I'm not too familiar with her work, she seems to have done some good stuff. Exciting to have a new head writer if true!

I'm very 50/50 on Komura's work. She has a lot of trouble with making the main storylines engaging, but her episode by episode writing is frequently hilarious and inspired.

Surprised that Toei would keep this a secret, unless she's more popular in Japanese fan circles than I realized.

Look on the bright side, that means the bike will be used a lot more often! ... just not as a bike XD

According to Reddit (the most "trustworthy" of sources), it was straight up the first 3 episodes that got leaked and put onto BiliBili. The videos are gone now, but how they even got onto there is anyone's guess.

As for the information itself... I'm optimistic. I wasn't really into Lupat, but their most recent work on Zenkaiger was a very enjoyable time.

Oh, great. Cool. Really looking forward to the bad guy who sits in a chair for 45 episodes before actually doing anything.

I feel like Zenkaiger was a bit of a divisive season of sentai, but honestly I was totally in love with it, and have basically been wanting a Komura Rider season ever since!

Even though it's another, uh, divisive show, I personally really liked most of her output on Kamen Rider Wizard, and particularly Wizard in Magic Land is really fun, possibly still my fave rider movie to come out of neo heisei?

So really I couldn't be more excited about this!

I also sort of feel like knowing Komura will be at the helm, makes the vibe of the toys and suits click a lot better in my brain... idk, something about it all just feels like it'll come together really well with her as the writer...

So as for the source. I know a few people from China and Hong Kong that i met through toku circles, and what I've been told is the predominant thinking in circles over there, is basically that some people who work on media censorship in China (i.e. editing content to make sure it meets the requirements for release in China) likely were given the episodes, probabaly by a service such as iQiy who has the rights to release Kamen Rider in China.

Then for whatever reason someone with access to that footage for censorship purposes, uploaded it online.

For what it's worth the videos were password protected to my understanding, meaning only a small group of people approved by the uploader were even able to watch it at all. But everyone could see the auto-thubnails. Sooooo, it was quickly taken down for obvious reasons.

My understanding is that based on how media distribution works in China and the context around the event, this is more or less the only viable option? (Unless some Toei or iQiy exec decided they wanted to lose their job over smth like this I guess lol)

In the end I'm curious if it was even an intentional "leak" considering the password protection, or if it was done as an earnest attempt to send the footage to someone for their professional input that just went horribly wrong lol

Bonus comment: In the past rider has started with a severe delay in China, so the fact that these episodes were filmed and handed over so early likely means they want to simul release with China in the future, or at least get the release very close... likely with the goal of making the official release more convenient than fansubs.

(Obvs most of this is theorizing and not proven but this seems to be the general vibe from people over in China, where these leaks have come from)

Just to give you a sense of what she worked on, her latest work as main writer in tokusatsu was Zenkaiger and she worked on some episodes for Wizard, Drive, and Saber within Kamen Rider.

I don't know if she's popular to that degree, but yeah, pretty much what you said.

Similar to Inoue (Toshiki), Komura writes characters before plot and I'm totally excited for it, but yeah, for anybody expecting a story-focused show, this style might not be their niche. Well, nobody can satisfy everybody.

I think Zyuohger and LupinPatren could be described as divisive, but I recall 3 years ago that Zenkaiger received strong praise virtually every week for its unique style of comedy. Pretty sure Zenkaiger was popular!

Perhaps where Komura's first 2 Sentai may have struggled with the overall narrative was likely due to Utsunomiya's formula, while Shirakura allowed her more freedom to do what she wanted. Curious to see how she will collaborate with Takebe this time.

Also the secondary writer for Gokaiger and debuted as main writer for Bima-X.

Wait, what? Interesting.

I just recently finished watching Bima-X and am completely in love with this show. This is more of a rider than many, many riders. And overall, I have mostly positive impressions of Komura?s work. Yes, her main plot is not exciting or dynamic, but she knows how to do good comedy, create likable characters and make really memorable villains of an episode/two episodes. So I'm all for it and I?ll be happy to see what she does.
P.S. Alternatively, maybe Toei realized that the plot of most rider shows is too short for 40+ episodes and therefore made the person in charge of fillers the head writer. And the main plot in Gavve, which will take 10 episodes, will be handled by an additional screenwriter.