Gogofive : a great sentai series

1) Introduction

1999 : the end of a millenia, but also the year of the Grand Cross, a special alignment of planets which will allow the arrival of the dark witch Grandienne because of an important flux of minus energy, the leader and mother of the Saima clan, a clans of demons from the dark world, who will destroy the world and humankind and lead the Earth. Because he knew long ago about that event, ten years before,  Mondo Tatsumi, descendant of a long family of rescue workers, but who also is an amazing scientific mind and great engineer, decided to leave his family in order to prepare everything in order to counter that terrible threat. He had to leave his family, notably his four sons and his only daughter. Soon afterwards, the mother of the kids disappeared as well, forcing the siblings to live on their own.
Following their ancestors's steps, all five became public workers, involved in rescue work.
However, in 1999, the Saima clan decided to make its first move. Indeed, four demons, the children of the Great Witch Grandienne were already on Earth and decided to start plenty of destruction to prepare the arrival of their mother. It's at that time that Mondo came back, and the father explained his children the situation and that to save Earth and save the lives, they had to become the Rescue Sentai GogoV, using the suits, the weapons and the mechas he created during his long absence.
And so, started the story of the GogoV and their struggles against the Saima clan.

2) The heroes : the Tatsumi siblings

The GogoFive are the five children of Mondo Tatsumi.

2-1) GoRed  : Matoi Tatsumi

Matoi Tatsumi is the eldest son and the leader of the GogoV. He is a firefighter, working in the Special Rescue Brigade, who is involved in directly rescuing people caught in buildings on fire. He's a hot blooded man with an aggressive personality, who has also an authoritative side, and he often bosses around his siblings, because he feels, and not without good reasons, that as the eldest siblings, he's the one in charge. While this behaviour is not always easy for his siblings to live with, it is also that personality that makes him a good leader, because he knows very well when to make important decisions, what to do, what people under his responsiblity should do, when it's needed, and when you have to rescue people trapped in dangerous situations, being able to make quick decisions is needed to save people from death. It's also that same personality that makes him a good leader for the GogoV, since, like rescue work, fighting the Saima also involve a lot of life or death situations.
Besides, under that gruff exterior, Matoi cares a lot about his siblings, he loves them and only wants the better for them, and while he can be harsh, for example by making them undergo harsh training, he knows, and actually, his siblings as well, that it's for the best. Besides, he will always be there to rescue his siblings when they need it, and he's not harder on others than he's harder on himself.
However, Matoi's personality has also its downsides : he is often awkward with people, his siblings, but also people of the opposite sex, either adults, such as the daughter of Kenji Inui, his father's friend and rival in the rescue work. He also has a competitive side, seen notably when he met a friend of his, with whom he had trained previously.

2-2) GoBlue : Nagare Tatsumi

Nagare is the second eldest, and he works in the chemical fire fighter brigade. In the firefighting field, he's more in the scientific side, the one involved in creating all the stuff needed to fight fires, and helping in rescuing people. Indeed, Nagare is pretty much the scientific mind of the siblings, and the one who inherited the most of his father's science and engineering abilities. Nagare's skills are very helpful in the fights against the Saima, such as when he created the antivirus device against a monster able to create computer viruses, or , more importantly, when he created the Go-Blasters, a powerful gun in order to defeat the Saima Beasts. He's also a good strategist, who managed to find a way to destroy a powerful Saima weapon, the Infinity Chain card, managing to trap the monster holding it in a truck surronded by a huge energy field. Of course, even if he's able to create incredible devices, such as an effective alarm system with a trap, or an energy shield,  he may struggle when he has to face a cunning mind such as Dinas's mind, but at the end, he's the winner.
Nagare, as the second eldest, feels also responsible for his siblings, and hates seeing them being hurt. He's more easy going than his older brother Matoi, but he's no less devoted to his family.

2-3) GoGreen : Shou Tatsumi

Shou is the middle sibling, and he works as an helicopter pilot in the helicopter brigade, the third one in the firefighter field, this time involved in all aerial work. Being a pilot was his lifelong dream, and when he managed to joint he helicopter brigade, it was a very happy day in his life. He's the one who suffered the most of his dad's absence, and, at least at first, he was the most resentful against him. He can also show a cocky side, as the pilot of the team. However, with his sister Matsuri, he's one of the most compassionate among the team, always ready to help others, and suppor them in difficult times, like when he tried to make a grandmother he rescued mend her relationship with her good-for-nothing but ultimately good hearted grandson (the latter showed that he was more valuable than he thought), or when he had to help a scientist whose infant son was taken hostage by the Saima, and he's always ready to help, even when the one he helps are annoying, such as a group of girls trapped in a mountain with the threat of Saima monsters.He also was the one who helped Matsuri dealing with the shy Saima Beast Thanatos.
Shou is, with his sister, the heart of the Tatsumi family, because he's a very sensitive man, and one who's always ready to help others.

2-4) GoYellow : Daimon Tatsumi

Daimon is the youngest of the brothers, and a young policeman. Like his brothers, he's very devoted to his work, because the reason he took his job was to rescue people. He's the youngest brother, and certainly the most immature of the siblings, like when he didn't listen to his brother and ended up injured because of it. Despite being a cop, he can be naive, and he struggled against a cocky but pretty harmless thief. However, he is very serious about his job, and to be a better fighter, has trained in judo. He's also the one who relates the most with children, such as when he taught a young boy about teamwork in soccer playing, or his interactions with a young boy whom he invited to visit the GogoV base. He hates hurting children, and he almost left the Gogofive after injuring a young boy by mistake, and he only found strength not to give up thanks to his father, his elder brother Matoi and eventually the kid himself.
Like his brothers and sister, Daimon cares a lot about his siblings, and in helping people.

2-5) GoPink : Matsuri Tatsumi

Matsuri is the only girl, and the youngest of the Tatsumi siblings. She works as a paramedic. She's certainly the most compassionate of the siblings (with Shou a close second), always there to help people and cheer them. She's the one who was the most welcoming of her dad's return, making everything to decrease the tensions between father and sons, and her deep desire is to have her family feel happy. She also cares deeply with other people, as seen in her interactions with an old man who was about to leave the hospital, or her injured colleague, whom she did all she could to help her find the strength to heal. Even in the worst times, she thinks about others before herself, like when she tried to help her injured colleague while she was herself injured, or when she had to help a co-worker deal with the fact her fiancee was kidnapped by the Saima and help rescuing her, even if she was actually in love with that co-worker, and had to see him choose another woman.  She's able to see the better of everyone, as seen when she decided to give a bank robber a chance to redeem himself, or in her unsuccessful attempt to help a Thanatos, a Saima beast shy with girls, and she often has a good influence on them. She was even able to stop (even if it only once) the very cruel Salamandes from killing her because she reminded him of their good times together when he was just a wandering soul without memories.
Matsuri is always there to help people in distress, cheer them up, especially children (including her own siblings, turned into children by a Saima Beast sent by Dinas). It's her ability to cheer people up that also makes her a good paramedic.

My opinion of the heroes

The Gogofive are certainly one of the most interesting teams of the franchise, because two themes are explored in depth with them, which are the major themes of the show : rescue work and family ties.
Each one of the siblings work in a different field of rescue, and several episodes deal in their link to their jobs : the first episode showed them in action, and while their father made them leave temporarly their jobs, several episodes deal with interactions with people with whom they worked with, and several times, even as the GogoFive, they still do rescue work linked to their jobs, when needed.
It's interesting how their personalities match their respective jobs : Matoi the bossy leader who takes quick decisions matches his job as a firefighter directly involved in rescuing people in dangerous situations, Nagare, the smart one, working in the scientific branch of the firefighting organization. Shou and Matsuri, who are those whose jobs involve the longest interactions with people in distress are the most compassionates ones, especially the paramedic Matsuri. Only Daimon's naivete is at odds with his cop job, but he's the youngest brother, and he has still time to grow up.
Their interactions with each other are also interesting because they show the typical patterns of relationship with siblings : love, but also the little conflicts that arise because siblings can find each other annoying, the sense of responsibility that older siblings feel towards the young one, and, of course, a very close link, which is often showed, especially in hard times. The show spends time showing the relationship between the five Tatsumi children, as such, is very successful in showing realistically the sibling relationship between them.
While the heroes still show the classic pattern (the leader, the smart one, the angry one, the child like one, and of course, the only girl who is the heart), it's always done in a way the character feel believable, and very likable. The GogoFive are certainly one of the most likable sentai teams of the franchise.

3) Allies  

3-1) Mondo Tatsumi

Mondo Tatsumi is the father and the mentor of the GogoV, who left his family 10 years ago to prepare all the arsenal needed to fight the Saima clan. After coming back, he explained his children that they needed to become the GogoV, to save the world from the Saima, and showed them all he's done, the GogoV base, (Base Bay Area 55) with the suits, the weapons, the mechas, and became pretty much their mentor, always ready to prepare new weapons, new mechas to help his children face the Saima. He's a real genius in technology, as the one who created all the technology his children would use as the GogoV, weapons, mechas.
However, he is also a man who had to abandon his children for ten years, when his kids were still very young, in the age they needed their father the most, especially since the heroes soon lost their mother as well. Because of that, his relationship with his children wasn't easy, especially at first, because he had to rebuild his relationship with them, especially since he came back to give them a very hard burden by making them the GogoV. His children were often annoyed by their father, especially Shou who suffered a lot from his father's absence and he didn't want his father to feel like he would take his children's love for granted. Mondo's relationship with his children wasn't helped by the fact he often behaved in an insensitive way, because he had trouble understanding his children's feelings, and he can show an arrogant side.
However, Mondo is still a very loving dad, and when he sees his children struggling, he's always there to help him, and he is able to give some good advice. As time went by, he was able to know better and better his kids, and after one year, the bond between father and children was stronger than ever.
Besides, while he gave a heavy burden to his children, his own burden was even heavier, because not only he was the father of the heroes, he's also the one who put them in that very dangerous situation, and everytime his children are in mortal danger, he's in a very deep pain. His biggest fear is to see his children die during the fight, because not only he would lose his beloved children, he would feel responsible for it. That's why he does everything he can to give the best weapons, the best technology to defeat the Saima, and he works as hard, even harder than his kids. When needed, he even goes in the battlefield, like when he came to bring the V Lancer to his children as they were almost killed by Zylpheeza, or when he risked his life to stop the ritual meant to bring back Grandienne during the Grand Cross day.

