No.1 Sentai Gozyuger Episode 1: "Savior Number One!" Discussion
 

A straggler named Hoeru Tono witnesses a monster attack and hears talk of a special ring that can grant wishes.

Haruhi Iuchi as a completely different character?!

Weird ass first episode. In a good way tough, that’s much more enjoyable than last year’s by-the-book Sentai.

I looked. Well, Gozyuger is trying his best to be unusual and surprising. There are villains in human form, transformation after the battle of mechs, and an unusual main character. In fact, Hoeru is a typical cool eccentric, only instead of the excessive self-confidence usual for such MCs, he has the complete opposite. That is, unlike Tsukasa, when the world tells Hoeru that he is a loser, Hoeru believes the world.
But, as he correctly noted, Tega Sword Hoeru is only at the beginning of his journey and the wolf cub has yet to become a leader and understand where his pack is and where to lead it. Speaking about the episode as a whole, it was bright, fun and dynamic. I’ll watch the story with the ridiculous robber himself more than once. However, I cannot agree with the previous comment from Kiwami, because I liked this pilot episode much less than Mira’s escape from the wedding last year. Too much is crammed into 23 minutes, which gives the impression of a dish cooked blindfolded. The experiment is interesting, but the result is far from perfect. Perhaps the local Kuwagata-Ohger (especially considering that his actor confuses the situation even more) and some details of Hoer's life should have been saved for later. However, I believe that Gozyuger will develop a smoother narrative going forward and I'm interested in learning more about Hoeru and the other rangers.Although, due to the strong similarity with Donbrothers and Decade, there are fears that we will never get all the answers in this show. In any case, I continue to watch with interest. Although next week I’ll probably miss the whole episode.
P.S. Poor Bundorio! He only came to life last week and then dies again.
P.P.S. It's a shame that the Sentai and Rider crossovers are on hiatus. GozyuWolf and Gavv are very similar and at the same time radically different, so their meeting and interaction would be very interesting.

At the same time, Tsutsumi, like Taiya, talks about the importance of achieving a dream. I'm sure this is just for the first episode, but I'm wondering what other interesting actor/senshi combinations this show will feature.

Why does everything need to be answered in the first episode? Sure the show doesn't explain everything in it but it presents all these bits and bobs as kind of an enticing way to get you interested.

Yes, I?m not asking that the show answer all the questions. It just seemed to me that in this case, it was not sure which of its ideas would attract the largest number of viewers, so it decided to show a little of everything. And where previous shows showed a small part of the big picture, Gozyuger provides a bunch of puzzle pieces. Yes, it's intriguing, but for me it's more of a trailer approach than a pilot episode. There are also fears that further novelty and uniqueness will disappear, but the mess will remain. It's not that something like this hasn't happened before. I prefer to prepare for the worst so that I will be less upset if my fears are confirmed and more happy if it turns out to be wrong.
P.S. And without going too deep into criticism, I?ll note that it would be cool if Ryu Saito (Boon Black) played the local Gao Red.

Not a bad start.

And it's a different take on the whole former rangers appearing so I welcome it. :rock:
Also, seeing how they don't have to reprise their role, I'm excited at what could happen throughout this year. Heck, if they can even get non-sentai alumni on board, more fun for me. Imagine Murakami who played Kusaka as a guest character who transforms as Red Hawk.

Also, this is what I wanted to add before someone else wrote it ;) Hoeru is actually a deconstruction of the artistic image of the “lone wolf”. On the one hand, he fully corresponds to him: an invincible outsider, living by his own rules and not getting along well with the world around him. But on the other hand, a small amendment is made, namely that wolves are pack animals and the life of a lone wolf is the aimless existence of a loser, reduced only to the search for food. Which Hoeru directly confirms in the show! Very clever. I wonder if we should expect a similar approach to other team members? I'm sure there must be symbolism in the black unicorn.

I think there is a high probability of seeing Murakami, considering that this is Inouye's show, albeit with an amendment.

I get what you mean now. It's certainly a valid fear especially since I think the only other Sentai to have this many factions fighting was Boukenger.

I'm not quite feeling it. Boonboom aside (Since I skipped it), it lacked any real hook compared to other recent Sentai I've watched. The idea of having sentai alum turn into other rangers is novel, but that aside, there's not much that really caught me.
People are glazing the action scenes when, aside from the fighting game homage, it wasn't anything different compared to other series.

And, personally speaking, Sentai seriously needs to stop with it's anniversaries. It was Zenkaiger's weakest aspect, it bogged down DonBros' first quarter, and the Kyoryuger anniversary in the middle of Kingohger literally made me drop the show for a few months.

Get Ready For The No.1 Battle!

Just like Komagine Kiita.

I think this sounds more like Inui Takumi, who once said, (paraphrasing) "It's just my personality. I can't help it." In other words, Hoeru wishes to be closer to others and be someone they can depend on, but his personality gets him labeled an outcast, even when he literally saves his employer's business from a robber. The kind of person who will take blame for a petty crime they didn't commit, since outcasts don't have any reputation to lose anyway.

