Tuesday, February 26, 2013

NiroLegends/KudoNiro/MugenRed: Ultra-Act Mebius Review



                MEBIUS!!! Ahh...it's nice to have Ultra-Acts. Well, first things first before we start this review. As I mentioned on my NiroLegends Facebook Page, I will be using this blog a lot for updates, and maybe including Weekly Tokusatsu, and other things. Also, every post I make will be shared on my page as well, so you can like my page here to get updates. 
                Anyways, back to the review. To start off, once again, I love the front cover. It has that glittery face of Mebius which really stands out as a cover. Now, the back of the box is pretty similar to Ultra-Act Zero's, but this one does include a picture of another product. In the big picture, we have Mebius showing off his blade, but sadly...Zamusha isn't included in the Ultra-Act. (Sad Face). However, I do like all the example poses the back cover gives me, that way I don't have to go back to the show and see what looks good. 
                   Now this is where it gets interesting. Before I start, please note that I am reviewing about MY Ultra-Act, so that all the information about the joints might NOT apply here. Anyways, My Ultra-Act Mebius's joints and accessories are disappointingly loose. The joints are better, but it's still loose enough to get on people's nerves. The body is still made of mostly plastic like all the other Ultra-Acts. The hand joints are actually not that loose, but loose enough to make me not spend 30 minutes switching them like I had to do with the Zero figure. Now, I am not saying that loose joints are a good thing, I am just saying that you will have to deal with it if you come across it. Also, I think the black shading on the sides of his eyes make him look pale and evil.   
                  Ultra - Act Mebius does come with accessories, but he doesn't come with that much, or maybe I am just spoiled by Ultra - Act Zero. Mebius comes with 4 accessories, the Knight Brace Sword, the Red Color Timer, the Mebius Shoot, and the Mebius Punch. The color timer pops up a little bit on the body which makes it look weird, and is a bit loose. The Knight Brace is also a bit loose, but the Knight Brace Sword is extremely loose, so I try to not mess with it as much. The Mebius Shoot has to be my favorite accessory. The fact that it isn't loose and is really easy to put on just makes me fall in love with it. Well, not literally of course. For the Mebius Punch, it's really hard to get it on especially with the loose parts. The effect part of the accessory is actually made of soft plastic, so it can be a bit fragile.
                        Ultraman Mebius also comes with 3 interchangeable hands. The three that he has are the pretty basic ones. They are the flying hands, the spread open hands, and the default knuckle hand. Nothing special here since he can't, or doesn't have any weapons to hold, nor does he have a special hand pose (Besides the V from Ultraman Mebius and the Ultra Brothers, but that will probably come in a future release of Mebius Infinity)
            Now, to sum it all up, I think this figure is decent. It's obviously not as great as the Zero figure, but it's got its good points. I don't really recommend this if you have another Ultra - Act you want to buy, or if you want a "first", you should get Zero. He does require a bit of playing around to understand. I rate this figure a 7/10 for all the things I said in this review. Once again, thank you for taking your time to read this review. ^_^

This was the head of NiroLegends/KudoNiro/MugenRed







Sunday, February 24, 2013

Kyoryuger: first impressions and contrast with Go-Busters

After watching the first two episodes of Kyoryuger, here are my frist feelings about that series, and I will also do a comparison with Go-Busters, because it's very striking how those two series are really the opposite of each other.
The first striking point of Kyoryuger, as seen in the first two episodes, is how energetic that series is: plenty of action, and of course, plenty of hot-bloodedness, which pretty much fits the dinosaur theme of the season. Moreover, even if we begin to learn the background of the heroes, the series takes its time to have them know and appreciate each other. In contrast, Go-Busters, especially in its first episodes, was pretty low key, and rather focused on explaining the drama that the characters have undergone when they were children, the importance of Enetron and the general context, and all the characters had a pretty serious tone, and shared a similar background.
Another major contrast is that Kyoryuger's designs ( especially seen with the Kyoryubase, the villains, and even, in a way, the mechas) are colorful, fun looking, when Go-Busters's designs were more stern and more dull.
While Go-Busters had a very "professional team" feeling, Kyoryuger looks more like "a bunch of misfits put together to fight an enemy force".
Now, more insight about what I think of Kyoryuger based on the first two episodes; my feelings are pretty much the same that those I had when watching the scans and learning about the heroes's background, the supporting characters and the villains.
The heroes are, as I said, pretty colorful, all showing a real personality. Even if Kyoryuger doesn't avoid the stereotypes (Red being hot blooded and enthusiastic, Blue is the soft guy, clumsy and unsure of himself but overall a good guy, and Pink, a rebel princess, who wants to be (and in fact already is) a badass princess), the series uses them nicely. Moreover, the supporting characters seen so far (Blue's sister and niece, and Pink's servant) help make us care about those heroes, because it makes their personalities feel more human. It's gonna be interesting to learn more about Green next week, especially his relationship with his father (besides, having Ayumi Kinoshita (Dekayellow) and Junichi Haruta (Goggle Black/ Dynablack) (to be seen next week) is always a treat. Even if we don't know a lot so far about Green and Black (Green is gonna have focus in next week's episode), they seem to  have potential as well.
Torin is a very nice surprise: while in the scans he looked pretty silly, his voice actor is great, and perfectly makes the big bird (or perhaps feathered dinosaur) feel like a mentor figure.
The villains are a mixed bag: while they are pretty colorful, I don't feel they have much potential, storytelling wise, because they seem pretty much one dimensional ; Chaos seems to be an adequate villain boss, but his underlings look more like a silly bunch. However, seeing three of the generals leave the base to go to the field, with Aigaron even fighting was nice; (and Dogold is likely gonna fight next week) was nice. Another nice idea was to have the mooks being able to assemble together to make big monsters; it's a nice twist from the usual "becoming big" mooks seen in Shinkenger and Gokaiger. 
The action, the mechas, the weapons are pretty fun so far, with a fun use of the dinosaur theme, and the samba stuff isn't too much invasive.

Kyoryuger has a nice beginning. However, like a lot of recent sentai series, it is a risk of suffering from plot stalling, especially given its relatively one dimensional villain group,  and I really hope that Riku Sanjo is gonna write a worthy storyline for Kyoryuger.


