drunkenpandaren (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
drunkenpandaren) wrote2011-02-28 01:34 pm
drunkenpandaren) wrote2011-02-28 01:34 pm
Needs a Gokaiger Icon
For once I'm using LJ to jot my thoughts down instead of a plurk. I suppose it has something to do with the length and I hate hitting enter every goddamn time I need to post.
Pirate Sentai Gokaiger Episode 1: In Which Badass Is Immediately Assumed
I've touched on this before on plurk but I'll reiterate my thoughts here. From the outset, it has a very strong presence altogether. Heropower could probably sum it up better than I could but my thoughts on it is that from the get-go, it immediately distinguishes itself from Decade's Rider War. Instead of fighting each other, they're all united as one to defeat the bad guys who are pretty much invading from space as usual. It takes the powers of 34 generations of Super Sentai to defeat them.
Flash forward a few years and a motley crew of pirates are approaching Earth, looking for the Greatest Treasure in the Universe. As mentioned rather cynically on the heropower review, it's more than likely that the greatest treasure is love and justice and friendship and in which learning that, Luka will choke someone. More on her later.
They immediately set to work, launching a brilliant offensive against the empire who's name I cannot spell for the life of me, and wipe out an entire advance fleet with little effort. They land on Earth and inquire random strangers on what the Greatest Treasure is all about.
Now that the setting is established, let's look at the characters in general. From the outset we have Captain Marvelous, a cool and confident character who has all the good plans, all the courage, and all the skills to make him inexpressibly cool. However as demonstrated by the entire team on the outset, they are kind and caring, the perfect anti-thesis to uncaring unfeeling plundering pirates who try to be aloof badasses and fail remarkably.
Don or Doc as they like to call him is their strategic planner. He comes off a little whiny at first and Luka likes to hit him a lot. Luka is his nemesis and foil, a tough talking no nonsense yellow ranger who follows in the tradition of "Not taking your shit srsly" characters. Joe is the calm swordsman from any initial impressions and Ahin is the princess of the group, polite and caring but able to deal with things as they come along.
From impressions of episode 2, it is clear that Don and Ahin are the newbies on board. Doc makes the plans and Ahin is unsure of their captains motives when his Shinkenger Key is stolen by a random kid of the street who tries to steal it head-first last time. However, they are definitely a team by any stretch of the imagination, and Joe and Luka are obviously been with Marvelous for a long time now.
Here's where things get wiggy. It is established in Episode 2 that they have no fucking idea of the power they wield. The term Super Sentai is alien to them, despite their team name of Pirate Sentai Gokaiger. To them, they're a team, rather than a legendary task force that they are mistakenly labeled as. And they refuse to believe they're the 35th team meant to defend Earth despite all need to prevent this world from falling to the empire.
The end of Episode 2 showcases the arrival of a familiar face to people who watch the originals, MagiRed who really doesn't give his name at all. Still, being the person he is in episode 3, he makes a bet with Marvelous and Doc that they have to catch him but can't transform. That's the real centerpiece of this episode as it's a character building storyline, focusing primarily on Marvelous and Doc's dynamic with the second string plot being the empire's goons fighting the other three who bust out black and white henshins.
On a note? Go-On Black. With a skirt. Somewhere Dillon is having fits and if Dan Eiwig is watching this series he is busting a gut right now.
The real focus and drive of Episode 3 is in the title Courage that makes Magic or somethign close to it. Courage was the power of the original MagiRangers, and when the powers of the MagiKeys are accessed, they get a full transformation sequence in CGI and background effects, and then from there, actually perform the team pose. In terms of ability, this is rather interesting. Normally when someone transforms, they simply get a Rider-style henshin, done in real time. But this time they pulled out the stops, pushing the Gokaiger and MagiRanger transformations together.
The unanimous "... wtf?" feel they had after transforming with the MagiKeys was quite loud, as there is a notable pause. They are clearly confused. Why are they calling themselves Mahou Sentai MagiRanger? We're fucking Gokaigers! But no, this is the true power of a team. And thus begins the build to the true powers of the Super Sentai they wield. It's going to be a fun row.
