I would've never believed in the middle ground until I saw Megaranger :lol

Gobus 38.

Although not as bad as the last episode, this episode was oddly narrow minded. I mean I love Ace as much as the next guy, but not only is it now no longer the strongest single Buster machine - why Ace specifically in the first place?

Considering you need the others to use the Combine Operation, and that J and Jin's machines operate outside of the Core Buster Machines surely it makes sense to gather information on all of them? I get that eventually the focus shifts more to what effect the machines have on the body when used for prolonged periods, but it still seemed odd to use only one example.

Still the fact I respond this way surely shows the strength of the mech stuff in this show, which I guess is odd, as the mech line is the main toyline and this is the best I've ever seen it used. Usually the toy ad is literally tacked on at the end of the show with no wider purpose. It's funny how much a show largely written off by everyone gets right, much more so than a lot of the shit in the sentai canon.

Obviously it'd never happen after the shows failure, but I would be really interested to see a sentai taken to Gobus logical extremes, centred around a bunch of ace mech pilots. I guess I have an idea for a fanfiction if I ever write one.

The designs for the mechs in this show are fantastic as well. There were missteps, Epsilon looked pathetic with its giant knees, the combination of Jin and J's vehicles is a floppy mess - the closest this show has to a true clusterfuck - and when Ace combines with Two and Three...it gets a huge gut and a moustache?!

But when it comes to combining LOTS of vehicles this show is pretty damn incredible, as they still come out of the other side looking like a giant robot and not like a kid just had two litres of cherryade to himself and played buckeroo.

Of the three, I'd say Gekiranger. Partially because I haven't seen the other two, but mostly because it's a really good show if you can get past the Jan-speak.

I think you perfectly summed up why I like Enter so much. Well that and when he revealed his plan it was on the edge of my seat with excitement.

Go-Busters really shown on the mecha aspect of Super Sentai. Towards the end of Gokaiger I found myself begging for Insarn to not make the MOTW big because while I liked Gokaioh, the fights just got boringly formulaic. Then we have Go-Busters which treats the Megazord just as seriously, if not more than the Metaroid. In those first five episodes, it really showed you could use what is essentially a toy commercial as an effective narrative device.

Yeah Gobus is the only show where I'm happy for a final showdown to be between two robots. Every other show I find myself hating how the later in the series it gets, the more fights become centred around giant stuff and the more the much MUCH better henshin hero stuff falls to the wayside.

It's funny as well, because shows like Kyoryuger, Goseiger and Shinkenger all had decent giant stuff at the start, but as the later episodes focused on the mech stuff more the designs and giant fights...got worse?

Overall, the only other series I feel hold a candle to the Go-Busters in mecha goodness are Boukenger and Gekiranger. Boukenger for its very mechanical designs going up against wide variety of enemies the Negative Syndicates pit against them. And Gekiranger for them not being machines but spiritual avatars that battle against the enemy that has enlarged itself, continuing the great martial arts fighting. Honorably mention to Magiranger.

Yeah I gotta admit, I may have given up on Boukenger, but the designs and implementation of the mecha stuff was SWEET.

Jungle Fury (as I've only fully seen the PR counterpart) certainly rivalled Bouken in design in all of that glorious sleekness, but not so much in implementation. I dunno, cheap ass cockpits like Goseiger aside, I like seeing them actually steer it. The way the Jungle Fury Rangers stood in an empty room full of dry ice was really lame to me.

On the opposite end of the scale I thought the Mystic Force zord concept was awesome (BECOMING the zords? AWESOME. It makes so much sense for the show as well unlike - using the example again - Goseiger where a bunch of angels had....a giant robot?!), but found the designs impressively bland, especially with the overuse of TERRIBLE CG.

Gobus 39.

A kid in a sentai episode that isn't so awful in every regard that I feel like my blood is going to boil until it cooks me alive?! Maybe Gobus is finally picking up again?! I guess it is about time to start gearing up for the climax, so it makes sense.

It's nice to see the heroes be proactive, even if Enter kinda made it easy for them. And it was nice to see Ryuuji has a dream for after the fighting, and one that has been firmly established throughout the show. Honestly lately we've been seeing more and more glimpses of the great character Ryuuji was at the start of the show.

I get that Hiromu is the better fighter, and an ace mech pilot, but I sometimes wonder if Ryuuji's badass loving father figure routine would make him better suited as the leader. I get that his weakness makes him unstable, but as he proved, it also makes him a fierce weapon when backed into a corner. I'd say Hiromu's weakness is much more crippling.

