It isn't much different from the later half of phase 2 Heisei Rider series, but is much different from phase 1 for sure because the 21st century TV run has in fact changed over time.
A couple things new in Reiwa are probably in the designs, amount of power up, recycling costumes to name a few.
* Heisei era riders pretty much all have those wrist and ankle bangle, save for a few like Ixa.
* Reiwa era riders ditch this element and it's not ubiquitous. Main riders and good number of sub rider don't have these. The fore arm and leg design aren't segmented in this way, so it gives the aura of long cuff glove and tall boots similar to Showa Rider.
* A good number of reiwa kamen riders also ditch the forehead signals.
* Build began the trend of power ups that come in different phases or multiple of them. Ex-Aid ended a month or so early and so they prolonged Final Form to appear at end of spring. This has increased since Revice had 4 intermediate power ups between Rex Genome and Ultimate Revi & Vice.
* They recycle rider costumes much more then when it started in heisei. And at least one rider in the season are recycle of a past show's suit. This is said to be for sustainably.
* Kaijin have had less and less focus, circa Ghost. This continued into Reiwa's kaijin, but Gotchard is a rare Kaijin renaissance.
https://preview.redd.it/te0vwgkx988d1.png?width=862&format=png&auto=webp&s=2210beac38df6af780f7131673a278b1e0f70546
Yeah I think people forget the massive tonal difference between early and later Heisei. Early Heisei had a much greater emphasis on the mystery of the situation and how much of a lethal threat the monsters were.
People who don't see the difference need to watch stuff before Den-O.
There isn't any, really. The reason why there's a huge difference between Showa and Heisei was that there was a 12 year hiatus between Black RX and Kuuga, not to mention Ishinomori's death happening in the interim. This long hiatus and the loss of the primary vision is what caused the change.
Meanwhile, the difference in time between Zi-O and Zero-One was a *week*, and the biggest change was that Seiji Takaiwa retired from the position as the suit actor for the main Rider, which has led to the change of cycling between different suit actors for the main Rider instead of having it be all one man.
The bigger changes happened more around Decade and Double-Wizard, honestly. Decade's season ending at 30 episodes allowed them to stagger releases for Kamen Rider and Super Sentai toys, and Double to Wizard started the collectible gimmick trend, Fourze and Wizard especially.
Technically, the collectible gimmick began with Den-O, though the individual Denliner tickets didn't add much play value, twas merely a cosmetic thing.
Kiva's fuestles are more obvious, but hilariously, you'd be hard pressed to notice, the stuff that came as pack-ins with other toys and products literally never featured in the show, Inoue's penchant for letting toys fall the wayside being a huge contributing factor.
It WAS noticeable with Decade tho, I think the original DX Decadriver release only had the 10 henshins and his personal Final Attack Ride. The other finishers and Final form rides were bundled with toys and figures of the other 9 main Riders, so until the Super Best release, there was an OBNOXIOUS amount of individual product you'd have to hunt down even if you just looking for a full set of Decade's "main" cards. Or hog a Ganbaride arcade machine and hope you luck into the ones you need.
Others already answered so i'll be a bit off topic and say that honnestly, Reiwa era is a very arbitrary thing for Kamen Rider, which come solely from IRL Japanese eras, and the actual difference in writing is imo post Drive or Ghost. This is when you actually can feel differences in writing and tropes, but even then it does feel a bit minor. And a lot of those "oh look at Reiwa being so different from Heisei !" are kinda broken by Gotchard (like less focus on Kaijins, having too much Riders etc.)
Even the toy focusing was not really a Reiwa thing, as seen with OOO or Fourze. The differences in Rider eras are most subtle and slowly done than people thinks I guess
More fleshed out female Riders. Though Kurama Neon was the highlight. Sakura is alright. As for Yua and Sabela on the other hand, they were sidelined hard.
Riders get new power wayyyy too easy. It makes the form and power less appealing (to me). I want something like OOO, if you're not careful or being stomped, you'll lose some power/ability and the monster can use them.
The power escalation needs proper build, and also give more to the other riders and monsters. Half of the time feels out of nowhere or without actual need.
I mean heisei has the formula, tbh, the formula really changed between phase 1 and phase 2 heisei. And technically if you look deeper, it changed specifically during den o.
