I got that impression from the trailer, and from a plot detail I'd heard, Spoiler that Rita was gathering huge quantities of gold, presumably to form Goldar. Although I hadn't considered that she'd be inside Goldar, piloting it like a Zord. Anyway, Ninja Steel aired its second episode, "Forged in Steel," today, introducing the Yellow and White Rangers, Calvin and Hayley, and finishing the setup of the show's status quo. These two don't have as much personality so far as the first three; Calvin is basically defined by loving his truck and Hayley by liking dogs. But one rather unusual thing is that they're boyfriend and girlfriend. I can't think of another instance where two core, series-regular members of a Ranger team are a couple from the beginning. Generally they only have vague romantic tension that eventually leads to them vaguely dating, like Tommy and Kimberly or Tyler and Shelby, or that goes unresolved until the end of the series, like Jen and Wes from Time Force. This episode also introduces the Zords, and I didn't realize until reading about it on RangerWiki afterward that the Ninninger mecha/Zords don't have a single theme as usual, but instead are sort of an homage to a bunch of past themes -- humanoid warrior, fantasy animal, real animal, construction vehicle, train. It's an odd hodgepodge. I guess it can work because the Ranger helmets this year aren't styled to reflect the Zord designs, just a general shuriken theme. One problem is the way the Zords emerge out of buildings and hidden panels in the road and all that. That made some sense in Ninninger, where the Rangers' clan had been expecting the villains' return and had time to prepare, but these Zords are supposed to be newly created/arrived on Earth, so the Sentai footage just didn't make sense here. (Also, I wonder what thoughts were going through the heads of the occupants of the cars that were on that stretch of road when it flipped over to reveal the Nitro Zord... and what happened to them once they were upside-down and trapped underground!) I did like the agility of the Red Robo Zord, which is an unusual action style for a Megazord battle. They haven't explained why it has the same body design as Redbot, though. I'd thought that Redbot was going to enlarge to become the Zord, but apparently not. Although it seems they're using the idea of the Zords being newly formed as the excuse for their various, non-themed appearances -- each one reflects something connected to its corresponding Ranger. Brody's Zord looks like his robot pal; Preston's is a dragon, reflecting the costume from his magic act; Sarah's is a maglev train kind of like her hoverboard; Calvin's is a truck because he loves his yellow truck; and Hayley's is a dog like her pet dog. Although, obviously, in real life the cause and effect is the other way around, with the character traits/props being chosen to set up the pre-existing mecha designs.
TV Asashi have officially put up the full version of the Kyuranger trailer from the concert last week. Also 19 magazine scans. Some highlighted scans http://nitiasa8.m46.coreserver.jp/post-20085/ This might be the shortest mecha yet(Gundam sized) if the cockpits are any indication. I can stare at the ShiShiLion suit all day. It's glorious Some new details
I like this. My only criticism, and it's one for most sentai shows, is that the set design. It all looks so... simplistic. I actually don't mind the rainbow color scheme, but so many sentai "command centers" look like a very basic four-walled room overall, and not a futuristic (or fantasy-esque) sort of place. Even this one, while it has a raised portion around the sides, comes off as a basic square room. Maybe it's a Japanese TV thing, as so many sets seem more stage-like instead of cinematic, not just here but in lots of the TV dramas I watch At least Gobuster had nifty pivoting consoles and all that, but for the most part our heroes' bases all seem pretty uninspired and flat. That's something that can rarely be said of Power Rangers sets, IMO - the original power chamber, the original Astroship (man, I loved that one - Defiant-esque everything!), and even the recent cave / lab / command place from Dino Charge were all fairly detailed, dynamic, fun-looking sets. Mark
Well, mostly. The original MMPR command center was basically black velvet and Christmas lights. And Gosei's cave HQ in Megaforce was pretty terrible.
Hey Chris. Have you had time to watch an episode of Kamen Rider Kabuto? I'm eager to hear your thoughts on the show https://vk.com/videos-77153771?z=video-77153771_169654066/club77153771/pl_-77153771_-2
I sorta skipped Megaforce, but upon searching for what it was like, oy. More memorable HQ sets: Power chamber (not command center, which WAS pretty cheap): http://www.rovang.org/wiki/powerchamber-turbo.jpg Astro Megaship: http://www.morphinlegacy.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Astro-Megaship-Bridge-In-Space.jpg SPD Command Room: http://www.rangerarchive.com/Power Rangers/2/SPD/Command Room 4.jpg And the Dino Charge cave: http://i2.wp.com/tokusatsunetwork.c...BRip.AAC2_.0.H.264_Feb-18-2015-2.54.31-AM.png A quick look around some Snetai sets also confirms that they're pretty much all variations on big square or rectanagular sets, often enough simple three-wall affairs with the fourth rarely seen (i.e. that's where the cameras usually are). Not nearly as visually interesting or dynamically film-able as the PR sets. Mark
I've never been that interested in Kamen Rider. Maybe that's just because the US adaptations were both pretty dire, but it's not something I'm all that curious about.
Maybe 1 or two episodes? Kamen rider Kabuto doesn't have many toyetic things going for it. Just a few riders
FWIW, I've watched KR Decade, in which an alternate version of Kabuto guested. I haven't watched any KR that old, but the suit looked spiffy. Mark
Oh yeah I love the Kabuto suit. Episode 1 of Kamen Rider Kabuto is also on youtube It's interesting that Kamen Rider is aimed at older kids at 8 am after Super Sentai at 7:30 am Sunday.
