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07-26-2021, 11:48 AM | #8771 |
Ex-Weather Three leader
Join Date: Jan 2012
Posts: 10,558
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Only thing I will say is katsudon FTW.
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07-26-2021, 01:24 PM | #8772 |
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 908
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This is my overall fourth favorite Sentai crossover movie. I seriously love the dynamic between the Megarangers and the Carrangers and the film itself is just downright fun. Oh, and the continuity nods to the previous series is a nice touch.
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07-27-2021, 09:54 AM | #8773 |
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Join Date: Feb 2019
Posts: 2,448
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I watched Zyu Oh Vs Ninja Ranger recently being my 2nd team up movie. The first was Magi / Deka.
Update Toei shows on a short delay for catching up Power Rangers Beast Morphers on Netflix for the 2nd half. Finishing the 1st 20. Power Rangers Beast Morphers Part 1 (01 - 20) (Complete) Dino Fury (Episode 12) Dino Fury is on hiatus at the moment and I have 7 left on the first half of Beast Morphers.
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Currently watching Galaxy Man - Aba and To Quger - Don Bros. on DVD. |
07-27-2021, 09:03 PM | #8774 |
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Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 908
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I'm now up to episode 25 of LuPat. I am now officially close to the show's halfway point.
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08-01-2021, 06:40 PM | #8775 |
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Join Date: May 2019
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And we’re back for another one of these, even if Fish took the week off. So, without further ado, let’s proceed with…
Seijuu Sentai Gingaman vs Megaranger "The Starbeasts: They are mysterious animals who fight for the sake of defending harmony in the Milky Way!" “Mystical animals that protect the galaxy, the Starbeasts give power to five chosen warriors. These warriors can freely control the natural power of Earth which they used to beat the Space Pirates Balban that were wrecking planets.” Gingaman: Ryouma/GingaRed: a rookie in the art of Earth Power, Ryouma became GingaRed to fulfil his brother Hyuuga's last wish. His potential is stronger than Hyuuga's. He is bright, optimistic, and hardworking. When Hyuuga returns, Ryoma offered his saber back, but he changed his mind, to Hyuuga's pleasure. His element is fire. Later, with the Lights of Ginga, Ryouma can become Super Armor Shine GingaRed (超装光ギンガレッド Chōsōkō Gingareddo). Hayate/GingaGreen: Cool and quick-witted, he is an expert flute player. A very qualified sub-leader, his only weakness is tomatoes (although he fixes this through the series) and honey. Miharu, whom he is engaged to, gave him a flute and amulet, which he always carries, before leaving the Ginga Forest. He became rivals with Steerwoman Shelinda after a sword battle. Hayate's element is wind. Later, with the Lights of Ginga, Hayate can become Super Armor Shine GingaGreen (超装光ギンガグリーン Chōsōkō Gingagurīn). In the finale, Hayate reunited with Miharu after the Ginga Forest is restored following Zahab's death. Gouki/GingaBlue: Gouki is strong but shy and slightly nervous, and a lover of forests and wildlife. He thought this aspect of his personality would not let him be a good Gingaman, but at the end he even conquered long secret love Suzuko Miyasawa. He is also a good cook and his element is water. Later, with the Lights of Ginga, Gouki can become Super Armor Shine GingaBlue (超装光ギンガブルー Chōsōkō Gingaburū). Hikaru/GingaYellow: Even though he can be very childish at times, he hates to be treated like a kid. Hikaru is a gluttonous prankster. His favorite food is Mister Donut's doughnut. After the appearance of Black Marketeer Biznella they often fought each other. Hikaru's element is thunder. Later, with the Lights of Ginga, Hikaru can become Super Armor Shine GingaYellow (超装光ギンガイエロー Chōsōkō Gingaierō). Saya/GingaPink: Saya has a strong admiration for Hyuuga and sisterly affection for Ryouma that gave her courage to fight against the Balban with her comrades. She loves climbing trees and is always playing or competing with Hikaru, which often leads to arguments and misunderstandings between them. Saya is a strong but introverted girl, her "earth" element is nature and later, with the Lights of Ginga, Saya can become Super Armor Shine GingaPink (超装光ギンガピンク Chōsōkō Gingapinku). Allies: Kurokishi Hyuuga: Ryouma’s older brother and the original candidate for GingaRed. But during the initiation, he was attacked by Barban’s Gun Boss Sambash and left for dead in a crater. He was however, saved by the spirit of