My Thoughts On Boruto

Been meaning to do this for a while...lets talk about Boruto. I liked Naruto in the beginning but then Shippuden dragged on and on that I got kinda of sick of it. At the time of this post I'm about 70-ish episodes in as shounen anime is not something I watch weekly. I find it much easier to watch while marathoning. I'm gonna give my thoughts on the arcs I've seen so far and other stuff pertaining to the show.

Boruto is a perfectly fine show...when its focusing the kids and not the lingering threads from Naruto. The Nue arc, the Hidden Mist Field Trip arc, and Byakuya Gang arc are probably the best examples of where Boruto's strengths as a story lies. I also particularly like the stuff centering around Mitsuki. Though thats mostly because I find it fascinating that he isn't just a pawn in an Orochimaru scheme. Dude just wanted a kid and gave him the free will to follow his own path.

The power scaling regarding the kids seems a bit off. Iwabe I can buy being able to use earth style since he its outright stated that he was held back a lot. I can also understand the kids who have clan specific justu already having mastered them before entering the academy. However, they all seem a bit too skilled in their academy days for kids who aren't even official ninja (Iwabe withstanding cuz again, he is older than everyone else). It irks me in particular that Boruto himself is able to use lightning style right off the bat (though at the very least they do state its his natural chakra element so maybe thats why) and he was able to get the hang of wind style just by watching Mitsuki do it a few times even if he failed to do the wind scythe properly. Him figuring out the Rasengan I can sort of buy but the instinctual elemental change irks me because somehow Boruto can just use lightning style without thinking about it. That felt kinda like they just wanted give him his own custom Rasengan early on to separate him from Naruto.

It also irks me that they seem to have broken the Sharingan a bit. Sarada activates it for the 1st time during the Hidden Mist Field Trip arc without the massive chakra drain that is supposed to happen once its triggered (yeah its worse for non-Uchiha but even Sasuke looked like he was tiring out from using it in the Haku fight besides all the damage he took). She also figured out the copy ability really quickly and thats where another change became evident. The Sharingan seems to scale back the chakra requirements for copied jutsu to something the user can handle now. She copied a lightning style justu and elemental stuff in general is supposed to require a fairly decent amount of chakra on its own. The guys there were facing during this arc were either Chunin or Jonin (can't remember which) so that fight should've been way out of their league since they weren't even Genin yet. Yet they all came out with barely any scratches.

They were fighting these guys

The "prodigy" explanation only goes so far as even though Sasuke was considered a prodigy because he could use fire style, he still had to train and struggle (my head hurts just saying something good about Sasuke). It also really doesn't hold water for a good chunk of Boruto's classmates since we don't know who their parents are.

The opening arc of the show had me hooked after 4 episodes. It was a great introduction Boruto and his classmates. The first few episodes a give you a good feel for how much things have advanced during the time-skip. The later half of the arc centers around some left over stuff from Danzo's foundation. Its also a bit of a revelation that even though the world has moved on since the 4th Ninja War, the Leaf still has some aspects of its past that it needs to deal with.

Despite the weird power-scaling, the Hidden Mist Field Trip arc was really good imo. Its essentially Boruto's class going on a field trip to help build solidarity between the two villages. Their trip happens to coincide with an attempted coup de ta. Boruto befriends Kagura,the front-runner for the title of Mizukage. Sadly the guy leading the coup knows a lot of about Kagura uses his guilt over being related to the Mizukage that instituted the killing exam Zabuza mentioned to manipulate Kagura into joining the coup. Its essentially a really nice, dramatic arc about the Hidden Mist needing to deal with the sins of its past. Its especially effective as Kagura was able to realize that he is not responsible for his family's sins. Its also a nice parallel alongside the first arc.

The Byakuya Gang stuff is really good. Its essentially an arc about a gang of "thieves of justice" from the Land of Snow breaking into the Leaf's science office to steal gadget with data on every jutsu ever created. In order to cover their theft and escape, they actually slowly make the workers in the Leaf village more and more disgruntled until they take to the streets in protest. The subplot is about Shikadai befriending a kid in the part over a game them just hanging out. Naturally the kid winds up being apart of the gang and since Shikadai helped come up with a plan to track them the two come to blows. The kid gets thrown in jail for taking part in the theft but decides to do better when he gets out as he found out that the "thieves of justice" he works for just common crooks during the heist. The kid has this interesting ice style jutsu that hypnotizes people via reflections in the icicles.

