[Enchilada645]

It's a fun lead up to the final battle in which we get this cool coast side battle near the ocean.

Everyone's bringing their A-Game and we basically get a full gathering of both groups.

It's also cool to see how far our Rookie has come, managing to force Yabai Kamen to get super serious. The fact that Yabai Kamen ends up losing his voice modulator for the rest of the episode after his first defeat is so good at selling just how much shit gets real. He immediately turns the situation around and effortlessly defeats Rookie.

The dude may be a goofy manager most of the time for his evil villain company, but he can walk the walk when push comes to shove.

Also Ohgaman is back! Though him apparently knowing time travel is probably the least shocking thing this franchise does with him admittedly! Trust me on this!

I also just love the roll call, I decided to rewatch parts of the episodes again for this thread and I ended up basically watching all of Episode 10, 11 and 12 as a result lol. So just seeing all these guys get their own unique roll calls out of the way (I love KitaQman's starting with him texting his brother), and suddenly everyone is in a quarry is great.

Though of course the one scene that will always live rent free in my mind is Ohgaman suddenly thinking for like a good several seconds... before going "Ah... Dogengers" and the patented Sentai explosion going off in the background much to everyone's shock as we just end there.

Dogengers is just fun, and it manages to pull a nice emotional core too. Rookie Memories Mode is a fun concept for a form.

I'm mostly rambling but again, love Dogengers!

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

watching all of Episode 10, 11 and 12

You're right! I should get on that!

[DreamSword]

Episode 12: Different Words

Honestly the biggest twist in the show is that there's an actual person under KitaQman's' suit.

This episode otherwise leaves me with very little to talk about.

Don't get me wrong, as the finale, it definitely does its job quite well, and I really couldn't imagine the show ending in much of a different way across the board. It's very straight forward and to the point on bringing things to a close.

But in that same regard, it means there's really nothing I can add to it. It's action packed, full of nicely executed meta humor, and while the epilogue with Jiro and Yuki isn't exactly ideal in terms of my personal tastes, it works well enough for what it is.

So... yeah, I really don't have much to say on this one other than its left me feeling overall satisfied. That being said though, we're not quite done with this thread yet, oh no. Because just like GARO before it, Dogengers has a bonus episode, and you'd better believe that I'll be covering it. Interestingly it's about twice the length of a normal episode too. Stay tuned.

[Enchilada645]

There's a lot of fun to be had in the finale. Everyone gets their moment, we get some cool finishers as seen in the gif.

My favorite is probably Ohgaman completely taken aback by how eager and raring to go Rookie is. Also them doing a Double Rider Kick together was fun.

One fun little behind the scenes detail is we get a Rider cameo at the end, that being Yuuto from Den-O! This is a bit of a special one since Rookie's Suit Actor is Yoshifumi Oshikawa who was the main suit actor for Deneb for a while, and the two hadn't really seen each other since 2015 since he had stopped doing main suit acting for Toei around that time. It's a fun little reunion.

But yep! We do still have a special bonus episode for Season 1! One which I did not know of until Gagaga Scrubs ended up releasing batches and I saw the description of Season 2's batch.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

One fun little behind the scenes detail is we get a Rider cameo at the end, that being Yuuto from Den-O! This is a bit of a special one since Rookie's Suit Actor is Yoshifumi Oshikawa who was the main suit actor for Deneb for a while, and the two hadn't really seen each other since 2015 since he had stopped doing main suit acting for Toei around that time. It's a fun little reunion.

I knew that guy looked familiar!

[DreamSword]

Episode 12.5: Episode of I-DOLL

I ultimately come out of this one not really liking it all that much.

Feel free to call me a broken record, or anti-romance, or whatever, but I think it really does come down to how I-DOLL is suddenly in love with Jiro.

The crux of it being that, well, ontop of it not making any sense(how did she fall in love if she had no consciousness?),the narrative focus of this bonus episode is kind of all over the place.

Some very interesting concepts are brought up, like when the two halves of I-DOLL are talking about the idea of Self-Sacrifice vs Self-Preservation in the light of helping others, or how Great Ace talks about the debate between Fighting For Others and Fighting With Others.

