This is my third favorite Sentai crossover movie for me just with Go-Onger Vs Gekiranger and Gokaiger Vs Goseiger being above it with the latter in particular being my favorite overall. That particular Sentai crossover movie also being a then-35th anniversary of the franchise is a very nice bonus.

I lied by the way; I forgot that I watched a good early chunk of Dekaranger.

So when I watched the Gokaiger episode with the Dekarangers, I was like "Hey neat, those guys!" but - that's it. And I think that is what makes this show great, it doesn't go at the legacy-stuff hard in ways that make it unappealing for people who don't know too much about it, but if you do happen to be someone who does, you're in for lots of fun moment with a little bit extra.

But I can still enjoy the Carranger episode as a great Sentai parody episode, because Carranger was like that, without having actually seen Carranger.

Plus, the characters are so good, I love the whole crew. Even Gai who I wasn't too sure about initially quickly became a personal favorite.

Gokaiger was my first Sentai, and here I am years later totally invested in Sentai and seeing what came before! It’s real nice that way

As of now, I just finished the 10th episode of Battle Fever J. I seriously love Kenji Ohba as Shiro Akebono/Battle Kenya.

As Shout brought over Deka it'll take 2 months to finish. Short wait for either
Turbo or Magi.

Watched some more episodes of Battle Fever J yesterday and so far, there hasn’t been a single episode where I didn’t crack a smile at least once. Really helps that the ranger cast for this series are very likable and fun to watch.

The cast is awesome! But it seems to me that in this show, even for its time, there are somehow too many deaths.

Shout Factory

Deka (Episode 12)

It was worth the wait for an actual set for Deka as
it's one of my faves for the Jetix era.

I hope this is the case when we get Magi - Go On.

Those 4 were cool to watch. I love Geki's Kung Fu
theme and triple cat zord idea.

With Power Rangers caught up I can finish the Toei
shows.

Hopefully I can soon start Don Bros as week 50 had
just run.

That's more of a Showa Era trait. Back then you could show civilians getting killed.

One of the old laws of tokusatsu: if you see a dog in an episode made before 2000, it is probably going to die. If it’s Metal Heroes, replace “probably” with ”absolutely.”

To be fair, in Toei Spiderman, a wounded dog fell off a bridge into a river and survived. This is probably why, when the next time the show touched on the dog theme, they immediately exterminated the whole kennel.
But it seems that in Gavan all the dogs remained intact, there they only mocked the rabbits.

Funny you should mention that, Metalder had an episode involving the main character himself having to rescue a trio of puppies and all three of them actually survived the events of said episode.

I've started Shinkenger yesterday, having seen 9 episodes total so far, I'm honestly a bit disappointed considering the high praise this series in particular gets, though I believe I heard that it truly shines when ShinkenGold comes around and I can't say I'. Not enjoying myself, here's hoping the show grows on me

Shinkenger gets its reputation from the last 10-ish episodes, which are A++ Sentai. Almost everything before that ranges from fine to pretty weak. A "skip-to-the-end" or "cherry picking" approach after ShinkenGold's initial round of episodes makes the series better, but Sentai fans are usually completionists. I rarely get much traction with that suggestion. :lol

The action is always top-notch, though, so at least you'll have that to hang your hat on if you choose to plow through the whole thing.

I'm now 30 episodes into Battle Fever J and this show is so much more fun than it had any right to be.

I guess the best way to sum up why to me at least is that Sentai is generally more character driven than story driven, the appeal is the characters rather than what they find themselves in with all the twists and developments of the main story. When compared to like, Kamen Rider anyway.


Also made it to episode 17 yesterday and goddamn Genta is an absolute delight

Awwww yeahhhh!!! :rock:
Suit acted by Jiro freakin Okamoto if I may add aka Kamen Rider Black and RX, Ouja, Leangle, Kintaros to name a few. This I believe was his next Kobayashi-written sentai show since Timeranger where he was the suit actor for Time Fire.

Avatarou Sentai Donbrothers New First Love Hero and Post-Season Review


In preparation for King-Ohger tomorrow, I'm watching the Summer Movies and associated spin-off today!

This will also be my thoughts on Donbrothers overall.

Starting with New First Love Hero, it's pretty much what I'd expect from a Sentai Summer Movie written by Inoue. Jetman didn't have one, so this is the first time seeing something like that. It's ridiculous, but I love it.

Ninpuuki is basically Niram from Geats. He's an eccentric movie director who's all about the "Reality". And honestly, I kind of ended up agreeing with his weird vision. Sonoi and Sononi did a good job portraying the two leads at their most basic. But that's all they were, basic, cliche, too perfect, the kind of 2D performance that Sonoza would rip up.

Whereas, Tarou and Kitou as the two leads? They're terrible actors. But damn, they're amazing to watch and their improvisation is crazy! The way Tarou does all those gestures like he's a kabuki or something. The way Kitou exaggerates her lines so awkwardly. Sonoza makes a great zombie lord as well. I'm not surprised the movie bombed with the test audience in the post-credits, but I can't even be mad that it bombed so spectacularly. If it wasn't canceled, it probably would've become a cult classic and source of memes.