The Shin Uchiha arc is just downright stupid and pointless even from a character perspective. The entire thing is about Sarada not being 100% sure Sakura is her mother because of a photo of Sasuke and his old crew from his days with Orochimaru. She goes looking for Sasuke to get the truth from him. You know the drill for this type of setup, she finds "evidence" that Sakura isn't her real mom (the "evidence" led to miscommunication that made her think Karin was her mom) and its revealed its all because of a mix up and that Sakura is actually Sarada's mom. It honestly would've been much better handled if the arc had revealed that Karin was actually Sarada's mom but that Sarada didn't care because she'd only known Sakura as her mother this whole time and Sakura took care of her. The idea that family isn't just blood would've added another layer to this arc. This arc also just glorifies Sasuke so...no, thats points off for it in and of itself. Somehow Sarada doesn't have daddy issues. I legitimately don't understand that.You probably noticed I didn't cover Shin Uchiha...thats cuz he doesn't add much of anything to the arc despite being the villain. Just something about wanting to kill Sasuke for killing Itachi and that he has an army of clones of himself. This is the worst arc out of all of them so far.

The Chunin exam arc was great and I was really digging the updated tests. All the tournament fights were pretty fun to watch. It showed off a lot new and different jutsu and fighting tactics while avoiding dragging the fights out longer than needed. The "Don't cheat!" lesson for Boruto was handled well enough. It was easily my favorite arc at that point...then the stuff with Kaguya's clan crashed right into it and tanked it for me. During that stretch of episodes I just sat there bored and counting down how long I had until the kids (besides Boruto) became relevant again. Not really much kids can do in a fight between gods. It felt a bit like a slap in the face to have an arc centered mainly around the kids and then side-lining them for a less than stellar meta-plot thats trying to help tie up loose threads from Naruto's ninja war arc.

Like I said before, the show is actually pretty fun when its not focusing on the stuff from Naruto or when the characters from Naruto aren't taking center stage. Boruto's plot-line about having issues with Naruto is a bit irritating. Him wanting to step out of Naurto's shadow is perfectly fine. However, him thinking Naruto is a bad father is just dumb. I know he is a kid but someone likely would've explained Naruto's philosophy in great detail to him before his issues with Naruto being Hokage ever got this far. Now that doesn't absolve Naruto of neglecting his family in favor of the village. I can buy him relying on his shadow clones to make sure he can fulfill his duties has Hokage, however I feel the way he does it is wrong. He has his clones spend time with his family so he can do his job as Hokage. Given Naruto's personality, it should be the clones doing the work while he spends time with his family. Another part I don't like is the chosen one plot-line for Boruto as its a tad over-done as far as shounen anime is concerned and its weird that they gave him that when his main goal is to escape his father's shadow. Overall, its an alright show that fans of Naruto will probably like, I just wished it stopped trying to expand on notes from the original show and focused squarely on the kids finding their way in the world.

Power Rangers Beast Morphers First Impressions

I'm still amazed that Hasbro chose this as the next season simply because its been so long since Gobusters aired and they had plenty of other Sentai shows to choose from as their starter show. I majorly held back my expectations for the show because I don't have much experience with how Hasbro handles their shows. Anyway, lets see how the first 3 episodes of Beast Morphers turned out.

Unfortunately I'm not a fan of the theme song. A bit too much techno in it for my tastes. I tend to prefer a rock feel when it comes to Power Rangers openings. The lyrics are also a tad too generic and it might work better if it were longer. It being yet another reworking of Go Go Power Rangers doesn't really help much. All in all, its gonna take some time to grow on me.

Episode 1 is a nice start for the show. The pacing of the episode is nice and tense. It feels a bit like a Disney era premier in that regard to me. It set up the rangers' motivation well enough. The avatar thing is an interesting way to handle things and is a decent way to give us Blaze and Roxy as evil rangers. Although when Blaze first showed up in the episode, I figured he'd either willingly turn evil or just be brainwashed.That feeling mostly came from him being a little eager to try and beat Devon down after a small provocation.The Ravi and Roxy thing should be interesting later on and its actually an interesting way to handle Blue Buster and Escape's rivalry. It should make for some tense stuff as the series progresses. I saw a bit of a debate as to whether or not Roxy's avatar counts as a ranger. Until Hasbro says otherwise, I'm going to counter her as a ranger because thats what the machine was initially designed to make and Hasbro repainted Escape's monster form to yellow to show she is a twisted version of what would've been the yellow ranger. Overall, I enjoyed it but I kind of wish it was an hour long premier because we didn't learn much about Ravi outside the love story stuff.

