Sean Akizuki's Super Sentai Blog

This week's Zyuohger gave me the feeling Michael Bay directed this episode. While that's just a joke due to what happened, it's because of how the episode went that's why I want to joke Bay himself directed this episode. Misao is still trying to make up for what happened to him while he was under Genis' control. I could talk about some things that I expected and what I didn't expect. While Misao goes jogging, he touches a bike and it explodes after he feels some weird tingling. I thought he secretly had that power until it's revealed that Deathgalien team player Illusion is behind it. What makes me go WTF is to think is that there have been a lot of bombings here and there lately. Illusion turns every object into a bomb which makes Misao believe he's cursed. That's until the more predicable part where it was a Deathgalien plot to blow up Tokyo.

For some time now, Super Sentai's had the dancing cast during the end credits. Zyuohger is still doing it. But it's not entirely new either. Instead, it creates various gimmicks where some succeed and the others fail in a process of trial and error. It can take a kick back all the way back to when Super Sentai was at its "struggle stage" up to present to understand what went on, why it didn't immediately work and why it works now.  Battle Fever J starts off as that super old school Super Sentai. It was the first series to have "Super" in it but later, Goranger was retroactively named as the first Super Sentai series during Ohranger. I can't really find the central theme of this rather super old school show. The show presented dancing as part of its themes where the heroes actually used dance steps in their fighting techniques. But the idea wasn't so well explored until later. I guess the dance steps done by the crew here were too hard for ...

As trends change every now and then, Super Sentai ends up getting its development team to innovate for the children's market. While I could enjoy some lighter and softer Super Sentai like Zyuohger is pretty entertaining for me, I tend to prefer darker and edgier. Ironically, I didn't take much of a liking to Go-Busters compared to Zyuohger. Most of my favorite series (based on my own personal preferences anyway) are on the darker and edgier. But is darker and edgier still feasible? Let's try to take a review of the trends that happened. Remember that I'm just sharing my opinion on series I've seen from start to end and some very limited knowledge. Warning! Spoilers ahead! Read at your own risk!

So Zyuohger had one delay last month and another this month. I was getting pessimistic because at least two delays were happening. I don't feel very happy about how Kamen Rider Ghost is and I'd be looking forward to the Zyuohger movie instead of the former's movie. But I'd still watch Kamen Rider Ghost's movie even if I'm not liking this year's Kamen Rider as much. It's time for this week's Super Sentai and I'm happy to announce I've been feeling positive about Zyuohger.

While doing some rewatching of pre-Decade Heisei era Kamen Riders, I noticed that there was a time when there's been some differences in tone between Super Sentai and Kamen Rider. Back then, Super Sentai was usually darker, edgier, more intense in the action scenes department and "more mature" though it was also rivaled by Metal Hero. Eventually, Metal Hero jumped into the lighter and softer with B-Fighter Kabuto, Robotack and Kabutack leading to its eventual cancellation of the franchise. Super Sentai started to get less serious (again) with Carranger since some pre-Zyuranger era series like Dynaman and Goggle V were on the lighter side but more action anyway.

I don't have anything against lighter and softer Super Sentai as long as it's done well. Some of my favorite Super Sentai and Kamen Rider shows happen to exist in the world of teddy bears and rainbows like Kamen Rider Kiva. Ressha Sentai ToQGer also takes place in such a light environment. The show itself could have actually tried to become an official version of Akibaranger running for an entire season instead of a two season mini-series. I think Toei really wanted a season long Akibaranger and thus ToQGer was born. Good idea, good innovation. But in every step of innovation a brilliant idea can go down the drain if the wrong people are assigned to it. That's what I thought happened during ToQGer. I don't think the producer was a wrong choice. It doesn't necessarily have to be Jun Hikasa the producer of Akibaranger. The idea of trains was a brilliant idea. Takaaki Utsunomiya could've been kept as the head producer of the whole show. But I could start talkin...

Super Sentai's innovation may involve introducing an entirely new motif. Let's think about how Super Sentai had that. Goranger and JAKQ were two different motifs. Battle Fever J was trying to do Avengers x Super Sentai. Military-based Super Sentai like Goranger, Sun Vulcan, Changeman, Jetman and Ohranger have different motifs in spite of being united under the military theme. Then you have some first time motifs like Changeman had the space theme followed up by next year's Flashman (and the same pattern happened with Power Rangers in Space and Power Rangers Lost Galaxy), Turboranger with cars (and in extension teenagers with attitude). Fiveman introduced a sibling themed Super Sentai followed by GoGoFive and Magiranger yet they all had different motifs.  The other one is to bring a theme back and modify it for the modern audience. Carranger was an upgraded version of Turboranger in terms of mecha and writing. As mentioned earlier, you can bring one motif up an...