[ZeoRangerV]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Switchblade

Was this the episode with the family?

Yeah.

[Locke]

TOWSITD 8.

This was a surprisingly boring episode. In itself, the set up for this show is very interesting, but the mystery and horror aspects of this show usually fall flat, as they seem to rely on us ignoring that we've watched our heroes slay Horrors for two seasons and a whole bunch of movies before this.

Makai Knights are supposed to hunt Horrors in secret? I'm pretty sure no Knight in the series has followed this rule, last seasons GARO broke this rule quite spectacularly pretty much every episode.

[Locke]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr Kain

I'm not trying to get into a debate about it again, but the short version is I found the Horror designs to be lackluster, there was little to no development for any of the "heroes," they were not even likable "heroes," the plots were boring to watch, there was too much mcguffins going on (hero goes blind so we can just fix that up in the next episode, making the point of having him go blind... pointless), and the ending was a huge disappointment. A series, no matter how good or bad, can be redeemed by its finale, and this is one show that had an ending that was just as bad as the rest of the series.

Moving this to the correct thread!

I will admit I'm disappointed that the practical suits are gone, and that the Horrors are now in human form as much as the heroes. Although they never had much time in the sun, I really enjoyed the Horror suits and am saddened they've been replaced by a generic CGI mouth effect for every villain.

I must also admit I'm not a big fan of the protagonists. Although the characterisation was really weak in the second season, in the first season I enjoyed pretty much every character, here Ryuga and Takeru are really the only people who do it for me and even then Takeru's ludicrous overacting is painful.

Still, I don't think the writing here is any weaker than the other two seasons, GARO and Makai Senki were both chock full of garbled mythology and plot threads that went absolutely nowhere. The fact that TOWSITD seems to be trying to streamline the story in the right direction (as Makai Senki went in the wrong one) this is turning out to be the best written GARO yet, but that isn't saying much...

[Locke]

TOWSITD 9.

This was a weird episode, morally. It was basically one long message that claimed 'if you try to do the right thing, you will be brutally punished.'. Even the journalist, who initially angered me for betraying Ryuga, was really only trying to help and he died because of it.

Since a lot has been changed over the course of the seasons, I dunno whether to be impressed or not that Mr Big Bad was able to throw aside Ryuga's sword so easily. Is Soul Metal still impossible to lift to the untrained?

Either way, the action was really fun in this episode, it's just a shame the special effects were atrocious. This is probably the worst GARO has ever looked. It isn't so much the quality of the CGI itself, but more the quality of the animation. It was really noticeable when everyone transformed, everyone seemed out of proportion and stiff and jerky with hits that have no impact. It also seemed a waste because moments like this in the first and second seasons of GARO were incredible but this was just kinda awful.

It probably didn't help that this fight had no context at all. Why does GARO do this? Where the villain randomly comes forwards in the early episodes, has a huge fight with our protagonist, before running away and not confronting them directly until the end again? What was the point of this?

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

Since a lot has been changed over the course of the seasons, I dunno whether to be impressed or not that Mr Big Bad was able to throw aside Ryuga's sword so easily. Is Soul Metal still impossible to lift to the untrained?

Spoiler alert: yes.

[Locke]

TOWSITD 10.

Is that Ryugen?! And the Blue Hurricaneger?! Anyway, how is Ryugen listening to Bright Hope? Didn't Ryuga destroy that recording?

I really have to question the logic of the Horrors in this show, it all seems a little elaborate considering how they aren't careful in the slightest. I know that eating a human leaves behind no body, but they drop pretty much anyone even vaguely in their way racking up HUGE body counts and considering they are happy to do that and don't seem to care for the consequences it seems kinda pointless for them to just build a whole independent city for them to do it in.

Once again, this kind of episode could have been good, if we weren't fifty steps ahead of most of the characters in the episode. The mystery of what is going on in Vol City isn't interesting...because there is no mystery, we already know what is going on (for the most part). So although they tried to bring some much needed tension into the show by giving us a new, uninformed protagonist for a chunk of the episode, it actually added nothing to the experience.

And it's no comment on the quality of the writing, the storytelling is great, probably better than the first two seasons (although that doesn't say much) it just seems odd that the third part of the story, requires the least amount of audience knowledge to enjoy.

[Switchblade]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Locke

Is that Ryugen?!

Yep.

Quote:

And the Blue Hurricaneger?!

It's a tokusatsu in the 2010s, of course Nao Nagasawa is in it.

Quote:

Once again, this kind of episode could have been good, if we weren't fifty steps ahead of most of the characters in the episode. The mystery of what is going on in Vol City isn't interesting...because there is no mystery, we already know what is going on (for the most part). So although they tried to bring some much needed tension into the show by giving us a new, uninformed protagonist for a chunk of the episode, it actually added nothing to the experience.

And it's no comment on the quality of the writing, the storytelling is great, probably better than the first two seasons (although that doesn't say much) it just seems odd that the third part of the story, requires the least amount of audience knowledge to enjoy.

Not to spoil anything, but the show still has a couple of curveballs to throw.

[Locke]

TOWSITD 11.

This episode was really...really bad.

First there was the fact that I forgot the Horrors are basically defined by being pointlessly elaborate. I get the whole flavouring the meat thing, but since we never see the set up, or build up of their schemes, their plans just come across as rather meaningless. This show really is screaming for more two parters.

But the biggest problem with this episode was the acting, namely that it was atrocious across the board. Characters like Burai and Glasses McAsshole are so far in the background, it's hard to actually notice them in the first place, let alone their acting ability but Rian is constantly paraded in the foreground. I can see why, she is gorgeous, but she's almost as wooden as Andrew Gray with a facial expression that mirrors that of January Jones, who when in front of a camera mirrors a deer seconds before being hit by a truck.

Then of course was Sam who didn't sound like he could speak either Japanese or English. Or he just couldn't act. Luckily for him, but not luckily for the audience, pretty much every character around him attempted to speak English with such awkward engrishy results it went from amusing to embarrassing to please God make it stop!

Even the action didn't do much to save it. It was kinda fun to see Ryuga beating up a bunch of hookers so violently, and with such glee, but the actual main Horror and that awful CGI whip effect thing was utter rubbish. It's a shame as well, because GARO had fantastic action, and Makai Senki improved that action ten fold but this just feels like a thousand steps backwards and in the wrong direction. All the Horrors are the same, the CGI animation is atrocious and the armour has never felt more tacked on and pointless.

[DrillBIT]

Once again OST will only be coming with BD set, just like the first 2 seasons.



Announcement at the Golden Wolf Thanksgiving event in November (most likely for Yami wo Terasu mono sequel)

[Locke]

TOWSITD 12.

Another bad episode...

What was with the ear thing? I thought that she pulled her ears off and they turned into swords, which was implied by the way her hair fell forwards...but then the fight started and you could clearly see her ears. Then again the whole fight was weird, it was awkwardly edited in a way I think was supposed to suggest fast motion, but it just looked choppy and none of the actors could seem to keep up with the wires, with a string of hits that visibly didn't connect as the actors still went skidding across the room.