got to the akira oni eps of hibiki. i'm gonna be real, that shit was not just bad, but genuinely vile and disgusting. did they really have to have the teen girl get beat in one shot and literally left lying nude in the forest, and then spend the entire ep humilliating her and stripping her of her dignity, while showing that as a Good Thing bc a woman wanting to be a rider is objectively bad? and people just ignore this and keep gassing up the franchise that teaches these sorts of toxic things to children bc of hot guys or whatever.
rider fans are just quick to just blame inoue for rider being like this, when igami created this structure. and the other writers, despite not being sexist in other works, did contribute to this tendency in the shows, like yonemura writing the oddly sexist and siscon-y hiyori arc in kabuto, or the way kobayashi writes women as second to men in her shows, or takahashi and nagasaka's entire thing in rider. i don't think these are bad people or even bad writers, but i think exonerating them completely for their role in perpetuating rider's misogynistic formula is not good either. it's not mainly their fault (outside of igami bc he CREATED this formula) either, bc that's what rider has been for 50 years. it tried to be good from kuuga to hibiki 1, but then blade and hibiki failed and rider became Proper again, under bandai and toei's draconic control. and ever since then the shows have been lounging in this toxic formula, since it sells after all
hibiki's second half isn't like this bc of inoue. it's like this bc of bandai. bc of toei. bc that's what rider IS. he was told to make a rider show, and he did, exposing the way the entire series is without qualms or excuses or anything to hide the hatred. this is what rider IS. this is what rider teaches. this show is the worst example of it, but this is what this franchise is.
i will be not watching any kamen rider after this show ends.