[EpsilonX]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kamen Rider Lucha

I'm so glad to see that you're enjoying Jetman as much as you are. It's really one of the most unique (and, by far, my favorite) sentai out there.

The thing is that... Inoue is one of the best writers to have ever graced Sentai, full stop. His eye for structure, character, drama, tension, and most impressively, escalation of emotional stakes, are unmatched by anyone other than Yasuko Kobayashi, and his willingness to break with convention -- while still respecting said convention -- is truly commendable. He's had some strange hiccups in his career, but even the shows that are the most derided (e.g., Kiva) are spectacularly well-structured, even if the extraneous worldbuilding details don't always make a ton of sense (which I know drives a lot of people crazy, but I generally think the vagary adds to his series' uncanny vibe). All writers have their quirky habits, especially ones who are as prolific as Inoue is, but I truly believe that most people who dunk on Inoue don't really have much of an understanding or appreciation for what he does so well, nor do they have much of an understanding of the complexities of real life.

You have a lot of truly, truly excellent storytelling ahead of you as all of the plot threads come to a head. I'm a little jealous I can't relive Jetman for the first time like you are now.

I legitimately don't understand the hate that Kiva gets. It wasn't perfect, but the action was fun, the story hooked me in, I cared about the characters, and I thought it made sense that he mostly used Emperor form. Why would you use a weaker version of your weapon when you have a stronger version with no drawbacks?

Anyways, I watched Gekiranger episode 7 last night. So far, this Five Venoms arc is playing out how I feared it would - I think they should have had a few more "generic" enemies before bringing out the elites. So I enjoyed how they struggled this episode. Long-term, I'm hoping that there's a reason for it - maybe bringing out these elites early means that the stakes will be even higher afterwards? I wouldn't mind it playing out that way.

Also, I'm very pleased that the annoying fly commentator seems to have less and less presence every episode. The first few fights felt like I was reading what was happening in the subtitles instead of watching on-screen. This episode, however, he made a few comments about the fight instead of giving a play-by-play. Hopefully this downward trend continues, or at least stays how it was this episode.