If true, i hope he gets back to the W level.

I have mixed feelings on Riku Sanjo tbh... I think this would be fun as long as it isn't a two-parter based show... I'm not a fan of that format in W or in Drive, i'd much rather have smth either totally episodic or super serialized personally

For the time being there are writer's I'd rather see than Sanjo, but I would still be curious to see what he'd do with another rider show... It upsets me to realize Drive will be 10 years old next year, but I imagine Sanjo would have some new ideas to share after such a long time lol

As long as it isn't him doing a show that's just "double again" again I'd be curious to see it

Still we've had very bogus head writer rumours around this time other years, so not gonna assume too much until we know for sure

Huh, interesting if true. Wonder if this means we'll get back to the two-parter format that he used as the head writer for Double and Drive (and as secondary writer for Fourze). If this is true, at least.

As for Gotchard himself, he's..... eeeeeeeeh. I'm not a fan that we're going to stick with "animal + [insert second thing]". We've had that since Zero-One, and I wanted something wholly non-animal again. I mean, with the pirate card, it's not strictly animal at least, but still. Like say what you want about how we had a string of non-animal seasons before, but at least they were all distinct and different. Like Ghost's famous people motif and Ex-Aid's video game motif are NOTHING alike.

It worked for Drive and Double 'cuz those were mystery-based shows. If Gotchard is also mystery-based like them, I think it could work. Like what good is a mystery if it was instantly solved in one episode?

Then again, we could have like, arc-based mysteries... that would be a fun take.

The suit so far gives me Kiramei silver vibes

So I've heard! These days, I usually start a new season right before the last episode, and it's coming close to that time.


I am... shall we say... emphatically opposed to a return of the two-part format. That said, I would be very interested to see Sanjo tackle modern Rider's more serialized format.

Yup, this 2000%

Strict two-parters are not my cup of tea at all, I'd lose a lot of interest in this show if it brought them back

There are things I like about Sanjo's writing tho that I'd love to see in a different writing format. I do often like his characters in particular

I...I LOVE THIS!

It's a bit clunky yet it somehow works?! The hopper legs, the open wings on he chest, the steampunk goggles, my goodness it's a feast on the eyes.

To be honest, two-parters aren't really bad in and of themselves. They have their own strengths. For one, it would be nice to see a season where the monsters were characters again like in Double or Drive. With the serialized arc format, there's less of an incentive to make monsters of the week, and more an incentive to make each season a Rider vs Rider one. Like when was the last time we had an actual monster of the week that was a character?

Like I prefer the arc format myself, but it's not like there aren't any weaknesses, either. Sometimes they feel like they drag out some plots that really should've been resolved quicker. Lest we forget that one of the big criticisms is how Daiji's plot was dragged out for way too long in Revice, or how Rintaro's arc had him just lingering the background doing nothing for a while.

Personally I think there really can be a good medium between the two-parter format and the arc format. Like try to work in the strengths of both, I say.

It's funny, on SpaceBattles I had an argument about why two-parters were weak, while here I'm talking about how arc formats aren't always strong either. Though my opinion is still that there's a good medium that can happen between them.

New rumor dropped, apparently Koichi Sakamoto his supposed to be the main director. This ones a bit more up in the air compared to the Riku Sanjo rumor but if it is true then we at least know the action will be flashy as hell.

So far, I like Gotchard's Design!

Very Showa but with extra protrusions to stand out. The helmet having Goggles resemble Ichigo's helmet is nice, and the arrow eyes look pretty good on it. The Driver is nice and simple, and the Card Gimmick more reminds me of Ultraman Decker (funny how their gimmicks overlap from time to time) more than Decade. I'm also especially pleased with the inclusion of a steam train for the base form, which as a whole reminds me of Build, in its theme.

Overall, I'm pleased with what we see so far.

