You are right, Gaim has had very little filler, but so did Kyoryuger. Just because you skipped episodes does not mean they were filler. From my understanding, you skipped the episodes with Cyan and Gray, right? Those were not filler.

Nevertheless, Suzu is right that you really cannot compare the two shows because they both have two different purposes. Despite the last several years of Rider shows being more childish, Rider has always been a more story driven series compared to Sentai. Most of the time, if you skip an episode of Blade, Ryuki, OOO, W, etc, you missed out on something. Wizard was pretty much the first true filler-esque Kamen Rider series since the Showa era.

I skipped Cyan's introductory episode,as I've seen it before, but no I watched the whole Gray arc. Tessai was awesome, but it wasn't a particularly great story, especially as it was built so well.

And as I always argue with Wizard, sure it had a lot of filler but you were rewarded with fantastic action sequences and an immensely charismatic main rider. What do I miss out on during the episodes I skipped here? Toothache, Candi singing, fart batteries? I need a Viking funeral for how little fucks I give about this stuff.

I watch a show I didn't like, in a way that makes me like it, and I'm doing it wrong. I watch the entirety, hate every minute, get told off for being negative.

So I guess the only opinion I'm allowed is Command Protocol LOVE EVERY SECOND OF THIS SHOW HIVEMIND HIVEMEND SHEEEEP.

It's a little weird how defensive some people seem to get about even the slightest critique of Kyoryuger.

I think you're misrepresenting a lot of points.

My initial confusion came not because you were being critical, I can understand being critical of things you like, but because it seemed as if your posts were outright negative and hostile towards the show. It really did read as if there was nothing in the show you were enjoying.

And this definitely works better for Rider than Sentai because of that smaller cast. Sentai has to rotate focus and thus tries to become a character based series rather than a story based one. The shows that buck this trend are few and far between.

It's like they were so pained by watching the shitty filler that now they try and shaft that on everyone else.

YOU MUST SUFFER TOO.

There is a positive in every one of my reviews, unless I downright hated it, which I generally state or make obvious.

I'm quite enjoying your reviews Locke. They're reminding me of all the things I liked about Kyoryuger before it got bogged down by the mountain of stuff I hated, so as far as I'm concerned your viewing method is obviously serving its purpose :lol

Yeah, I've been thinking the same. It's reminding that there was some good stuff in Kyoryuger despite some of the shows failings.

This filler can't take away the awesome mechs, the epic battles and just how cool everyone is.

I watched the first 10 episodes of DaiRanger this weekend and I'm liking it so far. The fights are great and I love DairenOh. There are some obvious Star Wars inspirations in the show but I like all of the characters. I don't know how I feel about Kiba Ranger's origins as they seem, well, silly to me but I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Kyoryuger 24. Although this block of episodes, that has been its own mini arc, really has not been all that great I found the wrap up to the arc very satisfying.

It's a rare moment, but when an episode like this reflects light on the strength of the individuals in these team, it really is a highlight. Plus, with the underwhelming return of Deboss, it was really nice to get some good action this episode. Aigaron seemed to be introduced as a secret badass, but that never seemed to be brought up again, so see him literally steaming with rage and kicking Kyoryuger ass was sweet. It's just a shame it was so short lived.

Most importantly though, Yayoi's trip out as Violet was certainly much more impressive than Ulshade's was. I'm actually not a big fan of the character, but the suit actor seemed to really match her build and personality well, which is ironically a pretty rare thing the more toku you watch and it was just generally a fantastic introduction for Violet.

I recently came to that exact realization. Last night, actually, while watching ToQger.

I'm really loving ToQger so far, especially Episode 2. I'm also really loving Gaim, but they're drastically different shows.

Which made me ask myself, "self, what would be different between your ideal Super Sentai show and your ideal Kamen Rider show?" And I came to the same conclusion.

My ideal Sentai would have a heavy emphasis on character and intra-team relationships. The overarching plot would never overshadow the characters' relationships. And the show would tackle weighty issues like death and betrayal, but in a lighthearted way that introduces those concepts to kids, almost like in a fairy tale.

On the other hand, my ideal Kamen Rider would have a much heavier emphasis on story and conspiracies that explore the moral gray areas between good and evil. There would be strong characters, too, but they'd be used in service of a larger story-based agenda.

It's funny that sentai has more characters but less character focus than Rider. You think that since Rider has less people on screen it could put more more into fights, but then nope, it's the other way round. A big reason why I love Rider so much more than Sentai is because it feels like an actual show, where plot and character are actually important, rather than just after thoughts like they often are in sentai.

That is probably a huge reason why I loved Goseiger, it was nowhere near perfect but every member of the cast was fleshed out, they each had a purpose and the show dedicated a huge amount of time to character focus. Similar to Go-Busters, in many ways Goseiger felt a lot closer to Rider than it does to its super sentai brethren, I think they got around that by having a ridiculous overkill mecha gimmick. It is a far cry from the likes of Dairanger, a show with so little character focus even the Red vanished in the background.

I find the best sentai shows do have a strong character emphasis. Gokaiger, Jetman, Dekaranger, Goseiger. And even Magiranger, now that it's starting to get good, is heavy on the character development -- even if those characters are still pretty annoying.

Wait, there was character focus in Gokaiger? When did that happen?

Every episode that wasn't a tribute episode. And... a lot of the tribute episodes.

This question is sort of baffling to me. I think the Gokaigers are crazy well drawn.

I don't. I honestly felt that the Gokaigers were some of the least developed characters we've had. We had glimpses of their backstories, but the only ones who developed beyond one episode were Don and Marvelous (Joe had a story arc, but it did fuck all for his character).

Nah the Dairangers are the least developed ever.

