Hasbro's Power Rangers era and General Tokusatsu discussion

Oh. Whoops. Wrong team

 

Some Ultraman news

New dvd releases announced

https://news.tokunation.com/2020/01/15/mill-creek-announces-ultraman-ace-ultraman-x-releases-65238

Secondly. A new series has been trademarked. The new series will be called "Ultraman Z"

https://news.tokunation.com/2020/01/20/new-ultraman-trademark-revealed-ultraman-z-65495

 

Beverly the singer for Kamen Rider build's theme has officially released an English version of the theme she sung "Be the One"

 

Nice. Fitting the lyrics to the melody was necessarily awkward at places, but it seemed to approximate the sense of the original lyrics fairly well, at least in the parts where I recognized concepts. And it's a beautiful melody sung by a very beautiful voice.

 

Zero-One episode 19

Izu continues to be a highlight of the series. Don't insult her puns. It seemed to be leaning towards more the humor this week too. We had two 4th wall moments in one episode.

We enter round 2 of the TBO arc. I hope this arc won't get repetitive.

Part 1
Contest is established.
Humagear starts doing better than person
Person is given Raidriser, attacks Humagear sabotaging them
Gai tells Person to be a jerk to Humagear
Humagear goes Magear
Thouser destroys them

Part 2
Humagear is rebuilt/backed up(it's even in the next episode preview that Smile is obviously back)
Raider goes on rampage
Raider is destroyed
Contest continues

Zero-One is a great series and I'd hate for it to lose steam


Ryuusoulger episode 42

Well I guess this is Sentai's version of a peace conference. Ui's actress looked a bit puffy. Might be a medication reaction. Sad to see her go but hopefully she'll make a series finale appearance. At least she got some type goodbye scene. Sometimes a goodbye scene can't be filmed

Oh! The opening is hyping up the VS special! It's must be that time of the year again.

This episode was a bit clunky. It felt like this was filmed awhile ago before Wiseru and Kureon's change of heart.

It also looked like another budget saving episode with a bulk of it being filmed on a stage like one of those stage shows the shows has for audiences

Did Wiseru just watch "The Greatest Showman"?

And is Wiseru dead or did he pull off the greatest acting role of his life?

 

Ryusoulger: Well, that was unexpected. Last week it looked like Kureon was trying to talk Wiseru into teaming with the Ryusoulgers, now they're having a "final duel" and it looks like Kureon will want revenge on the Ryus. A weird turn, though I am liking how unexpectedly dramatic and nuanced Kureon's arc has gotten.

The twist was easy to predict because of how much attention they paid to the energy drink early on. I wonder if that was a real beverage inserted as a product placement -- I think I've seen Toei shows do that in the past. If so, that makes it cheesier.

As for Ui, given how bundled up she was, I wonder if the actress is leaving because she's pregnant.

When Koh did his power-up at the top of a staircase and there was a puff of steam from the sides to conceal the actual change, I wondered if that was a nod to how they do it in the live stage shows. I have been wondering how they handled henshins and power-ups and other transformations in the live shows.


Zero-One: A fun episode, very stylishly directed. One thing I love about these shows is that they don't hesitate to embrace theatricality and unreality. I loved the bits where the actors "freeze-framed" behind Izu while she gave exposition to the camera. Parts of this felt like a live-action anime episode.

And Aruto seems to be resigned to the fact that Izu makes better puns than he does. He's congratulating her for them rather than complaining, and he no longer minds when she explains his puns (perhaps because she also claims they're funny). Izu is really the breakout character of the season, I think.

This week's episodes are a textbook illustration of the difference between Super Sentai and Kamen Rider (post-2000, anyway). SS is always about straightforward battles between pure, noble heroes and evil alien or demonic invaders/destroyers, often with well-written character work and strong emotional storytelling, but never really having any deeper theme than "Teamwork and friendship are good" and "Conquering/destroying the world is bad." But KR tends to have more science-fictional stories exploring nuanced questions and morally ambiguous conflicts among multiple factions, including human factions with differing philosophies. Here, the human realtor raised a valid point -- what happens to human employment when AIs take over our jobs? He and Gai are the villains, but they have a point of view that we can see as a legitimate concern.

The two shows were a lot more alike in the Showa era -- just simple narratives about heroes fighting evil organizations bent on destroying the world. KR was always a bit darker, its heroes more tragic (since Showa-era Riders were cyborgs often created by the evil organizations, and thus not entirely human anymore), but the nature of the evils they fought was still unambiguous.

