I tried to do Changeman earlier but the sub weren't timed correctly with the audio. And that kinda kills the idea of watching it.

I finally got around to watching Changeman's first episode (TVN's sub of it was off timing wise so I watched GUIS' sub of it. Only episode one from TVN seems to have this issue). And...it didn't leave the best first impression.

My issues with it come from some of the logic on displayed here. Most hilariously bad being that after the team henshin for the first time, Commander Ibuki explains the training session they and the (now dead) other soldiers went through was to determine which five could best handle the role of Changeman. Well the problem with this is that during the training session you can clear as day see our five heroes wearing the henshin device. This is kinda bullshitty to me just on a writing and editing viewpoint. Yes they needed to be saved from the enemies and the Earth Force forcefully transformed them, but it goes against what we hear a minute later. Why not have Ibuki save them with some weapon or smokescreen? Or have him give them the braces then and explain everything later? Having them wear the braces before they were "selected", forcefully transformed, and then have everything explained is really bad writing. I'd get it if they were chosen for courage or whatever and got the braces later and had the EF transform them the first time without it, but, damn.

Going on with this we see the team go from knowing jack shit about their powers to knowing EVERYTHING. I know this is a trope in Sentai, but this is just a case of it being done poorly. They know what the sidearm is called and how to transform it from gun mode to sword mode (which we the audience are never shown). They know the names of their individual/special weapons and how to combine them. They know how to pilot the robo (which we don't even see transform, it just appears). Heck the fight problems get worse in the pacing. The team quickly disposes of the grunts and immediately pull out the special weapon. Then when fighting with the robo execute the final attack after a minute (I hated this with Liveman as well). Where's the tension? They just clean house in the blink of an eye. All this does is make it impossible to get invested into the fight. And yes, this is episode one, they have a lot to cram in. But that's the issue, they crammed shit in when they should have just taken it slower. All we know is what the Earth Force is and why the villains are attacking. Nothing about the characters or anything else. Great.

The only positive I took away from this was the designs for the villains. These are some of the best designs I've ever seen in a Super Sentai. As for Changeman, I can sort of dig the outfits save for the white tanktop like section. And Change Robo...Change Robo sucks. The end.

You know Changeman was a Sentai I've wanted to see for a long time. It was written by Soda who did almost every 80s Sentai. The guy who created fucking Liveman. Changeman in general tends to have this aura of being one of the best seasons. And in one episode I'm questioning if I want to keep watching. Only one other Sentai has managed to make me drop it after one episode (Dekaranger). The fact a season I really wanted to see can make me not want to continue after a single episode, the first nonetheless, is troubling. I'll at least give it to episode five, but dear lord is it looking grim.

Let's not mince words. It's a sports bra :p

But while your problems with Changeman can't just be handwaved, you also have to keep in mind that it is a pilot.
I've honestly never seen a pilot episode that was anywhere beyond "Average" in terms of quality. Even my favorite Sentai, Gekiranger, had a mediocre pilot.

I haven't seen Changeman, so I don't know how large or small these issues may actually, but don't let Sentai's tendency for horrible first episodes dissuade you.

Oh trust me, I know first episodes can be bad. But this was just lazy and uneven. Like I said I'll probably give it the next four just because of how much I've been wanting to see it subbed, I'm just not getting my hopes up.

Yeah the first episode kinda just throws you in and was way too rush, and I also do not like Change Robo, think it's the most generic mech in Sentai.

The next episodes spread it out though and we see more about everything.

And I've seen good first episodes, in fact most of the sentai I've seen have had good ones.

Episode 2 of Changeman and we have much of the same problem wise as before. Not much is given plot wise aside from the villains (I like how there are repercussions for failure) and Ibuki makes a speech which honestly should have been in episode one. The biggest issue here though is pacing. Again everything just happens way too fast, even faster than episode one. The entire episode is literally nothing but fighting with four scenes of talking. And like before the fights aren't interesting because the team pretty much just walk through the enemy (also how in the hell did Change Dragon get shot in the stomach by a laser and be fine only moments later?). It was nice to see them actually show the changing between sword/shield and gun mode but holy shit do the special attacks S U C K.

