Ohranger Episodes 11-14

 

EPISODE 11

Enter the Soda. It's surprising he came back to Sentai; gossip says that he was kinda hurt when Suzuki cut him out after Fiveman. He had been with the franchise since its beginning! He wasn't the only one left behind -- Suzuki recognized during Fiveman that they were getting in a rut, so he wanted fresh blood for Jetman and avoided getting back too-familiar staff members like Soda and director Takao Nagaishi. Soda eventually returned to the franchise, writing episodes of Kakuranger. I feel like with Soda's Kakuranger and Ohranger episodes, they want him to tap into what he first became known for, which was the more comedic and outlandish Goranger episodes. (If you worship Baseball Mask the way Japan does, you can thank Soda.) He eventually gets relegated on this show to being Mecha Guy.

So we get this weird episode. While not exactly the greatest intro for Soda to this series, it's not the weirdest this show will end up offering, and even has a kind of logic and balance to it. The Baranoia are depicted a little harsher here, behaving a little more like what you'd expect from machines who hate humanity -- disgusted by the way humans treat the machines in their lives. It can get goofy, but it's not as bad as I remembered it.

This is Shouhei's first solo outing and, while we don't get to find out anything about him, he's at least funny here, devising a plan to stop the monster that he doesn't bother to explain to his teammates that well. And we get some sweet, sweet Yamaoka action, some really cool stuff that was probably too dangerous to film since it looked like it had just rained.

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EPISODE 12

This is the one that tends to kill my attempts at rewatching the show. I'm surprised it's a Sugimura script, although it does seem like something you'd find in Jiban. This episode to me is like a perfect representation of my problem with Ohranger -- an absurd scenario by the villains, depicted in a comical way while the heroes take it all 110% seriously. Ohranger's always straddling that line, and it just doesn't add up to a whole. So you'll be left with "Well, so-and-so's likable" or "It had some cool action." It's just a collision of tones and styles and everything's working against each other and...it just makes Ohranger not seem like a full experience. And it's not like I want the heroes yukking it up or breaking the fourth wall pointing out how stupid everything is, because that's obnoxious, but I feel like when you have a cast like this who are capable...maybe reward them with some decent plots, you know?

I feel like my brain just can't process the way this show is presented as having such stupid villains and plans, yet the hero half is taking everything so seriously. I think it's why I feel like I'm never all that familiar-seeming with the show. Part of my draw to Ohranger is that I feel like it's a show that I've not seen much or am not overly familiar, but I think that's something caused by the tonal flip-flopping not leading to a well-rounded experience. And for as seriously as the hero side is taken, from the actors to the way the action is depicted, it's strange to me that there are rarely any attempts at giving these characters...you know, character! They're hardly even just archetypes -- there's a broad idea, and the rest is left entirely up to the actors, whose feelings may depend on their mood that day of filming. (This is how Shouhei goes from the angry, second-in-command-of-a-few-words one episode to Masaoka's clowning around the next. Or the way Juri goes from tough-gal-with-tude to peppy pothead.)

So that's what simmers in the back of my mind as I watch this episode. The rest of it is just me being annoyed by crying babies for 20 minutes. Maybe the Baranoia had a point.

Familiar Face of Sentai Past: Hatsue Nishi, aka Fiveman's Doldola. 

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EPISODE 13

The first script from Susumu Takaku, a story that has the usual warmth and soulfulness found in his work. I imagine snotty youngsters snickering at this episode, but it works if you're an animal lover. Even if not, the episode offers a lot of cool action spectacle, taking place in a mountainous terrain, the Baranoia forces chasing Momo down in action set pieces that recall the long pursuit scenes from the first episode. (And Momo's facing it all on her own!) And the monster of the week's design is hilarious, with the little dude on the head controlling the bigger, normal suit.

The episode has a good sense of tension and pace, as Momo is on the run without her Power Brace. And the Baranoia threat is a classic scenario of attempting to get Mt. Fuji to erupt and flood Tokyo with lava. It's an often used scenario, but at least a little more deadly and believable than spraying people with gold glitter and getting them to eat cars.

People probably expected something different from the writer who brought you Metalder, now working on this robot-centric show, so it's funny that his two episodes don't really deal with the Baranoia or make any kind of statement about technology or machines or machine sentience. Here he chooses to just focus on a heroine in jeopardy. This would be the last toku Takaku wrote for, so I think he was mostly just ready to move on by the time he got this gig.

How about that dog, though? Yamaoka's known for pushing his actors as far as they can go, and he doesn't go easy on a dog, either, throwing him into the middle of explosions. The dog's practically a JAC member! 

Action, action! Go-go-go!

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EPISODE 14

An Uehara episode, one that I always remember as being worse than it actually is. I like the idea of Baranoia warping this new technology of man's for their own ends -- turning the Pinocchio prototype helper robot into a secret assassin. I think my problem is with the various Pinnochio robots' designs. They're a little dopey and already look pretty Baranoia-like, despite the fact that they're not supposed to be related to Baranoia at all. So you're already suspecting these things to be bad. In that case, perhaps this was the time to haul out a past prop and repaint it -- have them look like the Dark Q from Sunvulcan or something.

It's also just weird and sloppy to shoehorn in Shouhei and act like this is his episode, just because he's randomly obsessed with a ramen place that this robot happens to be working at. Why use a ramen shop as a place to test run your robots? That company was destined to fail with that kind of thinking, man.

I also don't feel like Juri would be so enamored with the Pinnochio infant robot and be so 1) unprofessional as to bring this glorified Cabbage Patch Kid to work and 2) oblivious as to bring it to the high security base. It seems more like a Momo maneuver to me. (Sorry, Momo.) I could even picture Shouhei bringing it in as a joke, not thinking of the risk. It leads to that cool scene of Goro rushing the robot out of the base, though, when it's discovered to be a bomb. Still, there's a weird dash of sexism here, as the two heroines go gaga for the infant robot doll, while Goro and Miura exchange knowing glances like "We've got the Choriki dongs, we know something's up here and them women there can't help but let their emotions cloud everything."

Ohranger Episodes 8-10

 

EPISODE 8

This episode is just basically pleasing Bandai for holding off so long on getting Ohranger Robo. Total nonstop mecha action. There are things that are cool on paper, but there's just no feasible way of conveying the scenario on a 1995 toku budget. (Baranoia chains Ohranger Robo and throws it into the sun, where quick thinking by Oh Red leads them to using the alternate headpieces to get them out of the jam.)

Here's a problem I have with this episode, and it's something that happened in the previous one, too. We see the Ohranger as being so skilled and confident, but the minute something's not going their way, they're ready to give up. I don't want overly confident heroes to the point of them being cocky, but when even Oh Red is like "The mecha won't move! Baranoia's won, they're going to take over Earth, we're fucked!" it's just a little too much. And they ALL freak out like that here. At least have Red be the calm voice of reason.

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EPISODE 9

Before some know-it-all wants to feel fancy and cry "stock plots" or "tropes," I'm here to say that some writers just have pet scenarios they'll often revisit. Toshiki Inoue's one of those writers. A lot of Changerion is Inoue cutting loose with a lot of his favorite scenarios...

The first scene of this episode is something that's done more believably in Changerion. In short, the gals of the show are shopping and wind up selecting the same dress and exchange some insults. Inoue likes this plot of having heroines who bicker but end up having to put aside their differences to work together. It works in Changerion, because Eri and Akemi always had a simmering competitive thing going between them, and their fallout drives the episode for when they team up. Akemi's actress is also noticeably younger than Eri's, so the "obasan" jab works there. Here it's just used as a humorous way to kick off the episode, and it just doesn't seem very Juri or Momo-like. Call me judgmental, because we don't exactly know much about these characters at the moment, but Juri never seemed like the type to shirk duty to go shopping and find a rad outfit to attract guys. Momo and Juri also seem in the same age range, so their brief beef seems more mean-spirited than it should. (Juri is supposed to be 22 and Momo 20; however, in real life, it was the reverse -- Tamao Sato was older than Ayumi Asou.)

Other than that, this episode sees Inoue also visit his Turboranger script in which Haruna feigns defection in order to get the antidote for the poisoned heroes. The disappointing thing here is how easily and quickly the three Ohranger guys are taken down. But it's meant to be comedic, and this is a comedic episode. People target this episode as the first of Ohranger's being "retooled," but I think a comedic episode was required and probably going to land at this point anyway. 

And it deviates from the Turboranger scenario in that the focus is on both heroines -- with things meant to be somewhat bleak because the tough Juri has "defected," leaving things up to seemingly timid Momo -- and that the monster is aware of the deception. (Momo calls the monster's bluff by outdecepting HIM and tricking him with...a holographic projection of the seemingly-healed Ohranger guys? When did she get that made?!) Toku heroes pretending to be bad is always hard to buy, but maybe Juri would...I didn't peg her for the type to want to play dress up for guys, so maybe she *would* join Baranoia, eh?

There's some bizarre shit in this episode, like the already-mentioned holographic projection, and Miura misleading the heroines into thinking they have less time than they do in order to motivate them. Inoue crammed all the silliness he could into this one, but it's a fun showcase for our heroines. I'm an Inoue apologist and Tamao Sato fanboy, so...

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EPISODE 10

Uehara's first script for the show! And it's kind of plain. Don't get me wrong, he gets nuttier than I care for later on. It's just surprising that the episode feels kind of like...an extra episode was ordered, so they scrambled to throw this thing together. You know, like how a lot of the Sentai movies feel.

