Operation Overdrive #23 & Boukenger #33 Reviews (SPOILERS)

I don’t really know what to say in these reviews anymore.

Erm…good start maybe? Two out of three ain’t bad?

Boukenger #33 is an inoffensive episode, surprising considering its use of the two Questers, Gai and Rei. The story begins to finally fulfil promises made as to the resolution of Natsuki’s past…an important plotline in the beginning of the series and one that has become increasingly less significant to this viewer as I have warmed to the central five team members. It does feel a bit like suddenly dragging out an old plotline to prop up another Quester episode but I can’t fault the creative team for wanting to provide resolution on this – in fact if they hadn’t then it would have been a serious black mark against the series.

Whilst much of this episode isn’t as perfect as it could be, being mostly plot device and scenes where Natsuki – due to the suddenly acquired hypnotic powers of the Questers – begins to act out of character, what I did find impressive is that even after establishing Natsuki and Masumi as a part of the team and integrating them with the three others, the writers were still able to step back and explore the relationship of Black and Yellow as seen in episode #1. It says a lot for a sentai episode to able to juggle multiple interpretations of its characters and Boukenger #33 really does deserve to be lauded for doing this so well.

OO #23 takes a different approach. The team here seems to be increasingly fond of laying out all its cards on the table on the start of each episode thus, if you want to think of it in a positive light, the deus-ex-mech of GoGoVoyager’s appearance at the end of Bouken #33 is bypassed in favour of Mister Hartford (who really wants to be Rufus from Gossip Girl) telling the team that if they’re good, he might knock a couple more Zoids out by Christmas – or words to that effect. The story then rushes on in mimicry of its tokusatsu counterpart…only Ronny doesn’t need the Questers to make her act out of character, she can do it all by herself.

If the sudden revelation of mysterious orphan Natsuki as a princess is a shock, then then the revelation of former race car champion Ronny being one is like being poked in the eye by a five coloured stick. Redundant and pointless, to say the least. And whilst we’re talking of things redundant and pointless, the writers finally seem to have found something for Flurious to do…yet still he doesn’t seem to be a very daunting villain, nor does his role seem to be significant in the episode – especially when they must have refilmed so much of this narrative to replace Ryuon with Flurious when they simply could have used the original footage. In fact, Gaja doesn’t even appear in this episode so I don’t know why these changes were made.

But I have long since reconciled myself to the fact that I simply do not understand the minds of Toei/Disney staff members. Perhaps part two of this storyline will prove more interesting.

Sexual Tension without the Aid of Hats

Considering I’ve already made my life difficult by posting about Keitai Sousakan 7 in my other journal – a fact that is going to make me sigh when it comes to updating FAB tomorrow, I thought I’d go all out and make one of those famous cross-posts that I can throw at two journals at once and then feel bad for the handful of people who will see this post twice.

I can also waffle…like an idiot.

I seem to have a habit of attempting to ship any two female characters appearing in any series thus I have been rooting for a Mimasaka Chigusa x Asano Toko relationship regardless of Chigusa’s previous feelings for Takimoto (fandom fix number #1: Character X turns to Character Y for support) since pretty much the first episode.

With the introduction of the Under ANCHOR Tech staff, I inadvertently started shipping Sakaki Mutsuki x Kisaragi Sayaka x Kageyama Yayoi…because they all happened to be on the screen together.

Yet until recently (episode #16), I’ve tried to avoid pairing up Hasekura Mayuko with anyone because, well…she’s *my* Nao-chan. I always figured that if I was going to ship her with anyone it would be due to a crossover invasion by Furabijou (possibly with Oda Natsumi from Ultraman Max in tow) but the possibility of Chigusa/Mayuko in #16 kind of changes that.

So…now I’m in the precarious position of considering fic…yet Keitai is such a difficult to show for me to get a feel for in terms of what to do with plot notions. Sentai/toku fic is always tough when it comes to translating the Japanese structure of the show into stories in English, from an English language POV, about same sex canon breaking romance. In this case, I admit to being stumped thus for those of you that do watch Keitai, what I want…is your suggestions!

Give me something to kick start my head with this – a prompt, a suggestion, a possibility to make these pairings work…even if said suggestion basically boils down to Nono Nanami/Furabijou/Oda Natsumi/Hasekura Mayuko SEX romance. I can’t promise I’ll get anything done soon (said the culprit responsible for holding up the end of Summer of Rawk) but I *can* promise that I’ll write it…and that it will be ace (or at least mediocre-good).

So…that’s what I need from you, dear reader…

Now I just have to find someone who watches this show. (^_^);

Suupa Shin Tai TetsuMan #2

Title: “Fight for THE PEACE! TetsuRed Soldiers On!”
Series: Suupa Shin Tai TetsuMan
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Length: 4235 words
Disclaimer: All characters created and owned by me!

Read it here.

TetsuOmake!! (26/10/08)

Title: “Soldiers of a Different Nation! Kondo Tetsuo and Miss. Ethel!”
Series: Suupa Shin Tai TetsuMan omake
Rating: U
Warnings: N/A
Length: 545 words
Disclaimer: All characters created and owned by me!

Not to be confused with actual events in the series, these two excerpts where scenes that failed to make it in TetsuMan #2.

