I hated Ryukendo. I think I made it through 2 episodes before I gave up on it. The cops were just over the top dumb.

You know, there was a time when I was Ninninger's biggest defender on this board. I really loved the show for most of its run.

I didn't really turn on it until the late 30s (episodes, that is), but when I did, I turned hard. I felt like the show became super repetitive, and the overarching completely fell apart during its end run.

At the end of the day, Ninninger is far from the worst Sentai show I've seen. There's still a lot of great stuff going on, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes goofy-style Sentai shows and who doesn't require a satisfying overarching plot.

I think I've mentioned this before but I actually had a very similar experience to yours but with the key difference that I felt the last chunk of the show was actually quite good and it brought my opinion back up quite a bit.

A big part of the fun of this whole thing is sort of reconnecting with how much I loved it at first (I mean I still do love it but for those first couple months I was infatuated, and that was coming off of ToQger, which ended up being one of my favorites).

One big revelation I've already had is to think of Ninninger as being ~character-driven~ above all else. It doesn't have the most engaging plot to be sure, but that's not where its focus lies. Also it's really funny and the action is great, which helps.

So what happens when you don't like most of the characters?

You're probably f***ed? I mean I think everyone in Ninninger was great, and they only get better as the show goes on, but if you don't like them that's a pretty big hump to get over. You know, like, for comparison, imagine (although I don't think you have to) watching Kamen Rider Faiz but not liking melodrama.

Although if we are talking specifically about you, didn't you say you only watched 3 episodes? Unless you actively hated the cast I think you might be surprised how much more fleshed out they get as the show goes on. I hate to be the guy saying "oh, just watch half the show" like it's no big deal but I think Ninninger takes a bit to really get into the swing of things. Even where I am in the rewatch right now is already way better than the first couple episodes, in my opinion.

No, I'm not referring to myself. I'm making a generalized question. If someone doesn't like the characters, why should they basically watch more of the show until it "Gets good?"

I tend to just stop watching it, especially if it is the main cast. That alone is the main reason I dropped Deka hard and fast.

Well on a general level, they probably shouldn't. Might as well watch something that gets your attention right away, right?

But depending on the person, and their specific problems, they might find the show deals with those issues and end up really liking it. I know you're a big Blade fan, so you probably understand that at least a bit.

Specifically with Ninninger, Takaharu's stupidity, for example, rapidly becomes better handled and by around halfway through is straight-up downplayed. If someone liked elements of Ninninger but quit early on because they couldn't handle him, it could easily be worth it to stick around. For comparison, if someone hated it because the Plot moved at a snail's pace, it won't do anything for them even later on.

I remember you saying that you lost interest toward the middle. I find that interesting, as I thought the middle portion of the show was by far its best stretch. I loved how Sugimura-esque it felt. Eager to see how you respond to the middle stretch in your rewatch.

There are certainly some great characters. Kasumi is particularly excellent -- she's easily my all-time favorite Pink and one of my top-10 favorite Sentai heroes generally. I also think it's interesting to make their leader a dummy fueled purely by optimistic bravado (yes, I'm a Bakaharu fan).

That said, we differ in our assessment of the action. While I agree that there are some well executed individual sequences, especially in the show's early giant-scale fights (also of note, the human-scale action in the Chozetsu upgrade episodes), in general Ninninger is where I started to see Hirofumi Fukuzawa's limitations as an action director.

Fukuzawa is fantastic at choreographing stunts, but his cinematic chops are not up to snuff. If you compare his camera setups to those of any primary action director who has preceded him, they're lacking in movement, creativity, compelling shot composition, drama, and tension. His action scenes have a distinct, repetitive lack of personality -- they're like visual oatmeal. This is a huge bummer, as interesting action is one of the main things that draws me to tokusatsu.

I'm happy to report that Zyuohger has brought with it an improvement in Nakazawa's style. That could be chalked up to new technologies, like camera drones, being used. It could also be due to an increased budget (this is an anniversary show, after all) that allows him to shoot in more varied locations. Whatever the reason, it's an improvement I welcome.

Well it was kind of a gradual thing, I still liked the stuff immediately after Chouzetsu debuted but my interest level started dropping fast, hitting its lowest after Gekiatsu Dai-Oh showed up. I'm pretty eager to get there myself.

