Christmas Spirit, and the Lack Thereof: Tensou Sentai Goseiger #45

I don’t seem to have much luck with Kitamura Ryuhei films. We’ve recently watched both the adaptation of Clive Barker’s Midnight Meat Train, and 2003′s Skyhigh, starring Shaku Yumiko. I wanted to like both films. The latter I fell asleep in, the former… well, I like the original short story but I didn’t care much for the film. Apparently Clive Barker likes it which is great as he’s had some really bad luck with film adaptations of his work, but I can’t help but think that Kitamura’s direction style did the narrative no justice whatsoever.

Skyhigh differed in that it wasn’t necessarily a poor match of story and style but rather that Kitamura’s style was all there was to the film. I have no idea how they managed to spin both a sequel and a TV series out of such a mediocre story.

Speaking of mediocre stories, I also have an ax to grind with the Super Sentai franchise’s Christmas episode and Goseiger in general. Where was my Christmas Orugu? Where was my guest appearance by Akiyama Rina? Nowhere. In fact, Goseiger, beyond the suggestion of messianic terminology and a shot of a Christmas tree, couldn’t seem to bring itself to be festive at all. Instead we were treated to the kind of clip show/recap usually reserved for New Year.

Bah.

Moving on.

Welcome…to Tachibana Racing Club

"Tackle lays down on the job"

Super Hero Retsuden keeps getting better and better. Whilst I still think that it’s too much to expect cameos from Skull Man or Suipadaman (especially the latter!) the fact that Tackle makes an appearance and is a playable character  is several hundred kinds of awesomeness.

"What? Lifetime membership to Tachibana Racing Club you say?"

Meanwhile, speaking of Skull Man, I updated 日々冒険 not five minutes ago with brief comments about the first episode of the 2007 Skull Man anime and the 2006 adaptation of Ishinomori’s 009-1 featuring idol, actress and Godzilla movie franchise veteran Shaku Yumiko.

In other news, this morning I have spent most of time re-watching Kuuga, the original Kamen Rider and Faizu…I’ve warmed a lot to Kuuga simply because of Yuusuke the 2nd in DCD; the original Rider series is still a classic, like a cross between The Man from UNCLE and Godzilla – pure genius, especially with Hong Kong subs; Faizu is still just a boring as ever. It’s like everything Andrew Cartmel tried to do with the last series of Seventh Doctor era Doctor Who…but wrong. My wife gave it a more favourable review due to its pacing being so much like that of a standard drama. I, however, disliked it immensely due to its pacing being so much like that of a standard drama.

And now I’m off to watch DCD!