I'm David, welcome to my brain. Here I write to not only show that I can but to share my opinions on various topics. Mostly Video Games, Anime, Movies and Tokusatsu. Though I am open to suggestions and never afraid to admit when I'm wrong. Have a good time in here and be sure not to mess with my memory, it's bad enough as it is.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Now for me to talk about my favorite Jungle Fury ranger. The mentor, the calm cool voice of reason who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty.
RAI, oops sorry wrong cool jokey mentor.
There we go, RJ, my favorite Jungle Fury ranger.
Now as I was saying last time some of the main characters from Jungle Fury do remind me quite a bit of the characters in Mortal Kombat Konquest and RJ definitely reminds me of Jeffrey Meeks Raiden. He looks like a laid back dude but knows far more then what he lets on; he is the seasoned voice of guidance and when needed he can lend in some humor with clever snarky banter. Writing wise one of the great things I like about RJ is that we got some time with him before he became a ranger and he didn't just become the wolf ranger right away, and we also got a reason why. He and his wolf spirit were not exactly on good terms. This conflict was exacerbated in "Ghost of a Chance" part 2 when Dai-Shi tried to take the spirit from RJ. Afterwords RJ started turning into a Werewolf as his spirit was starting to gain control. It was only after Fran broke through to RJ and reminded him of his better nature in "Friends Don't Fade Away" were he finally rebalanced his spirit, pulled out his morpher and became the Wolf Ranger. Now for the one complaint I do have about RJ, and it's the wolf ranger uniform. Now it's not the color or the knee and shoulder pads. Since RJ uses a Muay-Tai fighting style the pads make sense since Muay-Tai involves using your knees and shoulders for strikes. No it's the tassels on the arms.
I mean are they really necessary?
Now I don't know what the designer of the outfit was going for but I just have to wonder about the tassels. I mean granted they're nowhere near as ridiculous and distracting as Kamen Rider Super-1's tassels but I still have to ask, why? Also he gets his own Megazord, sort of. To form the Wolf Pride Megazord he summons his wolf spirit, Casey's Tiger spirit and Theo's Jaguar spirit. How exactly does that work? I mean on its own the Wolf Zord is just another leg attachment on the Jungle Pride Megazord, just replacing Lily's Cheetah Zord in the configuration. What; is the wolf Zord just strong enough on it's own that it can create duplicates of the other two animal spirits? Whatever it's Power Rangers. Aside from those; good mentor, good ranger and my favorite for this season. Now for the opposite side of the coin.
"What the hell am I looking at?"
Now let me just get one thing clear. I don't hate Dominic; he's just the character that I have the most problems with, and most of them come form his lack of development. He comes in at the half way point of the show, goes on about how getting the Rhino powers is his destiny, (HOW?? how does getting the Rhino powers equal his destiny? Usually the powers are supposed to help a character with achieving their destiny. Like gaining the power of a god to slay a great evil or protect a certain person or something like that. Power in and of itself is a pretty lame destiny.) He gets his ranger powers and his Rhino Zord and development wise that's about it until the end of the show which I don't want to give away. Though in "Path of the Righteous" his words to Casey about what he knew about Jarrod from his time at the Pai-Zhua academy was what helped convince Casey to attack Dai-Shi's temple to try to get through to Jarrod. To solve the lack of development thing I personally would have Dominic enter the show sooner then he did, like around episode 6 or so. Just introduce him as an old friend of RJ and have him work at the Pizza shop for a little while before he becomes the White Rhino Ranger at episode 19. As is it honestly felt like all the extra time and development that RJ got was because they shaved that time off from introducing Dominic. Though Dominic does have my favorite moment of the show. In "Maryl and the Monkeys" Dominic has to convince a scientist that he saved earlier as the White Ranger to tell him how a formula that Camille stole from her works. Of course she doesn't listen at first. While I was watching this my exact words were "oh god why don't you just morph and tell her the truth you mook?" and sure enough he morphed to convince her that he wasn't kidding around. My reaction after seeing that went something like this "OH MY GOD, ACTUAL COMMON SENSE THANK YOU!" I honestly could not tell you people who are reading this how flabbergasted I was when that happened. So for the problems that I see with Dominic I do like the guy, I just wish they did more with him then what the show did. Now before I get to the villains I'll just cover the Spirit Rangers quickly.
I don't hate these guys.
Now don't get me wrong I can see how people can't stand these guys in concept, on character and just on why they were created in the first place. But personally I kind of like them. I mean esthetically they look really damn good and just like the Titanium Ranger all the way back in Lightspeed Rescue if I never saw the Sentai I would never be able to tell that they didn't come from the same source. "But they were just made to sell toys and they suck for that" well then I guess that means you hate Battleizers too then. "The masters these guys were based on were boring" I...... can't really argue with that I will admit there wasn't a lot to the masters that generated these guys. But again it's the same problem with Dominic, if we saw them interact with the Rangers more onscreen we could have solved this problem. But long story short I don't hate the Spirit Rangers despite their flaws. Now that the heroes are done with time for dessert. Time to talk about the villains. Our big bad is a monstrous, ancient, imposing entity who's HQ is a dark evil temple who with his faithful servant and army of demonic creatures seek nothing short of total domination.
Damn it why do I keep doing that?
NO I mean this guy. Jarrod/Dai-Shi.
I want that coat.
That's better, confession time here; when I first saw Jarrod I thought to myself "oh god please tell me that this whiny little toad isn't going to be our main bad guy." But then we saw him getting possessed by Dai-Shi and I was so relieved. Dai-Shi is definitely one of the better Power Rangers villains I've seen in a while. We know that 10,000 years earlier he was a badass, but now he's not only out of practice but when he doesn't look like Paralax in the Green Lantern movie; he's possessing a human (granted a strong human) so now he has to handle a body whose host is not only alive and has his own emotions and memories holding him back but on top of that he now has a completely different physiology to adapt to. Thus he decided to seek the help of the three overlords to bring himself back up to snuff. It's very rare in these shows that we get a villain that acknowledges their weaknesses and seek to improve themselves. Hell in Power Rangers for example we haven't had a villain like this since Trakeena waaaaay back in Lost Galaxy. Though I never really was able to figure out who was in the drivers seat most of the time. It seems like we either had one of three forms with this guy, first we had Dai-Shi in the beginning where he was fully in control, then Jarrod being influenced by Dai-Shi; bringing his worst character traits out like in "The Spirit of Kindness" where Dai-Shi steals the Rinzen power of Whiger for not killing Casey as revenge for getting kicked out of the Pai-Zhua and finally we had Dai-Shi being held back by Jarrod which is shown in "Good Karma Bad Karma" where when he resurrects Carnisoar the Sky overlord his training was to modify Jarrod's memories to make him more ruthless thus letting Dai-Shi's evil flow within Jarrod's body unfiltered. But in the end Dai-Shi/ Jarrod was a pretty good villain that gave us some moments to think about with him.
