[Kurona]

Oh man. Man. Liveman!! What a great first episode!

There's unfortunately not a good grasp on what our main heroes are like yet (I imagine partly because we're still in Sentai's 25-minute timeslot era), and the storytelling is slightly cluttered at the start, but this is such a meaty episode where you immediately get the drama and conflict, and it's a very strong start overall! I'm already loving the very lovely mesh of an animal-themed sentai being about scientists (in a way that, much as I love the show; already trumps Science Sentai Dynaman's use of it thematically) and I imagine that'll feel all the more relevant going forward.

I'll admit it's actually a little hard to say much about this episode when... well... Fish's little project has kind of covered all bases on what makes this episode so awesome! I could absolutely tell you how great it is that they just couldn't wait to throw out their Land Lion tech, or that the suits are fantastic, or that animals are such a perfect fit for Toku and it's wild that Liveman was the first Sentai to really embrace that... but also, maybe I should just tell you to look at Fish's post saying the same thing, uh...

...

Oh, god; that was about 12 weeks ago now, wasn't it??

Well one other thing I will say, and maybe it's partly because they're so close to airing - and hence the way they're filmed and how they sound is very similar too - but the emphasis on life; the the whole thing of someone close to the central hero(es) selling their soul to evil... this feels very Kamen Rider Black to me, in the best of ways! And given it seems almost as beloved and well-remembered, I've got some high hopes going into this one