Kasumi is actually my least favorite member of the team. :lol

She was a great character and all, but she never really did anything for me personally. Strangely enough, Takaharu has been the standout to me rewatching the show so far, which is kind of surprising. I always liked him, but for whatever reason I've been enjoying him a lot more this time around. Though Kinji is still the real Star in my book. :p

Well I don't really attach names to this stuff myself so all I can say here is that the Ninningers flip around and do cool sword stuff and it all looks great to me. I think the simple camera work is fine for showing what's happening clearly, even if it isn't exciting in of itself. Like, the great choreography more than makes up for the straightforward way it's filmed in my mind.

Ninnin Rewatch! 13 + 14

Episode 13 has a lot more development for Starninger but what makes it cool is that secretly, it's all about Kininger. Nagi wasn't the most interesting character at the start of the show (the most exciting part of his first focus episode was a truck), but this is where he starts to become genuinely cool, with the show letting him be the "heart" of the team, in this case getting Kinji to accept that he likes everybody else while also trying to kill them. Or so he says? Yoshitaka only said to defeat them and nobody treats it very seriously. I'd say it's just Kinji being overly dramatic, which makes enough sense for his personality (cowboys are all about sweet one-liners), but in his second episode he was totally about to stab Takaharu in his sleep so I really have no clue. Maybe he just knows that isn't going to work? Usually his "assassination attempts" only amount to light swordplay too so I guess that instance is just an outlier. ANYWAY, there's also some more of that great world-building (which isn't usually something I care about but Ninninger impresses me) with some other ninja who show up. The show never explicitly gives an info-dump but it paints a pretty clear picture that all the fantastical stuff you see is considered completely ordinary and even a bit mundane, which I find interesting.

Episode 14 has some more waffling on about family, this time focusing on Takaharu and Fuuka's relationship. This is another really good one, though I can imagine some people being frustrated with how easily Takaharu falls for the MotW's plan (which, to an extent, is the point). I love how it emphasizes what makes Fuuka cool (she's klutzy but surprisingly clever), Kinji plays a nice role in it (both this and 13 make it a point he hasn't had a family most of his life, giving him a nice contrasting perspective), and the very last scene with Fuuka indirectly stating she's proud to be Takaharu's sister is really touching in my opinion.

Well, yeah, they're supposed to be completely useless - they depend on SHOT / Ryukendo and Ryuguno for everything. It's a comedic satire, Dr. Edge, not serious business.

Wait - you a cop?

That's the craziest thing you've said so far! :lol

Kasumi is a completely new character type for Sentai. She's the brilliant scientist and strategist of the group, but she's not timid, dour, self-serious, or a buzzkill like most smarty characters -- instead, she's playful, mischievous, girly, and effervescent. There simply hasn't been another female character like her in all of Sentai -- and with 40 iterations of this show out in the world, coming up with a new character type seems like it would be nigh impossible.

TL;DR I think she's the greatest.

Ha, "star." ;)

I guess I like Kinji as a character? The thing is, I detest the actor who plays him, so I never really warmed up to his out-of-suit shenanigans.

That said, I love his glitter-poncho'ed Super Starninger form to an unreasonable degree.

What about the first KyoryuViolet, a mad genius that is always doing what he can to help in a very outgoing manner, despite his old age?

Clearly you haven't seen me talk about Kamen Rider Ghost enough. :p

Just to be clear, I like Kasumi quite a bit too. She's just the least favorite in a group I'm coming to realize is one of my favorites. Nagi was actually at the bottom until he started getting awesome toward the middle.

What about him do you detest?

The "impish old guy" archetype is pretty familiar in Sentai. Put it in the body of a young woman, and things become more interesting.

Also, as I recall, OG KyoryuViolet wasn't quite as ruthless or (good-naturedly) manipulative as Kasumi was. That's another part of what makes her so interesting, IMO.

I think he's overly goofy, but that's not all of it. There's just something about him that I just never liked. Like, a lack of gravitas, I guess.

Ninnin Rewatch! 15 + 16

In episode 15, the MotW goes after Rodeomaru. Which means the mecha action starts 6 minutes in and doesn't stop until the end. Which means this episode is sweet. Not to say it's all flash. Kasumi gets to save the day by being really smart, Nagi and Fuuka do a lot of the legwork with Shurikenjin, Kinji gets his chance to shine at the end, and Yakumo is... there. This is also one of those times where the show practically revels in pulling the rug out from under Takaharu, which only makes him more endearing. Again, he's not the center of attention.

