http://www.night-jaeger.net/fiction/roboman/roboman-21.htm
IKKU! In the doghouse!
TRICK/KIKO! A pairing in the making!
KAGEKI! Why is he still here?
That last comment was perhaps unfair. I’m taking out my excess dislike of Go-onger’s happy-go-lucky Hant on Kageki, simply because they share a common archetype. Apologies for when you read this, Mister Watts.
Trick really comes through in this issue. Unexpectedly, and without me actually realising, I see now that he has almost completely filled the mentor role left absent by the kidnapping of Doctor Nagura. I’m going to have to go back and revisit some of the earlier issues to see if I can pinpoint when this change began to happen, as it’s an interesting direction for Trick’s character to move in.
Ikku gets a fair share of development in this issue, coming across as by the far the most likeable of the cast at present. A lot of the rough edges of earlier issues have been worn down in these later stories and there’s an innate sense of who these characters are in the way Mister Watts writes. This really communicates their hopes and struggles a lot more clearly than when first we met them. It’s like all good friendships, in that respect. And that’s another good reason to be reading this series.
These characters are real people beneath their costumes and despite the weight of their archetypes and I really can’t praise that quality enough.
Looking forwards to future issues, Mister Watts. Keep up the good work.
12 May, 2008 at 9:28 pm |
Do we -like- the Trick/Kiko possibility?
You, sir, need to be smacked for criticising my Hant – I mean, er, Kageki.
I really can’t comment fairly on comparisons between Kageki and Go-OnGreen, as my exposure to Go-onger, with the exception of the early mech summoning/fusion scene in episode ten, has been limited to screen caps posted on LiveJournal. If anything, he’s meant to emerge as a somewhat more cheerful and enthusiastic version of Sen from Dekaranger but as you say, we -are- dealing with archetypes, so I won’t be surprised if there are similarities.
As for his usefulness, he is a) my favourite character, despite having no “screen time”, and his existence makes me happy; and b) if he was not around, how would Trick get to duck out the back and deal with Kiko being a bee-yotch?
I’m glad you’re still enjoying it, and -especially- glad that you feel the ‘rough edges’ re: characterisation are being ironed out. Considering the deliberate attempt to link the characters to sentai archetypes, I’m sure you can imagine how difficult it is not to start confusing them with prominent sentai counterparts. I’m happy that these characters seem to be establishing their own identities.