I think Bara Hacker's cool, though, and I like his memorizing all Ohranger attacks and trying to get into the secrets of their mecha. Yamaoka's back, so there's some great looking action shots.

Oh, and they force in a new toy for no real reason! Ohranger ends up getting really bad about trying to somehow save their sinking ship by piling toys onto it. I think this thing is the earliest and most pointless introduction to a Sentai. (At the time, anyway. Nowadays, they get new pointless shit in every single episode of a Sentai. Every. Single. Episode.) The Giant Roller...is a bit goofy looking, I'm sorry. Especially when they cut to Red inside it, and he just looks like he's in the Human Hamster Wheel from Super Sloppy Double Dare. The sentiment is nice, with the wheel being one of mankind's oldest and most important technological creations, tying back into Ohranger's theme of ancient technology. It also just debuts here without any fanfare. "Bara Hacker knows all of our moves! Well, let's haul out the Giant Wheeler we've been working on!" Older shows would have had a reference to it previously, or show it being built, even if just at the start of this very episode. Very rushed and seeming like an afterthought. 

Ohranger Episodes 6-7 + MOVIE

 

EPISODES 6 and 7

Damn, it's been nice to not have mecha battles! And we've had to see the Ohranger find different ways to finish off threats, which has been cool, you know? They brought down one giant on their own; they had to stop the host parasite to save the day in another episode. Bacchushund cruelly executes another. But now we're headed into mecha snoozeville. And Ohranger eventually drowns itself in boring mecha stuff, so...ugh.

Actually, this two-parter is all around solid. Its focus is on Miyauchi, which is never a bad thing. Learning of the Choriki Mobiles, the Baranoia dread the Ohranger getting mecha as much as I do, so they devise a plan to target an exhausted Miura, drawing him out into the field where they can capture him and learn of the mecha, preventing its completion.

Niibori's the action director of these episodes, and he delivers some cool scenes (like Oh Red and Miura being attacked in a jeep). I liked the team split in two on separate missions -- Red, Green and Yellow out to save Miura while Blue and Pink take it upon themselves to debut their mecha. (I still wonder what kind of craziness Yamaoka would have given us for this big two-parter, knowing how far he likes to push things.) Episode Six is also the first to have a scene with the untransformed Ohranger fighting off Barlow soldiers -- maybe they're supposed to have developed a bit of Choriki ability out of suit, but I missed how unstoppable the Barlows seemed, that they COULDN'T be fought off hand-to-hand, untransformed. Grunt fights always contained the potential for cool choreography, though, so I won't begrudge Ohranger the opportunity to have more fights with the actors involved.

Sugimura always liked relying on dei ex machina; they're throughout all of his shows. Here Ohranger is bailed out by a praying girl that ends up helping the Choriki shine through and pull Ohranger out of a jam and successfully use Ohranger Robo. It's later said by Miura that nature is what responded, helping fuel the Choriki. This further establishes Ohranger's theme -- we have technology vs technology, but it's the human and living component on the side of the heroes that makes them persevere, a technology without heart is a dangerous sort of thing...

...too bad the Baranoia aren't cooler. I know I said I wouldn't harp on that too much, but it's hard when they're always just having hissy fits in their scenes. For cold machines without feeling, they sure like their hissy fits. It's really Bacchushund I have the biggest problem with -- I know it's supposed to be special that they got Toru Ohira, narrator of nearly every Sentai up until '83, to voice him, but he makes him far too buffoonish. I tend to really dislike the voice acting in Power Rangers, but I remember thinking David Stenstrom had the right idea when voicing Bacchushund's counterpart, King Mondo -- he put on this snooty royal voice. I think Seizo Kato would have been a better fit as Bacchushund.

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MOVIE

What is this shit? Who thought this was acceptable to put on the big screen? 

I guess the meeting went something like this...

Producer: Hey, Uehara. You know how you stunk up last year's Superhero Fair with Kamen Rider J? You got anything worse than that?

Uehara: Do I!

Keep in mind, I actually like those crazy Metal Hero episodes Uehara does where there's no real plot and it's just the hero thrown into wall-to-wall weirdness for the episode. But I don't think that sort of thing makes for a good movie, even though that scenario with a movie budget has the potential to be really nuts and memorable. But the Ohranger movie spares all expenses.

It just doesn't work here. It's not done well; it doesn't feel at all like Ohranger or a Baranoia plan. The filming location is mainly a sparse ranch that's so creepy it wouldn't be a surprise to find out the Japanese branch of the Manson Family lived there. The movie has a group of new monsters that are so cheap and poorly designed they look like Zyu2 rejects. And I find Miura to be kind of a dick in this.

And this sucker is 40 minutes! Why in the hell did they make every bad decision they could? "It's the movie for the anniversary series! Let's get back Uehara and have it be the first thing he does for this series! And you know his famous 20-minute-acid-trip-in-lieu-of-plot schtick from the Metal Heroes? Let's get him to do that for 40 minutes! And besides, if nobody likes it, we're sure to win some people over with the B-Fighter movie! Yeah! And we're already printing money knowing what a success Hakaider will be!"

Geez, and I wonder why Sentai theatrical works died for six years after this. It's really one of the top worst Sentai movies -- maybe THE worst, even by toku movie standards. Not even Yamaoka action helps much. This was only my second time watching this stinkfest; it's so bad, that's how strong its stench stained the memory.

Who would think that a movie with the premise of Bulldont making snuff films -- one which will hopefully star Ohranger -- could be so stupid? Who expects a movie like that to start with our villains being shat out of a metal horse? (The same place the script came from.)

 

They had to drag poor Yoshinori Okamoto into this mess?!

Ohranger Episodes 3-5

 

EPISODE 3

An episode that works thanks once again to some cool action -- it's mostly just Goro and a kid who's targeted by Baranoia on the run for an entire episode. The villain plan doesn't make the most sense to me -- this kid once found a fragment of a stone tablet that led to the discovery of all of the Choriki abilities, so the Baranoia want to scan his memories for the information on this one fragment he found. I like that they want to dig into the origin of the Ohranger's powers, but what can you get from this kid's fuzzy memory of one fragment?! Capture Miura and put HIM into the monster's contraption! You'll get way more info. And don't tell me Miura's too guarded to be captured, because they go on to capture him in just a few episodes.

Just a tweak in the writing would have made this work, like if the UAOH had let the kid hang around the area as they found more fragments and put the whole tablet together. Because it's not like it's a bad villain plan, there's reason to it. We've seen this scenario done stupider in other Sentais, like that Sunvulcan (or is it Goggle V?) that's trying to transform a modern day person into their ancient ancestor in order to somehow get a piece of info from the ancestor's memory...! What malarkey.

But we're just at episode three, and we already have a kid episode. Sugimura must have really been tortured, holding it in and doing two kid-free episodes.

Familiar Face of Sentai Past: Shirou Izumi, aka Yuuma/Change Pegasus and Burai/Dragon Ranger, in a flashback scene as the kid's deceased dad, who has a nice speech explaining the kid's fascination with geology.

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EPISODE 4

This one has a cool premise of the monster letting loose little parasites that transform people into Machine Beasts. There are a lot of cool fight scenes with fiery surroundings. My problem is just these two things:

1) I don't feel like the people who were transformed into machines should so easily be turned back. The cop dad who gets turned into the monster turns back and forth between his normal self and the machine, and it doesn't really work for me. Even if similar stuff has happened in toku since the beginning, the description of this parasite that transforms flesh into metal makes it sound like it should be kinda permanent, don't you think?

I don't see the Baranoia going for this plan, anyway. They're meant to think they're superior to humans. They think they're gods. So why would they want to turn the beings they think so little of into something like them?

2) We follow this cop dad and his kid and...the kid makes you want to poke out your eardrums like Kakihara at the end of Ichi the Killer so you're deaf to his whining. He's one of those kid actors who just screeches all of his lines, no matter what he's saying. He's not an annoying character, but the actor makes him annoying -- so you don't really care about him OR his dad. The dad has a kind of broad, comedic vibe to his performance, so a scene with him trying to shoot himself to stop his monstrous rampage doesn't play as seriously as intended.

If you can look past these things...you're a more forgiving person than I.

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EPISODE 5

Talk about a villain plan that makes no sense. This is the first episode to not be written by Sugimura, but by Toshiki Inoue. The memo must have been handed down "This is a Sugimura show, so don't forget to include kids." It's atypical of an Inoue script to be so kid-heavy, but this one has TWO.

I feel like this episode is just thrown in here because of a possible similarity to the previous episode. It makes no sense to me that Bara Cactus coughs up some gold glitter on people and...makes them eat machinery to take on whatever function said machine had? EHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH?! Seems to me like this script might have been a "they get turned into robots/machines," but it was altered after the last episode. So instead of people being turned into robots, a kid eats a computer and ends up as smart as a computer. Yeah, I don't think Inoue's one you turn to for sci-fi. (We at least get one cool Cronenbergian scenario of a kid eating a gun and getting a gun hand.) Inoue's more about human drama.

The story's focused on a bullied kid and his falling out with his older brother, and it's meant to mirror the Machine Beasts of the week, Bara Cactus and his brother. The ending scene with the wounded Bara Cactus returning to the Baranoia base to find his kid brother strung up and tortured to death -- only to then be executed by Bacchushund himself -- is a surprisingly grisly shock, and a typically Inoue way to end the episode. My problem is...there's no reason for us to believe that these two have developed feelings. Bacchushund is disgusted that the one seems to feel love for his brother. We don't know anything about the Machine Beast process to be like "Ah! They're capable of evolving" or whatever. Why are they cactus themed?! Does Baranoia create cybernetic monsters, turning living things into robots? I don't think so, that goes against their M.O. But why else are they called Machine BEASTS? So, there's no real reason to give a crap about these two, and it's not a good parallel to just have the cactus see the brother protect his one brother and develop feelings from that. It's not HORRIBLE, and you can just chalk this up to being an episode that comes too early in a show's run -- therefore it's not so smooth. But...it doesn't work for me. Save machines-who-feel for a more important storyline.

