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gashatfreak surveys Gogo Sentai Boukenger
Hello there. I'm gashatfreak and you're not.
Seeing how Zenkaiger's coming soon and how one of the team members is based on Boukenger's mecha, I believe it's a perfect time to watch a series I've always been meaning to look at: Gogo Sentai Boukenger. Power Ranger fans will recognise this series as "Operation Overdrive". I've always been meaning to get into this series as I have a bit of wanderlust in my system, and adventuring is definitely something I can get behind! I'll keep my standards low as Sentai tends to be formulaic (but then again most toku are) and apparently this isn't exactly the greatest season. This will not be so much a 'review' of the series as more of a 'reaction' if that makes any sense. Also, like the other watch threads, no spoilers please! With that being said, expect plenty of nitpicks, sarcasm and plenty of questioning and poking fun of the series. Now let's do this! Moeru Adventure!!! P.S. I chose 'surveys' instead of 'watches' like other watch threads because I feel like 'surveys' fit the archeology theme of the series. You know, like how archeologists and adventurers survey stuff? Get it? Eh? Eh? EEEEHHH??? Okay I'll stop. https://i.imgur.com/erOZlQv.jpg |
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHHJ3Qym0Bo
And so begins your journey. |
It's only really certain users or certain websites that I've seen really hate Boukenger massively, and I'm sorry to say some of the reasons I've seen have seemed quite immature, though it's probably best not to go into too much detail and some of it was quite a long time ago now! :o For me Boukenger is that one show that just never gets old considering I was one of those people that got into Sentai around that sort of time whereas I'm guessing these days it might be more like Shinkenger or Gokaiger or something even newer! :lol
I think for me it must be the characters, I mean the only one of the team I found not quite so engaging was Masumi and Operation Overdrive's attempt at ''adapting'' the Dark Shadow villains seemed a bit pathetic considering I don't even know what their theme instead of ninjas was supposed to be, it's just that the main thing I hated in Overdrive was that they replaced anything interesting from Boukenger with...not much and even if you didn't like the initial character or thing they adapted, at least in Boukenger you knew what it was supposed to be! |
Oh man, more people checking out stuff? Hope you have fun with it!
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Quote:
I won't really be able to follow along, having not seen much of Boukenger, but since I'm popping in here anyway just to say how much I like that title – good luck with this thread, and good luck with the show, too! If it's anything like most Sentai people insist are bad, it's probably a lot better than that reputation would suggest. :p |
I haven't actually finished the show (have about 11 episodes to go), but I really like Boukenger. It's probably one of my favorite Sentais. I really like most of the characters* and it has some fantastic mech action. The multiple villain factions do a good job of shaking up the plots a bit, too.
*Natsuki is just completely awful, but generally not enough so to bring down the entire show. |
My understanding is that the show is generally well liked among fans. At least it was a few years ago. Maybe recent buzz has not been favorable, but lots of folks, including myself do like it.
It does heavily mess with the normal Sentai formula, which may explain both the fans and the people who don't like it. |
So fun to see everyone exploring toku this way! Getting to experience a show for the first time alongside other fans... man, such a gift to be able to do that, and such a gift to share it with others. Thanks so much for letting everyone experience this show through your eyes! Hope it's a blast!
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Boukenger's first episode is one of the most unique Sentai premiere I've ever seen.
