Based on my experience, the best way to say the show is crappy or not is by the first 5 episodes, or in Double’s case, the first 4 story arcs. While watching the first 4 arcs, I observed a lot of sorta homages to the Showa Era Riders and to Shotaro Ishinomori himself. Here’s the list.
Note: This list is not possible without researching a lot of data in the net. In case of inaccuracy, kindly inform me. :)
+ Return of the Hopper
It’s been a long time since the grasshopper is used as the design of the suit of a Rider (Not that long, if you watched Kamen Rider G, Wine FTW!). For the Heisei Era’s 11th series, they sorta returned to the insect that started the franchise, the grasshopper. To add the nostalgia, the color scheme is quite similar to Ichigo’s first suit. Plus, the Cyclone forms had the Wind element like of Ichigo. To add the fun, the kickass scarf is in the suit! Too bad, it is only present on the CycloneJoker, CycloneTrigger and CycloneMetal forms.
+ X! X! Eksu!
Speaking of color schemes, HeatMetal resembles X-Rider’s color scheme. To add more fun, HeatMetal has a staff. Cool. I think it is a way of saying sorry to X’s actor for not being part of the All Riders film. I think this is what happened when they are creating Double and they heard the X’s actor was not called in the last minute to do his Voice Acting for the film.
(Warning: This part is plain fiction.)
The Origin of HeatMetal… Bow.
*Production Room*
Guy1: The All Riders is almost to its completion. All the Riders have been voice acted; all we need to do is to promote the film.
Guy2: Uh, sir. We have a problem.
Guy1: What is it?
Guy2: Do you remember that *bleep* offered himself to reprise his role as X-Rider?
Guy1: Yes. Why? Did he reprise it?
Guy2: Actually, we didn’t contact him in the last minute.
Guy1: YOU DIDN’T CONTACT HIM?!
Guy2: Ye..yes.
Guy1: How can we say sorry to the fans?! Instead of hearing *bleep* as X, they will hear some random guy speaking!
Guy3: Sir, about that, that random guy’s name is, *bleep*.
Guy1: I don’t care who the hell he is! All I want is to hear *bleep* as X!
Guy4: We can… redub it.
Guy1: No way! It will delay the premiere of the film!
*Thinks*
Guy5: Ooh! Ooh! I know! What if we did a X homage in the next series?
Guy1: You mean Double?
Guy5: Yes!
Guy1: So what is this… homage for X?
Guy5: Let’s make one on his proper forms HeatMetal. Red is heat and Gray is Metal. Since it’s a principal form, it is like having X back.
Guy1: Yes. With that form, it is like saying sorry to *bleep* because we didn’t contact him!
And so, the production staff created the HeatMetal form, a tribute to X-Rider and a way of saying sorry to his actor. THE END
+ Transforming Bikes and the other vehicle
On Kamen Rider BLACK RX, we are introduced of Form Changes and a Rider car. I personally didn’t watch BLACK RX but I will once I find a decent sub in YouTube. In Double, we saw their garage-slash-car, the RevolGarry. This is the third series with a car on it. The second was Hibiki, but the car is not that cool since it’s just a regular SUV. Also, in BLACK RX, RX’s bike, the Acrobattler, also changes form once RX change his form. The same case in Double, since RevolGarry is also a garage, it holds the other forms of Double’s bike. Depending on the situation, Double goes to the car-like garage and changes the vehicle’s backside. The other two forms are a helicopter-like vehicle and a speedboat-like vehicle.
+ What if they fused? Meh.
Again, speaking of BLACK RX, RX’s two other forms aside from RX are BioRider and RoboRider. BioRider is blue while RoboRider is yellow. RoboRider had a gun while BioRider is sort of liquid which makes him flexible. Fast forward to Double, we have the Luna Memory for flexibility and we have the Trigger Memory for long-range purposes, put them together, we got LunaTrigger. A gun with flexible laser beams. Flexible laser beams? It sounds like RoboRider shooting a bio-ed BioRider!
+ His hair kinda looks like… Oh no.
