That's actually brilliant lol, what on earth.

'Brave' is also an English word used by fantasy games/anime for 'yuusha', which means 'hero' or 'warrior', and is typicaly applied to knights/heroes in shining/magic armor. Coincidence? I think not!

Despite liberties being taken in terms of color schemes and design specifics, the Meteokaiju from Ultraman Omega are loosely based on the Four Symbols, didn't click for me until Valgeness appeared and Gamedon was announced. For those not familiar, the Four Symbols are the four mythical beasts also used as the inspiration for works such as, most notably, the OG 1st gen Beyblade (the Bit Beasts of the OG Gen 1 Beyblade protagonists). In toku, right off the bat, Rio's four Genjyuken lieutenants from Gekiranger, the Seishinjyu from Justiriser, and some of the Invess from Kamen Rider Gaim come to mind.

Rekiness = Azure Dragon
Trigaron = White Tiger
Valgeness = Vermilion Bird
Gamedon = Black Tortoise

So I just remembered Yuuki Furukawa who plays Nox in Zeztz is THE Yuuki Furukawa who can speak English fluently and was the co-star of Honoka Miki (Mezool's human form in OOO) in Itazura na Kiss 2013 (that one romance manga adapted to live-action like crazy in many countries alongside Hana yori Dango and Hana Kimi).

Why is it that I fear he's gonna tag along with other toku alumni in English-speaking conventions and he's gonna double as a guest and a translator. *Googles next Power-Morphicon schedule* Uh oh. :lolol

More of a reminder to myself, but just remembered how it's crazy Battle Fever J has two prolific individuals within the genre at its core roster through Daisuke Ban and Kenji Ohba, respectively. That's Kikaider and Gavan right there.

I just found this out today, but the Kasshine from Zi-O are actually based on cuckoo clocks! The head is a bird, the face is the beak, and the chest vent things (which I always found weird) are the claws.

It's smart how they continue Zi-O's clock theme with these guys and, yeah, I appreciate them a lot more with this revelation, even if they're serving as everyone's henchmen now with little regard to their original motif.

I think the concept worked better in the concept art though.

https://i.imgur.com/uMcaG89.jpeg

Okay, so not an "obvious" realization (as a matter of fact, I cannot say this was intended), but as I examined the outfits and hairstyle choices in Wizard I came across something that if it was intentional would certainly add to this character's arc.

Kamen Rider: Mage/Mayu Inamori changes her hairstyle three times in the series, and I might be crazy here but I believe each new hair-do metaphorically represents a change in her character.

Forewarning: This is my first time adding images to a post, haha... If it doesn't work, I apologize.

Twin-tails: It's the signature hairstyle she sports both in flashbacks and prior to becoming a Rider. Right before the truth about her old life collapses...

Pony-tail: This is the hairstyle of Misa/Medusa. In flashbacks, we see this particular style used to differentiate between the twins, and this is worn in the first confrontation between Mage and Medusa - the same fight where she vows to avenge her sister. Could it be a way of honouring her?

Let Loose: Ramping up to the finale, Mayu wears this haircut when she begins to doubt the intentions of her master and ultimately comes into her own, leading up to the end of the series. Beyond that, she never wears anything else.

As I said, this could really be nothing, but there was certainly some effort put into the hair to create a distinction between the twins both in their debut and continued confrontations. If it is symbolism, I have to give props to the stylists. If not then... Maybe I really have lost my mind, haha.

https://64.media.tumblr.com/a6b17b5c...c5667daf24.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/caf3951f...d77462a809.jpg
https://64.media.tumblr.com/6cf2c760...4e5a462cf0.jpg

I think that, beyond the obvious purpose of distinguishing the twins, the hairstyle change is also meant to alter how viewers perceive the character. Although, perhaps the show's length is also a factor.

All of Mayu's hairstyles look good!

Mayu was such a cool character. I feel like she’s been completely forgotten, though, which is completely unfair to the first female Kamen Rider to a) appear outside of a movie and b) not die. Like, I will be astonished if she ever shows up in a Girls Remix episode.

That would be a dream come true. Out of all the actors in Wizard, I think she arguably gave the best performance and that's quite interesting considering she was one of the youngest and had to play two starkly contrasting characters.

Part of me kind of thinks the other mages were an after-thought later in the story...

Hmm, I might be reading too much into things, but I wonder if KR Majade was on some level an homage to her? A historic first for female riders, with a magical theme, orange crystals on her suit, and a ring that is scanned on her driver to transform... coincidence?

Woah...

I never thought of that!

That makes me like Majade a lot more. I was already a fan of her, but now I need her to meet Mayu.

Wizard and Gotchard crossing over would be my dream. There are way too many parallels with those series. Putting aside the whole alchemy/magic thing, they have a huge emphasis on hope too.

If only... I can dream.

It's probably just a coincidence, but I typed Genm in Cyrillic and got the word путь, what means path.

I don't have the technical knowledge of music to explain these things very well, or indeed, to even realize them that often, but today I happened to notice a really cool touch in ZEZTZ's soundtrack.

The main melody of the big, full-throttle heroic track used for when ZEZTZ finishes off the monster, that kicks in about 16 seconds in...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_vLxZupcy8

...is actually also used for the section of one of the more regular action tracks lasting from about 50 to 1:20:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOXSJitmPTA

But it's like this slower, dreamlike echo hiding in the background there, which I think is a really cool way to convey musically that difference between being asleep and being awake, where it's actually the latter when ZEZTZ is at full power. I always really liked "Good Morning" for being this rousing anthem that sweeps away the darker/cooler sound of most of the other music used in the show's fights at the end of a story, but I didn't realize until now it's not as disconnected from those other tracks as I assumed. There's probably like a million other things like this going on in the soundtrack, too. These shows are blessed with very talented composers!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTOcIGJloaM

Just realised that in the opening clip for this anime, bro at 00:27 is dressed like Spielban.
Godzilla before it was obvious, but SPIELBAN?! And I think the girl right before him is supposed to be Diana/Diana Lady.

BTW, the anime is called Klutzy Class Monitor and the Girl With the Short Skirt, or Ponsuka. Character designer apparently worked on Dynazenon and Gridman Universe.

And yes, they are also referring to Pretty Cure, Ojamajo Doremi, and TMNT here and there (yellow jumpsuit has to be TMNT). Also, male lead being voiced by Junya Enoki, I think they dropped a Jujutsu Kaisen reference as well.