Also, an earlier Sentai would have given Yuuji a reason to care about these kids so much; he'd probably have had -- and lost -- a sibling. But then that reminds me of the Turboranger Inoue wrote where Shunsuke feels obligated to help the Fire and Ice Bouma brothers because he's traumatized by losing his brother. Maybe Inoue didn't want to repeat himself exactly (unlike a certain other Sentai writer who's going to be showing up on Ohranger soon). Here, we're just told Yuuji's an only child who envies siblings.

And while the last two episodes had Yamaoka style to help save them, this episode's action director is Kazuo Niibori. Niibori's an amazing suit actor, but his record as action director has always been a little spotty for me. He's no Yamaoka, but he at least tries to keep Yamaoka's pace in this episode. Still, the difference is felt.

Ohranger Episode 2

 

EPISODE 2

Keeps with the nice pace of the first episode by having the race-against-the-clock premise of Goro needing to get the others back to base to receive their powers all while a giant mecha is attacking the city (and taking prisoners). The first full team battle does not disappoint, as all of the suit actors show their Choriki Strength, and the set piece here is big and chaotic, a Yamaoka specialty. I love that the regular sized team takes on the giant mecha and successfully bring it down without a cheat.

Only making a cameo last time, we're given our full introduction to Hiroshi Miyauchi's Miura. Casting Miyauchi as the mentor is just a genius move in order to celebrate the anniversary. I blogged before that there are rumors in the Japanese fandom that the production wanted Akiji Kobayashi as Miura, but his health was in decline. He ended up passing a year after Ohranger. I still don't know how true all of that is, and while it would have been awesome for Kobayashi to have had a Sentai role, it doesn't quite mean the same thing as Miyauchi's casting does. Miyauchi is just perfect. I've often thought of what it would have been like if they had gotten Naoya Makoto instead, and it's just not the same. Miyauchi better conveys the mentor and, as a performer, is flexible to the tone of the show. He's happy to play comedy without sacrificing his authority or coolness. You think Ohranger would be better regarded by Japanese fans just for the fact that Miyauchi is a regular in it -- that's a big deal!

It's funny how much Metal Hero blood is pumping through Ohranger and yet it doesn't feel as blatant as Heisei Kamen Rider does. Directors like Makoto Tsujino and Takeshi Ogasawara are more Metal Hero directors than Sentai ones. We just had Miyauchi as the mentor in two of the Metal Heroes, they brought Yamaoka over from there (he in turn brought in guys like Kazutoshi Yokoyama), they get Seiji Yokoyama for the soundtrack, they wanted to go with a theme song that was more Metalder/Blue Swat than the standard toku opening... When the Ohranger untransform after their first battle, they're sweaty, with Goro doing that old Winspector shake off the sweat and bask in the sun bit that Masaru Yamashita created. I feel like early Ohranger's even filmed in a style closer to the '90s Metal Heroes than the Sentai at that time. Meanwhile, a lot of people who had been Sentai staffers went over to B-Fighter...

After only being seen briefly at the start of the first episode, we're also given our first big encounter with Baranoia. And, yeah, they're grating. They move around too much. They're whiny and loud. I always wondered if they turned out this way because Toei knew they had to start Power Rangers-proofing their shows. Because the Baranoia CAN have cold speeches about humanity, but the suit acting is all just...over exaggerated and goofy looking. (The suit acting looks amateurish, like the way a lot of monsters of the week behave. We know Kazutoshi Yokoyama and Yasuhiro Takeuchi are more talented than this.) And then there's their moon base, making the set look IDENTICAL to Bandora/Rita's. What's the purpose of that other than catering to PR? My case for why I never necessarily bought into the Ohranger-changes-tones-because-of-the-subway-attacks is that B-Fighter suffered no changes. Toei still put out a movie that year centered on the villainous Hakaider...in which every human character dies! So I basically think Ohranger's biggest problem was that it wanted to do one thing but was very conscious of what PR would want.

This episode highlights my problem with Baranoia in one simple scene: Acha and Kocha descend and address a panicked crowd about Baranoia's intentions. The crowd is terrified and yet...look at Acha, for crying out loud. Nobody would be scared or intimidated by that thing. Not even a kid! The T-800 he ain't. And the entire time Kocha is parroting him in a kawaiiiiii anime voice. It's so much scarier to leave it at the endless Barlow soldiers and giant mechas and not know their origin than it is to show these guys, and especially act like the two comedic ones can stir any kind of terror within a person. (To be fair, I like Acha's design, and he works as the dorky servant character he's supposed to be. His voice actor is great and nails the part. The character's just not good as a face for the villains in this scene.)

But we know the Baranoia. The heroes apparently do, too. They know, at least, that they're based on the moon and...choose to do nothing. That's not my problem, really, my problem is more that the heroes knowing their location takes away from the threat they posed in being mysterious. If it's a so-far successful invasion of alien robots, then how much scarier would it be to wonder and not know where they come from, where they could be? And then you can unspool that mystery of...hey, these guys were created on ancient Earth! But the show just quickly wants to get to business as usual, where the heroes know the bad guys and the invasion and take over is glossed over.

 

Akiji Kobayashi in the 1995 Takeshi Kitano movie Getting Any?, to give you an idea of what he'd have looked like in Ohranger.

Ohranger Episode 1

 

EPISODE 1

One of the great toku premieres. Well, it's one of my favorite toku premieres. It's in my top five Sentai premieres. Funny that some of the shows that I'm not the biggest fan of will have great premieres, like Fiveman. But Ohranger's is big and puts on a spectacle, and Yamaoka is just hitting it out of the park with the action from the get-go, from throwing the four Ohranger into mayhem to Oh Red's powerful first battle.

Junji Yamaoka, the best action director of toku, made his Sentai return with this series. He was action director of most shows from Goranger through Flashman. He did the first few Maskman episodes but left the series. He then moved on to the Metal Heroes, overseeing the action of Jiban through Blue Swat. Getting him back was just icing on the cake, because Ohranger's action is one of the best things about it. There are earlier Sentai shows that would lack substance, but Yamaoka would go and do his thing and make up for anything by delivering awesome action. (Honestly, a lot of the Metal Heroes he worked on would be so much lesser without his action scenes.) And I feel that's the case with Ohranger a bit -- the heroes not as deep as you'd like them? Who cares, look how much ass they kick!

This episode sets up the invasion just great, with parts of the world already defeated. The Baranoia here are mysterious, which really works for them. I've said before that I think this episode is so good and memorable because we don't spend a whole lot of time with the goofy Baranoia leaders -- we're mostly looking at the situation from humanity's perspective, where it's just an endless army of the foot soldiers and giant mechas that are leading the assault. And I think having it be a mystery who was behind it would have worked better than finding out right off the bat it's these cutesy guys. 

The episode also keeps vague just how long Goro has been fighting as Oh Red as the others are being prepared. He seems like he's been at it for a while, and I think that's a cool idea, to think that he's been out there kicking ass on his own. Maybe he tried to fight back Baranoia in other locations, even.

Yamaoka captures the peril of the four, as they're shot down by Baranoia and have to make a journey through nature, with his usual intensity. He throws everything at the performers -- we get crazy, cool shots of the heroes fighting and falling into waterfalls, but it's also like we're witnessing the cast and characters go through bootcamp. It's baptism by fire; they endure these attacks and come out of it ready to take on the Baranoia.

Another great thing Yamaoka does is convey the power of the Ohranger suits and the machines. He's going to make you feel the SUPER POWER, dammit, and he does. The unpowered four UAOH members aren't able to do much of anything against even just the foot soldiers -- they're too damned strong. If you think of other robotic Sentai grunts, like the Jinmers in Liveman, the show had the heroes deal with them without much fuss, even out of suit. The Barlow soldiers aren't shoddy bomb casings full of used pinball machine parts -- you'll bust your hand if you try to even just punch them. And once Oh Red enters the scene, HIS power is conveyed just as nicely, showing you the impact of his punches and kicks. Yamaoka has the Ohranger suit actors move in such deliberate and forceful ways, they carry themselves in such a way, they just seem so strong and confident. I've never been a fan of the Ohranger designs, but the way the suit actors present the heroes, and the awesome action scenes both go a long way in making them look good. I also have to credit the suit actors for being able to kick so much ass despite those helmets seeming like some of the most unpleasant helmets to see out of.

Just an action-packed premiere that keeps hitting. So many action set pieces despite the fact that there's no transforming hero until the last scene!

Familiar Face of Sentai Past: Ryousuke Kaizu, aka Takeru/Red Mask.

Familiar Voice of Sentai Past: The show's narrator is Nobuo Tanaka, who I like to think of as the Anniversary Narrator. He was Goranger's original narrator and then returned ten years later for Changeman; he was 10th Super Sentai Turboranger's narrator and then Ohranger's. It has to be more than bias for his involvement with Changeman because I just like Tanaka's narration: it's clear, but he puts a lot into it. I love how he does the episode previews for this show. "Choriki Henshin! OLE!!!!"

