I mentioned before that the pattern of Takahashi (assuming that's who PortalTron is referring to) every 3 years should stop, but if it's really going to be him again this year, then my only hope is that they add secondary writers like in Zero One. Producer Minato did Gotchard and that had a lot of writers, so hopefully him being involved might, just might, keep Zeztz from falling in to the burnout trap of previous Takahashi shows and the bad pacing trap of Ohmori shows.

I?m worried how the writings of the new season will work out.

Yep, you're right. I think my mind auto-corrected as I was typing his name despite looking AT his name while writing it down.

Also, some more news, I think:

Zeztz is organic looking, in a similar style to Hibiki or S.I.C. designs.

Secondary is mechanical looking.

Supposedly this may be a rough sketch of the design of Zeztz body:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GtoQ82IbQAAsmgG.jpg

Granted, this may be one long Telephone game, as the "leaks" at the start have been pretty different to now. Although given that Zeztz' design will most likely be officially revealed soon, so these are most likely more accurate.

EDIT: Another piece of info is that Zeztz' gimmick items (and Driver) look to be very cheap in price. Moreso than previous years.

I seriously hope the Takahashi rumor isn't true...

I have a feeling that after Takahashi made two shows with an optimistic goofball protagonist and one with a cold-blooded imba, Toei decided that to restore balance they needed another show from him with a cold-blooded imba.

Frankly, same. I have been seeing ideas floating around that Yuya would be picked because of his consistent popularity, but if that were the case, I am surprised that neither Gen Urobuchi nor Shogo Muto have been picked to come back as a writer considering both of their shows were massively popular.

Given that there are some additional rumors of a possible spy theme (like, dream infiltration like Inception), Shogo Muto would be a cool pick considering the earlier Build episodes had some similar concepts.

Yeah, count me in as someone who doesn't need another Takahashi season so soon, and I say this as someone who has enjoyed every Rider show of his that I've watched.

I don't need another season where they phase out Kaijin just so we can get more Rider vs Rider.

Though kind of surprised this seems like such a throwback from the design of Zeztz to the bike design. Makes me wonder if the villains are going to be some kind of riff on Shocker or the villain Riders will basically be like Shocker Riders.

So not only is the Driver positioned diagonally across the torso as rumored, but from this sketch it looks like Zeztz doesn't even have a belt. Reminds me of Gekiranger.

Sunred would know more about this than me, but I heard that Muto and Urobuchi are both big names outside of Tokusatsu, so I guess their schedules are pretty busy. Takahashi, on the other hand, seems like he has nothing else to do but write Kamen Rider, which isn't an insult but rather an observation.

Honestly, I'd love to see Muto write another Rider show. Build was one of the GOATs.

I think Toei should put him on Sentai and see what happens.

I'm really looking forward to the supposed henshin sling bag. I even wonder if the strap will be an adjustable nylon strap and not that plastic belt strap thing, because ergonomics and so people of all sizes could wear it around. Because no way that plastic strap thing is comfortable around the torso. It could be done, I don't doubt that, but likely uncomfortable.

Yeah, Urobuchi hit it big mainstream-wise with Madoka and Fate/Zero before Gaim iirc, and after Gaim he was invested in the Thunderbolt Fantasy series, which he does in collaboration with a puppet theater production in Taiwan, real intricate stuff. Personally, it feels like what GARO is to Keita Amemiya.
Muto is probably busy as we speak writing the Samurai Troopers/Ronin Warriors sequel that's expected to start airing in Japan next January. And yes, Muto already had a hit show pre-Build with the Densha Otoko tv drama during the 2000s.
As for Takahashi, looks like he's done anime stuff as well, notably the recent Lupin the Third shows and movies.

*Looks at Kiriya from Ex-Aid* ...RUN! :lolol

I guess then we should expect that each rider will wear the driver differently. Over the right/left shoulder, on the waist, on the side, etc. Or it will be true for different forms. It is only necessary that there are not too many forms/riders, otherwise they will have to either abandon the idea, or resort to very ridiculous wearing options.

