Let's Watch Wednesdays Week 3 Mahou Sentai Magiranger Discussion
 

Well, they glossed over the resolution of that episode 6 cliffhanger mighty quickly, didn't they? Nice callback to the seemingly randomly magic spray hand-off, though. They also seem to be an awfully chatty bunch when they fight. I know we're supposed to be seeing character growth in some of these episodes, but I just don't feel we've been given an opportunity to get invested in the characters. At this point they still seem to feel more like archetypes than individuals.

Urara's flip-flopping throughout episode 8 seemed to have little point, but the brutal honesty pay off at the end was fairly amusing. That dance number. Well, I don't even know what to say about that. :lol

I have to admit, Fire Kaiser is pretty awesome though. The different scales of their robot forms is pretty neat, too. I forgot to mention that last time. Overall, I'm still enjoying the show (though not as much as Hurricanger, which I'm also watching for the first time now).

Only watched 7 for now, but I will say I like having Magiking's power removed. Few Super Sentai shows these days give us the opportunity to see the component mecha in action after the first one or two episodes.

Wow, uh, Stage 7 is all over the place.

Before I get negative, I'll start with what I liked. I definitely liked the meat of this episode -- Tsubasa visiting Kai's dream world. I always like that story type. It usually allows a show to explore characters and conflicts in a more impressionistic way. (I once wrote at Teen Titans Animated spec script featuring a very similar plot.) So far these two are the least annoying Magirangers -- so I'm happy to see an episode dedicated to their relationship. For the most part, it worked. I just wish it wasn't so rushed.

Now for the bad. Literally everything else was annoying.

The supply-gathering mission was a complete waste of time, it forced everyone to do something obnoxious, and it distracted from what should have been the episode's A-Story (i.e., the conflict between Kai and Tsubasa). Had we not spent so much time with mindless shenanigans, we could have explored the reasons why Tsubasa and Kai aren't so close. Instead of rushing through the dreamworld stuff, we could have spent some time inside Kai's head, exploring who he is as a character.

I'm really hating both of the girls on this show. After 7 episodes, they're still mindless ciphers. In addition, Makito is an idiot. And Mandora Boy is the most annoying sentai character this side of Gekiranger's evil flying microphone insect thing.

Obviously, Wolzard, Vancuria, and Branken are cool, but the only Magirangers I don't want to exorcise from this show are Tsubasa and Kai. Hopefully, the others can win me over soon or I don't know how much more of this show I can take.


UPDATE:

Just watched Stage 8.

And I can officially say this show hates women. It starts with the girls putting on make up and flying their broom hovercraft to an audition that appears to be taking place in an abandoned Bluth Company housing development.

During said audition, Houka tells the panel that her interests are Homemaking and Flower Arrangement. She then gives the director a lap dance. No, not really, but that's about the level of respect for women this show has. They're all shallow fame whores who lie and cheat to become idols -- and who love to clean the house in their spare time.

And then there's the new spell of the week. A spell only the girls get. One that, I guess, gives everyone the power to perform a perfectly choreographed dance number? And somehow that dancing kills the monster. Whatever. But listen -- if Kai gets an awesome new fire power every other episode, the girls deserve a bit more than an impromptu musical routine-manifestation ability.

Finally, the show ends with Urara serving the boys fresh smoothie drinks, as though she's their fucking maid. Because of course it does.

I know Sentai doesn't have a history of well developed female characters, but come on Magiranger. Get it together.


Other Notes:

So Urara can't see her own future. That's funny cause I swear she saw herself get turned into a statue not two episodes ago. The writers would probably just laugh it off and joke that she was on her period. Because they are the worst.

Wolzard's growth spell is becoming a real problem. It does absolutely nothing to address the classic, "well, why didn't he just cast the growth spell immediately?" question inherent in these situations. I find that lazy.

So, that soccer ball kick finisher is here to stay, huh? Well, I do admit its cooler with a ball of fire than it was as a giant pink soccer ball.

Well I know I'm a little late is already Friday where I'm at so I'll be quick this was more character development this week. Though I am getting used to the idea that major plot point are being reveled in the mech battles. I feel that Stage 9 dropped another hint to who Wolzard (though I know because i watched Power Ranger and have been on the wiki i will not Spoil it until the show does). the big this the show has done has established the character types of each of the siblings by now though I still think green and yellow need more development it is still early in there series heck the 6th ranger hasn't be revealed yet so we have time.