 

Yeah I don't believe we've had a power ranger/sentai team that was forced into becoming rangers. What I mean is ordinary humans that are subjugated into becoming rangers against their will.

Oh wait. There was Misao from Zyouhger but I'm specifically referring to the main team

They tend to user smoke and turn off the lights to mask the change

 

Jetman came close. All of them except Ryu were given their "Birdonic" powers by accident, and Raita and especially Gai were reluctant to join the fight. They weren't forced, but they were certainly pressured, since they were the only people with the necessary powers. Maybe Bioman too, since they were empowered by something done to their ancestors and were the only ones who could do it. (Well, except when Yellow 4 was killed off and they conveniently found an extra "only one who could do it" to replace her.) And the Go-Busters, who were imbued with unique powers as children and had no choice but to become fighters as a result. Then there are the teams that are groomed or expected from childhood to take on Ranger roles as a family/clan tradition whether they want to or not, like Shinkenger and Ninninger.

But yeah, in terms of characters being turned into monsters by the villains and then switching sides and fighting back, that's never really done except with Sixth or Extra Rangers, and fewer times than I'd thought -- GaoSilver, Wolzard, Misao. And Akira from ToQger, though he was one of the monsters by birth.

 

Kamen Rider's are typically burdened with the responsibility of their powers. Sometimes their powers can cost them their lives/memories/turn them into monsters with prolonged use. Yet they fight on. There's typically a catch involved when you become a Kamen Rider


Super sentai/Power Rangers- It's sometimes their duty or responsibility to fight the villains. They wholeheartedly join. No one doesn't want to be a ranger.

 

A lot of Rangers are reluctant, even though they aren't forced. Gai in Jetman was very resistant and quit a few times. Chiaki in Shinkenger resented being saddled with the family obligation to be a Shinkenger. I think a couple of the Ninningers weren't crazy about it either. Umeko in LvP wasn't happy about being a thief, but she did it because it was her only hope of rescuing her friend.

 

Power Rangers Beast Morphers returns February 22nd

https://news.tokunation.com/2020/01...rphers-season-2-begins-february-22-2020-65517

Episode is called "Believe it Or Not!"

https://imgur.com/DZLbhli

 

Yet there's no indication that the rest of season 1 will be on Netflix anytime in February, so I'm still out of luck.

 

So this is interesting. There's a youtuber that was recommended Sentai and Kamen Rider to watch. He's never watched Kamen Rider or Super Sentai.

He goes from watching Super sentai and Kamen Rider Openings to a month later reviewing Kamen Rider build.



He watched an hour of Kamen Rider openings.



If anyone is triggered by mispronunciations and misconceptions then this probably isn't for you LOL

"Is that Ichigo?"

Kamen Rider build review



It's interesting to hear from an outsider what they think

 

That guy is annoying, he knows nothing but still tries to talk about things as if he does. "Is that Ichigo?" is a good example, he kept asking that and it made me crazy because who's going to answer him? He's alone in front of a camera, it's also a question a child would ask repeatedly not a functioning adult, if he wants to know who Ichigo is just google it ... it's like he has nothing to say but because he thinks he has to make comments to justify his reaction video he says random things and it's not entertaining.

I don't know why but he has shown up in my recommendations for two weeks now, I watched his toku videos and some others and he has nothing interesting to say. I usually like an outsider's perspective but this one ... no.

 

They've announced that the #32, the April issue, of Saban's Go Go Power Rangers will be the series finale.

 

Ryusoulger #43: The Druidons take kind of a weird turn here, as it suddenly turns out they're all "born" from a "mother" named Heras that's just a big sphere that spits them out, and as newborns they're barely more verbal than Minusaurs. I'm not even sure how the Ryusoulgers instantly recognized Gunjouji as a new Druidon instead of a Minusaur. Though come to think of it, it's probably because he has chessboard patterns on him like the other Druidons. (I tend to be slow to notice such design details.)

Meanwhile, a new character is introduced, Bamba's mentor Master Black, played by Timeranger's lead actor. Yet another guy from the old tribe who turns out to be a villain, evidently betraying his people to serve Heras. I was expecting him to show up in a surprise reveal at the climax and defeat the Ryus, but instead we got a different, kind of random cliffhanger with Oto being taken hostage.

Even though we're still 5 episodes from the end, we get one of those cool mid-henshin roll call sequences where the actors do the poses and catchphrases themselves before (or during) their transformations. Those are usually saved for the finale, so it's a surprise to see it so early. It's also a weird variation on the trope where the villain fires at the untransformed team and they come out of the explosion armored up. Usually the implication is that they changed just in time for the armor to protect them from the blast, but here we see the unarmored Ryusoulgers just calmly stepping out of the flames to do their roll call poses before transforming, which is kind of incongruous.