Kurokishi BullBlack, a warrior with a strong vendetta with the Barban who had fallen into the same pit 3000 years ago. Eventually, BullBlack sacrificed himself to save the Earth, restoring Hyuuga in the process, with the latter gaining access to BullBlack’s Bull Riot sword, armour and Starbeast GoTaurus. He later gave up his Earth Power to master the Knight Axe and kill Zahab, only to regain it later after the Axe proved insufficient. Wisdom Tree Mokk: a tree spirit who serves as a mentor to Gingaman, providing them with new weapons from his seeds. He can sense Barban in any area that has a tree nearby. He sacrificed himself to prevent the Earth from being poisoned by the Earth Monster’s presence and the Super Growth Extract dropped within the soil, but was revived from a seed planted in the Ginga Forest after Barban’s defeat. Fairy Bokk: a diminutive tree sprite with an acorn-shaped*cranium and who ends every phrase with "bokku!" When the Barban attacked the Galaxy Forest Village, he was the only one to escape before it turned to stone, carrying an amulet he was instructed by the village elder Ohgi to deliver to the Gingamen. He usually stayed inMokk’s chamber. Yuuta Aoyama: a child who introduced the Gingaman to the outside world, after disbelieving in the legend of them at first. His father gave them shelter at his ranch so he could write a children’s book about them. Space Pirates Barban: A gang of space pirates who go around destroying planets and collecting their riches. They were sealed away by the original Gingaman 3000 years ago, but the seal decayed into uselessness in the present day. Captain Zahab: Barban’s leader, who spearheaded their efforts first to revive the Daitanic and when it was destroyed, to cultivate the Earth Monster as a replacement. He has been kept alive for millions of years using the compressed remains of his planet as an artificial heart. In the final battle, he was killed by the Black Knight's Black Chop, the JuuSoukou Gingamen's Ginga no Senkou, and finally, ChouSoukou GingaRed, using his Flashing Starbeast Sword and Beast Armour Claw for the Beast Fire Flash in mid-air as the final attack. Steerwoman Shelinda: Zahab’s right hand, who had a desire to kill Hayate after he scarred her breasts, even though he never acknowledged her at first, until she posed as his lost love Miharu to sadisitcally torture him, which made him dedicated to destroy her, which he succeeded at. Gun Boss Sambash: the hot-headed and leather-clad leader of the Sambash Monster Gang. In battle, he wields a pistol with great destructive power and rides a motorcycle equipped with a machine gun. He was the first general of the chosen by Captain Zahab to fight the Gingamen. He would try to revive the Daitanic using trivia about it, until his final plan, wherein he discovered the Galactic Light sealed in a cave and planned to take that. But upon finding that it was a decoy, he went insane and was killed in a botched suicide attack against Ryouma, that ended with him going over a cliff and exploding. Samurai General Budoh: the leader of the Budoh Monster Mob, and the second general chosen by Captain Zahab to fight the Gingaman and revive the Daitanic. His appearance is of a humanoid manta ray whose wings form a partial cape bearing his army's emblem. Budoh is armed with the Girasame katana and despite his unpredictability possesses a strong sense of honor and loyalty that even Captain Zahab recognized, thanking his men for their service whenever they fall in battle. He planned to continue where Sambash left off, by finding where the Galactic Light was hidden. But not only did the Gingaman get there first, but he was framed for treachery by his rival Illiess and disgraced, choosing to go out in battle against GingaRed , since he had little left to lose. Spectral Empress Illiess: the leader of the Iliess Monster Tribe and was the third general to face the Gingamen. A spiteful and covetous Egyptian-themed sorceress, Iliess valued money even over the lives of her own family and always demanded monetary compensation upon a successful plan, a trait that did not go unnoticed by Captain Zahab. She gained her position of field general by humialitong Budoh in revenge for his humiliating her uncle Bookrates, then she proceeded to instigate plans to gather certain numbers of people to carry out rituals to break the seal, in exchange for a monetary reward. In her last battle, she summoned the spirits of all her monsters and combined with them to become Evil Empress Illiess (邪帝イリエス, Jatei Iriesu), but was defeated by GingaiOh and BullTaurus, with her soul gem being crushed to stop the Daitanic’s heart from decaying. Destruction King Battobas: the leader of the Battobas Monster Corps, and the fourth, final, and strongest of the Barban Generals to face the Gingamen. A weapons and tactical specialist; Battobas is considered by Captain Zahab to be "his right arm", which suggests a longer relationship between