Episode 7 de gozarimasu desu

The last couple days were a little busy, so I just got around to starting this week's episodes this morning de gozarimasu desu. Episode 7 was... okay, I guess de gozarimasu desu? The action was good (although the team's fight banter sucks) and some of the stuff with Kai and Tsubasa (the only likable character so far) was nice, too de gozarimasu desu. But dear god, this show IS de gozarimasu desu. NOT de gozarimasu desu. FUNNY de gozarimasu desu. Everything it attempts to pass off as humor falls flat the hell on its face and just becomes extremely annoying and stupid de gozarimasu desu. And are we going to have a dead mom moment in every episode de gozarimasu desu? Even Family Circus limits the amount of time that its dead relatives show up de gozarimasu desu.

I'm not looking forward to the next episode de gozarimasu desu. The preview for it looks terrible de gozarimasu desu.

Also, TV-Nihon de gozarimasu desu? If you're going to slap a string of Japanese at the end of all of Mandora Boy's fucking sentences, EXPLAIN WHAT THE HELL IT MEANS DE GOZARIMASU DESU!!

(and pro tip from someone who doesn't speak Japanese: there's no R in "gozaimasu")

I am loathe to defend TV Nihon, but if you listen, he is saying "gozarimasu." As I understand it, it's used to make Mandora Boy sound like he's from fantasy olden-times.

I was kinda wondering whether to drop this show, after all six episodes have been pretty rubbish and reading this thread has certainly made up my mind. One day, I will see a LWW to the end.

I try not to listen when that thing talks. :p

Edit: Episode 8 de gozarimasu desu (which I may have fastforwarded through most of because it was terrible)

We could have been watching Garo.

I hope you're happy with yourselves.

7 was rather underwhelming, the dream sequence was incredibly short, and despite technically being a Tsubasa episode, we saw little ot nothing about him, besides his potion mixing skills.

8 was interesting, I like the fact that each episode focuses on two Magirangers at once, works well with the family motif, and for once Kai wasn't the main focus, which was great.

9 had bottles in ships, horses, mechs... I didn't pay much attention to be honest.

That always was one of the greatest strengths of Magiranger. Each episode has a primary character and a secondary one, and it develops both of them as well as the relationship between them. This results in a show that has the characters work better as a team than stand out as individuals.

It's very clever, as you said not only it develops them as individuals but also as a group.
While it bothered me that there were so many episodes at the start that focused on Kai, I'm looking forward to other shared episodes.

Honestly speaking, compared to some other Super Sentai Reds, I think Kai gets less focus overall. It's still more than the other Magirangers, but I think he blends in with the Ozus more than he stands out.

That sounds good, it's just that he had too many in a row, right at the start. :lol

I noticed that too on my rewatch. :lol

Oh another thing about Magiranger for everyone watching. I think the first arc is generally the least interesting of the three, after which it gets pretty interesting. Your mileage may vary however.

:p

And that's good to hear too.

Yeah, the Branken arc of the show is rather slow. Memmy's is when the show really starts building momentum before it launches us into the greatness that is the Infershia Gods arc.

Episode 7
So Tsubasa is good at mixing magic? It looked like he was just doing typical witch/wizard stuff, he was simply brewing a spell. Not quite sure why they can't just call it that. I'd comment on the "won't wake up due to wandering soul" part, but hey, isn't that rhyme/prayer about keeping your soul protected? Maybe souls play an important part in dreams.

LMFAO at Makito having to sing to the bananas. Maybe he should sing to Kaito and make him not so grumpy. They need unclean water? Ewwwwwwwwwww.

So the music playing while Tsubasa brews the potion. It uh, sounds a little familiar.

Make your selves up some gas masks guys? Probably would help you fight against a monster who uses spores as a weapon.

This dream world has more freaking rules then a god damn Nightmare On Elm Street movie.

Kai's dream world is kinda bleak. It's just a desert. Kid has no imagination.

Dammit, I wanted some crazy dream logic shit in that fight. Tsubasa you unimaginative as well. Both of you dream FAIL!

When the bloody deuce did Urara get that potion? Did she get it earlier? Or did it just appear because plot? Seriously though how the heck did she get it? And how was it failed? Yeah it didn't wake Kai up but it isn't like the thing didn't work at all upon first use as it did cause something. It be a failure if it did nothing at all. So Urara you are *dinging noise* completely stupid.

Okay that song they played during the grunt fight? Yeah it was awesome.

This final attack is kinda boring to me, and sort of lame. I mean it's cool to see them all work together to pull it off. But it's still just kicking a ball at a monster. Just sort of lackluster.

This episode was pretty meh to me. Actually no it was just boring. They had all this potential with the whole entering a dream story, but they did nothing good with it. That should have been the whole episode, the rangers going into Kai's dream and confronting Wolzord and getting a pep talk from Ka-san. Not to mention all of the cool stuff they could have done in the dream world. But nope. We get a barren dream world, a pretty silly Hades Beast, and just all around boringness.

