Samurai Sentai Shinkenger Review: Coming Full Circle

I finally decided to go back and finish the first Sentai I ever saw. I was watching it on youtube back in the day before the toku purge happened. I remember just being in awe of what I was seeing. I finally got the chance to get back to it. Back in the day I got into the late 30s before everything got hit. So lets take a look at the show that got me into Sentai. Without this show, I probably wouldn't be active in the Sentai fandom if not the toku fandom as a whole. Note: There will be spoilers for Shinkenger's final arc because I need to talk about the overall arcs of two characters. Without further adieu...To the field!

A horde of monsters appear from a gap in a wall to terrorize a child. In what is probably my favorite introduction to a red, a man appears and effortlessly cuts them down. He is the 18th head of the Shiba: Takeru Shiba. After noticing that the Gedoshu attacks are becoming more and more frequent, his advisor Hikoma suggests finally calling Takeru's 4 retainers into service.

Characters:

• Takeru Shiba/ShinkenRed: Takeru is a take on the stoic red but is also very uncomfortable with his position as Lord. Mostly because he doesn't like the idea of his team potentially sacrificing their lives for him for a very good reason: He isn't actually the Lord, he is a decoy. The man was just a kid from a regular family raised to take the Lord's place. Dude's only role in life was to fight the Gedoshu until the actual lord mastered a way to banish their leader completely. Being ShinkenRed was his entire reason for living until that point and he was so lost once the true Lord returns that he finally accepted Juuzo's offer to duel to the death because he thought he had no other purpose.
• Ryunosuke Ikenami/ShinkenBlue: I don't think I've seen a blue like Ryunosuke, ever. Dude is a serious guy but is loud, energetic, and extremely expressive while he does it. He just seems so enthusiastic and Hiroki Aiba does well in the role. He does Ryunosuke's whole schtick in a way that keeps the character from crossing into annoying territory. Ryunosuke's passion is kabuki which definitely explains his overly dramatic way of doing things. As for his arc, Ryunosuke is extremely loyal and devoted to his duty. The dude devotes himself to serving Takeru with his whole heart so naturally when he finds out Takeru isn't the Lord, he is torn between his duty to the Shiba clan and his duty to the person who has lead him into battle all this time. All of that combined makes him my favorite Shinkenger and potentially even my favorite Blue in Sentai as well as one of my favorite characters in the entire franchise.
• Mako Shiraishi/ShinkenPink: Mako's dream is just for a normal life. She wasn't allowed to have a childhood because of her samurai duties. She kind of takes on the team mom role because of that. Mostly confronting the others when she notices something wrong and lending an ear. It kinda didn't actually hit me until her last focus episode that she was hiding her own issues that went beyond her dream of a normal life. It honestly makes me think that her samurai training costing her time with her parents is probably the biggest reason for why thats her dream. That realization and seeing her crack like that honestly made me tear up a bit.
• Chiaki Tani/ShinkenGreen: Chiaki is a bit of slacker but is also pretty self-conscious and a bit frustrated about his skills since he is the least trained of the main five. Dude has to think fast and improvise because of that. He uses his frustration as the drive to improve and attempt to outdo both Ryunosuke and Takeru. The man is legitimately improving in each focus episode he gets and I love it. Heck, even when he admits to Ryunosuke that he isn't as good as him or Takeru, Ryunosuke straight up tells Chiaki that he brings something to the team that they can't: His ability to improvise and adapt. As cliche as that trope is, I dig it.
• Kotoha Hanaori/ShinkenYellow: Kotoha was not supposed to be a Shinkenger, her older sister was until she got sick. She is a sweet, kind girl who calls her self clumsy and useless early in the show to the point where she is convinced the only thing she had to offer the team was her life. That coupled with the insult monster episode really hurt more this time around. Just hearing her say "It doesn't matter because its all true anyway" hurt me because I've been in that position myself more times than I want to admit. Her episodes are fine tho episode 22 just kinda does nothing for me. Her ultimate arc is her learning to accept that she is not just her sister's replacement, she IS ShinkenYellow.
• Genta Umemori/ShinkenGold: Takeru's childhood friend. Genta is loud, energetic, and goofy. His more goofy antics work well when used to balance out Ryunosuke's serious antics. Due to not being from a samurai family, he adds a nice bit of normal guy dynamic to the team. His dream is pretty simple: He wants to own his own sushi restuarant. When Takeru was revealed to be figurehead, Genta didn't change much if at all. Yeah, he was shocked like everyone else but he wasn't blinded by or conflicted with his duty to some fancy Lord like the others were. Genta is just some regular dude loyal to his best friend. It made Takeru being sad when Genta had to leave town as a kid hit even harder in hindsight because Genta was probably one of the few people in Takeru's life that saw him as a regular person.

Villains:

The villains are fine though I wish Doukoku did more. He spends most of his time drinking and being angry. I get his whole deal is that he is a heavy hitter who can't leave the boat, I'm just more used to this type of villain being a background fixture or springboard for other villains to do their thing instead of being constantly hyped up as a major threat. Granted when he does finally do something, it feels like an earth-shattering moment. Shitari is interesting in that he basically plays the same advisory role for Doukoku that Hikoma (called Ji by the Shinkengers) does for Takeru. The main difference being that Takeru cares about the people under him while the only one Doukoku seems to have a soft spot for is Dayuu to the point where he can tell her mood by the subtle difference in that one tune she plays. Dayuu was betrayed in life by the man she loved who took another woman as his wife, then she burned the entire family alive and fell to the Sanzu River, taking his soul with her. Her story is actually pretty damn chilling to the point where went I wide-eyed at her accepting her situation and finally letting go of everything: Her regrets, her anger, her past, and her very humanity. Thats probably the biggest "Oh shit!" moment in the show for me. So...uhh...yeah, Dayuu is my favorite villain in the show. She is pain, regret, anger, and every other negative emotion all wrapped up in a big ol' box of denial.

If you had asked me which Shinkenger villain was my favorite way back when I started the show back in the day, I would've said it was Juuzo. Juuzo is a man who lives for battle and I mean that literally. He wants nothing more to find an opponent that can satisfy his bloodlust to the point where he decided to become a monster instead of letting a disease kill him. All he wants in the world is to find that one opponent who can potentially kill him so he can feel the joy of fighting for his life. The man got so engrossed in his final duel with Takeru that he forgot his sword (Uramasa) was sentient and thats the only reason Takeru didn't die. Villains who live solely for battle are usually hit or miss for me but Juuzo is definitely a hit. The man is arguably more of a monster than Doukoku to the point where its kinda terrifying. His duels with Takeru were definitely the most tense moments in the show.

Mecha: The origami are fine but the ones outside of the main five kinda fees like they lack any impact outside of the "Oh hey, we got a new mecha!" aspect of their debuts. Maybe I'd feel different about Squid and Lobster if they interacted with Genta like the main five's do with them. I find it amusing that the only thing Kyoryu Origama adds to ShinkenOh's arsenal is a new sword and hat. I don't like Samurai Ha-Oh and its probably one of my least favorite final mechs in Sentai. The robot itself is fine but the other half of the combo is just a platform for it to stand on. Ideally since it can't move that well, it should be used solely for the beam finisher instead of trying to choreograph around its bulk.

Music: The opening theme goes hard, a bit harder than it needs to but its still an amazing song and the opening sequence just gives me chills to this day. Its a fantastic hype machine and I always end up singing along with it. The ending theme is a great tune to close the show on and I've caught myself humming it more than the opening theme. The battle theme "Example" is a banger of a song even if its not one of my favorite battle themes and I wish it had shown up more than twice. However, my favorite piece of music in the entire show is easily that tune Dayuu plays on the shamisen. It perfectly captures her sadness and its a fairly haunting tune. 

Final Thoughts: I feel a bit like I've come full circle with this show in more ways than one. Not only did I finish the show that got me into Sentai but I finished it in the same place I started it. It was good to go back and finally finish the show. I've changed so much over the years and grown in regards to being a reviewer and how I analyze and talk about these shows. Back in the day when I first saw Shinkenger, I thought "Oh, I'll just watch this show to see what its like", I never expected to end up having seen at least 799 episodes of Sentai and thats only counting the Sentai I've finished. It just blows my mind to think about all the shows I've seen since that day. I'm a sucker for sword fights so naturally Shinkenger's action was and still is my jam. I knew the reveal with Takeru was coming ahead of time since I've been in the fandom for so long but it still hit like a truck regardless. Shinkenger is fantastic and while I don't do top 10s anymore due to stuff after fluctuating pretty frequently after number 5, for now Shinkenger is my number 6. It occurred to me while writing this post that Shinkenger is now technically both my 1st and 16th Sentai.

