Go for it.

Actually, nawh. I realized that I don't think I'd care enough to really post often enough to warrant it :lol

Aww, I would like to see you post more, and hear your opinions on toku shows!

I love summary threads! I, and I imagine many others, read through them even though I don't post in them. They are more than welcomed!

FYI Inoue was one of the writers for Flashman. Not the lead writer but one of the writers. The crucial episodes are when they deal with the whole "could this guest character be my family or related somehow?" since they got Starlord'd pretty much as toddlers(Bun/Blue Flash was a newborn I think). And it is interesting to see if they make any progress in tracking down their family. Filler eps are fun too. Two of my fav are the one where Lou/Pink Flash gets involved in cooking shenanigans and Dai/Green Flash befriends a ramen stall owner who is an aspiring boxer. Fun fact, that boxer is played by Ryosuke Kaizu aka Takeru/Red Mask from Maskman.

Oh, my nemesis. Inoue. Guess no matter what show I pick, he's been involved in.

Well, hopefully this is before his writing became so astronomically bad :lol

I think we can agree up to Agito Inoue ranges from decent to great, at least within toku. Faiz was where I think he started being hit or miss generally.

Currently up to episode 21 of Go-Busters and I'm honestly surprised on how much I'm getting into the show so far, perhaps even enjoying it outright since this is by the same head writer as Shinkenger.

I tried watching one of Hideaki Anno's Sentai parodies earlier. Dai Nippon or whatever it's called. It seemed fun, but the video quality was so bad that I couldn't handle it (it was super scratched up, warped, and oddly cropped. Plus, there were no subs and the audio was super off sync.)

Eh, it was during his college years plus it was an 8mm film from the early 80s so understandable. Regarding Anno's involvement seems like he was just the mecha designer for it and the director was actually Takami Akai who apparently got booted outta Gainax after being caught exchanging some fighting words on 2ch during the early episodes of Gurren Lagann. Fun fact, the instrumental they use for the theme song is Sun Vulcan's theme.

~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~

Episode 11 – Hikari Sentai Maskman

https://i.imgur.com/0axcj99.png

The logo for the team is a pentagon with the number five in it, and it's also the series that introduced the glorious ideal of the five-piece combining robot to the franchise, appropriately called Great Five. It drives me insane that I'm NOT talking about the show literally called Fiveman right now.

That's what Maskman means to me personally as someone who hasn't seen it – just a sense of confusion about why it took them a couple years to come up with a title that fits this show's designs so well. And you know, I'm really glad I'm doing this project, because if I wasn't, I might've taken so much longer to get the closure I did looking the show up and finding out it didn't take them a couple years at all, because the working title for this show was "The Fiveman" the whole time! Turns out it's the people working for Toei that are truly insane, because they apparently spent most of the 80's constantly discarding all these Sentai ideas during the planning phase, only to then refuse to change other elements of the shows that directly reflected them!

So, putting that long-held frustration aside, how was the premiere? Well, first of all, I continue to be impressed by how Hirohisa Soda keeps finding different approaches for these scripts. You'd think it'd be hard to avoid writing all these first episodes in basically the same way, but I think he was probably conscious of that trap, and actively working to avoid falling into it. There are some notable shakeups in the structure for Maskman. For example, not only is there no giant robot action, there's no transformation sequence either, which feels sort of weird, even though it doesn't affect the plot or anything.

What absolutely affects the plot, however, is the clear focus on a particular character, Red Mask, also known as Takeru. And I mean, just Takeru, apparently, because my old frustration with the "five" thing has now been replaced by the mystery of why this show does the "only given names" thing again when these characters are just regular Japanese people as far as I can tell? Like, I could tell you Takeru's family name is Shiba or Tenkuuji, and even though I can't prove myself right, nobody could prove me wrong either.

