Ressha Sentai ToQger, Final Station: The Shining Ones

I got lost on where I was on this show sometime after Cho Cho ToQ Dai-Oh debuted, so I decided to blow through the entire series in one go, start to finish. 3 days later, and I have to say I really enjoyed it! I thought it was a lot of fun. I found the villains' storyline to be extremely engaging, but I also thought that the ToQGers were likable, as well. I appreciated that the plot and character development felt over-arching and consistent across the whole show. I feel like this is something Sentai tends to struggle with, as they spend lots of filler episodes in the same status quo and the stakes rarely rise.

Another thing I really appreciated about ToQGer (which I only really noticed on my binge) was how they avoided the "many collectibles" gimmick that recent Kamen Rider shows and Kyoryuger seem to be obsessed with. Things like Fourze's Astro-Switches, Wizard's Magic Rings, Drive's Shift Cars, and Kyoryuger's batteries. Toei seems to really like this gimmick, but it tends to be poorly executed since the hero has WAY too many of these abilities and most of the powers derived from the collectibles are silly (Ovirapoo, anyone?). It was refreshing to see a show where the heroes' powers were more limited and they weren't constantly debuting new toys every two seconds (even if they never fully justified the Line Change gimmick).

But on the whole, a fun ride!

Loved ToQger as a whole, but that end... I dunno. :/
The last few episodes were super dramatic and really well-written but this just felt rushed and the final battle really not climactic... Compared to Kyoryuger last year, this was really weak. The payoff with Zed and Grita was not good.

But the part where the ToQgers reunited with their families was beautiful and I really got (good) chills from that. So overall, really mixed on the ending - half of me loves it, the other half thinks it really could have been executed better.

Loved the show though. Was full of great concepts and I loved the characters, especially Akira. Can't wait to see them again in the V-Cinema!

From the looks of the responses, the series have gotten VERY mixed reception.
Some people either like it or hate it.
I will discuss my thought on the series overall, after I discussed about final episode.

I thought final episode was decently satisfying.
It wasn't perfect or great, it did felt rushed and there rooms for improvement, but I thought it was fine for what it was.
Personally, I thought the last arc (40~47) was the weakest among the series, where the pacing has become awkward and rushed, which was bit frustrating.
I didn't mind that Z wasn't killed but got away in the end.
I liked the Akira decided to "live" rather than choosing "death", which was handled nice.
It was nice to see rangers turned back into kid at the end and reunited with their family, which I thought it was cute and touching.
Thank god, it wasn't completely red centric/focused finale, unlike last year (seriously, you could remove everyone but King and it would have been the same thing IMO).
Overall, while the episode has its flaw, it's one of the better sentai ending I've seen in recent years.

As far as the series go, I really enjoyed it for what it was.
It wasn't perfect, but it's one of the better written sentai I've seen in last 5 years.
Sentai in this decade (2010's) has been REALLY hit-and-miss IMO
I didn't care too much about Goseiger; it wasn't terrible, but pretty forgettable.
I was heavily disappointed with Gokaiger (which seems to be one of the most over-rated series in recent year);.
Go-busters was the only series that I really got hooked on, but even that show had its big ups-and-down though (especially after 30).
It wasn't perfect, but it was at least more tolerable compare to last 2.
I was utterly despised, appalled, and seriously offended with Kyoryuger... which I'm not going to discuss about it. lol

IMO, Kobayashi’s post-Den-O tokusatsu work has been REALLY hit-and-miss (and somewhat depressing); Shinkenger was pretty boring for most part, couldn’t get into Kamen Rider OOO (don’t ask), and Go-busters was most tolerable among her work (before ToQger), but it had its problem that alienated the target audience (children). Bottom line, it was mostly sloppy all around.

This series however, showed that Kobayashi is getting back on track (no pun intended), where she still does have talent and skill to make a series that is appealing and fun for children. The story was very good, the characters and villains were very likable, and most of all, I really had fun watching it (which was important); then again, maybe it's because I'm a huge train fan. lol
In fact, I personally think it was almost as good as her masterpiece Gingaman and Timeranger (...ok, maybe I might be giving *too* much praise, but I digress)

ToQger may not be the most ambitious series (it does go on to my Top 15~20), it did its job very well. I really enjoyed it. It was a fun ride.
I recommend it to anyone who enjoys trains or enjoy fun tokusatsu series in general.

So long, ToQger!
See you again in V-Cinema Return and VS movie with Ninninger!!

