[Locke]

Gokaiger 24. That ending...

This episode had a lot of energy, but it was just a sort of dumber version of the Carranger episode, without RedRacer's charisma. Marvelous sorta picks up the slack, in his place, but a lot of what makes Marvelous so great is the way a franchise known for its goofballness carefully plays his humour in a pretty wry manner.

I think part of the reason both Joe and Marvelous click with me on so many levels is they are able to have rich characterisation, and convey a wide range of emotions without ever having to get their point across by screaming and jumping up and down. That is probably a huge part of why I love Alata so much as well.

I LOVE dry humour, but the reason dry humour works is the context. The reason Haruto for example is one of my favourite Riders is between all the goofiness, it was Haruto's offhand critical one liners at all the shit going on around him that made him so funny. It wouldn't have worked nearly as well if those single lines were supposed to hold the entire episode up like they were doing with Marvelous and this episode here.

But then this show has been amazingly hit and miss when it comes to comedy for me. There haven't been a lot of episodes I haven't enjoyed, but comedy episodes are the ones I usually take the least away from. Which I guess is ironic as probably the best tribute episode - the other weak part of the show for me - was one that was entirely focused on comedy.

Is this the first time they've used the Time Ranger suits, bar Time Fire? I guess Time Ranger isn't as huge for Japan as Time Force is for our fandom. Also lining up a really flashy Final Wave next to Gold Mode only further highlights how utterly awful it is.