Integrity vs Greed: Heisei Kamen Rider's Quick Slow Death

 

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Disclaimer: this article's filled with supposition, rumor, gossip, assumptions, speculation and my own theories and observations. Also: it's long and doesn't have pictures, so buckle up, kids.
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A show can't stay on top forever -- for as enormously popular as Kamen Rider was in the '70s, the franchise saw diminishing returns and was originally supposed to wrap-up with 1975's Stronger, which culminated with a big team-up of all Riders up until that point. But the character's popularity led to Toei trying to reboot the series just four years later with...Kamen Rider, aka Skyrider. Skyrider enjoyed popularity and was immediately followed-up by the divisive and cornball Super 1, and Rider was off of the air again. Other than the anniversary project debuting ZX, Rider would remain off of the air again for six years, until 1987 when the juggernaut Kamen Rider Black debuted.

Black, to me, is the best representation of Ishinomori's Rider concept. It was his Rider formula updated for the '80s and given a glossier look and more nuance thanks to where television writing, suit craftsmanship, designs, special-effects and suit-acting had all advanced. It was a serious show, a dark show. It was so popular that they decide to continue it with a sequel series which...tosses out everything Black accomplished by being lighter, kiddier, sloppily written. A sequel which has nothing in common with its predecessor other than the lead actor. And, surprise surprise, the franchise died again. And this time, it stayed dead for quite a long time...

Two attempts in the '80s to bring the franchise back since its glory days, both ending with lackluster sequels which killed the goodwill brought by shows like Skyrider and Black. (Super 1 and RX share a main writer, Takashi Ezure. Coincidence? I think not. He's the guy who says he had no interest in doing kaizo ningen stories. You know, a Kamen Rider's entire deal?) The franchise is dead. We get a handful of specials and short films in the '90s, but Rider stays off of TV airwaves for ELEVEN years.

The '90s was filled with rumors of Kamen Rider's television return, but nothing solid until the end of the decade, when Toei decided to haul the guy out again. It's a beloved character and franchise, so one can imagine the competition there must have been behind the scenes to be the one given the show. Toei decided to give what would become Kuuga to producer Shigenori Takatera, who had just enjoyed success as chief producer of Carranger, Megaranger, and Gingaman. Takatera was also an assistant producer on Kamen Rider Black and RX.

Takatera is a meticulous guy who cares about the attention to detail in his shows, the world-building. He takes things seriously and wants to make quality shows. A toku fan, he worships the detail-oriented '60s Tsuburaya shows, and is someone who always wants to do NEW things with these long-running franchises. There were a lot of rules set by Toei and sponsors about what Kuuga could or couldn't do, and yet Takatera had a clear vision of what he wanted and stuck to his guns. It's well known that he tends to work slower than the upper management likes and his shows tend to go over-budget, but...damn it, he's not going to budge from what he wants the show to be! It's not a disposable toy commercial to him; he puts more thought and care into his shows, because he's a fan of these shows. There's a reason why most of his shows tend to be fan favorites.

So Rider was off of the air for all of that time. I know I talk about James Bond too much, but it's my blog -- so I don't care. But it's a little reminiscent of the delay between Licence to Kill and GoldenEye in terms of people being unsure if there was still room for the character when the world changed so much. Takatera thought Rider needed a complete rehaul, saying that he didn't even think Black was all that different from the past Riders. There's quotes by Takatera where he talks about "breaking" the image of a henshin hero show. This is why I think the lyrics of the Kuuga OP applies more to the production than the show -- "Let's start from zero."

Inspired by American dramas like The X-Files and ER, Takatera and Kuuga writer Naruhisa Arakawa's idea was to make Kuuga a realistic look at the henshin hero. They decided to film in widescreen HD for a more dramatic look. They stripped away fanciful elements like posing and calling out attack names and also eschewed staples like stock footage and the predictable (cheap) filming locations, like Mt. Makuu or the Winspector Warehouse. The show would examine the toll it takes on its heroes, the government's response to these attacks, the public's reaction to being caught in superhero battles, what mysterious monsters might be like, and what their culture might look like. Kuuga looked and felt like no tokusatsu show before or after. It was fresh, and it DID break all of the typical stylings and cliches associated with a henshin hero. It rightfully won a Seiun Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 2001. (Of the few tokusatsu shows which won that award, Kuuga was the only one deserving of it, IMO.) The show is groundbreaking.

Kuuga brought Kamen Rider back, but...for how long? Would history repeat itself?

Takatera's meticulous nature means that his shows often run behind schedule and over-budget, two things that terrify the higher-ups. Longtime Toei producer Takeyuki Suzuki had to join Kuuga's production in order to make sure it came in on time. There are rumors that he had considered firing Takatera halfway through the show's production. For all Takatera accomplished with Kuuga, Toei chose to go with a new producer for its next Rider show, Shinichiro Shirakura.

Shirakura had worked with Toei since the '90s, his biggest toku work at the time being the cult hit Changerion. Shirakura is a guy who has a nothing-is-sacred feeling of irreverence about him. Changerion was a unique show; I see it as the toku show equivalent of punk rock. It marched to its own beat, had its own attitude. You were there for the ride or weren't. (I fucking hate how that show's treated by modern fans, who think it's just fun to LOL at, not appreciating its uniquely warped view of toku heroes.) Shirakura's sensibilities worked for an outlier show like that. Shirakura joined the Kuuga staff at the halfway point as an assistant producer and is rumored to have been Suzuki's choice to replace Takatera when he was considering it. (A preview of what would end up happening with Hibiki.)

Takatera and Shirakura have two completely different viewpoints on the genre, conflicting ideals. One thing they share in common is the desire to do something different, to "break" the image of the shows. The big, big difference is that Takatera wanted to do that out of a genuine desire to help the franchise evolve. Shirakura's motivation is not so pure: it's more egotistical -- he just wants to ruffle feathers with his changes or try to put his stamp on a show.

So Agito is meant to be a direct sequel to Kuuga but with a mostly different staff. New producer, new main writer, new chief director. It keeps the dramatic visual style of Kuuga and some procedural elements but is mostly interested in doing its own thing. There are rumors that Takatera created a fuss behind the scenes, not liking that the show was a direct sequel and therefore would potentially undo any of Kuuga's successes. That led to Agito deciding to drop its connection to Kuuga. I feel like Agito main writer Toshiki Inoue would have eventually dropped the connection anyway, preferring to convey his own vision. Either way, Kuuga was mostly used as a springboard for the G3-side of the series before the series decided to go down its own road.

Kuuga and Agito are the only Toei toku shows in which its main writers are given the "series planner/creator" credit. I feel like, since it was his first turn at bat, Shirakura stayed out of Inoue's way with Agito, that Agito is totally Inoue's vision -- and that's why it was a work of quality. Arakawa certainly meshed with what Takatera wanted to do with Kuuga, but you know Takatera was the driving force and visionary behind that show. Nevertheless, both Kuuga and Agito were driven by creativity, the creator. They're both shows that wanted to break the mold and aim higher, and they succeeded. This wasn't a repeat of Super 1 or RX -- Agito's popularity led to the franchise's continuation! But a downhill trajectory does begin...

Shirakura returns to produce Ryuki; Yasuko Kobayashi, then of Gingaman and Timeranger fame, is chosen as its main writer. I think you can look at Kobayashi's shows and realize that she's adaptable to the producer working on it. I've always gotten the sense from her that she sees things as gigs and doesn't necessarily have a long term vision for what she wants to do. She's perfectly fine abandoning ideas if something new tickles her fancy, and she'll go with the flow if a higher-up orders her to do something. So with Ryuki, I feel like that's more Shirakura taking over, that it's more his show than it is Kobayashi's. They share a sensibility in terms of just liking to do things because they're cool/unexpected, and I think they tend to bring out the worst in each other.