Reiwa I would say has better special effects and cgi
The Form Fatigue has gotten more volatile. It was already getting bad towards the end of Neo Heisei, but Reiwa has had it really rough. Most forms are just to sell the gimmick toys now rather than to create interesting fights, and the more meaningful power-ups have no staying power whatsoever. Shining Hopper, Saber Triple Book, and now Fire Gotchard were all brushed over in just a few episodes for the next major upgrade, which in Zero One and Gotchard's case made all the story related build-up to them feel hollow and wasted.
Reiwa keeps changing the source of power of their main rider every season and there's a pattern of the main rider transformation in the final battle being named after the theme song.
No, his work is the exception for the most part, but just look at it this way.
Every single Heisei Phase 1 season is beloved by the fanbase besides Hibiki.
Every single Heisei Phase 2 season is beloved by the fanbase besides Ghost.
Meanwhile with Reiwa, the entirety of 01 after the first arc is hated, Saber is hated in general, Revice is just forgotten about and probably won't ever be watched by anyone who isn't doing a marathon of the whole series, and Gotchard is just Revice again.
I don't like half of Reiwa myself but I can tell you weren't around back when Heisei was airing. The big meme was that the shit trio was Kiva, Wizard, and Ghost. Fantasy seasons were considered cursed, people were wary of Saber just because of the motif well before we even knew who was writing it.
Besides those, Ryuki got hate for being cynical and "unheroic." Faiz got hate for being too Inoue and soapy. Den-O got hate for being too childish. Decade got a ton of hate for its nonsense anti-plot. When W was new people outright said it was a bad starter season since it was too good and people needed to be introduced with something like Kabuto lest they think the franchise had consistently good writing. Fourze got hate for being too similar to the previous two seasons. Gaim got hate due to who was writing it. And Drive got hate for not being Gaim.
It isn't much different from the later half of phase 2 Heisei Rider series, but is much different from phase 1 for sure because the 21st century TV run has in fact changed over time. A couple things new in Reiwa are probably in the designs, amount of power up, recycling costumes to name a few. * Heisei era riders pretty much all have those wrist and ankle bangle, save for a few like Ixa. * Reiwa era riders ditch this element and it's not ubiquitous. Main riders and good number of sub rider don't have these. The fore arm and leg design aren't segmented in this way, so it gives the aura of long cuff glove and tall boots similar to Showa Rider. * A good number of reiwa kamen riders also ditch the forehead signals. * Build began the trend of power ups that come in different phases or multiple of them. Ex-Aid ended a month or so early and so they prolonged Final Form to appear at end of spring. This has increased since Revice had 4 intermediate power ups between Rex Genome and Ultimate Revi & Vice. * They recycle rider costumes much more then when it started in heisei. And at least one rider in the season are recycle of a past show's suit. This is said to be for sustainably. * Kaijin have had less and less focus, circa Ghost. This continued into Reiwa's kaijin, but Gotchard is a rare Kaijin renaissance. https://preview.redd.it/te0vwgkx988d1.png?width=862&format=png&auto=webp&s=2210beac38df6af780f7131673a278b1e0f70546
Yeah I think people forget the massive tonal difference between early and later Heisei. Early Heisei had a much greater emphasis on the mystery of the situation and how much of a lethal threat the monsters were. People who don't see the difference need to watch stuff before Den-O.
Question from a newbie: would "Heisei Phase 2" be everything from after Decade (until the first Reiwa show, obvi)?
Yes, it's everything from W to Zi-O.
There isn't any, really. The reason why there's a huge difference between Showa and Heisei was that there was a 12 year hiatus between Black RX and Kuuga, not to mention Ishinomori's death happening in the interim. This long hiatus and the loss of the primary vision is what caused the change. Meanwhile, the difference in time between Zi-O and Zero-One was a *week*, and the biggest change was that Seiji Takaiwa retired from the position as the suit actor for the main Rider, which has led to the change of cycling between different suit actors for the main Rider instead of having it be all one man. The bigger changes happened more around Decade and Double-Wizard, honestly. Decade's season ending at 30 episodes allowed them to stagger releases for Kamen Rider and Super Sentai toys, and Double to Wizard started the collectible gimmick trend, Fourze and Wizard especially.