Chouriki Henshin! Ole!! (Ohranger intro)

 

I was recently rewatching Batman Forever. The stuff with Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson is the strongest part of that movie, and I was kind of like "Have you ever seen a superhero thing where the heroes are so grim and yet the villains are so goofy?" Usually it's the opposite, you know? Or both sides will be either goofy or grim. There must have been something in the water in 1995, because Ohranger's similar.

It was a fun time in the late '90s, looking up all the tokus I remembered as a kid on the Internet and finding out about all the shows that came after. (And before, of course. At the time, I was more curious about the newer stuff.) Ohranger was one of the shows I was really drawn to. I remember watching the credits in shitty RealPlayer, for one. I liked the themes. I liked that the cast seemed mature and that they were military -- and the action bits looked great. I was let down when I got around to seeing it but didn't think it was atrocious until I saw the show in its entirety...

My biggest gripe was always the main villains. They looked stupid. They acted stupid. It's a complete tonal clash with the way the heroes acted. He might get hammy, but Masaru Shishido is taking this *seriously*. He's freakin' intense. We get all the info about how dangerous the Baranoia is...and then we cut to them: those fat, silly designs, those silly anime voices, the suit actors moving around too much, their base evoking goofy Rita Repulsa's and giving you nightmares about that show. It didn't match up. I think these villains, and villains like these, reflect negatively on Sentai. They're goofy and stupidly designed and not threatening and KIDDY. Why go so hard with the hero portion but be so damned kiddy with the villains?

And that was a big deal-breaker for me. No matter how much I liked the cast of heroes or the music or the awesome action, the villains were dumb, seemingly spliced in from a much lesser show. And the reason I've always doubted the whole "Ohranger was going to be super serious, but real-life events caused them to change gears" is because of the Baranoia. They were already designed and written and cast before the show changed gears. There was always going to be a style clash with these stupid dolts. (I blame the cartoonish cutesiness on Power Rangers; I've read that, since PR was a proven smash success by this point, Ohranger was the first Sentai really hampered by them keeping PR's needs in mind.)

But I've always felt a strange kind of...pull to the show. I wanted to like it. I have a reputation for hating every post-1980s series, but there are so many shows that I'll want to like more than I might. There's so much promise to it but disappointment in so many areas. I never had the greatest quality videos of Ohranger, but when I watched the full series, it was a heinous quality...like 10th generation VHS transferred onto VCD and then crammed all onto a total of 3 DVDs. I'm not even exaggerating -- if I still had those copies, I'd screengrab them to be like "See the shit the fandom put up with before downloads and official DVDs!?!" So to get to see the show in decent quality when the Shout Factory set came out...made a lot of difference. I already worshipped action-director Junji Yamaoka, but his scenes just really popped when they weren't reduced to 10,000 pixel squares. And CCLemon always talked the show up and helped open my mind to it a little more.

The state of modern toku helped. When modern day villains are non-existent or nicer than the good guys, the Baranoia start looking better. Nostalgia also helped. There are things about Ohranger that totally remind me of that time I described above when I got back into these shows. If you want to believe that the show was altered due to real-life events, then you have to allow some leeway there. Having so many staff members fluent in so many different styles, the show was bound to have an identity crisis...

...but getting all of those different people is something special about the show. From producers to directors to writers to a couple of cameo appearances, it was the first Super Sentai series to truly celebrate the anniversary. I love subtle homages to Goranger in Changeman. I love Liveman and Turboranger, but...they didn't go out of their way to celebrate the franchise or its legacy. Ohranger really was the first to go that extra step and try to acknowledge the series' milestone.

Chief producer Takeyuki Suzuki, who had been chief producer for Sentai since Goggle V, paired himself up with producer Susumu Yoshikawa with Kakuranger to lead Ohranger and the anniversary celebration. Yoshikawa had been chief producer of the Battle Fever through Sunvulcan run of Sentai and shared the title of chief producer on Kaku and Oh with Suzuki. Joining them as a sub-producer, being groomed to take over the future of the franchise, was Shigenori Takatera, making a triumvirate of past, present, and future. Both Suzuki and Yoshimura had planned to use this anniversary celebration as a note to go out on, both moving on after the show's conclusion, with Sentai then getting a surge of new faces behind the scenes as the millennium approached.

Main writer Noboru Sugimura returns after putting his quirky spin on the franchise as main writer of Zyuranger, Dairanger, and Kakuranger. But the really neat thing? All of the sub-writers are former main-writers! They got everybody -- Shozo Uehara (main writer of Go through Sun), who was returning to the franchise for the first time in 14 years; Hirohisa Soda, main writer of the Goggle through Fiveman run; Toshiki Inoue, the newest veteran as main writer of Jetman. They even included Susumu Takaku, who has long been credited as Battle Fever's main writer, despite having to step back from that show due to scheduling conflicts and having the show unfairly credited entirely to Uehara over time.

The characterizations of the Ohranger aren't always consistent, and there's a constant tug-o-war regarding the show's tone -- and a lot of that probably comes from the differing styles of all the writers contributing. There are parts of Ohranger that I used to dismiss as pointless and goofy, but yet another thing that opened my mind a bit about the show was when I finally got around to watching every Sentai series and more toku -- specifically the '70s or early '80s shows -- and you can see how certain aspects of the show (like Uehara's episodes) evoke those years. Growing up with the Soda Sentai shows, the ones that came at a period where they were trying to aim higher and appeal to a wider range of audience, it was an adjustment for me to get into, say, those early shows that are driven by (often kid) guest stars or the more comedic and mecha-focused '90s shows. Look at the villains of the Soda era alone -- when you're expecting a group of all face villains, played by the likes of Shohei Yamamoto, Yutaka Hirose or Akiko Kurusu, then getting to those early shows with a very small, masked villain group or the modern shows with all masked villains is a huge change.

(A weakness of mine, I must admit, is that I tend to think Showa = the mid-late '80s shows I love. So I would criticize people who said "Ohranger is a good tribute to the Showa era," because I didn't personally think it was a good representation of the Showa I knew, of MY shows. But Showa encompasses a big chunk of time, which include the '60s and '70s shows I mentioned -- that's the area Ohranger DOES attempt to focus its honor.)

I don't want to dwell on how much I dislike the Baranoia the way I dwelt on the problems I had with Koutarou Tanaka in my Jetman posts. (Remember, though, I came out of that last Jetman rewatch actually appreciating him a bit more.) I would like to say, though, while I don't like their designs, that the Baranoia suits are very well made. They look solid; they're detailed. They have all of these moving components and tons of lights. They look robotic, and toku's come a long way from the days of, say, Magma Taishi.

So, let's get started and then go pre-order the Memorial Edition Power Brace. OLE!!!!! 

Kooky theory: A Cool Guy Guest Spot in Abaranger?

 

Abaranger was the second Toei tokusatsu series Naruhisa Arakawa worked on as main writer, the first of course being the big smash and fan favorite Kamen Rider Kuuga. I think you can look at Abaranger and make a case that Arakawa had more freedom on the show than is usual for a writer on Super Sentai -- the show is one of the more cohesive toku productions. The episodes written by the secondary writers, from writers with as differing tones as Sho Aikawa and Atsushi Maekawa, all flow well with what Arakawa established, which always made me feel like Arakawa had a hand in their episodes, perhaps guiding them the way a showrunner traditionally would in an American production. (I think Arakawa was also instrumental in getting Carranger writer Yoshio Urasawa to contribute episodes -- don't you find it a little too coincidental that Urasawa ended up returning only for Arakawa-penned shows? And Abaranger was his first time returning to the franchise since Carranger, too.)

So, I feel like Arakawa had more leeway than the norm, not only because he was on the path of becoming one of the genre's more popular and go-to guys, but because he delivered such a hit with Kuuga, and he had more power on THAT show than is the norm as well, actually receiving a rare "series creator" credit. So, he has some pull, and writers have pet people they like to work with from project to project, whether it's directors, producers or particular actors. I don't think it's coincidental that Kuuga's Mie Nanamori went on to guest-star in a flashy role in Arakawa's Dekaranger, for example. (And Kuuga's Yuudai Ishiyama appears in the first episode.) But did Arakawa ever want to use anyone else from Kuuga?

So here's Abaranger, his first show after Kuuga. There's some similarities, enough for Toei to semi-jokingly call Abaranger "Kuuga 2" to encourage people to check it out. I wonder if there was ever any temptation, whether on Arakawa's or Toei's part, to ever include anyone from Kuuga...?

Well, when I last rewatched Abaranger, episode 46 stuck out to me like it tends to do. It's a weird episode, in which it's revealed that Evorian had sent the very first Trinoid to Earth a full year ago. The Trinoid has a human disguise, as the charismatic, eccentric fortune-teller, Master Ran. This monster plays an important role in that he's not only been active for so long -- and successfully established his plan in that time -- but also in that he's instrumental in bringing main villain Dezumozoria back in a physical form. A lot of focus is given to this character, when a lot of the monsters-of-the-day in this show are treated as just quirky cannon fodder. But this guy was insidious; he was treated a little more seriously than usual. They were making a big deal out of this character; he's supposed to stick out.

Not only were they acting like this character was supposed to be important, but it's an important episode overall -- it's the first time Nakadai's not fighting the Abaranger, but fighting the Evolian instead. So Master Ran ends up with a bit of stunt-casting, a toku vet, to help stand out more -- he's played by GoGoFive's Masashi Taniguchi.