In episode 2 we get a nice bit of rivalry between Ravi and Zoey as they compete to become leader of the team. We also get a decent look at Devon's leadership skills after their weak-points cropped up. It was actually nice seeing Devon be the only one not interested in competing to be the leader. The unmorphed fight is nice and has some good environmental action. I'm a bit surprised they brought over the weak-points from Gobusters. I thought for sure that those would get cut out. Other than that, the episode was establishing the villains' plan. I sort of expected that since the premiere didn't establish that. It also had a lot of exposition. Overall its an ok episode but not much really happened in it so its a bit of a step down from the premiere.

Not gonna lie, episode 3 was kinda weird. In order to stop a forest from being torn down for a new road to cut down on traffic flow, Zoey pitches a new city-wide bike program powered by Morph X to the mayor. The weird thing is that they're just regular bikes with a slot for a vial of Morph X. With that being said, this might be one of the more subtle environment episodes the franchise has had in a while, even if the problem was essentially solved by the rule of cool. The bike chase was decent if a little too 90's/early 2000s. Other than that, there wasn't much to the episode. It felt out of place compared to the 1st two episodes. However, I'm glad that idea of them using the Grid as a power source is still being carried on past the 1st episode. It wasn't a bad episode but its a step down from the previous two.

Its decent start to the series though episode 3 makes it clear that Hasbro is still trying to get a feel for how they want the franchise to go. Episodes 1 and 2 felt like they were intended to be an hour long premiere and that Nick probably said no to that idea. It would explain why episode 2 had so much exposition. Overall I'm looking forward to how the show plays out. I'm also curious as to whether or not future seasons will keep the Morphing Grid being used as an energy source. That really not something you can take back once you've done it unless each season from now on is an alternate universe.

KonoSuba: God's Blessing On This Wonderful World Review

Man, thats a long title but anyway, moving on. This anime is a weird one for me and not just because its a comedy (I don't watch very many comedic anime). Its because well...normally I'd hate 3 out of 4 of the main characters. Its just so well done that I love these jerks. This is also one of those anime where I have to spoil some parts so I'll just give my opinion before hand: I enjoyed this show so much that I found myself sort of heart-broken when the words "Thank you for playing" popped up at the end of season 2 instead of a bumper for season 3. I can't recommend this anime enough. With that out of the way: SLIGHT SPOILERS AHEAD!

Unfortunately, this an anime where I'm going to have to spoil the first episode to explain the setup. This is partially because its the first joke and partially because while the show has a plot, it takes a back seat to the comedy and isn't really a major focus. This shut-in otaku named Kazuma goes out to pick up the latest game. On his way back, he sees a girl about to be hit by a "truck", pushes her out of the way, and supposedly gets run over. He then finds himself in front of the goddess Aqua who offers him the chance to reborn on Earth or be brought back to life in another world and go on adventures to slay the Demon King while being given a special power or weapon. This is where the catch and comedy comes in. Aqua mocks him for his death and reveals that truck that hit him was really just a slow moving tractor and that he died of shock because he thought he was gonna be run over. Kazuma is kinda of vindictive so he chooses Aqua herself as the thing he is taking with him simply because she made fun of him. From there we essentially follow their misadventures in this fantasy world. Each episode's main plot is solved rather quickly as a part of the joke and then the episode moves on from there.

Now, as I said above, the plot takes a back seat to the comedy so the characters, their interactions, and the jokes will determine whether or not you enjoy the show. Normally, I'd hate most of these characters but honestly, I love the main four so much.

• Kazuma: Kazuma is a really fun protagonist. Dude thought he'd be some awesome adventurer with incredibly high stats only to end up painfully average. He is in his element in this new world even if it doesn't play out like he thought it would. He constantly comes up with strategies only for him to be exasperated with his party members, particularly Aqua. They prefer just doing their own thing. He is also pretty quick to figure out an enemy's weakness.
• Aqua: Aqua is the biggest jerk of the show. She is whiny, arrogant, insufferable, and kind of stupid. Thats the entire point of her character. Despite all that I don't hate her. This is because the show makes those tendencies of hers a punchline a few times. Due to her actually being a goddess, she has incredibly high stats except for intelligence. She is easily the strongest character in the show yet the most useless at the same time.
• Megumin: Megumin is the Arch Mage. She is basically a glass cannon. She only knows one spell...Explosion! She can learn more spells but she only uses Explosion because its powerful and she just loves to blow stuff up. It is also so powerful that it leaves her unable to move afterwards.
• Darkness: Darkness is the group's Crusader. She is also well...a masochist and its probably the reason she decided to be a tank. Thats pretty much the bulk of the comedy with her. She runs head-first into battle taking hit after hit after hit. She drools at the prospect of being brutally beaten and used by her opponents. Thankfully she has the strength to take those hits and keep going. She constantly misreads situations and implies dirtier and more disturbing things than whats actually being said. Normally stuff like that would make me cringe but it made me laugh every single time the show did it. Her stuff is probably my favorite gag in the entire show.

