[wentwood]

I'm finishing up Go Busters. Yoko and the boys are going into hyper space. (Episode 29)

And recently finished Magi and Gokai Ranger. So going forward from Gokai.

[Fish Sandwich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kurona

From what I've heard, for a Sentai it's got a surprisingly serialised and heartfelt story

Yeah, I actually read up on Hirohisa Soda a bit after making that last post, since Goggle-V to Fiveman is his whole epic length era as main writer, and I gotta say, I feel even worse about dissing his Kakuranger episodes than I already did, because I'm only now starting to grasp just how much thought went into his work on Sentai, and how much of an impact it had on the franchise's direction. He was apparently vehemently against writing start to finish action with zero dramatic substance, and that attitude probably paved the way for writers like Inoue, Sugimura and Kobayashi to tell the kind of stories they did with their Sentai.

...I'm sure none of that is news to most Sentai fans, but humor me, okay? I'm having fun learning!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blade

For the man!

Heck yeah for the Man! We gotta show all those inferior scientists who's best!

[Kurona]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Yeah, I actually read up on Hirohisa Soda a bit after making that last post, since Goggle-V to Fiveman is his whole epic length era as main writer, and I gotta say, I feel even worse about dissing his Kakuranger episodes than I already did, because I'm only now starting to grasp just how much thought went into his work on Sentai, and how much of an impact it had on the franchise's direction. He was apparently vehemently against writing start to finish action with zero dramatic substance, and that attitude probably paved the way for writers like Inoue, Sugimura and Kobayashi to tell the kind of stories they did with their Sentai.

...I'm sure none of that is news to most Sentai fans, but humor me, okay? I'm having fun learning!

Okay so first of all, you quoting that made me realise I missed out a very important word I meant to type -- "a very heartfelt story for a Showa Sentai". Pretty big difference! Sounds like I'm dissing Toqger or Lupat otherwise!

I love hearing just how pushy this guy was about his standards. Like, I'd heard before that he was very indignant on there being a second girl for once; and now you're telling me he pushed so hard to actually tell a story. Gotta respect it!

[Sunred]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Blade

For the man!

Quote:

Originally Posted by Fish Sandwich

Heck yeah for the Man! We gotta show all those inferior scientists who's best!

It is kinda messed up how he became the man though electrocuting himself and accelerating his aging in the process. Sometimes I wish for a Robot Chicken short where he goes into a room alone by himself with coffee mug in hand and go, "What was I thinking?".

[Matrixbeast]

Finished Abaranger, and I gotta say, eh. I'm not too impressed. Compared to the shows around it, Hurricanger and Dekaranger, I was left vastly underwhelmed.
I did love the dynamic of Ryoga and Mai, since a red ranger with a child isn't something often seen, and it led to a ton of absolutely adorable moments.

Aside from that, though, I found myself uninterested most of the time. Mikoto being a villain for almost the entire series was an interesting way of handling an evil sixth, as they're usually either aloof rivals, or villains for only a few episodes before turning good. So that was a nice change of pace, but the character as a whole just was uninteresting.

However, while the characters were uninteresting and the main story was bland, one thing I can give credit to Abaranger is just how freaking weird it is. From it's monster designs being a composite of an animal, plant, and inanimate object, to some episode premises (The Bucky Bonds episode, the Abare Pink episode, the episode where the two generals visit Earth and learn about school girls, etc), this show would hit levels of just absolute insanity, and I loved it

But while the show could get just outright crazy, far too often I found myself bored. The show's character moments were incredibly weak, which is a shame, since character driven Sentai like Zyuohger tend to be my favorites.

[wentwood]

Kyo Ryu Ranger is my switch in point for the series.

Hasbro has yet to release Beast Morphers.

Due to Super Ninja Steel being the final USA series I was able to see I was sort of forced to watch the Toei shows so I backed up to Go Busters. From Go Busters forward I will only watch this franchise.

