I liked him when he wasn't a god
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I always seem to feel negatively about Geki, but on balance it's not that I disliked the show, just Rio and Mele and they were such a huge part of it. I wouldn't have liked them even as regular villains - I felt that Mele was an incredibly flat character that revolved solely around Rio, and Rio himself was an annoying emo-kid (I don't think anyone would enjoy a hero type like him; he's popular solely because of the mentality that villains are better than heroes.) But I'm totally with the Japanese fanbase on this one. Sentai is supposed to be about heroes, not villains. People complain that the Gekirangers were "bland" or "boring" but, well, why was that? Because the screen time and development they should have got was given to Rio and Mele.

I do love Long, though. He'll always be awesome to me.
 
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Despite all the screen time Rio and Mele got, I never felt like they completely overshadowed the Gekiranger cast. And that's because I thought the cast did such a good job to maintain their presence.

I really love Jan. Like many, I hate screaming reds (Yousuke, Ban, Sosuke). But Jan was the one guy that did it right imo. He was a fun lovable character and his actor played him with such enthusiasm. And I felt like his childish nature was the most natural out of all of them. He was fun.

I know Ran and Retsu both get deprived of spotlight, but I still like them both. It's kind of like how I feel about both Haruka and Momoko in Maskman. Both of their actors were good and were fun characters to watch. I don't think either of them are bland.

Gou is easily the coolest of the bunch. Fans are always looking for old school homages in newer Sentai. Well, I think Gou is THE old school homage of newer sentai. The way the actor plays the character reminds me very much of the style of how it was done back in the late 80s. And his actor does a fantastic job at being a badass character.~

Ken is probably most people's least favorites. And this is due to how little impact he leaves on the story. But see, I'm not too bothered by that. I felt like he was just another fun character who was excellently added onto the show. And I am thankful for that. Many say Ken is just as annoying as any screaming red or even Genta, but I don't see that at all. Ken always came off as the cheerful lovable goof, in the styles of Kyousuke, Kenta (MegaRed), and Gai (GokaiSilver).


Actually, now that I think about it, did Rio and Mele really get THAT much more spotlight than the rest of the cast? Cause I feel like they got just about the equal amount as the other five. Even their number of focus eps. Perhaps it's more cause Rio and Mele's eps are a bit more plot heavy? Cause during the first like 20 eps, it feels like there's equal footing amongst the three Gekirangers and Rio and Mele. Gou and Ken get plenty of plot focus along with Rio and Mele for the next like 15 eps. And for the last 10 eps, it feels like a lot of the plot focus is on Jan, Rio, Mele, and even Gou. And we know how the ending stuff is usually what sticks to everyone's memory best when it comes to toku. But regardless, I still feel like Ran, Retsu, and Ken had plenty of presence throughout the show.


Judging by what many people are saying, Gekiranger to many is a show that was supposed to be the next installment of the 90s/early 2000s style of Sentai (Jetman-Dekaranger), but it got hampered by the crazy stuff of recent years. So this gets me wondering, would Gekiranger have been much better received, had it aired a few years earlier? Particularly before the Hibiki screwjob. Would it have been better for people if it had been done during the early 2000s? Would it have been as well received as how Abaranger fans love Abaranger? (Abaranger seems to be Gekiranger's most frequent comparison).
 
I liked him when he wasn't a god
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People seem to think that villains are the most important thing in the whole show. Geki's popularity with English-speaking fans is almost entirely because of its heavy villain focus. Every other Sentai that's aired since then has either been harshly criticised for supposedly having poor villains/mishandling the villains or in the case of Goseiger some people will say Bladerun was the only good thing about the show. I have seen a lot of speculation that Toei has specifically insisted that villain presence remain minimal since Geki, but I wonder whether it's really true and if so, is it a bad thing? It seems that a lot of the Japanese fanbase just isn't interested in heavy villain plots, at least for Sentai ...
 
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I'm not sure if I remember the whole "be brave and you'll get a new power" thing. Did they really do that?? :O_O:
Well think about that whole kageki thing. Jan gains that power when he finally decides that the reason he fights and becomes stronger is so that he can protect people. If that had been Magiranger that would have been a textbook example of one of the displays of courage that would get their phone ringing and a new spell code flashed out at them. They both just seem to have that thing where the ranger being focussed on that episode gets so passionate that they throw their arms out wide and scream and <bam> new power.
Every other Sentai that's aired since then has either been harshly criticised for supposedly having poor villains/mishandling the villains or in the case of Goseiger some people will say Bladerun was the only good thing about the show.
Well of course they do. Backstory as a fallen member of the good guys team. Spends most of the series as an underling to a string of other villains. Not really explained until the last few episodes of the series. Goseiger's Bredoran covers a lot of the same ground as Rio.
 
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I still like Gekiranger a lot. But I do realize that Gekiranger could've been much better. Some of Geki's production values and writing styles are somewhat repetitive and a bit too safe in certain areas, which does drag the show down a notch. Perhaps due to the lingering effect of what happened after Hibiki. And of course, there was Japan's issues with the villains.
 
Onore...
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Go-Onger was a really low point in Sentai for me. The characters annoyed me, the villans sucked. The mecha looked horrible, and the writing was tepid at best.
 
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Go-Onger was a really low point in Sentai for me. The characters annoyed me, the villans sucked. The mecha looked horrible, and the writing was tepid at best.

I would echo these points as well. I know it's for kids, but it just seemed too kiddy for me. You can be kid friendly and still have depth. I pretty much found the episodes so I could see the ground fights and robot action. Although I will give Go-Onger credit for having AWESOME theme songs. Engine O's theme, the Go On Wings theme, and even the intro. And as an aside, I'm highly surprised it was salvaged the way it was with RPM, but I think that's apples and oranges.

Now Go Busters looks terrible to me. Bad cluster robot formations, bad costumes, little buddy pokemon robots. I've been reading that it's actually a pretty good series with some depth, so I think I may check it all out before passing judgement.
 
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Kamen Rider IXA

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Why everyone hates Go-Onger so much? It was a real light series (unlike that awfull Shinkenger/Goseiger-thing). It didin't have good plot, but is it really matter? It was a Sentai-parody. Not as good as Carranger or Ababrenger, but still a parody, so it has to be judjed as parody. Was it REALLY that bad? It had a lot of humor, comedy characters, some rare robo-combinations. WTF?! It had Go-On Wings, who were awesome! They were the last Sixth Heroes, whom I trully enjoyed. It has a lot of flows, but I personally think Go-Onger isn't about a hardcore Sentai Series.
 
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