Friday, February 22, 2013

Yukie Kagawa : a tribute for a great tokusatsu villainess actress

Most toku fans know about Machiko Soga (Queen Hedrian in Denziman and Sun Vulcan, Queen Pandora in Spielban, Queen Bandora in Zyuranger (and Rita Repulsa in MMPR (which she dubbed herself in the Japanese dub), as well as one episode villainesses in various toku shows); or about Akiko Kurusu/ Amamatsuri (Dr Mazenda of Liveman and Gara of Dairanger).
However, I wanted to write a little tribute to Yukie Kagawa, who was one of the first actresses playing regular villainesses in tokusatsu series.
Born January 2 1948, her first role was in the Daikaiju movie Gamera vs Balgon. She then played a lot of movies, mostly for Toei, and also played in various TV shows in the late 60' and early 70.
One of her first roles of villainess in toku was a one episode evil woman in Goranger. But her breakthrough as a toku villainess was in the Japanese Spiderman. She played Amazoness, the second in command of the Big Bad, Professor Monster. However she was the one who was the most involved in the plans against Spiderman and Japan, as the main commander of the Machine Bem (Spiderman's MOTW), the mooks, and later, the two female warriors, Bella and Rita, and also as a strategist and a spy. Amazoness was a very cruel villainess, killing in cold blood people, and having no hesitation to kill even little kids. She also showed intense pleasure in seeing Spiderman suffering. Even if she seldom fought directly Spiderman, she however almost managed to kill him by herself using poison in the final episode. Amazoness was one of the first regular tokusatsu villainess in TV series.
After playing Amazoness, she played an evil ninja working for Egos in Battle Fever J in two episodes. Once again her character was a ruthless fighter, even at the end doing a suicide attack to defeat her enemies.
Her next main villainess role in toku was Amazon Killer in Taiyou Sentai Sun Vulcan. She appeared in episode 23, replacing Zero Girl 01 as the female commander of the Zero Girls. In her debut episode, she showed herself to be a very dangerous enemy, being able to find and destroy the Sun Vulcan secret base. In the following episodes, she was the main general involved in the Black Magma evil plans. As a Vader clan member, she was very loyal to Queen Hedrian, and cared for her. When Hedrian decided to become the leader of Black Magam, she was involved in the killing of Hell Satan with her former partner Inazuma Ginga. However, when the Omnipotent God managed to kill Queen Hedrian using Hell Satan's ghost, she was forced to serve Black Magam against her will, having no true loyalty except for her Queen. In her last fight, she managed to hold her own against the three Sun Vulcan warriors, but decided to kill herself in order not to serve Black Magma, even giving some info to the heroes.
After Sun Vulcan, her next and last important role as a toku villainess was as Gilmarza, an evil sorceress in Juspion, who appeared in the last 7 episodes of the series.

In all of her villainess roles, she played pretty serious and no-nonsense enemies, thanks to her stern looks and low and cold voice. Her relatively low key acting was a  big contrast with the over-the top acting of Machiko Soga, and as such, she was able to make her villainess have a very cruel and scary feeling.


KudoNiro/MugenRed: Ultra-Act Zero Review




        So, as you can see, I am doing a toy review of my newly arrived Ultra-Act Zero. Well, to start off, I am just going to say that the box is absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The front of the box (Above, right) has a colored silhouette of Ultraman Zero's face. I really like the font used for the words Ultra - Act. The back cover uses a different style compared to S.H. Figuarts. It has one large picture with a few poses, then 4 tinier boxes with more advanced poses. It's got less words, but more pictures. Eh, I don't mind because I can't read them anyways. Even if I could, it's not that big of a deal.
Well, as you can see, our Zero above has his color timer on red.. oh no! Anyways, I love the range of movements for these figuarts. They are always great. The joints are pretty tight, which won't make it hard to get a perfect angle like my G3 (Well, that's another story for me to tell, and for you to read). 
Surprisingly, Zero's solar/chest plates and both of his WHOLE arms can pop off. I don't see the use in that, but the arms can get in the way of posing sometimes. His head has more movement than S.H. Figuarts, which is reasonable because Ultramen can fly. Also, Ultra-Acts are almost, if not all plastic. There is no die-cast parts that I found which makes them a lot lighter. I think this is to make them seem more alive compared to Riders or Sentais (Which both are suits). Zero's eyes also have a hint of red at the sides to look like it has dimension, so if you look at him far away enough, he looks like he has orange eyes. 



These are the accessories that come with the Ultra-Act. As you can see, he comes with an interchangeable head with no Zero Sluggers. He comes with two separate Zero Sluggers and his big Slugger-Blade. There are also interchangeable color timers and a Color Timer + Slugger part which is used for the Zero Twin Shoot.

These are the 4 pairs of hands that come with Zero. The far left one is the default fist holding hand. The second from the left is for holding the Zero Sluggers and the blade. The third from the left is a spread open hand for posing, and the last hand is the hand for either an Ultra Chop, or the flying pose. 
To conclude this, I really love this figure. It has beautiful looks and designs, amazing movements, cool accessories, and more! I would recommend this figure for your first Ultra Act just for everything I said. He is great and doesn't require much work to understand. So, to rate this Ultra Act, I give it a 9/10. Aaaaaand thank you from taking your time to read this post, I really appreciate it ^_^. 

This was KudoNiro/Mugen Red



Sunday, February 17, 2013

Vamola! Jyuden Sentai Kyoryuger: First Impressions and Thoughts (By Thomas Ledbetter/Ozu)


                           

          So, after watching the Raw of the first episode of Jyuden Sentai Kyoryuger...I have to legitimately say I was not expecting to like it as much as I do. Just so you know, before the series aired, I thought this show was just going to be a flashy bad comedy filled show with no depth or characterization. So far, it is hard to tell if that will be the case, but if this premiere episode is just like the best 45 or so episodes, I think it will be nothing like any of my past anticipations for this show. So, to put it blunt...I LOVE THIS SHOW!!!!

So, to start off with, I absolutely love the theme song "Vamola! Kyoryuger!". It has a lot of energy to it and really represents the show well in its style and, quite frankly, its awesomeness.

                           
I also really like the Devoss Army so far, especially the menacingly awesome Hundred-Faced Priest, Chaos. I also like the Zorima foot soldiers as well, even though they look somewhat silly. I will say though that I like that the Devoss Army is attacking all parts of the world right off the bat, including America! There are even some people that talk in the scenes in America. YES! FINALLY! Toei will be avenged for what Saban did to Shinkenger!!!! xD xD xD

Anyways, I also love the chemistry everyone on the team has with each other, especially in the restaurant that Amy Yuuzuki, KyoryuPink, works at. It's a funny scene, but since I still don't know much about what they said because I cannot understand Japanese well, I will leave my comment at that.

I think the place where I have the most praise is in its theme and style. Somewhat like Go-Busters, they are going somewhat on the Kamen Rider side, the biggest similar series for me being like Kamen Rider OOO, which is my favorite KR series. I say this because this WOULD be a mistake, but for Kyoryuger, it is NOT a mistake. The mistake that Go-Busters made was incorporating too much of Kamen Rider to the point where it didn't feel like Sentai anymore. In Kyoryuger however, they put slight elements of Kamen Rider in like the type of Henshin for example. The thing that Kyoryuger does right though is also add traditional Super Sentai elements into the mix as well. It brings the uniqueness of Kamen Rider into the mix, but it doesn't over-abuse it like Go-Busters did, and having that makes the series both traditional and unique all at the same time, which gives a nice flare to the series's style as whole.

                          

Speaking of traditional Super Sentai elements, Kyoryuger brought back the eyecatches between the commercials, which they have not done since Tensou Sentai Goseiger in 2010. They are also using katakana for the text for the episode names instead of kanji which they haven't done in a while with a Sentai series. 

                           

They are also bringing back the mentor who turns into a ranger, with Torin turning into KyoryuGold (which we will probably see later in the series), which we haven't had since Doggie Kruger as DekaMaster in Dekaranger and Hikaru/Sungel as MagiShine in Magiranger. It's also nice to see the more standard roll call back like we had in other Sentai series in the past. I also love that for the mecha, they aren't using nearly as much CGI as they have been using in other series, and it works much better for the giant robot fight scenes. I think going back to Sentai's roots while also bringing unique elements is what the kids truly wanted that they didn't get with Go-Busters; they wanted a middleground, and I think this one is the perfect middleground for both the western fans of Tokusatsu and the little ones in Japan.


