[NeonZ]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

Though... yeah, either way, the Zi-O situation is odd as it's been a standard since Drive (and W and Wizard done it prior). I can only imagine it was because of how much legacy stuff they were putting out; compared to even Build or Ex-Aid the Ridewatch train just refused to stop.

I'd guess part of the issue with the lack of a third belt in the main toyline of Zi-O was just the production team itself. Based on some recent interviews, Shirakura dislikes villains that can be active, transform and fight from early in the show. He prefers them as background figures rather than like active members of a standard tokusatsu "evil organization" (with rubber suits and such), something he considers taken up by Sentai nowadays.

That's probably why we didn't get an extra belt and Swartz only got a transformation in the final arc itself. It's probably not something solid enough yet that Bandai absolutely enforced on him, and with the Watches selling well there was no need to force it on the show's production.