[IndigoArms]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Byg42

There was this recent interview with Junko Komura and there is a section here that I thought was interesting
https://news.mynavi.jp/article/20210307-1782717/

translated via DeepL
"--In the trailers and promotional videos for the movie, Zenkaiser/Kaito Goshikida, played by Kiita Komagine, seems to have a more cheerful, gentle, and passionate personality than the previous Red characters.

There have been a lot of "Baka Red" characters in the past Super Sentai, who are hot-blooded but not in the least bit stupid, and Kaito is not that unusual. Mr. Shirakura asked me to make all the heroes in "Kiramager" rather "solid", so he wanted all the heroes in "Zenkaiger" to be "bad". So the image of the heroes may change completely from "Kiramager"

The bit with Shirakura is translated a bit wonky, but I think it's something to the effect "since all the heroes Kiramager were solid, make the heroes in Zenkaiger rough"

Thought this would be relevant to bring up, given how this episode introduced Gaon, what with his fondness for animals/humans and dislike of other Kikainoids/robots

I think what he meant was, in Kiramager, the heroes got along very well, and were pretty much besties with everyone straight up and didn't have any major flaws.
So in Zenkaiger, the relationship will be very dysfunctional and need some team building over the course of the show.
Overall, I find refreshing. When I knew Junko was writing the show I knew it'll be very character focused and show the heroes as very flawed individuals, not the goody two shoes like Kiramager were.

[Silentstorm]

I do like we got more information about the worlds, mostly that the villains don't seem to do much with the worlds after trapping them, they barely heard about Super Sentai as just a thing some worlds have, unless they managed to beat every team so easily it wasn't even worth talking about, which i doubt unless they really really want to say the Zenkaigers are totally the best, so it seems that the Kikanoids haven't done much with their worlds.

It does make me question what life in those gear worlds is like, i assume that, since every Super Sentai team was fighting villains when they were trapped, from what we can see in the 1st episode, that they at least likely kept on fighting their villains and are just trying to figure out what happened.

I mean, their knowledge is so low they didn't know about giant monsters of the week, as Ijurude was happy to repeat the same giant from episode 1, and i doubt they knew about combining mecha, well, Kaito sure didn't at least seeing as he thought the Zenkaigers had the first giant mecha.

I wonder if this means that the villains will now look at the worlds with Super Sentai they have just to study them and learn how to beat the Zenkaigers, i assume some robots will also be powered up by Super Sentai worlds.

[Byg42]

Quote:

Originally Posted by IndigoArms

I think what he meant was, in Kiramager, the heroes got along very well, and were pretty much besties with everyone straight up and didn't have any major flaws.
So in Zenkaiger, the relationship will be very dysfunctional and need some team building over the course of the show.

Yeah, that's probably a more accurate interpretation of what's being said there

[Silentstorm]

This makes me want to ask, but is the Zenkaiger movie something anyone here has seen?

I hear it is a big crossover so i assume it's set late in the events of this season...or just in the VS/Gokaiger/Ninninger/Zyuohger universe considering a ton of Red Rangers appear to help, wonder how that happens.

[Byg42]

The interview I linked earlier said it happens roughly around episode 7 of the series. As for how the other Red Rangers are there, they just get summoned through a special gear

[Fish Sandwich]

Oh man, this is going great so far!

I think I'm just going to start from talking about that bit where Gaon pulls his hand away from Zyuran in disgust to put it under Kaito's instead during the roll call. It's such a quick moment of strong characterization, and that really sums up Zenkaiger for me so far. The episode is constantly doing little things like that, which bring out everyone's unique personalities in ways that are simultaneously helping to establish the dynamics between them while also just being plain funny. There's hardly a moment that goes by without some wacky thing like the eternally optimistic Kaito assuming one of the main villains must be Zyuran's friend simply because he recognizes him, and it's all utterly fantastic. There's SO much packed in here, without it feeling too cacophonous. This is a strong focus episode for Gaon, and yet Zyuran gets so many great moments himself bouncing off of Gaon, that it's a strong focus episode for the both of them! This level of attention to detail when it comes to the littlest interactions between the heroes is one of the things that won me over with Zyuohger, and it's why I said last time that I love Koumura's writing.