In this series, we are introduced to the Watcherman one of Shotaro’s informants has this weird afro hairdo. Later on the 4th arc, Find the C, the manga-ka who creates dojinshis of Gokistar, the Cockroach Dopant and himself, the Cockroach Dopant has this weird afro hair. Last time, I read on Wikipedia about the show’s creator, Shotaro Ishinomori and found out that he had this awesome afro hairdo! Is this a way of the producers’ way of giving homages to Ishinomori-sensei’s Kamen Rider cameos? LOL.
+ Speaking of Shotaro Ishinomori…
One of the obvious homage or shout-out or whatever you like to call it is the name of Double’s one-half, Shotaro Hidari. Also, this is the third show related to Shotaro Ishinomori with a dual color scheme. The other shows are part of the Kikaider franchise. Also, thanks to usbcheater of the HJU Forums, two other characters are kinda related to Shotaro Ishinomori's other works, namely, Skull Man and Kaiketsu Zubat. For the his full post, click this.
+ Queen! Elizabeth!
Another of Shotaro’s informants is Queen and Elizabeth. And I think you get the shout-out in this one. LOL.
+ Double Riders, Redefined.
The concept of Double Riders came into scene thanks to Ichigo’s actor injury while doing a stunt. Because of this, they might cancel the show. To prevent it, the writers decided to create another Rider in the form of Nigo to fill-in for Ichigo. After his actor recovered from the injury, since Nigo is introduced, they decided to make them partners in saving the world. Thus, the Double Riders are born. Fast forward to 2009, we have another Double Rider, in the form of Shotaro Hidari and Philippe. These two fuses to form the half-half Rider called Double! I think this is the way the producers give tribute to the first Double Rider. Back then, these two have the same color scheme, giving a hard time for identification that is why, when the two upgraded, they where easily identified by the color of their gloves. Ichigo had white gloves while Nigo had red gloves.
+ Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider! Raida! Raida!
Back in the Showa Era, All Riders who appear as solo are identified as plainly Kamen Rider. If he appeared with another Rider or the villain feels calling him with it, he will be called by his Rider name. In the Heisei Era, this sort of tradition was dropped, till Double came along. On Double, Double is called Kamen Rider by the police… unlike Kuuga who is identified as Unidentified Lifeform something, something.
Note: This list is not possible without researching a lot of data in the net. In case of inaccuracy, kindly inform me. :)
+ Return of the Hopper
It’s been a long time since the grasshopper is used as the design of the suit of a Rider (Not that long, if you watched Kamen Rider G, Wine FTW!). For the Heisei Era’s 11th series, they sorta returned to the insect that started the franchise, the grasshopper. To add the nostalgia, the color scheme is quite similar to Ichigo’s first suit. Plus, the Cyclone forms had the Wind element like of Ichigo. To add the fun, the kickass scarf is in the suit! Too bad, it is only present on the CycloneJoker, CycloneTrigger and CycloneMetal forms.
+ X! X! Eksu!
Speaking of color schemes, HeatMetal resembles X-Rider’s color scheme. To add more fun, HeatMetal has a staff. Cool. I think it is a way of saying sorry to X’s actor for not being part of the All Riders film. I think this is what happened when they are creating Double and they heard the X’s actor was not called in the last minute to do his Voice Acting for the film.
(Warning: This part is plain fiction.)
The Origin of HeatMetal… Bow.
*Production Room*
Guy1: The All Riders is almost to its completion. All the Riders have been voice acted; all we need to do is to promote the film.
Guy2: Uh, sir. We have a problem.
Guy1: What is it?
Guy2: Do you remember that *bleep* offered himself to reprise his role as X-Rider?
Guy1: Yes. Why? Did he reprise it?
Guy2: Actually, we didn’t contact him in the last minute.
Guy1: YOU DIDN’T CONTACT HIM?!
Guy2: Ye..yes.
Guy1: How can we say sorry to the fans?! Instead of hearing *bleep* as X, they will hear some random guy speaking!
Guy3: Sir, about that, that random guy’s name is, *bleep*.
Guy1: I don’t care who the hell he is! All I want is to hear *bleep* as X!
Guy4: We can… redub it.
Guy1: No way! It will delay the premiere of the film!