I only got to, like, episode 5 of Dairanger before dropping it, so I can't really comment on them.

I think Luka is really the only one who didn't have much of an arc. They all go on a journey from specifically unheroic to heroic.

But maybe even if they don't change a ton over the series, I think they were so strongly conceived to start with that maybe they didn't need to. IMO, their personalities were incredibly clear from frame one, and their unique perspectives influenced everything they did.

This and this.

Just gotta finish more sentai then I can check out Gokaiger for myself.

I don't feel the same. I saw their characters as cliched, their lack of change and growth meant there was little development for the team. I always saw their base characters as basic slates begging for character arcs that just either never happened or occurred at such a break neck pace that it was almost irrelevant. They all had a personal stake in the Zangyack invasion, but, outside of Marvelous, they only got a 2 part episode that simply resolved their arc, rather than let them grow as a character.

It's funny that we have such drastically different interpretations! :lol

I wonder where the disconnect lies.

Watched the first episode of Boukenger because I was itching too. So it was the heroes that revived the villains? Oh shit... This shows core premise is really awesome, and it's full of great ideas already.

Really loved the use of the vehicles, vehicle mecha works so much better as a concept than animals or dinosaurs or whatever. DaiBouken ftw. I'll always enjoy giant stuff that actually has a purpose in the story.

Everything looks great though, the suits, the weapons. Although I did like the way OO transformed a bit more, just because of when they did the real time transformations, they were awesome.

Masumi's teeth though.

It's a Sentai based around the Indiana Jones concept, you can't go wrong with that. And yeah, Masumi really needes some braces badly :lol.

Like seriously. I'm British, round here a bitta yellowin', a few gaps, pretty normal but he looks like he's been kicked in the mouth by a horse. I'm amazed he even got cast, with teeth like that, considering how these things usually go.

Kyoryuger 26. I'll await the butthurt for skipping twenty five.

This episode seemed to almost highlight why Daigo sucks?

Firstly, both Amy and Ian could both be fantastic characters without Daigo around. Ian has a direct personal stake in this war, is incredibly quick witted and a fierce tactician, as this episode pointed out he's the perfect leader in both cause and means. Amy has a fantastic grasp of people, and is a silver tongued devil, she helped Utchy come round, she helped Yayoi come round and this time Ian as well.

When Daigo was around, Amy dribbles over Daigo as apparently that is now her entire characterisation if Yayoi is in the same frame (did I mention I hate Yayoi?) and when Ian isn't playing makeshift leader, he honestly fades into the background especially as he has neither Nossan's humour or Utchy and Souji's fighting skills.

Actionwise, it was stunning. Uchy continues to be an unbridled badass, it was awesome to see the Kyoryuger's become a well oiled machine under Ian - the whole Ian centred rolecall was epic, I almost wanna get the Ian Amy set now to mimic that rolecall on my shelf.

It also looks like now the Deboss Legion are back, they are actually gonna become a threat. Although it was pure nightmare fuel, Hate Aigaron is terrifyingly awesome and new general Endorf is cool as all hell.

I was thinking you'd like Endorf, since you had a liking towards the more serious villains Dogold and Chaos.

Yeah man, beautiful suit, cool personality and ridiculously badass. These are my kind of villains.

I kind of liked his motif. I never thought a monkey and a candle would mix together well :lol
Though, like his fellow generals, he gets his own little catch phrase akin to "Keep Smiling," so that might start wearing thin.

Yeah he said that 'My Head Hurts' thing about ninety times in his first episode, but it isn't said with the same high pitched arrogance like Keep Smiling and That Stings.

Alrighty. I was just curious over your thoughts on his phrase :lol

Anyway, more Megaranger. I think the biggest issue I have with this series is that the entire cast seems to be a group of chuckle heads. They all seem like they're butting heads.
I guess that makes sense for a group of high schoolers, but it's like the show is trying to do too much at once.

Oh yeah it's annoying as well, but I always find engrish especially painful and Aigaron adding WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH onto the end of every sentence makes my stomach turn. Just like Yayoi and her fucking desus.

Desu? De gozaru? :p
...Did everyone have a verbal tic in this show? :lol

And when they didn't Nossan filled the gap with terrible puns.

Poor Ian. He was supposed to be the second coming of Black Condor. :(

Those weird phrases at the end of sentences can be one of the most annoying things about the Japanese language de gozarimasu desu.

Uh what? DaiRanger has some of the most developed characters ever.

Sure, there is no love triangle like there was in Jetman, but they were still developed as they were all different characters in the end compared to what they started out as. Do you not remember them in the beginning not even wanting to be heroes? They wanted to just go on with their lives. In the end, they were true heroes. Now Kirin and Tenma could have had a lot more development, but considering how little the yellow and blue rangers tend to be lacking in the development area (at least back in the 80s and 90s), they were given a lot more than the norm.

Aigaron has the typical Sentai thing of adding certain words to his sentences, but Yayoi's "desu" is nothing like that (the only time desu was used like a catchprashe was with Datas in Goseiger).
Yayoi uses neutral, polite speech, which means using -masu for verbs and desu for forming a sentence. The other Kyoryugers usually use informal speech, which means leaving out -masu and replacing desu with da, if needed. That's why her way of talking sounds very different from everyone else's.

Still annoying as all hell though.

The only character who got any development in that show was Daigo, for whatever reason.

Megaranger Megaranger Megaranger. It's not pulling me in like I was hoping, but I haven't dropped it like Bouken or Sun Vulcan, so it's doing something right, at least.

I must say, while I won't try to draw a direct comparison between Megaranger and In Space since it'd be unfair (Sharing only costumes, no plots, stories, or characters), the Quantrons are a lot cooler than the Kunekune.

I had no idea the Quantron's were original, they were super cool.