The anniversary crossover episodes earned the show a lot of good will. The show had already been drastically improved by the addition of a new villain, and the crossover managed to keep the momentum of the main story going, so they felt essential as well as fun and nostalgic.

I remember I was very well-disposed toward Zyuohger toward the end of its run, although I can't quite put my finger on why. On paper, it was pretty average as Sentai went. but I recall enjoying it a great deal once it started actually doing stuff with its villains.

I still consider Genis as being close to one of the best villains in Sentai, among the likes of Professor Bias and Enter. He's just an incredibly effective villain. The rest of the cast was great too, especially ZyuohTheWorld. I hope the characters in Lupin/Pato are just as fun, and the villains are just as good.

On the director, I think that Kyuranger, whatever you think the writing quality may be, has some of the best directed, high octane fight scenes in the last while. If we can get some fun over-the-top fights in Lupin/Pato, alongside a good story, this could be one of the best seasons in a while.

I really like that Toei have at least been trying with some new ideas for the structure of Sentai. Freshens it up a bit, and definitely helped ratings if Kyuranger's better sales mean anything.

The same writer also did Kamen Rider Wizard, for those curious about other toku series.

So from what I can gather the story might not be the greatest but the characters should be good at least. Already better than Kyuranger, I hope.

I love Kyuranger! I'm scared this will be comedy first, action second.

Replace Zyuohger with Ninninger in this post and it makes way more sense.

It applies equally to both, actually.

I really don't know why Zyuohger went with a generic "anthropoid animal" dimension that just happens to exist (It's out there! Just roll with it!") instead of something as long the lines of guardian deities in a heaven realm. That might've even fit in with the cube animal mechas, had they been better designed with something of a totem pole motif when combined.

Can't comment much on Junko Komura work on Zyuohger since I haven't fully watched it yet. As far as her work on Kamen Rider Wizard, she did write the arc involving Nitoh's grandmother which I'll freely admit actually made me tear up.

The series director has very little/nothing to do with the action sequences. That’s the domain of the Action Director, Hirofumi Fukuzawa, who has been the Action Director since Go-Busters and will continue in that role for Lupin vs Pat.

The series director is in charge of everything with the un-henshined cast.

Uh... because that wasn’t the story they wanted to tell?

“Golly, I don’t know why they didn’t go with a concept that’s completely different in every way.”