The former interests me. Maybe someone who is very by-the-book wears it around their waist while others don't.

I have 0 problem with Yuya Takahashi lol, I really don't understand the people in the fandom saying things like "Takahashi is the best, but I'm so tired of him"... All his shows are mad different (with some obvious similarities), and the concept sounds sick. I'm not worried at all.

Is everyone just afraid it will be a repeat of previous over-used writers? IDK, maybe I'm over-interpreting it, but it seems like a uni-lateral cry of "Oh NO! what if they overuse Takahashi!?!"

IMO this is one of the more promising sets of rumours I've ever read. The design sounds interesting, the concept sounds interesting, writer wrote my 2 fav rider shows of the last decade (possibly ever), and add to that referencing Paprika? Not long after getting into toku i had a concept for a rider-adjacent toku character who goes into peoples dreams, so this is a potential ...ahem... dream come true for me lol

Everyone has their own tastes. Besides, the franchise has already had cases of writers who were exhausted and squeezed out like lemons, like Kobayashi and Inoue. Plus, Takahashi is good, but he is not the only one who is good. I think if his shows alternated at least every 5 years, and not 3, there would be fewer dissatisfied people.


Oh, I know that! I had the same thing with Saber. So I was very disappointed with the unflattering reception of its first episodes. But in the end, the show turned out even better than I could have expected, so good luck. Audiences often change their minds.

They sort of did this with The High School Heroes, which is criminally underrated.

Based on that show, I think Takahashi would be great on an official Sentai.

Same, I love the seasons he wrote for, some of them my favorites of all time (hell, even 01, for all of its flaws, is still pretty good). I think what's happening now is that people are treating Takanashi like Inoue way back before Donbrothers won over a ton of people.

For me, I still don't really like Inoue's favorite tropes, while I really like Takanashi's favorite tropes more. And yea, the seasons he wrote for are very different from each other, it's just that everyone is just too focused on the similarities than the differences.

My problem with Zeztz so far is that he might be grasshopper-themed. We've had two main Riders with grasshoppers as their main theme (01 and Gotchard), and I really wish we could get back to off-the-wall ones, since Gavv was such a nice breath of fresh air from having 5 straight animal-themed seasons.

Yeah, I think it's time Takahashi tries super sentai. I don't have a problem with Takahashi as a rider writer, but I am curious what he could bring to the series. Or maybe an Ultraman show.

Yeah I don't think many people oppose Takahashi as a writer in general, people are just justifiably feeling a bit burned out at this point (and Takahashi himself might be too). I mean think about it. If he is the head writer for Zeztz the guy will have have cropped up as head writer again every 2 years for about a decade!

I say this most years, but I either want someone new to write or have a returning writer we haven't seen in a while.

I wouldn't be thrilled. I love Ex-Aid, but each show since then has been consistently diminishing returns.

In terms of tropes, while Inoue's weakest point is the finales, Takahashi's is the 30th episodes. That period is generally considered the worst point in a year-long show, but when you look at the entire franchise, it's actually in Takahashi's work when it's really bad. Other writers handle it better, if not great.

Pretty much and I think this is a perfectly valid concern. I'm glad you have no problem, but many others have noticed a clear decline in writing quality in the second half of his shows and I see that problem getting worse, not better, the more that Toei bring him back, unless they do something about it, like adding more secondary writers to help him.

Oh, we've actually had a lot more than only 2 grasshopper-themed Primary Riders! As far as I can recall, there's also Rider 1, 2, V3, SkyRider, Shin, ZO, J, Double and OOO. I guess I just made your problem worse, huh.

I have the opposite opinion that each show he's written has been an improvement, albeit by such small margins that it becomes meh.

