Not much of an episode; an excuse for a car chase and to debut the Time Force motorcycles. (As an '80s Sentai fan who is used to the Sentai members having motorcycles, I love the Time Force motorcycles, and the way that Power Rangers kept motorcycles a thing even in a time when Sentai didn't.) A light-on-plot, big-on-action episode like this doesn't bother me early on, and it goes to give Time Force more of a superhero feel than Timeranger often had. Timeranger's priority was definitely on the "drama" side, and all of the superhero and sci-fi stuff took a backseat. But Time Force ain't perfect. Like, in relation to this episode, we need to talk about Lucas...
He's the weakest part of the heroes, IMO. Take away Ayase's illness and what are you left with? Absolutely nothing. How do I know this? Lucas. All we have left is that he's a racer (yawn) and a "cool" guy. His being a racer is not interesting, that's the kind of lame-o stuff they'd write for superheroes in the '50s when they thought their only readers were little boys they had to pander to. And his "coolness" is really only reflected by his constantly checking himself out in the mirror, making the character so impressed with himself he could very well have been in Timeranger.
I don't know why Timeranger pretended to be so character driven, yet did nothing with any of the characters that mattered. (Please, let's have more episodes with that idiot Honami, though.) Ayase's meant to be symbolic of the entire premise: as a dying man, he's the man from the future with no future. He's kinda screwed in that he's stuck in the past, so far from his own time, when he himself might not have much time. He's stuck doing a dangerous job that he had no intention of doing. And while he's initially kind of self-centered and depressed about his problem, he's inspired by Tatsuya's outlook and his growing friendship with the others to enjoy the time he has. He goes from isolating himself out of depression to keeping quiet so as to not worry others. He gets away with this with a cool act, but he's really just quiet, introspective, just hanging back and taking it all in. His potentially limited time gives him a pragmatic levelheadedness. This story is completely wasted because actor Yuuji Kido is a...well, I was going to say reanimated corpse, but that suggests that he's animated at all.
So, Time Force should have had the courage to lift this story and try to improve on it -- I don't think Copon's a bad actor, but he needed SOMEthing to work with -- but they don't, so we end up with Lucas, the most uninteresting character of the heroes. (I guess you can say they transplanted the dying Ayase plot over to Ransik, but that's not as interesting as having it be a hero.) If they were too afraid of upsetting the little kiddies by having a dying hero, then they should have at least kept the Honami story. (Ditch the triangle which was born of Honami's stupidity, just focus on Lucas -- who was supposed to be a ladies' man -- falling completely in love with a present-era girl, knowing he'd have to leave her when his mission succeeds. Every other Time Force Ranger has a bit of dramatic baggage BUT Lucas.)
On a random note, this episode sets up what will be Frax's growing rebellion with Ransik. As he's trying to actually offer up a villainous plan, he's overruled by Nadira, wanting to keep taking a play out of the Londarz playbook by just robbing some joints and spending it on stuff. One of the benefits of having a year of Timeranger's stories ahead of you: you can pick what's good and maybe actually have it pay off. Here, it's Frax's eventual rebellion.
I remember those motorcycles! They actually did look quite nifty~
ReplyDeleteAyase for me... is a weird one. Cause I actually do enjoy the character in the eps which do focus on the Osiris Syndrome. Which is like what, 4 eps? And one of the eps I remember explores nothing new, lol. But outside of the Osiris Syndrome eps, Ayase was always just kinda there for me. Just faded in the background. Which is a problem for me. I expect my Sentai characters to still have presence, even if it's not a focus episode for them. I don't think I find the actor bad. But I feel the directors gave him nothing to work with. "Just stand in the background and stay quiet, and tell others to get lost if they try to approach you." Bah.
And like you've said, Lucas is basically Ayase without the cool Osiris Syndrome plot. xP
I did a Timeranger rewatch a few months ago. And for as much as it is "character/plot-driven," there's a lot of episodes which don't really push the stories anywhere. A lot of the overarching plots do really get spread out throughout the 50 eps (I guess you could say dragged out). I do think Timeranger eps do generally stick to the themes of what the show is about. But not much always really happens or changes much. I suppose technically you could tell the entire Timeranger story in about 30 eps? And maybe a shorter number of eps might've benefited the show more? Maybe?