My opinion about Mondo : Mondo is one of my favorite mentors, because, as the father of the heroes, his relationship with the team is not only one of a mentor to a team, but also a loving father towards his children, which makes his role even more interesting than most mentors. He's a good dad, but not a perfect one, and his flaws makes him feel very human, and his relationship with his children is very interesting, because the series shows in a realistic way the struggles a man has to rekindle his relationship with his children after having been absent a long time, dealing with the fact his kids have become adults, feel anger about having been abandoned. Besides, when Mondo sees the team in danger, it's not soldiers he sees, but his own children, and the show is great in making us feel the pain of the father. As the one who made the technology, Mondo is also a mentor who is always useful, because he's also working on making his team more effective with powerful weapons to face powerful enemies.
GogoFive has a great mentor figure, and a very appropriate given the family theme of the show

3-2) Others

3-2-1) Mint

Mint is a little spheric robot who helps the team by detecting Saima presence, alerting the team, or helping Mondo in the lab.
Not much to say about him : Mint is a nice mascot, being able to be cute without being annoying, and his voice actor is great

3-2-2) Kyoko Hayase

Kyoko is a pilot, who is an former co-worker of Shou (who calls her "Sempai"). But she went further as a pilot, becoming a pilot of a space shuttle which explores space, and is first seen when coming back to Earth, when her shuttle is attacked by a Saima beast, and she ended up rescued by the GogoV. She soon realized that the GogoV were none others than the Tatsumi siblings, notably her friend Shou. Amazed by the GogoV, she often wanted to help them, even sometimes hoping to become herself a GogoV. However, while she never really joined the team, she was often there to help them, helping Mondo Tatsumi in his work on the mechas, looking for info, or just cheering the team up. She even once went with Matoi in a rescue operation in the mountains, where she managed to give some help to a little boy. Her biggest hour happened when she was chosen as the successor of a warrior who fought the Saima, Zeek, even if her time as Zeek-Jeanne was brief.
While Kyoko's role isn't the biggest, she's a good friend, an energetic young woman, who wants to do her best to help the Tatsumi family.

3-2-3) Kenji Inui

Mondo Tatsumi's rival. He briefly almost had the GogoV stop their activities, because of his rivalry with Mondo, but of course, when he realized how important they were, he changed his mind because as much as he's Mondo's rival, he's ready to put it aside, because rescuing people is the most important. He even had his daughter meet Matoi in an arranged marriage meeting (which of course went awry xD).

3-2-4) Ritsuko Tatsumi

Mondo's wife and the mother of the heroes. She doesn't appear much, having disappeared in an aircraft crash 2 years after her husband's departure. However, her words of support, showing the importance of their link as siblings and how wonderful they are, gave them strength in the most difficult times. And when, after 8 years of coma, she at last wakes up, the first thing she does is try to talk to her children. It happened precisely during the final battle, when they had to face Grandienne's wrath, and her words, and the emotions the children felt by finding out their mom was still there, was a key element to raise the spirits of the heroes when they needed it the most. When, after the battle, she meets them at last, amazed at how much they grew up and became stronger, it was one of the most emotional moments of the show, with at last the Tatsumu family being reunited at last.

Opinions about those characters : they helped a lot in the world building of the series and had their part in making GogoV be the great show it is.


4) Villains

The antagonists of GogoV are the Saima clan, demons from the dark world who wanted to take over the world and destroy humans. Their main weapons is the minus energy.
Like the GogoV, the Saima are siblings, four siblings, each themed after a different element. Their trademark are the demonic bat-like wings. The four Saima siblings have as their leader their mother, the Grand Witch Grandienne. They had as their servant a demonic fly themed butler, Pierre.

4-1) Zylpheeza

Zylpheeza is the elder brother of the Saima siblings. As the oldest brother (at least, in the show, with a banished older brother Gill, appearing in GogoV vs Gingaman), he's the leader of the Saima clan, since as the beginning of the show, Grandienne hasn't come back yet to Earth. He's a golden skinned demon, with a demonic face on his chest, which can send powerful energy coming from Zylpheeza's own life energy. He's a very cruel demon, hating humans and wanting to destroy them, especially his hated enemies, the GogoV. However, he deeply loves his family (with the possible exception of Drop, whom he almost stabbed once, because he was afraid he would usurp his role as Dark King), and his main motivation as the leader of the family is to prepare the arrival of his mother, whom he's deeply devoted to, and who makes his determination to destroy the human world even stronger, because it is what would make his mother feel happy. He's an air themed demons, and the Saima Beasts he creates have a sky theme, either bird, flying creatures, or involved in manipulating wind or electromagnetic waves.
He's the leader of the Saima during the first half of the show, the Dark King. At the beginning, he mostly sent Saima Beasts to the surface, only appearing in magic screens, or he let his siblings send Saima Beasts. However, after several failures, he decided to be himself involved in the fight, first by fighting side by side with his spider like Saima Beast, almost killing the heroes. As an older brother himself, he knew perfectly that the cruelest he could be towards Gored was to kill his siblings before him. However, he failed because Mondo sent his children the V Lances, a new powerful weapons. His next move was to involve a trio of beasts, the Dark World Demonic warriors, who did show some success at last, but eventually ended up defeated. However, Zylpheeza is one who even can takes advantages of setbacks, and he managed to create a chimera monster out of the defeated trio. His ruthlessness makes him even sometimes kill his own monsters himself to use them more effectively as giant, as he did with his spider monster and one of the Dark World warriors, Djinn. Eventually he grew himself bigger to defeat the heroes himself, and almost won, but eventually was defeated by the heroes before the Grand Cross having seen his mother come back to Earth thanks to the MaxVictory Robo.
Zylpheeza's death was very painful for his younger siblings, Kobolda and Dinas, and both tried to bring back him to life. After a first failed attempt, their second attempt was successful, but at the price of Dinas's life. At first Zylpheeza wanted again to defeat the GogoV, until he realized the treacherous side if his mother, who forced him to kill his brother Kobolda, because she only saw her children as useful pawns to get rid of, once they're outlived their usefullness. Grandienne also killed herself Zylpheeza to use his fiery powers to destroy the GogoV.
Of course Zylpheeza was furious and hurt by the cruelty of his mother, because he had a strong family sense, and his last move was to give a hint to GoRed to help him defeat Grandienne.
Zylpheeza was brought back to life a last time, as a complete puppet by his mother, to fight the GogoV, only briefly regaining consciousness when he realized that Salamendes was his brother Drop. He then stopped fighting, instead trying to talk to his younger brother, who dismissed his attempts for affection and eventually killing him again. Zylpheeza's body, after beign grown up was used a last time by Grandienne as a weapon for the final battle, only to be destroyed a last time as well as the evil witch.

4-2) Kobolda

The second brother of the Saima, he's a blue skinned demon, with an earth theme. He hates humans, but loves his siblings Zylpheeza and Dinas, is devoted to his mother Grandienne. He has an earth theme, and the Saima beasts he sends are themed after creatures living on the ground (for example, he had an elephant, a mole, a tree, or even a fighter) or golem like creatures, notably the magma golem.
Kobolda is a strong fighter, and has several times fought directly the GogoV, but he's not the brightest mind among the siblings, notably when he blew his sister's cover when she was disguised as an human. Kobolda and Dinas have a strong link, as the middle siblings, sharing the respect they feel for their mother, their older brother Zylpheeza ( they were involved together in the first attempt to revive him), their hatred against the GogoV and humans, and their disgust against Salamandes, because of his arrogance, and the fact he completely dismissed them. Kobolda and Dinas sometimes fought together the heroes, notably one time when they attempted to attack the heroes's base and both times they tried to revive their brother Zylpheeza.
However, Kobolda met a tragic end when he was killed by his own brother Zylpheeza, who was himslef forced to do so by his mother Grandienne. Zylpheeza was deeply saddened by his brother's death, especailly given he was foced to do so, and it's Kobolda's death that made Zylpheeza betray Grandienne.

4-3) Dinas

Dinas is the only sister of the Saima, and she has a water theme. Dinas is human looking, except for her wings and a snake like outfit. Like her older brother Kobolda, sharing the respect they feel for their mother, their older brother Zylpheeza, their hatred against the GogoV and humans, and their disgust against Salamandes. Dinas's monsters are water themed. However, the most remarkable pattern of Dinas's plans is her own involvement in her plans, and the fact she often uses trickery, notably by using her human looking appearance to disguise herself as a beautiful woman.
Indeed, her first major personal involvement in an operation was when she pretended to be a guide to greet Mr Robinson, a fellow scientist anf friend of Mondo Tatsumi, in order to steal a disk with important info. Because the GogoV had never seen her, they were fooled by her disguise, and her acting skills, pretending to be a kind woman, and she was only unmasked because of Kobolda's blunder. Dinas also disguised as an human in a resort where she was able to start a plan involving transforming the GogoV into children, and once again, as a nurse to give a flowers with a caterpillar monster hidden into it to a young boy.
Of all the Saima siblings, Dinas was the one who knew the best about the human world, as seen in her spy work, her operation as a cat burglar, and the way she used human weakness, taking hostage a scientist's baby, or using a mold made by humans to destroy them.
Dinas was very cruel, as seen with how delighted she felt when she tried to kill an innocent baby, or when she attacked the GogoV when they were kids.
However, she's also a very loving sister, deeply hurt by his brother Zylpheeza's death, and she eventually sacrificed herself, when, after a failed attempt to kill GoRed while bringing back Zylpheeza to life, in order to save his brother's life. Her sacrifice was the ultimate proof of her deep sisterly bond.