Sadly this anime only has 2 seasons at the time of this post. Its continued in light novels so if you're hooked enough on the show, you do have an avenue for their further misadventures. I haven't read the light novels yet so I can't vouch for how things go after the end point of season 2 of the anime. Due to it being a comedy, its kind of hard for me to get my point across but I do recommend giving the anime a shot if you don't mind not getting a complete story in that form.

My Favorite Super Sentai Heroes

There are pretty much heroes of every type in Sentai. That is one of the things that draw me to these types of shows. I love seeing heroes give awesome speeches and giving villains a righteous butt-kicking. With so many heroes in the franchise there are a lot to choose from. Lets see if I can narrow it down to just my favorites from what I've seen so far. They're not going to be ranked since I love them all for different reasons.

Jan/GekiRed:

I'm gonna keep this section short because I already covered Jan in my Gekiranger review. I liked Jan's Tarzan vibe early on. The show made his reactions to civilization feel really natural. His rivalry with Rio was nice and intense. His plot-line with Suguu being made from the soul of his father was downright heart-breaking. I teared up when Jan had to kill him so he could rest in peace. I've seen some folks call him a chosen one and eh, that description doesn't really fit the character imo. He had a talent for martial arts but he still struggled and had to train throughout the entire show.

Burai/DragonRanger:

Yeah, this dude was definitely gonna make the list. He is easily the standout among the Zyurangers. His introduction is a classic story of misplaced anger. It shows just how anger and the thirst for vengeance can consume someone. I absolutely loved the lead-up to his death. His death shows that sometimes you just can't escape your fate. Even though they powers and skill, they're still human in the end. It also re-enforces what the show was sort of about: The children's lives are more important. Even knowing there was no possible way to escape his fate, he fought on to the end and died a true hero.

Ryouga/AbaRed:

Out of all the Reds I've seen so far, he is probably the one I'd say is the most heroic for me at the moment. He also happens to be my favorite Red in Sentai at the moment. I loved his family dynamic with Mai. Do not mess with kids or he will end you. Its honestly one of my weak-points when it comes to superheroes. There is no easier way to get me to like a character than having them get righteously angry when a kid is harmed. I love how he never gives up his faith in humanity and he hands out so many righteous butt-kickings over the course of the show. The show really likes to show how much he believes in people by constantly having AbareKiller push his buttons and test his faith. Even after seeing AbareKiller do despicable things, he still wanted to redeem him. The dude is a genuinely nice guy so I can't help but like him.

Gai Ikari/GokaiSilver:

Of course the Sentai fanboy was going to make this list. I absolutely loved the character's enthusiasm. His actor really sells the Sentai fan angle. He is pretty much a walking Sentai encyclopedia which is great because its the major thing Marvelous' crew was missing. His job is pretty much interpreting Navi's cryptic clues that lead to them to the veterans in each tribute episode. He gets to live his dream when he becomes a Gokaiger. His ability to merge ranger keys together demonstrates his understanding of Sentai rather well imo.

Umeko/DekaPink:

What can I say? I love her episodes so much. I couldn't get through most of her episodes without a big smile creeping across my face. She is mostly a comic-relief character and those make up a the bulk of my favorite episodes in Dekaranger. She has some serious moments and they can be fun as well. For her comedy episodes, I really like the episode where she went undercover as a princess. Weirdly, I'm one of the few people in fandom who prefer her over Jasmine when it comes to their characters. I like Jasmine as well, but Umeko is just more fun for me.

Sen/DekaGreen:

This dude is my favorite character in Dekaranger alongside Umeko. I love his creative approach to the cases. He usually manages to give some nice insight into the cases during a lot of episodes. He has a habit of spotting details that his teammates tend to overlook and comes up with creative ways to stop some of the Alienizers. His serious moments are great. The episode he shared with Umeko is one of my favorites out of the series. It shows that you should never harm someone he cares about. The villain is just toying with her emotions in that episode and it is so satisfying to see Sen beat him into the ground.

