[Fish Sandwich]

ooooohhhh now you've got me excited! I think I considered mentioning this show back when you were asking for suggestions, but decided not to since it's not actually a tokusatsu series in any usual sense of the term. Really happy to see it made the cut anyway! Because while it isn't a show that's really in the same genre as something like Ultraman or Kamen Rider, Tokusatsu GaGaGa is very much a show that... well, I've probably put it like this before, but...

...If you're a person who has for any reason spent long enough on this website to read these words, you owe it to yourself to give Tokusatsu GaGaGa at least an episode or two at some point. I can't know if it will entertain you or not, but I can guarantee you will find it relatable.

And the certainty with which I can say that was the very pleasant surprise that got me hooked as soon as I first checked out the premiere on a whim back in 2019 when it was new. I expected a show that was a lot more broad in the way it portrays a geeky lifestyle, which really caught me off guard when the writing kept managing to hit so close to home in such very specific ways.

And that's a thing throughout the rest of the show, of course, so just for right now, I'll say that the thing that got me the most in that first episode was actually, if memory serves, the dialogue immediately before the quote DreamSword has as a signature image. As someone who stumbled into learning Japanese in large part through memorizing the lyrics to catchy toku and robot anime songs despite having no particular interest in any typical popular domestic music... I mean, some of those lines in that karaoke part of the episode felt like they were directed even more at me than they were at Kano. So that stuff got me vibing with this show pretty hard right there, and the way that whole sequence climaxes in such a hilariously triumphant way -- with Kano masterfully acting her way through the ordeal (deliberately pretending not to know anything after the first verse of a theme song is a perfect example of one of those gags that's way more specific than I expected going in) -- well, that just made me instantly committed to seeing every last episode of this series as soon as they aired.

I actually watched the whole thing again some time after it ended, even, just to confirm how much I loved it. Heck, I'm half considering watching it again right now, just so I don't have to go on memory for this whole thread. Even though I'm pretty confident in how clear my memories are! This is genuinely a show that has majorly stuck with me, even though I barely ever get chances to talk about it with anyone (ironically enough). If we are lumping Tokusatsu GaGaGa under that broad umbrella of "toku shows", it's probably lowkey one of my all-time favorites, even. Very excited to see you work your way through the rest of it, DreamSword!