Revisiting Gokaiger; understanding the Ultimate Powers

[SamuraiEchidna]

Well, this will probably be the last Gokaiger topic anyone ever makes...

I recently finished re-watching it for a number of reasons. I wanted to have the show fresh in my mind for whenever Super MegaForce finishes airing, I just missed out on this show when I switched to softsubs and wanted to see Over-Time's take on the show (Goodbye forever, TV-Nihon!), the show is definitely worth seeing/saving in HD from start to finish, but most of all...!!
I wanted to catalog all the Super Sentai Ultimate Powers. I knew there were some that weren't accounted for, and I was right! But I found out so much more...

First of all, Navi was wrong. There is no such thing as useless Ultimate Powers.
If I am understanding this correctly, ALL the Super Sentai Ultimate Powers have more than one ability.

• By default, all of them can summon the main giant robot or giant machine for that team, usually in some kind of spirit form. The Variblune for the GoRangers, The Battle Fever Robo for Battle Fever J, DaiZyuJin for ZyuRanger, Time Robo for TimeRanger, etc. We see it in the 199 Hero movie, but we also get confirmation of it from episodes like the Boukenger episode.
• Most have something unique that coincide with the Gokaiger's giant robots, like an attack or an armament. The DekaRanger Power gave them the Pat Striker and Deka Gokai-Oh, the Boukenger Power gave them DaiBouken's GoGo Sword, the Maskman Power gave them the Gokai Aura Galaxy attack, etc.
• If they don't have a practical use for combat, then the Ultimate Powers might have an abstract ability. The CarRanger Power spreads the gift of happiness or something silly like that. This is why Navi called them "useless".
• HOWEVER! On a few rare occasions, the Ultimate Powers have both an abstract and a combat ability. The Jetman Power grants them strength that surpasses death, but it also gave them the Gokai Jet Phoenix attack. The Gokaiger Power gave them ability to realize their dreams, but also created the Ultimate (Kanzen?) Gokai-Oh.
• And, on an ever more rare note then that, some of the Ultimate Powers might have more than one combat ability. The AbaRanger Power summons GoZyuJin but also creates GoZyu Gokai-Oh.

The only ones that never got a specific ability outside of summoning the giant mechas are...
JAKQ, BATTLE FEVER J, DENZIMAN, SUN VULCAN, GOGGLE V, BIOMAN, FLASHMAN, TURBORANGER, & FIVEMAN!
...I almost want to add LIVEMAN to that list considering the Ultimate Power for that team was the biggest cop out of the entire show...
These are probably the only ones that got an abstract ability instead of a combat ability. Anyone care to speculate what the Ultimate Power of these teams probably were or should have been? Have I put too much thought into all this?

...I wanna say Battle Fever J's Ultimate Power was probably something like dancing. :disappoin

Well, if anyone else has recently re-watched the show, I hope you had as much fun with it as I did.

 

[Green Mario]

I thought Battle Fever J's Power was Christmas.

 

[Gokai Green]

Going slightly off topic but while reading up on the Gokai changes on the Power Rangers wikia I didn't noticed the first time while watching the show but each Gokai change had a significant meaning in most of the episodes.

For example in episode 32 all of the Gokai Changes in this episode are teams that do not have a Sixth Ranger. This is meant to reflect how the Gokaiger's own Sixth Ranger is temporarily out of commission due to Basco injuring him in the previous episode or in episode 7 all of the Gokai Changes in this episode involve felines.

It kind of irks my nerves when folks like to throw out the gokai changes was simply fan service when in reality it wasn't and Naruhisa Arakawa who was the head writer knew his history of the franchise from front to back.

 

[kuroihikari]

Going slightly off topic but while reading up on the Gokai changes on the Power Rangers wikia I didn't noticed the first time while watching the show but each Gokai change had a significant meaning in most of the episodes.

For example in episode 32 all of the Gokai Changes in this episode are teams that do not have a Sixth Ranger. This is meant to reflect how the Gokaiger's own Sixth Ranger is temporarily out of commission due to Basco injuring him in the previous episode or in episode 7 all of the Gokai Changes in this episode involve felines.

It kind of irks my nerves when folks like to throw out the gokai changes was simply fan service when in reality it wasn't and Naruhisa Arakawa who was the head writer knew his history of the franchise from front to back.

That (and all theme changes) is the definition of fan service, though. It makes little sense in the story (because none of the original Gokaigers really knew or cared about which teams don't have a Sixth Ranger, but the producers/writers add it in anyway as a wink to us fans. It's not different at all from the "SPD Emergency" sirens blaring during Yuuko's fight scenes in the Nossan-Candellila episode of Kyoryuger.

And honestly, I don't care. Gokaiger was a fanservice show that I thought did well with or without the fanservice.

 

[dexters]

The only ones that never got a specific ability outside of summoning the giant mechas are...
JAKQ, BATTLE FEVER J, DENZIMAN, SUN VULCAN, GOGGLE V, BIOMAN, FLASHMAN, TURBORANGER, & FIVEMAN!

Their ultimate power is not being able to sell toys most likely.

The Sentai teams on your list are the old teams from the Showa era, when ratings were in the double digits and they didn't rely so much on BANDAI for sponsorship to keep the series running

Despite several good tribute episodes for some of the Showa teams, and the fact that original Gokaiger plan being really to tribute the post 2000 Heisei era teams only, I felt like Gokaiger was really skewed in this regard even when plans changed and they should have had more balance to show all the teams doing something, and its like the writers didn't have the ability to make a checklist of things to take care of.

As an aside, They couldn't even be bothered to put a few seconds on film of the Bioman team in the legend war fighting together. So when it came to the 199 super sentai taisen teaser in the gokaiger credits, all we got was a shaky cam shot of Red 1.