Sorry there Gecko Girl.
Unfortunately I can't say much about Dai-Shi's second in command Camille. Mostly because the stuff that I do want to talk about comes at the end of the series and anything else would be just repeating whatever Linkara said, both cases I want to avoid as much as possible. So short and sweet I like Camille and don't really have much to complain with her except that she should have gotten a mouthpiece so that Flit couldn't get out as easily. But I do want to talk about the three Overlords before I wrap this up. And no I'm not going to talk about the Phantom Beast Generals, mostly because aside from not really having much too talk about, I just want people to deal with them their own way.
Paging Dr Howard, Dr Fine, and Dr Howard.
I personally see these three as inversions of the core three rangers, each being the core part of the trio but emphasizing the negative trait of their respective roles and the virtues they emphasize in training Dai-Shi (or not but we'll cover that later). First is the Sky Overlord Carnisoar; the brains of the trio. His training seems to revolve around making Dai-Shi into a more cold and ruthless warrior by developing a mindset that would make making terrible, evil choices much easier, and he starts this by messing with Jarrod's memories so that he took the more selfish, easy choices in his childhood. However the one I call bull on is where Jarrod refused to fight a bunch of bullies because he wanted to uphold his code about using his fighting skills against inferior opponents. I would argue that being overwhelmed by superior numbers who were attacking him first without provocation would be an exception to that little rule. There's a reason why people learn Martial arts as a form of SELF defense. But there goes me and my logic again. Anyway after that was done Carnisoar seemed to just keep attacking Dai-Shi for the rest of his training until Jellica arrived and agreed to train Dai-Shi. Jellica, the Sea Overlord was the black heart of the three. When she was introduced in "Pushed to the Edge" she was dead set on making Camille her student instead of Dai-Shi. However this was part of her training, she didn't want Dai-Shi to ask to be her student, she wanted him to demand it by using Camille to manipulate Dai-Shi into a point where he was demanding her to be his master. Her training was about showing Dai-Shi how to manipulate people by exploiting their heart's weaknesses. She seems to be the most manipulative and cunning of the three and tried to emphasize that to Dai-Shi, that it takes more then just strength and wisdom to become a proper evil ruler. And last there's Grizzaka the Earth Overlord, who refused to help Dai-Shi in anyway, shape or form. Now he was willing to do this at first when Camille revived him, but when he discovered that Dai-Shi was possessing a human, he went nuts, kicked Dai-Shi around like a football with his Zocado powers and took control of the evil forces for a while. Grizzaka was the dark soul/strength of the three and this is shown in his behavior and demeanor. He was always the most easily riled of the three and was always the first to just beat up anything that got in his way which showed not only that he had a rather weak soul but also was a firm believer that might is always right, and when he found out that his old master was using the body of what he used to consider to be a weaker being he lost all loyalty to what he considered to be just another human. In fact he may have convinced Carnisoar and Jellica of this because when the two accused Dai-Shi of betraying them in "Race to the Nexus" the betrayal in question could have been accepting Grizzaka's view of the being that once wanted to dominate humans is using one as his host, this could have been seen as that betrayal, of his principals and views. In other words, they refused to follow a hypocrite. However I could argue that they could have tried to separate Dai-Shi from Jarrod and have him possess something else, but whatever. All and all, good evil mentors and not creatures that you wanted to screw with.
As for my final thoughts on Jungle Fury, all of the negative aspects of the Kalish era seems to have been really toned down during this season and thank Zordon for it. I mean they were still there and it really was annoying when they did show up but it was still a MASSIVE improvement over Overdrive. The acting was pretty good, the story structure was also good but rushed towards the end. Overall I honestly do give a solid recommendation to Jungle Fury. It's not In Space or RPM but it's still better then Lightspeed Rescue and light-years above Turbo, Samurai, Megaforce and ESPECIALLY Overdrive. Now I will cover Gekiranger in the future but not immediately, I want to wait a few months, maybe around July to get my thoughts on Jungle Fury out of my head so I can go in with a somewhat fresh perspective. As for next time, well, let me see what's on T.V maybe that'll give me some inspiration.
Ok, might as well see what the hype is all about.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon. Power Rangers Jungle Fury is owned
by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Renaissance Atlantic Entertainment,
Toei Company, Ltd, and Ranger Productions, Ltd. Mortal
Combat Conquest is owned by Threshold Entertainment, New Line
Television and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. UHF is owned by Weird Al Yankovic, Orion Pictures, MGM, Shout Factory and Cinecorp. Jetix is owned by The Walt Disney Corporation.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
I mean that subtitle in the best possible way, after the pure unfiltered pain that was Operation Overdrive, Jungle Fury is a tremendous breath of fresh air. Now don't get me wrong; like every season in the Kalish era there were some problems I had with this season. Namely the Kalishplosions and the rushed pace towards the finale. But other then that this season was far better handled then what I've seen so far from the Disney era. Granted the only season I saw in full was Dino Thunder and that was years ago, and the others I saw were either random episodes (usually the first) or from reviews, and from what I've seen so far my favorite Disney era season is still RPM but Jungle Fury is still in the top five in my book in terms of Disney season favorites.
Granted when your competition includes Mystic Force and Overdrive that's not much to say. Now for this review I think I'll just go over the characters, my feelings about them and what I generally like and dislike about the season over all instead of an episode by episode format. Mostly for two reasons, 1 I always want people to try to go into a topic and see for themselves whether it's good or not and form their own opinions so I'll try to keep spoilers to a minimum, 2 because I know that my review will just get lost in the shuffle when a certain other, more well-known reviewer releases his review of this. Now for the premise; 10,000 years ago a monster named Dai-Shi lead an army of beast warriors to exterminate humanity. However a secret kung-fu clan known as the Pai-Zhua (pronounced pie shu-wa) used the powers of their own inner animal spirits to destroy the army and seal Dai-Shi in a mystic box which they kept sealed underneath their grand temple.
