There are only two changes I would make to the show at this point (but I reserve the right to change my mind in the future if things don't improve much and/or get worse):

Firstly, I would have established Sougo's dream in the first or second episode. Knowing that he had a prophetic vision would have made his whole king motivation feel like it had a basis instead of just being some random delusion.

Second, I would get rid of Geiz's stupid dickie. That thing needs to die in a fire, like, yesterday.

Except Gaim, Build and Ex-Aid were good from the start. Zi-O lacks what those shows had.

I wouldn't call Gaim good personally but remember, people love it for it's darker take with Urobuchi on board. Yet at the point Zi-O is now, Gaim was still about silly dance offs, no? So if someone didn't watch past that and called Gaim nonsensical kiddy stuff, would that be deemed enough to rewrite the entire show? Of course not! If Zi-O ends up being literally the worst after it's finished, which I doubt, THEN you can do this kind of thread.


Oh, and if anyone goes "Time travel badly written, do better writing for time travel!" then I'm afraid you aren't aware how ridiculously easy it is to fuck up time travel plots

Well, to each there own on if your not a fan of Gaim. Even if it was "silly dance offs" the show had better written characters and plot structure than Zi-O had at the same point in its episode run. SengalBoy was just giving a little constructive criticism that's all.

As much as I love series like Gaim and Ex-Aid and Build, I honestly think they've spoiled people in terms of what they expect from every series.

Everyone wants each new series to be 100% perfect with complex characters and high-level story-telling from the start when that's just not how works with some stories and scenarios. For example, everyone holds Gaim on a pedestal, but it didn't get serious and start opening up what was really happening until about 12 episodes in. Ex-Aid you can say didn't really get serious until Genm killed Kiriya, which happened in the same episode as a literal Christmas musical number. While on the flipside, Build's storyline and plot direction meant it would be fairly complex from the get-go while its supplementary material and some later developments lead to silliness.

Toku's one of those mediums where, like it or not, you need to give it leeway before you really know if you're gonna enjoy it or not. That's just how these series work. Expecting to be totally satisfied and drawn in right out the gate's not possible imo.

Maybe not so, but it's a sign of a good show if you're drawn in straight away. Even I know the first 10 or so episodes are supposed to establish the world we're in and have a feel for the characters while planting seeds for the plot ahead. But if people are not enjoying it, then it's their choice to not like it and not watch it or have problems with it. Some people aren't going to wait for a show to find it's footing if they're not invested in it.

I felt like this with Drive and Ex-Aid. The beginnings were meh to me (though Ex-Aid is a lot more fun, it's just the characters are a little too stock) until the second quarter is where the show becomes great.

So the best way is that we can hope Zi-O would follow this two shows. I guess most of us are worried it might be the another Ghost :P

I actually wonder if that plot point is something that was intended the whole time or not, because it seems so obvious to me to have that be part of the first episode's opening I can't think of any other reason they wouldn't have done exactly that. Get rid of that bit with the elephant T-Rex and stick that in there instead and we could've avoided so many of Sougo's growing pains as a character.

It's one sign of a good show, but not the be all and end all. For example, look at Star Trek TNG. The first series of that show is awful, and the second isn't much better. But then it becomes one of the most beloved shows ever starting with Series 3.

In Tokusatsu, we can contrast with something like Nininger. People really liked the first quarter of that show, but by the end, it was detested (rightfully so, imo, but whatever.) So to go "The first 10 episodes of this 50 episode show suck, therefore the whole show will be a mess and needs a complete rewrite is a little bit of a fallacy. Yes, it's fair to say there are ways to first arc could be rewritten, but would it really be much better? With the need to fit the ridewatch selling, the past rider cameos, and character development on top of that, especially when people are still on a high from Build and Ex-Aid.

The difference with Den-O is that Den-O really isn't a show about time travel. It has time travel in it, sure, but they never dive too deeply into it. For 80% of the series, the only use is "The Imagin dives ten years ago and we get to see the problem of the Side Character of the Week". Ore Tanjou is an exception, but you can easily raise questions about that too. Of course, for the final 20%, we get stuff like the difference between Sakurai and Yuuto (Big confuse) and whatever Kai's plan with the Junction Point is. Whereas Zi-O has time travel play a big part in the weekly plots, and that makes people try to overthink it more.

That still doesn't address my point that what made Gaim so fondly remembered happened in the second quarter, which Zi-O's only now starting to inch into.
Honestly this is something that always happens with toku I feel. If a show has an amazing run and becomes really beloved, people expect that same level of quality immediately into the next show. It happened with Drive, as I remember people hating it because it came after Gaim and it wasn't Gaim. Drive took a while to get ahold of itself, which got people more invested. Then after Drive ended, we got Ghost which a lot of people immediately condemned it for not being able to hold up to Drive. Granted I'd say Ghost was a mess but had Ghost not been stuck between some good seasons it'd be hated significantly less, similar to Metroid Federation Force, had that game be announced after Samus Returns, Metroid fans wouldn't have gone ballistic at it. With Sentai people often immediately cry fowl at a season for whatever reason, then in most cases, end up liking it after giving it a proper shot. Then they end up crying foul because of the next season.

I think the reason I'm so lenient on Zi-O is because I already prematurely decided not to expect nearly as much with Build, who had an experienced writer for a beloved TV show beforehand and the fact Zi-O clearly was going to have a time travel theme which never makes any fucking sense