[PortalTron]

I think what it really boils down to are stakes.


Double/OOO/Fourze and arguably Wizard had much smaller stakes for a majority of their runtimes, with most of their respective shows dedicated to smaller scale conflicts with a monster menacing a small group of people and the Rider countering that.

Gaim started similarly but then had the big reveal of massive stakes (which was a bit refreshing at the time). Drive when back to smaller stakes for a while (although the Roidmudes did want global domination, a lot of the show was about them gradually gaining power). Ghost-Build all started out pretty similarly with smaller stakes for the first quarter, and then a big change occurs which majorly changes the tone of the show.

Reiwa is really weird when it comes to stakes. Zero-One started small with regular Humagears getting hacked by a small terrorist group, then it's revealed that the Ark is gearing for Global Extinction and Zaia shows up wanting a large-scale conflict between companies, but is resolved with smaller battles.

Saber similarly starts off with smaller conflicts but kind of quickly ramps up stakes by having the Megid go for the goal in the first quarter, and then it kind of keeps that tone for a while before having massive world-ending stakes.

Revice was a bit messier in that it starts off fairly simple with regular people using stamps to fulfill whatever secret desire they have, but then quickly abandons that for presenting Gif as this major world-ending threat and a major conflict that results in the destruction of the cult's base. In other words, stakes are small and then kicked into overdrive very quickly without proper buildup

Geats I feel is the biggest offendor, as the show starts off with "This is a real life Tournament/Competition and not a World Ending Conflict" that has a major death early on and then within the first 10 episodes presents a..... World Ending Conflict. With the reveal of what the DGP really is Stakes are sent so far into overdrive that literally anything is on the table.

It's tough to see what Gotchard will be like just from the trailer. I really don't like the serious tone coming from the Alchemists and potentially the three sisters, but trailers for Reiwa usually tend to be more a trailer for the first episode rather than a summary of the show itself, so really it's hard to tell.

Frankly, I wish Gotchard would go back to smaller-scale conflicts like Double/OOO/Fourze/Drive for a good 20-30 episodes before escalating the conflict. The premise doesn't scream "World Ending Conflict" so I really hope it keeps a lighter tone (aka not having everyone be serious about a major threat and instead have smaller scale issues to deal with).