Enjoying success from Agito, I think Shirakura wanted to push things even further. Agito was the first to have more than one Rider at three? Well, we're now going to have THIRTEEN! How far can we go with just having recolored alternate forms to sell? Well, let's try something new...by incorporating a gimmick wildly successful for animation, but never tried in live-action -- cards and monster pals! While Ryuki turned out to be an interesting show that I was really into when it aired (and it continued to stay true to the Rider spirit in new ways) the cracks began to show with Ryuki. I think a lot of the franchise's problems can be traced back to it. And what was the source of Ryuki's troubles? Greed. More characters, more toys, more gimmicks. It even went down to the casting -- Kuuga and Agito's male leads being popular with housewives, creating the so-called "ikemen boom," and so Ryuki was chock full of performers to appeal to that usually-ignored demographic, all for the sake of selling more photobooks and the like. Kuuga and Agito had integrity, an integrity that was slipping with Ryuki.

So we're beginning to lose the plot from Kuuga and Agito -- in more ways than that phrase suggests. All of the hard work Takatera did in order to change the face of toku, what one perceives as a toku, the whole grounded approach, raising the bar...Ryuki wants to retain the dramatic visuals, but when you get down to it, Ryuki is inching towards being a battle anime. That's the opposite of what Kuuga established! But Ryuki, in its own way -- in its own self-destructive way -- still managed to feel fresh. It was different; it did its own thing. It examined Rider ideas in a different way and worked in Ishinomori-like concepts in how it reacted to world events of the time. It was nowhere near as smooth as Kuuga or Agito, but I think a lot of its narrative problems came from Episode Final. Shirakura, being more of a hype man than creative producer, is always chasing trends and looking for a gimmick, and his gimmick for Episode Final -- the show's "end," revealing all of the mysteries at the halfway point -- really shot the production in the foot, as it could never figure out what it wanted to do after that. So a lot of later Ryuki relied on gimmicks and gotchas and audience manipulation and Memeable Moments to entice you now that the mystery is blown -- rather than good, dramatic writing. 

Despite all of that, Ryuki was wildly popular. Shirakura's ego gets a boost. He turns to old pal Inoue to make Faiz. The difference between Agito and Faiz is night and day. Agito was meticulously plotted -- no storyline or character unneeded. Faiz is an aimless mess filled with extraneous characters. Was Faiz simply a case of writer burnout -- should Inoue have not returned so soon? Wasn't it too soon for him to return to a show and write EVERY episode? I think the difference is that Shirakura involved himself more with Faiz. Again, I feel like he stayed out of Inoue's way with Agito but felt more confident by Faiz to become far more active. Faiz has a lot of the hallmarks of Shirakura's other works, with more audience manipulation and trolling and gimmicks and shit that exists just for the memes.

Faiz has its fans but didn't seem to have the same reception as its three predecessors, didn't make quite as big of a splash, despite becoming a fan favorite over the years. Nevertheless, Shirakura decided to move on, focusing on developing shows like Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon and Sh15uya. (There are quotes from him where he claimed that Faiz would be the last Rider he, Inoue, and Tasaki would work together on...HA!) And here's where things get messy for Heisei Rider...

Kamen Rider Blade. It's a mess. Longtime Metal Hero and Sentai producer Jun Hikasa is tapped as Blade's main producer. He decides to get drama writer Shoji Imai as main writer. My theory is that Hikasa came to Blade a little cocky. He had successes when he took charge of the other franchises like Super Sentai. And I think he approached Blade in a way of "These new Riders want so hard to be dramas, but I'll bring a little more Showa-like heroics to the table, while also retaining the drama. It will be the best of both worlds, and I'll show everyone what a Kamen Rider should be like!" And not only does the pretentiousness of the Heisei DORAMA style not mesh with Showa-style fancifulness, but the drama side's not going to work when you cast the most inept, terrible actors you can find.

The Blade cast is to blame for a lot of that show's shortcomings. They're cast for the housewife demographic -- they weren't good actors. And they weren't believable as heroes, so they failed on both of Hikasa's goals. Drama writer Imai seemed totally lost in terms of writing a superhero show, and a lot of his scripts are muddier than a wrestling match with Jamila. Imai leaves the show halfway through, citing scheduling issues, with sub-writer Shou Aikawa taking over and the show attempting to course-correct with a soft reboot, but it's too little, too late. Blade remains an inconsistent mess best remembered for memes to ridicule it by. Show directors are rumored to blame Hikasa for having a lax attitude. Hikasa never returns to the franchise.

So where to go when your latest show is a punchline? Let's turn to the guy who was responsible for bringing Rider back after all of this time -- Takatera. This was perhaps a double-edged sword. Continuing his desire to do something new with the franchise, Takatera brings us a show...completely unlike any Kamen Rider or henshin hero series. When he did this with Kuuga, it worked, because it still had the core ingredients of Kamen Rider: it said what Kamen Rider needed to say, and it worked as a piece of superhero fiction. Hibiki veers into the direction of self-indulgence. No matter what you think of the show's quality -- I've come to like it over time -- you can't deny it's just bizarre. You have to do some mental gymnastics in order to twist it into fitting a Kamen Rider mold.

So I think Takatera, like Hikasa, came in a little over-confident. So he didn't give a shit about what was expected, just did his own thing and...it bit him on the ass. He was again working too slowly and over budget. His vision was so strange and against what was expected of Rider that Toei actually fired him -- AND his writers -- this time, which is pretty unheard of. They had to be VERY unhappy with Hibiki to do that. And who do they turn to save them? Shirakura, who brings in Inoue. And despite Shirakura promising that he wouldn't alter what the show was doing too much, he and Inoue go on to completely undo all the show had been building up to at that point, abandoning its entire purpose, leaving a lot of unhappy fans and cast members in its wake.

If you're a Hibiki fan, then the weirdness appealed to you. It was such a departure that, even if it didn't feel like Kamen Rider to you, you at least appreciated the fresh feel. And it does have a throwback kind of vibe to, maybe not Kamen Rider, but some tokus of old. The show had a unique pace and atmosphere that it just totally jettisoned once Shirakura and Inoue take over, with a visibly reduced budget. Maybe I'm harsh to say Takatera was self-indulgent, maybe it was a really personal work to him, because he's been quite bitter about the way things were handled and is rumored to have beef with Shirakura because of it. (Despite what you may think of Hibiki, you have to admit that it was a gutsy move by Toei to even make it. They certainly wouldn't take such a huge chance nowadays. That's why we've just been getting Gaim over and over and over again.)

It's 2006 and Rider's 35th anniversary. Let's not rock the boat -- that Shirakura guy's worked out well for us, so let's get him back. And this is a turning point for Shirakura, the beginning of his path to becoming a supervillain...

Shirakura strolls in for the big anniversary show, confident he'll save the day. He's had three successful Rider shows under his henshin belt. He was the one they turned to to salvage Hibiki. He had just remade the original Rider in his image with the buzzed about Kamen Rider The First. He's overly confident. He thinks he doesn't even have to make an effort, that anything he touches would be a guaranteed hit, anyway; cast some idols, have some flashy designs, and that's all you need. Not wanting to use Inoue yet again, Shirakura finally breaks free of him and brings in writer Souji Yonemura, who...honestly? The guy seems like he's just a puppet of Shirakura's. He's not a good writer with any sort of redeeming value or vision, and he just ends up doing a poor imitation of Inoue (who was already slipping into being a poor imitation of himself by this point).

It doesn't matter. As long as it's not weirdos beating monsters to death with trumpets. And, of course, Kabuto was a success, launching quite a few careers. Shirakura feels bullet-proof. Next up for Rider? Oh, boy... A show that's so un-Ridery that it makes Hibiki look like V3!

