Let's Watch Wednesdays Week 16 Gekiranger 46-49 Discussion
 

Long's terrible history has been revealed,an immortal monster who has manipulated events since before the series began!

Rio, shaken to the core, struggles to find purpose in his life.

If an enemy is truly immortal how can he be defeated?

2 schools must unite as one.

Heroes must die.

So Let's Watch Gekiranger 46-49!

Don't forget that next week is Gekiranger Vs. Go-Onger!

I love Long as a villain. He did all this out of boredom. Not anger, not a misguided attempt to be just, but just boredom.
It is rather weak, don't get me wrong, but just the very nature of his reasoning is what I enjoy. Being a comic super hero fan, I'm so used to immortal beings wanting to rule the universe for shits and giggles, seeing someone want to hit the reset button just to see what happens is refreshing to me.

GekiGreen! GekiBlack! Yes!

And Rio and Mele die! Nooo! Ignoring that they get brought back for Go-On vs. Geki, and then somehow again in Gokaiger.

And so Gekiranger comes to an end. My thoughts on this spectacular quartet of episodes:

46: Ah, episode 46. I liked to call this episode "I FUCKING CALLED IT!" when it first aired back in 08. For the longest time things hadn't been adding up in my head, a variable was missing, As the mysteries kept growing, Long fell into my suspicion, especially after Rageku's reaction to him shortly before he killed her. Back in those days I was a Toku Greenhorn so never in my wildest dreams did I expect such a consummate schemer like Long to exist in Super Sentai. So when this episode happened, I felt vindicated. Especially so since I had a buddy who doubted my suspicions of Long ever since I started having them. Moving on from my nostalgia anecdote, I liked this episode. Bombshells dropping all around as Long reveals and revels in his handiwork to alleviate his boredom. A rather weak motivation but what else can you expect for an immortal villain? The best part of the whole episode IMO was when he learn Rio what Rio's attachment really is. It was not the fated showdown, but Mele. To learn that he truly cares for her was very touching

47. Then we move into the aftermath episode. Seeing Rio broken in the aftermath of all that just happen was reasonable, but tough. The way Jan broke through to him was really good. We also got some growth on Mele's part as she finally recognized the Gekirangers instead of calling them losers. The teamwork in the episode was superb. Mele hitting Sanyo's pressure points disabling his ability to use gravity attacks and then proceeding to team up with Gekirangers to take him down even though. Jan and Rio defeating Long together (with an impressive solo use of the Geki Bazooka). And finally the SaiDai GekiRinTouja, nuff said. One last little note is that Bae is free from being trapped in Mele due to her expelling the Gengi inside of her. While that is cool, in hindsight it's rather ominously convenient..

48: I loved the scene before the opening credits. It shows what could have been. I understood where Ran and Retsu were coming from. Rio and Mele had terrorized humanity many times and just to sweep that under the rug would tough. At the same time, what the hell guys. Why did you have to be such killjoys after such a great moment of unity? We also have a great moment between Jan and Rio as he brings the curtain down on RinJyuDen by burning it to the ground. The trial was good quick fight, but there is a rather telling moment when Rio and Mele don't bother to block or repel the attacks Ran and Retsu were going to throw at them. But before the techniques can hit, Long and Sanyo show up again, revealing they are immortal. And then Long reveals his true form, the long lost brother of King Ghidorah :lolol. I remember all those years ago my heart skipped a beat when Mele pushed them out of the way of Long and then was chomped. It happened again. And then after Rio goes out with a blaze of glory in an attempt to kill Long after giving the Jan, Ran, and Retsu a final Ringi. They wanted to go out on their own terms so that RinJyuKen can fade from history. Topped off with the scene of them going on to the afterlife...good stuff. Finally Long mocks their sacrifices, he's going to pay for that.

49. While Gou and Ken try to hold off Long, the triangle gets a last minute training session from three unexpected tutors, the spirits of the Kenma. I like this, as it truly unifies JyuKen after the schism many years ago. And rather fitting the bracelet stolen in the first episode becomes a key to victory in the finale. I enjoyed that even the Kensei got inolved to give the Gekirangers more time. And when Jan, Ran, and Retsu show up, the fight that follows is great. Long who has been nearly unstoppable after taking Sanyo back into his body is being repeled and beaten down effortlessly by them. WITHOUT Kageki. Then to top it all off, they use the DoKokuGan technique on Long sealing the smug bastard who kept bragging about his immortality into a ball the size of a billiard ball. And it gets used as a billiard ball :lol. This is how you deal with such a smug villain. When they are at their height of arrogance, you drag them all the way down and humiliate them greatly. The epilogue was nice. Amusing to see Janisms has become part of JyuKen teachings. Finally to wrap things up, we have Jan pass the torch to Sosuke.