So, Master Ran's built up as a big deal, and we have a bit of stunt-casting. I'm rewatching the episode, realizing Taniguchi's kinda similarity to Odagiri and then it hits me. "Huh. I wonder if Arakawa wished he could have gotten Odagiri to play this small, but flashy role." I thought maybe I was thinking too much about it, but then the preview for the episode flashed through my mind. It highlights a line from Master Ran, his promises of an "akarui mirai" (bright future). Akarui Mirai/Bright Future is the title of a movie Odagiri made that was released in early 2003, the first performance after Kuuga that got him attention and critical acclaim. It would certainly have been a big deal if they had gotten him to guest star in Abaranger. And Odagiri was still on the rise, though, so I could imagine Arakawa or Toei thinking he wasn't out of reach and a guest appearance was feasible, especially if it was a part written specifically for him by one of the guys who helped launched his career. But -- for whatever reason -- it fell through. (Although Odagiri was receiving rave reviews for his villainous turn in the movie Azumi, and ended up winning the Academy Award in 2004, maybe someone thought it wouldn't have been right to see him return to toku as a villain so soon.)

 

And so we end up with...Odagiri-like Taniguchi. (They started acting around the same time, and while Taniguchi beat Odagiri to the punch in landing his first steady gig by several months, Taniguchi never had the push of an Odagiri, his career never skyrocketed like Odagiri's. And what's even funnier is that Odagiri auditioned for GoGoFive, and I always thought if he had been serious about that audition and actually was cast in the show, he would obviously have ended up playing Nagare.)

And now, to sidetrack a bit to another topic. This isn't a kooky theory, but veers closer to one of my Wishful Casting posts. On the subject of Kuuga and Abaranger. Nakadai actor Kotaro Tanaka kinda reminds me of a younger Shingo Katsurayama. Like I've always said, Nakadai needed to be played by an older actor. Anybody with any sense would look at that role and realize it only works with an older actor. So what if, just what if Shingo Katsurayama had played Nakadai/Abare Killer? I think he could have pulled it off, and I think it would be a bit of a shock after being so used to him as selfless and courageous Ichijou. I think it can be interesting when an actor you so associate with a heroic role ends up playing a villain. (I still think Fujioka should have played G4 instead of being wasted in that walk-on cameo.)

Changeman Episode 55

 

2/22, Episode 55 -- "Farewell, Friends of the Universe"

This is it! The final battle. Bazuu versus Changeman, conqueror versus soldier, Gozma Star versus Earth, planet versus planet.

We pick up from last week's cliffhanger with Ibuki, Shiima, Nana and Gator aboard the Gozmard, which is being pulled into space via tractor beam by Bazuu. They awaken and Ibuki puts his extensive knowledge to use, cracking the Gozmard's computer looking for info on Bazuu and his next move. There he finds plans to have a planet collide with Earth while hiding behind Halley's Comet...

Now, I always thought this was such a cool detail in the show. The big-scope, universe-spanning, space-themed Sentai hangs its finale on a real life scientific event that was occurring at the time. The Halley's Comet being visible only every 75 years, the comet was a big, big deal in 1985/1986, and was a big news item. (Even if it ended up being a disappointment to most folks, the build up was huge.) The comet ended up being spotted just as these final few episodes were airing, so imagine teasing some wimpy kids with "Uh-oh, watch out for the Halley's Comet -- Gozma's right behind it, ready to attack!" The fun that mean kids probably had with this! (And mean parents, let's be honest.)

With the plans discovered, Bazuu shows himself, attacking the four of them and causing critical damage to the Gozmard. Nana sends a telepathic plea for help to Tsurugi, but the show's a bit ambiguous as to whether he hears it or not, because at that moment, the Shuttlebase picks up an emergency distress call from the Gozmard. The Shuttlebase makes space tracks and soon our heroes are aboard the ship, and finally get their first glimpse of Bazuu. I love that they seem scared initially, because that would be a damn frightening sight to come up against. I liked when the main villains were scary and intimidating and the heroes didn't have any real contact with them until the finale. Keep who's pulling the strings a secret, and make them as damn terrifying as possible. The Changeman get everyone out of the exploding Gozmard when at the last minute Gyodai enters, shouting some of the more pathetic cries of "Gyodai!" you'll hear. (Don't worry, they get him out, too. He's an innocent in all this.)

Back aboard Shuttlebase, Ibuki gives the Changeman the scoop about the planet hiding behind the Halley's Comet, with the limited amount of time they have to act. (Remember what I said last week, about the high-level attack Bazuu would launch when the chips were down.) And things just aren't working out for our heroes -- another little problem arises in that, going off to meet the Gozmard, they ventured into an unfamiliar area and are now lost. (Go ahead and make the joke -- lost in space.) Suddenly, before the Shuttlebase, an angelic figurine appears, and then within the Shuttlebase, an angel itself...Sakura! I always thought it was a stroke of brilliance to bring Sakura (and the Memory Doll) back. She was only in one episode, way back practically 40 episodes ago, but her inclusion in this final battle makes so much sense. (I'll get to that in a minute.) She tells everyone that the Memory Doll will lead them home, but it's too late...they're painfully being pulled into the orbit of a strange planet...

The Shuttlebase and Memory Doll land on the surface of the sickly colored planet. (The colors they place over the camera to depict the planet is brownish and yellow-green. It ain't pretty.) The Changeman decide to set foot on the planet, meaning the Change Suits can obviously handle strange alien atmospheres, which is cool. They're soon greeted by Bazuu's image filling the skies, welcoming them to Gozma Star. Suddenly, dozens and dozens of Hidora soldiers rise from the grounds. These Hidora are not only strong in numbers, but physically stronger, and give the Changeman a hell of a fight. When the Changeman turn their attack towards Bazuu, he flattens them with a blast of his ray. Ibuki can't watch his soldiers take this, leaving the Shuttlebase and rushing to the fight, becoming his Yui Ibuki form. He becomes a beam of light, rushing towards Bazuu, and there's an explosion... Ibuki's not dead, is he!?! He can't be...what, it's the commercial break!?! Dammit! Now we'll have to wait through Bandai ads (they're already hawking Flashman's toys) and Tohato ads before we find out.

OK, Ibuki seems safe. He's collapsed and now back in human form, but he was blasted back by Bazuu, landing onto the Memory Doll, and it's now destroyed, in pieces. The Changeman make their way over to him, when suddenly the image of Bazuu fills the planet's grounds, "swallowing" the Changeman, Ibuki and broken Memory Doll. They soon find themselves in a...strange surrounding. Surreal. Weirder than any of the "Blahblah Spaces" seen in a Space Sheriff show. There are tubes and tendrils and all sorts of weird, innard-y stuff. What the...? It's meant to be bizarre, and the show does a good job of conveying these surroundings on a tight budget. They're suddenly attacked, being strangled by tubes, bombarded with gasses... When they break free, Ibuki leads them to another area, where they soon discover...

They've been eaten by the Gozma Star. We saw the image of Bazuu swallow them, after all. Soon, Ibuki puts it all together -- Bazuu is really the Gozma Star. What we know as Bazuu is just a holographic projection of the Gozma Star. (Bazuu is a nice, frightening image to keep your subjects in line, I'd say.) Bazuu's image appears nearby to confirm Ibuki's theory. He was a life-form that grew into planetary size by devouring other planets and lifeforms. With all of the planets we know he's conquered, just think of all of the life he's taken, all of the destruction he's caused. We know his methods, we've seem him be nothing but cruel, we've seen how he treats even his most loyal subjects. Bazuu is pure evil. And this is a great, fascinating twist. Also, remember about the planet seemingly birthing Hidora? Since the Hidora, Bazuu and Gozma Star are all of a blue color, I've always wondered if the Hidora are Bazuu's offspring. (And maybe the Hidora that are hatched from eggs, as seen in the earlier episodes, are just Hidora born from Hidora.) 

With his characterization, the creative and creepy design by Izubuchi, Seizou Katou's sinister voice work and actor Kazuto Kuwabara's menacing performance, Bazuu is one of the best, most interesting, most intimidating and most terrifying villains in the franchise. And the Changeman have been eaten by him! And they're against the clock! Because, while all this happens, Halley's Comet and the Gozma Star are still a-movin'. When things look bleak, Dragon gives everyone a pep talk. It's a nice moment that reminds me of the first episode, when Tsurugi is convincing the four others to keep fighting to stay alive, that they didn't put up with Ibuki's hellish training to just die there. Here, he gives them the full scope of this entire war -- that they're not the only ones involved, that the others have sacrificed and fought by them, and that they can't have that all end up being nothing. With a renewed sense of strength and hope, they form a plan...

Discovering the broken pieces of the Memory Doll nearby, ready to be digested along with them, Dragon forms the plan to shoot through the planet's innards, knowing the Pavlov kind of effect it will have on Gyodai, who will fire his beam, enlarging the Memory Doll and providing the Changeman and Ibuki an opening to escape. It's a pretty clever move on our heroes' part, and it works, providing a nice scene of symbolism -- a gigantic, rebuilt Memory Doll, having torn through Gozma Star's insides, looms in the skyline. The angelic doll, representative of the planet Meruru, the first planet Bazuu conquered, the heavenly planet of angels. I love that Sakura has a role in this finale, representing the first planet destroyed by Bazuu, bearing witness to Bazuu's end. It's also interesting that she refers to the Gozma Star as a demonic planet.

