Sentai Rambling: How Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger Succeeded as An Anniversary Season in Contrast to Power Rangers Megaforce!

So I rambled about how Power Rangers Megaforce's eye candy is inferior to Shinkenger, while I can conveniently skip Goseiger but I'll discuss on Gokaiger. Now I'm not really the biggest Gokaiger fan there is... and I like Timeranger, Gaoranger and Boukenger over this season. Okay it's written by Naruhisa Arakawa. Again, I am not writing this as a Sentai purist but as a person who is concerned for the well-being of Power Rangers. I don't like Power Rangers as of current (again) but I don't hate it. I still care about its fans and Megaforce was one show that's WAY TO SCREW UP your potential anniversary season and I wonder if fans were really butthurt by what happened. And now, this is my second rambling.


So first I'd like to discuss about Naruhisa Arakawa as a writer. His only headwriting job in Kamen Rider is Kamen Rider Kuuga (which I only saw later). The only works I saw from start to end are Dekaranger and Gokaiger. I am still viewing some Abaranger. He is also the writer of Akibaranger. For one, I would say while he's definitely not the best and as of current, I think Yasuko Kobayashi had done better (but the setting was last 90s) and he is post-Timeranger. So while I do like Dekaranger over Shinkenger as of current (but I like both shows) but I cannot deny that he has actually done some great writing.

However he is still a great writer who write a lot of pretty interesting episode back in the 90s... but he was probably made for post-Timeranger Sentai. Apparently while Yasuko Kobayashi usually specializes in the tones of Gingaman and her Magnum Opus (IMO) Timeranger (which I think is even darker than Gobusters), Arakawa has been a master of well-timed humor which Yasuko Kobayashi tends to fail at times. He's also had managed to redo some of Toshiki Inoue concepts like giving a Ryu/Rie love story into Abaranger but with a happy ending. But I'll admit that Gokaiger IMO is my least favorite season and I've been rewinding Akibaranger much more. But still, go go Gokaiger. There's no doubt Power Rangers hasn't gotten out of the dork age which is best called the Mr. Krabs Era.

Meanwhile, it's predictable that Jonathan Tzachor and company were going to screw it up. Whether it was the first half or the second half, cramming Goseiger and Gokaiger into one wasn't a good idea. I don't know why Toei allowed it unless it was a symptom of greed. Whatever, it was a really bad idea. Everything is rushed to the point that it makes any previous season of Power Rangers that I disliked, a bit more likable huh?!



Seriously Mr. Krabs?!

Let's just use our common sense shall we? Even the idea of transitioning from angel theme to pirate theme is already bad enough. Trying to cram Goseiger into 20 episodes is bad enough. Worse, you have trying to cram Gokaiger into 20 episodes. Seriously?! Also Jake is upgraded from BLACK TO GREEN?! Now while I don't support any hate fics against the show but I can always start to complain more about the bad writing.

So what's the point? The first thing you want to notice is how hurriedly Megaforce's first half is. First, you get the mecha too fast, it's too fast paced even for Goseiger. Goseiger may have the mecha overload BUT I'll admit, the whole show did a better job handling it. Come on, compressing a season for twenty episodes is stupid. Goseiger has FIFTY episodes. Cramming it into twenty episodes means you just write in villains, write them out, introduce new mecha, write it off. It's a whole mess of a season if you ask me and nothing really works. So the first half practically ruined itself.

The second half was no better either. So what's wrong? The logic of cramming Gokaiger into twenty episodes is stupid. I did mention about the change from black to green for Jake. Again, it does not freaking make sense. Like in MMPR Season 2, one of my major complaints is how you try to change most of the Dinozords into Thunderzords. They could have just destroyed the Dinozords THEN butt in the Thunderzords. I know Power Rangers is a show for children but... you do need a certain amount of logical to balance the illogical events. For example, we know Sentai villains are usually not using their common sense. However, one has to think that Sentai still has a balance of logical events vs. illogical events to balance. In Jetman, we have the logic that a guilt ridden Rie Aoi would choose to die while the illogical, of course we do know that henshin powers are purely fictional right?


Please Mr. Krabs, you better have better methods to introduce past Sentai than this!

It was really STUPID for Power Rangers Megaforce not to film their own footage and edit out the pre-Zyuranger and Dairanger shots. They didn't even explain who the "other rangers' were and it doesn't make any sense. Maskman is Blitz? Oh come on, that name SHOULD HAVE BEEN FOR CHANGEMAN!!!!! You can read my rant about that here.

On the other hand, the pre-Zyuranger suits while they weren't really that well-added in Gokaiger (ex. I thought that the show could have been longer) but hey, they made sense because they were previous Super Sentai seasons! I know most of Gokaiger's tribute episodes are post-Zyuranger (except for Jetman and Battle Fever J)... still the pre-Zyuranger suits made sense here. It made sense for Gokaiger even if it's a what if continuity, still it made sense to include previous seasons in the Gokaiger's universe because they were predecessors.

So what if there were Power Rangers from other planets? They could have at least explained why. But again, there's always many more ways to introduce pre-Zyuranger Sentai to Power Rangers fans. Like, come on Mr. Krabs' staff could have released a documentary of Super Sentai for older fans of Power Rangers. To be honest, the way the pre-Zyuranger Sentai got into the mix is this. It's like Mr. Krabs using other people's stuff as equipment in the Krusty Krabs.


