Most Childish Sentai's

Recently, Sean Akizuki made his list of "kiddie" Sentai series, so I decided to make my own list of Sentais I consider kiddie or childish.

Go-Onger

G0-Onger IMO is easily the most childish Sentai series with the talking mechas complete with anime eyes (the engines), cartoon strips, and its comedic style. Commercially Go-Onger was a success, selling 12 Billion Yen in toys, the highest since Abaranger. However, this strategy alienated older adults. Among English-speaking fans Go-Onger has come off as a love it or hate it series with many calling Go-Onger the worst Sentai series, mostly due to its childish nature. Personally, I don't think Go-Onger is a bad series at all. Actually, I feel that its childish nature works well in its favor and makes the show entertaining. The engines have really cool and vibrant personalities with my favorites being Speedor, Birca, and Bear RV. As for the show's comedy, I thought it was ok. Not as good as the comedy from Dekaranger, Boukenger, or Shinkenger but much better than say Goseigers, Power Rangers Ninja Storm, and Power Rangers Samurai.

Magiranger

Magiranger I think is the second most childish Sentai behind Go-Onger because of the magic motif, characters like Mandora Boy and Smokey, and its goofy comedy. However, this series mixes its childishness with some pretty dark and serious moments. Unlike Go-Onger, Magiranger doesn't get as much criticism for its childish nature due to its unique story. Personally I think the childish aspects of Magiranger were ok. I'm not a fan of magic shows but I felt the magic motif overall was handled ok. Mandora Boy was ok and I actually liked Smokey quite a bit. The comedy, like Go-Onger's, I thought was just ok. However, for me Magiranger is at its best when its more serious, like when the story focuses on the villains or Magiranger's family aspects.

Zyuranger

Zyuranger is another childish Sentai. The dinosaur motif was handled in a fairytale fantasy setting, the child of the week gimmick, and its kiddie outro. This seemed to work well with kids but like Go-Onger it alienated older audiences. Among Western fans, Zyuranger has fans split between fans who think it's not that good and fans who tend to overrate the series due to MMPR nostalgic factors. Personally, I disliked Zyuranger's childish aspects. I don't really care for the fairytale setting in Zyuranger, but unlike Magiranger I didn't think it was handled well at all. Also, the child of the week gimmick I feel is pretty lame and distracts the show from character development. However, like Magiranger, I think Zyuranger is at its best when its story circles around its more serious aspects such as Burai's touching story, his relationship with his brother Geki, and to an extent Bandora.

Goseiger

Goseiger is fourth on this list for a few reasons. The show's motif IMO is pretty childish with the angel motif and the second outro was kinda kiddie. However, it's last on this list because when you actually watch the show it seems unsure as to rather it wants to take the turn of childish comedy like Go-Onger or go for the more serious tone. Goseiger hasn't been well received among Western fans. I have to admit like Magiranger's motif, I'm not much of a fan of Goseiger's angel motif. But at least Magiranger did handle the magic motif reasonably well, here Goseiger does virtually nothing with the angel motif. Initially it was set up well with the 5 Gosei Angels from three different tribes but other than having different powers and abilities, nothing is really done to distinguish how these tribes are different. In Zyuranger for example, when all the characters are from different tribes, we do at least get some background story, particularly surrounding Geki and Burai. However, unlike Magiranger or Zyuranger, the serious moments in Goseiger aren't that well handled IMO, at least not until towards the end a little bit. So for me, this series fails both with its childish and comedic tone, and its more serious moments. Goseiger so far is the only Sentai series I truly dislike.

The Thunder Rangers, Power Rangers Ninja Storm

After writing my previous post on the Goraijers, Sean Akizuki requested for me to do a similar post on their Power Rangers counterpart, the Thunder Rangers. So, here's the Thunder Rangers story.

The Thunder Rangers' backstory is somewhat similar to their Hurricanger counterparts, the Goraijers. Yet it's much different as well. Like in Hurricanger, the Thunder Rangers are from a different ninja school, who's ninja school was destroyed by Lothor's invasion. Also, like Dustin, they had dirt bike racing hobbies. They're also brothers like the Goraijers, but unlike the Goraijers they're foster brothers. It seems this was used as a plot convenience since the actors have different ethnicities. Anyways, like the Goraijers they were dealing with family issues, but instead of having a coldblooded manipulative father, they were dealing with the death of their foster parents. Lothor destroyed the Thunder Ninja Academy, captured Blake and Hunter and their sensei. Lothor blamed the death of Blake and Hunter's parents on the Wind Ranger's sensei, Kanoi. They made a deal with Lothor, battled the Wind rangers, and eventually captured Sensei Kanoi. However, when they took him to the Cavern of Spirits. It was here that the truth was revealed, that Lothor had killed their parents.

