[GuardianAngel87]

I am currently eight episodes into my Liveman rewatch and I even inexplicably just started rewatching the Kiramager Episode Zero movie.

[Mesnick]

I watched Polar Origins. I think I wished the movie had come out during the show's run. It would have helped keep Kumada interested after his debut. Plus, I'm curious how knowing his backstory changed viewers' perceptions of him. I hope someone will do so in the future and share their impressions
Overall, this is a must watch for fans of the character. Mashiro is featured heavily, and he gives it his all, both when he plays a cross between himself and Heuru, playing the lone wolf, and when he falls into despair, only to be reborn with a new desire. The other characters are also impressive. Even though we only know a few of them, they're all vibrant, and the actors are charismatic and convincing, making you really care about them. Even my eyes stung a little during the more tragic moments.
The film is quite brutal, though far from the level of some other TTFC specials. However, it's not the gore that hurts, but the suffering and death of characters to whom the viewer, along with the main character, had grown attached. Besides, the action is simply top-notch! The transformation in the pod and the severed claw were especially memorable. And then there are the 'teti hits, which destroy columns and send people flying through the warehouse! Spectacular!
Plus, 'teti is also the origin of BearKuma, which further strengthens and explains the bond between Polar and his toy bear.
So I recommend watching it. Even if you don't get hooked on this special as much as I did, it's far from the worst way to spend half an hour.

[GoldenXtreme]

So, Goseiger. I had a negative impressive of this show from the reactions other tokusatsu fans had to it, but I also didn't have any clear idea of why it seemed to get such distasteful reactions. Obviously the only solution is to find out why for myself, so I gave it a watch!

It didn't turn out to be a surprise hit with me unfortunately, and was largely a show that felt defined by its almost comically generic style, in spite of having a few novel ideas. Like, the whole angel idea is pretty interesting, but the background of what exactly angels are and their society is so poorly fleshed out. Combine that with the fact the protagonists act so close to being human, the distinction feels almost arbitrary. Gosei Knight was at least a decent effort at making a distinctly inhuman hero in contrast. The show also features an unusual villain situation where after one group is defeated another crops up, with Bladerun/Brajil serving as the single overarching thread across the villain cast. In practice though, it made the show feel pretty disjointed, especially since I think the UMA Beast arc was the best of them thanks to the fun cryptid concept, but it was only the second of the three villain arcs (and was also an arc that made it hard to take Brajil seriously as a final antagonist considering he died for real in this one and only came back to life thanks to a bad decision by the next group of villains). The hero cast is also aggressively milquetoast, thanks to the weakness of their arcs and generic character archetype personalities (again, at least they tried a bit more with Gosei Knight). The cast all got a decent amount of focus, but it didn't amount to much.

Overall, my impression of the show that it was a snoozefest with uninspired monster of the week plots and dialogue that I can only describe as abnormally atrocious exchanges of heroic platitudes and villainous rants. A show pretty close to the bottom of the Sentai barrel.

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

So, Goseiger. I had a negative impressive of this show from the reactions other tokusatsu fans had to it, but I also didn't have any clear idea of why it seemed to get such distasteful reactions. Obviously the only solution is to find out why for myself, so I gave it a watch!

As for me, I have a positive and calm attitude towards Goseiger. Yes, the plot is pretty standard, and all the unique ideas are simply there and not developed, but the atmosphere and characters don't irritate me. Moreover, the fact that the heroes are angels kind of justifies their excessive positivity. Plus, the costumes are beautiful. Of course, considering that Goseiger came after the Boukengers, whose different groups of villains acted simultaneously and even interacted with each other (albeit minimally), it seems rather lazy.
So overall, I would recommend this show to those who are just starting out with Super Sentai or want something relatively close to Power Rangers.
Then you won't be disappointed.
Besides, using angels as positive characters is actually quite rare.

[GoldenXtreme]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

As for me, I have a positive and calm attitude towards Goseiger. Yes, the plot is pretty standard, and all the unique ideas are simply there and not developed, but the atmosphere and characters don't irritate me. Moreover, the fact that the heroes are angels kind of justifies their excessive positivity. Plus, the costumes are beautiful. Of course, considering that Goseiger came after the Boukengers, whose different groups of villains acted simultaneously and even interacted with each other (albeit minimally), it seems rather lazy.
So overall, I would recommend this show to those who are just starting out with Super Sentai or want something relatively close to Power Rangers.
Then you won't be disappointed.
Besides, using angels as positive characters is actually quite rare.