Kabuto was a goofy show. Unintentionally. It did a lot of stupid shit that people were uncertain if it was meant to be comedic or was accidentally comedic. The show spent most of its time thinking it was so cool; I think it was unintentionally goofy. But it was a complete self-parody of all of the worst parts of what was happening to Heisei Rider -- the soapy style, the trying too hard to get the attention of housewives, the muddled mysteries. So I guess the thinking with Den-O was "Well, let's do a show that's MEANT to be comedic." Shirakura gets Kobayashi again. Remember, at the time of Ryuki, Kobayashi boasted in interviews that she had never watched Kamen Rider. I don't think anyone who ever watched ANY Kamen Rider could have come up with the franchise-destroying Den-O.

It's the beginning of Shirakura the troll. He's like "I can do anything, and it will be a success. I can make the Rider a wheezing little twerp and give him a bunch of stupid Robocon buddies for Bandai, and we can just make the stupidest show imaginable! Everybody will eat it up! I can't be stopped! I think I might be God." And it, of course, was a smash hit.

Personally, at the time Den-O aired, I didn't like it but DID think Rider needed a cleansing by comedy. After getting bogged down with Faiz's teen angst and Blade's bungled dramatics and Kabuto being an unintentional parody, I thought Rider DID need to make a genuine stab at having a comedic series. But never did I think Den-O was good enough to STILL be clinging around. If it had just left after its year was up, I wouldn't have such vitriol for it. But Toei just won't let it go. And it gave birth to Shirakura the supervillain, who felt like he could do whatever he wanted to the franchise -- warp it beyond recognition -- and he'll just laugh and laugh while the yen rolls in.

After that, Shirakura protege Naomi Takebe steps in to produce Kiva. It's very evident she's a Shirakura pal, as her work feels very similar and she shares that "don't give a fuck" attitude that makes you question if she even likes this stuff. Inoue returns to write Kiva but is just going through the motions. Kiva, having the misfortune of following money-maker Den-O, tries to chase that show's success -- Bandai now looking for areas to shove more and more of their junk. Kiva splits the fandom and is mostly forgotten...

So, having worked on nearly every Heisei Rider production, it's a no-brainer to turn to Shirakura to produce Decade, the big Heisei anniversary celebration. Decade's an instant mess that I don't even want to go into. The obvious intention was to bring back old Riders, but since a lot of their actors were inexplicably popular, they went on to have success that took them to another tier from toku -- so there wasn't a chance they'd return. The idea of Godai coming back to be a mentor to the new Rider? That sounds pretty cool! Oh, shit, Joe Odagiri became too popular. (And he's Team Takatera.) Well, let's just make a new guy Kuuga! Shirakura, chasing gimmicks, decides to have Decade follow the trend of Hollywood reboots and decides to recast every Rider and make the show about parallel worlds, kind of defeating the purpose of even celebrating the anniversary of these shows. Even worse? Decade runs out of steam and abandons its entire purpose -- celebrating ten years of Heisei Riders -- by incorporating Showa Riders into the mix! These rebooted characters are often foolish, their shows mocked; Shirakura saying that these characters, these shows, aren't important. Not content to ruin just the Heisei heroes, he's found a way to ruin characters and shows of the past as well.

Decade's a big, flashy production that entertains the "turn your brain off!" types with its shininess and is therefore successful. However, a lot of longtime fans complain about the show's re-casting and parallel worlds. The show's not genuinely liked but liked for the sake of memes, mockery, or just style. Decade launched all of those terrible Taisen crossover movies, which brought the same shittiness and lack of respect for ALL Toei heroes of the past the same way Decade did as a series. And fans weren't really happy with those slapdash, lazy, disrespectful movies. And I think Shirakura, who thinks he's very hip and Hollywood and a god, was insulted by this. It was intended to be his last big hoorah before the franchise rebooted and went in a different stylistic direction and he rose to a higher rank at Toei, and...these longtime fans were questioning HIM?! Who are they?! Shirakura disappears, like Pennywise being injured in 1950...

W follows Decade, with producer Hideaki Tsukada bringing a more bright, light-hearted and anime-inspired style to the franchise. W is well-liked and its tone influences a majority of the subsequent series. From then on, Rider has a revolving door of producers and writers, as the real rulemaker in this post-Den-O age has taken control -- Bandai. Shirakura lurks, but has moved on, working on Rider movies and getting his jollies by further ridiculing heroes in promotional Net movies. He's critical of Rider at this stage, making the adult-aimed Amazons for Amazon Prime. He returns to produce the 20th anniversary celebration Zi-O, a culmination of all of the worst aspects of his work for the franchise: ridiculous designs, stupid character motivations, and ignoring legacy characters the show's meant to celebrate.

The downfall of Kamen Rider comes from hubris. And, surprisingly, not just Shirakura, but Takatera, for whatever the fuck he was thinking when developing Hibiki, not recognizing its potential to alienate viewers. But Shirakura's definitely the bigger culprit. Not only for his apathetic views, his cockiness, but also the bitterness when fans started criticizing his work. Trollish attempts at getting back at them or riling them up became a strong motivator of his. And that's just not a genuine creative reason to do something. It's empty. He's always been irreverent, his works lacking sentimentality and heart, but I've often wondered if Shirakura actually just hates tokusatsu and superheroes. On one hand, I can't picture anyone devoting so much of their life to working on these shows if they have such contempt for them. On the other...look at the evidence! (Especially when you look at Zenkaiger, which pisses all over sacred things, because Shirakura especially doesn't give a damn about Super Sentai. His "concepts of a 5 year plan" ended up killing the franchise in 4, and he was all too happy to pull the plug on it.)

So I think Shirakura felt bitter towards fans, and that egged him on to keep making things shittier. I also think, deep down, he would have probably preferred to go out on something "cool" like Faiz, and kind of resents that his legacy will be Den-O, that stupid piece of useless shit that has nothing going for it, no soul in its goofy husk. He's not happy that he won't have a work of quality to be remembered by -- a Jetman, a Kuuga -- but absolute shit like Den-O. And so his solution was to just set fire to everything. Make everything as dumb as Den-O. Destroy it all. Even older shows, through remakes and terrible Taisen team-ups. Lower the bar on everything so he has easier aim to piss on it. Den-O broke Kamen Rider and all it stood for. (Literally: remember that Shirakura-produced OOO movie where his Den-O idiots undid the entire history of Kamen Rider.) But all that matters in show business for the fuckos in charge is the business part of it -- it doesn't matter how bad Den-O is, just how much money it made. And, god, did it make a lot of money, so someone like Shirakura is their golden boy. Let's keep trying his style. Shirakura broke Kamen Rider, but as long as they just keep trying to chase Den-O's anime idiocy, hoping for that next success, making shows where quality isn't the priority, where the gimmicks become even more ridiculous, then there will be a lot of abominations and, guys, for the sake of the environment, we've GOTTA put a stop to Ishinomori's grave-spinning.

I've previously described Heisei Kamen Rider as a flash in the pan. While I enjoy shows like Ryuki and Hibki and W, for example, I think Kuuga and Agito are the best, the truly great shows. Two good shows. Rider may have survived execution this time, but in terms of quality, it died as quickly as the attempts at revival in the late '70s and '80s. All of Takatera's achievements at changing the face of the franchise -- taking it more seriously, making it more realistic -- have been undone. Kamen Rider went from wanting to be a serious drama to wanting to be a soap with anime elements to a plain soap to being like a video game adaptation of an anime to now being a TV-Kun bonus video. Kamen Rider has lost all of its soul, purpose and identity, all for the sake of yennies. It died out as quickly as it returned, but Toei's just seeing dollar signs and milking it by completely warping it. So it's also dying an extremely slow, embarrassing death. Kamen Rider was killed by Shirakura in the Den Liner with the candlestick.