After this debacle they left town before returning a few episodes later. Here they got a second story arc in which Chuubo tricked them and put them under mind control. Chuubo used them to fight the wind rangers. However, Blake snapped out of Chuubo's mind control first. He told the wind rangers the truth about what happened. Together with the wind rangers, Blake was able to bring his brother Hunter to his senses. Because of this humiliating defeat, Chuubo was exiled from Lothor's ship. Chuubo went after the Thunder Rangers and captured them in a box. They were eventually freed by the Wind Rangers and joined the Wind Rangers permamently in their fight against Lothor.

The Thunder Rangers backstory doesn't go any deeper than this. Personally, I thought the first arc involving their foster parents was ok, but it wasn't mind blowing like the Goraijers story with their father. The second story arc with them being manipulated by Chuubo comes off to me as an outright Evil Green Ranger rip-off. It's not nearly as intense and the dialog during this arc tends to be hit or miss. It's either funny at times or overly cheesy. Their development also isn't as strong as the Goraijers, who gradually bonded with the Hurricangers and became friends. There may have been some limitations placed on the writers by Disney, which Disney is known for much softer story telling. There are some reports that during Dino Thunder the writers wanted to have Trent be the Evil White Ranger just as long as Mikoto was evil during Abaranger. I will say that unlike in Hurricanger when Isshu and Nanami have a ship-tease and nothing is done with it until Hurricanger, they do go a little farther with the hints of Blake and Tori. It's evident early on that Tori likes Blake and the writers seem to want to hook them up, but like the Isshu-Nanami relationship it really goes nowhere. As for the characters themselves, I find Hunter to be really bland. He's not the worst power ranger character I've seen but I think he's just a boring character. I do kinda like Blake. He's charming, somewhat cool, and somewhat interesting. Still, neither character really compares to either Ikkou or Isshu from Hurricanger. In fact, I don't think they're even the best part of Ninja Storm. Personally, I think the best part of Ninja Storm is the story surrounding Cam who later becomes the Green Samurai Ranger (Shurikenger's counterpart), the story surrounding his family, his father (Sensei Kanoi), and his uncle (who happens to be Lothor the main villain). Also, Lothor who's kinda funny I think is also more interesting than either the Thunder Rangers are.

Goraijers: Transition from Enemies to Friends of the Hurricangers

Among all the jerkass charachters that went through the defrosting development, the Goraijers are my favorites. More so than similarly developed characters like Gai, Hoji, and the Go-On Wings. I like all these characters as well, but I like the Goraijers even more not only because they're badass but they have a kickass backstory and strong character development. First to start off, they're from the Ikazuchi Ninja Academy, the rival ninja school to the Hurricanger's Hayate Ninja Academy. Initially the Goraijers were raised by their father to gain strength through emotions such as rage and hatred. Living off of these emotions for most of their lives, they strived to gain the power of "that." I won't mention what "that" is to avoid spoilers for those of you who haven't watched Hurricanger yet. They joined the Jakanja with the common goal of obtaining "that" and were cold blooded enemies of the Hurricangers. Eventually, they learned that in order to obtain "that," one of them would have to kill the other. They learned that their father cared nothing for their lives and more about the power of "that." After learning the truth they turned against the Jakanja, and initially formed a loose alliance with the Hurricangers and later Shurikenger. Besides having to deal with the issues from their dark and cruel father, Ikkou had a rivalry with the Jakanja's third spear, Manmaruba. Manmaruba had planted a scorpion egg in Ikkou's body and was on track to kill him on the next full moon. When Ikkou discovered he had the scorpion egg in his body he decided to accept his inevitable death as his "destiny." However, his brother Isshu served as Ikkou's balance and refused to believe that death was Ikkou's destiny. Ikkou also had a rivalry with Yousuke. Ikkou wanted to act cold to the Hurricangers and wanted him and Isshu to support them from the shadow, even though it was evident that Ikkou actually was fond of Yousuke. Meanwhile, Isshu was loosening up as he was starting to fall in love for Nanami. Eventually the next full moon came, and Ikkou was on the verge of dying. However, he was saved by Yousuke, who risked his life and tricked Manmaruba to give him a scorpion egg. Yousuke used this scorpion egg as an antidote to save Ikkou. After this incident Ikkou defeated Manmaruba and the Goraijers officially joined the Hurricangers and bonded together as friends. Still, they faced more hardships as the series went on. Manmaruba was revived and later, Isshu's past demons of his father and being from the rival ninja school would come back to get the better of him. Eventually Isshu as well overcame this issue. For me, while maybe not the best, the Goraijers development and backstory has a lot of good drama and is one of my favorites. For anyone interested in watching Hurricanger, I really like the series a lot. Of course, Hurricanger still has a lot more good stuff to offer other than the Goraijers but the Goraijers alone are more than enough to make it worth watching.