Asuka/AbareBlack:

This dude is not only my favorite character in Abaranger, he is probably my favorite character in all of Sentai. He just goes through so much over the course of Abaranger and it gets pretty intense as the show goes on. His story is actually pretty heart-wrenching and his dynamic with Mahoro/Jeanne is one of my favorite parts of the show. I'd honestly love to see Sentai do more stuff like that. You just want to see those two make it out of the show together. The show did a great job of getting me invested in Asuka's story and I loved every second of it. Its probably my favorite story in all of Sentai and it is easily the best romance I've seen in Sentai so far.

The Problem With Dimensions In Danger And Tommy Oliver

This is a post I've been mulling over for a while. I haven't done this in the past because well, I know how much the fandom likes Tommy and JDF. After seeing Dimensions In Danger, I figured it was about time I did this one because oh boy that was way too much Tommy.

Let me just clarify something before I get into it: I don't hate Tommy Oliver as a character. I like him a lot. I'm simply tired of seeing him. The dude went through a lot during the Zordon era and came out on top. He earned his retirement from ranger duty by the time Turbo rolled around. My issue with Tommy is that arguably since Dino Thunder, he stopped being a character and purely became a marketing gimmick. Oh sure, he had an arc in Dino Thunder, but aside from being the mentor for the season, he didn't change very much once it wrapped up. It felt like he was there simply for a ratings boost. I like Dino Thunder but honestly, you could've replaced Tommy Oliver with anyone else and the story wouldn't change all that much outside of the episodes where its revealed he has a database on all the ranger teams and the episode where he fights his past powers in that coma dream.

Now I'm also gonna provide a small review of Dimensions In Danger since it was the thing that sparked this. This is the most Tommy glorifying thing I've ever seen. This isn't a bad episode, I don't hate it or anything but it really needed a lot of work. The pacing moves way too fast and the fight scenes were so choppy they were sort of hard for me to follow. The old/new balancing of the cast is almost non-existent. You could legitimately remove every veteran except for Tommy and nothing would change. I legitimately forgot the Ninja Steel rangers were even in it until it cut back to them. Now for the Tommy stuff. He is god-moded throughout the whole thing. He gets captured, escapes from the villain's base with no assistance before the rangers sent to rescue him get close to the base, destroys the villain's robot making machine on his way out, and even saves the other rangers from an ambush. I'm sorry, thats too much even for Tommy Oliver. He crushed half of the villain's plan all by himself. It pretty much kills the tension when he does that. Oddly enough, the way its handled makes it feel like the exact opposite of the issue I had with the Legendary Battle. The major threat of the villain's plan was rendered irrelevant first and it felt like they were just cleaning up the leftovers when all they had to do is beat the big bad and his army of robot duplicates. I'm gonna be honest, the Master Morpher isn't that big of a deal to me. Its an ok idea but personally, I'd have just made it so that it combined all 4 of his powers into one. Yeah it would basically have been similar to Drakkon from the comics in that regard but at least it would give us something new and maybe more interesting to look at than just seeing him cycle through all of his suits and it might have saved time. While I don't dislike the idea of the Master Morpher, I really wish Tommy hadn't said "You may look like me but unless you've got a Master Morpher, you're just cheap copy". It just sounded kinda lame and only served to remind us just how outclassed the robot duplicate was. On top of that its a really blatant way to promote a new toy. How he escaped the villain's base also felt like it was done just to give him a way out. If you're gonna try to capture Tommy Oliver, you'd plan to counter his invisibility. Overall its a better anniversary than the Legendary Battle but thats not saying much.

Don't get me wrong, Tommy is powerful but not that powerful. Every big thing Tommy did in his seasons was possible because he had his team behind him. It feels like the special forgot that or ignored that just to say how cool Tommy is. Honestly, its that sort of glorifying that makes it feel like he has just become a marketing gimmick to me. Heck, even during the Legendary Battle all the promotion for that episode centered around the fact that Tommy was going to cameo. I get it, the dude is the face of Power Rangers and JDF is always willing to reprise the role. However, there is a fine line between iconic and overused, Tommy arguably crossed that line during the Legendary Battle. If I'm being totally honest, it irks me simply because Tommy stopped being relevant a long time ago. The special felt like it was trying to make him relevant again. The dude got more lines and screen-time than anyone else and he got to finish off the big bad in the Falcon Zord while everyone else simply shot at it with their blasters. Its a mistake to have one character out of sixteen involved in a team-up be the only one that matters at all. I honestly think its time for Tommy to take on the Zordon role now. He should purely be guiding newer rangers instead of fighting on the front-lines. Also for future reference, I'm not gonna review Ninja Steel because I missed a lot of episodes and have no plans as of yet to catch up on it.