I was thinking of past Toei toku producers and how long their runs lasted. There's someone like Toru Hirayama, a very important figure in shaping Toei's henshin heroes, whose reign was mostly the '70s. Susumu Yoshikawa worked on multiple shows at once, several of which are beloved, for about 15 years before moving on. Takeyuki Suzuki revitalized Sentai, working on the franchise for about 15 years. Jun Hikasa has a career dating back to the '80s, spending about 20 years in the world of toku. Shirakura's into his fourth decade as producer, working on shows he apparently loathes. (He's said he first got into Sentai in college because it was so stupid and weird -- you know those types. The guy spent his youth making toku parodies on 8mm. Probably all shit that's as funny as the Rider Net movies. That might be the worst part of Shirakura -- that he thinks he's so funny. ) He doesn't have the interest, passion, creativity, heart, or integrity of any of those other producers. He's become caught up in simply just making money and disposable shows that might please people as they watch but have no lasting effect or legacy -- they're instantly forgettable. The success of his superficial shows continues to affect the way modern productions are handled, he remains a lurking presence behind-the-scenes and the new guard that's hired are either his protégés or share a similar view of toku. He changed toku for the worse, tainting all areas of toku -- past and present. His lack of care and irreverence has warped Toei's henshin heroes -- poisoned them -- and, even after Shirakura retires, it will take a considerable amount of time for Toei's tokus to recover.

I think of what David Fricke once said about the Ramones, how they weren't financially successful but extremely successful in terms of changing a genre of music and inspiring people: "There's a big difference between selling a million records and changing history." (Paraphrased.) Someone like Takatera made good work and changed history, Shirakura just made money. Shirakura's one of his own protagonists -- destroyer of franchises.

Ohranger Versus Movies + Wrap-up

 

Ohranger Robo VS Oh Blocker featuring Sasuke and Tsuruhime
 

I think this viewing of the movie -- for the sake of covering it here -- was only the second time I watched it in full. And it's still as bad as I remembered it. You might be tempted to cut it slack for being the first Versus movie as we know them. No...there's no reason for this movie to be this way.

No Kakuranger appears in this movie until it's half over. The movie starts with some great Yamaoka action, with exploding vehicles and heroes falling from waterfalls, but then settles into boring mecha junk and...*sigh*...Gunmajin shenanigans. (For what it's worth, this is probably the only time he's funny. He's just out of place here. It's called Ohranger vs KAKURANGER. Get to the Kakuranger, movie!)

The movie just comes across as a sort of check list for what the suits think will make for "big" or "classic" moments. Mechas fighting each other? Check. A crazy shootout at Western Village? Check. Fights at Korakuen? Check. Miyauchi dressed as Hayakawa? Check. Bikini scene with the Ohranger heroines? Check. The Ohranger using literally every single weapon and mecha and maneuver in their stock footage arsenal as Bandai requested? Check. Teaming up with Kakuranger? Um...oops!

It's hard to believe Soda wrote this. You'd think the guy, with all of his Sentai experience and knowledge, could find a way to bring these two teams together, but...nope. Nothing like waiting for three of the Kakuranger members to spend the entirety of their screen time driving to where the action is happening!

F+

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Carranger VS Goro
 

This is one my top favorite Sentai VS movies. Whereas Soda didn't even want to try to get the worlds of Ohranger and Kakuranger to mix and have it be a true crossover, writer Yoshio Urasawa finds the perfect way of bringing the serious Ohranger into the wild and crazy world of Carranger. The Ohranger are the straightmen in this comedy, and the movie avoids the easy hackiness of having them just be square simpletons in deference to Urasawa's characters, but the Ohranger are just all business here. They're puzzled by the Carranger, but they've seen enough strange shit in their own show to go with the flow.

It's one of the only Versus movies to genuinely showcase a "versus" between the teams! It all starts with Kyousuke thinking the Ohranger are treating Bara Mobile badly and spirals out of control from there. There's just so many funny bits to this movie that it's pointless to get into them all.

It's sad, though, that the formula hasn't been cracked on how to incorporate all of the previous team's members. Everyone but Goro is basically just a cameo here. (Wouldn't you have liked to see Shouhei interact with the Carranger more? I think that guy would get along well with them.) But the movie makes up for it by giving Miyauchi a lot to do -- Miura's training of the Carranger is my favorite part of the movie. For as seriously as Miyauchi takes toku, you know he has a sense of humor and likes to get in on shenanigans when he can, so he looks like he's having a blast in this movie. Did you ever picture Miyauchi sharing a scene with Dappu?

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Wrap-up

As disappointing as I thought some of the final episodes were, I came out of this viewing of Ohranger with a bit more of a positive feeling for the show. Like I said, there were quite a few episodes that I remembered being worse than they were. Ever since I started my blog, I had plans to do a post about Ohranger. It was about the show's tonal clashing, all of the cooks in its kitchen, and I called Ohranger "Frankenstein's Monster of Super Sentai." It does have issues with tone, it does have a bit of an identity crisis, but it's best to just enjoy the show as an action-packed spectacle. It's far from perfect, but it's trying to convey so many different styles -- purposely. 

It's easy to get hung up on the "Wah! Real life events changed the show!" (And it's not just the subway attacks that this references, but the Great Hanshin earthquake.) But I do think a lot of the whiplash is because it wants to honor all different types of Super Sentai for the anniversary, and that is pretty cool and neat and something that I can appreciate. Could they have done better? Obviously. The show tries to encompass so many styles that it often risks its own identity. But the attempt is made, and I should be a little more forgiving since, as I said at the start, it was the first Sentai to genuinely acknowledge the franchise's anniversary and longevity, and that's pretty special.

And, of course, the show favors a certain era of Sentai -- and toku -- more than the others. I used to always dismiss Ohranger because it didn't seem like MY preferred era of shows, but once I got around to seeing more of Uehara's Sentais and other tokus from his time, what Ohranger attempted became more clearer. (In case you're new here -- I'm a Hirohisa Soda guy, and my preferred era of toku is the '80s.) I'd similarly be dismissive of people who were like "Ohranger is a good homage to Showa Sentai." In my head, I thought they should be honoring Soda's Showa shows, since that's MY idea of Showa Sentai, so I'd scoff. But Ohranger IS a good homage to Showa Sentai, just that it's the '70s and early '80s shows that it best pays tribute to. (It obviously pays tribute to and acknowledges mid-to-late '80s shows, but you can tell the showmakers' hearts belong to the '70s. And even '60s toku!)

It would have been nice for the show to retain its tone and quality from the start, but it wasn't going to. Not only from all of the different people working on it, but the show was always going to reach a point where Toei cut off its budget to put into the next show. And while effort was made into making it a celebration, they didn't always stick the landing and, like I said, focused too much in one area. It's frustrating that Ohranger could have easily been a really fucking GREAT show, but there are so many issues holding it back. But at the same time, a lot of those issues make the show what it is -- they make it unique. There's never going to be another Sentai where they get all former head writers back or have such a blend of old guard and new directors...

Longtime Toei producers Takeyuki Suzuki and Susumu Yoshikawa leave after this show. Longtime directors like Takeshi Ogasawa and Shouhei Toujou leave the franchise after it. (Nagaishi sits Carranger out, which I find interesting. I suppose he favored doing Changerion.) Sugimura leaves the franchise after this; Takaku and Uehara never work on Sentai afterward. Not only is Ohranger a big celebration of Sentai and toku past, but it's also a send-off and closing the door and passing of the torch to an era and style of Super Sentai. It's embodied by Goro Hoshino -- I wrote in my Red Warriors post that he's the last traditional Red and how Reds get real schizo after him. Well, Sentais get REAL crazy after this, so...Ohranger was a turning chapter, with the keys being handed over to Shigenori Takatera and some new blood he'll bring in on Carranger.