4-4) Drop/Salamandes

The youngest sibling, a dragon themed demon, with, of course, a fire theme. He started as a baby dragon like demon, named Drop. Despite being a baby, Drop already felt the same hate against the GogoV, and was also involved in plans with his own demon cards, especially one involving waking up a volcano. Drop's main caretaker was Pierre, who is deeply devoted to him. Drop only went out once as a baby, with Pierre, and even then showed both destructive powers and hatred towards the GogoV, by attacking them after beign called "cute" by Matsuri.
After Zylpheeza's death, he inherited from him the powers of the Dark King, and entered a crhisalys pahse inside a cocoon. Soon after the Grand Cross, Drop finished his maturation, his spirit briefly taking the appearance of a little boy with pyrokinetic powers. At that time, Drop's soul was disoriented, and Matsuri briefly tried to become friends with the boy, unaware of his true identity. However, very quickly, Drop finished its maturation becoming the fearsome dragon themed and aple faced demon, Salamandes.
Salamandes was the one who inherited the Dark King powers, but he was also the youngest sibling. As such, he felt a deep rivalry with its siblings, and wanted more than  ever to be the one favored by his mother. Salamandes was the one who was the most involved in the major plans of the Saima, such as the one involving the summoning of the evil planet Grande, and the plan involving the Infinite Chain Card,  which was able to get info about the GogoV attacks, and allow Saima Beasts to resist those attacks. Unlike his siblings, Salamandes had absolutely no loyalty and love towards his brothers and sister, dismissing Kobolda and Dinas's plans, even sabotaging one of Dinas's monsters's Thanatos, by making him shy in front of women. He even said to GoRed that he despised family love, which he saw as a weakness, infuriating Kobolda and Dinas. Salamandes was a very strong warrior, who faced the heroes several times, and his plans were often very cruel. He was able to create the Saima zone, which allowed the Saima Beasts to be stronger in giant form while at the same time weakening the heroes's robots.
Salamandes fell out of favor after the destruction of the Infinity Chain Card, and his next attempt to destroy the GogoV was to lure them into the Saima Hell. While he succeeded in bringing the GogoV there, he was also trapped in the Saima hell by his mother, because it would make it easier to destroy the enemies. Eventually, Salamandes managed to get out of the Saima hell, after taking the energy of slain Saima Beasts, and becoming Ghost Demon Salamandes, getting energy from human souls with the help of the Saima tree. However, the GogoV managed to defeat him.
However, in a last move, Pierre managed to have Grandienne bring back Salamandes to life during the final arc, when he once again fought the heroes, using his brainwashed brother Zylpheeza. However, more than ever, he showed his lack of fraternal love when he killed hos brother when he tried to talk to him instead of foghting for him. Salamandes was soon killed again by GoBlue and GoGreen, only to be brought back as a giant dragon by Grandienne, and used by her as a weapon, before being destroyed at last.

4-5) Pierre

Pierre is the butler of the Saima clan, a fly themed demonic sorcerer. He's the one who brings to life the Saima beasts, by sending the Saima cards into the mouth of a demon shaped stone, and is also the one resurrecting them in giant size with the resurrection card. He's very devoted to Salamandes, having been his caretaker as Drop. He's the one who stopped Zylpheeza to stab Drop, and is always ready to help his master Salamandes, even more than the other Saima. Despite his deep loyalty to the Saima, Pierre can also be a blunderer, for example when he was unable to find the Golem Card, or when he lost an egg to a human thief. While he can be dangerous, thanks to his rifle like cane, he's not very efficient when working alone.
The death of Salamandes hurt him deeply, and Pierre even ended up drinking as a result. However, he was able to collect his master's gem, and had Grandienne bring back Salamandes to life for the final battle. At the end, he was seemingly killed, by reappeared in the Timeranger vs GogoV crossover where he was killed for good

4-6) Grandienne

The mother of the Saima siblings, and the true leader of the Saima clan. Grandienne was in deep space, and the Grand Cross, a special alignment of planets associated with plenty of minus energy would allow her to go to Earth where her children were waiting for her.
Before reaching Earth, she was able to communicate with her children, especially Zylpheeza, to make them even more determined to attack Earth for her. Eventually, she came back to Earth during the Grand Cross event, but because Mondo Tatsumi interrupted an important ritual associated with her return, she was only able to come back in an incomplete form, with limited mobility.
However, she was nonetheless on Earth, and became the leader of the Saima, using mostly Salamandes as her second in command. However, she was a very cruel leader, harsh under her children when they failed. Her first big plan was to bring to Earth the evil planet Grande, rich in minus energy which would destroy Earth, with the help of her son Salamandes. However, after the failure of the Infinity Chain Card plan, she dismissed Salamandes, even later imprisoning him in the Saima Hell because it would make it easier to defeat the GogoV. By doing so, she already showed a ruthless side, that even her children feared.  However, her true nature really appeared when she at last was able to complete her body. At that time, she no longer needed servants, and decided to get rid of her own children, which she saw as potential traitors, showing that she never cared at all for her children, using them as pawns for her own goals. She was seemingly killed by GoRed, but came back in the finale arc, using resurrected Zylpheeza and Salamandes (who had his free will,  at least before his death and resurrection  as a giant dragon) as her pawns to destroy Earth and the GogoV, but she was at the end defeated.

4-7) Imps

The imps are black demonic creatures with short wings who are the footsoldiers of the Saima.

My opinion about the Saima clan :  The Saima clan were very cool enemies, notably because of their demonic designs, which were pretty scary looking. Those antagonists, main generals, monster of the week and even the Imps really felt like creatures coming from hell itself to destroy Earth and the humans, and the creepy music associated with them even increased how fearsome enemies they were. Among sentai villains, they are probably the most scary looking, and you really felt scared for the heroes when they were facing them.
That said, other than their scary designs, the Saima were also interesting because of their personalities, and, because like the heroes, they were a family, with an interesting family dynamic, showing both similarities and differences with the family interactions on the heroes's side.
All the Saima shared hatred for humans and especially the GogoFive.
However, it's in their relationship with each other that they showed interesting contrasts, and it's interesting to compare their interactions before and after Zylpheeza's first death and Grandienne's arrival.
During the first half, the Saima clan incuded Zylpheeza, Kobolda, Dinas, Pierre, Drop, with sometimes, Grandienne's voice coming from space.
At that time, the Saima clan is an united family, siblings united to bring back Grandienne to Earth,and everyone did his (or her) best to destroy the surface and prepare the Grand Cross event. While being the leader, Zylpheeza would allow everyone to participate in the effort, and Kobolda and Dinas felt great respect and love for their older brother. At that time, Drop was a kid, whose mainrole was to give Pierre cards.
However, after Zylpheeza's death, and Grandienne's arrival, the dynamic changed completely. Grandienne, as the mother, became the boss, and she made Salamandes, who was Zylpheeza's "heir" as the Dark King as her more important general. Because of Salamandes's lack of respect and love for his surviving siblings, Kobolda and Dinas, the Saima didn't have the unity they had before. instead of working together, they were pretty rivals, with Salamandes wanting to have a better status than her older siblings, and Kobolda and Dinas not wanting Salamandes to be the favorite and the leader.
Because of that rivalry, Dinas and Kobolda were more happy than annoyed to see Salamandes's failures, and Salamandes never missed mocking his older siblings. Grandienne, instead of trying to calm his children's rivalries, allowed and even facilitated them.
However, Dinas and Kobolda had still deep love for their fallen brother Zylpheeza, and tried several times to resurrect him, finally succeeding at the price of Dinas's life. The resurrected Zylpheeza showed more than ever how much he cared for his family, deeply saddened by his sister's death, and then, his brother Kobolda's. His love for his siblings, as well as Dinas and Kobolda's loyalty for him and each other, were in deep contrast with Grandienne and Salamandes's contempt for family love.
In the final fight, Grandienne used his children's bodies as puppets, showing her cruelty and lack of respect for life, even her children's.
Last but not least : Pierre, the butlert is shown as a very loyal servant, but his relationship with Salamandes was one well beyond mere loyalty : the servant really loved Salamandes, as if it was his child. Pierre's feelings for Salamandes were not unlike paternal love.
The complex family dynamics between the different members of the Saima allows them to be much more than evil demons, and shows an interesting contrast with the heroes. While the Tatsumi may have petty conflicts, at the end, they are a very united family.
The Saima show both similarities and differences. Similarities with Zylpheeza, Kobolda, Dinas showing a strong family bond, similar to the heroes's and a real devotion to their mother.  The three elder siblings cared deeply for each other, and would help each other if needed, with Dinas even ready to give her own life for her brother. Another example of "family love" is the deep love that Pierre had for Salamandes.
However, both Grandienne and Salamandes had nothing but contempt for their family, having no problem betraying or even killing their family members, if it could serve their interests. That lack of family love was both horrifying for the GogoFive who witnessed it AND the older Saima siblings.
At the end, Grandienne is defeated because, unlike the GogoFive, who cherished the family bond, she only saw her family as pawns to use. Her defeat is the victory of familial love over selfishness and cruelty.
A few words about each villain : Zylpheeza is great, he's a cruel and evil villain, but his love and devotion for his mother and siblings shows that he's more complex than his designs shows and at the end, the disgust he felt for his mother's cruelty made him help the GogoFive as his last action ; in is last appearances, he becomes more a victim than a villain. Kobolda, despite his scary looks, is the goofy one, and he has a very tragic end. Dinas is a very good villainess : she's cruel, but also smart, and while she's a good fighter, her main talents is her cunning mind, and she uses her human looking appearance (unlike the other Saima, she's played by a live actress) for her plans. Like Zylpheeza, her love for her family adds a layer of complexity ; she hates Salamandes's lack of family love, and her dying act is a selfless one, sacrificing herself for her brother. Salamandes is a very cool villain : he's cruel, evil, but more than his scary looks, it's his cold personality, greatly voice acted by Hikaru Midorikawa that makes him a fearsome villain. He's a big contrast with his siblings, even if one can argue that behind this hate, there is probably an huge "younger sibling complex". Pierre is also cool with his design mixing fly and French butler : he's often used as comic relief, but he's also shown as a very devoted servant, especialy towards Salamandes. Grandienne is a very cool Big Bad : it's nice how she starts as a cloud like face with her voice mostly heard, then she's shown as a floating rock with tentacles and a woman like body stuck on it, but being physically present, then, she's shown as a very scary humanoid with her completed body, and in the finale, she's again some what immaterial, but she's an evil spirit surrounding Earth, using her children's bodies as weapons. Likewise, her personality shows a similar progression : at first, she talkig from afar to her children, then, she becomes the leader, and it's when she gains her full body that the extent of her cruelty is shown, when she kills her children, and in the finale, her being again a voice and a ghost like character, using other bodies's to fights adds even more to her evilness and how scary she is. A great Big Bad.
The Saima are a great element of GogoV, both as fearsome enemies and as another exploration of the family theme.

5) The heroes's arsenal and mechas

The heroes's suit are the classic colored suits with white stripes, but the most characteristic element of the suits are the helmets which are shaped like the emblems of each hero's civilian job. Another element is the fact the show allow to regularly see the faces of the heroes behind the helmets. The heroes also have orange jackets.
The brace, with the emblem of the Gogofive is cool too.
The main weapon is the classic stick/gun stuff. They later gained another gun, the Go-Blaster, that can also se the V-Brace to get more powerful attacks.
The heroes used two main weapons for the final blow : the Lifebird, a bird like shaped cannon made of five parts that made be used separately, and the V Lancers. With the V-Lancers, the heroes performed the final attack by focusing together the energy of each weapon.

