Lupin VS Pat 03 Released!

[takenoko]

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Last week's rating: 4.57 / 5 (30 votes)

Alt Title: It's a trap!

Yeah, that was a pretty good episode too. Things are more weighted towards the Lupins, but not brokenly so. Still hoping for a PatRanger focused episode soon once the Lupin's backstories are completed.

So Tooma works in a cafe because he learned to cook for his fiance. That's a nice bit of characterization.

Random thoughts:
-Man, Kairi is a skinny dude ain't he? He looks like he could get blown away in the wind
-LupinYellow's suit actress is doing a great job with this role
-Another robo with a penis attack?
-That moment with they destroy the statue, that was genuinely funny

Watching this show makes me wonder why the last few years have been such a pain to get through. I mean, the show can still hit a dry spell or run out of material after the initial courtship phase, but the characters seem pretty well established. Just build on that? Plus, as much as I criticize Komura on her past writing, she did get to write the episode where Mayu transforms in Wizard. We have two female protagonists this time, so let's actually use them.

[Lunagel]

Another pretty solid episode. Definitely get the feeling we're not gonna have too awful much backstory on the PatRangers considering the direction this show is going so far, but I'm kinda okay with that? The police are the foils, the lovable doofuses, and honestly? Keiichirou pretty much nails that. He's not a very nuanced character, but fortunately the focus ins't on him as much as *some reds* I could mention.

And hey, a Blue(/Green?) focus episode! That was a pretty good proposal there, I know I'd say yes! And the bit about poisoning their food at the end had me cracking up cause honestly I'd do the same thing in that situation.

The Henshin Lessons are forgettable and the audio is absolute shit. At least it's free on youtube and not paid content or else I'd feel really ripped off.

[TypicalStandUser]

Tooma's Lost Lenore moment. Dang.

Love the Lupins' fight against the MOTW.

Statues of mafiosos are old hat, Ganglar. Why not maryjane speakeasies or Breaking Bad's meth candy??

4/5

[takenoko]

Just watched the henshin lessons. Between the lack of enthusiasm or shit ass sound quality because they're in a hollow-ass warehouse, I always dread doing these videos.

It's weird seeing Pat 1 so docile. More of this please?

LupinRed shouldn't have filmed his clip at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

[Kuchiri]

I feel like we've gotten more character development in the last three episodes than there was in all of Kyuuranger.

What's really great is even though there are two red rangers this show isn't all about them. I don't feel like we really know that much about either one of them and even though they were the focus of the two final attacks so far. I feel like if everyone else used Good Striker different things would happen. Plus both Reds work well with their team. Kairi is trying to teach Tooma how not to make a mistake that draws a comparison to Pat1 yelling at Pat2 for making a single mistake is really cleaver. Both of the scenes don't beat that parallel in your face but it's a nice touch. Especially when Pat2 redeems himself. Too bad Pat3 was forgotten....

[takenoko]

Too bad Pat3 was forgotten....

It's hard to be the lone flower in the group.
紅一点

[ViRGE]

Man, this series has come out with so much good music, and we're only 3 episodes in! The OP is catchy, the LupinRangers' henshin theme is excellent, and I really dig PatKaiser's theme song as well. It's such a welcome change from the last few series; even KyuuRanger's music, while grand, was kind of bland and soulless.

As for the episode itself, it was solid, but not particularly spectacular. Blue backstory is a bit cliché, but I can still appreciate where they're going with it. And now that I think about it, i can't recall the last time any of the rangers had a fiancée (or fiance, for that matter), as they aren't usually given strong relationships to outside characters like that. So even if it's cliché, it's not one that shows up here very often.

Also, it's nice that we got a hint from Good Striker that the butler may be up to no good. Thus far he's being telegraphed as mysterious rather than evil, so it could still go either way, but it does validate some of our earlier hunches.

However I'm getting increasingly concerned about the focus on the PatRangers, or the lack thereof. This was kind-of sort-of not-really a Green focus episode - he wasn't given nearly enough time for the plot to develop any real depth - and the rest of the time the PatRanger trio may as well have been comedy relief. I do get the need to differentiate them some from the cool LupinRangers, but the flip side of that is that now half of the rangers are comedy, and being grouped together like this the plot is more likely to overdo the comedy. (Did PatRed's butt really need to be in the air? ) Furthermore it means they're increasingly underdeveloped versus the Lupins. There's still plenty of time to fix this, but after the first two episodes I would have thought the focus would shift over to the Pats, rather than giving us a Lupin focus episode.

On a positive note, it's starting to look like the mecha CGI from last week wasn't just a fluke. When PatKaiser lands after its jump there's a completely seamless cut from CGI to the suit. I genuinely cannot tell when it stopped being CGI and became just the suit. If it wasn't for the contorted nature of the landing, I wouldn't even believe it to be CGI in the first place. (Maybe Toei has a new CGI workflow?) I just wish we got more beauty shots of PatKaiser in general; this episode's mecha sequence was pretty short overall.

But for as good as the mecha CGI is, I'm less impressed with the rest of the CGI. The PatRanger stock transformation sequence in particular is terrible, easily the worst in many years. It's like the early, bad old days of CGI where the artists are given a new tool and go crazy. Too much is going on, and half of the elements are blurred/out of focus. The Lupins' transformation is only a bit better; the wanted poster shot is on a bad CGI wall, then they switch to a real wall for the LupinRanger, and back to the CGI wall again. The inconsistencies are disjointing.

