[Dr Kain]

Just finished Shinkenger and man, what an amazing set of final episodes those were. The end of Akumaro was great, the final showdown with Juuzo was epic, and then the battle with Doukoku rocked. Despite the series' negatives, I am so glad I rewatched it for its positives outweighed them.

Well, on to the movie and Return.

EDIT:

Watched the movie and Return. The movie absolutely sucked!! Sure, the summer movies usually lack a coherent story, but at least they have a story. This was way too short and quickly paced without any time to let a plot settle in.

As for Returns, it sucked too. I usually love these illusion world episodes, but this was just long and boring. When you call something Returns, it usually means it is because it is a sequel to the previous one and is going to feature the cast getting back together after some type. This just felt like a 20 minute episode they did not have time for in the middle of the series, so they stretched it out to a 48 minute movie and made it sound like it was going to be a sequel adventure.

BTW, seeing the samurai guys in drag was just down right creepy. It did not help that my g/f called as I was watching it, and the screen paused right on them in drag. That is an image I will never get out of my head for quite some time.

Lastly, I wanted to mention one thing about the subs themselves. I swear that Nihon was drunk on sake during the last few episodes because they kept spelling Dayuu with a T.

EDIT AGAIN:

Here is my entire review of the series as a whole:

So I decided to rewatch Shinkenger last week as I haven't seen it since it first aired. Now, when it was airing, I had some really mixed thoughts on it, as the show just seemed to drag on and on with nothing going on. As such, I as unsure how many episodes I would be able to handle in a single viewing, so I planed to do five episodes a day, only to find myself having watched the first 16 on my first sitting. Being so, I managed to finish the series today along with having watched the summer movie (which was terrible, nothing more needs to be said) and Shinkenger Returns.

One of the things I did like about the show back in 2009 was its ranger cast. The cast is very strong and has great chemistry together. They have their serious moments, they have their goofy moments, but all around, they all work well together. Then comes Genta, who is nothing buy over the top goofy and he really drags the rest of the cast down. He is as bad as Wizard's Shunpei, but made worse because he is a ranger and gets sole focus on several episodes. While I will say this time around he did not get on my nerves as much, I still think he is the worst sixth ranger ever. Aside from that, the ranger suits are great, the tools they have at their disposal rock, and I really like the upgrade form in the second half. In fact, I wish red had worn that throughout the entire series, because it would have fit so well.

Now the villains, remain a mixed bag for me. First, their designs are top notch, so no complaints there. Doukoku, on the other hand, seems absolutely useless to me because he does absolutely NOTHING outside of 4 episodes in the entire show. The rest of the time he is either getting drunk, yelling, or sleeping. He is a serious contender with Warz Gil's father for the Worst Evil Ruler award. Dayuu, on the other hand, is pretty awesome, and I love her character story. In fact, I just love the fact that we actually get any sort of development with a villain in this show, as they seem to just be there. And that is why Juuzo is by far the best character in this show. His has a great deal of development, has a tragic back story (just like Dayuu), and he has great chemistry whenever he is on screen with either Dayuu or Takeru. I did not care for the actor in 555, but he does a fantastic job here. Even scene with him is golden whether it be his three way battle in the first portion of his show, his second battle with Takeru in 26, his killing of Akumaro, and of course, his climatic showdown with Takeru at the end. Speaking of Akumaro, he served absolutely no purpose in this show other than to slow everything down because episodes 28-38 are pretty much the low point for the show. I guess it was nice that he actually did more than Doukoku in the long run, but it sure did not feel like it. The show could have cut him out and it would have made no difference.

Sadly though, Akumaro and Genta are not the worst of the show, as that belongs to the mecha department. The mecha is just down right awful. I love the design of Shinken-Oh, and calling the mecha Origama makes sense. After that, I don't get how they are Origami because they don't fold up or anything at all. And all they do is make Shinken-Oh look clunky as hell to the point that his final form should have been called Clusterfuck-Oh, because that is exactly what it was. It was too big to do anything but stand there and be knocked back via CGI or use a bad CGI finishing movie. Not to mention I hated how every episode had to have a mech battle. I know these shows are made to sell toys, but come on, kids are not going to stop wanting to buy the toys if they don't see the mecha in one episode. I miss the days when shows could go for several episodes before they even obtain the combined form, and then have episodes sprinkled throughout that don't require it, and instead, focus on plot.

Speaking of plot, they hinted at Takeru being a kagemusha since the very beginning of the series. It was so obvious I am surprised none of us realized this ahead of time. You had the episode with the monster that insults people, who called Takeru and liar and that he was hiding something. Then you had his refusal to give up the seal when he was poisoned and his conversation with Juuzo that followed that. The signs were all there from the beginning, which I felt really helped strengthen this show the second time around.

In the end, the show is actually a pretty damn good show despite its flaws and low points. I can now see why people praise it, but at the same time, I still do not think it is the greatest Sentai series ever. While this show still will not hit my top 10 list, it has definitely moved up several notches from what it was before. Overall, I give Shinkenger a 7/10 stars.

Oh yeah, Shinkenger Returns... sucked. When Returns is in front of something, and it is said to be a sequel to the series, you expect it to feature a reunion of the characters or something. Instead, it felt like a standard 22 minute episode stretched out to 50 minutes just because they had to justify it being an individual DVD release. The worst part is, I normally love these dimensional illusion episodes, but this was just boring to watch for some reason. It also did not help that it just started with some random nonsense to the point I was about to turn it off during the cops portion of it, and really wanted to turn it off during the Mako concert crap.

Anyway, that is it from me. Tomorrow, I start Power Rangers Samurai.