Monster Zero x SciFi Japan - Archive Only

The prologue to episode one (the Great Legendary War itself) is like the Super Sentai equivalent of prologue to Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.

I've been fortunate to catch the first two episodes of Gokaiger, and was greatly impressed with them both; the first appearance of Gokaioh, slashing the Zangyack fleet with its sword within the moon's orbit, brought back fond memories of both Message from Space and Voltron.

As awesome as it is to see so many returning hero teams, via of Gokaiger's keys, I would be more excited to see returning villains in later episodes, especially underused characters like the more note worthy single episode monsters from past series, and the many movie exclusive villains.

Despite that hopeful wish, The Zangyack Empire itself is a pretty sweet group of baddies, and seem to be made up from a wide variety of different alien types, like robots, cyborgs, organic beings, and metallic-skinned, emotional 'daddy-boys' in fancy white and blue, dress wear.

Just finished the second episode of this. I love it. The pirate theme is great, as are the costumes and everything. I'm also loving the badguys, and thus far the two singular monsters have looked great. I'm not as fond of the "OH LOOK WE'RE PAST RANGERS" thing, but everything else about the show is great so I can't complain too much. It's a shame this is airing at the same time Power Rangers Samurai is on U.S. Television, because the quality is so drastic it's sad.

Aside from CAPTAIN MARVELOUS, my favorite ranger is the Yellow.

As I watched episode 3, I noted something that I really dig about this show. It's the whole "WE JUST HAPPEN TO SAVE THE DAY" it's fairly amusing and an enjoyable way to maintain the pirateness of our heroes.

Although I missed episode 10 "Card Game", I have been keeping up with "Gokaiger" and its insane how well it's been holding up. Not to mention how well paced it all is, as opposed to most other Japanese hero shows that take three-quarters of a season to get from point A, to point A-and-half.

I'm especially digging the villains of the series, who've all had appealing, often scary designs; something I'm not at all use with Super Sentai monsters. And thankfully, you really believe in the weekly guest villains, dubbed Action Commanders, being from across time and space with varying looks, even if they do all serve the same Zangyack Empire. This is a big breath of fresh air compared to tokusatsu shows like "Dekaranger" or "Ultraman Tiga", whose various aliens were clearly (and painfully) from a single art director.

Even the more comical Action Commanders, like Nanonanoda and the Sneak Brothers are pretty good (loved the last duo).

BTW, they're doing a (hopefully) full length "Gokaiger" movie loaded with special guest stars and returning monsters. Most excited to see Dagon from "Magiranger" and Rei Tachibana / DynaPink from "Dynaman" coming back (she was kind of my first Sentai crush from the "Night Flight" episodes back in the 1980's).

http://www.jefusion.com/2011/04/returni ... i-199.html
http://henshingrid.blogspot.com/2011/04 ... tures.html
http://henshingrid.blogspot.com/2011/04 ... -hero.html
http://henshingrid.blogspot.com/2011/03 ... super.html