So I managed to binge through the rest of the first season of Amazons today.
I still maintain that this was a challenge to get into. The beginning was slow and never properly introduced me to the exterminator characters before a couple of them are quickly killed off. I know their comrades are emotionally distraught at these couple of losses because they clearly knew them, but I as a viewer did not. I really didn't care who Jun Maehara was, for instance. I was also really hung up on how Amazons was just too extreme in the grimdark tone territory. It felt really bleak, drab and joyless without any of the fun or moments of levity to break up the monotonous misery and gore.
But thankfully I ploughed on, thinking I just needed a bit more time to get to know everyone. Sure enough, I did. I'm very surprised at how the show handles the exterminator crew...or at least the surviving main five, including Mamoru. I initially expected them to just be the regular jobbers you would expect of such secondary characters: show up, get wrecked and have either of the main Riders intervene to save them from their own inadequacies. Contrary to my expectations, they feel just as much as main characters as Haruka, given their ample focus and how critical the team dynamic is to shaping and influencing overarching events. I didn't like how the show only ever slightly touches upon each team member's real motivations for doing such a dangerous job for the pay cheque. I simply presumed they needed the money to eat (which is fair enough on its own), but it's only in the last episode of the season that we catch a glimpse of their private lives and what drives them: someone's in surgery, there's an elderly mother who presumably has dementia and there's an orphanage.
The final stretch of the season is supposed to set up this moral quandary where viewers can legitimately side with either Riders, but to be honest, I personally found it more clear-cut than anything. Haruka would only delay the inevitable as the surviving Amazons with depleted drugs and little food would undoubtedly awaken eventually and start horrifically cannibalising on the first unlucky dog walkers on that stretch of beach. Sorry, man, but I'm with Jin on this one. That said, I certainly felt for Mamoru. He's the only Amazon I developed any real emotional attachment to, seeing this very child-like, innocent young guy and having the sense of dread that the other shoe would eventually drop for him.
I've yet to see anything of Season 2 and I'm not sure when I will get round to it, so some of my concerns may be addressed there, but Mizuki (the sister) just doesn't do anything here. Haruka certainly thinks about her a lot, but in terms of actual agency, her only real accomplishment is to take that armband from her mother and even that doesn't amount to anything in the end as Haruka easily survives the Tlaloc chemical attack anyway. It's a shame because otherwise the season does a solid job of making all its main characters active, interesting people in their own right with clear individual motivations. Except Jun Maehara. He's still a nobody to me.
Overall, yeah, I guess it's alright. I don't outright love it like many other Toku fans do, but it's certainly not a bad show so far. I just needed enough time to gradually get into it and the moments of levity I've been looking for do exist - they're just very subtle. I certainly wouldn't want Rider to be like this all the time, so I'm perfectly content with Amazons being an experimental side project. Again, this really puts into perspective why I like Build so much. It straddles that optimal tonal zone for me where it's definitely a nice and serious story not afraid to delve into the horrific side of affairs such as human experimentation, but well balanced with enough fun and humour that I can legitimately enjoy the whole ride.
EDIT: That desaturated, greenish filter is so, so bad. I get it. You're trying to make a dark show, but it's okay to show colour and sunlight from time to time. It reminds me of Snyder's DCEU films. Just overly bleak and visually ugly.