All these discussions about the return of the two-part format... Yeah, it's like it hasn't disappeared anywhere. In the Geats, most of the rounds take exactly two episodes. In Revice, the monsters of the week at the beginning were also exposed for two episodes, as well as in Saber, Zero-One, Zi-O...
Sakamoto as a director is cool. Basically, I like the combination of Sanji-Sakamoto. It looks like a return to basics, but not very old.

Aww man... there goes my interest in watching this... :cry

Really dislike all of his work up to now... tbh he just glosses over details etc, I find his stories to be predictable and his characters to be very derivative of JUMP tropes etc... sigh

Yea, Geats is arguably doing a lot of what I feel like is a nice medium for a lot of aspects, I think. It balances the two-parter format and arc format well, with my only gripe being that we don't get more unique monsters still (though it's not enough to really hamper my enjoyment), the usage of forms, and how the final forms are still complex and differ greatly from their base form silhouettes while also being simpler than some previous final forms. Geats does a lot of things well in my opinion that makes it a fantastic season overall (it isn't perfect, but still one of my favorites).

Gotchard has a lot to live up to in my opinion.

Stuff I like about it are story, designs, a lot of toku alumni from here and there. :rock:

Sanjo!? Yes, please!

I have been itching for another show from him! Man knows how to do a proper slow build! And with Geats seemingly heralding the return of the MotW Two-Parter, in my opinion the best structure for Rider, this could be another home run!

Now, if only it turns out true!

Based on the experiences of the Jetman and Zyuranger, I would say that the best way to do well after a popular show is not to try to copy or outdo it, but to be something completely different. To do what the predecessor could not afford.

This is 100% true.

Personally this is why I've used the phrase "strict two-partners" a few times when talking about W or Drive (among other shows)

Imo there's some major distinctions between how W and Drive did things and how "modern" two-parters work.

While it's a bit hard to convery in words the best way I can describe it is by example. In W I would describe the two-part stories as being presented as the main focus of the show, with the running narrative elements being a secondary focus, that became a bigger focus at the end. As well in W a lot of the time the two-parters are cleanly divided, one two-parter doesn't always *naturaly* run into the next two parter, we just sort of get a little tease for it. This isn't always 100% true but yeah

While in geats for example the running narrative feels like the focus of the show, with the two-part monsters/events working more as a framing device to deliver the story. In geats while the monsters exist for two episodes, story lines carry cleanly between all episodes, so conceptually a story line from epispde 3 might still be firmly relevant in episode 6, stuff like that. There are still more episodic leaning story elements, but they feel again, more like framing, and not like the main focus of the show

Again these aren't 100% true all the time but imo they feel very different. The older style is more episodic with light overarching story, while the modern style is more overarching story heavy with an episodeic framing device.

I think ex-aid was the first show to try to make this style distinction, but geats definitely feels like the farthest pushed example of this method

I do think strict two-parters can be fun in their own way, (I like W, OOO, and Fourze all a lot), but overall I just hope that if Riku Sanio is back he does something more different with the show? Tbh while there a lot of things I did enjoy in Drive I always felt like it really wanted to be W a lot of the time and it kind of killed it for me... it felt too samey with a LOT of the same themes and concepts explored, and all within the same style of narrative structure. I'd like to see something extremely different from his past works, bc otherwise I think like Drive (for me anyways) it'll wind up just being a show that lives in W's shadow

But that is how Geats works as well. The story doesn?t make any real progress till the first quarter ends and even the only start moving properly with the raid on the garden. And Geat?s main focus is the two-parter stories. Geats just is W structure. Flat out, just more open in the endgame.

The role of MotW is just played by the Riders

Well, then you can draw a comparison with Takahashi. W was Sanji's Ex-Aid. The drive was his Zero One. Therefore, Gotchard should be Sanji`s Geats, where there will be a lot of experimentation, but familiar tropes will still appear from time to time.