Yeah, I remember that blog where Takebe mentioned how Takahashi got impatient with the Sakurai siblings' arc during the 30s and she basically had to calm him down. Sounds like Takahashi is difficult to work with, due to how complex he writes his plots. However, I think we should forgive him for Zero One's 30s, since real life was the main problem. I think another show whose quality seriously suffers in the 30s is Kabuto.

wow i love it when people exaggerate my issues to try and make me look like a moron, always incredibly cool and funny to have my words be misread and misinterpreted like this /sarcasm

My concern isn't that he's grasshopper themed. And I'm not a dumb enough idiot that I don't know that grasshoppers have been an integral part of Kamen Rider motifs since the literal first series (why else would the majority of them have bug-like compound eyes?). My concern was that we only just had one off-the-wall Reiwa season with Gavv being a candy/snack-themed Rider. And that I wanted more off-the-wall seasons before getting another primarily animal-themed season.

Like you focused on the wrong part. This is the main takeaway of what I said here, bold and underlined:

I'll admit that I forgot to specify in Reiwa, because maybe I should've. That's on me, and I'll own that. But I also think the fact that I only mentioned the two Reiwa Riders with grasshopper themes is enough of a clue that I'm talking about Reiwa Riders exclusively.

Don't put words in my mouth that I didn't mean, or exaggerate what I say.

I don't really consider the late 20s-30s of Takanashi's seasons to be better or worse than other seasons. They're all sort of the same to me in quality, in that they're just an awkward transitory period between the mid arc and final arc. Sure, there're still good episodes in them, but sometimes the late 20s-30s feel like they're skippable.

Honestly I'd put responsibility onto Takebe, too. Takanashi had planned on writing Keiwa's antagonist arc earlier on, and Sara was supposed to die earlier, too, but she kept having him push the death further and further back so that Sara could keep being a beacon of light in Geats for as long as possible.

So I can get why Takanashi was beginning to be impatient with Keiwa and Sara's arc in the 30s, with Takebe telling him to push Sara's death further and further back. Neither are wrong, but neither are right.

I actually think that Gavv's uniqueness is way, way overdone. Gavv's costumes are certainly worthy of praise, but the reaction to them is like most of the audience hasn't seen anything beyond the first ten riders. I mean, we've already seen a candy-themed Kamen Rider 5 years ago. And even such an old concept as a train rafting with a peach, in my opinion, is much crazier than a chocolate cowboy.

I don't think there's been really that much of overstatement on Gavv's uniqueness. Most of the time I think it's more like people being happy that we finally have a change in pace after having, again, 5 seasons of animal-themed (partially or completely) Riders. At least with the main Riders, since other Riders tend to be a lot freer with what motifs they have, like in Saber. And honestly, a candy/snack themed Rider is just a ton of fun to begin with, I think. And Slash and Saikou were definitely my favorites from Saber with how off-the-wall they were compared to the others in Saber.

I feel like saying that "the reaction to them is like most of audience hasn't seen seen anything beyond the first ten Riders" is a little condescending? Like people always gush about the suits and seasons they love (which might come off as an overstatement for some). Also, I don't really think it's fair trying to rank each season's uniqueness, either. Like Den-O's uniqueness isn't really comparable to Gavv's. Each one does something different, even if there're common tropes (which is a symptom of a long-running franchise than it is of the writers, really).

Not my intention to offend. I kind of suck at picking up on subtext unless I'm critically looking for it. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

I suppose it could be a matter of perspective. Often when the producer goes against the writer's desire, it's criticized as executive meddling. But people also generally agree that Inoue's shows would suck if he had carte blanche. Revice would've been even worse, based on some of Kinoshita's ideas that got vetoed! Fitting for Geats, Takebe and Takahashi each had their own vision for how the show should proceed and the audience will have their own opinions of which vision is better. Personally, I think the brighter the beacon of hope shines, the darker the despair will be from the loss, so Takebe's argument makes sense to me.

