Operation Overdrive #10 & Boukenger #13 Reviews (SPOILERS)

Long time readers of either this blog or ailing GL journal, girlshy, will probably guess that Boukenger #12 was a favourite of mine. It was also an episode that, save for the recycling of the monster-of-the-week suit in OO #10, wasn’t one that matched up with a Disney storyline…which, I can’t say I’m surprised at. It’s a classic sentai episode but it’s really choc-a-block full of all the elements Saban and Disney have tried to remove from Power Rangers over the years (including Sakura and Natsuki blowing away henchmen with machine guns).

Whilst #12 doesn’t get much of a look in, the episode that contributes at least some of OO #10′s footage is Boukenger #13. Again, the contrast is striking, and I don’t really feel that it’s as easy as all that to just simply compare the two of them. Both tell interesting stories, the only real difference being that Bouken has a greater sense of pacing. I wonder if it’s something to do with the shorter episode run of OO…and yet Jungle Fever Fury only seems to have suffered minor bumps in the road with its pacing.

OO deals with Dax’s ambition of becoming a movie star and Mister Hartford’s desire to trample those dreams FOREVER…or maybe not, but Hartford does act like an arse about it. I don’t really understand why Dax didn’t go ahead and finish filming the scene he had snuck away to shoot on the set of potential blockbuster Ninja Rumba, but maybe that’s just me not learning the moral of the story properly. Where’s Sailor Moon Says when you need it?

Bouken, on the other hand, deals with Souta and his attempts to charm the pants off of some mythological moon princess (again, Sailor Moon Says anyone?). As a whole, Overdrive #10 avoids using a lot of sentai footage but again suffers from the same problem as the introduction of Will’s ‘HoverTek Cycle’ by introducing a new toy weapon named the Transtek Armour, which is then used to defeat both Kamdor/Yaiba and Moltor with mixed results. The CGI is a bit clunky but the introduction of the armour and its transformation is very true to form, showing that the production of Power Rangers has become increasingly more and more like sentai. I’m guessing this is probably a point of contention for some PR fans.

Another significant divergence is that OO is now beginning to show the separate villain groups teaming up, something I’m assuming we’ll also see happen in Bouken sooner or later.

So, in short, two interesting episodes…but it’s hard to believe they’re both from the same source. If there are any prizes to be won though, its really Bouken #12 that takes the trophy, no contest.

Operation Overdrive #8 & Boukenger #9 Reviews (SPOILERS)

(12:33:47 PM) softpixels: lol – I like a joke made at Masumi and Natsuki’s actors’ expense early on; I can’t remember which episode its in, so I won’t risk spoiling, but it is hilarious; funniest joke in any sentai series ever. Reading their Wikipedia entries was worth the effort

(12:34:41 PM) spaceterrapin: I might have to check that later on. I like Natsuki because I like Nakamura Chise as an idol…I now like Souta as he has Natsuki pr0n on his laptop.

(12:35:19 PM) softpixels:

(12:35:28 PM) softpixels: You saw and got the joke.

(12:36:55 PM) spaceterrapin: My wife: “I think I love BoukenBlue.” / Me: “Because he has pornography on his laptop?” / My wife: “Yes. But don’t think that you can get away with the same thing.”

(12:37:13 PM) softpixels: lolol

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Boukenger #8 before talking about #9, if only becomes my wife insists that the following screencap and comment be made public:

"Whole Lotta Lovin!"

That being done, we can now move onto Operation Overdrive #8 and Bouken #9.

Unlike Mister tallforadwarf, I actually like OO‘s Black Ranger, Will Aston a fair bit. For me, he’s one of the most interesting characters in Overdrive, not so much because of his typical silly back-story but rather because he’s a bit of a spice smuggler rogue in the Han Solo sense. He’s cocky, arrogant, self-assured and, for the most part, pretty disinterested in the idea of being in a team. Yet despite all this there seems to be a sense of camaraderie between him and Mack and him and Dax, which is odd as one of the great things about Bouken is how it sets up a dynamic between Masumi and Natsuki and Masumi and Satoru. In fact, Yellow Ranger Ronny, despite being all l33t mechanic and sprucing up some new zords, once again fails to actually do anything in this episode. I think the lesson here is that if you’re going to reshape a character, don’t change their personality so much that every time they henshin they go OOC…or simply make sure you edit your source material fully.

"This is called 'Manlaw'..."

"...not 'buttsecks'."