More interesting ara the mechas. GogoV has vehicle themed mechas, but the signature mecha of the series is the Go-Liner, which is probably the best train mecha ever done in the franchise, with its very cool design. Not only the train looks cool, but the miniature work with the railroad, notably the Bay Area 55, is pretty cool too. The Go-Liner can even become a robot, the Grandliner which is pretty impressive. But the Go-Liner also is the mecha whic carries the other mechas.  Another major mecha is the Victory Robot. It's a robot made of five different mechas, each one themed after a rescue vehicle linked to each heroes job : Red has a firefighter truck with a ladder (Red Ladder), Blue has a fire extinguisher thrower truck (Blue Thrower), Green has a flying mecha (Green Hover), Yellow has a armored vehicle (Yellow Armor), linked to his police job, and Pink the paramedic has an ambulance, the Pink Aider. The vehicles's design are great, and the robot they made is cool looking too. Additional mechas include the Max Liner, with its shuttle design, and his sun panels which allow it to use the sun's energy. It's also a cool robot, with its robot mode, the Liner Boy, and he also shwos a fun personality, since the Liner Boy is a talking robot. The Max Victory Robo , resulting from the fusion of Liner Boy and Victory Robo is cool too ; in the finale the sigma project is a black colored version of the mecha. Last but not least, the Victory Mars, made from the spaceship like Mars Machines, and also can fuses in two ways, the Beetle Mars, as a four legged machine, but more importantly, the  Victory Mars, the robot mode, using the JetLance as its weapon.
GogoFive has some of the coolest mechas of the franchise.

6) Storyline 

The storyline is a simple one, involving the battle between the heroes and the Saima : however,t he way the storyline is told is cool. Here is the narrative plan fo the show
Episodes 1 and 2 : introduction of the heroes, their background and the villains : the following episodes (3-10) allows us to knowmore about heroes and villains.

Episodes 11-12 : first major arc : the GrandLiner arc : Grandienne starts communicating with her Saima children, and the two part arc shows the toughest fight the heroes had to face so far.
The following episodes (13-17) have again the episodic format.

Episodes 18-22 are the big arc involving Zylpheeza's main attack : first, he involves himslef in episode 18, then he starts the "Three dark world demons" arc, which lasts from episode 19 until episode 22 : the three demons are tought enemies, and even when they're dead, Zylpheeza is able to revive them as a chimera; during that arc, the V-Lancers, the Liner Boy and the Max Victory Robo are intorduced, and the arc conclude with Zylpheeza fighting in giant from and his defeat, concluding the first half of the storyline. 

Episodes 23 and 24 are two breather episodes, including a touching ghost story.

Episodes 25 and 26 are the "Grand Cross " arc, the event that was dreaded since the beginning of the show, with the arrival of Grandienne, even if thanks to the heroes's wor, she's not in her most powerful. The following episodes is the introduction of the grown-up Drop, the terrifying Salamandes.
After two transitional episodes, episodes 29 and 30 are the big "Grande planet " arc, with the introduction of the Mars machines and Victory Mars.

Episodes 31-36 have again the episodic format, with notably one episoes involving Dinas and Kobolda trying to revive Zylpheeza, but failing.

Episodes 37-39 have the Infinity Card arc, which links seemingly standalone episodes, but the conclusion of the arc shakes the statu quo, with Salamandes falling out of favor.

After two transition episodes (40 and 41), episodes 42-43 are the big final fight against Salamandes.

After three transition episodes (notably a recap ep), the final arc starts lasting four episodes (47-50), with the second attempt of resurrecting Zylpheeza, Dinas's sacrifice, and, at last, the final fight against Grandienne herself, but also involving the reunion of the entire Tatsumi family.

Gogofive shows great storytelling, allowing a great balance between story arcs and standalone episodes, allowing the viewer to know more about the heroes, their backgrounds. GogoFive never shows plot stalling, and despite its seemingly simplicity,  the series tells us a story of not only good vs evil, but also the story of two very different families.

7) Final thoughts

Rescue Sentai Gogofive is a very great sentai series. It really explores very well two strong themes : family and rescue work : the heroes are not just superheroes, but they are also everyday heroes, whose jobs are for the public good : becoming GogoFive feels very natural for those young people, who were already heroes in their civilian lives. Rescue work is a recurring theme in the show, with several episodes dealing with the heroes's civilain job, the people they rescue, and the spirit of saving lives as the meaning of their lives.
The heroes are also a family, and, more interestingly, the villains are too : as such, heroes and villains are both different, while at the same time sharing something in common, and GogoFive shows both the contrast between the heroic family and the evil one, but also sometimes, the similarity, with both heroes and some of the villains being both devoted siblings and children. A big symbol is how at the end, Zylpheeza helps his enemy GoRed against his cruel mother, because he has more in common with GoRed as a fellow elder brother than with a maother that doesn't care about her children. Likwise, Dinas's death shows that she's as loving a sister to her brothers as Matsuri is.
Both shows deal with children struggling with their relationship with a parent that was absent for a long time, and that theme is nicely explored.
GogoFive has also some of the best mechas I've seen, and the miniature work makes the viewer want to buy the toys, without having the show feeling like a toy commerical, because of the great themes explored :you love the toys, but you're hooked by the story and the characters.
Last but not least : the music is absolutely amazing, incredibly epic with the songs and BGM linke dto the heroes and the mechas, very creepy and scary with the music linked to the Saima. One of the best music of the sentai franchise. 

To conclude, an excellent sentai series, one of the best : 9/10. 

Ryu/Rie aka Maria ; Asuka/Mahoro aka Jeanne : two romances with similar concepts written in a very different way

Jetman and Abaranger share a similar concept : the main villainess is none other than the brainwashed girlfriend (or wife) of one of the main heroes. Indeed, Jetman's  Ryu Tendoh/Red Hawk had a girlfriend, Rie Aoi who ended up becoming a Vyram general, Maria, and Asuka/Abareblack's wife Mahoro became Evolian's messenger of destruction Jeanne.

However, while Abaranger obviously took that concept from Jetman, it's worth mentioning that both storylines were written in a very different way within their respective series, well beyond merely their ending (Ryu and Rie's romance ended up in tragedy, while Asuka and Mahoro's had a happy ending (the last photo shows Asuka and Mahoro together at the end of the show, full of hope for their future).


This blog post is gonna review both romances, and the way they were written in their respective sentai series


1) How it started

Ryu and Rie met when they were already adults (Ryu tells Kaori about his first meeting with Rie). Their romance was a happy one, in a peaceful environment, involving going out , playing games, and Ryu enjoying his girlfriend's amazing piano playing (she played flawlessly Beethoven's Appassionata piano sonata). They were also working together as fellow soldiers, but before Vyram's invasion, they didn't suffer the hardships of war. Ryu and Rie had the classic life of a boyfriend and girlfriend in happy times.

Asuka and Mahoro had a different story. They knew each other since they were children. However, unlike Ryu and Rie, they suffered since they were very young from the harships of war and the Evolian's invasion, forced to hide and fight as rebels. It was a very hard life, and often Mahoro, her brother Mizuho and Asuka felt despair. Like Rie, Asuka was skilled in playing music. Asuka was a very good harmonica player, and when his friends were sad, he played the harmonica to cheer them up. Mahoro and Asuka ended up falling in love with each other, and their romance was also a way to fight against their terrible situation, find comfort and hope. Asuka and Mahoro eventually married, the day before they planned an attack against the Evolian, hoping victory and a better future.

2) How lovers ended up separated, and how the ladies became villainesses

One day, after a successful operation against an out of control robot, Ryu and Rie have been called by their commander, Aya Odagiri, because she wanted to involve them in a special project, the J-project, involving using special waves, Birdonic waves, to give selected humans superpowers, and allowing them to become very powerful soldiers, the Jetman. Both Ryu and Rie agreed, especially since it allowed them to work together. Indeed, Ryu had the time to be exposed to the waves, and to become a Jetman, Red Hawk. However, before Rie had the time to follow her lover's steps, the Vyram attacked the Earth Guardian's mothership, and while evacuating, Rie ended up sucked in a outside the ship, despite Ryu's efforts to save her. Ryu and Aya survived, but they believed Rie had died. However, Rie was still alive, but she had become a Vyram, Maria, after being brainwashed by the cruel Vyram general, Radiguet.

In Asuka and Mahoro's case, Mahoro and her brother had gone willingly in a mission to attack the Evolian. However, during that mission, they ended up being captured by the Evolian, and Dezumozorya, the Evolian god, decided to use Mahoro as a vessel to introduce his essence, convincing her that Asuka had given up on her, and went to another woman, to bring her into despair and break her resistance. He eventually succeeded,  basically raped her, and eventually, a kid holding Dezumozorya's essence was born, the Messenger of Dawn Lije. After the kid's birth, Mahoro completely threw away her former identity.
Mizuho and Mahoro felt intense hate against Asuka, who they felt had betrayed them, and both agreed to get revenge against him. Dezumozorya send some of his powers to Mahoro and she became the cruel messenger of destruction, Jeanne.
Actually, Asuka hadn't given up on them, even deciding to use a forbidden armor to save them. Unfortunately, the armor turned him into a mindless killing machine, even making him kill his fellow Ryujin. Asuka eventually was defeated and freed from the armor, but at that time, like Ryu, he believed his wife was dead.

3) Maria and Jeanne : their role within the villain group. 

While Maria and Jeanne were both fearsome and cruel generals in their groups, the way, and the motivations they attacked the heroes, humans and the world were pretty different.

Maria, despite being human herself, viewed herself as a true Vyram, and she shared the snobbish ways of her fellow Vyram. Like them, she attacked humans because she  despises them as inferior creatures, and loved tormenting sadistically with them as a little child  torments little animals (as suchn the Vyram aren't unlike Liveman's Volt, with the Volt members feeming superior to other humans because of their superior brain). Making humans suffer and even killing them was a game for her, exactly like her fellow Vyram, notably Tran. In the first half of the show, the Vyram are acting like snobbish people who feel superior and discuss how they despise humans and get ideas for their sadistic plans from human behaviour. That behaviour is pretty much what the Vyram have in common with each other, and Maria is like her peers.
Maria's plans are often using themes linked to appearance and female weaknesses. It's telling that she used a mirror, a diamond, a camera,  a monster recording female voices (satirizing the way women are talkative) as basis to make dimensional beasts. She often fights alongside her monsters, and is a dangerous fighter.
But other than tormenting humans in general, Maria, like her fellow Vyram, also wanted to defeat the Jetman, since the one who defeats them is gonna be the leader of the Vyram. She hates the Jetman and desires to defeat them as much as her fellowVyram. In her determination to defeat them, she even created a new kind of Dimension Beasts, the Bio Dimensional beasts, using animal DNA, and sometimes even puts herself in danger to defeat them, as seen during the shadow Jetman plot, and at the end, when she turned herself into a vampire like creature to get stronger.
However, while a dangerous enemy, and despite her deep desire to become the leader of the Vyram, she isn't seen by her peers as a dangerous rival. Most of the major plots involving rivalries among Vyram or between fellow evildoers are between Radiguet and another villain, such as Empress Juuza, the Majin demons and, eventually, Tranza, a grown up Tran. Radiguet never saw Maria as a dangerous rival, and always felt she was his property. And indeed, in a lot of cases, Maria behaved pretty recklessly, and would have been defeated if she wasn't protected by her fellow Vyram Grey, a robot who is in love with her. In fact, in most of the plots involving rivalries between villains, she's an helper, like when she helped Radiguet get the BEM meteorite, or when she was involved in Tranza's Veronica plot.