Cut to 2008 where Master Mao selects three students of his to carry on guarding Dai-Shi, Lilly who has the Cheetah spirit, Theo who has the Jaguar spirit and Jarrod who has the Lion Spirit. However Jarrod also has the spirit of the jackass, so Mao chooses a rookie named Casey that stood up to Jarrod when he was abusing his authority. Jarrod, not exactly being the most rational of losers confronts Mao and the three students, accidentally releasing Dai-Shi from his prison. After Mao is critically injured trying to stop Dai-Shi from escaping Jarrod runs off. Mao's last words to his students are to go to a city called Ocean Bluff where they can find their new master.
While the three wait for their new Master at the Jungle Karma pizza shop Jarrod becomes possessed by Dai-Shi and becomes his vessel. Dai-Shi, with his new human body returns to his temple lair where he's greeted by his loyal second-in command Camile and he sends his army of the dead, the Rinshi to terrorize humans to absorb their fear and grow stronger. The three students try to fight off the Rinshi but fail, they are however saved by the pizza shop owner RJ who reveals that he is the master that Mao sent the three to find. Once the day is saved, RJ brings the three back to the Pizza parlor and not only agrees to train them but also gives them the Solar Morphers that he created so that they can become Power Rangers. Now that the premise stuff is out of the way time for us to get started on the Characters, let's start off with our Red Ranger, Casey.
Dull Surprise!
Casey is one of the better Disney era Red Rangers. He seemed like a competent fighter, always was looking for ways to improve and never made the same mistake twice. Though he is the newest and most inexperienced member of the team that only pushed himself harder to catch up with his teammates. One of his better moments for me was near the end of the series in "Path of the Righteous" where he still thinks that he can save Jarrod after he saw Jarrod save Camile from some monsters sent to kill her. Everyone else thinks that Casey is being naive and is just acting out over not getting his masters stripes. Even the Spirit of Master Mao is telling him that Dai-Shi has completely taken over and Jarrod is a lost cause.
But of course Casey refuses to listen and he proceeds on to Dai-Shi's temple anyway. I'm not going to give away what happens but it definitely proves why he's the leader and soul of the team. Another point in Casey's favor? He's the first Red Ranger since TJ to not get a battlizer. That definitely gets a lot of points in my book because it seems like since In Space every Red is required to have one. Granted most of the time the enemies they fight require the extra fire power and is perfectly valid there. However in the Disney Era it seems like they are mostly just using them on enemies that didn't really require the Power that a Battlizer dishes out, mostly just on lots of goons and the big bad. So it was nice to remind us that not every Red Ranger needs giant armor and what not to fight evil. Yet whatever points Casey might have gained were immediately lost when he got this stupid thing, the Strike Rider.
Moychendizing, Moychendizing, Moychendizing
Look I get that these shows are driven by toy sales and I'm perfectly cool with that, money makes the world go round after all. But if you are going to make a toy at least make it look better then this or have the character do something one of a kind impressive with it, not just use it on foot solders most of the time. That's why I can let Cole's flying motorcycle from Wild Force slide, because we see him use it to destroy Serpentera. Sure the execution was sloppy and the moychendizing was as blatant here but when you still look at it on paper, the Wild Force rider did something truly extraordinary and destroyed a powerful, iconic weapon left behind by one of the most memorable villains in the franchise and not just use it on random goons and occasionally the big bad or his generals. Another point in Cole's bike's favor? It doesn't remind me of those stupid unicycles from Venus Wars when it transforms.
The only difference is that the Strike Rider has a tiny wheel at the front when it transforms, that's it.
Sure design wise it makes sense but aesthetically, yeah no. But we're done talking about Red Rangers on Motorcycles.
RED RANGERS ON MOTORCYCLLLLLLLLLES!
........Yeah, now for us to talk about a funny comparison I was making while watching this show. Some of the characters reminded me of some of the characters on Mortal Kombat Conquest. Not everyone thankfully but the comparisons can still be made. So let's start with our blue ranger.
THEO THE GREATEST POWER RANGERS JUNGLE FURY CHARACTER!
Though thankfully Theo learned his lesson early on and avoided being too similar to Mr Pride Shine (he also learned it without having to blow up Noob Sabot, point Theo) At the beginning like Siro, Theo was arrogant and more then a bit of an asshole. He also had some of his own quirks like being a perfectionist, a stick in the mud and was more then a little condescending to Casey since he's the new guy and felt that he was stepping in between him and Lily. But he started to change his tune in "Can't win them all" where he gets owned by a monster and starts being a whiny moron and giving up when there's still the problem of a ancient evil trying to wipe out mankind. Thankfully RJ gets Theo back in gear by teaching the schmuck that everybody fails at some point.
So he does get back on. But every so often he needs to take another bite of humble pie and remember that his way isn't always the best way like in "Dash for the Dagger" where he lost a powerful artifact because he thought that the guy originally holding it wasn't being careful enough, even though he managed to hold on to the damn thing up until now just fine. And guess what when Theo took the artifact from the guy who was holding it, it got lost and nearly fell into Dai-Shi's hands. I mean Dai-Shi still got the thing but the point is that if Theo had just left the guy to his own methods instead of micromanaging there would have been less of a chance of the thing getting stolen. I'm more inclined to give Theo a pass because trust me, there are worse Rangers out there. He kind of strikes a balance where he isn't a Gary-Stu.
You heard me!
Nor is he an arrogant and impulsive idiot that never learns his lesson and never tries to improve himself.
Though to be honest, I would love to see a ranger do something like this. It just sounds too funny.
All I'll say for the brains of the team is that I think they originally belonged to Abby Normal. Moving on to the heart of the Jungle Fury trio, Lily.
She brings the gift of balance.