Oh, Kaori's actress is here, giving Tarou and Kitou some corn that may or may not have been grown on Raita's farm! Inoue shows up at the award ceremony as well!

Moving on to the main show, I guess I'll start with the final arc, since I haven't talked about that at all yet.

One of my few complaints about the show has always been the lack of focus on Saruhara, a character with so much potential. So I was actually surprised that he had this little rivalry-turned-friendship with Sonoi in Episode 48.

Those two Blues have an intriguing dynamic. Saruhara asserts his role as the SIC trying to hold these crazy people together in Tarou's absence and doesn't trust these interim Donbrothers to get the job done. While Sonoi feels like he has the closest relationship with Tarou and wants to honor him. They're both proud and stubborn, but they eventually learn to respect and trust each other enough to complete the mission. I appreciated that, with Saruhara finally getting his own bond with a Noto that he wanted. Better late than never.

The Kijino/Miho/Natsumi/Inuzuka/Sononi love triangle is a season highlight for sure. I wasn't sure if Miho was really dead when her body passed through the moon portal, but yeah, looks like she's dead.

After Inuzuka's year-long quest to spring Natsumi from the Jyuto Forest and all his Romeo-like melodramatic lines about how much he loves her and cannot love anybody else ever, it ends in a similar way that Gai/Kaori did, with both parties realizing that Inuzuka's need for secrecy and Natsumi's need for honesty are too much of a barrier for their relationship to survive.

For all Kijino's less-than-heroic inclinations, he did see the error of his ways in the end and try to move on in a healthy way. So, if he does want to accept Natsumi's offer of continuing that dream as a new reality with her, then sure, I'll approve of that ship. Even if illusions are false, the feelings experienced through them can be just as real as anything else.

Overall, I loved watching Donbrothers for year, as it relentlessly subverted and deconstructed all the tropes that are so common to this franchise and delivered on all the exaggerated comedy and suspenseful soap opera drama that makes Inoue such a perpetually polarizing love or hate kind of writer. Tarou/Sonoi, Kijino/Miho, Inuzuka/Natsumi, so many exciting ships that were put to the test of human flaws. I used to suggest Inoue for new Sentai with the expectation that it would never happen, so however this show turned out, I was glad for him to return to the franchise and hope to see him return once more someday.

Now that there's enough entries, here's my first ever Reiwa Sentai Ranking:

1) Zenkaiger
2) Donbrothers
3) Kiramager

I like Kiramager BTW, but seriously, I think Sentai has been super competitive and high quality recently, at least since Ryusoulger. Can King-Ohger full force full power rise to the king of this ranking above Zenkaiger? We'll find out next year!

I'm watching To Qu Ger - Don Bros any way I can so I don't fall too far behind the current series.

I can watch up to Zen Kai presently.

Almost half finished with Kira Mage. (Episode 16)

Deka has delayed this some.

I'm really digging the first episode of King-Ohger.

Wait a minute?
He was the sixth Ranger in both Kobayashi Sentai series he was in. Lel

You wouldn't know it looking at those characters side-by-side, but damn. Talk about having an awesome range.

As soon as Magi gets released I may get it on eBay or Amazon.

Caught up to episode 29, meaning I've seen Juuzo vs Takeru. I still don't get the hype entirely but I can conclude that Shinkenger is indeed as the kids say, pretty good.

Also Ginga Blue in Gingaman might I add. And ToQ6. :lolol

Sadly, I never really could get into Shikenger's overall hype and while the show is pretty decent, I ultimately find it vastly overrated. Then again, some of the issues I might with the show might be partially due to setting my own expectations with Shinkenger being a bit too high and most especially, a very bad set of English subtitles I was unfortunately stuck when I was watching the series through Kissasian at the time. Takeru Shiba/Shinken Red coming across as a massive stick in the mud/uncharismatic bore more than not seriously does not help matters at all.


Anyway, I have watched several more episodes of Battle Fever J and I should be able to finish this series very soon considering I now have ten episodes left to the series and with it, I will officially be halfway through the Super Sentai seasons from the Showa era with Goranger, JAKQ, Sun Vulcan, Goggle V, Changeman and Flashman being the ones that are currently unaccounted for. Although, once I finished BFJ, I'm planning to continue where I left off on Kamen Rider Fourze and finishing that series and maybe start off on watching either Kamen Rider Blade or Flashman or maybe Jiban or even Shaider afterwards. I haven't quite figure that out yet.

Managed to finish Battle Fever J just the other day and I think this series, like Bioman, might officially be among my honorable mentions despite of a couple of major flaws, like the first Miss America not doing much of anything after the first several episodes and its endgame arc is somewhat lackluster, regarding the Super Sentai seasons I have seen so far. I really need to update my series ranking list at some point.

This will probably sound like a very stupid question, but why does 90s Super Sentai and Kamen Rider look like they were filmed in the 70s compared to other 90s Tokusatsu production? Were they still using films when everyone else switched to video?