Operation Overdrive #22 & Boukenger #31 Reviews (SPOILERS)

I feel awful that every time I update this blog with Overdrive/Boukenger thoughts, I’m basically telling you how much fun I’m not having right now. This isn’t to say I’m not enjoying episodes of Bouken, because the series really has had some amazing stand out episodes (such as #29) but as the theme of these reviews is dictated by what episodes the Power Rangers team have adapted none of those gems are getting spoken about.

Overdrive, with only four or five episodes before the season finale, seems intent on adapting LOLFearcats/Questers episodes…and I just don’t like these episodes.

The format for watching both series has, with the exception of the crossover (now safely shuffled back into the deck) thus far been OO followed by however many Bouken episodes until the comparative material is reached. This can get frustrating when you run into pairs like these two episodes were OO will run through a fairly bland storyline and then Bouken will repeat it with slightly more characterisation.

Bouken #31 does contain one of the stand-out fight sequences of recent times however, something that builds slightly more on BoukenSilver’s character but sadly not enough to justify his introduction in the series. Unsurprisingly, this sequence wasn’t adapted for OO #22, although it did feature the LOLcats using guns which is a rare occurrence in the American/Australian production.

Where Bouken once more has the drop on OO is in how much it invests in its characters. This same storyline – Silver and Pink separated from the team and forced to face off against enemies even though they’re not on amicable terms – is played mostly for laughs in OO #22 and also inferred as being the beginning of a romantic relationship between Tyzonn and Rose (do not want!). Bouken #31 however, seems to be more a story of two people finding common ground through fighting together against a vindictive enemy.

I didn’t personally like either episodes but I’m willing to stand back and acknowledge that Bouken needs to be recognised for the way it handled the story and the development it affords its characters. That doesn’t mean this is a good episode to recommend, but it is an example of what makes Bouken so significant in the order of recent sentai series.

Operation Overdrive #19 & Boukenger #28 Reviews (SPOILERS)

I’m learning to accept that I don’t really like episodes featuring the Fearcats/Questers. Too many villains spoil the, ah, broth and all that. Perhaps it’s simply that, in Boukenger, Quester episodes seem to have replaced Dark Shadow episodes. Operation Overdrive attempts to address this now and again by throwing in an entirely new Will/Kamdor/Miratrix/crazy motorbike fight sequence just to remind us who exactly is who but I can’t help but feel as if this muddies the water too much.

Both shows have been suffering from a lack of balance as of late; Boukenger, which has become very Quester-centric, and Overdrive which is now trying to both cram in as many villain factions per episode and also accommodate in-universe for why Flurious does so little.

The cavalcade of villain segments now present in Overdrive doesn’t help the pacing much either, resulting in episodes that are becoming even more muddled than the early post-pilot material. I would have thought 19 episodes and 15 years experience would have been enough for them to get the format of this show right.

So what can I say that’s nice about these two episodes? Well, Quester Robo looks very much like a Shadow Stormtrooper – that’s nice – and Quester Robo Elite may or may not be a homage to Battle Fever Robo – that’s nice too. Again, it’s good to see a thoughtful episode about a single character, in this case Masumi, and it’s nice that Overdrive is getting braver with editing together shots of Japanese special effects and its own international cast…but that doesn’t really add up to much and, in the end, we’re left with two episodes that aren’t awful but aren’t anything to recommend to your non-tokusatsu friends either.

Next up: I’m going to watch some of the Overdrive episodes out of sequence so as to avoid dealing with the crossover episodes until I’m ready to re-watch the awful Boukenger vs. Super Sentai.

Operation Overdrive #18 & Boukenger #27 Reviews (SPOILERS)

The Operation Overdrive creative staff seem intent on adapting only the worst possible episodes of Boukenger.

I feel that, before we get into this, I really should point out just how much I liked Bouken #24 -26, in fact #25 and #26 are, in my opinion two of the best episodes since the arrival of BoukenSilver. It is thus with great disappointment that I must sit here and write about the mediocre episode #27 and the corresponding OO episode #18.

Between these two episodes, there must be less than 30 seconds of actually quality footage – 15 seconds for Rose in a cute t-shirt with a painted on tie and 15 for Natsuki in a lucky straw hat. The rest is just a complete mess…no, it’s not even that, the rest is exemplary of everything that is wrong with episodes of Go-onger.

It’s that whole ‘playful silliness’ that fails on many levels to be funny that lets down this episode in both interpretations of its weak storyline. I honestly can’t for the life of me think why Disney chose this story above others to adapt when it offers nothing of merit to the development of OO’s storyline or the characters.

I also don’t understand why the footage of BoukenRed dressed in his lucky items was re-shot for OO with the Red Overdrive Ranger in similar items. Surely the staff didn’t think that re-shooting the suit material to feature a character in a ‘lucky shirt’ as opposed to a ‘happy happi’ was a worthwhile use of time and money? What happened to the old days when Power Rangers simply failed to explain the presence of obviously Japanese writing or simply passed off the item in question as an utterly unrelated object?

All in all, these were two episodes that I feel I should have skipped…in both series.

Blue

I can’t believe it took me until episode #8 of Turboranger to realise that Hama Youhei (BlueTurbo) is in fact Mogami Souta (BoukenBlue)…but you’re going to have to trust me on this as I’m too lazy to screencap.

Also: Shishido Masaru (Hoshino Gorou/OhRed) playing BoukenSilver’s father? If so, I need to know how the child of MegaPink and OhRed could grow up to be such a waste of space?