Perhaps the biggest sign of Hoeru's misunderstood heroism is his line to Tega Sword, "I don't care about saving the world, except that I still owe 250 yen!" From this, we can see that he's a man who values fairness above all else, yet he's treated unfairly by society. But Tsutsumi actually treated him like a human being, so Hoeru feels like he absolutely cannot allow anything to happen to the world until he at least repays the favor, which is an honorable trait.

While Tsutsumi declares he wants to become the No.1 Musician, Hoeru's No.1 Ambition is unknown to him, yet Tega Sword assures that he has a big one hidden deep inside his heart, which will become clear as he advances through the No.1 Battle. So I guess Tega Sword has extrasensory perception to detect even dormant No.1 Ambitions, which is enough to qualify Hoeru.

Regardless of which is better, it's pretty unhelpful to only compliment the premiere of a new show by insulting its predecessor. Gozyuger deserves to be judged by its own merits and flaws.

The main difference is that Tsutsumi eagerly shares his dream in a way that is clear to understand without Hoeru having to ask. Even if you ask Taiya, he'll spin you so many handle metaphors before you even get close to the answer.

We both know that Murakami would be more comfortable as an eagle-themed Ranger instead.

The weird part for me was Gozyu Wolf dodging bullets inside the bell, like, it was so dark and fast that I couldn't keep up.

Generally, I agree that it's overdone, but I think Toei are justified in wanting to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Super Sentai. It's mostly those individual anniversaries that can feel disruptive. Honestly, I'm not even sure what anniversary Donbrothers was supposed to be celebrating?

The Donbrothers didn't celebrate the anniversary. The show just inherited the anniversary aspect as a not-quite-sequel to Zenkaiger, along with the gears and Kaito.

The year is 2011. Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger opens with the Sentai sacrificing their powers in battle to stop a great evil, scattered to the cosmos to be used by others.

The year is 2021. Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger opens with the Sentai sacrificing their power in battle against a great evil, scattered to the cosmos to be used by others.

The year is 2025. Etc etc you get the point.

But yeah, this was a good opener, but I'm not smitten immediately? Maybe I am a little put off by the social media tone on this episode immediately switching to yet more "Superhero vs Superhero (Japan)" posturing, which is cringe beyond belief, but even trying to be objective about the episode, it's not doing anything super outstanding, either in premise (see above) or character (it's nice Hoero isn't a chirpy optimist, but otherwise this is a standard call to adventure story). Also a shame that we see nothing from the other four Sentai members all episode. Or maybe I just haven't watched enough wrestling / fighting games in my time.

I'll be back next week, see how it goes, but hey, I had a good time!

Even better, have him as either Red Flash or Don Momotaro, both from shows Inoue worked on as well. :lolol

For some reason, the not-quite-sequel aspect does make it feel like the Kamen Rider Agito to Zenkaiger's Kamen Rider Kuuga sort of.

Random crackpot theory:

Episode 0 mentions that history restarted itself after Tega Sword purges the Calamity. What if Tsutsumi is indeed an incarnation of Taiya due to this so called reset?

I've been toying with that idea as well, actually. Would be crazy if these silver Tega Sword users later regain the memories of their past lives. :rock:

Just had a thought that the cracked piggy bank at the end could be a reference to how a pig is the natural prey of a wolf. Hoeru also ate sausage that he took as bonus pay.

Avatar Change was one of my favorite anniversary gimmicks, but not only did the show forget about them, it seems wasted on the 47th Sentai. Even more ironic is that Zenkaiger and Donbrothers hardly interact in their crossover and we still know basically nothing about Master Kaito and likely never will.

That's not really what happened though. The Legendary Sentai were just doing their own things when suddenly their worlds got Toziru-ed. The Goshikidas and Goldtwoikars thought they looked cool and made powers based on them. While Gokaiger and Donbrothers are limited to the Sentai powers, Zenkaiger can also use the powers of their users, like Gaku's intelligence or Natsumi's super dismantling. Zenkaiger is OP.

Or how about Zenkaizer, since the Zyuohger Gear was the first ever Gear to be used in the premiere of Zenkaiger. Both shows are written by Komura.

Then Hoeru should demand his 250 yen back. Taiya doesn't need it.

It would be confusing, as why would 50 heroes from 50 years of Sentai be in the same world anyway, after Zenkaiger established that their worlds are separate? Continuity is hard enough to follow. I hope these No.1 Rangers are merely doppelgangers like they appear to be. As someone who actually likes Tsutsumi, I would be disappointed if he suddenly became Taiya.

Man, this was all over the place tonally but I had a lot of fun!

Curious as to how these different universes work. Seems very ambitious but if they play their cards right, they might have something special here.

i have a question why there is one poor on the rate result?

That works too. :rock:

Feels like they did the new red a disservice by casting Haruhi Iuchi in the opening episode. Taiga was one of the best red heroes in years because Iuchi has both charisma and acting chops. The new guy already has to play a character whose personality doesn't make a ton of sense, and now they've got the previous year's star acting circles around him. Oof.

And then King-Ohger went and established that some of them exist in the same universe. Which, IIRC, Kyuranger and Ninninger had already done.

Plus, due to the nature of the episode, Hoeru has to win the audience's attention on his own, without the support of the team. So the emphasis is on the unusualness and secrets of the lore of the Gozyuger world.