Episode 16 is really good. Like, wow. First of all, it's about Tsumuji (and by extension Takaharu and Fuuka), which pretty much guarantees its awesomeness. Second of all, Takaharu makes up for last episode by accidentally coming up with a (completely successful!) plan to trick the MotW. Third, Kinji gets a minor but important role listening in on the three of them talking about family stuff, furthering his development a little. I mentioned this a bit last time but I feel Kinji adds a lot to the group dynamic without taking anything away. The episodes since he showed up have been way more enjoyable than the already enjoyable first stretch of the show. It feels like this is where Ninninger really found its groove.

Ninnin Rewatch! 17 + 18

Episode 17 begins the turning point for Starninger's relationship with the rest of the team that takes a couple episodes to fully play out. The Ninningers (and by extension the audience) finally get filled in on his tragic backstory, and in light of him nearing the deadline on Yoshitaka's offer, make it clear they're happy to have him around and that's there's no bad blood between them regardless of who becomes the Last Ninja, since they're already competing against one another anyway. The episode ends with Kinji missing the deadline and leaving for Hawaii. Hang on a second...

Episode 18 actually makes it a point to use the original narration in the opening, which is a nice touch, though Kinji's still in the role-call. The plot is pretty much straight out of the first quarter of the show, too, with a simple MotW story that builds on Yakumo's character by showing his more embarrassingly childish side. It's pretty solid all-around, assuming you dig Ninninger's style of humor. Kinji ends up getting dragged back into the fight and when he's about to leave at the end, the rest of the team tell him not to give up and offer to help convince Yoshitaka to take him on. Combined with the last episode it's nice to see how much everyone cares about Kinji at this point. And why shouldn't they? He's totally awesome. :p

Gingaman!
Episodes 23 and 24
It seems the search for the Galactic Lights is over, as Budo's general captures it. However, the villains do that thing where they fuck each other over. Irises's monster tricks Budo's general into using the Lights for himself, and in turn, makes Budo seem like a traitor. The lights are extracted from the monster, and choose to aid the Gingamen rather than Bull Black.

With that, the search for the lights is over and Budo is imprisoned...For all of 10 minutes, before 2 of his loyal followers rescue him. On a bid to prove his innocence, he makes a final effort to gain the lights, but once again, Irises's monster screws him over, not delivering his message to Zahab. Fed up, Budo axes her off, and realizing he's forever branded a traitor to Barban, has a duel with GingaRed (Who spent half the episode in a violent rage). Budo dies, his 2 final servants die, and Irises is now the new field commander.

Oh, and GingaiOh gets the galactic light power up. But with no build up, eh.
Bull Black also seems to be dying. Wonder what's going on with that...Aside from the part where he was basically dead for 3000 years prior.

Ninnin Rewatch! 19 + 20

This one is pretty distinctly a two-parter so I'm just gonna talk about it as one thing. Also the whole "keep it short" philosophy didn't exactly work out here (more so than usual I mean), but there was a lot to talk about with these ones.

These episodes are great. When I call Ninninger character-driven it's because of stuff like this. There may not be much mystery or intrigue to the plot, but the development of the cast is paced out really well in my opinion. The villains are always getting more threatening and that means the Ninningers are always growing to face the challenge, in a way that goes far beyond the show simply handing them new toys every couple of months.

In this case, the Ninningers meet a mysterious guy who kicks the crap out of them in a fight in about a minute, instantly noticing and exploiting each of their individual flaws. It's really character-building to see the team get completely embarrassed like that.

Takaharu is actually at the center of this one in terms of growth, being forced to actually stop and think for a second, observing the other Ninningers fighting without him. He notices all the same flaws, and has a personal revelation about how the reason they're such a good team is because they bring out the best in one another. These episodes really mark the turning point for Takaharu, getting him into the groove of being surprisingly clever and observant for how dumb he is, and also making it a point that his bottomless energy and morale are a good influence on the rest of the team.

Yoshitaka also takes a big step in his own arc, finally accepting Starninger as a student after the Ninningers gain Lion Ha-Oh's help in a way he never would've thought of, the first big instance of the students surpassing the master, which will be a very important recurring theme from here on out. Yoshitaka was a character who sort of rubbed me the wrong way at first but what didn't become clear to me until toward the end is that his arrogance is a very deliberate character flaw he gradually gets over. You can see he has trouble admitting he's wrong about anything by the way he phrases his dialogue at the end, but the fact that he admits it at all is a big sign he's starting to loosen up a bit.

