Androzani84 Watches Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger

Androzani84 · 01-12-2021, 04:50 AM

Well after seeing them grow in popularity, I decided to try my hand at my own watch thread. And my topic of choice, as you can discern from the title, is Ninpuu Sentai Hurricaneger, a mishmash of everything that was in Toei’s big three in 1988 (Liveman’s set up, Jiraiya’s ‘everyone is a f*cking ninja’ and KR Black’s writer Jun’ichi Miyashita), despite being made in 2002. I assume I’m in for a ride.

And I’ll note that I have nothing against story spoiler, unlike most of the other watch threads. Plot spoilers on the other hand, are strictly taboo. So for instance, if someone splits their pants at one point, you have free reign to tell me about it. But if you want to tell me the whole background and results of the pants splitting, then please don’t.

If you want to see an example of my other review work, see my YouTube channel here.

https://youtube.com/channel/UCzdKP0l83-VZg5F6ErHQTQQ

And for an example of my other writing works, see my fanfiction accounts here.

https://archiveofourown.org/users/An...ds/Androzani84

https://www.fanfiction.net/u/9387366/Androzani84

The first review will be up in a few hours.

gashatfreak · 01-12-2021, 04:52 AM

I was born during Hurricaneger so I'm definitely interested in this show. Haven't seen it yet but I'll watch your thread with great interest.

dreamcastegirl · 01-12-2021, 05:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gashatfreak

I was born during Hurricaneger

That makes me feel so old, but also, what a good vintage.

Hurri is definitely one of my fave toku shows of all times, despite its flaws, so good luck to both of you with this show!

NanaBijou Forever!! *explodes*

Sunred · 01-12-2021, 05:18 AM

Good luck.

DreamSword · 01-12-2021, 05:59 AM

It's not one of the handful of Sentai I was interested in, but I'm rootin' for ya dude. Hope you have fun!

Sunred · 01-12-2021, 06:50 AM

The reason this show is a favorite for me was because how they took the premise and core elements of Liveman and just decorated it with ninja stuff and came up with something that surprisingly turned out well.

Androzani84 · 01-12-2021, 07:22 AM

Episode 1: Wind and Ninja

(Just so you know, my review style will mostly be a synopsis of what happened, with a few notes thrown in there, followed by an overall summary. Also, don’t expect any pictures, unless I can go through a lot of effort to upload them).

So, after our opening credits scene with the first contribution to Sentai by one Hideaki Taketori (who went on to be, to coin a phrase, ‘the pope of this thing’), we get our opening scene with a lady investigating a cave to find a strange insect-shaped device, which fires a beam into space. Two months later, in Ninja Valley (Is that a real place? I don’t know), we meet our 3 Hurricanegers to be, Yosuke Shina, Nanami Nono and Kuuga Bitou, all of whom are 507th in their specific styles (Sky Ninja, Water Ninja and Earth Ninja respectively) and are competing over a scroll using their respective techniques. Then the fight gets broken up by a man in an Oni mask, the headmaster of their school, the Hayate Style. He takes the scroll easily, berates them for not living up to the Style’s legendary successors the Hurricanegers (mwah mwah) before turning into an Owl and flying off, but not before telling them to meet him for training tomorrow.

So of course, they blow it off to make fun of the dude for being a hardass who keeps them trapped in a force field to train (which seems like a reasonable complaint to have), all while sharing a persimmon. Elsewhere, the headmaster lectures his students on the Hayate Style’s long war with the Ikazuchi Style, dating back to the Sengoku era. (Make your own Kamen Rider joke; I’m too lazy) We get told that the Hayate Style has always come out on top as warriors, while the Ikazuchi Style has remained hidden from the world (which would probably make them better Ninjas, but what do I know)

Meanwhile, we cut to the lady from before in a hacking war with the bug machine, which fails, as it transmits successfully to its target, the Centipede, a giant rock-like space ship belonging to our villains, the Space Ninja Army Jakanja (Yes, for once our ninja Toku heroes won’t be fighting demons. A shock, I know). After our five bad guys, the 7 Dark Spears (I assume the other two are fashionably late) Furabijo, Tuezoobo, Wendinu, Mamunruba (since I’m not gonna spell that right often, I’ll just call him “Floaty Head”) and Sargain. (The PR staff must not been very creative when it came time to adapt this). After looking at the transmission, they are silenced (even though they weren’t sayin anything) but their boss, Tau Zant (a play on “thousand”, which kind of breaks the days of the week naming pattern, but whatever) who states they’ve been searching for “that” for 500 years and that his minions are a band of thieves and whores who he expects to bring it to him. Tuezoobo decides to eliminate the competition from Earth’s ninjas by sending his first monster, Shield Ninja Kekou, to take them out with the aid of their minions, the Megarappas (who have the gestures of stereotypical rappers). True to his designation, Kekou destroys Hayate’s force field, allowing all the students and the castle to be turned into talismans and sucked into a tornado. The headmaster fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on what you think of him at this point) escapes by turning himself into a hamster, who Furabijo proceeds to pick up and take for herself (despite the presumable health risks involved with a wild hamster being adopted).