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TASK 1: The Heart of the Demon God
Alright first episode! Just a heads-up, I'll be using spellings from RangerWiki instead of TV-Nihon's spellings. I would've put this up sooner but I got caught up reading a light novel I downloaded onto my phone. I guess fiction addiction really does exist! Also, please forgive if some of the images have blurs or pixels on them, I couldn't find a good quality stream. Also also, this took WAY longer than I thought to write up. I give mad respects to Kamen Rider Die and everyone else doing these watch threads. Introduction In classic Sentai fashion the episode immediately starts off with a little introduction before the main meat of the show. Context given to us: Adventurers are people who travel around the world going on adventures (no kidding Sherlock), seeking new worlds and places. The SGS Foundation, a nongovernment organisation, goes around the world seeking treasures from lost civilisations, treasures left behind by people and treasures left by extinct animals (I have so many questions regarding the last one). More sought after than your regular run-of-the-mill treasure are special treasures called 'Precious', which are these fancy weekly plot devices whose powers surpass current technology (well, 2006 technology at the very least anyways). That's where the Boukengers come in. Their job is to collect the Precious and safeguard them to protect them from the hands of evildoers who wish to use them for nefarious purposes. The episode https://i.imgur.com/cEpdRgj.png The episode starts off with a shot of the Boukenger's submarine swimming through the ocean. Inside is Bouken Yellow/Natsuki Mamiya, the happy-go-lucky one, Bouken Pink/Sakura Nishihori, the serious-minded one, and Bouken Black/Masumi Inou, the casual hip guy. https://i.imgur.com/61XZkVU.png A few seconds into the episode and the submarine quickly finds a giant underwater ruin. This brings both a sense of wonder and a repressed hilariously tragic memory involving Minecraft's Guardians and a boat. https://i.imgur.com/uzR15H8.png As it turns out, this underwater ruin belongs to a long lost "Gordom Civilisation", a long lost civilisation which, according to Chief Satoru Akashi (aka Bouken Red), made a pact with the god of the sea that allowed them to control the waves by using a relic called the "Heart of Gordom", which is essentially a device that takes energy from sea water. Move over solar power, there's a new source of clean energy in town. Now if I was a sea god I wouldn't exactly give a relic like that into the hands of inferior creatures but what do I know? I'm not a sea god. Also, fantastic example of how many legends involve humans gaining powers or relics from higher overlords that give them some control over an aspect of nature. They send out Natsuki and Masumi into the ruin to explore and receive the Precious. Sakura expresses some unease while Bouken Blue/Souta Mogami voices his concern that Natsuki and Masumi might not know the exact dangers of a Precious. Satoru state it's all good to send out two rookies into a potentially dangerous underwater ruin because "they understand the joy of an adventure". Thanks chief, I'll be sure to say that in their funerals in case they die of a potential collapse or something. Natsuki and Masumi soon arrive in a pocket of air where they are almost immediately swarmed by bats (who have somehow survived and thrived inside an underwater ruin 20,000 leagues under the ocean), causing them to freak out and break through a wall, leading them to a mysterious chamber with a strange shrine in the middle. https://i.imgur.com/O7q6zmL.png Clearly Natsuki missed the important memo of not touching any strange switches, and immediately sets of the cliche fire trap, prompting Masumi to blast the top of the shrine which disables the fire trap...for some reason. Blasting off the top reveals a strange puzzle which Masumi immediately solves; rewarding them with the ruin rising up out of the ocean and the two being grabbed by two giant robotic arms. https://i.imgur.com/CSqaylr.png As Sakura starts to head back to the surface (basically leaving the two rookies to fend for themselves), the camera shifts to a shot of a coffin deep within the ruin. Said coffin opens up to reveal the Arch Priest Gajah, who revives after millennia of slumber. Don't you just hate it when you accidentally awaken an ancient threat when you poke around strange ruins? https://i.imgur.com/PNdIi1E.png Thankfully for Natsuki and Masumi, Satoru saves them by smashing into the ruins with his mecha/Zord, a giant red dump truck. On land, Satoru unceremoniously dumps them onto the surface. Souta makes fun of Masumi for springing a trap despite being a 'formal burglar', to which Masumi retorts that he's not a burglar, he's a 'Treasure Hunter' (there's really no difference between the two mate), and makes some bullcrap claim that he intentionally triggered the trap to raise the ruins because it'll be too hard to find the Precious when it's underwater. Satoru deduces that the Precious must be located within the ruins, causing Sakura to state that to go as far as hiding the Precious underwater would mean that it's extremely dangerous. She tells Natsuki and Masumi to stay back for their own safety, but as per rookie fashion they promptly ignore that and immediately rush headfirst into the ruin, prompting the other three to chase after them. https://i.imgur.com/kK6jQnR.png Unfortunately for all of them, their intrusion