I'm really trying here, but damn is this show making it hard. No real character development (or anything resembling characters really), almost no plot, and pacing which makes the episodes feel like a car crash with uninteresting fights. Changeman you were written by one the heralded writers in some call Sentai's golden age. What. The fuck. Happened?

Well, Changeman did come first.
Perhaps he learned what not to do with that series? :lol

I am waiting for Flash and Change to be fully subbed before I watch them; will probably watch them together.

But my first impression of any show is the suit and that sports bra for Change is a bit crazy. The helmet looks great, but i feel like they kind of stopped design-wise after that, lol.

Flash looks good and I know the team are kids that were taken from Earth or something like that...I don't know too much, but, per the usual, I am going to give them a shot. Shit, I finished Sun Vulcan, so these can't be that bad. Although I am about to start my third try to watch BFJ

I might give Sun Vulcan a 3rd try after Hibiki, who knows. Maybe this time I'll make it to VulEagle II~

I mean, let's be real. A lot of well-regarded Sentai are pretty bad for the first like, 15-20 episodes. Especially in the 80s/90s. Even my favorite series -- Jetman and Kakuranger -- don't really take off till the late teens.

Enjoyment of sentai can be a long term, cumulative kinda thing. Sometimes you're gonna spend a lot of time watching a bunch of crap, but by the end the payoff is usually worth the investment.

I don't really feel Kakuranger was that bad for it's first 10 episodes. They all feature our protagonists being raging, immature jackasses except Tsuruhime, who is being a nagging bitch, and Jiraiya, who can't speak Japanese. That helps set up the entire season as we get to see them grow into a real team, both in and out of the suit. Them maturing and learning is part of why I really loved it, and it wouldn't have had much of an impact if we never saw them acting like arguing children early on.

While the early episodes of Kakuranger aren't perfect (It features the problem way too many Sentai have of having characters act irritated by each other out of suit, but in perfect sync in suit, leading to a jarring divide), I didn't feel it started off as weakly as Jetman or Megaranger.

Aside: Thank god they dropped the narrator. It took like, 30 episodes, but my god, I loved it the moment he was gone.

Don't get me wrong -- I love every second of Kakuranger, otherwise it wouldn't be my second favorite series. I'm just not sure the show is actually good, or appeals to audiences who are not specifically me, until later on. :lol

I guess I could be in the same camp, and I'll admit that it did take Kakuranger a bit to catch it's groove.
I just felt that, when you get to the arcs where you see the growth in the characters (Particularly their personal trials), you can really see how far they've come thanks to the starting episodes.

Then again, I am just looking back on the early episodes in bits and pieces, and trying to completely wipe away stupid moments (Like when Seikai (Or Saizou...They kinda just blur together...) couldn't stop eating. And the narrator :lol)

Given how much of a sucker I am for japan and Kakurangers early episodes are a non stop social commentary on japan from the 90s, I would consider them to be good in every sense of the word.

That's totally true. But for a Western viewer just starting the show in the 2010s, Kakuranger's social critique won't necessarily be apparent without a) having lived in Japan at the time, b) having an education in the culture of 90s Japan, or c) watching the series to its conclusion.

But getting past Kakuranger, which may not have been the best example, and getting to my bigger point...

A lot of good sentai shows, especially "classic" ones from the 80s/90s, start out pretty bad, so it's best not to give up after the first handful of episodes (if you can tolerate it).

This is something I had to learn by abandoning a bunch of series before the 20 episode mark, then picking them back up later, only to realize I tapped out right before they got good. :lol

Which is neither the show nor the creators fault since it was never intended to be viewed by foreigners who dont posess the knowledge about it. Which for a japanese viewer was pretty standard knowledge :lol

I'm assuming the vast majority of posters on this board are foreigners who don't possess an in-depth knowledge of the culture of Japan at the turn of the century. :lol

So while those early episodes might not be objectively bad (hell, I thought they were great, probably because I did have some knowledge of Japan in the 90s), it's probably hard for a lot of uneducated westerners to understand why they're good (or perhaps that they even are good at all) until much later in the show.

Well you posed the question if the episodes where "actually good" ot if it just seemed that way to you. And the answer is yes. They are good. They are a clever social commentary on japans then current social issues. Just because its hard to understand for a western audience why they are good doesnt mean that they are not "actually good".