Dr Kain said:

If the Garo anime is anything to indicate her by, then she just needs to stop writing period.

My bad, I forgot she did TimeRanger.

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I agree, can't deny Yasuko Kobayashi is going downhill.
She reached her peak with Timeranger but that was so long ago. Shinkenger is overrated, Go-Busters was a laughable mess and ToQger is just a plain bad and tired show with little to no reedeming qualities.
Funny that few years ago everyone seemed to love her but her last few shows are making more and more people hate Kobayashi lol. Had she left after Shinkenger she would get so much more respect, wouldn't she?
A lot more people seem to criticize even Shinkenger now.

To be fair though, she did give us Ryuki, OOO, and the live action Sailor Moon. but yeah, it seems like she has become over worked.

Dr Kain said:

If the Garo anime is anything to indicate her by, then she just needs to stop writing period.

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lol we'll have to agree to disagree on that one. The Garo anime fixes an issue I've had with the writing on all of the four live action series, so I'm enjoying it at the moment.

Painted_Outlaw said:

...??
(Hopefully, this starts at 04:42)

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Sorry it started from the beginning but I get your point. I was responding to someone pointing out that during that last "off to school" scene kid-Miu has her doll in her bag. The one that came to life in an earlier episode. But they couldn't remember it's name, which is odd because all it ever said was it's name over and over in a sqeakey voice like a pokemon. So I was reminding them that he was called... Mikey!

PowerPhantom245 said:

Thank god, it wasn't completely red centric/focused finale, unlike last year (seriously, you could remove everyone but King and it would have been the same thing IMO).

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Hmm I thought it was just as red-centric as last year (and most years, the franchise really is "red ranger and friends" no matter how much people wish it was an equal ensemble). It's all about Right and Zed. The only thing the others really do in the last episode is turn up to give him a morale boost and let him use their trains. We didn't even get a song from them this year. :disappoin

This series however, showed that Kobayashi is getting back on track (no pun intended), where she still does have talent and skill to make a series that is appealing and fun for children.

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We'll have to see what the sales figures say when they came out. But I didn't see in ToQger any signs of the executive meddling that both Go-Busters and OOO had. So she managed to avoid having a third toku series in a row where the bosses forced changes on her, which I suspect Kobayashi herself will take as a win.

Fixes a writing issue? That's because the Garo anime stole its writing from Berserk.

Toku Prime said:

The Garo anime fixes an issue I've had with the writing on all of the four live action series.

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May I ask what that might be?

Black Fang said:

May I ask what that might be?

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I didn't watch the anime yet, but i've been hearing it's more plot focused than Garo usually is. So maybe it's that?

Apparently there's solid character development too.

Toku Prime said:

We'll have to see what the sales figures say when they came out. But I didn't see in ToQger any signs of the executive meddling that both Go-Busters and OOO had. So she managed to avoid having a third toku series in a row where the bosses forced changes on her, which I suspect Kobayashi herself will take as a win.

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The sales are out already...11 billion yen isn't low, but it's not on par with most recent shows (Go-onger, Shinkenger, Gokaiger, Kyoryuger). Just enough to beat Goseiger and Go-Busters.
About six months ago, Bandai's estimates pointed to 12 billion, so we know they were expecting more. Maybe the 1st half made the show lose more viewers than usually happens.

Anyway, i don't think Kobayashi should "stop writing", she just doesn't seem to have much to add to Sentai at this point anymore.
And Rider too, for that matter...but i shouldn't be surprised if we see her again after Drive.

I like how Zett looks really happy when he finally sees the shine again.


The fight......well, they didn't explain how did the Build Ressha suddenly becomes usable with the ToQ-Changer, but considering the President scene, it may have been due to the power of imagination, which also explain ToQ-1 Rainbow.
I see (or imagine, lol) the line-switching, which looks useless at first glance, as Right loading up his friends' imaginations into his ToQ-Changer, and finally adding his own imagination via the Hyper Ressha, which results in ToQ-1 Rainbow.


The ending however, is incredibly strange with no possible explanation whatsoever. They never explained or even hinted how did the family's imagination helped them recognize and accept their children as adults, and then that scene is made completely pointless when the ToQgers somehow reverts back into child again anyway.
I do much prefer if they gets turned back into children. But not in a very strange way like this.

And the final scene at the secret base - are they imagining their adult selves + Akira & the trains, or what?