Tsubasa handed the potion off to Urara about five minutes in, after he gets hit in the head with the book. It's actually pretty subtle considering everything else going on in the scene and I'm surprised they did anything with it.

http://shuangxi-in-spring.com/Images/potion-handoff.png

Episode 9 de gozarimasu desu yo

Well, that sure was an episode of a tv show.

I guess it was kind of cool to see them get MagiKing back, but overall it was pretty meh. Another episode that revolves around five minutes of Kai waving around a toy cell phone and shouting gibberish until it does something. At least we didn't have to sit through a focus episode on Makito and his total inability to act (so not looking forward to episode 10).

It's been a long time since I watched Mystic Force and I'd kind of forgotten how totally impotent Branken/whatever-his-US-name-was is as a villain. Sits there, gets angry, does nothing - its like he modeled his career after Megatron from Transformers RiD. Can't wait for him to get killed off so I can once again forget he ever existed.

Last note for the week: I read somewhere recently that the family part of Magiranger was designed as a response to Japan's declining birth rate. The idea was that kids would see what it's like having a big family and pester mom and dad for siblings, I guess. Personally, after watching nine episodes of these characters I have never been happier to be an only child.

Episode 8
Well, that is as Hades Beats for you. He makes you dance and then he eats you. He's his own personal dinner theater.

Houka's a slob apparently. You're a magician girl, use that magic of yours and clean up! Of course this is made all the more ironic when we find out i her audition that her hobbies are housework and arrangement. So either Houka is the laziest house worker ever, or she lied through her teeth.

Though I'm not going to lie, she looked gooooood in the cloak and witch hat.

Yup, dirty liar.

I really like this Hades Beast. I like his design and I just love how he makes people dance. Something so charming about that. It's also pretty fun that when he runs away, they play the sound of a tape being fast forwarded really fast.

Jeez. If this is what happens when Urara is complimented, I don't think I wanna know what would happen if she was complimented while in Magi Dragon or Magi King. You say "You fight well" and next thing you know she could wipe out half the city or something.

It's okay to go to an audition. As long as it's not being held by Takashi Miike. Then you may want to think twice about going.

QUICK! To the Magimobile!

He's a maniac, maniac on the floor! And he's dancing like he's never danced beforeee! He's a maniac, maniac on the floor! And he's dancing like he's never danced beforeee!

Oh God I love this dance part. It may be weird and completely sort of unneeded, but I love it so.

:lolol OMG Urara you killed me with your thing about Kai and magazines.

So this episode was pretty entertaining. But that's pretty much it's only great factor. The fight scenes are almost nonexistent considering how short they are. Nothing important to the story was added or revealed. It's just an episode meant for entertainment. And in that frame of mind, it's a great episode.

But this highlights my thoughts on the series so far; the episodes seem to be completely hit or miss. One can be excellent and another can be slow and boring. To be honest I'm actually getting bored with Magiranger. I've wanted to watch it for a while now, and it's great to be watching more Sentai. But I'm just not getting into it like some of the other shows. I really really hope it picks up soon because it's one I want to watch fully. But right now, I don't think I'd regret dropping it.

STAGE 9

Ugh. I like this episode.

Damnit, Magiranger. You're taking my on a rollercoaster here. One episode I want to drop you for good, the next I'm really involved.

Make up your mind! Are you a good show or a bad show? I hope like hell I'm not this conflicted over the whole series.

It's a good show. Just need to get passed the opening act so the good stuff can start.

Oh, cool. So the show gets markedly better? Around when does the good stuff start?

Why do the japanese love that joke? I'll never understand.:lol

Once Braken is gone and Memmy and Hikaru join the show is when the show starts to get good IMO.

The number being?

Just did a quick search. Looks like Branken is with us until episode 18.

o_o

I think I may be rejoining you all at the 19 mark :lol

I can't remember the exact episode numbers off the top of my head, but I want to see Branken gets taken out around 12 or 13. Memmy comes in the episode after that and then Hikaru joins an episode or two later.

Edit: Woops, looks like my memory is rustier than I thought :lol. Though I could have sworn Branken dies in the early teens.

I'll stick around, but I'm going to be less conservative with my fast-forwarding and mid-episode skippage.

I hear that. I'm already planning to zip through the Makito episode that opens up this week's set.

Fell behind but slowly catching up. Not much to say other than Fire Kaiser was cool. And the even the Troll realizes the hat tip is what makes MagiKing great :lol.