Cause like, the show establishes plots like Yuuri vs Dolnero, which doesn't really get brought up much again until like... ep 47 (the show halfway through begins a romance between her and Tatsuya)! The Ayase Osiris Syndrome stuff? Nothing new really happens from Ep 10 to like, Ep 39. The Domon/Honami stuff? Is dragged out as Honami for a while is certain Ayase is TimeYellow. I don't think these necessarily make the beginnings and ends of these arcs bad (I still enjoy them well enough). But there's a lot of fluffy in-betweens.
Sometimes it did make me think: Man, Timeranger might've benefited from having a couple of regular villain generals giving them trouble. (Similarly, I thought the same for Megaranger, in how the show could've used another regular general besides Yugande). But oh well. Timeranger had other priorities it seems.
Y'know, what I do really like about the whole Domon/Honami plot IS the whole setup of how Domon has gotten into a relationship with a girl from the 20th century, and how there's the constant looming possibility that he's going to have to leave her eventually. I enjoyed the plot most for those moments.
I actually don't mind Honami much personally. Yeah, it was really dumb of her to just assume Ayase was TimeYellow, thus causing a bunch of confusion for several eps. But I guess kid-me back in the day watched it and never really thought "omg, why is Honami so stupid??" I was more "Whoops, that's a big mistake there Honami. I hope you can figure the truth out, so you and Domon can really get together." And I guess it worked for me in the end cause even Honami admits to Domon that she should not have come to such quick conclusions about Ayase. So I guess that spoke to me that she at least had a brain, but was a rather impulsive flawed individual, who was prone to getting excited and caught up in the moments. Much like how Domon has always been shown to be a very clumsy flawed person. And I guess that made me want to see Domon succeed. To see that things can for once go well for him, despite his very own personality often working against him.
Yeah, Kobayashi does write a lot of their eps with fluffy soapy melodrama. I suppose in a lot of ways the entire arc could've just been cut down to like, 3 eps, instead of the 5 eps we ended up with.
Timeranger REALLY needed to have a "Sixth Villain," as I like to call them. I get the impression the show thought the personal drama and the antagonistic Naoto were enough, but...they're wrong.
DeleteThe sad thing about Ayase is, he had the potential to be such a cool character. He's supposed to be quiet and have this hard-earned wisdom. He's in the background because he likes it there. I'm trying to come up with a good comparison to that character type in Sentai, and the first one that comes to mind is Jin/Battle Cossack. Yuuji Kido is just so wooden that he tanks the character. You need someone with gravitas who can do a lot with a little, like Daisuke Ban.
I have a theory about why the Honami arc might have turned out as silly as it does in one of my later posts, when it's more relevant. Stay tuned!
A blue streak of spotlight
ReplyDeleteWhat, didn't like Domon making soba noodles? lol
ReplyDeleteAyase... I don't remember outright disliking him last I saw Timeranger but thinking back, I don't remember too much either? He had that moment Nobuo liked of him crying in the rain and that Inoue ep with the Racer Londarz but that's all I got.
Giving the Osiris plot to Ransik, I think I can see that with moments of how Ransik's story went but, all the same, how it ends... I'm really tempted to say "cop-out" here but no other words come to mind. "Not as cool", maybe
Heh, I slam that noodle episode in one of my later posts. That's a real low-point for the show, IMO. What's the point of that episode?!
DeleteAyase's good on paper, the problem is mostly Yuuji Kido's stiff performance. I often wonder how Timeranger had the sense to cast someone as great as Shinji Kasahara when it bungled the casting in so many other areas.
Yeah, there were so many ways Ransik's adventure could have ended that would have been not a cop out or actually cool. Just croaking from his disease would have been better than reforming and having a picnic with the Rangers...ugh.
Hi Shogo well I'd like to share my ideas in this post:
ReplyDeleteTimeranger's Blues With Ayase's Sob Story
I admit, I am VERY mixed on the whole idea of Ayase being sick. Heck, I'm glad that Lucas can be the happy and healthy blue ranger that he is!
The idea of this storyline for Ayase was interesting, you just needed an actor who could better convey it than acting like he had really irritating heartburn, in addition to having a purple-nerple.
DeleteSince you mentioned it, I should say I liked Kitaoka's story more in Ryuki, but I think that might have been Inoue's doing.
For me though, Kitaoka was really one huge A**HOLE so I admit, half of me really wanted him gone for good. =P
Delete