Kamen Rider Ryuki Review: The Start Of A Journey

You're probably wondering about that title...well, it actually has nothing to do with the show. It has everything to do with me since this was the toku show that I consider to be my official entry point into the tokusatsu fandom. Sure, I had seen Dragon Knight before-hand and I've been a Power Rangers fan my entire life but I don't really count them for this since I wasn't active in the fandom at the time. I remember exactly what I was doing when I first stumbled across this show. It was 2011-ish and I was sitting in the college cafe bored out of my mind while waiting for my next class to start. I was looking up Power Rangers clips on youtube when I noticed this little show had snuck its way into my recommended feed and I couldn't resist giving it a shot. It probably sounds weird that a Rider show was my entry point into the toku fandom at large when I'm such a big Sentai fan. So please indulge me while I take this little walk down memory lane for its 20th anniversary. Since I'm going all out for this and its an old show: SPOILERS AHEAD! Without further adieu...TATAKAE!!

Shinji Kido is an intern for the ORE Journal. While investigating a series of missing persons incidents, he finds a strange deck. He is attacked by a dragon from inside a window and manages to escape. While trying to save a friend from another monster, he falls into Mirror World. He gets saved by Ren (Kamen Rider Knight) and contracts with the dragon when it shows up to eat him. From there, he gets embroiled in the Rider War while vowing to use his powers to save people from the monsters on top of trying to solve the mystery of this man who only appears in mirrors.

The show features a lot of Riders and its probably got the most (well except for maybe Gaim). Its actually something I find pretty fascinating about the show is that most of the Riders pretty much have their own reasons for fighting in the Rider War. It shows what can go wrong if the wrong person gets ahold of that kind of power. Shinji and Raia are the only ones who aren't out for themselves and even then Raia wants to stop the war out of revenge for the death of his friend. Kanzaki purposefully picked people who would be willing to fight and kill each other just to get their one wish. Because there are so many riders in this show, I'm only gonna go over the major 4 so this will pretty much spoil who the top contenders are in the show.

Shinji Kido...where to begin...the man is my kind of hero. Dude just goes out of his way to help people when he gets the chance. He even outright tries to reason with the other riders and talk them out of fighting each other despite them telling him to fck off. He just can't help but throw himself into a situation that he feels needs to be resolved. On top of that, he can't even bring himself to kill someone in the Rider War. Just the impression of having killed someone was enough to devastate him to point of not wanting to transform again despite the risk of Dragredder eating him. Dude wears every single thought going through his head and every emotion he feels on his sleeve. Its his greatest strength and greatest weakness. You'd better believe that a lot of other riders take advantage of this fact too.

Ren is fighting in the war because his girlfriend is in a coma thanks to Kanzaki's experiments. The man is also...well kind of a dick in early Ryuki. He makes your modern asshole secondary riders look nice by comparison. The man nearly beats Shinji to death in the second episode to take him out of the fight. He is seemingly only stopped from killing him by Yui breaking a window to get his attention and has the nerve to say Shinji owes him the money he spent replacing the window. Despite all his crowing about how Riders can't co-exist, it feels like his heart isn't in it early on so his story is one about finding his resolve.

Kitoaka is a hotshot lawyer who is fighting in the war for one simple reason, he is dying from an incurable disease. He starts out valuing money, luxury, and his own desires because he knows he doesn't have a lot of time left even without the Rider War being a factor. Over the course of the show, he eventually grows and becomes a little more selfless, especially when Asakura gets involved in the Rider War. Something I really dig about how him is how he butts into fights. Its never some flashy or ominous entrance, he just straight up announces his presence by shooting people in the back. Its pretty fitting given his situation, he doesn't have the time to make a show of it.

Asakura is just straight up cold-blooded and he honestly kinda scares me. The idea that someone this unhinged became a rider is terrifying. The man joined the rider war just so he could fight and kill people. He was specifically chosen by Kanzaki for that purpose. He holds a particular dislike for Kitoaka because he played a direct part in putting him in jail. The man makes for a great villain because out of all the riders in the show, he is the one that Shinji absolutely can't even remotely reason with. The man loves dropping bodies too much. The show itself doesn't say what he could wish for but Episode Final (the movie) does. His wish is for the rider war to never end because he is enjoying it that much. I'm so tempted to track down his jacket. Its one of the most iconic looks in Rider imo.

Ryuki has a decent amount of timelines and quite a few endings. You've got the series timeline, two timelines branching from the ending of the 13 riders special, Episode Final's (the movie) timeline, and the Rider Time special continuation that basically ends Ryuki's story. I love this aspect because well...everything in Ryuki seems to be canon in a sense. In the last episode of the tv show, Kanzaki outright says "No matter how many times I do this, it will always end the same". All of the endings are rather bleak except for the tv series ending where the existence of the Rider War itself is undone. Thats probably why the Rider Time special continues from the tv ending instead of simply rebooting it for a new timeline. The Rider Time special is honestly the most fitting ending Ryuki could hope to have. There is no way the Rider War could really end without a lot of death. Its about as "happy" an ending as Ryuki could expect to given the 13 rider special and Episode Final have even bleaker endings. Rider Time's ending is downright chilling once you've seen everything Ryuki related.

Final Thoughts: Ryuki just has this kind of magic to it. Its engrossing from the first episode though I'm not sure how much of it is from the show itself or if its from the fact that except for two episodes, every episode ends on a cliffhanger that blends into the next episode. Either way, its was addictive for me at the time and it still is today this day (I rewatched a chunk of it as a refresher for this review since I've already seen the show twice). I legitimately had to force myself not to binge it. If you haven't seen this show yet, I give it a whole-hearted recommendation.

Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (Ultraman Powered) Review

I naturally decided to watch this after Ultraman Towards The Future. Like that show the Ultra is only ever referred to as Ultraman in-show so I'll go with his official name in the franchise. It is also a 13 episode show so like last time, this review might be shorter than usual. Yeah, uhhh...I don't really have much else to say as an opener so...Here we go!

Premise: The Baltans have launched an attempt to invade Earth. In order to fight them off a strange alien fuses with WINR officer Kenichi Kai. With Powered's well...power, Kai is able to fight off the Baltan. However, Powered knows the Baltans aren't finished so he sticks around to help out.

Kai is fine as a protagonist but kinda lacking in character outside of him joking around with the team in one episode. Kane Kosugi does an alright job in the role. Thats sadly all I can really say for the character. WINR in general is an alright defense team and thats all there is to them. They do their jobs perfectly fine but they don't get much character to them and honestly, none of them really clicked with me. The closest to a favorite I have is Sanders but thats purely because of his snark.

Favorite Episode: This is a bit tricky because I kinda realized something 8 episodes in. Aside from episode 3, episode 7 (the Dada episode), and episode 12, most of Powered's episodes are remakes of episodes from the original Ultraman. The episodes aren't bad but it gets kinda distracting once you realize that. Due to that, I kind of have to pick episode 3, mostly because Jeffrey Combs is in it and his performance as a slimy film producer is a treat.

Effects and Action: I knew going into this show that the kaiju fights weren't going to be much of anything. This is mostly because of the material Powered's suit is made from. It was both fragile and expensive. The designs are stellar across the board (my favorite being the gnarly looking Red King in episode 3) but the lack of actual action in the show really costs the suits points. I just do not get why they did all that if the suits were unfit for the purpose they were designed for. As for the effects, they're fine, sort of a step up from Great's. The only exception would be episode 8. Something about it just makes them seem fake and the building Jamila gets tossed into it very clearly a painted cardboard box given how it crumples instead of breaking. Jamila's design is also a wide miss compared to Powered's overall designs. Nothing about it reads like Jamila to me. Episode 12 probably has the best fight in the whole show and its sadly pretty standard as far as Ultra fights go. The only reason its notable is because Dorako keeps swinging his razor sharp claws around so Powered can't get close enough to do his whole shoving thing.

Final Thoughts: Powered is an odd show. I can't actually decide if its better than Great or worse but its definitely a less good OG Ultraman. With that being said, the show is honestly just kinda ok but its biggest problem is that it doesn't really feel that distinct due to the aforementioned remakes of OG Ultraman episodes. The show doesn't really have its own feel to me other than it trying its hardest to be OG Ultraman. Its japanese theme song is killer tho so give that a listen. It actually makes me wish the show was better. Unlike Great, I don't recommend this even if you're morbidly curious or bored...watch OG Ultraman instead, you'll probably get more out of it. The only reason I can think of to recommend this to someone is if they saw it as a kid and want to revisit it and even then its a maybe.

Ultraman: Towards The Future (Ultraman Great) Review

The Ultra kick returns somewhat with a show you probably weren't expecting. I mainly started watching this because well...it was short. They just refer to him as Ultraman in the show but I'm going to call him by his official name in the franchise for the sake of simplicity. Its a 13 episode show so this review might be a little brief. I don't have a clever line to start with so lets get to it.

Premise: Two astronauts surveying mars are attacked by the alien Gudis. A giant shows up to fight Gudis and the two try to flee. One is killed when Gudis blows up their ship and after seemingly defeating Gudis, the giant fuses with the survivor. However, Gudis' cells have fallen to Earth and thus begins the show proper.