Yeah, Lily is the third part of this trifecta of power, Lily is the heart of the team and acts like a big sister to the rest of the cast. She mostly tries to keep Casey and Theo in line and she succeeds in this area. Though her kindness does tend to lean towards Naivete like in "Pushed to the Edge" where she accidentally inspires Camile (who was in disguise at the time) to release a new evil master for Dai-Shi since she was kicked out by Dai-Shi's master Carnisoar. But other then that for the most part Lily tends to be the voice of compassion, though she can kick several kinds of ass when the need arises so don't go thinking that she's all sunshine and rainbows. She also has a deep comradery with Theo, before the whole Dai-Shi situation came up the two purportedly went out for monthly lunches and often hung out with each other.
This was also a key reason behind Theo's apprehension regarding Casey. He thought that since Lily was hanging out with Casey more he thought Casey was trying to move in. Lily assures him that nothing has changed and that the three are still friends. Now I'm not going to say anything about what happens in the end, but rest assured that it doesn't go into bad Lifetime Channel original movie territory. Now for me to take a break now that I have the main three out of the way. Next time I'll give my thoughts on the other rangers, the villains and my overall recommendation of this series.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon. Power Rangers Jungle Fury is owned by Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Renaissance Atlantic Entertainment, Toei Company, Ltd, and Ranger Productions, Ltd. Star Wars is Created by George Lucas, owned by Lucas film, the Walt Disney Company and 20th Century Fox. Kamen Rider Kabuto is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Venus Wars is owned by Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, Triangle Staff and is licensed byDiscotek Media. Yu-gi-oh! 5D's is owned by Katsumi Ono, Konami and Studio Gallop Zoolander is owned by Village Roadshow Pictures, VH1 Films and Paramount Pictures. Mortal Combat Conquest is owned by Threshold Entertainment, New Line Television and Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution. Phelous and the Movies is owned by Phelan Portland and Channel Awesome Batman (TV Series) is owned by Greenway Productions, 20th Century Fox Television and Warner Bros. Television Distribution.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Alright, my first review of the first episode of a brand new Kamen Rider series. Now this show, Kamen Rider Drive has quite a bit to live up too. Not only is this the show that allows the Heisei era of Kamen Rider to surpass the Shōwa era, but it is the 16th series of said era; which is following Gaim. The series that many fans of the Toku genre claim to not only be the best written series since Kamen Rider Black; but the best of the Heisei era in general. No pressure right?
Oh suck it up. We open on a rainy night as the narration tells us about how the end of the world can occur in the blink of an eye. When all of a sudden the world starts to slow down as monsters appear out of nowhere. By slow down I mean, it's almost as if the world is lagging, you could still talk but your body can't keep up. The monsters on the other hand can move through the lag with no problem, going at normal speed.
I'm siiiiiiinging in the raiiiiin, just siiiiinging in the raiiiin.
These are the monsters of the series, the Roidmudes. There are three basic models of these guys. The Spider Roidmudes, the Bat Roidmudes and the Cobra Roidmudes. Why those three animals? As an homage to the first three monsters from the original series, Spider Man, Bat Man and Cobra Man. As monsters are want to do they start killing as many people as they can, who have no way to defend themselves, especially since they can barely move. No joke, these things are not playing around, throwing fireballs at shops filled with people, throwing giant ceramic bowling pins ( from a nearby bowling alley) at large, immovable crowds and throwing giant bowling balls, (again from a display from a nearby bowling alley) at buildings and just killing as many people as they can.With enough explosions to make Michael Bay grin like the Joker.
Yes, the Global Freeze which is why it's mostly focused around Japan and the easternmost parts of China judging by this shot, okay.
We then cut to a fight where the Narrator says that that was the day that his time stopped. We see some Detectives fighting some criminals near the docks or an industrial area who I assume are gun runners since we see them firing handguns and shotguns at the Detectives. I say they're gunrunners because Japan's gun control laws are actually worth a shit. The weapons law begins by stating that "No-one shall possess a fire-arm or fire-arms or a sword or swords", and very few exceptions are allowed. However, citizens are permitted to possess firearms for hunting and
sport shooting, but only after submitting to a lengthy licensing
procedure. And this gun registration and licensing is strict as hell. Of course law officials are allowed to carry firearms so there's that. Anyway the two detectives seem to be holding their own when they start to glitch out. One of the detectives calls out for his partner Hayase as he provides covering fire, however due to the lag he misses and hits a nearby tank of flammable substances which of course explodes sending Hayase falling down a floor. The cop tries to run to Hayase but Hayase gets crushed by some over hanging girders and the detective couldn't make it in time due to the lag.
Red: Do ya think we should help? Green: After they made all those "Need for Speed" movies? I say we get some Marshmallows. Purple: But I want Hotdogs. Red & Green: Shut up!
We cut to what looks like some Hot Wheels over looking the destruction of the city. They summon a small road so they can attack the Roidmudes. These little boogers are actually pretty strong, the red one can turn into a fireball, the green one can cover itself in razor sharp spikes that can drill right through a Roidmudes torso, and the Purple one can create clones of itself which throw energy Shurikens. The three destroyed Roidmudes turn into giant floating numbers who then retreat. We then cut to what looks like Drive as we cut to our opening sequence. We then cut to half a year later as we see our hero driving a car that looks so sleek it would make Jeremy Clarkson envious.
Some say that he once made a exact scale replica of the Tokyo tower in five minutes, using only chopsticks. Others say that he was once known as a Superhero known as Kamen Rider Drive, all we do know is; he's called The Stig.
Now I have some concerns right away about this series. See, there's this little thing about Japan and particularly it's media that rubs me the wrong way. (Aside from fan service in some anime series, but that's a discussion for another time.) See, some Japanese writers typically love to depict their law enforcement officers in one of three ways, corrupt, incompetent or dogshit useless, usually all three. And from what little we've seen so far of this series and from the opening it looks like it will focus on a cop and members of the MPD to fill out the side-cast. Now this rubs me the wrong way because, its not the best thing in the world to insult the people who are trying to keep your city safe from thieves, rapists, arsonists and murderers, just saying. Now of course I'm not some naive putz that thinks that everyone who puts on a badge is doing it for all the right reasons.
Hell this SOB is one of my favorite examples of that.