Yes. Sentai only switched once digital cameras became mainstream

Adding to this they switched to a different film camera it seems when they started working on Boukenger to match the new broadcasting format at the time, but it was Shinkenger where they finally ditched film and went video with the RED1 camera. Shinkenger was also the first sentai show I believe that made use of the on-location audio for scenes like people talking with each other outside. Of course the lines from the MOTW are still done from a studio booth obviously.
That said it is interesting how they stuck with film that long. I guess it was easy for Kamen Rider to switch to video starting with Kuuga since they had a long hiatus period since 1989 so people would be less thrown off with the sudden change in format.

Update

Deka (Episode 13)

I got slowed up some due to watching Indigo League - The Pokemon Water
War.

Watching 5 Man - Deka on Shout Factory DVD which I hope to finish
before the US gets Turbo or Magi.

I finished Shinkenger. Overall, it's ok, I'm kinda disappointed but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun. Next is either Liveman or Magiranger though I don't know which one, either the "Oh man that's our idiot" one or the fucking mpreg episode

As much as I love Magiranger (Kai Ozu for the win), I'd strongly recommend Liveman if you're into dark themes and compelling character arcs. (Besides, you can skip Episode 31 and not miss anything.)

Oh no no no, if I'm watching Liveman, I'm watching the mpreg episode, it is one of the most batshit insane things in this franchise as far as I'm aware and I'm morbidly curious, especially with twitter saying it's both massively progressive and not at the same time.

Here I am, trying something new…

Androzani’s Countdown to Once and Always

As for why this feature is in the Sentai thread, it’s because of what content I’m watching to prepare myself.

Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: 10 Years After.

And yes, I did watch Hurricaneger’s 10YA movie. My opinion of it, as given in my watch thread, is “I liked the ideas, didn’t like the execution”. As for this movie, I can laud it for actually going the route of a continuation, rather than sequel to the main plot of the series. Unresolved threads, such as the Sen/Umeko and Boss/Swan ships, get some degree of closure, with the former moving from “couple” to ”fianc?/fianc?e”, which leads into the later Space Squad movies. And it’s also the one that introduced some of the attributes that get criticised in the Gokaiger 10YA (and to a lesser extent, the Go-Onger 10YA), so I?m going to analyse them.

The fake up: Now these 10YA V-Cons have a reputation for having the protagonists fake a breakdown in their friendship to fool the villains. While Hurricaneger’s is mostly free of this (the only difference is that there, the break up is genuine, with the plot focusing on them rebuilding their fractured relationship), this is only half an example. Only Ban, Hoji and Jasmine are faking it, with Sen and Umeko being locked out of the loop as to the plan the others are formulating (I wasn?t sure on whether Tetsu was in on it, but I’m assuming he was). And even those two are in the midst of something of a falling out prior to the aforementioned engagement.

The Twist Villains played by notable stars: Pretty much every later movie will introduce some seemingly apathetic human who turns out to be the antagonist(s) of the instalment. And this movie has Joe the Haze, Asumu and BoukenBlue’s cat girlfriend as its antagonists.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsdTTYSW...jpg&name=large

Of course, aside from this being the first time it was done (meaning the audience likely weren’t expecting a twist), all three of them are more known for heroic roles (Komaya’s VA work as Dareptor and Bujin Gaim notwithstanding), so it does come off as more of a surprise. And prior to the reveal, the film does a fairly good job of hiding all three of their identities (with the one non-human among them having both a different head and a disguised voice prior to the reveal). And until the reveal of the Mirage Dimension, there?s no actual hint as to how they could’ve possibly made it look like Boss was guilty, so there is a legitimate mystery.

The call backs:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsdTTYVX...jpg&name=large

So yeah, all of these movies have more than few seemingly superfluous call backs to specific episodes and moments in the original series. I?ll concede that point.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FsdTTYRX...jpg&name=large

But then again, these movies are meant to appeal to the die hard fans more than they are the new kids (I doubt a reference to breast feeding would fly in a regular episode). And it does provide a few cool moments (who didn?t want to see a mecha battle with Abrera?). And here, they’re far and few between the world building provided (Such as the fact that due to time dilation, what seems like a ten second judgement on Earth is actually an 8 month long trial for the intergalactic court). And for the most part, the plot is more an episode of the show on a bigger budget.

So overall, I’m going to give this a B+. Not anything to write home about, but still worth recommending if you?re a fan of Dekaranger. I?ll see you in a week for Go-Onger 10 Years Grand Prix.

I recommend Liveman as well.

For me personally, the problem is not so much in the pregnancy itself (crazy filler episode, what's so amazing about that?), but in the fact that this is almost the only characteristic of one of the characters. That is, in fact, the guy was remembered only as that pregnant dude.

Yeah, I honestly remember very little about those two guys outside of the core 3, so I guess it's nice that one of them could be remembered for something.

Didn't this movie also borrow stuff from SPD or am I thinking of something else?

This got an audible "The WHAT?!" out of me. Oh tokusatsu, such a special form of television.