Jack Shindo is smug...and weirdly its not the character's fault. The actor just kinda uses the exact same tone no matter whats happening and he always has this big ol' smirk on his face even when he should be scared or serious. The character is ok (though he just kinda reveals stuff to the team whenever they need a lead) and its interesting seeing him talk to Great in a few a episodes and asking him what he should do mostly because up until that point, the show kinda made me think Great was the one running the body, not simply being a part of Jack's mind.

UMA as a whole are fine and I was honestly a little surprised how active they were as a defense team. They're decent characters and their actors are fine. They're pretty capable as a team even if the show doesn't go into them much during its run. They just kinda do their jobs and that really all I was expecting from them. The team's scientist (Charles Morgan) kinda reminded of Ide from the original Ultraman, just without the dramatic moments. Charles is probably my favorite member of the team because the guy made chuckle a bit here and there. On top of that, he carried his personal episode pretty well.

Favorite Episode: I'm gonna have to go with episode 9 "The Biospherians". What can I say? I love stories about sentient plants trying to wipe out humanity. Its a trope I've always found interesting and the way the plants were capable of wiping out humanity was interesting on top of being kind of scary. Its the only potentially world ending threat in the show beyond Gudis and the monsters in the final two episodes. Honestly, its better executed than those threats for me. Thats not to say the main threats of the show are bad, they're just a tad underwhelming for me. Unfortunately, the kaiju in this episode probably has the weakest design in the show. The episode also features a quickdraw fight with the kaiju complete with shotgun reloading sounds after Great's blasts and I honestly can't say I've seen that in Ultra before.

Effects and Action: The effects are iffy for the first 4 episodes. They don't look too bad but they're not too good either. After episode 5, the shows budget seems to have gotten bigger and the effects improve. I can't think of a single effect that stood out to me. The creature designs are fine but well, the kaiju themselves feel off. They don't feel like they're alive or exist in the world outside of the episodes they appear in. The kaiju feel more like props that are just there for Great to fight. The fight choreography isn't great either. A lot of it is just Great occasionally blocking and punching in-between laser blasts with the kaiju not moving much either. Once or twice he manages to follow up a punch with a point-blank blast and that was neat. The is an amusing scene in the final episode where Great swings a tower frame at the monster and the monster just catches it and proceeds to beat him with it. Its a small thing but it was a neat bit of set interaction.

Final Thoughts: I don't really have much to say for this. Great's japanese opening is leagues better than the english one. The show has an environmental message to it and its perfectly fine, its not heavy-handed. Its an ok show with two really good episodes and thats about all there is to it. If you're looking for a decent MOTW show thats also rather short, go for it but only if you're morbidly curious or really bored as I don't expect anyone to get much out of this show.

Kamen Rider Zi-O Review: Changing An Unstoppable Fate

Yeah, yeah, I know I'm way behind the fandom on this particular season but hear me out: The last rider show (other than Amazons) I finished was Gaim back when it first aired so I figured I was due for another one after so long. I was curious about what I was hearing regarding Zi-O back when it was airing so I thought I'd give it a shot. I'm also going to talk about the ending so be warned...SPOILERS AHEAD! Without further adieu: Rejoice for the birth of a new king!

Premise: Sougo Tokiwa is an ordinary high school student whose one dream in life is to be king. One day, he is approached by a girl from the future who tells him that he will indeed become one. The catch? He will be the king whose rise leads the world to destruction and his iron-fisted rule, Oma Zi-O. On top of that, a man from the future is trying to put an end to him. As if all that wasn't enough to fill the life of a wannabe king, some other mysterious people are also intent on screwing with the past to try and change the future for their own gain.

Characters: 

Sougo was honestly kind of meh for me early on but I actually grew to really like him as the show progressed. He is the usual optimistic type of hero that modern rider tends to use. At first he took on Zi-O's powers with the intent to use them to become king like he always dreamed. Naturally, his tune changes as the show goes on and once he sees the future Tsukuyomi and Geiz say he will create, it is devastating to him to the point where he is willing to give up his dream altogether so no one will suffer by his hand. It was great seeing him come to terms with that and fully develop his own idea of what a king should do in order to protect his friends.

Geiz is the man from the future seeking to stop Oma Zi-O's rise even if it means potentially putting Sougo down. He tries to be this really stoic man with a mission character but the man gets rather goofy. At one point, he outright tried to stab Sougo with a piece of bread. As you'd expect he eventually grows to value Sougo as a friend and a person. After Sougo discovers that he will indeed destroy the world one day, Geiz swears to Sougo that he will put him down when that day comes so Sougo can't hurt anyone. He even admits at one point that he was rather eager to see what kind of future this Sougo would create. For some reason he gets a few secondary rider watches which is weird because he pretty much just uses the watches of the main riders like Sougo does.

Tsukuyomi's goal is to stop Oma's rise by monitoring and guiding Sougo so he doesn't become Oma Zi-O. Other than that, she doesn't have any memory beyond the day she joined the fight against Oma Zi-O. Without getting into that little mystery (gotta keep some things hidden in this review), her plot line is sort of what you think it would be. I find it fascinating that at about the halfway point both she and Geiz ended up swapping positions on whether to kill Sougo or change him and it felt pretty natural given how his powers were escalating. Eventually tho, she realizes there isn't much point in worrying about Sougo going dark and goes right back to being on his side.

Keisuke Watanabe is fantastic as Woz and he honestly turns in the best performance in the show. Woz's enthusiasm is downright infectious to the point where around ep 15, I was doing the pose and mouthing the line myself as he does it to the point where it kind of got engraved in my muscle memory. The character just loves what he does and the actor gets that across perfectly. I can absolutely see why he became a meme during Zi-O's run. The man is utterly dedicated to Sougo and the arrival of Oma Day even if it ultimately doesn't turn out like he originally thought it would. His existential crisis in the Hibiki episode was great. The man was devastated by the thought of not being able to celebrate his overlord's birthday properly.

This show pretty much confirms a feeling I've had about Tsukasa since Kamen Rider Taisen. He is much more enjoyable outside of his own show. Something about Tsukasa's schtick just irritated me during Decade itself. He just feels different in his appearances out of Decade. I used to think he was just a dick but now...well...he is still a dick but a more charismatic dick. It helps that the actor likes the role a lot. Its rather fitting that the last rider to have to gather rider powers was there to see the Heisei era out. I'm curious to return to Decade itself at some point to see if how much I like him now changes how I'll see his show.

Villains: 

The main villains in the show are the Time Jackers and like Geiz and Tsukuyomi, they want to stop Oma's rise. However, they want to replace him with a king of their own choosing, hence the creation of the Another Riders. They're kept pretty mysterious for the most part and that honestly might have been a mistake. The show never really goes into much about Uhr and Hora other than that Schwartz plucked them from another timeline. They also don't seem to understand why Schwartz can do things they can't with their powers either after they find out he can grant people the powers they have. Meaning, Schwartz might have granted them their powers and messed with their memories. With that being said, they're alright villains. Schwartz however is the heavy-hitter of the group and the man with the plan. His actor is great and handles the power hungry maniacal bad guy part extremely well once Schwartz gets to cut loose.

Keisuke Watanabe is one of the few actors I can gush about twice in the same review. He plays a dual role for an entire arc. Granted his other role is an alternate timeline version of Woz with all his mannerisms/enthusiasm and a really neat sinister undertone to him. This version of Woz (White Woz) is a supporter of Geiz thanks to a shift causing an alternate timeline to come into being. While he claims the new timeline is said to be a paradise, White Woz himself pretty much implies that its only preferable to Oma's timeline for a chosen few. The implication gives off the sense that if Oma's timeline is pure chaos, Geiz Revive's timeline is more on the pure order side of things.

The Miraiders: There are 4 riders from alternate timelines that show up in Zi-O: Shinobi, Quiz, Kikai, and Ginga. They're really neat what-ifs that fit perfectly well in a time travel show and I love them overall as a concept. Though two of them are meh and one is mostly only interesting to me because he got a miniseries during Zi-O's run. Fittingly, their suits are also made from reused parts of other Heisei rider suits. Three of the four are also portrayed by past Sentai actors.

The one who is only interesting to me because of the special would be Shinobi. As the name implies, he is a ninja-based Rider. I like his design but after seeing his miniseries, I kinda wished I hadn't. Mostly because it was basically a 3-part episode of a show already in progress. So it introduces some stuff that never actually gets resolved in the miniseries because we'll probably never see the character again. It also says that they passed a law called the Ninja Act as a way solve humanity's environmental impact...by teaching people to throw fireballs for some reason. Its fine for what it is just, I dunno, it teases too much about Shinobi's world even tho Toei likely won't make an actual show for him in 2022. I would've preferred an hour long done-in-one special or movie instead of an episode in 3 parts of a show already in progress. He is played by StarNinger from Ninninger.

