Well everyone is crazy about Gokaiger now and I'm also seeing it. Not so much overhyped, but I am enjoying the show. So I'm gonna give my thoughts on the first 11 episodes thus far.
The Good part is that Nostalgia is handled well enough. The characters has gotten more interesting, but I'm getting to see why people like Joe enough, he's getting quite a lot of details especially in episodes 11 and the upcoming 12, I hope his conflict sticks and not forgotten thus far. Marvelous is a cocky bastard, but he has his moments of goodness at times. This Sentai seems to be not scared to make the heroes not to be squeaky clean-cut like the previous ones, but they draw the line where you can always be assured that they're the heroes of the story. I like that, really.
And I still think Ahim is really underrated. Her potential is just as big as Luka, and while I do respect Luka, I can see why she's getting a lot of attention, she reminds people a lot to Jasmine, a really popular lady of Sentai; assured, tough and sexy.
The story is pretty solid so far as well, pirates vs a real evil empire. While it's getting like a black morality (Zangyack) vs gray morality (Gokaiger), it draws the line enough that we are assured that we cheer on the good guys.
Now the bad ones (IMO). I think you may disagree with me, but I'm having a mixed feeling with Don. His nature is good, he provides comic relief, his heart is in the right place, but he's such a pacifist. It may not be a bad thing, but most of his transformations tend to be the 'number two' of the teams (In Five Man Band term, that'd be The Lancer), someone who'd look like the most badass or second most badass of the team, or team vice-leaders, such as Black Condor, Goggle Black, Shishi Ranger, Black Turbo, etc. Sometimes he pulled off fine, sometimes his comic-relief state kicks in and he makes these transformation look WIMPY in contrast to the original. It just gets kinda weird that for example, in Jetman, usually Black Condor look more badass than the rest of the team barring Red Hawk, but now... Blue Swallow and Yellow Owl looked as if they out-badassed Black Condor, because his transformation belonged to a pacifistic comic relief. It's just... weird to me. Of course you may disagree.
My next topic would be our enemies, the Zangyack Empire. Barizorg, Damaras and Insarn are pretty okay (Insarn especially, with the sexy voice of Kikuko Inoue). But what about our big bad, Oiles Gils? Well here's one word to say it... he's PATHETIC! I can't believe I've seen a Tokusatsu enemy as pathetic as he is! He's pretty much what happens when you put a spoiled brat of a prince into the position of 'Big Bad'. He's pretty much all talk, and I was really hoping that when in episode 11 he came down to Earth, I was hoping that he'd at least show that he is powerful to back all his talks. But noooo, he instead just orders more and hides behind the current Action Commander and Barizorg. And when his commanders usually get destroyed or failed him at times, he threw a tantrum rather than assessing where did he go wrong. A good example to showcase this is during the Gaoranger tribute ep, when Damaras took command, it got into quite the interesting take and perhaps the Zangyack COULD achieve something. But then Oiles Gils eventually barged in, pretty much said "Your strategy sucks! Use mine!" and ordered an all-out attack... and in turn gets the commander into disastrous result... and throw tantrum some more. Oiles Gils is like taking Prince Megiddo from Dynaman, but strip away things that made him at least a credible threat (possibility of being Dark Knight included), shower him with the mind of a spoiled tantrum-throwing pampered brat, then put him on Emperor Aton's position! I'm not saying that it's a bad move so far, since he spoke about his father so much, I'm expecting that Oiles Gils' father will show up one day and show his son how to be a commander in the battlefield AND a threatening Sentai villain. But man, Oiles Gils just wins the achievement of 'The Most Pathetic Sentai Villain EVER'. He's lucky he didn't have Radiguet as his underling, or else Radiguet would've killed him if he ever throws ANOTHER tantrum...
Ahem, sorry about the rant about Toilet -- er, Oiles Gils. I thought I'd rant a lot about Don, but Toilet -- ah screw it, from now on, I'm gonna call him 'Toilet Gils' -- Gils just trumps him in rant department. But overall, Gokaiger is still an enjoyable show, despite having the most pathetic villain like Toilet Gils leading the charge. I'm still taking account that at least Toilet Gils has the cruelty of most Sentai villains (such as how he made Barizorg, go see episode 11 yourself), but most of them are just really coated with patheticness...
I'm still looking forward for the movie and the rest of the season. Hope this doesn't get screwed like Kamen Rider Decade. I guess I'm fine with not seeing the majority of old school actors, but I'm fine. Get showy, Gokaiger! Good luck!
P.S: Pics coming soon!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Nice post. =) I agree with most of it. Gokaiger is definitely enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteDon, yeah I'm kinda mixed on him as well because of his pacifism, but he does lay some clever traps against the Gormin.