This show had a great ending. It was all suitably epic and there were some awesome fight scenes. Long's ultimate defeat at the hands of the Gekirangers using Rin Jyuken was fantastic.

Also, Mele was hot. :cry

Mele's death actually surprised me on my first viewing. I was expecting some kind of "Combine your Geki with my Rinki and we'll revive her" or some BS like that, but nope. Mele didn't make it. When I first saw it, my eyes widened like crazy.

I especially liked that the final battle was done through Juken, not a Geki variation like KaGeki, but pure Juken. It made the unification thing so much more meaningful (And it made the climactic fight feel a lot more genuine, with their own ability allowing them to move like this, not the KaGeki jet boosters :p).

Also, Long appeared in Super Hero Taisen.
Why, of all the villain costumes you could have used, you'd use his? It opens up a massive plot hole...

It's adorable that you think the makers of Super Hero Taisen care about plot or continuity.

Not really getting that either. I mean, I guess Long kinda briefly died before Sanyo vomited him up. Maybe that counts enough for them to at least use the his transformeed state? To Toei that is. But if he had gone MugenRyuu there would have been a serious problem IMO. That being said this is Gekiranger 46-49. Let's not devolve into talking about SHT.

She'll be hot again next week no worries :)

Love love love love love these final four episodes. It actually worked out perfectly that these 4 are what's left. Long goes down as my most absolutely hated sentai villain, ever. He's deliciously evil and I hate him, but it makes him and his plan compelling. The sheer magnitude of his plan, the length of time, the manipulation is so brilliant. He just left that one loose end with Jan. He didn't count on the Pandas raising him :lol

The final battles are intensely amazing. The first finale is great with all 7 together fighting Sanyo and Long, culminating in the grand SaiDai GekiRinTouja battle. I still think Retsu and Ran needed to get the sticks out of their asses about fighting Rio and Mele. Yes they did bad things but only after being influenced and coerced to do so through Long's machinations. Like Jan said, Geki Green & Geki Black.

And the final battle on foot between the core 3 and Long was genius. Sealing him into a teeny tiney ball for all eternity is hilarious. But will see how long "eternity" is next week ;)

...*Sighs* Dammit.

Anyway, Long hits that level of villain that I hate, but I don't outright dislike. Far too many villains I feel more sympathetic or enthralled by rather than disdain like I should (Rio being one of those examples, even before all the Long back story played in), or I just dislike the villain for being dull and a generic card carrying villain (Like Maku).

Long I hate just because of how utterly despicable he is, but I still like him from a writing standpoint, despite being relatively weak, character wise.

Yeah, Long is a very hateable villian. For all that he did and his reasoning for doing it, there is no factor that makes him a vlillian like Gaiarc Ministers where you feel sorry for them or Enter where his preformance in his plan enthralls you. Just hatred for him, which makes the final episode a good cartharsis after all that is happened.

Long is the absolute worst villain imaginable. Which makes him the best villain possible. There is no redemption. no remorse, nothing but a plan and by the end rage. He makes you as the viewer hate him purely and in turn reinforces who the heroes are and that what they're doing is right. He's definitely up at near top of the list for most maniacal villains ever.

And Matrixbeast I don't know if you keep up with Akibaranger but have you heard about the awesome Geki love the last 2 episodes? Like the evil 3rd Gouraiger Tentoraiger, being destroyed but then rebuilt by General Tsu as the 4th Kenma?! And then in the following episode they try to summon their penultimate powers and Malsheena steals them, turning each power into a sentai villain. One of which is Long's kaijin form. The others being Yami No Yaiba and Vancuria :lol

If I recall, one of Akiba Red's role calls in Season 1 said that his favorite fight was Rio vs. Jan, too?
What is with all this Geki love but not including them in the series proper? *Sighs*

I guess I'll break my vow (Not watching Akiba until Geki shows up) to check all this out, now.

Who knows, in a possible Season 3 I could see Geki being one series for them to tribute. But the littles hints that get dropped are awesome. And Nobuo has a different shoutout to various sentai heroes actors and fights with like every roll call, Geki is not his only love :lol Though Akiba Yellow does cosplay rather nicely as Mele in season 1.