Quiz is the rider of 2040 and he is easily my favorite even though I'm not a fan of his design or powers. His helmet is a Ghost helmet, his chestpiece is from an Exaid Rideplayer suit and I think the rest of his suit is too. His powers are just weird and I'm not sure why they went with this design and motif as his quiz show schtick doesn't really have anything to do with his character. The writing for his character is fantastic. He is a man who can't let go of the father he never met. His story is one of seeking closure claiming its so his mother can find peace when really, he needs to know why his father left just as much as she does. I would've loved to get a mini-series for him just to see what his world was like. He is played by Red Buster from Gobusters.

Kikai is rather meh as a character and I can't really think of much else to say about him. He basically exists for two reasons: 1. To show Sougo's powers are becoming strong enough to bring new riders into existence and 2. White Woz's plan to try to end Oma's timeline requires 3 Ridewatches that shouldn't exist. His suit is a retooled Guardian suit from Build. Unlike Shinobi and Quiz, his actor previously portrayed a Sentai villain, Zamigo from Lupinranger vs Patranger. Kikai's human outfit is also one big Kikaider homage. He is pretty much the only future rider (except for Shinobi in his mini-series) whose world is actually expanded on.

Ginga is just pure power incarnate and from way in the future, thats about it. The show doesn't really go into much of anything about him. The closest thing the show gets to saying something about him is one character speculating that he might the universe's counterpoint to the power Zi-O has (Zi-O having the power over time and Ginga having power drawn from the cosmos). He is the heavy-hitting big threat that requires the heroes and the Time Jackers to work together which I suppose is all he really needs to be. His helmet is from a Mage suit from Wizard and the rest of it is from Fourze Meteor Fusion States. I'm really not big on his design though I do like the ufo hat. He is voiced by Tomokazu Sugita (Kivat) which makes him right at home in the Another Kiva episodes of Zi-O.

The Ending: I'm talking about the ending here because it fascinates me. SPOILERS AHEAD! The show gives this feeling that Oma Day (the day when Oma Zi-O ends the world) is inevitable...and to my surprise, it actually was. Oma's rise could be delayed, it could be sped up, but it could not be stopped. It had to happen and the best case scenario was to change Sougo just enough to shift it to less of an apocalypse and more of a rebirth for the world and multiverse. The ending winds up being less about trying to stop Sougo from outright becoming Oma Zi-O and more about him deciding to use that power to save those precious to him instead of using it as a way to rule over others. In the end, it all came down to what kind of king Sougo wanted to be.

Final Thoughts: It takes Zi-O about 13 or so episodes to get going and after that, it gets good and I had a lot of fun with it. Once the show finds its footing, it becomes an enjoyable anniversary show. It homages elements and themes of what it was tributing in the first few episodes, follows up some past loose threads, gives closure to some shows that needed it, and most importantly for an anniversary: It made me want to see shows I hadn't seen before. As a matter of fact, the Ghost episodes made me want to revisit the show and give it another chance (which I do plan on doing at some point). It even made me want to check out Kabuto's first few episodes (that one didn't go so well). While not one of my absolute favorites, I enjoyed it quite a bit. This show pretty much managed to change my opinion of Shirakura.

Mashin Sentai Kiramager Review: A Very Simple Shine

The last time I had seen a modern Sentai in full was back during Kyoryuger. Furthermore, the last time I saw more than one episode of a modern Sentai was back when I got halfway through ToQger while it was airing. As you've probably guessed by all the Sentai reviews I've done so far, I've been making my way through older Sentai for a while due to the modern stuff having trouble catching my eye these last few years. Eventually my curiosity got the better of me combined the fandom's hype so I decided to check out this show. Without further adieu...Kiramai Go!

When the kingdom of Crystalia falls to forces of Yodonheim, princess Mabusheena flees to Earth. Knowing that Yodonheim has their sights set on Earth next, she goes to look for 5 dazzling people to partner with the KirameiStones.

Characters: The team is fine overall and their actors do fine jobs. I don't really have too many complaints with them.

• Juuru Atsuta/KiramaiRed: Juuru is the artistic type, the man loves to draw and has the greatest imagination out of all of them. I like his style of leadership. His approach is that he doesn't feel the team can fight at their fullest if something is bugging them or they're not having what they enjoy as a priority. The kid is just a wholesome, loveable character overall and he really just wants his team be at their best and most dazzling.
• Tanemoto Imizu/KiramaiYellow: A pro gamer and the team's sharpshooter. He tends to be the calm and collected type. He is also a pretty good tactician. Its honestly kind of cool because I don't think I've seen too many yellows fill that role. When the dude gets serious, he is actually kind of scary. Dude actually managed to make a Marrskman straight up quit because he kept using the Marrskman's timeloop ability to curbstomp him over and over.
• Sena Hayami/KiramaiGreen: A track and field star. She is usually the straight forward type. Sena overall is fine and I particularly like how one of the later episodes reveals the entire reason she can rush into things and make split-second decisions so easily is because she is running all the possible outcomes in her head at once. Its something rather cool about her character because the show really never forgets about her speed aspect.
• Shiguru Oshikiri/KiramaiBlue: A young actor. I like Shiguru because even though he tries to act like this cool dude, the man is actually a goofy dork. That entire schtick could've gone so badly but his actor seemed like he was really into it. He was the only one who actually thought of trying Juuru's imagination trick to try and enhance his swordplay. I was actually surprised that the show remembered he could do that when it got near the end.
• Sayo Oharu/KiramaiPink: A genius surgeon. Sayo's focus episodes are alright but the show kind of forgets about her day job and doctor skills for a bit. I can only remember it coming up two or three times outside the band episode. I kind of remember her more for her parts in other episodes, particularly in Takamichi's debut. She isn't bad, I just kinda don't have a lot to say about her.
• Takamichi Crystalia/KiramaiSilver: Takamichi seems like the lone-wolf type at first but he isn't actually a brooder. He just wanted to do stuff on his own in his first 3 eps because he thought it was more efficient that way. I like the guy well enough but once the curse thing is done with and Kiraful mode shows up, he kind of starts getting sidelined during the ground climax fights unless an episode focuses on him. I'd have liked to see him do more outside of his focus episodes.
• Mabusheena: The princess of Crystalia. While she believes in the team, she can't help but worry about them. She also feels guilty about her inability to help a few times. She does her best to power through those moments so as not to worry the team. She kinda has the funniest focus episodes out of the main characters. Her drunk episode was surprisingly pretty fun and its honestly a testament to how the show's comedy is written because I was laughing the entire time.

Villains:

Garza is the one who betrayed Crystalia. He is the one I have issues with. Mostly because we only really get his backstory in the 3rd to last episode. Its just not hinted at much because for most of the show, he is the standard gruff serious villain type with brother issues and then its all just info dumped in one episode. The reveal of him being evil because of Yodon's influence as a child should've been a big earth-shattering moment for me, but it wasn't. Thats a big shoe to drop near the end without a lot of buildup and it felt kind of rushed. The man also kind of flips between being Juuru's rival and Takamichi's rival to the point where its sort of unclear for a bit. He isn't particularly a bad villain, he is just kind of ok imo and I dug the way he just kept shredding on his guitar in the band episode even after the kaijuu was summoned. Dude looked like he was having so much fun and I would've liked to see Garza act more like that. If I had to guess, I'd say a lot of his development was crowbarred in at the last minute because of the show being 4 episodes shorter than usual due to the pandemic.

Crunchula reminds me Michela and Voff from Abaranger. The artistic creator who makes Yodonheim's monsters. His reasoning for making a few Marrskman is fascinating and it leads to a few interesting villain plots. I quite like his little back and forth with Yodonna about his monsters being needlessly strange instead of just being powerful and threatening. It was pretty cool seeing the guy insist that a Marrskman's style was just as important as whatever powers he gave them. It was nice seeing him and Juuru bonding over art when he was suffering from creative burn out.

I like how cold and detached Yodonna feels. She acts so emotionally dead to everything that I'm willing to speculate it even weirds Garza and Crunchula out. She also does this tongue thing that the fandom goes crazy over and licks her lips a lot. She kinda sends a chill down my spine. She doesn't even understand emotions in general to the point where she will do this really creepy dead-sounding laugh just because she thinks it might be the right time to do it. I would've liked to see her take a more active role and fight the Kiramagers more often. Her attempted rivalry with Tametomo kinda goes nowhere.

Favorite Episode: Surprisingly my favorite episode is episode 19 ("Partners"), a mind swap episode. This episode somehow manages to avoid the overall cringe that mind swap episodes tend to entail. What helps is that the show just kind goes all in and focusing on the machine's having control of their partners' bodies instead of them trying to pull some kind of ruse to keep the swap a secret. Seeing the Kiramagers cheer on their partners during the fight was nice and heart-warming. Its a nice little episode about just how quickly people can grow and improve with just a little encouragement.