into the ruin is noticed by Arch Priest Gajah, who's, um, not too happy that people in the modern age want to steal a dangerous artefact from his temple. Natsuki and Misamu soon find a hidden door, which Misamu promptly picks by using his weapon, the SurviBlade (awesome name for a weapon BTW!). They soon walk into a large magma chamber (how the heck did they put a magma chamber in a ruin?) with a large bridge in the middle, which starts collapsing once they step foot on it (how the heck did the bridge not collapse when the ruin started to rise out of the-you know what never mind). At this point, Satoru, Souta and Sakura arrive and, I kid you not, literally RUN ACROSS the bridge while it's collapsing in what has to be the biggest insult to physics ever. https://i.imgur.com/DUXcsv3.png Crossing the bridge, the team make it to a shrine of some sort which houses the Heart of Gordom. I didn't exactly know what I was supposed to be expecting, but the Heart of Gordom looks exactly what it says to be: a heart. And not like a Valentines Day lovey-dovey heart, like the organ heart, complete with pulmonary arteries or whatever else they're called (the only thing I remembered from biology class was that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell and how bacteria may or may not emit a high-pitched scream when poked with a tweezer). Souta touches the heart, causing it to summon copies of itself around the chamber, forcing the Boukengers to determine which one's the real Heart. Souta attempts to touch one, but is saved by Natsuki, who 'predicts' the explosion through a vision. Bit of context here, I haven't really touched on this but throughout the episode Natsuki's 'instincts' is mentioned by the others, particularly Masumi, but here she is clearly shown having some sort of foresight power. The camera zooms on her helmet and cuts to a brief black-and-whited scene (I don't know the proper cinematic term for this) where the fake Heart blows up in Souta's face. That's kinda sus, lady. https://i.imgur.com/7232GOH.png Satoru, on the other hand, decides to take a more...direct approach and proceeds to PUNCH one of the Hearts into each other, causing a chain reaction of explosions, much to Masumi's shock. De-henshining, Satoru explains his reasoning: if the Heart was so dangerous that it was sealed under the sea floor, there was no actual way to destroy the thing, hence explosions won't harm it, clearly forgetting that just because an artefact is indestructible doesn't mean that the human punching it is. Now I don't know what they teach archeologists in archeology school or whatever, but I'm pretty sure it's like a taboo or something to punch an ancient artefact, indestructible or not. Indiana Jones must be having palpitations right now. https://i.imgur.com/C99A4OE.png As per Satoru's predictions, the Heart is left intact after the 'little explosions' fizzle out. What happens next was something that took me by surprise: Masumi, literally grabbing Natsuki under his shoulder, punches Souta and swings across the chamber while Natsuki grabs the Heart of Gordom. All of a sudden, while I'm passive-agressively freaking out over this twist, Masumi reveals his true colors to the group: he's the legendary Treasure Hunter "Immortal Fang" who has a reputation of seizing any prey (read: treasure) that he set his eyes on. He reveals that he's been using the Boukengers and returns the Accellular (something which I think would fetch a VERY high price on the black market) to Satoru. He states his intentions to sell the Precious and invites Natsuki to come with him. Natsuki reluctantly asks him if he plans on becoming a Treasure Hunter, much to Masumi's chagrin, asking her if she prefers the Boukengers over him. https://i.imgur.com/aqg2oEk.png Unfortunately for Mr. Immortal Fang and Ms. Indecisive Airhead, Arch-Priest Gajah immediately shows up with some Karths (or as I like to call them, Rock Putties) and demands the Heart. Masumi and Natsuki immediately get their butts handed to them, with Masumi being kicked into the magma. The Heart secured, Gajah and his henchman promptly take their leave. The other three Boukengers swing across the chasm using grappling hooks. Satoru orders Souta, Sakura and Natsuki to go after Gajah while he rescues Masumi, who turns out to have fallen onto a rock precipice instead of into the magma. Satoru promptly leaps down onto the rock precipice, much to Masumi's chagrin, who believes Satoru is there to make fun of him. https://i.imgur.com/GLpDWXX.png https://i.imgur.com/kMd4QtI.png https://i.imgur.com/fLlkcJx.png Instead, Satoru promptly slaps him and gives him a choice: become a Boukenger or fry. Between his willingness to let rookies into dangerous ruins and his willingness to let someone turn into crisps, I'm starting to wonder if this guy has some screws loose. I mean, all Red Rangers have some level of weirdness in them but this is downright manipulation! I've never seen someone become a Ranger through an ultimatum before. Satoru reveals that he already knew from the start that Masumi was going to betray them, and that he's happy Masumi was able to escape from them, citing that Masumi would have had no worth being a subordinate if he hadn't. Yep, I think Satoru has some screws loose. https://i.imgur.com/puRKUMC.png Meanwhile on the surface, Arch-Priest Gajah, along with a procession of Karths, activate an ancient mechanism that unearths a well. Placing the Heart of Gordom inside and chanting some mysterious gibberish which I can only describe