KR Kabuto is a weird show. Some great designs, but some odd choices as well. The first 24 or so episodes (about the first half) are pretty good, set up some interesting mysteries and characters, and have some of the coolest action I've seen in KR. Sadly, the back half really loses focus and throws away much of the promising start. Characters get lost in the shuffle, completely rewritten into emo losers (I'm looking at you, Hopper Bros), or just abandoned altogether. It kind of saves itself with a really well done finale, including a great double Rider final battle, but on the whole it more fizzles than pops. That said, the suit design is top notch. Kabuto, Gattack, Sasword, and TheBee are all amazing designs, and even the Hopper suits look great in motion. Hyper Kabuto looks amazing as well. Not my favorite KR, story wise, but one of the best looking ones, certainly. (IMHO, for what it's worth.) And the super speed gimmick gets some solid use throughout the show's run. Also, Tendou is awesome. Usually characters of his archetype bug me, but he was just really well executed.
This week's Ninja Steel was pretty good. A nice little conflict with Brody being too dependent on his computer link and having to learn to trust the team more, and the bully stealing the datacom and trying to gain fame from it was the first interesting thing they've done with the character. He and his sycophant are still too much like first-season Bulk and Skull, complete with the "getting splattered every episode" gimmick, but this guy's different in that he's pursuing personal glory and status rather than just generally bullying people. I like how the "alien gladiator show" format is meshing with the formula of Sentai/PR monster fights -- the one-monster-a-week format, the monster being gigantized after a defeat, all the arbitrary tropes seem a little less arbitrary when they're the rules of a game show -- or at least that provides a reason for them to be so arbitrary. And it looks like there's a variation here, a choice between reviving the monster and subbing in a more generic giant monster. But there were three buttons on the device the game-show host used, so I wonder what the third option is. Having the Megazord be the humanoid red Zord literally sitting in a power suit made up of the other four Zords is at once inspired and intensely silly.
Zyouhger is over. The yearly hand over segment at the end of the episode. This started in 2004 with Dekaranger to magiranger First episode preview was shown This is certainly the most ambitious season judging by what we're seeing The bad guys have taken control of planets and the Kyuranger travel to different planets to free them. We have an empire palpatine type figure in the shadows We get alien civilians. Not really a new concept since Dekaranger and SPD had aliens living alongside humans 9 rangers to start with a 10th in April going by the 2nd quarter catalog and possibly an 11th on the right side RyuuCommander probably the Kyuranger's commander Xiao Longbao The theme song is also cool too. It's different to previous sentai versions. It doesn't really work the title of the show into the song. The chorus just says "Kyuranger" Lot's of bold ideas. We'll see if anything sticks. If it fails like Go-buster's we could get a safe season next year (kyouryuger) here's Toei's official summary of Episode 1: Shame. No Flash Gordon
Ninja Steel: "Presto Change-O" was pretty good, though it kind of showcased Peter Sudarso's limitations as an actor. (His voice sounds a lot like his brother's, I realize.) There were some fun lines, like "A ninja versus a turtle? That's a wacky combination!" and the monster being upset at Galvanax's insult to his mother. Also the bit about how Galvanax's advisor talked him out of a head-on confrontation with the Rangers for fear of looking bad if he didn't win. It's a nice justification for why he holds back from taking them on himself. Interesting to see the individual Zords break free of the Megazord to stage solo attacks. That's a nice variation. Not so sure about the Zords swapping out in the central "seat." It's still so silly to see one Zord sitting on top of the others rather than being more integrated into the Megazord. And yes, I say that with full awareness of how silly a Megazord looks to begin with.
Kyuranger episode 1 live stream http://vaughnlive.tv/sherming99 Opening credits Lucky's Henshin Kyuranger Henshin and Roll Call Hammy teachs Lucky and the audience how to change. Also, our first look at Lucky morph and rollcall Kyurenoh formation Voyager battle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1kSvH7hS2E Seeing the mecha going into battle half complete reminds me of Digimon Xros Wars.
Kyuranger episode 1 is up It's very bold this season to not have earth as the focus point this season. There was this assumption that not having earth be the focal point of danger would alienate the audience I hope the series can maintain it's momentum throughout the season. The ending scene really reminded me of "Spaceballs" which is appropriate. "Check please!" 2nd quarter catalog has also leaked. Most of this will be in April DX RyuVoyager: When RyuVoyager, KogumaVoyager, OhgumaVoyager and SasoriVoyager combine, they form the Kyurangers' 2nd robo, RyuteiOh. RyuteiOh and KyurenOh can combine into RyuteiOh DX KogumaVoyager and OhgumaVoyager Set: Koguma SkyBlue's personal KyuVoyagers. Comes with the Koguma KyuTama. Constellations are Ursa major and Minor. Little Bear and big bear. Koguma Sky Blue’s who is actually a young boy with a scarf and mitten. He can turn from Koguma Sky Blue (Ursa Minor) to Ohguma Sky Blue (Ursa Major) ! DX Hikari Kyutama A special KyuTama that gives ShishiRed Sun and Moon forms. DX Ryuutsueder RyuCommander transforms using the Ryutsueder Staff with his signature KyuTama.
Are any of the Ultraman series worth checking out? They've got a whole bunch of them on Crunchyroll and Shout Factory TV.
Just saw the first episode of Kyuranger subbed. It was intense, I was so into it I even stood up in my chair for the last bit. So much cool stuff that I've never seen from Sentai or PR, and I'm not just talking about the huge number of Rangers. The premise is interesting, and Spoiler not actually being on Earth is a cool twist. The zord fight was probably the best one I've seen in a long time. The suit designs are cool, and I liked all the team members we've seen so far (especially the red ranger, whose probably the best sentai red ranger I've seen since Marvelous in Gokaiger). Overall, this was a great start, and I think its going to be a fun show.