So you don't think it's a slap in the face to the fanbase by saying "Yeah we're not going to try to do something special with our alumni, we're just going to stick some random faces into old costumes and say it's an AU. And you will enjoy it." As I keep saying, if Tsubaraya can get alumni back regularly, I can't believe Toei, a larger company with more funds, would find it so impossible.
Is that the best possible outcome? No. But I really don't think it's insulting. Really, we're talking about shows where often these actors aren't on screen at all, just dubbing other people in suits. They all had their own series for character development, I don't think the lack of it in a later appearance is damning.
Besides, Toei never tried to fool people into thinking that the new faces were actually replacing the originals either. The AU take allowed the versions featured throughout most of Decade to actually be characters rather than just soldiers fighting all the time, and they did feature some old actors too.
Regarding those faces, even if you ignore the quick cameos of Shouichi's actor and the ones that were voice only, you've still got Wataru's, Kenzaki's and Kotaro's actors in their old roles, and an even bigger number of secondary characters.
Am I the only one who enjoyed what Gao-vs-SS did?
You know the way you talk about Decade? Gao vs SS is one of the few tokusatsu features I've watched that actually felt like an insult to me.
I wanted to see Sentai celebrating its history, not getting drown by it in waves of flashbacks. The Gaoranger didn't need to learn those pointless lessons and no one needed those flashbacks. All the Red warriors standing around in the final battle scene without lifting a finger because their "spirit" helped the -current- heroes, treating the older ones almost like ghosts, just sources of inspiration, rather than actual present heroes, just clinched it. That didn't feel like an anniversary.
In an anniversary, the one celebrated is there, present, commemorating another year. Gao vs SS was more like a memorial, making people remember bygone times.
In Gao vs SS, when the Gaorangers are defeated, 5 older Super Sentai members appear to inspire them and leave afterwards, acting almost like they weren't part of the world, just meant to inspire rather than act.
In All Riders, when Decade and Diend are surrounded by an army of monsters, the previous Riders actually march forward to fight, and only leave after Dai Shocker is reduced to dust in that world.
It never seemed to me that you thought that. You always appeared to be the type that thought what Decade did was fantastic.
I liked Decade's overall set up. I enjoyed most AUs. I wasn't disappointed by Decade's overall plotline, unlike others, even after movie wars (which I thought was a fitting conclusion, considering the set up done throughout the series, even if it was nothing like the initially advertised movie)... So, my overall impressions of the series are positive. However, that doesn't mean I liked everything it did.
The Rider tournament in All Riders was stupid, Super Shocker (and Movie Wars' final battle in general) was really underwhelming, and, like I've said, I think they
could have featured more previous leads, even with the current set up and considering casting limitations.
Kenzaki was featured as this big antagonist in the final 2 episodes but basically only did some generic grunts and yelled Tsukasa's name during Blade's battle in Movie Wars, that was just disappointing. The same for Wataru's group in general just disappearing after his plan was done. Yuusuke's misuse at times was pretty bad too.
Just because usually I defend the series, it doesn't mean I liked everything it did and have no criticisms regarding it.
