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Quote:

Originally Posted by Suzu

They made a hella big deal out of it in the movie. And for children, this might also have been an exciting question. Also, if they never wanted it to be a mystery, they could just have Alan hold the Eyecon more often and have him talk more about it... but they didn't. So yes, it was supposed to be a mystery.

No, what I'm getting at is like... NECROM is the mystery and the reveal; not who he is. I mean, think about it. They kept the Houdini Eyecon's sticker hidden for a few episodes. We never questioned that Specter was going to be the one eventually using it, but from a narrative standpoint, the mystery there was "what is this Eyecon?"
Sort of similarly, if you had ONLY watched the show and never payed any attention to promo fliers or magazines, the first glimpse or mention of Necrom is the shot of the Eyecon in the preview for this week's episode. From there, you see those are Alan's fingers and would go "Oh! Alan was planning/creating something in the Ganma world several weeks ago. That's probably what it was!" From a perspective like that, it's more of surprise to the viewer that Alan is becoming a Rider, and less that the Rider is actually Alan.

I'm not sure if what I'm saying is clear, but basically it's all about point of view. I suppose from a marketing and publicity standpoint, the Necrom situation was a little bit like a "whodunnit?" But only from there. I don't think the show itself was ever keeping Alan AS Necrom a secret. It was more keeping Necrom's existence AT ALL a secret. The problem there being Kamen Rider media and advertising doesn't play well with tight reveals like that. You can't just keep something like that hush-hush and expect to sell toys the day they're revealed.