Power Rangers Handling of Midseason Cast Changes

Over the course of Power Rangers there have been six midseason cast changes. All of which happened during the early years of the program (MMPR S2- Lost Galaxy). Here I decided to take a look back at all these different cast changes.

MMPR S2


The first one happened during MMPR S2. The actors who played Jason, Zack, and Trini (Austin St. John, Walter Jones, and Thuy Trang) left reportedly due to low pay. They were replaced by three new characters, Rocky, Adam, and Aisha. This cast change was poorly handled. After the actors who played Jason, Zack, and Trini left the show the producers had to redub their voices with voice actors who sounded nothing like Jason, Zack, or Trini. However, with a lack of options after the actors left, it's not like they couldn't do much more. The producers often used camera tricks and stock footage to try to make it appear that they were still there. The problem came after the cast change. The new characters lacked development and personalities. Adam had somewhat of a personality as the cool guy and a strong martial artist, but the writers seemed like they didn't know what to do with Rocky and Aisha. Rocky for example, one episode would be portrayed as this happy-go-lucky character that just wants to have fun, while the next episode it seemed his personality would shift to a stoic leader (second in command actually) like Jason.

MMPR S3, Kimberly and Katherine



In MMPR S3, Kimberly's actress Amy Jo Johnson had told the producers ahead of time that she wanted to leave the show to explore new career opportunities. This worked in the writers favor as they were given time to properly write Kimberly off. Among all the cast changes I think this one was handled the best. Kimberly was given a 9 episode long story arc that also introduced Katherine's character and gave some background on her character. Katherine was initially under a spell and being used by Rita and Zedd to spy on the rangers. However, it's revealed that she's initially from Australia and was once a diver, but feared diving because of an accident that happened to her as a kid. Eventually, Kimberly who loved gymnastics, accepted an invitation to train for world gymnastics competition in Florida. Furthermore, there was some good drama during this arc, including Ninjor and the Falcon Zord being captured. This story arc involving Kimberly's smooth departure and Kat's introduction, was IMO the best story arc during an otherwise average MMPR S3. Sure it was sad to see Kimberly go but it was a well written arc.

MMPR S3/Zeo, Aisha & Tanya



Near the end of MMPR S3, Aisha's actress, Karen Ashley, wanted to leave the show due to the heavy workload (reportedly 16 hour workdays). Saban granted her request and initially the writers had planned a story arc for Aisha's departure similar to Kimberly's. However, with the upcoming Alien Rangers arc the writers dropped the idea, feeling there was no need to. What we got was kid Ashley giving her powers and responsibility as a power ranger to kid Tanya, before the world was turned back to its normal time. This was another poorly handled cast change. We never got a chance to see Aisha's actress, Karen Ashley during her departure and it was rushed, kinda thrown in at the last second. Albiet Tanya in Zeo did get much more character development than Aisha did in MMPR S2, it was still a rushed scenario.

Beginning of Turbo, Rocky and Justin



Near the end of Zeo, Rocky's actor Steven Cardenas had to leave the show reportedly due to suffering an injury. Fox Network demanded that his replacement would be a kid in order to appeal to Power Rangers' younger fanbase. This move, however, backfired and is the worst of the cast changes IMO. The move didn't bring new children viewers and instead the ratings plummeted. Justin through the first 18 episodes was a bratty kid who seemed to think that being a Power Ranger was more for fun than being a responsibility. Justin's bratty behavior was toned down during the second half of the season, however. It should also be noted that two episodes later they replaced Zordon and Alpha 5, two characters that the audience had then grown to love, with even more annoying characters Demitria (who only talked in questions) and Alpha 6 (a jive-street talking version of Alpha 5).

