Rightfully so and I await your review. *pitches tent and starts cooking fish and baked beans at campfire*

Liveman has always been a series I needed to finish. Despite it's interesting start, I took a break after a few episodes and just never managed to get back to it.

Liveman is an easy favourite of mine, especially after seeing it twice. It kind of helps that it’s the culmination of the last three seasons expanding on the formula. There’s only one more to go before the formula fully settles in.

And speaking of Turboranger, since Fish already said he wasn’t doing the first episode for technical reasons, I’ll go ahead and post a link to my own review of it that I did a while ago. http://www.tokunation.com/showthread...732#post788732

The following shows will be done in July for me

Kyo Ryu
To Quger
Ninja Ranger
Zyu Oh
Ryu Soul
Kira Mage


Also I'm watching Oh (Episode 29). Once Oh is finished I'll be on Ginga (Galaxy) Man from the 1st Saban Era. I finished Zyu - Kaku
plus Car Ranger and Mega Ranger. I'm on Zyu Oh Episode 13 as well.

Currently up to 32 of Kyoryuger. I think out of everyone among the main five, Nobuharu a.k.a Nossan is my favorite ranger of this series with Amy probably being a very close second.

Oh yeah, Nossan is the best. From being the father figure to his niece and supporting his widowed baby sister while giving us dad jokes to lighten up the mood, what more could you ask for from a human being. I really like Nossan also for being the big bumbling blue ranger for a change since those are hard to come by as blue rangers typically tend to be the cool, stoic, brooding ones. The closest prior to Nossan was Ryunosuke/Shinken Blue who was an unintentional goofball. Come to think of it Ryunosuke was pretty much a hybrid of Onari and Rintaro. :lolol

I'm on #08 of Kira Mage. I hope this turns out decent given COVID 19.

I'll be finished with Go Busters on June 11th.

I'm definitely curious to see what you think of Kirameger. It seems like you never sat anything about the shows you watch, you just list out the 10 or so different seasons you're hopping between currently. Are you enjoying watching toku? Having a long list of completed shows is good, yeah, but having just a few shows you've really taken the time to enjoy can be important too

Just finished episode 44 of Kyoryuger. Only four episodes to go. I should be able to finish it sometime this week.

Well I have started ToQger and can now claim to have started on every Sentai series.

The good: The series has some good gags, like blue completely failing to appear cool (I prefer subversions, aversions or playing with the “serious blue” archetype, rather than playing it straight) and the fact that our rookie in Red actually knows these people in real life rather than just being accepted by a group of total strangers. There’s also the colour change gimmick, which kind of detracts from how dull the Ranger suits look).

The bad: The guy on the train just feels like a cut rate Owner with none of the charm, I think the announcements are probably my least favourite out of any tokusatsu announcement and our bad guys don’t seem to have much going for them beyond “ spread darkness”.

The ugly: Nero Danchaku. Seriously, who signed off on a design that grotesque?

Well I have a list of shows I watch and I mark what number I'm on and then I'll
tag a Completed after I see the last regular episode.

I finished MMPR - Super Ninja Steel thanks to Shout Factory and Lions Gate.

Having done this I'm watching Zyu forward VIA Shout Factory and a few Malasian releases. (Bouken and Go Busters being Brazil releases English Subbed)

I have to admit Dino Charge was the strongest original story series from the US so far.

As for the shows I'd have to say my favorite decade so far is

Gokai Ranger - Kira Mage.

2011 - 2020 has been nothing but fantastic honestly. All 11 are break out favorites out of the gate honestly.

Decided to give Kiramager a second shot, if only to see what this whole deal is about Yodonna. Picked up where I left off and am now past the Covid hiatus. It's been fun so far.

You have summoned dreamcastegirl to the thread.

*throws arms up*

AHHHH! AFTER 661 POSTS I'M FREE! TIME TO CONQUER EARTH!

*digs up ryusoulken and activates nemusoul key*

*constructs an actual shield out of phonebook sized comics with Momotsuki Nashiko on the cover*

The COVID break episodes aren't included in my set. It goes to 11.

Just finished Kyoryuger. Now, it's onward to Ressha Sentai ToQer.

Yeah, same with my fansubs. The lack of a next episode preview on 10 is the only thing even slightly weird about that section of the show. 11 picks up as if nothing happened.

The covid episodes were literally just reruns of Episodes 0 and 1, anyhow. Nothing missed!

I wouldn't ~quite~ say that, myself. There were the two Kira Talk specials with all the Machines rambling on over old clips that were more amusing than they had any right to be, but beyond that, yeah, unless you're just desperate to see a few deleted scenes from the first two episodes, or a much less amusing clip show with the bad guys, it's not exactly anything you have to worry about skipping over.