Honestly, I think a lot of Ohranger's problems come from Sugimura; I'm not sure he was the best choice of main writer, I think he has his own little quirks and preferences and his style doesn't go well with what Ohranger wanted to do, and I feel like he had his eye on the door during this show. His past three Sentai series had been more fantasy and fanciful. While his Metal Hero shows, like Winspector, prove he can handle something more in the realm of sci-fi, I don't know if that's how he saw Sentai. I think he saw Sentai as being lower, and his inclination was to keep it kid-friendly. I think he just felt freer to let his freak flag fly in Sentai. But a burning-out Sugimura at least kept Ohranger from being as nutty as his shows could often be; it kept him restrained.

I didn't start this Ohranger rewatch with the intention to cover it here; it just happened that way. I might have gotten softer on Ohranger over the years, but it was never close to being a favorite -- but I ended up forgiving a lot of its shortcomings and enjoying more of it on this rewatch. And it's just kind of strange to feel a positivity for a show I had such negative feelings for. Although, the show could have easily been so much better with some tweaks. So many of the elements are there. As it is, I guess it's appropriate that it's an oddball curiosity to inspect and analyze like some artifact.

Ohranger Episodes 45-48

 

 

EPISODE 45, 46, 47, 48

Sugimura returns to write the final four episodes, as Kaiser Bulldont has realized the show's almost over and decides to launch his full-on assault! The latest Machine Beast unleashes dark particles that interfere with and take over every machine on Earth. Does this pose any threat to the machines of Baranoia? Is this a risk for them to use, and why it's used for the final assault, maybe? It's not really answered, but that would have been interesting.

The final Machine Beast is pretty cool, a centipede-shaped monster whose suit utilizes three suit actors and some puppeteering.

It's always cool, and gives a great sense of danger, when a Sentai team's base ends up being destroyed by the villains. We also see a ton of UAOH officers being cut down by Barlow soldiers and it makes you realize how shrunken the show has become since those early episodes, when you'd regularly see UAOH staff members running around. (Played by the likes of Kazutoshi Yokoyama and Yasuhiro Takeuchi!) The show eventually reduced that to just Miura. And sometimes he goes missing!

The first of these four episodes is just a big spectacle, kicking off the four-part finale. It's a shock to end on Goro, Juri, and Momo being powerless and chased. The Ohranger, for as strong and professional as the show likes to make them, are often always taking a beating or shown to be on the losing end. I kinda like that about the show, even if at the same time I'm not really buying the Baranoia are ever that competent. The finale is kicked off with big events and is exciting, but it's a little downhill from there...

I know a lot of fans like these final episodes, but they seem a bit haphazard to me. They don't fully work. The show has such a great start and then you look at these final episodes, which are a little generic to me and have Sugimura pulling a lot of ideas from nowhere. And we're relying a little too much on gimmicks here. "Miura's dead! Riki's dead! Dorin's dead! Everyone's either dead or powerless, OMG! Psych!" These episodes work as action-oriented spectacle, but they're not thematically or emotionally strong. Spectacle has been one of Ohranger's greatest strengths, I'd say moreso than being emotional, but these episodes are attempting to tie themes together and be emotional, so I have to judge them that way.

And I feel like the Ohranger are a little too careless here. Shouhei and Yuuji's been captured, Miura is thought to be dead, things are looking dire... I don't think the early Goro would have risked going to look for Miura, leaving Juri and Momo to fall into Baranoia's trap. (Sorry, Momo, but I won't defend you for not listening to Juri and walking into that super obvious trap.) The first half of this episode is just the Ohranger being careless like that. The second half is them just watching the episode alongside the audience from King Pyramidder before Dorin magically sends it to space. 

The Ohranger are taken to Dorin's homeworld, filled with nothing but a bunch of Dorin, where it's retconned/pulled from Red Puncher's ass that the Dorin are the source of Choriki and the Dorin we've been following in the show is the Dorin which guards Earth and...what, they're like the Green Lantern Corps or something? And all of a sudden Choriki is like The Force and can be used as the plot calls for? This whole segment is very Metal Hero to me, in visuals and in terms of making-up-new-shit-on-the-spot. (Including a pointless delay by having Kaiser Bulldont -- somehow, it's unexplained -- send the Ohranger through a trippy hellish dimension to pad the episode/force some drama.) What happened to the Dorin just being some mischievous race that was all killed (save one) by Baranoia way back? That the Choriki and all that was from the ancient civilization? The Choriki was initially meant to just be what powers the tech, but here it's being treated as some mystical Force-type power. Sure, there was a mystical mystery to what the power exactly is, but it never seemed to be the all-purpose Dino Guts kind of ability as depicted in these final episodes.

The cooler idea is that the Ohranger return to Earth, their brief dimensional journey measuring six Earth months, only to find that the Baranoia have finally taken over the world. (And by the world, I mean Japan. Obviously. But also because we were told in Episode 1 they were already supposed to have taken over the other big places, although I wouldn't be surprised if the show just forgot about that.) In that time, Miura has led Riki and some UAOH officers in an underground resistance, uncertain of the Ohranger's fate. (There's six UAOH officers, and at least three of them are the Ohranger suit actors. I recognize Kazutoshi Yokoyama, Kenji Takechi, and Yasuhiro Takeuchi. But are Yokoyama and Takeuchi the same UAOH dudes from earlier on?)

It's not helping the show that it's running out of money, but this scenario of a darkened Earth, with nature dying as the Baranoia take over, with Miura's underground UAOH, doesn't exactly require the biggest budget; they could have used this drab sparseness more to their advantage. But they just want to rush through it and get to Carranger, I guess. Nagaishi returns to direct Episodes 47 and 48, so 47 at least has some nice shots and atmosphere. I just feel like there's a lot of rushing in these episodes, and they lack oomph and the impact the earlier episodes had. I think a lot of my problem is just the making shit up on the spot nonsense. Think of how take charge Goro is in that premiere episode. And think of here, where the Ohranger are treated as useless and helpless until Dorin tells them to use The Schwartz. The Ohranger are more competent than this, especially Goro.

Episode 46 marks the last for Junji Yamaoka as action director. Episodes 47 and 48 feature action by Jun Murakami who is no Yamaoka. (He's not even a Niibori.) I like the fight at the beach in the end of 47, though; Murakami's doing his best, but he likes to have more editorial cheats in his fight scenes than Yamaoka, who's famous for all of those meticulously planned out wideshots or panning shots.

I would have given 47 a higher rating if they had had the balls to make Mikio a Baranoia spy all along, instead of that just being a fake-out. I don't really give a shit about Mikio, so I would have liked for there to have been a better, more important instigator in getting the Ohranger to rise again and regain their power. I don't think Goro gives a shit about Mikio, either, so I don't buy he was willing to take such a hit for him and that was the catalyst to inspiring the others and "uniting their hearts." Mikio! Who cares?! Sorry, Miyauchi, but this kind of thing called for Miura's death. He was out there fighting, he could have gotten killed and I'd buy THAT as a reason to get the Ohranger so fired up they get Choriki back. But if Sugimura just has to include a kid, how about...

The talk about needing "heart" and "uniting your hearts," the gist being this is coming down to human hearts vs machines. So I think it would have even been more interesting had Goro or the Ohranger protected Bulldont and Malteua's (just-revealed) infant. Put the kid in danger -- destruction caused by Baranoia, obviously -- have Goro take a hit, be like, "How dare you endanger your kid?" And of course Bulldont doesn't give a shit, he's the emotionless machine. But Goro put himself in danger for an innocent child's life, even if that child was a machine. That would show you the difference between the humans and machines, that would be the "human heart" being victorious. That would be a little more meaningful, giving these final episodes the...heart that they're ironically lacking.

And that would work for me more than empty comparisons between the human baby Ohranger saves and Bulldont's kid. And I certainly don't buy Hysterrier's finding a heart, pleading with the Ohranger to spare her robot grandkid when they raid the palace, guns drawn. The Ohranger being surprised to find one of the Baranoia having developed feelings and a heart could work...in another story with another character. Hysterrier was one of the crueler of the original Baranoia gang!

