Samurai Equine

Hello there, my crowd! Welcome to my Weekly Musings: Red Edition. 

[I ❤ JAPAN] -- [I ❤ THE COLOR RED] -- [I ❤ CELESTIA]

   Feel free to leave a song request. Your song will eventually be featured in a future Weekly Musings entry!   

Bonsoir, my crowd!  Yeah, I am a day late. That's because I needed more time. I had a LOT of Tokusatsu to watch, and it ate the last of my free time last night. Let's talk about it...

 There is no BIG event that happened over the week we just finished. I tried to catch up to my recorded Toonami shows, mostly because I was excited to watch some One Piece now that it's back on TV. The problem is, they skipped a HUGE chunk of episodes. And I understand why they are doing this; One Piece is super far ahead in Japan, so Toonami and Funimation really want to start promoting the newer story arcs instead. However, people like me don't like missing episodes in between.  I don't mind watching those skipped episodes on my own time, but I all ready have so much on my plate. I'm afraid of falling behind yet again. I'm almost done with Gridman, and I am really interested to see how it's American adaptation stacks up since it's also a short series.

 Been keeping an eye on other things too. The hype for the next Sonic movie is growing. Hype for other movies is growing. Did you know that Fairly Odd Parents is getting a mostly live-action sequel series? Probably not what people wanted to see, but I guess Nickelodeon is free to experiment if Butch Hartman isn't in the picture anymore. There's international troubles, and I pray for a quick and peaceful resolution. But other then that, it's been pretty slow on my end. 

 GRIDMAN!  Episode 25; I hate that this episode is a clip show, but at least they are keeping the plot moving. And what a plot too! The world is changing because of all the evil attacks, the heroes are having an existential crisis about it, and the villains have gone back to targeting Gridman in their attacks as well! So far, so good. Episode 26; a perfect way to end the two-parter. We've got shipping fuel, the world knows about Gridman now, and we got the debut of King Gridman. Episode 27; a wild ride at first, topped off with a complete BS happy ending. Those kidnappers did not deserve it. Episode 28; Takeshi goes from goofball villain to full fledged creep and perv, and accidentally planting his hand in dog doodie is not enough to make him pay for it. Episode 29, holy Dio, they killed a dog!! Episode 30, a much better episode, and karma finally catches up to Takeshi with a WAY more fitting punishment.

 Zenkaiger 48: Divine Menacing!  Yep, I knew we'd have a strong finale, and we're not even done yet! It was so good to see a classic finale stance trope again. It was both epic and silly to see the two birds fighting each other; I was almost thinking it wasn't going to happen. However, I really must say that I fully do not understand how these Gears work anymore. Did I miss something? Are the Sentai Gears replicas, and the ones used by Bokkuwasu the real Sentai Worlds? That doesn't make complete sense to me. Either way, we've come a long way. The Zenkaigers are victorious and the Tojitendo Empire is defeated! But we're still not done... We've got one last hoorah to go through, and I have my thoughts on this God character, but I want to see how the finale plays out for now.

 Zenkaiger 49: Full Power Final-Stop!  Since it's the finale, I decided to go ahead and see the last episode as well. To put it best, this finale was interesting. For the most part, I am glad to see Cuttaner and Ricky back to normal. They deserved it after all this time. Stacey gets a happy ending too. I am sad that the return of Kaito/Zenkaiger's parents was kind of rushed in these last two episodes, but at least it happened. The addition of this God character is kind of lame, but not completely out of place. I assume he's the character we are going to see in Don Brothers, so I hope he gets fleshed out in future. Still, after a long journey, it's nice to see them end it not only on a happy note, but with a spin on a classic formula. I totally expected to have all the heroes going their separate directions yet again, but instead the main 5 decided to stick together as Kaito leaves the nest; and I guess Secchan is with them too.

 [ 1 / 3 ] And now, my final thoughts on the Zenkaiger TV series...  Zenkaiger is an understated Super Sentai anniversary series, and I say that for better and for worse. We all knew that it was going to be hard to top the last big one, Gokaiger. That show had TONS of Super Sentai cameos from previous generations, and it really felt like a nice reward for all the long time Sentai fans. However, we all knew that super big anniversary events like that wouldn't last forever. As time marches on decade after decade, it takes a toll. Older actors die of old age or failing health, some disappear from the public eye or just don't want to be actors anymore, etc.; and COVID was especially hard on the Tokusatsu alumni. Super Sentai has the advantage of being a team of heroes, so there's more people who could come back, but options can still become limited with older and older generations. Eventually, the franchise would HAVE to do something different. Enter Zenkaiger. Yep, this was different. Maybe not good, but not bad either, just basic.

