Poll: What's your opinion of Zenkaiger and series discussion thread

[Dellorandsupersentaj]

This was an awesome show, i would watch it live on aqstream (the tv asahi live stream) every saturday. It obviously had better sfx than the og super sentai. Hope it gets adapted one day. Tv nihon only made it to episode 9 or 10 because of the letter you guys got in 2021. Other than that, pretty awesome.

[HowlingSnail]

I know you're not subbing it, but are we at least gonna get Donbros discussion threads every week?

[Ashki]

I can sort of understand why a lot of people didn't like this or why they're mad that this show has a sequel of sorts, but compared to Super Sentai as a whole, this show isn't getting quite the credit due. As for me, I give it a 5/5, even though it had its flaws.

Having only one human in the sentai may seem like a first, but it's not the first time we've had non-human members and both ZyuRanger and Gokaiger started offf as entirely alien sentai (althugh Zyuranger later gained a human member). It's also not the first time we've had sentai members who became their own mecha, although it's the first time the entire sentai could do so. And I think that's a good example of what made the show work so well for some and fail so bad for others. There are elements throughout the entire series that give all five members obscure abilities from Super Sentai history. These abilities have only happened a few times before and never to an entire sentai (in fact, it was usually the bonus members who had these abilities).

I think a major flaw is that people look at this show and try to tie all of Super Sentai together, when the show itself makes it pretty clear it's doing a Decade - in other words, the show is NOT part of some universal continuity, and it's within the universe of Zenkaiger itself that you have multiple worlds where the previous sentai happened to exist. By the end, it's made clear that all of the worlds in the Zenkaiger universe were created by a single being and were never meant to be the actual worlds of previous Super Sentai.

And that kind of brings us to the sore note that so many people are fussing about: the DonBrothers sequel. This isn't the first time a Super Sentai had a direct sequel. In fact, JAKQ was a direct sequel to GoRanger. Having watched both, GoRanger stands as one of the best shows in the entire franchise, while JAKQ fell apart because it tried to be its own thing.

On another relat4ed note, Zenkaiger was an "anniversary" series, but I feel as though the writers heard our complaints about there beign a huge anniversary EVERY five years. Kamen Rider is 50 years old, so that deserves celebration, but we've had THREE major anniversary seasons for Super Sentai thus far and none of them are on a milestone. So while Zenkaiger was marketed as an anniversary, one of the things I loved about it was that it wasn't written to be one. Instead, the writers said "Okay, so we have to have something from all previous shows so it can be called an anniversary, but why not stick it in its own universe and make it so that alternate versions of the sentai happened to have existed there?". So we get sentai gears tied to 44 worlds we never even got to see, with all of the worlds that do make an appearance being goofy themes instead.

In the end, this really felt like a standalone show and it kind of makes sense for it to have a sequel that uses the gear system, since Kaito's parents had been to other worlds and developed that system. It also made sense when we have the "future crossover" and the tech is compatible, plus the summoned character didn't vanish, because he was actually real.


When it comes to character writing, I have to look back at the franchise. Kaito was a little shallow and had an annoying catchprase, but was actually more developed than many older leads, even from the Showa era. And the rest of the sentai wer no different. They had quirks based on the shows they get their powers from, and that became their overpowering traits. Magine was a failed fortune teller, but the Magirangers were pretty terrible at first, since they didn't know they could do magic until they watched their mother die. Vroom had the Boukenger sense of exploration and discovery, only he did what KR Saber totally failed to do - show how books and learning are the real treasure to seek. Zox was mostly annoying, but the endless dancing and singing became tolerable once Flint and the others started joining in. Then it just became a silly quirk that even got a laugh in the Surprise and SD World episodes.

Of course, the three characters that carried the show for me were Stacy (it reminds me of how the only character I liked in Drive was Chase until the very end of the series - the twocharacters have a lot in common), Flint, and Gege. Stacy had by far the deepest character in the show, and I love how he was the antihero who remained so until the very end where he finds out he could've taken a different path this whole time but thought he didn't have the choice. Excellent actor, excellent character, and excellent writing.

I'm rather mad about Flint, because they treated her as a primary character in the openings and previews, but as a secondary character throughout most of the show. She only had a few hoghlight moments, such as when she worked with Magine in the Daikon World episode. But she should've had her own suit. As others mentioned, she could've been Silver to Zox's Gold. In the end, I feel she was still a great character, but they wasted a lot of potential in both the character and Mori Hinami herself. Still, they eye candy and Hinami's personality really made Flint stand out as one of the most enjoyable characters.

