There's never in the history of tokusatsu that had a premise like Decade. Toss out the comparsions here with PR. There are anniversary series, sure, it's here almost every other year, from 35th year of KR, or 70th birthday of Ishinomori. Decade is built around the idea of old riders, a celebration of ten years of it.
They stopped animating Kivaara. Just plain stopped. Gave right the hell up. Why? They probably looked at the balance sheets and decided, where can we cut corners?
I do think they could've gotten a number of the old actors back. But all of them? Doubtful. I'm pretty much guessing Odagiri and Mizushima probably would've been no-go's under a certain pay grade. And I really feel it's an all or nothing proposition.
The Kivaara budget cut just tells me that TOEI's been using more money on other stuff, like the guest actors. Notice that Kiva never cut down on Kivat's animation. He was CGI for 95% of the time. It makes me wonder where their budget is going, seeing how they don't actually have a whole lot of new things to make...
I never said I wanted "everyone" to come back for the show. And it is stupid to even dream that. But I am talking about just 2-3 characters from the supporting cast/rider could have made this show a lot better.
Why bring back the Kuuga supporting cast, and skip Joe? Why bring back Blade, if you can't get Leangle and Garren as well? It's just a logistical nightmare, and it wasn't going to happen.
And what does an interview have to do with anything? I could interview Tim Allen about his time in Home Improvement. Doesn't mean he'll play the role again.
That's exactly what they are doing now. They brought Kivat back but the Arms Monsters...nah, lets recast them. What's the difference. TOEI doesn't care to hold together continunity and I know that. I just want to see some old faces, it's a simple goal that TOEI can achieve.
And it is irrelevant to just pull out any comparsion. First of all sitcoms are completely different from franchise shows like Toku. Tim Allen is more famous than Tim Taylor. Home Improvement isn't a franchise they can revive and bring back for cameos. I can easily rebuttal with a more relevant comparsion like William Shatner, and how he wants to be in that new Star Trek movie.
All I am saying is that these actors, especially those who are constantly featured in magazines, are fond of their time playing the part. They acknowledge the fact that they did Rider. You don't see Odagiri in recent editions of NEW TYPE LIVE do you? When they are willing to do those magazines, which should I repeat are Tokusatsu related, means much more than just a simple interview. Lots of actors try to hide away from their Tokusatsu start. I remember Tetsuo Kurata tried to move beyond it after RX but seeing how his acting career didn't get far, he returned. And now he's doing more magazine interviews about his time as KR Black/RX. So for Rider actors that don't even bother to show up for interviews in these magazines, there's a hard chance they want to come back. That's my point here.
And actors usually befriend the staff and the crew who are still doing the Rider shows. Its these "connections" between cast and crew that make it easier for them to get each other back. Like Yutaka Hirose willing to come back to Toku for 2 episode apperance in Agito, because he did it for Toshiki Inoue, the series writer (I am pretty sure Shougo can confirm that one).
Of course it's cheap. This is like Inoue's second acting role and he's the damn star. Most of them are under 20 with no acting credits to their name. I was shocked they cast someone over 20 for Agito's role.
I was speaking of guest actors, I think they all run for the same rate, based on their amount of time they are required to be on set. But cameos are usually cheap, and usually FREE. Some do it as favor. When one decides to go on the show, the other cast members from that series might be willing to do so too, in order to not look like an ass and bail. I doubt these actors are as egotistical and self-centred as Hollywood stars.
Voice acting is far easier. Actors can literally phone in the work these days. The cameos you mentioned were literally two to three lines and some hah's.
And that's my point. I liked how Kaixa returned. Its better than recasts. I rather see them all in suit, with their original voices than total recasts.
And most of us are still hoping the main Riders will pop up in a movie.
But Decade was never going to be what we envisioned. Never going to happen. That was a silly pipedream to get nine seasons worth of casts together in one show. Even Power Rangers was unable to get every Red Ranger for their Forever Red episode, and those guys went on to jack all. The Super Sentai films only cherry pick random actors from specific shows.
So it's not about legitimizing stupidity, it's about acknowledging reality.
And when they don't pop up in the movie. I will probably here a few whining here and there, and after then, say a few weeks after the idea has sunk it. A bunch of you will defend TOEI and say that Decade was supposed to just be a re-imagining. They don't need to get any of the older actors, they are A-list stars now like Takeru Sato and Hiro Mizushima. They have no time to do a silly kid show, that's obvious.
That's all I am saying. I am not in denial here. It is not like I am not acknowledging what they are doing and praying at night that this is not true. I am just saying how I feel about Decade and wondering how some Rider fans can actually accept this show which poorly disguises itself as an anniversary series.
It's not like you guys don't have hopes or standards for this to actually be a worthy anniversary show. It just that when it turns out horrible, you have to rationalize all its flaws, accept it and defend TOEI's utter defamation of everything Rider. It just puzzles me that I can't criticize anything around here...