Cause Den-O printed toku money at the time and they wanted to pinch every penny. :lolol
But really, it was considered a huge success at the time so I don't blame them.

Hey so what kamen rider series do you feel are the most "auteur"/have had the most clear style and ideas?

Probably the Taketara series - Kuuga and Hibiki. They both have a really unmistakable style and tone that's very unique.

Yes, those two for sure. And Kamen Rider Shin Prologue as well.

I gotta throw Shin into the ring as well. Part of me wishes it went a little further into the body horror realm to have a more unique feel, but as it is, I still think it's a different take on the superhero genre.

Oh yeah, and it feels like Ishinomori's pet project pretty much. Thing about Shin is that it was the second rider Ishinomori proclaimed to be Kamen Rider no.0 when he first said it to BLACK. The way I translate this is BLACK was a back-to-basics within the established franchise while Shin is no.0 in terms of the foundation of Kamen Rider. In Transformers terms, BLACK I say is IDW Transformers or Transformers Prime while Shin is be a Diaclone reboot for a lack of better comparison. That said, I kinda wonder what would have happened had they went with the Kamen Rider Gaia plan. We got it eventually through the Kamen Rider Eve novel but I wonder how different the Heisei Rider series would have been. Heck, Kamen Rider Gaia could have been the Ultraman Zero of the franchise.

I'mma answer my own question today, because why not. I think Den-o has a very unique (for the time) sense of story telling and direction. It feels all at once very calm, yet manic and energetic. The stories themselves are very focused on a sort of slice of life, and what each individual wants. I feel it uses the simple effects and story structure in a way that wasn't really seen before or after.

If I'm being kind of honest, it feels like Kamen Rider the Coffee Shop AU.

It was a breath of fresh air at the time considering the previous shows were overall serious or heavy in tone whether people take them serious or not. Den-O was straight-up comedic and had a bright tone, and the fact that you pretty much have a ditzy and naturally unlucky young man as the protagonist paired with four monsters who are all radical and different in their own way was just very new. The riding a train wasn't that shocking personally cause at the end of the day he still rode a bike and used said bike to control the train so technically he was still on a bike. But back to my point, in retrospect it was what Shazam was to the DCEU for a lack of comparison.

IMO (while arguably needed to some extent) Den-O is more infamous for taking the franchise in a ''less good'' direction(at least for a while) than anything great, it's not like I'm one of those people that absolutely hate it and sometimes I did genuinely laugh but I can't praise it too much when Wataru deserves more credit for being a better protagonist to me, whereas it struck me that people only really like Ryotaro because of Takeru Sato because I hated him when he was just being normal!

What's funny about this is the timing!

Not long ago, a friend of mine on Facebook shared a video from "Deep Cuts Podcast" (which asks a dozen questions about pop-culture; some of their stuff can relate to whether Spider-Man was truly the brainchild of Lee and Kirby, and how "Message from Space" is a wild and unique Star Wars ripoff).

Back to the point, the video said friend shared was the Podcast guys watching and commenting on the "transformation" into Shin from the film, and how the body horror is basically copied from "An American Werewolf in London". The bisected jaw of Shin was definitely a plus to the duo.

Every indication (based in part on the minimal information provided in said video in addition to what I know of Shin) is that Shin is a literal representation of Ishinomori's belief in that the Rider was a hero and a "monster", though over the years some have argued that Shin doesn't really count because he doesn't wear a "mask" and doesn't actually have a bike to ride! One could also argue that the limitations of filming technology and '70s sensibilities prevented Ishinomori from really showing what he may always have wanted. At least, that's my take.

Shin is one of those things that seems to be going up in appeal for how it tried to be different.

To quote the text displayed on the post with the shared video: "Tokusatsu + Body Horror = Best Thing Ever"!