Basri said:
And what about him that makes you lose interest once he got into that 'idol' stuffs?
That Hagino was actually a serious actor, something rare in tokusatsu these days, but that entire "idol" feel of Ryuki must have tained him, because he's since released an "idol" DVD and is trying to make it as a singer, making him no better than the rest of these new kids.
Changerion wasn't all goofs, though. I think it had one of the last working romances in tokusatsu with Eri and Shougo/Gauzer. And what about the episode where Hayami and Akira's life-force are switched, so Hayami finally gets to be Changerion as he was supposed and realizes...he can't take the life of even a monster? So, Changerion did have heart amongst the laughs, and it wasn't cop-out heart like lame epiphanies that allow you to download a new magic-spell ringtone or allow Shima to finally toss you that new toy that Karasuma made for you to turn Jack Form.
Forever Knight said:
Well, we all know it was Jiro Okamoto that made him that much cooler but still.
Okamoto was also Changerion in-suit, which is where I think they got the idea to cast him as Ouja in-suit. But, Okamoto did make Ouja cooler than he should have been, at least in his earlier appearances, before he became a parody of himself. It was funny to see him try to make weenie Leangle be as cool by using some of the Ouja moves.
The bad thing about Changerion that I really have to overlook because I like the show so much is his heinous design. And I blame Okamoto for that. The sketch of Changerion was sleek and slim -- when you turn that into a plastic suit and shove bulky Okamoto in it, it just become this ugly mass. It's like what the producer of Robocop said about the studio wanting to cast Ah-nuld as Murphy -- you needed a small guy to be in that suit, or else it's just going to be chunky and ugly and it won't work.