Another element of Kyoryuger I like is the designs of all the suits and arsenal. I think the GabuRevolver and the GaburiCalibur have some great style to them with both organic and mechanical detailing that give them a unique flare to them. I can also say that I absolutely love the designs of the suit, especially with the simple but effective design on both the chest and the helmet. I also like the scaling pattern used for the arm sleeves of the suits, which looks more dino-esque, but still resembles the gray sleeves used for the Hurricanger suits in 2002.

                        

I also really like the fighting style of the show as well, especially with the huge attacks used with the GabuRevolver, the GaburiCalibur, and the combination of the two weapons, the GaburiCannon. I would like to give loads to credit to Koichi Sakamoto, who directed the fight scenes. His work on Kamen Rider Fourze was astonishingly good, so its nice to have him part of this series to spice the scenes up a bit, especially with that finishing blast from KyoryuRed:

                        


This next part is the biggest surprise for me; The Ending Theme. Usually, I hate the ending theme because it is either too silly (ex: Go-Onger) or too GOD AWFULLY ANNOYING (ex: Magiranger, Abaranger, Dekaranger, etc.), but this ending theme surprises me. It's energetic, but not so much so to where it annoys me to the ends of the earth. It also has a nice Hawaiian beat to it and it really soothing but awesome at the same time.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, I just really like the cast, they fit the role they play very very well, which is just fine with me. And besides, KyoryuPink is BEAST!!! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
The more and more I see her, the more and more I fall in love! <3 <3 <3 <3 <3
All in all, I now have really high hopes for Kyoryuger! The action is great, the style is great, the designs are great, the characters are great! Everything is great, and I will be following this series all the way! Toei, DON'T SCREW THIS UP! Thanks. xD xD xD






My thoughts on Wizard thus far.

At this point in time I have seen up to episode 23 of Kamen Rider Wizard. I was excited for Wizard when it first started and hoping it would be as good as Fourze was to me. Though I must say as it stands at the moment it is just an ok series, I don't really have much of an opinion at this point. So far the main reason I keep watching is because of Koyomi's plot-line and the White Wizard. The cast also doesn't bring the same amount of energy to the table that Fourze did.

I don't care much for Haruto, mostly because he just sounds bored to me when he fights and for the most part its like he is just toying with the phantoms. His also has way to many powers for at the moment. Half of the rings he has at the moment are mostly one-shots and only serve to give him new ways to show off. Arguably, the only challenging opponent Haruto even had was Phoenix but once the Dragon Forms started showing up, he became somewhat of a moot point and I'd rather not talk about my issues with Phoenix as that would take too long. He hasn't had much developement as a character. I think he needs to see a Gate become phantom right before his eyes again to challenge the strength of his resolve and hope.





Rinko has proven somewhat useful in helping get information on the Gates who are being attacked and can occasionly get info on the Phantom's human forms.

The plot in the beginning was ok, though its slowly gotten a bit more boring and hasn't elaborated much on what the phantoms are and why they become evil when they are born. The pacing of Haruto aquiring new forms has been way too fast (already made a previous post about so I won't say too much) and hasn't helped advanced the plot much, if at all. Wizard isn't even being subtle about being 22-24 minute toy commercial anymore. Seriously, we've barely gotten used to the dragon forms and they are throwing Infinity at us soon. At least Fourze was more subtle about the toy thing and most of his switches actually served a purpose in battle.




I honestly don't care for Beast because I was expecting an awesome more serious character than what we got. His mayo obsession is borderline annoying and his life or death situation due to his contract with Chimera hasn't been touched on much (granted at the time of this post, he hasn't been on the show that long). Haruto even over-shadowed Beast during his own premier eps. The condition of his powers lead me to believe that he will not survive. And he is about as annoying as Shunpei (who I want to punch in the mouth everytime he says something stupid).



Now for one of the coolest things I've seen in the show so far: The Drago-Timer. I love its design, even if it makes Haruto far too broken. It works like the copy ring only it has a time limit. I'm curious to see the limits of that device and I really hope that its not a one-shot weapon, Haruto has far too many of those.


Now for the reasons that have kept me watching: Koyomi and the White Wizard. I'm very interested in seeing how they will handle Koyomi's plot-line since there are effectively two seperate versions of her: the doll and the phantom. I'm predicting a sort of paradox-type situation where one gets absorbed by the other. The White Wizard is certainly very interesting and I'm curious to find out who is behind the mask and why he chose Haruto to fight the phantoms instead of doing it himself.

So far, its an ok series, but the fact that a feel nothing for both of the riders kind of detracts from the series. Seriously, there is something wrong when I find the supporting cast more interesting than either of the riders.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

More Theme Edits

I did more theme edits I hope you enjoy ^_^

I did Kamen Rider Agito with JustiFaiz, Kamen Rider OOO with Climax Jump, Gosei Sentai Dairanger with Hikari Sentai Maskman theme, Gekisou Sentai Carranger with Kousoku Sentai Turboranger opening theme, Gekisou Sentai Carranger opening sequence 2 with Kousoku Sentai Turboranger opening theme, Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters with Denji Sentai Megaranger opening, Bakaryuu Sentai Abaranger with Wild Fang, Mahou Sentai Magiranger with Life is Showtime, Mahou Sentai Magiranger with Life is Showtime (Longer Version), Kyoryu Sentai Zyuranger with Zyuden Sentai Kyoryuger opening theme, and Bakaryuu Sentai Abaranger with Kyuukyuu Sentai GoGoV/GoGoFive opening theme












Thursday, February 14, 2013

My thoughts on Wizard's and Beast's upcoming forms and pacing of Haruto aquiring new forms




First off, I'll just start off by saying that I do not care much for how Wizard's Infinity Style looks. The shape of the helmet just looks awkward to me and the chestplate is just unnessecary. Though I do like the nice shade of silver on the rest of the suit. I don't much care for Infinity Style's weapon...I was betting on it being a staff and if it functions like the WizarSwordGun for Haruto's other forms, it will likely be a combination ax/sword/gun.


Beast Hyper looks better to me though it does look quite similiar to Meteor Storm, this is mostly due to the similar color scheme and the similar chestplate. The lion blaster looks incredibly well done and it is my favorite of the two upcoming weapons.



Now here comes the part that I've been thinking about ever since Hurricane Dragon showed up, the pacing of Haruto getting new forms and upgrades. Quite frankly, he is getting too many way too fast. He already had enough weapons/upgrades/abilities when the series began due to all the magic rings he possesses. The fact that he would have a dragon form for each of his elemental styles sounded cool at first, but the pacing between his aquisition of those forms didn't leave much breathing room and quite honestly haven't helped advanced the plot much. The only ones that did help advance the plot even a tiny bit was the Water Dragon stone, which showed the stones came from Wiseman and showing that he actually wants Haruto to use them to become stronger (which hasn't been brought up again), and the Land Dragon stone that was delivered to Koyomi by a mysterious new phantom. However, now they mostly serve to provide him with new ways to beat a phantom over the head.


Granted, Haruto aquiring new forms so quickly can probably be attributed to going overboard on the toy-line, but thats still 8 forms (counting his four normal elemental forms) in under 25 episodes, not to mention a multitude of new rings. That is insanely fast. We've barely had enough time to get used to the 4 Dragon forms, and they are throwing Infinity at us soon. Each of the Dragon forms have barely been used for 2 episodes before the next one comes along. What started out as cool ideas for story points have, at the time of this post, been reduced to nothing more than just asthetic changes and ways to show how awesome Haruto's powers are. Its making me a bit afraid that Haruto will be one of those form spamming riders and only rely on his most powerful form and neglecting the others.

