Avatar Sentai Donbrothers VS. Kikou Sentai Zenkaiger: A Pretty Strange Crossover

Personally, I don't like crossover movies these days. Sure, I can expect them to be as non-canon as the Dragon Ball Z movie series. Here, I felt that there could've been the usual way to excuse things like make a movie-only timeline. Instead, the movie does try to "solve things" by creating two parallel worlds between Zenkaiger and its successor Donbrothers. I may have not liked Zenkaiger based on its execution (I feel Junko Komura just sucks with anniversaries) but the unorthodox team is something I'm willing to see again. Meamwhile, Donbrothers has a more unorthodox team of humans. Two hardly typical Super Sentai teams meet together for this strange crossover.

The movie begins with Kashiwa Mochi (Red Bean Sticky Rice Cake) World from the world of Zenkaiger. A lot of crazy stuff happen such as when Zoxi becomes the puppet king called Kashiwa Mochi King. I must laugh (or cringe) at this one. This reminds me one episode of B-Fighter Kabuto where there was a mochi eating contest. However, I'll admit that B-Fighter Kabuto's mochi-eating episode was far more well-implemented than what Junko Komura could.

We have the world of Donbrothers seemingly picking off from where the series left off. Several stuff happen like Jirou becoming the de-facto leader of the Donbrothers. It's hardly that a sixth ranger takes over - unless you refer to Dengkitai JAKQ where Banba became Big One and led what started out as a quartet. We have both Tsubasa and Sononi no longer on the run and running a cafe. It's a good thing Toshiki Inoue is balancing things out. Komura may have done well with Kaito Sentai Lupinranger vs. Keisatsu Sentai Patranger BUT I just can't really think well of her as an anniversary season head writer!

The movie doesn't really have much of the flow that most crossover movies had. The older anniversary seasons usually tried to make it look like both series are in  huge What If setting. One of my favorite crossovers has to be Kyukyu Sentai GoGoFive vs. Seijuu Sentai Gingaman. The movie presented a huge hypothetical scenario if Grandienne had another son before Zylpheeza was namely Darkness King Gill. Seijuu Sentai Gingaman vs. Denji Sentai Megaranger made a What If scenario that supposedly took place after the end of both series. This movie seems to take place at the end of both series like Gingaman vs. Megaranger. However, I think the movie has some clunky pacing.

What I felt could've been done was this. I think we could've non-canonically made Donbrothers Kaito the same as Zenkaiger Kaito FOR THIS NON-CANON FILM. It would be pretty much like how Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger managed to act like as if everything since Himitsu Sentai Goranger fit one timeline. I think it'd be fun if both Kaitos were just one person in the crossover instead of separating them in this crossover. Donbrothers Kaito claimed to be some eternal hero. If not, another alternative is to make Donbrothers Kaito as the Kami-Sama of Zenkaiger.

I did enjoy Donbrothers. I didn't enjoy Zenkaiger as much as I expected. Right now, I think the yearly crossover movie might need another break. If not, the writers and producers can think of better ways to work with the portals that lead to different universes. Hopefully, this movie can serve as a lesson on how to work that concept out better.