You mean like that time in Carranger where they spent a couple of episodes at that one amusement park place? I miss episodes like those as well. Maybe they just don't care about spending money on locations unless they feel its absolutely necessary. Super Sentai tends to downplay its drama, as in genre, aspects compared to Kamen Rider and Ultraman these days. I mean, how often do they hangout inside places that aren't their home base and aren't abandoned warehouses?

Hopefully the time change for Sentai will get Toei to put the drama back into the show and start developing the villains again.

Doesn't Sentai air AFTER Kamen Rider? You know, the franchise that usually has more drama and focus on villains?

I always assumed it was because of Kamen Rider that Sentai downplays it drama elements in order to differentiate itself. Main villains with only monster forms instead of human ones, a bigger focus on comedy and lightheartedness, some of these things were already setting in before Kuuga first aired but I'm still sure Kamen Rider played a part in Sentai's transition to lighter and softer starting at around Gaoranger or so. It is the only one of the big three that focuses on comedic and lighthearted seasons rather then serious ones.

After the time change? Yes, it will, which also means it is later in the day so they can drop the childish ADD aspects.

If you mean now, then no, it airs before Kamen Rider.

Literally what difference does 2 hours make early in the morning?

Watched the first episode of Shinkenger. Well, seeing we have a rather loud mouth Red Ranger this year, I thought it's a good thing to watch a Sentai series with a more calm Red Ranger. The music, especially the OP, really rocks and captures the feelings of samurai era. I'm kinda surprised to see a rather ineffectual loner as the Red Ranger here. Though, he has a pretty good reason to begin with. Aside from that, I really like Ryuunosuke here. He always makes me laugh in every scenes in the first episode. He might be a pretty loyal servant for Takeru but he is so deadpan in several ways. You can even see that the actor tried his best to act so formal. Well, I hope that I will get a rather comfortable ride for the series. What's your guys' opinions about Shinkenger for those who have watched the series?

I don't know, but I can hope, right?

Be realistic. A 7AM to 9AM slot changes nothing. Plus, it's the writer to blame, not the timeslot

Oh yeah, I have forgotten to mention what Sentai things I watched recently.

I've watched episodes 26-30 of Dynaman and this show continues to impress me. It isn't great when you go by character development, but it is a lot of fun and I can't really say there has been an episode I absolutely hated in it thus far. There's been one or two weak ones, but nothing where I was like, "OMG turn this thing off!!" One of the last episodes I watched was down right hilarious as the black ranger stole the clothes of the female villain and gave them to the pink ranger. There was also one where the evil prince dressed up as a clown. So a great show despite the horrific looking ranger suits.

Oh, and I also watched the first 12 episodes to Bioman. This is a thing. A very lame and boring thing, but a thing nonetheless. The first yellow ranger was a horrible character with a horrible personality so I was glad to see her die. Of course, her death was kind of meaningless since she was in costume the entire time. It kind of takes out the emotion when you can't actually see the character's feelings as they sacrifice themselves for the greater the good. I know there were issues with the actress, but Toei should have pulled her contract and made her show up at least for the death scene. The worst part of this is how rushed the next episode is when the new yellow ranger comes in. This should have taken a few episodes to do, but instead it feels like Toei got scared because heaven forbid there areonly 4 rangers for an episode or two. Oh no, how horrible. It just feels so unnatural as the rangers didn't even object to anyone replacing Mika. You would think there would be a bit of initial resentment for replacing their fallen comrade. Instead, Toei made sure everything was status quo by the end of the episode. -_- What makes it even worse is the next episode is a green ranger episode, so the new yellow doesn't even get an episode to develop her character right away.

The villains are even more one dimenstional than the ranger cast. In fact, they are downright boring to watch. Monster is the only one that shows any type of personality while the concept of 5 reoccuring Monsters of the Weeks seemed like a good idea initially, but they don't even do anything to make it worth it. At least a regular MotW has some type of personality that makes watching their 18 minute adventure fun. In the words of Dr Man, "This is going to be a long battle."

Don't worry, she'll get her fair share of own episodes dedicated to her, soon enough.

Monster and Juo were the show's dream team. There are at least two episodes at the second half of the show with them as the main villains that I really like.