as a strange mix of ASMR and LSD trip, Gajah (prematurely) celebrates the Gordom's revival. Unfortunately for the nearby Boukenger crew spying on Gajah, Natsuki trips on a rock, alerting the bad guys to their location. Gajah promptly sics the Karths on them, who promptly convert their torches into some kind of rock-scythe. The Heart, now in its proper place, activates the ruins, causing the magma chamber where Satoru and Masumi is to shake. Masumi swears to Satoru that he shall surpass Satoru one day. Unfortunately, their conversation is interrupted by the shaking of the magma chamber, knocking Satoru into the magma, who promptly transforms to survive. https://i.imgur.com/jIOtDT9.png Meanwhile, the Boukengers are busy getting their butts kicked. And as Souta quickly finds out, the Karths are so hard that punching them won't do jackfruit. Thankfully for them, Satoru and Masumi arrive and demonstrate why you shouldn't bring rock-scythes to a gun fight, proceeding to blast the Rock Putties into little pebbles. Something which I thought was a nice little touch was that there was a little X-ray moment where the internal workings of the SurviBuster gun was shown as energy charges up. That's not something we usually see in Sentai, and I dig that! Really emphasises the machinery motif the Boukengers have. https://i.imgur.com/9IF7vh0.png However, it's too late as Gajah proceeds to assert dominance and reveal that the ruins IS the MOTW, and declares that despite humanity's fear of the Great God Gordom (which led to it's sealing in the first place), the Gordom Civilisation shall rule over humanity once more (makes me wonder how on earth humanity was able to seal a giant monster away in the first place if Great God Gordom allowed the Gordom Civilisation to rule over the planet). https://i.imgur.com/YuSCSsq.png Unfortunately for Gajah, the Boukengers pull an UNO Reverse Card and proceed to form the giant robot DaiBouken, complete with a giant shovel and pickaxe. And most unfortunately for the 'Great God' Gordom, DaiBouken promptly kicks its heiny with its arsenal, including, I kid you not, using its shovel to FLIP THE GROUND it was standing on. I find this extremely hilarious for some reason. https://i.imgur.com/stP7e9U.png https://i.imgur.com/PgX9gyA.png https://i.imgur.com/IGG1rrP.png https://i.imgur.com/IZStbiy.png The team eventually finishes off Gordom by combining the pickaxe and shovel into a sword and promptly slices the ruin in half. Hooray for desecration of ancient temples and disregard for the preservation of archeological sites! https://i.imgur.com/mIjnYZb.png The Heart of Gordom, which somehow survived the destruction of Great God Gordom, is promptly found and sealed by the Boukengers. At which point, Gajah shows up and unleashes a lightning attack at them. Revealing that there is actually ANOTHER Gordom Precious out there, he swears that as long as he lives, the Great God Gordom will be revived again... https://i.imgur.com/H60ZjcP.png ...at which point the episode ends with a giant sea monster rising out of the sea and swallows Gajah (offscreen) whole. That was...a bit weird but okay sure why not I guess. The team Bouken Red/Satoru Akashi - The leader. Also called 'chief' by the crew, Satoru quickly shows why he's the leader: his intelligence and experience allow him to determine solutions and quickly formulate strategies; all while staying as cool as a cucumber. On the other hand though this guy is willing to send out rookies to a dangerous ruin under the claim that they "enjoy adventure", lets a backstabbing traitor join them into said dangerous ruin knowing he'll backstab them, and is willing to let said backstabbing traitor drop into magma unless he joins the team for real. That's some lowkey sociopath stuff right there. His catchphrase consists of him snapping his fingers and saying "Attack!" when pressing forward or venturing into an unknown, something which, much as I hate to admit it, I find really really cool. Bouken Blue/Souta Mogami - Not much to say about this guy right now. Like most Sentai Blues, he's composed and rational. He's not emotionally distant thankfully and exerts a calm friendly vibe. At least he cares about the mission and voices his concern about the two rookies who might underestimate the power of an ancient MacGuffin that surpasses current technology unlike a certain chief who lets people enter dangerous ruins because they "enjoy adventure". I like him. I don't drink alcohol but he totally feels like the uncle or coworker one shares a beer with over a hot afternoon (yeah yeah Aussie stereotype but that's how I feel). Bouken Pink/Sakura Nishihori - The other composed and rational member of the team. She's very mission-oriented and sticks to the rules, even insisting on calling the other members by their colors as per proper protocol (something which I think is kind of stupid. Why the heck do you need to call each other by color?). Also not much to say about her right now. Bouken Black/Masumi Inou - A self-proclaimed 'Treasure Hunter'. In DnD terms, he'd be the 'thief' of the group. Casually breaks protocol such as calling Bouken Pink "Sakura-neechan" and is happy to abandon his 'team' until he almost drops into magma. Unlike Red, this guy doesn't seem to care much about the lore behind the treasure and is more focused on the actual treasure itself. Wait a second. A treasure hunter, laid-back attitude, backstabby nature? Hmmm...that sounds kind of familiar... Bouken Yellow/Natsuki Mamiya - The happy-go-lucky member of the