Boukenger is awesome; but then why do so many people hate it?

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Rather than talk about SGS, let's talk about the setting. The very idea of Precious, of historical artifacts that are also power sources, is almost inevitably going to make the people chasing them look bad. Instead of looking like hero-adventurers, in the Indiana Jones mold, they're going to look like people out to hoard all the power for themselves. Pursuing power for its own sake is a classic villainous trait.

As far as setting goes, I always thought one thing Boukenger could have done to make it less episodic and have more overarching plot was to make all the Preciouses the remnants of the extinct Gordom civilization and SGS wants to keep Gaja from taking them back, and at the same time content with Jaryuu, Dark Shadow and Ashu who are also after them. I don't remember them saying everything in the heroes' arsenal was powered by Preciouses, just the Dual Crusher.

Go a step farther. Let's say SGS doesn't want to have a big warehouse full of quarantined Precious at all. They want people to be able to keep their family heirlooms and museums to keep their cultural artifacts. So someone has invented a scientific method or device that dissipates the stored magical energy in a Precious. It goes from an ancient scroll you can use to power a robot, to an ancient scroll that's just an ancient scroll. In short, Boukenger makes Precious into things utterly useless to the villains.

Maybe they don't have to "depower" the Preciouses, but returning them to their proper owners sounds like a good idea. Maybe set it in a world where ancient artifacts from legend have started being uncovered at a rapid rate and an organization is set up to save them from the wrong hands.

You can put me in the camp of liking Boukenger initially for "not being like the then most recent shows" No screaming Red, less wackiness, etc. I don't know how much I'd like it if I gave another look. But I do like the mechas myself. Minus the arm swapping. I can somehow buy it more with animals than vehicles, and by then it had gotten a bit tiring anyway; and then there are the pointless Siren and Police, and DaiVoyager. I like a battleship mecha but why make it yet another combiner? Just go the carrier route. It spent most of the time combined as GoGoVoyager anyway.
 
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I either vaguely remember or imagined myself that there was pre-series speculation that the Precious were gonna be lost Super Sentai-related artifacts. Which means that as the 30th official Super Sentai, they would lay a legitimate claim for the purposes of preserving their heritage.

Production-wise, Toei could then just scrounge up whatever ratty old props they had laying around and called them "Precious". Like have archeologists uncover a Ranger Stick in some ruins that Ryuon is pillaging, and have it save the day. It would have been a better anniversary show by being accessible to everyone, though I wonder if it would have been considered unethical or mean to promote toys that aren't gonna get a reprint anytime soon?

That concept still sounds cool as hell, and depending on the execution, could potentially have imparted a better sense of history without being so reliant on stunt-casting like Gokaiger.

From this thread, I'm starting to get the inkling that maybe Boukenger was so flavorless, most of us have a more idealized version in the Superhero Time of our hearts. It's right there, airing before the Kamen Rider 555/Hibiki crossover sequel.
 
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Despite how much I enjoyed Boukenger, I can definitely see the problems with the SGS that Lynxara is talking about. Mr. Voice, as I was watching the show, came across as very morally questionable in his/her methods. Oh, and the body hopping? What happens to the people who's body he's now occupying?
 
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You can put me in the camp of liking Boukenger initially for "not being like the then most recent shows" No screaming Red, less wackiness, etc.

This is probably a major reason why I don't like Boukenger. It was one of my first Sentai and I disliked it right from the start, before I was into the fandom. But people insisting that it's more serious and thus "better" than other shows (or using it to bash Gokaiger/Gaoranger) annoys me and has pretty much ensured forever that I will not try to revisit or like this show
 
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I didn't hate boukenger, but I didn't like it either. I couldn't stand any of the team except Blue. I didn't care for any of the villain teams. Bouken Red was just annoying. The only things I really loved about bouken were the music, the mecha, and the transformation device.
 
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On a much more superficial note, that look of the series was one of the reasons I wasn't fond of it either. I remember seeing the early toy catalog scans for the first time and instantly thinking that the suits were "meh" at best and that the mecha were pretty ugly. It's very difficult to enjoy a Sentai, or any tokusatsu, when you don't enjoy either the action, story, or characters. For as much as Eiji strikes me as being the best thing in Boukenger, his suit is probably one of the worst Ranger suits out there. I remember an older member once saying he saw the Boukenger movie in theaters and the BoukenSilver suit looking absolutely terrible on a big screen and I wouldn't imagine that's wrong.

EDIT - Right, so, I did like DaiVoyager a lot. I love battleship mecha and it was a pretty awesome looking robot when transformed.
 
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But people insisting that it's more serious and thus "better" than other shows (or using it to bash Gokaiger/Gaoranger) annoys me and has pretty much ensured forever that I will not try to revisit or like this show

Well I don't think that's a valid conclusion to draw, a show being used to bash another show must make it bad. I will say Gaoranger is perhaps better in that it actually had more story (I'm not a fan of Bouken's Deka-like episodic structure). And Gokaiger... what did Gokaiger really do better than Boukenger once you take away the anniversary stuff?
 
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Well I don't think that's a valid conclusion to draw, a show being used to bash another show must make it bad. I will say Gaoranger is perhaps better in that it actually had more story (I'm not a fan of Bouken's Deka-like episodic structure). And Gokaiger... what did Gokaiger really do better than Boukenger once you take away the anniversary stuff?

Gokaiger had an actual likable cast. Plus, the awesomeness of Gai Ikari should count for something. Plus, they were actually heroic.

Gokaiger's plots revolve around the anniversary aspects a lot. They are simple plots, but they are fun to watch. I never understood the argument that Gokaiger was bad due to the anniversary elements. Take the anniversary stuff out and it wouldn't be Gokaiger anymore. Gokaiger's narrative does not really follow the same priorities that the majority of the other shows do, and I am not sure if it necessarily should. Frankly, I find the anniversary aspects quite fun and not just some shallow gimmick thats "overshadowing the story."
 
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Gokaiger had an actual likable cast. Plus, the awesomeness of Gai Ikari should count for something. Plus, they were actually heroic.

I didn't care for Gai's spazz attacks. He could be clever sometimes, but other times he acts like a crazy nutcase. You don't have to freak out just because you're a Sentai fan and are now part of one.

As for the rest, I don't know how "heroic" they felt but it may just be my memory. While they did undergo characterization, they were stock roles: Marvelous the "Look how awesome I am! Memes are born by me just standing around!" badass; Doc the bumbling meek kid, Luka the tomboy, Ahim the high-class girl, Joe the... actually, I don't know what Joe is.

I don't dislike them particularly, but I just don't recall anything so noteworthy about them. Especially when it seemed that they missed the point over and over and over again about how the Greatest Treasure probably isn't some literal thing to horde. That should have been clear form day one. And that was their prime motivator for most of the show, rather than a real sense of justice. Even their heroics was done in a "Yeah, we're awesome" kind of way.
 
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This is probably a major reason why I don't like Boukenger. It was one of my first Sentai and I disliked it right from the start, before I was into the fandom. But people insisting that it's more serious and thus "better" than other shows (or using it to bash Gokaiger/Gaoranger) annoys me and has pretty much ensured forever that I will not try to revisit or like this show

Not liking one show because others use it to bash another show is childish. I have seen you do this with more than just this show.
 
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