them than the rest of the generals. He also has a long relationship with Dark Merchant Biznella, whom he hired on to be his second-in-command after Captain Zahab seized Biznella's ship, as compensation for the loss of the Steel Starbeasts Biznella had sold to them earlier. His plan initially focused on carefully planned strategies to restart the Daitanic’s heart, and later on pouring Super Growth Extract into the ground to forcibly enlarge the Earth Monster. He succeeded in the second goal, but unfortunately for him, the monster was now hungry. What do I think of the show? Considering it’s written by one of my least favourite Tokusatsu writers and produced by one of my least favourite Tokusatsu producers? It was actually pretty good. Shame I can’t say the same about what we’re about to get into. Like with the last one, this is written by Arakawa (a fairly odd choice, given that there are two other writers who did both shows that had way more of a contribution to Gingaman than he did), but this time, the director’s chair belongs to the late, great Takao Nagaishi, who was the main director of Megaranger among other shows. This is also the last Sentai production by Taketera (whose madcap scheme to get creative control over Kamen Rider at first went swimmingly, before his second crack ensured he’d never work at Toei again). With all that said, on with the review. Our movie opens in the Galaxy Forest, with the narrator explaining the story so far. (Yes, dear viewer. This takes place AFTER the series. Don’t ask why, it makes about as much sense as when Ex-Aid and Zero-One did it) As everyone talks about how much they love the tranquility of the forest (because, nature series), Mokk senses something coming. And it’s not the Starbeasts. (I spell it as one word because, to me, the only “star beast” is Beep the Meep) Cue titles Dash, run to all the corners of the Earth. (Gingaman) Dash, be like the wind in the wilderness. (Gingaman) Howl, howl, howl! Gingaman! Hear the sounds of footsteps on the ground! Strong and fierce, louder than anything! You can beat the setting sun to the horizon! (Gingaman) Gan gan, gin gin, Gingaman! Gan gan, gin gin, Gingaman! Let the roars of five beasts be heard! Gan gan, gin gin, Gingaman! Gan gan, gin gin, Gingaman! The legendary blade that pierces the galaxy! Seijuu Sentai Gingaman Heading to the scene, the Gingaman find a creature like the Daitanic, but in red, crashing in the centre of the city. Ryouma is the first to leap into the fray doing his transformation. “Ginga Tensei! (Galaxy Rebirth) Ha!” (Per a meet and greet which involved Saya’s actress Juri Miyazawa, the ‘ha’ is absolutely necessary) But as their Earth Power proves ineffective, it turns out that this monster has its own pirate associated with it. Space Pirate Gregory (who has the same VA as Space Berserker Helmedor from the previous movie) (I have no idea where either “Gregory” or “Gelmadic” come from. So I hope you won’t mind if I nickname the former “Cap’n Crunch”, since I have trouble taking the name seriously thanks to the Wimpy Kid books) Cap’n Crunch beats the tar out of the Gingaman with ease, only for the battle to be joined by a newcomer who overpowers him. Cap’n Crunch: Who is that guy? Kenta: An ally of justice. As Kenta defeats Cap’n Crunch long enough for the Gingaman to pull out their JuGekiBou (which bizarrely use the original toy-accurate design rather than the upgraded version from Gingaman’s endgame arc). Cap’n Crunch survives this and bids the Gelmadic attack them all, to which the three Silver Starbeasts, Giga-Vitus, GigaRhinos and GigaPhoenix, show up to do battle. After a protracted fight, the latter two defeat the Gelmadic… only to explode for some reason (no, there isn’t an explanation I can think of or one given in the story for this to happen. It just does) And to add insult to injury, the Gelmadic survives, though Cap’n Crunch detaches his castle before the monster disappears. As Cap’n Crunch moves his castle to an island, we learn he has a subordinate. Hizumina offers to react a barrier around the planet so the Starbeasts can’t interfere with the Gelmadic’s healing (despite, oh I don’t know, exploding). Cap’n Crunch is pleased with this, moving onto stage two of his plan. But because he used up all of his sword’s energy (energy? It’s a sword, not a blaster), he can’t resurrect anyone more powerful than the commanders. But Hizumina offers to get him some extra energy, at which point we learn her resemblance to Shibolena (“Shibole”= squeeze, “Hizumu” = distort) is more than skin deep, as her end of the bargain is the resurrection of Nezirejia. Cap’n Crunch then begins his ritual, as Hizumina vows to revive Dr. Hinelar. Back at the Galaxy Forest, Ryouma reads Kenta’s card. As Kenta chuckles about being unemployed and is amazed by what the Gingaman have as a set up, Mokk recounts how the Starbeasts sealed an evil man in space long before the Barban became a threat to Earth. And