Jeanne was a very different enemy. While Maria was driven by snobbery, sadism, and ambition, Jeanne was driven by vengeance and lust for destruction. However, Jeanne was a very pragmatic villainess. Her plans either involved getting a new weapon, such as power to handle the dark armor or finding new Bakuryuu she could manipulate, or using those weapons to make mass destruction. While she wasn't above tormenting humans, she mostly did it as a means to an end, rather than doing it for pure sadistic reasons.
Unlike Maria, who's acting like her fellow Vyram, Jeanne was pretty much an outcast among the Evolian. She had no affinity for her fellow Messengers, Mikela and Voffa, and often stays by herself, training, or involved in her own plans. Her indifference for the other Evolian generals can be seen when she didn't help Mikela and Voffa fight the Abaranger during the "schoolgirl monster " plan, or how she didn't care about getting Lije back in Dino Earth in the Rakopima plot. She never really worked with Trinoids. She mostly used the dark armor and her sword as weapons, and sometimes, used Giganoids and even when she could, Bakuryuu as weapons of mass destruction. 
However, unlike Maria, Jeanne is a key enemy in Abaranger's major plots, as the only Evolian general who's regularly leaving headquarters during the first half of the show, and she's the one who faced the most the Abarangers (especially Abareblack) notably during the key plots of the quest for the lost Bakuryuu or her quest to gain back the power of the dark armor. However, while she's very active before Abarekiller's appearance, her involvement decreases when Abarekiller became the major opponent of the Abarangers, until her final showdown as Jeanne during the Anomalogaris/Barugigenia plot.

4) Maria and Jeanne's relationship with the heroes

Maria wished to defeat the Jetman to become the leader of the Vyram. As such, she wanted to defeat all of them and attacked them without discriminating. It's especially obvious during the first half of the show, when the Jetman don't know she's Ryu's brainwashed fiancee. Her hate wasn't against one hero, but against the Jetman as a group.  She often targeted Ryu, Gai and Kaori, but she also attacked Ako and Raita when given the opportunity.  She attacked them either by herself, or with the help of a Dimension Beast, or with her fellow Vyram, notably Grey and Tran. She was very sadistic when attacking them, enjoying their pain especially when her enemies were in a weak position.

Jeanne's hate was mostly targeting Asuka/Abareblack, and she was always ready to attack him and torment him. In fact, her desire to destroy the world was a lot her way to get revenge against Asuka. Asuka also hated Jeanne because he believed Jeanne was a creature who had killed her lover Mahoro and took her body. However, she very seldom attacked the other Abarangers, usually avoiding direct confrontations when she feels she's not in a stronger position. While she saw the other Abarangers as enemies to defeat, she didn't really hate them, and never specifically targeted them. In fact, her only other strong rivalry with an Abaranger was with ... Abarekiller, who was an enemy of the other Abarangers. She opposed him because she wanted to get back the powerful weapons he had taken.

5) Maria and Jeanne faced with their former identities

By the time Maria and Jeanne started attacking the heroes, they had forgotten about who they were originally.
In Maria's case, she saw herself as a pure Vyram, not as an human.  Indeed, when in episode 13, Maria was starting playing the piano, she didn't remember why she was skilled at it. And when Ryu discovered her true identity, she responded with pure denial, seeing Ryu's words as foolish words, deepy offended by his love and kindness, even hating him  even more for seeing her as a human. Several times, she viciously attacked Ryu, refusing to listen to his pleas to have her turn back into Rie. She even pretended once to be Rie to have Ryu lower his guard, and attacked him. It's only when her mind was completely breaking apart because of Radiguet's insane plan to turn her into a dimensional Beast, that Ryu's kindness managed to go through her and make her turn back into Rie.

In Jeanne's case, Jeanne had rejected her past as Mahoro, but she still remembered how she felt betrayed by Asuka, and she was driven by her hate against him. Because her main motivation for doing evil was linked to her past, Jeanne was more easily reminded of her past than Maria, and when a mysterious girl (looking like Lije) appeared and reminded Jeanne of her past and her love for Asuka, she ended up so tormented that she wasn't able to fight afterwards. While at first she responded with denial, that denial was much more forced than Maria's.

6)  What happened after the heroes realize their enemy's true identity

In both shows, the heroes are convinced that Maria and Jeanne aren't really former humans, or even their comrades's former girlfriends until about the 30'.
Ryu realizes in episode 31 that Maria is really Rie when Maria briefly turned back into Rie, until Radiguet brainwashed her again, and Asuka realized Jeanne was really Mahoro in episode 32, when Asuka sees the bracelet she gave Mahoro worn by Jeanne.

When Ryu and Asuka discover the truth about their girlfriends's fates, they both tried to save them, instead of seeing them as enemies.

Ryu tried to undo Rie's brainwashing, but failed and even almost lost his mind, broken by the fact he was able to find back his love, only to lose her so quickly. Ryu eventually managed to overcome his pain, but whenever he faced Maria, he was seeing her as Rie and had a lot of trouble fighting her, while she was still seeing Ryu as her hated enemy, even hating him more than the other Jetman because of his feelings for her (previously, she equally hated all Jetman). Despite Rie being Maria and a dangerous enemy, Ryu loved her. When Maria ended up unconscious after another fight, and threatened by cold because of an heavy rain, Grey allowed Ryu to stay with her to bring her the warmness he couldn't give her because of his robotic nature. Ryu was very protective of her, because of his deep love, at last being able to show his love when she wasn't able to see him. Unfortunately, as soon as she was healed, she was the hateful enemy she was just before. Despite everything, Ryu loved her whatever she was, despite everything hse had done, and, after many tried, eventually managed to break through her brainwashing during the "Maria becoming a vampire like witch" arc, when her mind was already messed up by her transformation.

In Asuka's case, Jeanne had already her memories awakened by the mysterious girl when Asuka discovered the truth and Asuka managed to break through her and managed to have Jeanne become back her lover just after convincing her he never betrayed her. At the end, the only reason Mahoro was remaining evil was because of the influence of the evil armor, and Asuka did the ultimate sacrifice to save his wife : defeating her and take the power and curse of the armor.

7)  Rie and Mahoro's relationship with the heroes

While Rie was Ryu's true love, she had already disappeared to be turned into Maria when the other Jetman appeared. After episode 1, Rie only appeared in flashbacks, and in briefly in two episodes, episode 31 and episode 49, her final episode. In episode 31, she only met back Ryu, and in episode 49, after becoming back Rie, she only talked either to Ryu or to the other Vyram, Radiguet or Grey.
She never had any interactions with the other Jetman as Rie.

Unlike Rie, Mahoro had become good again after episode 32, and remained so during the remaining episodes. As a result, she had much more opportunities to interact with them as a good woman.
After having been freed of the armor, she was amnesiac when the heroes found her. Because she didn't remember her actions as the evil Jeanne, because the heroes realized she was none other than their comrade's wife, and because the Abarangers are incredibly kind people, they quickly offered her their friendship, a shelter and a job.
Mahoro quickly became very friendly with the Abarangers, and their friends Emiri, Ryunosuke and little Mai, working with them, having dinner with them, and even eventually, helping them as technical support in their fight against the Evolian, and the heroes did everything to help her feel at home with them and find back her memories. At the end, the heroes had much more memories of Mahoro as the good Mahoro, who had shared their daily lives, than memories of the evil Jeanne they pretty much seldom confronted directly.
She eventually gained back her full memories when Asuka at last reappeared before her eyes wearing the dark armor. Despite gaining back her memories, including her past as Jeanne, she didn't hate her husband any more, and loved him even more than ever. She desperately wanted her husband to escape the destructive power of the dark armor, and eventually, went back to the Evolian to become Jeanne again, to gain the weapons she needed to destroy the evil armor (her sword and Abarekiller's help) and free her husband.
Afterwards, she remained with the Evolian, but in truth used her Evolian identity as a spy to help the heroes defeat the enemy, but also because she wanted to save her daughter Lije, who had grown up into Lijewel, at last seeing her with a mother's eyes, despite the tragic circumstances linked to her birth. She saw the Abarangers, especially her husband Asuka, as her allies, and was able to send them major information which ended up being a major help to defeat the enemy. The final arc was as much about defeating the evil Evolian god as it was "mission : save Mahoro".
At the end, Mahoro had become pretty much a member of the "Abaranger family".

8) Rie and Mahoro facing their guilt

Of course, as good people, Rie and Mahoro ended up feeling intense guilt over their actions as Maria and Jeanne.
In episode 49, Rie had the time to remember her actions as Maria, and was insanely ashamed by them. She felt that there was no way back after commiting all those evil acts, and she was so ashamed that she didn't even joined back Ryu when Radiguet appeared, seeing herself as a Vyram general. Actually, she wasn't anymore a true Vyram, and decided to strike Radiguet, taking him off guard, to get revenge against him and his brainwashing.
However, despite that, she felt that things couldn't be what they were before, because she felt rotten by her evil actions, and she didn't feel she had the right to be loved by Ryu.
When Radiguet gave her the killing blow, she didn't even let Ryu approach her, because of her shame, and the only one who was there for her final moments was her Vyram friend Grey, whom, even as Rie, she felt great affection. Even if deep down, Rie wished to start over with Ryu in her final moments, she was too much overcome with guilt to even be able to be with him at that time. She felt irreversibly stained by her time as a Vyram, so stained that she felt she didn't have the right to join back the human world, and she spent her final moments as a Vyram, with a fellow Vyram, the only one who was genuinly kind with her, the robot, Grey, who was deeply saddened by her death.
 Of course, Ryu had a lot of trouble to accept Rie's tragic fate, and her death brought him much sorrow.
Eventually, thanks to Kaori/White Swan's love, he was able to overcome his grief, and he eventually married her.