Our three losers return to the ruins and try and fail to defeat Kekou, who fights them by turning into a head (no, really) and firing lasers on them. They then fall into a cave where they meet the lady, the headmaster’s daughter Oboro who has been investigating the transmitter for two months (and she never told anybody?). She then mentions that even the Ikazuchi Style went down the same was as the Hayates did. The hamster-headmaster then wills his weapon (which Yosuke 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 assured 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 Hurricane Suits. Happy to be vindicated, our new Hurricanegers leave to face Kekou… without their Gyros (more or less dignified than the Wind Rangers not knowing how the things work? You decide. Yes, I am a Ninja Storm fan. Why do you ask?)

And so our heroes face Kekou and Furabijo once more, using the Hurricane Gyros to transform and doing a flowery, kabuki-esque roll call. They then proceed to defeat the Megarappas using a variety of element-appropriate Ninpo (except for Kouta, who splits himself into multiple copies for some reason), before beginning their rematch with the Shield Ninja (who despite his name, hasn’t done a lot of defensive techniques), who tries 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). But our heroes escape using their hang gliders and them attack with their ninja weapons: a hairdryer, a megaphone and a hammer (no, really). After using these to knock Kekou off his feet (literally), they then combine them into the Triple Gadget and destroy him. 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?).

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). The Centipede then drills its way into the Earth (relax, it only hits the ocean. No land masses were harmed), knocking out Oboro’s wi-fi and allowing the 5 Spears to confront our heroes. The episode ends with Yosuke, Nanami and Kouta facing down Furabijo, Tuezoobo, Wendinu, Floaty Head and Sargain.

After our ED by the Prince of anime songs, Hinrobu Kageyama, which has some rare (for Sentai) footage shot on video, we get our preview for the next episode, Giant and Karakuri. We see that at least Nanami wants out of the superhero biz (which is ironic, when you consider how involved with Tokusatsu Nao Nagesawa is nowadays), Yosuke faces a magnetic ninja and our giant robot for this series, Senpuujin, debuts.

Final Thoughts: Overall, a very good introduction. We get a bit of world-building, all three MCs are distinct enough and have likeable personalities and we’ve seen how threatening our bad guys are. My one real complaint is that Furabijo is the only bad guy with any real character at this point, but I’m sure that will change.

gashatfreak · 01-12-2021, 08:29 AM

Would it be okay if you can you put up some pictures like what Kamen Rider Die does? The review's great but I don't want to hop on to Kissasian or wherever else I watch toku to look at stuff.

If not, that's okay.

Androzani84 · 01-12-2021, 10:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by gashatfreak

Would it be okay if you can you put up some pictures like what Kamen Rider Die does? The review's great but I don't want to hop on to Kissasian or wherever else I watch toku to look at stuff.

If not, that's okay.

Like I said in the review, I can’t really upload pictures as easily, especially since the new Wiki server means their pictures don’t show up on other sites. In order to do an upload, I have to post them on Twitter, go on the app, open the picture in Safari from there, and then use that URL. So it’s a bit of a hectic process I’m not always willing to go through.

But, I will try and find some way to make it simpler. And like I said, there will be some pictures.

Androzani84 · 01-13-2021, 07:18 AM

Before I do tomorrow’s write-up, I think I should point out that while Floaty-Head wasn’t adapted into Power Rangers (hence my apathy at learning his name), he was included as an accessory with the action figure for the Kelzak

01-12-2021, 04:52 AM	#2
gashatfreak WONDER RIDER Join Date: Oct 2017 Location: Australia Posts: 2,813	I was born during Hurricaneger so I'm definitely interested in this show. Haven't seen it yet but I'll watch your thread with great interest. __________________

01-12-2021, 05:02 AM	#3
dreamcastegirl Yodonna oshi Join Date: Jan 2021 Posts: 748	Quote: Originally Posted by gashatfreak I was born during Hurricaneger That makes me feel so old, but also, what a good vintage. Hurri is definitely one of my fave toku shows of all times, despite its flaws, so good luck to both of you with this show! NanaBijou Forever!! *explodes* __________________ nonsense \| fanzines

01-12-2021, 05:59 AM	#5
DreamSword Some guy. I'm alright. Join Date: Sep 2019 Location: Michigan Posts: 4,715	It's not one of the handful of Sentai I was interested in, but I'm rootin' for ya dude. Hope you have fun! __________________ Watch Star Driver With Me! \| Tokucasts w/ Friends!

01-12-2021, 06:50 AM	#6
Sunred Ex-Weather Three leader Join Date: Jan 2012 Posts: 11,024	The reason this show is a favorite for me was because how they took the premise and core elements of Liveman and just decorated it with ninja stuff and came up with something that surprisingly turned out well. Last edited by Sunred; 01-12-2021 at 06:52 AM..