Episode 4's preview hints towards a Joe episode, and the advent of possibly the mastery of the GekiRanger powers. Can't wait till next week.
Pirate Sentai Gokaiger Episode 1: In Which Badass Is Immediately Assumed
I've touched on this before on plurk but I'll reiterate my thoughts here. From the outset, it has a very strong presence altogether. Heropower could probably sum it up better than I could but my thoughts on it is that from the get-go, it immediately distinguishes itself from Decade's Rider War. Instead of fighting each other, they're all united as one to defeat the bad guys who are pretty much invading from space as usual. It takes the powers of 34 generations of Super Sentai to defeat them.
Flash forward a few years and a motley crew of pirates are approaching Earth, looking for the Greatest Treasure in the Universe. As mentioned rather cynically on the heropower review, it's more than likely that the greatest treasure is love and justice and friendship and in which learning that, Luka will choke someone. More on her later.
They immediately set to work, launching a brilliant offensive against the empire who's name I cannot spell for the life of me, and wipe out an entire advance fleet with little effort. They land on Earth and inquire random strangers on what the Greatest Treasure is all about.
Now that the setting is established, let's look at the characters in general. From the outset we have Captain Marvelous, a cool and confident character who has all the good plans, all the courage, and all the skills to make him inexpressibly cool. However as demonstrated by the entire team on the outset, they are kind and caring, the perfect anti-thesis to uncaring unfeeling plundering pirates who try to be aloof badasses and fail remarkably.
Don or Doc as they like to call him is their strategic planner. He comes off a little whiny at first and Luka likes to hit him a lot. Luka is his nemesis and foil, a tough talking no nonsense yellow ranger who follows in the tradition of "Not taking your shit srsly" characters. Joe is the calm swordsman from any initial impressions and Ahin is the princess of the group, polite and caring but able to deal with things as they come along.
From impressions of episode 2, it is clear that Don and Ahin are the newbies on board. Doc makes the plans and Ahin is unsure of their captains motives when his Shinkenger Key is stolen by a random kid of the street who tries to steal it head-first last time. However, they are definitely a team by any stretch of the imagination, and Joe and Luka are obviously been with Marvelous for a long time now.
Here's where things get wiggy. It is established in Episode 2 that they have no fucking idea of the power they wield. The term Super Sentai is alien to them, despite their team name of Pirate Sentai Gokaiger. To them, they're a team, rather than a legendary task force that they are mistakenly labeled as. And they refuse to believe they're the 35th team meant to defend Earth despite all need to prevent this world from falling to the empire.
The end of Episode 2 showcases the arrival of a familiar face to people who watch the originals, MagiRed who really doesn't give his name at all. Still, being the person he is in episode 3, he makes a bet with Marvelous and Doc that they have to catch him but can't transform. That's the real centerpiece of this episode as it's a character building storyline, focusing primarily on Marvelous and Doc's dynamic with the second string plot being the empire's goons fighting the other three who bust out black and white henshins.
On a note? Go-On Black. With a skirt. Somewhere Dillon is having fits and if Dan Eiwig is watching this series he is busting a gut right now.
The real focus and drive of Episode 3 is in the title Courage that makes Magic or somethign close to it. Courage was the power of the original MagiRangers, and when the powers of the MagiKeys are accessed, they get a full transformation sequence in CGI and background effects, and then from there, actually perform the team pose. In terms of ability, this is rather interesting. Normally when someone transforms, they simply get a Rider-style henshin, done in real time. But this time they pulled out the stops, pushing the Gokaiger and MagiRanger transformations together.
The unanimous "... wtf?" feel they had after transforming with the MagiKeys was quite loud, as there is a notable pause. They are clearly confused. Why are they calling themselves Mahou Sentai MagiRanger? We're fucking Gokaigers! But no, this is the true power of a team. And thus begins the build to the true powers of the Super Sentai they wield. It's going to be a fun row.
Episode 4's preview hints towards a Joe episode, and the advent of possibly the mastery of the GekiRanger powers. Can't wait till next week.