Kamen Rider OOO Series Review

Well it has been another great rider series this year, OOO was a very well done series and is my 5th fave series out of the franchise. First the story is about a man named Eiji who mostly does little jobs to get money and all he needs his a little change and a fresh pair of underwear. During one of his jobs at the museum he was drugged by two thieves possing as guards. There they find a chest and then the Greeed reawaken from their slumber. A man finds out and sends in troops to fight them, but they are useless facing them as many are defeated or killed. While the man just stays in the building and makes a birthday cake and singing happy birthday to the greeed. Eiji wakes up and soon finds the building is barley anything and police are everywhere. He is asked questions and is sent free, but now he has some sort of coin in his hand. He tried to use it in a vending machine, but he drops it. Eiji tries to get it while an living arm is trying to get it. There he meets a girl who is stronger then usual people as he gets the coin, but the hand appears and freaks the hell out of the girl. The hand tries to talk to Eiji, but he moves on, but one of the Greeeds sends a Yummy after the arm who is called Ankh. The two police officers that Eiji met come to the scene and they are easily defeated. Eiji then tries to help Ankh because he met him and the officers today, there Ankh helps him and gives him the belt and three medals. He uses them with the scanner and transforms into Kamen Rider OOO and fights the Greeed and their Yummies.

Similar to Kuuga, but this time Eiji has a backstory reason for him wanting to help everyone else.

The other characters like Ankh he is a Greeed who for some reason is only an arm, he takes over the young police officer's body so he can move freely. Ankh is trying to get more core medals so that he doesnt become weak and another desire. He helps OOO by giving him medals to fight and knows knowledge of their powers so he can make good combinations with random medals. The sister of the officer was the girl with abnormal strength and she wants Ankh to return her brother Shingo to her, but she doesnt know that if ankh leaves Shingo could die. So she takes both of them to where she works to live so she can make sure her brother is ok. Then there is her boss Chiyoko who is very hyper and active, she is the type of boss that likes to get friendly with everyone. In the foundation which is named after the boss Kougami they look over all the cell medals and collect them for unknown purposes. Kougami is a secert man, but he loves desire and new beginnings that is why we hear him say "Happy Birthday" a lot. There is Satonaka who is mostly Kougami's secetary she doesnt do much, but she can help in big moments. Gotou is a solider for Kougami and he wants to protect this world anyway he can, but through out the story he finds out that he cant do things alone. Maki is a scientist for the foundation he makes inventions that help OOO mostly, but he doesnt care for beginnings, but for the ends. Then there is our secondary rider, Kamen Rider Birth who is Akira Date a man who works to fight so he can reach his dream of 1 million yen (I could be off). For the Greeeds there is Uva who is mostly doing what he did back then he is only doing what he wants. Kazari is different he knows the world has changed and he wants to experiment with this. Mezool is like Uva, but she is more complex cant say how because it will spoil the series. Gamel is the last one of the group and he acts like a child all the time and always hangs around Mezool.

Pros- Like Double this series uses a partner motif with Ankh helping Eiji mostly with medals and detecting Yummies. At first the two are mostly at each other throats, but with great writing and devleopment they become good partners even though they have their share of fights. For the other characters they are great as well, Kougami is funny, Satonaka can be very helpful later in the series, Gotou is my favoirte character because on how much development he got and it really helped the series, Hina is a great supporting character and she does more than the usual support character, Maki is amazing he can be really funny, but also the most serious character of the series, and Date is great mostly because of him acting like a teacher for Gotou which reminds me of Zanki and Torodoki. There are really good filler episodes, the main story episodes are great as well with great writing supporting them. The villian of this series are like the Grongi who woke up and see the new world, but they are all different in someway and that makes their scenes more enjoyable. Fights are nice and quick like Double was making more room for the story, but can leave you wanting more. The ending is a personal favoirte of mine because it really felt like an ending it is similar to Double with a happy, but still sad ending, but it is much better because it will always be a loss for the hero. The motif of this series is Desire and it does perfect with that bringing new ones mostly everytime.

They do share some similarities, but there is more original ideas with this series and its not a bad thing.

Cons- There is a little too much filler and not all of them are great, those episodes get in the way of the villians at times. Also what gets in the way are new additions of villian and the series can lose focus on some of them at times, but at least the good guys arent forgotten. There were also some useless moments in the series like the CLAWS Scorpion which was used once and thats it. The build up for the final episode felt a little rushed and not as dramatic at times for some characters because they were sometimes forgotten (expect for some though).

Good villians, but could have been used a little more

Netural- OOO has the most forms in the whole franchise because of his form relies on three medals and there are like 7 sets and each have a head, body, and leg. Different type of combinations help keep fights feel fresh, but sometimes they dont really do that a lot and heavily use the main combo forms a lot at times. Birth was a great rider, but the series made him look weak at times, but that is for writing purposes because Birth was made to fight Yummies, not Greeed. There can still be great fighting moments for Birth though.

Verdict- OOO is overall a great rider series with good characters, but some are forgotten because of the filler episodes and additions of villians, but with good writing and a strong ending I give it a B+