Mecha: The Machines feel like Kiramager's answer to the Bakuryu from Abaranger which is pretty fitting since they're both Arakawa shows. This show actually managed to surprise me with some of the auxiliary mecha combos. Before this show, I never would've thought a garbage truck turning into a vacuum cleaner would've been a viable option. Kiramazin is nice looking and I quite like the sparkling crystalline look of the thing. Having each Machine's part glow when they talk is a nice touch in a few episodes. Its combo sequence feels a bit Abaranger-y to me since Fire makes up about two-thirds of the mecha. Mach unfortunately feels a little tacked on for Kiramazin, he just forms a shoulder pad and the head. Granted Jetta himself just forms the sword but because of that he gets more use in the combo than Mach. Gigant Driller is fine and I find it kinda neat that it requires Takamichi himself to become a stone in order to transform. Its a decent way to set it apart from the other mecha in the show. Dashark Express is neat. I kinda like how Dashark himself stands out from the rest of the KirameiStones given his animal characteristics. Its a nice contrast to Garza's Smog Steamer in that regard. Grateful Phoenix feels a lot like a Magiranger mecha to me. It brings back memories of that combo Kai had with that unicorn. I'm also very thankful that there is no cluster final mecha.

Music: The opening theme is alright. Its a not a bad hype machine but its kinda generic sounding. It actually reminds me of Kyuranger's opening (Lucky Star) so much that I end up transitioning into that whenever I try to sing Kiramager's opening theme. The ending theme is an alright way to close out the show but personally it does nothing for me. The character songs are all passable...well except Takamichi's and maybe Sayo's. Takamichi's singing is a bit too low for the style of song he is going for compared to the others. Sayo's is a nice attempt at a jazz sound but something about her singing is off. Mabusheena's is probably my favorite of the bunch as it is wonderfully happy sounding and addictive.

Final Thoughts: Surprisingly, episode plots that would usually make me cringe, had me hooked. This is mostly because well, the show quickly sidesteps the cringe parts with a joke (Takamichi immediately blowing Juuru's secret identity in front of his classmate) or having the characters genuinely get invested in the ruse (going all in on the fake play for Mabusheena's mother). The show is actually funnier than I expected with just a dumb moment or two here and there. The show actually managed to surprise me with the Kiramagers' problem solving abilities, particularly in the Reset Button and Glue Marrsk episodes. Its ToQ's imagination schtick done right imo as the answers the Kiramagers come up with are ones that only they could've come up with. Overall, while nothing really wowed me or left my jaw on the floor, its a pretty decent show that gets the job done perfectly fine. Its actually kind of amazing how consistently this show managed to leave me with a smile on my face. I think that in and of itself says a lot about how much I enjoyed it. Its a show made with quite a bit of love and understanding of what Sentai is imo. I'd have liked to see what the show would've been like if it hadn't lost 4 episodes of its run to the pandemic but I'm rather happy with the show. I'm honestly glad this was my reentry point for modern Sentai. Without getting too much into my personal life, its a show that I desperately needed right now.

Ultraman Gaia Review

For this entry on the Ultra kick, I'm going back a bit to cover a non-New Gen Ultra show. Part of the reason I picked this next is because I wanted to watch an older Ultra show and it was on Crunchyroll at the time. The other reason was because a friend of mine was raving about it. I don't have much else to say in this section. I'm going to do my best not to spoil the show. Its definitely worth checking out for yourself. Sadly, as of the time of this post, it is now gone from Crunchyroll. I don't have a decent intro reference from the show to make so...lets get into it.

Premise: Gamu Takayama is a member of a group of highly intelligent people known as the Alchemy Stars. While working on an experiment, Gamu's mind is transported to a strange dimension where he witnesses a giant fighting a monster. Shortly after, another monster attacks and Gamu contacts XIG asking if this was the scenario they had been preparing for. Gamu falls through a strange portal and meets the giant himself. The giant gives him the power to fight off the monster and protect the Earth.

Characters:

Gamu Takayama is a pretty smart dude even if a lot of what he says feels like techno-babble to me. He actually built the propulsion engines for XIG's fighter jets and their base. I love how his response after his first battle as Gaia is to immediately ask to join XIG so he can help the team fight off the monsters as more than just as an Ultraman. I also liked how he didn't have a henshin device at first and had to build it himself. It was a great way to show off his technical skills. His ideological clash with Fujimiya was great and pretty well written. Both make great counterpoints to each other, even though I tended to always side with Gamu because of his more optimistic approach. I rather like how episode 26 brings up just how much Gamu brings to XIG beyond Gaia's power. The team admits how valuable his analysis is when he keeps sending them information after they've briefly kicked him out. Overall, dude is a pretty nice protagonist who does his best to make sure humanity doesn't keep making mistakes that could potentially devastate the planet.

XIG is absolutely massive and I love the scale of it. Its got about 6 different teams on its payroll. It ends up having a pretty large recurring cast and I'm amazed I could keep track of them all. Teams Lightning, Falcon, and Crow are the fighter pilots, Team Seagull is the rescue squad, Team Hercules is the ground assault squad, and a sea-based squad called Marlin handles the underwater stuff. Tho team Marlin sadly kinda only gets one outing due to their underwater specialization. It was actually rather amusing when they got called in because one of their members was ecstatic about finally getting to do something. XIG even their own paranormal/mystery investigation team code-named Lizard. Another cool thing about episode 26 is that once Commander Ishimuro realizes that Gamu is Gaia, he doesn't report it to XIG. He just tells Gamu to rest up and heal because the real fight is about to begin.

If I had to pick my favorite team, it would probably be Team Hercules. They just seem so nice and they're legitimately worried about Gamu not getting enough exercise. They were also not even remotely afraid of the idea of taking on a dragon with nothing but their blasters and a machine gun once their tanks were out of ammo. Their appearances also feature some of the most detailed models in the entire show imo. Team Crow is a close second because I like their style and how coordinated they are. They're the most in-sync of all the fighter teams and their whole drive to prove themselves was great plus they had a nice confident hotshot entrance with some killer music.

Fujimiya is a former member of the Alchemy Stars who became disillusioned with how they wanted to achieve their goals. He is the host for Ultraman Agul and wants to protect the Earth. However, while Gamu views Gaia's power as a way to protect both humanity and the Earth, Fujimiya believes that Gaia and Agul exist to save the Earth itself, even if that means humanity goes extinct. He also believes that its pretty much the Earth's will for humanity to disappear so the planet can recover and he only focuses on the damage humans do to the Earth. It gets really heavy for him and I love his character arc. Seeing him question his entire purpose when he founds out exactly whats going on was great. Under the circumstances, I do see his point of view even though Gamu is right about him taking the easy way out by just wanting humans to disappear. His character arc throughout the whole show is fantastic and its great seeing him and Gamu finally team up near the end of the show. I love the way Agul fights and its a pretty cool first outing for a blue Ultra. Him having a light rapier for a sword was a perfect touch to set him apart from Gaia.

Reiko and her news crew give a nice look at the civilian perspective on all these monster attacks. Its fantastic because like XIG they're looking into whats causing the attacks and eventually whats driving the monsters to do what they do. It was a surprisingly gripping and unexpected angle to see in the show. Reiko herself gets embroiled into Fujimaya's stuff and she helps keep him grounded when he becomes conflicted about what his power is for. She is so integral at keeping Fujimiya from losing it that she gets targeted herself a few times. Her boss Tabata even gets some pretty nice self reflective moments and awesome action to himself. The man's drive and dedication to reporting is amazing and it helps contribute to some great moments. I'm glad they got so much focus as it really helped the show feel even bigger than it already did.

Favorite Episodes: This is a really tough call as there are quite a few contenders for this spot and I honestly don't think I can pick one so get ready for a list. A lot of the plots with Mezard (this creepy jellyfish monster) involved are pretty good with "Fourth Symphony Of A Nightmare" being my favorite of those episodes. "When The Rain Stops" is a fun little scifi episode involving cloned organs getting mutated into monsters by green rain. Episodes 23-26 are fantastic and they legitimately feel like a finale in and of themselves. "The Accursed Eye" and "The Future Seen Before" are an interesting pair of back-to-back episodes cuz they're both about fighting destiny but one is a little more literal in that regard. There a lot more episodes that I love but if I listed them all, this section would be way too long. The sheer amount of episodes that spring to mind when I think of Gaia says a lot about how well done the show is.

Action and Effects: The show has a high budget and oh man, it makes such good use of it. The creature effects look absolutely amazing with some great designs, puppetry, and suit-work. You also get to see them get blown apart piece-by-piece a lot in the show. The models cities are fantastic if a little less detailed here and there than I expected. The Ultra vs Kaiju action is fun, the choreography was good, and the miniature fights were nice and tense even if some of the jets maneuvering was a bit iffy due to cgi. My favorite effect in the entire show is from episode 50. Agul gets blasted and slides across the entire city while everything he crashes into just collapses beautifully. The action overall is excellent with everything feeling nice and heavy. The fights between Gaia and Agul were nice and tense. It was pretty cool seeing them slug it out at human-size inside the Aerial Base during one episode. I like just how much of a change Gaia Supreme's fighting style in is compared to regular Gaia. Supreme tends to prefer tosses and throws alongside energy attacks compared to base Gaia. It also makes Gaia look buffer.

