[ZeoRangerV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Lucha

Zeo, first off, I'm a big fan of your reviews -- they're some of the most cogent Sentai analyses on the internet. Even when we don't see eye-to-eye, I know your opinions will be well-reasoned.

Wow, thank you! That really means a lot. I really enjoy reading your posts too. Even when we disagree it's always interesting to hear detailed explanations of why people feel the way they do about something.

Quote:

So I'm not surprised that you've foregrounded this point. I've been struggling to identify exactly where larger fandom and I diverge in our assessment of Ninninger, and I keep coming back to the same thing. Namely, Ninninger's lackadaisical approach to its overarching plot, best represented by its villains' half-cooked schemes and seemingly boring motivations. I may not mind as much as most that the villains' plan is very generic because I'm enjoying the character development of the heroes so much (I would never have thought that Takaharu and Kinji, characters I loathed when they were initially introduced, would develop into two of my favorites on the show). This would be far from the first Sentai with half-baked villains, but I do agree that this element is tangibly holding the show back.

There are little bits here and there that I'm also not a fan of (Takaharu being one example, but I am happy to see he's been somewhat scaled back in the last few months) but yeah the lacklustre villain stuff is definitely my main issue.

Quote:

That said, I think Kyuuemon is shaping up to be an interesting antagonist, with more complex motives than the show originally let on. I'm half expecting the show to pull a Snape on us and reveal that he's been pretending to be part of the Kibaoni clan this whole time to undermine them from within, sacrificing his own happiness along the way. But obviously that's just idle speculation at this point.)

Kyuuemon has been an absolute joy, but even there I feel like the show isn't exploring it enough. He's clearly got his own motives which I'm happy not knowing now and waiting to see play out, but the other villains (I can't even remember their names, which goes to show how little impact either have had on me) don't feel like they're doing anything about it. Last week had that little moment where Kyuuemon was confronted about it, but it's mostly seemed to be waved off. Right now it feels like they should be considering him a bigger threat than the Ninningers themselves, but I don't feel like they even care.

Quote:

At the end of the day, it's unlikely Ninninger will rank among my top 5 favorite Sentai shows, but I can already safely say it's far from the weakest I've seen. It's impossible for me to rank it below Maskman (with it's complete lack of anything innovative, distinct, or remotely fun), Ohranger (with its horrifically ill-conceived comedy, completely one-dimensional characters, and artless toy-shilling that sinks the show despite a handful of tremendous episodes), Goseiger (which has exactly 10 watchable episodes in its run, most of which happen at the very end of the show), or Go-Busters (which is not objectively terrible but is so often tonally inconsistent and directionless that it's more frustrating to watch than anything). Compared to those shows, Ninninger at least has a spirit, a pulse... a reckless, punkish liveliness that makes it feel vital in a way that some series just don't.

Bah...Go-Busters was fantastic
But yes I get what you mean. Ninninger definitely has a certain energy about it that embodies Super Sentai, I just don't think that it's being presented in a way that's to my tastes. One thing I will say about the show is that even though I don't think it's that great it's holding its cards so close to its chest in terms of overall story I feel I have to watch it through to the end just to get a proper opinion on it.