Mahoro also felt intense gult for her actions as Jeanne, especially her involvement in her brother's death and her vicious attacks against Asuka. However, unlike Maria, she had much more to think about than her guilt. She needed to free her husband, help the heroes and she also had to do everything she could to save her daughter. Actually she only had time to feel guilt when she was trapped by Dezumozorya in the Evolian's headquarters, and that she felt that she was doomed anyway. However, Asuka hadn't given up on her, and, unlike Ryu, he also was full of guilt because of his actions under the evil armor's influence.
Besides, while Asuka and Mahoro were full of guilt, they weren't alone. Mahoro has had the time to bond with the other Abarangers, and all of them wanted to save her, especially her husband.
But more importantly, Asuka and Mahoro were parents, they had a baby (Lije, who was actually Asuka and Mahoro's child), and when they were about to be overcome with despair and guilt, even being ready to let themselves be killed by Dezumozorya, Ranru was able to bring back the desire to live in their heart by reminding them of their child. As a result, they were able to overcome their guilt and survive an attack from the evil Evolian's God thanks to the power of their Dino Guts.
Afterwards, both were saved, and the Abarangers (including Asuka) were able to defeat the evil god, and eventually, Asuka and Mahoro went back to Dino Earth to start their lives anew.

9) Importance of love stories in Jetman and Abaranger

Jetman's storyline involved plenty of love stories, with plenty of drama and rivalries.
Indeed, while Ryu and Rie's love story was a key plot, plenty of characters in the show were involved in love stories. The most important ones are of course the love triangle plot between Ryu/Red Hawk, Kaori/White Swan and Gai/Black Condor. Kaori quickly fell in love with Ryu, but Ryu didn't return her feelings, because Rie was the only one for him. He did everything to remind her of his true love, but even despite that, she still wanted to win his love.
Gai quickly had a crush on Kaori, but she didn't care about him, because she enjoyed much more Ryu's courage and kindness over Gai's rough and brutal behaviour. While Gai did really love Kaori, he had trouble making her love him back. Gai resented Ryu because he knew he was his rival for Kaori's heart, even if Ryu actually wished Gai to win Kaori's heart if he was sincere. However, Ryu often made things get even worse, because he had trouble understanding Gai's feelings. It's only after saving her from the Majin that Kaori was able to realize Gai's true love for her, and she decided at last to become his girlfriend. However, soon afterwards, their different backgrounds (she was from upper society, while he was more in lower social position) dommed their love story, and they ended up breaking up.
it's very striking that the love triangle between Ryu, Gai and Kaori took a lot of screentime, with even one episode (episode 22) which was only almost only about it.
Another important love story was the love Grey felt for Maria. Grey felt in love with Maria after listening to her piano playing, and afterwards pretty much became her bodyguard, saving her whenever she was in danger. Grey loved Maria so much that he was ready to let his hated enemy be with her to warm her up if it means saving her life, and when Radiguet decided to turn Maria into a monster, he was even ready to go to the Jetman to ask for help, ready to lose her if it meant her being safe. While Maria didn't understand Grey's love and was often surprised by Grey's help, she realized her kindness towards her and responded by small acts of kindness herself.
It's very telling that Rie spent her final moments with Grey.
Minor love stories include Raita (Yellow Owl)'s crush on Kaori, and love stories involving guest characters. Even if it can't be called love, Radiguet's lust on Maria must be mentioned, because it's the major reason he brainwashed her, and why, when he realized he couldn't get her, he killed her to have noone get her, especially Red Hawk.


Love stories are less prominent in Abaranger, but some of them are worth mentioning. Other than Asuka/Mahoro's story, the most important "love story" is of course Lije/Lijewel's crush on Mikoto/Abarekiller. her crush on Mikoto is the major reason she decided to bring Abarekiller among the Evolian, allowing him to become the Evolian's leader, and then te reason she made herself grew up as Lijewel, and even, eventually, made her reveal to Mikoto how he had been deceived by Mikela and Voffa, even if it meant he wouldn't come back to her and the Evolian.
Other than that, Yatsudenwani's crush on Ranru is worth mentioning, even if of course, it's not really "love", and Emiri's relationship with Yukito, even if they only ended up married years later, as mentioned in Gokaiger.

Super Sentai where other rangers than Red get plot heavy focus

 

While Super Sentai has as a major theme the concept of the power of several people who fight together and manage to do together what they can't do all alone (the power of teamwork), in most sentai series, the hero and iconic character of the series is the Red ranger. Indeed, while each of the rangers get some focus in their series, usually, the main character, the one who has the most focus and gets the most story material is the Red ranger. Indeed, the main stories of most sentai series either involve Red, or the team as a whole. 

However, in some series, other rangers might get either major storylines, or almost share equally the focus with Red, or even in a few cases, be more involved in the main plot than Red. 

Let's review the sentai series during the different eras of sentai 

1) Early sentai (Uehara era and early Soda shows (Gorenger-Dynaman)

During that era, the shows were very episodic, without long running arcs (Dynaman had the Black Knight arc during its last 15 episodes). As such, while Red was the iconic ranger, the focus was more on the story of the week, with the focus characters being the ranger (or rangers) who was the central character of the episode and the guests of the week, child or other. During that era, each ranger had the opportunity to shine in focus episodes, and other than being the leader, the Red Ranger didn't overshadow the others much, even if, as the leader, he was the main hero. 

Interestingly, in a lot of cases, during the final arc, the mentor character had the opportunity to shine, such as General Kurama in Battle Fever, Arashiyama in Sun Vulcan and Yumeno in Dynaman. 

The most extreme case of stealinng spotlight mentor was of course Banba/Big One in JAKQ Dengekitai who was over the top, getting the most fun lines and plots during the second half of the show, being played by Hiroshi Miyauchi, and being pretty much Zubat v2. Bonus points for being himself a ranger and becoming even more iconic than Space Ace. 

2) Soda era

Starting with Bioman, Super Sentai started to have some long running arcs, notably involving rivalries between heroes and villains. Once again, the usual pattern was Red being the main hero, the other rangers getting focus episodes, usually fillers, but, mostly the storylines involved mostly the heroes as a whole and their rivalries with the enemies. 

Some noteworthy cases where heroes other than Red had the opportunity to shine in major plot episodes : 

- Flashman : a major plot involved one of the heroes being the missing child of the Tokimura family : the one who ended up being that child is none other than Yellow Flash, Sara : sha also ended up being the one who made the first the decisive choice of destroying  Lee Keflen's Synthetizer, who was responsible of so much evil in the universe. 

- Maskman : Akira was the one involved in the Fencer Unas plot, turned evil against his will, with the plot climaxing in exposing Igam as a woman

- Liveman : the one who has the final confrontation with Bias is not Yuusuke but Megumi, even if Red Falcon has most of the focus in the final arc. 

3) Jetman Sugimura era

Interestingly during that era, plenty of shows allowed other heroes other than Red to have plenty of focus

Jetman is an interesting case, since for the first time, it can be argued that the show has two major protagonists : Ryu/Red Hawk of course, but also Gai/Black Condor as well. Indeed, most of the main arc episodes involves the difficult relationship between the professional soldier and the lonely rebel, which evolved into a strong and sincere friendship. Black Condor becoming pretty much the the deuteragonist of the show, the one who had the most character development and arguably the most popular character of the show was certainly linked to its popularity with the audience and Inoue's personal tastes. It's very telling that the most iconic (but also controversial) element of Jetman is actually involved Black Condor and his premature death at the very end of the show. 

Zyuranger started the tradition of having additional heroes who become major characters as a core concept of sentai. 

As such, in Zyuranger while the main character is Geki, the red hero, the one who ended up being the most iconic character, and the one who had the most core plots was in fact Dragonranger Burai (the additional green ranger). Most of the key plot episodes of Zyuranger involved him, with the first Dragon ranger arc, and of course, his death arc. Because Burai was Geki's older brother, the Burai arcs did also allow Geki to get some spotlight, so he still was able to keep his status as main character. However, Zyuranger has two iconic ranger heroes, Geki as Red and Burai as Dragonranger.

Dairanger is also an interesting case, since in that show, each ranger was given a storyline for himslef of herself, to allow each one of them to get some spotlight. 

While Red was still the main hero and managed to get the most spotlight, two other heroes had major storylines involving long running plots lasting more than two or three episodes : Kibaranger Kou, with his quest to find his mother and his rivalry with Akomaru (like Dragonranger, he had two major long running arcs in the show) and Daigo/Shishiranger, who had his tragic love story with the beautiful Kujaku, with Gara as their main enemy.

Kakuranger is another striking case, having not Red, but White (who is also the girl of the team) as the leader. Sasuke/Red and Tsuruhime/White are pretty much the two protagonists of the show, each getting plenty of focus arc episodes, Sasuke being the major rival of the Kunoichi team (in the into arc of the evil cat -turned into women  ninjas and the Daradara arc, where he meets Taro And Jiro, the companions of Tsuruhime's father), and Tsuruhime having her storyline with her father. 

4) Takatera-Kobayashi era

During that era, most storylines involved the team as a whole, with Red getting the most focus. 

However, two shows, both written by Kobayashi, deserve some focus :

Gingaman : while the storyline mostly involved the Gingaman as a whole, it's ineresting that several rangers other than Red get some long running arcs : 

- Gingagreen Hayate has his rivalry with Shelinda, Zehab's second in command

- Gingablue Gouki has his love story with the lovely teacher Mrs Suzuko 

- Kurokishi Hyuuga has his long running plot involving Bucrates

Timeranger : while Tatsuya/Timered is without a doubt the main character of the show, others heroes also had opportunities to shine

-Naoto/Timefire is without a doubt the one who got the most focus : as the one being involved in the City Guardians, and the only Timeranger who worked with the official foces fighting the Londarz, he got plenty of focus during the second half of the show, notably showing his rivalry with Tatsuya and his ambitions to get power within the Asami group. 

-Among the core Timeranger, Timeblue Ayase had his disease being a major storyline during his focus episodes, climaxing in episodes 40-41. Domon/Yellow had his love story with the young journalist Honami, and Yuuri/Pink was the one who had the most personal grudge agains the Don Dolnero, the leader of the Londarz. 

