Welcome to the wonderful world of Toku actor make-up. Both male and actors have clear lipgloss in Toku (one of the guys where you can see that best is Shotaro from Kamen Rider) to highlight their lips. That's not a Toqger only-thing.

Holy shit, you're right. Almost didn't recognize it was her after being so used to her Usagi-chan again.

Well, so far, they squeezed in at least one episode before the Ninningers fight him, so I guess they prepared something special...

With him becoming Chouzetsu Star Ninger I would assume so.

Yup, yup. Nothing compared to Chouzetsu Fuuka though xD

Chouzetsy Fuuka is my spirit animal lol

this is kinda of a news to me
and i only watched KR from kuga to decade and stopped there after the decade mess

Toqger i got distracted half of the series"mostly the first episodes" on the males mouths just to see if its lipstick or just there mouth >_>
also thank you for the info

Yeah pretty much all of them wore lipgloss. It helps to not have the actors lips look completely dry when filming. I use it too when I cosplay Riders and take pictures of it.

I'm a big fan of ToQger, but I feel like we're all conveniently forgetting how interminable the middle section of that series is. With Ninninger, maybe the plot isn't always as strong, and the villains are certainly lacking, but the individual episodes have way more to offer in terms of the characters' relationships and conflicts. The structure of Ninninger's episodes is deceptively sophisticated while ToQger's episodes, I feel, are pretty "simple," particularly during its middle cours.

She is simply, always a delight. People forget how great with comedy she can be (see: the producers of SM Crystal). I generally think Mitsuishi elevates everything she's in.

I won't go too far off-topic here, but the lack of comedy in Crystal doesn't come from the producers, but from the series' creator herself. Crystal is an 1:1 adaption of the manga which has close to no comedy at all.

~Off topic over~

They also had it in pretty much any early rider show, but in some scenes, the glossy effect is already gone because those were probably later takes when the lipstick had dried a bit. Same with Super Sentai.

(If you look closely, you can even see it in my avatar.)

But where Ninnnger may offer more in terms of the heroes' relationships (which stems from the fact they're family, so there's more to go off), ToQger had offered the same levels of complexity in its villains at the same point. So Nininnger isn't really offering "more" in that regard, it's just offering it in a different place. ToQger was also handicapped in that it couldn't reveal much about its heroes at this point, because it was still working under the pretense that they'd lost their memories. Which I found on the whole a lot more engaging that Ninninger's ongoing plot.

http://i.imgur.com/fwl9mN4.png


That's it; that's the show.

~off topic briefly reopened, but hey, it's Sailor Moon, that's basically Sentai anyway, right? :lol ~

From what I recall, Takeuchi was highly involved in the production of Crystal, so the humorlessness makes sense. Kunihiko Ikuhara is largely responsible for giving the 90s anime its slapstick-y tone, which IMO highly elevates the material and fully utilizes Mitsuishi's complete skill set. Takeuchi is great and amazing and brilliant when it comes to having good ideas, but she is sometimes lacking when it comes to execution of those ideas.

Fair enough. I'm appreciating the emphasis on the heroes this season, but YMMV.

I will say that, yeah, ToQger couldn't reveal its heroes' backstory due to the ongoing mysteries, but I think it could have done a better job building up who the characters were as people, in the present, during the middle of the series. (Though don't get me wrong, I still really enjoy ToQger throughout its run, even with Kobayashi's trademark dragging middle section.)

ToQGer wasn't even consistent with its characters though. We'd randomly learn things each week, like about how two of them were big fans of Karate, which come completely out of nowhere and disappear just as fast. The amnesia thing could have worked if it subtly built up aspects of the characters with clues and hints, but instead it was used to basically do whatever they wanted each week without consequence.

The villains in ToQ were definitely more interesting, but they weren't an important enough part of the show to make up for it. You're lucky to get more than 3-4 minutes per episode of them plotting and arguing amongst themselves, even when Zedd was involved.

Here's something I'm NOT enjoying about Ninninger...

Hirofumi Fukuzawa as action director. His giant robot-scale battles remain impressive, but I've been very dissatisfied with his human-sized action... pretty much since the beginning of ToQger. The fight choreography is fine -- in some places it's actually excellent -- but Fukuzawa doesn't have a cinematic eye. This leads to stale, cheap-looking action sequences that over-rely on CGI to imbue any sense of dynamism.

Sentai needs someone in the second unit director's chair who knows how to shoot clever and exciting action sequences. Fukuzawa, while a competent fight choreographer, simply isn't an exciting filmmaker.

The last two sentai shows have not been that great only a few eps that were good and the rest of the season boring. I think sentai in japan is dying the last great sentai show we had was kyoryuger but nothing as good as that came after it

I can assure you its not. Sentai is going strong or rather stronger than the last few years in japan and wont go anywhere anytime soon.

Sentai has not been that great of a show for everyone maybe for you but most people are not feeling it. Gokaiger was a great show that was strong than gobusters came and Sentai kind of went down hill the rating were very bad and so were the toys

And just as much if not more are feeling it right now. Especially the kids and as long as those are happy Bandai and Toei will keep going. The toylines went up after Go-Busters with Kyoryuger breaking records and ToQGer selling well enough to be considered a success.
And Ninninger is currently Bandais third best selling toyline and even outselling the Kamen Rider merchandise.
Ratings for these shows have also improved after Go-Busters tanked in Japan and Kyoryuger had to pretty much build a whole new audience for Sentai.