Oiles Gil, he's probably one of the weaker villains in Sentai, but I wouldn't call him the worst. I think the Yuumajuu Beasts from Goseiger are much more unlikable and Tau Zanto, Hurricanger's Big Bad, was an uninteresting talking statue through 48 episodes or so. Besides, it seems he's under the command of his father, who's probably the real Big Bad that we'll probably see somewhere down the road. So I don't think it will matter much if Oiles Gil is one of the weaker villains.
It's just opinion, yes. And I do agree about likableness, Toilet Gil may have some some degree. But in terms of the threat he gives? He's completely pathetic, which is my point all along. As a villain, you're supposed to ooze out the feeling of fear and menace from your own body (take note: Doukokuu). Failing that, you need to be at least a Magnificent Bastard. Unfortunately, Toilet Gil just failed on both accounts. I dunno about the Yuumajus or Tau Zant, but I think if they do take field on battle, they WILL dish out the damage on their own and generally prove why they're the frickin' leader of their group. In case of Toilet Gil, what the Gokaiger need to fear is just the Zangyack fleet he brought along rather than himself.
ReplyDeleteHe may have some merit points and he's unique that way, but... man, his incompetence tops out even Prof. Iguana and Zazoriya from Goggle V, Gator from Changeman (before he defects), Zulten from Turboranger, post-Villain Decay Galois from Fiveman, Totpatt and Bukbakk from Zyuranger and Zaidos from Dairanger. And I think I pretty much said much of the bumbling villains from the Sentai series I've seen thus far, and that's saying something for Toilet Gil.
(Don't mind about me mispronouncing his name all the time. I thought it'd be my running gag).
Gokaiger is amazing. Nuff said. ^__^
ReplyDeleteAs for Doc... well it's no surprise that people would have issues with him. Any character that's silly tends to get that sort of reception. But I do get what you mean by "badass" suits not looking as badass. But at the same time, I find it fun to see these old suits used differently. Part of why the added skirts and lack of skirts for some of the suits intrigued me. It was a new spin on older stuff. Yeah, he's a pacifist. Though I personally thought he did great kicking butt out of suit in ep 11. =D
You guys do know the Walz Oiles Gil is meant to be pathetic right? I hope you're not raging over him for being a badly written villain, cause that wouldn't be right. xD We're supposed to not like him. lol. He's not meant to be a "threatening villain." Not all villains in Sentai should be like Radiguet or whatever. I wouldn't call him a weaker villain, since he's doing what he does best, which is being an idiotic spoiled brat. Gonna have to agree with Mr. Smith, Oiles Gil comes nowhere near as bad the Yuumajuu. Though I personally thought Tau Zanto was a cool villain. I personally still think the worst villains in Sentai are Crime, Black Cross Army, and Egos. Garoa is another villain that makes me cringe. So overall, Oiles Gil is a "fine" villain to me.
No offense ChrisX, but why of all words did you use "Toilet"? xD I don't quite understand. lol. If this is gonna be a recurring gag, it's gonna take some time getting used to. Sorry xD
Gokaiger has already beaten Decade by a long shot. No contest. LOL
Gokaiger is tediously overhyped. Enough said.
DeleteRemind me to make a Top Sentai Villain/Villain Group post one day.
ReplyDeleteDon is fine on his own, being Gokai Green. It's just that there is a small cringe whenever he transforms to an originally bad ass suit.
As for why I used 'Toilet', I may have some fuzzy memories, but I think there was one subber (forgot between Over Time, Grown Ups In Spandex or TV Nihon) that spelled his name 'Toiles' Gil. I thought I'd make fun of it, in turn with how he revealed himself to be a foppish, pathetic leader.
Well I didn't say Toilet Gil is badly written. I just say that he's a fresh thing, he's just so pathetic he got me into ranting mode. It's the first time we've seen a Sentai villain, the top of the chain at that to be this... pathetic. It's like a villain who's in only for the name, and surrounded with Hypercompetent Sidekicks that the Gokaiger should fear rather than him. It may be on purpose (and I'm pretty sure it is), but so far (that being the keyword), that is what I get. I'm open with twists such as Toilet Gil taking levels in Bad Ass and eventually becomes a credible threat on his own. But up until episode 11, he's shown himself as nothing but an egotistical spoiled brat who probably got the 'Big Bad' position because... well, Screw The Rules, He Got Money/Connection.