The last 2 episodes have been filled with Geki awesome though. When General Tsu rebuilds Tento Raiger he decides to make him a kenma and call him Mutou Mushiten. And he gets the suit actor who played nearly all the famous villains of the 80's and 90's to motion capture all his best moves. That way in delusion world, this new Kenma can access ALL the most powerful moves of some of the most powerful generals. He even gets to have an honorably epic sunset death!

Because the characters in Akibaranger are the perfect people to give love to Gekiranger IMO. Come on possible season three, champion Gekiranger. You know you want to~.

This series is freaking amazing.Now it's my all time favorite.These last four episodes just...WOW.When Rio rescues Mele at RinJyuDen and then brings her into that hug...just...just...MAN.The Kenma giving the Gekirangers their power.SAIDAIGEKIRINTOUJA!!!!Just a great finale all around.

I was super sad to see Mele go,but it's all right.A few years from then,she'll be reincarnated in the city of Fuuto and become a curator for Sonozaki's museum.And she'll oddly speak about Ryubee the same way she did for Rio.What an odd reincarnation.

Also I now know what that ball around Jan's neck in Gokaiger was about.He still carries Long around with him to this very day,nice continuity.

I can't wait for Go-On vs Geki.I need to see Rio and Mele again one more time.And I can't wait to see what we watch on here next.I hope it's something just as good as Gekiranger.

*Fist pump* Yes!

Go-On vs. Geki is fun, and seeing Rio and Mele again is a plus for that movie.
However, it makes it very odd considering they return for the Legend war in Gosei vs. Gokai.

He also said that he liked the Osso! GekiChopper insert song most out of the songs in Gekiranger.

I reasoned it out in my head that they were going to help their comrades regardless of the priced they paid in Go-On vs. Geki.

And the Legend War was a massive team-up with tons of other dead characters too, like Dragon Ranger. When heroes are needed the rules of life and death are suspended. Black Condor pretty much confirms it since he left heaven as he pleased to help the Gokaigers even after the Legend War.

I was so with Jan. Geki Black and Geki Green. That is what I wanted to see...I wanted them to get outfits and whole nine yards. Sadly I already knew that wasn't gonna happen because of how they showed up in GoKaiger and 199 Heroes. I would have loved nothing more then for Mele to have been the first female Sentai Green.

I love the ending to GekiRanger. I love how Rio and Mele sacrificed themselves, but my problem is how they lower that with the crossover movie just for fanservice (which they did with the DekavsAba movie for Killer too). Anyway, that is the movie and those really aren't part of continuity. THe final battle with Long is awesome and it is nice to see a villain that was just a straight up villain without some tragic backstory to it. Don't get me wrong, I love it when they can make villains have nicely done backstories, as it gives more to their character, but there are times I just want a good old fashioned down right evil villain who is evil just to be evil.

And why exactly aren't they continuity? There's literally nothing in that film that contradicts either series at all. It's an official epilogue to Gekiranger and takes place in the earlier part of Go-Onger. I don't know where this idea of VS movies never being cannon comes from but I've heard plenty of people say it. As far as I'm concerned they're cannon unless something featured there or in the respective shows could contradict it's existence.

And I don't really feel it ruins the death when the characters return from the after life to help out the other heroes knowing they have to stay dead after. Abare Killer had to go back to hell (at the time being it's most powerful denizen) and as I recall Rio and Mele had to as well. It's just a by product of the plot but it's always cool to see dead heroes return even temporarily.

It doesn't explain where the hell they came from in 199 Heroes, though, especially since Geki Vs. Go-On explicitly states The technique used to revive them only works once.

Like, I have no problem with them returning, because I love them, but I don't like how Gokai handled the dead characters. "They can just come back to life because shut up they can now."

I take it in situations like that it's because the collected power of all sentai can make miracles happen. Like Summoning all the mecha near the end of the movie, or the Super Sentai Bazooka. You can't keep a good hero down when the world needs them :D

Because all of the Sentai shows are in separate universes. Only the cross over movies and then Gokaiger place them in one universe. Gokaiger was only doing it for the anniversary, but outside of that, they are not one universe.

Aside from Sun Vulcan and Denjiman.

And aside from explaining why no one from a new show references past teams there's no real problem here is there? You're just taking the position that they're all separate because you want to, but they don't have to be. Nothing explicitly says they can't be, and the movies are totally cannon with their shows. This isn't Kamen Rider where half the movies don't work.

Even in the Gaoranger movie they had a massive team up to establish a shared continuity, albeit a loose one. Previous heroes of various colors from many generations teaming up with the current ones, even explaining the history of how sentai in the past have triumphed to their successors. One show has a crossover with the previous one, which then has a crossover with the next, then that one with the next, all of them are connected via those crossovers. There's no reason why they can't be.

