Lynxara
Nice post!!
Yes and no. This is a really interesting question.
If you watch the time-travel episode in Goseiger's third arc, this actually appears to be the case. The characters all act like they can't stand being in the same shot together. But in Goseiger's actual first episode, the tribal conflict between the Goseigers amounts to some petty bickering. The characters have no problems transforming together.
If you watch the Gokaiger appearance in Goseiger vs. Shinkenger, you'll notice that the team is completely in-character. Don, Ahim, and Captain Marvelous all clearly have their most pronounced character tics. Joe and Luka are less pronounced but their suit acting "feels right."
If you go back to the Goseiger appearance in Shinkenger vs. Go-Onger, you'll find the Goseiger characters are not handled half so well. The poses, voices, and sound effects are right, but the suit acting for everyone besides Alata just isn't there yet. Eri just doesn't fight like Eri yet. The others all do very generic things.
I strongly suspect that the way the Goseigers appear in Shinkenger vs. Go-Onger can be chalked up to the producers of that crossover simply not knowing much about the characters. The Goseiger team may well have still been deep in rewrites and still not sure what Alata's supporting cast would be like.
There's a growing pile of evidence that suggests Goseiger's production was wracked by behind-the-scenes fighting all through the production of the first couple of story arcs. At the time the Goseiger appearance was filmed for Shinkenger vs. Go-Onger, it's entirely possible that Goseiger's production team simply didn't know exactly what their show would be yet.
Gokaiger, meanwhile, was so far along in production that Goseiger vs. Shinkenger's writer could even include an extended dialog sequence for the characters that is completely consistent with their portrayals in Gokaiger. This makes me think that either Gokaiger was in development longer, or just suffered fewer behind-the-scenes setbacks.
Something interesting: a lot of the Goseiger episodes in the first two story arcs that show the most trace elements of the more assertive show Goseiger was probably meant to be, rather than the more corporate and safe show we got instead, were penned by Naruhisa Arakawa... who is the head writer on Gokaiger.
