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Wakusaver Season 2 Ep 04 released

Posted: Fri Nov 19, 2021 5:51 pm
by takenoko
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Last episode rating: 5 / 5 stars (3 votes)

I was really digging the song that played during the transformation. Really wish they'd stop doing two roll calls in a row though

Oh, she made the monster grow

This is why Sentai villains always warp away

I had to admit that I laughed at how silly Rajura and Vurnesia's death sequences were. Something about the editor just leaving things going a bit too long instead of cutting it

SPeaking of which, that awkward laugh sequence, way too long and awkward

So another disappointing season finale for GIGA. I was excited when I saw it was 17 minutes, but there are surprisingly few good moments in the finale. Besides the cool music, we get a tease of a giant monster fight (but no robo so that was pointless), and two of the three commanders die in an anticlimactic way. It just doesn't feel as momentous as it should have been

As usual, GIGA is best when it does stuff Toei doesn't do, because it either is cool and different, or wildly bad and reinforces the decisions that Toei makes when they make their shows

Couple of notes:
-Enjoyed the reveal that red's dad is just a mook
-In this episode we see red do a few kicks that are cgi enhanced, makes me wonder if he did some shitty kicks that they had to hide
-This is the first time Red transforms since episode one of the series. Really!

Re: Wakusaver Season 2 Ep 04 released

Posted: Tue Nov 23, 2021 1:49 pm
by resop2
I had to giggle when one of the explosive boxes was in plain view as the general ran past it.

There didn't seem to be any continuity this time between the youtube videos and the pr0n. Red didn't thank Pink for saving him and Rajura and Pink didn't act any differently towards each other.

The CGI lived down to Toei standards.

While doing a super sentai series was a welcome choice for the fans, ultimately I think it wasn't a smart idea. Doing super sentai without zords or megazords kind of misses the point. Also, writing for five heroes in such a short total running time is doomed to failure. A good example for this in the Toei world would be Kamen Rider Ghost. How do you turn a show with 50 some episodes into a dumpster fire? By having 30+ characters competing for screen time to the point where no one can make an impression. Ideally, in my opinion, you would want two 24 minute episodes per main character so you could have a solo focus episode and a team up episode. Kougaiga suffered a lot since they had three heroes and only had enough material for one episode. Dinnovaters has come closest to this with four main characters and three lengthy episodes. Maybe Fontaine will do better with only two heroines?

Giga's biggest need now is writers. They are stuck in a rut where one season = one story line. (Only Dinnovaters broke out of that.) Ideally for a three person hero team they should have at least three stories (not episodes) in between pr0ns. Giga is also handcuffed by their own main product. All of their pr0n's are "heroine gets in trouble and is used and abused in an non-consensual way". Now they seem to make money with this, so I shouldn't tell them how to run their business, but there are many more ways to have a pr0n tie-in than putting the heroine in a pinch. For instance, why not have a general (male or female) dress in disguise and seduce the heroine? Then after the naughty bits the general secretly steals an important object in the heroine's possession so that she can no longer henshin? That sort of pr0n might not sell in Japan but it would flow nicely with continuous story lines.

Re: Wakusaver Season 2 Ep 04 released

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 4:04 am
by ViRGE
As the final episode of this season (and apparently this series), it certainly started off with a bang. Everything right through to the transformation sequence - including Rajura towering over the Wakusavers gloating, and Red breaking out of his nightmare - was the most Sentai this series has ever been. After all, what's more Sentai than everyone holding out until Red can show up to save the day and lead the team to victory? :lol:

And then it goes off the rails. As Wakusaver tends to do.

Being a Sentai homage, I'm glad they had the monster grow. But the actual execution of that fight was just terrible. Even ignoring the lack of a team robo, GIGA clearly doesn't have the budget to do proper special effects for a giant monster fight. No miniature sets, no forced perspective shots, etc. Instead we just get this horrible green screen mash-up, where the monster isn't lit to match the environment, and to try to make the blending work the monster is semi-transparent. I appreciate the significant use of physical pyrotechnics to go with this, rather than superimposing squibs and other explosions. But it's not enough to make that giant monster fight work. I won't harp on it for too long here, but this is the only scene Wakusaver has done where the execution is so bad that I can't even appreciate the ambition; why didn't someone stop this idea in the writing/planning stage?

Speaking of Sentai tropes, after two seasons the weapons also (kind of) combined! They're obviously not designed to physically combine, which is why it's just one short CGI sequence that uses all sorts of cheats. But I respect the execution here - it's good enough, and it gives the people what they want.

And then we have the finale. I like that they subverted the Sentai tropes hard here, and went after the commanders rather than letting them escape. We do have the massive plot hole around the fact that the commanders can teleport, but that's admittedly a problem Super Sentai has to deal with as well when it decides to off a commander.

Unfortunately this is another case of where the execution doesn't live up to the concept. On paper, this actually sounds really good: the Wakusavers go to town with their weapons on the GiDeath commanders, who are backed into a corner (or rather, a ravine) after the MOTW is defeated. An all-out barrage, just to wipe them out once and for all. But neither the special effects nor the editing are up to the task. The attacks from the Wakusavers come off as incredibly disconnected from what's going on down on the field, and then the whole scene gets drawn out way too long, in an almost Shakespearean fashion.

Going back through the episode, the Wakusavers and the commanders don't show up together throughout the entire quarry fight. So I'm 95% sure all of those scenes were filmed separately, and judging from the lighting, on different days entirely (it's sunny for the Wakusavers, cloudy for the commanders). That would explain the disconnected feeling of the assault on the commanders. It's all quite a shame, it could have been a really cool moment.