These final episodes just feel lazy and generic. Generic speeches about protecting nature and love and gumdrops and unicorns. You gotta laugh when Goro's speechifying about love and Bulldont is like "You weak humans and your love. Ready, Schmoopie? LOVE LOVE ATTACK!" That's the laziness, how unaware the writing is and how obvious it is that Sugimura just wants to get the hell out of town. 

Our heroes, again, feel like they don't have much presence, they're not driving the story, they're practically bystanders. They've taken a backseat now to Riki, Dorin and now the day is saved by GUNMAJIN! Sugimura and his dei ex machina... Here, once again -- and in the final episode, no less -- Gunmajin is literally dropped into the scene, the height of laziness. And this time it's Miura who makes a wish to save some of the goddamn mecha the show loves so much. (Funny that they don't have Miyauchi saying the phrase to activate Gunmajin. I'm guessing he thought that was just too damn goofy.) Our cast of heroes are so good and dedicated, even if they don't have the strongest characters, they were at least always shown to be so strong and determined and fight their own fights. But here they seem like newbs, just waiting to be bailed out by Miura's army of mecha and magical, all-powerful Choriki. (It's cool that they give Miyauchi a lot of action in these final episodes, though.)

What's the deal with the Gunmajin love? He gets the big send-off at the end and the very last shot of the series is of Gunmajin's key. Someone really overestimated this character's worth and potential popularity. He's never fit into the series! He's never been funny! He's never even been a good character! But neglect our regulars and focus on him... And, yeah, really entrust him with Bulldont's baby and Acha and Kocha. These guys are going to float through space, merge and come back a menace like V'ger.

And so the battle with Baranoia ends...for now. (Again, V'ger.) Our heroes are rewarded with hearing that they have to help restore the planet! UAOH is a job for them and will continue to be so, which is a nice little touch. Even military Sentai prior to this, like Sunvulcan and Changeman, basically hint that the heroes will just go about their regular lives after the finale. What I find curious is that they don't bother saying what Riki will get up to. He's reunited with a healed Dorin and they greet one another and run off into the woods and that's it, because we have to have a lengthy goodbye for Gunmajin. Is Riki just going to live an ordinary life? Hang around King Pyramidder all day? Go back to hibernating? Well, the show doesn't care about Riki -- never did. And I feel like he was supposed to be a much bigger deal, a more integral part of the story. He was the big deal, not Dorin.

But before you ponder any questions or realize how disappointed you might be in this final episode, the show wisely distracts you with the finale's ending credits sequence, a cool and well-made little package set to "Niji-iro Crystal Sky." Whoever put the clips together and decided to use that song deserved a raise for their contribution!

It's not a horrible final few episodes; there are worse finales. There are good ideas here. They don't always land or are rushed through, mistaking narrative shortcuts and rushing for grand reveals and an intense pace. You know the show's capable of delivering in a bigger way, so they're just disappointing. I feel like even the usually-dependable cast is like "Can't we do better than this?"

Ohranger Episodes 39-44

 

EPISODES 39, 40 & 41

Bomber the Forgettable goes just as quickly as he came. I still don't get the point of his introduction, I really don't think he was necessary; you could have gotten the same results in another way. I feel it could have just as easily been Acha who decides to take the throne; it would mirror Bacchushund and the other servant robots' original rebellion against the people of the ancient civilization. (The servant robot Acha rising against his superiors.) Bulldont can still be exiled, discover Bacchushund's severed-yet-still-functioning head and be powered up as Kaiser Bulldont and return to reclaim his throne; and then they could just have Acha's memory wiped, and it could be an allusion to when the Big Three tried to usurp Dr. Man in Bioman.

I like Kaiser Bulldont and Malteua, though, the way their big debuts are filmed, and I would rather have had them brought into the show sooner. Maybe it's because their designs are easier to take than the other Baranoia; maybe it's that they remind me of Megiddo and Chimera from Dynaman. It's sad that Kaiser Bulldont's going to be the head villain and is supposed to be so much more vicious now when we've spent so much of the show with him being that whiny, obnoxious, goofball brat. (I just don't like Tomokazu Seki's voicework as the younger Bulldont.)

My big problem with this episode, though, is when Bomber the Great is turned into a missile that Bulldont aims toward the sun and the day is saved by...Gunmajin. I mean, the Ohranger just stand there, looking at the sky, doing jackshit. It's up to some kid to request Gunmajin take care of the situation and he does, as the Ohranger just watch like an audience member. Way to make your heroes look like chumps who don't want to make any kind of effort to save the world, show.

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EPISODE 42

I think this is a pretty cool episode, and probably the best of the episodes Soda provides. (Or at least my favorite of his Oh episodes.) It's another example of something Ohranger's done well -- a chase episode -- but it also tries to remember Riki and Dorin are characters on the show!

I like the sense that Bulldont and Malteua are supposed to be escalating things; they get right down to business, trapping and capturing the Ohranger, destroying their Power Braces, stringing them up for a public execution. The show might not be getting much money at this point, but Nagaishi makes up for it with directorial skill, providing atmospheric night shots and a tense chase sequence as the cool monster of the week, Bara Hunter, relentlessly pursues Goro.

Dorin feels responsible for the Ohranger being captured and the show tries to make her the symbol of peace; a pure being who doesn't want to fight -- and Riki and the others try to prevent her from getting involved to keep her hands clean. It's nice to remember Dorin and reestablish Riki as her guardian, having her be a symbol for peace. She's the last of her people who were killed by the initial Machine Beast rebellion, so it's great of Soda to try and treat her as important as she should be, setting her up to be the symbolic heart of the show.

The episode's intense: Nagaishi gives it a dark and frantic atmosphere. There's that sense of escalation, and there's a desperation as the heroes are captured and powerless and, thanks to Dorin's impatience, Riki is pulled into activating a forbidden and cursed power in order to help the others. It also helps that Dorin's actress is at least likable -- maybe not the best actress, but likable.

It's a better and more serious episode than Ohranger deserves at this point. But Uehara will see to that in the next one!

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EPISODE 43

Another episode that I remembered as being worse than it actually is. I'd say this is the goofy one before the end game, but since Uehara's mostly delivered goofy ones, chances are it was going to be goofy regardless. And keep this in mind: this is not just Uehara's last Ohranger script, but his last Sentai script, period. Ohranger was his return to the franchise. His episodes are a very mixed bag, but I know people fond of that area of toku take a liking to his episodes. Uehara is one of -- perhaps the most -- respected writers of toku. He gave this franchise its start, so I expected a little more out of him for his big return than the strange decision to contribute these very bizarre, inconsequential comedy-heavy episodes. (And one terrible movie.)

It's sad to have the villains stepping things up in recent episodes...and then this one is just a totally random plan that would make more sense if this week's Machine Beast was just a renegade doing his own thing. He's random, and his plan is stupid -- but his human avatar is played with such grumpy fun by Hiroshi Ookouchi, it totally helps save this episode. (I didn't recognize him, but he's Himeya's journalist bud from Ultraman Nexus!)

This episode is also a random shichi-henge episode, and one of the few times where the Ohranger are allowed to get into silly shenanigans -- it seems like that's only happened in Uehara episodes, actually. The reason we never saw Riki's actor again after this show is probably thanks to this episode -- he went into hiding out of embarrassment. They could have actually gone further with the Ohranger and their crazy disguises, I think, but the show actually restrains itself from showing them in too unflattering of light. You know they're all masters of disguise, because their boss is Banba Soukichi!

The Costanza family returns for the last time. I have to say...the idea of a recurring family in a Sentai who considers themselves unfortunate because they kept being swept up in supervillain plots IS a pretty funny one but should have been saved for another show, because they've never fit in with Ohranger.