Zero-One #20: Much better. A nice conclusion to the real estate competition, with more of the stylish direction we had last week (though a bit too goofy at times) and some nice sentimental bits, with the HumaGear realtor proving to have a better understanding of the emotional value of a home than the greedy human realtor. And it was nice to see Aruto trying to talk Arayashiki down before fighting him.

It was amusing that after the Carpenter HumaGear was corrupted and destroyed and the house damaged, Aruto solved the problem by creating basically a Carpenter Sentai, five copies of him in differently colored overalls. The character and actor were still pretty weird, though I guess it's kind of refreshing to see that not all HumaGear are designed to look young and beautiful.

Yua was hardly in this one, just enough to announce that ZAIA still won the competition on profits even though Hiden scored the moral victory. So now it's 2-0 in ZAIA's favor, which means Hiden has to win the next one or the contest is over.

 

Ryuusoulger episode 43

The roll call this week was one of the best ones Ryusoulger's done. Walking out of the flame and doing it suitless for the first part was pretty cool.

So Gunjouji is the knight pieces on the chessboard.

I thought Hera's reminded me of Cardiatron from MMPR and Zyuranger





Zero One episode 20-

It is funny that the humagear carpenter is like a mass produced repair-all damage Shine Raptor from Ryuusoulger. They should be deployed once a climatic fight finishes

Izu- We destroyed 18 blocks of the town due to your form finisher

Aruto- No worries!

*Twenty Humagear carpenters show up*

The final fight of the episode was pretty lowkey compared to the spectacle of past episodes. I guess destroying twenty buildings for example would be an overkill just so Zero-One can stop a human controlled by a Raidriser. The intent was to bring him down peacefully.

I thought the turnaround by the realtor was a bit too quick/too clean


Tomorrow- TWO sentai Alumni guest star. Arisa Komiya (Yoko in Go-Busters) and Keisuke Minami (Tsurugi in Kyuranger)

https://tokusatsunetwork.com/2020/01/super-sentai-alum-to-appear-in-kamen-rider-zero-one/





This is a bit sad though. Izu's actress posted on the twitter that she does not feel comfortable when people take pictures of her without her consent

https://twitter.com/felonyrose__n/status/1213274284149198848

Here's the translation of the said tweet:

"It's not good to take a hidden picture in a train station or anywhere and i have no choice but to stop them. No matter how good your intentions are, it is still wrong because i see many people doing things like that. I feel bad that day."

 

I want to check out a Tokusatsu show, but I can't decide between checking out one of the Ultraman series on Crunchyroll or a Super Sentai on Shout Factory TV. Anybody have a recommendation?
For reference here are the available series:
Ultraman:
Leo (this one is actually on Shout Factory TV, not Crunchyroll)
Gaia
X
Geed
Orb
Nexus
Ginga

Super Sentai:
Carranger
Dairanger
Gaoranger
Gingaman
Gogo Five
Hurricanger
Jetman
Kakuranger
Megaranger
Ohranger
Timeranger
Zyuranger

 

I'm on my first Ultraman series, Tiga, which Samurai8472 recommended to me as a good starting point, since it's the start of the Heisei-era reboot, and a well-regarded series. (You can find it and most other Ultraman series on YouTube.) It's pretty good, with some pretty smart writing and impressive miniature work, but has frustratingly little exploration of the main character and what it means to him that he can turn into a giant monster-fighter. (Which is odd, because the rest of the ensemble cast gets lots of character-focus episodes.) It's also very different from the Toei tokusatsu shows, much more episodic, with monsters-of-the-week coming from various sources rather than a single evil invasion force (the one Sentai series that's like that was Dekaranger, though it did have a recurring villain supplying weapons to the various villains-of-the-week).

Of the Sentai series on ShoutFactory, my recommendations would be Jetman and the last six consecutive ones chronologically, Megaranger, Gingaman, GoGoV, Timeranger, Gaoranger, and Hurricaneger. That run of six was one of the strongest in Sentai history. Though if I had to narrow it down to a top two, it would be Jetman and Timeranger.

More specific opinions, in chronological order:

Jetman: One of the very best. Very dramatic, with lots of character conflict and romantic tension and tragedy, but plenty of wacky humor as well.

Zyuranger: I found it mediocre, with very little character development by contrast with its predecessor. The villains were a lot of fun, though.