Watching

Oh - Aba Ranger (Car Ranger completed)
Go Busters - Karmi Mage Ranger

Completed

Zyu - Kaku
Car Ranger
Deka
Magi
Geki Ranger
Go On
Shinken Ranger
Gosei
Gokai Ranger

[Androzani84]

Hello, it’s me, the guy doing the Hurricaneger watch thread. Due to a mix of said thread coming to an end soon (temporarily. I do plan to do the post-show stuff soon after) , and some IT problems affecting my most recent presentation, I’ve decided to do some updated reviews of episodes 1 and 8 (the debuts of both main ensembles) since I was never happy with my original reviews. And rather than re-edit my original posts, or take up space in that thread doing updated versions, I’ve decided to post them here, where I can get more publicity. So, let’s get on with episode 1.

Scroll 1: Wind and Ninja

(Spoilers, obviously)

The show opens with a woman in a cave, investigating a mysterious object.



When inspected, the object sends a beam of light into outer space. We then cut to two months later in Shinobi Valley (once again, is that a real place? Let me know), where three masked figures battle over a scroll, while the narrator talks about ninjas (which is unusual, since later episodes relegate him to reading title cards and doing the omake segment for this series).











And then a guy in an Oni mask appears, force-pushing them into submission.





Everyone then unmasks, whereupon we see that the three amateurs are the guys in the opening credits, who identify the one guy who isn’t for our benefit.









The Headmaster berates our trio of protagonists, since the every 500 years royal match with their ancient rivals, the Ikazuchi Way is coming up soon and they aren’t living up to their own Way’s legendary successors, the Hurricanegers (mwah mwah), much to their annoyance.



The Headmaster then demands heir presence at an assembly tomorrow, before turning into an owl and flying back to their school, the Ninpuukan (Ninja Wind Castle).



The next day, at the assembly, the headmaster lectures his students on the Hayate Way’s long war with the Ikazuchi Way, dating back to the Sengoku era. (Make your own Kamen Rider joke; I’m too lazy) We get told that the Hayate Way has always come out on top as warriors, while the Ikazuchi Way has remained hidden from the world (which would probably make them better Ninjas, but what do I know). We then see that our main trio have blown off the assembly (of course) and are poking fun at the old man, while a series of informative captions inform us of their names and ranks, while discussing how even the competition actually has been.







After casually showing us that they’re trapped within a force field (explaining why none of them think to just leave, though later episodes show you can if you drop out). The Narrator then cuts to the woman from before, in a mysterious room.





Despite trying desperately to out-hack the object from earlier, she fails and the ones who sent it descend upon the Earth.



Within the spaceship, 5 figures all make oohs and aaaaahs at the Earth.



They are then silenced (despite not actually making much noise) but their Boss, Tau Zant (a play on thousand), who outlines their mission for them (apparently, no-one knew what they were doing when they set off for this blue planet).











(If you’re wondering what “it” is, then you’re in for a long haul. I’m at episode 49 and we’ve only just found out what it is).

Chuzoobo (who’s name is a play on “Tuesday”), then reveals he’s already sent down his best man (which is, admittedly, what he calls all of his men. It’s not a unique or meaningful title) to deal with those on the planet that call themselves ninja. Sure enough, we cut to him, Barrier Ninja Kekkaibo, down on Earth, flanked by the Genin (lower ninja) Magerappa (Mage = topknot, while rappa is an Engrish pronunciation of “rapper!).



Using his Uchuu Ninpo: Kekkai Yaburi (Space Ninja Art: Barrier Breaking), Kekkaibo handily breaks the shield



Before anyone can properly react, Kekkaibo fits everyone at the assembly with a talisman.



He then performs his Uchuu Ninpo: Ofuda Fubuki (Talisman Snowstorm), which traps everything within the talismans… except the headmaster, who escapes by turning himself into a hamster. (And since he stays like this for the majority of the show, I call him “Hamster Headmaster”)



As our trio respond to the danger, everything gets sucked into a tornado, taking them up to the Centipede, where the talismans are dispersed across space (or something. The animation isn’t clear). They soon come to realise how screwed they are.



Sure enough, they get found by Kekkaibo and Jakanja’s supervisor, Furabijo (portmanteau of Friday, bee and bijou [beauty]), who is carrying a cute creature (Hamster Headmaster) she found on the floor.



In the resulting fight, Kekkaibo comes out on top, especially once he demonstrates his Uchuu Ninpo: Jizaimen (Free Face), which allows his head to detach from his body.