I think it's just that Takahashi doesn't work very well in the format of a show for a year. Not terrible, but exactly what is not good. Zero-One's tempo problems were attributed to the pandemic, but in fact, Ex-Aid didn't do very well without it either. Plus, specifically in the case of Geats, the fact that Ace is both a purposeful and passive protagonist also does not benefit the show. As I already mentioned, if not for Girori and PunkJack, he would have been playing DGP for another 2000 years, having no idea about the fate of his mother.

I also have to write that I love Gotchard's white gloves. Very stylish and unusual.

I have no problem with that. I love the fact the show takes its damn time with the plot. It's slow and methodical, actually exploring its concepts and not racing through them like a jaguar on speed.

Geats is exactly how I like my pacing in Rider, slow and purposeful, forced to take its time.

I still prefer more active protagonists.

Gotchard's design feels very anime. Like take Ichigo's design and really liven it up and more toyetic.

It's cool that we're going with Cards as a gimmick again since it's been so long. It seems like the forms involve combining a theme (Grasshopper, Pirate) with a vehicle (Train, Car). I wonder if that plays into the gimmick for the bike (assuming Gotchard has one).

I'm curious if going back to grasshopper implies some kind of throwback or plan for a more traditional show or some kind of anniversary theme (although I doubt they'll go as far with it as past shows).

Sanjo and Sakamoto?

Well, Sanjo hasn't done a Rider show since Drive so it'd be kind of interesting to see how he would handle writing a modern Rider show in the Reiwa era (and certainly with Inoue and Takahashi we see that sometimes you can bring out the best from old favorites when you give them another go rather than expecting them to repeat themselves). I enjoyed W and Drive, and Fuuto PI, so I'm not really concerned on that front. At the very least I'd like to think a Sanjo show will refrain from too much Rider vs Rider content.

I wonder if this is why Sakamoto isn't set to direct any Ultraman Blazar episodes because he was working on this? Or the new Ultra Galaxy Fight. I wonder if they already finished filming the latter. Either way I'm expecting some good action sequences and at least one or two rapid-form-change moments as is tradition for Sakamoto.

I just hope Gotchard gets more monsters.

I hate for this season to be 2-parter episodes full-time.

I think it could be because of Shin Kamen Rider, Blazar's also kinda going back to basics in a way after Shin Ultraman

I bet Hopper and Bike will be the first power-up.
Also, it is worth noting that, unlike other cards, we have not just a Grasshopper, but "Hopper1". It is logical to expect that other versions will appear, especially "Hopper X"
Also, Geats is a nine-tailed fox, and Gotchard is clearly up to something with the ten. Is this not a reason to resurrect the number theory?

Like a lot of people, I have mixed feelings about Riku Sanjo as a writer. I've always regarded Kamen Rider W as his one-hit-wonder moment. I don't even like Fuuto PI! Drive was aggressively middling? Digimon Xros Wars was not very good. Just recently I watched the modern anime adaptation of Dragon Quest: The Adventure of Dai, which Riku Sanjo wrote the original manga version of. It had a handful of extremely good elements combined with aggresively generic shounen garbage. I was legit only invested whenever Popp was onscreen.

So yeah, I don't exactly have a great track record for liking the things he writes.

Riku Sanjo would be an interesting writer. I feel that a lot of his drawbacks stemmed from what was expected from Rider series at the time (two part format was a bit more common 10 years ago than now), and I absolutely loved Drive. He is a bit of a wildcard in respect to the fact that he hasn't written a live action Toku in almost 10 years, so it would be interesting to see him as a writer again.

Koichi Sakamoto directing? That would be amazing.


Also random: but after looking at Gotchard some more it just occurred to me that the cards have zero input on the coloring. Kind of like Revice (only Revice stuck to a particular color palette) it looks like the cards will not really give an indication as to what the form will be like (other than the basic elements).

I do like that he has a really interesting primary form. Usually primary forms tend to be minimalistic, but I like that he has a lot of detailing while keeping an overall simple aesthetic.