Dairanger: Not bad. It's been a few years, but I remember liking it okay. Still, it had the same problem of not developing the characters too much, and there was some pretty sexist, harassment-based humor.

Kakuranger: Weak. The third consecutive series by the same writer, with the same lack of character development and the same sexism problem. Took forever to establish a main villain. Went for silliness and wasn't very funny.

Carranger: A more outright humorous season, basically Sentai parodying itself. Pretty fun.

Ohranger: A reasonably good season, getting back to the military-organization type of Sentai previously seen in Jetman; also the first since Jetman to have two female leads.

Megaranger: Very good. Essentially the first Sentai season that emulated Power Rangers, featuring a team of high school students, but handling it much more intelligently than PR ever did. (In PR, the villains always knew the Rangers' secret identities, which made it kind of pointless to keep them, but they never tried to murder them in their sleep or anything. In Megaranger, the heroes keep their identities secret for most of the season, and when the villains finally learn them, the consequences are immediate and severe.)

Gingaman: Also excellent. The first season written by Yasuko Kobayashi, one of the franchise's very best writers (also responsible for some notable anime series like Attack on Titan). It has strong character work, like all her seasons. It also has terrific music, though that's true of a lot of these.

GoGoV: Really good. It's about a family of rescue workers, with lots of family drama, especially toward the absentee dad who abruptly comes back into his resentful kids' lives to recruit them to fight demons. The lead, Matoi, is one of my favorite Red Rangers -- a hotheaded, loudmouthed grouch, but out of his passion for rescuing and protecting people, which makes him sympathetic and a lot of fun.

Timeranger: Superb. Another Kobayashi season. It's very, very close to Power Rangers Time Force in its storyline, with four of the six Rangers having essentially identical characterizations and story arcs in both versions, although TF lacks Ransik and his backstory of mutant oppression in the future; instead the criminals are alien mobsters. (This is the first time that I feel the Power Rangers version surpassed the original, but only slightly, because of the addition of Ransik.) Unique among Sentai in that the Rangers arrest the monsters rather than killing them, which allows for unusual story beats, like trying to talk down a nonviolent offender who got gigantized by accident, or the other Timerangers trying to talk their leader out of killing the criminal who murdered her parents.

Gaoranger: Excellent. This one's PR adaptation Wild Force was even more verbatim aside from the different Red Ranger and main villain, yet this time the Sentai version is much better done somehow. Very effective, with a particular engaging and poignant relationship between the two main regular hench-villains. Also one of my favorite musical scores.

Hurricaneger: I felt it had a slow start and had aspects I never warmed to, but overall it's terrific, with strong character work and likeable actors. It pretty much introduced the modern practice of elaborate, theatrical roll calls where the Rangers give little speeches before announcing their names, and at first I found the very stylized, kabuki-esque sequence rather weird, but I came to love it.

 

Christopher, I agree with most of your opinions, but disagree with some.

It's pretty good but a bit overrated by the fans in my opinion, the romance was really bad in my opinion. Gai acted like a creep for a long time, not taking no for an answer and being a borderline stalker, the writing is generally a bit soapy ... that's not necessarily bad because I enjoy a good soap but it doesn't really fit the sentai genre imo.

I actually liked this one, it had some pretty good arcs and I really liked Jiraya. It also gets some bonus points for Tsuruhime, a pretty strong female leader.

I agree with everything you said but want to point out that Turboranger was actually the first team of high school students back in 1989.

Gaoranger was awful! I remember barely anything about the heroes, they were forgettable and the villains were weak. Yabaiba's and Tsuetsue's relationship was good, but other than that the villain side offered nothing memorable.

JD, of the Shout Sentais I'd recommend Carranger if you want something more comedic, Timeranger for something more dramatic and Megaranger for something dramatic with a more lighthearted feel.
Some other sentai worth checking out (if you want to venture beyond what Shout Factory offers):
Dekaranger: An episodic police sentai, very strong characters and stories.
Magiranger: A sentai about magic and family with a pretty good story, it also does good character work by picking two of the siblings each story and taking a closer look at their relationship, it allows the audience to really get to know everyone and hoe they relate to each other.
Gekiranger: A more serialized martial arts sentai with a lot of focus on the villains, some of the best in the entire franchise in my opinion.
ToQger: Often unfairly dismissed as childish, it's another Yasuko Kobayashi (Gingaman, Timeranger et al.) sentai and I love it, great characters, the themes are imagination and the battle between light and dark.