Redryuranger11
Blazing Soul!
It might seem like a surprise to some, but only just recently have I actually finished Shinkenger. (I at least think Syer might be surprised with this due to a fanfic that I've written)
Now I got to say, this is only my third Super Sentai that I've actually finished whole from start to finish, the first two being Gekiranger and Boukenger. I've gotten a taste of Super Sentai from those two and I've done quite a bit of research, seen some episodes of other Sentai to get the common traits down and stuff, and I've done quite some observation on Shinkenger. Everything that I'm about to say is all my opinion. (And forgive me this is going to be pretty long.)
Anyway, let me say this to start: I really liked Shinkenger a lot. Alot of that has to do with the stuff that was shown, weapons, mechs, etc. I think a lot of people don't like the way the mechs look (going through some comments about PR Samurai) but I for one really liked the way the mechs looked. The weapons were really cool in my opinion, especially the Rekka Daizanto. The Mogyu Bazooka for one was something I was a little bit on edge with at first, mainly because this was the first time I've ever heard of a weapon based on a bull be mainly used for the Red Ranger (and heck, the Ushi Origami was pretty much the first time I've ever heard of a bull mech for a red ranger, since I've mostly associated the bull mech for the strong guy on the team, not the hero).
The story is pretty good, giving subtle hints to certain details as the show goes. Now I've been spoiled on many details of Shinkenger so as I watched, but while Shinkenger had been airing, I at least got to a halfway point (and then watched a few scattered episodes, one of them being Kaoru's second episode), some of these clues were just there. What did they mean, and what is their importance? Upon knowing the truth to these clues, these clues then become essential to the understanding of the character's motive and why he acts the way he does. In fact, the individual characters were awesome. I really liked Gekiranger, but even then I can't help but feel that more than half the cast were kind of bland, and I liked those characters. On the other hand, I don't feel that the Shinkenger cast was boring at all. Each of them have their own personality quirks and it was a fun ride.
I do have to admit that the suits aren't as visually appealing as other suits because when watching Shinkenger vs Go-onger, I really liked Go-on Red's suit much better than Shinkenred's suit, and I didn't exactly like the Go-onger suits to begin with. You know speaking of that VS, something's off about that. I don't know what, maybe it's because the story felt like "oh here's Sousuke for you to have a crossover. Watch as he's awesome and does all these cool heroic stuff. Oh and btw, these are his teammates." I've seen a few VS and none of them really shaft their returning guests as much as Shinkenger vs Go-onger did . . . or is that just me just thinking that Shinkenger vs Go-onger did that?
The villains were in some ways kind of there to be villains. Doukoku was the main villain but it's actually quite sad to see him do nothing until the very end, but by golly everytime you see him, it's cool to see just how strong he is. Dayu has that obligatory female on female rivalry but it's quite nice to see that her Shamisen was like the last piece of the puzzle and led to Doukoku being able to reach the human world . . . with the power of love of course . . . I think. Juuzo has that rivalry with Takeru, very much like Rio and Jan. Unlike Rio and Jan though, Juuzo's pure evil, surprising even Akumaro. Hell it's actually nice to see that whenever Juuzo fights Takeru, some hints on Takeru's Kagemusha status gets dropped. Akumaro I got to say at one point I thought he might actually become the main villain due to his goal but I do have to remember Doukoku hadn't done anything yet so why should Doukoku be replaced?
I do got to say one thing, HOLY CRAP SHITARI! I thought he would be the Finster type monster but the Squid's pretty badass for a character that looks like him! I mean seriously, get any character that you think might fit the mold of Finster and pit them against Shitari, I bet Shitari will win! I mean seriously, the dude can fight. It's actually kind of jarring to hear him say he's not strong enough to handle some stuff. Dude you're a squid with magical powers coming from your staff and you are really, really, agile. I have to honestly say it's kind of a shame he was killed by the Gokaigers in Goseiger vs Shinkeger. Hell I'd go so far as to say he was murdered.