But yeah, Bioman didn't really pick up until the second half of the show. I mean it's a rather old Sentai season, which all have rather slow plot progression, if at all.
I guess producers needed some time to figure out how to do proper storytelling, deeper characters and the like for future seasons. It also took them over a decade until they gave each member its own individual vehicle that fused with the others into one giant robo (I think Maskman was the first to so).

Yeah, Soda didn't seem to deem it worthy enough to really develop the heroes at all during his era. Sometimes they got a quick moment because the plot of the episode needed it, but for the most part, they never grew one bit. I'm not saying that developing the ranger cast will instantly make a show bad, but it means the show will never match those that do. I'm actually surprised at how much I am enjoying Dynaman despite the lack of character development. I think that is due to how much energy the show conveys in its characters, fights, and music.

Bioman's soundtrack is awful.

In the last two days I have watched episodes 13-32 of Bioman and it still isn't doing anything for me. There's been a couple of good episodes, some good fights, but ultimately, it is still a snoozefest. I don't get why it seems that this show has to go status quo by the end of every episode. Like there is one episode where the Big Three assassinate Dr Man, or so they think. Instead of letting this be an arc that plays out for a few episodes Dr Man is back by the end of halfway point. What the hell?

And then the villains just got an upgrade, so naturally the rangers have to get an upgrade by the end of the episode. Why does every problem have to be solved by the end of the episode?

Just finished Bioman. Thank the gods for that. UGH!

I'm around ten or so episodes from finishing Bioman, personally. Jun is easily one of my favorite Yellows and I honestly like the designs and music.

I'm just not a big fan of the Planet Bio stuff. Or, more specifically, how disjointed it feels from everything else. I mean, Bio Hunter Silva looks cool and his suit and voice actors do a wonderful job, but he doesn't feel as well integrated as he could have been.

Yeah, Silva felt like he was just there because the writers ran out of ideas for the Big Three. In fact, he pretty much shows up every episode spewing the same bullshit, and then leaves either because the other villains showed up or he sensed Balzion. He was clearly a character who overstayed his welcome.

Also, Farah Cat is utterly pointless. She has no reasons to exist and even the villains seem to forget she exists.

Jun is my favorite of the rangers while Monster is my favorite of the villains. They did actually try to give Go a personality and development in the last few episodes of the show, so that was cool, I guess.

As for my comment about the music, it isn't necessarily that the music sucks, it's just misplaced. Like the music they will use for sneaking scene is good for sneaking scenes, but then they will use it as battle music and it just doesn't work. Also, the opening theme is not energetic enough to be fight music either.

Everything in this series is played so god damned safe though. It's like they got cold feet for already having too many new things in it that they didn't want to take anymore chances. Everything is always having to be status quo by the end of the episode. There always has to be a mech battle even when the plot doesn't need one, the team always has to be together by the end of the episode, and the villains have to be back in Man's base. It's quite frustrating.

Truth be told, I actually forgot Farah Cat existed too until I thought to ask "Hey, what happened to her?" Turned out she was still there, I was just too busy paying attention to more interesting characters (which is just about near everybody else.)

I think in terms of it being "safe" I dunno if I agree entirely. In some aspects, yes. The episodic nature of the show is very similar to other Super Sentai before it, and most attempts at shattering the status quo are put down before they ever get a chance.

On the other hand, this was the first Super Sentai to have a female Yellow. On top of that, both Mika and Jun were very different from the women in the previous shows in looks and personality. I just wish the other four had as much thought put in their characters.

I also think that having a stable set of villains to fight on the ground and then a new mecha of the week was a pretty cool idea. Obviously not everyone agreed, so it was back to just having the regular MOTW in Changeman.


The music...well, I dunno what to say. I disagree entirely on that one. :)

What I mean about safe is that there is an episode where the Big Three assassinate Dr Man, or at least believe they have. He is back by the halfway point. WHY?! Why not have this be an arc for several episodes too? Why not have the Big Three work on their own and lose, realizing that they made a mistake by killing their creator and then he shows up laughing, belittling them for thinking they were capable of working on their own?

In concept, I like the idea of the Beastnoids and Giant Mech/Megas. The problem was that the Beastnoids always reused the same attacks over and their personalities were the same from start to finish (how many times do I need to see upgraded Psygorn control a car?). I missed the unique individuality that each Monster of the Week has in the other shows.

For the other rangers that aren't Jun, I'd say Shingo had some personality, but everyone else was pretty much bleh. The only thing that keeps Go from being the cardboard cutout that was Hikaru was the last 5 episodes of the show with his dad.