Really curious about the belt as well. One image showed him taking the two cards in/out of the belt with the backs of the cards facing the front, but the image of him kicking shows that there is some sort of display that shows the parts of the helmet design for the form. I thought the cards would form an image similar to Ex-Aid, but maybe it's an image generated by the belt itself.

Wait, so you dislike: W/Fuuto PI, Drive, and Kyoryuger?

Everyone should dislike Kyoryuger.

I didn't dislike it. Just King. I hated King. XD

Kyoruger is great :P

Kyoryuger's fine. Not amazing, but I enjoyed it, compared to other shows (even DonBrothers, honestly, 'cuz I cannot like Inoue's style of writing).

I'm glad you all liked Kyoryuger, I honestly am.
I'm just saying that if Zyuohger didn't happen when it did, I probably would have dropped Super Sentai entirely :lol

I think Zero One benefited from actually having secondary writers to help out. Takahashi gave EX-Aid a strong start and kept it going all the way through the Genm-X arc, but then he dragged out Kamen Rider Chronicle for the entire second half and it got tedious.

So I was worried when I heard Takahashi was going to be writing Geats all by himself and I stand by my belief that he could do better with some secondary writers, but honestly, I think he's improved a lot. Takebe should receive some credit though, like not mandating dumb tedious stuff like the infamous Work Competition that Ohmori came up with. The writer and producer pair is important to consider.

They look silver to me.

I know right! Kyoryuger was annoying. ToQGer was the worst. Ninninjer was okay, which I guess makes me more generous towards it than most people. That's what I think anyway. But it was a painful 3 years of Sentai for sure.

Sanjo has never written a Rider show I didn't enjoy. I rank both Double and Drive in my top 10 for Heisei. However, he definitely does some tropes that frustrate me and those tropes are amplified in a Sentai. King has his "We're a team!" catchphrase, but he's no more qualified to talk about teamwork than Sanjo is to write about it.

There's a recent increase in female Riders, right? Sadly, female characters are more often limited to distressed damsels or romance subplot devices in Sanjo's works, even a cop like Kiriko isn't immune to this.

I think Sanjo specializes in writing a small number of characters and hitting some tragic notes, such as Cyclone Effect Acoustic, or Brain's heroic sacrifice, or even Aigaron's heroic sacrifice from Kyoryuger. Pretty much heroic sacrifices in general, he's good at these! Of course, people probably think about his style of comedy as well, which can range from some good jokes, to being a little too ridiculous.

It could go either way.

I hate Kyoryuger every bit as much as Kyoryuger hated its audience's ears.

Riku Sanjo potentially being the head writer does make me wonder if we'll get a show that has way less Riders in it. Sanjo has said that he much prefers smaller casts to work with (probably part of the reason why the extra rangers in Kyoryuger don't show up all the time) so maybe we'll get a show that has like 4 Rider max.

I doubt they'd get the guy who has a hard time with large casts & then be like "oh yeah, btw this shows gonna have like 7-13 riders" but hey we'll see, plus we're still in the rumor mill so the stuff about Sanjo & Sakamoto could turn out to be false.

Really dig the suit. Always love to see the antenna and bug eyes (and possibly even a scarf again? ) I don't buy DX so I don't care all that much the functionality of the cards/belt, but I hope the gimmick doesn't feel too tacked on ( we all know midway into the season the items become irrelevant anyway )

This brighter suit makes me wonder if we're getting a more goofy/light hearted protagonist, which honestly I wouldn't mind. Rider is a series that lends itself well to changing up the tone and characterization of the cast

I would be totally down for a smaller Rider number and emphasis on the Kaijin as the antagonists again, but even Revice started unloading Rider after Rider in the last half.
It would be funny if they complete a Riku Sanjo detective trifecta with Shotaro/Philippe->Shinnosuke->Gotchard

They'll probably be a personality contrast with Ace at any rate.