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What are you watching (Sentai edition)
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10-28-2021, 07:18 PM
#
8956
Fish Sandwich
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~
Act Thirty-Three – Samurai Sentai Shinkenger
I don't know how true this still is today, but back when I was really getting into tokusatsu around 2011, it seemed to me that Shinkenger was everybody's jam. An all around excellent series well-liked by people already into Super Sentai, that also acted as a gateway into the franchise for a huge number of Power Rangers fans who were looking to fill the void during that scary year after RPM where there wasn't a new show on the air. Shinkenger would've been next in line for an adaptation (and it was!), and it attracted a ton of new fans with how insanely cool and exotic it was, while still being familiar. It was one of those shows you just *had* to watch.
So of course, I just kinda,
didn't
, for like half a decade? Sure, I wasn't actively interested enough in Power Rangers in 2010 to jump on that whole boat with everyone else, but that can only excuse so much. We're talking about one of the most beloved shows written by Yasuko Kobayashi, my favorite toku writer, who is deeply tied into my love of this stuff to begin with! Which I guess is the thing here – Shinkenger felt like part of that anyway? I saw some of their appearances in other stuff, and I saw so much passion for the show constantly, absorbing quite a bit of knowledge about it, that I think I inadvertently ended up staying away from it for so long because it simply never occurred to me that's what I was doing. Again, Shinkenger was this
massive pillar
of toku fandom when I got truly invested in it. The stuff I'm about to say regarding the overall show is backed by my own firsthand experience now, having seen it in all its glory, but even back in the day, I probably could've parroted something along these lines just fine, even never having seen an episode, because that's how ubiquitous the notion that "Shinkenger = awesome" felt to me.
If I had to sum up the story of Shinkenger in a sentence, I'd say it's about five people brought together by obligation, who become friends by choice. The core appeal of the series, as always with Kobayashi, is in the humanity she imbues the characters with, and Shinkenger's strongest drama is all internal. By the end, the heroes have developed a bond as deep as any team out there, but what I think distinguishes Shinkenger a lot is how that bond is built entirely from scratch. There's a conflict not simply between the heroes and villains, but between the demands of the heroes' samurai lineage and their own desires as individuals. Between traditional values and modern-day people. Thanks to the incisive writing and some commendably nuanced performances from the cast, the end result is a richly layered show that drills deep into the various wants and worries of its protagonists, and how their relationships with one another grow over time. There's a specific kind of tender love and care applied to Shinkenger's storytelling that's downright astonishing to me. I'm probably hyping it up way too much for somebody right now, but speaking for myself, I went into this series with years of expectations built up, and seeing it all play out with my own eyes still managed to give me a whole new level of appreciation for everything it did.
The
other
core appeal of the series, though, is something I genuinely could see without properly watching it, and that's the style. Being deeply rooted in Japanese tradition may be both a blessing and a curse for the characters, but for the audience, Shinkenger being so aggressively
wafuu
only makes it that much cooler. If I tried to sit here and explain every little considered detail, it'd just make two things readily apparent – one is that Shinkenger's whole world is
ridiculously
cohesive in its themes; and two is that I barely have any idea what I'm talking about. You could use this show as a study guide, I swear. Look, I'll even prove it without having to go any deeper than the title of the show. The word
shinken
literally means "true sword", pointing to the series' focus on stylish action heavily influenced by old samurai movies, but the word has a much more commonly used idiomatic meaning, "serious", in the sense of being earnest or dedicated, which reflects the characterization of the heroes as disciplined warriors driven by a sense of duty. (The non-literal meaning is of course derived from how a fight with real blades instead of wooden practice swords requires the will to risk far more deadly injuries.) See? We're learning with Shinkenger, which is probably the coolest way to learn!
And it's pretty much like that for every last aspect of the series, big or small. This means a ton of cultural grounding for motifs and the like that has/does/will continue to fly over my uneducated head, but none of that extra context is needed to enjoy the show, and there are
some
things I've always been able to grasp that I find super neat. The team's suits are as stylish as can be. Cleanly and striking at the same time, and you'd better believe those kanji on their faces were the first I learned to recognize! Whoever had that idea for the visors is some kind of genius, and possibly the exact same genius who had the idea to have the mecha be called Origami. (Which is actually a bit of wordplay involving homophones and the concept of
shikigami
, but again, I have neither the time or the intelligence to be getting into all that.) Paper folding is a hobby of mine specifically because it has the same appeal that draws me to transforming robots (you take a shape and make it a different shape), so Shinken-Oh especially has always been a huge favorite of mine for being the Sentai robo that just totally leans into that similarity. Plus, the Origami are also treated sort of like pets by the heroes, so they even kinda check the whole "sentient mecha" box I'm always looking for while they're at it!
