[Fish Sandwich]

~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~

Kai 45! – Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger



(It might seem strange to do a roll call with so many people missing, but really, the ones with all five of them are usually even weirder.)

I think a good point to start talking about Zenkaiger from is that, for at least some small period of time, they were legitimately considering calling the series "Sentai Sentai Sentaiger". The choice to go with a different final title marks perhaps the one and only instance of Zenkaiger ever deciding to exercise restraint for the sake of appearing more normal.

Really, it wouldn't even have been an unfitting name, when you get down to it. This is a Sentai team where the primary motif *IS* Super Sentai, so while it may seem redundant at a glance, these guys still are the Sentai Sentai in a way, even though their actual title highlights features of the group outside of the anniversary nature. To be clear, I'm not at all trying to say I wish they had went with the working title. "Kikai Sentai Zenkaiger" rolls off the tongue far, far more nicely, and reflects the show's identity just as well, if not better, through the multiple meanings of zenkai. They're the heroes who help all the worlds (全界) make a complete recovery (全快) from the threat of evil, and they do it all fighting at full power (全開), no matter the odds. No need to tell the viewers how Sentai your Sentai is when you can just *show* them how much you get it by packing layers and layers of wordplay into the team name.

And the name is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how much Zenkaiger *gets* Super Sentai. The thing is, I've been watching this show for so many weeks now that it all seems normal, but now that I'm writing this, and trying to think of how to describe Zenkaiger in a broader context, it's kind of hitting me all over again just how specific a balance it found. Zenkaiger... it's like it's as Sentai as Sentai gets, and yet at the same time, it's going out of its way to be nothing like most other Sentai.

Perhaps a lot of this balance can be credited to that between two of Zenkaiger's main creative forces. You've got the main writer, Junko Koumura, who can safely be considered a veteran of the franchise at this point – someone who knows how these shows are put together inside and out. Meanwhile, the chief producer, Shinichirou Shirakura, had largely been involved with Kamen Rider the prior couple decades. He was right there as Rider found great success loosening old traditions while still retaining certain core values, and it definitely seems like because of that, he was especially interested in the idea of getting to the bottom of what truly makes Super Sentai a unique entity – what you can do with it that you can't do anywhere else, and how far you can stray from that without straying from it at all. And one of the many commendable things about Zenkaiger is how clearly you can see that passion coming through.

For example, when the team is made up of one regular dude and four weird robot people who look nothing like usual (or even like each other) it doesn't just come off as the usual attempt to spice up the formula. It's a challenge the staff is giving themselves – a question being asked. Is "five people in nearly identical uniforms" really key to what defines a Sentai team? Would ditching that concept make the resulting series feel like any other toku show, or would it only highlight how much less superficial the central theme of teamwork is than that? Could you take a team *this* strange, and still make viewers see them an inseparable unit? If five colorful and unique individuals come together to unfailingly support each other as allies and as friends, forming a singular force for justice far stronger than the sum of its parts, is that not the very soul of Super Sentai, right there?

That's the kind of stuff that makes me truly love Zenkaiger, and what I think even people who are fans of the show might underestimate about it. Zenkaiger is a deeply absurd series about quirky characters having largely comedic adventures, but all of that madness is also calculated. The whole show, on a more meta level, it's like one big search for answers – Super Sentai examining the purpose of its very existence – and I find that raw drive so compelling.

Heck, Koumura was so excited about finding that truth, she went ahead and wrote ~nearly~ the entire series herself. A recap episode and a crossover with the concurrently airing Kamen Rider Saber mean I can't *technically* say she matched Riku Sanjou's feat on Kyoryuger, but like, come on. Regardless of those specifics, a huge strength of Zenkaiger's writing is in how much it stands entirely on its own merits. It may be a big anniversary celebration, but for a lot of reasons, you seriously don't need to know a single thing going in.

I mean, just take a look at the first episode!

Things start off pretty cute with 4:3 footage of the Gorangers throwing down with evil, and if you're here for the nostalgic throwbacks, then, hey, you can't get much more retro than that, but it's not actually that important to Zenkaiger who these old guys are. The reason they're here is to establish the premise – an evil regime of bad guys called the Tojitendo have been going around trapping all the worlds in the multiverse into tiny little gears, including all the ones with heroic Sentai teams who would otherwise be fighting against this sort of thing – and that genuinely is the extent of Sentai lore you're expected to understand. They're cool superheroes, and there's a whole bunch of 'em out there, but Zenkaiger is a story about a world that doesn't have a team of its own... not quite yet, anyway.