he has no idea where Cap’n Crunch or his monster went, so Kenta volunteers to help. In his evil lair, Cap’n Crunch performs a ritual to bring back, Shellinda, Sambash, Budoh, Illiess and Battobas (but not Bookrates or Businera). At Kenta’s college, the Gingaman draw laughs from everyone, which Kenta quickly works out the cause of. He says they need to change into something more inconspicuous. One jump cut later. Hikaru asks the obvious question of why Kenta is wearing Ryouma’s outfit, to which he explains he always wanted to wear something like this. It turns out our other featured yellow hero (and Juri Miyazawa’s NIYA NIYA SISTERS bandmate) isn’t crazy about it either. Chisato reveals that they lost sight of the fortress because of a magic barrier that appeared around the Earth, to which Kubota has suggested they can reverse engineer a solution from Ryouma’s Ginga Brace. After everyone changes back (then why did the bother changing, beyond a gag?) and Kenta explains that Koichiro, Shun and Miku are all overseas, a mysterious woman in mink breaks into Chisato’s room and steals the Ginga Brace. The woman removes her disguise to reveal that she is Hizumina, who explains her origins. She then explains why she didn’t blow up when Grand Neziros was destroyed by Mega Voyager in Megaranger’s finale. She was flung into space, where she collided with Cap’n Crunch’s prison of 5000 years and made a pact to revive their respective factions to get revenge on their tormentors. As the non-Ryouma Gingaman attack, the Barban commanders make themselves known. And then Hyuuga, after being absent from every scene outside of the Galaxy Forest, shows up to save Ryouma from being stepped on by Cap’n Crunch and to help the others escape before their Ginga Braces can be taken by summoning GoTaurus to force the bad guys to retreat. As Ryouma heals in a hospital, Kenta and Chisato apologise for losing his Brace as the Earth begins to shake, which Mokk confirms isn’t an earthquake. (That’s not how this species works! Goodnight) And then they learn that the barrier is preventing the Starbeasts from returning to Earth (this was probably supposed to be the most dramatic scene in the film, but thanks to some truly laughable staging, the opposite happens). Back at the evil lair, Cap’n Crunch performs the resurrection ritual to bring back Zahab… only for Hizumina to interrupt by stealing the sword and revealing what this alliance was actually about. She states that only Dr. Hinelar can rule the universe, only to be beaten down by Shellinda, who argues that it belongs to the Space Pirates (so Hizumina went down like a bitch). But performing this ritual has allowed Mokk to pinpoint their location to the sea (real helpful)… and the other Megarangers show up to pinpoint the exact location. As Koichiro acknowledges Kenta as the real leader and reveals they actually got enough data for Kubota from the scan of the Ginga Brace, everyone but the two reds head out for the island. Where Cap’n Crunch has finished reviving Zahab. Zahab and Cap’n Crunch cement an alliance to destroy the Starbeasts (which they can’t do, since the barrier is preventing anything from coming and going to Earth). Elsewhere, Ryouma tries pulling himself to the battlefield, which Kenta approves of, giving him a lift on his bike (which he got from… somewhere) The others set off by boat (which Shun knows how to drive, for some reason) and find the island with Koichiro’s machine (which prompts a completely off-tangent discussion of how they’ll protect this planet. A nice sentiment, but it has nothing to do with what they were talking about). As the Gelmadic quakes and throws the two reds into a literal cliffhanger, Kenta saves them by summoning his Cyber Slider as they fall off. As the others reach the island, Cap’n Crunch has his crew (they’re not your crew, they’re Zahab’s) fill his sword with their hatred to heal the Gelmadic… which turns out to be unnecessary, as he’s already healed and is heading for the island right now. As the heroes beat their way through Yatotos, Cap’n Crunch stabs his sword into the ground, beginning the process of reviving the Gelmadic (so is it revived or not? Make up your damn mind ABOUT ONE THING!) The heroes witness this and decide to charge in after the obligatory transformation sequence (or in the case of the Megarangers, as per the same meet and great I mentioned earlier, doing a pose before cutting to the cameraman’s hand working the Digitizer) Hyuuga! Kishi Tensei! (Knight Rebirth!) Ha! Megarangers: Install, Megaranger! Hayate: Ginga Tensei! Ha! As they charge in, they get blasted back by the full force of Barban’s leaders. But then Kenta and Ryouma appear. Ryouma blasts Cap’n Crunch with his Honoo no Tategami (mane of fire) technique, knocking his Ginga Brace free so he can retrieve it and the two reds can transform side by side for this group shot. Roll call time: Kenta: Mega Red! Koichiro: Mega Black! Shun: Mega Blue! Chisato: Mega Yellow! Miku: Mega Pink! All: Denji Sentai Megaranger! Ryouma: GingaRed, Ryouma! Hayate: GingaGreen, Hayate! Gouki: GingaBlue, Gouki! Hikaru: GingaYellow, Hikaru! Saya: GingaPink, Saya! Hyuuga: Kurokishi, Hyuuga! Ryouma: The legendary blade that pierces the Galaxy! Seiju Sentai… All: Gingaman! Narrator: Gingaman: it is a title bestowed upon courageous galactic warriors. But then Cap’n Crunch reveals he revived a whole army of monsters, not just the generals (I won’t bother naming them all, but I will point out that their presence here ultimately screwed up the production of Power Rangers Lost Galaxy by limiting what suits they had access to) As the heroes make incredibly quick work of these revived monsters (Cap’n Crunch should’ve realised resurrected monsters are always weaker than their first time out), the commanders start fighting Gingaman, while Hizumina revives long enough to face down Megaranger (She’s still here?) After Hizumina decimates 4 of the Megarangers with her variety of arbitrary powers, Kenta defeats her for good in a one hit kill (possibly the saddest death of a V-Cinext villain ever. Who cries for Hizumina? She never really achieves anything, contributes nothing unique to the plot and now she dies without any kind of redemption or enemy mine situation. Heck, even Kylo Ren got an enemy mine situation). Then, the Gelmadic emerges from the Earth, now coloured blue (and I will henceforth refer to it as “the Neo-Gelmadic”) The Megarangers and Hyuuga then go to deal with the Neo-Gelmadic in Denji Gattai (Electric Combination) Galaxy Mega and Gashin Juushi (Fusion Beast-Warrior) BullTaurus. But Cap’n Crunch isn’t having this and grows himself (somehow) to join the fight and overpower the two. But during the fight, the Megarangers get a call from INET, which they then pass on to the Gingaman: use your Earth Power (HOW was this not obvious before?). (Don’t ask how the fortress of Cap’n Crunch is the source of the barrier when Hizumina was the one who cast it. This movie can barely keep continuity with itself, let alone the series it represents). And then (to prove the point I just made), INET sends down a booster device to help the Gingaman destroy the barrier (despite the barrier preventing things from getting through and INET being based on the moon) But, because they need to pretend there’s still tension, Zahab and his band blast Gingaman down. But they recover quickly, transform into their JuuSoukou forms and defeat all 6 major villains with their Ginga no Senkou attack (they could give lessons to Decade). They destroy the barrier effortlessly and summon the Starbeasts to form Seiju Gattai ChouSoukou GingaiOh (Starbeast Combination Super Shining Armour Galaxy Earth King. What a mouthful), and destroy Cap’n Crunch while BullTaurus destroys the Neo-Gelmadic (so Galaxy Mega was utterly useless in this fight) And rather than any kind of resolution to this madness, we get the stock ending of everyone hanging out, set to Gingaman’s ED (which I already bundled with the OP in the video above, so I’ll simply post the lyrics here) Turn your face to the sun If the shadow of sorrow becomes too big for you Try laying yourself down on the ground If your tears suddenly become too much for you It’s fine to sometimes let your mind be free I’m running to catch up with you With you, born amidst nature’s greenery With you, called by the journey of the stars What we call today will be tomorrow’s legend Final thoughts: This was not a great feature. Not by any stretch of the imagination. For one thing, they try shaking things up by having the big bad be the villain representing the current series rather than previous one. The problem with that is that it shows us why it was always the previous season’s associated villain that got priority. As a result of this inversion, Hizumina is left with nothing to do except theoretically be a reason for the Megarangers to get involved. And she can’t even carry out that function, since they don’t learn she exists until AFTER the team up part has begun. Throw in a load of gratuitous and wholly unnecessary non-sexual fan service, and fail to have the slightest semblance of a plot with anything resembling consistency and Ginga v Mega is an absolute mess of a production. This is really from the same guys who gave us Kamen Rider Kuuga? What the hell happened? There’s no challenge this week, I’m too annoyed to come up with one. So last week’s is still open for the time being. Last edited by Androzani84; 08-02-2021 at 10:31 AM.. |
08-01-2021, 07:21 PM | #8776 |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 908
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The only good things that came out of this crossover are the Megarangers themselves, the massive battle between both teams against an army of the revived MOTWs and the giant mecha battle near the end. I also rather liked how the movie featured a nice mixture of soundtracks from both shows.