Another thing I find cool is, when the Changeman reach the planet's surface, they can actually see Earth in the skyline, knowing their time's about to run out. They haul ass to the Change Robo and prepare the Dengeki Sword. I love that music that accompanies the usage of the Dengeki Sword, and I think this part's just so cool, the final big fight and they're preparing to use it on Bazuu/Gozma Star. The Change Robo descends to the planet, piercing its surface, cells, until it gets to the center of the planet, the very innards the Changeman themselves had just been in the center of. The team performs the Super Thunderbolt, ridding the universe of Bazuu once and for all. I think an effect of the planet just explosively breaking apart around the Change Robo would have been cool, but...the show's over, and they've spent the money! Katou lets out an awesome death wail at least, as the Change Robo poses victoriously.

I like that this show resists having some so-far-unmentioned power or deus ex machina revealed to bail them out at the last minute. Nowadays, I think the Changeman would be backed against the wall and growl until the Earth Force rewards them with Super Earth Force to get out of the jam, or if their space friends suddenly and miraculously developed a Space Force to join with their Earth Force to save the day. Think of how they kept changing the rules of what Chouriki could accomplish in the last Ohranger episodes or the way Dino Guts or yuuki or Mojikara could be stretched to cover any scenario. No, the Changeman fight using the weapons and abilities they've had all along -- the Earth Force combined with the Earth Defense Force's technology along with their brains and bravery.

The last scene gets me. The Changeman five, their alien friends, the Soldier Group, all together near Mount Fuji (where the Dengeki Sentai base had been hidden beneath, of course), saluting and parting ways. Ibuki's going to take the Shuttlebase and dedicate his life to rebuilding worlds ruined by Gozma; the others, presumably returning to their worlds to do the same. (Ibuki has A LOT of work to do; he says he'll dedicate the rest of his life to it.) The Changeman reflect on moments from the battle, the people they've met and will soon lose (or already lost), all while the excellent insert song "We Can Change" plays. It's one of my top favorite tokusatsu songs, a song that I think is honestly just beautiful sounding and epic (in the true sense of the word) and transcends being simply a tune on a mere superhero soundtrack. A lot of it probably has to do with the emotional ties to this poignant scene, but it's also just a great composition by Tatsumi Yano.

One nitpick about the scene, though. Everyone's flashing back to important characters they met or have parted with. It's an emotional scene, it's a sorrowful scene. For Tsurugi, it's a flashback to dancing with Nana during that festival. For Hayate, it was when he met Sakura. For Yuuma, it's when his beloved horse, Pegasus, sacrificed itself for him. For Sayaka, it's Icarus. Tsurugi and Hayate are losing Nana and Sakura so they can return home, while death took Pegasus and Icarus. These are tragic moments of things lost in the war, things left behind. Mai's clip? Her flamenco dancing from episode 44! What the fuck!?! Who decided on this? And if you see Mai Ooishi's performance before her clip plays, she's fighting back tears, so...obviously a dramatic clip is warranted, and we get something goofy. It's not a big deal, but it always puzzled me, always disappointed me. To me, the obvious clip to play would be when she parts ways with Doctor Togo from episode 26. He was her first love, he had to leave to clean up Gozma's mess -- you don't know if he's coming back, that wasn't specified. Nevertheless, it was something that she lost in the war with Gozma, so it would be a far more appropriate clip. So, I've reedited the flashback segment and will upload it after this, to show you how much it improves the scene.

The Changeman and Soldier Group wave farewell to those departing in the Shuttlebase, before walking off to resume their lives. I've always liked the final narration, which is: "The aliens and Changeman endured a variety of incidents throughout the war. No matter how far apart, no matter how different in appearance, all living things throughout the universe feel love, feel trust, feel the same wish for peace." 

THE END

It's a damn good finale to a damn good show. And it's a big finale. Think about how cool it is that the space-themed Sentai had a finale episode where about 90% of it doesn't take place on Earth, but in space and on another planet. That's awesome! The farthest a Sentai traveled prior to this was the North and South Poles in Sunvulcan and Bioman. Could the episode have used some money, for bigger effects? Of course. Toei's pretty notorious for pulling the exiting show's budget and pouring the big bucks into the start of the new show, and Changeman was given an extended episode count on top of it, so money must have been stretched as far as it could have. As I've pointed out, Changeman makes creative use of it, and does a great job of getting all they can out of it. And the episodes don't suffer for it, either. And the show wisely decides to focus on the emotional impact, the character drama... 

Think of how overproduced some of these final episodes could be, but by having to dial back things on the production side, they were therefore able to blow up things on the dramatic side. Think of, say, Shinken Red and Juuzo's final fight. It was a big, effects-heavy, pyrotechnics-heavy fight. But it was all sizzle. There was no real emotional connection between those two characters, there was no weight, nothing to prop it up. So you had a stylish fight, but a hollow one. Changeman might just be fighting by the standard rocky mountain in these final episodes, but the emotional importance of the fights is highlighted. You know the characters, on both sides, you know their motivations, their motivations make sense. I don't even notice that so many of the key fights in these final episodes take place at that rocky mountain because they do such a good job of getting you emotionally invested in the scene. Like, the Space Sheriffs or something like Turboranger or Kamen Rider Black can get tedious, because they're obviously always fighting at that damned rocky mountain in every episode, and it sticks out, because those shows are weaker works than Changeman. Or think how many finales are filled with impersonal mecha battles for the entire episode's running time.

Changeman is truly an epic, sprawling saga of a space war. I think there are a lot of shades of gray to it, with how we see so much of it through the eyes of Gozma members, and that you can understand and even sympathize with some of them their trauma and dilemma. It has bigger ambitions, strong, tangible themes. It has a message. More than just being a solid, influential entry in the Sentai franchise, it's a good show, a well made show, period. The show does a far better job of conveying intergalactic war, intergalactic strife than Dekaranger, and Bazuu is a far more interesting, well-realized head villain than Agent Aburera, so...Changeman is far, far more deserving of a Seiun Award, in my opinion. Dekaranger wishes it had Changeman's scope and depth and talent in front and behind the camera. (I still don't understand how the same-old same-old, super formulaic Ultraman Tiga was deemed worthy of a Seiun, either.) Changeman is a stronger work of science-fiction than either Dekaranger or Tiga.

From start to finish, Changeman delivers. It's giving the viewer so much, it's setting up a big world that it pulls you into. It's well acted, well produced, there's so much thought and care put into it, it truly aims high and there's something for everyone to enjoy. There are storyline payoffs, and it's a show that rewards rewatches. (So, it's a real shame that it didn't have an official home release until the DVDs came out in 2009.) I think it's an important show to the genre, and the best damn Sentai show, period.

Changeman Episode 54

 

2/15, Episode 54 -- "Giluke's Great Explosion!"

Here it is, one of my top favorite Sentai episodes. It's pretty much this episode and Liveman's first episode that's neck-to-neck in a race for my top fave. It's an action-packed episode, but still has room for drama and character moments and has one of the more morally murky situations I've seen in a Sentai show...

It's mighty lonesome in the Gozmard ship. Now it's just Super Giluke and poor, sleeping Gyodai. Bazuu complains Giluke's big elf ears off when he discovers that Yui Ibuki is the sole survivor of the conquered planet Heath, and Bazuu is doubly insulted that this survivor is the head of the Dengeki Sentai. It's now all on Super Giluke to lead the fight and Super Giluke, as he's been since he arrived in episode 43, is completely confident. Unshakeable. Super Giluke gives zero fucks and it's awesome. There's no question in his mind that he's awesome or that he'll win. You really get the impression that he thinks he's equal to -- or maybe even greater than -- Bazuu. Think of the way Shouhei Yamamoto played these scenes with Bazuu back when he was just a general -- he was real brown-nosey, often hesitant. He'd show fear when Bazuu was displeased. Super Giluke never shows any of that. He tells it like it is, he's confident, he's seen it all. And I just love how Yamamoto conveys most of it through his performance. Because Giluke beat death, he went through a painstaking process to claw his way out of the grave -- what else does he have to be afraid of? The people he worked for betrayed him, so he's becomes a crueler, darker bastard than he was before.

And Super Giluke's a menace here. His plan is to take the Gozmard into Earth's orbit and just lay waste to whatever he can. And that's exactly what he does (there's a neat little effect of the skies filling with waves of purple clouds in the scene of the Gozmard's attacks) and he succeeds. After the last episode, all that the Changeman have left is the Shuttlebase, so this battle is coming down to the Gozmard versus the Shuttlebase, and guess what? Super Giluke succeeds in downing the Shuttlebase! (I guess if people still insist on writing it as "Gorenger," just because that's the way Toei writes it, I should have been saying "Shuttlbase" all along. Oops.) The Shuttlebase crashes, and is left with so many repairs it would make Chief O'Brien jump out the nearest airlock.

Lucky for the Changeman, Giluke picks that moment to beam to the surface and boast. Unlucky for the Changeman that he hits 'em with his Space Buster maneuver (aka the "Giluke Loves the Smell of Napalm in the Morning" attack) and even Yui Ibuki is beaten by him. I like how bleak things look for our heroes in this episode. They're backed into the corner, they don't have their greatest arsenal, and Super Giluke is powerful and terrifying and cruel and relentless in his attacks. As I said before, these final few episodes of Changeman really highlight and sell the idea of this being the absolute endgame, with a ticking clock, with escalating threats and danger and with a big sense of desperation. And desperate times call for desperate measures...