5) Experimental era : Gaoranger-Gekiranger

It's during that era that the two shows who arguably gave the most focus to non Red heroes appeared. In those two shows, unlike most of the previosu cases, not only those heroes get major focus, but the Red hero sometimes feels like he's a supporting character instead of the main protagonist : 

Hurricanger :  in that plot heavy show, it can be argued that the heroes who get the most focus in the main storylines are either the Gouraigers or Shurikenger

Indeed, in the first third of the show, the Gouraigers are pretty much the main focus, as soon as they appear, with them trying to become the most powerful ninjas. During that era, they are behaving like antagonists, opposing the Hurricangers, usually with the help of the Jakanja, but actually having their own agenda. The climax of that arc is of course them realizing the errors of their ways, realizing that their quest was the result of the influence of a cruel father, and of course, the importance of protecting Earth from the Jakanja. During the second third of the show, the main arc was mostly the rivalry between the Gouraigers and Manmaruba, and the struggle of the Gouraigers to become true heroes. They had both to deal with Manmabura's cruel revenge against Kabutoraiger, planting a pace scorpion in his body and their remorse about their past actions and their relationship with the Hurricangers. It's also during that arc that a major new ranger, Shurikenger appeared. With his Over the top personality, his gratuitous English and his running gag of being played by past sentai actors, he quicky managed to steal the spotlight. That second third of the show ended up with the defeat of Manmaruba , Shurikenger releasing the Revolver Mammoth mecha and the Gouraigers managing to become real friends with the Hurricanger. 

The final arc gave most of the focus to Shurikenger, focusing on his tragic backstory, his torn loyalties between his friends and the lady he had sworn to protect, Gozensama. At the end, the latter met a tragic end and Shurikenger shortly afterwards sacrified himself to help the Hurricanger in Gouraigers. 

It's striking how in that show, the major storylines give plenty fo focus to non Hurricanger heroes, and while HurricaneRed is the one who should be the main protagonist, most of the plots involve mostly other heroes. 

Abaranger : Another striking case : it can be argued that the main character of Abaranger isn't Abared but actually Abareblack. Indeed, most of the core plot episodes involve Asuka/Abareblack's story, and Abaranger's main plot can be seen as Abareblack's quest to defeat the Evolian, who plagued his entire life, as well as reuniting with his wife and daughter. As the one who came from Dino Earth, the one with the longest story with the villains, and of course, the one who had the strongest rivalry with an antagonist (his rivalry with his brainwashed wife Jeanne/Mahoro).

Actually, when the major storylines don't involve Asuka, they involve another ranger, the evil Abarekiller Mikoto Nakadai, and starting with episode 18, the main plots either involve Abareblack or Abarekiller. Abared manages to get focus however, because he's the main rival of Abarekiller (and because he has a cute kid :) ) 

Other than those two cases, during the experimental era, non Red rangers are often able to get focus, especially if they have an antagonist role. Two other shows involve antagonists ending up becoming "Bangai heroes" rangers

Magiranger

Wolzard is a major antagonist of the show during the first 34 episodes, seemingly killing the heroes's mother, being a fierce but honorable enemy to the Magirangers, especially Magired, opposing them, but also wanting them to be strong, instead of killing them when they're weak. It is revealed that Wolzard is actually the heroes's missing father, the hero Blagel, who ended up being brainwashed by the evil N'Ma after a failed expedition against the Infershia. Blagel was actually a major hero among the Heavenly Saints who opposed the Infershia. And indeed, once freed from N'Ma's brainwashing, he fought the Infershia as well, even killing one of the Ten Gods of the Pantheon, Wyvern, after becoming the good Knight Wolzard Fire. 

Magishine also got nice focus. As an Heavenly Saint, Sungel, he was a companion and pupil of Blagel, and he's the one who has the big rivalry with Meemy, who is the traitor Ragiel. He ends up being the one defeating Meemy, who was the main antagonists during the second third of Magiranger.

Gekiranger

While Jan is without a doubt the main character, who gets the most focus, if Rio and Mele can be seen as rangers as well, they also got plenty of focus as the main antagonists with Rio being the dark counterpart of Jan. Actually, Gekiranger is pretty much about their different paths after a similar tragic past (both lost their family in a tragic way). In a way, Rio can be either seen as a main antagonists, or as an anti-heroic deuteragonists, with Long being the true antagonist.

6) Modern era  (Go-onger and beyond)

During that era, all shows had the classic pattern of "plot involving the whole team, with Red getting the most focus". 

Two shows deserve some focus :

- Gokaiger had Blue having an arc involving his past as a Zangyack soldier, who escaped the Zangyack after realizing their cruelty, and his realization that his best friend was turned into the robotic Barizorg, losing all his personality. 

- Kyoryuger is a very interesting case : while Red is the one who gets the most spotlight, it had plenty of arcs involving other rangers; indeed, while Daigo was the main hero and stole focus in almost every episode, other rangers also had some storylines involving rivalries with villains : 

- Torin: the mentor of the team, who would become Kyoryusilver is himself a former Deboss, Chaos's younger brother, and many episodes deal with the rivalry between the two brothers. In fact, Kyoryuger's storyline can be seen as the conflict between the two brothers, Torin the one who protects, and Chaos, the one who destroys. Besides, Torin had also his friendship with Daigo's father.

- Utsusemimaru/Kyoryugold : his backstory involves him being trapped by the evil sentient armor Dogold, and after being freed from his evil influence, Gold still had a rivalry with him

- Ian/Black has his rivalry with Aigalon, who killed his friend and stole the gem he had found (who ended up being the key to awaken Bragigas), and several episodes show the rivalry between the two.

- Nossan/Blue had his storyline with his family, notably his sister (who would end up becoming the second Cyan), and his rivalry/friendship with Candelilla. 

However, those storylines (except Torin's) usually didn't get the focus they deserved because the show did everything to have Red get the most focus he could. 

Your thoughts?

 

 

 

Kamen Rider Gaim writers

Following my series of posts about toku writers, here are the writers of Kamen Rider Gaim

Gen Urobuchi (main writer) :   1-7, 8 (with Toriko Nanajo), 9, 10 (with Gan Sunaaku), 11 (with Nobuhiro Mouri), 12-17, 18-19 (with Mouri), 20-24, 25-26 (with Jin Haganeya), 27, 28 (with Haganeya), 29, 31-32, 33 (with Norimitsu Kaiho), 34 (with Hagenaya), 35-36, 38 (with Haganeya), 39-40, 41-42 (with Haganeya), 43, 44 (with Haganeya), 45-46 (44 episodes)
Toriko Nanajo : 8 (with Urobuchi) (1 episode)
Gan Sunaaku : 10 (with Urobuchi) (1 episode)
Nobuhiro Mouri : 11, 18-19, (all three with Urobuchi), 30, 37 (5 episodes) He also wrote the crossover with Toqger
Narimitsu Kaiho : 33 (with Urobuchi) (1 episode)
Jin Haganeya : 25-26, 28, 34, 38, 41-42, 44 (all those with Urobuchi) 47 (9 episodes)

Kamen Rider Gaim is pretty much an homage to the early Heisei Rider shows such as Agito, Kuuga, Ryuki and Faiz. Gaim has a very tightly written storyline, with the season being pretty much a season long storyline with almost no filler episodes, which is pretty similar to how Inoue was writing his Rider shows. As such, it's logical that the main writer had to handle pretty much almost every episode in order to keep a good continuity episode by episode.

And indeed, Gen Urobuchi, the main writer, wrote almost every episode of Gaim : 44 out of 47. The only episodes he didn't writer were episode 30 and 37 which were specials linked to movies (the Kikaider and the Gaim movies) and 47, which is an epilogue episode. He also didn't writer the crossover with Toqger.

However, while Urobuchi was involved in almost every episode, in 14 episodes, he wrote with a co-writers. Those co-writers are pretty much the secondary writers of Gaim. Sometimes those writers were only involved in 1 episode, with the cases of Nanajo, Sunaaku and Kaiho.
However two of those secondary writers deserve a little more focus :
- Nobuhiro Mouri co-wroter three episode with Urobuchi in the first half of Gaim. More importantly, Mouri wrote the Gaim vs Toqger crossover, the Kikaider crossover episode (episode 30) and the episode linked to the movie (episode 37).  Unlike Urobuchi, Mouri has been  also involved in previous Toei tokusatsu shows, as secondary writer of Kamen Rider OOO and Go-Busters. As such, he was the appropriate writer for "movie promoting and crossover" episodes stuff.
- Jin Hanageya was the one who was involved in the most episodes after Urobuchi, co-writer of 8 episodes, and writer of the epilogue. All his episodes are in the second half of the show. He the one who was involved with Urobuchi during the longest gap in the series, and likely Urobuchi's favorite co-writer, and it's significant that Urobuchi let him write the epilogue episode.

Toqger : final thoughts

Now, that the final arc has aired, and that Toqger is officially done (except the V cinema movie and the second vs movie), I'm gonna conclude my feelings about Toqger.
The final episodes don't add much about what we know about the heroes : one episode shows again Tokatti's crush on Mio, and the following episode gives some background to Kagura and Hikari.

That said, the final arc was mostly the final showdown between the Rainbow and Shadow Line : and frankly, it was one of the weirdest showdowns I've seen.