team. She definitely gives off an aura of a new intern who's excited to work in their new job. She seems very attached to the team, even hesitating when Masumi is willing to abandon the rest of the Boukengers. Something interesting is that she has this sort of 'instinct', something which I would normally shrug off. However, we clearly see that her 'instinct' gives her some sort of vision or foresight that allows her to save Souta from blowing up into kingdom come. I'll be keeping an eye on her and this 'instinct' of hers closely as I continue watching. Accellular https://i.imgur.com/JoFBVzw.png The Accellular has gotta be one of the more fun henshin devices I've seen in Sentai. The name is awesome, it's a phone changer (my second favorite type of henshin device next to the Kamen Rider belts and before the classic wrist changers) and you roll it across your sleeve or somethingto transform if the opening is any indication. DaiBouken https://i.imgur.com/TK4ANli.png The DaiBouken is an absolute unit. I don't know why but the design just WORKS for me. The chonkiness is quite sexy. Also, using a shovel and a pickaxe, called the Go Scooper and Go Picker respectively, as weapons is a great nod to the archeology theme of the series, and having them combine into the Gogoken sword is a nice touch. Another neat touch is that the chest engines and arms visibly vibrate akin to a heavy duty engine during the finishing attack; something which adds more 'life' to the mechanical nature of DaiBouken. I'm a bit disappointed that they didn't release the SRC DaiBouken that was shown a while back, but I suppose I can't gripe about unreleased Tamashii products forever. http://www.tokunation.com/attachment...5&d=1349915683 MOTW: Giant God Gordom https://i.imgur.com/x9zFSMH.jpg The monster of the week is "Giant God Gordom", a giant hulking robot-looking thing that served as the ruins which the Boukengers were exploring in the start of the episode until Mr. Legendary Treasure Hunter 'intentionally' raised it up to the surface. Apparently this guy is based of the Variblune, the 'mecha' of the Gorengers. I can definitely see the inspiration there, with the twin rotors on the shoulders. Boukenger, being an anniversary series, deciding to base its MOTWs on past Sentai mecha is a GENIUS idea, and I'm starting to think this is the predecessor to the widely acclaimed "Another Riders" that showed up in Kamen Rider Zi-O. https://i.imgur.com/SimYypN.jpg Hmmm...I think what I'll do is that before I search up what mecha a MOTW is based on, I'll try a little game where I'll see if I can guess which mecha the MOTW is based off before I find out the correct answer on RangerWiki. Arch-Priest Gajah Arch-Priest Gajah. First impressions of him? He definitely reminds me of the classic cult-like leader typically seen in some old super robot shows. Not only does he have the cult-like swag, he has the deep voice, devotion to ruling humanity and a bunch of disposable minions to boot. Design-wise, this guy is apparently based off the Variccune, the Gorenger's little hot-air balloon thing. I'm sorry but I don't see the resemblance. If anything this guy reminds me more of Alien Baltan...for some reason. https://i.imgur.com/HvnBv7y.png https://i.imgur.com/nTHDiCc.png https://i.imgur.com/Wkkf025.png?1 Precious of the week: Heart of Gordom https://i.imgur.com/U12bZLs.png This epsiode's plot device, er, Precious, is called the "Heart of Gordom". It's literally shaped like a heart organ. According to Satoru, this thing gave the ancient Gordom Civilisation the power to control the sea and can take energy from sea water. A device that can extract energy from sea water? Well heck yeah where can I get one of those??? In seriousness though, this thing is definitely worthy of being a 'Precious'; in the wrong hands someone can definitely make weapons more powerful that an atomic bomb or something. The picture I included shows one of the bombs, but the real Precious looks the same anyways so I'll just put this here. Opening and Ending Songs Let me just say that the opening, "Gogo Sentai Boukenger" is a real winner in my books. A cheerful jovial tune is used throughout the song, really adding to the whole 'adventure' vibe the episode gave off. The visuals in the opening included paintings of travellers/adventurers which are juxtaposed with the Boukengers, hammering home the idea that the Boukengers are exactly that, adventurers more than archeologists. The lyrics include nice references to exploration as well, such as how "there's a magnet in my heart" and all that stuff. The only drawback to this song is that it's now stuck in my head. The ending song was more relaxed in tune. Not exactly my cup of tea, but I appreciate the clips of the Boukengers riding the real-life equivalent of ther mechs/Zords. Seriously though, the OP is catchy as heck. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UREDA-EtYQ Final thoughts Overall, great episode. Like I said, I have a bit of wanderlust in me and the idea that each episode will focus on a new treasure means new locations, something that always excites me. The preview introduces these guys called the "Jaryuu Clan" so possibly other civilisations? I'm totally down for that! Solid start, hopefully it'll keep the momentum throughout the series. Let me know if there's anything I could improve on. Review too long? Too short? (I hope not!) Anything else you wish I touched on? Have a great day guys and gals. Moeru Adventure!!! |
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