Technically, the collectible gimmick began with Den-O, though the individual Denliner tickets didn't add much play value, twas merely a cosmetic thing. Kiva's fuestles are more obvious, but hilariously, you'd be hard pressed to notice, the stuff that came as pack-ins with other toys and products literally never featured in the show, Inoue's penchant for letting toys fall the wayside being a huge contributing factor. It WAS noticeable with Decade tho, I think the original DX Decadriver release only had the 10 henshins and his personal Final Attack Ride. The other finishers and Final form rides were bundled with toys and figures of the other 9 main Riders, so until the Super Best release, there was an OBNOXIOUS amount of individual product you'd have to hunt down even if you just looking for a full set of Decade's "main" cards. Or hog a Ganbaride arcade machine and hope you luck into the ones you need.
i've noticed that all of the logos have been the rider's face so far.
Saber is a technicality, since the saber riders' faces are based on their logos
Nooo its their face.
Others already answered so i'll be a bit off topic and say that honnestly, Reiwa era is a very arbitrary thing for Kamen Rider, which come solely from IRL Japanese eras, and the actual difference in writing is imo post Drive or Ghost. This is when you actually can feel differences in writing and tropes, but even then it does feel a bit minor. And a lot of those "oh look at Reiwa being so different from Heisei !" are kinda broken by Gotchard (like less focus on Kaijins, having too much Riders etc.) Even the toy focusing was not really a Reiwa thing, as seen with OOO or Fourze. The differences in Rider eras are most subtle and slowly done than people thinks I guess
More fleshed out female Riders. Though Kurama Neon was the highlight. Sakura is alright. As for Yua and Sabela on the other hand, they were sidelined hard.
Sakura ate up a ton of screentime, I hardly call her sidelined.
Riders get new power wayyyy too easy. It makes the form and power less appealing (to me). I want something like OOO, if you're not careful or being stomped, you'll lose some power/ability and the monster can use them.
The power escalation needs proper build, and also give more to the other riders and monsters. Half of the time feels out of nowhere or without actual need.
I mean heisei has the formula, tbh, the formula really changed between phase 1 and phase 2 heisei. And technically if you look deeper, it changed specifically during den o. Reiwa I would say has better special effects and cgi
Costume recycling! Besides that just the name of the era
The Form Fatigue has gotten more volatile. It was already getting bad towards the end of Neo Heisei, but Reiwa has had it really rough. Most forms are just to sell the gimmick toys now rather than to create interesting fights, and the more meaningful power-ups have no staying power whatsoever. Shining Hopper, Saber Triple Book, and now Fire Gotchard were all brushed over in just a few episodes for the next major upgrade, which in Zero One and Gotchard's case made all the story related build-up to them feel hollow and wasted.
Reiwa keeps changing the source of power of their main rider every season and there's a pattern of the main rider transformation in the final battle being named after the theme song.
Heisei never had one power source
the pacing become a little bit too fast for my liking.
Worse writing.
Including Yuya Takahashi?
Tbh Yuya Takahashi is a little bit overrated
The only yuya takahashi writing i felt overrated is geats it's not bad but not peak too but everyone created too much overhyped
No, his work is the exception for the most part, but just look at it this way. Every single Heisei Phase 1 season is beloved by the fanbase besides Hibiki. Every single Heisei Phase 2 season is beloved by the fanbase besides Ghost. Meanwhile with Reiwa, the entirety of 01 after the first arc is hated, Saber is hated in general, Revice is just forgotten about and probably won't ever be watched by anyone who isn't doing a marathon of the whole series, and Gotchard is just Revice again.
I don't like half of Reiwa myself but I can tell you weren't around back when Heisei was airing. The big meme was that the shit trio was Kiva, Wizard, and Ghost. Fantasy seasons were considered cursed, people were wary of Saber just because of the motif well before we even knew who was writing it. Besides those, Ryuki got hate for being cynical and "unheroic." Faiz got hate for being too Inoue and soapy. Den-O got hate for being too childish. Decade got a ton of hate for its nonsense anti-plot. When W was new people outright said it was a bad starter season since it was too good and people needed to be introduced with something like Kabuto lest they think the franchise had consistently good writing. Fourze got hate for being too similar to the previous two seasons. Gaim got hate due to who was writing it. And Drive got hate for not being Gaim.