The ever loyal wikipedia tells me that Inoue didn’t work on the DCD/ShinKen crossover but rather it was scripted by Kobayashi Yasuko, who wrote the fantastic Shinkenger #6 (yay!) but also wrote DCD‘s Den-o arc (boo!) ~ so, the question is, do I watch this and follow the instinct that originally led me to this show (i.e. yay crossovers! yay meaninglessness!) or do I try and retain some dignity and wait for the return of the show’s lead writer?
Answers on a postcard to Gao @ Turtle Rock.
I have to admit to being at a tokusatsu impasse. I’ve almost considered broadening the horizons of this blog to encompass non-Japanese live action hero shows as I’ve felt so nonplused by the current direction of tokusatsu. Of course, I blame Inoue for this and will not return to DCD until he’s gone home. The trouble with this is that it leaves this blog bereft of regular content.
At the behest of seiji982, I’ve been checking out a couple of episodes of Shinkenger and whilst I can’t find fault with it, save for the hideous designs for the villains (I understand now why Toei kept the villain designs under wrap for so long when pre-series hype was doing the rounds), the series itself just doesn’t move me in any sort of way. Me and sentai just aren’t working out right now…I can’t even be moved to write fic – not even fic with girls (*gasp*).
So what have I been watching that’s heroic, dynamic and full of live action special effects, you might ask? Well, dear reader, not only will I tell you but I will show you:
"Kōmori Otoko!"
I grew up watching a lot of 1940s serials like King of the Rocketmen, Flash Gordon and, of course, Batman, which I presently seven episodes into re-watching. Whilst the series may not count as tokusatsu and is, in fact, hideously racist beyond belief (not just in a ‘Germany and Japan are the bad guys’ but in a vindictive and spiteful fashion…and there’s a couple of pointless shots at India in there as well, despite the fact that India, as a Dominion of the Empire was an *ally* of America) but the writing, when not lowered by propaganda, still beats Inoue’s Faizu re-writes hands down.
So until DCD either gets better or crawls off somewhere to die in a flurry of hideous merchandising, this is where I’m going to say.
I want to tell you that the next post will be soon…but I really don’t know if it will.
[Close this page to avoid SPOILERS now]
I said I wasn’t going to watch the first episode of Shinkenger and, well, I kind of did anyway. Culpable targets of blame in this endeavour are automated_alice and seiji982.
So, this time last year, and in reference to Go-onger, I wrote:
“So all in all, a good episode. It’s very much a kid’s TV show and I don’t feel as I’m looking for the same things as I was when Hurricanger came out and that’s probably helped. I’m certainly not going to pretend that the episode is a real life-defining event but, much like the new American Transformers cartoon, it’s good Sunday morning television, and on that level, I recommend it highly.”
I’m inclined to say much the same thing about the first episode of this new series. There’s a tiny bit more depth of character it seems but, for the most part, the sentiment remains the same.
When the first information about the villains and cast of the series came out, I immediately expected the show to be another Magiranger or sorts but, in truth, it’s surprisingly more like Boukenger and as such the division lines are drawn quite early on.
Tani Chiaki/ShinkenGreen and Shiraishi Mako/ShinkenPink are the voices of dissent; ShibaTakeru/ShinkenRed might be the next BoukenRed, but then again he might just be an arse; HanaoriKotoha/ShinkenYellow hasn’t done anything yet and Ikenami Ryunosuke/Shinken Blue is the most likeable character thus far. It’s hard not to like this line up on some level, but I’m also surprised by how superficial the show seems in arranging the necessary elements. I know a lot of this is obviously to do with the significance of selling the toys – and trust me, I am ready to buy the Origami mech now – but when compared to contemporary anime, it just feels hollow.
Another aspect of this is of course the fact that Shinkenger (and sentai as a franchise) straddles age group demographics so maybe that’s why the characters say very little during the set up of this story, or maybe it’s simply the case that the significant sentai beats need to be hit: invasion, meeting, first transformation, villain defeat, non-gattai mech use. Regardless, when the opening here is compared to something like Bleach, Shinkenger pales by comparison, if you’ll excuse the pun.
Which isn’t to say it’s terrible. The opening hits those aforementioned beats with relative ease, only really stumbling with the use of the Origami mech against the first monster. This whole scene, whilst evoking the spirit of Gingaman does not come across as exciting as it should have been for a first episode. That was to be expected, I guess.
All of this sounds perhaps a little more negative than it should. I liked the episode, I was impressed that the opening sequence was passed over in favour of showing ShinkenRed in action but I also felt that it failed to really highlight the action it was showcasing – the mech fight and the first battle featuring ShinkenRed and the standard ‘putty’ henchmen didn’t go anywhere and Psychic Lover’s godawful retread of the Dekaranger theme tune didn’t help either.
I also can’t help but feel that the character of Kusakabe Hikoma should have been played by either Ban Daisuke, Ooba Kenji or Miyauchi Hiroshi and I would also have been happier if Takatori Hideaki had performed the opening rather the ending.
Aside from that, there isn’t much else to say.
More than anything, it will be the development of the characters that will really prove if Shinkenger is a hit or a miss.
I only just noticed that the masques for Shinkenger each have one elemental kanji on them corresponding to the colour mostly associated with that element (er, except for Heaven/Purple – is that really a purple suit?).
I’m really slow it seems!