Monday, February 11, 2013

Opening Edits

These are a couple of openings I edited with additional or mixed scenes as well as different music, the first is  Kamen Rider Kuuga with the song Eiyuu (Hero) by Doa which was the opening to Ultraman Nexus.  The next one is also Kamen Rider Kuuga with the song Alive a Life the Kamen Rider Ryuki opening.  The last one is of Kamen Rider W with the song Eiyuu again.  I hope you all like and enjoy. 





Update:  Faiz goes to the Next Level

Sentai writers: an analysis

Now that we know which writers have written which sentai series and episodes, here is a little more information about those writers's background

1) Major sentai writers (head writers of more than one sentai series)

Shouzo Uehara (Goranger, JAKQ, Battle Fever (with Takaku), Denziman, Sun Vulcan
Shouzo Uehara is probably one of the most important, even perhaps the most important tokusatsu writer of all time, being involved in the most famous toku franchise. First, he's been involved in the Ultra series franchise since its beginning, being a secondary writer of Ultra Q, Ultraman, Ultraseven, Ultraman Ace and Ultraman Taro, and the main writer of "The Return of Ultraman". After Taro he left the Ultra franchise, coming back years later to write some episodes of Ultraman Tiga, Dyna, Max and Ultra Q Dark fantasy.
After leaving the Ultra franchise he's been writing for the Inazuman series, being head writer of Inazuman Flash, and also being the head writer of the "Ganbare Robocon" series.
He's been then the first head writer of the Super Sentai franchise, having been head writer of the first five sentai series, Goranger, JAKQ Dengekitai, Battle Fever J (with Susumu Takaku), Denziman and Sun Vulcan. After Sun Vulcan he left the Sentai franchise, only to return years later, as a secondary writer of Ohranger.
Among other toku of that era, he's been the main writer of the Spiderman toku series, and a important writer of Kyodain.
After leaving the sentai franchise, he went  to work on the newly created Metal Hero franchise, being the head writer of the first five Metal Hero series (the Space Sheriff trilogy, Juspion and Spielban), and as such, THE head writer of the "Space sheriff" era of the Metal Hero franchise. After Spielban, he wrote also one episode of Metalder and much later of Blue SWAT. He also has been a secondary writer of Machineman.
His last major contribution to toku has been hos involvment in Kamen Rider Black, as the writer of 5 episodes, including the first four episodes of the series.

Hirohisa Soda (Goggle V, Dynaman, Bioman, Changeman, Flashman, Maskman, Liveman, Turboranger, Fiveman)
If Uehara is a major writer of the tokusatsu genre as a whole, the most important Super sentai series writer is without a doubt Hirohisa Soda.
Hirohisa Soda has been involved in the sentai franchise since Goranger, being a secondary writer of all the sentai series penned by Uehara. He has also being previously involved as a secondary writer in Kikaider 01, the two Inazuman series and the Spiderman toku.
When Uehara left the sentai franchise to work on the Metal Hero franchise, Hirohisa Soda became head writer of Super Sentai and he's the one who stayed the longest as a sentai head writer, being head writer of no less than 9 sentai series in a row (Goggle V, Dynaman, Bioman, Changeman, Flashman, Maskman, Liveman Turboranger and Fiveman). During his time as head writer, he brought a lot of changes in how sentai series were written : more focus on story arcs, rather than merely an episodic format; more focus on the main characters, with more fleshed heroes, and more complex villains who can sometimes show a sympathetic side. During the Soda era, the storytelling in sentai became much more complex than before.  It was also during the Soda era that the fitst teams with two girls appeared.
However, at the end, Soda showed signs of burn out, and his last series, Fiveman, showed obvious weaknesses (Turboranger already showed some signs of Soda's burn out).
After Fiveman, he left the sentai franchise. He became for a little while a secondary writer on the Metal Hero franchise, writing episodes of Janperson and Blue SWAT.
He then came back to the sentai franchise as a secondary writer of Kakuranger, Ohranger and Carranger, and then, left for good the sentai franchise, in which he left an unforgettable legacy.

Noboru Sugimura (Zyuranger, Dairanger, Kakuranger, Ohranger)
Once Soda left, and after Inoue has written Jetman (which had a great success), the sentai franchise needed fresh blood and new ideas.
Toei decided to bring to the sentai franchise the writer who had already successfully brought fresh ideas in another toku franchise, the Metal Hero franchise: Noboru Sugimura.
Sugimura's first toku series were as writer of some episodes of Machineman. He then came to the Metal Hero franchise, writing some episodes of Spielban, and Jiraiya. He also had been a secondary writer of Kamen Rider Black.
Starting with Jiban , he became head writer of Metal Hero series. After Jiban, he has been the head writer of the two first series of the Rescue Police trilogy: Winspector and Solbrain. Those series were groundbreaking in the Metal Hero franchise, starting the era of the "Rescue police" theme in Metal Hero, a theme that would have a lasting influence in the Metal Hero franchise.
After Solbrain, he left the Metal Hero franchise for the Super Sentai franchise, and became the head writer of four sentai series in a row: Zyuranger, Dairanger, Kakuranger and Ohranger. During that era, Sentai, which was until then mostly a sci fi toku franchise, became more fantasy oriented with Zyu, Dai and Kaku having a big focus on mythology, and fantasy tropes. During the Sugimura era, comedy in sentai became even more wacky, with often a satirical tone.
Interestingly, Sugimura has never been a secondary writer in a sentai series, and after Ohranger, left the sentai franchise.

Junki Takegami (Megaranger, GogoV, Gaoranger, Go-onger)
Junki Takegami has been, with Yasuko Kobayashi, the most important sentai writer that started during the Takatera era. Unlike Uehara, Soda and Sugimura, Takegami had much less experience writing toku, being mostly an anime writer. He had written some Shushutorian (a Fushigi comedy series) episodes, and he has also been a secondary writer of early  Heisei Ultra series (Ultraman Tiga, Dyna, Gaia and Cosmos).
However his major contribution to toku has been in the sentai franchise, having been head writer of no less than four sentai series, Megaranger, GogoV, Gaoranger and Go-onger. He's been the most active during the late 90' early 00', being head writer of Megaranger GogoV and Gaoranger, and secondary writer of Gingaman. After Gaoranger, he came back as a secondary writer of Dekaranger, then came back to write a few episodes of Boukenger, and, at last as the head writer of Go-onger. 
Unlike most sentai head writers, he's never been involved in the Metal Hero or the Kamen Rider franchise. However, he's the main writer of Ryukendo.

Yasuko Kobayashi (Gingaman, Timeranger, Shinkenger, Go-Busters)
The second major writer who came to work in the sentai franchise during the Takatera era. She started writing toku episodes in the Metal Hero franchise, writing an episode of Janperson and then, becoming the secondary writer of Blue SWAT, B-Fighter and B-Fighter Kabuto. Her first work in the sentai franchise was as a secondary writer of Megaranger. The next year, she became head writer of Gingaman. She was involved in all sentai series between Megaranger and Timeranger, as head writer of Gingaman and Timeranger, and secondary writer of the Takegami penned  Megaranger and GogoV.
After Timeranger, she left the sentai franchise and was involved in the Kamen Rider franchise, writing an episode of Agito and then being head writer of Ryuki. She was also the head writer of the Sailor Moon live series. She came back in the sentai franchise as a secondary writer  for Boukenger, and then, came back to the Rider franchise as Den-O's head writer, and also wrote some episodes of Decade. Her big come back in the sentai franchise has been as head writer of the very successful Shinkenger, and then, she again went to work in the Rider franchise as head writer of OOO. Then, she came back as head writer of Go-Busters.
Kobayashi is remarkable by the fact that she regularly switched from Rider series head writer to Sentai series head writer.

