Saturday, December 10, 2011

My Top Ten Favorite Kamen Rider Villain Groups

Thanks to a recent post from Fantasy Leader I was thinking about the villains of Kamen Rider. First I will do a group list then make a list for individual villains.

10. Imagin
I did like the idea of the Imagin it was interesting to see how these creatures worked as they had to grant wishes to gain access to the past. Some had easy tasks of just receiving an item, but some of them had to do a little more as the person was to complicated to work with. There were also ones that abused the people and they technically granted their wish. A nice touch as well was their sand when they first appear it was good to look at.

9. Shocker
You can't go wrong with the original terrorist group, Shocker. Their goal was to kill off the human race and take over the world with cyborgs. Now for today standards it seems pretty cliche, but for the past this was probably something a little different. First Shotaro the creator used cyborgs before like with Cyborg 009 which is amazing. So I guess the idea of cyborgs stuck with him for a while as it worked for many years. The best part about Shocker though is the Great Leader himself as there was always a mystery with him and of course the many iconic monsters that have come from the first series.

8. Geddon
Another old style villain group as they were a little more on the natural side as their goal was to get the armlet from Amazon and kill off the humans. For me this was the first villain group that had no mercy as their leader killed off his own people if they failed in brutal ways. The monsters were simple, but some were interesting like the thug who was changed into the Togeari Beastman. Most of it though goes to the leader though as he was brutal and even though looking a little funny he was a big threat.

7. Makamou
I love it when monsters really have a motif and the Makamou have a great folk lore motif to them. Now there were some funny looking ones, but those are mostly the giant monsters. The two normal sized creatures were very weird as their sex is different from some reason at least from what I remember. They have a big mystery behind them, but whats disappointing is that we never really find out. We know where they come from, but that's it. Overall they will kill any citizen that will be crossing by as we never really find out about them.

6. Fangire
This villain group is mostly known for the Checkmate Four as they kill any fangires that betray their ways. The fangires will mostly kill humans for food sources as some have different ways. The one I remember the most is the cook who killed people if they ate his food. Then there was the Checkmate Four as they remind me of Shocker because they kill betrayers. Each one of them is a big threat as they could easily fight the heroes. There are some strange fangire though like Ryo the Spider Fangire who had those creepy hand puppets.

5. Undead
At first the Undead were just random monsters fighting to become the ultimate race, but as more kept coming there were some who have adapted to the human race as they disguised themselves and spoke Japanese. The first one we meet is Hajime himself and for a while we didn't know who he was exactly, but I dont want to spoil anything about him so the focus will go on other big Undead. Most of the smarter Undead were the high cards Jack, Queens, and Kings as they were powerful and giving each hero a different challenge. What I loved the most about them is that some of them accepted defeat as they give their powers to the heroes. In the end the Undead were mixed with simple monsters or major characters to the show.

4. Gorgom
I see that these are the first villains who have stepped up from the usual ones as they had a little complexity than the past villains. The group had their share of ups and downs as they even fought with each other before. the main three though did care about each other as further in the series we see that when some get killed. There was also Ken Sei Birugenia who was a strong rival for Black as he worked on his own to prove how much better he was. Then came Shadowmoon and we all know of him, but that's for the next list.

3. Greeed
I loved these characters and its sad that some of them were ignored at times when new villains came in the series. Each one of the Greeed had their own desire and ways of using Yummies. Uva was plain and simple with using peoples' desires to make the monster do what they want. Kazari had the monster devour the person inside and soon take over as the human continued to do what wanted to do. Mezool had a similarity with Kazari having the person continue with their desire, but her monsters were is big nest as some come in big swarms. Gamel just used himself to summon Yummies to do what he wanted to do as it made him happy. Overall each Greeed had their own method and gave the series some variety.

2. Grongi
Now here is the villain group that kept an old theme from the older series, but also had a big change. They acted with each other like a group, but they were natural monsters as they were from a different time. They were sealed away as they reawaken and start their tribe game of killing humans. What made these villains great was with their own scenes as we couldn't understand them at times, but it made us wonder what they were planning. Some did start to speak Japanese as we got further along in the series and all of them had a human form. Each one had a different plan some it was just simply going on a rampage, but there were much tougher ones that planned out their murders with codes like with music.

1. Dopants
Yea I know another thing from Double takes the first place spot, but I just love Double sooooooo much! The monster for the series are just simply one of the best as each one was different in many ways. Each person who became a dopant has their reasons, but like all the rest they were addicted to using it unless they had a driver or a T2. I just loved every monster that came from this series mostly because of their originality and this style of method has changed the series greatly as we see that minor characters affect each episode arc. Its happened in OOO where someone's greed takes over and now Fourze uses both methods as we get a user and their desires giving them power. The dopants were just a lot of fun to watch as I always wonder what else they could think of for a monster. Well that's my list, always make sure to leave your opinions.

6 comments:

  1. Great list dude. =D

    I should probably do a post like this myself.

    The Makamou are just so cool imo.

    About the Fangire, I think the idea of "stained-glass vampires" are really cool. There's also the villain Bishop, who imo is one of the most evil villains ever in Kamen Rider. Other than being creepy, Bishop truly tries to screw up the lives of almost all the characters in the show, and fights to keep things that way. All to make sure that they all stay "bound to their chains of destiny."

    The Undead had an awesome concept and some of the best designs too.

    While I think the Gorgom are cool, I'm kinda miffed that the show pretty much wasted it's concepts imo. =( There's also the fact that I think Birugenia was a better villain than Shadow Moon was. xP

    The Greeeds were another set of villains with cool concepts, but wasted potential imo. None of them truly get to shine. And they all eventually take a backseat to Dr. Maki. It also doesn't help that Gameru and Mezool get "killed off" half way through. sigh, oh well.

    The Grongi are easily my favorite Kamen Rider villains to date. =D

    Yay Dopants! ^__^ They've got such a fun and diverse concept! Honestly, just listening to the sound effects of their Gaia Memories are enough to get me pumped over them! lol.

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  2. Yea I agree with the Gorgom and Greeed they were wasted because of other villains coming in the series, but they were still strong enough to make some impacts on the series. They are sort of like Kirihiko from Double, but he was much better and had a really sad ending.

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  3. my favorite is ofcourse gorgom but as of right now i like the zodiarts especially the horoscopes i like their appearance especially with the robes on un fortunately i dont like the costume of the kamen riders here...

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    1. For Fourze, yea the main hero's design wasn't the best, but Cosmic really worked well. Also Meteor's base designs were very good with the starry sky body with the simple additions of blue. When I heard of Meteor I was thinking he would be a red rider, but they went with blue, it surprisingly works well.

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  4. Where´s the Horoscopes? u_u

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    1. This list was made before Fourze ended and either way they probably wouldn't have made it to the list. Mostly because the group itself is more than the Horoscopes, but the whole Zodiarts themselves and even so some of the Horoscope members were just arc villains and didn't build all that much to the series like Capricorn.

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