[Fish Sandwich]

So, if you'll all forgive the self-indulgent preamble, lately I've had a million ideas floating around in my head for like, all sorts of different shows I'd love to do some big (re)watch thread about, because writing about tokusatsu is clearly something I enjoy doing. But as fun as that process is for me, doing a whole thread like that the way I want to involves a level of commitment that still feels pretty intimidating to me right now. Fortunately, writing so glowingly about Kiramager over the past year or so in particular caused to me have the realization that basically most of what I do on this site amounts to cheerleading, and that led to a bit of breakthrough – a way to get back to my roots, as it were.

You see, with Zenkaiger on the air, I thought it'd be neat to do something to join in on the anniversary festivities, and if having my own thread is too scary, what better time to show one of my favorite threads on the forum some love, good old "What are you watching (Sentai edition)"? I mean, I'm not sure how weird it is to attach sentimental value to a forum thread, but when it comes to gushing about tokusatsu I'm watching, this place is like my training grounds, man. My home turf!

It's crazy to think, but it's quickly coming up on five years since I made the decision to start rewatching Ninninger on one of my usual fickle whims. I didn't even think I'd do the whole show, but I found so much passion talking about it, I ended up spending months and months aftewards working my way through a bunch of Sentai I'd always been meaning to get around to, and talking about them too. It cemented Ninninger as a legitimate favorite of mine, it grew my affection for the franchise as a whole, and it helped me gain confidence when it came to putting my thoughts together about things I enjoy. It's a period I look back on quite fondly, so with that spirit in mind, I've come up with an idea, that, in the tradition of Ninnin Rewatch!, comes with the embarrassing name...

~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~

To explain as succinctly as I can, the idea is that for each new episode of Zenkaiger, I want to pop in here to talk about the premiere episode of a Sentai series, working my way all the way back up to Zenkaiger itself by the time it reaches its conclusion. And I mean just talk about it. An active part of my goal here, and why I say I'm getting back to my roots, is to keep these fairly surface-level, and if I'm real lucky, short. (Already failing that one!) A little chat each week that could be about any number of things – from discovering classics for the first time all the way to reminiscing about shows I've already seen. It's the "Zenkai Tour" because I'm not planning to stay in any one of all these worlds for long, so to speak, which means this is less zenryoku zenkai, and more like... 小力紹介, I guess? Did I just get myself a tagline for this thing?

Episode 1 – Himitsu Sentai Goranger



Gosh, Shoutarou Ishinomori is so cool. That's kinda all I can even think about watching this. Like, this is the absolute roots of Super Sentai, and before it was its own franchise, Goranger was but one (well, five) in a long line of awesome heroes created by him, and there's kind of a magic to thinking of Goranger as part of that family, rather than the one it created for itself. Like, even the designs of the Gorangers themselves sit very comfortably alongside guys like Rider #1 and Kikaider, both because they have such similar aesthetics, and because those aesthetics are so freakin' good.

But then, there's the actual episode to talk about, which I enjoyed quite a lot. I could easily see myself sitting down for 80+ episodes of this, as ironic as that is to say when the whole reason I'm doing this is to avoid watching any more right now. But this is a pretty strong first episode that's positively dripping with 70's toku style. Things used to be way more hardcore back in the day, I tell ya'! These kids today get their powers as part of some fun adventure narrative where most human casualties are merely implied, but not the Gorangers! Their entire origin story is that their entire organization gets gunned down except for them, which makes up the entire first fourth or so of the episode. Like, it's literally just watching the Gorangers-to-be individually lose their comrades while barely escaping with their own lives. It's honestly a heck of a way to bring the group together, brutally establishing the threat posed by the Black Cross Army and laying down some nice pathos for the heroes with this shared tragedy they're trying to avenge.

Not that it dwells on that too much, mind you, as the show quickly skips to a fun sequence of Akaranger calling the already established members together for their first real taste of action. I love how apparent it is what the trends at the time were they wanted to chase? There's always that aspect to tokusatsu of trying to capture something kids admire as cool, and for the Secret Sentai, it's clear that spies were apparently the thing every kid wanted to be in 1975. It's stuff like the whole routine of Akaranger handing out cards telling the group where to meet, instead of just like, saying where they're going to meet. Or how they've each got a piece of their emblem they have to place into a wall to unlock the door to their awesome secret base. Like, I can just picture the target audience watching this at the time and genuinely thinking this is the kind of career they want, you know? If you've gotta work for an organization, why not make it a cool organization, right? It's not hard to see why this series was a big hit, is what I'm saying.

(Also, speaking of that emblem, I only just realized it's both "S" for Sentai and a 5. I'm probably not smart enough to join a cool organization!)

It's a simple but strong start that even did a solid job packing in some personality for the characters. It's nice to be able to say I've now seen Kiranger asking for curry rice, and seeing Hiroshi Miyauchi playing Hiroshi Miyauchi is always a treat. He's an awesome dude contributing to making this an awesome team, and that's really my main takeaway from this episode – these guys are awesome and I would not be opposed to seeing more of them. Hard to do better with a first episode than that!