Fortunately, they get saved from certain death by being teleported to the underground room by the woman, who they recognise as the Headmaster’s daughter Oboro. Oboro then spells out just how screwed they are.





Everyone takes a moment to bask in the hopelessness of the situation. The hamster-headmaster then wills his weapon (which Nanami picked up earlier) to break, as a signal that he’s alright (seems a bit of a weird signal, but what do I know).



Oboro then assures the three that her dad was only hard on them because he thought they had the potential to be Hurricanegers one day… which is today, as she hands the the Hurricane Gyros needed to equip the Shinobi Suits and become the Hayate Way’s legendary successors, Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger.



The three are so happy to be chosen they run off into battle with determined vigour… only to forget to take the Gyros with them (Yeah, they’re literally the worst choice available for this post, but they’re also paradoxically the best choice).



Facing down Kekkaibo at the quarry, the three transform for the first time.



And you know what that means. Roll call time.



























Kekkaibo then summons the Magerappas to do battle, to which the three new Hurricanegers use their weapon, the Hayatemaru (a sword that combines with its holster to form a gun)



HurrcaneRed starts things off with his Chou Ninpo: Soragake (Super Ninja Art: Sky Gallop), which lets him defy gravity.



HurricaneBlue then uses the gun mode for an attack performed while running on water (unnamed in this episode), before straight up blasting them with water using Chou Ninpo: Suiryuha (Water dragon blast).



HurricaneYellow then fights with the Chou Ninpo: Mai Jishi (Dancing Lion) which… duplicates him (not sure what that has to do with land, but whatever).



The three then face off in a rematch with Kekkaibo, who uses his Uchuu Ninpo: Genmakai (Phantom Demon World) to defeat them by… sending them to the Makuu Space? (At least that’s what it looks like. I know our head writer did Metal Heroes shows in the past, but yeesh).





During this fight, we meet a second pair of Rangers, in red and blue. The blue one tries to help, only for his comrade to stop him and have him walk away (then why did they show up if the red one didn’t want to help? The answer to that will come, in time).



Our heroes then escape this predicament by summoning… hang gliders.



They then use another new technique (which my own thread missed until episode 3), Chou Ninpo: Kage no Mai (Dance of Shadows)



They then each pull out an individual weapon, known as Hurricane Gadgets (none of which are actually weapons, but whatever).







After causing some damage with all of these individually, they then combine them into the Sanjuren (three-way Union) Triple Gadget and destroy the enemy (complete with extra shot of his severed head exploding).





Everyone opens their faceplates to celebrate this victory



It’s at this point that the hamster headmaster regains his speech capabilities (to everyone’s predictable shock) and escapes (which he could’ve done earlier, but whatever).



It’s at this point that the Centipede appears on Earth, drilling its way into the ground (don’t worry, it landed in the sea. No land masses were harmed).



And then the episode ends with the other Jakanja higher-ups showing up, as the narrator closes the episode.







Final thoughts: On the episode as a whole, they haven’t changed and can be found here. But it’s certainly been interesting to view it again now that I’m near the end of the show and compare and contrast (which I hope is reflected in this review compared to my original). I’ll probably have the episode 8 re-review up soon ish.

[wentwood]

Karmi Mage is next up on DVD once I catch up Ryu Soul.

Going in order I'll be watching Kyo Ryu Ranger after Go Busters.

[GuardianAngel87]

I finally finished Goseiger. I'll be the first to admit that I started this particular series with very little expectations given how divisive it is especially in comparison to the two series that Goseiger ended up being sandwiched with which I don't think it's really fair to the show itself. I believe every Sentai series, good or bad, should stand or fall on their own. Same goes with most seasons of Power Rangers. In all honestly, I really have no regrets in watching this series especially how very solid their endgame arc is and that Bladerun/Brajil (yes, I'm going by how his name(s) was spelled by the MillionFold Curiosity subs) is a great villain for this series. I've already given the other positives that Goseiger has in my previous post in this thread so there is no need of repeating them. Overall, while this Sentai series is obviously not the best, it's also not one of the worst and it really could have been far worse.

Now, it's onward to Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger.

[tomos]

It's a tricky one for me because Go-Onger and Kyoryuger probably had more I dislike but Goseiger is just difficult to care about!