Finally, I liked the MOTW's design. It almost looks a bit silly because it's clearly a guy in a suit with pink puppet eyes. However I really like that it's unconventional and not a purely humanoid MOTW.

-Another robo with a penis attack?

Eh. It's very clearly the baton in the right hand, which we see from the get-go. You're trying too hard, Takenoko.

And the bit about poisoning their food at the end had me cracking up cause honestly I'd do the same thing in that situation.

Note to self: do not accept dinner invitations from Luna.

The Henshin Lessons are forgettable and the audio is absolute shit. At least it's free on youtube and not paid content or else I'd feel really ripped off.

Jiminy Christmas LupinRed's was terrible! They couldn't be bothered to get a boom mic or even place a mic on the actor? Some of Toei's side projects have been low effort, but that is a new low.

It's weird seeing Pat 1 so docile. More of this please?

Yes please!

[Lunagel]

On a positive note, it's starting to look like the mecha CGI from last week wasn't just a fluke. When PatKaiser lands after its jump there's a completely seamless cut from CGI to the suit. I genuinely cannot tell when it stopped being CGI and became just the suit. If it wasn't for the contorted nature of the landing, I wouldn't even believe it to be CGI in the first place. (Maybe Toei has a new CGI workflow?) I just wish we got more beauty shots of PatKaiser in general; this episode's mecha sequence was pretty short overall.

Yeah, that scene was really impressive. I kept trying to figure out when it had switched between CGI and suit and couldn't tell either. Kudos to whatever digital artist was in charge of that bit, it was probably some of the best CGI I've ever seen, even better than some Hollywood movies (I'm looking at you, Justice League).

[ViRGE]

On a positive note, it's starting to look like the mecha CGI from last week wasn't just a fluke. When PatKaiser lands after its jump there's a completely seamless cut from CGI to the suit. I genuinely cannot tell when it stopped being CGI and became just the suit. If it wasn't for the contorted nature of the landing, I wouldn't even believe it to be CGI in the first place. (Maybe Toei has a new CGI workflow?) I just wish we got more beauty shots of PatKaiser in general; this episode's mecha sequence was pretty short overall.

Yeah, that scene was really impressive. I kept trying to figure out when it had switched between CGI and suit and couldn't tell either. Kudos to whatever digital artist was in charge of that bit, it was probably some of the best CGI I've ever seen, even better than some Hollywood movies (I'm looking at you, Justice League).

To be fair, they covered it up with a lot of camera shaking. Without that, we probably could have picked up the transition. Still, if this is the new standard for Toei toku CGI, I think we're all going to be quite pleased.

[dannydice64]

5/5

Lupin Kaiser looks cool, but Pat Kaiser is a badass. Still I'm on both sides

Sakuya x Umika confirmed (Romeo and Juliet everyone?)

16:25 Typesetter error on Good Striker, it must be Lupinranger

[JonSilver]

Been a while since I've posted here, but I'm loving this series so far! The theme is fun and different, the characters are all pretty distinct, and the MUSIC is just plain awesome! It also deserves mention that, yeah, compared to how most CG in Toku has been, they've really upped their game, especially in terms of the animation. I really hope they keep this up all throughout the series.

Also... is it too much to hope for another Deka guesting? I mean I know they already showed up in Kyuu, but the Pat guys are in 99% the same uniform! There has to be a connection!

[Catastrophe]

My only gripe so far is that Hilltop is underused. At least he had lines this episode.

[locuas]

Another pretty solid episode. Definitely get the feeling we're not gonna have too awful much backstory on the PatRangers considering the direction this show is going so far, but I'm kinda okay with that? The police are the foils, the lovable doofuses, and honestly? Keiichirou pretty much nails that. He's not a very nuanced character, but fortunately the focus ins't on him as much as *some reds* I could mention.

I don't think you necessarily need to have much in terms of backstory to make the characters interesting. Kyoryuuger didn't really have that much backstory for most of the rangers, yet they all had such distinct personality and so much energy that you could easily watch any of them. Still, I do wonder if, in contrast to the Lupinranger whose backstory is clearly shown through flashbacks early on, the patranger's backstory may be unfolded through character interactions as the series goes on.

Watching this show makes me wonder why the last few years have been such a pain to get through. I mean, the show can still hit a dry spell or run out of material after the initial courtship phase, but the characters seem pretty well established. Just build on that? Plus, as much as I criticize Komura on her past writing, she did get to write the episode where Mayu transforms in Wizard. We have two female protagonists this time, so let's actually use them.

I think the reason of the last few years lackluster shows could be due to simple exhaustion from the writers and a stagnant franchise that just gave them a general idea and told them to run with it (the exception being Kyuuranger, which seems to be a case of throwing literally every idea to the wall and see what stuck and giving that mess to a writer who had never before been the head writer). With Lupin Vs. Patranger, there seems to be a much clear idea for the writers to grasp. "Two sentai team inspired on Lupin III and Zenigata fight a bunch of monsters as well as each other" is probably a lot simpler yet a much more interesting idea than... say "A bunch of talking animals from a world that looks like minecraft".

This also seems to benefit from, rather than one big group of six (or a walking mess of 12), having two groups of three. It's known as "cast Herds" and it is a common way for tv writers to handle big casts.

[Mojikara]

Plus, as much as I criticize Komura on her past writing, she did get to write the episode where Mayu transforms in Wizard.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Komura also write for AkibaRanger?

[takenoko]

Oh right. She wrote like half of season 1