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12-17-2021, 04:12 PM | #9031 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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I've started Timeranger a few days ago and have seen 11 episodes now. I'm really enjoying it so far, which surprises me since I don't think I've heard people talk about it much, and when I occasionally did it was in a somewhat negative sounding tone. The cast has really fun interactions, interesting character arcs, and generally the story has a more dramatic tone than most other Sentai. Admittedly the show looks kind of terrible in thr visual department and has utterly boring mech fights full of overly long stock footage, but I'm willing to overlook it since a lot of the rest of it clicks.
I'm curious now though, do people like this show? I barely ever see it dicussed and I'm a little afraid you all are going to tell me "Oh, yeah, that show. I was great until it got Hibikied half way through".
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12-17-2021, 04:57 PM | #9032 |
Henshin Heaven
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Inside a Hyper Battle Video, help.
Posts: 1,242
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I have to admit I'm surprised to hear that, because I've often had the impression of it being a cult classic and a beloved entry in the franchise! It's got a lot of the same draws as Shinkenger imo and there's never a point where it feels like the original plans were gone against
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12-17-2021, 09:37 PM | #9033 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~
Shinobi 39 – Shuriken Sentai Ninninger This may or may not be the second-most cruel one of these I'm making myself write? It's... I'm pretty awful when it comes to picking favorites, in general. I always see people who can easily make lists of their top 10 favorite whatevers, and it always feels so foreign to my entire way of thinking. If you've been reading these posts from the start, or seen me around this forum in general, you'll know – I just kind of *like* things, and putting that into any manner of rigid hierarchy comes so unnaturally to me I barely bother trying. That's why it's such a big deal when I can without hesitation that, yeah, Go-Busters is my #1 Sentai. But like, what's my #2? I seriously don't know, and I actually have considered this question multiple times over. There are a couple of strong contenders, for such varied reasons it quickly becomes an apples and oranges comparison. Hence why a firm decision becomes difficult. That being said, in this race that's too close to call, part of me always feels Ninninger is *this* close to pulling ahead of the pack. Ninninger captured my attention pretty much right away, as I recall it. I was super excited for it every week as it was airing... for a while, anyway. I remember this so faintly now I can barely tell you why, but for some period of time around the middle of the show, my level of interest dropped for a while, and I'm pretty sure I fell behind on it, despite my renewed interest in keeping up with currently airing Sentai after making the mistake of ignoring two shows I turned out to love. So naturally, as soon as I stopped ignoring Ninninger and got caught up, I adored the final stretch of the show so much that, well... I think it's part of the reason I have a hard time recalling that there was a period where I wasn't that enthusiastic about watching it. Most of this paragraph sounds like fiction to me, even though I'm the one writing it. What happened right after that certainly didn't help this. It turns out Ninninger was also the newest Worst Sentai Ever. The current Worst Sentai Ever, as far as I know. I was only faintly aware of this for a while, paying even less close attention to fandom discourse at the time than usual, but I started becoming more active on this forum again while everyone seemed to be rejoicing that the show after this was so much better, and more entertaining, and, you know, not The Worst Ever. I wasn't buying that for a second! I knew Ninninger was great, and finding out it's also selflessly bearing the burden of that ignoble title so people will finally leave Goseiger alone was only going to make Ninninger sound that much cooler to me. And since few things apparently get me as passionate as toku shows only I seem to love, this all lead to my Ninnin Rewatch! of the entire series five years back, which I will be extremely flattered if you remember me mentioning about forty weeks ago when I started this project. I went through all of Ninninger again and talked about each episode a tiny bit, day after day, in this very thread, which was the first time I had ever really done something like that. That project, as quaint as it seems now, created a kinda profound connection between me and Ninninger, to the point my first viewing of the show is rarely the viewing I'm thinking of. I mean, man, it's crazy to think how much actually came out of that. I watched way more Sentai I ended up loving, for one. It also helped me realize I had fun talking on this forum about a show I'm watching, which I used to not do all the time, believe it or not. Plus, a lot of the motivation for that was simply to throw some affection towards a show I felt was underrated, so it's pretty much the archetypal example of the kind of cheerleading that lead to me doing stuff like what you're currently reading. More specifically to Ninninger itself, the beauty of stopping to digest each individual episode of a series by writing about it – even if you don't end up writing that much – is that you'll find yourself appreciating it on a much deeper level. Before the Ninnin Rewatch!, I liked Ninninger a whole lot. After it, I was thoroughly convinced the series was honestly a bit of a masterpiece, regardless of how contrary that runs to the general consensus. There are some Sentai I love because they're better than usual at developing an endearing cast of characters. Some, I love for how utterly unrestrained they are in creating an energetic and wacky tone. For others, what I love most is the genuine depth of the themes and messages conveyed by their stories. I love Ninninger because it excels at all of those things, all at once. The cast of heroes in Ninninger is flat-out one of the best written I've seen in the franchise. Every last member of the team has very concrete personality traits, and unique motivations and goals that further distinguish them. It's