Ninnin Rewatch! 21 + 22

In episode 21, the Ninningers make a mockery of the rules of America's favorite pastime. Oh and Starninger helps a kid out or something. This one's nothing too special, but it's a fun breather and has more talk about ~dreams~, so it's hardly without purpose. Also, starting with this episode, the opening is updated again to reflect Kinji being an official part of the team, changing up the narration and including him in all the group shots. He's even got his own uniform!

Episode 22 once again refuses to hand the team a power-up without some character development, this time forcing Yakumo and Kinji to get over some of their problems before the team can use Ha-Oh Shurikenjin. Speaking of which, I like Ha-Oh Shurikenjin. It's a bit of a brick but who needs exciting choreography when you can just watch the Ninningers blast their enemies into the ground with excessive firepower?

Ninnin Rewatch! 23 + 24

Episode 23 fleshes out Nagi a bit by having him get into a scenario where has to take on the MotW by himself. Kasumi also shows once again that friend and foe alike are just pawns in her game of chess. She means well though, really. Oh, and the ending mecha fight is awesome, but I don't wanna spoil why.

Episode 24 fleshes out Nagi a bit by showing how considerate he is. He's sort of like negative Kasumi, carefully planning everything out so Tsumuji and Fuuka can do some father/daughter bonding. Speaking of which, Tsumuji plays a big role in this one, so naturally I approve greatly of it.

Ninnin Rewatch! 25 + 26

In episode 25 the Ninningers take on Dracula! I didn't mention this last time but the show decided to a summer vacation "special" sort of thing that mostly amounts to "It's Summer!" being slapped in front of the episode titles and a loose arc involving the three Western "Youkai". It's kind of a cute touch. Anyway, more musing about dreams this time, since it focuses on Fuuka, the character with the least idea what she wants to do with her life. She even gets some advice from Takaharu, the character with the most idea what he wants to do with his life, showing not only that he's surprisingly insightful again, but also that he's a really caring brother to boot.

Episode 26 is a great example of how to make a clip show not suck. It's full of hilarious gags and through the premise of ranking the Ninningers in the race to become the Last Ninja, gives some good insight on everybody's various strengths and weaknesses, like pointing out that Nagi is actually super helpful, despite appearances.

Well, holy shit. Gingaman 25.

Where to start?
=Spoiling a lot, by the by=

So first Black Knight decides to be a complete asshole and decides that blowing up the Earth will be the best option to defeating Barban...Yeah, not the 5 guys who consistently beat Barban, and the Galactic Lights chose to wield it's power. I think he's just a sore loser...
Then we find out that the pain in his chest (Which I assumed were old wounds) was actually Hyuuga's conscious, as he basically possessed his body to survive. He would also go on to taunt Ryouma with this fact to basically drag him down into killing Bull Black (He says it's the only way to free Hyuuga, but he just...Let's him go later, so I think he was just trying to goad Ryouma).
Anyway, he, as his giant form, BullTaurus starts funneling Earth energy into a crater which is apparently deep enough to actually hit the core of the Earth (Which would cause it to expand and explode), but GouTaurus proves to have a conscious and de-fuses with him, choosing to abandon his quest for revenge.

Oh yeah, Iries sends down a monster with a spear that can remove the seal and awaken the Daitanic monster (Christ, this thing better be on par with Daijinryuu with how long it's taking it's fat ass to get up), but he dies and his spear falls into the crater, causing it to pulse with energy, dooming the Earth. A weakened Black Knight has a vision of his younger brother who eventually talks him out of being such a massive dick, and he releases Hyuuga and goes to absorb the energy to prevent the core from being destroyed (Also, I want to say, I love the shot of him stammering towards the core being mixed with a shot of him peacefully walking with his brother, hand in hand). Throwing his sword towards to Gingamen, he falls in, doing just as he intended. Sacrificing his life in the process.
It's hard to feel bad for the guy who, just 10 minutes earlier, was dead set on killing everyone, but they managed to do it. Poor dude.

Little time is left to grieve, however, as the now conscious Hyuuga appears, leading to a tight embrace.

