User blog comment:TornadoMan.EXE/My gripes with the EXE anime/@comment-46597356-20200924222348

For the characters, i think it is (in part, at least) for one of the possible reason you mentioned: They did'nt make them the samr as the game to avoid spoilers. Japan often does this for anime of franchise aimed at childrens. Because otherwise, people who have seen the anime tend to just skip the game since they already know what it will be about. Hi-Go mentioned something like this hapening to a a game he worked on. They made a anime that closely followed the plot of the game, and as a result people where content with just watching the show. (Inazuma eleven managed to get away with it, though) Rather than being a adaptation of the game the anime is meant to promote it the same way toy-based cartoon are meant to advertise the toys, except toys cartoon don't have to worry about spoilers.

As for the format of 50 episodes or so seems to be the default for things aimed at children. It's the same for magical girls, sentai shows, etc... I'm not sure why they keep them as episodic as possible most of the time. Maybe they think it's better to focus more on the cool transformations and action because kids would care less about a overarching plot. Or maybe it is so that a new viewer can pick up at any point of the show without being lost, or miss a episode and come back next week with no problem. (does'nt help that streaming and replay weren't what they are today)...