But then, now I'm getting off track, much the way Takeru has to get off the race track he drives his cool car around when his girlfriend of mysterious origins rushes onto it in order to warn of the oncoming invasion of the underground empire. The interesting angle Maskman picks, that I can imagine being really unique and interesting over the course of a series, is putting a romance pretty front and center. The fact that it's a romance between a hero of the surface world and a woman originally sent from underground to act as a spy makes their situation dramatically complicated, of course. This is all communicated fairly smoothly just in the one episode, with some quick flashbacks establishing that these two have a history together, and a tragic separation that's shown to spur Red Mask on once he joins the climactic fight scene after the other four have already arrived.

It didn't totally wow me in the moment, but now that I'm sitting here writing about it, I'm realizing I actually really appreciate a lot of how this one was put together. It doesn't try to cram anything unnecessary in that would mess up the pacing, to the point that the whole martial arts/spirituality Aura Power shtick that's a central motif of the series is only brought up as a cliffhanger, enticing the viewer with yet more layers to the story that haven't even been touched on yet... outside of Hironobu Kageyama screaming about it during the opening's chorus, at least. (I kid, I kid; it's another good song!)

Not my absolute favorite premiere so far or anything, but another very promising start to another show I'll probably quite enjoy eventually.

Maskman is another of the few Sentai that I'm actually interested in watching at some point, and reading about how it shakes things up keeps that desire alive.

Maskman has the most confusing first episode. It almost feels like episode 13ish the way it starts off suddenly with Takeru/Red Mask and Mio running. No origin whatsoever last I checked so it confused me. The premise, an underground empire called Tube wants to take over the people upstairs, us. Thus the Maskman team is formed, a dream team consisting of experts in karate, kenpo, wushu, ninjutsu, and taichi who also can harness aura power during a fight. But the real plot is Takeru/Red Mask and his hero's quest to rescue his damsel in distress Mio aka Princess Ial.
Like I said before, Ryosuke Kaizu who was a guest role in Flashman as an aspiring boxer/food stall owner becomes the red ranger of the show. Issei Hirota who went on to appear in Jiraiya as Toppa was Akira/Blue Mask, the baby bro of the team and Wushu prodigy. In real life Hirota is a legit Wushu practitioner that he had some involvement in the wushu stuff if I recall and the Shishiranger suit actor took some advice from Hirota because of that. Another familiar face is Kanako Maeda who went on to play Kanna in Jetman after this.
Maskman was the first of the franchise to give all members their individual mecha components which combines to Great Five. Also the show was the testbed in a sense for the Tsuika Senshi trope started by Zyuranger and Dragon Ranger Burai in the form of the one-shot Bangai Hero X1 Mask.

I don't know a thing about Maskman (Though the 5 emblem and their mech being called the Great Five angers me as much as the Turboranger being both their carrier as well as the proceeding series).

However, I can say that their theme is a banger.

Oh I wasn't expecting anything great. What bothered me was that it felt like...almost like watching a cell phone recording of a movie instead of the actual movie, if that makes sense. But I feel like I won't ever find a better version.

As I understand it, Maskman's original name may very well have been "Fiveman", only to receive an 11th Hour change!

P.S.: Liveman was in-between Maskman and Turboranger.

Fair warning: from this point onwards, with very few exceptions, a lot of shows will take two episodes to establish themselves (or in the case of Turboranger, three).

Still a proceeding series, just not the immediate proceeding series :p

Just finished another episode of Go-Busters. 38 down, 12 to go.

Honestly, I think it did a pretty good job jumping right into the meat of the story without feeling too abrupt or hard to follow. I mean, I've seen Kamen Rider Blade's first episode, you know? :lol

Well you see, that carrier is *totally* different from the series, since the "ran" isn't pronounced like "rain" because it's an a sound in Japanese rather than an e sound – and that totally ISN'T just even more confusing why would you even think that :p

Turboranger is going to be a tricky case I might have to make some kind of an exception for (it'd be so simple if they just didn't count that first "episode" as the first episode...), but otherwise, I'm pretty committed to this whole concept of only doing the premiere. It's sort of like what (post-character development) Die has said in his threads on occasion, about approaching each episode as its own thing, because that's the way they aired? In this case, especially, I'm obviously not looking to get a full picture of each show, and part of the fun for me is in seeing how much of itself each series was able to get across just in that first week.

