Counterpoint to your counterpoint

*gestures at Ichigata*

I jest, but like Ichigata and Zero-Two are like my top two for me.

If it was random I am sure the folks at PLEX would do even worse. Heck, probably plaster Hayato Ichimonji's face all over the suit or just paint it using 10 random colors using a 3-year old's multicolor rendition of Zero-One in a coloring book as reference. :lolol
Those red gloves and silver stripes are not random, that was deliberately a nod to Nigo who first donned the silver stripes in his old suit and red gloves for his new suit.

So it's a Legend Rider armor, like I said.

Only if Rising Hopper is what you'd consider a Legend Rider armour.

But like, aside from being a good reference it's a great way to show both the culmination of Aruto's dreams before the show wrecked it and the advancement of technology -- it's essentially a remake of Rising Hopper, the crowning achievement of Aruto taking up his role but with his own spin on it past anything his predecessors could have done. I think it's a perfect expression of everything the show was meant to be about

I've never seen people compare Rising to a previous rider, though. At least not to the extent that Zero Two is. Rising's elements work on their own, as a simplistic reboot of the standard Rider style, but not any suit in particular. Zero Two's elements only work in context of Nigo, and with that removed, it's just a mess of newly introduced colors.

Also, we already had a remake of Rising in Shining, which pushed the suit motifs in a bolder look, rather than piggybacking off of 'hey I get that reference.'
...before they just yeeted it in favor of throwing more colors in.

They're not piggybacking off of or relying on the reference, it's... just a reference. One that I have in fact never actually seen them state out loud, and one that presumably they decided would work well because the red adds a lot to the suit and complements its palette that makes it both familiar to Zero-One yet still very distinct from it. I also pretty constantly saw 01's design complemented as a 'back to basics' design in the context of using Rider 1's design elements and motifs.

I wouldn't call Shining a remake of Rising as much as I would an enhancement, one that's clearly still the Zero-One system but ramped up. Shining and 02 are both improvements over Rising Hopper, but 02 is in a way where it's something new.

I'd really have to disagree on the red, but that's just me. also maybe my confusion on the reference was due to a considerable portion of the buzz being 'hey look, it's Nigo'

I also think it's kind of a stretch to say that Rising is based particularly on 1, but that's probably just me thinking the design elements of 1 have become engrained in Kamen Rider as a concept so much.

Funny enough, I got the exact opinion, just switch the two in your example :D

Look, e got death! Look, we got a nihilistic doctor! Are we gonna do those elements with any particular amount of care? Kinda, sorta, it's mostly messy. As more kid-friendly PR is, its consistent tone and more focus on their main themes, instead of going off on mushroom-haircut-induced greed adventures do make it more effective for me.

Quick side note, I do like Abbaranger, it just has a few kinks, Abbarekiller probably the biggest.

Power Rangers has themes??

I don't get why people say Ghost's suits are so great. The hoodies are cluttered and make the whole design look top-heavy, the undersuits are bland with generic armor shapes and repetitive markings, and the masks are all over the place with a few really good ones but a whole bunch of bleh. Like most of Ghost, they had interesting ideas and a lot of potential but clumsy execution.

Wiseman's helmet did the "hooded Rider" look way better despite not technically being a hood.