Ultraman: The Ultimate Hero (Ultraman Powered) Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ultraman: Towards The Future (Ultraman Great) Review

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kamen Rider Zi-O Review: Changing An Unstoppable Fate

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

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

Characters: 

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

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

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

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

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

Villains: 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Isekai World Tour: In Another World With My Smartphone

You know, there are so many other light novel adaptations I should cover in this series but for some reason I really just have the urge to vent about this one. Its not something I'd consider bad, its just really meh. Also, this is specifically just going to be about the anime, not the novels as I haven't read them so if any of my complaints are rectified there, I won't know. Now, join me on the next stop on the Isekai World Tour!

Premise: God screws up and accidentally drops a lightning bolt on 15 year old Touya Mochizuka. He is surprisingly chill about being dead all things considered. As an apology God brings him back to life in another world and grants Touya's one request...to bring his smartphone with him.

First off, I really don't like the title. It sounds like the setup to a joke that never comes, which honestly sums up the show itself imo. The show's whole setup makes it sound like it should be a parody but its not. Furthermore, God also grants Touya a few other gifts he didn't ask for. He enhances Touya's physical abilities and (this part is a sticking point I have with it), he grants him complete magical affinity with all the elements. Due to this, Touya can learn every spell in that world, including custom abilities that are effectively rng-ed into people at birth.

All of that wouldn't be much of a problem if anything in the world could touch him. Between him being so broken and his chill nature, there is absolutely no tension in the show whatsoever. So the show just feels like a sequence of things that happen. I can't even call it a power fantasy (ugh...I hate using that term due to it being a tad too broad imo) because of all that. Its an odd case where the story is too chill for its own good. Maybe that changes as the novels go on but the anime doesn't have any really draw to it imo. Even the characters didn't manage to grab me. I know I keep complaining about this but Touya is way too chill to be interesting. The show doesn't go much into the female cast either so...yeah, there is virtually nothing to this cast at all.

Final Thoughts: Yeah, this post is kinda short given my usual lengths.This show just strikes me as a way to kill time and thats about all there is to it overall. Its way too chill for its own good. It doesn't go beyond what you'd think it would and doesn't really do anything interesting with the semi-comedic premise. Its not bad but there really isn't a big draw to it. It kinda feels like the only reason this was adapted was because of the Isekai boom. I can't even recall anything about the world he was dumped into. I dunno, maybe the novels fix my problems with it as they go on but I can't really say this made me even want to check out the novels after seeing the show. Thats really all I have to say about the show since it basically gave me nothing.

Isekai World Tour: .Hack//Sign

Isekai is a genre I'm rather fond of even if a lot of it comes off as same-y. I have found some I really dig but I've never done a deep dive into the genre before. There are so many I should cover at some point: Log Horizon? Re:Zero? SAO (ugh)? Konosuba (ok I already did a post on that but still)? There are so many Isekai to choose from these days (and I really should experience just how much the genre has to offer) but I figured before covering anything new-ish, I'd go back to the first Isekai-ish show I ever saw. This is going to be less of a review in my usual style and more my thoughts on the show in general so its not going to be in-depth. Welcome to the first stop on the Isekai World Tour: .Hack//Sign!

Premise: A player of an mmo game awakens after passing out in a dungeon. He can't remember exactly what happened before he passed out. To his surprise he also can't log out and even then, he doesn't particularly want to. In addition to that, he can now do things that outright break the game's rules landing him in the sights of a few other players in The World. If that wasn't bad enough, strange unkillable monsters are starting to pop up. Only one thing seems to be (relatively) certain: The mysterious Key of The Twilight just might be the lynchpin of it all.

Full disclosure...I went into this show with relatively fresh eyes cuz it had been so long since I'd seen it that my memories were hazy at best. I was pleasantly surprised with the show. There was a lot more talking than I would've figured going into this and quite a bit of meandering early on. With that being said, its actually a pretty solid character study and has a decently intriguing mystery. Tsukasa learning that while his mind is trapped in the game he can feel everything happening to him but can't actually die because the entity keeping him there won't let him was downright horrifying. The man has an existential crisis wondering if he is even real at all.

While Tsukasa is the main focus of the show, I dig the supporting cast. They all get some nice moments and in the case of BT and Bear, we get a look at their lives outside the game. Bear's focus episode is great because it asks the question of how much of his desire to help Tsukasa comes from his desire to make up for failing to be apart of his own son's life. He eventually comes to the conclusion that he legitimately does want to help the kid. Pretty much thinking that no matter how bad the real world is for a person, its healthier not to spend it all in a world of fantasy. As for BT, well...she just straight up prefers the virtual world to the real world. Its not really delved into but I kinda got this vibe that her irl life was kind of sad, hence her insistence that reality is reality and a game is a game and that the two should never mix. That basically implies that the game is all she has in her life. Its even more apparent because she makes friends with a former member of the Crimson Knights (Crim) while chasing down the mystery of the key and when she wants to meet up irl to hangout and he shuts her down because he has the same mentality she does. There isn't much to Mimiru because she never wrestles with the question the others do. That being if they should help Tsukasa even if its not what Tsuaka wants. Mimiru is all in for trying to help him really early on and she doesn't really back down from that. There are three other characters in the show (Sora, Crim, and Silver Knight) who I can't really talk about for spoiler reasons. Sora's overall plot isn't finished until the video games and Crim and Silver Knight tie into Subaru and I can't really talk about her.

I'm not going to get into the main mystery because well, gotta leave some mystery to the show. I will say this, if you're going into it for the first time, you'll probably figure out what the key is at about the halfway point of the show as thats when Tsukasa does even if he doesn't say it out loud. Because of that, I also can't talk much about Tsukasa and by extension Subaru. I will say that in the end Subaru basically becomes Tsukasa's rock and helps him take that one step forward.

Music: The only thing I remembered from my first viewing of the show is the music which is still fantastic. Its actually even better than I remember and its downright haunting. Yuji Kajura pulled out all the stops for this soundtrack. I swear if I could mute everything except the music, I would totally have it on in the background as a I go about my day. Its easily one of my favorite soundtracks from any show I've seen. It gives me goosebumps every time I hear it and I wish I could track it down just so I can play it as I go about my day.

Final Thoughts: I uh...don't really have much to say as a closer. There was a lot about this show that I did not remember. I know there is a contingent of folks these days who hold the talk-y bits against it but honestly, I don't see the point of the hate. Even the non-plot talk-y bits are important because its character interactions letting them get closer to each other so that they can build to the eventual moment when all of the cast comes together for Tsukasa's sake. The change brought on by the talk-y bits are entire reason BT sides with Tsukasa in the end despite only caring about the mystery of the key itself in the beginning. Its not a show I can easily recommend but if you haven't seen it, give it a look if you're curious. You might get as much out of it as I did.

Mashin Sentai Kiramager Review: A Very Simple Shine

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

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

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

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

Villains:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ultraman Gaia Review

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

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

Characters:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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