I finally had a chance to watch this, and I'm pretty much in agreement with Takenoko here. It wasn't a 5/5 perfect movie, but it was a solid, enjoyable production. Perhaps this is because it got to start with developed characters rather than try to fit itself into the series' arcs, but the movie was well paced, well directed, and it knew exactly what it was doing from start to end. Maybe if the series itself had this clear of a vision, it would have been a stronger series overall, rather than the mediocre muddle we got in the end. (Plus this was better than Ninninger Returns. Like way,
way better)
Overall, take is spot-on about this movie being too reliant on wrapping things up from the series. These Returns movies are great, but the series should be able to stand on its own. If anything was purposely left unresolved for the Returns movie, then that's a lousy thing to do. On the other hand, if they just screwed up and didn't get there during the series, then they're incompetent (but perhaps it's better to be incompetent than malicious). On the positive side however, I'm generally pleased with how they went about things. I could have gone for Leo not losing his match with Sela as a double KO (just leave him bruised), but otherwise it was handled well, and I appreciate that at least they didn't both fall at the same time.
I also liked that they brought back the condor kid from the movie. Granted, he didn't have a massive role, but I'll take it. What little he did I'd argue is better executed here than it was from the movie, as there was a clear purpose behind everything.
Otherwise my one real problem with the plot was the villain's plan. We never actually saw anyone buy one of these jewels. So what makes them so valuable? Do you get to suck the lifeforce out of everyone and live forever? Otherwise they're just big rocks, which aren't exactly in short supply on Earth. At times it reads more like a kidnapping scheme, except sanitized by turning people into jewels. Even then, that the bit about taking the destitute gamblers is not especially evil...
Also, I could have done without bringing back Genis's lackeys. But they all sucked anyhow, so that's just me. (But I did enjoy having Jagd back!)
More importantly however, this movie set up a very important question that never gets answered: what do the Jyuohgers do with all of the money they won?! They earned that money fair and square, even after the villain tried to cheat. So now they've got hundreds of millions (if not billions) of Yen! Does Yamato become a rich playboy environmentalist? Does Tusk start a chain of bookstores? Does Sela start her own school? (pun intended)
Finally, I can't put my thumb on it, but Sela's actress looked different somehow. It's not the usual teamup hair factor (about half the cast had that going on), but it was something else about her...
takenoko wrote:
Here's an idea. The big plot consequence of the show is that the worlds are combined. How about spending the majority of the episode focusing on the troubled race relations between Humans and Jyumans? Instead, we get like 2 minutes of seeing everyone getting along. The transition was no problem, apparently. Personally, I think that would have made for a more interesting story. At least Tusk has glasses now, nice!
While merging the worlds was dumb to begin with, I don't think that's a flaw the movie could fix. Toei's not going to do a Sentai movie that's an analogue about race relations, and I'm not sure I'd watch it if it were made. If the matter had been woven into the series proper over a number of episodes, that's one thing. But you wouldn't do the issue justice in a 50 minute DTV movie.
(Side note: given Japan's rather overt racism at times, I have to seriously wonder whether anyone at Toei could actually treat the material correctly if they ever tried to go that route)
takenoko wrote:*Amu doesn't do anything clever. Frankly, she's just underused in this.
Oh I don't know. Running a gambling operation seems to me like a pretty Amu thing to do. In fact that double snake eyes is rather suspicious, so she may very well be cheating too.
Lunagel wrote:Okay, the actual *bunny* girl in the casino is pretty clever.
I absolutely lost it at that point. It's such a bad joke that it's good. It's the same absurdity factor as a reverse mermaid.
Lunagel wrote:JyuohCondor is clearly a really, really bad digital color swap. Could you not pull together a suit? Ugh, it hurts my eyes.
Agreed. That was really bad. And it's not like these suits take a lot of effort to make. A few hours with a seamstress, given that they already have the pattern? I bet the problem was the helmet.
Phoenix512 wrote:It was weird that the Jyuohgers thank you message at the end was filmed in their old costumes and hairstyles instead of the ones in Returns.
They clearly filmed it at the end of the series, rather than alongside the Returns movie. Why they're using it now is anyone's guess. Maybe they intended to use it at the end of the series but dropped it for time? It couldn't have originally been planned to be used like this, due to the obvious problems.
Lunagel wrote:midorininger wrote:
Misao gay? the reasoning for that makes sense, however, isnt male companionship ideals somewhat different in japan?
I mean maybe they're a bit more buddy-buddy but Misao still reads as kinda gay.
For what it's worth, I've never read Misao as gay. Just very unsure about himself, making him prone to becoming attached to other people as a follower/groupie. (However the jury is still out on whether hooking up with an anthropomorphic rhino is better or worse than hooking up with your first cousin...)
Zerato wrote:2. Since when can the Zyuoh TheLight be used as a lightsaber?
And when did Leo get the ability to shoot lightning out of his hands Palpatine style?! They took some real liberties with the Jyuohgers' powers in this movie, that's for sure.