Gougou Sentai Boukenger

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Blackcondorguy
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Gougou Sentai Boukenger

Post by Blackcondorguy »

Plot
Working for the SGS organization (short for Search Guard Service), five adventurers search the world to find and collect powerful treasures called precious. Their mission is also to prevent various people from the vile Negative Syndicate to get a hold on the precious and use them for evil.

The Boukengers
Akashi Satoru-Boukenred
Leader of the Boukenger. He's a former famous treasure hunter, who turned to SGS after a tragic event occured. He leads his team with a cool head but is also very passionate about adventure. The others call him chief.

Inou Masumi-Boukenblack
Also a former treasure hunter, who's not very interested in being a Boukenger, but changes his mind after being saved by Akashi. He's the rebel of the group. In episode 1, he and Natsuki just joined the boukengers, so he's basically a rookie.

Mogami Souta-Boukenblue
A former spy who turned to Adventure after realizing the errors of his way. He's also a womanizer and filled with social skills. He has issues trusting the rookies, especially Masumi, who's nothing but a spy in his opinion.

Mamiya Natsuki-Boukenyellow
Masumi's assistant in his treaser hunter days, they both join the Boukengers shortly before episode 1 begins. Masumi found her while exploring ruins. She has no memory of her past before that, except for a bracelet she wears. Natsuki is high spirited and childish.

Nishihori Sakura-Boukenpink
A former special forces agent. Sakura is the coolest member of the team and often appears as emotionless. She is the de facto second leader of the team.


Allies
Professor Makino
The technician in charge of all boukenger material. He repairs machines, weapons and changers when needs be and regularly creates new machines. He's also interested in treasures and ancient civilization like Atlantis.

Mr Voice
A sort of cone smiley who's SGS liaison with the Boukenger. So he's the one who gives them missions and tells them of Negative treats or precious appearance.


Negative Syndicate
The negative syndicate is not an organization in itself, but the mix of various enemy clans opposed to the boukengers. So, their is not one regular villain cast but actually several villain groups.

Godom Bunmei (Godom Civilization)
An ancient civilization that the Boukengers discover in the 1st episode.
Daishinkan Gaja
He's actually the sole survivor of Godom. He has strong magical abilities that allow him to create stone soldiers named Kaasu, among other things. He's the most regular enemy of the Boukengers and sometimes offer his aid to other Negative clans.

Jaryuu Ichizoku (Jaryuu Clan)
A race of dragon-like humanoids, very strong but not that clever. Their ultimate goal is to revert earth to what it was in the time of dinosaurs, claiming that its theirs.
Souzouo Ryuuon
Leader of the Jaryuu Clan, Ryuuon is one of the strongest enemies of the Boukengers. He's a rival to Boukenred, and often confronts him in one on one sword fights.

Dark Shadow
A clan of ninjas collecting precious to sell them to high bidders.
Maboroshi no Gekkou
A blue owl, leader of Dark Shadow. That might sound ridiculous but he's kind of scary in his own way. He knows jutsu (ninja techniques) that can turn the tsukumogami into giants.
Yami no Yaiba
A ninja warrior, firm believer that darkness is the strongest force in the universe. He has history with Boukenblack. And he's also is a very cool villain.
Kaze no Shizuka
She's the childish villain, which is a recurring archetype in the sentai series. She's good at disguises and is somehow Boukenblue's rival. She's often the one to lead Tsukumogamis.
Tsukumogami
Monsters created by Gekkou from various objects.


Catchphrases :
During roll call, every boukenger anounces his nickname :
Boukenred - Atsuki boukensha (fiery adventurer)
Boukenblack - Hayaki boukensha (fast adventurer)
Boukenblue - Takaki boukensha (high-up adventurer)
Boukenyellow - Tsuyoki boukensha (strong adventurer)
Boukenpink - Fukaki boukensha (deep adventurer, I think it's a reference to her driving Gogo Marine)
Boukensilver - Mabayuki boukensha (dazzling adventurer)
Their motto is "hatenaki bouken spirits" which translatess "endless adventure spirits"

These are not really catchphrase, but it can be noted that :
Natsuki always refers to herself using her name, which doesn't sound as weird in japanese as it sounds in english. She also calls everyone but Masumi "*name*-san". Both helps to reinforce her childish persona.
Masumi calls Sakura "Sakura nee-san", which means literaly "Big sis Sakura". The fact that Natsuki doesn't call him "Masumi-san" indicates that they're both close, but also younger than the others.
The boukengers sometimes play word games, which consist of finding a word begining with the last syllable of the previous player's word. For exemple, one player says "Machi" (city), the next player can say "chigau" (false) and the next player will have to find a word begininge with U. It's way easier to play this game in japanese than in other languages since japanese words are made of very distinct syllables.


Machines
They're called Gogo machine in the series. The principle is that of inter-changeable parts a la Gaoranger. I assume it has a lot of commercial interest.
I will list the machines as follows :
n.x Machine name (pilot name)
--->combine (with machine name) to form robot name

n.1 Gogo dump (boukenred)
n.2 Gogo formula (boukenblack)
n.3 Gogo gyro (boukenblue)
n.4 Gogo dozer (boukenyellow)
n.5 Gogo marine (boukenpink)
--->combine to form Daibouken

Other show special feature
All the villains designs were inspired by mechas from past sentai series.

There is a short presentation of every sentai show at the end of each episode. Later, the presentation focuses on themes like robots or sixth sentai character.

Various cultural references from legends, tales and so on. Also, references to adventure movies such as Indiana Jones.

Besides Tsukumogami, only a few characters have the ability to grow giant, so it's funny to see how the writers manage to introduce robot fights.


Reasons to watch
A great job was done with the characters, so that the subplots around them are interesting enough to make you want to see them through. I think this is the main reason why you should watch the show.
Also there is a big deal of mecha with various combinations, so if you're into that, you definitely should watch it.
I really think you should watch this show if you're looking for a sentai with cool characters, catchy overall stories and good episode plots. Also, it doesn't hurt that Boukenred is an old-style leader figure, which was not really the standard in recent sentai series.
Besides, you should watch the show if you like old sentai series because this one really has an old-school feel to it, in a good way.
Last edited by Blackcondorguy on Mon Mar 02, 2009 1:59 am, edited 1 time in total.
wanmoke
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Re: Gougou Sentai Boukenger

Post by wanmoke »

Pretty good. Just a couple things(mistakes in spelling mostly.)

BoukenBlue's catchphrase is Takaki Boukensha, not Tadaki.

Their motto is Hatenaki Bouken Spirits

The word game they play is called "Shiritori" and it literally means "butt chasing"(like chasing the end)

That's all I saw.
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Blackcondorguy
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Favorite series: Kamen Rider 555
2nd Favorite Series: Timeranger
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Re: Gougou Sentai Boukenger

Post by Blackcondorguy »

Corrected. Thanks!
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