*Thinks*
Guy5: Ooh! Ooh! I know! What if we did a X homage in the next series?
Guy1: You mean Double?
Guy5: Yes!
Guy1: So what is this… homage for X?
Guy5: Let’s make one on his proper forms HeatMetal. Red is heat and Gray is Metal. Since it’s a principal form, it is like having X back.
Guy1: Yes. With that form, it is like saying sorry to *bleep* because we didn’t contact him!
And so, the production staff created the HeatMetal form, a tribute to X-Rider and a way of saying sorry to his actor. THE END
+ Transforming Bikes and the other vehicle
On Kamen Rider BLACK RX, we are introduced of Form Changes and a Rider car. I personally didn’t watch BLACK RX but I will once I find a decent sub in YouTube. In Double, we saw their garage-slash-car, the RevolGarry. This is the third series with a car on it. The second was Hibiki, but the car is not that cool since it’s just a regular SUV. Also, in BLACK RX, RX’s bike, the Acrobattler, also changes form once RX change his form. The same case in Double, since RevolGarry is also a garage, it holds the other forms of Double’s bike. Depending on the situation, Double goes to the car-like garage and changes the vehicle’s backside. The other two forms are a helicopter-like vehicle and a speedboat-like vehicle.
+ What if they fused? Meh.
Again, speaking of BLACK RX, RX’s two other forms aside from RX are BioRider and RoboRider. BioRider is blue while RoboRider is yellow. RoboRider had a gun while BioRider is sort of liquid which makes him flexible. Fast forward to Double, we have the Luna Memory for flexibility and we have the Trigger Memory for long-range purposes, put them together, we got LunaTrigger. A gun with flexible laser beams. Flexible laser beams? It sounds like RoboRider shooting a bio-ed BioRider!
+ His hair kinda looks like… Oh no.
In this series, we are introduced to the Watcherman one of Shotaro’s informants has this weird afro hairdo. Later on the 4th arc, Find the C, the manga-ka who creates dojinshis of Gokistar, the Cockroach Dopant and himself, the Cockroach Dopant has this weird afro hair. Last time, I read on Wikipedia about the show’s creator, Shotaro Ishinomori and found out that he had this awesome afro hairdo! Is this a way of the producers’ way of giving homages to Ishinomori-sensei’s Kamen Rider cameos? LOL.
+ Speaking of Shotaro Ishinomori…
One of the obvious homage or shout-out or whatever you like to call it is the name of Double’s one-half, Shotaro Hidari. Also, this is the third show related to Shotaro Ishinomori with a dual color scheme. The other shows are part of the Kikaider franchise. Also, thanks to usbcheater of the HJU Forums, two other characters are kinda related to Shotaro Ishinomori's other works, namely, Skull Man and Kaiketsu Zubat. For the his full post, click this.
+ Queen! Elizabeth!
Another of Shotaro’s informants is Queen and Elizabeth. And I think you get the shout-out in this one. LOL.
+ Double Riders, Redefined.
The concept of Double Riders came into scene thanks to Ichigo’s actor injury while doing a stunt. Because of this, they might cancel the show. To prevent it, the writers decided to create another Rider in the form of Nigo to fill-in for Ichigo. After his actor recovered from the injury, since Nigo is introduced, they decided to make them partners in saving the world. Thus, the Double Riders are born. Fast forward to 2009, we have another Double Rider, in the form of Shotaro Hidari and Philippe. These two fuses to form the half-half Rider called Double! I think this is the way the producers give tribute to the first Double Rider. Back then, these two have the same color scheme, giving a hard time for identification that is why, when the two upgraded, they where easily identified by the color of their gloves. Ichigo had white gloves while Nigo had red gloves.
+ Kamen Rider, Kamen Rider! Raida! Raida!
Back in the Showa Era, All Riders who appear as solo are identified as plainly Kamen Rider. If he appeared with another Rider or the villain feels calling him with it, he will be called by his Rider name. In the Heisei Era, this sort of tradition was dropped, till Double came along. On Double, Double is called Kamen Rider by the police… unlike Kuuga who is identified as Unidentified Lifeform something, something.