It depends on the experience for the show was for me. I remember a few KR actors admit that they didn't like working on the show that they work on. I recall Joe Odagiri hated working on Kuuga.

Several of the actors from Hibiki were very vocal about their displeasure with the production staff shake-up. It was a pretty big deal since it was rare for actors to go public with those kinds of negative feelings.

Regarding Odagiri, from what I have gathered that whole "I hate toku, suck it" part was taken out of context somewhat. One thing about Odagiri is that in the late 90s he was going through a "drama/theater hipster" phase and hated mainstream acting and a children's show where folks change from casual clothes to a skintight bodysuit and fiber-reinforced plastic mask to fight ugly monsters while screeching "I will kick your ass for justice!" so casually probably will not float his boat circa late 1990s. Apparently the Kuuga staff(and probably/primarily Chief Producer Takatera who previously worked on Carranger and later went on to produce the first half of Kamen Rider Hibiki and Daimajin Kanon) noticed this during auditions and convinced him that they are also trying to break the mold with Kuuga, which was music to young padawan Odagiri's ears.

So thanks to a supportive environment he had the liberty to play the role of a superhero who was not the gung ho male toku lead that bellows "YOSHI, IKUZO!" every time and also allowed him to give his personal suggestions and opinions during filming which is pretty rare for a rookie actor that just got his/her first lead role I bet.

From the looks of it he enjoyed Kuuga despite still being a weekly 30-minute toy commercial + mainstream media at the time because he had a chance to grow as an actor while being part of a project that tried to do things differently for a rather formulaic series. Heck, he is still buddies with most of the actors and staff to the point where he attends private reunions, and if you see Daimajin Kanon which Takatera worked on, Odagiri cameos in it which is because he is still friends with Takatera.

Yep, I believe most toku fans were angry at the time. Also having the entire production team replaced mid-season is not a common sight so there's that too. My theory for the whole switcheroo is that Takatera's auteur tendencies reached its limit(remember, this was the man who was in charge of the show that engulfed a chapel in flames for the most badass debut of Kuuga Mighty Form) and Toei and Bandai probably was worried that they would go broke if they let him continue, so they kicked him out and replaced him with Shirakura who despite the hate and venom is known for bringing in profit in most of the stuff he works on.

Oh yeah, speaking of that burning chapel...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5XYfMECZcyI

There are a number of explanations. The ones that tend to get repeated the most are that it was likely a combination of a) production going significantly over-budget with all of the location filming, b) the producer's unwillingness to listen to Toei's demands to lower costs, and c) tanking toy sales. One of the best theories I've heard about Daimajin Kanon, which had a lot of Hibiki's original production staff (and is amazing and everyone should watch it), is that it's basically an allegory for Hibiki's production. Kanon is basically a stand-in for the producer, her scumbag boyfriend is Toei, and the song he stole and butchered to make a pop hit is Hibiki. I'm not sure how much, if any, of that was intentional, but it's a cool read on the series.

Goddamn, I freaking love Kuuga.

So, does Kamen Rider (and Sentai, while we're at it) usually shoot on sets? It all looks pretty on-location to me. I've been wondering for a while.

I think the tons of forest and mountain film locations is what blew the budget on Hibiki.

There are some sets, of course - like the temple on Ghost or Yamato's house on Zyuohger, but most of the action is shot outdoors. These shows shoot at a lot of the same locations over and over and over again, though. Watch a bunch of modern shows and see how often you see the same rock quarry, warehouse, and stadium exterior. Some of them are on the actual Toei lot and the others are locations that they presumably have some kind of agreement with to keep using. What made Hibiki different is that most of its action scenes were shot in forests and mountains outside of Tokyo. It's a lot more expensive to drag your crew and equipment out there than it is to go back to that one amphitheater in town again.

That's what I figured, but I didn't want to just assume.

So like how every 90s Sentai always seems to end up at those cliffs?

Toei films a lot of period dramas that they have sets built for and in constant working conditions. This explains why you see a lot of feudal Japan time travel plots in Sentai and to a lesser extent, Rider.

One of the things a lot of younger Western tokusatsu fans (late teens, early 20s) tend to gloss over are the messages producers and writers put in their show because they're just "wacky toy commercials". Reading Kanon in that way, I think, is very accurate and valid.

Also, on the subject of Odagiri:

http://tokusatsunetwork.com/2016/03/15074/

this is as thorough a look into the subject in English as you're going to find.

I assume by Daimajin Kanon, you're talking about this, right?

http://i.imgur.com/TmUDi95.jpg