Update

Completed

Geki - Go Busters

Watching the final 9 this week from a Brazil release.

~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~

Episode 13 – Kousoku Sentai Turboranger

https://i.imgur.com/nv3uQU2.png

Turboranger is far from a show I know a ton about. It's another one with a theme song that totally slaps; the protagonists are all in high school; they drive sweet giant cars around. The bare essential knowledge you need, really. While it's something that plants seeds for later Sentai concepts that are way up my alley, Turboranger itself seems to be a show that isn't regularly touted as an exemplar of the franchise. I've never taken that as a bad sign, because we're talking about what came directly after Liveman, so of course it gets overshadowed, but still, the end result is a series I've only ever been moderately interested in.

Naturally, I went and learned a bit more about it in the process of making this post, and there were certainly some fun pieces of trivia to be found. The way these shows reflect and react to the culture of the times is often quite fascinating, so it was really cute to read that the then-fresh automobile theme was simply trying to ride the wave of massive success Tamiya's Mini 4WD kits were enjoying in the late 80's – a wave they rode all the way to the bank when the giant robot this year ended up selling like hotcakes, exactly as hoped.

I also learned just how weird that first episode really is. It's not exactly strange to want to do a big celebratory special to commemorate an anniversary. The thing is though, they wanted to do it so badly, they didn't care that it was a year late. The original intent was to do something like this between Maskman and Liveman, but that got nixed when Maskman's filming fell behind schedule, so we're celebrating 11 teams since Battle Fever J instead of that perfect, round 10. (This was back when Battle Fever J was considered the starting point for the franchise, which makes it all the more awkward that this is the first team with "ranger" in the name since the Gorangers themselves.)

Again, it's all a bit odd, but as a clip show, it's entirely harmless. There's a certain impact to seeing all these different groups standing together, a sort of forerunner to greater crossovers to come... especially since everyone seemingly showed up this time just so the Turborangers could give their villains a lecture about how cool they are. It's supposed to convince them to back off, but honestly, if I were one of the Bouma, I'd be so humiliated by getting dragged into a history lesson by my foes that I'd probably only be that much more motivated to conquer the planet. Imagine 53 dudes ganging up on you in a rock quarry only for 48 of them to decide to sit the fight out. It's a little patronizing!

Of course, that's not the real first episode, is it? While I'm going over it here because it's counted as such for simplicity's sake, the proper premiere is the second episode, and thanks to that, Turboranger has the unique honor of getting two episodes covered here. But really, this is the one that counts for something. And it's overall... pretty solid, to be sure. While I'm still deeply impressed by Hirohisa Soda's ability to write all these debuts in unique ways, I have to admit that Turboranger's particular take wasn't the most excited I've been so far.

I suppose the big thing to mention about the overall style is the deliberate gap between that visual concept of big fast road vehicles and the actual theming of the story, which has a plot revolving around ancient monsters causing trouble after being freed from their long-held magical seals. Because the fairies maintaining them can't keep it up any longer. ...Because most of them died from pollution.

The seeming disconnect here doesn't actually bother me at all. On the contrary, the mishmash of elements is so extreme it's clearly a conscious decision, and I can dig that. As far as the premiere is concerned, there's even a cute thing going on where our youthful protagonists are recruited because they're the only ones who can hear the pleas of the last surviving fairy – that classic sort of scenario of the kids who still believe in magic – except then the fairy in question was also already working with a scientist who came up with the idea for the whole car superhero thing. That sounds fun, clearly, right? Hard to hate a premise like that. That's the thing to keep in mind. When I say I "wasn't the most excited I've been", it doesn't mean it wasn't exciting at all. I do really like the gentle scene in the middle where the team see the fairy for the first time and save her from being pinned by some rocks; and in the opposite direction, I'm not going to say no to an action climax involving a giant flying sports car shooting down enemy planes with lasers.

That's kind of the bottom line, isn't it? It becomes easy to take these things for granted after so many series, especially when plenty of them have left stronger first impressions for me, but I don't want to downplay how fundamentally awesome Turboranger still is, either. Not a bad time at all with this one!

You do a wonderful job of convincing someone to get involved with a series they probably dropped a couple of episodes in!

So Turboranger is about a bunch of teenagers with attitude out to save the world? Sounds like it'll never catch on.

