Super Space Sheriff Gavan Infinity Episode 1: "Red Gavan!" Discussion
 

Reiji Doki, an investigator for the Galaxy Federal Police, is Gavan Infinity-the sole individual in the cosmos authorized to bear the title "Space Sheriff Gavan." Yet he languishes in the marginal Archives Division, enduring daily ridicule from detectives in the First Investigative Division.

Few know his true purpose: investigating trans-dimensional Emorgear crimes.

I thought this was a pretty nice introduction episode for the new series, though it was... simple I suppose? We establish the basic setting and premise nicely, and Reiji was a lot more charming than I expected based on the promotional materials. We immediately establish some elements to build on for future episode too, like Reiji clearly having some sort of incident in his backstory and the other Gavans seem to be getting introduced early on. I was surprised at how charged the imagery was in this one, like the rather intense standoff between the criminals and cops. It's one of those things that could be really good or really tone-deaf depending on how the show ultimately approaches the whole alien crime angle, but I'll have to just wait and see how the show handles it over time.

I think what I liked most about it was just how fun it was though. It has some great, very physical choreography in the fight scenes and had lots of those knowingly silly elements that make tokusatsu so good. I'm looking forward to more and hope the show will be the start of something great!

this is just the beginning.

I watched it. And it was awesome. We saw a world full of alien criminals and space police. Something like Dekaranger, if it were filmed today. And just as the viewer gets used to it, it turns out that the show's world is much more expansive.
Reiji himself is a very likeable protagonist. I'm not a fan of imba main characters, but he's charismatic and sincere in his scenes, which is appealing. Plus, the fact that everyone considers him a loser makes things even more interesting. Also, everything about him, from the mech to the non-transformed fighting style, hints that he is much more inspired by Sharivan, and Gavan was named after the fact, for popularity reasons.
The other characters are also interesting, although I can't say much about them yet. But I've already liked Agi. Also, emogears has a really cool animated gimmick. Gavv's success has clearly not gone unnoticed.
Speaking of the show itself, it's much closer to Kamen Rider than Super Sentai. But it's also clearly inspired by Metal Heroes. Though not so much by Gavan, but by later shows like Rescue Team Trilogy and Janperson.
Overall, I liked it. Much more than Zeztz, although he's also very good.
I'm looking forward to new episodes and getting to know the unusual world of this show better. Or rather, worlds.
P.S. Does anyone know what Kohei Nagata was doing during the Kamen Rider Geats casting? The whole time I was looking at him, I kept thinking, "Here's someone who really looks and acts like a fox!"

Good stuff. Setup is cool, the protagonist is surprisingly likable, characters are okay so far and the action was pretty damn great.

I had fun and I want to watch more. I’m especially interested in seeing how all the things they introduce in this episode like the multiverse with different Earth’s work out in the long run.

I want to make sure I note, before anything else, that the random street thug pulling out a bazooka was the most delightfully silly thing I've seen in a tokusatsu in ages. Perfect moment, 10 out of 10, no notes.

I was really curious to see what this show would feel like, specifically if it was going to have its own identity or just feel like a slightly different take on Kamen Rider. It's definitely still a Toei tokusatsu (Toeisatsu) made in the mid-2020s. It does have some unique elements to its vibe, though, so I think it's going to avoid coming off as just a second 25 minutes of Rider.

The pacing was a little rushed because it's a first episode. I'm definitely intrigued by the characters and premise, but I want to see what the show looks like when it's not introducing a lot of new stuff all at once.

I appreciate the show keeping the whole "let's watch that transformation again in slow motion" thing from the original series, but I'm not going to be upset if they don't do it in every episode. I am missing the classic Space Sheriff villains lair full of absolutely bonkers monster designs that will never do anything, though.

I wish he still said "Gavan...DYNAMIC" when he does the Finisher. Unless that's Bushido's thing.
I'm assuming each Gavan will get it at least once. Afterwards it will probably depend on if they have enough time for a transformation sequence.

I think they'll try to make it into a Super Sentai roll call. Time will tell if it works.
Speaking of old-fashioned elements, Infinity Gavan has an eyecatch! Ryder left it in Showa, and Super Sentai kept it for a long time, but eventually abandoned it too. It's great to see it again.

As a big fan of the original Gavan series, I really enjoyed this. The info dump at the beginning was a little much, and the pacing was a little off. But as it's the first episode, I understand they are trying to establish things to set the tone.

Reji is good so far, and I like his team as well. And the other hero is intriguing. Based on the promos, it looked like it was gonna be a team show, and I'm here for that. I wasn't sure how the modern Toei-satsu elements would work in the series, but I find them enjoyable and not overused.

Also, I love that they updated the electroplating sequence and made time to break down the transformation. I hope they at least do it for the other heroes once. Overall, pretty impressed by the start and can't wait for more.

I had a random thought just now. What if it turns out to be the name for Infinity's power-up form later on?

this was a good start. doing something new while giving nods to the original. and the suit looks so awesome.

Honestly, it felt a little average with a lot of confusing exposition. Of course, it's only the first episode - plenty of time for growth.

