[MangaArtist18]

My main takeaway from Zi-O is that it's a really feelgood fun show. It's not meant to be taken too seriously, or contemplated and understood as concretely.

• Sure, the rules of time travel are wacked up and don't make sense, and I find that's perfectly okay.

I mean, we know the Riders can travel forward and backward in time. It's just more so the Another Rider stuff that's somewhat incomprehensible.

All I know is that the watches have a Rider's powers, which means the Rider and their show are "somewhat" rendered moot, unless the watch is given to their appropriate owner.
All the Rider shows are separate worlds, but also not, because of timeline shenanigans.
And this whole watch-cracking epidemic is basically causing every event to happen in one timeline, which, if left unchecked, means the world(s) will be destroyed.
That's my understanding of current events. And I think I'm pretty happy with that theory.

But I digress. Back to reflection.

• The cast look like they're having a ton of fun.

Legit, look at their Twitters and Instas. They're being so heccin' adorable. Such a lovely family. I wish them nothing but joy in the years to come.

• TOEI got so many actors back.

And instead of pulling a Gokaiger and having the main plot be nonexistant for the sake of legacy appearances, or pulling a Decade and having the legacy appearances be someone totally different (e.g. AR Kuuga, AR Kiva) they actually managed to find a good middle ground.
The plot and characters have progressed and developed at a good pace, and in the second half, we find some pretty solid closure on many unfinished/unhappy past storylines (looking at you, Blade arc and Hibiki arc).

• The movies for this series also have that feelgood vibe to them.

So much hype. Heisei Generations FOREVER had pretty much every rider show up and partake in an awesome action scene. Over Quartzer had some very unexpected tributes show up.

• The music in this show is pretty good.

I'm a bit upset we didn't get to hear the Time Jacker song in-show (there was one performed at a press conference) and potentially (unless they drop it next episode) When The Moon Is Full (a Tsukuyomi-sung song released in that recent Heisei song collection).
But at least we got to hear Toki No Ouja, Future Guardian, Black & White, that oh-so-Middle-Eastern Zi-O battle theme, that odd dramatic "dun dun" theme we hear whenever Zi-O does something epic or Woz IWAEs, and some bops from past shows.

This show is a pretty decent sendoff to the Heisei era.

I mean, I loved it.

• As an aside, I'm not sure I wanna see Shirakura directing again, however high up he may be.

As others have said, he seems rather disconnected with modern Rider. Which isn't bad, but I'd expect he be a bit open to the concept that these shows aren't ALL connected- just a few (or maybe it's just "Zi-O shenanigans" that explain the mixing of worlds in the crossover films).
He's said (IIRC when working on Amazons 2016) that modern rider has "lost its edge" and he overall doesn't seem to favor the newer series.

Shirakura also tends to believe that villains being super-active makes Rider more Sentai-esque. Which explains why most shows he's directed (Agito, Ryuki, Kabuto, Faiz, Decade, etc) have the villains take action near the end, and sometimes show up with mysterious motives.
I'll admit, it's not my cup of tea, but I guess it's fine. I just don't like villains-outta-nowhere with little to no foreshadowing, which seems to be what he goes for in some cases.