Miura describes the villain plan as targeting the "human desire to escape painful reality." You can really understand that feeling. But this method of plan was the best Baranoia could do? Just making people think they're young's not enough. That's lazy. And these machines want to rule the world...

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EPISODE 44

Soda's last script for the series and it's a bit of a weird one, if you ask me. When I think of this episode, I refer to it as "goofy," and while it does have a lot of lighthearted or comedic scenes, it's, for the most part, NOT a comedic episode. It's meant to be a genuinely heartfelt send-off for Gunmajin. *dismissive shrug*

The highlight of the episode for me is Malteua taking a human form and targeting the Ohranger guys, later hypnotizing them into fighting for her. It's reminiscent of the Liveman episode Inoue did where Mazenda gets Yuusuke and Jou to fight for her. Malteua is probably my favorite of the Baranoia because she's been a pretty tough ass-kicker since her debut -- setting aside all of the "Schmoopie" stuff between her and Bulldont -- so it's doubly nice to have this episode where she has a human form, named Ai, played by Hiromi Yuhara.
 
I've talked about Yuhara before (and nobody cared about her until I talked about her), but she's guest-starred in a ton of late '80s and early '90s toku and was always sympathetic and stood out as a performer. Ohranger's the last toku she's appeared in -- the last thing on her filmography, period -- so on one hand, it's nice that it's such a memorable role. On the other, it's strange to see her as an outright villain. But she's so good at it! It's a shame she didn't get more to do here or was never given a regular villain role. (I always wanted to see her grow up to be a toku heroine, but she definitely had it in her to be a good villain, too. The disdain she shows for the Ohranger members...) 

Their goal is for Ai to seduce the Ohranger guys into giving over their most precious item. Thinking it will be some UAOH-related secret, the joke is that the Ohranger guys are a little too hardheaded and gift her with very useless personal items instead. (The whole episode could have been Masaru Shishido dramatically reading his mother's 800-page long letter and it would still have been funny.) Shouhei brings her treasured ramen joint coupons and Yuuji his entire bank account of about $40. This stuff all sounds so much like Inoue to me -- add to that the the Ai portion is reminiscent of that Liveman he did, so I have to wonder if he had some input or if Soda's just doing a really good imitation.

The episode would have been just fine being all about that, but they shoehorn in Momo getting Gunmajin's help and it shifts to being about him. And...who cares? This was not a loose end that needed tied up.

Ohranger Episodes 35-38

 

EPISODE 35

A great idea for an episode, where Momo gets to honor Goranger's Peggy by spending the episode attempting to defuse an undetonated missile which is pinning a girl down. It works well enough, filmed tensely with Tamao Sato giving a good performance. You just have to overlook a couple of more outlandish moments -- there's a big danger in the missile being moved, yet the vehicle it's in is tossed about numerous times. If it's able to take THAT much beating then, surely, Red Blocker could have just tossed the explosive into space or something, right? No, you have to buy into the idea that it's a delicate procedure.

This episode sees the introduction of the show's Sixth Villain, Bomber the Great. He steals Bara Nightmare's backstory in that he rebelled against Bacchushund, but he's nowhere near as cool and creepy as that character. Bomber's kind of like a proto-Bowzock, although he's intended to be more serious, but, keeping in with Baranoia tradition, he looks freaking ridiculous. You can't take the guy seriously as a contender for the throne, he just doesn't fit in, and he's got total seat-filler villain written all over him. He just seems like he's not hanging around, so they didn't overthink him. He's a monster of the week who doesn't know when to go away. Still, I can think of dozens of better themes than a missile-shaped biker punk as this guy who rebelled and wants to take over now that Bacchushund is pushing tin daisies.

This episode begins with an upset Bulldont firing all missiles from the Baranoia base to Earth, which the Ohranger easily stop. It just made me wonder...the Ohranger have known since the start of the show that the Baranoia are on the moon. Why just let them off? Does that sound like any military organization to you? They'd be sending their forces there. (Especially at this point, when the UAOH are crazy overpowered and have 35 mechas.)

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EPISODE 36

A farting monster. A green message. Another new damn mecha. Our Red hiding in a pile of garbage in order to sneak attack the farting skunk monster. Yeah...

I have to say, though, for as doofy as a pollution-farting (and belching) monster is, it's played surprisingly seriously. More specifically, the heroes play it seriously. As the scripts have gotten lighter or weirder, the cast is still serious. A lesser production, they would have all caved in by now. Now, the characters and actors can run the risk of seeming stupid or lifeless for behaving in such a serious, dramatic way in these scenarios, but the Ohranger heroes remain one of the show's strongest aspects. Would I like this cast in a more serious production? Most definitely. But they remain good, never veering into that Adam West "take things overly serious to play up the absurdity of it all" or that obnoxious "we're so cool and above this, we're IN on it, we're winkin' at ya" mentality that a cast like Kiramager has. They also don't phone it in.

So while I prefer more serious villains with more genuinely threatening agendas, and more dramatic scenarios for our heroes to be placed in, the Ohranger cast is at least still bringing it and is one of the show's saving graces for me.

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EPISODES 37 & 38

Is Gunmajin the most unnecessary addition to any show ever? Have him be a one-episode guest ally, but to bring him in now just shows you how out of wack this show's priorities are at this point. We just had the unimpactful defeat of the head villain, we're trying to get this very out of place replacement villain to work, but let's also toss in this new, totally disconnected character in the mix. THIS is Sugimura's agenda, after the mess the show just made? It's just too late in the show's run for this stuff. There's a scene where he's fighting the equally square peg Bomber the Great and my thought was "What show am I watching? Because this doesn't feel like Ohranger."

It really feels like a backdoor pilot. Gunmajin is such an old kind of idea, one I associate with '60s or early '70s toku -- and not Sentai -- and I'm sure that retro vibe worked for some people, a further addition to the show's throwback vibes, but I don't think it works for Ohranger and I question its inclusion. That they wanted to test out the idea for a potential show with a Gunmajin-type would be the only decent explanation. (Two years later we get Kabutack. Coincidence?!)

And to top it off, Akira Kamiya is wasted as the voice of Gunmajin. He's probably my favorite of the classic anime voice guys. This guy is Kenshiro! And this is his one big Sentai role, and it's this random character. Gotta love the commitment by the writers, when Gunmajin's origin is being questioned and Riki's like "Yeah, we didn't know 600 million years ago, either. He's either a robot...or not." Thanks, Riki. The show doesn't even know how to handle its sixth hero properly, he just pops up whenever they remember him, so the show doesn't need to be adding another random ally.

Ohranger Episodes 32-34

 

EPISODE 32

I think Noboru Sugimura basically saw the past three episodes and was like "I gotta do something to wake up the viewers and get them to pay attention again." And what a way to do it! This freaky sore-thumb of an episode. I've said it before, I'm a big Nightmare on Elm Street fan, so whenever there's something reminiscent of it, I'll pay attention. And a Momo episode, too.

For as much of a big deal is made about this episode's weirdness or extremeness, thinking that Sugimura went too far or didn't write a real Ohranger, I watch the episode and can actually picture it as a Winspector or Solbrain. In one of those shows, it would be a creepy kidnapper with technology to lock his captives in a frozen dream state. I wouldn't be surprised if it was an idea he had for one of those shows, but it's something that's easier to do with a big monster than it would have been with the regular, technologically-armed people who were the perps in those shows.

And this episode looks to me like it's really trying to save money, taking place mostly at the abandoned school. But what it lacks in budget it makes up for in style, in a big way. I think that's perhaps why this episode stands out for so many, right from the start it has a very distinctive style to it and it's really committed to the unsettling, horror-vibe, the palpable dread. It's made with more confidence, you sense the director's skill right away. And that's because this is the first episode of the show to be directed by Takao Nagaishi, returning to the franchise after a five-year absence. 

