[Battlizer]

Finished Gekiranger. It was a pretty fun time. It's almost surprising that they put the finishing between Jan and Suguu/Dan in the beginning of the episode, but that didn't do anything to deter the effect of it all. This whole fight almost would've broken Jan probably, and it did until he finally put an end to Dan's misery.

Rio's grown too strong for his old rival Gou, though I wonder what would've happened if Gou hadn't shown him his new technique beforehand by killing pig guy. At any rate it's up to Jan to defeat Rio once and for all. IT's surprisingly not too long of a fight imo, but both fighters get the shit kicked out of them with Rio ultimately losing....until Rio turns into an uncontrollable GekiJyuken beast.

Which turned out to be Long's plan. Have Rio be defeated and turn giant just like any regular old monster, except Rio'll be mindless and tear apart the world. Might've succeeded if not for Mele calming Rio down. Speaking of Long, we get his big schemes revealed....and they go way back. Everything in Rio's life is one big scheme puppeteered by Long and so was the destruction of Jan's village. All because Long was some dragon god bored because of his immortality. This may just be the Tv-Nihon translation, but I agree with Jan'sassessment of, "That's bullshit!"

Long ends up capturing Mele once he recognizes that she is what ties Rio to his human side. It was awesome seeing the Gekirangers and Rin Jyuken users finally working together while actually on the same side for once.It was proceeded by an even better scene of the RinJtuken users rejecting Gen Jyuken, thus ruining Long's plan.

That said....I do dislike how the last three episodes played out in regards to Long. Long's defeated! Yeah, let's celebr-What? Oh...no, Long's back. Let's fight him again...The whole immortality thing is a problem. I dunnohow I would've handled these episodes...but wish they woulda handled theLong aspect of the last three differently.

The second to last episode was pretty good with the Rin Jyuken users turning fully good. There were some funny moments in the beginning with Rio and MEle interacting with everyone in SCRTC. If they had stuck around longer, they probably would've fit the Gekirangers like a glove, but....Retsu and Ran DO have a point. Because of their actions a lot of people have died. Longs' manipulation only went so far.

So Rio and Mele's decision to be judged...fatally for their actions sort of came as a surprise to me. They decided to go out together. Dunno if Retsu or Ran would've went through it, if Long hadn't shown up again. Both of the Rin Jyuken users sacrifice was kind of awesome though. Mele's death scene was especially sad. I liked the quiet scene of ghost Rio appearing in his rainy,somber flashback until Mele shows up and walks him towards the light...too bad the sacrifice didn't amount to much because of Long's immortality.

The final episode was okay. I really liked the ending. The way Long was defeated was fine. It was the only thing they could do. Kinda dislike how only Jan, Ran, and Retsu could do it, bu whatever. The ending is what I'd expect of them to go on doing after the series ended, though I guess Ken is forced to pay off his douching around previously by working under Elehung, haha.

I like how they treat the sphere Long's sealed in like utter shit though. I can honestly say he deserves no less. The series as a whole was pretty cool tough. It hits several chords, I wouldn't think a Sentai series would hit previously. Also, I always liked things with a Chinese martial arts theme, and this was a whole series of it! In terms of story flow, it was way different than what I expected Sentai to take half the time, which was a good surprise.

I think I'll be taking a break form Sentai for abit (though probably not) to watch Hibiki and Kamen Rider Black, but when I return, I'll check out Carranger (So fat) and Kakuranger which I'm watching solely because that theme is 80's/90's as hell. I fully expect the closing credits to include the the rangers breakdancing to Fresh Prince and DJ Jazz Jeff on the Tokyo City Streets.