I just recently became a Kamen Rider fan, and at first I thought it's just like sentai/power rangers with nothing but flashy costumes and monster fights. But the truth is that even though the point still is in monsters and fights (and toy selling (sigh)) KR always had better stories and more defined characters than any sentai show! And with that said, Den-O is no exception. It's about a guy called Ryotarou - wimpy little guy who's always been pushed around. Until he finds (or being found by) Den-Liner - the train of time. It's passenger Hana reveals to him that he's Den-O - the hero who must fight the Imagins - monsters of this show who wants to destroy the past (Why - I have no idea even though I watched it 'till the end. Motives aren't' a strong side of Japanese villains, are they?) But the problem is that Ryotaro is too weak to fight them alone. That is, until being possessed by 4 Imagins who realized that destroying past is not so fun as it's cracked up to be, so now they're the good guys. What I liked especially about this show is character development - at first I wasn't really OK with the fact that Ryotaroo is so helpless, but soon he actually learned to fight on his own. The Imagins are also very likable and amusing. We got Momotaros - the grumpy one who loves to fight Imagins and argue with everyone, Urataros - the smooth-talker and womanizer, Kintaros - the muscle guy, and Ryutaros - the little brat whom at first I found very annoying but soon he also got mature and more serious. The chemistry between these five characters is pure gold. Imagine (pardon the pun ;)) these 4 monsters full of themselves, trying to be subdued by a kid who is weak and clumsy - believe me the results are hilarious! And it even gets better with the arrival of Sakurai Yuuto aka Zeronos and his Imagine Deneb who are complete the opposite - while Yuuto is full of ego and all about fighting, Deneb is clumsy, polite and trying to make friends with everyone. Pure gold! And not just them, most of the other backup characters are also very funny and charming with their own little stuffs - Naomi with her weird coffee, Owner with his flag game, etc...
The costumes are also incredible. Many people see these kind of shows as cheap, but really all the costumes here were really good. Thumbs up for the designers!
And one more thing I just have to mention is the music - it's catchy, and really defines every character. Double Action and Action Zero are the catchiest songs I have heard recently. Awesome!
Great show! As I said, I haven't seen much of the other KR shows, but I really love this one! And I think you will too! Watch it!