The point is, I don't make fun of cops. And for any viewers of mine that does think this way about the majority of cops, go ahead, insult an officer, spit in their face while you're at it, see what happens. Especially when someone breaks into your house and starts killing your family right in front of you, I double dog dare you! My bet is that once they find out your name the phone line might suddenly be disconnected. To balance my fears we did have previous Kamen Riders who were involved in Law-enforcement, G3 and Accel immediately spring to mind. (I don't count W since he's a PI, not a uniformed officer.) Hell the majority of the Metal Heroes are law-enforcement officers, the Space Sheriffs, Winspector, Jiban and Janperson spring to mind. And do I even need to remind you of the Dekarangers A.K.A Power Rangers S.P.D? Maybe this won't be so bad, but just to be sure I'll look for the appropriate clips. Shinnosuke goes on to explain that after the Global Freeze people are paranoid and have special apps to report to the Police if they feel or see the glitching which they call "The Heaviness". Called so due to the lag causing feeling of heaviness on every-point on a humans body which limits their movement.
Well, at least it's not Ebola!
After that no doubt dated and offensive joke we cut to Shinnosuke lazing about on the grass.
Our hero everyone, a frigging laid back sloth.
I think I may have spoke too soon. Thankfully some else on the force has the same attitude that I have about Shinnosuke's lazing about.
The voice of reason on the show, ladies and gentlemen.
Kiriko handcuffs the putz, Shinnosuke tries to run away but Kiriko throws her shoe at his head.
She then shows him how she knew where he was.
She's apparently less his partner and more of his babysitter.
What kills me is the little manga drawings of Shinnosuke in her notes about his schedule. Who drew those? Honestly? And like his babysitter, she drags Shinnosuke back to their precinct the Kuruma Department of Motor-vehicles to do his actual work. Now for us to get established here.
a.a.k.a the crank case room.
This is our team briefing room and general conference area. Now we have a good look time to meet the side cast.
Oh my god scary face!
Aside from having a smile that will haunt my nightmares, Jun here is also a goofy mook who obsesses over his fortune telling lucky colors.
You can just tell this guy was bully chow as a kid.
Kyuu is mostly there to do my job, surf around the net looking for articles and clues on chat rooms, social networks and whatnot that may give information to the SCD and their current cases.
Hello, Nurse.
Rinna is their R&D department who creates various devices to help with Heaviness related cases, who acts like she's a few tacos short of a fiesta. Basically think of her as a live action Zoë Hange from Attack on Titan and you'll get the picture. Now that basic introductions are out of the way Jun explains that they're finally getting put on a real case. Apparently there have been several attempted murders in the last few weeks in a specific area that has been reporting several occurrences of the Heaviness. However apparently someone named Otta will be their go-between, Shinnosuke isn't too thrilled by this since apparently if Otta is their go-between, more people are going to give the SCD the cold shoulder then they do now. Shinnosuke sits in his car and thinks to himself, flashing back to when Hayase was killed.
Apparently Shinnosuke has been driving around in a remodeled KIT from Night Rider
No it's not KIT but close enough, Shinnosuke does know the voice though he doesn't know whose it is. Apparently NOTKIT here was the one who arranged Shinnosuke to be transferred to SCD for easy deployment and was the one who gave him the car. Shinnosuke tells him that he should have picked someone else since he's a lazy fool, no kidding. But at least he's aware of his problem. NOTKIT says that's that he's a superman and that he's just forgotten how to "start his engine" as he puts it. We cut to a skate-park/ basketball court where the Heaviness is occurring. A couple check their Heaviness detection app and confirms it, where a man in a green hood shows up. Shinnosuke checks the car to find the source of the voice and finds it, A belt attached to the dash board of the car. The belt then attaches himself to Shinnosuke.
Dude, stop being so happy that you're near his crotch, you've just met and he might not swing that way!
Kiriko shows up and tells Shinnosuke that there's been another attempted murder attempt. She's already transferred the coordinates to the Car's GPS. The Belt knowing that Shinnosuke doesn't have two brain cells to rub together, decides to drive the car their remotely and straps Shinnosuke to his seat. We cut to the skate-park where we meet the last of our supporting cast.
Does Shinnosuke listen to Rock and Roll? He does?! Arrest him, take his badge and tar and feather him!
We then get a good example of why the SCD team isn't taken seriously.
What? Don't your cops show up at crime scenes wearing props that would have been laughed off the set of Clones of Bruce Lee?
You have some weird cops then. Pft. Otta clearly as embarrassed as I am asks what is up with the Dr Seuss gizmos. Shinnosuke says that they're apparently supposed to detect gravity surge particles. Shinnosuke asks Otta what happened to the corpse, Otta says that he isn't dead but that there have been four other victims with the same condition since last week. Otta also says something so stupid that I'm not even going to comment on it.
Krusty if you don't mind?
And then the smug prick just walks off. You see what I mean about Japan portraying their police officers as incompetent assholes? Shinnosuke then notices something near one of the Evidence markers.
Hang on, I'm pretty sure you don't tamper with a crime scene. Call me crazy.
Judge Doom would not be happy let me tell you. The makeshift P.K.E meter goes off with the belt telling Shinnosuke that the culprit might be near and sure enough the world starts lagging again. Shinnosuke sees the man with the green hood from before and notices that he's walking through the Heaviness just fine. He then transforms into a Roidmude.
029? Is that his assembly number or something?
He then picks up Shinnosuke, commenting on how lively he is. The belt then summons what he calls "Shift Cars" which turn out to be the Hot Wheels from before. They manage to hold him off before he retreats. Back at the ranch, Rinna starts interviewing Otta about his first experience with the Heaviness, Otta still doesn't believe in the Heaviness; even though he experienced it first hand.
Kyuu says that everyone on the Net knows that Gravity Surges are a
portent of the Roidmudes' rampages. Otta continues his outright
stupidity by saying that unless he sees something he doesn't believe it. Normally I'd agree but you have several witnesses saying the exact same thing, including your colleagues who were standing right next to you, looking behind you that saw the whole thing! Also there was that little rampage six months ago, who do you think caused that, Goblins? Shinnosuke decides to bring the gift of logic and brings a composite of the man in the green hood. He then adjusts his tie, Kiriko comments that Shinnosuke has shifted into gear. Specifically his brain's gear.