Nagaishi is one of the giants amongst Toei toku directors and was the go-to guy when you wanted quality. With a keen eye for visuals but also a strength for drama, someone who takes the material seriously and wants to raise the bar, he made a big impression on Toei staffers when he came aboard Changeman and went on to be the main director of the Maskman through Fiveman run. When producer Takeyuki Suzuki wanted to bring in new blood, Nagaishi was one of the longtime staffers cut alongside Soda. (It's a real shame Nagaishi didn't get to work on Jetman.) Suzuki had intended for Nagaishi to work on Ohranger sooner -- perhaps as its chief director -- but Nagaishi was busy working on other projects. So he instead debuts here at this late stage of the show, but he certainly makes his presence known.

So it's just night and day to come off of so many of these lower budget episodes with directors who seem to be punching the clock at this point of the show and hit this episode, with all of its directorial oomph, and with Nagaishi making the most of the smaller budget and limited locations. At the same time, though, it's a little unfair to give him so much praise when, being new to the show, he's making twice the effort to stick out and is fresh to it and not over-familiar to the point of seeming tired.

Since he's masked the entire time, I can't call him a Familiar Face, but I'd like to single out Yoshinori Okamoto as Bara Nightmare. His vocals are a little more restrained here, he makes Bara Nightmare such a gross creep. The approach to this character is just so strange to me, that he only gets one line about rebelling against Bacchushund -- he hardly seems connected to Baranoia or their goals, once again bringing to mind the unrelated lone agents of a Winspector. It's strange that Miura even sanctions this mission of Momo's, another show would have had him shoot her down and have her go rogue. You don't go rogue on Miyauchi, though.

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EPISODE 33

You go from having no mecha battle in the previous episode to having the screen crawling with (unnecessary) mecha here. But Nagaishi elevates what would ordinarily be a dull toy commercial thanks to some atmospheric direction. (The night scenes at the hospital as a family tries to keep hidden from Barlow soldiers is a particular highlight.)

Otherwise, this episode just seems plain on paper -- Bacchushund randomly deciding to launch a definitive, final, finally final attack! -- and the Ohranger gaining new mechas that aren't all that necessary for them to have. And I bet the suit actors of the '90s just loved having to pull double duty and play individual mechas like these. (Yellow Blocker looks like two pills from Dr. Mario.) 

Nagaishi and the staff do their damnedest to make it all seem big, though, having the five new mecha face a dozen past Baranoia monsters. (Because the show -- I mean, Baranoia! -- is running out of money and recycling. Hey, Shouhei said that a couple of episodes back, not me.) They go as far as their SFX allows them, the biggest being Red Blocker taking his fight to space. So, a bare script, but saved by Nagaishi, Yamaoka and SFX chief Butsuda and his crew.

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EPISODE 34

We've seen many a Sentai where the head villain is making those finally final threats to the world. Usually it ends up meaning upgrades or a new villain arriving or a new mecha, but here it means the end of Bacchushund, which I really don't understand when there's been no build up to this -- and since he was just revealed a few episodes back to be so important to the show's history. Why unceremoniously write him off? Shock value? No better ideas? Toru Ohira needing to leave? (Or Baranoia's having funding problems means they can't afford him any longer?)

Again, Nagaishi helps elevate this from being as generic as it could be. He keeps the Baranoia in dark colors and amps up the tension when the Baranoia chase Mikio as he tries to quickly make his way to the Ohranger. (It's interesting that Mikio fails in delivering the space metal; other shows would have had him succeed.) The episode is also a good old-fashioned training episode, as the Ohranger have to synch up to get Oh Blocker to its best performance. (Training with swords, it's reminiscent of Dynaman.) Who knows how this show could have turned out if Nagaishi worked on it from the start, man.

But Bacchushund is dealt with as easily as a standard monster of the week. No fanfare. I mean, I remember his noggin will be popping up in a jar (somehow), but this IS pretty much it for him in the show, and I just don't understand it.

Ohranger Episodes 29-31

 

EPISODE 29

Ugh. Not a lot to say about this episode than "ugh." I never considered Uehara a comedic writer, so it's odd to me that he comes into Ohranger trying to yuk it up so much. Keep in mind that Ohranger is Uehara's return to Sentai after 14 years. He's probably the most respected writer in toku history. You think he'd be aiming higher than this, trying to prove himself, trying to be like "I'm back, baby, and I'm gonna save this franchise!"

I don't understand Uehara's obsession with villains starting dance classes that end up mind controlling people or whatever, but he brings it to Ohranger after it being a part of so many of his Metal Heroes. He also brings back Shoichiro Akaboshi's annoying robot-obsessed Professor Henna character from 25. Juri gets pulled into this dumbness after her nephew takes the class...and it's sad that here's an episode with an Ohranger having some personal involvement -- and it's in this stale, forgettable Goof Fest.

I make the EXACT same face as Juri whenever Shoichiro Akaboshi pops up in something.

 

There's really just nothing to say about this episode. I did notice that the action director was Jun Murakami. It's not the first Ohranger episode he does, but you really miss Yamaoka when you have a stinker nothing episode like this, because he would at least given you some good action. It doesn't help that it looks like Toei's trying to save some money here; there's a cheapness to this episode. So it sucks when there's an episode hindered by cheapness of both the monetary kind and of the imagination -- that usually makes for weak episodes.

Famous Face of Sentai Past: Mikiko Miki, aka Jetman's Odagiri and Kou's mom from Dairanger. It's funny; I remember someone back in the day insisting that Miki played Oh Yellow, and here's an episode where Miki pops up as Oh Yellow's sister. So I guess that's some spot-on casting. 

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EPISODE 30

As I rewatched this episode, I just kept thinking of how great Carranger is, how it came along and was such an all-around breath of fresh air that makes generic, pointless episodes like this one look like the empty relic it is. Episodes like this just say "We're not even trying." There's a difference in doing something as a throwback because it's the anniversary and having a writer who's set in his ways not really giving a damn, and the latter is how these past two scripts of Uehara's have felt.

The plot's a Go-onger plot played straight, as the monster of the week puts everyone to sleep and the day is saved by Dorin and her watermelon-looking Pokemon. I think at this point Uehara is just trying to see how stupid of material he can turn in before getting in trouble. (And I think that answer is one more script; after the next episode, Uehara's next -- and final -- script isn't until 43.)

Dorin's Pokemon, Suikachuu.

Henna returns in this episode, also. I actually like the idea of him getting Baranoia scraps and rebuilding it into something, but...that goes nowhere. Now, if this had been a serious Machine Beast, but it was destroyed, and the inept Henna found it and rebuilt it and it became the stupidly cutesy thing that puts everything to sleep? That makes sense! That would be comedic! I'd cut the stupidity of this episode major slack! But that was already the too-cute robot's purpose, so it's just more of Baranoia's looking dumb and...meh.

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EPISODE 31

Uehara's third winner in a row. Can you imagine being an Ohranger fan in '95 and tuning in for three consecutive weeks of this quality of stuff? (Actually, looking at the airdates, there was a delay between 30 and 31. So four weeks! That's enough to break a show.)

To be honest, this episode isn't as bad as I remembered it -- Kaoru Shinoda's funny as the monster, there's the amusing scene of the Ohranger trying to flush the monster out -- but it just feels like a writer on fumes. They're reusing one of the ugly monsters from the movie, they bring back the Costanzas to yuk it up, the villain plan of the super diet water seems like an afterthought...

And is that Ryou's outfit Goro's wearing at the end? The show's trying to save money in more ways than just hauling out an old monster suit.

Oh, and have fun with this episode, Shout Factory viewers who don't get to see the movie to know the references! (You ain't missing nothing if you miss the movie; I think the connection to the awful movie is the main reason I remember this episode as being worse than it actually is.)

Familiar Voice of Sentai Past: Kaoru Shinoda, aka Okerampa and Tottopatto. Shinoda gets to be seen this time as the monster's human form, too!