Loved it~

Gingaman 26
Now that Hyuuga is back, everyone is afraid that Ryouma is contemplating returning the Star Beast Sword to Hyuuga. I kind of like that they fooled the viewer by having Ryouma tell Hyuuga that he wanted to keep the sword, and continue being Ginga Red.
Anyway, Iries's monster captures 4 of the Gingamen in mirrors and tries to use them to revive the Daitanic Monster, but it's foiled by Ryouma and Hyuuga. Moving forward a little, GingaiOh gets trapped in a mirror himself, so Bull Black's sword flies to Hyuuga, and GouTaurus arrives as well, and Hyuuga becomes the new Black Knight. Was cool. I especially love the explosion transformation.
Was nice.
I also enjoy that Hyuuga's new outfit incorporates Black Knight's hexagon jewel, even before he became the new Black Knight. It's a nice way to commemorate Bull Black.

Hyuuga is a pretty charming character. Easy to like, is known at laughing at basically any joke, regardless of how bad it is, and always thinking ahead. Clever dude.
Kind of a shame Bull Black is gone, though. He was a total asshole, but his abrasive attitude and anti-hero tendencies made him unpredictable. Oh well. We'll see what Hyuuga brings to the table.

Also, I don't know if I commented on it, but I like the different styles of Barba Extract. Sanbash's monsters having a whiskey bottle, Budo's sake bottle, and now Iries's leather pouch, each reflecting on their monster themes (However, Sanbash's didn't have the same kind of unifying theme the other 2 currently have).

Ninnin Rewatch! 27 + 28

The appearance of the last Western Youkai reopens old wounds for Starninger in episode 27, bringing the question of whether or not he's fit to be a ninja back up. The great part here is that both sides of the argument have valid points. Yoshitaka is actually pretty dead on in his unflattering assessment of Kinji, but the Ninningers are just as correct in having faith in him. This is as much a turning point for Yoshitaka as it is for Kinji, too, with some choice words from Takaharu (sometimes that loud mouth of his makes a good point) getting him to seriously acknowledge that he's got his own issues. This is another really good episode. I don't know if you could just watch it by itself and be impressed but as part of the larger story of the show it's awesome.

In episode 28 the Ninningers embark on their greatest adventure yet: getting a little kid his lunch for school! After last week's much heavier events this is an extremely comedic episode, even by the show's own standards. It works. Of course there's a lot more to it than that synopsis suggests though.

Ninnin Rewatch The Movie! (It's barely longer than a normal episode though...)

Huh, this was actually a lot of fun. Sentai summer movies are usually in one ear and out the other for me so I didn't actually remember a thing about this beyond what was in the trailers. I'm a little surprised I enjoyed it so much. There's not too much to say about it but it was action-packed, had a lot of great gags, and felt nicely over budget throughout. Dig the James Bond style cold open, too. All around a solid waste of half an hour.

Also I rewatched the Kamen Rider Drive movie while I was at it because why not? Obviously that's not what this thread is about but it was still really good~

Ninnin Rewatch! 29 + 30

Episode 29 pulls the most quintessentially Ninninger move possible by taking a silly plot about the team playing the MotW's magic board game and using it as an excuse to tell a dramatic, character-driven story. In this case about ~dreams~, for one, but more importantly it's about Tsumuji and his past. Basically this episode is totally awesome.

Episode 30 is maybe the first episode of the entire show solely about Takaharu? Usually he's either paired with someone else, like family stuff with Fuuka, or being used to reflect on the team as a whole, like Lion Ha-Oh's debut. Since this is the back half of the show and Takaharu's characterization (and acting) have come so far, it's a lot of fun too, if not particularly character-building.

Gingaman continues.
27 and 28.
So, 27, Saya might have a crush on Hyuuga, and gets jelly when a girl clings to Hyuuga after he saves her from a mummy monster (Whose goal was the collect the youth of 80 something girls). Turns out to be a secret plan, since the mummy was possessing the girl.
I really liked how this episode went. Saya's jealousy turned out to be a ruse after Hyuuga gave the girl a flower that, in the Ginga Forest, means to protect from evil. In reality, it turned out that it meant fake. Add in earlier that Saya was establishing that she understood what flowers meant, it was a pretty fun one.

28 had one of Iries's monsters shooting arrows at others that absorbed their hearts (And turn them into major assholes) or something, and after collecting 111, they'd use that power to revive the Daitanic monster. Yuuta's dad gets hit, and he abandons Yuuta. Poor kid. It comes at an especially bad time as Yuuta had flaked on his plans to go researching with his dad to help Gouki on his date with Suzu.