Naruhisa Arakawa (Abaranger, Dekaranger, Gokaiger)
Despite being head writer of only three sentai series so far, Arakawa has been involved in the most sentai series of all sentai writers, except Soda.
His first work as a toku writer has been one Kamen Rider Black episode. He started working in the sentai franchise as a secondary writer of Jetman, and then has been a secondary writer of every sentai series from Jetman through Gingaman, except Ohranger. After Gingaman, he left for a little while the sentai franchise, writing an episode of Changerion, but, most importantly, becoming the head writer of the first Heisei Kamen Rider series, Kamen Rider Kuuga. However, after Kuuga, he hasn't worked much in the Rider franchise, having only written two episodes of Kamen Rider W years later. However, he came back to the ssentai franchise with Hurricanger, and, the following year, became for the first time head writer of a sentai series, Abaranger. He was also the head writer for the following sentai series, Dekaranger. After Dekaranger, he remained as a secondary writer in every sentai series, except the Kobayashi penned Shinkenger and Go-Busters, and became again head writer for the big anniversary sentai series, Gokaiger. Among his other toku works, he has been also a writer for Daimajin Kanon, and he's been the head writer of the unofficial sentai series, Akibaranger

Michiko Yokote (Gekiranger, Goseiger)
Yokote (pen name of a team of three writers) hasn't been involved in many toku series, being secondary writer of Dekaranger and Magiranger, and then head writer of Gekiranger and Goseiger.

2) One Shot Writers
Those writer shave only been head writer of one sentai series

Susumu Takaku (head writer of Battle Fever J with Uehara)
Takaku had worked in various toku series like Captain Ultra, Spectreman, the two Inazuman series, as a secondary writer. He's written episodes in every sentai series penned by Uehara, and was even head writer of Battle Fever J with Uehara. Afterwards, he worked in the Metal Hero series, first, as secondary writer of Gavan and Sharivan, and then, as head writer of Metalder and Jiraiya. He has also been head writer of Machineman. Following Metalder, he became a secondary writer for series penned by Noboru Sugimura. He first worked in Jiban, Winspector and Solbrain, then, came back to the sentai franchise and worked as a secondary writer in all Sugimura penned series (Zyuranger, Dairanger, Kakuranger and Ohranger, which is his last work in toku).

Toshiki Inoue (Jetman)
Inoue has been one of the most influencial toku writers. Surprisingly, his first work in a toku franxhise has been one episode in the Fushigi comedy series Dokincho ! Nemuri.
Afterwards, he became a important secondary writer during the Soda era, having been involved in every Soda sentai series starting with Flashman. After Soda left, he became head writer in the following sentai series, Jetman, which ended up as a very popular sentai series. Afterwards, he worte some episodes of Zyuranger, Dairanger (the Jin arc) and Ohranger, but after Ohranger, hasn't been involved in sentai series anymore, except two episodes of Timeranger and the Jetman tribute episode of Gokaiger.
Following Ohranger, he's been the main writer of the toku show Changerion. However, his most important work in toku has been in the Heisei Kamen Rider franchise. He started writing in Rider series as a secondary writer for Kuuga, and then, became head writer of the following Rider show, Agito. Inoue has worked in almost every Rider series from Kuuba through Decade (except the Kobayashi penned Den-O), as head writer of Kamen Rider Faiz, the second half of Hibiki, Kiva, and secondary writer in Ryuki, Blade, Kabuto and Decade. Among his other toku credits, he's been the head writer of "Cutie Honey, the Live" and has also written an episode of Garo

Yoshio Urasawa (Carranger)
Carranger being an unusual sentai series, it needed an unusual toku writer. To be the head writer of that parody sentai series, Toei hired Yoshio Urasawa, whose major work has been ... in the Fushigi comedy franchise, Urasawa having worked in every Fushigi comedy series, as head writer for all series of the franchise but three, where he worked as a secondary writer (he also was head writer of Panchanne, a parody of the Fushigi comedy series Poitrine) . After his work as Carranger, he worked in as a secondary writer in the kid friendly Metal Hero series Kabutack and Robotack. He came back in the sentai franchise as a secondary writer of Abaranger, and then, in two episodes of Gokaiger (the Carranger tribute episode and its sequel), both series penned by his Carranger secondary writer ... Arakawa

Junichi Miyashita (Hurricanger)
Before writing for the sentai franchise, Miyashita has been one of the most important writers of the Metal Hero franchise. After having worked as a secondary writer for Kamen Rider Black and Kamen Rider Black RX, he then started working in the Metal Hero franchise, first, as a secondary writer in Winspector and Solbrain, and then, as head writer for all the following Metal Hero series until B-Fighter Kabuto (Exceedraft, Janperson, Blue SWAT, Juuko B-Fighter and B-Fighter Kabuto), and as such, the most important writer involved in the B-Fighter era of Metal Hero.  He also has been secondary writer in the last two Metal Hero series, Kabutack and Robotack. He then came in the sentai franchise, first, as GogoV's secondary writer and then, as head writer of Hurricanger. He also came back to the Rider franchise, as secondary writer of Blade, annd also has been a secondary writer of Go-onger

Atsushi Maekawa (Magiranger)
He's not been involved in many toku series. He's first worked as a secondary writer of Ultraman Cosmos, and then became secondary writer of Hurricanger and Abaranger, and then, eventually, became head writer of Magiranger

Sho Aikawa (Boukenger)
His earlier toku work has been as a writer of a Spielban episode. His first work in sentai has been as secondary writer of Abaranger. The next year, he worked in the Kamen Rider franchise as head writer of Kamen Rider Blade. Two years later, he came back to the sentai franchise as Boukenger's head writer, and then, worked as a secondary writer in the two following sentai series, Gekiranger and Go-onger. He's also been involved in Kamen Rider Decade.

3) Kunio Fujii: an important secondary writer
Despite he never has been head writer of any sentai series, Kunio Fujii deserves to be mentioned because he's been involved in many sentai series as secondary writer. Starting with Bioman, he's been the major secondary writer of the Soda era, being involved in every sentai penned by Soda from Bioman through Fiveman. He's also been a secondary writer in the Metal Hero franchise, writing episodes of Metalder, Jiraiya and Jiban, and one episode of Winspector. After the Soda era, he's written one episode each for Zyuranger and Kakuranger, but, more importantly, he's written the episodes of Dairanger involving the Daigo/ Kujaku storyline.