One complaint I do have for Shinkenger is the underuse of the Kyoryu. I mean I know it's movie exclusive and all but seriously? Unlike the many movie exclusives which contain a condition to its underuse, there's really nothing stopping Kyoryu from being used (other than maybe a CGI budget, but that still doesn't mean Kyoryumaru can't be used). I mean seriously, I see this scene in the next to last episode, giving the Kyoryu Disk to Chiaki while Ryuunosuke goes Super, and I really have to do a facepalm. This is seriously something that could've been done on a regular basis. Heck, the Hyper coat was much more cooler looking than the Super coat so it's a shame that it's so underused. Many times the Shinkengers are in trouble, why not pull out the Kyoryu so you can have two super modes to handle your enemies! And that's not to say that 2 out of 3 times that the Kyoryu Origami was used, the resulting battle look like this 'Point Bite Armed, Cut'. The battle doesn't even last that long . . . And let's not even get started on Zen Samurai Gattai. Zen as in All Samurai Gattai. ALL. You mean to tell me that an All Gattai would actually exclude one of their Origami? Even though it's All? Seriously!?
So overall, I really loved Shinkenger. Is it my favorite Sentai now? Probably. I really believe I should replace Gekiranger with Shinkenger as my favorite. Will it stay my favorite? Who knows. Gokaiger is still airing and so far that's awesome so let's see if Shinkenger can stand the test of time. What do you guys think?
Anyway from here on out it's just character analysis that I wanted to get off so if you don't want to read go ahead and don't.
Kaoru:[HIDE]Ok at first, I didn't quite like her but only because once she was introduced it kind of felt sad to find out that Takeru isn't this great descendant of a clan of awesome Samurai. But as Chiaki puts it, "it'd be easier if she were a hateful princess". The girl has shown to be quite heroic and I like that trait in a character. Hell I think one awesome thing she's done is that she knows when Tanba will get out of line and punish him so. (BTW, Tanba's annoying but you got at least admit that he mellows out a bit before the final battle, but then again that's probably because at that point Takeru is the true lord so Tanba has no reason to act so annoying) It's actually nice to see Kaoru's fighting style be so different from Takeru's and it's kind of a shame we never see the two fight together but I understand why. Overall for the first female red ranger, she's made quite the impression. She's still however not the main protagonist of Shinkenger unlike Takeru who is.[/HIDE]
Genta: [HIDE]He's seriously my favorite Sixth Ranger ever! Unlike many sixths who are just not connected to the team at all, he's the childhood friend of the hero (not as close as Burai and Geki but close enough). One thing I do have to note is that I don't think Genta is that much stronger than the other Shinkengers. For once I think we had a Sixth Ranger that was actually equal in power to the rest of the team. However while most Sixth Rangers are there for power purposes, Genta is there for other reasons. He doesn't simply just get sidelined after a few episodes. He continues to at least play some role in the way the story goes. Hell I would even say that without him, the Shinkengers might've been screwed because without him, no Ebi Origami, no Inromaru, and no Daigoyo. Most Sixth Rangers have power, Genta has the stuff that he can make to make him dangerous. Hell I'd even joke that if Genta stopped selling Sushi and started mass producing Daigoyo, he could take over the world.[/HIDE]
Ryuunosuke: [HIDE]My first impression of the guy was not that he would be the second in command of the series. I actually thought he would be similar to Souta of Boukenger, that one guy that's adds a little something to the team, but at most is kind of just there. Who knew that impression would be so wrong. Ryuunosuke actually has a big presence in Shinkenger, and heck no one is like Souta who I felt was just kind of there, all of them have their own little role to play in the grand scheme of things and Ryuunosuke was no different. It's actually quite cool to see a character that's as loyal as Ryuunosuke is. This made for some dramatic tension near the closing act. Ryuunosuke was taught to be loyal and it seems that the Ikenami family may be the most loyal to the Shiba clan so it's actually kind of heart wrenching to see Ryuunosuke question his own loyalty. Should he serve the true lord, or should he serve that one guy he's been through in so many battles? It's actually a nice development for the guy.[/HIDE]
Chiaki: [HIDE]Now this guy, this guy I thought would play the same type of role as Masumi of Boukenger, and I was half right. Both of them want to surpass their respective red rangers, though in Masumi's case I'm kind of baffled as to his reasoning compared to Chiaki which makes some sense. At first Chiaki might seem like that Second in Command that butts heads with the leader, but that's not quite the case. Well the butts heads with is (one sided though it may be) but not the second in command. It's kind of subtle, but once you really look at it, whatever Chiaki does is comparable to the many Smart Guys throughout Super Sentai. It's just instead of being smart for the sake of being smart, he's a rebellious teen. However even if this is a trait normally given to the rival of the hero, this time that trait is given to the strategist on the team. Now I don't think Chiaki has given too many strategies for the team to use, but whenever he has any focus, he really struts his stuff. In fact, one subtle clue to him being a strategist is seen in the episode with the riceball glue shooting Ayakashi. While Ryuunosuke is running around trying to be helpful, Chiaki actually comes up with a plan to make them efficient in their work, both in their errand and the battle. I believe the reason why he's able to be so flexible in such a way is because unlike the others, he didn't have the same type of training they did. When we meet his dad, we find out that he wasn't raised in the way of the Samurai but to be himself. And what is himself? A strategist. A strategist that can think on his feet and come up with clever ideas to handle the Ayakashi.[/HIDE]