Midseason Turbo


At around the same time Rocky had left the show, Tommy and Katherine's actors (Jason David Frank and Catherine Sutherland) also wanted to leave the show for new career opportunities. However, Saban did manage to sign them both to contracts for the first 18 episodes of Turbo which allowed them time to be written off. Tommy and Katherine were planned to be replaced by Carlos and Ashley. However, after Judd Lynn was promoted to head writer after Douglass Sloan's departure, Lynn decided to start fresh by replacing the entire ranger cast except for Justin. Two other new characters were introduced, T.J. and Cassie. Shortly after the cast change the ratings went up. Some fans complain about this cast change, however I don't think it was that bad. Initially Carlos did come off as kinda selfish and Cassie was a little annoying in her introductory episode, but after the cast change all the new characters got solid development. They were a group which I warmed up to quickly, and all of them were likable characters. These four stayed for the next season, Power Rangers In Space, which is considered by many to be Power Rangers' best season.

Turbo/In Space, Justin and Andros



Among all the cast changes this is probably the only one where the Power Ranger fandom was glad to see the previous character leave. Here, Justin's actor Blake Foster left the show at the end of Turbo. He was replaced by Andros. Andros would go on to be one of the more popular Power Ranger characters that was not from the original Mighty Morphin cast. Unlike previous cast changes like MMPR S2 where they treated the new cast members simply as the replacements, Andros' character was given heavy development. A large portion of In Space's story focused around Andros, but not so much that the other characters were obsolete like they are in Mystic Force. Andros served as a mentor role as well as having problems like his missing sister and his friend Zhane who was nearly killed in a battle that preceeded the season.

Lost Galaxy

The last of these midseason cast changes came in Lost Galaxy. Kendrix's actress, Valorie Varone, had been diagnosed with leukimia and had to leave the show to receive treatment. Her character, Kendrix, became the first power ranger character (and third non-power ranger character) to be killed off during a series. Kendrix's character died in the In Space team-up while trying to protect Cassie. Originally the producers had planned to replace Kendrix with Cassie, and one episode with Cassie was shot as Lost Galaxy Pink that was reported to be excellent. However, Cassie's actress Patricia Ja Lee, reportedly couldn't come to terms on a contract with Saban. Reports have ranged from her being paid less than the rest of the cast to her being upset that she wasn't going to be placed in the opening credits. Eventually Kendrix was replaced by another In Space alumni, Karone, who was previously the main villain during In Space, Astronema. This worked really well from a story perspective. Kendrix's death added an emotional element to the story and showed maturity, while part of Karone's development was overcoming her past demons of being Astronema. After Lost Galaxy, the cast has changed at the end of the year regularly like Super Sentai has, so I won't go into detail for the rest of the cast changes.

Super Sentai's Handling of Nostalgia

Like Power Rangers, Sentai has its share of seasons that have a nostalgic base. Here's a look at a few selected examples.

Gaoranger


Gaoranger was the 25th anniversary season of Super Sentai. Like its Power Ranger counterpart, it didn't really intend to dig deep into nostalgia. However, it did have a few nostalgic elements. The heroes' color scheme was the same as Jetman's and GaoYellow's suit even had wings that were reminiscent of Jetman. The main nostalgic factor used was Gaoranger vs. Super Sentai, which involved a team-up with GingaBlue, MegaPink, Red Falcon, and the Big One with a quick pose of all the previous red rangers. Personally, I thought the team-up was ok. I liked the storyline with each of the past rangers helping the Gaorangers to overcome their fears and anxiety, but there are a few elements IMO that detract from the show. For one, there's no previous Sentai villain in the show, instead they fight previously defeated Orgs from Gaoranger. Also, more than half of it feels more like a clip show and we have a little too much of the orgs fighting stock footage. Then all the red senshi do is seemingly just pose and do their rollcall which was again, stock footage. It's an ok team-up, but among the anniversary team-ups I like Boukenger vs Super Sentai is better.