And I guess that's it for the series? Unlike the end of season 1, there's no announcement of a further season here. And we fittingly get a soft ending to close out the series, while still leaving some wiggle room to resume it should GIGA opt to go that direction. Given that no other series has even received a season 2, I wasn't really expecting Wakusaver to get a season 3. But at the same time, since it didn't get a hard ending to fully close out the series, I'm a bit disappointed that this is it.

On the whole, season 2 was a definite improvement over season 1. Even with fewer episodes, it did a better job of putting that runtime to use and giving us some interesting scenery in the process. Still, 5 heroes and 3 more commanders is a lot of characters to focus on, and these short runs aren't doing the series any favors. In terms of execution and overall quality, Dinnovator is still the gold standard for a GIGA production.

As an aside, it's a shame that Toei doesn't do JAV actress face villainesses anymore. Rajura got most of the villains' screen time this season, and her actress put it to good use. She hit that right balance of menacing and hammy that makes for an entertaining face villainess. I think she'd legitimately do well as a Super Sentai villain if given the chance.
takenoko wrote: Fri Nov 19, 2021 5:51 pm I was really digging the song that played during the transformation. Really wish they'd stop doing two roll calls in a row though
I second both of those motions. By and large the Wakusaver soundscape is forgettable, but there have been a couple of times where they've pulled out some BGM tracks that catch your attention and really amp things up. I wish we got more of that.
Oh, she made the monster grow
I'm cashing in my allowance for this week's bad pun: this is a GIGA production, she's no doubt made a lot of monsters grow. :shock:
I had to admit that I laughed at how silly Rajura and Vurnesia's death sequences were. Something about the editor just leaving things going a bit too long instead of cutting it
Right? It was going decently well, and then it ends in an extended scream while the two actresses are doing their best to look like they're being blown up. Especially the exaggerated wand throw.
SPeaking of which, that awkward laugh sequence, way too long and awkward
Also agreed. I have absolutely no idea what they were going for there. It was rather weird.

PS "No going soft, guys". Don't think for a moment that we didn't notice what you did there, Takenoko :P

Re: Wakusaver Season 2 Ep 04 released

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 8:26 am
by takenoko
>PS "No going soft, guys". Don't think for a moment that we didn't notice what you did there, Takenoko

Nothing better in life than to have your work appreciated :D

I honestly wonder how successful these side videos are in advertising GIGA stuff. I wonder if this is just the GIGA big boss telling his staff to make movies during their lunch hour as a sort of vanity project and originally being just something that existed for his own amusement

Re: Wakusaver Season 2 Ep 04 released

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 8:42 am
by Lunagel
Well, s1e1 has almost 700k views and even the latest episode has 60k views so even if only like 1 percent buy the porn it's still 600 people.

Re: Wakusaver Season 2 Ep 04 released

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:58 am
by takenoko
Wakusaver
1 - 678k
2 - 291k
3 - 155k
4 - 211k
5 - 1.2M

Dinnovator
1 - 101K
2 - 98K
3 - 65K
4 - 153K

Kougaiga
1 - 169K
2 - 65K
3 - 120K
4 - 70K

Wakusaver Season 2
1 - 302K
2 - 89K
3 - 66K
4 - 61K

Looks like Dinnovator had the worst ratings, which is funny compared to the quality. Wakusaver Season 2 started pretty big with 302K and Season 1 episode 5 is the only one so far to break a million views. Surprising amount of views for Kougaiga

Feel like Wakusaver season 1 might have had more views because A) It was the first one B) The English subtitles, while bad, were more likely to gather an international audience

Re: Wakusaver Season 2 Ep 04 released

Posted: Wed Nov 24, 2021 4:32 pm
by Lunagel
They're short episodes, likely they only did maybe max 5 days filming, including the porn episode. I'd say it's pretty likely they're getting fairly decent returns considering they keep making these promo shows

Re: Wakusaver Season 2 Ep 04 released

Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 2:38 am
by ViRGE
Huh. Those viewership numbers are really surprising to me. I expected Wakusaver season 1 viewership to be front-loaded, since it was the first. But the highest viewed episode being episode 5 - and with almost an order of magnitude more views than the lowest S1 episode - is quite odd. I wonder why episode 5 received such a disproportional amount of traffic?
takenoko wrote: Wed Nov 24, 2021 11:58 am Feel like Wakusaver season 1 might have had more views because A) It was the first one B) The English subtitles, while bad, were more likely to gather an international audience
I haven't paid much attention to the YouTube releases. Is GIGA still doing their own English subtitles, or did that stop after Wakusaver season 1?
Lunagel wrote: Wed Nov 24, 2021 4:32 pm They're short episodes, likely they only did maybe max 5 days filming, including the porn episode. I'd say it's pretty likely they're getting fairly decent returns considering they keep making these promo shows
Easily. Looking at season 2, for example, the quarry in episode 4 was the same one used in episode 1. So likely the bulk of both of those episodes was shot at the same time - no more than a couple of days, max.

Even assuming each location is its own shooting day, the principle cast was easily done inside of a week. Second unit stunts may have taken a bit longer, depending on whether they tried to do that same-day.

Re: Wakusaver Season 2 Ep 04 released

Posted: Fri Nov 26, 2021 9:30 am
by takenoko
Clearly episode 5 was an outlier. But why? Not sure. Maybe people thought it was porn?

GIGA abandoned their "captions" after Wakusaver season 1. Which was fine since they were not good. Either missing lines entirely or misspelling their own words:

You are a woman in my PC...
I lost 50 million electric money...
Mr. Kido, you are selected as a worrier.
Yes, you are a selected worrier.
You are guardian of wind, Green Jupiter who has "intelligent" mind.