Of course I wouldn't expect him to be on the level of Radiguet, or even Long. Those two S.O.Bs are really hard to top. But even then, in terms of threat level, Toilet Gil really provides miniscule, something FAR you'd expect from even vice-commanders. Maybe it's just me, but if I am to be put on an one-on-one, no-reinforcements deathmatch between Toilet Gil or the post-Decay Galois, I think I'd pick Toilet Gil. Even post-Decay, at least Galois still has the desire to personally beat down his enemy so he probably would try to kill me, while Toilet Gil is probably curling in the corner and scream for help (that'll never come due to the rules set by the death match).
It's that kind of threat level I'm talking about. But if the plot twist has it that Toilet Gil was just obfuscating stupidity and proves to be just as much as an S.O.B as Radiguet (or at least close enough)... then wow.
Maybe that's for the future, though... Overall I hope you don't get the wrong idea. If I was raving on how pathetic Toilet Gil is, then probably the writers completely succeeded in making him so ever pathetic.
Eh... Since I've yet to watch a single Gokaiger episode, I'm not sure what everything is talking about XD. But one thing that I would say... is that I'm disappointed that there isn't a single human-face villain. For an anniversary show celebrating sentai's 35 years or so on air, you would think that it would go a bit retro and give nods to older shows, particularly the 80s and 90s. Both decades (including the 70s) had a lot memorable human-like villains, and the majority of sentai's best villains come from both eras (Bioman's Doctor Man, Changeman's Ahames, Flashman's Kaura, Maskman's Kiros, Liveman's Ashura, the Yamimaru and Kirika duo in Turboranger, just about any villain played by Yutaka Hirose, Jetman's Radiguet, Zyuranger's Bandora, etc). I'm not ditching the show (I don't start watching toku shows until their finales have aired), but I would have liked to at least see it try it... At least it's bringing past sentai actors, so that's good.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. I've actually found Gokaiger to be pretty boring so far. I've only seen the first 7 episodes, but only episode 6 has been decent. The rest have been terrible. I think it's lame that the heroes have all the ranger keys right at the start of the show. It would be more interesting if they had to find them and learn how to use them.
ReplyDeleteThe characters are pretty boring so far. They haven't gotten any development yet. Of course it's early so that's understandable. But they don't have any real challenges to overcome. They mostly sit around talking, looking for clues about the greatest treasure, and when a monster attacks, they win with no effort at all. Every character in this show is a boring invincible hero, which is pretty lame considering this is supposed to be the big 35th anniversary.
The villains are pretty lame so far. They don't seem the slightest bit menacing. I mean I could practically beat these monsters, and I'm 5 foot 1.
Gokaiger will probably get better soon (episodes 11 and 12 sound really interesting), but so far, I have been incredibly underwhelmed and bored by this series. I can honestly say that Gokaiger has gotten off to the worst start of any Super Sentai show I have ever seen (yes, even Goseiger got off to a better start).
@ Anonymous
ReplyDeleteI completely disagree. Gokaiger is a whole lot better than Goseiger at the beginning. I also disagree that the characters haven't received any development. Don got some development by finding courage in both episode's 3 and 7, and Joe's past was hinted at in episode 4. As for them starting with the ranger keys, I think it was well executed that they started out with their powers. It was shown in a flashback where Captain Marvelous got the keys and they've been having to learn how to use them, which is why we have all the guest star powers. Every single one of these episodes has shown that they have to earn the power's full potential. Yes they do at times feel too inconvincible until you get to episode 11, but just about every Sentai starts out that way for the first few episodes.
Good start or not, I just hope that gokai (and gosei, too) doesn't leave me to tears and provoke me to give up the show like Shinkenger often did at the beginning. (even Go-onger had me more interested, and I think people already know how I feel about that show). We don't get a lot of shows that start out with a bang like Liveman and Ohranger did, do we? *scratches head*
ReplyDeleteWow, just no one can be pleased with what Gokaiger is doing. That's too bad. Haters gonna hate.
ReplyDeleteSorry, but if you think Goseiger did better than Gokaiger, then I think you're a bit too angry there. xD
I appreciate the responses. I admit I'm new at this, but I'll do my best to explain my opinions.
ReplyDeleteLet me say this first. Goseiger is crap. It is easily one of the worst super sentai shows. However, I actually enjoyed the first 7 episodes of Goseiger more than the first 7 episodes of Gokaiger. Goseiger showed a lot of potential in the early episodes. The only reason I don't like it is because the interesting elements to Goseiger were poorly executed.
As for Gokaiger, it certainly has a lot of interesting elements to it. The problem that I have is that Gokaiger's storylines have been poorly executed thus far. I'll do my best to explain why.
Take episode 7 for example. It's about Don and Ahim training with Jan to become stronger like their teammates. This is a pretty interesting storyline. However, I found two major problems with this story. First, Don and Ahim had been fighting just fine up until that point. They never seemed weaker than the other three. In fact, both had used the Gekiranger powers before and they fought fine. Ahim even transformed into GekiRed on episode 2. I don't understand why Don and Ahim all of a sudden need lots of training after being knocked back slightly be the monster in episode 7.