With Hurricanger, I don't know if I would call it a nostalgic base season. It combined elements of Liveman (student academies and starting out with three members with two more joining later) with Kakuranger (ninja theme). However, it's not really intended nostalgia like Boukenger and Gokaiger are. However, I do think Hurricanger combines these elements with its own unique elements and still manages to have an awesome season.

Abaranger


Abaranger bares a lot of nostalgia to Zyuranger. The most obvious is the dinosaur theme. The blue and red senshi both have the same type of dinosaur as a mecha as their Zyuranger counterparts did (T-Rex and Triceratops), and the lone female character had a Pteradactyle-like mecha like the lone Zyuranger female character. Storylines, however, are vastly different. Zyuranger handled the Dinosaur theme like a fairytail, while Abaranger put it more into a modern context, taking characters from present-day Japan. Another major difference is that Abaranger uses modern science with a twist, explaining that the asteroid that hit the Gulf of Mexico 65 million years ago separated the Earth into Earth and DinoEarth, with Dinosaurs still living on DinoEarth, which is essentially another dimension. I haven't seen a whole lot of Abaranger, but I do think it handles the dinosaur theme better than Zyuranger, which uses it like a fairytale.

Boukenger


Like Gaoranger, Boukenger was an anniversary season. However, Boukenger was the first season to really dig deep into nostalgia. Many of the villains and villain mechas had designs based on past Sentai mechas. Also, many of the characters were based off of previous Sentai characters and there were some Jetman elements, such as the black senshi, Masumi, being the rebel of the group and having an inter-squad rivalry with the red senshi, Akashi. After the ending credits, Boukenger also had the 30 Sentai Encyclopedia, which paid tribute to all the previous Sentais as well as other various elements of Sentai. I think these elements were well handled and as mentioned above, I like its Anniversary team-up, Boukenger vs Super Sentai, better than Gao vs SS.

Gekiranger


Gekiranger, like Hurricanger and Abaranger, was another somewhat nostalgic season but may have not intended to be nostalgic. It combined Dairanger's Chinese martial arts with some elements from Gaoranger. The Gaoranger elements include the beast theme, CGI mecha's, and even some of the mecha's being similar to Gaoranger, such as GekiElephant looking almost like GaoElephant, GekiGorilla being similar to GaoGorilla, GekiShark and GaoShark, GekiGazille and GaoDeer, GekiTiger and GaoTiger, GekiWolf and GaoWolf, and SaiDain being semilar to GekiRino. Also, Gou/GekiViolet, bares some similarities to Tsukumaro/GaoSilver. Both fulfill the "6th ranger" role, both are initially lone wolf characters, both at one time used an evil power to try to defeat an evil enemy, and both have wolf-like powers. Like Hurricanger and Abaranger, Gekiranger had much different storylines than the series they used to combine the elements. I can't comment a lot on how it handles the Chinese martial arts theme compared to Dairanger, but I do think Gekiranger handles some elements better than Gaoranger. For example, I like Gou more as a 6th ranger and lone wolf character than Tsukumaro, and the CGI mecha's are better handled in Gekiranger than they are in Gaoranger. However, I don't think the CGI mecha's really become good until Gokaiger.

Goseiger


Goseiger also had some nostalgic elements. The color of the suits and the helmit designs were similar to that of Zyuranger and the name Goseiger bears resemblence to Gosei Sentai Dairanger. The most glaring nostalgic resemblence is to Magiranger, with the Yuumajuu Beasts using magic powers and Super Goseiger mode being and looking similar to Magi Legend. However, I think the Magiranger elements weren't well handled at all. The Yuumajuu Beasts were terrible villains and the Super Goseiger mode just looked clunky with the big heads on the chest piece.

Gokaiger

Like Gaoranger and Boukenger, Gokaiger is also an anniversary season, being Sentai's 35th. In just 12 episodes, Gokaiger has dug deeper than Gaoranger and Boukenger combined. The ranger color schemes are the same as the original Sentai, Goranger. Also, there's the Legendary War, involving all past heroes, the Gokaigers transforming into past Sentai teams, and of course guest stars from past Sentais. Among the previous seasons to use nostalgia, Gokaiger has IMO handled it the best. The Gokaigers use the previous Sentai powers for better match-ups against the MOTW and the past hero guest stars are usually there mostly to develop the Gokaiger characters and thus don't steal the spotlight.

