I figured the old thread was getting quite large. Seemed like a good time to make a new thread New year, New era for Power Ranger's and in a few months a new era for Sentai and Kamen Rider. The new era after Heisei doesn't have a name yet Here's a trailer for "Power Rangers Beast Morphers" There's rumblings that it could premiere in March(close to the new sentai premiere too) https://comicbook.com/powerrangers/2019/01/05/power-rangers-beast-morphers-could-premiere-march/
Kamen Rider Zi-O episode 17 https://www.mp4upload.com/pumwiy79qa4s Things have taken a turn. Kamen Rider Shinobi was quite an interesting "What if..." for 2022. The production crew must have had a lot of fun conceptualizing it. Shinobi’s transformation has references from the Ninja-themed Super Sentai series. Apt that Hideya Tawada (Kinji/Starninger) is playing this guy and the MOTW. Another Woz who's arrival in 2019 was an obvious homage to "The Terminator". The ability to influence the future is also very intriguing. Interesting that Another Woz serves Geiz. Geiz Revival must be the eventual power-up for Geiz So Kamen Rider Woz is based on an Apple Watch. Geiz is digital and Zi-O is analog. Lupinranger VS Patranger 46 https://www.mp4upload.com/gkeltq5f05no It's a New years clip show with some story progression. There was some laughs like Tsukasa blushing when she realizes who that little kid she was cuddling a few episodes ago actually was. Noel impersonating Keiichiro was also funny. Also it's only fair the lupinrangers got their crossdressing moment. Umika will be the only one to not take part in this unofficial sentai tradition. Lupin collection piece was the timeranger freezing capsule
Zi-O: I love the idea of introducing a future Rider, and Shinobi has a pretty good design, if a fairly simple concept (how many ninja-themed Sentais have there been by now?). I wouldn't mind if they actually did Kamen Rider Shinobi three years from now. I wonder if Toei plans that far ahead? Interesting twist for Woz too -- his book of the future is now obsolete and he has a far more powerful double, so what's his place now? But it's weird that the voice of Kamen Rider Woz's henshin belt sounds as shocked by the idea of him as the other characters were. And it's ironic that apparently Oma Zi-O has now been replaced as future dictator by Geiz, the guy who wanted to stop the future dictator. But then, it's often the case that revolutionaries who overthrow dictators end up becoming just as bad (Castro, Mao, the Iranian theocracy, etc.). Will Geiz want Sougo to kill him now? So now we have two Kamen Riders whose Rider names are just their given names -- KR Geiz and KR Woz. That's pretty unusual, isn't it? Looking over the Wiki, the only real prior examples have been movie-exclusive -- Shin Kamen Rider and Onizuka Rider in the first '90s movie, Kamen Rider Gaoh in the Den-O movie, KR Nadeshiko in the Fourze movie. There are a couple of close ones with Drive's Chase/Kamen Rider Chaser and Build's Evolto/Kamen Rider Evol, and the Hibiki Riders all have given names resembling their Rider names, but this seems to be the first series with main characters whose given names and Rider names are the same. LvP: I guess the clip-show setup with the game wasn't too bad -- it was very reminiscent of the holiday clip shows Power Rangers has done these past few years, but more entertaining because the characters and the writing are richer and more fun. And it was juxtaposed with a very important plot development, the Global Police figuring out who the Phantom Thieves are. I guess we're just about to get into the climax within the next few weeks.
