them had a lot of potential. I think more episodes would have really helped this show out.

Action was really fantastic. Lots of great angles with the camera, just felt really good and hefty for everything. Armors feel very lacking though. Design wise, a little too bulky and cumbersome so they just don't feel very intuitive or impactful in the show because they all feel like extra crap to hit the enemy with.
Exceed Fuckin' X. Beautiful suit. Fun sounds, and no armor to be found. It's really perfect because it eliminated having to have the armors be clunky every fight. Just a cool fun form.
Kaiju were also great. Wish there were more cyber kaiju and we got more use out of Gomora. Another concept I think they dropped the ball on. But overall, pretty ok.

But all in all, I think the show has pacing issues and doesn't expand on it's characters or concepts far enough to really be great. Which like I said, it's a huge shame because there was so much to work with here, and they kinda squandered it. I would say it's probably a solid 6/10. It isn't fantastic, but it has some really high moments from 10 onwards.

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