Hasbro's Power Rangers era and General Tokusatsu discussion

[Samurai8472]

Clips from this weeks Beast Morphers.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers "Secret Struggle" | Episode 8. Steel learns that Nate and Zoey have feelings for each other and tries to bring them together, despite the strict Grid Battleforce rules that forbid relationships between Rangers.

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[Samurai8472]

No fear. No pain....

https://twitter.com/tokushoutsu/status/1255196921985032192?s=19

Kamen Rider Kuuga is coming to shoutfactory this Friday.

 

[Christopher]

Meh. Kuuga was probably my least favorite Heisei KR season. In some ways a decent attempt to do a more mature take on the premise -- basically Kamen Rider as police procedural -- but too slow-paced and repetitive with weak character development and literally incomprehensible villains (since they spoke in their own language that was rarely subtitled, and viewers could only get the general sense from their performances). It introduced a couple of tropes that became standard in Heisei -- constant armor/weapon upgrades throughout the season, and the routine use of a 2-part story arc for each monster -- but lacked most of the better elements of Heisei that got introduced in its loose sequel Agito, such as rich, smart dramatic writing and characterization, multiple Riders per season with often clashing agendas, and villains with complex, morally ambiguous motivations. In retrospect, it seems more like a holdover from the Showa era in its format and approach.

It's surprising I found Kuuga so unsatisfying, because its head writer, Naruhisa Arakawa, would go on to do a couple of my favorite Sentai seasons, Dekaranger and Gokaiger (as well as Abaranger and the current Kiramager). His Sentai shows have the rich characterization and humor that I felt Kuuga lacked, though I guess he could've improved over time.

 

[Samurai8472]

Kamen Rider Zero-One episode 33


Even though she hasn't been given much to work with (as Yaiba hasn't really had a well defined character), Hiroe Igeta does well at letting her facial expressions tell a story imo.

I loved the background humor when love-chan drops his tennis racket and Izu calmly picks it up and twirls it

FINALLY! After being submissive to Gai for so long Yua lays the smack down. I'm glad she got to finish off Gai with her sentence attack "Consider this my resignation". I was expecting a man to finish Gai off due to the show mostly catering to boys.

It's interesting how this turned into an episode about overcoming programming... with two humans. Fuwa and Yaiba, both forced on a certain path, gain independence in their own ways, though with him getting literal memory implants that influenced his personality, while with her trying to preserve her job and some semblance of order until it clashed too much with her morals.

 

[Christopher]

It's a relief to see Yaiba break free at last, though she's still not quite as strong or independent as I'd like -- she was flailing and needed Fuwa's help in the first part of the fight, and then was largely supporting Vulcan. But she did get to come into her own at the end and deliver the finisher, in more ways than one. And yet then she gets sucked right into supporting another group's agenda, when what she really needs is to figure out who she is and what she wants on her own. I guess that's her season-long arc, to discover her dream. Well, at least that process has finally begun.

I'm glad to see Yaiba choose to be Kamen Rider Valkyrie again... is what I want to say. (As the Japanese expression goes.) The thing is, I think her Fighting Jackal Raider armor is more elegant and striking than her Valkyrie armor. I mean, generally I prefer cats to dogs, but Valkyrie and the other Rider armors this season are pretty garish. Fighting Jackal is more menacing and dark, but also classier, like an Egyptian statue.

Not sure how I feel about Fuwa's formative memory behind his hatred of Humagears being a lie. It makes sense that Gai would do that to turn him into a weapon, but it simplifies the narrative a bit, taking away some of the ambiguity. Still, as Fuwa said, it's largely irrelevant to him now, because he's already let go of that memory. This just reinforces the path he's already on, in opposition to ZAIA.

The subplot with the overly gung-ho tennis coach seemed a bit superfluous. We already had a gung-ho coach Humagear in the first half of the season. Although I guess it tied into the theme of characters deciding to pursue dreams for themselves rather than just devoting themselves to someone else's goals.

 

[Samurai8472]

“Presented by ZAIA.”

Would you like to have the power of an AI enhance your cognitive functions? Would you like your brain to operate at 1000% efficiency? Care to help Gai Amatsu increase sales goals by 724%? Then Premium Bandai has got you covered with this exclusive ZAIA Spec prop replica!

https://news.tokunation.com/2020/04...0-introducing-premium-bandais-zaia-spec-67010

$185 dollars for a non electronic piece of plastic?! You're ripping people off Gai!

I shouldn't be surprised since Bandai sold a muddy shirt from Kamen Rider Build's Banjo

 

[Takeru]

They'll adapt Ryusoulger next, there's no way they'll pass on dinosaurs.

Except it's only been three seasons since Dino Super Charge. That's a bit too soon.

