An episode that's thin on plot, but makes up for it in big ways. One, in action. Two, in Kenta Satou. This episode is pretty much all Riki and all Riki thrown into big action. It's kind of weird how little Red-focus there's been in the show for so long. Yeah, he kinda got that one with the monster that hates sakura, but that was still 6 episodes in! And now 10! That's unheard of for a Red. Even in the premiere episodes, he shared them with the others -- usually Red's driving the action or they save the big dramatic stuff for Red or around him.
So I feel like they realized they've been neglecting their Red, so they give him this kick-ass episode which really kicks open the door for a ton of episodes carried by Kenta Satou where Riki is kicking ass all over the place. I wrote praising Tetsuo Kurata in my Kamen Rider Black posts -- that he was a real find for the show, a natural, a dedicated guy who was always believable and always gave 110%. A lot of that show's success is due to Kurata. Kurata's one of the reasons Kamen Rider Black remains so fondly remembered, and you understand why he had a popular run in movies and dramas following it. But I think all of the heavy-lifting Kenta Satou does in Turboranger matches what Kurata did as Kotaro Minami. I think Satou's just as good and deserved the kind of career and kudos and popularity Kurata had. He brings so much to the role of Riki, he's extremely committed to the show, he throws himself into any crazy scenario AND he sings most of its awesome soundtrack.
Why didn't Satou break out? How did he not get bigger? How Sway? Did showing up dressed in Riki's outfit to perform the theme, as far back as 1990, do him no favors? Because screw that! It's awesome and he was wayyyyyyyyy ahead of his time. He genuinely loves the show and has kept waving its flag all of these years as it's gone unappreciated. And the Zyuranger OP was super popular and won a Gold Disc Award -- why didn't that lead to at least more music from him? Who had it in for Satou?! Maybe he really did need to play Burai in order to help cement his status...
Anyway, this is the first episode where it seems like the show is "Hey, this Satou kid is something," so we'll eventually get more episodes where Riki's awesome and kicking ass all over the place. Here we have Riki just happening upon a mother who was too late in handing her son his bento, and our trusty old hero promises to get it to him. He catches up to the kid, who's riding with pals to go on a picnic, but is interrupted by a huge Ura attack. The Bouma-Beast this week is the head Ura, Ura Bouma, who's trying to revive a bunch of Ura soldiers who have been buried under what's now a stretch of highway; Riki's strong need to save the kid isn't simply about delivering a bento box, but more that he feels guilty that he told the kid and his party to escape, and (unbeknownst to him) sent them down the "Ura Highway." But this episode conveys a massive Ura attack better than the zombies of episode 6; take a look at the scenes of mayhem where they're erupting from concrete, tearing apart offices, throwing people from windows...!
The episode begins with a scene of Reida and Uras in a ritual to revive the monster. Through the designs, writing and filming techniques, the Bouma villains are the closest I feel like a Sentai has gotten to having horror-like villains. I mean, even if other shows had youkai-based or Universal Monster-themed villains, they tended to be depicted the way any monster would or would be stuck in one of the more comedic shows. But I think there's a genuine attempt at having the Bouma look, feel and act scary. And Turboranger's lower budget actually helps out a lot of the Bouma-related stuff, because they have to be craftier in the way some things are depicted -- like the way Ragon will be lit in a strange blue light, which gives him an eerie aura, drawing the eye to him -- and sometimes it results in the Bouma scenes just having a dark, grimy feel to them, which is appropriate.
Random note: this episodes makes excessive use of the Ura theme song. There's a ton of theme songs for the bad guy grunts -- most of them by Koorogi '73, most of them just noisy -- but the Ura one's probably the only one I like. It's bonkers, it's goofy, but it tries to have a spooky sound to it. It reminds me of one of the songs they'd play on The Real Ghostbusters or something.
I actually kinda forgot about this episode, and now I feel really bad that I did. This episode is awesome!
ReplyDeleteAnd wow, yeah, they really don't give Riki as much as the usual Red gets in the 1st quarter. I wonder what happened? Usually presenting the Red is a Sentai's top priority. Was the production running behind schedule? Were they just slow on figuring out what to do with Riki? (Riki does get so many many awesome moments beyond this point in the show)
And yeah, it saddens me that Satou never really broke out big like Kurata did. He's criminally underrated. I know he auditioned for Burai, but I'm kinda surprised he never showed up in more Sentai. Not even as a guest (I guess Gokaiger kinda counts).
Turboranger (maybe Liveman?) was kinda the start of an era where Sentai would be low budget for a while, up to Kakuranger. I personally always quite liked how creative the shows of this time could get, and how I feel a lot of them ended up looking way bigger budget, despite the small budget they had. And I feel Turboranger definitely deserves props for this, for the reasons you mentioned.~
I don't know if there was any particular reason why the show took a while to give Riki the spotlight, but it *is* a little strange.
DeleteYeah, Liveman definitely ate up the money Toei was willing to spend on Sentai at that point. I feel like Jetman was given more to work with, probably due to Amemiya.
It does blow that Satou didn't break out like Kurata did. He's a talented guy (with plenty of range and charisma, and chemistry with his fellow actors), and it always came off like he was giving his 120% to the role. It's the same feeling I got from guys like Kenji Ohba, Ryousuke Kaizu, and Yuji Kishi. He's doing some fantastic out-of-suit fighting in this episode. It's not to the point where you'd think he's a JAC member, but enough to show that Satou did some fight training and worked with Niibori to hone Riki's style. It's impressive for both Satou and Niibori, considering the ten or so year age gap.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there were behind-the-scenes reasons why he didn't take off as much as he did (e.g., issues with some of the higher-ups, his association with leading a less-than-financially-successful show, ego getting in the way of accepting bit parts - which I doubt, etc.).
I'm not sure he could have pulled off Burai all that well. While he had some villain experience (one of the gang members in Janus no Kagami - he looks good in all-white and with eyeliner), I'm not sure how he'd look opposite of Mochizuki. Playing Mega Silver might have been more up his alley. It would have been a nice way to connect the two high school shows, give Satou another song, and maybe do some darker things with the character (e.g., the last survivor of a previous INET squad, replacing Kubota as a mentor figure, reflecting on his lost friends to the Digi-Ken, etc.). Satou could pull that off better than Kanai.
Anyway, the episode itself is an excellent one. I love the Uras' designs, so seeing more of them and their leader is a plus. The scene blocking, editing, and music selection make their menace all the more threatening. The action scenes are top-notch (e.g., the huge Ura fight scenes and Riki's "sucker stab"), and the kid doesn't come off as whiny or annoying. My favorite bit is the cave scene, where Riki comforts the kid. I could see Riki growing up to be a counselor or a teacher of young children, handling tough situations like this one. I was going to say youth baseball coach, but given what I know about youth baseball academies in Japan, I don't think Riki is cut out for it.
Satou as Mega Silver would have been interesting...I don't really like Kanai all that much in the role. Satou would have really grounded that character, made him less of a cartoon.
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