And then there's Gege, the evil counterpart of Secchan. From the beginning, you could sort of tell that he was the one really running the show, yet the subtle changes as the story progressed made it almost feel natural to see him giving the enemy little hints here and there. It was s well done, that you were left believing he was planning to take over before the whole kami subplot came out. I also love that it became clear in the Kotatsu World episode that Ijirude had built Gege based on Secchan's design - a nice little touch to further illustrate how much credit Ijirude's taken for stolen tech.

Also, why doesn't anyone else talk about how fucked up it is that Barashitara has like 300+ wives who are all obviously not around anymore. Were they war brides? I know it's a kid's show, so I'm overthinking it, but why drop in a detail like that and not ever explain it. Like what happened to Stacy's mom? Probably won't get an answer with one episode to go

This was explained when her ghost came back as well as in other places. Barashitara would claim a wife from each world they conquered, have his way with her, then eventually kill her. In the penultimate episode, he also revealed that Stacy wasn't the first of his bastards to try and take revenge for their dead mothers. However, it's clear Stacy's mom (who had it going on) survived far longer than many of the other wives for reasons that weren't explained, as we see her with a Stacy perhaps 10 years younger.

How about the quest to find Kaito's mom, just ends up her being found by the dad in the second to last episode? If the writer doesn't care about this story, why should the viewer?

That was also explained. The Kami spent several episodes shoving people back into their own worlds. He even attempted to trick the pirates into returning to Piratopia by liberating it as soon as SDtopia was liberated, btu they didn't take the bait, so he had to possess Zox and lure them back that way. Kaito's dad states outright that he'd been out searching with no luck when he suddenly knew his wife was in Sushitopia. This wasn't a lack of care, because the writer literally spent several episodes setting this moment up. Kami wanted Kaito's parents back on Earth (now Zenkaitopia) because he wqas getting ready to seal all of the worlds and wanted everyone to be on their own world when he pulled the trigger. This is even further developed (beyond what it needed to be) in the finale where we find Kaito's the only one in all of the worlds to regain his memory. Literally, the kami had erased everything that had happened in the past 10 years (with the exception of Kikaitopia no longer being ruled over).


Was the show perfect? No.
Was it sometimes a little annoying? Yes.
Did it make me laugh? Quite frequently
Did it feel like an anniversary? No, and I think that was intentional - a writer's rebellion so to speak

In the end, this season entertained me in ways I haven't been entertained since ToQGer and Kyuuryuuger. Its flaws were nothing new (and even present in Showa seasons), but there was some effort to overcome them to some point. Zenkaiger was written for kids but had zecondary rangers (who remained independant) designed specifically for certain generations: the singing, dancing Zox with his two SD siblings for the kids (and Flint for the teens and dads) and Stacy for the adults. Zenkaiger was modelled after Big One, a character that is well-loved but created for a show that is one of the worst in Super Sentai history and almost killed the franchise - and in both cases, it's on that character to have the powers of everyone else. Meanwhile, Stacy is a dark version of Battle Japan, the leader of the show that was considered the first Super Sentai for decades, since it brought the franchise back after JAKQ. He even had a non-transforming mecha.


One other little bit of symbolism the writers snuck in before I go: the Kami.

I feel like the Kami was a direct jab and indirect commentary on TOEI. TOEI creates all of these wonderful worlds, then seals them away (literally in canisters for some of the earliest shows) where they may or may not ever see the light of day again. And they've destroyed many of their old shows before there was home recording, so a lot of what we have of those early eras is badly degraded or in pieces. The Kami, like TOEI, nevere stopped to think about all of the wonderful people who inhabited those many worlds or how much people in our world loved them. Instead, they're often reluctant to license out shows to people who will preserve and distribute them to new generations. And there are some franchises that have been completely vaulted due to a grudge or feud (we can see such things with Silent Hill being locked away by Konami because of a feud with that franchise's creator).

In the end, TOEI's slowly making a lot of the older stuff available because of the pressure from fans, although there's often little effort involves and this sometimes backfires, such as what happened last year when people complained that the Tokusatsu World YT channel bought automated subs, but made it impossible for fans to submit subs after asking for them) and how it caused so much bad blood bewtween TOEI and the fans when it could've resulted in so much good.

In a way, TOEI was also a lot like Bokkowaus, often having tantrums, but keeping one ear open for fan input (Gege). Despite seeming to pander to Gege, Bokkowaus would constantly rely on his bumbling staff, one of which kept marrying and killing conquered women (Barashitara AKA corporate lawyers), and the other constantly stole ideas then failed utterly in executing them (Ijirude, AKA the writers). In the end, Gege (the fans) suggested that Zenkaiger (the franchise) was more interesting than the company and Bokkowaus smashes Gege onluy to immediately regret it and try to absorb gege back into his body. Yeah, this doesn't sound at all like recent TOEI history...