[Monsoon]

Over the weekend I watched up to episode 10 of both Magiranger and ToQger. Really like both!

ToQger is *aggressively* silly. If you don't give a hot shit about trains and prefer darker stories in your tokusatsu then it will seem like the dumbest Super Sentai ever. But hey, if you give it a chance and don't mind the sillier side of Super Sentai, it's pretty fun! None of the cast are so annoying as to be deal-breakers, and the imagination gimmick is often employed in hilarious ways: the kendama battle against Stamp Shadow immediately comes to mind. The combat on foot is pretty solid, but the mecha... well they look a little weird, and I don't like the mecha action as much as that of other 2000s Super Sentai. I do love the ultra-gothic designs of the Shadow Line villains, tho. Like some steampunk Castlevania shit. I'll probably watch more ToQger this week.

I like Magiranger so far as well, but not as much as ToQger. It rides its themes of courage and Harry Potter-esque magic maybe even harder than ToQger's imagination and trains, but not offensively so. I like how often the cast bickers - that they're siblings helps to justify it without them all seeming like total assholes. The combat on foot isn't my favorite, but the mecha stuff is pretty dope! The concept of transforming into their mecha instead of piloting them is neat, and both MagiDragon and MagiKing look fresh as fuck. The Infershia villains also look cool, but I know that Wolzard eventually turns good, is the kids' father, the mom is still alive, etc. thanks to Gokaiger and assorted reading I've done (whoops!). I'll probably watch more Magiranger later, but it's not as high a priority as ToQger or Jetman.

TL;DR I still like Super Sentai