Gosei Sentai Dairanger Review

This was actually the second or third Sentai I tried to watch back when I was starting out. Sadly I was also in college at the time and class workloads picked up so I had to drop it for the time being. Eventually I just forgot about it. Thanks to Shout Factory's dvds, I was finally able to finish watching this show. Lets get right into it with a show that I've seen universal love for: Gosei Sentai Dairanger. How did it work out for me? Well, read on and find out. Note: I'm not going to cover the Dairanger suits in this review because I've already given my thoughts on them in another post.

Plot: Centuries ago, the Dai Tribe and Gorma Tribe went to war with each other. The war was devastating, leading to the destruction of both tribes. However, the Gorma have risen again. It is up to the Dairangers to defeat the Gorma this time around. Its a pretty simple set up but the show handles it well. Throughout the show it keeps bringing up the war between the Gorma and the Dai alongside this theme of balance. It doesn't just say the war happened and then ignore it to solely focus on the modern day. It makes the conflict feel more "real" for lack of a better term. Evil can never truly be vanquished so good must always rise up to fight it. Balance must be maintained or the world is doomed. A good example of this is when the god-like Dajinryu shows up and almost destroys the world because the Gorma are getting a bit too strong.

Characters: The Dairangers are a pretty fun team. They compliment each other pretty well even if two of them don't get much to do in the show.

• Ryo/Ryuranger: Ryo is an enjoyable Red and I liked a lot of his episodes. I don't have much else to say about the character. I think what makes Ryo memorable more than anything for me is the actor's performance. Dude brings a lot of charisma to the role. The Jin episodes and the episodes with his father are without a doubt his best episodes in the show. The episodes with his father interest me for a reason you might not expect but I'll talk about that in a bit.
• Daigo/Shishiranger: This dude is probably my favorite Dairanger. His episodes get pretty intense and he gets a nice love story with Kujaku. The dude values life in every form, doesn't matter if its human, an animal, or a plant. Outside of his episodes with Kujaku, the Key Jester episodes are my favorite eps for him.
• Shouji/Tenmaranger: Shouji is probably my second favorite member of the team. His episodes are fun and I particularly enjoy his episodes with the 3 Stooges. He'd always take them at their word since he knew what it was like to be considered a joke and worthless given his former life in a biker gang. He pretty much found an outlet when he took up boxing and that got him out of that life. Other than his episodes with the 3 Stooges, the episode where he and Ryo take down the Golden Leg Gorma is one of his best episodes.
• Kazu/Kirinranger: I like Kazu but I really wish he had more to do in the show. I rather like that he basically admits to Kameo in one episode that this suave, cool guy persona is just a front he puts on since he is actually from the country. He essentially ran away from home and came to the city. He gets a couple of episodes to himself but the only ones that really standout to me are the Tofu Hermit episode and the one where is looking for Daimugen's crystal. That doesn't actually make his other focus episodes bad. Its just not much compared Ryo, Shouji, Daigo, and Kou. Without a doubt he has the best choreographed fights in the show.
• Rin/Houhouranger: Rin is kind, caring, and a tough fighter. She can definitely hold her own without the rest of the team behind her. However, like Kazu, I think she needed more to do in the show. Thats mostly because once Kou shows up her stuff kind of gets tied up into his plot-line. My favorite episode for her is without a doubt the Lipstick Songstress episode.
• Kou/Kibaranger: Kou should actually really annoy me but I'm not really sure why he doesn't. Its probably because he is written really well and he stops the annoying stuff shortly after he becomes Kibaranger. I legitimately feel bad for the kid. I love the parallel between him and Akomaru. Akomaru is legitimately what Kou could've become if he had let the heartbreak of his mother leaving consume him. I legitimately cried when the stuff with his mother ended.

Without a doubt, one of my favorite parts of Dairanger is the stuff with Kujaku. I remember loving these episodes even back when I first the first half of this show. I actually enjoy those episodes more than the Jin episodes. Kujaku's grudge against Gara is just heartbreaking given where it spawned from. I'll talk more about that when I get to Gara and the other two of the Gorma Triumverite.