Kotoha: [HIDE]She's kind of that generic shy young girl that you see many times in different types of shows. Compared to the others who were next in line to become the Shinkengers, she's a substitute for her ill elder sister.In fact when you think about it, this adds to the subtlety of Takeru's burden and is probably a reason why at times Takeru is able to connect with her . . . or at least that's what I would've said if I actually remember a scene where he did talk to her about being a substitute. It's actually quite heartwarming when her role as a substitute finally comes full circle and we get her last focus episode. Granted I didn't exactly like the way that episode was presented since Kotoha all of a sudden looked helpless which really contrasts the way she was before. Then again I think it's the sudden focus on each ranger running up to protect her that kind of does that to me. She spends the whole time angsting about being a substitute after getting a letter from her sister. Her angsting stops when Jii confronts her about it and tells her that not once has her sister called Kotoha a substitute(and btw, Jii is awesome!). I found that a nice closure to her character development in her story of being a substitute Shinkenyellow. One thing I got to note is that I find Kotoha to have a strange personality. She just smiles at everything. I mean when Kaoru said out loud that she adopted Takeru, everyone had the understandable reaction of 
while Kotoha kind of just goes XD "you're a mother?" Hell her dream in Shinkenger Returns has Mako an d the guys gender bent. She's a little coo coo I say.[/HIDE]
Mako: [HIDE]Now I know her character is kind of polarizing. On the one hand, she's a strong will pink ranger not unlike Sakura from Boukenger. On the other hand, she has a dream of becoming a bride one day and that kind of makes up a good chunk of her character story so it could become a case of sexism. However what I'm not going to get into that. I am however going to say something about her connection with Takeru. Barring some pictures that appear to suggest these two to be a potential romantic pair, I find that Mako and Takeru have, let me say in the words of a friend who finished Shinkenger before me, this strong connection with each other. This might be subtle, but notice how Mako instead of calling Takeru, "Tono", she calls him Takeru. Just the first name with nothing added to it. In Japan, using the first name without any sort of honorific is usually reserved for someone really close to someone and it is rude to do so if you don't have permission or aren't close enough. Chiaki calls Takeru by Takeru's first name, but I believe that Chiaki was doing it to be rude and I guess as Chiaki developed it just sort of stuck with him. On the other hand, I believe Mako called Takeru by his first name right from the start, and I don't believe Mako would be using Takeru's name to be rude. Many times whenever something comes up in an emotional level, she's always there to try to help, and Takeru is kind of an emotional wreak when you get right down to it, so he's pretty much a gold mind for someone like Mako. It's kind of a shame that story of her becoming a bride and thus having to do with her cooking kind of just fizzles out.[/HIDE]
Takeru: [HIDE]The hero of the show and my POV character. I know many people do not like it when the show focuses a lot on the hero, thus the red ranger, but I really like Shinkenger for that. It's not so much as it is focused on the red guy than it is focused on him being the red guy and how it affects the other characters. Heck it's pretty subtle how his status as a Kagemusha goes. We at first find some direct hint that something's amiss during that Insult Ayakashi episode. Then as the story unfolds, we find that Takeru seems to be weird in his ways as a lord because he's pretty suicidal. After all he's not really the true lord anyway, why should he worry about his life? A great clue to what's up with Takeru comes in one episode where the gang is split up on an island thus Mako and Takeru are alone. Mako talks about some stuff about Takeru being a lord and such and then talks about past lords, thus prompting this quote, "I'm different!" Right before Kaoru's debut as Shinkenred, we get a fight with an Ayakashi who has bullets that would outright destroy the Shiba head. Ignoring the fact that the bullets didn't outright kill Takeru because Takeru isn't the Shiba Head, we get one little scene beforehand of Takeru going in for a suicide attack on the Ayakashi: Get hit, lower the enemy's guard, fire! Really looking back it's nice that hints on Takeru being a Kagemusha was dropped and not simply mention and forgotten until the plot demands it be in focus. And you got to admit, he's a pretty badass red ranger.[/HIDE]
Now I got to say, this is only my third Super Sentai that I've actually finished whole from start to finish, the first two being Gekiranger and Boukenger. I've gotten a taste of Super Sentai from those two and I've done quite a bit of research, seen some episodes of other Sentai to get the common traits down and stuff, and I've done quite some observation on Shinkenger. Everything that I'm about to say is all my opinion. (And forgive me this is going to be pretty long.)
