Finished Denziman
This is a good series. First few episodes were kinda eh, but most of the things after 10 were pretty exciting, not many dull moments. I feel this is where Sentai started becoming a bit more serialized in a way - there's a overall plot with the Planet Denzi, and some sense of continuity. It's a surprisingly consistent series, for it's age. Many series that came before and after didn't really have as much care for plot consistency as this!
The villains are good. Machiko Soga is great as Queen Hedorian (so good she comes back on Sun Vulcan!), Mira and Kera are there, and General Hedoria is a *great* commander, with many incredible moments. The actor was also Japanese Spiderman, and hey, the Toku experience probably helped a lot here. Later in the series, there's also a new enemy, Banriki, that... Has his great moments, but does nothing for most of his time, unfortunately. When he's acting, it's always a dire moment for the Denziman.
The characters are also pretty good. The focus episodes are very uneven, with Blue getting a lot of them and being the second focus on many of the others, Pink getting a good number, Red getting some, Green getting a couple at the start and then being forgotten near the end, and yellow getting a grand total of... three. See, I love Kenji Ohba's acting too, and this is easily one of his best roles, but... the other characters aren't bad too! Heck, Yellow barely had any focus but really shined when he had something to do!
Oh yeah, fun fact about Denziman: It has three costume change episodes (For Pink, Blue and General Hedoria!), and three episodes *in a row* with crucifixions, including one with *kids* being crucified.
So... do I recommend it? Yeah, it's good... but there are better series to watch first if you want to get into Showa. My recommendation would still be something from Dynaman-Fiveman first, probably.
And now. I'll finally start *the final sentai*. Turboranger it is!
This is a good series. First few episodes were kinda eh, but most of the things after 10 were pretty exciting, not many dull moments. I feel this is where Sentai started becoming a bit more serialized in a way - there's a overall plot with the Planet Denzi, and some sense of continuity. It's a surprisingly consistent series, for it's age. Many series that came before and after didn't really have as much care for plot consistency as this!
The villains are good. Machiko Soga is great as Queen Hedorian (so good she comes back on Sun Vulcan!), Mira and Kera are there, and General Hedoria is a *great* commander, with many incredible moments. The actor was also Japanese Spiderman, and hey, the Toku experience probably helped a lot here. Later in the series, there's also a new enemy, Banriki, that... Has his great moments, but does nothing for most of his time, unfortunately. When he's acting, it's always a dire moment for the Denziman.
The characters are also pretty good. The focus episodes are very uneven, with Blue getting a lot of them and being the second focus on many of the others, Pink getting a good number, Red getting some, Green getting a couple at the start and then being forgotten near the end, and yellow getting a grand total of... three. See, I love Kenji Ohba's acting too, and this is easily one of his best roles, but... the other characters aren't bad too! Heck, Yellow barely had any focus but really shined when he had something to do!
Oh yeah, fun fact about Denziman: It has three costume change episodes (For Pink, Blue and General Hedoria!), and three episodes *in a row* with crucifixions, including one with *kids* being crucified.
So... do I recommend it? Yeah, it's good... but there are better series to watch first if you want to get into Showa. My recommendation would still be something from Dynaman-Fiveman first, probably.
And now. I'll finally start *the final sentai*. Turboranger it is!
