Saturday, May 15, 2010

A common misconception of Goggle V


Dai Sentai Goggle V is one of the earlier Sentai, and incidentally, it's the first Sentai I ever watched. Of course I liked it, I even went as far as watching the RAWs. The story is pretty simplistic about good vs evil. As noted by Fantasy Leader of the Valsag Fantasy blog, story themes weren't really touched in, it's just about a group of people from various background, being called by a scientist to fight against an evil empire.

Unfortunately, these series often receive a very common misconception, to the point that while it was well liked by children, some older fans would attack it and consider it bad. Although the heat has died down a little, I feel that I must address this issue, so there's no misunderstanding.



The main misconception of Goggle V is that the team is often thought as a Rhythmic Gymnastic team. On the first glance, it may seem so that their weapons are based on Rhythmic Gymnastic apparatus, such as whips, clubs, hula hoop (seen above), ball and ribbon. Since this Sentai series has aged, and there's still no subbing, lots of fans didn't even bother seeing it, one glance and they deem it 'silly, kiddy Sentai', kinda like how they reacted after watching the likes of Carranger or Go-Onger (deliberately made for humor).

What they missed by not watching it is that the team is actually not a Rhythmic Gymnastic team AT ALL. The team is actually just several people gathered under a scientist to fight evil using proper science. The weapons may appear like gymnastic apparatus, but that's as far as it goes. It's ONLY ON THE LOOK. Just because they use gymnastic apparatus, doesn't mean they're a gymnastic team!

The team itself are not a whole gymnasts gathering under one team. Goggle Red/Kenichi Akama is a mountain climber, Goggle Black/Kanpei Kuroda is... a chess club president. Goggle Blue/Aoyama Saburou is a hockey player, who had a side-dream as an inventor, while Goggle Yellow/Futoshi Kijima is a worker at zoo. Now, the last member, Goggle Pink/Miki Momozono is an actual gymnast, but only one gymnast and the rest of the team are using weapons that are gymnast apparatuses, and the whole team is deemed a gymnastic team? Really? Do you really think a mountain climber, a chess club president, a hockey player and a zoo worker would count as gymnasts? They actually had other jobs!

This gets even worse in the song Super Sentai Tamashii, which describes most of the Super Sentai's profiles. Apparently, they also take the misconception and ran with it, citing that Goggle V is a rhythmic gymnastic team. This Sentai team just can't seem to live that down...

Maybe this blog are not really a blog that is read a lot, but if you're reading this, then I hope that you now realize that Goggle V is not a Sentai about rhythmic gymnastics. It may use gymnastic weapons, but this is not about gymnastics being used to fight evil. Not many realize this since this is an old Sentai series and not subbed, so they don't even bother to find out. I know each Sentai will always have its own haters, but perhaps if the misconception is lifted, those who hated Goggle V might lessen. Who knows.

'Course, I'm just human and I can make mistakes sometimes. If you spot a mistake, please let me know through comment, and I may fix this post with more accurate and sensible information.

2 comments:

  1. Nice post dude! I agree with it! ;)

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  2. you said...”it may seem so that their weapons are based on Rhythmic Gymnastic apparatus, such as whips, clubs, hula hoop (seen above), ball and ribbon.”


    you can edit this. In rhythmic gymnastics, ROPES are used not whip

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