Final Thoughts: I was a bit worried about the show being able to hold my interest over 51 episodes (due to me watching so much New Gen Ultra before this) but the show was amazingly consistent. There wasn't a single episode I disliked. The show handles its theme of how humans affect the Earth and how the Earth affects us in turn rather well. It even acknowledges that the monsters themselves as being part of the planet's natural ecosystem. I'm not sure how accurate the science in the show is but I was on the edge of my seat wondering what countermeasure Gamu would come up with each episode. I was surprised just how many times Mezard showed up. I was rather surprised to see the deliveryman from Wolfgas episode show up two more times and that he got attacked by another werewolf, thats some bad luck. Its also some nice minor continuity because he still has the scar from that first attack in his other two appearances. Its a fantastic show overall and I highly recommend checking it out. Its definitely up there with Orb and R/B for me and this show probably has my favorite final arc out of the Ultras I've seen so far.

Choujin Sentai Jetman Review: Love And Tragedy In The Skies

Now we come to Jetman. This probably one of the more known/watched pre-Zyu Sentai shows as far as the western fandom goes. I'd hazard a guess that even newcomers have heard of it after a good amount of time in the fandom. This was one of the shows I had started back in college but had never gotten around to finishing (I think it was like the 3rd or 4th Sentai I had started at the time) due to stuff getting in the way. I will definitely have to spoil chunks of the show to talk about Black Condor and some other stuff so, SPOILERS AHEAD! Without further adieu...Jetto! Jetto! Jettoman!

Premise: Ryu Tendo and his girlfriend Rie are two of five people chosen by Commander Aya of Sky Force to become superhumans in order to better protect the planet. Just after Ryu undergoes the experiment, interdimensional invaders known as Vyram launch their attack destroying the base, killing Rie in the process, and causing the machine's birdonic waves to hit 4 civilians. Now Ryu and Commander Aya must bring them all together in order to combat this new threat as the planet's last line of defense: Jetman.

Characters: They're all pretty well acted and the cast plays off of each other pretty well.

• Ryu Tendo/Red Hawk: Ryu is a member of Sky Force and the only survivor of the official candidates. He is totally dedicated to beating the Vyram and I kind of think its due to both his sense of duty and not wanting Rie's death to have been in vain. He struggles when it comes to getting over her death and its because of that that he is initially unable to acknowledge Kaori's feelings. It leads a pretty surprising blow up between him and Gai in episode 22 after he tries to set Kaori up with Gai instead. When he finds out that Rie is not only alive but is a member of Vyram, it gets rough. The dude has a breakdown and shuts down to avoid processing the idea that Rie was one of the people he was fighting the whole time. That scene with him swinging in the park and introducing Rie (who isn't actually there) to Gai and Kaori will be forever burned into my memory. It does result in a pretty sweet scene where he and Gai finally come to an understanding.
• Kaori Rokumeikan/White Swan: Kaori is an heir to a rich family who longed to leave behind her boring life. She may be a refined lady but she definitely isn't afraid to slap someone around when she needs to. A great example of that is the episode "Laughing Diamond" because she gets kinda rough with Ako in order to break the spell on her after trying to overload her greed. She falls in love with Ryu and her eventual vow to outdo Rie seemed a bit selfish to me at first (and admittedly it was selfish of her after Ryu just explained everything) but then I realized that it was likely just as much about helping Ryu move on from her death as it was Kaori trying to get with him. Sadly it leads to one of the things that causes Ryu and Gai to come to blows in ep 22 and it feels like the team is close to breaking apart. The episode "I Can See!" is a fantastic episode for her that has nothing to do with the love subplot. Its pretty much an episode about her fighting against her supposed fate and coming out stronger through sheer force of will.
• Raita Ooshi/Yellow Owl: Raita is a kind-hearted farmer. Its pretty cool seeing someone of his build be a Sentai hero and the show really emphasizes his strength when he fights. I feel bad for the guy, he loves Kaori too but he doesn't feel like he has a shot with her. Due to this he just wants to protect her happiness. The cavemen episode even twists that knife deeper because he finds a prehistoric cavewoman who looks just like her and is actually into him but he has to leave her behind to fight Vyram. With that being said, he really doesn't get many episodes to work with.
• Ako Hayasaka/Blue Swallow: Ako is a high school student and is initially obsessed with money. In order to get her to join, Kaori immediately cut a check for her, tho Ako did return it once she saw how dangerous the Vyram are. She also has this snappy and snarky tone to her that I just love. Out of the entire team, her life was impacted the most by becoming a Jetman. Whenever the Vyram attack, she has to immediately drop what she is doing and run off to fight them. The episode "High School Student Warrior" makes it pretty clear how much this has affected her and actually leads to some friction between her and a friend from school. The episode "Walking Garbage" showed a surprisingly sentimental side to her.
• Gai Yuuki/Black Conder: If you've spent a good amount of time in the fandom, you've probably already heard of him. Gai doesn't start out like your typical Sentai hero. He smokes, gambles, drinks, and is pretty abrasive with a soft side that tends to show itself when something happens to Kaori. The dude is a pretty fantastic character and I'll be going more into him later in the review because I'm going to be talking about his entire arc.

I had originally picked the title of this review mainly because of the Ryu, Gai, and Kaori thing but it surprisingly applied to the people from the Reverse Dimension rather well. Slight spoilers incoming! They're from a dimension invaded by Vyram and it did not go well for them to put it mildly. The 3 survivors (Ray, Kanna, and Dan) made a robot called Jet Garuda and chased the Vyram to Earth in order to put a stop to them. You can probably guess how that goes for them given how this section started. Its a great what-if scenario of a team failing to protect their world and how handle it. The image of their home world being nothing but a deserted wreck filled me with dread and it showed just what the Vyram are capable of if Jetman wasn't there to stop them. Thats pretty much all I'm gonna say because I'd rather you watch the episodes yourself. The 3 give some nice performances and their death scenes were pretty tragic. On top of that they are played by Blue Flash (Ray), Pink Mask (Kanna), and Dan's actor ended up playing Triceraranger in Zyuranger. There are two other survivors (Duran and Ru) revealed later from the Berserk region and thankfully their ending isn't as much of a gut punch. I think its partially because well, Ryu's entire thing in the episode is about making sure he saves them is due to him still missing Rie and wants to spare them that pain. He straight up makes them promise to never let go of each other when the team sees them off.

Villains: Vyram are a pretty cool group and they have a lot of presence to them. I particularly like how the commanders have a habit of showing in these half-corporeal ghost-like forms (usually Tran tho) when its time to do their thing. It really helps give them this other-worldly feel. I quite like how their main goal besides conquering this dimension is trying to figure out who deserves the spot at the top of the food chain as their emperor. Their dimension beasts are probably my favorite MOTW designs so far. They're pretty striking and they hit that perfect mix between humanoid and monstrous so well that they kind of scare me. They even start mixing animal DNA with the dimension bugs to create even more powerful animal/object hybrids. Their plans are also pretty cool and I certainly wasn't expecting a lot of them.

Radiguet is pretty cool. The dude is not afraid to get his hands dirty when the time comes and he is definitely not someone you want to screw with. He can also be pretty brutal as shown in episodes 22-24. Him spitting a sword into Ray's chest was chilling. The Juuza episodes are a pretty good example of his ambitiousness. I felt bad for the man when he got his memories back during those episodes. His time as a human was brief but he looked so happy. His actor is pretty good and the dude legitimately looks like he should be playing a hero. I couldn't help but think he looked like Kamen Rider Black's actor. He takes a pretty hard fall in the second half of the show and its great seeing his pride finally fail him. He manages to lose a fight with a dove and then gets curb-stomped by Tranza a few episodes later. Somehow the curb-stomping from Tranza was more humiliating. The feud between him and Tranza is fantastic, especially when he manages to stop Tranza's ultimate robot out of sheer of will. Given his level of cruelty over the course of the show, its rather fitting that its Maria/Rie's final act that ends up ultimately bringing about his end.

Tran is probably my favorite of the Vyram. This kid is crazy and downright sadistic. He legitimately scares me. His plans are pretty unique and I wasn't expecting a lot of them. I love his aesthetic because he manages to look retro and high tech at the same time. He even has a modified power glove. The dude even fights like he has god mode on. They put this weird echo effect on his laughter and that just makes my skin crawl even more.

Tran gets an adult form in the episode "The Birth of Emperor Tranza" purely because the other members of Vryam made him angry enough. Tranza is played by Yutaka Hirose and the man's performance is fantastic as usual. Tranza's debut is fantastic as not only is he a massive threat, he is also exceptionally petty. He beats the snot out of Ryu while he is training, he out-golfs Gai to embarrass him in front of some ladies, and out eats Raita. He does all of this purely because he can. The man is also petty enough to actively save the team from one of Radiguet's plan when Radiguet was about to win. The way he goes out is amazing as Radiguet finally gets his vengence on him for all of the humiliation.