Last edited by GuardianAngel87; 08-01-2021 at 07:23 PM.. |
08-05-2021, 07:49 PM | #8777 |
The Immortal King Tasty
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Every diner you've ever been to.
Posts: 3,833
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~Fish's Zenkai Tour!~
Episode 21 – Denji Sentai Megaranger You'll have to forgive me if this post gets all high tension times a million, but I love Megaranger so much it's a struggle to try and stay all nice and structured when all I want to do is sit here yelling about how awesome this show is. Actually! In that case, how about I don't bother trying at all! Normally I'd start with broad context or whatever, but who needs any of that setup when I can come out of the gate swinging with a particularly bold statement considering what this entire project is dedicated to: I firmly believe Megaranger's premiere to be in the running for the best first episode in Super Sentai history. That last sentence is total hyperbole on my part! I'm contradicting myself right here and now so it won't be a surprise if I do later. If I seriously thought the entire back half of this tour was going to be downhill from this peak, that'd mostly just be depressing. But what I do seriously think, and why I'm wording it that strongly anyway, is that Megaranger is completely amazing, and its initial outing is about as tight as they come. See, Megaranger is in a bit of an interesting spot when it comes to the whole personal connection angle I like to cover, because it's both a show I've already seen in full, AND one I watched the premiere of but nothing else for what I believe was at least a couple years. Which means I'm basically doubly hyped here, hence why this whole post is such a jumbled mess of excitement. Although I don't remember exactly what my initial interest in the show was, or why I didn't jump on the whole thing right away. I know that even before watching the show, I adored the theme song so much I could spend an entire paragraph on it, and, hey, guess what you're reading right now! Replace "premiere" and "first episode" in that above hyperbolic statement with "opening" and "theme song" and you've got the gist of it. What an absolute masterpiece of a jam. That energetic rhythm! That triumphant sound! Those fitting lyrics! There are only a scant few Sentai openings that can even come close to getting me as pumped as Megaranger's does. So that probably played a huge role in drawing me towards the series. And once I did watch that first episode, it immediately left a strong impression on me. Apparently not strong enough to start watching the rest of the show right then and there, but it became something I knew I wanted to get around to sooner rather than later. It's a premiere that's downright impeccable in how thoroughly and clearly it lays out what the show is about, and all in an extremely entertaining fashion. Conceptually, Megaranger revolves around two ideas (digital technology and youth) which are arguably a single broader idea (things that make the future), and the catch in both of those cases is that this is another show produced by Shigenori Takatera, so those ideas are employed in large part to ground the fantasy in a degree of reality. So what's our Red for the series, ordinary high school student Kenta Date, doing in the very first scene of the premiere? Hitting up the local arcade and using his skills playing the Megaranger fighting game to crush some bully picking on little kids, of course! It's a really fun introduction, from the futuristic holographic visuals of the game, to the way the setup instantly endears you to Kenta, showing a caring side to him right away, but in a distinctly down-to-earth manner. A big part of the appeal of this show is that none of the heroes start as hypercompetent warriors, or even people "merely" predestined to eventually become hypercompetent warriors, and nothing could make that much clearer than Kenta's complete indifference to getting recruited to become a real-life Megaranger, being much more preoccupied with the free meal they had to give him so he'd sit down and hear them out. He was technically brought there because he had latent potential, yes, but even the guy running the whole operation has trouble believing it after getting a load of his personality. Kenta's hardly the ideal human, and that's what makes him the ideal symbol of this show's goals. The rest of the character introductions are similarly strong, even though they aren't the ones given the most spotlight. The aforementioned guy in charge of the Megaranger project, Kubota, is easily my favorite mentor character in any Sentai I've seen, and you get a feel for why right away. He's just another very normal dude, often very visibly stressed out the way someone with his job probably would be, while still clearly being qualified for it. Again, far from an ideal human. But while the heroes may not follow the usual heightened standards of the genre, the villains of the show, the Nezirejia, most certainly do, and that's what the makes the conflict so compelling. Right from their name, playing