I seriously want to know who drew this! They just look adorable.
Apparently Shinnosuke was an Elite in the Special Investigations Department before he transferred to the S.C.D. I'll get into my theories on this later, right now Tomari (I'm calling him that for now since everyone else seems too) is sprinting all over town looking for people who know the person from the composite shot. The man is identified as Masuda Nobuo, who was a regular at a local sports club. The Belt comments that the face is the same but the hair is different. As well as having a completely different Physique from the attack. Masuda follows someone coming out of the sports club to a park where he attacks after transforming into 029. Tomari tries to stop him but 029 causes the heaviness to stop him where he starts turning the man red.
Now we really know what made the Red man red.
Stupid fucking white man
Anyways the belt summons the Red Shift car; Max Flare which lands into a car slot on Tomari's belt which allows him to move through the Heaviness normally. He tries to fight 029 but a Spider and Bat Roidmude show up to back 029 up. Apparently there are various levels of Heaviness since even with one Shift Car Tomari still can't move when the two new Roidmudes activate the Heaviness. The Bat and Spider nearly kill Tomari when the Car shows up to block their laser blasts. Kiriko gets out and starts kicking the Roidmudes asses when Tomari notices she has the green and purple Shift cars on her with the same clip that's on Tomari's belt. She tells him to quit screwing around and fight. Tomari asks why she knows about the belt but she tells him that there's no time to explain. The belt sends the car, called Tridoron to fire at the Roidmudes. Tomari asks Belt (yes that is what he calls the belt) what he should do, Belt says to transform, he then summons a red Shift Car and Tomari's Henshin device called the Shift Brace and instructs him on how to transform. Belt says that Tomari lost something precious in the past, but he can save it now. As long as he has his comrades he can move faster then anyone, even in a gravity surge, as the warrior Drive. Tomari then Transforms and we finally get our first look at Drive.
Kamen Rider Drive Type Speed.
He then proceeds to fight the three Roidmudes. He seems to be holding his own until 029 gets in on the action; Kiriko sends out the other two Shift Cars called Spike and Shadow over to Drive. Thanks to the Shift Cars Drive can change the abilities of the tire on his torso. Drive then swaps Shift Cars to Max Flare, giving him a tire with flame shaped protrusions and fire powers. He uses the Shift Bracer to summon a flaming wheel to launch at 029 creating a flaming vortex when it hits. Of course Bat and Spider aren't done and attack again, Drive changes again to Funky Spike which can launch energy spike projectiles and while he's holding an opponent can spin at super speeds which throws the Spider Roidmude into the air and destroys it leaving behind a floating set of numbers, 042. The Bat Roidmude, 088 and 029 are not amused. Drive changes again to Midnight Shadow which creates giant energy shurikens. He destroys 088 and throws more shurikens to destroy the floating numbers which really gets 029 angry. Belt tells Drive to change back to Speed Tire to finish him. He does so and finishes off 029 with his Rider Kick. The energy number retreats while Drive goes to check on the victim. He's safe but Tomari notices a foil strip next to the victim and takes it. Later that night Kiriko takes Tomari to a secret location underneath the Kuruma station.
OMG Bruce Wayne is Batman!
No this is the Drive Pit, which will act as their base. Kiriko says that nobody knows about this place, not even the S.C.D. Belt congratulates Tomari on his success on his first case. Tomari however thinks that it's not over yet, he questions whether 029 was trying to kill his victims and looks at the two scraps from the crime scenes. We cut to the number of 029 gasping for breath when this guy shows up.
We end the first episode with 029 entering the car Heart is holding, transforming into a ball of light with Heart grinning. So for a first episode it's not too bad. It does exactly what it has to do, set the tone for the series, a general layout of how these episodes will play out, the characters and how they work off each other and establishing our villains. We also get some intrigue about Belt, Tomari and Kiriko. Why is Tomari Drive, what is the connection to Drive and the Roidmudes, what exactly are the Roidmudes up too and so on. Time for me to go into theories on Tomari, based on Kiriko's observations and what we saw during the Global Freeze; Tomari probably used to be a very serious, intelligent officer, but after the incident with Hayase he seems to have mental trauma and survivors guilt, which manifests as this new laid back attitude as a coping mechanism and mental repression. And when he adjusts his tie that could be a temporary break from the trauma. He may have actually been Drive but that knowledge and previous relationship between Kiriko and Belt could have also been repressed. Kiriko does seem to know more about the Drive powers here since she was the one to show Tomari how to use Belt and showed him where the Drive Pit is. Hopefully we will get some answers in the upcoming episodes. Now for the rest of these episode recaps I will switch to V-Logs. If I keep doing every episode like this I'll never be able to get them out in a timely manner. Keep an ear to the ground people.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Kamen Rider is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. Saturday Night live is owned by Lorine Michaels, NBC Studios and Broadway Video. Silent Hill Downpour is owned by Vatra games and Konami Computer Entertainment. Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery is owned by Capella International, KC Medien, Moving Pictures, Eric's Boy, New Line Cinema, and Alliance Communications. The Simpsons are owned by Matt Groening, Gracie Films, and 20th Century Fox Television. Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 is owned by EA (Electronic Arts) Peter Pan (1953) is owned by Walt Disney Productions, RKO Radio Pictures, J.M. Barrie and Walt Disney.
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
This episode is going to be hard for me. Mostly because of the
statements I made during my Kamen Rider Taisen Review, where I said
Ressha Sentai Toquger is one of the worst Super Sentai I've seen so far.
Then again the only other ones I've seen to completion so far are Liveman,
Dairanger, Go-Onger, Gokaiger, Go-Busters, and Kyoryuger (and both
seasons of Akibaranger if you count those). The ones that I haven't
finished are Kakuranger, Ohranger, Carranger and Megaranger. Even then it's because I haven't made time to finish those shows or the
subs aren't finished yet on some of the series. The point is that I don't
exactly have a large knowledge of Sentai having only seen ten out of thirty eight series so far, HOWEVER! Even from my
limited experience I still say that Toquger is one of the worst I've
seen so far. Most of the heroes are moronic, annoying dill-weeds, the
majority of the mech designs are the laziest I've seen yet, and whenever
the show touches on the subject of "Imagination" I just, ugh my mind just goes to dark, terrible, evil places. Kinda like Lordkat when he played Super Mario Brothers 2 Japan. Get
this, this show, is trying to teach kids, that children, are the only people who have imagination, and that they lose said imagination when
they grow up.
