199 Heroes, but a bitch ain’t one. This was actually automated_alice‘s joke, but still.
The opening is fairly engaging, telling the story prior to the Goukaiger series. In fact, it’s only as the Goukaiger appear that things begin to slow down. I never thought I’d say this, but the appearance of the Goseiger cast soon changes this.
Again, the Goukaiger team seem guest stars in their own story. This seems to be a running theme for the series, although I’m fairly sure this wasn’t always the way. Perhaps I’ve simply become more cynical as the story has unfolded.
For a while there, at the beginning of the year, I was pretty engaging by both the characters and the settings… and then the worst thing possible for the show happened: they had a Hurricanger two-parter. If anything was needed to highlight how uninteresting the events of their own series have been, then it was episodes #25 – 26.
Obviously it’s well documented that Hurricanger has long since been one of my favourite shows. These episodes simply reminded me why.
After #26, I just felt that, more than anything, what I wanted was a Hurricanger sequel.
But all of this is besides the point as we’re talking about 199 Heroes.
So, what did I like about the film? Surprisingly, the Goseiger characters. I never watched this series, or had much interest in it, but they seemed a lot more well-rounded than the cast of this year’s sentai. Like Boukenger and Shinkenger, it also felt like the events of Goseiger continued beyond what we saw in the series – like we only saw but a glimpse of the wider world in which these events took place.
Speaking of Boukenger, it was also nice to see a cameo from Takahashi Mitsuomi, again reprising his role as Akashi Satoru/BoukenRed. Likewise I was pleased to see the original actors reprise the roles of the Big One and AkaRanger.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a vs. Super Sentai film were it not for the random selection of ‘favourites’ reprising their roles. I’m not going to complain about Aizawa Rina being in the film but I do have to wonder if she was really that popular to warrant an appearance here and also in the standalone Goukaiger movie. Regardless, she is an improvement on GingaBlue.
When placed side-by-side with Toei’s other big crossover of the year (OOO, Den-O, All Riders: Let’s Go Kamen Riders), 199 Heroes is an infinitely better offering and a story that does its source material infinitely more credit. It’s still not as good as All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker – in fact it could even be said to rely too heavily on the tropes of the previous Rider crossover, but it is a lot of fun and worth checking out for that reason alone.