Except Gokaiger's crossovers are constantly contradicting the ending, making it hard to take them as canon.

Contradicting the ending of what? Some characters being there who were dead at one point? Again I just see that as the same type of "hero miracle" situation that allows teams to use each others power in team ups. Like the Lights of Ginga being used by GoGoV or the Goseigers having Super Shinkenger cards so that there could be a full team of Super Shinkengers, or the Gaoranger/Hurricanger movie where their mecha could literally combine.

Having some dead guys like Rio, Mele, Black Condor, Dragon Ranger, Abare Killer, Time Fire, etc appear for crossovers doesn't seem that illogical to me. After Shurikenger died at the end of Hurricanger he quite literally just showed up in the Gao/Huri vs movie and was okay. Black Condor came from heaven to help the Gokaigers because he felt like it. Hell in Gaoranger Yellow Blue Black and White died horrible deaths in front of Red and Silver. And were only revived because Gao God let them face a series of challenges on the other side. We can apply the logic that something similar happened to allow the dead senshi to return for the Legend War. Or that because the world needed them they were given free passes to help defend it.

I wasn't talking about the users' status of living or dead this time around.

>Ends a series with all the Ranger Keys returned to their original users, including those of deceased characters
>Gokai changes like mad in post-series movies.

And then they tried to explain Gai getting a whooping 5 keys meant they could change into every team ever again.

But they did explain that and you just referenced it. They had him go around and collect the keys because their arsenal was severely limited without them. Collecting "5 keys" may not have looked like much but all he had to do was put the key chest in Gozyujin and toss the keys in there. The ones he threw to them were just the ones they needed at that time. Their buckles link to the chest would let them access all the others. You don't need to see all 200 of them to believe he had them all do you? :lol

Since Gozyujin needs TimeFire's key, and the actions of the Gokaigers in that movie, yeah, I kind of needed to see Gai do a bit more than just show up with the plot saying "Oh, yeah. He totally got everyone's keys." :p

Nope. Gozyujin is Timerangers grand power. Time Fires' key is only need to summon it, not operate it :p

Given that I don't see aliens living amongst the people or a giant base that looks like a dog sitting around, I don't see anything to believe they are in the same universe. That's like saying the Final Fantasy games are all connected in the same universe.

Oh, and I'm pretty sure Japan would be in one giant pile of rubble had the series been all in the same universe.

The very same key that was returned in the finale.
And unlike other teams, he can't just walk up and ask for it back.
*Coughs*

Unless they let him have it back. After all he received it from the spirit of Time Fire along with his other 2 primary keys in a dream/afterlife. I'd say he could get them any time he needs via that type of connection. But that's pure speculation.

The problem is that the keys aren't normally tangible items. They're the powers themselves. It's why the keys vanished when the Hurricangers and Goseigers briefly got their powers back.
That would mean that the Timerangers don't have TimeFire's key just sitting around, because TimeFire's powers are linked to TimeFire himself.

I guess Gai could just ask for it again in a dream or something, but that kind of kills the symbolism of returning the power just to go "Hey...Could I borrow that again for a little bit?"

Yeah but the Hurricangers and Goseigers stole their keys back form the Gokaigers and "absorbed" the power again. And you're right Time Fire's power would be linked to him specifically, hence my "he gets it in a dream" scenario. And I don't think it kills the symbolism. They beat the bad guys and left Earth, leaving the powers of it's heroes behind. Upon being completely defeated by the Zangyack remnants and knowing they'd return to Earth they needed the powers again. I'm sure Earths' heroes are more than happy to oblige this time, especially the old ones :lol Though for once it does beg the question, how the hell did he get them from the likes of Dragon Ranger Rio and Mele :lol

Another question is what does he think of Rio and Mele?
Assuming he knows about Super Sentai through a shared universe, where would he find out about Rio and Mele? They were considered villains in Gekiranger until the last 5 episodes, they didn't formally join up with the Gekirangers until the final 3 episodes, and they weren't present for the Legend War proper (They were there, but not in the big gathering).

So, wouldn't Gai still consider Rio and Mele villains?

Probably not. Being the fan that he is, and seeing as apparently Sentai knowledge is common at least to him, he knows. I'm sure he knows all about their heroic sacrifices and brief return in VS. He knows about how some of the Jetman members married off with each other and live normal lives and they disbanded before he was even born.