Kaizoku Sentai 10 Gokaiger: An Interesting Reunion Movie That Revives The Hype
I must admit I have been skipping the 10 years after movies - except for Dekaranger. I skipped Go-Onger because well, it's really a mess after all IMHO after I've watched Caaaarrrrrannngger! Now, I decided to check the movie with a new plot. There will be (some) spoilers to which I might give. I'll tr to keep them at a minimum. Though, there are some interesting returns.
I was thinking about a couple of guest stars. Takamichi from Kiramager made a cameo. Granted, Naruhisa Arakawa was its headwriter. Now, I thought about a couple of cool returns No, Basco didn't return as Kei Hosogai plays a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT CHARACTER. Jun Matsumoto is playing as HIMSELF.
Tyuyoshi Matsubara is the opening theme singer. Here, he's one of the villains named Hattori. I guess it's become quite a common thing that some people make a cameo while being one of the person behind the scenes. I wonder was this almost as intentional as the late Stan Lee making a cameo?
Rikako Sakata (who got married some time ago) returns as an another antagonist. Personally, I kinda liked her acting here. She did well in her role as Miu in Kamen Rider Fourze - a defrosting Head Bitch in Charge who becomes a better character. I just felt that her appearance unintentionally made me forget about Gia in Power Rangers Megaforce - a failure until this very day!
Metal Yoshida plays as the third associate Horochi. TBH, casting Yoshida as a VILLAIN instead of just the identity crisis guy Pierre in Kamen Rider Gaim. I just felt it's funny that Yoshida looks a lot like Gary Alejano. Yoshida does well here to portray a masculine character while Pierre was a weird mix of macho and effeminate. I felt like Yoshida's casting as a villain two years after Alejano's defeat in the 2019 Senatorial elections added salt to the latter's wounds. Though, I think it's just a coincidence.
Jun Yamasaki was known to play as Hojo on Kamen Rider Agito and Itsuro in Kamen Rider Faiz. I admit that Yamasaki did manage to give an impressive scene - he was annoying as Hojo in Agito. Though, I still wish that Shinji Kasahara from Timeranger took that role. Yamasaki's character as the Minister of Defense is to use the Super Sentai powers to conquer the Universe. Though, I felt I wish that Yuji Abe who played as Iwao Daimon (or Satan) in Exceedraft were available for the role.
Closing thoughts
Granted, I'm not too pleased with Toei Ltd. right now. I was thinking about how the Minister of Defense with the Kabut Pirates seek to weaponize the Super Sentai keys. I was thinking about how I tend to comment Super Sentai is getting commercialized. Until now, I feel that Kyoryuger and Ryusoulger can never get what made Zyuranger and Abaranger memorable. I still feel that Ninninger is really a mess that only got "fixed" because Ninja Steel is much worse. I feel Zenkaiger is too focused on gimmicks and Donbrother may just be that too especially with the first male pink ranger (in the form of the Pheasant from the Momotaro story). It seems that it's all about baiting. I think about how watching this movie is a good distraction from the current Super Sentai.
I'm thinking about the part where Gai Ikari gets misled and ends up regretting it. The Minister of Defense is one sadistic prick who had his own death coming. The Minister of Defense may end up representing the possible bad direction Super Sentai could end up if Toei doesn't take heed. I felt that Kyoryuger was too focused on dancing to toy sales unlike how Abaranger knew how to introduce the toys better. I felt that while ToQGer did win an award - it didn't justify overworking Yasuko Kobayashi. I also felt that Ryusoulger going back to dinosaurs was a really bad idea and too focused on commercialization. I felt the Minister of Defense might be a foreshadow of what could happen to Super Sentai if Toei doesn't watch it.
What are your thoughts about the movie?
I have to admit that Kaizoku Sentai Ten Gokaiger was a very good movie. It took place 2 years after the Super Sentai Strongest Battle and shortly before the Tojitendo had captured the Gokaigers and 43 other Super Sentai Teams and imprisoned them into Tojiru Gears. It was released during the Zenkaiger Era. However, here are my disappointments in the movie:
ReplyDelete-Riria Kojima-Baba and Ai Moritaka refused to reprised their roles as the older versions of Mio Natsume/ToQ 3gou and Kagura Izumi/Toq 5gou respectively. Instead, younger actresses Kaoruko Ishii and Rara Shimizu took their places as the younger versions of Mio and Kagura respectively.
-Nada/Gaisoulg did not returned here in the movie. Remember, prior to Nada, Gaisoulg defeated the Gokaigers and took Luka Millfy/GokaiYellow away to planet Nemesis, which makes Captain Marvelous/GokaiRed angry as he became of the team members of the Oddball Team in the Super Sentai Strongest Battle two years ago. If Nada could've been revived as Gaisoulg, then the Gokaigers could've have a rematch fight against him, although Nada will surely and allegedly denied the allegations. I wonder what is Seiya Osada doing right now?
-The supposedly other Gokai Changes did not appeared. For example, Male KiramaiGreen, Female KiramaiYellow, Female RyusoulBlack, Male Chameleon Green, etc.
-No cameos of the Zenkaigers, Zox Goldtweaker/TwoKaizer and Tojitendo (who captured the Gokaigers off-screen and imprisoned them into the Tojiru Gears) have appeared in this movie. The Zenkaigers did appear briefly only at the end credits of the movie.
-The supposedly other cameos from the 2012-2019 Super Sentai Series (Go-Busters to Ryusoulger) weren't returning due to COVID-19 Pandemic because Toei only limits the number of actors and actresses to avoid the virus spread-out during the locked-in shooting of the movie in various isolated bubble locations.
By the way, the correct name of the actor is Hiroya Matsumoto, the guy who played Tsubasa Ozu/MagiYellow and Masato Jin/Beet Buster, not Jun Matsumoto.