showdown: Goggle V vs Dynaman

[live jetabare]

Those two 80s series have a lot of similarities: color pattern, episodic nature, animal based monsters of the week, light hearted tone.
(and the black ranger is even played by the same actor in both series)
Which is your favorite and why?

 

[Fantasy Leader]

I'm gonna go with Goggle-V.

Goggle-V had a very imaginative concept to it, which helps it stand out on it's amongst the Sentai franchise. Each member of the Goggle-V is represented by a different ancient civilization, and they each use hi-tech weapons, which look like gymnastic tools, which creates very unique and diverse fighting styles not found in any other Sentai season. Also, each of the Goggle-V can do a team fighting style by having all five of them use the same weapons at the same time (ex: all five use a ribbon at once). This creates a form of teamwork that isn't present at all in any of Goggle-V's successors, as they all use more versatile weapons.

Goggle-V's suits also tend to stand out. Especially their helmets. They have that archaic look to them. And it's quite cool how they each have a different gem embedded into their forehead.

Goggle-V had a ton of action, interesting plots (as it took many risks), and imo, it was the first season to have a more thought out cast of characters (thanks to Hirohisa Soda), as well as having good and unique music (as the last disco sounding style sentai).

I do however have mixed feelings about Goggle-V, due to the lack of character interaction, as well as the plots getting quite repetitive at times.

Dynaman, I had trouble enjoying at all for the most part. It's fight scenes were extremely slow at best and quite boring. The themes and concepts are unimaginative and rather quite confusing, which imo is kinda annoying to watch. All the villains had bad actors imo (with the exception of General Kar). I didn't care much for the characters either, save for DynaBlack and DynaPink. The Dark Knight Arc is pretty cool, but that comes in way way too late (like last 15 eps). And even then, it's pretty much just standard stuff compared to it's many successors.

So yeah, I think Goggle-V wins for me.

 

[Shougo B'Stard]

I definitely prefer Dynaman. Although it can be too episodic, I think it's a lot tighter overall with its themes, has a group of likable heroes, and more interesting villains that have a greater interaction. (I will say that I think a weak link amongst the villains is Kenjuu Hayashi as Megiddo; I like the character, I certainly like when he becomes Dark Knight, but the guy is a weak actor, and the only weak actor among the Jashinka, IMO. He nails the spoiled, dandy prince part of the role, but never the pissed off warrior.) I also like when heroes have personal beefs with the villains, or vice-versa, and Dynaman offers that right off the bat, with Dyna Red's shaming of Megiddo in the first episode by cutting off some of his tails. (It also sets the stage for the Dark Knight arc down the road.)

And while Jun'ichi Haruta plays both Goggle Black and Dyna Black, Dynaman's where he really cuts loose. The saving grace for a lot of the early, clunkier episodes will be some zany stunt Haruta throws himself into. (Check out the episode where he's trying to dismantle a bomb on the back of Dan's bike, which isn't allowed to stop Speed-style; or when he's dangling from helicopters or cable cars fighting off Shippo Soldiers.) Dynaman's action "slow" and "boring"?!? Wow! What Dynaman were you watching? :loltongue: I couldn't disagree more. Dynaman is the first Sentai where they ditched the cloth suits, which really freed up not only the suit actors, but action director Junji Yamaoka, and allowed more creativity in the action department -- fight scenes were always fast-paced, with quick, crazy cuts. And people like to just joke about the explosions in Dynaman, but...prior to Dynaman, explosions were mostly those gray smoke bombs. I don't think it's a coincidence that Dynaman was able to go crazy with explosions just as the suit actors were given lighter material to wear. And the fiery explosions -- now a Sentai staple -- help sell the fights as being grander.

 

[Oedipus 3000]

Goggle V is easily one of the worst T.V. shows ever created by human hands. I think it's against the law to own a copy of the shows DVD's in Guatemala.

Dynaman though is pretty dang fun though. I still think all Sentai Sucked before Bioman but Dynaman sucked the least of them all.

 

[Forever Knight]

Dynaman. The Dark knight totally kicked it into high gear, much better than Inazuma Ginga did.