Sunday, February 10, 2013

My final review of Go-Busters


1) The heroes
-Hiromu/ Red Buster: Definitely a very worthy hero character. even if his weakness "the chicken stuff" is definitely silly, fortunately, it's the only thing that is about Hiromu. As a hero, Hiromu never stops showing his determination to fight, even despite his big sister's fears. His bravery, deep resolve to fight makes him a true hero. Moreover, he manages not to be the traditional "Red ranger", by having a very blunt character, telling people how they are annoying to him. However, it seems that through the series, that bluntness is toned down, and he manages to be more likable. The fact that he's been shown to disguise as a clown to bring fun to th children confirms that, despite his bluntness, there is a heart of gold beneath. As the Red Ranger, he' s the one who has the most powerful rivalry with Enter, and when there is a rivalry between a great hero and a great villain, it makes an awesome an powerful rivalry. Lastly, Hiromu, more than Ryuji and Yoko, understands the most how painful sacrifices are sometimes needed to the greater good. In the two big climaxes of the series, he's the one who accepts first to make those sacrifices, and he's the one who's the most involved in them. To sum up, Hiromu is a true Red ranger hero, and he shows it when confronted with situations that few former Red Rangers had to confront. Congrats, Kobayashi, for a great character
-Ryuji/ Blue Buster: the big brother figure. Unlike Hiromu and Yoko, his weakness is very interesting, because as he becomes a berserker when overheated, making him become a real destruction machine, it brings real drama during the fights, because when he's overheating, not only he can put his teammates in danger, but it can threaten his life too. It's especially true when Escape is involved, because she wants him to become that way for her fun. Even if he's the big brother figure of the three first Go-Busters, he unfortuntely doesn't get much focus, and because Hiromu is the one who displays the typical "second in command" personality, he appears as somewhat bland.
-Yoko/ Yellow Buster : the youngest of the team and the only girl. She shows the typical characteristics shown in both the "child " and "girl" members of a sentai team. Her weakness " her need for sweets, otherwise she can't move" is a mildy interesting one, but not bad. As the youngest, she's the one who is the most forced to grow up during the series, both by having to be confroned by the fights, the sacrifices, and Ryuji's overheated personality. Even if she undoubtly grows up during that year, she doesn't have that much focus during the series, but the character is reasonably well written for what she is; however she isn't a very memorable sentai heroine.
- Jin Masato/ Beet Buster : Ryuji's mentor, he was involved in the tragic event that makes the core storyline of the series. Even if he's managed not to be completely sucked into Messiah, unlike Hiromu and Yoko's parents, his body has however been partially been afftected, and he's forced to stay in a capsule, appearing as an avatar and fighting with the others as Beet Buster, thanks to his Buddyroid J. When he appears, he shows a pretty fun personality, joking around, showing a reckless personality and he's a strong contrast with the serious tone of the other Go-Busters. He always wants to have the spotlight, and whenever J tries to upstage him, he shows J his annoyance about that. However, it's obvious that beneath this playful personality, he's in fact very aware of the horror of his situation, which is only a little better than the other EMC's fate; in episode 34, J reveals that the most Jin acts silly, the most he suffers, and that it's his way to cope with his situation. Even if he suffers from a lack of focus during the series, since his real situation is only sparingly shown (we only see his real body for the first time in episode 30, we see the sorry state of its body in episode 40, and the series only deals with his status during the finale), fortunately, the finale more than makes up for it, and he's the one who brings the most emotion during that finale. He's well aware that he has to be sacrificed to allow the others to finish Enter, and, like the EMC staff in episode 30, he's the one who makes the Busters realize the improtance of painful sacrifices. Even if he descibes his situation while smiling, it's most than obvious that that smile is full of pain, and it's thanks to Jin and his selfless sacrifice that Go-Busters has such a climactic and emotional finale.

2) The Buddyroids
Chida Nick (cheetah like robot) : Hiromu's buddyroid, who is able to become a bike : he's the one who's been involved with raising Hiromu. Even is he always shows deep concern and care about Hiromu, he often is showsn as a pretty silly character, notably with his complete sense of direction. However, he's manages to be an average character
Gorisaki (gorilla like robot): Ryuji's Buddyroid andprobably one of the most annoying characters, because of his worrywart personality. He doesn't really have very interesting development .
Usada (rabbit like robot) : Yoko's Buddyroid, and a smartass who never hesitates to tell about the silly side of her. Like Gorisaki,, he doesn't get much deveolpment either, even if he's slightly less annoying.
Chida, Gorisaki and Usada are usually staying in the base, but starting with episode 33, they've been involved in the fights as the Powered Morphins
- Beet J Stag (beetle like robot)/ Stag Buster : Jin's Buddyroid. Despite being a robot, he has one of the most interesting and fun personalities in the show. He's completely egocentric, seemingly only caring about himself, wanting to show off, keeping a serious tone even when he's doing pretty silly stuff. As the comically serious, he's bringing a lot of laughs during the series. However, like Jin, J has hidden depths. Despite being apparently egocentric, several episodes, especially the finale, show how much he cares for Jin, and how he suffers when he sees Jin putting himself in danger, and how he doesn't want him to play with his life. As the finale shows, he's been deeply affected by Jin's sacrifice, and misses him very much.

3) Supporting cast:
Energy Maintenance Center crew
Takeshi Kuroki: the leader of the team: he's a pretty classic commander figure, and he's very serious and ready to do everything to eradicate the Vaglass threat. Unfortunately, he doesn't show more development
Toru Morishita and Miho Nakamura : the two assistants, they're the ones who are detecting the appearances of the Metaloids and Megazords; they pretty much play a "communication officer" role, and they don"t have much development beyond that.
Other characters
Hiromu's sister : she's very reluctant to have her brother fight the Vaglass, but she's forced to accept it, notably because of her brother's determination to fight. In the few episodes we're seeing her, she's shown as a somewhat overprotective figure, but eventually a likable one

4) The Villains
The Vaglass: one thing that I've been enjoying is that most of the Vaglass have been played by face actors (human looking villains) instead of suit actors
Messiah: the apparent Big Bad virus responsible of the tragic events which starts the storyline: he's the virus which tried to turn everything into his own data the day of Christmas, 13 years before the beginning of the series, and he's only been stopped by being sent to hyperspace by Hiromu's Messiah is shown mostly as a red skull full of data: he always seems to be angry, with a completel lust for destruction, and has a pretty childish personality. Eventually, it's obvious that Messiah isn't a really interesting Big Bad, more a destructive force than anything else : the true main villain and real Big Bad of the series is of course
Enter: an avatar made by Messiah from various data. He's the one who is the mastemind of every plot during the whole series, and he's pretty much a one man army. He's the one who creates most of the Metaloids, and as a result, the Megazords, and in the first half of the series, he's involved in helping Messiah have enough energy to get out of Hyperspace. He's shown as a pretty competent villain, beign able to get some victories during the first half of the series, to make a new type of Megazord. He's also a very active vilain, often being involved in fights against the heroes. He at first shows a playful personality, especially by a huge use of gratuitous French. However, whenever he feels that he's been outsmarted, his playful side disappears, and he shows very powerful feelings of rage and hate. He has a very high opinion of himself, eventually wanting to become the perfect human, the most perfect creature in the world, and whenever he underestimates his enemies, he tries to discover why to be able to be even stronger against them. Indeed, he realized, when Hiromu decided to sacrifice his family to shut down Messiah a first time in hyperspace, how he's underestimated Red Buster's determination, and how he understood the spirit of sacrifice of the former EMC team trapped in Messiah, even when it involved his father. As a result, he decided a new plan, with the Messiah cards allowing him to get data from people, to understand them better and use that data to make him the strongest being in the world. After watching Escape getting a powerup, he gets also one for himself. Enter has a very powerful rivalry with Red Buster; he's fascinated by him, so much that he manages to become a twisted version of Red Buster, and of all humans, it's Hiromu's data he seeks the most, and succeed to get, managing to become a twisted version of Red As a very smart villain, he put a Messiah card inside of Hiromu's body, deeply aware that it would be safe there, so he's able to come back even if he's seemingly destroyed. When he reveals the Busters Hiromu's status as a back up, he knows he's putting the heroes in a very difficult dilemma, even if Hiromu has shown to be able to do the ultimate sacrifice. However, he once again underestimated the powerful spirit of sacrifice of the heroes, and notably, Jin Masato's, a character he never really focused about, and that mistake eventually became his downfall.
Even if Enter's development has shown a few inconsistencies, notably because of the big changes Go-Busters underwent in the middle of the series, for the most part, Enter has been shown as a very powerful villain, one of the most well done and intense sentai villains of the sentai franchise.