off of a Japanese word for twisting or distorting something, they're clearly bad news, and they start living up to that very quickly, tearing through a facility in use by INET as part of the organization's efforts to stop the oncoming invasion of the world... a facility where all our main characters happen to be at, naturally. So there's some real thrills to this episode's structure too, as within a minute of Kenta, Kubota, and the other four future members of the team all getting in a room together for the first time, everything starts exploding, and suddenly there's this HUGE pressure going on. Kubota sees the surprising ingenuity and determination of these five random high school kids when put in a pinch, and these five friends can see the weight of the violence happening around them, so they end up becoming the Megarangers, and from there it only gets even cooler. You've got the obligatory fight with mooks, the first hint of a bit of a cool rivalry between Mega Red and the main muscle of the villains, and it all ends with the team narrowly escaping the complete destruction of the facility by heading up to space, with that little bit of text in the corner assuring the viewer that this is merely the beginning. And sure enough, the show really does get cooler and cooler from there, as though that's possible. So many wonderful moments, exciting new characters, and just generally stellar episodes all over the place. I could talk about so many of them! The awesomeness of Galaxy Mega as early as the second epiosde! The suspense of the debut of its successor, the Mega Voyager! Wonderful additions to either side of the cast, like Yuusaku and Guirail! The Nezirangers! The Nezirangers!!! It's too much! This is already way longer than I wanted these posts to be, and there's still a part of me that wants to keep going. Where's the whole paragraph dedicated to how great the ending theme song is too, you know? Needless to say, Megaranger is a show that is very much to my tastes. Grounded and realistic in ways that make it more human and relatable, but without ever losing sight of the big engaging drama or goofy fun that makes hero tokusatsu what it is. I mean, INET tried to find candidates for the Megarangers using a video game; the show's not actually that obsessed with logic! But if a bit of "realism" here or there can add a cool factor to all the technology, or a hint of subtle depth to the characters and their bonds, or a greater sense of menace to the antagonists, then Megaranger never hesitates to take advantage of that. The tone hits a great sweet spot in my opinion, and the individual stories it tells within that world are often as compelling as can be. I speak so highly of Megaranger because it did an unusually fantastic job drawing me into its universe and endearing me to the people living in it. There was a stretch where my signature on this forum was an out-of-context screenshot of a random goofy line from the show I loved, and that lasted for WAY longer than it really needed to. Even now, it's a series I feel a ton of attachment to. At the end of the day, I don't think I can sum it up any better than that.
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Last edited by Fish Sandwich; 03-05-2022 at 06:09 PM.. |
08-05-2021, 08:00 PM | #8778 |
Showa Girl
Join Date: Jun 2018
Posts: 9,064
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I still very much remember when your signature was "I don't have time for both Megaranger and Romance!" so seeing this high praise really matches up! It makes me weirdly nostalgic, in fact? Because that was one of my first impressions of you, and I've admired how you write out these posts and navigate how these shows make you feel from the start.
Regardless... yeah, god, Megaranger seems so SO fun to me! Unfortunately yet another Sentai I have to throw on my "looks awesome but I probably won't get to it for ages" list, but one that gets consistent passion and praise everywhere I look. Right away that description of Kenta really grabs me as unique but in a familiar way and he sounds like a character I'd just love watching...
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08-05-2021, 08:21 PM | #8779 |
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Posts: 908
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Oh, yeah. I seriously love Megaranger. It's easily one of my top favorite seasons of Super Sentai (my second favorite overall with Gokaiger being the first) and I even bought series on DVD several months ago along with Jetman. This also reminds me that I really need to re-watch the series through that DVD set since I only managed to watch the first disc.
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08-06-2021, 02:08 AM | #8780 |
Member
Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 462
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Well it is for now my favourite 90s sentai having not yet seen Jetman or Dairanger, lol. It's weird because in a lot of British media 1998 and 9 stand out more for me but for Sentai, 1997!
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