made very clear how each individual's presence contributes to the group as a whole, and many specific pairs of characters also have defined relationships that stand out from the rest. You get a great sense throughout Ninninger of how everyone views each other, and that clarity benefits all the other great things going on with the characters in this series. You've got supporting characters given the same amount of love and care. A main antagonist who ends up having quite a few layers. Meaningful growth and arcs for all of them, all paced out in a way that makes room for everyone to bounce off one another without ever focusing the spotlight too much on a single individual. Those heroes are also delightful. This is a show with character concepts as incredible as Yakumo, a ninja who would ideally prefer to get back to studying abroad in England, so as to finish up his studies at magic school, as in, an actual school for actual wizards in this universe, which is treated as casually as any other discipline, making it all the more hilarious. And then if that wasn't enough, you have my absolute favorite sixth Ranger ever in Starninger. Let me tell you about Starninger! My main man Kinji is a rock and roll cowboy from America, who is also a self-made ninja, who fights with a guitar that's also a gun, and who transforms using a cheeseburger. I'd say the only way he could be any more more American is if his giant robot turned into a pickup truck, but considering it's based on bull riding, that might be just as good? He might be as American as anything has ever been? I'm focusing on these two characters here because I adore them both so much I can't help it, but I feel their specific wild concepts demonstrate a ton about the show's style simply by being described. I can tell you that these are two of the principal characters, and you'll immediately get how unafraid this show is to have fun. What you might not get right away is how purposeful and considered that fun can be. For as much emphasis as Ninninger puts on keeping the tone bouncy and light, it's also telling a story with drama that really resonates with me emotionally, not in spite of, or merely in addition to, but because it so readily embraces its own absurdity. If I weren't failing to properly organize this post due to how excited I am, I probably would've mentioned the tagline of the show/team catchphrase way earlier – they're the shinobi who don't hide. This phrase is a textbook example of a paradox, and also the core of the entire series. There's a shot in the roll call stock footage I love, as Akaninger is delivering this line, where he punctuates it with this firm gesture of his arm, sweeping away the darkness he's standing in, and as the light quickly floods in, confetti also flies in the background. The series sells itself with that phrase to demonstrate its upbeat nature; the team uses it to demonstrate their pride. Hiding, you know, it's a thing people do when they feel ashamed of themselves, and that's the significance of Ninninger going so far in the opposite direction that festivals are an outright secondary motif. This is a show all about the importance of being able to find your own unique path in life, and to find the joy in striving towards the goals you set for yourself, even if they go against what's expected of you. This line of thinking is reflected everywhere you look in Ninninger. The team's giant robot, Shurikenjin, for example. It's made up of five completely unrelated concepts (a ninja, a western-style dragon, a dump truck, a cute dog, and a bullet train), and that lack of cohesion is the whole point, because the components serve to express the individuals controlling them, and not to subdue what makes them unique for the sake of the group. If none of this makes any sense, it's like, so what? This is all who the Ninningers are, and they're not going to apologize simply for being themselves. That unyielding emphasis on self-determination is all the more strange when you consider Ninninger is also the next family Sentai. That is, it might seem strange, at first. While the main five Ninningers are all related by blood, the series goes out of its way to leave distance between everyone right away. Instead of five inseparable siblings, we've got a bunch of cousins, and even the brother and sister pair the show does have, who *are* close, are still explicitly established in the premiere not to have seen each other for years when we meet them. The willingness to reject tradition extends to how the show treats the concept of family as well. The show ends up examining the difference being merely being related, and actually being family, and the ways in which it does this are surprisingly poignant. It's seriously like, everything in Ninninger just comes together beautifully. The style supports the themes which support the characters who support the story which in turn supports the style again, and it all keeps going in a cycle like that. I know for a fact Ninninger's main writer, Kento Shimoyama, deliberately avoided making any thorough plans for the narrative, so as to leave room for ideas he'd come up with later, and while there's an obvious risk to that choice, it's amazing how cohesive a story Ninninger ends up telling by the end, putting its consistently great attention to detail to work and managing to unite loads of seemingly disparate elements into a tale that's as rich in its overall humanity as any given episode is in its silly sense of adventure. But uh, I was supposed to be talking about a very particular given episode, wasn't I? (Probably worth noting that both of this show's writers are the sub-writers from Go-Busters, with how this post is turning out! Might explain a few things!) I've yet to get to the topic of how cool this show's action is, so thankfully Ninninger's premiere gets right to that in the very first scene, where Takaharu very quickly transforms into Akaninger, and starts slicing up mooks left and right as the theme song plays to highlight the sense of energy. It's so much fun. I love the emphasis fight scenes in Ninninger put on the heroes flipping around like crazy, and it's just as much fun when everyone else joins the party for the climax of the episode. Things get even better for me when the mecha are introduced, too, as each of Shurikenjin's components are physical props that get to do way more by themselves than usual for modern Sentai. Akaninger's Shinobimaru is even a dude in a suit, and at that, a slim suit that brings an active feel to