This team was the ORIGINAL TEENAGERS WITH ATTITUDE. :lolol
Okay maybe not a whole lot of attitude but definitely the first all-teenager team ever. The opening theme sung by Kenta Sato who played Riki Honoh/Red Turbo is still to this day the best Sentai theme song in my opinion with the right amount of energy, and it was Heisei's first sentai team. And it makes sense as a new era begins for Japan they had the core theme being energetic and youthfulness as the big keywords. Also, this was the show that brought back the レンジャー suffix last used by Gorenger. The show also tripled down on the robots with Turboranger being the first team to have a second combination by just having the Super Turbo Robo combine with their base to form a even bigger one in the form of Super Turbo Builder. Two of the cast members went on to appear in future toku shows; Junichiro Katagiri who played the gymnist of the team Shunsuke/Yellow Turbo appeared in Winspector, Solbrain, and Janperson, and Fujita Okamoto who played Dr. Dazai, their mentor and tech support, appeared in Timeranger as Mr. Asami aka Tatsuya/Time Red's father.
So back to Kenta Sato. He really surprised people for a toku theme song concert in 2004 when he appeared to sing the theme song IN THE SAME CIVILIAN OUTFIT HE WORE IN THE SHOW RED JACKET AND ALL. :rock:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJQobsUpHdA

THAT IS DEDICATION. The jacket, the striped shirt, black pants and shoes, and RACING GLOVES. :lolol

Yeah, one of the other things I read is that singing the opening was something he actively pursued all the way back to literally bringing a demo tape to his audition, and that same enthusiasm certainly shows all those years later. It's not at all hard to see why you always speak so highly of this theme song.

And three years later, he gives fans the Zyuranger theme. :rock:
But back to Turboranger yeah that 2004 performance is still one of the best things to happen. I put this just above the Ninja Steel Blue reveal at Power Morphicon.

Ah yes, another person joins me in the club that is “watching/has watched Turboranger” (as far as I’m aware, it’s only two members at present).

Ironically, as you watched the start, I’m nearing the end of the series (one episode left). I can say that it’s been a fun ride with some genuinely compelling villains throughout (compared to other shows, where how compelling a villain was depended on the episode). And compares to other shows with pollution themed bad guys like Gaoranger and Goseiger, it doesn’t play up the anti-pollution message to the point it takes up time, so it’s got that going for it.

It’s also unique in that unlike later high-school hero Toku shows (Megaranger and KR Fourze), it doesn’t put a lot of focus on the other students. Whenever there’s a school plot, most of the focus is on the main 5’s teacher Ms. Yamaguchi, who does start out at Ohsugi levels of bullying the protagonists because she feels like it, before being derailed for the better into a good teacher. (With some genuinely funny gags on the side)

Overall, I would recommend that if you’re interested in this series, watch it.

Ah yes, Ms. Yamaguchi. She was pretty much their J. Jonah Jameson wasn't she? Good times. :lolol
I mean she wasn't antagonistic to the rangers if I recall, but you know what I mean. She was just the perfect nosy teacher type.

Update

Completed

Zyu - Mega Ranger

I'm watching the remaining episodes of Oh VIA Shout Factory DVD
on Disks 7 and 8. Next will be Ginga (Galaxy) Man and Kyo Ryu Ranger.

Final 8 for Go Busters.

Just finished episode 12 of ToQger. I gotta admit, the series is surprisingly not bad so far.

I have Zyu - Hurricane Ranger VIA Shout Factory and Aba - Kira Mage are
Mylasian sets English Subbed.

Magi - Geki , Shinken , Gokai and Go Busters are Brazil
releases English Subbed.

I'm now up to episode 31 of ToQger. I'm seriously ending up really liking all 6 rangers of this series far more than I should and I also really love the aesthetics of the show's main villains and even liked some of them as characters themselves especially Schwarz and I can see and understand why they are, arguably, the best part of most of ToQger. I also get a real kick out of a Couch Gag in the show's opening involving a ranger, which extends to their show's sixth ranger, falling over after running from an explosion and sometimes this happens to all of them at the same time.

I'm on 17 of To Q myself actually and they're due to soon bring in Orange Ranger.

Just finished episode 37 of ToQger. Only ten episodes to go.

~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~

Episode 14 – Chikyuu Sentai Fiveman

https://i.imgur.com/nQ6AVFE.png

Fiveman is most known to me for being perhaps the original Worst Sentai Ever. I think it's fair to say it's a bit infamous for the trouble it had finding success. It suffered from poor ratings out of the gate (an after-effect of a time slot change midway through Turboranger the previous year), and it also consistently struggled to move merchandise, which is where things became truly problematic. While a Sentai can get away with one of those things at at time, both at once will get people questioning if it's even worth producing the series at all anymore.