As much fun as it would be to ramble on and on about the designs in Shinkenger, though, it's around time for me to start talking about the premiere.
Shinkenger comes out of the gate strong with a rather impeccable debut. One of the most impressive things about it is how clearly it conveys so much of how the character dynamics are going to work right away. The plot is all about modern-day feudal lord Takeru finally having to assemble the four vassals sworn to help him defend the world from monsters as the Shinkengers, and immediately, you can tell how
awkward
this is for basically everyone involved. Four of these people basically have to drop their entire lives to go help out Takeru, which isn't ideal for them, and for a bunch of reasons, Takeru doesn't want to drag four people into his life-and-death struggles, so this isn't ideal for him, either.
And also none of them even know each other.
The scene where they first meet up hammers this fact home by having a ton of embarrassing confusion about which one of them is even the lord, until Takeru arrives dead last to finally put a stop to that. Literally the only thing these people have binding them together is an oath other people made for them, that they all have mixed feelings about, and it's that slight air of reluctance that gives the show so much of its flavor, especially early on. Again, this is a team that has to build all their relationships from the ground up. They've trained their whole lives to one day fight together; everything besides that is something they have to learn.
On top of how well the team's (lack of) chemistry comes across, the episode finds time to demonstrate things about the individual characters rather well, too. Particularly smooth is how much Ryuunosuke's background as a kabuki actor informs you about his values and motivations. Even just from what you see of him here, it's readily apparent that he's devoted his life to wholeheartedly following an old tradition, which explains why he clearly takes being a samurai the most seriously... even though
that's
probably not the tradition he'd prefer to be following, deep down. Just the tip of the iceberg for great characterization in this show, naturally.
One of the
other
most impressive things about Shinkenger's premiere is that style, though. This is a show explicitly themed in part about the very concept of theatricality (hence "Acts", for example), and that syncs up perfectly with what shows like Super Sentai are about in the first place. This applies to every facet of the series, and it's part of why the narrative comes across as strong as it does, but I'll be focusing here on how grand the action in particular feels.
Shinken Red is cool. That's probably going to be your takeaway from the premiere, when the very first scene in the show is him slicing up mooks while one of the coolest Sentai theme songs ever plays in the background. Like, they straight up didn't bother having the normal opening sequence, just so you could watch Takeru do his thing. The action in Shinkenger is consistently impressive, and you can tell how much effort and practice probably went into the fancy choreography in any given fight scene. I also have to give major props to Shinken Red's suit actor, Hirofumi Fukuzawa, who I'm gaining a new level of respect for bouncing so quickly between all the shows he played a Red in. Not only does he nail that fancy action, but his body language as Shinken Red is instantly distinctive and cool. It's so characterful that if he were standing that way as Gao Red or Go-On Red, you'd just be like "why is Takeru wearing the wrong outfit?" I always thought this was a role he was great in, but after seeing how much variation he's actually capable of, it's all the more impressive.
And they also made him swing around the most stupidly oversized sword prop imaginable! When Shinken Red busts out the Rekka Daizantou later in the episode, he somehow gets even more awesome, and I also start
really
appreciating the work that went into filming this stuff. This is a blade big enough to have an elaborate design of Mount Fuji erupting sculpted throughout its length (and width!), and yet surprisingly few shots avoid using the prop in favor of CG. There's such a palpable
weight
to this thing as a result, and it's maybe one of the coolest, most iconic weapons in toku history because of it? Is that even an opinion, or is it just a fact? I genuinely feel like the Rekka Daizantou is emblematic of the whole magic of the genre. It's something completely unrealistic and impractical, and they do it for real anyway, somehow make it look good in the process, and create a way more dynamic visual that captures the viewer's imagination. I know I just gave an entire paragraph to a sword, but I'm telling you guys, this is one heck of a sword! ...Did I mention it's also the team's bazooka later on?
Anyway, what else is there to cover? I mean, there's the debut fight scene for the Origami at the end of the episode, which is also super cool, and involves a lot of great practical effects work. Oh, and speaking of, I didn't even mention that I like the Shinkenger emblem because it's literally a stylized origami samurai helmet, and that's really cute! There's also— No wait, this is where I start doing that thing again where I can't stop myself. But once again, it's hard to help it! Shinkenger is some truly superb Super Sentai. It's yet another show I'd love to talk about even longer than I just did, but since I need to bring this post to a close eventually, I guess there's only one thing I should be saying next.
The true depths of one's passions can be difficult to convey fully. Although further words of praise may be left unspoken to the samurai, the journey onwards continues all the same. Fish's Zenkai Tour, Act Thirty-Three, shall end here.
__________________
誰かの笑顔のためだろ?
Last edited by Fish Sandwich; 03-05-2022 at
07:09 PM
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