Anyway, let me say this to start: I really liked Shinkenger a lot. Alot of that has to do with the stuff that was shown, weapons, mechs, etc. I think a lot of people don't like the way the mechs look (going through some comments about PR Samurai) but I for one really liked the way the mechs looked. The weapons were really cool in my opinion, especially the Rekka Daizanto. The Mogyu Bazooka for one was something I was a little bit on edge with at first, mainly because this was the first time I've ever heard of a weapon based on a bull be mainly used for the Red Ranger (and heck, the Ushi Origami was pretty much the first time I've ever heard of a bull mech for a red ranger, since I've mostly associated the bull mech for the strong guy on the team, not the hero).
The story is pretty good, giving subtle hints to certain details as the show goes. Now I've been spoiled on many details of Shinkenger so as I watched, but while Shinkenger had been airing, I at least got to a halfway point (and then watched a few scattered episodes, one of them being Kaoru's second episode), some of these clues were just there. What did they mean, and what is their importance? Upon knowing the truth to these clues, these clues then become essential to the understanding of the character's motive and why he acts the way he does. In fact, the individual characters were awesome. I really liked Gekiranger, but even then I can't help but feel that more than half the cast were kind of bland, and I liked those characters. On the other hand, I don't feel that the Shinkenger cast was boring at all. Each of them have their own personality quirks and it was a fun ride.
I do have to admit that the suits aren't as visually appealing as other suits because when watching Shinkenger vs Go-onger, I really liked Go-on Red's suit much better than Shinkenred's suit, and I didn't exactly like the Go-onger suits to begin with. You know speaking of that VS, something's off about that. I don't know what, maybe it's because the story felt like "oh here's Sousuke for you to have a crossover. Watch as he's awesome and does all these cool heroic stuff. Oh and btw, these are his teammates." I've seen a few VS and none of them really shaft their returning guests as much as Shinkenger vs Go-onger did . . . or is that just me just thinking that Shinkenger vs Go-onger did that?
The villains were in some ways kind of there to be villains. Doukoku was the main villain but it's actually quite sad to see him do nothing until the very end, but by golly everytime you see him, it's cool to see just how strong he is. Dayu has that obligatory female on female rivalry but it's quite nice to see that her Shamisen was like the last piece of the puzzle and led to Doukoku being able to reach the human world . . . with the power of love of course . . . I think. Juuzo has that rivalry with Takeru, very much like Rio and Jan. Unlike Rio and Jan though, Juuzo's pure evil, surprising even Akumaro. Hell it's actually nice to see that whenever Juuzo fights Takeru, some hints on Takeru's Kagemusha status gets dropped. Akumaro I got to say at one point I thought he might actually become the main villain due to his goal but I do have to remember Doukoku hadn't done anything yet so why should Doukoku be replaced?
I do got to say one thing, HOLY CRAP SHITARI! I thought he would be the Finster type monster but the Squid's pretty badass for a character that looks like him! I mean seriously, get any character that you think might fit the mold of Finster and pit them against Shitari, I bet Shitari will win! I mean seriously, the dude can fight. It's actually kind of jarring to hear him say he's not strong enough to handle some stuff. Dude you're a squid with magical powers coming from your staff and you are really, really, agile. I have to honestly say it's kind of a shame he was killed by the Gokaigers in Goseiger vs Shinkeger. Hell I'd go so far as to say he was murdered.
