I just finished maskman. The show starts off really good but to me personally really starts to drag on, there are a few memorable scenes later on but not much...

Don't get me wrong though, it's still enjoyable, but it has so much potential

Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if that was par for the course when it comes to older Sentai like this. I haven't seen a lot of pre-90s Tokusatsu, I've only seen Liveman at this point, but of the ones I have seen, they tend to have really good story concepts but just kind of begin to fall flat when it comes to actually *telling* that story. I don't usually watch Sentai for its storyline though, especially one as old as Maskman, so I don't mind. When it comes to these older Tokusatsu, I usually watch them because either the concept sounded interesting, I felt like watching a time capsule of a show that does a bunch of things that would never be done these days for whatever reason, or because I though the main characters were cute... That last one is, like, 60% of the reason I chose to watch Maskaman honestly.

That being said, I just finished episode 12 of Maskman and, as bad as this may sound, I was kind of laughing the entire time in the beginning. It was hilarious how little those ninjas cared about the lives of the ordinary civilians. They were just throwing around explosive Shurikens, crashing into buildings and wrecking everything inside, and just didn't give a damn that they were causing complete and utter chaos everywhere they went. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little disappointed when Haruka said she'd show them how a real ninja fights and just kind of drove the enemy away in a big truck. Oh well, still a pretty fun episode for reasons I don't think the writers intended.

I've come to realize that the differences between 80s and 90s Sentai are like the differences between Silver Age DC and Silver Age Marvel. Like DC, the 80s series were more concerned with individual episode plots and giving the heroes different abilities to distinquish themselves rather than having any sort of character growth. On the other hand, 90s Sentai was like Marvel in the way that characterization mattered over episodic plots, so series became more character oriented as they were the driving force for the series as a whole.

I absolutely did not get that from Jetman. Maybe it's cause I only saw half of it, but I couldn't stand that filler hell

Did not get what? The characterization? Did you miss everything that went on with the Gai, Kaori, and Ryu love triangle?

However, I'm also thinking more of the shows that Sugimura did and the ones that followed him (Car-Time).

That's all there was alongside "Kaori is a spoiled brat", "Gai's a womanizing asshole" "Ryu's there", "The yellow ranger's a country bumpkin" and "Blue ranger's greedy" as far as I could tell then. In my opinion, when the show is halfway through and none of the main cast have proven themselves likeable, it fails

Fixed that for you

What about the plotline with Maria and Ryua? When Radiguet found he enjoyed being a human and it made him go crazy? Tranza being so upset that he was mocked for being a kid that he became an adult?

I thought the cast was very likable as they were quite realistic.

I fully agree with Kaori being a spoiled brat, but that is just rich people for you.

The plotline with Maria and Ryu didn't really go anyway. Plus Radiguet only had 1 episode of that? That hadn't happened with Tranza by that point
I wouldn't call it whining, as it's understandable. Though I got really pissed off about Ryu telling Kaori "Look, I'm still in grief over the death of my girlfriend I had to witness" only for her to go "Then I'll flirt EVEN MOAR"

Maskman Episode 16 done. Going into this show, I expected Akira to be my favorite character but, after watching this episode, he's tied with Kenta for that honor. Kenta's had probably as many focus episodes at Takeru at this point and its really made me grow to like his character. While I never disliked him at any point, I've really been enjoying his focus episodes and his interactions with the other characters. I think the only reason I like Akira more at this point is because characters like him tend to be my favorite in a team. Probably because of how fun they tend to be...