It was a nice episode. Though this one's monster (Some sort of Valkyrie angel thing) doesn't really fit in with Iries's other shamanism themed monsters. It seems her monsters are kind of split between shamanism and voodoo, as well as the undead...

Ninnin Rewatch! 31 + 32

Episode 31 is another one about Nagi, and even though it isn't quite a two-parter, it directly foreshadows the resolution to 32, with the whole lesson Nagi learns here being that, instead of merely keeping up with the other Ninningers by copying them, he needs to do his own thing and stay one step ahead.

Speaking of which, I totally adore episode 32. Possibly the best single episode of the whole show? Coming off of last week's cliffhanger there's a very well done sense of this being the darkerst hour for the team. After how badly they got their s*** kicked in even using Ha-Oh Shurikenjin there's basically nothing they can do besides get stronger fast. I may have my gripes with Gekiatsu Dai-Oh for ruining a lot of what I loved about Ninninger's mecha action, but even the first time around I loved its function in the story. The whole premise of the show is that everyone on the team is trying to live up to Yoshitaka's legacy and succeed him as the Last Ninja, and this is the big turning point, where after some accidentally dead on advice from Takaharu (because of course), they all realize the only way they'll ever surpass him is to stop asking What Would Yoshitaka Do? all the time and start doing things their own way, leading them to create a fancy new robot with a fancy new method. This is another time where I pull out the term ~character-driven~ that's inadvertently become my catchphrase with Ninninger. I can't help but feel it actually has a perfectly solid, even quite good, long-term story arc, as long as you can accept that it has little to do with the plot, strange as that sounds.

Finally watched episodes 30-33 of Zyuohger and I'm back to being kind of bored. Don't get me wrong, they had some cool moments in it, especially episode 32 which is probably the best Monster of the series thus far, but I am tired of these villains. They make the Zangyack Empire look interesting. Then of course episode 33 was just sumo filler. I am curious though, why were they making pancakes in the middle of the day? Or was it early enough for breakfast? And who ruins a pancake with all of that stuff on it? :-p The sumo episode was terrible though. There is no way in hell those guys could qualify as sumo wrestlers. That would be like letting Pre-Serum Steve Rogers fight Thanos.

I also decided to watch episodes 8 and 9 of Dynaman since MFC says they are going to have another batch out soon and I wanted to knock some more episodes out. They weren't bad. My biggest issue is how long these episodes feel as the episodes feel like they are twice their actual length. I did love watching Chimera kick the rangers' asses while Night on Bald Mountain played. The next episode, which the makers of Speed totally ripped off was probably the best episode of the show so far. It was fun and it didn't drag on as much until they got to the mech battle. Supposedly I'm close to when the show was cut down to like 18 minute episodes, so I'm hoping the episodes will start to move at fast speeds when that occurs. Nevertheless, none of the ranger cast really wows me at the moment and I hate their suits. They look like baseball jerseys with bike helmets.

Well, that's because...
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...924/JYCAgA.jpg
http://imagizer.imageshack.us/v2/800...921/FBcsTp.png
Dynaman WAS initially a baseball themed Sentai!

Which is bizarro and therefore awesome.

Wow, that would have been the dumbest thing ever. Glad they decided not to go for a baseball theme. EW!!

Ninnin Rewatch! 33 + 34

I was expecting episode 33 to just be another simple and wacky "break" episode after 32, and it is, but it's also really good. The whole premise is that the MotW has a crush on Aoninger, and the way it plays out is hilarious. A lot of the humor comes from playing many of the scenes for unironic melodrama, which is itself ironically funny. And since this is Ninninger it's also solidly character-building, with the show making it a point to write Takaharu out pretty much right away, followed shortly by Kasumi and Kinji too, leaving Yakumo to actually pull a lot of the weight for the first time since the early episodes, where he tended to act as the leader a lot more often.

Episode 34 is another nostalgia trip that's totally lost on me, but as an episode it's great. Toei seems to like shilling Metal Heroes ever since Gokaiger vs. Gavan, but it's hard to complain when it results in such a fun episode. In what is perhaps the height of Ninninger's ninja world-building, we get to see a group of bureaucrat ninja try and enforce a whole bunch of regulations on the team for the sake of good PR. This is completely amazing. Like, do I even need to say anymore? Okay, fine. Jiraiya turns out to be the president of this group, but he's shirking any and all responsibility. The actual plot is a simple but very well done story about him interacting with the Ninningers and coming to accept his place looking out for the new generations of ninja instead of fighting on the frontlines. That sort of master/student drama is a big recurring theme throughout the series, and it's cool how naturally this crossover feels worked into the show. This is a really great episode that I would even recommend just by itself.