Power Rangers Handling of Nostalgia

Since we have two series that are trying to connect to nostalgia (Power Rangers Samurai and Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger), I decided to examine how both past and current incarnations of Power Rangers and Super Sentai have handled dealing with nostalgia. I'll analyze Power Rangers first and then analyze Sentai later on in the week.

Power Rangers Wild Force

The first is Power Rangers Wild Force, being Power Rangers' 10th anniversary season. Like its Sentai counterpart, Gaoranger, Wild Force didn't dig deep into the nostalgia factor. The only time it dug deep into nostalgia was with the episode, Forever Red. Forever Red essentially took a short pose of a bunch of red rangers from Gaoranger vs Super Sentai and made it into their own unique episode. While they're were many plot holes in Forever Red, there was some cool things about it. First was the fact that all of the previous red rangers as well as the current one, Cole Evans, united to defeat the remains of the Machine Empire. The fight scenes in the episode were also really awesome. It also had a new version of the Astro Megaship from In Space, as well as an Alpha robot, Alpha 7, that had the voice of Alpha 5 but the body of Alpha 6. It was also cool that many former Power Ranger actors, such as Walter Jones who played Zack, Archie Kao who played Kai, and Catherine Sutherland who played Kat, got roles as voice actors for some of the Machine Empire generals in the episode. I also liked the ending when all the other rangers try to outdo Tommy. However, for me there are two things that really bring the episode down a bit. One, Jason's cockiness. Seriously, he never acted like that during MMPR or Zeo, and suddenly in this one episode they make him look like the biggest asshole in Power Rangers history. The other is the whole Serpentera scenario. First, the CGI Serpentera is terrible, and was a whole lot smaller than the original one was back in MMPR S2. Second, how easily he was defeated by Cole on the Wild Force Rider, which is pretty dumb considering this thing was easily 10 times the size of any zord and once destroyed an entire planet. For me, while Forever Red is a good episode, it feels a bit rush and would have been better as a two parter, like it originally was planned to be.

Power Rangers Dino Thunder

Among all the Power Ranger seasons that attempted to tackle nostalgia I think Dino Thunder handles the best. The obvious was bringing Tommy back to serve as a mentor. Unlike MMPR S2, where he seemed too powerful, he wasn't given too much focus in Dino Thunder. Dino Thunder I felt did a better job of developing the characters around Tommy than MMPR S2, but that's besides the point. Besides Tommy, Dino Thunder takes advantage of MMPR nostalgia with the dinosaur theme. Abaranger was the perfect Sentai to adapt for MMPR nostalgia. The red ranger had a T-rex zord, the blue ranger a Triceratops zord, Kira, the lone female ranger, had a Pterodactyl zord, and Tommy's Brachio Zord is reminiscent of Titanus. The characters except for Tommy, are all teenagers and have to learn to bond together even though they're from different worlds. Trent was a lot like Tommy and his morphing call, White Ranger Dino Power, was a throw back to the song "White Ranger Tiger Power." There was also the episode, A Legacy of Power, which was a clip show of the entire series that I personally find to be much better than Forever Red was. So in short, Abaranger had all the elements for Power Rangers to take advantage of MMPR nostalgia and handled it quite well IMO.

Power Rangers Operation Overdrive

Like Dino Thunder, Operation Overdrive inherited a lot of nostalgia elements from its Sentai counterpart, Boukenger. First, Operation Overdrive had the same colored suits as the original 5 in MMPR did. It also inherited villains and evil mechas that were based on past Sentai mechas and bared resemblance to many past Power Ranger megazords. However, Operation Overdrive basically did nothing with these nostalgic factors. It did have the team-up Once A Ranger, which I thought was a descent team-up. It was by far the best episodes in Operation Overdrive, but it inherited and suffered from many of the flaws that Operation Overdrive already had such as terrible villains, bad acting, bad dialog, and an extreme overuse of explosions. So while Once A Ranger may be the best episodes in Operation Overdrive, that really isn't saying much for a terrible season.

