[Gold Ninja Drive]

Honestly, it's been years since I've last watched Gokaiger, and I've still barely scratched the surface of watching the series before it. I can only remember bits and pieces of it at this point, and most of those memories started resurfacing as I read through other people's replies. But I think it still has a place in my heart to this day because, much like Kurona, it was my introduction to not only Super Sentai, but tokusatsu as a whole.

I may have missed many elements, past-sentai related or not, but I don't remember ever feeling lost while watching. The tributes didn't feel like tacked on fluff and the transformations never really felt forced or pandering, they felt like natural progressions of the story of the Gokaigers as they learned about the people of Earth. Whenever they did a full team transformation, I would look at them fight and think "so this is how that team fought in their series?". It got me interested in each team as they appeared, not just with the suits and flashy effects, but the story of each team (even with spoilers. I'm not that much of a "NO SPOILER AT ALL" kind of person). And its not like when an episode focused on a main character that the anniversary elements were thrown out. Often, they would use the past powers, i think, to emphasize the character's growth and show their bond with the others. Heck, I still use the ending theme to remember the names/order of past series.

Not to mention while I often have trouble remembering names, real or otherwise, I still remember not only the characters' names (Marvelous, Joe, Luka, Doc, Ahim, Gai), but what they were like in their series. I don't think I'm any kind of authority on character writing, but if someone as forgetful as me can still remember things like how Doc was originally just a one-time hire but turned into Marv, Joe, and Luka's clutzy nanny because he cleaned their pigsty of a ship, then they're probably pretty well-written characters.