- There is so much preachy nonsense that the show relentlessly pummels you with. Virtually every episode, Takeru makes a schlocky speech about how precious life is and/or how he believes in the infinite potential of humanity. It's so evidently written by someone who does not genuinely believe in something this simplistic and trite, because the show does barely anything to try and show what it is purportedly preaching. One-shot characters such as the mad Edison-admiring professor and the bespectacled guy who wants to jointly create a new space project with his formerly estranged father would have easily given up on their dreams without Takeru prodding them anyway. Heck, the show's final third is essentially Jesus Takeru handling all the threats virtually single-handedly.
- Makoto. Ohhh, Makoto. Even the writers didn't know what to do with you for the longest time. This man is so devoid of personality after he drops the angry, brooding rogue boy act that when it came time for the daft two-parter episodes featuring a dream world to visually display his idea of erm...joy(?)...pleasure(?)...inner desire(?) is a harem of his equally uninteresting younger sister parading around in different costumes. What the fuck. Kanon's a waste of space too. It's a shame, because the brief moments when Billy the Kid possesses her depicts the actress actually doing something that can resemble fun. The poor actress for 99% of the time acts as background decoration, looking perpetually worried and muttering "Onii-chan" over and over again because that's the base extent of how she interacts with her brother.
- I think everyone agrees on this. Alain is the most compelling rider on the show. His story is nothing original and I personally feel his betrayal at the hands of his brother and his subsequent nerf comes too abruptly, because by the time of episode 30 when his arc is more or less complete and he overcomes the limits of Necrom, the guy is essentially sidelined and just another tertiary rider who shows up to occasionally land a few punches. Nevertheless, I enjoyed his arc and his actor does one hell of a job, particularly at that one moment near the end when he confesses that he hasn't got it in him to kill his brother, because his heart is calling out for Adel to be saved instead. I did laugh my arse off when he's training under the wing of the Sanzo minions though. Somehow he resolves his fear of being an underpowered third wheel by...leap frogging? Oooookay.
- Okay, I can just about tolerate Onari's shenanigans, because this kind of contemporary Toku humour is what Toei does all the time. When he partakes in quieter moments without the sudden sugar rush, I actually find I can enjoy watching him and I liked his one-to-ones with Javel. So sure, I can see the potential of humanity here when blessing others with the act of kindness. But then when the Demia thing draws to a climax, for some reason Onari thinks he can abdicate his feeling of being useless by...possessing Alain and practically endangering his host's body when he tries to fight a Ganmeizer. Smart.
- Akari's fine, though her early character quirk of being a sceptic was irritating. Lady, you literally witnessed all these things happen to you, know that there are ghost monsters prowling around and your best friend was literally killed in front of you and has returned as an entity that can turn invisible. You don't suddenly then take a look at a new paranormal case brought to the temple's attention and declare in stark denial that it's impossible and that there must be a scientific explanation behind it. That doesn't make you an actual sceptic but more of an odd zealot. Though like I said, she grew on me and I appreciate the fact that while she's not a Kamen Rider for decent enough reasons (unlike *cough* Kiriko), she's the main scientific brain behind most of the operations, yielding actual results.
- Adel as the primary (human) villain is the equivalent of staring at a dry piece of toast. I don't know if part of it is the actor's fault or whether it's entirely based on the material given to him, but this guy cannot emote. He occasionally snaps and yells, but there's nothing etched on his face. His shots are also very intermittent, as if the script just had nothing interesting for him to say or do, so most of his appearances throughout the show would be 10 second shots to say the same things over and over again. His motivations are bog standard and his ambitions are undone when he realises his family actually loved him after all. How compelling.
- Alia's a tragic waste. Give her a Dark Necrom suit and have her partake in an insurmountable fight against two demigod entities for 20 seconds and there's your female Rider for this show. Poor girl has nothing to do all season but occasionally smile, look stoic and look lost and confused.
- Igor initially hit every note wrong and annoyed me to no end. I was praying for this guy to kick the bucket, but Ghost treats death with as much permanence as any of the Netflix Marvel shows when it comes to major members of The Hand, so I knew the bastard would be returning time and time again. He would grow on me though; I quite like that little morsel of a dynamic going on between him and Akari. I don't know why they felt Igor should end his time on the series proper by allowing a regular Ganma grunt to "kill" him as he muses about his sudden love for Akari though. You respect her as a fellow individual of science sure, but love? Oh spare me. And yes, Kanon can kill Ganma grunts with just two gentle wrist taps it would seem because why the hell not. It's not like the show was trying anymore by then.
- Okay, I know this is a kids' show and Kamen Rider appears to skew more towards the age range of 5-7 year olds these days as per Toei's mandate, but could the heroic Eyecons at least have been given just a wee bit more gravitas? They've gone about it terribly with them, as if it's just one single voice actor trying to put on 15 differentiating voices and they all sound like they're rejects from a pre-school TV show. I wasn't expecting the Grimm brothers to suddenly and accurately speak German no more than I was expecting anyone to acknowledge that Robin Hood probably was not a real historical figure, but I cannot for one moment believe that these caricatures if you can even call them that even remotely correspond with the historical figures they purport to be.
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