1) Final arc of Toqger 

Interestingly, the one who is starting that final showdown was actually miss Gritta, who, despite having lost her mother and crush at Zett's hands, only wants the war to stop, and plans to elp the Toqger by bringing the Castle Terminal in the depth of the darkness, freeing the Toqger's town at the same time.
At the same time, Right is shown to have plenty of darkness within him, and the Rainbow Line's president wants him not to be involved.
Of course, despite having been bound and gagged by Akira and the other Toqger, Right is not gonna be stopped that easily, and sneaks in the Resshas at the same time the others go to the Castle Terminal with Gritta.
While Gritta manages to bring the castle Terminal underneath, helped by the other Toqgers, Right ends up confronting Zett and becomes dark Toq1-go when changing, proof he's full of darkness.
After a first fight ending in a stalemate, the Toqger and Shadow Line both retreat. While the Toqger go back towards their freed town, the Shadow Line go back to the Castle Terminal in order to stop Gritta. Zett confronts Gritta and appears to have killed her, and brings back the Castle Terminal to the surface, while at the same time, Right decides to face the Shadow Line without his partners (except Akira, who is already a Shadow), forcing them out of the trains, and making them turn back into children. After becoming children again, Tokatti, Mio, Hikari and Kagura go back home, as if nothing had happened, but without remembering Right. However, they started wondering about the truth of them being only four friends, especially after Akira left a photo of them with  Right as a parting gift.
At the same time, Right's mother, despite not remembering really Right, also started to wonder about some vague memories involving the Star festival.
Meanwhile, Right confronts the Shadow Line, using all the darkness he has in him, which comes from Zett. While he has no problem fighting the Kuros, Mork and Nero, he has trouble withstanding the power of the darkness, and is unable to have the upper hand against Zett. At the same time, Akira battled Nero in a robot battle, Builddaioh vs Kurainer Robo.
At that time, Zett, who had realized that he wouldn't be able to really get the shine he wanted so much, had decided to cover all the surface with darkness, using the Castle Terminal. The fact eh wasn't able to fins any shine on Right once he started transforming into the Black Dark Toq1-go even increased his motivation in bringing darkness to the land. And indeed, Zett ended up overcoming Right,  and had the Castle Terminal become alive thanks to his darkness, and started covering the world with darkness, including the Toqger's town.
However, at the same time, Tokatti and the others remembered Right, and decided to go back to him, drawing an imaginary ticket train, which of course brought back the Resshas with the conductor and the others, and they were able to grow back into adults and use the trains to find Right despite the darkness. At the same time, Right's mom had had the time to bring a little paper lantern next to the other lanterns prepared for the festival, just before darkness invaded the town.
Right, reunited with his friends at the most desperate times, was able to see the little lantern, and soon, the little light sent his light to all the other lanterns, creating a literal railtrack of light, which managed to connect to the Rainbow Line Resshas, and allowing them to get out of the darkness.
Once outside the darkness, the Resshas were able, all together, to dissipate all the darkness coming from the Castle Terminal, even destroying the castle and his darkness.
While Mork and Nero were clearly annoyed by the turn of events, Zett witnessed the destruction of the darkness and the castle with fascination, and when Right faced him again, he saw him shining more than ever. Indeed, Right had decided to fight Zett using his own power, the power of imagination, helped by all his friends. Zett was pretty excited to confront his enemy who had at last found his shine again, and the final fight started, Akira vs Nero, Morc facing the other Toqgers, except Right, and Zett facing Right.
Because they had lost plenty of darkness, the Shadow Line members were in a weakened state, and Zett, Morc and Nero were overpowered by the Toqger. Morc and Nero decided to give their darkness to their emperor, at the cost of their lives, in order to give him more power and bring back darkness.
Indeed, Zett ended up overcoming the Toqger thanks to that darkness. However, all the Toqger sent their Toq Resshas to Right, who, after changing using all of them in turn, (including Akira's), used the Hyper Ressha to transform into Toq Rainbow, and defeated Zett once again with the Daikaiten Cannon.
Zett, in a very weakened state, was able to see a rainbow, impressed by all that light. However, just as he was about to become a storm of darkness, Gritta came in time to get him in her Kurainer, allowing him to stay alive , and brought him back in the depth of the darkness.
The fight  was at last over, but because they had become adults again, the Toqger believed they weren't able to go back to their town, where noone would recognize them. But, to their delight, the heroes realized that their families were able to recognize them despite their adult bodies, because they had enough imagination to do so. Thanks to that, they were able to become kids again, and start their ordinary lives again in their town, with their families, while Conductor, Tickett, Wagon and Akira left in the Rainbow Line. 

2) Thoughts about the final arc

A final arc is more often than not very emotional, because it's the final confrontation between heroes and villains, and the final fight is often very intense, with the heroes ending up more often than not in a desperate situation before at last overcoming their enemies.
However, in Toqger's case, several elements made the final arc feel underwhelming compared to many other final arcs in sentai :

- First, and it's the biggest issue, Zett didn't really have the personality expected from a Big Bad : while most Big Bads were pretty much preparing their attack again Earth and the heroes, in Zett's case, his desire to cover the world with darkness feels like it came like a whim, and in complete contradiction with his previous desires. And indeed, while he still started attacking the surface, the viewer is never convinced he really wants to do it. And indeed, when he was winning against Right, covering the world in darkness, he seemed bored, annoyed by the frailty of the light. Contrarywise, whenever he was seeing light starting to overcome darkness, he felt excited again, and he pretty much let his castle being destroyed by the Resshas without even trying to defend it. And when he saw Right with all his energy again, he laughed with delight, seeing so much shining in his opponent. Zett always seemed that he hated his generals much more than he hated his enemies. In fact, when Zett confronted Gritta about helping the Toqger, he pretty much not only spared her, but even protected her from Nero and Mork , who wanted her dead.
In fact, it's more than obvious that what Zett really wanted was to see a great shining, not cover the world with darkness. As such, despite being very powerful, he never really felt like a very dangerous enemy, because deep down, Zett felt like he wanted to lose against the heroes. In fact, he pretty much did all the dirty job for them, by destroying his own generals. And it's telling that having him survive at the end was pretty much a relief, because I never felt he really deserved to die. For a Big Bad, it's pretty weird, and it doesn't really make fights against such a character feel heroic. I often felt that Zett was pretty much bullied by most characters, being blamed for events that he never really wanted and only was part of because others have started it.

- Second issue, the real reason the Toqger struggled agains the Shadow Line was mostly because Right behaved like an idiot, trying to defeat the Shadow Line almost by himself, as if his friends would accept to leave him alone. While Right may have had good intentions, by allowing them to become children again, the fact the Toqger managed to become children back pretty easily at the end made Right's sacrifice feel pretty much pointless and even dangerous, especially as the President of the Rainbow Line seemed to know they would be able to get back into their normal lives.
When one looks at the final arc,  it feels like the final fight could have ended much earlier if all the heroes had stayed together.  Because of the way all the issues were solved pretty easily at the end, the final fight didn't end up having the edge expected as such.

- Third issue, despite the message of "we need to be together to win",  most of the Toqgers not named Right ended up being pretty irrelevant and sidelined in the final fight. At the end, their most relevant contribution was to give their Toqresshas to Right to allow him to become Toqrainbow, and Right ended up doing most of the final fight.  In fact, the ones responsible for the turning point of the confrontation weren't them ... but Right's mother with her light, a civilian.
They didn't even defeat Morc and Nero, even if they had the potential to do so, with Zett being the one responsible for their deaths, by absorbing them.
Likewise, in the Shadow Line side, Morc and Nero were pretty much irrelevant themselves. While Nero confronted several times Akira/Zaram, their confrontations were always in the sidelines. Mork was even worse, being mostly a witness of the events. At the end, the two generals were nothing more than willing tools, that Zett used and destroyed without any remorse or gratitude.
Having the final fight being pretty much a Right vs Zett showdown, with all the other characters sidelined, didn't feel really like a real final sentai fight.

To conclude, the final arc of Toqger felt pretty much anti-climactic, because it ended up being the fight of a main hero against a villain who wasn't really motivated to win, with the other characters, heroes and villains alike being sidelined, and all the problems linked to the power of darkness and the "adult bodies" issue being solved very quickly.


3) Final thoughts about Toqger 

This frustrating final arc was pretty much expected from a frustrating show.As mentioned in my previous post, the Toqger were pretty much bland heroes, with very basic personalities, and none of them is really memorable.
The villains are pretty uneven, and my opinion is pretty much the one I had in my previous post.
Some additional thoughts about Zett and Gritta : at the end, Gritta ended up not being a villainess at all, being probably the most compassionate character of the whole show, helping the heroes, being understanding of the Emperor, despite all he has done (notably killing her crush Schwartz), and she's the one who ended up freeing the Toqger's town.
Zett  had given up on the shine, and that's why he started the final invasion on the surface. But in fact, Zett still wanted to grasp the light, and as such, his decision of covering the surface with darkness was completely inconsistent with his personality during most of the show, where he was completely uninterested in doing anything. Because of that, he wasn't at all a fitting Big Bad, and it's a major issue on the show, because he was the one who had the role of the Big Bad. Mork and Nero were as irrelevant in the final arc as they were during the rest of the show.

But probably, the biggest issue of Toqger is how it completely wasted the potential of its themes : the Toqger were children turned into adults thanks to their imagination, but at the cost of their memories. However, when the heroes discovered the truth about themselves, it didn't really end up being a turning point in the show, and they ended up behaving the same as before, and at the end, they managed to go back to their normal lives without problems, despite the show teasing us about how it might be impossible because of them confronting the darkness. At the end, the fears that the show tried to bring out, because of the heroes's status ended up being solved in a very anti-climactic way.
Likewise, the Shadow Line never felt really very dangerous, because the villains were more busy fighting  among themselves than against the heroes. A telling example is Schwartz : Schwartz started as a very dangerous enemy, but, after he was defeated by Zett, he didn't care any more about defeating the Toqger, but only getting revenge on Zett. As a result, he didn't feel any more like a threat to the heroes, and even him blackmailing Akira into joining him again ended up in an anti-climactic way, because he conveniently died at Zett's hands in the Christmas arc. As such, Zaram/Akira's "betrayal arc" never really felt tense enough, because Akira never really was forced to really fight his friends. And, as mentioned before, Zett was never convincing as a Big Bad, because despite his great power, he never felt like a really evil enemy : he mostly wanted to be left alone, and seeing stuff shine was much more exciting for him than invading Earth. Another element : the show tried to make us believe that Noire and Schwartz sacrified themselves to free Gritta from Zett, but the truth is, none of them really listened to her, and they were more concerned over their own issues than about her. Their deaths ended up feelign pointless, especially since Zett ended up sparing her at the end, even if he was able to destroy her. Another example of the way Toqger wasted its characters.

Toqger felt completely like a very safe show, where all the problems ended up being solved pretty easily, and really, it gives you the feeling that the heroes were never really in real danger, which isn't a very good thing if you want to make a show feel epic. Moreover, the show had a lot of plot stalling, and the Toqger ended up being more often than not sidelined in their own show, only getting focus in filler episodes, which more often than not, used stock plots.
At the end, Toqger is a disappointing sentai show. It had some interesting concepts, but it never explored them in their full potential, ending up solved in very anti-climactic ways.

4) Toqger writers

Toqger is the fifth sentai series with Yasuko Kobayashi as main writer, and it's pretty obvious she's completely burnt out, (not unlike Hirohisa Soda in Fiveman), Toqger being pretty much recycling concepts she used in her previous toku shows, notably her previous sentai shows and Den-O. Yamatoya had been secondary writer in Magiranger, Boukenger and Shinkenger, while Aikawa had been main writer of Boukenger, and secondary writer of Abaranger, Gekiranger and Go-onger (he was also main writer of Kamen Rider Blade, and Decade during part of their run).

Yasuko Kobayashi (main writer) : 1-12, 17-25, 27-28, 31-33, 35, 39-47 (36 episodes)
Akatsuki Yamatoya : 13-14, 26, 29-30, 34, 37-38 (8 episodes)
Sho Aikawa : 15-16, 36 (3 episodes)

little note : Nobuhiro Mouri wrote a two part crossover with Gaim, but which wasn't part of the main show.