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I've been watching a bunch of Goranger episodes, and from what I've seen, here are my thoughts:
-Goranger, being the first sentai, really brought the basics of the franchise, with the five colored hero, the final attack involving all heroes; and it took from Kamen Rider some elements = a standard evil group, with a hidden Big Bad, with MOTW (but more with object-themed than animal themed); the first episodes don't have a main general, then , we have successive generals (four in that case), coming, being commenders for a while, and then are defeated and replaced by another; the first episode is very intense, with lots of death and tragedy, and the heroes and supporting team are gathered; and then each episode tell a different story, and are pretty independant from each other.
- Characters= Heroes: they are pretty serious, with Aka being the standard leader, Ao the second in command, Ki the big guy and comic relief, Momo, the girl, but who's as badass as the boys (which was pretty great for such an old toku), and Mido, the youngest one (but he's pretty overshadowed by the others); however, in Goranger, the focus is much more on action than characters; who are mostly focused on fighting the enemies; the supporting team has the general/ cook, the lady helpers, a witty boy and a talking bird; they are nice supporting characters, but not exceptional
-Villains; they are pretty one dimensional, and there is a strange contrast between the destruction they cause (which is often serious, with lots of death), and their ridiculous appearance (when you see them, they look more funny than really threatening);
- Episodes: the series is pretty episodic; you can watch the episodes pretty in disorder, but it doesn't really matter, since the story is pretty static; except the general changes, the Kiranger switch or the armament changes, it's like there's not really any progression during the series; however, each episode has a pretty self contained story, with lots of action and twists, even if the episode's quality in unavoidably uneven; and it's amazing how seriousness can be mixed with insane silliness; and when the Goranger storm is replaced by the Goranger Hurricane, the silliness is up to eleven :laugh:
- Action; the action is amazing , with lots of great fights and stunts, with also great motorbike action; it's one of the best points of that series; however, the heroes's final attack using the ball feels pretty silly :laugh:
To sum up: as a first series, Goranger has a lot of great points, by bringing most of the basic elements of the franchise; the heroes are pretty nice, but since the series focuses more on action than characters, they lack character development; storyline wise, the series is pretty episodic; each episode is full of action, twists, but unfortunately, as a whole the storyline is pretty static, and not that interesting.
And when you look at early sentai (most sentai series, until Dynaman), it's interesting that they pretty share Goranger's quality and flaws: they have pretty nice self contained episodes, with lots of fun action and pretty likable and serious heroes (but with a comic relief hero); unfortunately, the main storyline is pretty static, the characters lack development, and the villains are pretty one dimensional.
However, kudos to Goranger for bringing a female henshin heroine, and a serious one, as competent as the male ones (Peggy is awesome, and every sentai heroine owes her )
Goranger was a groundbreaking series, and even if it has some serious flaws, it's still a pretty well done series.
Your thoughts?
-Goranger, being the first sentai, really brought the basics of the franchise, with the five colored hero, the final attack involving all heroes; and it took from Kamen Rider some elements = a standard evil group, with a hidden Big Bad, with MOTW (but more with object-themed than animal themed); the first episodes don't have a main general, then , we have successive generals (four in that case), coming, being commenders for a while, and then are defeated and replaced by another; the first episode is very intense, with lots of death and tragedy, and the heroes and supporting team are gathered; and then each episode tell a different story, and are pretty independant from each other.
- Characters= Heroes: they are pretty serious, with Aka being the standard leader, Ao the second in command, Ki the big guy and comic relief, Momo, the girl, but who's as badass as the boys (which was pretty great for such an old toku), and Mido, the youngest one (but he's pretty overshadowed by the others); however, in Goranger, the focus is much more on action than characters; who are mostly focused on fighting the enemies; the supporting team has the general/ cook, the lady helpers, a witty boy and a talking bird; they are nice supporting characters, but not exceptional
-Villains; they are pretty one dimensional, and there is a strange contrast between the destruction they cause (which is often serious, with lots of death), and their ridiculous appearance (when you see them, they look more funny than really threatening);
- Episodes: the series is pretty episodic; you can watch the episodes pretty in disorder, but it doesn't really matter, since the story is pretty static; except the general changes, the Kiranger switch or the armament changes, it's like there's not really any progression during the series; however, each episode has a pretty self contained story, with lots of action and twists, even if the episode's quality in unavoidably uneven; and it's amazing how seriousness can be mixed with insane silliness; and when the Goranger storm is replaced by the Goranger Hurricane, the silliness is up to eleven :laugh:
- Action; the action is amazing , with lots of great fights and stunts, with also great motorbike action; it's one of the best points of that series; however, the heroes's final attack using the ball feels pretty silly :laugh:
To sum up: as a first series, Goranger has a lot of great points, by bringing most of the basic elements of the franchise; the heroes are pretty nice, but since the series focuses more on action than characters, they lack character development; storyline wise, the series is pretty episodic; each episode is full of action, twists, but unfortunately, as a whole the storyline is pretty static, and not that interesting.
And when you look at early sentai (most sentai series, until Dynaman), it's interesting that they pretty share Goranger's quality and flaws: they have pretty nice self contained episodes, with lots of fun action and pretty likable and serious heroes (but with a comic relief hero); unfortunately, the main storyline is pretty static, the characters lack development, and the villains are pretty one dimensional.
However, kudos to Goranger for bringing a female henshin heroine, and a serious one, as competent as the male ones (Peggy is awesome, and every sentai heroine owes her )
Goranger was a groundbreaking series, and even if it has some serious flaws, it's still a pretty well done series.
Your thoughts?
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