Well, the flip side is that the idea of something being objectively good isn't actually possible. Multiple tastes exist, so even among Japanese kids watching the series, they might not have found the episodes to be good in their minds for differing reasons. Perhaps they felt the social commentary was heavy handed or they didn't enjoy it at all.

Also true. Whats good or bad is still entirely subjective and even the biggest pile of crap can be argued as being good as long as someone makes a good case for it. And the biggest literary masterpiece can be turned into a boring nightmare for specific audiences.

But to really determine which is which is where we drift more into the nitty gritty of literary theory which most people wont be familiar with :lol

So I went to see Ninninger vs. Toqger today and I loved it! While not as well-written as Goseiger vs. Shinkenger, the movie turned out pretty entertaining and the teams have a great chemistry together. It's kinda Ninninger-heavy though, but very touching at that.
My only major problem was that the action was a bit slow during the first half. The latter half was solid though.
The Zyuohger cameo was pretty fun as well. I've already seen the suits live at the Eiyuusai, but they also look pretty need on screen. The Zyuohgers seem like a fun bunch as well, just a bit clueless :lol

Was snowed in through Tuesday, so I finished Gokaiger (seen everything but Go-Busters vs. Gokaiger) and I put more time into Dekaranger. I don't like this team as much as the other Super Sentai shows I've put time into so far, but I *adore* the gimmicks of the show. Police procedural theme. Men In Black-esque alien investigations. Unscrupulous arms dealer. Robot dog named after Robocop. BALLER opening theme song. All of that's fantastic. I'm at least going to watch another 5-10 episodes, in hopes of the team dynamic getting a little better.

I'm kinda surprised that Deka's looked on as "average", considering how popular it used to be, but I guess things do change over time(except for Gekiranger :))

I'm loving it so far, I just started it but it's really fun, feels like a cop show with the aesthetics, the music and the setup of the show, and it's interesting like that. Also do like the Ban/Hoji rivalry, it's interesting to see.

Dekaranger was a really fun show to watch, but when I look back on it, it just didn't have as much substance to it in comparison to shows like Gekiranger, Gokaiger, or Jetman. So it just kind of hit the middle of the road, for me.

Choushinsei Flashman Episode 5: Well this was the girls focus episode which they kicked ass and didn't want any of the shit from the guys lol. I really enjoyed Sarah and Ru they are both really fun characters. I especially loved when Ru flipped on top of the car as they drove away that was awesome. They both kicked ass for pretty much this whole episode because the guys were stuck in a train lol. It was just a hilarious episode with chasing a refrigerator. I love their special attacks and their powers they have gained Ru's anti-gravity powers are awesome. I am really enjoying this series so far. =)

If anyone's interested, I finished my Abaranger review.

https://rockthedragonsubs.files.word...inalreview.pdf

The more insane bits of Aba (10, 17, 45) weren't written by Arakawa. Those episodes were penned by Urasawa, Carranger's main writer.

Yeah, I really don't know much about my writers, but if I'm not wrong Arakawa was the main writer, so I was speaking about his writing in general. I also liked Urasawa's writing too I guess, considering how much I love Carranger.

Also, thanks for subbing Abaranger btw, probably wouldn't have watched such a great show had it not been for that.

If this is TL;DR, I understand and am not offended. I'm feeling wordy today, I guess.

I'm currently in the middle stages of watching Jetman, Dekaranger, and Boukenger. Enjoying all three, but I'm less than 25 episodes into any of them. Will be at least two weeks before I actually knock one of those out, but so far my favorite of the three is Dekaranger. The cast is growing on me, and I love the show's setup and gimmicks.

This week I also watched the first 2 episodes of several different series: Maskman, Liveman, Kakuranger, Megaranger, Magiranger, and Ninninger.

TWO EPISODE IMPRESSIONS:

Liveman was probably the most promising the bunch. Four impactful murders and at least one pair of jilted / separated lovers to set up the initial conflict in the first two episodes. Holy crap. Suits look good and the basic foundation of the show is solid. Penciling this one in to be my next "viewing project" after I make more progress in other Super Sentai shows.

