Good Sentai/Bad Sentai: What makes you love/hate a sentai?

[FlashNeko]

Like:

- All the characters have something of a personality and can actively contribute to the plot in their own ways.

- The villains are of the same "tone" as the team. Wacky villains for wacky heroes, serious villains for serious heroes. (Why does this one in particular seem so hard for writers to get?!)

- While I have nothing against a big mecha fight being the grand finale, I do always prefer one last struggle on the human scale (Shinkenger's last battle is perhaps the best of what I've seen of this one, IMO).

Dislikes:

- Ultra dominant Reds who get the lions share of the attention to the detriment of the rest of the team. (See: MagiRed, GekiRed)

- Ultra dominant villain characters who get the lions share of the attention to the detriment of ALL the heroes. (See: Abarekiller, Wolzard, and Rio.)

- "Mismatched" heroes and villains. One being completely silly and the other being totally straight-faced makes it very hard to believe they're from the same show. (I can believe the Go-Onger are opposed to the Gaiark because there's a thematic similarity to how they act. I find it much harder to believe MagiRanger and the Infelsia are from the same show because of how different they are, tone-wise.)

 

[lazycoconut]

Like:

- The villains are of the same "tone" as the team. Wacky villains for wacky heroes, serious villains for serious heroes. (Why does this one in particular seem so hard for writers to get?!)

(...)

Dislikes:

- "Mismatched" heroes and villains. One being completely silly and the other being totally straight-faced makes it very hard to believe they're from the same show. (I can believe the Go-Onger are opposed to the Gaiark because there's a thematic similarity to how they act. I find it much harder to believe MagiRanger and the Infelsia are from the same show because of how different they are, tone-wise.)

Yes yes YES. QFT

 

[Wonderwall]

LIke
-I like when that characters are interesting or likeable.
-When theres a cool henshin device and sequences.
-When the mech fights is actually interesting (Most mech fights are boring to me)
-and most of all when there is a plot(s) and they follow through it to the end. Hate loose ends
-when theres at least a few good serious/dark/deep moments

Hate
- when characters are boring or generic
-when the character all look 14
-when there isnt really a plot besides beat the bad guys or when whatever plots they do -have get started but not finished
-when they bad guys dont seem dangerous in anyway (makes the rangers seem not important)

My thoughts exactly, another hate I'm going to add is when they add fillers and crappy stuff for like 10-20 eps straight :redface2:

 

[Lynxara]

I'm of two minds about filler. There are some series where the fillers are among the best episodes, because they're just really entertaining stand-alone stories. I can handle long filler runs when the individual episodes are well-written.

Filler that attempts to present itself as dreadfully important really bugs me, though. Almost everything Akumaro did in Shinkenger was over-extended filler, compensating for the fact that Doukoku had to spend the whole show drinking.

 

[KingRanger]

Sentai has always had filler. You can't have 50 episodes and expect it to be story every single episode.

 

[Oedipus 3000]

What I want in a Sentai

-really well-done and creative fight sequences.
-well-developed interesting characters (ten extra points if the actors can, ya know, ACT.)
-Nicely designed suits and mechas.
-well-done villians who don't fall into "I'm evil because I'm evil" syndrome
-A balance of mechas, not too many, but more then one (Zyu, Dai and Kaku did this really well.)
- a plot that TRIES to step away from the painful Monster of the week scenario again.
- sixth rangers who aren't just popped in to have a sixth member.
- a nicely done balance of serious and comedy.

What I don't want in my sentai
- when they phone in the action scenes with over the top cgi
- the cast becoming cardboard cut-out steriotypes
- Villains with the same level of intimidation as jerry lewis
- Monster designs that just seem pathetic and lazy (I'm looking at you Dairanger
- Insane hyper-flamboyant comedy forced down my throut
- Actors who look like they belong in a japanese J.C. Penny commercial

 

[The_Next!!!]

+Like:
-When a Sentai team's characters all have unique, non annoying personalities.
-When villains actually ARE evil.
-When the actors are actually enjoying their roles and not just dialing it in.
-When the soundtrack has an epic feel.
-When mecha are well designed and not clustered.
-When the fight scenes are well planned out.
- Feeling actually threatened by the villains.
-Personality flaws in characters.(probably the reason why I hate Decade and Kabuto)

-Dislike:
-Too many explosions. Constant explosions at the slightest hit makes everything less convincing.
-Villains that aren't clearly organized as to who and what they are.
-When the team just are annoying and loud.
-An actor who hates toku is put in a toku role.
-Introducing too much mecha at once.
-Having a Sixth Ranger steal the spotlight from everyone else.
-No internal conflict.

 

[lazycoconut]

-Personality flaws in characters.(probably the reason why I hate Decade and Kabuto)

That's an interesting point, what kind of personality flaws are we talking about?

 

[Lynxara]

Sentai has always had filler. You can't have 50 episodes and expect it to be story every single episode.

I've seen this done with anime, actually. It's rare, but certainly possible. It seems most likely to happen when the production team is allowed to pre-plan the show carefully, outlining a little bit of plot movement into each episode so the story is a slow build.

This isn't necessarily better than having a blend of brisker plot episodes and standalone filler eps, though. It's just another approach to storytelling that is certainly possible within the format. Perhaps it's not one Toei's writers want to use, or have the time to use.

 

[The_Next!!!]

That's an interesting point, what kind of personality flaws are we talking about?

When characters aren't so PERFECT SUPER DEE DUPER that they act like assholes to everyone else.