[Androzani84]

Banno probably wasn’t a lot of people’s choice for Drive rep in the Outsiders, but given how the only movie Rider suit that still exists in a non-cannibalised state (probably) is Sangou, and having Heart come back as part of the bad guys would kind of be pushing it, they weren’t exactly spoilt for choice. And fighting Horobi allows him to get back some of the menace he lost when Rinna smeared the Drive weapons in an anti-teleportation paste or something.

And Takahashi’s back in the writer’s chair… as a supervisor, since Geats was still ongoing at the time of production. Instead, our writer this time is a new kid named Kengo Nagahama, whose only other credit I could find was the next episode.

And for some facts about Zein’s belt from Gotchard’s TV-Asahi page, it’s made from the same fictional metal as the Vail, Demons and Chimera Drivers, the cards it uses are modified Rouse Cards that function similarly to Ridewatches, in that they contain the actual powers rather than a copy (ie, the Hyper Muteki Gashat, the Haouken Xross Saber and so on). The reason the cards are one-use only is a security measure agreed upon between George and the 40 Primaries* to prevent the cards from being stolen by someone who’d misuse them and ensure the data is securely stored in one server.

* Given it’s implied every protagonist from Hongou through Ace (except maybe Eiji, but the dialogue hints they got OOO’s power from someone) gave their strongest powers away to Zein, that means Gai, the Ark, Foundation X, Asakura, Ren, Desast and Banno were more cautious and properly paranoid than the heroes who’ve laid down their lives to prevent potentially world conquering maniacs