SLICE
Joined
Nov 25, 2010
Messages
2,028
I'm planning to do a marathon of Sentai and Rider.

At the moment, I'm doing a very, very uneven marathon of Return of Ultraman, Stronger and Sky Rider, one episode of each per day, but I'm fast running out of episodes for all but Sky Rider. So I realize, I need to switch gears and let the que of subbed episodes for them build up.

My solution?

Well I'm going to give Sentai another shot. I tried watching Bioman, and while I enjoyed what I saw for the most part, it was in very poor quality, and the dubbing was...hilarious in many terrible ways.

So instead, I'm going to go with a sentai I'm interested in- Maskman. Why? I love the Maskman costumes. I really do. Other Sentais have just been insane wrecks to me, and Gokaiger just could not hold my interest, but hopefully Maskman can.

However to spur me along, I'm going to sandwich it in between two things I love.

Kamen Rider V3 and Kamen Rider Black. I have both fully subbed, in one fashion or another, and plan to start watching one episode per day of each. They have roughly the same episode count, Maskman having one less episode then V3 and Black, so for the first time out I'm going to watch the first two episodes of the Rider shows, to even the count.

If you care to hear my thoughts on the episodes...well that's why I've made this thread. I'll be starting later today.
 
Active Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2006
Messages
6,410
Did you ever make it to RX's last episodes? I never saw you ranting about them... :sweat:
 
SLICE
Joined
Nov 25, 2010
Messages
2,028
I actually petered out on RX, after those last few episodes. I ranted about. I'll get back to 'em later, but....damn do I not like RX's show.

It's not the worst thing in Kamen Rider history, but it really does not work for me.
 
SLICE
Joined
Nov 25, 2010
Messages
2,028
Right! I'm going to be doing the reviews a day after watching, with some rewatching in order so I can refresh.

And boy did I need it this time...

In order.


Kamen Rider V3 Episodes 1 and 2: I love Kamen Rider V3. I really do. I love how larger then life and dramatic the dialogue is, I love how honestly hateful and vengeance filled Shiro is, I love the villains... The only thing I do not like, have never liked, and will not ever like, is V3's costume. Thing is a wreck, no matter how you try to update it. Yet, it speaks to the quality of the show that that does not matter in the slightest. From a badass start, to a badass finish with the Double Riders sacrificing themselves to save Tokyo from a nuke, to badass filming locations-I loved the fight on the bridge and V3 standing on the rocks of the beach, both were very well filmed....this entire thing speaks of promise, of a man wracked with hate, driven to discard his very humanity for justice.

Maskman Episode 1: If this was, say, a Metal Hero show, or a more modern Kamen Rider series, or hell, just some random toku where there is one central character and a few tagalongs and side kicks...this would be a pretty damn strong opening. A bit rushed, yes, but the villains are interesting at the least, even if the big bad makes me think that he's a giant gaudy Christmas Tree and that person playing the 'Prince' is most definitely a female, what with wearing purple lipstick and BEING A GIRL (why are they calling her a Prince? Maybe it's just shoddy subbing).... Beyond that ,the villains work. And the hero, Takeru, has a moderately good reason to toss aside logic and rush through fireballs and explosions like a man, and has a good, if not plain costume.

...However it is not a solo hero story. It's a Super Sentai story, meaning it's a team event. .......who the **** are the other Maskmen? They didn't even get NAMES. Hell, they barely got 3 minutes worth of screen time out of costume, MOST of it at the very end. I didn't even know who the hell they were on my first watch through, only going through it again did I realize, oh, hey, they're his pit crew! The only thing that I got from this episode about ANY of them is that they all work for him, and are amazingly more incompetent and way less badass. He basically soloed the monster, which looked pretty cool and had a neat gimmick, by himself. And with them all, it just made the whole thing feel like so much more of a rush then it would have if he was alone.

So we're off to a moderately derpy start and I already don't know what to feel about this. This is one sentai where it feels like the others are just cannon fodder working FOR the hero. I'll see if it improves. Also they're all dumbasses if they truly thought that beating one monster, with a bitchin Ion Canon I'll grant, was enough to defeat the Tube.


Kamen Rider Black Episodes 1 and 2: Aaah Kotaro. I missed you. Never change into a metal hero wannabe, ever, please. Strong opening, far more down to earth, with Kotaro still carrying the flame of rage and justice of his elder Rider brothers. I loved the Spider-Men, and I loved how he fought them all. The Jaguar monster really suffers nowadays, but I can see what they were trying to go for. All in all, a very solid start, though if I remember correctly, it's going to meander a bit until reaching a proper point.
 
Mad Skillz
Joined
Feb 25, 2005
Messages
19,145
Maskman probably isn't the best series for all around team development, but it does have its strengths and moments. Also, that bit about her being called a prince isn't bad subbing, it's explained later on.

Also, I think this was the one series that had more of those "Tehehe look at us run and jump in slow motion we're so happy!" that I had so much hate for about older tokusatsu.
 
MagiFanboy
Joined
Dec 25, 2010
Messages
671

Also, I think this was the one series that had more of those "Tehehe look at us run and jump in slow motion we're so happy!" that I had so much hate for about older tokusatsu.

On the beach no less! With the hat rolling away! And repeated showings of the scene where they are oh so tragically torn apart.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Maskman, and the first episode was a big part of that. It was just so rushed to me, I'm given no time or chance to form a connection to Miyo/Iyal before she's torn away.
 
Minato Ascending
Joined
Jan 4, 2011
Messages
3,599
On the beach no less! With the hat rolling away! And repeated showings of the scene where they are oh so tragically torn apart.

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Maskman, and the first episode was a big part of that. It was just so rushed to me, I'm given no time or chance to form a connection to Miyo/Iyal before she's torn away.

If you don't like Maskman, you can try Jetman or Dairanger instead, two excellent sentai series imo.
 
MagiFanboy
Joined
Dec 25, 2010
Messages
671
If you don't like Maskman, you can try Jetman or Dairanger instead, two excellent sentai series imo.

I've seen those as a matter of fact, and I thought they were very good. If you'd like, we can discuss them over Private Messages.
 
Member
Joined
Apr 13, 2011
Messages
3,134
Maskman's Mecha and the use of slow motion running certainly kept reminding me of shows like Voltes V and Daimos.
 
Nice post!!
Joined
Nov 20, 2008
Messages
10,066
From Denjiman onward, Super Sentai draws heavily on the Romantic Trilogy for inspiration, designs, style... and there's no harm in that. Realizing Nagahama's ideas in 3D clearly took a lot of effort and creativity in itself.

The shows kind of drift away from the Romantic style as they enter the 90s, when mecha shows themselves were finally modernizing. That said, while tokusatsu anime adaptations are all the rage, how about Toei just spending a year with Sentai doing an update of Voltes V? That would probably result in a better show than whatever Gobusters ends up being, anyway.
 
Top