the giant action you don't see too often. It's glorious stuff, and a huge contributing factor to why I was won over by this show so quickly when it started airing. If there's anything I'd even come close to admitting there is to complain about in the episode, it'd probably be some of the acting. In particular, Takaharu is a frequent point of contention for this, along with many, many other reasons. A lot of people aren't going to like a Red whose catchphrase is "I'm getting fired up!" anyway, but when his delivery of the line makes him sound distinctly unfired up, he's fighting even more of an uphill battle than usual. The thing is, I love this show so much I mostly find that charming, and that's because I know how much both the character and the actor grow over the course of the show. Takaharu is a brilliant character. The writing surrounding him is often immensely clever, and it's apparent even at the start. One of the most clever things about Takaharu as a Red is that even when the show is about him, it's almost never about him. I don't even have to pull examples from later in the series, because right here in the first episode, while his lack of fear in the face of danger and eagerness to become a great ninja are what inspires his family to come together as a team, it's actually his little sister Fuuka who gets the arc in this one. Right away, you see how exasperated she is by her dumb big bro. Then the expository scenes place particular focus on how little she cares about some dumb prophecy foretelling the return of a great evil, and when that evil shows up, she's notably the last one who works up the courage to fight. When all is said and done, she admits that Takaharu helped the four of them figure out something important, before going right back to teasing him, but much more affectionately. And like, dude! That's a whole proper interpersonal dynamic established in a premiere that also has to make time to establish all the other characters, explain a bunch of backstory, and fill a huge amount of the runtime with elaborate action set-pieces! This thing is packed with stuff going on, and yet it feels so effortless in its execution. All the elements are worked in so smoothly that nothing feels like it's competing for attention. The pace is solid, the visuals are strong, the action is lively, the characters are great, and it's all playing nicely off each other... what more could you ask for? If you're like most people, apparently you can ask for a *lot* more, actually, but me? I adore every second of this debut, and every time I've watched it, it seems I adore it that much more. Ninninger is my jam, and I wouldn't have it any other way. I... I keep going back to Go-Busters in this post, and just like with that show, I don't think I'm getting very close to expressing how much I truly love Ninninger here, even with all I've said. This is an almost ideal Sentai series in my eyes. It's given me so much raw entertainment, so much to think about, and even an opportunity for a little personal growth of my own. Ninninger means a lot to me, and while I started this post off with the question of whether or not it's my second-favorite Sentai, at the end of the day... what does the label matter at all, right? No arbitrary rank is ever going to reflect the actual feelings behind it. What's important isn't how high the show sits on some ladder; the thing that matters most about my opinion of Ninninger is as simple as the following – it gets me fired up! And that's really hot!
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Last edited by Fish Sandwich; 12-17-2021 at 09:51 PM.. |
12-17-2021, 09:52 PM | #9034 |
Some guy. I'm alright.
Join Date: Sep 2019
Location: Michigan
Posts: 4,424
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As someone who finds Ninja Steel to be legit good, I can totally jive with your love of Ninninger in this post.
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12-17-2021, 09:58 PM | #9035 |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 907
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Kinji/Starninger is a great addition to the show’s main cast and a great sixth ranger overall. I’ll definitely give Ninninger that. Kasumi/Momoninger and Kyuuemon are great as well. Not a fan of the series but it has its moments.
Oh, and for the hell of it and it’s the holidays, I decided to re-watch episode 45 of Kakuranger. Last edited by GuardianAngel87; 12-17-2021 at 10:10 PM.. |
12-17-2021, 11:27 PM | #9036 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: Apr 2014
Posts: 2,481
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I have the worst reason for not watching Nininger, Takaharu's laugh just annoyed me. I really should give it another chance.
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12-18-2021, 04:05 AM | #9037 |
Veteran Member
Join Date: May 2019
Posts: 2,553
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As another guy who really likes Ninninger, this is a way better explanation of its strengths than both of my attempts. And that’s my post in this thread for the week, since my reviews are over in the “Other Toku Series” thread this fortnight
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12-18-2021, 05:55 AM | #9038 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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As another guy who really likes Ninninger, this is a way better explanation of its strengths than both of my attempts.
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12-18-2021, 07:24 PM | #9039 |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 907
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Re-watching episode 45 of LuPat and it reminded me why I love Over-Time subs for Super Sentai so much.
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12-19-2021, 03:45 AM | #9040 |
Member
Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 462
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I do like Ninninger but actually like Zyuohger roughly about the same funnily enough, I was not a fan of Takaharu though, although at least he's not Ban I suppose!
About Timeranger, yes, I do really like that! Apparently it was just overshadowed by Kamen Rider Kuuga and in a way Power Rangers Time Force is arguably more memorable for having things which you might want in PR more often than we do get, but both are perfectly awesome shows and manage to tell different stories despite being similar! |
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