Something I found really interesting about the episodes with Ryo's father is the reveal that his dad is not only one of the original five warriors who fought the Gorma but that he defected to the Gorma during the war. The timing and the way its handled really interests me because its done over the course of just two episodes. It also happens very early in the show and it lead to me an interesting thought: If Dairanger had been made today, that reveal wouldn't have happened until the late 20's or early 30's and likely wouldn't have been resolved until near the final few episodes. Thats something I think modern Sentai relies on a little too much as they tend to drag out stuff like that a little too long for the sake of drama.

Villains:

I like the Gorma Triumvirate. They're nice and threatening powerhouse villains. Though its a little distracting hearing the Imperial March from Star Wars play whenever they show up.

Gara's grudge against Kujaku is actually a lot deeper and more heartbreaking than I thought it would be. They used to be friends until Gara's face was scarred while projecting Kujaku. The scarring itself isn't what caused Gara to hate Kujaku as she admits that she would've been proud to have that scar as a memory of the time she protected her friend. She hates Kujaku because she thought Kujaku abandoned her while Kujaku was really just looking for away to get rid of Gara's scar. Its two friends turning into mortal enemies over a tragic misunderstanding. Normally that would annoy me but Dairanger handled it extremely well. Its heartbreaking when you consider that one misunderstanding lead to Gara joining the Gorma. Gara is probably my favorite out of them due to how personal her grudge with Kujaku was. She is played by Akiko Amamatsuri who played Mazenda in Liveman. Her performance is great and she really captures the anger, bitterness, and heartbreak that Gara needed to work. She will definitely be making my revised villains list whenever I redo that one.

I like Shadam's relationship with Akomaru. Its a nice case of father and son really despising each other and being at each other's throats. You really get the feeling that Shadam deserves every single bit of hatred that Akomaru has for him. Its a rather nice contrast to how Kou feels about his mother so seeing both relationships in the end works out really well. The big revelation about Akomaru's connection to Kou is just great. Shadam is just awesome overall and the dude is legitimately Long levels of manipulative and I love the reveal with him at the end of the series.

Zydos unfortunately doesn't really do much in the show compared to Gara and Shadam other than create Jin and fight the Dairangers. He is still a powerhouse so I suppose I can't fault the character too much for that. His actor just seems to love mugging for the camera. He always seems to make the weirdest face whenever the camera does a close-up on his face. It never failed to make me snicker.

Without a doubt the standout side-villain in the show is of course Jin Matoba. Yutaka Hirose always makes a great villain. It was always a joy to see Jin show up in the show and his episodes always kept me at the edge of my seat. When you get right down to it, Jin is a relatively simple villain: He just wants to prove that he is the best fighter there is. Zydos even gives him magic hoping to sway him to the Gorma's side but even then, Jin is way out of his league and kicks Zydos to the curb. Despite using his martial arts to outright kill his opponents, he still has this sense of honor as a fighter. He also has one of the best villain deaths I've seen in Sentai. I won't say what it is here because I'd rather people find out for themselves. I will say that it is without a doubt Jin's best episode in the show. At first I was afraid Jin was going to be overblown due to all the hype around him but I'm so glad he is as awesome as my friends were telling me. All in all, its a great performance by Hirose and its one I won't soon forget. He gave the character a nice air of malice yet also got the honorable nature across. It makes for a really intimidating villain. I'll probably be adding him to my favorite villains list the next time I update it. While watching Jin and Gara, a thought crossed my mind: Jin played Kemp in Liveman and Gara played Mazenda, if Gou's actor had showed up as a Gorma, we could've had mini-Volt reunion.

I normally wouldn't talk about individual MOTWs in detail but Key Jester is probably my favorite. He just hits that level of creepy that sends a chill down my spine. The actor does really well in the role imo. I particularly like that he gets around by roller-skating. This dude's plot is one of the creepiest plans I've seen in Sentai. He basically uses his keys to steal children's souls and put them into dolls so they can wreak havoc. He also played Dora Sphinx's human form in Zyuranger.

Speaking of actors I've seen before, Kubota's actor from Megaranger shows up as General Cactus. Its a bit weird seeing him play a character that likes to turn little girls into dolls after seeing a few episodes of Megaranger. Thats mostly why this Gorma stands out to me so I really don't have much else to say about him. There are probably other Sentai actors I've seen before who play Gorma but I can't think of anyone else.