I'm not putting words in peoples mouths or anything, watch for yourself, they say it in at least the first three episodes. As someone who wants to be a game designer/writer, carriers that primarily rely on using ones imagination, this made me despise this show almost immediately. Also for the Sentai series that loves to spout out its "Imagination" pig crap for it to have some of the laziest designs for the heroes, mechs and their equipment, that is pretty indefensible. However there are some saving graces, I like the villain faction, the Shadow Line. From their designs to their personalities to how much smarter they are then the heroes most of the time. Them; combined with the very, very, very few good episodes in this show is what's keeping me from saying that it is completely irredeemable. What I mean by good episodes are the ones that either focus on advancing the plot or have nothing to do with Right. Everything else tends to lead to various flavors and amounts of pain. Now for a very quick summary of this series so that we can get on to talking about the episode. Ressha Sentai Toquger is about five people who have been recruited by an organization called the Rainbow Line to protect their stations from the Shadow Line who not only seek to capture these stations for themselves but to gather darkness from the people who live there which all goes into making the human world habitable not only for themselves but their Emperor, Zett. The core five consist of Kagura as Toq 5, an airhead who can delude herself into gaining super strength. Hikari as Toq 4, he is the smartest member of the team and my personal favorite. Mio as Toq 3, she's the tomboy of the team and shes kind of starting a relationship with Tokatchi who is Toq 2, he's a bookworm who has about as much common sense as a garden-hose. And finally there's Right as Toq 1, he's a dumb-ass with Bieber hair who through his thoughtlessness, carelessness and outright stupidity often makes situations worse and often times make the personal crises of his teammates even worse, sometimes with only his mere presence. He is a cancer to the team, the worst Red Senshi I've seen on either side of the Ocean so far (including Nick from Mystic Force, Jaden from Samurai, Troy from Megaforce and Alata from Goseiger) and no matter how much I want him to, he will never go away. The five are guided by the conductor named, Conductor, and his Monkey Hand puppet, Ticket; kill me! Their Alpha is a horribly perverted Gynoid named Wagon who seems to only have three jobs, bring the Toqugers food, take selfies of herself, and be horribly annoying. She's almost as bad as Jar-Jar in my book. The five are later joined by Zalam, a former member of the Shadow Line who joins them to make amends for the evil he caused while working for the Shadow Line (yeah his power is to make it rain, truly there is no greater evil in this world) basically his shtick is that he's an over the top parody of the brooding loner hero with his main joke being that every time he goes into battle he says that this will be where he dies. At first I didn't like this at all because it seems like the show is making fun of people who are contemplating suicide, but what saves this is that he does it in increasingly over the top ways and the jokes that are made about this trope is what saves it. I think that its like when someone keeps doing something stupid you eventually have to laugh, like this for example.
So yeah, Zalam joined the Toqugers as Toq 6 and his name was changed by the Toqugers to Akira Nijino which literally means "the brightness of the rainbow" (Niji no Akira) GET IT!? Anyway the plot so far, the Shadow Lines leader Zett is trying to gain the power of the light because he hates the darkness and wants to live in said light. However being in the human world is toxic to the guy, so he figures that by gathering light, whether literal or figurative he could live in both worlds. To that end he absorbed Gritta; the daughter of one of his Generals, Madame Noir to gain her inner sparkle. General Schwartz, the guy I mentioned in the Taisen review does not take this well and he attacked Zett only to be blown away for his trouble. And on top of thisMarchioness Morc the General who raised Zett has shown up since the Toqugers are liberating their Shadow Towns, the stations that the Shadow Line have already taken over that is under Morc's jurisdiction. The Toqugers are doing this in the hopes that one of these Shadow Towns is their home town, which is the reason why they became the Toqugers in the first place. However the mech that the Toqugers use to access the Shadow Towns, the Drill Ressha, is in Schwartz' possession.
Good
If not, too bad there's a quiz later. So with episode 31 we open on two kids jogging through some fog training for Baseball judging by their uniforms when they notice the sound of a train whistle and see a giant train shrouded in fog. We then cut to the Toqugers on their trains when Ticket announced that instead of traveling to the next station they are instead heading for the Hyper Ressha Terminal. Apparently it can't be normally accessed by the Rainbow Line and can only show up when someone is summoned. I want to say that sounds familiar, but I can't put my finger on why. I'm being serious, someone help me.
Not going to lie, I like this shot and sequence.
It reminds me of Thomas the Tank Engine but in a good way. After the opening theme Ticket and Conductor say that the Terminal is the most important part of the Rainbow Line. Mostly because it's the control hub for the entire line, like the Shadow Line's Castle Terminal, so like it, the Terminal only shows up for when it is absolutely necessary, like when the President needs to talk to someone. Which is the case here since a voice (who we later find out is the President) tells Conductor over the intercom to meet him in his office. Right asks who that was.
Apparently President in Japanese is Sousai
(－‸ლ)
You've been with him this long and you've only realized this now?!
Once again we've learned something today.
Okay Ticket, you're redeemed. This is why you're my favorite character in this thing.
After Right once again proving that his mother drank while he was in the womb. The Prez chimes in again saying that they need to evacuate so that the trains can get cleaned. Apparently this is to clean the trains of any residual Darkness left behind from fighting the Shadows since it's corrosive to them. And the Diesel Ressha is proof of that. While the trains are getting the evil scrubbed off, the dummies decide to take in the wonders of the Hyper Terminal, which apparently is the Mega Mall since it has a movie theater, a gym, a library, several restaurants and almost any facility you could want, minus an S&M dungeon. While the team heads off to get food Wagon decides to go polish her body at the Salon.
This is them normally.
This is them a few seconds later.
Notice something off?
We cut to the Shadow Line Castle. Zett is informed that the Hyper Ressha Terminal has appeared and Morc is more then ready to take advantage of this. She tells Nero to lure the Toqugers away from the Terminal while she attacks the Terminal directly. Zett decides to tag along since he's attracted to the Sparkles.
They're not even real Vampires!
Ugh Lady, this is a kid's show remember?!
