I hated Ryukendo. I think I made it through 2 episodes before I gave up on it. The cops were just over the top dumb.

You know, there was a time when I was Ninninger's biggest defender on this board. I really loved the show for most of its run.

I didn't really turn on it until the late 30s (episodes, that is), but when I did, I turned hard. I felt like the show became super repetitive, and the overarching completely fell apart during its end run.

At the end of the day, Ninninger is far from the worst Sentai show I've seen. There's still a lot of great stuff going on, and I'd recommend it to anyone who likes goofy-style Sentai shows and who doesn't require a satisfying overarching plot.

I think I've mentioned this before but I actually had a very similar experience to yours but with the key difference that I felt the last chunk of the show was actually quite good and it brought my opinion back up quite a bit.

A big part of the fun of this whole thing is sort of reconnecting with how much I loved it at first (I mean I still do love it but for those first couple months I was infatuated, and that was coming off of ToQger, which ended up being one of my favorites).

One big revelation I've already had is to think of Ninninger as being ~character-driven~ above all else. It doesn't have the most engaging plot to be sure, but that's not where its focus lies. Also it's really funny and the action is great, which helps.

So what happens when you don't like most of the characters?

You're probably f***ed? I mean I think everyone in Ninninger was great, and they only get better as the show goes on, but if you don't like them that's a pretty big hump to get over. You know, like, for comparison, imagine (although I don't think you have to) watching Kamen Rider Faiz but not liking melodrama.

Although if we are talking specifically about you, didn't you say you only watched 3 episodes? Unless you actively hated the cast I think you might be surprised how much more fleshed out they get as the show goes on. I hate to be the guy saying "oh, just watch half the show" like it's no big deal but I think Ninninger takes a bit to really get into the swing of things. Even where I am in the rewatch right now is already way better than the first couple episodes, in my opinion.

No, I'm not referring to myself. I'm making a generalized question. If someone doesn't like the characters, why should they basically watch more of the show until it "Gets good?"

I tend to just stop watching it, especially if it is the main cast. That alone is the main reason I dropped Deka hard and fast.

Well on a general level, they probably shouldn't. Might as well watch something that gets your attention right away, right?

But depending on the person, and their specific problems, they might find the show deals with those issues and end up really liking it. I know you're a big Blade fan, so you probably understand that at least a bit.

Specifically with Ninninger, Takaharu's stupidity, for example, rapidly becomes better handled and by around halfway through is straight-up downplayed. If someone liked elements of Ninninger but quit early on because they couldn't handle him, it could easily be worth it to stick around. For comparison, if someone hated it because the Plot moved at a snail's pace, it won't do anything for them even later on.

I remember you saying that you lost interest toward the middle. I find that interesting, as I thought the middle portion of the show was by far its best stretch. I loved how Sugimura-esque it felt. Eager to see how you respond to the middle stretch in your rewatch.

There are certainly some great characters. Kasumi is particularly excellent -- she's easily my all-time favorite Pink and one of my top-10 favorite Sentai heroes generally. I also think it's interesting to make their leader a dummy fueled purely by optimistic bravado (yes, I'm a Bakaharu fan).

That said, we differ in our assessment of the action. While I agree that there are some well executed individual sequences, especially in the show's early giant-scale fights (also of note, the human-scale action in the Chozetsu upgrade episodes), in general Ninninger is where I started to see Hirofumi Fukuzawa's limitations as an action director.

Fukuzawa is fantastic at choreographing stunts, but his cinematic chops are not up to snuff. If you compare his camera setups to those of any primary action director who has preceded him, they're lacking in movement, creativity, compelling shot composition, drama, and tension. His action scenes have a distinct, repetitive lack of personality -- they're like visual oatmeal. This is a huge bummer, as interesting action is one of the main things that draws me to tokusatsu.

I'm happy to report that Zyuohger has brought with it an improvement in Nakazawa's style. That could be chalked up to new technologies, like camera drones, being used. It could also be due to an increased budget (this is an anniversary show, after all) that allows him to shoot in more varied locations. Whatever the reason, it's an improvement I welcome.

Well it was kind of a gradual thing, I still liked the stuff immediately after Chouzetsu debuted but my interest level started dropping fast, hitting its lowest after Gekiatsu Dai-Oh showed up. I'm pretty eager to get there myself.

Kasumi is actually my least favorite member of the team. :lol

She was a great character and all, but she never really did anything for me personally. Strangely enough, Takaharu has been the standout to me rewatching the show so far, which is kind of surprising. I always liked him, but for whatever reason I've been enjoying him a lot more this time around. Though Kinji is still the real Star in my book. :p

Well I don't really attach names to this stuff myself so all I can say here is that the Ninningers flip around and do cool sword stuff and it all looks great to me. I think the simple camera work is fine for showing what's happening clearly, even if it isn't exciting in of itself. Like, the great choreography more than makes up for the straightforward way it's filmed in my mind.