Knowing that they need to take the Gozmard out, but not having the ability of flight, the one to save the day is...Gator! He remembers of a Gozma fighter ship that was stashed away, in need of only a couple of minor repairs, which should be good enough to get to the Gozmard. The problem is, there's only room for one person. While Gator is ready to be the one, Tsurugi makes the decision that it should be him. He reasons that Gator has a wife and two kids, so he forces him off the tiny ship. This is a real desperate act on our heroes' part, and I think pretty much everyone realizes that whatever hopes and plans they hitch onto this little fighter ship will mean certain death. Tsurugi knows this is a suicide mission. And while Hayate had earlier mentioned using the Shuttlebase in a kamikaze kind of attack, Tsurugi's plan is to get to the Gozmard and assassinate Giluke. And against everyone's cries, he takes off, not knowing that Nana teleports herself onto the ship as a stowaway.

In one of my favorite scenes, Giluke sits on the Gozmard bridge, sipping wine at the success of his attacks. Suddenly, he sees the reflection of Change Dragon in one of the ship's panels, turning around just a second too late, finding himself stabbed through the heart by Dragon's Change Sword. (There's a cool lightsaber/Laser Blade effect they give Dragon's sword here.) Giluke fires back an attack that cripples Dragon, and while Giluke shows some cracks in his usual unconcerned demeanor indicating pain, he keeps unleashing his attack on Dragon, who writhes on the ground. When you look at this, it's just a down and dirty fight. I like huge, fanciful battles in tokusatsu shows, but this scene, with Dragon's sneak attack, is small in scale, but huge in what it implies...

This is the morally murky part I was talking about. In their desperation to put a stop to Giluke's attacks, feeling there's no other choice, Tsurugi decides upon the sneak attack, the assassination. No big pose down where they introduce themselves, no grand invocation of a samurai battle. I mean, as much as I LOVE that final Buuba fight, I think this scene is a really interesting contrast to that. And I think this idea is something that's really appropriate considering the war theme of the show. Not every fight's going to be fair or "glorious." Giluke's an extremely dangerous opponent and they needed to do whatever they could to eliminate him. It's not an ideal situation, it's not exactly fair combat, but Tsurugi made the call to take it upon himself and he KNEW he wouldn't be getting out of it alive. And he obviously wasn't going to. Giluke was still standing, Dragon was writhing on the floor. I do think Dragon was going to die...

But he's saved by Nana. The stowaway jumps before him, taking some hits, sending her own attack back at Giluke, one that causes the Gozmard to malfunction and crash land. See why I think Nana's one of the unsung heroes of the series? Not only does actress Tokie Shibata do a great job at making the character sympathetic while capturing the sorrowful and tortured, yet hopeful side of the character, but Nana's a strong character. Between the strength of the actress and the strength of the writing, Nana, a supporting character who appears in only several episodes, has more going for her than a lot of full-time main characters from shows nowadays. And here, she not only saves Tsurugi's life -- not only out of care for him, but it's REALLY come full circle and she's more than paid back the times he's saved her -- but she cripples Gozma's forces by taking down the Gozmard, which gives the Changeman a fighting chance. (The pinch is the chance!)

While our heroes and their alien pals make their way to the crashed Gozmard, a troop of Hidoras stand in their way. Suddenly, Giluke appears on a mountaintop, furious. In yet another cool effect, he turns the skies red and then transforms HIMSELF into a Space Beast Soldier, Giras. Giluke had no reservations about this -- if you thought he was a coward for trying to turn the others into monsters, you're wrong. A couple of interesting things is that his arms are now made into his old swords, the Giras Swords, and he takes the name of his planet, Giras, as his own monster name. I think that says a lot about Super Giluke as a character. And I love the Giras design, it's spooky and just a hideous freak of a monster, it's great. The face reminds me of the vampire form of Amanda Bearse's character in Fright Night, which is one of my favorite movie vampire designs -- not content to have two sharp fangs, her vampire had a shark's mouth full of them, making for a really creative and terrifying design. Designer Izubuchi does say that a lot of the Space Beast Soldiers pay homage to sci-fi and horror movies, so who knew if he happened to see that one. It would have been cool if they could have done a prosthetic on Yamamoto, but toku just doesn't have the time or money for that. (I think Gou's half beastman transformation from episode 3 of Liveman is the only time Sentai's tried to do prosthetic make-up.)

Tsurugi rejoins his team and an awesome fight breaks out, the Changeman aided by their space friends (even Gator joins the fight, I guess he's Cosmo Green of Cosmoman). You gotta love the way everyone takes part somehow in these final few episodes; planets joining forces to stop their shared foe. Gator finds them a ship, Nana saves Tsurugi, Shiima fights off Giras, they're all doing something in this episode alone. And Giras is a real bastard of an opponent, he wipes the ground with everyone. (Phoenix remarks that he's the strongest Space Beast Soldier they've faced, and that's not just the usual hyperbolic bullshit shows will spout to sell the latest threat of the week.) 

When Dragon thinks to focus an attack on the chest wound he gave Giluke, they haul out the new and awesome Earth Force Dengeki Sword attack, all five at once stabbing Giras through the heart. I'm not going to say that Jetman ripped off of this with Radeige in their final episodes, but...no, that's exactly what I'm saying. (#JetmanIsARipoff) When the Changeman target him with the Power Bazooka, I love how he flashes back and forth between Giras and Super Giluke, a reminder of who this fearsome opponent is, that he's no mere Space Beast Soldier, and what a victory they've achieved. This episode goes a long way in selling just how formidable Giluke is -- as I said before, if Super Giluke had been in more episodes, he'd probably be my favorite Sentai villain. So, he's at about number two, but still one of my favorites, and I feel this episode is a grand send-off for the character. They did a good job getting across what a humongous obstacle was overcome with his defeat. (I'd also like to point out just how cool Yamamoto's voiceovers are as Giras -- he really cuts loose.)

And, just in time, the Soldier Group comes through once again, completing the repairs to the Shuttlebase. Time to wrap this up with Change Robo, man. As the Changeman take a giant Giras on in the Change Robo -- yet again focusing on that wound with the Dengeki Ken! -- Ibuki and the others board the Gozmard, hoping to find intel or something they can use against Bazuu. (Giluke just caused a lot of damage, so what do you think Bazuu's going to do when it's his turn to attack, for crying out loud? Run for the hills!) A familiar blue lightning enwraps the Gozmard and hauls it into space, with Ibuki, Nana, Shiima and Gator trapped aboard. The Changeman pursue in Shuttlebase and then...TO BE CONTINUED! 

A cliffhanger, leading into what was then the most ambitious Sentai finale of all. Heck, it's still one of the most ambitious tokusatsu finales.

Changeman Episode 53

 

2/8, Episode 53 -- "Ahames in Flames!"

A jam-packed episode of revelations, and it's also a landmark episode. I'll get to that in a minute. First...

We begin this episode with Ahames alone in the Gozmard. Director Minoru Yamada makes the wise choice of having this be a quiet scene, one of Ahames reflecting on Buuba's death and Shiima and Gator's defection. With only a napping Gyodai nearby, the setting and actress Fukumi Kuroda's introspective performance highlights the isolation -- Ahames knows it's down to her.

What Ahames doesn't know is just how things are going to play out. She's taken by surprise by Super Giluke who, of course, wants to sacrifice her in order to make the latest Space Beast Soldier. Ahames thinks she's above this -- and she is -- and is surprised by how callous Bazuu is, ignoring her pain and only adding to it by disregarding her, and firing his ray so she'll submit to Giluke's rays, eventually becoming Space Beast Soldier Meezu. Actor Shouhei Yamamoto plays Giluke as taking such a wicked delight in Ahames' transformation, it's demented and awesome. You can tell Giluke's just been counting the days until this happened. Meezu's design is pretty cool, kind of kabuki like with serpentine limbs. (Designer Yutaka Izubuchi says it's based on a kabuki renjishi and that it also subtly incorporates elements from Ahames' first design; so it's kind of like Giluke, as part of his revenge, is downgrading Ahames by having her monster form reflect her look from the pre-Rigeru Aura days, before she overthrew him and came into power.)

Meanwhile, the now good -- and renamed Princess Shiima -- is being led on a tour around the Earth Defense Force's base by Nana. These scenes are impressive for the amount of extras they use -- even if a lot of these guys are wearing the uniforms from the first episode of Shaider, there's just a lot of people working in the background, helping sell the impression of all the people running around and keeping things running back at base. Unfortunately, they soon have their work cut out for them, as all of the Earth Defense Force's systems begin to break down and malfunction and explode due to a direct assault by Meezu. She's taking the fight right to the heart of Changeman's operation, soaring around and emitting a signal that disrupts their technology. As I've pointed out, ever since she joined the show, a lot of Ahames' plans have been targeted directly towards the Changeman team, so it's fitting that her big, final, ultimate attack is their base of operations.

Unfortunately, when the Changeman take their fight to Meezu, they get messed up. Real bad. (I like that Tsurugi recognizes Meezu's voice right off the bat as Ahames'.) They go right for the Power Bazooka, which Meezu directs the missile right back at them like it's a ping-pong ball. Stop hitting yourself, Changeman! The Changeman get a taste of their own power, and it causes what Ibuki refers to as the worst damage their Change Suits have ever taken. Which is kinda crazy, considering all of the stuff they've endured throughout the series. Power Bazooka causes more damage than Super Giluke's giant napalm sparklers!?! At any rate, Ibuki realizes that Meezu's no ordinary monster, being Ahames of course, and definitely not to be taken lightly, which I think factors into a decision he makes later...

Meezu kicks ass all over the place in this episode. It's one thing to just cause equipment malfunctions, but she actually discovers the location of their base! And while the Changeman are recuperating in their base's medical center, she begins the attack, killing several Earth Defense Force soldiers. The Changeman aren't ready for another fight, so Shiima volunteers, leading into one of the coolest scenes of the series...

