I'm nearly finished with Go Busters. After Kyo Ryu is done it will be bye Power Rangers.

Hasbro is rumored to break from Toei so if this is the case I'm jumping ship on Power Rangers now.

Back in the day Maskman was the Showa Sentai I decided I wanted to watch at some point, because...

...

uh... I actually don't remember. I know I liked the suits, I guess? Might have been because no-one talked about or remembered it either, but that goes for at least half of the pre-Jetman seasons! As-is I still don't know that much about it aside from X1 Mask being a thing later and there being very vague ninja and spiritual energy themes to it. But, hey, that's just another point in its favour! I know basically nothing about it aside from that and now that there's a romance in the first episode, so I can eventually jump in fresh-faced and ready for surprises.

I'd believe it! They're pretty slick looking. Another case like Sun Vulcan where I think it'd even be easy to mistake them for being more recent designs than they are, if that makes any sense.

I could definitely kinda see it, yeah! Something that always struck me was the helmet design being so unique and cool, to the point that somewhere in my brain the thought "yeah, they deserve the name Maskman" popped up :lol

Since people are talking about Maskman and nobody's brought this up, I'm just going to leave this here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80VljmzTtdI
Not going to lie, this video is the only reason I decided to watch Maskman.

Unfortunately, it's all kind of downhill after the premiere, IMO.

On the plus side, Igam is an interesting villain, there's one cool arc with Blue Mask, and there's a great stand-alone Pink Mask focus ep. But overall it's easily the most generic Sentai I've ever seen. Which isn't bad, especially if one were to watch it early on in their Sentai explorations. But if you've seen enough of these shows, you know how much more interesting the ideas it tackles can be. And even though the premiere is a pretty fresh take on an intro ep, most of the rest of the show feels like Sentai on autopilot. Maskman is really where it starts to become clear that Soda is a bit burnt out on Sentai.

TBH, the show soured me on watching another Soda-helmed series for years. I'm glad I eventually dug back into his catalogue because the man was brimming with innovative ideas and enthusiasm. It's just not really apparent in Maskman.

Speaking of which, just remembered that Machiko Soga had a guest role in Maskman as the mother of Baraba, one of the Tube lieutenants.

I've seen Shinken - Gokai Ranger ( Samurai - Super Mega Force) so I'm now watching Kyo Ryu (Dino Charge) and Ninja Ranger (Ninja Steel) for the back half of Saban Era II.

Also Go Bisters (Beast Morphers) and Ryu Soul Ranger ( Dino Fury) from the Hasbro Era.

The Mask in Maskman I think is meant to describe them being MASKED in aura power when transformed. Personal headcanon though so grain of salt. Yeah the suits are ambiguous yet well-designed for sure. It definitely feels like a step-up from the previous seasons of the same decade. And checking it again Kageyama really did the theme song justice.

Order has been placed for Kira Mage Ranger this morning. (English subs.)

So in June I will be starting the 2020 episodes.

I had wanted to keep going after the Shout Factory cut off at Hurri.

Thanks to Brazil and Malaysian releases I've been able to catch up
the newer episodes in the franchise. (All sets have English subs.)