Escape: a female avatar created form diverse data, appearing in the middle of the series. She's been created by Messiah, and displays mostly two personalities traits: a big lust to intense fighting, with powerful opponents, and a big devotion to her Papa. As a result, she's always ready to directly fight her opponents She even is able to get more powerful, because of both those elements. Her lust for fights proves to be very dangerous for Ryuji, because she enjoys a lot fighting him in his beserker overheated state, Unfortunately, she never really manages to show herself as a true game changer, because her personality never goes beyond her lust to fight and Papa love, and as such, it's still Enter who remains the only true main villain of the series. Enter doesn't like her, but is well aware she may be useful, and mostly tolerates her. She eventually is revealed to only be used a sa pawn by both Messiah and Enter, and at the end, is more seen as a corrupted program than anything else. Because at the end of the series, she's been repeatly shut down and then resurrected, her defeats feels pretty anticlimactic, and it eventually made her look like a weak villainess
- The Metaloids (and Messiah Metaloids): robotic like opponents, made from objects from everyday life infected by the Metavirus: they rarely showed very interesting personalities, and were pretty seen as Enter's mere tools.
- The Megazords: one interesting twist of Go-Busters was, instead of having the small villain being turned big, to have giant robots being made at the same time as the Metaloid, using first three basic models (alpha, beta, Gamma), and adding some of the Metaloid's design. Enter eventually managed to make another type, the Delta type, based on BC-04 's design, but it didn't really bring a lot more. Lastly, Enter and Escape have been able to have their own type of Zords. It allowed an interesting situation where some of the hereos were fighting the big Megazord, when the others were fighting the human sized Metaloid.
-The robotic buglers mooks were reasonably well done

5) The action and mechas
I'm not the best to review the "action and technical side" of a sentai series. However, I can say that the action was pretty well done, with nice fights, notably the ones between the heroes and Enter.
The mechas: the series decided to use both the animal and vehicle motifs, with each mecha having both a vehicle mode and an animal mode (Cheetah/Car (CB 01), Gorilla/ Truck (GT-02), Rabbit/Helicopter (RH-03), Rhinoceros beetle/ Crane (BC-04), Stag Beetle/Jet (SJ-05), and Lion/Bike (LT-06 ;Tategami Lioh); the movie had also a frog/ submarine (FS 0O) which also appeared in an episode) ; besides, CB 01, BC-04 and LT-06 being able to be big robots. If the robots made from one robots did look pretty fine, especially Go-Buster Ace or Go-Buster Lioh, unfortunately, most of the big robot using more than one mecha, like Go-Buster-Oh, Great Go-Buster, or Go-Buster king, looked pretty bulky and were more often than not pretty ugly looking

6) Storyline and episodes:

And here is the biggest issue with Go-Busters: even if it had a very powerful and very emotional storyline, the series suffers from very badly done storytelling that really harms a lot the series. It proves that Kobayashi has a lot of trouble handling a 50 episode long story, as Go-Busters suffered a lot at first from plot stalling. Besides, the more than likely executive meddling made it even worse.
Basic storyline: At Christmas day, 13 years before the beginning of the series, a computer virus, Messiah, became completely berserk,and threatened to destroy the world by assimilating everything aroung it. To stop Messiah, the Energy Management Center didn't have any choice than bringing Messiah and the whole Energy Management Center (EMC) building, including themselves, into an alternate dimension, while, at the same time, three kids, including two of the children of some of the Energy Management Center were sent from that dimension to the real world with special abilities to be able to fight Messiah and his underlings, the Vaglass, as the Go-Busters. That basic storyline shows amazing potential, with the heroes having a deep and personal motivation to fight, because of how they've been personally affected by the Vaglass and how they hoped to save their families. Unfortunately, after episode 1, the series seemed to go pretty nowhere, with the most notable story arc, Enter trying to make a new type of Megazord having a very anticlimactic conclusion. In my opinion, the series suffered a lot of having only ONE meaningful villain (Enter) during the first 21 episodes, because it made the series look pretty repetitive, since Enter had almost noone to interact with. Moreover, the intro arc of Beet Buster and Stag Buster felt pretty lacking, because it hasn't been done in a very climactic way. Even the arrival of Escape, while bringing a little more diversity in the villain cast, couldn't really avoid the feeling that nothing really meaningful happened during that first half of the series. And then we have episode 29 and 30, when the core plot of the series, the fight against Messiah is dealt in a pretty rushed way; episode 30, with the heroes having to make the ultimate sacrifice, and, pretty much, basically concluding the main plot of the series, looked pretty much like a series finale, which is not really appropriate when you're in the middle of the series. The fact that a two part episode crossover with Gavan just after episode 30, without any time to deal with how the heroes coped with what happened after that powerful arc, made it even worse. To finish the series, a new plot, the "Messiah cards" plot, with Enter as a central character, has been introduced out of nowhere, with Enter revealing that it has made Messiah's back up cards. During the second half of the series, fortunately, the plot stalls much less, with the heroes and villains getting Power ups, intense fights and of course, a five episode final arc which ended to be very powerful. However, it doesn't prevent the series to still have some problematic storytelling problems, mostly caused by the fact that Go-Busters had too few main villains, and, as a result uses too much the "seemingly killed, then going back to life" plot trick, that eventually feels very tiring, especially with Escape. Escape alos suffers from never having been a true challenge to Enter's supermacy among the Vaglass.
Except the Escape part, the five episode final arc of the series was amazingly well done, showing Enter as a very worthy Big Bad. A very good point however of Go-Busters is the fact that it avoids the "Happy ending feeling", in both the finales; okay, the world is saved, but the Busters have failed to save, first their parents, and then, Jin. It brings a very bittersweet feeling, and it makes the endings (both of them) very realistic and sincere.