...You know, unless that first week was a clip show with no credited writer, in which case I might feel like I'm doing a disservice to Hirohisa Soda by pretending that's the start of the story.

I'm nearly finished with Go Busters. After Kyo Ryu is done it will be bye Power Rangers.

Hasbro is rumored to break from Toei so if this is the case I'm jumping ship on Power Rangers now.

Back in the day Maskman was the Showa Sentai I decided I wanted to watch at some point, because...

...

uh... I actually don't remember. I know I liked the suits, I guess? Might have been because no-one talked about or remembered it either, but that goes for at least half of the pre-Jetman seasons! As-is I still don't know that much about it aside from X1 Mask being a thing later and there being very vague ninja and spiritual energy themes to it. But, hey, that's just another point in its favour! I know basically nothing about it aside from that and now that there's a romance in the first episode, so I can eventually jump in fresh-faced and ready for surprises.

I'd believe it! They're pretty slick looking. Another case like Sun Vulcan where I think it'd even be easy to mistake them for being more recent designs than they are, if that makes any sense.

I could definitely kinda see it, yeah! Something that always struck me was the helmet design being so unique and cool, to the point that somewhere in my brain the thought "yeah, they deserve the name Maskman" popped up :lol

Since people are talking about Maskman and nobody's brought this up, I'm just going to leave this here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80VljmzTtdI
Not going to lie, this video is the only reason I decided to watch Maskman.

Unfortunately, it's all kind of downhill after the premiere, IMO.

On the plus side, Igam is an interesting villain, there's one cool arc with Blue Mask, and there's a great stand-alone Pink Mask focus ep. But overall it's easily the most generic Sentai I've ever seen. Which isn't bad, especially if one were to watch it early on in their Sentai explorations. But if you've seen enough of these shows, you know how much more interesting the ideas it tackles can be. And even though the premiere is a pretty fresh take on an intro ep, most of the rest of the show feels like Sentai on autopilot. Maskman is really where it starts to become clear that Soda is a bit burnt out on Sentai.

TBH, the show soured me on watching another Soda-helmed series for years. I'm glad I eventually dug back into his catalogue because the man was brimming with innovative ideas and enthusiasm. It's just not really apparent in Maskman.

Speaking of which, just remembered that Machiko Soga had a guest role in Maskman as the mother of Baraba, one of the Tube lieutenants.

I've seen Shinken - Gokai Ranger ( Samurai - Super Mega Force) so I'm now watching Kyo Ryu (Dino Charge) and Ninja Ranger (Ninja Steel) for the back half of Saban Era II.

Also Go Bisters (Beast Morphers) and Ryu Soul Ranger ( Dino Fury) from the Hasbro Era.

The Mask in Maskman I think is meant to describe them being MASKED in aura power when transformed. Personal headcanon though so grain of salt. Yeah the suits are ambiguous yet well-designed for sure. It definitely feels like a step-up from the previous seasons of the same decade. And checking it again Kageyama really did the theme song justice.

Order has been placed for Kira Mage Ranger this morning. (English subs.)

So in June I will be starting the 2020 episodes.

I had wanted to keep going after the Shout Factory cut off at Hurri.

Thanks to Brazil and Malaysian releases I've been able to catch up
the newer episodes in the franchise. (All sets have English subs.)

Up to episode 47 of Go-Busters. I should be able to finish this series sometime today. Also, I think Go-Busters might just be another favorite of mine which is really saying something since I went into this, like Goseiger, with very little expectations and I didn't want to suffer a severe case of Hype Backlash again like I did with Shinkenger.

