[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Die

I wonder why that phased out and then back in, though.

It might have been part budget, and part Kamen Rider trying to get away from old Showa tropes as much as possible. The demands of making tons of mook suits usually mean they end up as cheap spandex onesies with a helmet, and 12 of those guys running around every episode might've clashed horribly with the lavish, realistic monster suits in a show like Kuuga or Agito.

For that matter, Black, back during the Showa era, had no designated mooks either, and had similarly elaborate monster designs and a somewhat more grounded tone. I'm just spitballing here, but given that Kabuto was an anniversary series with high production values, and its mooks all look on the same level of detail as the primary monsters, I think I might be onto something.

Narratively, it also just plain wouldn't have been a good fit for Kuuga, which constantly stressed how big a threat just a single Grongi was, so maybe that set a precedent, too? Agito could've probably fit some kind of, like, Unknown enforcer squads or something into the lore if it *really* wanted to, without being too silly. But with the new style from Kuuga already in place, why bother, right?

All this said, there are definitely still going to be occasions throughout these shows where Riders fight bigger groups of monsters.