As for Farah Cat, even the villains didn't remember her. Right after Farah got blown up and Farah Cat was mourning her Mason says to Psygorn, "We are the last two." I'm like, WTF? SHE'S RIGHT THERE!!!:lol

Anyway, I just finished the movie and writing up my script for my review, so this is going to be... interesting.

I agree that they could have played the mutiny story line for a lot longer than they did. It felt like a story arc that got sped up due to some kind of meddling behind the scenes, but that's just me.

Still, I think the outcome would have played out the same. I think my personal problem is that it raises questions about free will that I'm pretty sure at the point I'm at will never be explored again.

The outcome may have been the same, but letting it actually be built up would have added suspense to it, especially when the show clearly ran out of ideas by episode 40.

Hello everyone.

Literally just started Liveman myself.

Building it up would definitely have given it more of an impact, that much I can agree on.

Although, I don't think the show had no ideas afterwards. More like, no idea how to use their ideas in a cohesive way.

Heya. I've not seen Liveman yet, personally but I've got plans to watch it once I'm done with Bioman.

#1 fave thus far is Bioman for me.

Right now I rank the 80s series as this (only counting the ones I have seen subbed):

Dynaman (although I've only watched up to 30, so it could change)
Changeman
Liveman
Maskman
Bioman

Now if I were to include the ones I have watched raw Turboranger would be a the bottom of the barrel with Fiveman above Maskman.

Going by what I've seen of 80s Super Sentai, including stuff I've not finished yet, I think my ranking goes a little like this:

Changeman.
Dynaman.
Bioman.
Sun Vulcan.
Goggle V.

has Goggle V been subbed?

Yes.

Maybe it's a bit late but from what I've heard, Mika's actress simply disappeared from set and since then from the public eye in general. So no one could have found out why she quit Bioman in the first place and I guess the production crew couldn't locate her either to film possible out of suit death scenes.
I mean in Sun Vulcan they actually showed how the first VulEagle passed his powers to his successor, as they were actually able to make him stick around for a proper farewell before he went on.

Disappeared as in just went missing or just stopped showing up for the show?

I was always told that she didn't like her role (which was shown in her attitude when playing the character) and quit.

Disappeared as in dropped off the face of the earth after her role in this show.

She just kind of disappeared. She hasn't had an acting role since Bioman, and she's done a pretty damn good job at keeping out of public eye for 30 years, and after telling fellow actors that she wasn't going to show for the next recording session, she just kinda vanished.

I'm not going to lie, its kind of creepy how she just totally vanished into thin air without a trace like that.

Hmmmmmm, I'm going to have to change my script for my review a bit then. Glad to know this before I filmed it though. Thanks.

Had some free time this evening so I finally sat down and watched the first of the two new Dekaranger movies, the one that's even more about Umeko than Dekaranger always is (Umeko is best Ranger). It was... weird. I liked the basic plot, especially as a device to team up Umeko, Jasmine, and the new Space Sheriff girls. The extreme violence and blood in the first part was really weird, though, especially when the second half went full on standard Sentai. I liked it well enough, but it had some serious tonal issues.

Other observations:

Girls in Trouble is still a terrible song. It really, really, REALLY should not be used as the background music to an epic fight scene.

If I didn't know that Koichi Sakamoto directed this I would still know that Koichi Sakamoto directed this.

I am officially at the point where I automatically assume that anytime Minami Tsukui shows up she must secretly be a villain, no matter how much evidence there is to the contrary.

Watched up to episode 47 of Gokaiger, this show's made me want to try Kakuranger too. Also surprised how the Big Bad only showed up after 40 episodes (No, Walz Gil isn't the main villain)

Kakuranger is really solid! You should give it a shot~

Kakuranger is the second best Sentai show of all time, so you should definitely watch it.

On the other hand, I think Umeko was the second worse Dekaranger. She really go ton my nerves and was as annoying as Ban. At least she didn't need meds though.

I don't rank Kakuranger that highly, personally, but I will absolutely agree that it's a very good show and worth watching. Probably has the best opening theme song in the franchise.

You are objectively wrong and I can prove it with charts.

I started Dekaranger a little while back and, honestly, I feel they're all pretty good in their own way.

Oh, yeah, they're all great. Dekaranger is a show with an amazing cast of strong, likable characters.

But Umeko is the best.