Saturday, December 26, 2015

Thoughts on Zyuohger

I'd like to be excited about Zyuohger. I like that Junko Komura's getting a shot at being main writer, but I remember being interested in the news that Riku Sanjou was doing a Sentai and he ended up crapping out Kyoryuger, a show I can't stand. And even though I think I've probably enjoyed more of Komura's standalone episodes in Gokaiger and Akiba S1 than anything Sanjou has done...I feel like Toei's gotten to a point where they've taken on the thinking of every lazy, obnoxious bastard on the internet who thinks they're cool and likes to dismiss all this stuff as "kids' toy commercial, luzl." There's too many corporate fingers in Toei's toku pies nowadays that I don't think it even matters anymore who's writing it or producing or directing it -- everyone's kept on such a tight leash by the unimaginative bean counting jackasses that it's made all of their shit start to look the same.

I can't be excited about Utsunomiya returning as producer. Sure, I liked Shinken and Gokai, but he killed and killed again all that goodwill with Wizard and the terrible, terrible ToQger. And while I'm not expecting Zyuohger to be a cameo-fest and huge anniversary show like Gokaiger, it's kind of sad that it seems like they might not be doing anything to acknowledge the anniversary (40 is more notable than 35, IMO), the way Kamen Rider's pretty much dropped ever doing anything special for an anniversary. Ideally, they'd do something like Ninninger -- have past animal Sentai heroes show up for team-ups now and then, but, you know, do it in a GOOD way. (And that better include the mythological beast shows, so there can be some Changeman and Dairanger appearances!)

The suits are generic, and remind me a little too much of ToQger's. (Since green's one of my favorite colors, I have to mention how much I hate the really light green that ToQ and Zyuoh use. It just looks bad to me.) The mecha's stupid, but at least I don't care about mecha. Even though writer Komura says Liveman is her favorite Sentai, I'm not holding out hope on cool villains like Volt -- toku's given up on having cool villains. (ToQ's Zet came closest to being the best toku villain in a long while, but the show had no idea what to do with him.)

The best piece of news so far is that Susumu Terajima is playing the mentor. I've always liked that guy and have been waiting for him to pop up in a toku finally.

Yeah, thanks Ninninger. I went from starting the year trying to keep an open mind about the new show, since the past few years of Sentai have sucked so bad, to not even being excited about the 40th anniversary series. Damn, is Ninninger awful...

9 comments:

  1. Agreed entirely on the suits. They're OK I guess, but I really hate this sour apple green they're going with. Is there a reason for the switch that my elderly brain hasn't picked up on? Maybe it's easier to key out the blue screen for more of their shit CG? It's awful.

    If there are any animal based cameos this year it'll probably be another friggin Hurricaneger arc. We can't escape them!!

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    1. You're probably right about another unpleasant visit with Hurricaneger, but I think those shows where the animal bits are slapped on as an afterthought should be disqualified (like Go-onger and Shinkenger). Otherwise, that's just opening the door for pretty much every damn Sentai imaginable. (Battle Kenya is a panther, let's get Ohba again! Ohranger Robo has animal mecha, bring back Ohranger! Where's a Deka Master cameo?!)

      I know a lot of people are tired of team-ups, but for as much as I enjoyed Gokaiger, there were a lot of shows that got majorly screwed over there, and Toei needs to make it right before the fad dies. But, like I said, I get the impression that Zyuohger's going to be Gaoranger 2 and show absolutely no indication in the series itself that it's a supposed to be a special anniversary year.

      I mean, honestly, I don't think the mythological beast shows should count for crossovers, but Toei needs to apologize to Changeman and Dairanger fans for the pitiful scraps they gave those shows in Gokaiger. Ryou's episode was a Gokai Silver episode, for crying out loud. That ain't right. (The downside to including the mythological beast teams? Appearances by Magiranger and Goseiger.)

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    1. Those mafia villains in the Space Sheriffs could be pretty generic, and all of the villains in Utsunomiya's shows are pretty generic and barely there, too, so maybe you're right about Zyuohger's villain. I mainly hope they're not a cutesy little match for the heroes, like they're all animal hunters or something like that.

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  3. I know you hate the Gobus-Ninnin period but how would you rank the last 4 years?

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    1. I guess I'd sadly have to say that it's been a clean downward trajectory. Go-busters is bad, but better than Kyoryuger; Kyoryuger is awful, but better than ToQger; ToQger is a waste of airtime, but not as much as Ninninger. So, you can see why I'm worried about Zyuohger. If it ends up making Ninninger look better...be afraid.

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  4. Happy New Year Shougo!

    I didn’t know green is one of your favorite color.
    Personally, I don’t mind light green color; though I still don’t like elephant trunk is going to his… you know. lol
    It’s nice to see two lighter color suits (Blue and Green) in the team.
    I’m bit more upset that we haven’t had normal blue ranger since Megumi/Blue Dolphin (Seriously? Why is female blue have to be light colored? Then again, Saizou/Ninja Blue is the only light blue male ranger; unless you count Ramire/Cyan from Kyoryuger).

    Regarding the series, I don’t have high or low expectation, where I’m pretty neutral.
    I wouldn’t mind they are not hyping up too much like Gokai.
    I have a feeling that this might be a better anniversary series, but that’s just me.
    Personally, I wouldn’t mind if it’s going to be Gaoranger like series; even though I’m not a fan. It’s very refreshing to see a team of human (Red) + 4 animal faces; bit awkward, but creative.

    Terajima as mentor sounds pretty interesting. That alone is worth watching. I’m curious if he could turn into ranger later in the series.

    OP will be sung by Hideaki Takatori and ED will be Yohei Onishi.
    The end theme will feature a dance choreographed by Papaya Suzuki, who previously created the dance for Kyoryuger's ED (ugh).
    I don’t mind Onishi too much, since Ninnin OP was OK (I still don’t like “NinJapan!” part), but Takatori has been hit and miss for last couple of years. I’m not too into ED dance; though I do like Ninninger ED dance (for guilty pleasure. lol)

    40th anniversary logo is pretty bland and generic compared to 30 and 35; I really hate to see AkaRed come back with that logo on his chest. lol

    I agree with Ninninger. It’s pretty boring IMO.
    Bakaharu is still annoying (worst Red Ranger EVER!) and Kibaoni Corps has got to be the least intimidating/threatening villain organization I’ve seen.


    Take care.

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