It'll be four seasons by the time Beast Morphers is over and it's not too soon, most franchises aimed at kids repeat themselves more often than that. Dinosaurs are obviously the most marketable theme out of the available ones, it's an easy choice.
Sentai also only had a five year dino break between Kyoryuger and Ryusoulger, one additional year doesn't make much kf a difference.

I just don't see the rush when there are other series to adapt. I mean, if the dinosaur thing is so important, then turn it around -- what will they do after they use it up? Surely if they jump the gun on adapting Ryusoulger, that just means a longer wait until the next dinosaur-themed season after that. Unless Super Sentai just bows entirely to laziness and does dinosaurs every year.

Who was right? I was!

Just kidding, I didn't even remember that conversation until I was reminded of it but Ryusoulger really was the obvious choice even if it wasn't my personal favorite.

 

[Samurai8472]

Kamen Rider Kuuga is now up at Shout factory! Interestingly they subbed the Grongi language!

http://shoutfactorytv.com/series/kamen-rider-kuuga

Meh. Kuuga was probably my least favorite Heisei KR season. In some ways a decent attempt to do a more mature take on the premise -- basically Kamen Rider as police procedural -- but too slow-paced and repetitive with weak character development and literally incomprehensible villains (since they spoke in their own language that was rarely subtitled, and viewers could only get the general sense from their performances).
.

Apparently not understanding the Grongi was intentional

https://kamenrider.fandom.com/wiki/Gurongi_language

During Kuuga's original run, every line spoken in the Gurongi's native language was left unsubtitled, without any hints as to what exactly they were talking about; as a result, fan sites attempted to decipher the language with success. The main mysteries in early parts of the series include the reason for the Gurongi's attacks and why they escape without resistance. In their native-language lines, the Gurongi actually address all of those mysteries even in those early episodes, which is why their dialogue was left unsubtitled.

It was supposed to leave some mystery on the show. Now it gives away a lot of what's happening.

It's the sort of thing that's fun to have for a second viewing. So it's good to have it there, but the first time you see the show you're not supposed to know what they're saying.

 

[kirk55555]

I'm glad they translated it, because I wouldn't bother with a half-translated show, regardless of whether it was planned that way or not. Its a pointless gimmick, and I'm glad SF didn't bother to use it. As for the show itself, I watched a few subbed episodes awhile ago and it was ok, so I'll probably watch it streaming now that its out.

 

[Christopher]

It's the sort of thing that's fun to have for a second viewing. So it's good to have it there, but the first time you see the show you're not supposed to know what they're saying.

Yes, of course I understand that. My problem is not one of understanding, it's of boredom. The question of what a device was intended to achieve is distinct from the question of whether it worked. It was obviously meant to create mystery, yes, but it just ended up creating tedium, because the constant scenes of characters spouting incomprehensible dialogue at each other were repetitive and uninteresting.

 

[JD]

Yeah, that sounds like the kind of thing that could get really annoying really fast. Something like that is fine for a few quick scenes once in a while, but if they do a lot for long scenes it would start to get old.
All this conversation makes me think of is The Star Wars Holiday Special, which starts with several minutes of Wookies just make noises at each other, without any kind of translation.

 

[Samurai8472]

Kiramager episode 8

After recent events with Rio(KirameiRed's actor) this episode really hit home with Jyuruu being out of commission.

Apparently there's a low key connection to Kamen Rider Drive with King Express.

Smog Jouki represents the character Mashin Chaser
The brighter piece of Mashin Express is supposed to Kamen Rider Mach

It was funny to see Garza sitting helplessly as Smog Jouki is hijacked to become King Express.

Somewhere out there in Sentai's universe someone shouted "Imagination!!!!!!" when King Express was formed.

KirameiRed also said Toqgers trademark like "Full speed ahead!" Shuppatsu Shinkou!

 

[Christopher]

Not a bad conclusion to the 2-parter. Of course it's predictable -- the Kiramagers realize their mistake, they apologize to Jyuuru, it all leads up to the introduction of the new toy, then cue funny tag scene where he gets his payback by training them just as hard. Still, it was reasonably well-executed.

Not sure how I feel about Jyuuru hijacking Smog Jouki (Smog Jockey, perhaps?) to make King Express, given that the Mashin are supposed to be sentient beings. But then, I guess the idea is that Garza is the one who's hijacked Smog/Mashin Jouki and forced it to do his will, and Jyuuru is "freeing" it. It still raises some consent questions, though.

 

[Samurai8472]

Kamen Rider Zero-One episode 34

Wow. This was intense.

I love the strategy with Aruto using Shining Hopper because he needed speed to take out Horobi's gang and stealth to avoid property damage on the hydroponic farm.