Zi-O episode 18 https://www.mp4upload.com/lu8t49xrfkh0 The subplot of the Wozes pitting their respective Riders against each other is only starting to ramp up. At least for now Geiz is against it Its pretty neat that Toei/PLEX can slap together a ride armor for a series that doesn't exist.....yet. We're basically looking at a repaint of Ex-Aid's suit with more kibble. From what little we saw Kamen Rider Quiz's suit has Ex-Aids suit with Ghosts helmet. I have a feeling this week's episode will have alot of puns to sub with the questions and answers motif. Kamen Rider Quiz is another Sentai alumnus, Katsuhiro Suzuki/Red Buster from 2012's Go-busters sentai There'll will also be a Shinobi spin-off from the Toei fan club: https://www.cinematoday.jp/news/N0106136 I like this idea. A chance to see what a hypothetical "show" might be like for these Riders. It might gauge interest on what works and what doesn't Lupinranger VS Patranger 47 https://www.mp4upload.com/ktnbt4n1w13x I liked seeing Umika and Sasuka having lunch. It was sort of a look at Japanese courtship This episode showed once again that both teams can't accomplish their goals if they don't work together. The Lupinrangers can't beat Zamigo alone and the Patranger's can't defeat Gauche alone. They're really ramping up the mad doctor angle with Gauche. She's made things in past episodse but now she wants to dissect Noel The Lupin Collection this week is the Chouzetsu Changer from Ninnin and the kiba blade from dairanger
Zi-O: The Timejackers are another case where the heroes never think strategically -- the point when Schwartz was resetting the watch before putting it back into Rentarou would've been the perfect time to shoot it out of his hand, just like the Rangers should really shoot Gauche before she manages to revive a Ganglar. But Rentarou did finally try to do approximately that, to stop Schwartz from resetting the watch. Calling the alternate Woz "White Woz" is ominous, because in Japan, white is the color of death. (I wonder if that has anything to do with the fact that the words are similar -- white is shiroi and death is shi.) I'm glad they're doing at least a fan club special with Shinobi. I kind of want to see that become an actual show in 3 years. (Or sooner -- I suppose the "real" timeline doesn't have to line up with that alternate future, especially since KR continuity is so inconsistent anyway.) But Quiz's costume doesn't look anywhere near as good. LvP: Haruka Kudo continues to be a very impressive actress, as Umika wrestled with her guilt over lying to Sakuya. Meanwhile, things are ramping up toward the finale, with Zamigo and Gauche coming to the foreground as direct challengers for the Rangers, and easily kicking their tails. It just seemed like a fairly ordinary lunch to me, at least compared to all the "marriage interview" episodes I've seen in my recent tokusatsu binge.
I guess courtship was not the correct term. I guess it was just interesting to see them act normal. No ganglers. No weird spells. No slapstick Well this is interesting. Seems like power rangers is in a bit of a conundrum with their stunt people doing black face https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2018/12/17/367608/is-it-ever-okay-to-wear-black-face?amp=1 If you can’t find the talent does it make it okay for another solution like what they’re doing ok?
If they need to do that in the first place, it implies that the industry needs to improve its diversity, and it sounds like they're trying to do that. But as they say, it takes years of training to become a stunt performer, and safety should always be the top priority there. I imagine a lot of the Power Rangers suit actors are different ethnicities from their characters, since I think they tend to use the same suit actors year after year while the main actors change. But putting someone in blackface is a tricky matter because it has an unfortunate history behind it. Anyway, it's interesting that they need to double the actors out of Ranger armor. In the early years of Power Rangers, the lead actors generally did their own stunts, at least up to a point. That was one of the cool things about it, that you saw the actors themselves doing fight scenes. Over the years, it seems they came to rely more often on lead actors who weren't able to do their own stunt work.
Are they limited to just NZ stunt people? I'm pretty sure I've seen a lot of non-white stunt people in US productions.
Since it's made in NZ and doesn't have a huge budget, I'd expect so. Though I think they've occasionally shared some stunt teams with Super Sentai.
The first preview for Super Sentai Great Battle aired tonight. According to Toei's official page, the girl in blue is named Rita, the mysterious girl who is summoning rangers to planet Nemesis and have them partake in the Super Sentai Strongest Battle. She is played by Nana Asakawa.
https://natalie.mu/eiga/news/316554 Over on Zi-O. Kamen Rider Ryuki's actor will be appearing with Another Ryuga. Interestingly it's not Another Ryuki. Also the actor who played the editor in Ryuki Kanji Tsuda
Well, I guess it sort of makes sense in that Ryuga was the evil counterpart of Ryuki, and the Another Riders are evil versions of the Riders. Though really Ryuga/Dark Shinji should only exist in the alternate timeline of the movie -- but then, the way the series ended would make it impossible for any Ryuki Riders to return later at all. Anyway, I guess this confirms that they will return to featuring past Riders again. I was wondering if the shift to focusing on newly-invented future Riders would be permanent. After all, the Decade Armor pretty much gives Sougo all of the Phase 1 Rider powers in one go. Although if they are doing Ryuki, I would've liked to see Geiz meet Ren/Kamen Rider Knight. The two characters are surprisingly similar, both in their respective personalities and story arcs and in the actors' faces and voices.