[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

when it does things that just downright could not have been healthy for toy sales.

Quote:

Originally Posted by FreshToku

I love that trivia about the staff putting together Amazing Mighty on their own. The added fact that the show's staff made the choice of holding off Kuuga's four-horned form until it was appropriate for the story is such a far cry from how Bandai's wishes might affect a show in present day.

Another thing about this that's probably easy to take for granted since we aren't watching these shows tied to a calendar anymore: Episode 46 aired on December 31. The show was still refusing to shill that other new form during the Christmas season, when you most want little kids to be bugging their parents about the latest toy they saw on the show, and then to top that off, they introduce some completely different form they made up the week after.

I think this entire process speaks to what a long leash Kuuga had earned for itself over its run. The show's staff spent a ton of time trying to figure out how all this stuff would feed into the drama in a natural and compelling way, and for the most part, they were allowed to. "Failing" to get a new toy properly introduced for like three months, that kind of stunt would almost certainly not be forgiven if Kuuga hadn't proven itself such a success time and again every time somebody told it to change and it refused to. I touched on this back when I talked about my meta reading of Kanzaki's speech in episode 12, but Kuuga was under a lot of pressure about stuff like this at points, from what I understand. Stuff like parents apparently complaining the realistic designs of the Grongi were too scary, the higher ups being upset with the staff filming behind schedule at first while they were getting used to the new cameras, Bandai having toys to sell of something that's only been seen in blurry glimpses in the series proper, leaving magazines to try capitalizing on the mystery accidentally being created to generate hype anyway.

I'm not totally thoroughly informed about this, but the impression I've gotten is that there were plenty of voices demanding that Kuuga just Be More Normal Already, and it never backed down an inch.