01-12-2021, 07:22 AM	#7
Androzani84 Veteran Member Join Date: May 2019 Posts: 2,653	*Episode 1: Wind and Ninja* (Just so you know, my review style will mostly be a synopsis of what happened, with a few notes thrown in there, followed by an overall summary. Also, don’t expect any pictures, unless I can go through a lot of effort to upload them). So, after our opening credits scene with the first contribution to Sentai by one Hideaki Taketori (who went on to be, to coin a phrase, ‘the pope of this thing’), we get our opening scene with a lady investigating a cave to find a strange insect-shaped device, which fires a beam into space. Two months later, in Ninja Valley (Is that a real place? I don’t know), we meet our 3 Hurricanegers to be, Yosuke Shina, Nanami Nono and Kuuga Bitou, all of whom are 507th in their specific styles (Sky Ninja, Water Ninja and Earth Ninja respectively) and are competing over a scroll using their respective techniques. Then the fight gets broken up by a man in an Oni mask, the headmaster of their school, the Hayate Style. He takes the scroll easily, berates them for not living up to the Style’s legendary successors the Hurricanegers (mwah mwah) before turning into an Owl and flying off, but not before telling them to meet him for training tomorrow. So of course, they blow it off to make fun of the dude for being a hardass who keeps them trapped in a force field to train (which seems like a reasonable complaint to have), all while sharing a persimmon. Elsewhere, the headmaster lectures his students on the Hayate Style’s long war with the Ikazuchi Style, dating back to the Sengoku era. (Make your own Kamen Rider joke; I’m too lazy) We get told that the Hayate Style has always come out on top as warriors, while the Ikazuchi Style has remained hidden from the world (which would probably make them better Ninjas, but what do I know) Meanwhile, we cut to the lady from before in a hacking war with the bug machine, which fails, as it transmits successfully to its target, the Centipede, a giant rock-like space ship belonging to our villains, the Space Ninja Army Jakanja (Yes, for once our ninja Toku heroes won’t be fighting demons. A shock, I know). After our five bad guys, the 7 Dark Spears (I assume the other two are fashionably late) Furabijo, Tuezoobo, Wendinu, Mamunruba (since I’m not gonna spell that right often, I’ll just call him “Floaty Head”) and Sargain. (The PR staff must not been very creative when it came time to adapt this). After looking at the transmission, they are silenced (even though they weren’t sayin anything) but their boss, Tau Zant (a play on “thousand”, which kind of breaks the days of the week naming pattern, but whatever) who states they’ve been searching for “that” for 500 years and that his minions are a band of thieves and whores who he expects to bring it to him. Tuezoobo decides to eliminate the competition from Earth’s ninjas by sending his first monster, Shield Ninja Kekou, to take them out with the aid of their minions, the Megarappas (who have the gestures of stereotypical rappers). True to his designation, Kekou destroys Hayate’s force field, allowing all the students and the castle to be turned into talismans and sucked into a tornado. The headmaster fortunately (or unfortunately, depending on what you think of him at this point) escapes by turning himself into a hamster, who Furabijo proceeds to pick up and take for herself (despite the presumable health risks involved with a wild hamster being adopted). Our three losers return to the ruins and try and fail to defeat Kekou, who fights them by turning into a head (no, really) and firing lasers on them. They then fall into a cave where they meet the lady, the headmaster’s daughter Oboro who has been investigating the transmitter for two months (and she never told anybody?). She then mentions that even the Ikazuchi Style went down the same was as the Hayates did. The hamster-headmaster then wills his weapon (which Yosuke 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 assured 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 Hurricane Suits. Happy to be vindicated, our new Hurricanegers leave to face Kekou… without their Gyros (more or less dignified than the Wind Rangers not knowing how the things work? You decide. Yes, I am a Ninja Storm fan. Why do you ask?) And so our heroes face Kekou and Furabijo once more, using the Hurricane Gyros to transform and doing a flowery, kabuki-esque roll call. They then proceed to defeat the Megarappas using a variety of element-appropriate Ninpo (except for Kouta, who splits himself into multiple copies for some reason), before beginning their rematch with the Shield Ninja (who despite his name, hasn’t done a lot of defensive techniques), who tries 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). But our heroes escape using their hang gliders and them attack with their ninja weapons: a hairdryer, a megaphone and a hammer (no, really). After using these to knock Kekou off his feet (literally), they then combine them into the Triple Gadget and destroy him. 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?). 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). The Centipede then drills its way into the Earth (relax, it only hits the ocean. No land masses were harmed), knocking out Oboro’s wi-fi and allowing the 5 Spears to confront our heroes. The episode ends with Yosuke, Nanami and Kouta facing down Furabijo, Tuezoobo, Wendinu, Floaty Head and Sargain. After our ED by the Prince of anime songs, Hinrobu Kageyama, which has some rare (for Sentai) footage shot on video, we get our preview for the next episode, Giant and Karakuri. We see that at least Nanami wants out of the superhero biz (which is ironic, when you consider how involved with Tokusatsu Nao Nagesawa is nowadays), Yosuke faces a magnetic ninja and our giant robot for this series, Senpuujin, debuts. Final Thoughts: Overall, a very good introduction. We get a bit of world-building, all three MCs are distinct enough and have likeable personalities and we’ve seen how threatening our bad guys are. My one real complaint is that Furabijo is the only bad guy with any real character at this point, but I’m sure that will change. Last edited by Androzani84; 01-27-2021 at 03:17 PM..