Meezu's approaching an opening to the base, ordering several Hidora to enter. Those who do are immediately spit back out, kicked in their ass -- right in the crack -- by Shiima, who catapults into a fight, taking down Hidora like nothing. Meezu's another story, but Shiima made a good try. Actually, I like that she fires at Meezu with a blast of Amanga Energy, the stuff Ahames was trying to use against Shiima's will, at the risk of her life, for her plan in the last episode. A bandaged and wounded Changeman team join her, but aren't even as successful as she was, all falling to a laser ring attack. Suddenly, Ibuki jumps in front of them, taking all of Meezu's attack on his own. He endures the attack, and endures, as everyone looks on him in worry, when suddenly...he transforms! To the shock of Meezu, to the shock of Changeman, to the shock of every viewer at home, Chief Ibuki has transformed! I love the way his reveal is filmed, with the quick cutting between Ibuki and Meezu before he finally transforms, and the M-27 segment of the "Gekitotsu" track from the BGM kicks in.

This transformed Ibuki sends off an electric attack to Meezu and her underlings, but the dueling powers eventually cause such a blowback that it scatters the fighters. The Changeman gather around the fallen Ibuki, concerned, but he's all right. And then he finally admits, to everyone's astonishment, that he's an alien of the planet Heath. Here the episode goes to commercial, a manipulation which probably pissed off a lot of viewers at the time.

So, Ibuki's an alien, by the full name of Yui Ibuki. That explains his shocking knowledge of the universe. That explains why he was one of those affected by Warajii's song. That explains why he could telepathically hear Nana. And, as he tells his team that Bazuu destroyed his planet, that he's the last survivor, that he dedicated his life to wanting to get Bazuu and recruit soldiers to fight him, it explains why Ibuki was so desperate for everyone to shape up way back in Changeman's first episode. Remember when all of the soldiers thought he was strict or crazy or a demon? His motivation is that he knew of the Earth Force, and knew that soldiers who harnessed it were the best chance against Bazuu. Again, his planet was destroyed, and he's the only survivor, and with his knowledge of the universe, knowledge of where Gozma's been and who they've made suffer, Ibuki was well aware of the stakes, of what possible fate awaited the Earth, so he was determined and desperate to tap into the Earth Force and make the Earth Defense Force soldiers and the Changeman all they could be. You can go watch the first episode with a new understanding now.

And I think Ibuki's reveal is something that had been planned from the start. I remember seeing some character breakdowns in a series plan from when the show started, cryptically pointing out about Ibuki's suspicious knowledge of aliens and the universe. So it's not a cheap twist pulled out of nowhere, but something that pays off if you go back and watch earlier episodes. Like, people like to poke fun at Episode 2, with the reveal that Ibuki loves bathhouses and had one built into the Earth Defense Force base, but now I see it as a rather funny alien quirk. (I think you can compare Martian Manhunter to Yui Ibuki, from being the last survivor of their planets to their identifiable quirks. Ibuki has his baths, Martian Manhunter has his love of Oreos.)

Hearing his story, seeing his sincerity, hearing him offering encouraging words, realizing his complete faith in the Earth Force, Ibuki inspires the Changeman -- I love how once Meezu shows up, they just whip off their slings and bandages, with a renewed strength to fight. No growling into a power-up, no Bandai stoolie like Conductor dropping a new toy in their lap -- just the emotions and sorrow of the man they've grown to trust, depend on, and love inspiring them. And I love how, once the five transform, Ibuki, Nana and Shiima join them in battle. Those three are like the show having an extra three-person Sentai team. (Since this three-person team is made up of Changeman's friends from space, I like to call them Uchuu Sentai Cosmoman -- which was a working title of Changeman's.) It's in this scene that Hamada, Kazuoki, Izumi, Nishimoto and Ooishi are actually in-suit as the Changeman themselves. Beginning with Dynaman, Super Sentai started the tradition of having the cast don the suits for a scene or two in one of the final episodes. Meezu still proves to be too strong of an opponent, though, even taking down Yui Ibuki again. Suddenly, somehow, Ahames manages to separate herself from Meezu!

Shiima needed the encouragement of Tsurugi to fight free from her Space Beast Soldier form, Zuune. Buuba needed Jiiru. Well, Ahames is such a bad-ass, she breaks free of her own accord. Just right in the middle of the fight, like it's nothin'. (This even perplexes the Changeman, renewing their fear at just what an unpredictable and frightening opponent Ahames is.) The sad thing is, this is a broken Ahames. She orders Meezu to keep attacking our heroes, as she stumbles off in delirium, heading back for the Earth Defense Force base...

Needless to say, but Meezu seems a bit easier to fight without Ahames being a part of it. It still takes the Changeman pulling out practically every special maneuver of theirs they have, but they get the job done. Meanwhile, Ahames has entered the base, firing and killing soldiers, sending blasts and just laughing her ass off.

Kind of like the Buuba sunset duel, Ahames' last scene is something I've seen a few other toku shows try to duplicate, but never to the same effect. Ahames is breaking down. She's sending blasts all over the Changeman's base and is just destroying it. She's successful, her plan this week is succeeding. She's had a lot of good plans, and has worked her ass off for Gozma and Bazuu. Maybe she betrayed Bazuu in the past, and maybe she betrayed Giluke in the race for the Rigeru Aura, but she's done everything that's been asked of her. And I think she just sees it as a massive betrayal, not only the way Giluke turned her into a lowly monster, but the way that Bazuu joined in and attacked her. What have all of her efforts been for? What's all the fighting been for? What has her loyalty to Bazuu gotten her? So she's in hysterics, near tears, just pleading with Bazuu to just take her back to her planet Amazo, to restore it. Again and again, she calls out to Bazuu, pleading with him. And he does nothing. Says nothing. He's abandoned her. The Gozma officers liked to think they were special, that they were above the low-ranking likes of the Space Beast Soldiers, but they were ALL just pawns for Bazuu, all just underlings for him to rule over. 

Did Ahames see the love and respect the Changeman have for Ibuki, and he for them, and realize how different it is for her and Bazuu? Did seeing Ibuki lay his life on the line to protect the Changeman and Shiima make her realize Bazuu's selfishness? Is this why she was able to break free from Meezu? Her pleas unanswered, Ahames is left to die, laughing, as the Changeman's control room, such a familiar sight for 53 episodes, explodes and collapses around her.

When I was a kid, I used to get a kick out of the finales where it's the heroes storming the bad guys' lair. You're used to just seeing the bad guys hang out there and hatch all of their evildoin', so it was kind of strange to see a hero on that set, but at the same time, you knew it meant a reckoning -- the series was ending and the heroes were taking the fight to the villains to stop them once and for all! Changeman's one of the few Sentai shows I can think of that flips that, and has a villain storming the heroes' base. Off the top of my head, I can't think of a show where the villain actually succeeded the way Ahames does, though. She totally destroys their base, and it's a huge blow to the Changeman team...

Thankfully, the trusty old Soldier Group gets the Shuttlebase out in time, so they get a final, great moment to shine. The base being destroyed serves two purposes, really -- one, to demolish the set and save money by filming at sparse outside locations. Secondly, it goes a long way in making this final battle between the Changeman and Gozma that much more urgent and dangerous. I've always been impressed by just how large the staff of the show tried to make the Changeman's base seem -- we've all seen the shows that are cheap and just keep it to mainly one room, even if it's supposed to be an entire building. (Maskman, I'm looking at you.) But in Changeman we see so many different parts of their base. Sure, we focus on the control room mainly, but they have the rec room, they have the medical center, they have hallways and the Changeman's quarters and all of those underground passages. It just always seemed huge to me, they did a great job conveying the scope of the base. And now all Changeman has is Shuttlebase and Change Robo. It's a desperate time, and the battle is coming to a head...

At 16.1%, this is the highest rated episode of Changeman. In a segment on Toei Hero Net where Toei staff members were asked about their personal favorites of their works, the works they were most proud of, Changeman producer Takeyuki Suzuki cited this episode. He credits the ratings and success of the episode to Fukumi Kuroda and her performance as Ahames in this episode. (As I pointed out before, Suzuki credits Kuroda and Ahames for a lot of Changeman's success.) I don't want to sound like I'm disrespecting Suzuki or Kuroda, because Suzuki would know more than I would, and I certainly love Kuroda's work as Ahames and think that Ahames is one of, if not THE best Sentai villainess, but I've always wondered if Ibuki's reveal had something to do with the high rating...

The show had spent the past few episodes teasing the reveal, giving you hints about Ibuki. The preview at the end of episode 52 certainly dropped a big clue about the reveal. I think the show did a better job of hiding it compared to a lot of later shows, but the clues were all there -- something big was going to happen with Ibuki. (I'm still surprised that they were actually so cautious that they changed the episode title; scripts show that the original title for 53 was "Chief Ibuki's True Identity.") Ibuki actor Jun Fujimaki was a well known and popular actor, so much so that people expressed surprise when he was cast in Changeman. So I imagine people being excited by the idea that he was going to play a bigger role than the chiefs usually do, and maybe that enticed them to tune in. Ibuki's pretty much the first of these older mentor characters to be made such a crucial part of the show's tapestry, to be given more than a couple seconds per episode just giving orders. Whatever the reason, it was still the highest rated episode, and one of the series' best.

Next week: Giluke proves that he can talk the talk and walk the walk in one of my all-time favorite Super Sentai episodes.