 [ 2 / 3 ] When the show was starting, there was hype going around for it. The fandom was hyped knowing that most of the Rangers weren't even going to be humans this time. We were hyped over how the leader isn't Red and his helmet is designed after AkaRanger from the GoRangers. Hyped over so many awesome things! And as the first few episodes aired, it really matched the energy we all expected. It was fresh, it was entertaining, it was different--! But sadly, that energy didn't last long. Eventually, the show fell into status quo territory, and things just got slow and dull. I predicted the ending would be great at least, and I was right, but I am sad this show was mostly a by-the-numbers MOTW show. What little over-arching story or mystery it had didn't stay compelling, waiting to resolve everything until the end. I can forgive not doing much with the Super Sentai alumni nor the arsenal designed after them, but I at least wanted more story. They had PLENTY of room to deliver an above average or compelling story if they weren't relying on fan pandering, and that just didn't happen... Not that any of that is bad, they just had a chance to make an example for future anniversary TV shows to follow, and they wasted that shot.

 [ 3 / 3 ] Near the end of the show, we got a God character. He was not at all what I was expecting (I thought it was Gege mind-swapping with others for some reason), and his inclusion was lame. It's not out of place per se; when you mess with a multiverse, it's always possible to run into a god of creation. Still, his inclusion was VERY last minute. As we await for what's next, I do look forward to seeing how the finale of Zenkaiger affects Don Brothers. I don't expect much; in fact I fully expect God Zenkaiger (the God character of this show) to bow out after the first episode or two, but I would love to be pleasantly surprised. He had very little time to be set up in this show, so I would love to see him fleshed out as a full character in Don Brothers, perhaps as a mentor character. Either way, we're making history just by having one show be a sequel to the previous one, even if it's a loose sequel. And while it would have been nice for Zenkaiger to have another big team up moment with all the Super Sentai of the past, it's never too late. We're expecting a Zenkaiger VS Kiramager movie, but we could still have a Zenkaiger V-Cinema movie or something. You never know what might happen. For now, Zenkaiger left me feeling mild, so I hope Don Brothers can really blow me away!  I don't even know if anyone will sub it in this current Tokusatsu climate, but if yes, then I'll be first in line.

 ReVice 17: Evolving in Sin!  This is a great way to stir up tension and drama. The cliffhanger from the last episode was left dangling, to be explored some other time. It's cool to see that they are giving Julio some backstory instead of just making him the blindly loyal servant type. But of course, the biggest thing here is Ikki/Revi's story. I feel for his desire to save lives rather than kill them. However, seeing his new super form fail to save a life is so much worse than having the power burn you alive like George warned. I guess his sync with Vice was not perfect after all. I actually feel bad for Ikki; he must be suffering right now...

 ReVice 18: Julio's Requiem!  I didn't have to watch two episodes in a row, I just felt like it to catch up faster. ...And holy cow, forget what I said, I guess Ikki got burned after all! If you didn't feel anything for Julio before, you should feel double for him now. He lost his powers just as he evolved it to the next stage, he temporarily lost some of his memories, but more then that, he lost his friend from his school days. This was a story of tragedy. At least he has Lady Aguilera, and Ikki/Revi's story ends better. He finally synced up with Vice and was able to draw out the full power of his new form. It feels weird that we are getting another story arc of Ikki learning to trust Vice again, but hopefully this won't happen too many more times going forward.

 And now, it's... TOKUSATSU MOVIE SPECIAL TIME!  We're back at it with ReVice Mystery 3. I knew I recognized the actor, but that was not the role I was expecting him to reprise! Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back the Snake Orphnoch from Faiz! Over all, this episode was more plot driven, and I enjoyed it way more. And also, did I call it or what? I knew Hiromi/Demons was not gonna die that easily.

That's all for now, my crowd.  Take care, and dare to dream. 

I love discovering Japanese music, especially in context. By that, I mean learning what songs are popular on Japanese radio and streaming platforms. In America and western countries, we have no idea. We just find out about music blindly, either through anime or through random circumstance. We have little to no idea if the songs or artists gaining traction are popular or indie/underground. But after watching some Japanese people discuss it, I have discovered a popular oldie that is still remembered even now. This song is called "Love Is Over" by Ouyang Fei Fei. ...Yes, she is of Chinese decent, but she had some crossover success in Japan for a while too.