How appropriate that the greenhouse humagear is called Midori. "Midori" means green in Japanese

Some head of security Fuwa is turning out to be. The crisis is already over by the time he arrives which was a little funny

I thought Yua "judo chopping" Fuwa was funny. They're also really milking that dam location

Looks like Gai is royally screwed now that the ZaiaSpecs have caused people to go crazy
I'm still confused by her motives though. She's just reactivated a member of MBJ.net that wants to eradicate humanity yet in the preview for the next episode she's all smiles/chummy with Fuwa.

Hopefully the next episode clears things up

Also Yua has dropped her business suit look for a more laidback attire.

 

[Christopher]

I'm not quite sure what to think of this one. It wasn't bad, but we're at a point in the story where it isn't clear what the direction is. Everything's suddenly in a confused state. Yaiba and Jin are switching sides, and just as Gai talks about setting the next stage of his plan in motion, it's apparently unexpectedly hijacked by Naki, and it's all pretty unsettled. I thought we'd already reached the transition point between the second and third stages of the storyline when Aruto lost HI and opened a new company, but this one also feels like a transition point to a new phase of the story.

I'm starting to feel a little uncomfortable with the themes here. The idea that Humagears should be encouraged to continue doing the servant jobs they were created to love, and that this somehow represents "freeing" them to be true to themselves, is kind of hypocritical and disturbing. They're basically still a slave race, happy to be subservient because they were programmed to be. I get that Japan is a culture where service to the community above the self is seen as a noble calling, but it's one thing when that's a selfless personal choice, another thing altogether when it's a programmed imperative. It would help ameliorate things if we saw Aruto helping more Humagears who wanted to pursue dreams that were different from their original programming. Then it would be more convincing when he says he's trying to liberate them.

 

[JD]

I watched episode 5 of Jetman today, and it was pretty fun.
The stuff with Kaori's conversion disorder was an interesting way to deal with her not being as much of a fighter as the others. Her legs finally working just in time to kick Maria's ass was a nice heroic moment for her.
It was pretty cool to get our first look at the combined plane, and the Jet Phoenix attack was pretty cool.
I was surprised we got such a big face to face confrontation between Jetman and Vyram, I figured we wouldn't get that until the end.
Ryuu saw Maria of the first time, which of course did not go well for him. I'm curious to see where that goes now that he knows she is, or at least looks like, his dead girlfriend Rie.

 

[Christopher]

Kiramager 9: An interesting one this week, based on a traditional Japanese card game called karuta (from the Portugese carta meaning "card"), specifically the uta-garuta variety based on poetry. It's interesting when they do episodes like this, giving us glimpses into new facets of Japanese culture and tradition. And I think when they did the "traditional" karuta-style roll call, they reused animation elements from the Ninninger roll call sequence as an in-joke, since that was also very steeped in Japanese tradition.

Kind of a nice character-based plot with Sena facing an old friend-turned-rival and coming to terms with where they went wrong. Apparently this is a season that's not bothering with secret identities of any kind, since the Kiramagers openly sought help from Makino and her karuta dojo or whatever that was. Also, Makino somehow recognized Sena as KiramaGreen, without explanation. Are their identities publicly known? Well, most of them are already celebrities, so I guess I mean, is it publicly known that these famous people are also Kiramagers?

I ended up watching a sub from a different source than usual, so the translation was different. They translated "Jamenshi" (evil masked monster) as "Marrskman," which I guess is some attempt at "marred mask" or something. It's pretty awkward. They also translated the mention of Garza's "Jamentality" as "Calamentality," I guess based on "calamity."

At one point, Garza said that King Express was one of the four traditional guardians of Crystalia, or words to that effect. So I guess we've begun an arc that will introduce three more guardians over the weeks ahead. I wonder if the other three will also suborn Smog Joukey the way this one does, and if the full set of four will then combine into a complete robo of their own.

 

[Samurai8472]

I too noticed the background animation looked like or was from the Ninninger roll call

Boy. I thought this one would be a challenge for the subbers with the card phrases but it got the basic message through. Some of it I had to rewire my brain to understand

Gotta love how there was no problem with Sena driving a giant gem car around the city. Japanese citizens must be like

"Oh. It's Wednesday?"

 

[Christopher]

Gotta love how there was no problem with Sena driving a giant gem car around the city. Japanese citizens must be like

"Oh. It's Wednesday?"

Well, in the Sentai multiverse, they always build cities with these huge, super-wide empty roadways to accommodate the weekly giant battles. Honestly, I've started to think the skyscrapers are just empty facades and people really live underground, like in Evangelion.

 

[Samurai8472]

The cast blog seems to indicate that Episode Zero will be airing on May 17th

https://twitter.com/OkbTrial/status/1258932950315368448

Not technically a hiatus(due to COVID-19) but next week's Kiramager will be the "Episode Zero" shown before the show debuted

Following that there will be special airing of episode 1 and 2 which will be a"director's cut" version .


Zero-one will be doing a recap special titled "President Special"

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