Mecha: They're all pretty well designed and there is an amazing amount of detail on the models. My favorite of all the mecha is probably Won Tiger. I love how short and swift the mecha fights in this show are. They don't feel tacked on or dragged out. They're simply being used as the final blow against the Gorma.

Action: The action in this show is outstanding. You can really feel the amount of effort that the choreograpers and suit actors put into it. Kazu probably has the best fight scenes in the entire show for me. The movements he does are insane and his fights always flowed so well. This show probably has the most movement intensive fight scenes I've ever seen. It just shows how valuable suit actors are in toku. As someone with an eye for fight scenes, I just can't rave enough about how happy this show's fights made me. I don't normally mention the role-calls in these reviews but I absolutely love Dairanger's. It is the most intricate, precise, and movement intensive role-call I've ever seen, especially Kazu's. I'm still amazed that the actor himself can actually do that. They all look so simple but I've tried doing them now and then and they are much harder than they look. I can barely do Rin's without messing it up. I can't even attempt Kazu's without falling over.

Music: Outside the Imperial March playing when the Gorma Triumvirate hits the scene, the music for the villains is really effective. It managed to creep me out quite a bit. The shows opening and ending themes are great. The opening has a lot of power to it and I always found myself singing along. The ending theme is nicely addictive and happy sounding.

Final Thoughts: I like how the show continues to remind you just how long this war has been going. I love the twist at the end when we discover whats up with Shadam and the rest of the Gorma. It really helps sell the show's idea of balance. I'd mention it here but I don't want to spoil it since its an interesting bit of lore for Dairanger's world. Not sure where I'll put this whenever I re-do my Sentai rankings but I'd probably put it higher than Zyuranger.

My Thoughts On Hasbro Shaking Things Up For Power Rangers (Also The Gobusters Adaptation)

Ok, normally I don't speculate on things when it comes to Power Rangers in general. This is usually because I tend to have no idea what a season is going to do until it actually airs. I'm talking about this because in a short span of time the fandom has changed its tune on the franchise so I figured I might as well weigh in. I will talk briefly about the toys and then move on to how this might affect the show.

Hasbro buying up the toy license for Power Rangers is a good thing. I can see that even if I'm not that big on the toys myself. BoA has let the quality drop quite a bit over the years. The quality of the Ninja Steel toys in particular have been awful from what I've seen on the shelves. I fully expect Hasbro to up the quality of the toys since from what I've heard they're really into making quality stuff. This is a great thing for toy collectors and the toys for Gobusters adaptation are probably gonna end up pretty good. Hasbro pays a lot of attention to the little details in their toys as far as I can tell. However, I don't know much about toys or toy collecting so thats all I'll say on that.

Now this is probably going affect the inevitable sequel to the 2017 Power Rangers movie. This probably means that the sequel is going to become a reboot. I can totally see Hasbro wanting to redesign everything from the ground up. That would be a very good thing and it would be a change I welcome. I cannot not stand the suits or megazord from the 2017 movie. Those were wide misses as far as Power Ranger designs are concerned. It could even lead to us getting a movie that both looks and feels more like a Power Rangers movie.

Now for the next season...Beast Morphers. I don't like the name at all but moving on. I did not care much for Gobusters so I really hope that I enjoy the adaptation more. I honestly thought Gobusters wasted some really cool Sentai suits. Looking at the plot-synopsis, I'm a bit iffy on the Morphing Grid being a plot-point. You run the risk of over-explaining how it works and punching holes in it. Personally, I'm of the mind that the grid is best left as this vague power-source that people can tap into. With that being said, if they do bring in Enter's Dark Buster form and keep its origin the same, they had better apply the no duplicate powers rule since its basically a copy of Red Buster's abilities. Thats basically all I can speculate on with the info we have right now.

There is one last thing I want to address about the Gobuster's adaptation. The second it was announced the fandom brought back the idea of making it a sequel to RPM. I like RPM but my overall question is why make it a sequel to RPM? The thing about RPM is that its a send-off to the franchise in general. Thats why 90% of the human race is gone in RPM. Thats why all the other teams are presumed dead. Thats why the crossover with Samurai wrote it off as being in another dimension. Making a sequel season to RPM undercuts the impact of that season.

So yeah, thats basically all I have to say on the subject. Will it be a good show? Who knows, only time will tell. Will I watch it? Its Power Rangers so of course I will. I get why people are hyped but I just can't bring myself to get hyped until the show actually airs. For now, I'm going to keep my hype under control so I don't get burned like I did with Megaforce.