[Androzani84]

Here I am, trying something new…

Androzani’s Countdown to Once and Always

As for why this feature is in the Sentai thread, it’s because of what content I’m watching to prepare myself.

Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger: 10 Years After.

And yes, I did watch Hurricaneger’s 10YA movie. My opinion of it, as given in my watch thread, is “I liked the ideas, didn’t like the execution”. As for this movie, I can laud it for actually going the route of a continuation, rather than sequel to the main plot of the series. Unresolved threads, such as the Sen/Umeko and Boss/Swan ships, get some degree of closure, with the former moving from “couple” to ”fianc?/fianc?e”, which leads into the later Space Squad movies. And it’s also the one that introduced some of the attributes that get criticised in the Gokaiger 10YA (and to a lesser extent, the Go-Onger 10YA), so I?m going to analyse them.

The fake up: Now these 10YA V-Cons have a reputation for having the protagonists fake a breakdown in their friendship to fool the villains. While Hurricaneger’s is mostly free of this (the only difference is that there, the break up is genuine, with the plot focusing on them rebuilding their fractured relationship), this is only half an example. Only Ban, Hoji and Jasmine are faking it, with Sen and Umeko being locked out of the loop as to the plan the others are formulating (I wasn?t sure on whether Tetsu was in on it, but I’m assuming he was). And even those two are in the midst of something of a falling out prior to the aforementioned engagement.

The Twist Villains played by notable stars: Pretty much every later movie will introduce some seemingly apathetic human who turns out to be the antagonist(s) of the instalment. And this movie has Joe the Haze, Asumu and BoukenBlue’s cat girlfriend as its antagonists.



Of course, aside from this being the first time it was done (meaning the audience likely weren’t expecting a twist), all three of them are more known for heroic roles (Komaya’s VA work as Dareptor and Bujin Gaim notwithstanding), so it does come off as more of a surprise. And prior to the reveal, the film does a fairly good job of hiding all three of their identities (with the one non-human among them having both a different head and a disguised voice prior to the reveal). And until the reveal of the Mirage Dimension, there?s no actual hint as to how they could’ve possibly made it look like Boss was guilty, so there is a legitimate mystery.

The call backs:



So yeah, all of these movies have more than few seemingly superfluous call backs to specific episodes and moments in the original series. I?ll concede that point.



But then again, these movies are meant to appeal to the die hard fans more than they are the new kids (I doubt a reference to breast feeding would fly in a regular episode). And it does provide a few cool moments (who didn?t want to see a mecha battle with Abrera?). And here, they’re far and few between the world building provided (Such as the fact that due to time dilation, what seems like a ten second judgement on Earth is actually an 8 month long trial for the intergalactic court). And for the most part, the plot is more an episode of the show on a bigger budget.

So overall, I’m going to give this a B+. Not anything to write home about, but still worth recommending if you?re a fan of Dekaranger. I?ll see you in a week for Go-Onger 10 Years Grand Prix.