Noir notices that Gritta hasn't been fully absorbed by Zett and she plans on saving her. Why? Last time I checked all you were concerned with was having her marry Zett so she could absorb him and take over with you pulling the strings. So now you're concerned about your daughter? Well at least you're the villain so I'm supposed to hate you. Once Zett left Schwartz starts to move himself with the Drill Ressha and his personal Kurainer. We then cut to the Rainbow President's office where he and Conductor are talking. This is big, we can finally see the head of the Rainbow line, the one that set this all up, the source of the Toqugers and the Rainbow line and; it's an escaped prisoner from Deadman Wonderland?!
I quit.
I give up. Is this the Ice Cream Bunny? Are we going to see Tom Sawyer and Huck Fin watching a Gorilla pulling Santa's sleigh on a beach in Miami next? This is my head cannon, the Ice Cream Bunny convinced Santa to help him set up the Rainbow line if he would finally give him some damn Ice Cream and the first train was the Fire Ressha. It makes perfect sense I mean what else would they do with the Fire Truck they drove away on? At least you could take the Station Master from Den-O somewhat seriously, Jesus Christ. President Ice Cream Bunny tells Conductor that there's a problem with the Toqugers. I know, four of them are as dumb as hell, chuck the rest and make Hikari Red. He says that they've been exposed to the darkness too much and even if that wasn't the case they're changing by themselves anyway. How? We'll figure that out later. We cut to some people who finished eating at a restaurant but can't get out of their chairs. Not because they're morbidly obese but because a Shadow Kaijin has used his magic to seal them on to the chairs.
This is Chair Shadow
While Chair Shadow does this his big brother then uses his magic to flip the tables and chairs several feet into the air simultaneously while the people are still stuck to them.
This is Table Shadow, is it just me or does their design remind you of rams?
Thankfully nobody landed on their head, that would have killed them instantly.
That's kind of what I would expect to happen when people's heads meet the floor with that amount of terminal velocity. But there goes me and my logic again. The Toqugers get there before there were any fatalities (on screen anyway.)
Anyway they show up, transform and fight the brothers. Table Shadow starts off by flipping the bus they rode in on with so much kinetic force it made it explode! Now imagine if he did that to a normal person oh wait yes he did! Honestly there should be several piles of chunky salsa everywhere.
BWAHAHAHAHA you see why I've changed on Akira? He's mourning a bus for god's sake how is this not funny?
I mean come on this is actually funny. While that's going on Zett and Morc head to the Hyper Terminal to tear the place apart. One wonders why they didn't bring every single Monster, Kurliner and Kuro under their command with them, but we need to save all of that for the finale. Tradition and all that. Schwartz then rams Zett and Morc's train with the Drill Kurainer and forces them to land in an office building. Schwartz fights against Morc which draws the attention of Right. Noir shows up to back up Morc to make sure that Schwartz doesn't kill Zett. Zett however finds this to be annoying and sends out shock-waves of Darkness to punish them, but Right shows up to save a little girl who was cowering in a corner, no doubt scared. Right then decides to fight the Shadow Emperor for sacrificing others to obtain what he wants. Also for scaring the little girl.
After a really good cutaway Zett transforms into his monster form to meet Right's challenge. But then Morc, Noir and Schwartz then get in on the fight and it quickly turns into an uneven five way brawl. Back to the rest of the core four Toqugers, the fight against the dining set brothers is not going well, when Hikari tells the others to retreat. Akira on the other hand still has his hands full with Nero. Back to Right; Zett is starting to lose it and is attacking everyone that gets in his way. Thankfully there were no civilians in the area otherwise, they'd be dead. Right then decides to try and match Zett with the Hyper Ressha armor.
Which is still one of the worst Battlizers I've ever seen! It's just stupid gold shoulder pads for god's sake!
Ugh this does give Right the power to repel Zett's strikes and forces him back. Schwartz then takes the chance to strike a fatal blow against Zett but sees that Gritta is inside of him and hesitates giving Zett a chance to repel him. Zett starts to feel pain in his chest forcing him and Morc to retreat. Noir confirms for Schwartz that Gritta is really alive inside of Zett and that's why she can't let Zett be destroyed just yet. Meanwhile back to the Dining bros they're looking for the Toqugers when they notice a Kotatsu right in the middle of the walkway.
This totally doesn't look suspicious at all does it?
Of course for a monster that's all about flipping people and tables; this is like the old shave and a haircut trick and he absolutely can't resist. So he flips the thing revealing the Toqugers who use their blasters to shoot the Demon Duo. Table uses Chair as a living shield letting him be destroyed. Of course in Toquger when a monster is destroyed it just causes him to grow. For no explained reason! He just grows, not even a throw away line to explain why. Hell I'll even take torpedoes being fired at them to make them grow, just give me something! Of course the Trains are finished being cleaned up at this point. Welcome to the plot convenience playhouse kids. So yeah, the Toqugers form their terribly constructed mech, beat the giant Chair Shadow and all's well that ends well. Except for when they get back to the trains where Conductor gives the Toqugers bad news, but good news for me. The Toqugers are disbanded! YAY! But of course we still have at least 18 more episodes of this show left to go so not really. Next time we'll find out what President Ice Cream Bunny told Conductor. And we reveal a new twist!
Please be sure to read, comment, spread the links, re-tweet and follow me on Twitter @OnDavidsBrain! and support me on Patreon.
Super Sentai is owned by Ishinomori Productions, Toei Productions, and Bandai. History of the World Part 1 is owned by Mel Brooks and 20th Century Fox Spaceballs is owned by Mel Brooks, Brooksfilms and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. Good Burger is Owned by Paramount Pictures, Nickelodeon Movies and Tollin/ Robbins Productions Naked Gun 331/3: The Final Insult is owned by Jim Abrahams Jerry and David Zucker, and Paramount Pictures Wayne's World is owned by Lorine Michaels, NBC Films and Paramount Pictures Scanners is owned by David Cronenberg, Avco-Embassy Films, and Manson International The Langoliers TV Mini series is owned by Stephen King, Tom Holland and ABC Network Drawn Together is owned by Comedy Central, Dave Jeser, Matt Silverstein, Double Hemn, and Rough Draft Studios.