Power Rangers Samurai

Samurai, IMO has handled the nostalgia even worst than Operation Overdrive has. Operation Overdrive basically did nothing with the nostalgia elements it inherited from Boukenger. Samurai, on the other hand, has tried to create its own nostalgic elements and failed miserably. First, I will give credit where credit is due. The theme song is a remix of the original Go Go Power Rangers theme song, and I admit I do like the theme song. The rest of the nostalgia has been terrible. They brought Bulk back, and while it's nice to see him back he's had nothing to do with the plots so far. Him and Spike are seemingly thrown in there as fanservice and have absolutely no interaction with the rangers themselves. They occasionally have some interaction with the MOTW, but that's rare. I also don't like the subplot with Spike having a crush on the Pink Samurai ranger. For me it was ok when Skull had a crush on Kimberly, but this subplot just creeps me out. Besides Bulk and Spike, the morphing call is just terrible (Go Go Samurai), and the show has gone overload with the cheesy puns. The cheese was fun in MMPR, but now they've taken it up to 100, even giving the Gold Ranger, Antonio, a bunch of cheesy lines.

Gokaiger Episode 12 Review

Note: Images from Super Sentai Images

Warning: Spoilers Ahead



The episode starts with Luka, Ahim, and Don about to call Joe to see where he is. Marvelous stops them and tells them he'll definitely comeback. Next Joe has a flashback to when he was part of the Zangyach, who order him to kill a bunch of children that were taken prisoners. Joe couldn't do it and faught off the Zangyach soldiers to free the children. A transmitter is put around Joe's neck and he's rescued by Cid. Joe and Cid flee try to flee from the Zangyach, however, Cid is captured.



After the flashback Joe waits for Barizorg and confronts him. Joe tries to bring back Barizorg's memories as Cid, even using the distinctive move that Cid once taught him, but fails. Meanwhile back at the Gokai Galleon, Kaoru asks Marvelous what makes him so sure Joe will return. Marvelous tells them about how he first met Joe and a flashback is shown. Joe is fighting the Gormin, trying to escape on a planet already under the Zangyach's control. Marvelous then helps Joe and frees him from the transmitter. Marvelous was impressed by Joe's sword fighting skills and recruits Joe to join him to find the greatest treasure in the universe. Meanwhile Deretsueigar and an army of Gormin threaten to destroy the planet if the Gokaigers don't fight them. Marvelous tells everyone it's time to go. Kaoru tells them that the fate of the planet shouldn't matter to them, which Marvelous tells her it's not but it is their fight. Kaoru offers to help them because of Marvelous' injuries, but he refuses and told her that he's sure that his comrade Joe will come back to help them. Meanwhile, Joe grabs his Gokai changer and has a flashback first of Marvelous giving it to him in the beginning, then of the other Gokaigers joining them one by one with Luka being first, followed by Don, and then Ahim. Meanwhile the others are outnumbered by the Gormin, and each of them transform into three different past rangers. However, the Gormin and Deretsueigar are still too strong for them and cause them to de-transform.



Meanwhile, Joe is running to help his friends when he runs into Kaoru. Kaoru tells him that she concedes defeat in the dual with the condition that the Gokaigers must defeat the Zangyach. She gives Joe a Shinken disk and Joe thanks her. The others, unmorphed struggle to fight the superior numbers of the Gormin and Deretsueigar, but they're saved by Joe. They defeat the Gormin and then transform into Shinkengers. Marvelous strikes Deretsueigar with Rekka Daizantou, using one hand, while Joe puts the Shinken disk given to him by Kaoru to good use.


They defeat Deretsueigar who is revived and grown large by Insam. The Gokaigers counter him with GaoGokaiOh, but struggle initially. However, they unlock the Shinkenger powers and the mecha transforms into ShinkenGokaiOh. They defeat Deretsueigar with a slash from a giant version of Rekka Daizantou. The episode ends with Joe having a bonding moment with the other Gokaigers.

This two-parter began with a fantastic episode and ends with a fantastic episode. More about Joe's backstory is revealed and I love it. It sets for some interesting drama to look forward to with him and Barizorg/Cid. Some fans have complained that the fights were too short, particularly the one where they transformed into Shinkengers, but I didn't think so. I thought all the fight scenes were awesome. They really had to show some grit to end this. The unmorphed fight was awesome as well as the fight before that where Marvelous, Don, Luka, and Ahim transformed into several different past rangers. Marvelous had an awesome moment when he used Rekka Daizantou one handed. Speaking of Rekka Daizantou, it's giant version was overkill, but still really cool to see. It was also nice to see the nods given to Shinkenger like ShinkenGokaiOh's pose on the cliff like ShinkenOh's pose, and the Gormin growing large like the Nanashi use to do. This two-parter is the best so far from Gokaiger and leaves me expecting even more. I'm tempted to give it 10/10, but for now I give it 9.5/10 to see where the plot with Joe and Barizorg goes.