But all of these ideas sort of go nowhere at best and at worst double back on themselves. Most egregiously the bit about Jiro's' proclamation that I-DOLL isn't just an object to be used, and I-DOLL herself deciding to live on... only for the two to once again turns back into dolls so that Rookie and continue to have his Memories Mode. It all just kinda left a bad taste in my mouth.

That's not to say it was all bad though. Great Ace himself is a pretty solid parody of Showa Era Kamen Riders, and what little time was spent with the rest of the Dogengers Heroes were definite highlights, even if I felt like they were just kinda unfairly bullying poor Yabai Kamen. Like, seriously, don't keep your uber/lyft driver waiting, or at the very least offer them a generous tip. Some good gags came as a result, but it's also still some unneeded cruelty.

I guess if I had to follow up on a comparison I made earlier in the thread, if the majority of Dogengers is SSSS.Gridman, then this episode is SSSS.Dynazenon. Not awful, but not my cup of tea.

Final thoughts post coming tomorrow!

[Enchilada645]

Ohgaman is a powerful entity, I'll say that much.

That being said uh... yeah I'll be honest, I agree with you on the points about I-DOLL. There's a weird romantic tone presented which is basically used to push her towards just going back to being a power-up. Which is a shame because like... idk, having both versions of I-DOLL kinda just roam around, do their own thing, go on their own journey and maybe show up occasionally to help out is a really cool idea that could be fleshed out tbh.

Great Ace is a hoot though, and I really love his suit. There's something about a golden padded muscle suit that just looks surprisingly nice in motion.

[DreamSword]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Enchilada645

That being said uh... yeah I'll be honest, I agree with you on the points about I-DOLL. There's a weird romantic tone presented which is basically used to push her towards just going back to being a power-up. Which is a shame because like... idk, having both versions of I-DOLL kinda just roam around, do their own thing, go on their own journey and maybe show up occasionally to help out is a really cool idea that could be fleshed out tbh.

Yeah, it's not even just them either. Like, why did Great Ace have to go too? Dude doesn't even get to contribute in another way like how they claim for the I-DOLL arms. It's just a giant waste of good characters.

[DreamSword]

En-chan and I did a Tokucast on the first episode! Of which you can listen to HERE!

With that out of the way, onto my...

FINAL THOUGHTS ON DOGENGERS SEASON 1

I had no idea what I was getting myself into with this show.

Like, I know, that's sort of the whole point of this series I've decided to do throughout the year, I get that, but like...

This was a show that, while I knew it existed, and I knew the baseline premise of "local heroes are cool" I absolutely was not expecting the way in which it executes that idea.

Because sure, it absolutely does highlight the coolness and lovable personas of every hero involved, but it never once devolves into feeling like it's a paid shill, or pretentious, or like it has to do anything our of pure obligation. Sure, maybe behind the scenes that was the case, but the show itself never feels like that.

There's alot of genuine heart throughout the entirety of the show's' run, both in terms of showcasing these lesser known heroes as well as treating long time toku fans with a new world that they might've not ever been familiar with. I know I sure wasn't. And all in a style that, while self-aware, comes across as them being proud of what they're making, not ashamed.

It's not a single-minded showcase sort of show either. The overall theme that Dogengers decided to go with in its story, about how things not said an actions not taken, and how they can affect relationships with others every bit as much as direct actions can, was a very unique angle that I don't recall many stories actually bringing up, let alone exploring to the extent that this one does. And this goes for both platonic and romantic relationships.

Jiro's' story, while certainly more mundane than the backstories of many other toku heroes(which is ironic for a show so chaotic alot of times), is one that I'm sure most of us can relate to: Having a past event where we wish we'd said that one important sentence. Or taken that one extra step to truly let our feelings be known. It's a desire for closure that people all too often let pass by them, whether it in hopes that things won't end or being scared to rock the boat even further than it already has.

Sure, the overarching plot of Y'all Rangers is very bare bones, and the budget is pretty low, but the show more than makes up for it in nearly every other aspect. From its fun action, to its great comedy, to its wonderful pacing that doesn't waste a single second, and most importantly its fantastic character development for nearly everyone in the cast, this is a toku I fell in love with right at the start, and that love never really wavered. Yeah, it's not perfect, but it was clear that the show knew what it wanted to do from the outset and it absolutely went for it.

If I had to sum up my thoughts on the show in one sentence, well, give me a minutes to think...

...

Ah, I got it.

Watch


5/6