One complaint I do have for Shinkenger is the underuse of the Kyoryu. I mean I know it's movie exclusive and all but seriously? Unlike the many movie exclusives which contain a condition to its underuse, there's really nothing stopping Kyoryu from being used (other than maybe a CGI budget, but that still doesn't mean Kyoryumaru can't be used). I mean seriously, I see this scene in the next to last episode, giving the Kyoryu Disk to Chiaki while Ryuunosuke goes Super, and I really have to do a facepalm. This is seriously something that could've been done on a regular basis. Heck, the Hyper coat was much more cooler looking than the Super coat so it's a shame that it's so underused. Many times the Shinkengers are in trouble, why not pull out the Kyoryu so you can have two super modes to handle your enemies! And that's not to say that 2 out of 3 times that the Kyoryu Origami was used, the resulting battle look like this 'Point Bite Armed, Cut'. The battle doesn't even last that long . . . And let's not even get started on Zen Samurai Gattai. Zen as in All Samurai Gattai. ALL. You mean to tell me that an All Gattai would actually exclude one of their Origami? Even though it's All? Seriously!?
So overall, I really loved Shinkenger. Is it my favorite Sentai now? Probably. I really believe I should replace Gekiranger with Shinkenger as my favorite. Will it stay my favorite? Who knows. Gokaiger is still airing and so far that's awesome so let's see if Shinkenger can stand the test of time. What do you guys think?
Anyway from here on out it's just character analysis that I wanted to get off so if you don't want to read go ahead and don't.
Kaoru:[HIDE]Ok at first, I didn't quite like her but only because once she was introduced it kind of felt sad to find out that Takeru isn't this great descendant of a clan of awesome Samurai. But as Chiaki puts it, "it'd be easier if she were a hateful princess". The girl has shown to be quite heroic and I like that trait in a character. Hell I think one awesome thing she's done is that she knows when Tanba will get out of line and punish him so. (BTW, Tanba's annoying but you got at least admit that he mellows out a bit before the final battle, but then again that's probably because at that point Takeru is the true lord so Tanba has no reason to act so annoying) It's actually nice to see Kaoru's fighting style be so different from Takeru's and it's kind of a shame we never see the two fight together but I understand why. Overall for the first female red ranger, she's made quite the impression. She's still however not the main protagonist of Shinkenger unlike Takeru who is.[/HIDE]
Genta: [HIDE]He's seriously my favorite Sixth Ranger ever! Unlike many sixths who are just not connected to the team at all, he's the childhood friend of the hero (not as close as Burai and Geki but close enough). One thing I do have to note is that I don't think Genta is that much stronger than the other Shinkengers. For once I think we had a Sixth Ranger that was actually equal in power to the rest of the team. However while most Sixth Rangers are there for power purposes, Genta is there for other reasons. He doesn't simply just get sidelined after a few episodes. He continues to at least play some role in the way the story goes. Hell I would even say that without him, the Shinkengers might've been screwed because without him, no Ebi Origami, no Inromaru, and no Daigoyo. Most Sixth Rangers have power, Genta has the stuff that he can make to make him dangerous. Hell I'd even joke that if Genta stopped selling Sushi and started mass producing Daigoyo, he could take over the world.[/HIDE]
Ryuunosuke: [HIDE]My first impression of the guy was not that he would be the second in command of the series. I actually thought he would be similar to Souta of Boukenger, that one guy that's adds a little something to the team, but at most is kind of just there. Who knew that impression would be so wrong. Ryuunosuke actually has a big presence in Shinkenger, and heck no one is like Souta who I felt was just kind of there, all of them have their own little role to play in the grand scheme of things and Ryuunosuke was no different. It's actually quite cool to see a character that's as loyal as Ryuunosuke is. This made for some dramatic tension near the closing act. Ryuunosuke was taught to be loyal and it seems that the Ikenami family may be the most loyal to the Shiba clan so it's actually kind of heart wrenching to see Ryuunosuke question his own loyalty. Should he serve the true lord, or should he serve that one guy he's been through in so many battles? It's actually a nice development for the guy.[/HIDE]