April Poll Results, Most Under Rated Power Rangers and Sentai Series, New Poll

Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue won the poll for most underrated Power Rangers series with 42 votes. Power Rangers Zeo was second with 35 votes. Other than these two, it wasn't much of a competition. SPD got third with 29 votes, Wild Force came in 4th with 28 votes. Operation Overdrive had the least number of votes with 21.

In a very tightly contested poll, Gaoranger won the poll for the most underrated Sentai season with 32 votes. Go-Onger narrowly missed with 31 votes, while Goseiger received 30 votes. Oranger, initially in a 4 way tie with the three I listed above, finished 4th with 25 votes. Goggle V, Hurricanger, and Abaranger tied for 5th with 22 votes. Sun Vulcan got the least number of votes with just 11.

My next polls will be favorite PR Samurai and Gokaiger character, this time voters will only be allowed one choice.

Gokaiger Episode 11 Review

Note: Images from Super Sentai Images

Warning: Spoilers Ahead




After the episode begins with Joe displaying his sword fighting skills and the Gokaigers kicking some ass, Navi gives her latest prophicy. This time, her prophicy is to "be aware of the Samurai," which both Luka and Don have trouble pronouncing. The Gokaigers go searching for a samurai and find a group of people training together. Seeing them train Joe suddenly has a flashback of him and his teacher and comrad, Cyd, training. Then suddenly Kaoru (ShinkenRed) shows up and tries to take the Shinkenger ranger keys back from the Gokaigers. Noticing Kaoru's great sword fighting skill, he offers Kaoru to fight him, which she accepts. If Kaoru win, she gets the Shinkenger ranger keys back, but if Joe wins Kaoru tells the Gokaigers the secret behind the Shinkenger powers. Meanwhile, frustraited by the Zangyach's lack of success against the Gokaigers, Oiles Gil plans his next attack. Oiles Gil's father's bodyguard, Deratsueigar, is sent to assist him in the fight to conquer Earth. Oiles Gil decides to go down to Earth with Deratsueigar attempting to defeat the Gokaigers. Barizorg goes as well to protect Oiles Gil. The dual between Kaoru and Joe is initially a tie but they're interrupted by the Zangyach attack. Both Kaoru and the Gokaigers go to stop the Zangyach attack.

After an awesome unmorphed fight against the Gormin, the Gokaigers transform into Zyurangers. However their attacks against Deretsueigar don't work. They try Dynaman but fail to succeed as well. Then they transform into Gingaman. Joe decides to go after Oiles Gil to try to end the whole thing while the other four fight Deretsueigar. The other four Gokaigers are unable to defeat Deretsueigar. Meanwhile Barizorg protects Oiles Gil and fights Joe. Joe instantly recognizes Barizorg's signature attack to be the same of his former teacher, Cyd. Joe tries to plead with Barizorg to open his eyes but Barizorg remembers nothing. Oiles Gil reveals that Barizorg is the cyborg version of Cyd, much to Joe's shock. Barizorg is about to finish off an unmorphed Joe before he's saved by Marvelous, who takes a shot in the back which wounds him. However, Marvelous shoots Oiles Gil, who begins to bleed from the shot. To protect Oiles Gil the Zangyach retreat. Later that night Marvelous is treated by Kaoru. Her retainer, Tanba, mentions that the ranger keys are probably in the chest but Kaoru is more interested in seeing how it eventually plays out. The next morning Luka discovers that Joe left the ship and left a note that says he has something to settle alone. The episode ends with Joe walking the streets.

This episode was awesome, the best so far imo. The brief dual between Joe and Kaoru was awesome to see and it was great to see some of Joe's past revealed. I believe on one of my earlier episode reviews That Chick had commented that she thought Barizorg was Joe's teacher. Look's like you hit that right on the nail. The unmorphed fight was awesome as well. It was also the first time the Gokaigers were significantly challenged and got their butts kicked. This is good because now they won't look too invincible. Overall a really awesome episode and I'm looking forward to the second part of this arc. I give it 9/10.