I was looking forwards to this episode as it dealt with my new employers Dark Shadow but sadly OO #8 suffers from the same pacing problems as earlier instalments. For example, the opening scene is summed up thus:

SCENE 1:

Rose: Let’s find the Maltese Falcon bird statue! (pause) Oh no, it’s been stolen by someone before we got here!

*

SCENE 2:

Mister Hartford: Will’s fired.

Other Rangers: No wai!

The other problem is Miratrix, in that she’s not very pretty good. Props do however go to Dax for being scandalised by the idea of Will breaking ‘manlaw’ and teaming up with his ex-girlfriend.

Boukenger #9 is once again a different kettle of fish.

The stand out moment for me is, once again, Akashi Satoru being awesome. The faith he has in Masumi and the way he puts himself on the line utterly believing that his teammate will make the right choice is awesome. These are more of the kind of characters we should be seeing in sentai, not these bumbling and vacuous high-pitched kids we keep getting saddled with.

"Boukenger GO ON FIGHTING!!"

Other highlights included Yamasaki Mami as Shizuka no Kaze, Souta being smooth, Nakamura Chise being able to really make Natsuki a layered character more than just the usual ditzy/cute girl and Yaiba, who is both ruthless and dedicated.

Common fanlore in this household really is pointing towards the theory that, behind that masque is Hurricanger‘s Shiina Yousuke…yet seeing as I also recently declared that Bobba Fett was in fact Sirius Black maybe I’m not in a position to explain this just yet. Expect a post/fic ‘soon’ on the matter.

Operation Overdrive #6 & Boukenger #5 Reviews

Operation Overdrive #6 and Boukenger #5 are two very different ways to approach the Rose/Sakura character episode.

OO #6 is a genuine Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers episode. It really is insanely good fun but it’s also painfully obvious that this series is very much aimed at a wider audience than jungle Fever Fury, if only by merit of the hamfisted Irish/Cornish-Robbie-Coltrane-meets-Johnny-Depp accents of Captain Brownbeard and ‘Rose the Bold’. This perhaps needs clarification.

"Hey look, a three headed monkey!"

The plot line of #6 involves our intrepid Rangers setting off to St. Lucia in search of Aztec gold a jewel named the Eye of the Sea (re: Pirate Treasure). The trouble with this situation is that the ghost of Captain Brownbeard is quite keen on getting his hands on the treasure as well, however, circumnavigating this particular desire (a desire, albeit that has tethered his spirit to the Earth for hundreds of years) Brownbeard decides that maybe he better possess Rose instead, seeing as she never has any fun and not because he’s a massive pervert.

In Cornwall, everyone talks like this...

So ‘Rose the Bold’ goes swashbuckling off, her fellow Rangers do very little to help her and then it turns out that, after some wry commentary from trusty butler, Spencer about the unexpected possibility of monsters growing super-size for no reason, the Precious treasure isn’t the Eye of the Sea but rather Captain Brownbeard’s lucky pearl.

Phew.

What this summary can’t fully convey is just how much fun it is seeing Rhoda Montemayor charging around dressed as a pirate and acting like Brenda Song’s London Tipton character from The Suite Life of Zack and Cody on drugs. She really does save the episode from being the worst kind of children’s TV and keeps the camp factor at a consistently high level.

In contrast, Bouken #5 is a very different episode ~ and one that arrived not a moment too soon as, one of my biggest complaints thus far, has been that Suenaga Haruka’s character, Nishihori Sakura, has done very little save for frown in the direction of everyone but Akashi. This episode really adds some depth to her character, showing her in pursuit of a pearl containing the blueprints for a deadly weapon the Dark Shadow group (my new employers!) hope to exploit.

What really strikes me about this episode is that the story is exactly the kind of material that I usually turn to fandom to supply. To see a story like this filmed so well and to see Sakura’s character, her relationships with both Akashi and Mamiya explored, really won me over. This felt once again like the genre I’d come to love and which recent shows have done so much to damage the reputation of. It was like watching Gaoranger once again.

Other important items of note were tsukumogami, Takumigami (apparently based on Gouraijin) and Yamasaki Mami dressed as an Office Lady <3.

My mind is still churning on the fanfiction front; the correlation between Dark Shadow and both the Hayate and Ikazuchi and also the Jaryuu Clan and the people of Abaranger‘s Another-Earth, added to the potential of Jungle Fever Fury and/or Gekiranger vs. Gaoranger, makes my mind feels like it’s in constant rebellion.

Speaking of which, one day, we really need to talk about rhinoceri…