Chiaki: [HIDE]Now this guy, this guy I thought would play the same type of role as Masumi of Boukenger, and I was half right. Both of them want to surpass their respective red rangers, though in Masumi's case I'm kind of baffled as to his reasoning compared to Chiaki which makes some sense. At first Chiaki might seem like that Second in Command that butts heads with the leader, but that's not quite the case. Well the butts heads with is (one sided though it may be) but not the second in command. It's kind of subtle, but once you really look at it, whatever Chiaki does is comparable to the many Smart Guys throughout Super Sentai. It's just instead of being smart for the sake of being smart, he's a rebellious teen. However even if this is a trait normally given to the rival of the hero, this time that trait is given to the strategist on the team. Now I don't think Chiaki has given too many strategies for the team to use, but whenever he has any focus, he really struts his stuff. In fact, one subtle clue to him being a strategist is seen in the episode with the riceball glue shooting Ayakashi. While Ryuunosuke is running around trying to be helpful, Chiaki actually comes up with a plan to make them efficient in their work, both in their errand and the battle. I believe the reason why he's able to be so flexible in such a way is because unlike the others, he didn't have the same type of training they did. When we meet his dad, we find out that he wasn't raised in the way of the Samurai but to be himself. And what is himself? A strategist. A strategist that can think on his feet and come up with clever ideas to handle the Ayakashi.[/HIDE]
Kotoha: [HIDE]She's kind of that generic shy young girl that you see many times in different types of shows. Compared to the others who were next in line to become the Shinkengers, she's a substitute for her ill elder sister.
while Kotoha kind of just goes XD "you're a mother?" Hell her dream in Shinkenger Returns has Mako an d the guys gender bent. She's a little coo coo I say.[/HIDE]Mako: [HIDE]Now I know her character is kind of polarizing. On the one hand, she's a strong will pink ranger not unlike Sakura from Boukenger. On the other hand, she has a dream of becoming a bride one day and that kind of makes up a good chunk of her character story so it could become a case of sexism. However what I'm not going to get into that. I am however going to say something about her connection with Takeru. Barring some pictures that appear to suggest these two to be a potential romantic pair, I find that Mako and Takeru have, let me say in the words of a friend who finished Shinkenger before me, this strong connection with each other. This might be subtle, but notice how Mako instead of calling Takeru, "Tono", she calls him Takeru. Just the first name with nothing added to it. In Japan, using the first name without any sort of honorific is usually reserved for someone really close to someone and it is rude to do so if you don't have permission or aren't close enough. Chiaki calls Takeru by Takeru's first name, but I believe that Chiaki was doing it to be rude and I guess as Chiaki developed it just sort of stuck with him. On the other hand, I believe Mako called Takeru by his first name right from the start, and I don't believe Mako would be using Takeru's name to be rude. Many times whenever something comes up in an emotional level, she's always there to try to help, and Takeru is kind of an emotional wreak when you get right down to it, so he's pretty much a gold mind for someone like Mako. It's kind of a shame that story of her becoming a bride and thus having to do with her cooking kind of just fizzles out.[/HIDE]
Takeru: [HIDE]The hero of the show and my POV character. I know many people do not like it when the show focuses a lot on the hero, thus the red ranger, but I really like Shinkenger for that. It's not so much as it is focused on the red guy than it is focused on him being the red guy and how it affects the other characters. Heck it's pretty subtle how his status as a Kagemusha goes. We at first find some direct hint that something's amiss during that Insult Ayakashi episode. Then as the story unfolds, we find that Takeru seems to be weird in his ways as a lord because he's pretty suicidal. After all he's not really the true lord anyway, why should he worry about his life? A great clue to what's up with Takeru comes in one episode where the gang is split up on an island thus Mako and Takeru are alone. Mako talks about some stuff about Takeru being a lord and such and then talks about past lords, thus prompting this quote, "I'm different!" Right before Kaoru's debut as Shinkenred, we get a fight with an Ayakashi who has bullets that would outright destroy the Shiba head. Ignoring the fact that the bullets didn't outright kill Takeru because Takeru isn't the Shiba Head, we get one little scene beforehand of Takeru going in for a suicide attack on the Ayakashi: Get hit, lower the enemy's guard, fire! Really looking back it's nice that hints on Takeru being a Kagemusha was dropped and not simply mention and forgotten until the plot demands it be in focus. And you got to admit, he's a pretty badass red ranger.[/HIDE]