Grey is fun and there is just something cool to me about a robot with an interest in classical music and wine. The dude feels like a walking powerhouse and his suit actor does a great job in the role. He develops feelings for Maria after hearing her play the piano and I just find that really sweet. Grey even steps in between her and Radiguet at one point when Radiguet loses his temper and tries to strike her with his sword. The man has a pretty sweet scene in episode 42 where he saves Maria and all he wants is to hear her play music for him. Its also followed by a heart-breaking moment where he laments the fact that he is a robot purely because he can't keep her warm and has to rely on Red Hawk to keep her from freezing. That entire sequence and episode in general felt like one big long punch to the gut for me. He really loved her in the end to the point where begged the team for help when he found out what Radiguet's ultimate goal for her was. His final duel with Gai has this undertone of sadness to it because well, once Maria is gone, he devotes himself to a warrior's death. Gai actually really does not want to fight him at that point of Grey really gives him no choice. Even at the end, he tells Gai to go because he didn't want the man to see his finally moments. It was honestly a pretty bitter end to his character but it was pretty fitting at the same time as I couldn't see it playing out any other way.

Maria is cool and she delightfully takes none of Radiguet's bs and is more than happy to rub his nose in his failures. Its rather obvious to the audience but...she is Rie under Radiguet's control. Oh boy, I knew it was going to rough for Ryu when that shoe finally drops but it was even rougher on both of them than I thought. Seeing her beg Ryu to tell her whats happened because she can't remember hurt a lot. It hurt even more when Ryu couldn't bring himself to tell her that she hurt people under Vyram's control. This entire subplot builds to a heartbreaking conclusion because while Ryu manages to snap her out of Radiguet's control she ends up remembering the things she did as Maria and feels extremely guilty. This pretty much leads her to tricking them so she can get one last stab in at Radiguet.

Now I'm going to talk about Gai in detail because he is that well written. Odds are folks in the fandom already know how things play out with him but this is just in case someone stumbles on to this post: SPOILERS INCOMING! Even though I knew Gai's reputation going into the show, he still managed to surprise me. He acts like this suave lone wolf womanizing playboy at first but he really does love Kaori. Granted this comes in the form of only focusing on wanting to make Kaori his at first. His exact words at one point after she rejected him were "Hate I can handle. I'd rather you hate me than feel nothing.". He straight up hunted Maria down just to beg her to give Kaori back when she got captured by Photo Dimension. Maria even demands Ryu's head as the price for Kaori's return and for a second, Gai is desperate enough to consider it. Seeing him breakdown and crash his bike after Kaori confessed to Ryu after all that kind of hurt. I didn't even notice until the shadow doppelganger episode that Gai has the Jetman logo on his gloves. He totally loves being on the team more than he lets on. He utterly despised Ryu's whole act for half the show. He and Ryu managed to come to an understanding when Ryu has that breakdown. He basically tells Ryu to take all the time he needs and that the whole team will be waiting for him. All of that animosity disappearing and them intending to drink together afterwards were a nice touch as its made clear pretty early on that Ryu is not usually the drinking type. Now for the big thing, his arc ends with his death attending Ryu and Kaori's wedding. Gai being able to do that says a lot about just how much he changed in his relationship to both Kaori and Ryu even setting aside the 3 year timeskip after the final battle. I knew it was coming beforehand, I knew exactly what would happen...and it still hurt. Thats not even the only time he technically died in the show. He died briefly during the Juuza two-parter when he was turned to crystal and again when Radiguet stole his soul. Something I quite like about how Gai and Kaori's relationship is portrayed is that well, after they briefly get together, they don't seem too comfortable being around so often after a while (or at the very least, Gai isn't). Gai's little outburst at dinner in one episode pretty much gets across that he got more than he expected. Toshihide Wakamatsu is fantastic in the role and his performance was perfect.

Favorite Episodes: There are quite a few contenders for this section (as usual, endgame stuff is not up for this section). I'm torn between "The Hellbound Bus", "I Can See!", the demon 3-parter, "Ryu The Traitor", "Sneak Into The Commander's Body" and "Spin, Roulette of Life". Its a pretty tough call but I'm going to have go with "Spin, Roulette of Life" and "The Hellbound Bus" due to how unexpected they were.

In "Spin, Roulette of Life" everyone but Gai gets turned into statues and Gai has to save them in his own way while he effectively walks away from that fight with Grey's heart circuit. Its a pretty tense episode and the most tense points in the episode isn't actually the fight with the Bio-Dimension Beast: Its a game of roulette with the lives of the Jetmen at stake and the only thing Gai has to bet is Grey's heart. Its a fantastic episode because we see Gai getting incredibly frustrated and losing his cool because he can't figure out how Grey is winning so consistently with a 50-50 shot. Grey isn't even actually cheating either. Gai gets so desperate that he is willing to put his and Commander Aya's lives as the stake for the final bet. He ultimately resorts to cheating himself to win but in a nice bit of fair play and gambler's honor, he gives Grey back the last piece of his heart.

"The Hellbound Bus" is a fantastic mystery episode. The team has some time off so Kaori and Raita decide to take a bus to visit Raita's home town. As they go into a tunnel, one of the passengers goes missing and from there they have to figure out who the guilty party is as they start getting picked off one by one. Its fantastically tense and the mystery itself is pretty good. I was legitimately surprised at the outcome when I thought I had it figured out. Kaori is great in the episode as she manages to keep everyone calm despite their impending doom. Raita is so amazed that this is where he kind of falls in love with her himself. It also features a neat little cameo from Pink Flash as one of the passengers.

Mecha: Jet Icarus is a pretty sweet looking mecha and I love how the team has to train to get Jet Hawken and Icarus itself. It also has a surprising array of weapons. Jet Garuda is a nice mecha and I think its pretty cool that it doesn't have a humanoid head. Its introduction episode was pretty cool. I was honestly surprised at how much solo use Jet Icarus and Jet Garuda got after Great Icarus' debut. That pretty much shows that they're both still a key part of their arsenal. Tetraboy is pretty cool and it is also the most hyper robot I've ever seen. It was literally running circles around the monster in its debut and it has no chill whatsoever. I love that instead of combining with the other mecha, it just becomes a 4-barreled cannon finisher.

Music: The opening theme is pretty exciting and really gets me hyped. I couldn't help dancing to it or mimicking the poses in the opening sequence. Its also a nice ear worm of a song and I've caught myself humming it a lot. I wasn't expecting to like Kokoro Wa Tamago as much as I do. I've listened to it at least 20 times while I was writing this review. Listening to this song after seeing the final episode hurt a lot. I don't usually go into the visuals when talking about the music but I absolutely love the retro look of the ending sequence. It feels like a brief history of aviation and I love when Sentai does stuff like this for its ending sequences. The show's bgm is pretty good and Vyram's theme is nicely creepy and unsettling. Honoo No Condor (Black Condor's theme) is great and plays over a pretty awesome fight in the episode "Marriage Vacuum Cleaner".

Final Thoughts: This is the third time I have inadvertently covered a Sentai during its anniversary year, the other two being Dekaranger (during its 10th anniversary) and Timeranger (during its 20th anniversary). Its interesting how the show opens up with a 3-parter and immediately goes into a 2-parter. Given how the episode "Walking Garbage" ended, I was a bit surprised at how the Dryer Dimension episode ended because I was expecting another gut punch. I've had issues with Inoue's writing in the past cuz some of it irritated me a lot (namely Kamen Rider The First, The Next, and Kiva) but this show is him at some of his best imo. That slugfest in episode 22 between Gai and Ryu over Ryu trying to set him up with Kaori made it feel like the whole world was about to come crashing down, especially when Raita jumped into the fray. All of that was before Vyram even attacked in the episode. I'm amazed this show had me that interested in a love triangle. Overall its a good show and well worth your time so if you're curious about it, give it a watch.

Ninja Sentai Kakuranger Review

So I got Kakuranger as a Christmas present since I wanted to add it to my collection. I got a lot of the show and I wasn't even expecting most of it. What even is this show?! I mean this in the most positive way possible. Nothing I've seen in Sentai feels like this show. Without further aduei: Hiding among the people and punishing evil! Ninja Sentai Kakuranger has arrived!

The show opens with a flashback showing how the Yokai were sealed. Then it cuts to the present day where two friends see a man getting robbed on the street. They help him out and he hands them a bag begging them to take it to an island. They get to the island and end up being chased by ninjas leading them to inadvertently opening the door sealing the Yokai in the process. The two are saved by a ninja clad in all white and told they must take up their ancestor's blades and stop the Yokai.