I like Maskman's basic martial arts influence, which reminds me of Dairanger and Gekiranger (both of which I loved), but I'm less sold on it than Liveman. The team being fully-formed at the start makes it feel like I missed five episodes. I dig the villains, though, and I've barely seen the team in combat. Might watch more of this one later.

I enjoyed what I saw of Kakuranger. The action looks great for its era of Super Sentai and the team seems promising. I'm going to buy the Kakuranger DVD set when Shout! Media releases it later this year.

Megaranger feels like it's influenced by late-90s' concepts of what cyberspace and future technology should look like, which is hilarious. Seemed okay, but I'm not going out of my way to watch more of it.

I didn't expect to like Magiranger as much as I did. The fights are extra-gimmicky and there seems to be even more wire work than average for Super Sentai, but the characters seem okay so far. Totally sold on MagiKing, not sold on the heroes' goofy capes. Might continue with this one later, but it's not a high priority.

Ninninger seemed, uh, a little scattered. I think the swords and special attacks look dope. The mecha is weird but sorta fun with its unrelated themes. The characters are all annoying and I don't think their attitudes don't really jive with the urgency of the story. Whatever. Will only continue with this one if I hear a bunch of recommendations for it (which I haven't).

Ninninger has a lot of good action, great suit designs, great character-focused episodes, and just straight up fun episodes. However, the plot doesn't amount to much more than "ninjas in training trying to stop some big evil guy from being revived". If you're looking for a very plot-driven show, it may not be for you. However, I found that everything else about it was great, and that's what kept me going.

Also, it took me at least 3 or 4 episodes before I really started to enjoy it, so there's that.

PS how do you watch so much Sentai at once? I'm barely managing to juggle Liveman, Kamen Rider, and the weekly episodes of Ninninger.

Megaranger's highly recommended by me. Sure on the outside it may just look like a Video Game sentai and stuff like that, but it really is a great series that has it's fun yet also has some serious drama in a damn good story, and actually does the High School concept great; The characters are excellent and is one of the rare instances where I loved all of them, they all get some good focus in the series, and yeah it's a fantastic series.

Still in the honeymoon phase. 1 episode before dinner, 2 or 3 after dinner. Occasional binges. Was snowed in last weekend and watched a ****ton. Only been watching tokusatsu about five weeks.

I have a hard time agreeing with Megaranger, mainly because it felt so middle of the roads for me. Like, it didn't do anything wrong, but it wasn't too spectacular, personally.
Then again, I'm just one of those people that hate heroes in high school...

I miss that. Every now and then that feeling comes back to me though, and it's nice. I only watched Zyuranger during that phase though, once I finished it and tried moving on to other shows, it was all over.

As for Megaranger, I also thought it was sort of boring. It wasn't offensively bad, but nothing that interesting happened. I didn't like any of the characters either.

I'm just about done with Mega and I'm finding it pretty good. I would put it as an above average series. Of the last several I watched, I'd rate them

Dai
Kaku
Mega
Car & Oh - can't decide which to put above the other
Zyu

I tend to go at it one series at a time unless the series I want to watch is not fully subbed. If it is, I'll cram through the series in as little sittings as possible. If it isn't, I'll do it in blocks.

I only watch one series at a time so I can absorb it all in. Sometimes I'll marathon it hard, but more recently, with Kuuga, Dairanger, and Hibiki, I've been taking it a little slower to fully process what happened as well as just enjoy things more (As I found myself super drained after marathoning Dekaranger, and to be honest, I really don't remember much of the last quarter since I was just forcing myself to watch more, rather than pacing myself and enjoying it more).

I juggled two shows once and well it took a while. For the most part I just do one show at a time and, if I get into the show enough, I can blast through it super quick. When I was sick once I watched Hurricanger for the second time and had it done in four days flat.

I like watching three at once because if I get a little bored or burnt out on one, I can switch it up and have it feel a little fresher. I've only finished four so far, here's how I'd rank them:

Gokaiger - Favorite
Gekiranger - Great
Shinkenger - Slightly Less Great
Dairanger - Really, really good

Next one I'll finish is... probably Dekaranger. I'm further along in Boukenger but Dekaranger has been more interesting to me thus far and I'm catching up more quickly. Will probably be a few weeks, though.