Suffering a burnout from watching Kamen Rider

[Shogun_Master]

I don't think it's by plan. I think seasons keep roughly ending up in the same places by the end of seasons accidentally. They want more Riders & evil Riders are an easy way to breed conflict. Besides, several of the first long term evil Riders-- Riderman, Shadowmoon, Ouja, Leangle-- were well received. Eventually ending up in a war is probably the easiest way to reach a peak in the conflict. At least, they pulled back on that in Zero-One & I doubt they can really do that this year, either, whether they wanted to, or not. But, to be fair, I think they had some inspiration for Zero-One's ending from current events. That doesn't happen with every story you write.

 

[Black Fang]

And I think that is actually where Toei is failing. They're banking on a younger audience when they should actully be trying to recapture the older ones or growing their shows up with their current generation, not regressing as they have been. Look at the Sentai series in the 80s and 90s. They didn't shy away from monsters being able to kill people. They didn't hide behind a facade that people can never be hurt. Everything was fantasy, they did silly gags for kids, but the stories still had a sense that the heroes and those they protect could be killed by the villains.

These days, they write the heroes as if they know they are the heroes of their own story and can accomplish anything they want, so they don't even have to bother trying. The villains would rather lounge around or dance than actually harm anyone. And when they do attack people, there is no real damage as it's undone as soon as their monster is defeated. There's no sense of suspense anymore because no one is ever in any real danger.

This started with Ohranger, when Toei decided to retool the whole show into a schizophrenic mess after Aum Shinrikyo did their sarin gas attack in Tokyo. People are getting too upset and want to "feel better" (or at least want the kids to feel better) so the shows can't go in directions they sometimes should if they want to be effective. I'm watching Lupinranger vs Patranger now, and it's a perfect example of this: the show could'be been much better than it is if Toei had been willing to go the distance. LuPat, with its story and setup, should have aimed to be like Timeranger, but instead it flounders.

Now, Sentai and Rider recovered from 1995 and rebounded, but it's been going downhill for almost two decades now. IIRC, Toei wanted Gokaiger to be a "feel good" show after the 2011 tsunami, for the remainder of the 2010s Sentai has been stuck in that mode. Phase 2 Heisei and now Reiwa Rider is also a shell of what Kamen Rider used to be: none of the dumb gags in Zero-One or Saber would've seen the light of day in Kuuga. Or at the very least, the gags would've been subtler and not obnoxious.

 

[Dr Kain]

I don't know if I can agree there, as even the Showa era Rider shows had dumb gags in them. Kuuga and Agito were more like cop dramas that had Kamen Riders in them as opposed to being Kamen Rider series. And as much as I love them, Kuuga did take itself too seriously at times. Agito was much better balanced.

As for LupinvsPat, the problem isn't the gags (most of the time), it's how nothing happens at all. Zamigo is the whole reason the Lupinrangers exist in the first place and yet he's in the show for like 7 episodes in total. There's like a string of 20 episodes where he doesn't even appear so there's no plot development during that time whatsoever.