You know who I would really like to see as the main writer? Shinji Oishi, who worked on the first half of Hibiki and Daimajin Canon. His relaxed storytelling style is perfect after Takahashi's drama. In addition, the same Hibiki gave out a good comedy, and touched on serious topics, without turning the life of the characters into an endless series of suffering. Plus, Gotchard is destined to coexist with the serialized Sentai, which means the show can afford to be episodic.

If so, then all is well, unless they charge as much for cards as for plastic toys stuffed with electronics.

I could be wrong, but I thought there were some leaks that implied that Bandai was changing their strategy for DX Gimmicks, so I think you are right!


Also: something really interesting I just noticed: Both Steamliner and Madwheel have a purple Vehicle symbol on their cards, whereas Pilets has a human, and Hopper has a bug . I wonder if this means there will be categories for various types of cards (Vehicle, Human, Bug,)

My initial reaction to the design is... meh. But I'm sure by August or September I'll be fully into it. That's almost always how it goes. :lol

I do think the gun is ugly as sin.

The belt is... fine? Definitely shocked the cards are just... cards. And that you just stick them in the belt.

Question: I haven't started Geats yet, but isn't it also a Build/W-style two-in-one gimmick? And we're doing that twice in a row?

Geats is pretty different, mostly in that for the majority of the show characters would only have one buckle as part of their base form, and most riders didn't even get a second special buckle (at least not until recently)

So geats feels more like it has mono-forms that can be upgraded, rather than inherently two-part forms

I.e. most riders only have one item inherently linked to them, they can just add a random second buckle for more armor

I'd argue that some of the faults with Zyuohger and LupinPatren might be due to producer Utsunomiya wanting the same formula over and over again. Like, for example, it didn't feel to me like Komura actually gave a damn about Bungray, since Utsunomiya usually likes to have a twist villain show up in the middle somewhere and I believe the Lupinranger favoritism was probably his fault as well, in halfhearted response to failing merchandise sales.

But I think Shirakura allowed Komura to have more creative freedom with Zenkaiger, like he did for Inoue the year after. If Komura has the right producer behind her, I'm sure she can make something good, like how Takahashi and Takebe are making it work for Geats. It does seem like Komura has a thing for villains sitting around drinking alcohol though, even extending to Warz Gill as a secondary writer for Gokaiger.

Regarding the robot racism thing in Zenkaiger, that's just part of the bigger picture of the show's theme. Differences! Everybody is different and how that's something worth celebrating. It's something that came up before with her previous shows, like cops and robbers learning to co-exist, or humans and anthropomorphic animals working together to protect their shared planet. But I think Zenkaiger seriously delves in to that theme the most, in a way that its premise seems specially made to do.

I've noticed that Shimoyama seems to be especially good at writing movies. Like, I totally enjoyed Gobusters Returns, Kyuranger Episode Stinger and Over Quartzer.

Or a Den-O crossover. You know Toei ain't going to pass on a Den-O crossover.

By the way, I never understood the claims to favoritism in relation to this show. So the thieves have more toys of their own and also use the other team's toys? But that's why they are thieves. Do they get more episodes? But after all, there has already been a show about police rangers (and, quite possibly, there will be more), so the new motif needs more attention. The main villain was given to defeat the Patorengers, so, as for me, they were not offended.

If you're going to give top billing to Patranger, and then sideline them in the second half of the show, then it gets annoying.
Just because there's been more police themed shows doesn't mean the thief team needs more screen time. When the key advertisement are the teams going against each other, and you
1. Give the Patrangers no story arcs
2. Give the Patranger super mode to the Lupinrangers
3. Sideline them so hard there are episodes where the Patrangers have no dialogue
Then the favoritism shines, and it kills the momentum the show has in favor of selling a few more toys by giving everything to the Lupinrangers

A decade on and GoBusters returns might still be my favourite Sentai movie? It's just so good, both as a parody of a more "traditional" Sentai without taking the piss, and as a change of pace for the GoBusters cast.

Oh right Gotchard. He looks good! Really like the aviator style goggles on the helmet, will wait and see the gimmicks in action before judging but I am still surprised the cards are just cards.

If this is, indeed, the main suit, then I'm very curious about the seemingly-false image from page 21 of this thread. At the time, it seemed likely it was one of the annual attempts for someone to clickbait by faking a next-Rider image. Now that we've seen what's apparently the actual suit, four major possibilities occur to me:

1. It's a different form of Gotchard. (Possible, not likely.)
2. It's a different Gotchard Rider, and Gotchard will follow the Reiwa trend of many-Rider series. (Also possible, but I think unlikely.)
3. It's a Kabuto-style "cast off" outer form for Gotchard. (Unlikely because not enough details correspond.)
4. Someone who'd seen the actual suit used its description to prompt Dall-E or Midjourney, and that was the output. (I think this is the most likely.)

There are too many specific, accurate elements for it to have been a total fake: the arrow-eyes, the "Heisei-style Rider helmet on top," the overall color scheme. It's machine-produced, so it's got the uncanny valley element, but it's not a fake in the traditional sense. More like a poor drawing, maybe.

The suit doesn't instantly suggest how the retail toy line will work. (It seems that much of a Rider's design is based on the retail gimmick, such as Revolve On for Geats and Fourze's swappable modules.) Maybe the front panel swings open? Maybe the helmet swings open? Looking more closely, I think it may simply be Zero-One-style swappable armor, and the individual pieces connect to the angular shapes on the limbs.

I can't say I love the suit, though. Maybe it's the angle or the inexplicable white triangle, but it just seems like the bad kind of "busy." YM, of course, MV.