I forgot to comment on that with my first post, the show really does have great suits. The villains in particular always look great and are very creatively designed. And I do get why they made the angelic heroes such beacons of positivity, the fact they cut corners in pretty much every other way when it came to them being angels made me feel like it was just an excuse for the show to keep things super simple in yet another way. I think I would have liked Goseiger a lot more if it had even *one* aspect I really enjoyed, or that I at least found genuinely fascinating. I also didn't enjoy the similarly back to basics style of Gaoranger, I guess I just like my Sentai a bit quirkier.

[Sh Ranger]

Quote:

Originally Posted by GoldenXtreme

So, Goseiger. I had a negative impressive of this show from the reactions other tokusatsu fans had to it, but I also didn't have any clear idea of why it seemed to get such distasteful reactions. Obviously the only solution is to find out why for myself, so I gave it a watch!

I'm definitely in the minority, as I rank Goseiger as my 5th favorite Heisei Sentai! When people say it suffers from "sandwich syndrome" due to Shinkenger and Gokaiger being popular, I understand, but I personally cannot relate. I especially disagree with the claim that the characters are boring. Like, I often try and adopt Alata's "it'll work out" mindset in my own life, when I have to deal with something difficult. Agri had that memorable episode where his feeling of weakness was used against him to make him think his friends disliked him. Eri had that one where she felt left behind by Alata due to her struggle with mastering Comprethunder. I think their weaknesses are leveraged for their dramatic worth and in a way I think is both human and sympathetic.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Plus, the costumes are beautiful.

For sure! I love the emphasis on white as an angelic color and how the animals bite in to the visors! Gosei Knight has his own unique qualities as well, as a Header who morphs in to a Ranger.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mesnick

Besides, using angels as positive characters is actually quite rare.

When something gets subverted so often from the original, it eventually becomes more subversive to do the original. Angels have a long history in fiction after all.

[Sunred]

What qualifies as Goseiger's final arc was chef's kiss IMO, from final boss to the final fight. Those who haven't seen those eps and say the show is ass don't know what they're talking about. And this is coming from someone who doesn't have Goseiger as one of their favorites.
On another topic, I'm planning to rewatch Boonboomger, the show where Ash Ketchum is your Megazord and the villain lackeys have Jesse, James, and Meowth energy.

[GuardianAngel87]

During the first time I watched Goseiger, it felt somewhat refreshing after finishing up Shinkenger which I suffered a severe case of Hype Backlash towards it at least that at point. Not helped by the fact I was stuck watching that series through TV-Nihon subs at the time. Million Fold Curiosity's own subs for Goseiger serves as a major contribution to my overall enjoyment of the series and despite it nowhere being among my favorite seasons of Super Sentai, there is still plenty to like about Goseiger at least with me like some pretty enjoyable episodes here and there plus everything related to Gosei Knight and his entire character arc, as well as Bladerun/Brajil being a legitimately great villain for the series especially during its pretty epic finale arc with said finale arc being among my personal favorite finales in all of Sentai and maybe in all of Tokusatsu overall.

I revisited both shows just last year and thankfully my feelings towards Shinkenger have long since improved to the point where I now have a much greater appreciation what that Sentai series was going for and even managed to enjoy the series in some capacity. As for Goseiger, I ended up enjoying even more than I already do in the first go around and the positives I have towards it still hold up. All in all, Goseiger is a Sentai series where the positives really do outweigh the negatives. For the most part despite its rather serious flaws, I like it.

[GoldenXtreme]

Honestly going by opinions here, Goseiger seems more popular than I thought at least!

Touching on some of the topics people brought up:
I think Bladerun was more of an interesting concept than an actually interesting villain to me. I caught on to the fact he was essentially a fallen angel quite early (during the VS Shinkenger movie of all things), but I didn't think he made for a very impressive threat. Kinda like Shinkenger, it seems like they wanted to lean on a big twist and it just didn't have as much impact for me as the writers were counting on. His whole stint at the final boss just hit a lot of the Lucifer character archetypes I expected too. I'm surprised to see so much love for the last stretch of the show specifically, but I'm glad other people got something out of it.

As Sh Ranger the cast is very "human", which just isn't really what I was hoping for from a team of angels. They do get some focus episodes as you said too, but they didn't resonate with me much, perhaps due to the breezily simple style that defines the show.

I feel like I at least understand the appeal of the show after reading these comments, which I was really not seeing before.