But this is literally the same reason why people are unhappy with Takahashi's choice. And the reason why the animal motif continues to be used is the same reason why you are happy with him as a scriptwriter: proven results and variety (if only because there are almost 7,000 different species of grasshoppers alone ;)). To paraphrase myself in the Gozyuger theme: cars and watches are niche tastes, but animals are loved by almost everyone. So here the question is mostly who emphasizes what: uniqueness or typicality. Each show did something unique and each followed some tropes.
That's why I find the tendency to oversimplify or, rather, categorically classify shows into one camp or another strange. The same thing is observed with the division into scientific and mystical riders, although in the shows themselves it is often difficult to draw such a line; and into dark and light shows, which, by and large, is completely delirious. And now the idea that Faiz is a fun show sounds like sacrilege. Although Faiz is a fun show. I mean, I have a feeling that many people, even if they don't think in binary, at least express their thoughts in that way. So I guess I want the nuances not to be ignored and to get the attention they deserve.
Something like that. I hope I conveyed my thoughts clearly enough.

You feel wrong, because it's actually a compliment. Not everyone watched the first ten riders.

Apology accepted. I just genuinely do not like it when people misread or exaggerate the words I say.

Fair enough. It's always a balance of what producers and writers want to do. Always have to make compromises in creating stories. Though I think most people would say that Takanashi's idea makes more sense, considering a common criticism is how Keiwa's antagonist arc came too late.

I mean, I get why people don't want to see Takanashi so soon after having him write for Geats or Outsiders so recently (even if it's been like... 4 years since Geats? Geez, time moved fast). I'm not blind to that fact. I just personally like his writing enough that I'm personally fine with seeing him again. It's really no different from wanting other writers to come back and work on a season to me.

What I said and meant was that some people are now treating Takanashi like how Inoue was in the past; a recurring writer who's becoming more divisive due to the common tropes they use.

I really don't care if it's "oversimplifying" to divide Rider seasons into motifs and themes based on the apparent outset. All they are are just quick and easy categories to refer to. Of course seasons get more complicated when you get down into them, because no season is truly or fully alike. And I know that even in non-animal themed seasons there's at least one or two hints of them having some animal influence. I'm perfectly fine if there were subtle animal motifs in Riders. I just want to see more Riders where the animal theme isn't the most obvious influence.

I feel like that's what people are missing from what I'm saying whenever I try to clarify it. Like constantly. I have flatout said before that "I want there to be more main Riders that have obvious unique themes that aren't obviously animal themed, but if they do, that it's subtle instead". Hell, I can even literally just say "While I do love [insert season with obvious animal theme, like Gotchard or Geats], I just wish there were more unique themes instead of overt animal themes," and people would respond with "Actually animals have always been a major motif in Kamen Rider" or the like, as if I didn't know. It a little insulting that people seem to miss the point I'm making or focus on the wrong part. And it's exhausting for me having to reiterate this point so often.

Like with Riders with confirmed animal motifs, there's always at least something that catches your eye more than the animal motif. For example, with Double, I don't just think "grasshopper", I think more about how he's half-and-half with a giant W on his head (instead of having grasshopper antenna). Compare that to 01, where I just go "Yea, he's a grasshopper alright".

At this point, I feel like I said enough about what I hope and wish to see more of, so I think I'm just gonna drop this topic altogether now. No point in dragging it out.

Also, I really don't get calling cars a niche taste. Like watches I get, but cars? Kids have always loved cars. Hell, why else would Pixar's Cars be so popular for so long? I don't think that example is as good as you think it is.

Personally I would appreciate it if the writing is more or less as consistent as Geats'. But maybe with a better main villain.

Regardless of writer and motif, I hope the rumor about form changes being on the simpler side is true, since I tend to prefer simple changes for the normal forms with more in-depth changes being reserved for super and final forms

Well, not children, but boys. And even there there are some specifics. As I heard from one blogger: "As a child, I always played with soldiers, not cars, because I wanted to be a general, not a taxi driver." Add to this such factors as poverty or the fact that there are many more victims of car accidents than from bears and sharks. Plus, the cultural subtext. So by making the car the main theme you still risk alienating part of the audience. Returning to the riders, even on this site DreamSword considers Drive a fake Kamen Rider.