It doesn't help that Hirohisa Soda has basically admitted he was running on fumes by this point, which is no big surprise. The man had been one of the leading creative voices on Super Sentai for darn near a decade at this point, with this being his ninth show in a row as main writer, and what's more, he'd been an episode writer on every series all the way back to Goranger. I'd be tired too! Anybody would be tired after all that! So you know, he could keep on trying to integrate whatever new themes or new twists to keep it fresh and relevant, but without a certain level of passion, that ironically becomes just another part of the routine, and the consensus seems to be exactly that – Fiveman is routine. Boring. Predictable. Unoriginal. Lame. It's no wonder Toei tried to mix things up so much the year after, right? Fiveman sounds like a total disaster!

Fiveman also has a premiere I enjoyed a ton, because I can be rather predictable myself!

I don't know, there's just something about the structure and pacing to this one I found pretty captivating. One of the more flattering things that's notable about Fiveman is that is was the first Sentai to use the idea of the team all being siblings. (This concept apparently may have been inspired by Japan's declining birth rate, which I want to mention because I think it's interesting that even a Soda show with the reputation Fiveman has was still trying to keep it real in its own way.) The family dynamic makes for a darn solid origin story.

It's another one that puts emotion at the forefront, dedicating a lot of time to playing out the show's backstory of tragic loss and parental sacrifice on a distant world before anything else, rather than only hinting at it or brushing it off with a quick flashback or something. It's a super smooth introduction that provides great context to get you invested in the heroes and despising the villains, right down to an awesome moment where one of the main bad guys receives a scar when the future Five Red blasts his face with a laser gun, making a stand against evil even while quivering in fear, since he's only a child. That is a heck of a way to start a rivalry right there!

Only after that entire thrilling yet depressing space adventure reaches its conclusion around the halfway mark are we introduced to the regular status quo for the series, with the five children making the best of their lives twenty years later working as school teachers, while of course being more than prepared to face those same villains when they finally make their way to Earth. The Fivemen themselves are introduced silently piloting their mecha in shadowy close-ups, a visual so cool it can get to me overlook my frustration that Fiveman only has three machines to make their robot. Without basic intuition (or the opening credits), you wouldn't even know who these guys are suddenly arriving to save the day, and it builds a ton of excitement precisely because of how restrained it is. Or at least as restrained as something that involves this many explosions and lasers can be, anyway.

Much like I said with Tubroranger being fundamentally awesome, I feel like it's probably best to take Fiveman on its own merits rather than getting hung up on how it compares to whatever else. It was the Worst Sentai Ever because it wasn't pushing things to exciting new heights the way a show like Liveman was, and I'm sure there are genuinely plenty of uninspired elements in it, but like, I don't think I'd be running away never looking back if this was the first one of these shows I saw? Heck, in my case, this is actually one where I would've gladly watched the second episode right there on the spot. Fiveman is just kinda cool to me, what can I say? From the name to the suits, it screams Generic Sentai Series, but on the other hand, I love those suits! Fiveman likely isn't the absolute best Sentai has to offer, but at least from what little I've seen of it, it certainly has a unique charm all the same.

isnt that the name of that popular fast food restaurant

Close. That would be Five Guys. :lolol

Fiveman is kinda generic. As an example, the designs are decent yet lack that pizazz one expects from a sentai suit. I mean the only differentiating element other than the colors are that their foreheads have the graphics of their respective school subject.:lolol
That said, I do love the setup of them being the first family sentai as well as the first sentai to be all teachers, a stark contrast to the previous Turboranger. Heck their names relate to their expertise as elementary school teachers:
Gaku/Five Red is a science teacher. Gaku depending on how it is used as a word is equivalent to the suffix"-ology", while independently it means to learn or academics. His forehead symbol is an atom.
Ken/Five Blue is the phys ed teacher. His name derives from the word Kenkou(健康) which means health. His forehead symbol is a person swimming.
Fumiya/Five Black is the Japanese teacher. The Fumi in Fumiya means language/lettter/literature depending on usage. His forehead symbol is the kanji 話.
Kazumi/Five Pink is the math teacher. The Kazu in Kazumi means number or count. Her forehead symbol is the *, the symbol used for multiplication in calculators.
Remi/Five Yellow is the music teacher. Her name is wordplay on RE and MI, two of the seven solfège syllables in a major scale: DO, RE, MI, FA, SOL, LA, and TI. Her forehead symbol is a musical note.

Fun fact, Five Black and Five Yellow were twins, and the two in real life after the show ended got married.

There is something very funny to consider about the Turborangers technically being their predecessors when they're students and Fiveman are teachers. And when they're immediately after each other! :lol

Come to think of it, maybe that's part of why Fiveman didn't do too well? Because even though it's teachers instead of students, it's another school-focused sentai after just having a full year of that.