I don't know about the ratings but I do know about the toy line doing well. However ninninger is NOT Bandai best selling toy line. The top three are Gokaiger, Gaoranger, and Kyoryuger the top three and I believe Shinkenger did well in the toy line too. I don't know where you got that idea that Kyoryuger build a whole new audience from? So answer this if the last two Sentai were so great like you CLAM it to be then where are the toqger and ninninger Figuarts then?

The same place all the other Sentai figuarts went.
The trash.

There's only been one complete series since Kyoryuger ended. This statement is essentially meaningless. :lolol

I didnt said it was the best selling Sentai toyline I said it was the thrid best selling one THIS YEAR. Bandai makes more stuff than just Sentai you know.

Go-Busters had a ratings average of 4.1% and rather low toy sales especially after following the success of Gokaiger.

Kyoryuger had a ratings average of 3.8% and the best selling toyline since Gaoranger.

So why did it have lower ratings than Go-Busters but still way more sales? A strong theory people have about this is that kids just disliked Go-Busters that much that it took a while for them to come back for Kyoryuger. And that Sentai ever since is building a completely new audience for the show.

ToQGer went into a similiar direction in terms of its ratings and only had a slightly less successfull toyline and Ninninger seems to be going a similiar route but with another high selling line of toys.

And Sentai figuarts dont get produced anymore so measuring a seasons success by who gets figuarts is pretty much meaningless. Especially since those are meant for the adult fanbase and not the intended target audience. Which is the one that decides if sentai keeps going or not.

Well if that how you feel about Sentai Figuarts then I guess the same can be said about gekiranger figuarts and these two http://www.gunjap.net/site/wp-conten...12/03/5312.jpg

I'm enjoying Ninninger a lot. While I sorta get what people are talking about when they have issues with the show, I have never gotten an answer to why people dislike the toyline. Every time I ask why people hate the mecha, it's like the whole room just clears out.

So I'm taking another shot: What's wrong with the Ninninger line?

I think the mecha is fine. I like that it's disproportionate and messy, it goes with the "we're flashy ninjas, so our mechs are flashy too"
like, I think it's doing nothing wrong really. it has a strong cast of characters (yellow aside) and it probably has my favorite 6th member in the past 5 years. Kinji is just so lovable.

if you ask me what's wrong with it: it's not necessarily deviating from the norm, but it's not necessarily bad because of that. it's someone's first time writing a sentai and I think they captured the core feel of a Sentai really well. I love the family element, especially considering that it's not used too often.

Did I say they deserved to be there? No, smartass.
Go digging around Bandai's dumpsters. I'm sure you'll find a treasure trove of Sentai stuff that will never be sold. They're all in the trash bins.

I love Ninninger. I don't get why some people don't like it. I get it, it has its flaws, but it's still a a great show.

It has gotten better after the summer eps

I'm bored, that's why I don't like it.

I put the show on hiatus after episode 22 to watch Ohranger. I think I'm going to catch up on Drive next before I even think about start back up on Nin.

That's a safe idea. Ninninger's story is just starting to heat up, at like episode 29.

the show is starting to get really charming as it progress
its still gets on my nerve on some parts
but overall the characters are charming
and the pink ranger/gold ranger is the best of the bunch

It's growing on me after a rough start.

Tsumuji's been my favourite character of late. I didn't mind if they never explained why he wasn't a good enough ninja, I just thought he was a good man, I liked his relationship with Fuuka a lot. That there's a reason behind him not being a ninja now, is interesting. I thought something was off when StarNinger showed up earlier than usual, which makes me wonder if Tsumuji is going to become the 7th Ninninger at some point soon.

Last year people seemed to have a theory that Sentai these days only really picks up with the second half. Ninninger is backing this up, I feel.

29 episodes in and honestly Ninninger feels like Sentai's Kamen Rider Wizard to me.

It's so safe and doesn't really branch out much and because of that it comes off as very boring. The main characters are fairly one-note, all the villains except maybe Kyuuemon are boring and don't do much other than stand there and monologue, it has interesting concepts and elements but they do so little with them. Like how many times were UFOmaru or Paomaru used total? Not all that much. I'm definitely going to finish it since I've never dropped a currently airing toku series yet, but when it feels like a chore having to watch it, that signals a problem.

Honestly, I'm baffled at how people say they're loving this and then turn around and say ToQger wasn't that good when the team, supporting characters and villains were so much more interesting and fleshed out.

Oh god, I think I've dropped every Sentai (Sans Gokaiger and Kyoryuger) that I've watched as they aired :lol
You're stronger than I am :p

I always want to come back to Ninninger since 1 episode is hardly a fair judgment, but I hear so little positives about it that it's super deterring.

I used to be that way. And then I realized that I could be rewatching a Sentai series I love instead.

I'm afraid to say I enjoy Ninninger now

Is it over yet?

I used to be this way haha. Now my mentality is "why re-watch something when I can watch something I haven't seen yet?" Applies to movies, television, and even games. Of course, there are a few exceptions

Don't be; I enjoy it also.

From what little I saw, the show was utter crap. Unenjoyable, predictable AF. Like the show could have tried. Hopefully the Power Rangers version is better.

Like for real the only good thing are the rangers suits.

Ninninger is good so yeah I am enjoying it especially StarNinger because normally 6th Sentai Rangers, not all of them but some of them are my favorites which includes DragonRanger (Zyuranger), KingRanger (Ohranger), GaoSilver (Gaoranger) and StarNinger (Ninninger).