Inoue's shows like Faiz have such a reputation for drama that people may forget they're also full of great ridiculous comedy.

In that case, I think we should give a pass to OOO and Gotchard as well, since their hawks, tigers and steam trains with dinosaur and dragon Final Forms distinguish them from pure grasshoppers. Zero One is pretty much the only pure grasshopper since J, so depends on what else Zeztz might bring.

You would think after Donbrothers, everyone would remember that Inoue is secretly one of the funniest writers Toei has ever had on these shows. I still think about the tennis gag from 555 from time to time.

But I am going to join the chorus and hope Takahashi isn't the head writer. Geats to me was aggressively average and Outsiders flat-out sucked. Zeztz could easily become another Kiva, although the advanced filming schedule might work to his advantage without having to worry too much about retools.

I had a theory today.
In the Majade Girls special, there was that one girl who tried to transform but could not.
We ended up getting a silhouette of what the form looks like.
What if that form is actually Zeztz?

It. Was. A. Shitpost.

Sorry.:o

I'm guessing this was a setup for the next Girl Remix, but who knows? Things often pop up in unexpected places, like the villain from the Ghost and Saber crossover ending popping up in Outsiders.
Speaking of theories, here's what came to mind. Recently (and actually quite a while ago) there was a report about Toei's Napoleonic plans, including more attention to foreign audiences, cooperation with Chinese companies, the creation of new heroes, etc. I don't know how much of this they will actually manage to implement (and I'm almost certain that they won't succeed in all of it). But what if the frequent return to the grasshopper theme lately is part of this strategy to make KR more distinctive? After all, the riders have long since turned from cyborg motorcyclists into simple superheroes with a variety of themes, and if Toei has plans for theoretical New Metal Heroes, the difference between the franchises should be more noticeable.

Ace's entire existence and the action scenes say otherwise!

From the same episode that gave us Takumi's most inspirational quote: "Take care you don't get kicked by a horse and die." :lol

That sure is a theory.

Yeah, we need more Metal Heroes content for sure! Toei have left us hanging since the post-credits of Kyuranger VS Space Squad.

I guess it depends on how much the viewer likes Ace and CGI.

Congrats on your 1300th post!

Just because you heard it from one blogger, doesn't mean anything. Don't try and "one guy" me here. And you're just adding in things that kids wouldn't care about unless they're like, constantly bombarded by news or something.

With OOO, fine, you got me there. But Gotchard, as much as I love him, has a more obvious grasshopper theme in comparison. Like, you really wouldn't be able to tell he has a stream train theme too when the train part is relegated to a small smokestack on his chest armor, and some circles on his leg armor. They don't even have like, trainwheel spokes, they're just circles.

And honestly, with Gotchard I was more concerned that his final form would've just been another boring upgrade of the base form. So I'm glad we got Rainbow Gotchard, way more interesting. And hot take, Iron Gotchard is way cooler than Platina Gotchard).

Yea, he's great if you find him funny. I usually don't. There are some episodes of his that I do like, but generally I do not like him as a head writer. And part of my frustrations tend to be more related to how he gets interesting worldbuilding material, but then does nothing with it.

Like, "Oh cool, there's 13 Demon Races in Kiva? That sounds interesting, I wonder- Oh, 5 of them are extinct, and 3 of them only have 1 survivor. Alright.", or "Oh, they have a unique version of Zenkaisesr? I wonder what his deal is- Oh they never address this, not even in the crossover movie".

Ironic that I like Akiko Inoue's writing more, even if she shares some of her father's favorite tropes. I just find her writing to be more bearable because she actually balance the comedy out with interesting worldbuilding.

Thank you!