[Pineapple924]

A brand new Tokusatsu project from China, supposedly directed by Koichi Sakamoto:

[Pineapple924]

Under normal circumstances I'd be surprised he's on this and not the more established franchise Armor Hero. But apparently Hero Box, the main company holding the rights to Armor Hero, burned so many bridges during the production of Armor Hero Star Ray that I guess another company felt confident in throwing its hat in the ring.

[Mesnick]

Super cool trailer. Besides the obvious Armor Hero vibes, Fourze and Zero One also immediately come to mind. I'll be happy to watch it, although, considering that this is China, there might not be a fansub.

[DreamSword]

I hope this gets subbed.

[FairyKing]

Watched the first episode, pretty good! Only 12 minutes long, which means they had to keep it basic and just focus on debuting the hero, but I can see foreshadowing of a more complex story and what we do get now is at least cool. I especially like the footsoldiers with their striking white masks and being transformed civilians.

My only real complaints are with the visual design of Bataar himself, the overall aesthetic is nice, if a little bit generic, but I don't understand the mismatched red and blue patches, and combined with the complex shapes of the armor they make a cluttered effect that is hard to follow in motion. I do like that he has a subtle goat or ram theme, don't think we've seen that in a main hero before, but I wish it was more emphasized to make him stand out from other toku heroes.

[FairyKing]

Second episode, also quite good! Again, it keeps things straightforward while laying groundwork for future developments, a smart use of the short episodes that I hope will pay off big if the writers keep it up. The action has a different feel from Rider and Sentai that I can't quite put my finger on, but it's fun.

I'm especially liking how Sun Wan Ning (I had to look up his name, has it been mentioned onscreen even once?) is characterized through his work as a repairman, it makes his drive to help people feel a little more grounded. That plus his moments of cockiness keep him from feeling too bland, even though he is very much a typical toku hero.

Still not the biggest fan of the Bataar suit but it is growing on me, especially when I headcanon the mismatched colors as a sign of the post-apocalyptic future where it was built. When you're throwing together experimental tech while besieged by monsters, a unified color scheme isn't exactly top priority!

[DreamSword]

Do alert me the show is done airing so I can binge it all.

[FairyKing]

Something neat I learned: Bataar is a Mongolian word, it means roughly "warrior" or "brave person"

[Mesnick]

Quote:

Originally Posted by FairyKing

Something neat I learned: Bataar is a Mongolian word, it means roughly "warrior" or "brave person"

This is also the name of the Mongolian buffalo from the animated series "Kung Fu Panda".

[FairyKing]

Episode 3, and the secondary hero has arrived! ... well, not quite. He hasn't transformed yet, but he showed up in civilian form and shot the monster with his big high-tech gun, which was quite cool. It's always a treat to see toku heroes contribute to the fight even without their suits. I also liked how after the monster-of-the-week was defeated, Jiang Ling Chuan (thank you writers for saying their names onscreen this time) addressed the cause of the human host becoming so negative to keep it from happening again.

The main hero clashing against the secondary is a classic toku trope, so it is kind of predictable here. But at least they have enough reason to not get along, with Wan Ning being an amateur and Ling Chuan being overly critical that neither one looks like he's just being a jerk.

The suit continues to grow on me, and with the mention of other Divine/Phantom Cores I'm interested to see if they'll give Bataar whole new forms or just power-ups. But the first new Core comes from the as-yet-unnamed (but extremely hot) villain lady, and I'm sure her giving it to Ling Chuan will have zero bad consequences for anyone ever...