What it does have at the outset is one extraordinarily enthusiastic young man by the name of Kaito Goshikida, who is introduced attempting to explain to a security guard his plan to bungee jump of the Tokyo Skytree. What can I say? I just can't ever hate this guy's energy. His earnest desire to be the first person in the world to do some crazy awesome thing or another is immediately charming. There's this sort of childlike sincerity that comes across in how recklessly excited he is about everything, and while his attempt to throw himself off a tower was ill-conceived, to say the least, that eager attitude pays off for him in other ways. Like, for instance, right after he's escorted back to the ground floor, when a failed attempt by the Tojitendo to scoop up Kaito's world results in the machine denizens of their native Kikaitopia somehow winding up transported there instead. This sudden turn of events is naturally a bit of a shock for the people of both worlds, but Kaito, being the person he is, immediately breaks the ice by walking up to one of the Kikainoids and introducing himself, offering his hand to shake without a moment's hesitation.

This is another thing that very much sets a tone for the series. You might think for a second that there would be some kind of possible tension between these two societies suddenly forced together, but on the contrary, by only a month later, everyone is getting along like it's no big deal. Because it just sorta isn't a big deal, and I honestly feel like there's something a little profound about that? Maybe it goes back to themes Koumura touched on in Zyuohger, maybe it's an extension of Zenkaiger's own focus on what it means for people to come together, but there's vibe to Zenkaiger's setting I adore, where it's like this one big neighborhood where everyone generally gets along as part of a productive and diverse community. It's not exactly something the series puts at the forefront, but I don't know, I just find it nice.

Though right now, the important thing here is just that there are all kinds of interesting new people from Kikaitopia shaking up life on Kaito's world. This includes Zyuran, who is the other main point of focus for the premiere. He's rather endearing in his own right. Just a chill older dude who maybe isn't ~quite~ as hip with the youth as he'd like to fancy himself, but who is still legitimately a cool guy you wouldn't mind partying with. And sure enough, people are perfectly happy to do exactly that, right up until the Tojitendo pick that moment to invade this world the old-fashioned way, and Zyuran gets lumped in with the mechanical invaders as a source of fear for humans who don't know any better. That fact is something Zyuran is very understanding of, but he's perhaps a little too understanding, to the point he starts passively sulking around, seemingly resigning himself to Kikaitopia's elite ruling class ruining life for the common folk all over again.

Kaito isn't holding up that much better, for a bit. The whole reason he was so ready to start making friends with the Kikainoids is because his missing parents were actually the people who first discovered that parallel world in the first place, and the whole invasion thing is kind of putting a damper on that initial enthusiasm. Missing parents are a dime a dozen for toku heroes, but I legitimately think Zenkaiger does a good job utilizing that trope, even this early on. Kaito's longing to be reunited with them is a solid source of the show's more heartfelt drama, his relationship with his grandmother Yatsude is very sweet, and now that I really think about it, Kaito having the parents he does explains an awful lot about Kaito's personality. It's one thing that he gets his catchphrase from them, but, I mean, these two are super scientists who discovered parallel worlds, and on top of that, came up with a whole plan to protect their own world from a scenario exactly like the one happening, by creating their own Super Sentai incorporating powers based on all the different teams they found in their research. This clearly isn't a family that settles for normality!

But uh, yeah, it turns out his mom and dad had all this prepped to go the whole time, and Kaito heads out with renewed vigor to bring peace back to his world. The only problem is that he's just one guy, and Yatsude rejected his offer to be on the team. (It was adorably thoughtful of Kaito to ask, though.) If you want to have a proper Sentai, you've got to start building the team somewhere, and with his grandmother out of the question, Kaito picks the next best candidate he can find – a random guy he just met on the street.

It's Zyuran, of course. And seeing him selflessly protecting a child from the Tojitendo is all the evidence Kaito needs to ask him for help taking down an evil empire. This is kinda the scene that makes the whole episode for me. Like I said, up to this point, the show has done a darn solid job endearing you to these two characters, and it makes this chance encounter feel so huge. Zyuran is still feeling bummed about the panicked humans looking at him like he's one of the bad guys, so when Kaito immediately sees through that, you feel how much it means to Zyuran to have a friend in that moment. His mellow attitude had left him unable to even think of taking action, but Kaito's enthusiasm lights a fire under Zyuran, and gets him to finally stand up and bite back against his oppressors. Even rewatching it now, it's such a "heck yeah!" kind of moment (helped by my favorite BGM track in the series playing over it), and it goes to show the magic of Zenkaiger's writing.

The series made the conscious decision to introduce the characters one-by-one over the first few episodes this way, and it was all so that they could properly emphasize how significant it is when people meet each other. This isn't a team brought together by command, or by fate, or blood, or anything like that. Zenkaiger goes to great lengths to make you understand exactly why these people choose of their own free will to be together, and how much they all benefit from finding that sense of belonging.