Second, Don and Ahim's growth on episode 7 didn't actually matter very much because the other three were handling the monster just fine. The monster didn't pose the slightest threat to anyone. By the time Don and Ahim were done with their training, the monster had essentially already been defeated, the writers just decided to drag the fight scene out longer than it needed to be to create false suspense. The fact that this monster was so easy to beat made Don and Ahim's development and growth seem meaningless. They didn't triumph over a great obsticle, they threw a few wimpy punches and kicks and that was it. I have to admit, it was kind of lame.
While episode 7 provides the most egregious example of a poorly executed story, all of the episodes have felt poorly executed. While it's nice seeing the old suits used again, that's not the primary reason I'm watching the show. I've always watched Super Sentai for story and character above anything else. I didn't really care that the Gokaigers used Sun Vulcan and Gaoranger on episode 7. I wanted to see what Don and Ahim were really capable of. Instead, the writers seemed more interested in showing off past sentai powers, which isn't that interesting to me.
So Gokaiger hasn't been very good so far for me. It has a lot of potential, but I'm not seeing any reason to get excited about it yet. I don't think that makes me a "hater". I believe I have perfectly valid reasons for not liking the show so far, and I've done my best to explain those reasons. I have actually enjoyed what I've seen of every show from Bioman to Gekiranger, plus Shinkenger.
I would also like to point out that if Gokaiger improves, I'll say so. I want to enjoy the show as much as anyone else, and if I start enjoying it, I'll be happy to say so. But I'm not going to jump on the Gokaiger bandwagon until I see a good reason to do so.
I wasn't trying to anger anyone with my last post. Everyone else has been going on about how much they like Gokaiger and I wanted to put my two cents in.
I apologize for the long post. There were a lot of things I wanted to say.
Anonymous, you seem to have a lot of differing opinions. It would benefit you in creating your own blog, THEN we can respond to your stuffs.
ReplyDeleteSeems like you've got your interesting spots here and there.
Now those are pretty good reasons that make perfect sense.
ReplyDeleteI personally am loving the stories so far. For me, the tributes to older sentai and the suits is just an added bonus. But I will agree that Gokaiger doesn't have the best stories so far, but I wouldn't say they're bad. And the cast and mysteries of the show have more than making it up for me. I do feel like the show is very well set up, and that Eps 11-12 showed that it was starting to build up from that. It's been a while since I actually enjoyed Sentai this much. Last time I enjoyed it was Gekiranger (I didn't like Shinkenger when it was airing, but I do now).
Oh, and I'm not angered at all by people not liking Gokaiger. But I personally feel like Gokaiger is a season that put more effort into itself than the previous few seasons have. So it just confuses me when people say Gokaiger is sentai at it's worst.
anonymous:
ReplyDeleteI'm not angry about anything, I'm just stating what I disagree about.
To me, episode 7 makes perfect sense. Yes, Ahim is an adequate fighter, but she saw the results of Joe's training in episode 4. Seeing his results is what encouraged Ahim to go through Jan's training. While you could make the arguement that yes she isn't a weak fighter, Marvelous, Joe, and Luka come across as the obvious tough ones. With Don I'll highly disagree. This isn't meant to be an attack on Don, but throughout the series he's shown to be a pacifist, and episode 3 is the obvious example. His pacifism showed up again in episode 7 when he was hesitant to take on Jan's training. I think Don eventually realizing that he needs to train and work on his weaknesses to get better is a step forward for his character and thus, good character development. He's going to need it the most in the long run.
As far as the Sentai characters coming back, I also tend to agree it's an added bonus. However, I think they're used properly to develop the characters, like Kai in episode 3 and Jan in episode 7. They're not fighting with them like an team-up and they're usually there to help or guide the Gokaiger characters. When they're not being a guide, they're an obstacle that the Gokaiger characters have to overcome, like the Dekaranger episode and the previous episode. Yes, there hasn't been a lot of story early on (except 11 and 12), but it is early and most seasons don't start out diving head first.
When Gokaiger reaches the 90s and 80s sentai shows, then I would give it a look. :P It's the reason why I'm very excited for the Carranger episode coming up; seeing Kyousuke once again on sentai would be a dream come true. So far, it's been the episode I've been waiting the most.
ReplyDelete(Well, It also helps that I like Carranger more than the sentais that have already received their own episode in Goukaiger. Yes, I like Car more than Geki and Deka).
@anonymous
Wait, have you watched all sentai between Bioman and Gokaiger? If so, then your dislike towards Gokai is quite something.