Misao is a lovable loser.
Genta is just plain annoying.

That is sensible. :lol The way I look at it, the Gokaigers are all so cool and on top of things, a sixth ranger is like a bonus, so it's okay that Gai isn't experienced.

But I also see him differently from you, it seems he is portrayed as being much less cool than the other Gokaigers, he is a goof who is often made fun of a bit. But he does have cool stuff.

Speaking of Gokaiger, I'm on episode 46 at the moment, and gonna watch that Vs Gavan movie for the first time too!

It may smooth out as the series goes on, but the thing is, but the way it is portrayed right now, the remaining Gokaigers had to do a lot of adventuring before they reached their current level of competence, while Gai becomes a good fighter right off the bat, so much that it seems a bit unfair (although I'll admit that based on his backstory, he really is probably the most heroic). Contrast that with Doc, who is shown to struggle a lot with the physical side of things, but makes it up with his ingenuity. So basically if there was an arc in which Gai has to struggle a lot to get the basic stuff right, I wouldn't have any issues with it.

Let me praise again the way the character of Doc is handled, because I think it's excellent. The guy is consistently shown as a slightly less competent as a fighter than other Gokaigers, but the script constantly finds ways to make him useful in other ways. That's good writing! Yes, Doc is my bae, why you're asking :lol.

I believe statistically speaking Luka is the one true bae, but you may be right.

Luka assures that adult people attracted to women have an... um, a different reaction to the show than the kids do :lol. I'll stop before I start sounding like a creep :lol.

And so, around half a year later, and with more Gekiranger than was initially expected, I've finally worked my way up to watching the show I've been meaning to get around to for over a half a decade at this point. I'm five episodes into Shinkenger and, in summary,

I think I'm in love.

THIS is the Kobayashi I know and adore. It's good to know how far she came in the decade since Gingaman. Not even a quarter of the way through the series and it has pretty much the best characterization I've seen for a Sentai team. How do you even do that?

It's really crazy how much is going on here with these guys already. They have a dynamic that's different from most shows, basically being a bunch of strangers whose teamwork is about what you'd realistically expect from five people who barely know each other and lead by a guy who actively keeps his distance emotionally. And as individuals, they're way more layered than I'm used to from this franchise. Takeru especially has got some serious depth going on compared to the usual Red standbys of "screaming idiot" and "inspiring leader". He's clearly trying to be the latter, but isn't very good at it due to his own flaws and insecurities. It's amazing. This is the least "team" Sentai team ever and I love it.

I could go on like this for a while but I need to save some praise for the rest of the show. It's amazingly fun. And while it's rather embarrassing that I got into this fandom when I did and yet have seen more of this show's insanely watered down American counterpart than Shinkenger itself, waiting this long got me spiffy Over-Time subs in HD and everything, so there. I'm basically on cloud nine right now. Absolutely pumped to watch more of this series.

Megaranger just got announced for a DVD releae in August, so just wait until then to watch it. I'd say watch Shinkenger sooner rather than later because if you wait until you have watched the superior shows, Shinkenger will suck.

He's already watched Mega :lol

But wait, I've already seen Gekiranger! Noooooooooooooo...

I guess all that raving I just did about how much I'm enjoying Shinkenger was just a fluke or something then. :p

Go-Busters 48

Did Escape just skin a pupper? That was quite rude of her.

Also, progression of events this arc has been fantastic. Stuff with the villains in particular has been phenomenal. Enter is finally at a point where I find myself agreeing with claims of him being one of the best villains in Sentai (not that that means anything coming from me since the only other one I've seen is Zyuohger and the bad guys in that one aren't exactly...competition). And stuff with Escape was suitably disturbing towards the end. Some pretty great stuff here.

Things are ramping up for a great conclusion. I'm really glad I decided to interrupt my Rider watching to finally give this one a watch after years of having it on my backlog. Saying it's my favorite sentai doesn't count for much, so instead I'll say it's become one of my favorite toku shows overall. Gonna be sad to run out of episodes.