Watch List Update

Aba (Episode 22)
Bouken (Episode 25)
Go Busters (Episode 32)
Kyo Ryu (Episode 13)
To Quger (Episode 17)
Ninja Ranger (Episode 22)
Zyu Oh (Episode 13)
Kyu Ranger (Episode 12)
Lu Pat (Episode 10)
Ryu Soul (Episode 18)
Kira Mage Ranger (Episode 02)

Delayed

Oh - Hurricane Ranger

Completed

Zyu - Kaku
Car Ranger
Deka
Magi
Geki - Gokai Ranger

Shipping in Kira Mage Ranger in a few days.

Just finished Go-Busters. Now, it's onward to Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger.

I started Kyo Ryu and am on 13.

Also finishing up Mega Ranger and Go Busters.

~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~

Episode 12 – Choujuu Sentai Liveman

https://i.imgur.com/IRK35kU.png

People sure do seem to love Liveman, huh? Granted, I don't always have the biggest picture of The Fandom at large, but in my experience, with astonishing consistency over all the years I've been interested in Super Sentai, whenever anybody wants to gush about how awesome the Hirohisa Soda era of the franchise was, Liveman is almost guaranteed to be the series that immediately comes up.

It's not exactly hard to see why? First of all, we've finally got another team with an animal motif, and that concept hasn't gotten any less great since Sun Vulcan. On the contrary, it's arguably gotten better this time around, with all the growing the franchise has been doing in the intervening time. Helmets now stylishly reflect each character's trademark creature through the entirety of their design. You've got the theming extending to the pretty pictures on their chests; to their unique weapons; to their mecha!

Oh man, Live Robo! What an icon! Can you believe it took us twelve whole shows to get a Sentai robot with a lion head on its chest? In fact, they're so rightfully proud of that impressive miniature Land Lion – with its organic stride that's so unlike any of the myriad jets and tanks up to that point – that Land Lion is the only mecha to make it into the premiere. They were still willing to hold off on the robot proper for the sake of smoother pacing, but that big metal cat was so impossibly cool and fresh that they forcibly eject Yellow Lion from the main battle just so he can have an excuse to drive it around. Clearly their priorities were in order.

Oh, oh! And the premiere itself was pretty dang good up to that point! Obviously the lion kinda takes steals the show in the end, but while Land Lion's presence symbolizes the continuing evolution of the franchise on a visual level, the writing to get there further demonstrates how much more willing Sentai was becoming to focus on having genuine pathos backing all the explosions and lasers.

The atmosphere of Liveman's first episode felt very different from even the past few shows that have already been heading in this direction. The plot is concerned with the emotions of its main heroes above all else, taking as little time away from them as possible. Your typical Sentai show from this era would have at least one scene of the villains all standing around in their base to establish their names and desire to rule the world, but Liveman ditches that to have a question instead. A rather iconic question at that, thanks to the opening narration. "Friends, why have you sold your souls to the devil?" It's such a great thrust to kick off a narrative, so attention grabbing and memorable that I could've easily opened the post with simply that line as the thing I knew about the show going in. Because of course I know that line, and if you somehow didn't yet, you probably just got way more interested in Liveman.

While we've been inching our way there, Liveman frames its story on a considerably more intimate level than had really been done before, keeping the bulk of the obligatory evil organization as more of a background element here to put the spotlight on three of the classmates of our academically-minded protagonists, leaving the cutting edge island school they all attend behind in the middle of the night to join up with the bad guys, shooting two of their other classmates dead in the process. The script doesn't shy away from the grief of this whole situation, with the main trio weeping in the rain in the aftermath of the incident, and them shown to still be mourning the loss two years down the line, as the big satellite project they were all working on has finally come to fruition. Naturally, this is the perfect timing for the villains to rub salt in the wound by finally showing back up to wreck that too. Not only does Liveman still do the exciting thing of having the team's first transformation be in the midst of danger, the aforementioned expository villain scene is moved there too, with it now coming out of the mouths of characters who are already dramatically engaging thanks to that setup.

