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7/14/2025, 12:12:54 AM
>>23384191
>>23384203
The ZX special wasn't a show pilot like people tend to propagate. ZX's stuff was mostly radio dramas and magazine stories both before and after the special. The gap after Super-1 however wasn't due to lack of popularity, it wasn't good but the desire for quality by Tohru Hirayama was simply not a very high bar.
The big issue was mostly timeslots and there were already agreements for this Japan Action Club sponsored co-production starring the founder's most accomplished protege at that point - some little sci-fi romp about a space cop named Gavin or something. Ishinomori was busy with Genma Wars at the time (in particular, during the pre-production period of that show he was reaching the final act of the manga and wanted it done before anything else) so there was no creative competition to put forth a new Kamen Rider - thus when that JAC-sponsored production was wrapping up, there was no bidding space for Kamen Rider in the same time slot, so they just made a sequel, and so on, and that resulted in what we now call Metal Heroes.
That little stint only lasted a few years anyway, as Ishinomori was asked to come up with a reboot production... and they kinda ignored a lot of his ideas after the initial pitch and even got the same guy who designed the hero of that JAC-sponsored show (Galactic Cop Gary or something) to redesign Ishinomori's concept and by that point he didn't care to participate any further. Toei was now trying to juggle three properties simultaneously with Black, Metalder, and Maskman.
The experiment to reintroduce Kamen Rider simply didn't go well, and Hirayama refused to participate in trying to give it any further shot after Ishinomori gave his blessings to a parody show, meaning it was a "dead" property while Ishinomori stuck his animanga properties and Toei stuck with the Metal Heroes team. Super-1 and ZX were irrelevant to the equation, frankly Stronger had a more damning effect due to the timeslot change fucking ratings.
>>23384203
The ZX special wasn't a show pilot like people tend to propagate. ZX's stuff was mostly radio dramas and magazine stories both before and after the special. The gap after Super-1 however wasn't due to lack of popularity, it wasn't good but the desire for quality by Tohru Hirayama was simply not a very high bar.
The big issue was mostly timeslots and there were already agreements for this Japan Action Club sponsored co-production starring the founder's most accomplished protege at that point - some little sci-fi romp about a space cop named Gavin or something. Ishinomori was busy with Genma Wars at the time (in particular, during the pre-production period of that show he was reaching the final act of the manga and wanted it done before anything else) so there was no creative competition to put forth a new Kamen Rider - thus when that JAC-sponsored production was wrapping up, there was no bidding space for Kamen Rider in the same time slot, so they just made a sequel, and so on, and that resulted in what we now call Metal Heroes.
That little stint only lasted a few years anyway, as Ishinomori was asked to come up with a reboot production... and they kinda ignored a lot of his ideas after the initial pitch and even got the same guy who designed the hero of that JAC-sponsored show (Galactic Cop Gary or something) to redesign Ishinomori's concept and by that point he didn't care to participate any further. Toei was now trying to juggle three properties simultaneously with Black, Metalder, and Maskman.
The experiment to reintroduce Kamen Rider simply didn't go well, and Hirayama refused to participate in trying to give it any further shot after Ishinomori gave his blessings to a parody show, meaning it was a "dead" property while Ishinomori stuck his animanga properties and Toei stuck with the Metal Heroes team. Super-1 and ZX were irrelevant to the equation, frankly Stronger had a more damning effect due to the timeslot change fucking ratings.
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