Characters:

• Sasuke/NinjaRed: He was actually a lot calmer than I thought he would be. He is a laidback goof so I expected him to be a bit reckless in a fight. However, the second he gets into trouble he actually starts to think before deciding on a course of action. Even when he was distraught about a kid under his protection potentially dying in episode 20, he still managed to stay calm and think things through. Coincidentally, that also happens to be my favorite episode for him.
• Tsuruhime/NinjaWhite: She is the most cool-headed member of the team as she doesn't seem to be frazzled by much. Her father died when she was young so she had to step up and take his place as a Kakuranger. She gets some pretty good episodes to herself, the best of which tend to revolve around a subplot regarding her father. Outside of that subplot, I really liked the episode where she meets her childhood friends again. It was nice seeing her kickback a bit.
• Saizou/NinjaBlue: A lot of his moments tend to be more comedic than the others but he does get some nice dramatic bits to himself. He is also a bit girl crazy like Seikai. The two actually felt so similar to me their until about their scroll episode that I would get them mixed up for about a minute of any episode that was not one of their focus episodes. Needless to say, that stopped after that episode. My favorite episode for him is either the Amikiri episode or the one where he falls into a Yokai plot by trying to help save a ninja dojo. "New Year's Manga Hell" is also a good episode for him.
• Seikai/NinjaYellow: He is obsessed with girls and food. He also tends to be the most reckless. He does have some pretty good comedic moments and one of my favorite gags is when he gives a great speech to a girl he likes about the heart of a hero and why he has to fight then he immediately undercuts it when she is out of earshot by basically saying "I may have gone overboard with the drama". The scroll episode he shares with Saizou is pretty good because he randomly attacks Saizou in order to try to get Saizou to kill him so at the very least one of them can escape the kappa curse. I think those two bits sum him up rather well. However, my favorite episode for him is "The Stray Ghost". Its a nice, heartwarming episode where Seikai helps a kid learn to move forward and become stronger after the death of his grandfather.
• Jiraiya/NinjaBlack: His whole style makes him the standout member of the team for me. Kane Kosugi's action skills are top notch and he has gotten the most out-of-suit action seems out of the whole team. Jiraiya's father was murdered by a Yokai when he was a kid so he was taken in by his dad's best friend and trained in martial arts. Without a doubt, his best episodes are 28 and 29 (the Gali episodes). It leads to a pretty gut-wrenching dramatic moment and performance but I will probably cover that later in the review.
• Ninjaman: He is pretty reckless and full of himself while single-mindedly focusing on fighting the Yokai in his early episodes. He was an apprentice of the Three God Generals before getting sealed away after being tricked into hurting humans by Daimaou so he has a grudge against him. The dude was straight up willing to potentially let himself be killed during the DaraDara episodes if it meant stopping Daimaou's plan. Overall, I think he is alright and I don't have many complaints with him other than him showing up a little late (even compared to TimeFire).

Villains: The Yokai in general have a style all their own. Their monster forms are fantastically designed. Their human forms all expertly played by their respective actors and they manage to make themselves creepy with even minor gestures and movements. Its pretty obvious they were having fun the roles. Even when they have a goofy personality they still manage to get across a level of menace.

I love Junior's style. Kenichi Endo plays the role well and gives him this big goofy rockstar energy while also getting across that Junior is not to be taken lightly. It fits Kakuranger's tones as a whole. Junior's music perfectly captures his personality. He can play this sweet controlled music one minute and just move seamlessly into chaotic wailing on the instrument the next. The dude is pretty much a powerhouse in general and the show always makes sure to get across that the Kakurangers are in big trouble whenever he shows up. I was sad when he was defeated in the show for a status quo change up. Thats how much I dug the character and Endo's performance.

I quite like the Flower Kunoichi-Gumi. The choice to put pink and purple on the same team was interesting plus their designs are really sweet looking. These ladies are nasty piece of work and episode 20 is a great example of the kind of threat they pose with how they managed to push Sasuke into a corner. They went so far as to try and run over a kid knowing Sasuke would help him and then goaded Sasuke by saying its his fault the kid is caught in the crossfire. They even tortured Sasuke with the thought of the kid dying as a result. I would absolutely love to see a team of evil ranger-like beings again (as far as I'm aware, its just these ladies and the Nezirangers from Megaranger). Also thanks to these ladies I can officially add "Ninjas riding a missile while shooting machine guns" to the list of stupidly awesome ways to try to kill someone I've seen in toku. They don't get much development or characterization outside of being the Yokai's hit squad but honestly they don't really need it. I was a bit disappointed there wasn't some kind of climactic battle with them in the show.

Daimaou is great. Something I especially loved is that despite him calling Junior a fool, he still laments his death and vows to make the Kakurangers suffer for killing his son. It would've been so easy to make him the type of villain that takes joy in the death of a commander whose own foolishness was their undoing but I'm so glad he wasn't like that. He is also not easily fooled. Dude saw a betrayal coming and immediately factored it into his plan instead just trying to stop it. The reveal of what he is and how they had to beat him left my jaw on the floor because I was not expecting that at all.

Favorite Episodes: My favorite episodes are episode 28 and 29, the Gali episodes. They're a pretty good dramatic set of episodes for Jiraiya. Its also when we first learn his backstory. The bulk of the two parter features a ton of out-of-suit action so Kane Kosugi really gets to shine here. All of that makes for a really amazing and heartbreaking set of episodes when you find out how his dad died and why he was killed. They're so good that I'm not even gonna do my usual plot-breakdown for this section. Basically if you like Jiraiya than you will most likely love these episodes.

Mecha: The show features a lot of mecha. Its got the 5 Beast Generals, Muteki Shogun, the 5 Jusho Fighters, Tsubasamaru, the 5 Super Ninja Beast, and Kakure Daishogun. Thats a total of 17 and that feels like a lot for a show from the 90s. It has Dairanger's fast mecha fights which felt odd going back to since I finished off Timeranger before this. It really fits the hectic nature of the show. I like that Kakure Daishogun has a 5episode entire arc dedicating to bringing it in. It helps that the entire arc leads up to one of the biggest status quo changes I've seen in a Sentai show and ends up giving its debut a lot of weight.

Music: The music is pretty good. The opening theme is a fantastic hype machine. I was singing along and even dancing by episode 4. That shamisen solo sounds fantastic and it gives the whole opening its own unique feel to match Kakuranger's feel as a whole. Ninja Matenrou Kids (the ending theme) surprised me. I wasn't expecting to like it as much as I did. I was practically dancing to it by episode 6.The show also uses a slower, more mellow, instrumental version of it during the more somber bits of the show and it works really well. Hoshi Yo Nijimura is a pretty killer insert song that plays in episode 44 when Sasuke is raiding Daimou's place. That song made the entire sequence even better. The show's bgm is great and I'm pretty sure I was able to pick out a few pieces from Dairanger in the mix which is fitting since the two shows have the same composer.

Cameos: The show features a ton of cameos from past Sentai actors which just manages to add to its already surreal and weird vibe for me. Its nice seeing a lot of these actors again. This section is pretty much just gonna be me listing off the ones I noticed and ones that friends pointed out to me. Burai (DragonRanger and he was also ChangePegasus), Kaori (White Swan), and Lady Ring's (Dairanger) actors all cameo in episode 9. Radiguete's (Jetman) actor and Byakko's (Dairanger) voice actor show up as Yokai in episodes 5 and 6. Dora Sphynx (Zyuranger) plays the rag Yokai. Rumi (FiveYellow) plays Sakura in the Flower Kunoichi-Gumi. Lami's (Zyuranger) actress plays Amikiri. Mei (PteraRanger) shows up in episode 25. Tsuruhime's father is played by the second VulEagle. The facestealing yokai went on to play MegaRed's dad. Tsuruhime's two friends were her co-stars in Shushutorian (a Fushigi Comedy series). Kirinranger's actor and his twin brother play Taro and Jiro. While he hasn't actually been in Sentai before (as far as I know), I'm adding Gali to this section because he is played by Kane Kosugi's father. Its not really a cameo since he plays the Red in Kakuranger but Sasuke's actor went on to play Black Knight Hyuuga in Gingaman. So yeah, there are a lot of familiar faces in this one show and there are probably more that I didn't recognize.

Final Thoughts: I really like how the team is usually doing their own thing and they just stumble onto a Yokai in town. Its also a nice world building detail that since the battles usually take place in some out of the way place, not even urban legends surrounding Yokai and the Kakurangers pop up in-show. It gives the show a real "war in the shadows" feel, so every civilian ends up reacting like each Yokai appearance is the first time its ever happened. I would of loved to see more of the ancestors in the show since I dug how instead of going on and on about how grave the situation was, they just gave them life advice or snarked it up when they met their descendants. I love how lowkey most of the ninja stuff is. Most of it feels doable and the only thing I'd outright call magic is mecha summoning, the elemental attacks, and the transformation jutsu. The episode "The Great Snow Woman's Snowball Fight" has the single best Jiraiya action setpiece for me. His actor really gets put through the ringer in that episode. I don't usually comment on fashion choices in toku but man the Kakurangers' outfits sure are something else. It says a lot about a team's fashion choices when the guy who debuted dressed up as a cowboy managed to look the most normal. They get new outfits later in the show so they end up looking a bit more normal...well except for Sasuke. Who lets this man dress himself? Overall, I had a lot of fun with the show. If you're looking for some good ol' 90s Sentai fun with a surreal vibe, great monster designs, and some good dramatic bits, then I can't recommend this show enough.