I also said the show isn't taking anything for granted when it comes to typical toku tropes, and boy does that go double for this one! First of all, Gaon making the exact same logical but incorrect assumption about what he's supposed to do with his new gun that Zyuran did killed me as much as it did that random goon. (You can totally see the poor guy on the ground twitching his leg in one of the following shots, by the way. So many little details!) But even beyond that, I was downright shocked to see Zenkaiger explain, basically from the ground up, how a typical monster of the week story happens. We have it explicitly stated that blowing up the monster is "usually" enough to undo whatever scheme they've got going, a basic rule Sentai uses to keep plots straightforward that's generally unspoken. We have the monster in question not realize what his name is for a second because he just got his new powers, which was yet one more fantastic gag for the pile. Heck, we even have them build off of that last point to explain why the monsters have weird speech quirks! This episode reaches levels of meta that absolutely should not work, and yet it's all handled so smoothly that it totally does. Color me impressed.

Getting back to the actual plot, I did quite like Gaon! He was the member of the team I was the second most interested in prior to the show premiering, and while the specific angle they took with his character turned out to be different than what I was expecting, it's arguably way more fresh and interesting. I was thinking he'd be more of a typical kind-hearted, gentle lover of animals, who maybe feels kinship with them over his own kind, but instead he's simply so into cute things that he's ~kinda~ a huge jerk to everything else, only a couple steps removed from outright self-targeted bigotry. It fits this show's vibe a lot better, for sure! Zyuran takes a lot of offense to the cold shoulder Gaon gives him, but honestly, they've got a lot of common ground when it comes to a refusal to look in the mirror. This is a team assembled out of misfits, by a misfit, and I am way here for that. Love the visual of the giant robot literally trying to pull itself apart to visualize how much trouble these people are having working together as a smooth unit. Sentai teams that start out at odds like this tend to be favorites of mine because it naturally leads to strong development, so the gradual approach Zenkaiger is taking has been very much up my alley.

Like a lot of second episodes in tokusatsu (and probably most shows in general), it's a big improvement on the first, and I thought that start was pretty dang strong to begin with.

(Also, I'm never going to find a spot to work this in naturally, so before I forget – I really appreciate that the voice actors for the Kikianoid members of the team are given big prominent credits right alongside Kaito in the opening. That was something that bugged the heck out of me during Kyuranger, and while ideally the suit actors would be listed there too, it's nice the costumed heroes are treated less like second-class citizens this time around.)

[Sunred]

Gaon in a nutshell

Gaon: Organic lifeforms are so uwu!!!!!
Kaito: This is Secchan!
Secchan: Nice to meet you!
Gaon: Cool story bro*throws Secchan away*

Love it!

[DaikaijuSokogeki01]

I just really want to point how Chuumei Watanabe and Kenichiro Oishi's score for the show so far has been absolutely FANTASTIC. It nails that late '70s-early '80s flavor but still sounds fresh and modern. I'm finding myself paying more attention to this show's soundtrack than I usually do with most toku lately.

Also, you can definitely tell Komura was a writer on Akibranger with her mild riffing on past Sentai tropes (the villains saying their names repeatedly, acknowledging that evil powers somehow fade away when the villains die). I haven't watched a Sentai weekly since I stopped watching Lupinranger Vs Patranger halfway through, but I'm glad I'm jumping back in on this one. This show is reminding me why Sentai is special in its own right compared to the solitary heroes you often see in Ultraman or Kamen Rider.

[Kurona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaikaijuSokogeki01

I just really want to point how Chuumei Watanabe and Kenichiro Oishi's score for the show so far has been absolutely FANTASTIC. It nails that late '70s-early '80s flavor but still sounds fresh and modern. I'm finding myself paying more attention to this show's soundtrack than I usually do with most toku lately.

I lost my mind when Zenkaioh's theme went straight up Showa! The entire soundtrack has been phenomenal but that was the standout moment so far

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

I lost my mind when Zenkaioh's theme went straight up Showa! The entire soundtrack has been phenomenal but that was the standout moment so far

I lost my mind the moment I heard the voice of Isao Sasaki and Mitsuko Horie. Now THAT is how you do a insert song to an anniversary show.