Also, was Jiraiya this much of a lovable goofball in his actual show? Because I can kind of see myself getting into that~

Ah man, that would have been so cool. :/
Also this reminds me, I reaaally need to watch some older Sentai.

Dynaman is pretty batshit ridiculous (a compliment). Definitely check JETTO JETTO JETTOMAN for contrast - SERIOUS BUSINESS!

I hope so because right now I'm kind of bored. But, I made it farther into the show than I did when watching it raw.

I've only watched a few raws but, from what I saw, no.
Really wish someone would sub them. The raws I have include a dual audio track for both Japanese and Portuguese so... maybe that widens the net?

Gingaman 29 and 30
More Star Beasts finally appear! Unfortunately, they've been forcefully changed into robots and are basically drones. Giga Rhinos, Giga Phoenix, and Giga Bitus.
However, that's jumping ahead a little, so lets roll things back some.
The Gingamen are preparing for a Star festival, and GingaYellow doesn't know the oath they have to recite. Ginga Green gets on his case, but Hyuuga defends him with "He practices the oath in battle and life, that's all that matters" and stuff. Anyway, new baddie appears, a dark merchant who pillages through space (And also seems to work with Batbass, the final general) and kidnaps Ginga Yellow and Hyuuga. He tortures Hyuuga while having Yellow in a machine built to absorb Earth Energy (To fuel a controller) with the idea of having him use said energy to get him to stop beating up Hyuuga.
He comes up with a plan (Tinkering with the absorber) and manages to escape, and the other Gingamen show up, and they use their finisher on the baddie...Which turns out to be the wrong idea. Using the energy from their finisher, he powers the remote, and sends out his 2 weapons, Giga Rhinos and Giga Phoenix. They also don't wait and hide that they're Star Beasts, as GingaiOh and BullTaurus don't fight back and just get beaten on.

The next episode basically picks up immediately after. The merchant sells them to Barban (The only thing letting the Gingamen survive being that he just wanted to demonstrate their power), and Iries sends down a monster with the controller to do the work (She is not a good leader...)
The 2 Gigas do their thing and attack the city, and the Gingamen (And Star Beasts) respond, but the monster destroys the remote and grows giant to help the other 2, and after fighting all day, they finally get to them. They turn on the monster (And even Giga Vitus shows up) and all is well.

Was a pretty nice pair of episodes. Giga Phoenix and Rhinos are a pretty neat pair with nice designs (Though Phoenix is definitely the better of the two), and Giga Bitus is a pretty neat carrier (Though it kinda sucks he can only carry those 2)

-Aside-
While they've had them for about 10 episodes now, I gotta say, I don't like their Galactic Flash finisher with the Galactic Lights. They run towards the enemy, merge into a fireball, and then hit the enemy. It just lacks the flare that their finisher with the Kiba Blades or the staffs had, and those two were also really basic...

Ninnin Rewatch! 35 + 36

Episode 35 starts a two part story that forms the last big step in Starninger's arc, but because Ninninger is all about balanced character focus Nagi plays a big part here too. Kinji goes behind everyone's backs to deal with some personal problems (I'm trying to be deliberately vague on plot details rather than have 80% of every post hidden behind spoiler tags, by the way), even teaming up with one of the bad guys. Nagi is the only one who knows about any of this, since he noticed his odd behavior. They have a chat about it and while he's pretty unsure at first, when Kinji asks for his trust Nagi lets him know he has it. When the rest of the team finds out Nagi is quick to stick up for Kinji and, sure enough, Takaharu is just as quick to stick up for Nagi sticking up for Kinji, getting the others to follow suit. Of course, this is a two-parter, so faith doesn't exactly manage to solve their problems in 22 minutes. Nevertheless, it's a great way of showing how tightly knit the team has become.

In episode 36 Kinji finally acknowledges and accepts his character flaws and is rewarded with a poncho. A shiny poncho. You know it's awesome. Anyway, this is a really solid resolution to Kinji's arc, and since their development has been kind of tied together for a while now, you also get to see Yoshitaka finally showing some real faith in Kinji too, although he tries to play coy about it at the end. Baby steps, Yoshitaka, baby steps.