I also can't help but wonder if the show agrees with me considering the amount of focus he gets, more so than anyone else. If nothing else, he's so damn handsome >.< in such an immensely ugly cast - minus Escape, gorgeous lovely Escape - it's nice to have such a handsome guy around.

Not only was this a decent episode for Ryuuji, it was a decent episode for the production as well. I think Gobus is the only sentai show that I've watched that is able to satisfy in every area. Mech stuff = fantastic. Special effects = fantastic. Unmorphed figths = fantastic.

Only real disappointed is another week, another amazingly lame Messiah Metaroid. If we're going to focus the whole show around these things, can't you make at least one of them worth following?

Imagination Station (the group that first attempted ToQGer) has released subs for the first two episodes of Abaranger!

http://anotherimaginationstation.wor...aranger-01-02/

Definitely have to check this out; Aba subs are very rare.

Abaranger subs!? I've been waiting for this for so many years :D!

Decided to watch the first episode of Gaoranger before bed. Minus the annoying as fuck theme I really enjoyed this, I might watch this along side the climaxing Gobus.

Although it looked REALLY dated at times, this is probably as perfect an introduction to a series as you're gong to get. It established things quickly, and precisely in a no nonsense fashion while being generally pretty damn stylish about it and coming packed with great designs. I really like how their weapons combine into a melee weapon and not another cannon.

Plus the core concept is really fun - five sentient, giant, robotic animals ride around on a floating island shaped like a turtle guarding the planet from monsters while each picking a champion to fight with them. Nothing original sure, but don't fix what ain't broke, right?

Only real bad thing was the changer, what is it with sentai and using phone changers in the most illfitting of shows? I still can't get over that time in Shinkenger when Edo Japan samurai were transforming with fucking flip phones.

That and the annoying sentai trait of having the Red being an outsider but not committing to it in the fight scenes. Just like in Dairanger, GaoRed goes from not knowing what is going on at all, and questioning whether he too can fight before Changing and immediately fighting as if he's been a part of the team always. It's both distracting and makes a huge part of the episode feel pointless. I think the only time this has ever been done well was Casey in Jungle Fury.

Oh, wow! This is exciting! Abaranger is one of the series I've most wanted to try out. I hear it has a pretty complex plot with almost zero filler. I'm also a huge fan of Naruhisa Arakawa's sentai, so, yeah. Great news.

Probably gonna wait until it's finished, but it's nice to know Abaranger might actually be something I can watch and understand one day!

Jan in Gekiranger also worked fairly well. Mainly because he didn't spend all those years in the wilderness alone just doing nothing.

I am like 11 episodes into GaoRanger and I enjoy it but I got sidetracked by everything else. It is a good series so far I just don't know why I haven't watched more.

The changer is weird though, but Sentai does love the phone changers from then.

Blame Mega Silver for making phone changers so bloody popular...

Anyway, it's been a few days since finishing Megaranger, so I was thinking about starting up another series (I didn't want to start immediately so I don't experience burnout).
Jetman and Zyuranger were the two I was considering the most, but the talk of Gobusters and, now, Gao, has gotten me interested in those two as well.
Any suggestions?

Gobusters isn't perfect, but when it does something well, it does it better than any other sentai, so I recommend that.

If they can at least pass episode 10 then this will be really big :D

The fact they say they're currently working on ep34 gives me lots of hope.

I was a tad skeptical at first, and then I saw they had built a backlog of releases. It gives me hope that 2014 will be the year Abaranger will be competely subbed.

I guess I'll also add that to my list before watching Gokaiger if it actually gets finished.

I think they're committing to a once-a-week release schedule, so you may be waiting a while.

Agreed. Check that out next.

When I get home from work tonight I'll be watching Gekiranger 49.

Just wish I had time to watch it before work this morning.

Gaoranger 02.

Although the idea of them flying around the planet in a mountain is kinda dumb, I do really like the idea of them travelling from terrorised town to terrorised town, it just gives a much grander sense of scale.

The real surprise this week though was how brutal this all was, sure it was no Kamen Rider Kuuga but I didn't expect to see the Wire Org hurt people in the way it did. Then again the way the GaoRangers fight is pretty brutal too, even if they did explain why the Orgs are irredeemable.

They also got their mecha this episode, it was a pretty typical design for sentai but was largely pretty streamlined and free from flappy bits, so it gets a pass from me.

Currently watching through Kakuranger, just finished ep 4. I really like how they write the sound effects on the screen like the old batman show lol

Finally got to watch the first two episodes of Abaranger!

I like it so far. Theme song is pretty good (maybe not as good as DinoThunder but we'll see how that goes once I keep hearing it) and the characters seem nicely balanced.

hope Imagination Station can keep up these releases.