Hey it is me again, back like a zombie! I stumbled on this backwards after stuff came up on my socials about Super Sentai going on hiatus. Maybe I just misunderstood the motivations for why Super Sentai was going on hiatus as I am openly uneducated on like the last decade's worth of toku, but this seems like a weird response? Not bad by any means, but it just felt so... like basic, is that the right word? Vanilla? You've watched the 10 year decline of a formula and then proceeded to just do the most 101 version of that formula, but with different branding? Like I don't get it? It is like we watching like one of those Indonesian or something off brands now instead, only with higher production values.

I think the reason for Super Sentai's demise isn't the formula, as the recent shows have strayed quite far from it. It's more a matter of style and key elements that simply stopped being profitable (or, rather, weren't profitable enough). So far, Infinity Gavan is much closer to Kamen Rider, only less complicated. Yes, it's clear that Toei hasn't come up with anything new to replace Super Sentai, so they decided to take the successful formula from sister franchise and add a pinch of nostalgia to disguise it. Plus, again, this is only the first episode. I'm sure the writers have a few surprises up their sleeve for the future.

I think there's a ceiling on how far Toei is willing/able to push the execution of a toku series. There may be an effort to get away from the most obvious Sentai tropes, but it's still a lot of the same people working behind the cameras.

I think it's worth noting that there was an interview with a Toei executive where he mentioned that future entries in Project RED would try to move away further from Sentai's format. It might be best to look at Gavan Infinity as a transitional show to help ease existing Sentai fans into the new series.

To me, it felt very Kamen Rider but with elements of Super Sentai - color-coded heroes, transforming mech, etc. To me, it's just expanding the limits of a color-coded team with mech format, so I'm excited to see where they go with it.

Gavan Infinity: "Put down your sword, then we'll talk."

Setsuna: (puts down sword, raises gun)

For a guy with a sadness motif, he sure has a sense of humor.

I haven't seen any of the Uchuu Keiji trilogy yet, so I can only compare to the Heisei content. Honestly, this episode didn't blow me away or anything like that. The opening Gavan fight scene is just Reiji in pursuit of some random human criminal and his use of the Tokimekki Emorgear was kind of lame. The second human criminal in Λ8018 has more clear motivation, but he still functions mostly as a plot device to prompt heavy exposition of the show's theme.

At least, this is an improvement for a Tomioka show, as our protagonist Reiji isn't screaming about handles every other sentence, but there is still a lot of talk about emotions, rather than emotional talking. Otherwise, I feel like I want to like Reiji. He's generally cool and the lack of respect he gets as part of the Documents Division makes him sympathetic. The Gavarion warp scene shows he's deeply angry about something that happened in the past and his expository dialogue emphasizes the importance of controlling strong emotions and not letting them control you, which actually reminds me of Kamen Rider Build.

I have basically no opinions on the other A0073 characters. Date is Reiji's best bud. Agi is Space Izu. WaniPat are Space Victor and Monty. Commander Wigless seems like he'll be interesting, as he has some kind of clairvoyance, but he doesn't have much screentime so far.

Setsuna's a lot of fun. I want to see more of him next time!

Aesthetically, I love how Gavans illuminate for their finishers, like the classic Metal Hero eyes taken to the next level. Now we can see Gavan Infinity's expression of anger, which is totally appropriate for the emotion theme and shows that anger is a power that can be channelled for good. They really didn't have to talk so much about the emotions, since watching them occur naturally is much more satisfying.

However, I'm not feeling the sci-fi genre as strongly as I did with stuff like Planet Bird. Like, the Gavarion bridge and some of the outfits don't look very Gavan-y (or is "Gavai" the right word?) to me, too simple, too practical. I want to see more imaginative futuristic-looking designs outside of the marketable stuff.

This show has potential and that's pretty much all I can confidently say about it for now.

The last Kuji-Tomioka show also lacked a prominent villain base, so I'll be a little disappointed if we don't get one here either. Well, I suppose we'd actually need some regular villains first.

Maybe they could take inspiration from Leo Red Orion, Super Zenkaizer and King Kuwagata Ohger and give all the REDs non-red Final Forms, as long as everything else stays mostly red.

I imagine it could be silver as tribute to the OG Gavans (Type G included!) but keep minor parts of the armor red. Visor definitely needs to stay red IMO.

Looking at the poll, I have a hard time believing 248 people voted on this episode, given the numbers on anything else.

I kept an open mind, but this episode didn't leave me wanting to watch more. Nothing resonated for me. Charming lead, but the character doesn't have interesting flaws, yet. Too much silly and cute for the cool to land.

I really don't want to be over toku, but this left me cold, and the core concept for Zeztz isn't working for me. I think I don't have patience for multiverses and dreams.

Clankers. Nothing new sadly.

Maybe one or two episodes more? I get the feeling of really wanting to pass on a show based on its first episode but you haven’t met the entire main cast yet.

There's like 70 years of backlog worth checking out, you'll be fine :lol

Oof, no interest in Zeztz? That show is awesome IMO.

And to be fair, Gavan does the multiverse thing right, it’s not Marvel slop.