 

[Fantasy Leader]

I definitely prefer Dynaman. Although it can be too episodic, I think it's a lot tighter overall with its themes, has a group of likable heroes, and more interesting villains that have a greater interaction. (I will say that I think a weak link amongst the villains is Kenjuu Hayashi as Megiddo; I like the character, I certainly like when he becomes Dark Knight, but the guy is a weak actor, and the only weak actor among the Jashinka, IMO. He nails the spoiled, dandy prince part of the role, but never the pissed off warrior.) I also like when heroes have personal beefs with the villains, or vice-versa, and Dynaman offers that right off the bat, with Dyna Red's shaming of Megiddo in the first episode by cutting off some of his tails. (It also sets the stage for the Dark Knight arc down the road.)

And while Jun'ichi Haruta plays both Goggle Black and Dyna Black, Dynaman's where he really cuts loose. The saving grace for a lot of the early, clunkier episodes will be some zany stunt Haruta throws himself into. (Check out the episode where he's trying to dismantle a bomb on the back of Dan's bike, which isn't allowed to stop Speed-style; or when he's dangling from helicopters or cable cars fighting off Shippo Soldiers.) Dynaman's action "slow" and "boring"?!? Wow! What Dynaman were you watching? :loltongue: I couldn't disagree more. Dynaman is the first Sentai where they ditched the cloth suits, which really freed up not only the suit actors, but action director Junji Yamaoka, and allowed more creativity in the action department -- fight scenes were always fast-paced, with quick, crazy cuts. And people like to just joke about the explosions in Dynaman, but...prior to Dynaman, explosions were mostly those gray smoke bombs. I don't think it's a coincidence that Dynaman was able to go crazy with explosions just as the suit actors were given lighter material to wear. And the fiery explosions -- now a Sentai staple -- help sell the fights as being grander.

The last time I watched Dynaman was about three years ago. My mind set was definitely different back then than how it would be now. So apparently the "Dynaman I watched" is very different from the one you watched.

I'll watch Dynaman again. See how I perceive it this time.

I agree with everything you said. As for the battles, maybe they weren't "slow," but I found myself getting desperate to see the fight over with. So maybe that's why it felt slow to me. The plots weren't too too memorable from what I can remember. I think I was also bothered by how Dynaman would take jump cuts in fight scenes every once in a while. As well as the overuse of camera tricks imo. The new explosions are definitely cool. But I felt like the fights seemed less fluid compared to Goggle-V before it, and Bioman after it. The grey smoke bombs didn't really bother me. I know the fiery explosions are better, but I felt like Dynaman was just trying out new tests at times. Plus, I found the BGMs kinda hard to enjoy in Dynaman. I guess that just kinda took the enjoyment out of it for me. Plus, there's also the unimaginative concepts like the DynaRobo (I think I might've seen too many cool seasons like Maskman ).

Like I said, I'm going to check this season out again. So I might have a higher opinion on it.

 

[Aoi Kurenai]

Repeat viewings tend to be good as your own personal mindset changes and encounter the views of others. I know there have been a ton of series that I've changed my stance on dramatically over the years thanks to a handful of HJU members and just my own changing mindset. For instance, I once thought of Zyuranger as one of the worst Sentai series and now I...basically think of it was one of the worst Sentai series. But! I am able to enjoy it on a different level than what I originally wanted out of it, as a very basic template of tokusatsu. I recall that someone came up with purely fan term, but one I thought fit nicely, called the "Fushigi Sentai trilogy" and applied it to Zyuranger, Dairanger, and Kakuranger, and I think that applies decently and helps me think of the series differently.

 

[KingRanger]

Both.

 

[Fantasy Leader]

Alright, I finished rewatching Dynaman. Okay, it was much better than I had remembered it to be. So I think I'll rank it slightly higher than Goggle-V.

The fight scenes were definitely much better than I had remembered. ANd the music was a bit better too (though still felt kinda meh compared to Goggle-V's, Bioman's, or Changeman's). I actually loved the main characters a lot this time. For example, I thought DynaYellow was very funny. Though Blue seemed to have had the least amount of spotlight (for both shows). The villains were a bit more enjoyable this time too. But I've still seen much better. The Dark Knight arc was neat, but still felt a bit standard. Dynaman's motifs and concepts still felt rather bland and unimaginative to me though. And that made the show a bit less fun to me. Every episode was pretty good and fun to watch (at least most of them). But yeah, it tended to get rather too episodic and repetitive at times. Nothing major really happens until like ep 34.

Overall, I still have mixed feelings for Dynaman, but it's definitely a whole lot better than I remembered a few years back.