We could already tell it was going to be a far more colorful Sentai than its predecessors. With its suit designs incorporating animals and its animal/vehicle mascots, it was clear this was going to make more of an effort to skew younger than either Boukenger or Gekiranger did. When we started watching it a few days after episode 1 aired in Japan (pretty much right as the subtitles became available), we couldn't believe our eyes.
This show was baaaaaaad. The acting was horrendous, the writing and post-production work seemed amatuerish, it was trying way too hard to appeal to young tykes and the characters just didn't seem that likable. We got through 8 episodes before my brother and I just couldn't sit through anymore and we unceremoniously dropped it, the first time we had ever done that for a currently-airing tokusatsu series. We also dropped Kamen Rider Kiva around the same time, but we eventually finished that sometime after Kamen Rider Decade began. It's been over five years and I still haven't watched Go-Onger again. That is, until now.
I don't like dropping tokusatsu shows. The way I figure it, if I could get through Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger and Kikaider 01, I can get through anything. So I decided to download a batch torrent of Go-Onger and give this show a second shot.
Five episodes in and it's still kind of terrible.
The show is helmed by head writer Junki Takegami. Although he is best known for writing several episodes of the One Piece, Naruto and Pokémon anime shows, he was also the "genius" behind the aforementioned Gaoranger. He was also behind series composition of Megaranger and GoGo V, but I haven't seen those shows from beginning to end yet. Anyways, it's very clear this is the same guy who wrote Gaoranger. The characters are introduced in a similar way to the first episode of Gaoranger. The Sentai has already been established by the time the show begins, but it's not complete yet. Whereas GaoRed was the odd man out in the older series, this time around it's Go-OnGreen and Go-OnBlack. However, instead of GaoRed being "chosen" to become a Gaoranger, Go-OnGreen just really thinks they look cool while Black just wants to...show them how to really fight? Or something? His intentions aren't really clear, he just comes off as a dick for no real reason.
The two of them don't become members of the Go-Ongers until the next episode when they "prove themselves worthy" which, to me, rings hollow since just earlier in the episode Gunpei (that's Go-OnBlack) KIDNAPPED the team's mascot, Bomper, and the team's transformation devices. Yup, real heroics going on right there.
Oh, so I don't get to be a Go-Onger, huh? We'll see about THAT.
This is a show that wanted its team assembled as quickly as possible, and by episode five we're already starting to see the friction between these mismatched young people go away. Compare that to Jetman when it took that concept and allowed the team to grow until they finally became comfortable as a team until well over halfway through the series. This is mostly due to Renn's (Go-OnBlue) blind optimism when characters like Hant (Go-OnGreen) deliberately fails to show up and help the team fight because he's trying to impress some women with his crepe-making skills (yeah, real...lady-killing).
We also have Saki (Yellow) who I swear only knows how to say "Smile smile!" when faced with a tough situation and then there's Sosuke. Our "Fiery Red" of the series, Sosuke is far, FAR less endearing than Dekaranger's Ban or Gekiranger's Jan at this point because he just seems like a guy who hates to be opposed for any reason. He's confrontational, showy, and has a tendency to yell for no reason. Ban was just used to working by himself, and Jan was helplessly naive. Sosuke's just an ass.
Sosuke does not approve of one of the show's cooler effects
The Engine partners seem pretty cool, but they just don't seem very well developed yet. Still, this is obviously inspired by the Den-O craze and yet it feels more suited here than it ever did in Kamen Rider Kiva. The villains are just your typical one-dimensional Sentai villains who want to rule the world and yet act completely incompetent. I wish more people could write Sentai villains like Hirohisa Soda and Toshiki Inoue could.
Okay, not all of the Engines are great. This guy just says "Amigo!" repeatedly for no reason.
What really strikes me about this show is the truly awful dubbing work. For those who don't know, Sentai has traditionally been dubbed over in post-production ever since the franchise began in the late '70s. This is usually because of background noises like explosions and combat tend to drown the dialogue out. However, for some reason, the ADR work here is exceptionally amateurish. The dialogue never sounds like it's actually coming from the characters' mouths and very little effort is made to actually make it seem like they're outdoors. It has to be heard to be believed, but it's startling and jarring.
Well, tune in next time after I watch episodes 6-10. I can't really say much about the show now since it's still getting its footing but its prospects don't look too bright.
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