Time For Worlds Apart

The episode introducing Eric, Naoto/Time Fire's counterpart. It sticks mostly to the Timeranger storyline -- a little too much, given how many times you can actually spot the Japanese actors in the footage of the City Guardian scenes. What I mainly have to say is that I've been kinda unfair towards actor Daniel Southworth over the years. Shinji Kasahara and his Naoto/Time Fire is one of the only things I really liked about Timeranger. I thought a lot of Naoto's motivations were interesting and, unlike the rest of the cast, Kasahara seemed to really take the part seriously and went for it with a real intensity.

So I always kind of dismissed Eric and Southworth for not being Naoto or Kasahara. Because Southworth does a great acting job here and his fight scenes are awesome. (Southworth is a decade too young; I could easily imagine him headlining his own action flicks if he had been young enough to do so in, like, the late '80s when they were popular.) I've made some silly comments about how high I find his voice to be, but that's mainly in comparison to Naoto -- when you're used to Kasahara shredding his voice like he's Christian Bale's Batman, Southworth's tone and voiceover delivery is as much of a jolt as first hearing Goushi in Zyuranger after being used to hearing Walter Jones' Zack come from that mastodon helmet.

One of the things that didn't help me is that Southworth almost makes the same character seem even angrier, and Kasahara could really push it. He makes the character a little too aggro, a little too harsh. (Kasahara would often react to things with an amusement.) But I kinda admire that, because he's at least not pulling his punches and looking down on the material by half-assing it; he's committing to it and going hog-wild.

The thing about Eric/Naoto is -- and both shows are scared to dwell on it -- that they're obviously meant to be from the wrong side of the tracks; of a lower class; poor. They've fought their way from nothing while seeing a lot of their peers skate by on the luck of who their parents are. (I suppose one of the reasons I like Naoto so much is that you can really understand his dislike of Tatsuya; not because he sees Tatsuya as every other rich kid who's worry-free and has a free ride, but mainly because Masaru Nagai really lays on the nice guy act, his performance making Tatsuya come off as seeming VERY fake and superficial in showing care for Naoto. He's not meant to be insincere, but Nagai sure makes him seem that way, and you can really understand why Naoto has no patience with him in their school scenes.) With Time Force, you have the genuine, good-natured and likable Jason Faunt as Wes, so Eric comes across looking more like the ass, but the character is meant to be a little more complicated than that.

Last time I watched Timeranger, it hit me what a strange addition to the show Naoto is. He comes into it SO late and has such a strange motivation and doesn't mesh well with the heroes. I kinda realized that maybe it would have worked more if Naoto had been Tatsuya's brother; maybe he could have been the hard-working Asami who worshipped everything about his father, but for some infuriating reason, all the father focused on was the screw-up disappointment Tatsuya. So Naoto fights his way into earning his dad's respect, through becoming the doomed Time Fire.

It's strange and sad, in a way, that Eric/Naoto -- who have fought their way through life, looking for acceptance, looking for validation, being overly ambitious -- tries so hard to impress Mr. Collins/Mr. Asami and get on his good side, when it's the type of person Eric/Naoto typically disdains. (Actually, worse than the type of person he disdains.)