It's the kind of intimate detail you can expect from a show dedicating itself to exploring what makes Super Sentai what it is. They really build everything from the ground up, taking nothing for granted, and that's just as evident when it comes time to finally transform, and Zyuran breaks the dramatic flow so Kaito can give him a tutorial on exactly how his new toys are supposed to work. Because it's not like you would just know that, in Zyuran's position. I can't stress enough how clever this all is. Not only is it a hilarious subversion of the norm for hero tokusatsu, but I mean, forget not needing to know how Sentai shows work – you don't even need to know how tokusatsu works to understand Zenkaiger. After all, it's not the like the main characters have a clue! If anything, complete ignorance of continuity and genre etiquette would likely make it that much easier to identify with these guys.

Still, once they manage to get to the point where they're actually fighting, they do a surprisingly good job of it. It's a cool way to round off the episode, especially since it's carrying forward that momentum of how much you'll want to see Kaito and Zyuran turning the tables by this point. I'd talk about it in more detail, but then, maybe I've gone into more than enough depth on this episode already. Rest assured, it's a very stylish and energetic action sequence.

Oh, and the episode also ends with the world being met by a sudden infestation of mushrooms, but that's a story for the following episode, which I'm not here to talk about.

Although, now that I mention it, the whole reason I'm here to talk about anything to begin with is because of Zenkaiger, isn't it? I guess if you want to know where my thoughts stand on this debut, maybe all I really needed to say was that I liked it enough to solidify my decision to do all of this. And with the way that Zenkaiger has kept up the momentum so consistently, I only ever feel more and more certain of that choice. There's a practically endless amount of things I could talk about when it comes to this show. The brilliance of the way exploring different kinds of families acts as a subtle bit of cohesion for the overall narrative, and the delight of things like how often you have scenes of the Zenkaigers just eating a meal together. The utter genius of the episodic plots, packed as they are with such rich detail in their execution, and an inexhaustible supply of creative comedic twists on the formula. How all this show's insane madness comes together into a story all about... well, maybe it's not even just one big thing! There's a lot you can probably draw from Zenkaiger's portrayal of oddball underdogs managing to triumph time and time again over an overwhelmingly large force of evil. I'm struggling to think of a way to condense some of the points I'd like to bring up.

Like, the Sentai Gears, right? Typical collectible item that gives the Zenkaigers access to the powers of old teams. What's way less typical is that instead of strictly having the team replicate designated tools or combat techniques, the absurdist tone of the series means they often just kind of reenact whatever from a given show, almost like literal kids in real life, roleplaying as their favorite toku heroes. And there's something brilliant about that too, in how it lines up with the overall goals of Zenkaiger as a show, but it's like I can't quite put my finger on it, and then, like... I was just talking about the focus on family, and now I'm thinking "wait, did I go into that enough?" Have I properly stopped to try and convey the beauty of this found-family Sentai team who accept each other for who they are, flaws and all? How much that matches up with the series' goal of finding the core of what makes Super Sentai what it is? And then—!

...man, and can you *believe* I haven't even mentioned Magine yet? It's amazing how long this post can be and still be too short for me to dedicate proper space to what I actually care about in Zenkaiger.

Oh well, I guess I'll just have to be satisfied with the 45 episodes I've had to gush about how great she is in all the weekly Zenkaiger threads. Besides, the show's not done quite yet! Crazy to think I'm finally all the way here, but exactly as I set out to do all those months ago, I've worked my way up to talking about Zenkaiger's premiere, and that means, after all this time, we've finally arrived at the end of the Zenkai Tour.

With how long I've been at it, I'm kind of having trouble processing that fact as I'm writing this. It hasn't quite been a full twelve months since Zenkaiger started airing, but by this point last year, I was already doing some of the prep work for this project. That phrasing makes it sound way more grand than it is, I know. After all, the whole point of this idea was just to ramble about a different Sentai show a bit each week, and while, somewhere in the middle, the "a bit" part of that became lost as I inevitably went all zenryoku zenkai about describing these shows, that main goal remained consistent the whole way through. But like, of course I couldn't make myself shut up! Super Sentai is just too exciting! That's what I was hoping to convey with this tour more than anything.

Like I said waaaay back at the start, this is all cheerleading, and if I managed to get anyone else a little more fired up about Super Sentai, then it's mission accomplished for me. If the choice to pace this alongside Zenkaiger made the anniversary aspects of that show more fun, or if there was a week that made you go "oh I love this show!, or "hey, that show sounds pretty neat actually!", that's what matters. I just wanted to do something that would kinda highlight the scale and history of a franchise that just keeps going and going and is still going to be going after Zenkaiger. And that means I'm definitely not going to be running out of reasons to talk about this stuff anytime soon, even if this specific theme has run its course. So it's the end, but also, it's never the end. Huh. Either way, thank you to everyone who's been following these posts along. It's always fun being excited about Super Sentai, but appropriately enough, it's way more fun to be excited together.