7) Conclusion
Go-Busters is a show that had an amazing potential, with very powerful storyline, and some very well done characters. However the series suffered a lot from huge storytelling problems, which unfortunately really harms the quality of the series, with plenty of plot stalling and some repetitive plots ; the Gavan crossover was especially pretty pointless. The series seems to be in two parts, each one having a plot, and the two parts are somexhat inconsistents with each other; if making Messiah's back ups was so easy, why only do it so late? It's obvious that the "Messiah card" plot wasn't planned a the beginning. Moreover, it even makes Enter's loyality towards Messiah feel inconsistent: in the first half, he's annoyed by Messiah, but is mostly loyal to him, while in the second part, he only sees Messiah as a tool. It would be understandable if he wished the Go-Busters to shut down the big Messiah in episode 29-30, but he never shows such desire, and even fight the heroes very strongly. Besides, having basically two "season finale like arcs" feels very awkward, and episode 50, despite being a very powerful and gripping episode, feels somewhat very similar to episode 30, especially with the dilemma that the heros have to confront. That said, by choosing to have a bittersweet ending instead of a happy one was a very fine idea: Jin's sacrifice in episode 50 was pretty unexpected, and it really brought even more emotion.
My final score for Go-Buster is C ; awesome potential, but very very flawed execution. It's especially annoying because Go-Busters has been revealed to be unpopular, which means that Kyoryuger unfortunately might be too goofy, because Toei is gonna be afraid to use Go-Busters like stuff ( it's especially a shame, since Go-Busters could have been the first year with the big come back of mostly human looking villains in the sentai franchise).

Hope you're gonna enjoy that review

Sentai writers per episodes: the modern era of sentai

Engine Sentai Go-onger

Junki Takegami (main writer): 1-6, 9-10, 15-18, 21-22, 27-28, 32-34, 38, 42-43, 47, 49-50 (25 eps)
Sho Aikawa : 7-8, 14, 25-26, 29-30, 39-40 (9 eps)
Kenji Konuta : 11, 23-24, 37, 44, 48 (6 eps)
Junichi Miyashita : 12, 19, 35-36, 41 (5 eps)
Naruhisa Arakawa : 13, 20 (with Junko Komura), 31 (3 eps)
Junko Komura : 20 (with Arakawa) (1 ep)
Miyako Hatano: 45 (1 ep)
Satoko Yoshimoto : 46 (1 ep)

Samurai Sentai Shinkenger

Yasuko Kobayashi (main writer) : 1-13, 17-28, 31-35, 38-49 (42 eps)
Akatsuki Yamatoya : 14, 16, 29, 36 (4 eps)
Daisuke Ishibashi : 15, 30, 37 (3 eps)

Tensou Sentai Goseiger

Michiko Yokote (main writer) : 1-4, 9-10, 15-16, 21-22, 27-29, 34, 37-40, 45-50 (24 eps)
Naruhisa Arakawa : 5-6, 11-12, 17-18, 23-24, 31-32 (10 eps)
Akatsuki Yamatoya : 7-8, 13-14 (4 eps)
Yatsude Saburo: 19, 33 (2 eps)
Kento Shimoyama : 20, 25-26, 41, 43-44 (6 eps)
Junko Komura : 30, 35, 42 (3 eps)
Daisuke Ishibashi : 36 (1 ep)

Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger

Naruhisa Arakawa (main writer): 1-6, 8, 11-12, 17-19, 22, 25-26, 29, 34, 41-43, 47-51 (25 eps)
Junko Komura : 7, 9, 13, 15-16, 20, 23, 27, 30, 35-36, 39-40, 44-46 (15 eps)
Kento Shimoyama : 10, 21, 31-32, 37-38 (6 eps)
Yoshio Urasawa : 14, 24 (2 eps)
Toshiki Inoue : 28 (1 ep)
Daisuke Ishibashi : 33 (1 ep)


Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters

Yasuko Kobayashi (main writer) : 1-6, 8-10, 13-17, 20-23, 25, 28-30, 33-34, 37-40, 42-44, 46-50 (36 eps)
Nobuhiro Mouri: 7, 12, 18, 24, 27, 41 (6 eps)
Kento Shimoyama : 11, 19, 26, 31-32, 35-36, 45 (8 eps)


Saturday, February 9, 2013

Sentai writers per episodes: Gaoranger-Gekiranger: an experimental era

I call the series, between Gaoranger and Gekiranger the "experimental era", because during that era, the sentai franchise tried a lot of different kind of  sentai teams and concepts.

Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger

Junki Takegami (main writer): 1-18, 20, 22-23, 25, 27-28, 32-40, 44, 48-51 (38 eps)
Masanao Akahoshi : 19, 26, 29, 42-43 (5 eps)
Naoyuki Sakai : 21, 24, 30-31, 41, 46-47 (7 eps)
中洲千恵次郎 (sorry, dunno how it's spelled) : 45 (1 ep)


Ninpuu Sentai Hurricanger
Junichi Miyashita (main writer) : 1-4, 7-8, 11, 16-18, 23-24, 28, 31-32, 35, 39-40, 43-44,  49-51 (23 eps)
Naoyuki Sakai : 5-6, 10, 14, 20, 27, 41 (7 eps)
Atsushi Maekawa : 9, 13, 19, 26, 33-34, 42, 45-46 (9 eps)
Naruhisa Arakawa: 12, 15, 21-22, 25, 30, 36-37 (8 eps)
Shin Yoshida : 29, 38, 47-48 (4 eps)

Bakuryuu Sentai Abaranger

Naruhisa Arakawa (main writer) : 1-5, 7-8, 11-13, 18-19, 22-23, 25, 28, 30-32, 34-35, 37, 40, 46, 49-50 (26 eps)
Yoshio Urasawa: 6, 10, 17, 21, 29, 45 (6 eps)
Atsushi Maekawa : 9, 15-16, 26, 38-39, 44, 47 (8 eps)
Sho Aikawa : 14, 20, 24, 33, 36, 41-43, 48 (9 eps)
鈴木竹志 (sorry) : 27 (1 ep)


Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger

Naruhisa Arakawa (main writer) : 1-8, 11-14, 17-19, 22-23, 27, 30-31, 37, 39, 42-43, 46, 49-50 (27 eps)
Junki Takegami: 9-10, 15-16, 21, 24-25, 28-29, 34-35, 38, 41, 44, 47 (15 eps)
Michiko Yokote: 20, 26, 32-33, 36, 40, 45, 48 (8 eps)

Mahou Sentai Magiranger
Atsushi Maekawa (main writer) : 1-5, 9-10, 13, 16, 20, 28, 35-36, 41-42, 49 (16 eps)
Naruhisa Arakawa : 6-7, 14, 17-18, 22-24, 27, 31, 43-44 (12 eps)
Michiko Yokote : 8, 11-12, 15, 19, 21, 25-26, 29-30, 33-34, 39-40, 47-48 (16 eps)
Akatsuki Yamatoya : 32, 37-38, 45-46 (5 eps)

Go Go Sentai Boukenger

Sho Aikawa (main writer): 1-11, 17-20, 25-26, 29-30, 33, 47-49 (23 eps)
Yasuko Kobayashi : 12, 15-16, 23-24, 31-32, 35-36, 39-40 (11 eps)
Akatsuki Yamatoya : 13, 21-22, 27-28, 34, 41-42 (8 eps)
Naruhisa Arakawa : 14, 37-38, 45-46 (5 eps)
Junki Takegami : 43-44 (2 eps)

Juken Sentai Gekiranger

Michiko Yokote (main writer) : 1-6, 10-11, 15-16, 19-21, 24, 28, 32, 34-35, 37, 40, 44-45, 48-49 (24 eps)
Naruhisa Arakawa: 7-8, 23, 29-30, 33, 38, 41-42, 46-47 (11 eps)
Genki Yoshimura : 9, 13-14 (3 eps)
Sho Aikawa: 12, 17-18, 22, 25-26 (6 eps)
Kazuki Nakashima : 27 (1 ep)
Yuji Kobayashi : 31, 36, 39, 43 (4 eps)