Don't we all

Gobus 40. The final stretch begins.

Although I don't get the gag with the shy satellite Metaroid - it just seems really random and it isn't funny - I must say this episode had some great action. And Enter's transformed form is REALLY FUCKING AWESOME.

Plus it was focused on the utterly wasted Jin and J, so it was nice to see them do something again and come across pretty great in the process. Oh what could have been.

Whoa, the Go-Bus Xmas 2-parter is INSANE.

Christmas time in Sentai is interesting because it frequently heralds the ramp-up to the show's big conclusion.

He reminds me A LOT of Phantom of the Paradise.

http://aisu.kuri.mu/files/2013/07/Ph...Paradise-1.gif


Hey, there are still 10 episodes! What could have been... could still be. Or something. :lol

Such an underappreciated film!

My brothers!

Personally for me, if noteworthy stuff happens in the last ten episodes of a toku show, that is never present elsewhere - then I'm not gonna count it. I've watched too many toku shows that have had a fantastic wrap up, and people act like that excuses a show if for the other thirty or so episodes that it meanders about and faffs.

The opening act of Go-Busters was fantastic, but I found it lost its way a LOT after that and although there have been some stand out episodes, it's much more a series of great single moments than really great stuff all round, or all together.

So certainly not a bad show, but not my new favourite either.

Gaoranger 03.

So this episode was just as dumb in the original huh? The first two episodes were solid, this one...not so much. I dunno, it just felt really cheap, the designs are solid but the execution of them...not so much. And when it wasn't cheap, it was just sorta naff. This was supposed to be a focus episode on Red to make him look badass, but in reality he didn't really do anything to deserve the fanfare he got.

I mean it isn't to say there aren't some interesting things, the way they capture each Rangers uniqueness is a little different to how they do it in other shows and I do like how the Yellow ranger is crucial to the show, like when does that ever happen? But just the general dated look and feel of the show makes it painful to watch at times, especially when you realise this came out in 2001 and not the early 90s. Ironically it seems to save most of its budget per episode for the giant stuff, then does very little of interest with them.

Most Super Sentai take it easy on Chrstimas. Go-Busters is one of my favorites because they didn't. Really damn good episodes.

Holy crap i didnt think anyone else actually has seen that film.

You're not alone my friend. Then again I'm the resident POTO fanatic, so I've seen just about every version outside of vague foreign and lost ones.

Definitely one of my favorite movies ever. POTP is De Palma's weirdest movie, and one of his bests... even if it is strangely forgotten.

Yeah, but they usually still indicate that the end is coming. Usually they're the calm before the storm, or the recap episodes, but Go-Bus and Kyoryu both had epic, high-stakes Christmas 2-parters. We're witnessing the beginning of a trend. :lol

Gobus 41. Oh man the best episode in a LONG while.

This episode was great, Hiromu was probably having the time of his life getting to hang out with that gorgeous actress from Gouraigan and indulging in his love for dress up. They make a fantastic team.

Plus how cool was this weeks Metaroid?! I wish he had lasted longer than one episode, he was more than cool enough to be a main general.

Gekiranger 16-18

New Master for Rio, new lesson. Instead of Hawk's lessons about gaining power from hatred, Master Jellyfish teaches how to gain strength from jealousy. And unlike Hawk, she see's potential in Mele as well. It seems that the common method of teaching in Rin Jyuken is almost murdering your disciples.

Also the Masters all used to be human? So to completely master Geki/Rin Jyuken you turn you into an animal person? Hmm. Interesting. At least there's an explanation for 'em.

And man...Mele isn't anyone to fool around with when she's angry. She's almost strong enough to beat Shafu, though she almost killed herself with her technique. And we get hints that Rio might actually care for Mele as well with the way he stopped her suicidal assault on Shafu. Before he was just sorta too concentrated on getting training/meditating to interact with her much, but he never really seemed dismissve when she was pining over him either.

And a new Geki Jyuken Master, Sharkie Chan! He's the youngest of the one's revealed so far, I suppose. Probably my favorite out 'em all, though Elehan's pretty cool too. I like the weapons that go with his style too. Not too big a fan of Geki Shark Touja's design...Geki Shark itself is fine though.
It was pretty cool how Jan used the technique of unbreakable body to shake off hermit crab monster's possession.

It looks like things are ramping up though. Rio's finally recalled someone he couldn't defeat. A tiger, but not Jan. Huh..Wonder who that could be...

So arguably the best 20% of any given toku show doesn't count?

Sure, a fantastic ending doesn't justify a stretch of middle-badness... but saying any successes that come in the last 10 episodes don't count is extremely myopic.

You'll learn the reason behind their animal forms later on.