Finished Goranger
Ah, the very first sentai. And what a beast, with 84 episodes. I went into it with a lot of expectations, some good and some bad, and I gotta say... a lot of them were right, and some weren't... but overall, it's way better than I expected! I really have a lot to talk about it, so... sorry, heh.
First of all, this is the very first sentai, so many of the series tropes come from here, and yeah, that's true. But there are good reasons for that: The tropes are really well done, and the characters are REALLY strong and leave a strong impression. After watching it, I think it's safe to say that many of the trope-only characters that came after are mere imitations of the Gorangers characters. Red is a great leader, yeah, but there's more to him! He can have an edgy side and can also be a bit impulsive at times. Blue is Hiroshi Miyauchi, and that alone would be enough for him to be a great charismatic character, but he's also a strong second in command, and at times even replaces Red, when needed. His relationship with the team's flying machines is also pretty cool. Pink is not only the girl, but also a competent explosive specialist, and more than pulls her weight. Green would normally be the "this character didn't need to exist" in many series, but the actor is good enough and they do enough with the character to justify his existence. He's the young one, but he's also unique enough to differentiate himself from Yellow.
And then there are the two Yellows. The second one was a nice character, buy way weaker than the others. He would be a good support character, but not that great as a team member. I guess the writers agreed with that, since the original yellow came back after 10 or so episodes. And, oh man, the original yellow. A character so strong, so good, it defined what an yellow is, and is still a reference today. The character is so strong, that the actor was typecast as him, which ended the actor's career and, ultimately, his life. It's a really tragic story, because Yellow is a *joy* to watch, in special when interacting with Blue. And not only that, the character interactions and relationships were *so* good. Blue and Yellow, Green and Pink, Red and Blue... The actors have so much chemistry between themselves, you believe this is a team.
About the series in general, it's clear they were trying *a lot* of different things to see what worked, and... a lot of it actually did work better than many things with modern Sentai? Many episodes felt like a spy show with costumes. Others, had more of a light-horror tone. The monsters themselves were *crazy*, and some of the situations were kinda absurd. See, Goranger was mostly episodic, with some plot elements carrying from episode to episode - Some things did Black Cross know or not the Goranger's identities or where they base is, for example, weren't really carried over. Others, like enemy generals changings and things ramping up, were carried over. There are no Mech battles on Gorangers, so the 24 minute episodes are filled with plot, and I feel that's one of the series strengths.
And then, episode 42 also does a soft-reboot on the series, where much of the equipment changes... and things become even crazier. The new finisher, presented a couple episodes later is... one of the best things in the series. People who kept up with my watch on the discord can probably agree with that.
So, at 84 episodes, and a series finished, was it worth it? Yes. I'll miss Goranger. It's a really strong series, and, while waaay longer than it needed to be, I highly recommend it to anyone who likes Showa toku. This is that, at it's best.