It's just a killer start to a series that has a way of gripping you and not letting go. Big surprise coming from such a beloved and important Sentai, I know. When it comes to Liveman, it's less a matter of whether or not I'm excited to watch the whole series one day, and more a matter of it simply being good? Like, it's honestly something I just accept as a fact at face value, as ridiculous as that sounds. Maybe I feel it's hard to go wrong with a team of animals with the stated mission of protecting all that lives; maybe I'm inclined to trust the show that introduced the concept of two combining robots that combine with each other to Sentai. Who knows? At any rate, Liveman's first episode didn't give me much reason to dispute the consensus.

Yeah, the few clips I've seen floating around of Liveman definitely highlighted how proud they were of that Lion mech, to the point I remember some people in comments sections outright asking if Yellow was the leader this time around.

I've said it multiple times. Liveman is THE final Showa era sentai and THE best Showa era sentai ever. The slogan really sells what the show is about.

Friends, why did you sell your souls to the devil?

Also, it seems that it was a big deal at the time cause Daisuke Shima who already was an established celebrity as a recording artist was the Red Ranger as well as Megumi Mori who was gaining attention as an actress and pop idol. The closest level of buzz would be Hideo Ishiguro and Tatsuomi Hamada being announced as Orb and Geed respectively. And then you got hotshot Kazuhiko Nishimura joining the team as the yellow ranger after a small role in Maskman as one of the engineers for the Maskman team.
Joji Nakata who previously played Sir Cowler and Yutaka Hirose who was Ley Wanda in Flashman respectively returns as Great Professor Bias and Dr. Kemp/Kenji Tsukigata. Other notable alumni are Akiko Amamatsuri as Dr.Mazenda/Rui Senda(she was Gara in Dairanger and that liontamer lady in Ohranger) as well as Mr. Battle Cossack & Jiro/Kikaider himself Daisuke Ban playing the role of their school headmaster early on.
While Flashman and Maskman gave us two robots, Liveman gave us two robots but then for the first time ever combined the two to form a super robot. And the show has the honor of having the franchise's FIRST EVER FEMALE BLUE RANGER and FIRST TEAM TO HAVE BOTH GREEN AND BLACK RANGERS. While Sun Vulcan is the first animal motif team, this team was the first to have mechanical robot animals for its robots. And I have mentioned this before, but yeah this show was airing the same year the Olympics were a thing and whaddya know, all five of them are the same color as the five rings of the Olympics. And I cannot help but think that this show was most likely the inspiration behind the premise for Hurricanger. Hurricanger was basically Heisei Liveman redecorated with ninjas to be honest. I mean even the two rangers that were added to their crew are modeled after animals with horns.
But the real great stuff about Liveman is the dichotomy. The way Liveman clashes with the more brainpower hungry Volt and how along the way they try to win back those that betrayed them was cool to see. So in conclusion, great show, and it has a moonwalking robot.
Also the theme song is one of my favs.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfYFGHNSy6E

Ooooh so THAT'S why it's called that!! It's always had me wondering, and for some reason the thing my mind went to most was "Live" as in "Live wires", because that's an exciting thing to name your animal-themed superheroes after!

God, hearing this show kicks off with its emotional pathos right off the bat only makes me more excited to see this. I've been juggling around my options for my next Sentai and this is one I've been thinking about... which you've now all but convinced me on. DESPERATELY need to see how good this thing is right after that glowing praise!

PLEASE WATCH IT. I beg you.:cry
New Liveman fans are always welcome. :rock:
Liveman alongside Jetman is truly the holy grail of Super Sentai. Ignore how bad the film quality is and how dated the show is. This show is a must see when it comes to super sentai.

I mean, right now I'm watching Goranger and the original Kamen Rider back to back, not long after I've finished Dynaman. Those two elements are not that big an issue for me! :lol

It's absolutely 100% on my list, it's one of those ones I can't not watch; but it might just have moved up on my list is what I'm saying