Gokaiger (2011-2012) Series Overview

Another day, another Series Overview. This time we’ll be taking a look at the most recently concluded Super Sentai show, Gokaiger, which was also the 35th anniversary joint. With anniversaries, the show in general can be hit or miss, so what did we think overall about how this set of spandex-ed heroes turned out? Keep reading after the jump.

So, Gokaiger is basically the story of a set of space pirates who are busy searching for The Greatest Treasure in the Universe while dealing with a pesky Zangyack Empire who forced the other 34 Sentai Teams to give up their power to fend off up until the start of the show. The Gokaigers themselves have a Decade-like ability to take on the forms and powers of said previous Sentai teams via the Ranger Keys, a.k.a. The Greatest Toy Marketing Ploy in the Universe, which gives them a great deal of versatility as they are not restricted by color and can even use 6th Ranger and Auxiliary Hero Keys as well. One thing that Toei did though was keep the Gokaigers powerful on their own which I think worked much better than Decade who tended to be too relient on the Final Form Attack Cards until near the end of the TV Series. Yes you would get the obligatory transformation sequence into whichever Sentai team they wanted to feature this week, but most of the time they made it a point to use the Final Wave, Gokai Scramble, and Gokai Galleon Buster as a means to finish off Kaijin.

Another aspect of the show I think that was handled very well was the characterizations of the main team, as they really did come off as a bunch of space-fairing pirates who were truly wondering why Earth held The Greatest Treasure in the Universe, especially judging by the first episode. For someone who was very much turned off by Goseiger’s soft-and-cuddly-by-the-numbers team, seeing the Gokaigers act like the overall @$$holes they are was a refreshing change of pace. Now don’t get me wrong, a lot of the tough act was in many ways a facade depending on the situation, but for the most part they were a team that until the last act tended to care more about themselves and only battled Zangyack to make sure they didn’t get in their way of obtaining the Sentai Great Powers. To break it down via the individual characters:

Captain Marvelous: One of my favorite Red Sentai to come out in a while. Brash, loyal, and willing to do very crazy things to get his way (see Final Basco fight for a awesome example of this). He is also fun to watch in battle as he tended to be the “All-Rounder” of the group with exceptional proficiency in Sword and Pistol.

Joe: The traditional cool Blue Sentai, I actually like the history between himself and Baizorg, and their duels were always a treat to watch as they were fought with full emotion on Joe’s part. The foodie-related parts of the show with him were always hilarious too as they helped soften his character and make him more appealing as a Gokaiger.

Luka: Everytime I see this Yellow Sentai I simply think of her as the God of War Sentai when she has two Gokai Sabres, plus like the other Gokaigers, her backstory is also pretty full of sorrow with the Zangyack at the core. It was also nice to see another brash Yellow Sentai Girl (which did lead to some hilarity in the Gokaiger VS. Gosieger flick)

Ahim: I would say her story is probably the saddest in the show as she was forced to deal with her entire planet and family being wiped out by Zangyack, which actually melds her into a very complex character when this past contrasts with her usual calm and ladylike demeanor. As a result episodes that tended to have her either as the primary focus or as the co-focus character-wise tended to be my personal favorite when the staff wasn’t in TRIBUTE MODE (more on that later….)

Don: The character who probably has endured the most ridicule simply for his callout pose, this Green Sentai is probably the most fun when it came to the member’s fighting styles, as he struck me as being Jackie Chan with Gokai Guns. His centric-episodes tended to lean around him finding his spirit for battle as he had the lightest of the backstories of the group, but he was always the greatest amount of comic relief.

To be honest there was only one member of the group I had a problem with and you should probably already have an idea, right? Here, lemme just give you a reminder:

Gai: Yeesh, you know, I like the Gokai Silver concept, I even like Gai’s backstory, but what in the world was the Gokaiger staff thinking by having Gai constantly be an open-mouthed, loud, overacting nutcase of a Sentai Team Member?! The shtick was okay the first episode he appeared in, but by the Boukenger episodes it was really ‘effing annoying. To an extent the only reason why I tolerated his character was due to the fact that he was instrumental in changing the Gokaigers’ thoughts and feeling towards the Earth and the other Super Sentai in general due to him being the only Earthling of the group. I have to wonder how tired the actor who played Gai got as the series wore on having to over-exaggerate EVERY SINGLE MOTION AND SOUND COMING OUT OF HIS BODY.

So, other than Derpy Gai aside, the Gokaiger team was very strong indeed. I wish I could say as much for the Zangyack Empire, but then again it is kinda hard to develop your main baddies when you’re having to shove in tribute episodes for half of the series’ duration. I got more feelings of a well-developed character from Jealousshitto  than from Akados Gil. Because of how weak the Zangyacks were handled, I should bring to light one of my main gripes with the overall story: Basco should have been the Endgame Villain.

It just makes more sense to have Basco as the overall baddie, as he set many of the current events in motion by betraying the Red Pirates, royally screwed with the Gokaigers on many occasions via either his trolling or simply overpowering them with his true Kaijin form. I don’t think it would’ve been a problem to pull a Kamen Rider where the heroes defeat the evil organization only to deal with one super-powerful individual who pushes the group to their limit. When it comes to the comparison between Basco and Akados, I feel that Akados is truly inferior as he was simply a creature of power that tends to be overcome via Sentai teamwork rather than the balance that Basco represented between Power, Speed, and Intelligence. His only real weakness (and his undoing) was his tendency to isolate himself simply for personal gain, leading him to betray and burn bridges over and over again, leading to his final defeat by Marvelous. Speaking of that duel, that would’ve fit so much more as the final battle rather than what we got, a simple show-off for the Gokai-Oh and the various Mech combinations. That duel simply packed more emotion and could’ve really driven the point home about the Gokaigers and the bond they have, but that would put them to the forefront rather than the background as intended for the great TRIBUTE MODE.

So the setup for Gokaiger was that you would get an episode or two of personal stuff related to the Gokaigers, then they would engage TRIBUTE MODE where all focus would be on whichever actor/character from a past Sentai show would show up and try to show the Gokaigers the “proper” way of being a Sentai team, which would usually get ignored for the most part and then fulfilled in the Gokaiger’s Don’t-Give-a-Crap way, and said past Sentai member just going like “Aw shucks, they’re just hard on the outside!” It followed this beat for a good chunk of the series until Toei figured out, “Hey, we should probably get the other actors to suit back up again and participate in the battles, it made Goseiger look…..decent.”, leading to the Hurricaneger tribute. Now I will admit, without TRIBUTE MODE, I would’ve never gained insight into most of the past Sentai teams, especially those before Zyuranger, but I do think they overdid it a bit and as a result the narrative between the Gokaigers and Zangyack was very much weak as a result. To be honest, if it wasn’t for the strong performances of the actors behind the Gokaigers, one would really think this series would be a failure.

So is it a success or a dud? I would say success, simply because it would be a great show to show Sentai noobs who had only been exposed to Toku via Power Rangers. Despite my personal grumblings about where they took certain characters and concepts, it was an enjoyable ride for the most part, now for the Super Hero Taisen flick with Decade. Yeah. I guess we can see who will win the contest between who’s hair can get the most fab between Tsukasa, Marvelous, and Gentaro. GOKAI CHANGE!