Given the title of this post shows that I'm recapping two episodes at
once I suppose it's time for everyone to collect their bets. Much as
I would have liked to keep the one episode at a time pace for sentai
recaps life has shown that's simply unrealistic. Between regular
posts, school, contributions, and what not I wouldn't be able to keep
that pace without cutting every other topic and none of us want that.
However I will be keeping the new format going forward as I think it
works quite nicely. And I will occasionally do solo episode posts for
major stuff like premiers, finales, and some classic highlights.
Right now we have the second half of Sentai Strongest Battle to
wrap up. Will it go out with a bang or leave us scratching our heads
in confusion? Let's find out.
Story:
When we last left off, Takaharu had been revealed under the mask of
Gaisorg which leads our heroes to guess that the big purple knight
must be some sort of sentient object. The damn thing ditches the red
Ninninger and nabs Stinger in his place who is eventually freed by
the others. Marvelous then wears the helmet in order to find his
captive friends. Why this thing kept people captive after they proved
not to be the strongest makes zero sense but oh well.
Going back to Stinger, along with the help of Dekamaster, he finds
further evidence that something is afoot on planet nemesis and that
they are unable to call for help or summon robots. Both him and the
big blue doggy were sent to this contest undercover to figure out
what is going on. During Stinger's time under Gaisorg's control,
Dekamaster attempts to decode some date for him only to be forced
into fighting Kaguya who finally gets to do something as she reveals
her dreams of a restaurant that brings families together.
Also of note; the two Ryusoulger who've been wandering a cave
system finally get invited to the contest. That's honestly about
everything of major importance from episode 3.
Once all that preamble is out of the way the real threat becomes
clear. While planet Nemesis is a legit place to battle for your
dreams it turns out that Rita, who I mistakenly called Rika last
time, wishes to resurrect Ultimate Great Satan in order to destroy
the universe. She uses the gathered pieces of stone to do just that.
As you might imagine a great deal of the finale is team weirdo's
efforts to destroy this grand evil without the aid of big robots.
Instead they use a variety of tacky power-ups to accomplish the job
which leaves them in no shape to deal with Rita once she suits up in
the Gaisorg armor.
Out of nowhere the green and black Ryusoulgers finally arrive and
defeat Rika, effectively winning the contest dispute not having done
anything of value thus far. Takaharu gives a small piece of stone to
Yamato in the hopes it might help that sick/dead kid which we never
get closure on. As everyone says their goodbyes somebody runs off
with Gaisorg's helmet and a young man, I think the red Ryusoulger,
obtains an object of power from the cave the others had been
traipsing through.
Characters:
The trio of Yamato, Takaharu, and Marvelous don't get quite as much
attention in this latter-half so Kagura and Stinger can finally do
something. In her case she has a fairly dull fight with Dekamaster
only to reveal her underwhelming dream and get her butt beat by
Gaisorg within seconds. Stinger at least gets to bond slightly with
the other characters and does his best to save Rita from the path of
self-destruction via some very dramatic speaches.
Cameos also start to dry up as fewer rangers are around to
participate in this challenge. Dekamaster, whatever his real name is,
was sort of a bore. Luka gets a bum deal spending a significant
portion of her small screen time sweaty and chained up which is the
sort of thing I expect from this director. At least she gets to
reclaim her dignity and destroy the signal jammer keeping the team
from reaching outside help. Honestly I don't want to bag on a
mini-series for not having amazing personal moments but this show
clearly didn't know what to do with even this small wealth of
characters.
Villains:
Gaisorg still makes little to no sense. He's written off as a
sentient weapon from a lost civilization and almost cast off until
Rita wears him in the final battle. There's nothing to showcase how
this might play into the forthcoming series other than somebody
running off with the helmet. Maybe something worthwhile will be made
of him soon but as of this moment I'm not holding out hope.
Speaking of Rita and her plan to resurrect Great Satan... well I had
blanked on the idea of there being some potential call back to
Zyuranger. I suppose it makes sense since that was the first
dinosaur themed sentai and we're about to have a third but it's
important to remember that outside of serving as the base for Power
Rangers that series was pretty terrible and not the sort of thing
to use for a franchise-wide special-event. Plus using the name Rita
as a reference make little sense since Bandora summed Great Satan
while her Americanized counterpart Rita summed Lokar or some shit
like that.
Aside from ranting about semantics I'll admit Rita made for a unique
change of pace from most recent villains. Her backstory of growing up
in a lawless cruel place where notions like justice and heroism
didn't exist fueling her desire to destroy the entire universe made
all the difference. Sure it's a very dramatic reaction to a lousy
upbringing but actually having a motive is so much better than the
vast share of Sentai baddies who are evil just for the hell of it.
That's the mentality of Great Satan who stands around and growls
cause he's evil.
Action:
One might think for a small show that lacks characterization there
would be plenty of reason to make up for it with action. Sadly
nothing in this second half of the series matches up to the one
against three bout from episode 2. Kagura's big fight with Dekamaster
was fairly lame as were the multiple small fights against generic
goons. Then there's the big battle against Satan which consists of
lots of pointless explosions with little in the way of choreography.
That same kind of pointless fighting continues with the introduction
of the Ryusoulger’s as their battle is essentially an advertisement
for what they’ll have to offer once their show properly begins. It
wasn’t fun or entertaining and definitely wasn’t helped by the
guys showing up to steal the glory after everyone else saved the
universe. Most likely their actual show will have decent enough
writing and direction so as to avoid such pitfalls in the future.
Review:
Going
back to our first review of this mini shows that little has changed
during its four week existence. While it may not be the worst Sentai
around there isn’t a ton to recommend.
From the strange choice of characters to lacking action and a story
that wrapped up without any meaningful impact. Even when compared
directly against other small-scale Sentai projects this comes up
short as there was more entertainment
value in Dino Force Brave
which was made by the same director as Strongest Battle.
The
idea of making a special series to say goodbye to the Heisei period
was sound but man did this ever feel rushed and cheap. Making a
tribute to a series with concepts like teamwork and giant robots only
to largely ignore those ideas makes no sense. Having fights on an
alien planet take place in abandoned warehouses, parking lots, and
rock quarries stinks of having a low-budget as does the list of blink
and you’ll miss it in-costume cameos from past actors. There
was so much in the way of good intentions here all for naught. Worst
of all it nearly damages the upcoming show by shoehorning those
characters in as rude show-offs. As far as any sort of rating or
ranking at least this was better than Kyuranger.
Soon
enough we’ll see of Ryusoulger
can revitalize Sentai. I’m eager to see what the new production
staff can do with the seemingly stale and safe dinosaur theme. Most
of all I want to see a show that can start solid and keep that pace
going without any weird slumps or arbitrary pauses. Won’t
be long until we have a hint of what’s in store. Keep those fingers
crossed kiddies.
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