Haim Saban as he is in the Neo-Saban era!

Now I can even rant on how terrible the tribute episodes were. I would probably credit Haim Saban Mr. Krabs for it. Come on, he should use his common sense. The senior rangers are hard to get and YOU HAVE TO BE MORE THAN WILLING TO PAY HIGHER IF YOU WANT THEM TO HAVE A CAMEO. I would have to admit that while some tribute episodes were watchable story-wise. However I had my problem with the SPD Greater Power AND the Wild Force Greater Power... and I'm even thinking of this. Maybe no Wild Force or Power Rangers SPD member wanted to show up due to Mr. Krabs being cheap!


This was Haim Saban's character WAY before the Neo-Saban era... although he was cheap but at least he learned how to bake good cake!

Back in the past, Haim Saban did Power Rangers better than Disney post-Zordon era. Well MMPR Season 1 was good, it should have ended after that. One may consider Lost Galaxy up to Time Force to be good seasons. Wild Force is okay but Gaoranger is way better, it's my Grand Professor Bias again. Disney had Power Rangers Ninja Storm and Power Rangers RPM. Disney got so bad during the rest of Bruce Kalish they wanted Saban to return. However when Saban returned, he went all the way from being Cake Boss into Mr. Krabs.


Well I hate to do this but Troy is too much of a robotic character. He makes a poor adaptation for Marvelous. What I can rant endlessly is that Troy is that ROBOT. Yes, even the robotic characters of all Super Sentai and Power Rangers have more personality than he does. Ryota Ozawa has been able to carry out a better performance... no questions asked. I won't be talking about Jake and Noah since I hardly have issues with them. If you want a better version of Troy, please consider watching Kamen Rider Fourze.


When it comes to robotic personality, I always thought that Troy NEEDED a backstory to why he's so freaking robotic. At least in Kamen Rider Fourze, the "robotic" Shun had some backstory because he was a "robot" of his father. Shun's crying scene was hardly convincing, it felt like a Looney Tunes but at least, Justin Tomimori (the actor) tries to to break Shun's shell. Andrew Gray puts little or no effort at all for Troy. They could have added a backstory for Troy to explain why he's like that... at least not make up for that flaw of his character.


Another is, okay, I don't hate Noah or Jake, they're nothing special though but I can respect them. I always thought Noah trying to do a Joe Gibken is BAD WRITING. In what way? He's supposed to be a character similar to Tucker Folley... African-American geek. They could have had him do something else than just copy/paste too much from Gokaiger.


Yet another, I always thought that Mao Ichimichi AND Yui Koike had better acting. Ciara Hanna's okay but as I love to stress it, I FREAKING DISLIKE CHRISTINA MASTERSON'S ACTING! Again, this is probably just my Great Professor Bias showing up. I would probably just credit the good script writing to why Luka and Ahim are a better duo. On the other hand, I don't think Yui Koike and Mao Ichimichi are that great... well again I hardly consider post-2000s Sentai to be that talent oriented either. Case closed for which girl duo is better.


We know Gai Ikari IS the better Silver Ranger!

One may also consider Gai Ikari vs. Orion. Gai Ikari is WAY more interesting. Orion for me is flat maybe because of the actor AND the script. At least Gai Ikari is one character that is interesting. He is a Sentai fan who becomes a Sentai warrior. It's one good way to acknowledge the feelings of older fans. While Orion had an okay backstory but the rest of it is... well FLAT. Self-explanatory to that. Gai Ikari had more interesting development like how he is the Super Sentai expert of the show.


Also I could complain about this. Why is Mr. Krabs always trying to milk MMPR's past successes? I guess you have already read from my eye candy entry that Emma is a failed Kimberly. I could start to think that come on Saban, MMPR's audience are already ALL GROWN UP. It's just like the Rugrats have all grown up in the show All Grown Up. He should realize just how much of a failure everything is and maybe I can talk about a bit more. MMPR is MMPR, it has some influences that you can copy but... COME ON THERE ARE OTHER SOURCES TO COPY FROM RIGHT?


Emma is the new Kimberly? Don't make me laugh. Mako does it better!

Emma is my biggest irritation ever for the show. You know the reason by now why I absolutely think she's a real nuisance for me. Well you know my guilty pleasure of poking Emma as a failed Kimberly. Well, I guess a lot of people agree with me. Even if others don't, I will still make that stand. So what's the difference? Amy Jo Johnson may not be the best actress around but SHE CAN ACT. I even think she acts better than Reiko Chiba. Again, with Amy Jo Johnson, she's very natural and doesn't come out overly cheery in doing her parts to the point I think she could have been cast as a villain too. Christina Masterson's acting is SO BAD I simply can't help but poke at her and her character one too many times. I guess having Christina Masterson is a result of being TOO CHEAP. Amy Jo Johnson leaving the set because of cheapness was a good move for her career too.


Gai Ikari found the season all too awful feeling sorry for Power Rangers fans who had to endure the mess!

So yeah, you know what I mean. So you can tell that maybe, at least a good amount of my steam is gone considering this rambling is shorter than the last one I made.


Updated on: January 22, 2015