Slogging Through Engine Sentai Go-Onger Part 2: Toys. Toys Everywhere

Sosuke is a stupid asshole. Not only does he spy on Saki for no reason except to make sure she doesn't even deserve to look at another guy (it's not even implied Sosuke is jealous. He just wants her to remain away from dating), he then makes a painfully strange jump that after just ONE date with a flutist and seeing her fixing her hair in front of a shop window that coincidentally had a wedding dress inside must mean she wishes to marry him. Plus, his actor does a really wretched job this episode. He overacts more than usual and doesn't deliver any of his lines convincingly. Then again, it's not like he's given much to work with.

That paragraph above contains the thoughts I had to write down while I was watching episode 6. I was so dumbstruck by how much of a dick Sosuke was that I couldn't just let those thoughts stick, I had to get them down as soon as I possibly could. Thing is, the future episodes continue to do him no favors.

Pictured above: the "jerk" of the group and the actual jerk of the group.

In episode 8 we meet Sosuke's pit crew chief (who, even though the actor looks to be in his '50s, does one of those stupid "Ehhhhh?!" reactions) who has to give Sosuke some advice after he, you guessed it, has acted like a complete dick to Speedor because the rust disease Speedor caught in episode 7 wasn't wearing off fast enough. Of course, Sosuke learns his lesson but not before acting like a spoiled child through a majority of the episode.

....It's not funny.

Man, it's like watching an abused pet who still loves his owner.

In this batch of episodes, we really get toy-crazy as well. We get two new mecha combinations and a new Engine partner, Carrigator. Get it? Cuz he's an alligator...and a car. Snicker snicker ha ha. Anyways, in episode 7, we're introduced to Carrigator who seems to be attacking the Go-Ongers because he thinks they're the bad guys. Turns out Gaiark just lied to him, taking advantage of the fact that the Gian Race, which Carrigator is a part of, does not interact much with the rest of the Engine World. It's a case of been there, done that with this episode but at the end we get a new mecha combination when Carrigator combines with Gunpherd and Birca to create the Go-Onger's second mecha: Gunbir-O.

That brings me to the mecha designs for this show. While the Engines themselves look pretty decent, the combinations just look like a mess. It's weird seeing a mecha have not one set of eyes, but at least four. In the case of Engine-O, BearRV making up the torso looks off especially when you see BearRV bend because it's obviously made out of different material from the rest of the suit, probably to give the suit actor room to move his spine. The arms on Gunbir-O are obtrusive and don't look practical at all and it seems the chest plate is a little too big which makes it hard to see its face, as you can see above. They're not the worse mecha designs out there (looking at you, SamuraiHaOh), but they're just not that impressive to look at in action.

Anyways, you may notice I said we receive a second combination. In episode 10, the three Gaiark generals follow up a plan from the preceding episode and create a Banki monster that can copy the abilities of both Engine-O and Gunbir-O. To retaliate, Renn modifies the mecha (with the help of some handy instruction manuals), allowing all 6 to combine together. The result is Engine-O G6 Formation and the results are...well, about what you expect.

Go on and do what? ANSWER ME,  6 YEAR OLD SENTAI.

Yup, 7 sets of eyes. Also, for some reason Engine-O G6 seems awfully angry. Its face has a very distinct frown, maybe it has something to do with that headpiece that's far too large that it has to wear. I can't wait to see if this mecha is ever put in a situation where it has to pick up something. But it's easy to root for the Go-Ongers in this episode because the Banki monster makes unfathomably awful mirror puns.

And yet it's still not the worst thing her name's been attached to.

Also, for some reason, the Gaiark generals get drunk this episode. I might be able to accept Kegalesia getting drunk since she seems to be part human, but Yogostein and Kitaneidas are 100% machine. How they could possibly get drunk off of wine is not only beyond me, but is beyond basic human reasoning. It's not even oil that they're drinking, it's obviously wine. Well, whatever, expecting logic in this show is like expecting effort. It's simply not there.

The only episode that was pretty decent out of these five was episode 9. In this episode, Hant and Saki are transported into Garbage World by Lens Banki and its in this episode where the writers start to lay down some more groundwork on the show's "plot". We learn about the 11 dimensions, including Machine World and Human World, as well as the aforementioned Garbage World. We also find out that Gaiark has the ability to transform humans into their minions, called Uguts, but I don't expect this to be followed up since the humans transformed into Uguts somehow turn back into normal when Lens Banki is defeated. It's still not a great episode, but it's more watchable than the rest.

Observe, a gag which has never been seen in anything ever before.

So that's that for episodes 6-10. Tune in next time as I go into completely uncharted territory with this show; yes, I'll be seeing the next 5 episodes all for the very first time. Fun times await.