[Monsoon]

If this is TL;DR, I understand and am not offended. I'm feeling wordy today, I guess.

I'm currently in the middle stages of watching Jetman, Dekaranger, and Boukenger. Enjoying all three, but I'm less than 25 episodes into any of them. Will be at least two weeks before I actually knock one of those out, but so far my favorite of the three is Dekaranger. The cast is growing on me, and I love the show's setup and gimmicks.

This week I also watched the first 2 episodes of several different series: Maskman, Liveman, Kakuranger, Megaranger, Magiranger, and Ninninger.

TWO EPISODE IMPRESSIONS:

Liveman was probably the most promising the bunch. Four impactful murders and at least one pair of jilted / separated lovers to set up the initial conflict in the first two episodes. Holy crap. Suits look good and the basic foundation of the show is solid. Penciling this one in to be my next "viewing project" after I make more progress in other Super Sentai shows.

I like Maskman's basic martial arts influence, which reminds me of Dairanger and Gekiranger (both of which I loved), but I'm less sold on it than Liveman. The team being fully-formed at the start makes it feel like I missed five episodes. I dig the villains, though, and I've barely seen the team in combat. Might watch more of this one later.

I enjoyed what I saw of Kakuranger. The action looks great for its era of Super Sentai and the team seems promising. I'm going to buy the Kakuranger DVD set when Shout! Media releases it later this year.

Megaranger feels like it's influenced by late-90s' concepts of what cyberspace and future technology should look like, which is hilarious. Seemed okay, but I'm not going out of my way to watch more of it.

I didn't expect to like Magiranger as much as I did. The fights are extra-gimmicky and there seems to be even more wire work than average for Super Sentai, but the characters seem okay so far. Totally sold on MagiKing, not sold on the heroes' goofy capes. Might continue with this one later, but it's not a high priority.

Ninninger seemed, uh, a little scattered. I think the swords and special attacks look dope. The mecha is weird but sorta fun with its unrelated themes. The characters are all annoying and I don't think their attitudes don't really jive with the urgency of the story. Whatever. Will only continue with this one if I hear a bunch of recommendations for it (which I haven't).